Today I had an appointment with an auto shop to get a 60k check-up for my car.  I love my car.  She's a 2002 Infiniti G20, she's midnight blue, and her name is Trinity.  I may have blogged about her in the past.  Anyway, I once got roped into an unnecessary and expensive "engine flush" at the Infinity of Kirland dealership, so ever since then I have been very wary of auto shops.  You never know when you're getting screwed.  Luckily, my dad is a mechanic with over 40 years of experience, so whenever they tell me I need any "extra" service, I always call my dad and check with him first.  (During the engine flush incident, my dad wasn't answering his phone.  He called me back to tell me I was getting screwed about 5 minutes after I had authorized the service.  Doh!)

 

I was getting dressed today and was about to put on a Red Sox t-shirt since they're in town, but I hesitated.  What if the guys at the shop hate the Red Sox?  Then they'd for sure want to screw me.  I also didn't want to wear anything that looked too expensive because then I'd look like a good target - someone they could screw over without feeling too bad about it.  So I "dressed down" a little with a hooded sweatshirt.  But I did put on a little make-up because I think you can get better service if you look attractive and have a winning smile.  I think I play up the "I'm poor and cute, like a daughter or niece to you, so please don't screw me over" card.  Don't get me wrong, I assume the guys at this shop are decent, fair, people, but just in case I'd rather cover my bases.

 

I believe there is strategy in almost everything we do.  We make our own luck.  A while back I wrote about this in my entry about the book The Luck Factor.

 

So far they've called and said I needed new brakes.  I checked with pops and it sounds legit.  Hoping it's nothing else.  For the 60k service, Infiniti of Kirkland was charging $1100 and this place was charging $260.  Have I mentioned how much Infiniti of Kirkland price gouges?  Infiniti dealership in Brighton, MA was awesome and very fair, just FYI, so they're not all evil.

 

Back to the strategy thing, I also do my hair before a haircut, so they can see that I care about my hair looking good and they'll do a better job.  And I brush my teeth before the dentist.  If you are making a purchase that involves negotiations and decide to dress down, you have to speak intelligently so you don't get pegged as a dumb kid.  It's tricky stuff... 

I've been on a little bit of a Spring cleaning kick.  Got rid of a ton of books, now I'm moving on to clothes.  Fascinating, I know.  I can't believe you're reading this.

Stolen from Fil's Blog where I'm guessing he found the article on digg.  This is a moving account of what life is actually like for a morbidly obese woman.  I hate it when I hear people making fun of fat people.  It's even worse when my friends do it - luckily a rare occurrence, but it makes me lose respect for them.  Anyway I had no idea just how bad it was until I read this article:

http://thesugarmonster.livejournal.com/114631.html 

My work laptop was really sluggish this morning, so I decided to reboot.  24 minutes later it's finally back to normal.  I decided to install some updates during the reboot.  Then when those finally were installed, the network adapter wasn't working, so I had to reset that.  Adding up the time when your computer is completely unusable during updates and restarts (let's say about 24 minutes every update that requires a reboot), multiplying by all the employees of Microsoft, times the average salary per minute.  That's about $300,000 per update, and way more if you account for all the other companies in the world who have employees running Vista.  My math might be off but still, it's such a waste of time.  Sitting around waiting.  There's gotta be a better way.

 

On a positive note, Microsoft finally got rid of the orange styrofoam cups (which were not pleasant to drink water out of) and they've replaced them with paper green cups.  I think they should have thinner disposable cups for water.  I get why they need to be so thick and sturdy for coffee, but why not have smaller water cups.  It kills me to huge such a huge cup when I just want a little water.  I could carry around a Nalgene but those have issues too, and I'm totally anti-mug.  Lots of issues this morning. :-)

Amsterdam airport is funny.  If anybody doesn't show up in time for boarding they call them out really loud over the loudspeaker and reprimand them.  "Passenger X Y travelling to Z, you are delaying the flight."  Makes me laugh.  I'm off to Florence in an hour.  Will add more travel observations soon.  Internet access about to expire...

