SwimFinsSF

My man and his lady! ;)

Originally uploaded by lauraespence.

Kevin’s got a new best bud in Guatemala (ok – few weeks ago) and was just browsing her pictures and found this one of them.. So cute… She’s also got one of her plucking his eybrows.. Now THAT i’m not even sure what to do with…

Too funny… Had to share…

A few movies worth seeing….

Killed some time with movies over the past few days and figured I’d pass along:

Pan’s Labyrinth – Saw this one with Drew and Adrian on Thursday night. Its a REALLY well done movie in Spanish about a little girl’s fantasy world that she uses to get her through a really horrible childhood after in post war spain.. The cinematography is gorgeous, the characters are facinating, and the story was great – a really interesting adult take on a child’s fantasy world…

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days – This movie is about the last days of Sophie Scholl (duh) who was part of a group of students during nazi Germany who opposed Hitler and the National Socialists. The Movie starts with their last leaflet distribution and arrests and follows her through her jailing, ‘trial’ (not much of a trial), and execution. The movie was really well done and thought provoking. I found it particularly interesting the charges against them including ‘demoralizing the troops’ (sound familiar to anyone? Hmmmm)… Very worth seeing.

Customer Service HELL

So this week has been one of those weeks where any interaction I’ve had with companies providing services has gone wrong…

Lets start with Comcast… Fucking Comcast… I got a shiny new HDTV and a new Gen 3 TiVo about a week and a half ago and to go with it I decided to order Digital Cable (I had DirecTV but they dropped TiVo – but thats a different rant).. Well I scheduled a service apointment for last Saturday from 12-2pm. I’ll skip the gory details but suffice it to say they never showed up after many phone calls and waiting around till 6pm that night for them.

So I reschedule for Wednesday over lunch (another 12-2 apointment). Well this time they show up and install the cable however of course they forgot the CableCards I need for the new TiVo. The service guy points to his invoice to show I didn’t ask for it to which I reply ‘I didn’t write your invoice – all that shows is that the person I set up the apointment with didn’t listen when I said VERY CLEARLY that i needed 2 CableCards’. So he proceeds to promise that his supervisor would come by by 5pm that night to deliver the cards. Well 6pm rolls around and no cards.. So I call to see what gives and they tell me that since its 6:05pm they can’t call the supervisor and I just have to set up another apointment.. (Imagine steam coming out of my ears). So I have to set up an apointment for this saturday cuz I have a JOB and can’t be there thursday or friday…

So today i’m driving to work and thinking ‘can’t I just swing by their office and pick the cards up rather than sitting around all day saturday (2-6pm) wondering if they’ll show or not’… So I call comcast and ask to which the guy says ‘Sure – you can just go by the comcast office in sunnyvale and get them’. Sweet… So much easier and I can use my TiVo tonight. So I show up to pick them up and the poor woman at the counter tells me ‘We don’t have the hardware here – the operators have been told not to send customers here’…

This is when my head spins around and I come completely unglued. I start nearly yelling at her about the cascade of fuckups i’ve been through. I know full well there is nothing she can do but i’m at a loss as to who I can talk to who can actually make sure something happens… So now I just getta sit around saturday afternoon and HOPE that they get it right this time. My bet? either they don’t show up at all, or they show up with 1 card instead of 2..

And then there is the Shower Glass folks for my remodel – I’ll keep this one short.. Short story is its 2 Months late and I still don’t have a shower in my house. They’ve used every excuse from ‘we can’t measure till the tile goes in’ to ‘we don’t schedule appointments until the glass has been deliverred’ to ‘the glass showed up but one piece was cracked’ to ‘we forgot to order the hinges’ to ‘turns out the chanels we cut don’t fit’…. AHHHHHHHH… I don’t care about any of that shit – it all boils down to DO YOUR FUCKING JOB… So now monday is the current date they’re supposed  to do the install – but I don’t believe it for a minute…

So thats been my week.. My blood pressure is through the roof and I’m very likely to rip someone’s head off if they look at me funny.. And all because I’m an individual consumer that actually expects that people do their job but one that has no pull to make sure that they actually do..  So I have to sit here and take it while grunting ‘Thank you sir may I have another’..

So right now Comcast and E—- Glass are on my shit list. Can’t wait to see who’s next.

Sorry.. I promise the next post will be friendly… I just had to rant…

Dusty Bobbles

Dusty Bobbles

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

Ok.. this lens they got me for my Camera ROCKS.. Takes amazing shots… granted most of the time i’ve t aken pictures of things that I really need to clean.. but still cool! 🙂

Leave it to me

Mom and Me

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

Last night my mom, little sister, and I got together for dinner and a little belated Christmas (since I was out of town)… My mom drove out from Sacramento (the drive from hell – I-80 west was closed from 11am to 6pm yesterday cuz of an accident – YIKES).. So they got over here ’round 7 to see the place and hang out before dinner..

They also brought Christmas presents I missed which was very sweet (I sent mine for them to share over christmas).. Well, leave it to me to go ahead and buy exactly what my ‘rents were going to give me before they could.. Before the trip I bought myself a nice Digital SLR to use while I was gone.. I actually tried to figure out if they were going to get it before I got it and got enough signs that they weren’t that I decided to risk it (its also more expensive than they should be spending on me)… Well – as it turns out thats exactly what they were gonna give me – and, whats worse, my mom didn’t find out until she talked to Katie YESTERDAY… Uggg… I felt like SUCH a jerk… I KNOW better but I convinced myself it wouldn’t be a problem… They did get me a really nice lens and flash for the camera though that is FANTASTIC.. i’ve been playing with it all morning…

After that though we went to Faralon for dinner which was fantastic.. were there for like 3 hours and had a great time…

Ugggg.. I’m a fool…

Bathroom looking more real

Bathroom looking more real

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

Check it out… Raully (our contractor) came in with a crew yesterday and helped me get the place back in shape.. cleaned the floor, rolled out the carpet, picked up the drop cloths, and fixed the bathroom light.. still no shower and little things to do – but its lookin a lot more like a house already.. woo hoo! 🙂