Scooter Chronicles

Excuse the blantant comment. But I had enough of their problems last week, and yet I continue to find more ineptitude to make me not ever want to even hear their name again.

Back on Thursday, I finally seemed to get through and have the processor resent, after TD’s typo that sent the first replacement to the wrong address. The customer service rep said they would send it Next Day via UPS, but it could take 48 hours before it ships. It showed up this morning. From the time the email confirmation showed up, it was less then 24 hours to get to the house. But the problem was that it took 4 business days (96 hours) to finally ship.

Then...

Continue reading »

The Return of Taco Tuesday!
I may have mentioned before that Marcia and I have had a habit of eating tacos on Tuesday. Much like our Pizza Night’s on Friday, these nights became something to look forward to every week. Sometimes we even invited others over to eat with us.

But lately, with the pregnancy, Marcia had lost her appetite for tacos. Much like the fact that I have been eating eggs lately, Marcia not eating tacos is something that makes one wonder if the end of the world is near. Last night we had them for the first time in weeks.

Ken Jennings’ Greatest Hits
For those of you that don’t know, Ken Jennings...

Continue reading »

Marcia and I started watching Andy Roddick’s first round match last night (seeded 4th). Funny how things can turn around so fast. He was up 5-2 in the first set, only 20 minutes in, looking like he was going to win in a route. But he ended up losing to the 68th ranked player in the world, Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (1).

Just for the record, Marcia likes to root against Andy. I have slowly become a fan of his. Though it has been frustrating watching him play second fiddle to Federer for about three years now.

We watched the first two sets, and Roddick wasn’t playing all that bad. At one point Muller had over twice as many unforced errors. But it just wasn’t to be. Even Roddick’s...

Continue reading »

And it wasn’t a good beginning for the defending women’s champion, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 5th of the tournament. She lost to fellow country woman Ekaterina Bychkova, ranked 97th in the world, 6-3, 6-2. From what I have read, Kuznetsova has been hampered by a back injury. Still a surprise. Unfortunately for her, she made history with the loss.

On the men’s side, 9th seeded Gaston Gaudio of Argentina lost to American Brian Baker, 7-6 (11-9), 6-2, 6-4. A rather big surprise, seeing that Baker appears to have just turned pro a few weeks ago, and is ranked 195th in the world.

It will be very interesting to see how Andre Agassi does. This appears to be his last shot at the US Open. Other Americans...

Continue reading »

My comment about the book “The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque” ranking up there with some of the best books I have read got me thinking. What are my favorite books? And why? Of course it is all relative to you reading this. I know I have read a few books that others had praised, and wondered why I didn’t see the same thing in them. Or vice versa. Regardless of that factor, I have tried to list them.

The Best
These just took a hold of me and wouldn’t let go. All of these have great character depth and great stories. But with some, there are extras as well that helped them in my opinion. When it comes to the science fiction books on this list, it has a lot to do with the world-building...

Continue reading »

Greyhound - Leave the Adopting to Us?
Marcia and I have contemplated for a while about adopting a greyhound. It was renewed this weekend when we went to Border’s. About two or three times a year you will run into people promoting the idea of adopting them at stores, though usually pet supply stores.

The one thing that makes this attractive is the fact that greyhounds are good apartment / condo dogs. Even though they run very fast at the tracks, they need little exercise. A couple of short walks a week is all to keep them happy. They are affectionate, easy going, and loyal, but lazy. Which about best describes Molson, our golden retriever.

The only issues facing us are the baby and Molson. ...

Continue reading »

Yesterday morning, I finished reading “The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque” by Jeffrey Ford.

Again, I cheat by using Publishers Weekly and their description found on Amazon.Com:

…… sepia-colored old New York is the fever-dream world. Piero Piambo is the portraitist of choice among New York’s nouveau riche in 1893, but his career fills him with self-loathing. When a blind man with uncannily white eyes offers him “a job like no other” painting the mysterious Mrs. Charbuque Piambo quickly accepts, as the hefty commission will allow him to abandon society portraiture. But the...

Continue reading »

Last night Marcia and I watched “Flight of the Phoenix”, starring Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto, and Hugh Laurie. This was a remake of the 1965 Jimmy Stewart movie (which also starred Richard Attenborough).

An oil drilling company has set-up shop in Mongolia, but have had little luck. Ian “the Suit” (Hugh Laurie), one of the company’s businessmen, comes in and realizes they need to pack up and go home to stop the money loss. So in comes Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid) and his plane to pick up the crew, led by Kelly (Miranda Otto). On their way to Beijing, they come across a storm and crash...

Continue reading »

Thanks to all of you that sent “Happy Anniversary” greetings to Marcia and I.

We had a very nice time last night. There was hardly at the General Lafayette Inn last night. We almost had the place to ourselves. Dinner was excellent. We had friend calamari with a chipolte sauce, which was very good. For dinner, Marcia had the crab cakes, and I had the ale marinated pork chops. Both dishes (since we sampled each others) were very, very good. Even the Mac and Cheese that Marcia ordered as a side was great. The portions were kind of small for the price. But then again that was good. I always hate leaving good food on your plate, or the opposite and eating...

Continue reading »

Over 72 hours later, and TigerDirect still had not told me anything. Must still be “INVESTIGATING” the missing processor. So I called them this afternoon. I had been contacted by the people living at the other address, and they have not seen it. Wanted to let them know that, and remind them that it was now three days later and I had found out more then they had. I was prepared to tell TigerDirect to give me back my money and I would take my business elsewhere.

I had to wait about 20 minutes on hold before I finally got to talk to someone. So I explained my situation to the customer service rep. And what did she do? She IMMEDIATELY canceled the previous order and opened an order for a new processor. She also told...

Continue reading »