tales of an ordinary girl

Well, the house is repaired now. A couple of rafters were broken and one was cracked. Once those were fixed the roof was repaired and voila, good as new. It's going to cost a bit more than we can afford, but we'll make it through. There's a new coat of paint too. The painters finished the same day as the roofers. Now all I have to do is work on getting the inside in shape.

I've been very busy between work and moving. Matt's been working a lot of hours as well. I've been wanting to write, but moving and working seem to be important things I should be doing.. especially to my employer. This weekend will be a long work weekend. I was hoping to do some cleaning on the house, but I'm not sure if I will be able to. Maybe Sunday morning.

I have been thinking through and outlining how the stories will go in my head though, so hopefully I'll have a lot to write about when I get a chance to write.

And then I've also been reading a bit at night before I go to sleep. Saturday I finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut's endings are always a little strange to me and maybe a little disappointing, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. I started The State of the Art by Iain M Banks on Saturday and it's been a bit strange, but good so far. It's short stories, so it's been easier to keep up with the stories in the bits of time I've had to read. After that I hope to read another Iain M Banks novel (name escapes me) and then Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Unpacking I've found close to 50 books that I've wanted to read but never got to. I really have a lot of catchup to do (and I need yet another bookcase).

So things are looking up, but they always do after some time.

(Apologies if this is a bit dry, but this is my third time typing this and I'm getting a big irritated with Blogger losing my drafts. I should have copied to Notepad.)

I've posted quite a bit about poor customer service lately. I've listed a few places that have given me exceptional customer service, but I've never told any stories behind it. In an effort to be more positive...



A few months ago I went to meet a friend at Adrian's Cafe for lunch. He emailed me that he couldn't make it, but email was on the fritz and I didn't get the email. After a while, feeling like I had been ditched, I went ahead and orderd. Adrian's is cafeteria style where you go through a line and pick what you want. They're known for their sandwiches, which they make on the spot with fresh (and very delicious if very thick) bread.

It wasn't until I got to the cashier that I noticed the "Cash Only" sign. I only had a few dollars on me. I blushed and asked if I could take items off my order, but the cashier, who I think was also the owner or manager, asked me how much I had. I pulled what I had out of my wallet and he said that it was enough and waved me on my way.

I was embarrassed by his generousity. He didn't make a big deal about it, but it is a big deal to me. And I'll likely never forget it either. Now that is good customer service.

We're moving this weekend. Yay for moving.. boo for all the work involved. I've done very little packing. We're hoping to just get the furniture and essentials moved on Saturday and then come back over the next week to pack up and move the rest. Some stuff will just be trashed since we won't have much room. I'm happy. I always like to have the excuse to get rid of things. I'm such a pack rat.

Now I'm in the process of updating my address everywhere. It's amazing how many companies I have to update it with. Since we have to keep the power, water, and gas hooked up at the house, there's multiples too. Some allow updates online behind a secure login, which is really, really nice. The post office lets your change address for $1.00 online. $1.00 isn't a lot, but it seems odd to charge $1.00 to process it, since it's easier to process it off online rather than by paper. Maybe it's something to do with the digital signature (bank account with the new or old address).

Work is a mess, but what's new? I'm just dealing with things as they happen. No one wants to do things head of time or plan and it's just easier to address them as they come up. I had 5 servers scheduled to move this weekend along with my own move. Three were mercifully canceled (the hardware wasn't ready), so hopefully I'll get some sleep at some point.