I don’t do it often, because quite frankly, most places I visit put some sort of value on basic customer service - so much so that they will generally go out of their way to make sure that the customer, especially one who is a ‘regular’ (even if not at their location) is treated decently.  

Let me start by saying that overall, my Starbucks experience has generally been a good one. I mean, on occasion, I’ve walked into a store and got that ‘laid back we’re better than you are’ vibe…but it’s a coffee house, so I let it go. However, my experience yesterday was less than exciting…and in the end, I dropped my full drink in the trash can as I walked out, because the stupidness of the service and the taste (ugh!) of the drink. 

I walk in…I place my order. It should be clear to the guy at the register that I am a regular…I order a double shot no classic sub white mocha breve…pay then go sit and wait. 

And wait.

Some random ex-employee walked in and everyone was hugging and chatting with her…

I continue to wait…

Finally, I get called up for my drink…and my Venti drink is just a bit over half full. Maybe 3/4, but that’s really pushing it. The rest of the cup is filled with foam…this drink doesn’t call for foam.

I inquire. 

“Well, it’s the foam” the snotty lady says.

I said, “Yes, I know White Mocha is foamy, I order this drink every day, I’ve never been served one with so much foam that it’s only half full!”

“Well, we can add more half and half to it!”

I ORDERED A STARBUCKS DOUBLE SHOT NOT A GLASS OF MILK!

I open the straw, put it in the top, at this point assuming that I’ve lost the battle with the Coffee Nazi, take a sip and HOLE LEE COW! Where is all the White Mocha that’s causing this foam!? *Sigh*

Not wishing to get into it over their stupidity and/or interrupt the reunion of the current employees with the former employee, I turn to the door, drop my drink in the trash can and walk out.

I have never been so irritated in all of my life. 

So, that’s all. I just needed to get that off my chest. It was really pissing me off and I hate hate hate when stuff like this gets under my skin. 

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled Sunday.

I got some good news, after being in freak out mode all week regarding a really wonky blood test. My Dr. called me last night and told me that what I have is not Cancer. Thank God. I’ve got a disorder that impacts my liver and I’ll need to make some lifestyle changes, but in the grand scheme, its minor compared to cancer. Really. It is. 

Any way, I slept like a freakin infant last night. Man. I hadn’t slept at all this week and so, last night’s rest was more than needed! I woke up at 4:44 AM, felt all rested, headed for the coffee maker, made some coffee and then came in here (office) and sat down to get busy on normal Friday work stuff - when I realized, it’s a Independence Day in India - none of the developers are working today. *sigh* sometimes, you just don’t totally win all the way. 

I did go in today and while I did manage to get a bunch of stuff done, I ended up leaving early, because I’m just totally out of energy. Hopefully, as I my liver gets back to normal, I’ll start to regain some of my energy. 

So, randomness - let’s see. 

I downloaded 5 new (or old?) song’s on iTunes today. I got that annoying Flobots song, Handlebars, Finger Eleven, Paralyzer and (FINALLY) Life In A Northern Town - that live version done by Sugarland, Little Big Town and Jake Owen. The other songs are to embarrassing to post about…*cough* Lady GaGa *cough*…*cough* something by Jessica Simpson *cough*

See, told ya. 

Jerrett got invited to a Birthday Party tomorrow at Amazing Jakes, which will be sensory overload insanity - but hey, if the mom can handle it…go for it. Her son and Jerrett are in the same class in school, so she knows what she’s up against. 

My new HD TiVo Box will be here on Monday (I just confirmed via UPS.com) - I am really irritated that I have to go without TiVo for a week while they replace the broken piece of crap they sent me to start with. Then, I have to wait 14 business days to get a refund - because not only did I have to go without TiVo for a week, I had to BUY a new box and return the busted one for a refund. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. 

I need a cleaning lady to come and deep clean my house about every 10 days. I’ve decided I do NOT want to do it anymore. I hate doing it. I work hard, I shouldn’t have to!

The Sapphire in my engagement ring is filthy but I don’t know how to clean under the little stone-holder-inner-things, where it’s super filthy. It’s so dirty, it looks Onyx. No lie. 

Because the disorder I have requires me to give up a number of items I find very tasty, I had to order something totally random from Starbucks this morning. It was gross. It was not a morning to experiment. I am pretty sure it’s the reason I have this glue taste in my mouth. *shutter*

I went to get lunch today, got back to the office and had no appetite to eat. It really sucked to be me. I got a Pico Pollo Burro with sour cream. It really sounds good now…

Jerrett’s bus is 15 minutes late. I wonder why?

A final note, does anyone else think that chick Alicia, on the US Gymnastics Team should be a Hooters Girl and not a gymnast? Holy boobies. She does NOT look like a gymnast…at all.

Man, this has been one heck of a summer. I can’t believe school has already been in session for a week and two days…I can’t believe that it’s almost September…I can’t believe that it doesn’t feel like I’m hoping into my oven when I step outside at night. Where did the summer go?

We’re working on hiring someone to come out and trim trees, cactus and some bushes as well as deal with the dead flower pods gathered inside the cactus in the front and side yards. I guess we could do it ourselves, but its cheap enough to hire someone to come do it, so we’re going to do that instead. 

After almost a month of not feeling real great, I finally got an appointment to see my Dr. and went in on Tuesday. They ran a bunch of tests and they weren’t overjoyed with the results, so they asked me to come back in for some more comprehensive tests, which I did yesterday morning. Hopefully I’ll have the answers by tomorrow evening, but I’m not holding my breath. What’s most ironic about all of this is, in all my ‘crappiness’ feeling, I didn’t realize I was running a pretty decently high fever all day long. When they were triaging me for my visit on Tuesday it was 103.something - and since then, it’s been averaging 101.something all day, ever day. No wonder I’m so freakin tired all the time! 

