A Week Since My Last Update
Yeah.. busy week… to summarize….
I am back in California this week, same place as last week and it will be the same place next week.. I am coming home for the weekend though since I have a bunch of things to do and want to go get my newsed car registered on Monday.
Still trying to deal with VW on the situation with my car but I bought a Saab in the mean time to get me around when I am home. I figure once I get my car back I will either go enter a demolition derby with the Saab, or sell it. Depends on my mood at the time.
So CA is not all that interesting, I am working 11-17 hour days while I am here, and working is not really working since I sit here, and watch a computer screen and try to clear up any problems that happen.
Their system keeps locking up because of the way our programmers programmed the system, they fucked up so I need to sit and keep this thing on life support while they write new code to try to compensate for the problem.
Fuck, but on the upside, I am earning a ton of FF miles, Holiday Inn Priority points, I am not spending any of my own money on anything, and I am really cranking up the billable hours!!! I think I might almost be at my quarterly amount and I am only a couple weeks into the year!
What I am really waiting for is 11 days from now for my paycheck, that is gonna be the nice one, my 4th quarter bonus and then all the leftover from my 2nd and 3rd quarters that they held back from me last year.
I had tried to write a couple blogs earlier this week but the damn thing kept screwing up on me so I could not post em… oh well….
if you are ever in Watsonville, CA – then definitely check out Green Valley Grill and Cilantro’s Mexican restaurants. They are both really good. I had a very nice double breast of duck with a juniper, raspberry and red wine reduction with saphron rice and then at Cilantros I had some soft tacos ‘con carne asada’ and orange rice, and they were all really really good!
I am on the red eye home tonight, same as last week and same as planned for next week. That was the reason I did not make it to the show last week, I was totally drained and slept off and on Sat afternoon and was just too wiped to go out in public!
have a great weekend and hope all is well with all of you!
The Saga of the Bag
Ok, so I could not post earlier for some reason, MySpace was being a douche….
So, at 9:45 last night I decided I did not trust Delta, and I went to target and bought some jeans, a shirt, some socks, underwear, and some Sudafed, and as I am standing there picking out my underwear, I get flashbacks to childhood where there are announcements over the intercom telling us that it is 10pm and the store is now closed, please take all your purchases to the front of the store. Not sure why that always happened as a kid, but I have a ton of memories of being at either Caldor or Bradlees with my mom, and the lights dimming and that announcement over the loud speakers the metal gate being half lowered across the doorway into the mall, but I have gotten off track now…
So, I got a call last night at 11ish from Tony The Flying Moose Delivery Service(I will leave the name alone, what can I say that can improve the humor in that?) telling me that he would be dropping my bag off to the Best Western on Main street in Watsonville in about a half an hour.
I felt the need to correct him, and tell him I was at the Holiday Inn Express, not the Best Western, and he looked at the slip and says “Oh yeah, it does say that doesn’t it”
oye….
So I go to bed….
3am rolls around and the phone rings, I wake up and answer it and don’t even let the person speak, I simply mutter the words…
“I’ll pick it up in the morning” and then hang up the phone.
So I get up, put on my new clothes and go down and check out and get my suitcase…. stick my dirty clothes in the suitcase in the target bag and then check out and go drop the suitcase into my trunk, basically untouched…
So that is that…
but I ended up coming back to the hotel tonight and checking back in because my work plans have changed and I am now here til Friday when I will be taking a red eye home…. so no New Jersey for me… Shucks… I am terribly disappointed…
GUESS WHAT!?!?!
NO BAGS YET!!!!
Shocking isn’t it? Although according to online, they will be delivered to me at my hotel by Flying Moose Delivery between 4pm and 4am.
What the fuck? it is 8:45 already!
I WANT CLEAN UNDERWEAR!!!!
I WANT MY COUGH AND COLD MEDICINE!!!
I DON’T WANT TO GO SPEND MONEY ON THEM AGAIN!
UTTER INCOMPETENCE!
So yeah…. my bag got into the San Francisco Airport last night, so says the online checking thingie, so I waited patiently for it, gave up and went to bed about 10pm.
I woke up this morning, called the front desk and SHOCKING no bag.
ok, this is annoying, so I called Delta.
The individual on the other end in broken English of unknown ethnicity tells me that my bag left on a flight this morning at 6am for Salt Lake City where it will get a connecting flight to Montreal Canada to be delivered to my final destination.
&#^$*&@#%$@*#&^$
Sorry, he couldn’t read correctly, it is going to be getting a connecting flight from SLC to Monterrey, California since that is the closest airport to where I am staying.
SO, instead of getting my bag delivered to me last night at arond 10pm, I can expect my bag within 12 hours from when it arrives at the Carmel/Monterrey airport at NOON today.
Honestly, if I had known they were going to do this I would have had them hold the bag in San Fran and driven the hour+ back up there to get the bag last night.
I can understand no real cost to ship from one airport to another, but really… come on now, THAT DOES NOT ALWAYS MAKE SENSE!!!
ok… now to go find somewhere that is open at 7:30 in the morning to buy a pair of underwear and a shirt….
Do You Really Wonder Why?
Ok, so I am pretty sure you all know I travel a shitload for work, and if you don’t, well I dunno what rock you have been living under for the past year.
So i always tell people how I never check bags, I always do a carry-on instead since I hate having to wait and I would be bumming if my suitcase did not make it.
