aaaargh! returned a movie i hadn't watched to netflix!

The exhaust system for the Chiptole on 42nd St. blows onto the 42nd St sidewalk and is so foul, I now cross the street to avoid it. Isn't there any kind of smell ordinance that prohibits this sort of thing? This is a heavy-traffic (and tourist) area as it's located directly across from Bryant Park.

Ranitidine has a Bulova Accutron watch that he really likes. The Accutron utilized technology involving a tuning fork, blah, blah, that was used for only a few years. A few years after the watches went out of production, of course, the manufacturer stopped making parts for them. They are very popular with collectors, but R. likes his for its appearance.

Last year, when it stopped running, it turned out not to be the battery that needed replacement, but some of the complicated mechanism. Parts take forever to find. Bloomingdale's watch repair returned it after three months; it worked for a few days, although something was obviously wrong with the time-setting thingy. Since it was on warranty, I took it back. This time it came back in only a month, but didn't run any better.

Giving up on Bloomie's, I took the watch to a highly-regarded jeweler who has a reputation for keeping old, valuable watches running. When I told him what had happened at Bloomie's he snorted and said, "You should have come here first." The watch came back after, nearly three months and again, ran for a few days. Since it was under warranty, I took it back with the usual tale, adding this time that R. was considering taking out the special innards and having them replaced with an up-to-date, but ordinary quartz movement. They were willing to try "repairing" again, but this time, he recommended changing to quartz, since it didn't change the appearance of the watch and R. is not interested in its collectibility. (Of course -- he'd already gotten the $600 for his earlier "repair.") He said that they return the valuable Accutron movement that we could re-install should we decide to sell the watch to a collector. He charges $140 to put in the quartz movement.

For me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Shame on me.

A guy in a huge truck almost hit me broadside, the side that my toddler boy was sitting on.

He made a left turn in front of me into a driveway, he clearly saw me, he immediately starts backing out, I don't have time to stop, I swerve, honk my horn, he keeps coming, I'm relentlessy honking my horn, swerving as far as I can away from him. He finally stops within 6" of hitting us.

We probably wouldn't have been hurt but it would have been a pain in the ass to fill out all the paperwork in the heat, especially since my girl is sick and she had thrown up in the car about 10 minutes before.

The problem is that all the remaining spare parts for this type of watch are owned by ONE woman, who bought them up at the right time. Maybe it was $400. Whatever. It was too much for a watch that cannot be repaired.

Eyebrows and I had breakfast in a diner this morning, where we've been several times. New waitress.

Shrieked when she saw him. "Oh my gawd, it's that guy from Sex in the City, Mr. Big! Oh my gawd!" She calls over the other waitress. "Look it's Mr. Big!"

Meanwhile Eyebrows, embarassed to death, is telling her no, no, I just look like him.

"Oh come on, I know it's you, come on!"

Then she starts asking me "how come he won't admit it?"

At this point I"m ready to get the frigging manager over there.

We finally convince her that no, it's not him. Mr. Big doesn't have that much grey in his hair and he's shorter and thinner than Eyebrows.

The entire time we were there, every server came to our table for some bogus reason (more toast? more coffee? more butter?) and stood there and stared at him.

People think Eyebrows is Chris Noth a lot, but this was the worst incident yet.

I felt really sorry for the real Chris Noth.

(A couple of years ago in Mexico, a woman got so flipped out, and Eyebrows told me I shoulda charged her $100 bucks for his autograph).

It's a watch. Go buy a new one. My phone tells me the time not that I care. It's also not an antique. Try eBay.

No. That's it. I'm not throwing any more money at this watch. We will be getting the original movement back and can put it back in if we decide to sell to a collector.

It was Murrey's on Third and 79th who told me the history of the Accutron. He has one himself that he loves that he can't get fixed properly either. At least with the quartz movement, it will run.

Architectural outrage #478 [rant.]A rare long walk on the upper east side,down Madison from 78th st.then across 57th st. to 9th ave....and holy sh#t ,the 'Marriage of Old and New' on the corner of 57th and 8th ave.The Fisk Building a 3 story deco classic,with a glass octagonal 10 story nightmare being constructed right on top.Need a zoning variance,for any old thing?No problem.After a day spent browsing the stores,and looking at buildings,more proof that we have entered a truly anonymous made,tasteless point in time,unless you have $5000 bucks to spend on a well made handbag...

I rather agree. I thought it sounded like a good idea but I don't much like the look of it now.

Wait until you see the 850-foot (!) building about to be built outside my bedroom windows! Even though it will be a Frank Gehry design, and set waaaaaaaay back from my building and the one next door, it will be taller than anything downtown, and second in height only to the "Freedom Tower" (if it ever actually gets built).

(For a complicated set of reasons, we did not try to stop its erection, only to get it moved far away from us. We won, but it will still be horribly out of scale with the entire neighborhood. )

My laptop is on it's last legs. My son the genius computer expert , at my request, sends me an online offer by a company called NewEgg for a modest replacement to my Toshiba Sattellite, another Toshiba, this time a Tecra. I didn't want to spend much money and this came in at slightly over 1000.

Okay, I go to the site and order it and charge the order to my MC. About a week later (Wed, this week) I receive a box in the mail with my new laptop. It's always nice to have any computer with a brand new, clean and virginal harddrive so even though it's not a very exciting new toy, I'm kind of excited.

I take it out of the box and connect the AC adapter and lo and behold NOTHING!!!!