Good times.

At any rate, I have another appointment today, so we’ll see what happens. 

So far, the first week of school has been uneventful - Jerrett has been doing well on his new ‘plan’ of earning his PC/Gaming time. He’s been keeping his room semi-picked-up (read, not stinking filthy) and he’s been a superstar when it comes to doing the dishwasher. 

In other news, I purchased a Refurbed Series 3 HD TiVo DVR the other week and I got it all hooked up and it worked fine…then suddenly, it didn’t work fine. And in the ultimate customer service stupidity, they required me to buy a new one and ship this old one to them for a refund (10-14 business days after they get it) - meanwhile, we’re TiVo-less - which really is the suck. The good news is, they are paying for the shipping of the return unit - the REALLY good news is, they gave me a smoking hot deal on the new unit (brand new, I didn’t go refurb this time). 

Anyway, that’s all the news you’re getting from me! It’s 7:02 AM here in the Desert and I need to get ready to go to work. 

Have a super-fantastic day everyone.

This isn’t something I normally do. Honest. It really grates my nerves when someone says, “You should give him X for cleaning the table” or some other such nonsense. Bottom line, I have a real issue with rewarding Jerrett for things that should be done anyway. However, I am at the end of my rope.

Here’s the thing. Jerrett really enjoys playing video games. So much so that he’d really rather do that than anything else. In fact, asking him to stop doing it usually ends up in a mass emotional explosion with tears and the whole nine yards. Overall, Jerrett is a darn good kid, when he’s not over stimulated by outside sources. Take, for example, our visit to Texas. When Jerrett was outside playing, he was awesome. I’d ask him to do something and he was very happy to do it. He was just different. But here, where it’s 2000 degrees during the day, he can’t go outside and expel excess energy, so what we’re left with is gaming for fun and a massive attitude problem.

So - here is what we’re trying this week - and we’ll see how it goes. We’re going to try to have him work on the ‘earn’ system. He can earn computer/XBox time by doing the things we expect him to do. Such as keep his room picked up (not clean, just picked up) take the trash out, unload/load the dishwasher as needed, pick up his clothes when he showers, remember personal hygiene tasks and provided he does all of that without a big massive emotional blow up, he can earn extra time for ‘good behavior’.

Will it work? I don’t know. I am just at my wits end. He’s getting older (13.5 years old) and he’s getting a mouth on him. He’s become so disrespectful in addition to just not ever really wanting to do anything that I ask, regardless of the task. The bottom line, he never wants to NOT play video games I think, so we need to figure out a way to get him to not play them.

I am going to try to take him to Bookman’s this week, so maybe he can get a few books to read. He enjoys drawing, so maybe we’ll stop by the craft store or something. He’s really a fantastic artist…and he’s so creative.

Ok, anyway, what I was wondering from all of you parental readers is, do you do something similar? Do you find that rewarding for expected behavior works?

I don’t know what else to try - so I am open to suggestions!

I mentioned, in previous blog entries regarding my visit with my parents back in Wise County Texas, that my dad was a complete jerkface while I was there. In his defense, he’d had all his choppers pulled and had them replaced with two metal spikes that hold his brand new choppers in…and because he’s such a colossal baby when it comes to pain - he was really in a bad mood. He couldn’t eat, I’m shocked he slept, since he’d been camped out in the Lazy Boy with the dogs in the living room for my entire visit, plus, he’d managed to somehow wrench the tendon that runs down the back of your ankle (Achilles I think he said?) and he was in an aircast/walking cast for most of my stay (or, I should say, he was supposed to be…*sigh* men…). At any rate, he was an ass, but he had a good reason, so the assholiness is a bit more forgiving than it would have been had he, say, just been an ass for no reason at all.

Anyway - so one night, I am sitting in the living room, we’re watching ____ (Pick one, its all they watch: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Animal Police, PRCA Rodeo (I know it wasn’t The Bold and The Beautiful or The Young and The Restless, because dad was home and well, “I don’t watch that shit!”)). So we’re watching T.V. and dad yells from the living room to the office, “Hey Soretha!!! We got any ice cream” (Now, my dad is a total redneck, so you have to imagine it will all the correct redneck annunciation and emphasis on the wrong parts…so “Soretha” comes out more like “Sooooooo Retha!” - he really draws out the “So” part - and it’s not even pronounced that way. Anyway, I digress…) She answers, “Yeah! In the freezer” so I happen to say, “Mmmm ice cream, that sounds good” and dad (who hasn’t managed to get up and fix a plate of anything for himself since I got there) goes into the kitchen and makes not ONE bowl of ice cream - but TWO! One for me and one for him.

It totally freaked me out! It was like I was back in that parallel universe I talked about a few months ago…with the Twilight Zone Theme playing in the background…

I looked at my dad and said, “I am SO going to blog about this!” (of course, he has no idea what a blog is, even though he has this super fantastic new 20 inch wide screen HP Laptop with built in 10-key (drool)).

So, Dad, I blogged about it (and FYI, this is a blog. Blog is short for “Weblog” it’s kind of a public online journal where everyone can read your most inner thoughts, then make fun of you).

As for the rest of ya…dad started feeling better the day before I left and wasn’t quite the jerkface he’d been in previous weeks. He got appropriately mushy when I left and has called a few times (because he misses me so much…I just know it!) since I got home.

Anyway, I meant to blog about this while I was there, but totally forgot - so I did it now Yay!