Whisper or Shout

March 26th, 2009 by Romelda

Are you running Mac OS X? Does This icon link look familiar? If yes, then you know how frustrating this little icon can be. You probably don’t know WHAT this icon means exactly, but you know FOR SURE, that whatever was supposed to be attached to your email from a friend is coming in to you email in this crazy file type. Plus, you can NEVER open the darn file either right?

Well, here is a little info about what that is exactly, and why you can’t open it, and some blessed information for you so you CAN finally open these files.

What the heck is a TNEF file anyways? TNEF stands for: Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) and it was introduced by Microsoft to package information for sending messages across the Internet. That’s about all the information you need to know about the actual file type, because what we do know is they are a pain in the butt, particularly if you are one of the cool new Mac converts and have pc-enabled friends of old. They try to send you cool pics, files etc., and you get nothing but frustrated because you keep getting attachments called winmail.dat and miss out on what everyone is emailing back and forth about.

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February 7th, 2009 by Romelda

Don’t ask me why we have been trying new soup recipes (as Heather is not a huge fan of soups), but we have.

Even though we’re not beer drinkers or lovers by any means, we decided that the “cheddar” part of this recipe made it worth trying, and it was a cold night, so why not. Looked pretty straight forward to me. Now all we needed was the beer. Not knowing our beers exactly, Heather called from the liquor store and asked what the difference between pale ale and dark ale was. Why was she asking me? I don’t drink beer! I tell her “the colour?” I suggested she mention to an LCBO staff member that she is making a recipe that calls for “ale” (the original called for dark, but I suggest that light might be better, or whatever kind you enjoy best) and ask for suggestions. In the end, she was confused and couldn’t decide, so she came home with one can of each, light, medium and dark ale. I couldn’t help but laugh at us and our lack of beer knowledge. We have the same trouble with wine to be honest. But beer is beer isn’t it? (Every beer drinker on the planet will argue otherwise I am sure!) Read the rest of this entry »

January 31st, 2009 by Romelda

For over two weeks this month I have been trying to get some customer service from furniture SuperStore, The Brick. Back in September we were shopping for a headboard for our kingsize bed. We told the sales guy we had a metal frame, and did NOT want rails and a footboard….just the headboard. He showed us several models that came in king, and assured us that they didn’t require the rails and footboard.

 This is where I take it at face value that the sales guy would know what the hell he was talking about and trying to sell us - after all he is the only sales guys working on “Sleep Street” (they have the store all laid out like a neighbourhood with aisles being named for streets complete with a life-sized replica of a GreenPark Home all decked out right in the middle of the store). Note to self: don’t assume sales guy knows what he is talking about. I should have listened to my gut instinct when those pesky “red flags” came up for me - like when he had trouble finding the actual SKU numbers in the online database…well in fact he had trouble even logging on. Once he confirmed that the one we chose did come in King, I explained to him that because our insurance company was likely replacing two recliners we had purchased originally from The Brick, we would want to have the headboard delivered at the same time as the chairs. So, I agreed to put a deposit of $50 on the headboard using my debit card so they could hold the headboard - red flag number two came when we had to go to no fewer than five computer terminals to use a debit machine, as for some reason NONE of them worked - I believe it was operator malfunction. Then he had to print out the invoice, and yes, red flag number three came and slapped me across the face when he had to go to yet another terminal to get the damn thing to print the invoice. This whole process took over an hour. An hour for 50 bucks…sheesh.

So, in the end, the chairs were delivered right from The Brick to us and we had to have the headboard delivered just this month separately. The delivery guys arrived and took the headboard out of its packaging and I notice immediately that the feet of the headboard have only slat grooves for attaching rails and NOT holes for bolts. I am emphatic with the delivery guy stating that I think they have delivered the wrong headboard as the one we bought was able to attach to the metal frame of the bed, not for rails. The delivery guy shoots up a massive red flag for me…he says (in a middle european accent I can’t quite place) “it is right one - you drill holes for the bolts yourself.” Did I hear him correctly? I drill the holes myself? I ask him again “are you absolutely positive that it will fit the bedframe?” Again he assures me, yes. I say to him “because I don’t want to put a frame together and go to attach a headboard and find out it doesn’t fit, and have to deal with returning it now that the packaging is off and wrecked etc.” See, the fact I even thought about having to return it was my instinct screaming at me….“don’t do it, don’t accept the delivery. No one has to drill their own holes to attach a headboard, that’s ridiculous!” 

But I didn’t listen to the screaming. I liked the headboard enough and was reassured about three times by the delivery guy it would be fine, all the time rationalizing in my head that surely headboards are a universal size, and whether it was for rails or not, it would be a common size. You can see where this is going, can’t you? … Well, I am here to tell you that no, headboards are not a universal size. We go to put the headboard up to measure for the holes, and well damnit “I TOLD YOU SO!” screamed my gut instinct, right in my face, then it stuck out its tongue! About 2 inches too wide the headboard was. There was no way in hell it was going to fit. Piss me right off! I hate when I am right and don’t listen to myself! Read the rest of this entry »