Cost Plus & California Pizza Kitchen

After the uneventful wait for the termite guys, we needed to get John fed but first I wanted to go to Cost Plus at John's insightful suggestion.

I needed to get some exotic tea to remedy my day. The store wasn't busy which was good so I took my time. John found a case of winter beers that got him quite excited. How one can get excited about beer is beyond me. I tasted the stuff once in my very young adulthood and decided it was not for me. How do people do it? I tasted it again when I was older and was doubly convinced that it was not for me. Yiiich! Disgusting stuff.

I must admit they do do look kinda pretty for beers.

Enough about how I feel about beer. I found some ginger tea and some hot apple cider. Hmmmm! I also found this tea sampler from Republic of Tea but it was about $10. I did not want to walk out of the store with nearly $25 worth of tea. I am frugal you know.

I also got a bottle of lemon soda which I can't wait to try and some dark chocolate for John. Then I happened on this beautiful beautiful glass pendant which I had to get and wore almost immediately.

After spending an amount I won't disclose we dropped off our purchases in the car and headed to CA pizza kitchen. the wait was a little long but so was the wait for Islands which was just across the way.

Dinner was not bad at all. I had a mixed green salad to start which much to my delight had slivers of pear and candied walnuts and some light vinaigrette. I realized when it arrived that I had not read the description of the salad. I had just looked for the least expensive salad that was sold in half plates. John had the crabcakes.

I am on this kick of trying to make decisions quickly and not dwelling on things for too long. This time it worked but I should have read a little closer.

Anyway, The crab cakes were numbered four and were each the size of a silver dollar. Interesting. They tasted fine.

John had the Neopolitan Sicilian pizza and I had the Neopolitan style Chipotle Chicken. Nice and spicy. Neopolitan style just means thin crust and a bit crunchy. John asked me what it meant and he did exactly what I did on the salad he did not read the description. I think we both need help.

Back to the food. Both pizzas were delicious and entirely too much to eat so we got a doggy back. It has been eons since I have been to Pizza Kitchen and I realize between the salad and the pizza I have been missing something. The rest of the menu is pasta and desserts which I am actively staying away from anyway it was hard to eat another bite.

Termites

John got a notice that the termite guys were going to work on our house yesterday (1/26). We settled in to wait for them to show up. John had not slept much the night before so I let him snooze in the second bedroom while I waited and watched TV.

We or rather I waited all day for the bloody buys to show up and they didn't. When John woke up he called after frantically searching for the letter. No answer at the office. He proceeded to call the emergency numbers. He finally got someone at our complex management office. The lady who answers says there is one condo to which they sent the termite work letter to in error. She was told not to write a letter to inform said condo of the mix up but she wasn't sure it was ours.

Humph! Sometimes you wonder how people function at their jobs using so little of their thinking brains. You would think she would send a letter anyway so the owners of the condo would know not to fret about it. She apologized for the guys not showing up and the possibility of us being the condo that was inaccurately lettered but there was nothing she could do till Monday. So we spent a whole day at home for nothing -- I mean, I do enjoy my house but there is walking and shopping to do!

We'll see what happens Monday. The thing is there are these orange markings on the front of our condo and we are not sure if it is for the baseboard replacement work or termites.

San Francisco Rainy Days

I was in San Francisco last week. it was great spending MLK day at home because it made for a short week. It managed to be dry for most of the week with some few patches of rain then comes Friday!

I left the hotel in the rain and walked about 2 blocks from the Hilton on O'Farrell and it was raining hard enough for me to get an umbrella at Rite Aid. Even though I had a ponytail and no real hair style to mess up I needed some cover because I was getting a little cranky.

Made it another 2 couple of blocks to my dentist appointment. Another reason to be cranky because the appointment was at 8am and I got there at 8:20am. It was a bit of slow going in the rain and due to the wind some of the spokes on my umbrella were showing signs of wear. Also, 8am appointments are not exactly what I like doing on a Friday.

After the dentist I turned in the direction of work. I walked 2 blocks from Pine across Market to Mission by the time I got to Mission, the umbrella was on its last legs. More than half of the spokes were bent and my beautiful big umbrella was practically no more!

I managed to make it to office with half an umbrella. After spending about an hour in the office I had to head back to Kearny to make another meeting mercifully the shuttle was available. The umbrella was messed up so I left it behind.

I had to make it back to my office for another meeting in 45 minutes. This move to another building is killing me. It is great exercise but now we have to put walk time on our calendars to make sure we are not late for other meetings. Anyway, I leave the meeting late and miss the shuttle so I have to hoof it back. I walked 3 blocks almost to Mission and 2nd and I am horribly soaked. I duck into Walgreen's for yet another umbrella. This time I buy one that has some resilience and is wide enough to knock lesser beings off the side walk.

I make it back to the office cranky for having spent $27 on umbrellas (not including tax). Forget the "latte factor" I am experiencing the "umbrella factor"! Which means I will not be independently wealthy by the time I am 40 or 45. Oh yeah, my kiddie dream was to retire at 45 I don't think I will be able to do that spending $27 on umbrellas!

