For desert I poured myself the last bowl of Lucky Charms in the box, but one marshmallow got stuck at the bottom. I pulled it out, and guess what? It was the Pot O’ Gold marshmallow.
Yes, I found the pot of gold at the end of a box of Lucky Charms.
I clearly need a hobby.
But, in a pinch, Frito’s seem to work just fine. I recommend you pop the chocolate icing in the microwave for a few seconds… helps prevent chip breakage.
Mmm… chocolate Frito’s… just like mom used to make.
UPS, FedEX, USPS… take note: if you can do a better job keeping track of packages than DHL I will insist that all shipments to me use your services.
I recently ordered three items from Dell computer… a pair of LCD monitors for me and my wife and a docking station for my wife’s laptop. All three packages were picked up at identical times from Dell by DHL. Two of the packages are identically-sized, the third very close in size. All three packages are being shipped to the same location, my home. Check out the shipping status table below and tell me if you can spot my frustration?
| Date | Time | Activity/comments | Location |
| Monitor 1 – Current status: Delivered | |||
| 2/21/2005 | 2:13PM | Shipment delivered. | San Jose South, CA |
| 2/21/2005 | 2:13PM | With delivery courier. | |
| 2/21/2005 | 7:59AM | Arrived at DHL facility. | San Jose South, CA |
| 2/18/2005 | 3:42PM | Picked Up by DHL. | Shipper’s Door |
| Monitor 2 – Current status: Processed at Sort Facility. | |||
| 2/20/2005 | 11:23AM | Processed at Sort Facility. | Wilmington, OH |
| 2/18/2005 | 3:42PM | Picked Up by DHL. | Shipper’s Door |
| Docking station – Current status: In transit. | |||
| 2/18/2005 | 3:42PM | Picked Up by DHL. | Shipper’s Door |
Every item was picked up from Dell by DHL at the exact same time on Friday. Even though the box for the Dock is going to be a similar size to the monitor boxes, the Dock is 5 lbs and the monitors are 26 lbs… let’s give DHL the benefit of the doubt and expect the monitors will be traveling together. No? They’re not? One arrived yesterday… 3 days ahead of schedule.
Okay, let’s give DHL the benefit of the doubt and expect they’ll get the same level of tracking detail. Oops, sorry. One package was tracked through a sorting facility in Ohio… the other simply showed up in San Jose with no intermediate stops.
What about the dock? It’s been “in transit” since the day it was picked up… no other detail is available… naturally. Tracking number? What’s that for?
“Hey Reeves, you got a package early, you should be happy.”
Well, sure, if I didn’t have a job and my wife wasn’t in school we could sit at home all week waiting for the packages to trickle in. Heck, I’d be happy with a semi-accurate tracking of the packages so I could plan to be home to receive them. Having no idea when the boxes will arrive is disconcerting. Receiving the 3 orders over a random number of days is frustrating. Knowing I ordered a stack of expensive computer equipment and the shipper is sloppy in tracking and handling it is annoying. Calling DHL to suggest they be more consistent and getting the attitude of “hey, you got your package early, you should be happy” is infuriating. DHL, that’s one step away from saying “hey, you got your package, you should be happy.”
DHL: From this day forward I’m going to insist all shippers use UPS, FedEX or USPS… and I will pay extra for the privilege of not using your sloppy service.
This quote was given to Fareed Zakaria, the international editor for Newsweek, by an Iraqi politician:
“There are currently two Grand Ayatollahs running Iraq: Sistani and Bush. Most of us feel that Sistani is the more rational.”
Fareed wrote an optimistic opinion piece about Ayatollah Ali Sistani and the effects of his leadership in Iraq. It’s a good read.
Steev (no, not a typo) is a ton of fun… apparently too much fun for a single web page.
Aparently he needs more to do.
While working on the Hotmail schedule I discovered that my worth as a PM has been diminished now that I’m a lead. I know it’s true, our project management software, used for scheduling work, proves it.
Computers can’t lie, right?
Paula Little, you’ve just finished your first semester of graduate school… what are you going to do now?
Thanks Denise for the tip on this Jamba Juice coupon: http://jambajuice.com/menuguide/featuredproducts.html
Starting tomorrow (12/1) people on the west coast will be able to request a free credit report at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. This new service will eventually be available to the whole country but is starting with the western states first, allowing the bureaus to do a gradual roll out (can you say beta test?).
I’ll likely be one of the early people who runs out and signs up for a credit report, using my personal information to shake the bugs out of the new system. I’m sure everything will be just fine, what’s the worst that could happen? 🙂
The first states are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. For more information MSNBC ran a story on the subject a few days ago: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6576905/
You know they didn’t put this page up recently, but the number of things to see in Iraq makes me sad that the human race is so screwed up. One more place I’m likely to never see in my lifetime.
On the entertaining side, I do like Atlas Tours’s tag line: “We are sincere”. If we’re rude and obnoxious, don’t fret, you know we mean it. 🙂