loose threads, fabrications, purls of wisdom and other belabored puns baste on my adventures in real life
in loving, laughing memory of
JRW @-->---
go home:
hullcloth.com
just who do i think i am:
cut from hull cloth
previous woofing:
fellow
babblers:
Greetings from Evanston, Ill.
Big Dump Truck Driver's Log
Pet Rock Star
Brian's Daily Rant
Spam-O-Matic
Curious Furious
torasan04's Journal
Answer Girl
DC Metro Blog Map
misc-ing
links:
hullcloth.com
Top5 Pets
The Accidental
Guitarist
Close But No
Guitar
Style Invitational Losers
The Top Five List
Ruminations
bradsimanek.com
Saturday, January 15, 2005
That's why they call it "Sprint"
Amazon.com, ladies and gentlemen. I at long last upgraded my cell phone and since the folks at the Radio Shack in the mall across the street from my office didn't seem interested in selling me a phone, much less acknowledging my existence, I bought it online at Amazon. This was Tuesday night. I qualified for free shipping, which experience has taught me means add a week to delivery, but I thought what the hey. So what do you think was waiting for me when I got home from work Friday? My New Phone! Whoo! It beat the DVD I ordered last week as well as a CD I bought through their Marketplace (secondhand stuff) the day before the day before Christmas. Both of those are still AWOL.
Next up: We'll see how both Amazon and Sprint do in following up on their promises of rebates, not to mention how smoothly the transfer of service goes.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
1:51 PM
Tit for Hat
I have a small head. On a big body, I might add. Picture this: a graduating MA candidate wearing an XL robe and an XS cap. That was me. My mom also has a small head (go figure), although her body is more in proportion. Neither of us wears hats well but we both live in places where it is cold enough part of the year to require some sort of head covering. Me, I finally found a beret that worked well, but that after a few years of wear was starting to stretch out a little. I looked long in vain for another at the same kiosk where I bought it, as well as any other likely place. Finally the kiosk had a few in stock just last week. I bought 2, one black and one blue. Meanwhile Mom bought a nifty bowler-style felted knit hat at an art show but found it didn't quite suit. I tried it on while visiting last month, it fit me a little better. I mailed Mom one of the berets and in return she sent me the brown bowler.
Just in time; it had been nippy out. I wore it yesterday for the first time. Wouldn't you know; the temp went up to the 70s.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
7:42 PM
"I'm sorry, I didn't get that"
Voice-activated telephone menus are pretty nifty, yes. Just speak the choice you want in a reasonably clear tone and your chance of success is pretty good. One bit of advice: please notify your cats before attempting to call an organization that uses this technology so they don't jump on your lap and meow loudly while you are just one option away from your desired department.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
9:47 PM
A flip of the wrist
It was time for a new watchband. As reported in these pages, the last replacement band was installed upside-down. I soon became accustomed to it and had even forgotten about it until the current one was installed, the *other* other way around. I always go to the same family-run place and I believe the jeweller guy who installed the new band for me yesterday was the one who did the last one as well. Why the turnaround?
Perhaps last time he had just returned from a vacation in Australia.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
8:19 PM
All right, then.
Posting problems seem to be resolved. This time.
In other breaking news, trash pickup has changed at my condo yet I missed the memo. Well, to be fair, I got the memo, but since it arrived when the usual "here's where you can dump your Christmas tree" memo does, with the same map of the complex dotted with Xs that mark tree-dumping spots, I didn't bother reading it since I don't do the tree thing. Timing, people, timing. I get from seeing direct evidence that trash is now to be left at selected spots on the grounds as opposed to outside each building's front door, but apparently the days for pickup have changed.
That's it. I'm stealing the copy of the new schedule from the bulletin board and copying it.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
10:47 PM
Irony
No sooner do I announce my intention to post more regularly than Blogger
and GoDaddy conspire to make me a liar. Attempts to update posts result
in a "Unknown Host Exception" error. This has happened before and I
have already lodged whiny complaints though channels.
Attempting to send this via e-mail. Will it work? I'd cross my fingers
but then I'd have a hard time hitting "Send".
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
1:47 PM
Fax vobiscum
The zipper replacement on my leather jacket turned out beautifully. Ram Cleaners, ladies and gentlemen.
The second part of the deal has been undertaken: requesting reimbursement for the repair by Lane Bryant, who sold me the jacket but couldn't replace it in a reasonable timeframe. I spoke with their customer service department the other night, and was assured that reimbursement wasn't out of the question. I asked for instructions on getting a copy of the repair receipt to them. Faxing was the only way. I haven't faxed from home in ages. It should go without saying (oops, it didn't) that I don't have a dedicated fax machine, so I set up the fax utility on my XP desktop. Odd -- back in the pre-internet, pre-email days faxing was a daily part of my business life, but now it seemed to me as primitive a method of communication as sending smoke signals. I managed to get the fax document set up and "addressed", only to have the dialing part fail time after time. I remembered about putting in commas to pause the dialer so the phone line could catch up yet I still did not get the fax to get gone. Sigh. So I sent the thing from work the next day, luckily to an 800 number. As far as I could tell from the transmission report, it was sent, but in my cover note I asked for confirmation of receipt by phone or by e-mail. To date I have received nothing. Oh, joy. I get to go through the customer service menu again, speak to someone who it turns out is not in customer service but who will transfer me without filling in the person I am being transferred to on the details of the situation.
Good thing I really really like the jacket.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
5:32 PM
Sans Blog
(Damn, I wish I had thought of that title when I was casting about for a name for this blog. No kidding.)
But the joke of course is that I am still avec blog. Periodic temptation to shut it down aside, I aim to stay here for a while. I'm not one for new year's resolutions but I do hope to be less of an absentee bloglord in the coming months.
Oh, and happy birthday to Stephen Stills, if he's watching. Ok, so he isn't. Happy day all the same.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
10:22 PM
Deli-cious
I've been making the trek to Cleveland every year since 1987 to spend Christmas with my family. Yet it was only this year that I realized there is another reason to brave arctic cold and snowfalls measured in double-digit inches: Corky and Lenny's. For the myriad types of cuisine available in the DC area, *good* deli is lacking. I certainly don't know of any good ones around here, anyway.
As good food and good fortune would have it, Corky and Lenny's is right near the highway that takes me into and out of town. The day I left to come back home I had breakfast there with my mom and dad. I ordered scrambled eggs ("eggies" as the waitress called them) and a bagel with nova lox. Now, bagels you *can* get around here, but this one was far superior, if only because of where I was when I ate it. After bidding farewell to the folks I lingered at the counter and got a few sandwiches' worth of corned beef and a loaf of rye bread to go. I mention this now because as I type this I am finishing the last of both. Goodbye, delicious long-distance takeout, hello mail order!
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
6:52 PM
Hats off to chutzpah
I appreciate that there are those who REALLY get into Christmas, but honestly, it's hard not to look like a total dork wearing a Santa hat with one's street clothes. However, on the elevator at work Friday morning -- a full 5 days after Christmas Day -- there was a guy wearing a Santa hat who proved to be an exception. What redeemed him, apart from his personifying the spirit of "Christmas is NOT over the nanosecond the last gift is unwrapped on Dec. 25", was that the band of his Santa hat was not the usual fluffy white. It was a leopard print.
this piece woven by Sandra Hull @
8:02 PM