Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Frustrations That Demonstrate How Good My Life Must Be If All I Have to Complain About Is This Petty S***.

Okay, the major one is not really petty.

I went to Barnes & Noble today after dropping the dog at the groomer. I wanted to pick up the Season 3 DVD for Supernatural, which came out today, and even though the 30% off that they advertise plus the 10% off I get from the preferred reader program don't bring the price as low as Target and Circuit City, I have a gift card that covers a lot of it, so I'd be paying less in real money.

But they didn't have it.

They had one copy they had special ordered for someone but they weren't stocking it. The clerk offered to order it, that it would come in 2-3 days, but I said "no, thanks" in a "don't bother" tone to drive home that they'd lost my business because of their shortsightedness.

Which of course cut off my nose to spite my face, because now what do I do? *sigh* I guess I'll order it from bn.com. It will be free shipping, and I can use the gift card, but it will take longer to get here. *sigh* again.

I have a writing dilemma that should really be an easy decision but has a bunch of factors playing into it.

When I took the dog to the groomer, they were doing construction in two different places and were alternating traffic, so it took me much longer to get there than it should have. I hate being late. HATE.

The holiday weekend means that my Netflix DVDs didn't get mailed back until today, so if my local center has the next disks I want, the earliest I can get them is Thursday, which means after that, I'll have to wait extra days because of the weekend so if I watch one each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I'll have to wait until Tuesday to get new ones again, and by then the TV shows will be on.

Stupid weekend.

I was just looking at my Netflix queue and it says I can upgrade to the next level (one more disk at a time) for only .42. That's because my plan renews in two days, when they would charge me $6 more for the next month. I actually contemplated it and was looking to see what the terms were, if I could downgrade right away, like, the day after they mailed my extra disk (the timing wouldn't really work, I'd have at least a month at the higher rate), but it had a reminder on my account that I'm part of the class action which means for my next billing cycle, I get upgraded for free! Yay!

Have I mentioned how much I hate my refrigerator? I tried to use Consumer Reports to guide my purchase, but no one ever has the model numbers that CR most recently reviewed, and the ones that were best rated or best buys were either too big to fit in my kitchen, or not the kind I want. Because I'm picky. I don't want grated shelves, I want glass ones. I want them adjustable. I want the freezer on top. And I don't want fancy stuff like the in-door water dispenser that I can't use without paying a boatload for plumbing hookup.

So I got the best option I could find, and it SUCKS. The frozen stuff is always freezer-burned, no matter how well I protect it. That never happened in the old freezer. Don't ask me for an explanation, because I can't give you one. A double-wrapped piece of meat should not be sporting chunks of frost after three days in the freezer. Hmmm...it just occurred to me that that could be a sign that things are thawing and refreezing. But no, I'd notice if anything was ever soft. It's not.

Also, the refrigerator area is HUGELY uneven. Stuff in the bottom and the back will freeze solid, while stuff in the center and top shelf will seem lukewarm to me. Not really lukewarm, like bacteria-growth temperature, but warmer than I like. I like my beverages and cheese to be COLD. But it's not, and the damned thing is too new to consider replacing, even if we had the money lying around to spend. If only I could justify claiming it as a business expense. I need them.

Last thing...

I hooked up our new DVR receiver downstairs, and moved the TiVo box upstairs. It's nice being able to pause upstairs now, and record a show (though we only have one satellite feed upstairs). But I'm not thrilled with the DirecTV DVR layout. It seems to take a lot more effort to do the same things. Some of it is a matter of adaptation, of course, but some is just more complicated. If I'd known, I might have actually paid money to buy a new TiVo receiver instead of taking the free one DirecTV offered.

Okay, enough complaining about petty s***. Tomorrow, I promise, I will have only good things to say in an upbeat manner. :)

5 comments:

MJFredrick said...

Bummer on the SPN DVD. Mine arrived today. And the weekend messed up my DVD schedule, too :(

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Way to rub it in, Mary, thanks. I thought you were my FRIEND. :(

Tracy Madison said...

Wow. I feel like I won't have to complain at all today, because you did it for me! I FEEL your annoyance with B&N, I mean WHY WOULDN'T they have the new season in stock? That makes NO sense.

But...um...my daughter bought it, so it's ah--here--in my house.

Just so ya know. :)

Natalie J. Damschroder said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Way to jump on the rub-it-in bandwagon, Tracy, but I'm doing just fine waiting. :)