This thing is DOA.

I email NewEgg. They very quickly email me back to say anything that is wrong with the notebook must be handled by Toshiba, it syas so right on the site.

I call Toshiba. I'm speaking to Inda. After speaking to tech people and going through a dozen checks, they acknowledge that the thing is useless and DOA. I say, okay send me a new one. They say, no, the best they can do is repair it. I say bullshit. If they repair it then I will have bought the equivalent of a refurbished model and that would have been much less money and what's more, I wouldn't have bought it anyway because Idon't need that kind of aggravation.

I speak to the Supervisor. This is in Canada. This person is completely useless. He gives me the number for Toshiba Global customer service. I speak to the supervisor there, a woman from what sounds like Ukraine. She is really nasty and talks over me when I am talking.

I go online and find the address of the Toshiba Corporate Offices in New York. It is listed on the website as something like 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1140 but there's no telephone number. I call information and give them the exact address and name but they tell me there is no listing for that name and address.

Okay, so now I call Mastercard and tell them I refuse to pay for this item and that I understand it is their policy to support the customer in times like these. They say they will issue an immediate credit pending investigastion.

So now I email back to NewEgg an answer to their response. This is what I write:

Bullshit. I spoke to Toshiba and they are no help. You need to either replace or refund my money.

You think that I will not give my best effort to bad mouth your piece of shit company all over the internet?

Well then, you'd be wrong.

The next morning I attempt to call NewEgg in California. I am placed on hold for 20 minutes at which time I have to leave so I hang up.

When I next get a chance to call I actually get to speak to Customer Service in a few minutes. I am by this time talking through gritted teeth, holding myself back. I tell the guy the story and to go look at my email correspondence. He says to me:

Do you want us to send you a new one or do you want a refund?


That's where I stand now. One $1000 piece of shit good for nothing laptop ready to be shipped back to a piece of shit company in LA. I'll keep you posted.

Quick, someone get Rose a Padron on the rocks.

Had that with a TV once. New set died immediately. Oh, repair will take x number of weeks. "I do not want it repaired. I want a new one that isn't broken."

Took a lot of yelling to get my way. RadioShack, I think. They eventually saw it my way.

somewhere in my bedroom there is a mosquito who had one hell of a meal last night. 12 courses, to be exact.

Do banks deliberately search for the most obtuse, numb-skulled, unmotivated people they can possibly hire? I faxed a standard, boilerplate request for a wire of cash from the bank to a brokerage house. We give this bank a lot of business---tens of millions of dollars a year flow through it from us. Here is the conversation that ensued.

Hello, Daisy? I have your wire request here but we changed our procedure on July 31, didn't you get my e-mail?
No.
Well what's your e-mail address?
I repeat it 3 times because of course the woman is a. not listening to me, b. has trouble wrapping her mind around the concept of the @ symbol, and c. is a fucking moron.
Does this mean you can't send the wire today?
No, we'll do it.
Thank you.

Conversation #2:

Hello, Daisy, did you get my e-mail?
Yes. Thanks.
It's too late for us to send that wire now, so just do it according to the new procedure and we'll send it on Monday.
But it needs to be at the brokerage house first thing Monday morning.
Well, if you fill out the new form and send it first thing Monday we'll send it out.
But you just told me a half hour ago you'd send it today.
Well, its too late now. We'll send it Monday.
So I just wasted an hour doing this and now I have to re-do it on Monday?
No, you can just do it on Monday using the new procedure.
Thank you. Goodbye.

I am tearing my hair out.

There are opposing views from small businesses who rely on Hunts' Point as a source of cheap produce.There is more to the life and vibrancy of a city than shopping malls.

I met some of my coworkers for happy hour at the Park (on 10th ave & 18th st) yesterday. I had a greyhound that was just ok and then foolishly ordered a margarita. Yech! It was waaaay too sweet. One of my friends who tasted it said, they need ro add some lime juice or actually put some tequila in this. They made me a new one that was fine. Triple sec with a splash of lime anyone?

what's a greyhound???

moron on bike flipping a hackysack to himself while riding. predictably hackysack falls onto busy road and jackass wheels into my lane to retrieve it. fucking hippies.

i find it annoying that this thread is on a different area than the clueless questions thread.

Why can't German apartments come with the damn kitchen already installed. You'd think I would enjoy putting it together, but seriously? I need to work and therefore really couldn't give a rat's ass how high the radiators are.

fucking abc carrying the usc game only on the west coast, forcing us to shell out for espn pay-per-view.

The a/c in my office is cranked up so high it is insane. The receptionist has herself swathed in what appears to be a blanket and I have just put on my leather jacket and turned on the portable heater I have stashed under my desk. I am wearing a skirt and I have goosebumps all over my legs. I am so cold I can't concentrate, damn it.

Thus far I have splattered two shirts with concord grape juice (I'm making sorbet base). There has got to be a neater way.

Did it have to start pouring rain just as I was going out to pick tomatoes?

Last night I was multitasking, changing the sheets while watching Desperate Housewives. When the bed is all nicely made up, with clean,crisp sheets I go into the kitchen for a glass of water and return minutes later to discover that kitty has puked all over the bed, managing to get sheets and coverlet. So I have to start all over again, and wash and dry the coverlet. It is like she was waiting for me to make the bed.

The cat's in the well, the gentle lady is asleep.
Cat's in the well, the gentle lady is asleep.
She ain't hearing a thing, the silence is a-stickin' her deep.