However, I bought a new suitcase last night and screwed up and bought one that is too big to be a carry-on. OOPS!
So I had to check it when I got to the airport this morning, the first time for work I have had to check any luggage at all.
and SHOCKING, the bag never made it with me all the way to San Francisco! Who woulda thunk it?
Of course, I was suspicious when I got off the plane and did not bother to go wait at the carousel to see if it would come up, I just went rigt to the office, handed them my luggage receipt and asked for them to check it to see where it was. The guy then said, “oh, it is in Cincinnati, how did you know it did not make it here?”
“gut hunch is all”
“ok, well it will be here about 8:30 or so. Where are you staying?”
“In Watsonville at the Holiday Inn Express”
“Ouch, that is gonna cost us for the delivery tonight, I guess that is our fault though. Here is your free toiletry kit and your bag should be at the hotel sometime around 10, if it is not there by 10 please call.. yadda yadda yadda”
And people wonder why I never check any bags?!?!?!?
So here I am, in my hotel, waiting for my bag still….
and on a totally different note….. DAMN, FL is putting a spanking on OSU tonight!!
Not As Far As You Think
Philadelphia…. or to be more exact… King of Prussia, PA.
Yes, there is actually a city called King of Prussia, no idea why it is called that, but there is a city called that.
Anyway, I drove here last night/this morning. I could have flown, but I like driving better when it is not too far. I love driving at night as well, no traffic or problems. Definitely not as far as I thought it was.
So after 327 miles and 9.75 in tolls, it only took 4 hours and 45 minutes to get here. Rather nice I think, no traffic!!
Such a fun ride, the only problem was a dink from Maryland who was tailing me almost the whole time. He would sit behind me and just follow me, fall back and catch up, fall back and catch up, change lanes with me, and then if someone was going faster than us, he would go follow them and stay right behind them, and then if they got off, he would slow down and get back behind me. Why not just drive what you want to drive instead of sitting behind someone else?
I Wish I Were In Denver
**Photos courtesy of Lyn
Not Happy with VW at the Moment
ok, so as some of if not all of you know my car is in the shop, it came down ill while in NH and started making a loud clanking noise.
I have 1500 or so miles left on my warranty, and VW does not want to fix the car under warranty because they say that it is my fault, the suspect that the damage is due to the engine running too hot, and improper oil being used, and not being changed often enough.
Now, I am a smart person, I am pretty handy, and on top of it all, I tend to be a tad frugal with my money – why should I pay someone else to do what I can do myself, right?
So, I do my own oil changes, and simple things like fuel filter, air filters, etc etc – no problem right?
I was instructed by the dealer I got my car from that I had to use a specific oil for my oil changes – Castrol Syntec(synthetic) 5W-40. Ok, no problem!
So I got the right oil and have been doing my oil changes. I even showed the quart to the mechanic and he looked at it and said, “Well, that is not the exact same stuff that we use, but it is the full synthetic, and the right type, so you should be ok”
OK, no problem right? WRONG
They want to deny my warranty because it was the wrong oil.
BUT it gets better!!!
On top of that…. they also want proof of the oil changes. They want the reciepts for oil changes at a dealer, or the jiffy lube, or the receipts for the oil and filter at someplace like AutoZone.
What? Who keeps a receipt for $30 spent at AutoZone to buy oil? I pay cash and the recipet never makes it to my car.
I was diligent about this car, I changed my oil every 3000-4000 miles, pretty damn good for me considering I usually would do it every 7000-8000 in my other cars before.
So I said that to the guy, and he tells me that in my owners manual it tells me that I need to keep documented receipts for anything like this in order for my warranty to be valid.
OH REALLY?!?! GUESS WHAT!!
My car had no owners manual! I was not given one by the dealer when I bought the car!
I specifically asked if there was anything special in it, and the only thing they told me was the oil, make sure you buy the right oil and use the right oil.
yeah, VW owes me, even if my lack of using the right oil, or not having receipts for things, Why? cuz their agents – aka sales person and service person – verbally told me what I needed to know, and they left out those things.
Yeah, I will throw them under the bus if I have to, I do not care how loyal I have been to Paul Clark Ford and Volkswagon, they deserve no loyalty at this point, for these things right here, as well as what they did to Tom after his years of service.
if worse comes to worse I will sell this car I love and never go back to VW again, if they want a loyal customer, then they need to be honorable about their part of the deal.
this will be updated……
I am a Socialite?
| What type of partier are you?
Your Result: The Socialite
You like only the best liquors, the latest trendy martini’s, or the finest single-malt scotch. You are not one for the ‘dive bar’, you prefer classy lounges filled with model-quality people. When intoxicated, you flirt, but are coy and unattainable, you make your suitors WORK for it. |
I would like to add that I also do like dive bars, I don’t like scotch, but the rest is basically true…..
What The Flying F People?
Ok, can no one in New Jersey drive?
First off, you are worse at merging than any other place I have ever been, there is a lane for you to get up to speed with the rest of the road for a reason, USE IT! and drive more than 10MPH in it!
Second, What the hell is up with everyone stopping at the end of an on-ramp onto the highway? I can see once in awhile being stuck behind someone who does, but I have witnessed it at least 5 times and i have not even been in the state 24 hours yet!
Third, I just saw 4 accidents in less than 3 miles on Rt 17, and not just fender bender bumps either, 3 of the 4 were real accidents with 3 or more vehicles!
Fourth, Where the hell are the Chinese food restaurants?!?!?