Stranded

I was going to drive to work on Friday, but the car wouldn't start. Not surprising. It was 25 below. However, it still wouldn't start yesterday evening, nor would it start today. Not quite sure how I'm going to proceed, but here's to hoping we don't need to go* anywhere...

Non PC Disappointment

The Southeast Angle reported that our anxiously awaited bookstore (spitting* distance from our house) is going to be gay-themed.

I'm not opposed to gay businesses, neighbors, politicians, marriage, whatever. And I'm not opposed to a gay bookstore. I'm just...

Disappointed.

I was so excited to think that there would be a bookstore so close to me. I was fantasizing that since the financing for the project was from St. Anthony Bank that it might be a second location of Micawber's Books. Sigh.

Scale it down a bit, all we really wanted was a decent magazine stand, Tim wants the NY Times bestsellers, and I'd like some home and garden books. But instead, it'll probably be a whole lot of nothing we really want to read.

Or maybe there will be a batch of home and garden books after all...

Marquis

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I misread the State Theater's marquis. What I saw was:

Def Pottery Jam

I thought it was odd, then I realized I was wrong, and then I laughed out loud imagining such an event.

Tenacity in Tech Support

MacWarehouse merged with CDW a while back which has caused me endless grief. Their website is annoying because their browse function no longer functions and you end up with all kinds of non-Mac results to your searches.

But worse, I think that the quality has deteriorated. Our poor sales rep seems to get a call about nearly every order we place. When I emailed him asking if there was a possibility that my new G5 had been an open box or refurb he emailed me back "no" and recommended I call tech support.

So I do. I talk to the general number person, who transfers me to the tech support dispatch. That person sends me to Fred, who tries to get me to get be put on a callback list. Since I'm 20 minutes in at this point, I say "no" and suddenly "Clay" is available to talk to me.

I explain to Clay what's happening (basically, RAM that shipped with the computer is bad, please send new RAM) and he tries to pawn this off as an Apple problem and I have to call them. I explain that no, this is a CDW problem because according to all hints on my computer and the discussion I have with my sales guy, CDW opened the computer and fired it up (hence the $48 install charge which will of course be refunded by mail in rebate blah blah blah) that they either a) didn't really fire it up, which double irks me that they charged me for install, or b) they did fire it up, saw that it didn't boot, and shipped me a bunk computer anyway. This seems to help my cause and Clay says he'll talk to install and try to get some new RAM shipped out to me.

Ah, but the saga continues. Stephen, the good sales guy, calls this morning because he's gotten a messge from Tech Support. For the 5th time, I explain the RAM issue. Very apologetically, but very nicely he explains that because it was Apple RAM that it would need to be sent back to Apple. Um, not just the RAM, but the whole computer.

Noooooooo!

See, I 'splain, my current computer's hardrive is failing, I'm in a bit of a hurry to get this new computer working. I've spent 4 hours troubleshooting and 4 hours installing new software. Shipping the computer back would be expensive. Shipping a new computer out would be expensive. Isn't there any way that we can work something out? I offer to "buy" a new stick of 512MB RAM if he'll knock off the price of the "install" that they did on the first batch of RAM.

Deal. $90 out of pocket, but saved myself at least 4 hours of work. I think it was worth it.

What's the moral of the story? Talk to the sales guy because Tech Support ain't listening.

Snowy Monday

I've been so tired for so long that it's just starting to feel normal. It's probably low level blues from all the white outside. (I owe Dave a shovel and as he's probably outside shoveling with his old shovel now, I'm feeling guilty.)

A day brightener though, is this article: Beer spill shorts out Iron Maiden concert

Harumph

My new G5 came on Wednesday and I'm just now getting to turning it on. There's something way wacky with it. It's as slow as a PowerMac 7100 running OS X. Sigh. If I can get it to open the disk drive bay, I can run the hardware troubleshooting disk.

Geek Link

Okay, y'all probably have cable and have already seen this, but I think it's cute:

Shatner's new Priceline Ad

State of Division

Good thing I'm not a gay, unemployed, uninsured, illegal immigrant or I'd be really mad about Dumbass' speech last night. Oh wait, I am really mad.

Actually, it was the best possible speech for the Democrats. Here's the message loud and clear: Bush is insane and not living in the same universe the rest of us are. We must act together to vote him out of office.

I know this sounds like a "Duh" thing to say, but I recall, not so long ago, a bunch of Nader supporters voting Bush into the White House.

Wow, that didn't last long

It hasn't even been a year and already the guy that bought our condo has put it on the market. Looks like he's trying to make a significant profit on it as well. I've got it set to track, I'll be interested to see what it goes for. I'm also curious as to what horrors the Association has put him through that he's already ready to ditch it...

