Random rant

I really hate it when I send an email to someone to just give a quick update on a project and the response is an attack on me and what the other person read between the lines. 

The lines that didn't even exist.

Now, I know that email does a poor job of conveying tone.  But there wasn't even any tone I tried to convey.

I sent a, "Hey, a quick reminder about XYZ and a suggestion" email and I got a, "I already know what you told me, don't tell me what to do, and furthermore, you made me mad the last time we talked and I'm going to tell you off now."

Nice.

Have you ever been to Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert, Arizona?

 It's DANG good!

We went there for dinner tonight.  We chose the walk-up window.  That's right, the walk-up window.

We were both tired and decided to get the food to go and eat at home.  And pretend we made dinner.

We ordered and sat on the bench outside the walk-up window, waiting patiently for our food.

Because they were super busy, it took awhile.  Like twenty minutes.  In 100 degree weather.

They called, "Darrell, your food is ready!"

Darrell jumped up and went to the window.

But before he had the chance to get our food, some lady who had ordered about three minutes earlier, talking on a cell phone, pushed her way to the walk-up window.

And stole.our.food.

You read correctly, my friends. 

She stole.
Our.
Food.

Darrell asked the girl at the window if she said "Darrell" or some other name.

She said, "Darrell."

He told her that our food was stolen by the lady that just took the food.

Sidenote--To the girl at the window: Is it too hard to notice that the lady you JUST took an order from is claiming food that isn't hers?

Back to the story:

Everyone in line was agog.  Joe's did make up our food relatively quickly.

But I'm hoping she ordered far more than two turkey sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and corn.

Or better yet.

That she is allergic.

By the way...her name is Cheryl.

And apparently, the world revolves around her.

I'm stealing from my sister

A couple of weeks ago, I drove (actually rode since I can't drive a standard transmission car (I KNOW!  Forty years old and can't do it...unbelievable!)) to Colorado Springs, with my sister Julie.  She moved from Tucson to the NYC.  We stayed at Jennilyn, my other sister's house.  You know, my sister with the only grandchild.  The cutest niece on the earth!  My other sister, Emily, flew into Colorado Springs and drove with Julie to the NYC.  Emily is a fabulous photographer and I stole this photo of my from her blog.

I was amazed with what she must have done with photoshop to have a photo of me turn out so relatively nice!

Thanks, Emily!  And Julie!  And Jennilyn!  And Malena!  What a fun couple of days!

Money for nothing....

and the chicks for free.

Do you remember that Dire Straits song?

Well, I found a website that will give you $15--that you spend on FABULOUS merchandise they sell--just for signing up.

Pretty amazing, huh?

It is One Kings Lane.

Sign up, and enter my email address in the optional "I was invited by" field (darrellandsteph at cox dot com), and we both get $15.

Then you can refer people and the whole world gets $15.

You can redeem your credit right away, or anytime in the next six months.

But if you see something you like, snatch it up. The offers are only available for one day and once the product is gone, it's gone.

I still don't like Apple, but

Darrell won an i-Pad and it's sort of fun.

Except it uses i-Tunes and we all know how much I hate that!

Best of all, Darrell is really good at sharing.

Thanks, babe!

What kind of geek are you?

There are gleeks.  I sorta fall into that category.

There are computer geeks.  I SOOOO don't fall into that category.  There are two IT guys at work that I single-handedly keep employed.  I have nearly run out of memory on my computer (which is the third one I have had in less than two and a half years of employment there).  I have files on my computer that need to be transferred to the server.  But they are so big that the server would crash if they were transferred.  I know it SOUNDS like I know what I'm talking about, but I don't.  Because....

I am also the geek that can remember things that I am told.  Unless it is important.  I have about forty years of useless information stored in my cabeza.  I remember that William Harvey was the first physician to accurately describe the circulation system and properties of blood (thank you college science--twenty-two years ago!).  But I cannot for the life of me remember to charge my cell phone every night.

I am not a comic book geek.  I just.don't.get.them.

I'm not a science geek.  Even though I remember the whole "Harvey thing," I really don't care about science.  The last science class I took in college was Astronomy.  You're thinking, "That sounds like a cool class...looking at stars through telescopes."  That's what I thought.  Nope.  Tons of math.  I didn't get it.  I dropped the class the day of the final.  I probably had a 3% in the class.  Definitely NOT a science geek.

I'm not a technology geek.  I don't have to have the latest gadget.  I've had my cell phone for over two years, even though I was eligible for an upgrade more than a year ago.  I choose my phone based solely on its ability to have "Charlie's Angels" as a ring tone.  And I can't remember how to use most of the 5,627 functions my phone has.

I'm not a math geek.  If you were to look at my report card from 11th grade, you would think I was a math geek.  I took Algebra II that year.  And had a 113% in the class.  But it was the second time I took the class.  I thought I liked math and wanted to take it all four years of high school.  I switched high schools between my sophomore and junior years and there were different math tracks.  I had to retake Algebra II to take Trigonometry.  So I more than aced Algebra II the second time.  Not so much the first time.

I'm not a music geek.  I like many genres and am not tied to only one style of music.  I like music that is old and music that is new.  I think that a music geek isn't so much the person who is really "into" music as much as the person who is only "into" one type of music.  That's not me.

I'm a map and navigator geek.  I love looking at maps, charting the course, being the direction-giver.  I hate mapquest and other web-based navigation systems.  I've been misled too many times.  I do, however, like GPS.  I especially like teasing the GPS lady (have you noticed they are always ladies?  The ONLY ladies that men will ask for directions?).  I will purposely turn the wrong way, just so the GPS lady can tell me to turn around.  I like to keep her on her toes.  When I was eight, I was pretty pleased that I could navigate my entire family, including grandparents and uncle, from our house in North Little Rock, Arkansas, to the Arkansas Territorial Capital--eight miles away (it SOOO seemed further)--a couple of months after attending the museum on a school field trip.  Yep.  I'm.that.good.

I'm a grammar geek.  But don't get me wrong...I'm no professional.  I'm merely an amateur grammar geek.  I do it for fun.  At work, I'm required to write legal reports.  I try my best to be a grammar geek, but I truly leave it to the professionals. Seriously.  We have editors whose sole job is to read reports from me and my co-workers to ensure we have used grammar correctly.  And so, as an amateur, semi-professional grammar geek, I.love.this: