San Jose day

Today Julie and I visited the Winchester Mystery House. We took the "whole she bang" tour. Very cool, very freaky and pretty cold. That place was some kind of drafty. Very cool visit.

Later, The Tech Museum and the Star Trek Exhibition.

Um....

AWESOME!

I have a photo of me in the "big chair" that I'll share later as well as a shot of me in the transporter. The displays rate a 4 out of 5. There were a lot of costumes from the various shows and movies as well as some props and recreated props. I read in Via Magazine from AAA that the bridge set was from the series, though I'm not to sure about that. Overall the tour was nice, but I liked the Mystery House better.

Tomorrow, Monterey!

Merry Chrsitmas!

I don't "get" to do chemo today! In fact, I'm done! Whoo hoo!

Last night was Christmas festivities at my parents house. Freakin awesome just to be there. My sister and her family trip me out with the terrific gifts they find. Being a big Star Trek freak, my sister always finds the neatest stuff. My sister's boyfriend was there too as well as his son. His daughter arrived with his granddaughter as a surprise. That was so cool! His granddaughter was a treasure!

Today, I actually slept in until 7! That's a skill I'd like to learn, sleeping past 4.

Today we're going to Julie's Uncle's home to spend some Christmas time with them.

Then, a few days experiencing, "first star to the right and straight on until morning". We're just going to go and have some "Stan doesn't have cancer" and "Julie would like to get away" time. It's going to be a blast.

The red shirt...

Lately it seems that if I were guest staring in a Star Trek episode, I would be the fella wearing the red shirt.

Today, however, I was treated to a very nice surprise. I had to run to the Post Office to mail off some Christmas goodies. I got there just before the door opened. About 30 people had the same idea I did, get there early. I was a little nervous thinking, "this is going to take forever." With only three clerks working the counter, I was certain my fears would be realized.

12 minutes later, I'm out the door. My transaction, as well as the 20 or so folks in front of me, was complete!

Fabulous!

Things I want to learn and do.

I want to learn to focus on one thing at a time. Doing three at a time is not only impossible at this point, but it never was very productive.

I want to learn to breathe when I get frustrated.

I want to find out why every contractor I deal with is incompetent. Yesterday's fiasco was a discussion with my mail order pharmacy about why they seem to continue to deliver my maintenance meds to my home I lived in 3 moves ago. The first young woman was quite nice, but couldn't help me. She sent me to a "resolution agent" who was equally unable to help me. "We have to pull the conversation to confirm that you did indeed tell an agent your new address. If we determine that you have indeed notified the agent, we will call you within 24 to 48 hours to arrange for a new shipment to the correct address?"

Now I'm insulted. Three times I have phoned and corrected the address because I've caught the error on the company's web site prior to shipment. You now tell me that you have to confirm that I said that? Really? Mighty fine. We are done doing business. I'll go to my local Safeway now. Sure, I'll pay triple for my meds, but I'm betting that they won't ship them to the wrong address and that I can pick them up on my schedule, not 7 to 10 business days.

I want to give something back! I'm working on becoming a volunteer.

I want to lose 10 pounds and never find them again.

Todays goals:

Continue with the turkey jerky project.

Make stock.

Make a terrific dinner.

Help Julie begin the Christmas cooking. (This is were the breathe part will come in handy. Today I'm the grunt, just follow the instructions)

Pretty easy day!

Chemo brain and power outages!

Okie Dokie!

The lights just dimmed, then got really bright, dimmed again... and poof. It's dark.

Shortly thereafter the lights came back on and I'm like, "Crap! All the clocks are flashing 12:00."

I hope that I can figure the darned things out. I had fits setting clocks before chemo!

A side note on Sissy Sushi...

Once the chemo burns out of my system, I can do real sushi. You can't have real sushi while on chemo because your immune system is taking a pounding and adding the potential risk of raw fish is frowned upon.

Yesterday was just cool 'cause I felt like I was being a bit of a rebel.

Sissy Sushi! And AT&T bites ass.

Today I had Sissy Sushi.

That is, I went to Safeway and bought a cheapo plastic box filled with a California Roll that included "no raw fish". The rice was sweet, the wasabi was glorious, and I can still operate chop sticks.

I made a dental appointment! Yeah!

I gave an AT&T rep a hard time. BIG hard time. "Did we provide you with excellent service today Mr. Carman?" My reply using my best patient voice (you who know me know this voice well) "Absolutely NOT!" Her reply was, "well thank you for calling AT.... WHAT?!?!? you got bad service?"

Lookie here sister...

It took me 25 minutes on wait (not hold) to get to Wayne. That is AFTER I spoke to your stupid menu system... "Ok... let me see if I heard you right."

Wayne lacked the skill sets or authority to answer my question, "How much longer on my DSL commitment?"

Wayne forwarded me to DSL Tech Support.

Nearly immediately, I got Chris.

Chris was made to look like an idiot by AT&T. He gets to read the script, but cannot answer my question, " How much longer on my DSL commitment?"

I get to wait on hold for 10 more minutes before I get Myra who barely speaks Engrish and is ready to "provide me with excellent customer serveece."

I finally get my answer and she asks me if I got "great customer service"

UH OH!!! Here comes Mr. Hyde!

NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Lookie here AT&T...

While my puny little local phone line, my DSL and my petty little 5 cell phone accounts will not be missed by you when I leave... and I'm sure that just under 300 buckeroos a month will not be missed by you...

I shall not miss your piss poor attempt at customer service.

By the way... the company I went to for my cell phone service had a human that picked up on the first ring.

The company I am choosing for my phone and internet gave me 2 choices when I phoned and a human picked up on the second ring.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!