I don’t depart tomorrow until 4:45, so I should be totally fine as long as I don’t sleep until 3.

Beyond “dealing with the weather”, it’s a very open trip.

Not looking forward to the flight, but I’m happy that it’s a non-stop flight from BOS to PDX. Could be a lot worse.

Later, if this goes smoothly, I’ll figure out how it works with images. Definitely neat!

All-in-all, I tend to prefer buy-it-now “auctions” since they’re almost always simpler, faster and you don’t have to deal with other people that bid in stupid ways. I’ve recently been buying Magic: the Gathering cards and where possible, getting multiple cards from a single seller to reduce shipping and handling costs. It’s been working out well so far.

Unfortunately, most sellers seem to not properly set up the shipping configuration properly so I always have to “request total from seller” to get the proper shipping cost for multiple items. A minor inconvenience, but nothing too severe.

For one seller, I’ve requested a proper shipping cost five separate times over the past 12 days. That’s almost two weeks with no response at all. Unless the seller simply doesn’t have the items that they’re selling, I can’t understand why they wouldn’t respond to my requests. I want to give them my money, after all!

Oh well – I hate having to get to the point of giving negative feedback, but I don’t feel that I had any other option. Lame.

That all said, in the past couple of months we’ve seen some really huge temperature swings. Today flirted with 70 degrees while Wednesday won’t hit 50. That’s a twenty degree swing in two days – at the highs. If you look at today’s high (69) with whatever Wednesday night’s low is, and it might approach a 30 degree swing in 60 hours.

This isn’t the fucking desert – this is Sparta! Boston.

Now, I love warm weather. I really do. I’m not complaining that it was almost 70 degrees today. I can definitely do with some more warm weather – especially in November. But this constant rollercoaster has to end. I’m sure it’s not good for what little local wildlife we have and it’s just annoying as hell.

Seriously – make up your damn mind already!

Been doing some pick-up IT work the past couple of days. It’s good to be back in the more admin side of things for a change. A lot of what I do at work is more implementation and environment build-out.

There’s not a lot going on to speak of. Just getting back into the grind and trying not to be overly busy. Sucks that I’m somewhat failing at that.

I’m happier than I’ve ever been and I don’t have anything to really complain about that’s not weather or climate related.

If that’s all the real bitching I have, then I’d say I’m doing pretty damn good!

I’m also enjoying the fact that 31 is a prime number… because I’m a nerd.

• Power Functions XL-Motor
• Power Functions M-Motor
• Power Functions IR Receiver
• Power Functions IR Remote Control
• Power Functions Extension Wire 20”

Instead, I received the following:

• 0x Power Functions XL-Motor
• 3x Power Functions M-Motor
• 1x Power Functions IR Receiver
• 2x Power Functions IR Remote Control
• 2x Power Functions Extension Wire 20”

Whoops!

So I’m missing 2x XL motors and an IR Receiver, but have an extra M motor.

I called up Lego and talked to a very nice customer service rep that got everything square and is shipping out the missing pieces straight away. She asked if I needed expedited shipping, but I don’t so I told her it wasn’t necessary. She also told me to keep the extra M motor — which they would probably only barely break even on if they paid for return shipping and packaging (I only paid $6.37 for each), so that makes sense on a few levels.

Despite the mix-up, it was a very easy call to place and get things sorted. I was only on hold for maybe 60 seconds, which obviously made the whole ordeal that much less of an issue. I was also pleased to see that I wasn’t given any sort of harassment about trying to “prove” that the order was packed incorrectly. I was simply taken at my word and the issue was resolved. We’re not talking about a ton of money, but I’m sure there’s some vendors that would give you a hard time.

All-in-all, I’m rather pleased with the response of Lego Customer Service.

It was so hilarious, that we had no choice but to get it. Knowing that Sabine wouldn’t be a fan, it was totally spec’ed out for Doctor Lovington.

Here’s a couple of shots I took with my phone (click for larger):

I think the third one is my favorite.

If this isn’t one of the funniest things you’ve ever seen, I don’t know what’s wrong with you!

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

The commercial is even kick-ass…

Just a note – my birthday is coming up. Surprise me.

The interesting bit was that when I hung up the phone, I received a message saying that I had 4 new voicemail message. Four. Seriously. And I was only on the phone for two minutes!

I’m not claiming that I’m super popular. The contrary is closer to the reality of the situation. The deal is, the oldest one was from September 20th. That’s over two weeks ago — and I’m just NOW getting the alert that I have voicemail messages.

It’s not like I’ve flown or been in any out of service areas in that time. There’s simple no excuse for not receiving a notification for four voicemail messages for over two weeks.

I’ve already been considering moving away from Virgin Mobile — this is just one more big push in that direction.

For anyone interested, the only reason I’m on Virgin is because they bought out Helio, who I was a customer with by choice.