"Victory" by Athol Fugard

Last night turned out to be date night. Earlier on in the week I bought tickets to Victory a play by South African Playwright Athol Fugard through this service I subscribe to called http://www.goldstar.com/ which provides lower price tickets -- a real find. Anyway there are a number of preview nights before the premier on January 25 and the tickets cost $21 for both of us including service fees instead $30 at the window. $9 savings not bad. Enough about my frugal ways.

Set in the post-apartheid era, the play is semi-autobiographical and about a late night break-in to an elderly white man's house by black couple in search of money in a small town in South. During the noisy search, the old man discovers them and the encounter turns violent and introspective. All three characters explore how they came to be at that point and in that situation. It turns out to be a very powerful story of neglect, betrayal, and despair as all three cope in various ways with what has happened after apartheid and turning events in their lives.

The play was set in the intimate Fountain Theatre in LA and we had wonderful seats in the front row. The acting by Morlan Higgins who has also acted in another of Athol's plays Exits and Entrances, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, and Tinashe Kajese was inspired. Ms. Kajese is actually from South Africa but I could not find much about her on the web. There are very lame pages on IMDB and IBDB (Internet Broadway Database).

It only lasts a short hour and ten minutes but you are captivated all the way because you are drawn in to each of the characters' plight. When it ends you are left wanting more.

After enjoying it so thoroughly I now want to see a couple of his other plays: Master Harold ... and the boys and Exits and Entrances.

The London Times wrote a good reviews about the play with some background about the author. Hope you get to see it sometime! Until next time the critic's corner is closed.

New semester ... what course to take? where are my grades?

Eeek! The semester starts in 2 weeks, on 1/28 precisely, and I am trying to figure out what to take. I checked a couple of weeks back to try to register and check on my grades. I can't get into the phone system and I cannot figure out how to check my grades on-line. For a decently educated person I am rather hopeless.

Bear in mind that I took both classes for Pass/no Pass grade so I don't know why I am so hell bent on finding out my grades. I think I am secretly hoping that the teachers forgot to put in their paperwork for P/NP and I would actually get a grade. John told me the grades are coming in the mail next week so I need to chill.

Moving on to choosing a class. John helped me get into the Golden West College registration site. He is so handy to have around sometimes! And I went searching for stuff to take.

First choice, Advanced Screenwriting the next class. Maybe I can get to finish that script after all.

I mention to John "How about Introduction to Criminal Justice?" He laughs and I get offended. It is something I know nothing about and it would be interesting to learn! I huff indignantly. He says "Isn't that for police officers?" I am like "So?" It is all about expanding horizons. I am not too happy with him and he retracts his statement. Now you know who is queen.

Next on the list is Creative Writing or Critical Thinking. Ahhh! Right up my alley but I have to prove that I can write in the first place by showing them transcripts or something. Aiiee! Too much trouble but I need to figure it out soon because I really want to take one of those classes.

To really get me out of my comfort zone I have Acting Fundamentals. My palms are almost breaking in a sweat thinking about it. I don't mind dweebing away in the background writing but being on stage. Oh my! Also, it is on a Monday so it will mess up any long weekend plans but I am trying to continue to challenge myself and I have told my other personalities who are just as chicken as I am that at least it is not an improv class.

The last possibility is Physical Anthropology or Linguistics since I liked Physical Anthropology so much.

So far, the only class I am set on is Advanced script writing.

Glorious Thursday & Starting a biz website

Well, it has been a long work day and my mind is swirling as I get increasingly bored and I contemplate my non resolutions. I could not wait till the end of the day to start on my little quest: purchase a domain name.

Going on-line to buy a domain name has been informative but I have yet to buy one because I am wondering if I am putting the cart before the horse?

First, I went to www.godaddy.com to see if they had the name I wanted. yay! It was available for the low low price of $9.99 a year. Not bad. Now on to hosting. The cheapest hosting was $3.99 a month for 2 months. Hmmm... that could rack up pretty quickly waiting for proof of concept but still not bad at $24 for 6 months in 2-month increments. One kind of gets carried away when one sees the other options like $3.59/mo. for 12 months or Deluxe plan for $6.99 a month. I say KISS -- keep it simple sister.

As I am seriously contemplating this possibility, John says to hold on because Google does it better if he could only find the associated website. He did eventually and yes they do it better at $10/yr with hosting included. You have to get hooked into their apps but it is a pretty cool deal. It is located on their application site at http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new.

Before I get carried away I need to go back and read the sections in the books that got me on this kick: The 4 Hour Work Week and Moonlighting on the Web.

So, I am off to read some more about how to test your product on the Internet before you pull the trigger.

Laptop Shipped!!!

Relief relief.

I decided to check my email again before going on that walkabout I mentioned in my last post. No update. I checked the site using my email address and the order number and it said the order shipped! Yay! The order shipped!

I am practically dancing now. Whoopee!

Order shipping status:
Item Status: Shipped on Jan 15 2008
Item#: XXX4668
Tracking# XXXXX581385
Product: Compaq 571nr Refurbished,Pentium Dual-CoreT2080,
15.4", 1.7Ghz, 1GB, 80GB hard Drive, DvD-/+RW,802.11g,
Vista Home Premium.


Still, I will hesitate before using Frys.com again.

Refurb Compaq Laptop

Getting my Dad a laptop !@!#$%! Frys.com

I took one look at my Dad's laptop when we were New York and decided it was time for him to get a new one. I am all for saving money but carrying a full keyboard because the one on your laptop is broken and hefting all of that from Cameroon to Baltimore then onto New York is ridiculous. Hence, new laptop for Daddy.

Next the search. For a while, at least for a week and a half I was enamored with the ASUS Eee laptop that runs Linux and weighs 2lbs and at a price tag of $399 it was a no brainer. Then I seriously considered how my Dad would adjust to using Linux's word processing system instead of MS word and transferring between machines. Ugh. So, scrap the ASUS and its lovely price tag, may consider it for myself.

Next John does some hunting and we settle on a Compaq laptop which is very close to his slow dying Toshiba being sold on Frys.com. We have lift off. John puts in all the purchasing details all is good and I get an email on the 1/11 acknowledging the order has been received. So far so good.

John checks on the 12th. The thing has not shipped yet. so I call to find out what's the hold up. I get a lovely lady telling me there is some issue between my billing and shipping address. Ok, they need to verify that I ordered and I really want to ship to my Dad. No worries, I verify the information all is good again.

On Tuesday the 15th it still had not shipped it indicates "processing". What's up with that. I call again and this time i get an equally lovely Gentleman who apologizes profusely and says the order was never released. I complain about the fact that it was not released and he adds he will let his supervisor know and he is so so very sorry. Unfortunately they can't make a Wednesday delivery as previously planned but it is looking like roses for Thursday. Ok, loss of a day but no biggie. Daddy is leaving next week so there is still time.

Now, I am a little paranoid so a couple of hours later I check my email and guess what there is an email saying the order was cancelled due to discrepancies with either my shipping or billing address. Huh! Now I am a little pissed! It takes a while but I too can get there!

I call up yet again and this time I get Ms. Patsy on the phone took a deep breath and explained the situation. Patsy was just as nice as the previous gentleman I am so sorry ... I don't understand what is going on .. the only thing I can do for you is take the order again over the phone. Since I don't want the order to get "lost" I decide to be nice as well. we go through the paces of re-entering the information. New order number and everything. She asks if he will be there to sign or the package, of course where else would he be? Sorry that is my anger talking.

As we wait for some computer magic to happen Patsy compliments me on giving my Dad such a nice gift and says she does the same for her Dad and she had a great childhood being a child of divorce. He dad doesn't like her to buy gift for him even though she loves to. He used to fly them from Houston to New Orleans sometimes for Christmas. Her husband's name is Johnson like my Dad and he is from Nigeria. OMG, what a small world I am from Cameroon! Tick tock tick tock. At least it wasn't hold music and she was very nice. Order is all done. Now we wait.

I get off the phone with the delightful Patsy who promises to give the order directly to the supervisor for processing. Good. In the meantime I have become an expert at hitting the refresh button on my email to see if I get and update. So far, I have received 2 more emails acknowledging my recent order (they both have the new order number thank God!). She was true to her word. but the real question is will they ship the blasted laptop already!!!! In another hour I will grow impatient and call them up!

Next time either Amazon.com or Buy.com forget Frys.com aka Outpost.com. 5 days to straighten out an order! Where is the efficiency! Humph! I need to go take a walk 'cuz I am still steaming!

On the other side & non-resolutions

Well, I must say I made it to the other side. All classes are over, Christmas is done, I have made it through my first week back at work in SF. Yippee! Now what?

So I am weighing my options for the year (really the next 3 months) and not enthused about any of them at the moment but here they are anyway:

1. Take another anthropology or other class. Classes start in 1.5 weeks so I have a little time to decide.

2. Hire that darned housekeeper. I am making progress on the house but what I lack is discipline!

3. I am bored! What kind of cures do they have for that? Not exactly an option but I need to solve for this one quickly.

4. Write the book already! Remember what I mentioned above: discipline? Yeah, that and short attention span ...

5. Screenplay ...? Well, there was this contest to enter a screenwriting competition. May not win but it will get me to finish one ...

6. Start that online business, again discipline ...

7. OK, if the previous two don't work, write something every 2 days.

8. More travel ... ahhh! Now we're talking. I was thinking of Spain, Ireland, and South America this year. Think big.

9. Ask why more often ... why?

10. Lose 5-10 lbs.

11. Resolve to do at least 3-4 things on my list.

I am trying to stay away from actually making resolutions because of my track record of actually sticking to them. Don't look at me sideways! I am sure you do the same. I have not made resolutions in a while which is not productive either you have to have a smidgen of a plan Janet! I know what I want in 5 years I just have not figured out what I should do in the next year. Odd isn't it?

They say small steps are the start of a grand design. Hmmm, I don't think those people have met me.

I am sure you will have suggestions on how to proceed. In the mean time, today much to Lillian's delight, I resolved to big hair!