I don't want to give into the tech overlords just yet; give me a real person anytime

I recently went into a fast food restaurant [cough, cough, Taco Bell on Harrodsburg Road here in Lexington], waited patiently, was finally told someone would be with me after 5 minutes, then was told by the cashier to use the kiosk. When I said no, I wanted to order in person, she gestured there and made it clear that's where she wanted me to order. I said no, she shrugged and gestured again. I left. As I got into my car, she went out for her smoke break, the apparent reason she didn't want to serve me. I complained through the rewards app with details, but never heard from corporate. I will not step foot in that store. I haven't given up on the company, but I am still not happy with the outcome. And I will not use a kiosk. For one, I don't want to deal with what sort of germs before I eat it. I usually go through the drive-through, so I hadn't encountered this before.

Harumph

So I decided to treat myself to a meal (a cheap yet filling one) for my impending birthday and the lady gave me the senior discount. Not sure how I feel about that. I'm about to turn 51, after all. Do I look older? On the other hand, I saved a dollar...

I am so tired that

I just ordered an apple 'chalupa' instead of an 'epanada' at Taco Bell. Now that I've eaten,  I think it's time for bed.

That was a train wreck visit to Taco Bell

First,  they rang up just my drink,  then tried to ring up 5-layer beefy burritos instead of the 7-layer ones I asked for.  I finally got up to the window and they dithered for almost five minutes without acknowledging me or apologising for the wait. Then they tried to charge me for someone's order that was almost twice mine.   Then they asked me if I had an order that was not remotely mine.  Finally they figured out which order they were on,  but were waiting for part of it,  so I offered to come inside.  They said they'd bring it out to me,  gave me my burritos but offered no sauce.  I drove around to the front and realised they also had not given me my drink,  so I went in,  crossing the wet floor.  They gave me a drink,  which was at least the right one,  but without the lid on properly and later I found it was about half a cup of ice and little drink. I had to ask for a straw,  as the two bins were both empty. I finally got the item I was waiting for,  and left,  travelling a second time across a very wet floor. Then I went home.  Thankfully,  the burritos were the right kind.  That's the only other thing I can think of that could have gone wrong. But although I was annoyed,  I didn't want to actually fill out the survey and have it impact negatively - - they're usually more together than this.  But,  wow,  not tonight.

Up at strange hours of the night

I came home about 9ish today and just pretty much went straight to bed. I'd taken a friend to a doctor's appointment, dealt with much nerve-wracking traffic, gotten dinner and then had to take it back because Taco Bell gave the vegetarians beefy tacos (and I ate one before I quite realised it, and I thought I was going to be sick), and watched several episodes of 'H2O: Just Add Water'. We've been watching on Netflix, having to compensate because the second season episodes are out of order, but tomorrow I should get the complete series from Amazon on DVD. I must admit it tends to relax me. The episodes are short, just 24 minutes, and the subject matter is generally somewhat lightweight teen drama, without the angst of American shows. Maybe Australian teens aren't quite as angsty, I don't know. :)

Speaking of Australians, I am starting Gary Corby's The Ionian Sanction, the second of his ancient Greek mystery series. I just got the third, Sacred Games, recently. I really liked his debut novel, The Pericles Commission. I'll let you know what I think about the second once I'm finished.

Things are rather quiet at the moment. It has been a busy week at work, but not too bad otherwise. The little betta is still doing well. I need to do some stuff around the house tomorrow evening and also go to the Y (today just wasn't going to work). Saturday is farmer's market, grocery, and an appointment for a friend. Somewhere between now and Sunday I need to do game notes, and I think it's the last game before one of the players goes to Pennsic (the great 'war' between the Midrealm and the Kingdom of the East in the Society for Creative Anachronism). It's been years since I went, but it was enjoyable. I think it's much bigger than it used to be; several thousand people camp out at a Pennsylvania campground, dress up in mediaeval gear, and those with fighter personae whack at each other with rattan swords. Fortunately we wrapped up the adventure last time, so 1) we can hopefully have just a bit of down time and 2) the notes should go by quickly because I don't put in blow-by-blow action, so it goes quicker during action scenes than, say, investigation ones.

Okay, I've had something to drink, plugged in my phone, taken some long-acting insulin, and fed the fish. It's time to head back to bed. Good night.

