Weekend Update - October 7th
Weekend Update
I had thought about going to see the new Ang Lee film LUST, CAUTION on Sunday. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the cinema. I was feeling poorly on Saturday and I decided to stay home on Sunday and get myself well for the trip to Atlanta and the wedding.
I did some other stuff but mostly I sort of blobbed around with my general discomfort.
Tomorrow will be better for me.
Visitors
I think we were a little off on our foreign visitors this week. We had visitors from Japan [10], Korea, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany [5], Taiwan, Texas, Canada, Sweden, France, and Singapore.
We also had one visitor who stayed around for twenty one minutes.
I guess I either wrote something really good or I had some great images up on the blog.
Nina from El Gringo
I started going back to El Gringo when Doug was up here. We went on a Thursday night and had a new server. Having a new server is the rule rather than the exception at El Gringo.
I think Doug and I went there about four weeks ago. Nina was the server. She was new to me and new, of course, to Doug because he prefers El Burrito Jr. for his local Mexican style food.
As I recall, Nina did a good job as our server that night. She was attentive and concerned that our meal was fine. Nina impressed me enough to go back for a second meal with her as the server. I think I impressed Nina when I went back for a second meal because I noticed and commented that she changed her hair style and color.
I wonder if her boy friend noticed the changes.
Nina was working this past Thursday when I went in for a Number 2 Combination of two soft, spicy mahi mahi tacos, rice and beans. She had changed her hair style again. Nina asked me for my name because she wanted to remember me. So I told her.
Sweet.
Nina was concerned that I had only eaten about half of my order. I said there was nothing wrong with the food or the service. I just was not that hungry on Thursday. I was in El Gringo early on Thursday so Nina was not too busy. I asked if she worked any other nights at El Gringo. I was thinking ahead in case I had to teach a class on Thursday night next term for example. I was surprised to find out that Nina worked at one of the three El Gringos on almost everyday of the week; some days she worked lunches and some days she works dinners.
Excellent. Now all I need to do is ask her again so I can write the days down because I was unable to remember them when she told me.
I won’t be at El Gringo this Thursday since Doug and I will be going out to dinner at his favorite ribs place in Atlanta. I will be back in two weeks to see Nina and see if she missed me.
Hershey’s Candy
I ordered some Halloween candy for the Princess and for Amy the Server. I have been sending the Princess Hershey’s candy since she went off to the University of Utah after high school. The Princess asked me to make sure it didn’t come too soon because she has a wedding dress to fit into yet.
I figured if I ordered in the first week in October, the candy would arrive just before the wedding or maybe after it.
As luck would have it, things did not go as I planned.
I ordered the candy on the 2nd; received a confirmation email on the 3rd; and the package was delivered on the 4th. So much for a late delivery.
Amy’s candy is a completely different story.
I ordered her candy on the 2nd; received a confirmation email on the 3rd; and the package was lost. I received a tracking confirmation that a UPS shipping number had been assigned to it. I waited the normal time to see if it popped up on the UPS online package tracking program.
When I checked the shipping status on both packages after school on Thursday, I found out that the Princess’ had been delivered and Amy’s was nowhere to be found. I figured that Amy’s package would show up on Friday and I could track it.
Wrong again. It did not show up on Friday at all.
Losing patience, I first phoned Hershey’s who quickly pointed their chocolate covered fingers at UPS. That made a certain perverse sense to me since the UPS trucks are a chocolate color after all.
My phone call to UPS did not produce any happy news. UPS said Hershey’s generated a shipping label with the tracking information and forward the information electronically to UPS. No UPS driver had scanned the package so it was somewhere in the Hershey’s warehouse.
Oh great.
Back to the chocolate fingered clowns in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The next customer service person was not that helpful initially. I began to complain in a forceful manner without losing my temper. My big concern was that I had ordered a container of chocolate for Amy that featured a Halloween design. It is one thing to get a Halloween container of candy and then it is another thing to get a plain container of candy.
