Taco Del Mar - The Saga Continues

This morning as I was checking a joint email account the hubs and I have set up for communication with the kids schools etc. I found this apology email. The hubs had emailed the corporate office of Taco Del Mar and apparently they sent our email address on to the owner that I had dealings with. I have copied and pasted it precisely as it was written. I knew this guy was hard to understand in person but please.

hi karen &chris

am mike personaly apology from my heart what ever hapen from me about over charge by employe and that employe no more work on taco del mar. and also refund your rest $12.35 to cover your damage you can see this with couple day and again i am very sorry about that and apology again .please call me if any thing else ican do for you thank you mike

He also left me a voicemail yesterday essentially stating the same thing. This is the "face" of Taco Del Mar. I have no words.

I Want My Two Dollars!

Remember that movie from the 80's with John Cusak called Better Off Dead where the paperboy follows the main character around yelling he wants his two dollars? Well, I felt like that paperboy and I have been been vindicated.

Sunday night the hubs and I went to our local Taco Del Mar for dinner. This is a restaurant my husband loves and there is a franchise really close to us. We have had problems with them in the past for charging us for the wrong items and making the wrong food. This time I discovered $2 more than my receipt came out of my checking account.

When I called the store to ask them about it I was all but accused of lying. I spoke to the owner who was completely rude and unprofessional (as were all the employees I encountered both in person and on the phone) and finally went in tonight to get my refund. Apparently the owner ran it through my credit card and forgot to call and let me know. I have a copy of that receipt as well as a copy of the original receipt I signed with SOMEONE ELSE'S HANDWRITING ADDING A $2 TIP TO MY RECEIPT AFTER I SIGNED IT!

It's not really about the $2. It's about the fact that I had money stolen from me. In fact, there were several other receitps in the stack that looked like they had tips written in the same handwriting.

Taco Del Mar is filing for bankruptcy. Interesting.

Overwhelm

Apparently I am unhappy - according to my husband.

Today I worked at my J.O.B. for 12 hours. I am a salaried employee so that pretty much means the more I work, the less per hour I make. I am completely swamped and there seems to be no end in sight. My quality of life in the last two weeks has diminished. I wake up, eat, shower, drive to work, work 9 to 11 hours, drive home, eat, sleep. I am a really exciting and fun person to be around right now.

Problem is, I have thrown all my resolutions out the window by just trying to get through the day. I am exhausted. I am cranky. I am miserable.

I am frustrated because I have been trying to sew a Steampunk outfit for a Calender shoot this Sunday. Folks, its just not gonna happen.

Now, I can sew and sew well. I have make ski jackets and formal dresses. Problem is I am lumpy and sewing for a lumpy body requires alterations of patterns and garments. I just don't have that kind of time and am so tired my eyes burn.

Something has got to give. I need to put myself first. I need to say no to the Calendar shoot even though it is going dissappoint people. I am desperately looking for a way to find balance. I need to learn to say "no".

My thoughts are jumbled and rambling but I just needed to put something down on virtual paper. Maybe things will look better in the morning - at oh dark thirty!

Computer Update and Other News

So after unplugging the modem for 24 hours we were able to get back online last night. Still no Roku action which is very frustrating. A friend who works in IT is going to come over tomorrow night and look at it. We are hopeful this will be a relatively inexpensive fix and our Roku issues will be resolved by the weekend.

Cross fingers for me!

In other news, this is day 6 of no Starbucks for the month. Just 21 days to go to meet this goal. This is amazing for me and I am pretty darn proud of myself.

It goes to show that when you put your mind to something you can do it. A few years ago I would pay for lunch nearly every day. It's been a couple years now and I rarely eat lunch out. Just something I put my mind to.


If you have not checked her out yet, Mrs. B is having a month long Halloween celebration over at her blog Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom. She has giveaways every day and guest bloggers. Click on over and check her out!

Our Computer Died

Last night I turned on the computer to warm it up since its a little slow and takes a bit in otder to get online. After stopping at my neighbors to get my dog and chatting for a bit I came back down to see that I still could not get online.