Edina Realty listing for unit in world's largest doublewide

Climbing Mt. Sinus

My sinuses have a life of their own. They clog and drain endlessly regardless of water consumption, Sudafed, air quality, etc. Earlier I was in a tunnel, I've just passed popping and am entering clear.

During the period of chronic infections, my doctor recommended I take my sinuses back to Target and exchange them for new ones. I wish.

Maybe I should get myself hooked on sinus-clearing inhalers?

Last night I dreamed that my stepdaughter was a stepson and while visiting at her/his mother's parent's house, her/his grandfather was making the moves on Fran while his/her newest stepfather was playing battlebots in the living room with Tim.

I do not want a dream interpreter.

Spalding Gray is missing.

Held our breath and knocked

Last night Tim and I went to the Annual Association meeting for our "new" townhouse. I'll freely admit, we were more than a bit scared. Annual meetings at our old place were horrible, stressful events with people who wanted to spend money like crazy to just plain crazy people. I have to admit, after the 3rd MAJOR assessment in less than 2 years was thrown at us, I was more than my fair share of crazy too.

Add to this past exerience the fact that I'd had a bit of a tiff with one of my neighbors this summer when she planted hosta in my yard. (Yeah, I've bitched about this already.)

I'm pleased to report, however, that they were all really nice folks, it was completely mellow. They talked about maybe redoing the driveways at some point, but they all agreed that they don't want to spend the money now. They complained that there were no margaritas at this meeting and thanked one of the people for being such a vigilant pooper-scooper.

We also go the distinct impression that they didn't like the woman we bought our unit from, that she was constantly asking for special modifications and she very rarely did anything to help the exterior of the building. (Hence the hosta planting when I didn't get anything into the planter due to life getting in the way.) Kind of interesting for us to hear since we don't really feel she did anything inside either.

Anyway, just one more thing that makes us so glad we're living where we are instead of where we were.

In the News

Police investigate two shootings in Minneapolis makes me glad that Dave bought his place on the SE side of NE instead of where he was thinking. 21st & University NE isn't a terribly bad neighborhood -- there's a couple of nice restaurants that I like to go to. But there's also the 22nd Ave. Bar which features PartyTime Dancers all day. Not a bad thing in itself -- heck, Tim and I would sure be happy if we had a titty bar that close to our house. But the vibe in there is definitely hostile.

Better local news is that Steve Kiwus of Eightball Studios got a nice feature story on Kare11's 10 o'clock news last night. (Sculpting Movie Magic.) Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, if you ask me.

Resolution, at last

I finally came up with a New Year's Resolution and it's totally lame. Well, it's not lame, because I wasn't doing it before and it's good for me. It just sounds lame.

I'm going to make sure I eat one fruit and one vegetable every day.

If you asked me before this week if I ate a lot of fruits and veggies I would have said "Sure!" because I love them. I think they're yummy. But the fact of the matter is that they don't always* make it into my rushed diet. There are no fruits and vegetables (naturally) in cereal or muffins, in PB&J, bagels with cream cheese, or pizza.

So in an effort to have a resolution I can keep -- one each per day. Sorry food pyramid people, I've got to take this one step at a time.

Some predictions come true

Last night, after changing into my jammies at 5:45, I predicted that I would spend most of the night sitting in the captain's chair in the living room. I don't know how I managed to have the site of a seer, but lo and behold I did.

Broken ony to take the frozen dinner out of the oven and wrap a couple of Christmas ornaments in paper, I sat planted watching King of the Hill, Simpsons, Seinfeld, Antiques Road Show, Las Vegas and Average Joe 2. All within the glow of a beautiful fire and my sweeeeetie.

I adjourned upstairs to the bedroom in time for the 10 o'clock news and Jay Leno's monologue.

Not my typical evening, but just what I needed last night.

Flu or Despression?

I'm cold -- not surprising -- I can feel the air streaming in through the Foshay's crappy ass windows. I'm tired -- also not surprising since I was dreading coming back to work with a broken computer and the return of my bosses. I'm achey -- well, that one may have to do with the cold or may have to do with the flu. Who knows. In any event, I'm whiney as hell today and wanna go home.

Thank goodness tonight is fireplace and antiques roadshow night.

My folks left this morning so they could have a quiet day at their own house before they had to go back to the grind. My mom looked exhausted last night. I wonder if they were as excited to get into the truck and drive as they were on December 23rd when they decided to drive through the night. Still, I think they did less this year than in years past. They said they felt bad because it was more work for me since they weren't out for every meal. But I'd been prepared in advance and all my dinners were in the freezer, so it wasn't that bad. All in all, not a traumatic Christmas.

And my new refrigerator KICKS ASS.

Playing Quizilla

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.


How Old is Your Inner Child?
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