The customer service person finally came up with two alternatives. First, we could wait until Tuesday to see if UPS and Hershey’s could find the package and send it on its way. Second, we could order a reshipment at no charge to me.
Normally, I would have waited until Tuesday since it would have been delivered behind the Orange Curtain in time if it was shipped on Tuesday. I hate to waste things, even if there is no charge to me.
In the end, I went with the no charge reorder because there was no way to insure that the special Halloween themed container would be available on this coming Tuesday.
Now, I am sitting and waiting for another email from Hershey’s with the new shipping information. I ought to get that email sometime on Monday. Then, Amy should have her candy in the Halloween container on Thursday or Friday if all goes well.
There is also the possibility the first order may turn up and Amy will receive tow shipments of the candy. If that is the case, then, Amy can make lots of friends at her job.
On the plus side, I will be out of town and slightly out of reach so Amy will have to wait for a few days before she can yell at me for picking a large container of the candy. I have my defense already thought out. I will merely remind her that she was the one who said that “she loves Hershey’s candy.”
I can also say that she could share some of the candy with her co-workers at Fleming’s in Newport Beach plus there may be trick or treaters knocking on her front door on October 31st.
I’m certain that the late Johnny Cochran would have a nifty defense slogan to use right about now.
Microsoft Windows Live
I don’t particularly like Microsoft Outlook because it has more than what I need for a simple, email program from my laptop computer. I have used Outlook Express for years and have been perfectly happy.
Outlook Express is or was a simple email program. I kept all of my calendar and address information on my Handspring Visor PDA. Perfect solution for me.
My new laptop came with the Windows Vista Business operating system. That was one reason why I purchased the Lenovo laptop. It also came with Windows Mail. Windows Mail is a replacement for Outlook Express. There is no alternative; I have to use Outlook if I want to use a Microsoft program.
Of course, as Doug would say, “Dad, Safari works fine.”
Thanks son but I don’t have an Apply laptop.
I could always go with another email program like Eudora but I don’t want to learn a new program.
My one complaint with Windows Mail is that is unstable. It locks up regularly so that I have to reboot the program on a daily basis. Some days, I have to reboot the whole system to get the email program to download my incoming email messages. This is not what I had in mind for the email program.
Why does Microsoft replace a perfectly good program with one that has flaws?
Because it can.
Granted, I didn’t pay anything for Windows Mail. I would have been willing to pay some reasonable price to have Outlook Express again.
American Football
It was a good weekend for my football teams for the most part. South Carolina won on Wednesday so the Princess was very happy. My Raiders did not lose this weekend; that was because they did not play this weekend.
Utah beat Louisville 44 to 35. It would have been 47 to 35 if the Utah head coach and quarterback had been mentally alert in the closing seconds of the first half. With about ten seconds left and the ball on the Louisville 17 or so yard line, the Utah quarterback passed into the middle of the field with no time outs remaining. The receiver was tackled and the half ended. Kicking a field goal would have been a simple chip shot for the Utah kicker.
It was a sloppy game. Utah led at half 27 to 7 and then barely held on to win in the second half. Utah is a team that suffers from emotional schizophrenia. You never know which team will show up at kickoff; the good one that beat UCLA or the bad one that got shut out by UNLV.
Utah is now 3 and 0 against Louisville in a series that goes back to the late 1990s.
Looking ahead for Utah, I think they have a chance at ending up with a 6 and 6 record, possibly even better. Unless they win at least four of the remaining games, the team will get to watch the post season games from the comfort of the dormitories.
I think the Utah head coach needs to learn how to focus and motivate a team. Maybe he should drift over to the Film Studies Department and check out KNUTE ROCKNE ALL AMERICAN. It’s a 1940 film that stars Pat O’Brien as Rockne and a relatively unknown Ronald Reagan as Frank Gipp. It has one of the greatest football motivational speeches ever in it.
