Carrie

So Sunday, Michigan decided winter wasn’t quite over yet, thankyouverymuch, and we got some more snow. It was the heavy wet stuff, too – crap for driving in, but so pretty! I took lots of fun pictures, playing around with my camera and the tripod a little. All the pictures are up at the gallery!

I’m beginning to think that retail would be SO MUCH BETTER if it weren’t for all the damn customers. Today was a prime example. First story; a pair of ladies and, I’m assuming, their husbands, have a cart filled with stuff. They come walking towards the registers, and make like they’re going through. Not completely unheard of; if you’re picking up a prescription at the pharmacy, they’ll normally let you pay for a few other things there, if you’re not getting much. They’re not SUPPOSED to, as they’re not set up to do large orders, but they’ve done it before. We just ask the people going though the registers if they paid at the pharmacy, and they’ll flash a receipt if they did. So anyway, these people are attempting to head right on through the registers, and I stopped to ask them if they paid at the pharmacy, and one of the women was like “we’re going to the food court for a soda.” That’s not what I asked, now was it? I asked if you paid for the merchandise in your cart. So at this point I inform her that if she’s not paid for the merchandise, the cart can’t go past the registers. She gives me this look, like I’ve asked her to sacrifice her firstborn child, or have asked her to chew off her own arm. Yes ma’am, I’m sure your purse is so friggin’ heavy that your arm will just snap under the weight, and you’re just SO THIRSTY, but you should have thought of that before you loaded the cart up, now shouldn’t you? As she stares at me like I’m something she’s just scraped from the bottom of her shoe, she huffs off to the food court with her little entourage, leaving her cart with her leather jacket on top. So, she couldn’t possibly be parted from her groceries, but she’ll just leave her expensive coat there.

The second situation was vaguely similar. A woman came in with her children, 2 or 3 of them, and was attempting to sign for a check issued in her husband’s name (and ONLY her husband’s name). As the cashier tried to explain to her that the check must be signed by her husband in order for us to honor it, she got all snippy. Well FINE, her husband was in the car, she’d just go out and have him sign it! So we called over a supervisor to void out the order, so that we could help the other people in line while she was gone, and I started pushing the cart over to the wall, where we normally put orders that are “on hold;” for whatever reason, they couldn’t complete the order (normally running to the car for a checkbook). She tries to snatch the cart away from me, and asks me where I think I’m going with her cart. I explain to her that I’m not putting the merchandise back, but that I’m pushing it up to the wall, since she’s not paid for it, but will be back shortly. She tries to snatch it away, and said she was going to take it towards the door. Apparently SHE was planning to take her cart of unpaid merchandise and leave it, with her unattended small children, in the food court. Oh Hell No. So I tell her again, the merchandise is unpaid for, and can’t go past the registers. Besides, the order will need to be re-rung when she returns with her husband’s signature on the rebate check. So she storms out, and I lean over to the cashier. “So, odds that she’s just going to the car, forging her husband’s signature, and returning?” “Oh, I’d count on it.” Because let’s think about this; a woman goes shopping and brings her 3 small children in the store with her, but leaves her husband in the car? No, I don’t think so. I don’t know what ended up happening, as I wasn’t there when she returned, but I’m guessing she forged his name.

So, I’m mostly happy with my blog. I have nested comments working, and some fun plug-ins for stats and polls (assuming I ever want to make a poll). The only thing I’m really lacking, is a calendar. I’m not even so sure I need a calendar, but it would be convenient. I’ve played with different calendar plug-ins before, and most aren’t bad, but seem to lack something. I’ve tried the one from firetree before, and it’s almost perfect. It lets you add future events, multi-day events, and subscribe to the calendar, which is cool. The only problem is how it adds events to the calendar; for whatever reason, everything is added to the calendar by the date of creation. While this is fine for posts, I don’t really want my static pages added to the archives, and I’d rather my events show up only when they’re scheduled, and not ALSO on the date when I created them.

I’ve tried a few other options, with not much luck. I’d like to be able to display and modify my google calendar from the blog, but I don’t know how feasible that is. Has anyone out there come across a calendar plug-in that they are particularly attached to?

I’ve determined I have a new weakness. It’s not for video games, although I do have a weakness for puzzle games. No, since about last July, I’ve had a weakness for cookbooks. Last summer, I bought myself a cookie cookbook and a chicken cookbook. Since then, I’ve received 2 slow cooker cookbooks as Christmas presents, and have bought 3 more cookbooks for myself. I don’t really know what the compulsion is, but in stores I almost always find myself drawn to the cookbooks. I crack one open, and immediately start classifying the recipes; “disgusting, maybe, oooooooh that sounds yummy.” I seem to have an eye for picking out the cookbooks, as well; thus far, I don’t think I’ve made anything I wouldn’t eat again, which is really the test of how good a recipe is. And it hasn’t helped that now I have MasterCook, basically a digital recipe box; merging my computer geekiness with my cooking nerd, now I can manage them all on my computer, and search, and… this shouldn’t be that fascinating, and yet it is. Never in a million years did I think I would buy a cookbook before a video game, but I still haven’t bought myself Final Fantasy 3 for the DS. Cookbooks are insidious, though; I feel guilty buying a $35 video game, but a $6-$10 cookbook is fine. And of course, Matt isn’t going to tell me to stop buying cookbooks, because he benefits. Oh well. So, if anyone out there wants some recipes, you know who to talk to.

For those of you unaware, Western Michigan got hit with one hell of a blizzard yesterday. So bad, in fact, I considered calling in to work. I didn’t, but I seriously contemplated it. In the end, my need for cash won out, and I just drove really, really slow. It took me over 40 minutes to drive 10 miles, when I can normally get there in under 20 minutes. Yeah, bad. So I go to work, expecting it to be a ghost town, and there are people shopping! And not just “oh crap, we’re gonna get snowed in, we need toilet paper!” shopping; they brought the kids out, and were buying random, completely non-essential crap. I wanted to grab them and shake them; “I know why I’m here, but why in the HELL are you here?” And they didn’t even bother bundling up; I saw so many children without hats or mittens or scarves. The police advised everyone to stay off the roads unless it was emergency; the shopping malls closed EARLY (on a SATURDAY), and these people felt the need to go shopping?

In a separate rant, I really dislike people who haggle. Haggling has it’s place, but not generally in retail. The prices are posted for a reason. Sometimes the prices change, but the price of certain items never changes. So don’t try to convince me that a $4.99 item is really $3.99; read the sign. Oh, and after I have someone fetch the sign to PROVE the price, and you decide you don’t want the item because it’s too expensive, please don’t pay for your $20 order with a $100 bill. It just makes you look cheap, and pisses me off.