a new season

it's no secret that i am addicted to grey's anatomy. everyone is. it is a great show. fabulous. and because it is so, a celebration was definately necessary to kick off the new season. so last night a few friends came over and we popped some bubbly and watched with excitement to see who meredith would pick, the vet or dr. mcdreamy. there was also food:

-italian quesadillas with caramelized onions and roasted red peppers
-salad with hard boiled eggs and bacon
-filo dough puffs with brie and cranberry
-popcorn with truffel oil
-grilled pineapple with nutella sauce and vanilla marscapone

it was a good night.

first day of school

my office moved yesterday. it was a long time coming. last week was spent packing evverything up and preparing. then we all went home for the holiday weekend and prepared for our first day of working downtown.

for most people, it was the first day of taking the bus or the light rail. that is a totally different experience than driving out into the suburbs and parking in our lovely prestigious west bloomington parking garage. the bus involves schedules and bus passes and walking to the building. it was great. i caught the bus, read my book and was downtown just in time for work.

the office looks really cool... we are all adjusting to cube life. i need to buy a pair of headphones to block out the world. but all in all it is good. still some construction going on, but good.

all of work was a wash yesterday. we ate blue donuts, watched a super crazy band drum on steel barrels with electric saws, then ate chicago style hot dogs. there was unpacking and galavanting about. then there were martinis across the street. three of them. and the bus ride home.

it really was like the first day of school. no one expects work to be done, some people had new haircuts. people needed school supplies. the perfect start to fall.

i am excited for sweater weather. fall leaves, wood smoke and football. scarves, hot apple cider with rum and all the other stuff. it does not, however, feel like fall in our office. we have temporary air conditioning right now, and it is so hot that we are all sweating. no fun sweaters for a long time.

keeping me up at night.

a month ago i was in kansas city for a softball tournament hosted by the architect's company which works out well because my best friend from high school lives in KC and so i got to visit her. we had a jolly good weekend. we ate. we drank. we were merry. it was a great weekend of fun.

that friday night we had gone to dinner at kona grill on the plaza. we ate some sushi and it was great. i had been one time before in omaha and hadn't had the best experience. my food was good, but the service was bad and no one else liked their food. but i digress. so dinner was great, we all split the check and that was that... or so i thought.

the next week i noticed on my checking account statement that i had been charged for the whole bill. sixty bucks more than what i was supposed to pay. now, sixty bucks isn't that big of a deal, but dammit, that is a lot of grocieries. so i called. three times that week. before i finally got a hold of the manager who i needed to get things straightened out. she promised to get the receipts and call me back. five days later, i still hadn't heard from her. so, thursday, i called again. she was waiting on corporate to send the receipts. she would call me back by monday. well, monday came and went. so i called again. she finally took my credit card number and promised to credit me account. that was last tuesday. today i finally got my money back. it has been a month since i ate at the restaurant.

now, don't get me wrong, i am happy i finally have my money back. but i am still infuriated by the last of respect with which i was treated. i was thinking about it in bed last night, enraged. about how i was treated and how you should never treat a customer that way. the woman was rude everytime on the phone. i was a pain in her ass. but it was her store's mistake. be apoligetic, dammit. offer something to make me a happier customer. don't make me call seven times to try to get my money back! it may seem like an insignificant problam to a big restaurant manager, but sixty bucks is a lot of money to me. and i should be treated with curtosy.

part of me wants to send the company a letter. tell them that customers come first. always. especially when the restaurant messes up. the amount of effort i put forth to remedy the situation was rediculous. but i will just send my anger out into the void and leave it at that.

eat at kona grill and enjoy their sushi. it is damn good. but pay with cash.