As an alternative, Coach Willingham could check out HENRY V. I personally prefer the Lord Olivier version; but the players, some of whom may not be the sharpest tools in the locker room, might prefer the modern color version with Mel Gibson. He needs to dial into the soliloquy by Henry V just before the Battle of Agincourt. If that speech can’t get the players up, then I doubt anything will short of a cattle prod or a very hot branding iron.
The old high school team did not so well on Friday night. They lost an away game 14 to 7 to San Gabriel High School. That is not too bad of a loss. San Marino High is now 4 and 1 for the season. I read a local area paper and the game appears to have been closer than the score. My old school played and had more total offense than San Gabriel.
I also found out from reading the local paper that last week’s victory of 75 to 0 was not a misprint. The win less school lost again badly, 45 to 0, this past Friday.
I don’t think my Brother is a happy football fan today. His University of Southern California Trojans, a 41 point favorite lost to Stanford on Saturday night. USC can probably kiss the national championship goodbye and possibly a conference championship as well. Their quarterback is no longer in contention for the Heisman Trophy. He may still get drafted in the first round so al is not lost I guess.
Programming Note
In case you were unaware, I am going to my favorite and only daughter’s wedding in Atlanta this coming weekend. I have to go because I am father of the bride and I have to give her away.
There will be no regular or Weekend Bonus Feature blog postings from Wednesday October 10th until Monday October 15th.
You all can give yourselves a well earned rest from reading the blog.
Woman of the Moment
I had thought that I should not have a Woman of the Moment today because of my image conversation measures. I did have a WOTM on Friday. Then, I looked ahead and considered that next week would be a slow week for blog postings because of the wedding. In the grander scheme of things, I felt a WOTM would be appropriate for this post.
I took time to check out Tamao Sato on IMDb. She had appeared in 19 films and one television appearance in her career. Nice. Alas, we are down to only viewing Tamao in her bikinis.
Be well and stay happy.
I had thought about going to see the new Ang Lee film LUST, CAUTION on Sunday. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the cinema. I was feeling poorly on Saturday and I decided to stay home on Sunday and get myself well for the trip to Atlanta and the wedding.
I did some other stuff but mostly I sort of blobbed around with my general discomfort.
Tomorrow will be better for me.
Visitors
I think we were a little off on our foreign visitors this week. We had visitors from Japan [10], Korea, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany [5], Taiwan, Texas, Canada, Sweden, France, and Singapore.
We also had one visitor who stayed around for twenty one minutes.
I guess I either wrote something really good or I had some great images up on the blog.
Nina from El Gringo
I started going back to El Gringo when Doug was up here. We went on a Thursday night and had a new server. Having a new server is the rule rather than the exception at El Gringo.
I think Doug and I went there about four weeks ago. Nina was the server. She was new to me and new, of course, to Doug because he prefers El Burrito Jr. for his local Mexican style food.
As I recall, Nina did a good job as our server that night. She was attentive and concerned that our meal was fine. Nina impressed me enough to go back for a second meal with her as the server. I think I impressed Nina when I went back for a second meal because I noticed and commented that she changed her hair style and color.
I wonder if her boy friend noticed the changes.
Nina was working this past Thursday when I went in for a Number 2 Combination of two soft, spicy mahi mahi tacos, rice and beans. She had changed her hair style again. Nina asked me for my name because she wanted to remember me. So I told her.
Sweet.
Nina was concerned that I had only eaten about half of my order. I said there was nothing wrong with the food or the service. I just was not that hungry on Thursday. I was in El Gringo early on Thursday so Nina was not too busy. I asked if she worked any other nights at El Gringo. I was thinking ahead in case I had to teach a class on Thursday night next term for example. I was surprised to find out that Nina worked at one of the three El Gringos on almost everyday of the week; some days she worked lunches and some days she works dinners.
