Category: Uncategorized Page 151 of 157

So, not long ago I find myself in Kmart looking for an entertainment center. I don’t find one there (the one I wanted turns out to be at Walmat), but I do notice a nice futon. On Sunday, I decided I want to go ahead and get said futon, so I head back to that Kmart. The floor model is there, but according to the random employee we ask, who dutifully checks in the back, they are out of them. My friend Jeff suggests a trip to another kmart he knows about, but we call first.

After talking to 4 differnt people, we determine that yes, they do have them in stock. Yea! So, we head on over to this Kmart, find an employee, who tells us he’ll check in the back. A manager comes around and also offers to check in the back. Back and forth a few times they both proceed, until about 20 mintues later it’s determined that they are sold out. I’m starting to get a little bit pissed at this point, but the manager offers to call over to yet a third store to check. This phone call takes him at least 10 minutes – but he comes back and says they do have them in stock and that the manager will hold one for me. I should ask for Jim.

So, now we go to the third Kmart of the day and track down another employee who again offers to check in the back. They find Jim, Jim finds us, and he comes out with the futon – all boxed up – on a big-ass cart. I pay for the futon in Electronics (for some reason) and we take it out, load it up and head home.

Jeff manages to rip his finger open on the staples holding the box together (not a good omen) and then I start to unpack it and discover a part is missing. Not a nut or bolt, mind you – but the whole right hand side. You know, the arm-rest/legs to the whole deal. Ironically, this should have been part “A” – the first item in the instructions. So, now we’re totally stopped. And the company – VictoryLand Group (which sounds like a televangelest program) only has office hours Monday – Friday during the day. I have to call them and use my firm and slightly angry voice.

Despite all the snafus of the day, the only people really at fault are:

1. The twit at the second Kmart that told us they were in stock

2. The person that packaged up my futon

3. The person who was supposed to check that everything that got in the box.

Best case scenario – I talk to a friendly CSR at VictoryLand who apoligizes and promises to ship out the replacement part at no cost to my via overnight deliverly.

Worst case, I package this back up and take it back to Kmart for a full refund – and they find myself a Sauder catalog.

I’ll make the phone today, once I’m good and awake and a little fired up from some tedious work. Wish me luck…

Back to work…

I helped out my former room-mate’s mother and grandmother last evening.

1. Put up plastic over the sliding glass door.

2. Reset their fax machine

3. Assembled a set of shelves on wheels

4. Moved some boxes around.

“Did you see that one, God?” Good deeds – helping little old ladies. I want full credit on this one.

No, really, it was no big deal. They appreciated the help and I was glad to do it. And they’ve promised me breakfast one of these weekend mornings.

Worked on a project last night, played some video games, and went back into work to upload some files. I dunno what I ate that caused it, but I also spent some quality time visiting the facilites. Good excuse to read a bunch of comics, so I guess that’s okay too.

I may be buying a futon this weekend, we’ll see how that goes.

That’s all folks…back to work…

Did a little more work on my ultra-super secret project last evening – but was too lazy to go out and get the final component. I initially rejected using it during my planning process, but I think it needs it. So, a trip to Michael’s is in order for this evening, after I do the plastic on the windows at my former room-mate’s mother’s house.

Yeah, I don’t entirely get it either.

Well, I’m not dizzy today, so I gues it was just a passing thing. May try to re-arrange my apartment tonight and move my stuff into the big bedroom. Might as well spread out – I could even keep my old room as a library.

Had a lot of trouble getting up this morning – so I ended up being late for work. I need to get busy to get caught up so its…

Back to work for me…

Had a weird dream (aren’t they all?) last night. My room-mate and his boys came back and simply wouldn’t leave. I finally had to get out my sword and grabbed the phone for a 911 call before they would budge. Not sure what triggered this dream, though it may have been the call from his mom. She called last evening and asked if I would come over to her place and put plastic on her windows. Not sure why she called me about this and not her son, though it could be because I’m more reliable.

So, I’ll go over there on Thursday and put up the plastic. A minor good deed, should only take an hour or so. I’ve got no quarrel with her and I do like to help people. Plus, I couldn’t come up with an excuse to get myself out of it quickly enough. 🙂

Got an extra set of A/V cables last evening and a switcher – now I can go from Playstation to DVD in one click of a button. Excellent!

The trip to radio shack was not good, however. Went in there and found a section of A/V cables – the very expensive kind. We were looking through the chart on prices and models of switches when the sales girl came over and asked if we needed help. I said “No, I think we’re in the right section”

To which she replied, “Good, cause I’m new here and I don’t know anything about these, but I’m supposed to ask anyway”

She then wandered off. The switcher was what I needed, but I was looking for cheaper cables. So, we found her again and asked if they had any other cables. I was just hoping for a differnt section to be pointed out to us. She said she didn’t know, but she’s go ask. She disappeared into the backroom and we kept looking around by ourselves – ultimately finding the cables I needed at a reasonable price. By the time she emerges from the backroom, we’ve already gotten the cables in hand and I’m ready to checkout. She has trouble with the cash register, answers the phone in the middle of the transaction making me wait, and then hands me the receipt but nearly tries to keep the bag. She apoligised and said she was a little scatterbrained. I’m thinking “A little?” – but keep it to myself to facilitate getting the heck out of there.

Apparently, she was too new to have watched the video “Customer Service and You! How not to screw up when dealing with people”

Oh, and in an unrelated note – I’ve been dizzy for a while now. Started last evening, mildly dizzy like when you get up too fast. Except it didn’t go away. I was a little dizzy when I went to bed and a little dizzy when I got up to take a shower this morning. It’s not affecting my movements or focus, but it just feels a little odd. If it keeps up, I’ll go get it checked out.

