August 2006 Archives

We left a little later than we planned. In spite of the V-1, Carole got a performance award from a pair of Henryetta, OK locals who set up a watch-and-pop on I-40. The V-1 probably kept her out of the hoosegow, at least.

We left at 10:45pm on Tuesday, for an overnight drive to Oklahoma City. After a quick stop at Rob's to drop off a refi check, we got gas on I-15, then hit the road for real. I dozed while Carole drove to Kingman, AZ. She slept while I did a too-short two hour shift to Flagstaff, then she took over again. I drove from Gallup, NM to Tucumcari, NM, then she finished up the drive to OKC.

The new tunes worked well, I think. We mostly listened to my new CDs, with a little XM on the side. A long night/day of driving, but it was the best alternative.

Monday was not a good day for me on the customer service front. I may need to lower my expectations...

We need a power inverter for the trip back to Kentucky. Over the weekend I paid a lot for a DieHard brand 400w unit at K-Mart, specifically because it had extra protective circuitry and an LED display of voltage in and out. When I plugged it in on Sunday night to test it, I got nothing. I tried it in Jeremy's car, and again, nothing. I dragged out my multimeter, and found 12v going into the unit, but it would not power up.

On Monday morning, the Times had a Fry's ad that included a 400w Xo inverter for $14.99, with no rebate. On the way to work, I returned the DieHard to K-Mart for a cash refund, and headed out to Burbank at lunch time to pick up the Xo. I did my due-diligence trying to find it myself, then asked the department supervisor for help. He said he didn't have any in his department, but to check in car stereos. They hadn't heard of it. A little miffed, I grabbed a 200w unit on sale for $19.99 with a $5 rebate, and went to pay for it.

The cashier asked me if I'd found everything okay, and I told her no, giving a quick explanation and telling her that they needed to have stock for items they put in the ad - otherwise, it's a bait-and-switch. She was sympathetic, and told me she was going to see what she could do. I assumed she was going to talk to a supervisor. After 10 minutes of waiting, I walked the length of the cashier pit looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found. After 15 minutes, I asked the cashier at the adjacent register to ask for a supervisor.

The woman returned just as the supervisor arrived, and neither had good news. She had tried to find one of the sale units, but had no luck. The supervisor said I could get a rain check, but that did me no good. I paid my $20, and rode back to work with a growl on my face.

When I got home, I found only Jeremy. Carole called to say she was going to stay late at work. Justin was out with the guys, and Jason had a class at PCC. Normally I would have whipped up something for Jeremy and me, but I knew Carole needed something to eat for dinner, and the sink was piled high and deep with dishes — Jason has already checked out, mentally — so a run to McDonald's was in order.

Jeremy asked me to go to the McD's on Las Tunas, because the one on Rosemead hasn't had a working shake machine in a while. I was leaning that way anyway, since it would be closer to Carole's office. When I got there, I drove right up to the order box. I asked for four snack wraps, a #4 plain with a Coke, an Asian chicken salad, a large lemonade, a large vanilla shake for Jeremy, and three chocolate chip cookies. I paid at the money window, and drove to the pick-up window.

The kid at the window had no clue, but plugged away anyway. He gave me the lemonade and the coke (with no straws, and no offer of a carrier). Next, the manager — a smug young man with an annoying presence — came to the window to tell me that the ice cream machine was broken. With no alternatives, I asked for my money back.

A short time later the kid came back with my refund, and handed me a bag featuring a large 'double checked for accuracy' sticker. I assumed that was part of the order, and kept waiting. After a couple a minutes, the kid came back and asked why I was waiting!

I told him I was waiting for the rest of my order - a #4 plain and an Asian chicken salad. I then checked the original bag, and found three of the four snack wraps I had ordered. He scurried back to work on it, and came back a minute or so later with the salad and the cookies.

After another minute or so, the manager came back to the window and asked what was still missing. I told him I needed a #4 plain, and showed him my receipt. Next, the guy who took my order came to the window, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. By this time, the line for the drive-thru was backing out onto Las Tunas. I asked the manager if he wanted me to pull up and park, but he said no.

Finally, they brought the rest of the order. To make up for their screw-ups, they gave me two apple pies - yuck. Based on their track record I made sure to check that the #4 was plain. As I pulled away, I realized that they had not given me any straws, so I pulled a u-turn back into the parking lot and went inside to pick up a couple of straws.

I dropped off Carole's food at her office. Jeremy never did get his vanilla shake.

Carole called me later to tell me that the cookies were oatmeal raisin, not chocolate chip.

I watched most of Brick, a great little modern day film noir. I plan to finish it up this afternoon.

Bob H's IE favorites got lost after an IE crash, and John S. and I tracked it down to a corrupted registry entry. The Favorites entry in User Shell Folders was set to the type REG_SZ with the value C:\WINNT\Favorites — it should be a REG_EXPAND_SZ set to %USERPROFILE%\Favorites.

A few minutes with Google gave us the solution:

1. Rename the existing entry;
2. Run the utility REGEDT32 (not REGEDIT); only REGEDT32 can create a REG_EXPAND_SZ entry;
3. Go to the User Shell Folders key, and create a new entry named Favorites by right-clicking in the data area; choose Expandable String Value from the New-> drop list;
4. Enter %USERPROFILE%\Favorites as the data for the Favorites entry;
5. Remove the original, renamed entry;
6. Exit REGEDT32 normally.

The key is to use REGEDT32 instead of the standard REGEDIT.

UPDATE: It turns out that REGEDT32 is only useful in its XP version. The Windows 2000 version is much more limited in scope.

My friend Mandy gave me this book, and I let it sit on the shelf for a long time. I enjoy some Fantasy, but a lot of these books seem to focus so much on constructing their particular world that plot and character development suffer.

I packed this for the trip to Reno, and started reading the night before I left for home. Within the first chapter I knew my migivings were unfounded. Cazaril is a minor lord, captured in a a recent war and forced to row on an enemy's galley. The fantasy world was developed indirectly, through the eyes and ears of Cazaril, as he returns to his homeland after being rescued by an ally of his homeland.

Rebecca, the great platelet donor coordinator at the Red Cross, just called to tell me that today was my 102 platelet donation. My donation on July 14th was my 100th. Yay!

I watched The Matador this morning. Pierce Brosnan as a burnt out hit-man, who meets straightlaced businessman Greg Kinnear in a hotel bar in Mexico City. Both played to their acting strengths, and Hope Davis added a little punch. A good one.

Motorola Phone Tools Version 4.0

My sister Carol called me up on Friday and invited me to join her for an Angel game down in Anaheim on Saturday. Her officemate Fiona is married to a great guy named Luther whose company has season seats at Anaheim Stadium, and didn't need them. I cleared my calendar and gratefully accepted.

We had a nice chat about kids and work on the way down, and found a nice parking spot. The package is four tickets, and neither of us could find anyone to use the extra two, so we hung around the main ticket window looking for a compatible pair to comp, but after a while, under the ever watchful eye of a couple of Anaheim's finest, she decided to enjoy the extra space instead.

The tickets were almost perfect. The Terrace, just above the field boxes, but blissfully in the shade the whole game. In the top of the second I ran down to get us dogs and drinks, and walked right up to the window - amazing!

The game was most enjoyable. The crowd was fun and knowledgeable, hooting wildly when the Rangers gave Vlad Guerrero his third intentional walk of the game. The Angels dominated throughout, with a final of 10-3.

Thanks, Carol!

A rousing tale, with Cornwell's usual superior plot and character development, but a little absurd at the end.

Out of the blue I got a call from a title company in Virginia asking if I could do a 9:00pm loan signing on Wednesday in San Marino. The nice man accepted my inflated fee quote a little to quickly — maybe I should quoted more...

I arrived at the appointed time, and had to wait no more than a couple of minutes for the borrowers to come home. They were a very nice couple, late thirties, who have extensive real estate investments, and were experienced loan signers. The docs had been overnighted to them, so I hadn't seen them before I arrived, but there weren't any big surprises, and with their experience things went very smoothly.

I made a couple of extra passes through the docs to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and left them around 10:15pm - short and sweet. I had fifteen minutes of paperwork to finish this morning, and went out at lunch time to drop the packet off at UPS.

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