Excellent. Now all I need to do is ask her again so I can write the days down because I was unable to remember them when she told me.
I won’t be at El Gringo this Thursday since Doug and I will be going out to dinner at his favorite ribs place in Atlanta. I will be back in two weeks to see Nina and see if she missed me.
Hershey’s Candy
I ordered some Halloween candy for the Princess and for Amy the Server. I have been sending the Princess Hershey’s candy since she went off to the University of Utah after high school. The Princess asked me to make sure it didn’t come too soon because she has a wedding dress to fit into yet.
I figured if I ordered in the first week in October, the candy would arrive just before the wedding or maybe after it.
As luck would have it, things did not go as I planned.
I ordered the candy on the 2nd; received a confirmation email on the 3rd; and the package was delivered on the 4th. So much for a late delivery.
Amy’s candy is a completely different story.
I ordered her candy on the 2nd; received a confirmation email on the 3rd; and the package was lost. I received a tracking confirmation that a UPS shipping number had been assigned to it. I waited the normal time to see if it popped up on the UPS online package tracking program.
When I checked the shipping status on both packages after school on Thursday, I found out that the Princess’ had been delivered and Amy’s was nowhere to be found. I figured that Amy’s package would show up on Friday and I could track it.
Wrong again. It did not show up on Friday at all.
Losing patience, I first phoned Hershey’s who quickly pointed their chocolate covered fingers at UPS. That made a certain perverse sense to me since the UPS trucks are a chocolate color after all.
My phone call to UPS did not produce any happy news. UPS said Hershey’s generated a shipping label with the tracking information and forward the information electronically to UPS. No UPS driver had scanned the package so it was somewhere in the Hershey’s warehouse.
Oh great.
Back to the chocolate fingered clowns in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The next customer service person was not that helpful initially. I began to complain in a forceful manner without losing my temper. My big concern was that I had ordered a container of chocolate for Amy that featured a Halloween design. It is one thing to get a Halloween container of candy and then it is another thing to get a plain container of candy.
The customer service person finally came up with two alternatives. First, we could wait until Tuesday to see if UPS and Hershey’s could find the package and send it on its way. Second, we could order a reshipment at no charge to me.
Normally, I would have waited until Tuesday since it would have been delivered behind the Orange Curtain in time if it was shipped on Tuesday. I hate to waste things, even if there is no charge to me.
In the end, I went with the no charge reorder because there was no way to insure that the special Halloween themed container would be available on this coming Tuesday.
Now, I am sitting and waiting for another email from Hershey’s with the new shipping information. I ought to get that email sometime on Monday. Then, Amy should have her candy in the Halloween container on Thursday or Friday if all goes well.
There is also the possibility the first order may turn up and Amy will receive tow shipments of the candy. If that is the case, then, Amy can make lots of friends at her job.
On the plus side, I will be out of town and slightly out of reach so Amy will have to wait for a few days before she can yell at me for picking a large container of the candy. I have my defense already thought out. I will merely remind her that she was the one who said that “she loves Hershey’s candy.”
I can also say that she could share some of the candy with her co-workers at Fleming’s in Newport Beach plus there may be trick or treaters knocking on her front door on October 31st.
I’m certain that the late Johnny Cochran would have a nifty defense slogan to use right about now.
Microsoft Windows Live
I don’t particularly like Microsoft Outlook because it has more than what I need for a simple, email program from my laptop computer. I have used Outlook Express for years and have been perfectly happy.
Outlook Express is or was a simple email program. I kept all of my calendar and address information on my Handspring Visor PDA. Perfect solution for me.
My new laptop came with the Windows Vista Business operating system. That was one reason why I purchased the Lenovo laptop. It also came with Windows Mail. Windows Mail is a replacement for Outlook Express. There is no alternative; I have to use Outlook if I want to use a Microsoft program.
Of course, as Doug would say, “Dad, Safari works fine.”
