Alfred

Friday
We landed. We ate at a small diner near the airport with Uncle Kenny. After that we came back to the house and got situated. Then we went to sleep.

Saturday
We took our time getting ready in the morning. For breakfast, we ate at a cool place called Dough Boy’s. They had some ridiculous breakfasty things there. Then, we ventured out and rented a car from Rent4Less. Later we went to Amoeba Records for the first time, and then, we saw Hairspray at the ArcLight Theater. The theater itself was top quality, and the movie was awesome, too. We met up with Julie there (Uncle Kenny’s friend), and then went to a nice Japanese restaurant on Vine. We all parted way and went back to the house.

Sunday
After we got ready, we went to the famous Farmer’s Market, which is right next to a relatively new shopping center called The Grove. We shopped, and we ate. We went in and out of various stores, and then we headed back to Amoeba Records. This is the day we brought in our biggest haul. We rendezvoused back at the house, then we all went to El Coyote.

Monday
We blocked off this day to wander around Universal Studios. I will fill in more about this later, but there is some sad news… The Back to the Future ride is shutting down for good on September 3, 2007. I’m glad I got to ride it one last time… On the way back home, we stopped at Amoeba Records for a third time.

Tuesday
In the morning, we went and at a cute diner on the beach with Uncle Kenny. It was awesome eating at a table with my feet in the sand. We walked up and down the beach and got a little wet from the Pacific Ocean. We also did the Tonight Show taping with Jay Leno. Lindsey Lohan should have been on, but she got arrested or something. Oh well. Rob Schneider went on shamelessly dressed as her instead. Oh, and this happened:

Wednesday
We got up a little early to do the WB VIP tour. We ate lunch at the farmers market. Ed got more Voss while we were there. We drove back to the house, got changed, and then went downtown to go wait in line to see the finale of The Next Best Thing. It was entertaining, and the real Little Richie made a surprise appearance. We came back to the house, and then we all went out to eat. I had steak. =)

Let me start off by sharing an amusing anecdote. So, as you have read, we were headed to the beach. Charlene wanted to lay out, so I went and swam in the ocean. I was about to go in, but I had my glasses on, and I didn’t want to lose them in the ocean. I ran up to Charlene and dropped them off. I went back down to the water, finally warmed up to the cool waves, and dove in. I was playing around in the water for about 20 minutes when I realized that I couldn’t remember if I took the room key out of my pocket before I went in. I ran back up to Charlene and frantically searched the area. I quickly realized that I had made a terrible mistake and that the keys were somewhere in the ocean. I ran back down to the ocean and started my search. After about 10 minutes and a few false positives disguised as sea shells, I victoriously pulled the room key out of the water. My endorphin levels shot up, and I just started laughing uncontrollably. I couldn’t believe it. I ran up to Charlene again, and said very proudly, “I found them!” “Where were they?!” she said. “They were in the f!@#ing ocean!” I replied as a continued to laugh, still on my natural high. Good times, indeed. The night could have turned out completely different, but luckily, my awesomeness pulled through (of course only after I dumb-headedly lost them in the first place).

Today we had a nice breakfast, and took a nice bath. We’re about to head out to Historic Cold Spring Village, so I gotta go. Later!

Charlene and I made it to Cape May this morning. The drive actually wasn’t bad at all. There was little to no traffic from exit 159, all the way down to exit 0. I was a little shocked when there were traffic lights for a 3-mile stretch near exit 10, but what can you do.

We’re staying at a Bed and Breakfast called the Dormer House. It’s actually really nice. The room is great, and they provide a lot of services including breakfast (yay!), tea times (morning and afternoon), and more. The tea is served with yummies, which is nice. All-in-all it’s definitely worth it. I know we’re going to have a great time. Anyways, we’re off to the beach for now. Bye!

This is not your typical shit list. Let me list the shitty things that happened so far since yesterday that are just piling up in my head:

• Last night, I tried trimming the cats claws. Needless to say, it did not go well.
• This morning I woke up to a pile of vomit at the doorway to the second bedroom. Cleaning that up was fun. My only guess is that all the rough-housing from last night f!@#ed with Chrissie’s stomach.
• There’s a slight stain in the carpet that probably won’t come out unless i steam clean it.
• I washed my windshield last night when I was filling up my tank. This morning there was something on the windshield that looked like a nut or something. I thought the wiper would just brush it off, but no, it was a weird bird turd and it smeered all over the windshield. Thanks.
• My marble-rye bagel was all deformed, but I picked it anyway.
• A co-worker bumped into me, and I spilled my hot chocolate while I was waiting for my bagel to toast. Awesome! We joked about it, and it’s not big deal, but still. It blew.

And the day’s not over yet….

Shipping weight: 22.0 lbs.
Twenty-two pounds of solid gold as far as i’m concerned.
You know you want it.
Tracking… Due in tomorrow. Nice.

Without further ado…
  
Say hello to my furry feline friend, Chrissie! I’m very excited to have her. I’ve always wanted a cat for as long as I can remember. Now that I’m on my own, I decided to make that dream become a reality.

Charlene’s allergic, but we’re working together *dramatic pause* with Science *pause* to find a cure. It’s our cat, and we love her dearly already. Welcome to the family, Chrissie!

‘nough said. =)

My drive home yesterday was fun. Today I’m just gonna bite the bullet and take Route 17 all the way to Route 4 East. I really hope the water recedes soon, so I can resume my normal driving habits.

As you can see, I did end up getting my package yesterday from Amazon. It was fun while it lasted; the outrage; the anger; the infuriated customer service correspondence. Good times. Good times…

Well, now that I have the game in hand I can finally say that I’ve played it, and it’s awesome! In case I haven’t divulged what the package was, it’s none other than Nintendo’s Super Paper Mario for Wii. Sweet nectar, what a fun game.

This is what I like to see when I order something with overnight shipping. Check it out. Thanks Amazon.com. You don’t suck so badly after all.

Follow up correspondence one:

None of my questions were answered. I just got a canned response about shipping. Truly disappointing.

Their response? Something along the lines of “Here’s how to track your package.” Wow. Thanks.

My response?

You didn’t answer the question I wanted to know the most about. Please answer this: Why would my order be set to “shipping soon” a whole 26 hours before it shipped? That is pretty misleading, if you ask me. This is lunacy! Just answer that one question. Stop giving me these canned responses! I know how to track my packages, for crying out loud.

That did the trick…

Greetings from Amazon.com.

I have reviewed all of our correspondence with you, and I apologize that our responses are not addressing all of your concerns. I understand that your concern at this point is *not* “where’s my package” but rather “why did it take so long to ship out.”

I have looked at the order extensively, and I can tell you that there is not a good answer to your question, unfortunately. However, I do want to assure you that this is not the normal progression of a package. We estimate that it can take up to 24 hours to get a package ready to ship, but 26 is abnormal, and when expedited shipping is chosen it usually doesn’t even take 24 hours. In other words, this was delayed by some problem in the fulfillment center.

You have asked for a logical answer to your question, and I apologize that I am unable to provide a logical answer. This order took longer than it should have in preparing for shipment.

Please accept my personal apology for your inconvenience in this case. A delayed order is one matter, but having to deal with customer service and not getting your questions answered is another matter entirely. This experience is unacceptable, and I hope you will give us another chance to serve you better in the future.

Thanks for shopping with Amazon.com.

All-in-all disappointing. To boot, I’m probably not going to get my package until Friday.

On a side note, the customer service rep who finally gave me a straight answer, his name is: Jonathan Norberg. The others? Devi S., Farheen Muskaan, and Zulfi. Wow. You be the judge. I ain’t saying anything.