Apparently

if Taco Bell leaves off part of your order, they have a book they write your name and the item down in, and then you can come back at your leisure and pick it up. It's not ideal, I suppose, but it's keeping me from answering the survey about how I had to repeat my order twice, make sure they gave me diet instead of sugared soda, and I had to ask for a straw. Still, I'm relatively happy with my meal, if not the service. I'll stop by when I go out to have my hair cut or such today.

I got my package picked up. For two books, it's fairly large; the Pippi collection is about 8" x 10" x 1" in terms of dimensions. It was nice to get something from Amazon, as I haven't ordered anything in about a month or so. The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking includes Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes on Board, and Pippi in the South Seas, all of which I loved as a child. {Not so, YKWIA, who I think grumbled about a wretched child when I mentioned it.) I'm curious as to whether I will enjoy them as much as an adult. I still have Gary Corby's The Ionian Sanction to read before Sacred Games, but I really liked The Pericles Commission, with its mix of history and humour. I also love the colours and illustrations of the American hardcover dust jackets, so much that having read the first book on the Kindle, I bought the book again in hardback for the cover. The first book's jacket background was a brilliant blue, the second a kind of terracotta. This one is yellow, with Greek redware-style wrestlers, the sacred flame of the ancient Olympic games, with Nicolaos and Diotima peeking in. I approve of the fact that, true to art form and nature, there is no attempt to pretend the naked wrestlers are, well, not naked, even though it's on a book cover. (Okay, like most penises of Greek art, it's tiny, so most people who would be easily shocked, probably couldn't tell, but here in the States, people get bent out of shape for the silliest things, like whether a Greek wrestler, who should be naked, is.) :)

PS Ooh, I just put the books together and it turns out they're not the same size. :( Looks like the imprint at least changed. Oh, well, it's not the end of the world, but I really do prefer series books to be uniform. This is why I bought Dead Ever After, the final Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris, from the Science Fiction Book Club, because I'd gotten the others through there and their editions were smaller than the general market ones. Sigh. I know, what's important is what's inside the cover, and I'm being a little OCD. But for those publishers out there, consider that readers have such strange quirks. In the meantime, I've added the books to my to-read pile (which is growing quickly). Maybe before I tackle the house I'll actually do a bit of reading.

Up late working on a computer, this time for someone else

Note to any of you making the switch from Insight to Time Warner Cable e-mail:

1. Do not choose a password over 12 characters even though it gives you that option, because it won't let you change it later and you'll wind up on the phone with tech support for a long while.
2. The POP and SMTP server names are both mail.twc.com--the techs don't know this, because the twc.com thing is so new.
3. If using Outlook, you have to put your entire e-mail address in as a username in order to receive incoming mail.

It took me five hours and three techs from phone support (including one very helpful one who was a level 3, whatever that means) to figure all this out. Let me save you time. My brain has turned to mush, I've had to have two backrubs, and I am now treating myself to Taco Bell and will soon curl up in a ball and shut out the world.

Found on a packet of Taco Bell mild sauce

Help! I can't tell where I am. It's dark and I can hear laughing.

Mind you, I take hot sauce. A mild packet found its way into my bag by mistake, which is why I noticed the saying. :)

I am Catwoman??!?

You Are Catwoman

"Life's a bitch. Now so am I."

What Superheroine Are You?

Pet peeve of the night: Spending nearly 20 minutes in a Taco Bell drive-through line (because it's one of the few things open at 3 am) to have some guy look away every time he hands anything to you, nearly dropping each thing. Argh.

Today has not been good for my love of my fellow man. One of my co-workers at the gas station, borrowed from another store, is loud, brusque, overly talkative, and attention-seeking, to name a few. We're still being slammed since the other store on the same road is shut down for renovations. Several things went wrong, mainly due to people's inability to choose the correct grade of gasoline or driving up and letting us think they'd driven off. By the time I left work (nearly 40 minutes late) I had a huge headache and no more perkiness to speak of. But I kept my cool throughout the day, until someone kept jiggling the handle to the bathroom door when I was in it for all of two minutes, like I magically disappeared and the bathroom would be free. I did resist the urge to shove open the door and take down anyone in its way, though. Then I got some gas, made my escape, and immersed myself into priming shelves and walls, something I did until just recently. Now I'm home, and tired. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, I can tell. The actual painting starts then.

Fortunately I had good company tonight and I feel better. I'm finishing up my food and I'll go to bed soon. But I'm going to spend a few minutes winding down.

Sad thing is, this is the second time today I've been to Taco Bell. I so need to get some groceries in the house. Maybe tomorrow...