Thanks son but I don’t have an Apply laptop.
I could always go with another email program like Eudora but I don’t want to learn a new program.
My one complaint with Windows Mail is that is unstable. It locks up regularly so that I have to reboot the program on a daily basis. Some days, I have to reboot the whole system to get the email program to download my incoming email messages. This is not what I had in mind for the email program.
Why does Microsoft replace a perfectly good program with one that has flaws?
Because it can.
Granted, I didn’t pay anything for Windows Mail. I would have been willing to pay some reasonable price to have Outlook Express again.
American Football
It was a good weekend for my football teams for the most part. South Carolina won on Wednesday so the Princess was very happy. My Raiders did not lose this weekend; that was because they did not play this weekend.
Utah beat Louisville 44 to 35. It would have been 47 to 35 if the Utah head coach and quarterback had been mentally alert in the closing seconds of the first half. With about ten seconds left and the ball on the Louisville 17 or so yard line, the Utah quarterback passed into the middle of the field with no time outs remaining. The receiver was tackled and the half ended. Kicking a field goal would have been a simple chip shot for the Utah kicker.
It was a sloppy game. Utah led at half 27 to 7 and then barely held on to win in the second half. Utah is a team that suffers from emotional schizophrenia. You never know which team will show up at kickoff; the good one that beat UCLA or the bad one that got shut out by UNLV.
Utah is now 3 and 0 against Louisville in a series that goes back to the late 1990s.
Looking ahead for Utah, I think they have a chance at ending up with a 6 and 6 record, possibly even better. Unless they win at least four of the remaining games, the team will get to watch the post season games from the comfort of the dormitories.
I think the Utah head coach needs to learn how to focus and motivate a team. Maybe he should drift over to the Film Studies Department and check out KNUTE ROCKNE ALL AMERICAN. It’s a 1940 film that stars Pat O’Brien as Rockne and a relatively unknown Ronald Reagan as Frank Gipp. It has one of the greatest football motivational speeches ever in it.
As an alternative, Coach Willingham could check out HENRY V. I personally prefer the Lord Olivier version; but the players, some of whom may not be the sharpest tools in the locker room, might prefer the modern color version with Mel Gibson. He needs to dial into the soliloquy by Henry V just before the Battle of Agincourt. If that speech can’t get the players up, then I doubt anything will short of a cattle prod or a very hot branding iron.
The old high school team did not so well on Friday night. They lost an away game 14 to 7 to San Gabriel High School. That is not too bad of a loss. San Marino High is now 4 and 1 for the season. I read a local area paper and the game appears to have been closer than the score. My old school played and had more total offense than San Gabriel.
I also found out from reading the local paper that last week’s victory of 75 to 0 was not a misprint. The win less school lost again badly, 45 to 0, this past Friday.
I don’t think my Brother is a happy football fan today. His University of Southern California Trojans, a 41 point favorite lost to Stanford on Saturday night. USC can probably kiss the national championship goodbye and possibly a conference championship as well. Their quarterback is no longer in contention for the Heisman Trophy. He may still get drafted in the first round so al is not lost I guess.
Programming Note
In case you were unaware, I am going to my favorite and only daughter’s wedding in Atlanta this coming weekend. I have to go because I am father of the bride and I have to give her away.
There will be no regular or Weekend Bonus Feature blog postings from Wednesday October 10th until Monday October 15th.
You all can give yourselves a well earned rest from reading the blog.
Woman of the Moment
I had thought that I should not have a Woman of the Moment today because of my image conversation measures. I did have a WOTM on Friday. Then, I looked ahead and considered that next week would be a slow week for blog postings because of the wedding. In the grander scheme of things, I felt a WOTM would be appropriate for this post.
I took time to check out Tamao Sato on IMDb. She had appeared in 19 films and one television appearance in her career. Nice. Alas, we are down to only viewing Tamao in her bikinis.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 3:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home