I woke up this morning at 5:20 AM and decided to go into work to get a head start on the day.  I recently pulled my hip-quad muscle, so I brought in a zip-lock bag full of ice.  As I'm sitting in my office this morning, icing my hip, completely focused on the document I'm editing, in a benedryl daze (love allergy season), I look down and realize the bag has been slowly leaking for the past half hour.  Right into my crotch.  So I have this giant wet spot.  Great.  My jeans are seriously soaked through, the chair is wet, the ground has a little puddle.  I'm slightly horrified, but luckily it is so early that nobody has arrived yet.  I'm so wishing the bathrooms had those hand dryers.  Anyway, I wrap a sweater around my waste, limp to the bathroom, and do my best to dry my pants with a wad of paper towels.  Thirty minutes later I'm still in the drying phase.  Luckily my coworkers are late risers.  What a morning.  And it's only 8am.

 

Lessons Learned:

I had some wardrobe issues this morning related to the color red.  I was getting ready to go to the airport, and since I was going to be on a long flight, I wanted to be comfortable so I chose this long-sleeved red shirt.  Since I messed up my foot last week I can only wear certain shoes, so I was going to wear my red boots.  Red shirt plus red boots...too much?  Both are somewhere between deep and bright red.  I was a little worried about red overkill but I went anyway.  As I got out of the cab I got a glimpse of myself in the glass of the airport doors.  Ugh!  My suitcase is red.  As I got in line for security I took out my wallet which was red too.  I tried to conceal it.  This was embarassing.  As I sat down to take out my computer, my stomach dropped as I saw my red backpack.  And the backpack is a whole other shade than all the rest, so it adds this horrible clash factor.  People can have favorite colors, but this is getting ridiculous.  I'm the kind of person people blog about or talk to their friends about.  Ack!  I hurt my own eyes.  What was I thinking?  Stacy and Clinton would not approve of this.  KStar would probably send me back home.

Enough people asked about the podcast that I decided to bring it back.  It's not the highest quality content in the world, but if you're really bored have a listen.  http://pencilstar.com/Documents/katestory.xml 

 

Oh, and Happy Heart Day

A young boy, bent at the waist, stares intently into a sewer, his face a mere two inches from the grates.  A short walk away, two girls search through the pebbles that make up the walkway, collecting only the whitest, most beautiful stones.  The blonde girl with ringlets proudly displays a handful of sparkly white rocks.  I widen my eyes in approval and make my way past a giant orange sculpture by Andrew Calder called "The Eagle."  I smile because, unlike most people, I can see the eagle.  Continuing on my journey, I walk along the outdoor amphitheatre where a girl diligently climbs up each platform unhaltered by a floor-length floral dress, her fluffy brown workboots peeking out through the bottom in contrast.  A mother chases her son who runs down a hill, flapping his arms up and down through the air.  She smiles at me, shrugs, and says "I guess I'm going that way."  As I exit the park, I look up to see a family of five in the distance, racing toward the park.  They're all going slow enough to make sure everyone keeps up.  The boy slows down, distracted by a dog.  The family arbitrarily stops on the sidewalk, the unofficial finish line.  The mother looks at me and proclaims, "I got last place."  The girl, giggling, agrees.

 

This is my favorite place in Seattle.

Remember when I wrote about The Freaky Masseuse?  Well I didn't hear back, so I followed up with an email.  After lots of phone tag I finally got ahold of the manager of the salon.  He was very apologetic and I'm getting my refund.  He even offered to pay for my chiropractor appointment.  Olivier is no longer with them.  He went back to Belgium because of some family problems.  Apparently in Europe masseusses are allowed to adjust bones and stuff, but he wasn't supposed to be doing that here.  The manager was very nice, and I'm really glad to hear that Olivier is no longer working there. 

 

(I'm multitasking right now, so I apologize if my writing makes no sense...)

My new favorite candy of the season: The Russell Stover Marshmallow & Caramel Santa

 

 

Mmmmm!

This woman lost her diary at the Puyallup Fair.  And someone from Movin' 92.5 found it.  Ever since they have been reading one page a day on the air in the hopes that somebody will recognize her so they can return the diary.  It's hilarious.  This woman hates her boss, is not over her ex, and lots of other stuff.  Man, I don't think I'd want the radio to read my journal over the airwaves!

 

From the site: 

 

I found out about this online game called gocrosscampus.com .  I know it looks dorky but it's kind of fun.  It had this Ivy League version of Risk.  Princeton was taking down Columbia and Penn.  Unfortunately they had horrible problems with performance because it got too popular too quickly and they had to temporarily shut down the game. 

Oh yeah.  THE RED SOX MADE IT TO THE ALCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now let's hope there is a Game 6!!!

I had the massage from hell this weekend.  My sister had given me a gift certificate for my birthday last year and it was about to expire, so I finally made an appointment.  I got this guy named Olivier (pronounced o-liv-ee-ay).  He was awful.  The whole experience was pretty painful.  I asked him to be more gentle and he basically wouldn't.  Eventually at the end he said, "I don't think this was the massage you were expecting," and went on to say he had realigned my spine and adjusted 4 of my ribs which were out of place (can you even get to one's ribs from their back?).  He looked very proud of himself.  That's just wrong.  I didn't go to a chiropractor.  My back was just fine.  Now, 2 days later my neck, back and shoulders are still sore from the stupid massage.  I wrote a letter asking for a refund and mailed it this morning.  We'll see what happens.

 

The worst part is that he started chatting with me asking all about my job, and it turns out he used to work at Microsoft.  He was a Program Manager on Vista.  Ew!  This is not exactly the kind of person you want seeing you in your undies!  Separation of work and life please!  He left MS last November, but still. 

 

That was my first professional massage.  I'm not sure there will ever be a second.

I took the Connector bus today for the second time this morning and ended up next to the biggest armspace hogger of all time.  This guy was awful.  He wasn't a big guy but his arm was well into my space.  I was very uncomfortable - the seats are narrow to begin with and the guy had big puffy sleeves on his jacket too.  I had to take my coat off and keep my arms crossed in order to be even a little comfortable.  SHARE YOUR ARMSPACE!!!!!  Geez. :-)  I feel bad for anyone who gets stuck next to this guy on an airplane. 

What a great week.  First, I found out that Billy Joel is coming to Seattle, and I bought tickets.  Then I met Danica McKellar aka "Winnie Cooper" from The Wonder Years who was at Microsoft to talk about her new book Math Doesn't Suck.  She's gorgeous and still looks just like Winnie but without the bangs. Last but not least, ... wait for it...

 

This is big.

 

I got tickets to see the Red Sox in the ALCS Game 6 at Fenway Park in Boston.  Holy crap.  They need to beat the Angels and make it into the next round.  Then the ALCS needs to take at least 6 games.  If both of those things happen, I'll be watching the game live from Fenway.  Imagine me catching the game-winning walk-off homerun in Game 6 against the Yankees.  This could be great.  Oh, and I got bleacher seats so I'll be right there next to Jacoby Ellsbury who's one of my new favorite players (if he gets to play).  He's awesome and dreamy at the same time.

 

See how lucky I am (per my post on The Luck Factor)?  Now I just need to find someone else who likes Billy Joel to come to the concert with me.  I better start volunteering or something to earn some of this good luck.  October is turning out to be a great month.

Well I'm on hold with Millennium Digital Media.  Again.  It turns out they forgot to stop charging me for my service at my old apartment, so now I'm getting double-billed.  This is ridiculous.  "We appreciate your patience.  Please continue to hold and your call will be answered in the order received."  Ugh!  I'm only 5 minutes in and I want to go home from work but I have to call from here so it doesn't hit my cell phone minutes.  Last month I paid bigtime for all those hold times.  Millennium should be put out of business.  Do I really need tv this badly? I actually get 2 bills to my new address now.  The old one specifies that it's for service at my old address.  Nice to know I'm paying for somebody else's tv and internet.  Why do they punish their customers like this???  I'm 7 minutes in now. 

This is pretty funny.  Thanks to B for sharing.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/09/18/seattle_trolley_line_has_acronym_slut/  

I've always had a slight fear of escalators.  They freak me out.  Here's another reason why you should be careful on escalators:  http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/09/17/got_crocs_be_careful_on_the_escalator/