July 23, 2005
Yet More About Flip-Flops

While complaining about how John Roberts children were attired, Robin Givham said this as a little aside:

(And someone should have given notice to the flip-flop-wearing women of Northwestern University's lacrosse team, who visited the White House on July 12 for a meet-and-greet with the president: proper footwear required. Flip-flops, modeled after shoes meant to be worn into a public shower or on the beach, have no business anywhere in the vicinity of the president and his place of residence.)

The gist of the article is that there's something sinister about the way the Roberts children were dressed.

The wife wore a strawberry-pink tweed suit with taupe pumps and pearls, which alone would not have been particularly remarkable, but alongside the nostalgic costuming of the children, the overall effect was of self-consciously crafted perfection. The children, of course, are innocents.

Really, I think it's just the short pants on the boy that have her alarmed, but it's July in Washington, DC. There's also this:

Are all little boys now named Jack?

Many more complaints in her article, of course.

Posted by nicole at 07:58 PM

July 22, 2005
Flip Flop Update

I have this thing about flip flops

"I called her up and screamed at the message machine, `How could you go to the White House in flip-flops,'" she recalled. "She said, `Mom, it didn't matter. Everybody was wearing flip-flops.'"

Tom Darmody, 38, also was surprised when he saw his sister in the picture.

"I was a little taken aback, to say the least," said Darmody, an attorney who admitted he might be jealous as his feet sweated in socks and leather shoes. "You are two people away from the leader of the most powerful country in the free world and you're wearing flip-flops?"

Here's the story [warning! pdf]

The Northwestern University women's lacrosse team was invited to the White House to meet the prez and have their picture taken with him. Many of them wore flip flops.

Before you mention it, I am aware that many of the people who don't like the flip flops are old fuddy duddies. If that makes me old, then so be it.

Posted by nicole at 10:04 PM

July 20, 2005
Idiot Drivers

A rich subject, indeed.

Today I was traveling north on VA28 at about 10:10. Right after I crossed the bridge over US50 (far too late to get off there, sadly), I hit bumper to bumper traffic. This was because VDOT had one lane closed about 3 miles north of there. We drove this route last night, and there were no signs about "Use Alternate Route", "Expect Delays" or anything helpful like that. They DO use these signs for some things, so I know they've got them.

Anyway.

I'm sitting in traffic in the left lane and what do you think happened? Some jackasses decided they were more important than everyone else and decided to use the left hand shoulder to, presumably, skirt the traffic jam. As it turns out, two of these jackasses managed to RUN INTO each other on the shoulder:

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of idiots, eh? What I want to know is this: who was stupid enough to let the other three of them that DIDN'T wreck back into a traffic lane? Once you go on the shoulder to go around all of us because you think you are too important to obey traffic laws, you can be sure that I'M not going to let your sorry ass back in. Who helps jerks like this anyway?

Posted by nicole at 01:15 PM

Starbucks Update

Starbucks sent me a letter via USPS with two coupons for free drinks, which is nice.

Their email answer to me was friendly, and the upshot of my complaint is that the drink is actually supposed to have just a couple of ice cubes bobbing around in it. How strange.

Dear Ms. Markee,

It was disappointing to read about the quality of the beverages you have received. As you know, offering premium beverages is important to us and we strive to provide our customers with quality drinks every time.

The standard iced Americano beverage is supposed tohave[sic] espresso shots and water to the top green line and then ice to the top. When I worked at the stores, a lot of customers asked for either all ice americanos or light water americanos.

As a customer service gesture, I would like to send you a couple of beverage coupons with my apologies for your experience. If you reply to this e-mail with your mailing address, I will get these right out to you.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to address your concerns and improve our operations. If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact us at info@starbucks.com or call 1-800-23-LATTE to speak with a customer relations representative.

Sincerely,

Jessa M.

Customer Relations Representative

Starbucks Coffee Company

The top green line is represents about 2/3 full. If there's water to there and then 4 shots, there's very little room left for ice. I now ask for "lots of ice", and this has mixed results.

Posted by nicole at 12:20 PM

July 04, 2005
Update on Audible.com

I was able to use the site normally yesterday afternoon. I have no idea if they fixed something or if everyone who was overburding their system went on vacation.

I hope they realize now that they need more capacity.

Posted by nicole at 01:06 PM

July 01, 2005
Audible.com Crosses the Line

Yesterday, Audible had a big sale where every book was $9.95. While purchasing audiobooks, I had no problems with their site. When I went to "My Library" to download the new books, the problems began.

At first, the downloads would simply fail silently. I went to the audible.com help page and saw a message about how they were experiencing long download times and that new activations weren't getting done. This wasn't my problem, but it was definitely related to downloading. I decided to call since my problem was actually different. I called, pressed #2 for technical support and received a busy signal. So much for that.

Their message said they thought they'd have the problem cleared up that evening, so I tried later. When I went back in, the larger files (type 3 and 4, better quality and the only kind that work worth a damn in the car is type 4) were simply not available. I *never* buy audiobooks that are not offerred in type 4 format, so this amounted to my books still not being available. I gave up and went to bed.

This morning, I was able to download two files. I need to download about eight. Audible.com was still having the same problems as yesterday. First, the type 4's failed silently, then they were simply not offerred. I decided to try calling again. When I went to their help page to get the number, I found that it was *not there* any longer and I found this message:

You'll note there is no phone number there. It used to be with the hours.

So, basically, "we hope you enjoy your weekend, we're violating our contract by not providing the stuff you paid for, you can't call us to complain, and by the way we're taking Monday off. Fuck you very much."

To say that I'm pissed off at them would be a huge understatement. They clearly have a problem that calls for immediate attention, and they are just leaving it to fester over the holiday weekend. There is no recognition here we, as customers, are even entitled to that which we've already purchased. Customer service doesn't come much worse than that, now does it?

I have an update on the situation here.

Posted by nicole at 12:12 PM