Everything works on the stupid computer but it is unable to get online due to some network card. The computer is 3 1/2 years old and I was hoping to keep it a little longer before needing to replace it. This is also probably why we are unable to use our Roku to stream from Netflix to our TV.

The hubs and I have been wanting to get two laptops and eliminate the computer all together since we don't have a lot of room in our place we had to reserve one corner of our dining room for the computer. With laptops we can get rid of the temporary setup we have there and just put a cabinet to store things like the external drive, printer, etc.

We are shopping around and will end up buying some sort of laptop by the weekend. My husband is selling a car (hopefully tonight) so a portion of that money will be used for the laptop purchase.

Until then we can't get online unless we go to our neighbors or I do it at work.

Ug! So very inconvenient.

Roku

The Roku we ordered finally arrived last week. We have successfully watch one TV show and that is it. For some reason the Roku cannot get online. I am so frustrated.

I have checked online forums and have already tried everything suggested. So at a loss and will return it if need be. Would prefer to actually use it!

Ug!

This morning I was in a hurry. I was trying to touch up my toe nail polish and I spilled the bottle ALL OVER THE FLOOR AND MY PANTS!


The pants are only a month old and I love them and wear them often. I suppose if it was the beginning of summer I would be even more irritated. However, I can still probably get two more months of wear out of them before the season is officially over. Even here in overcast and rainy Seattle.

They are soaking in Oxy Clean but I hae little hope.

Happy Hour

Yesterday was the hubs birthday and his grandparents gave him a $25 gift card for a local restaurant. Typically hubby and I can eat well splitting a large appetizer and having a drink each which was our plan tonight. I had gone to the website to look at their menu and discovered no prices listed online. No matter, Happy Hour appetizers and drinks are usually reasonable and we figured before tip we could eat for about $12.

When we entered the restaurant we told the gals at the desk we were going to sit in the bar. They asked if we wanted a booth and we said sure. We sat in the booth and ordered our appetizer platter and two Guinness from the Happy Hour menu. They serve complimentary bread so that was plenty of food for us. When our tab came we had been charged full price for everything. The waitress clarified that because we were sitting in a booth the Happy Hour prices did not apply.

There is no mention of that on their menu in the restaurant or online. In fact, I could see no mention of Happy Hour online. Just a reference for food and drink specials for football game nights. Maybe we are not savvy restaurant frequenters but we didn't realize that because we were offered a booth we were essentially "upsold".

When we explained this the the waitress she was very gracious and went and changed our bill. We still have enough left on the gift card to go back again and probably will but sit at the high tables - not in a booth.

What is so irritating about this is how cheap I felt and how little information patrons have to go on in making a decision on what they decide to dine on or drink. Prices not being posted for beer and mixed drinks. Not even basic prices posted with a caveat that if you order top shelf alcohol it would of course increase your drink expense.

Have any of you out there ever experienced this?

I Thought North Carolina Was The Tar Heel State?

Yesterday hubby and I came home to a freshly paved parking lot at our condo complex. We knew it was going to happen and took our extra car to my parents house. What we didn't expect was NOT TO BE ABLE TO GET TO OUR FRONT DOOR!


Our overflow parking lot was not paved for the simple reason one homeowner was out of town and his car was parked there. The parking is set up that they paved right up to the fences that seperate the parking lot from the moat of plants in front of buildings. There are walkways from the pavement over the moats to get to front doors. However, no way from the overflow lot to the walkways.

Hubby and I gingerly picked our way through the parking lot trying to stick to what looked like dry areas. We couldn't help notice others footprints in the black tar as we went. We both slipped a couple of times but neither of us fell thank goodness.

I have emailed the property manager to see about reimbursement for our shoes. Naturally hubby and I were wearing our most expnsive pair each. Typically we are a Converse sort of couple but yesterday hubby was wearing his dress shoes and I was wearing my Uggs.