Some of you might remember me mentioning in an earlier post that my friend Becky had an absolutely horrific experience dealing with the McDonald’s at FM 1960 West and Breck Road. Well, last night, I happened to go to a Halloween movie night at her and Brian’s house, and the topic of conversation eventually turned to the aftermath of that incident. Apparently the word got out a lot farther than anyone expected (not that this was a BAD thing), especially due to the community at their church, and action was finally taken. According to Brian, the restaurant had been heavily spamming the surrounding neighborhoods with flyers that have been proclaiming that they’re “UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT”. From what he’s been told, almost the entire staff there has been replaced.

Not that Brian or Becky will ever find out for themselves, though. As Brian quite pointedly explained to the district manager, they never ever plan on setting foot in that McDonald’s again. That bridge has already not just burned, but demolished. I don’t blame them; there’s one Sonic in the Houston area that I would never go to again, even if they changed the management there. What happened to me was nowhere near as bad as what happened to Becky, but it’s still the principle of it. Still, it’s good to see that karma does win out in the end.

Well, not a whole lot to talk about… but first, because no one’s interested, here’s a picture of my latest desktop. :-)

Yes, that is Cortana. I got the image from here. Hopefully Misty won’t have a fit when she sees this image… :-)

I was supposed to go to the Renaissance Festival with friends yesterday morning. Unfortunately, the day before I pulled a shift from 7:40 AM to 9:40 PM, so I ended up emailing the one organizing the trip apologizing, and saying that there was no way in hell I would feel like driving to/from Plantersville. It turned out that that was a GOOD thing, as I ended up getting three or four support calls during the day. Also, my allergies and fatigue caught up with me, as I ended up suffering from allergies and a massive headache most of the day. I napped some, but it wasn’t until after I took some Advil and Benadryl that I started feeling better. Even then, I had to stop playing Halo 3 with Sinner, Mimik, and Genku because I was feeling so lousy. It was not one of my better days.

Today was more or less uneventful and restful, except for me and my parents going up to Friday’s in the Woodlands and then to Borders so I could pick up the DVD and score CD for Transformers. Unfortunately, dinner in Friday’s ended up being the worst experience we’ve ever had in a Friday’s. We ordered our drinks at the same time we ordered our appetizer (fried cheese). The fried cheese arrived right before the drinks did. As for our drinks… I THINK what Dad got was Johnnie Walker Black, but it was so watered down it was unreal. Dad sent it back, and the bartender sent it back insisting it was JWB. Dad wasn’t happy, but he grudgingly accepted it. Then when we put in our order, Mom ordered green bean fries and pot stickers. The chefs thought it was an appetizer, so it was served first. About five minutes after Mom had gotten her food, we grabbed the waiter and asked him what was going on. He ran back, checked on the order, found out what happened, and fast tracked it. Ten minutes later, our entrees were served… and Dad had been given the wrong item. By that time we had had it, and the manager came over to talk to us. She was very apologetic and embarrassed by what happened, and ended up taking Dad’s and Mom’s entrees and Dad’s drink off the tab, plus gave us a coupon for a free appetizer next time we go in. She ended up redeeming herself somewhat in my eyes as a result. As for the waiter, we hold him mostly blameless because A) it was a support problem, and B) he’s only a trainee there.

After dinner, we wandered over to Borders, where I picked up a copy of Transformers on DVD using the gift card Misty had gotten me. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the score CD in stock, but will hold a copy for me when it comes in on Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll have enough time on Tuesday to go up there and pick it up. Who knows…

Ah, well. For now, I’m just going to relax a bit and spend a little bit of time talking to Misty before I go to bed. Tomorrow should be fun at work, as I have to oversee one of our locations as they have their first day with their brand new phone system (the reason I was at work so late on Friday). I just hope it all works out relatively okay. We’ll see. :-)

It’s the end of the weekend, and quite frankly, I could use another day. It’s not going to happen, though, so I’m just going to grin and bear it. I’ve got a lot of work to do when I get into the office tomorrow, including setting up a couple of laptops and a heavy-duty printer/scanner/copier. It’s not going to be a fun day, really, but I’m kind of hoping I can hole myself up in my cubicle for most of the day and get the work done. The less I have on my plate, the happier I am.

I do have to say, though, that I did get to wind down this evening somewhat. It’s become something of a tradition in this house to make late Sunday afternoons a “cocktail hour”. Mom makes an appetizer of some sort, and while she’s making it we all have drinks. It’s made for a nice change of pace here, plus it’s a good excuse to sit down, relax, and have a drink. The only real regret we have about it per se is the fact that we usually get TGI Friday’s brand appetizers (cheese sticks, spinach & artichoke dip, or chicken tenders), and they don’t have their fried green bean fries available. Ah, well… I suppose they’re saving them for the actual restaurants. :-)

The main other thing that happened this past week and weekend that’s of note is the fact that Misty had to go to the hospital on Monday. Her doctor thought she had a kidney infection but sent her to the hospital to make sure it wasn’t her appendix or gall bladder. It turned out it was her appendix and that she needed to have it removed. :-( She’s back home now and resting up (on doctor’s orders). She’s been overly quiet as a result, too, which does tend to be rather lonesome. On the other hand, I was a bit annoyed because the flowers I ordered for her arrived a day later than I had intended. I’m willing to blame myself there, though, considering how late I ordered the flowers the day before. Still, I’m hoping she gets much better soon…

Anyway, I should consider starting to get ready for bed, as it’s another early morning for me tomorrow. Fun fun…

Some months ago, I mentioned that Missy had said that Christmas isn’t over until all of the presents have been bought or given. Well, among the gifts I had gotten for Christmas were a $50 Visa debit gift card from my father, and a $30 Borders gift card from Misty. I hadn’t used them yet, simply because I couldn’t think of what exactly I wanted to get with them. Well, I finally decided it was high time to actually USE the cards, as it’d be kind of embarrassing for Christmas to come around this year and not have used the cards from last year. So, on my way home from work tonight, I stopped by Fry’s and used the Visa debit card towards Halo 3. I’ve already started playing it, but I’m admittedly not that good at it so far. Ah, well… I suppose I will get better with practice. Now maybe Jonin01 and BloodySinner will stop getting on my case about not having the game. :-)

As for the $30 Borders gift card, that will wait for another couple of weeks. Transformers is being released on DVD on the 16th, and I’ll use the Borders gift card towards that. It seemed appropriate, as that was the movie Misty and I went to see when I went to visit her a month and a half ago. :-) The only real annoyance is that there really isn’t a Borders convenient to me; I suppose I’d need to go to the Woodlands Town Center or go to the Galleria when the time comes. Ah, well…

On a completely different subject, my trip to Vegas is getting closer, and Dad and I are getting ready for it. A couple of nights ago, I went ahead and booked our tickets for the two shows we’re going to see. On Monday night, we’re seeing Donn Arden’s Jubilee!, which is at the same hotel we’re staying at (Bally’s). On Tuesday night we’re going to be seeing Penn & Teller at the Rio. It should be fun; we’ve stayed at Bally’s enough times where it’s time we saw their showgirl revue, and I’d been wanting to see Penn & Teller for a while. At the very least it’ll be a break from playing at the poker room. :-) Now, the big question is whether or not Dad’s going to insist on doing the Klingon Encounter at the Star Trek Experience. We’ll see, I suppose…

In any event, I still have a month until the trip. For now, though, I’ve got work in the morning, and I need to get rested for that. Fun fun…