Well, back to work…

The goals last evening were to set up an entertainment center and put my TV/DVD player/Stereo/Playstation on it. Lofty goals to be sure.

Jeff volunteered to help me out (the fool) – and we set to work. Or rather, I set to work and was making good progress on the -ec- before he got there. We were going along just fine, and then it was time for hinges. Hinges for a door that I don’t really need, but I decided to install anyway. We messed around with it for about a thousand years, then read the instructions. Following the instructions actually made it worse, so pretty much gave up. I swore, tried it one last time, and then got it fairly close to level. At least the bottom of the door doesn’t rub on the base anymore.

Close enough = good enough.

Then came the set up of the actual entertainment. Trying to get the right sequence of cables to get sound to the stereo and video to the TV was just this side of impossible. We finally pulled a cable from the CD changer he had if my stereo didn’t work out and finally got things routed correctly. But then the Playstation didn’t work. Another 10 minutes of trying to be polite and maintain our respective cools before I finally thought to check the wonky cable coming out of the back of the playstation. And then it worked perfectly.

I did a little more swearing and we pronounced it done. But by then it was too late for me to stay up and play my games, so I just went to bed.

Today, though. Today many demons will be slain. Many robots will be trounced. Many villanous creatures will have their evil butts handed to them on a silver platter. And all this will be done….

In stereo.

Back to work…

It’s very loud here today. And the voices I’m hearing from over the cube walls are not always english. Heck, I’m not even sure they are human. Time to crank up the volume in my headphones.

Monday, monday. It’s been a busy one. Worked on a survey most of the morning – then found out it hadn’t been approved and would most like need to be massively re-done. Yippee.

Talked to my mom last night about a job she saw for me on the net – a state job, in Columbus. I’m not really qualitied for it – I guess I should take some programming classes. Ick.

Got a new stereo last week and a new entertainment center yesterday. I’ll have to put that together this evening. The stereo is excellent – mainly because I can route my Playstation 2 through it. Sweeeet!

Did a little more work with the Sculpy. Learned more about the properties – thinking about trying something new with it. My little plastic castle didn’t go as well as I would have liked, but I can always try it again.

Got another project in the works, it’s currently behind locked doors. Or rather, cabinets. Christmas gift – shhh!

And before I forget – a big ol’ Happy Birthday shout-out to my good friend Scott! The card is in the mail and dinner is on me. I’m not going to say how old he is – though he is older than me. 🙂

Well, that’s about it for me – back to work…

Well, not really lost, just left at home. My watch, that is. Feels a little odd, but a little freeing too. I tend to be more than a little obsessed with time – though I don’t really have a reason for it. Fortuantly, my computer will pop up a little message to tell me when I have to go to a meeting, so that won’t be a problem.

Didn’t do much last evening – except spend too much money at the craft store. Got some really excellent ideas for projects, should keep me out of trouble this weekend.

Otherwise, it was mostly video games and the Angel DVD – a relaxing evening.

The boss is out today – so I’m getting some of his calls already. It’ll be a busy day, I suspect.

Well, I should get back to work…

Well, not really baking. More like heating a polymer clay until it hardens in a low temp pseudo-kiln – i.e. my oven. The stuff is called sculpey – a clay-like substance for modeling in plastic. You mold it like clay and then bake it to harden it into a solid plastic. I wanted to make a “little plastic castle” – like in the Ani Difranco song – so I tested it out a little bit last night.

The instructions were clear – 130 degrees, for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch thickness. Well, my test case was a little thicker than 1/4 inch and my over starts out at 200 degrees – any lower than that falls into the “warm” catagory. So, I did a whole bunch of estimating with frequent checking – they made a big deal out of not over-baking. Finally just cranked it up and gave it another 5 mintues – that seemed to do the trick. Tonight I’ll try using a dremel on it and maybe a little painting, just to see what it can do. Should have a little plastic castle by the end of the week.

In other news…I did laundry. That was pretty much it. Oh, and watching Angel DVD – lots of ass was kicked last night in the episodes I watched.

My neighbor Josh loaned me a game – X-Men Legends. Looks like fun – I’ll have to give it spin tonight.

Back to work for me…

Got a notice that I failed to pay my School District Tax for 2001 – for the district that my parents live in from 2001. I’ve never lived there and I’m guessing it’s just a clerical error. The problem is that I got this same notice several months ago and replied to it as indicated. And now I’ve got the same notice again, this time with a threat of an additional $500 fine.

So, I’m on the phone with them now – on hold.

Okay, talking to Shawn now – seems like an okay guy. Fingers crossed.

Apparently, the previous notice was for 2000, so this is a new one. And it appears that the wrong school district was associated with my address. Shawn made some updates and it looks like I’m okay. He also cautioned me to avoid using the preprinted address label in the future, since it may have been the source of the problem. Great.

So, that’s all cleared up. I’ll proably still get a warning for 2002 and 2003 at some point, but at least I know what the problem is and can address it.

Well, back to work…

Talked to my Dad last night – his mom was in a car accident and had to be taken to the hospital. She’s okay, but they had to keep her overnight for observation. A little scary for all of us – I’m concerned that she may no longer feel comfortable driving – that will dramatically cut down on her independence.

Been trying to blog all day – lots of trouble with the system. Same kind of stuff that made me stop blogging last time.

Still getting comments from people about the costume – all positive.

That’s about it for me – back to work…