Fast food - DENIED

Sometimes I hate this town. Last night was one of those times. I had a meeting to go to last night, so by the time I got home and settled in it was a little later than usual. We ate kind of light at suppertime, so around 11:00 PM my wife was a little hungry. I offered to go pick her up something since I wasn't tired yet. She decided she would like something from Wendy's. Perfect - I set out on my errand.

When I arrive, there are 2 other cars in the drive thru lane. I figured that 2 was a good number. Things proceeded quickly, and I made it to the order board. At that point I was informed that the drive thru was closed for the evening - it was a little after 11. I had to ask a couple times, I was that surprised. I thought the whole point of drive thru service was that you could get junk food later if you wanted.

So at that point I was mad at the Wendy's franchise. I figured I would support their competitors instead. Luckily, Burger King is only a block away from Wendy's - I head over there, and find that they are also closed! I drive through town on the way home and confirm that Dairy Queen, A&W and others are also all closed.

All I can say is God bless Tim Horton's. They are always open.

48 hours in Pursuit

So for my stealth trip to Vancouver, I rented a car. Since this was to be a solo trip, I decided an economy class car would do the trick, to keep gas costs down. I was given the keys to a Pontiac Pursuit, but as I walked past the Mustang convertible, I was feeling that I had misplayed my hand somehow.

But the car was black, and did have a sunroof - and would be much more comfortable (and reliable) than my Jeep. I later discovered that it also had a 12 inch subwoofer in the trunk. Maybe this Pursuit wouldn't be such a bad ride after all.

As it turned out, the car was actually pretty nice. I used most of the 'toy features' at one point or another. By 'toy feature' I mean things like cruise control, fuel economy calculator, or that sunroof I mentioned. The other thing about this rental is that I went for the option to purchase a tank of gas at their price, instead of returning the car with a full tank. While this ensured I got gas for about $0.05 cheaper than what is available, it also gave me strong incentive to return the car as near empty as possible. THIS IS NOT RECCOMENDED FOR CARS YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH. About 45 mins away from my destination, the low fuel indicator came on. It was a tense half hour as I coasted/creeped toward the next gas station for a quick $5 worth of gas. Next time I think I'll top up the tank as required and drive with a healthy reserve in the tank. The savings in stress alone would be worth it.

For those of you who know the area, I was returning on the connector and the low fuel light came on about 2/3rds of the way back to Kelowna. I actually put the car in neutral and coasted for 20 km from the mine to the end of the freeway. Never have I been so glad to see Westbank.

Have wifi, will travel

Last night I picked up Apple's WiFi card for our laptop. I'm looking forward to getting it installed and freeing the laptop from those troublesome ethernet cords.

Now if only the charger cable wasn't so flaky these days. Looks like that might be next on the list. If you know of anyone with a spare ibook or powerbook charger, let me know.

One great thing about having this card is that once everything is up and running, I hope to be able to set up the router and DSL modem in a different room so that I can hook the other computer up via cable. Currently, I have it connected via wifi with a USB adaptor. Not a bad situation, but it is plugged into a USB 1.1 slot which really slows things down. Overall that is still okay since the entire computer is slow as well. But that is an upgrade project for another day. Speaking of upgrade projects, has everyone seen the upgrade video for the new Macbook? It's less than a minute long, so take a peek if you haven't already.

So back to the title. It looks like I am going to be doing another whirlwind trip to Vancouver this weekend. I won't be leaving until Sunday, so Monday is really going to be the only day I have to do things. But at least it's a holiday, right? Oh, and for those who know me, fear not: I'm renting a car for the trip. The Jeep stays in Vernon.

I'm overdue for a post, I know

It's been a while since my last update. I think I prefer posting with pictures, but whatever. Internet Crutches, be gone!

So let's see - back in February I signed on with Telus (local telephone monopoly) for their high speed DSL service. I was actually very happy with the local cable service, but was bribed with the first three months free, as well as a free ipod for signing into a contract. I had my reservations, but free is free, right?

As luck would have it, I signed on the absolute last day possible for the promo. This practically guaranteed that my account would be set up with problems. As a tester, I really have to stop living my life like a test case. Anyway, the day came to switch over from cable to DSL (it was almost two weeks later - no need to set it up until my paid cable service ran out, right?) and things started to go wrong. A quick call to tech support had me up and running within 24 hours I think. It's hard to remember details that far back. At any rate, I remember that was the first time I had to call for help, only to discover that the problems were NOT on my end but had to do with how the account was set up.

Pretty soon, all was well. Internet was up and running, things were all happy and good - service was comparable to the cable internet we just left, at least speed wise. We did lose all our email from the old ISP account but that was early in the game and I was willing to let that slide.

Then an odd thing started to happen - my free ipod wasn't arriving. MULTIPLE calls, with several transfers between departments were required to sort out this problem. (One department, the Loyalty and Retention dept made me wonder what sort of company requires a dept with such a stated purpose.) They eventually assured me that the ipod would now ship, but it could still be a few weeks for arrival.

Then the bill came in. Somehow, in the mess they created, they neglected to give me my free months of internet service. By now I was pretty steamed but when I called the customer service rep was competent, polite and actually helpful. Or at least, that's the impression I got at that time - I guess the proof will be in the next phone bill.

Oh, and yes the ipod finally arrived. I picked it up yesterday.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

and Happy Birthday, Roscoe. Ya stanky little....oh wait, I'm trying to be nice.

Yes, it's Roscoe's birthday today. And it's Cinco de Mayo, which makes it easy for me to remember.

Anyhow, how does one celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Drink Mexican beer? If so, it sounds a LOT like St. Patty's day, and I can be happy with that. But if there is more to it, I hope someone is able to enlighten me. I mean, if I'm also supposed to eat burritos with the beer, I'd like to know about it.

Bad days can really suck

Man, I hate having a bad day. It really destroys my mood.

That's about it.

Hope you all have a nice day.

PS - Tiger, my condolances. Your day must be infinitely worse than mine.

At least they waited until spring

Remember the homeless guy who lives outside my office window? Well today a backhoe and dumptruck pulled into the lot, and started to remove his stuff. There is a cop supervising the activity, and at least three workers. Another man is on-site, presumably the owner, or developer of the vacant lot.

Of all the days for me to be without a camera.

I will say this - there was a LOT of stuff. That dumptruck is mostly filled (it's pulling away now.) It probably took the crew about an hour in total to clean out the area. About half the office floor came over to our windows for a good look at the workers doing their job. I'd say that was a pretty clear indication that we are either easily amused, or simply have no lives.

Oh well, I hope Mr. Homeless guy has found a new home by now.