Another One Down

Friday is the official date when final grades are due from our professors for the spring semester. My professors this time around have all submitted their grades, so at least I didn't have to wait too long. Here's a breakdown:

Microeconomics, Grade: A. I don't know how anyone in that class didn't get an A who completed it from this professor. The discussion board topics only required students to respond a minimum of three times over three different days for full credit (100%) in the respective chapter. There was also a chance for extra credit if you responded more than three times over three different days. The homework assignments allowed multiple attempts to keep trying until you got it right, and the exams were all open book. Shame on anyone that didn't get an A (from this teacher, not for microeconomics in general)

English Writing, Grade: A. I placed into an English prep class once I ended up taking my placement test last summer. I was annoyed, but it was fairly obvious to anyone that I was rusty in my writing skills. My score was enough to place me into English 101 at some schools, but the standards for MontCo are higher for whatever reason. I got an A in the class, but it really was kinda a no-brainer.

History of Western Civilizations, Modern European, Grade: A-. The class consisted of weekly discussion board assignments, in which we had to interpret in our own words the chapter that we read. There were four papers we had to write that each covered a quarter of the class, one midterm and one final. There wasn't much room for error on any of these assignments, which I found annoying.

Accounting II, Grade: B+. This was mainly due to Rachel's tutoring, as her ability to pick up on accounting principles quickly made me jealous. I started out fine, but struggled later in the semester. I give full credit to Rachel for helping me attain the grade I did.

Introduction to Astronomy, Grade: B-. I struggled a lot, as the work required a lot of time that I didn't have to devote fully to the class. I started to lose focus about a third of the way through, but was able to pull things together for the final. I'll always wonder if I could have gotten a higher grade in the class if I had been able to devote the time I needed. At least my lab science elective is over with early, instead of putting it off until my last semester as originally planned.

In all, a successful semester. I'm taking a full load this summer as well, and by the end of August, I'll have officially completed my first year of college. Not bad, considering the dismal failure that I was back when I was fresh from high school. Sorry to bore you all with the details, but I am proud of the progress I've made.

Sports Evolution

Growing up in the Washington, DC area you would think that my sports loyalties would all lie with the local teams. Redskins, Capitals, Bullets (I hate the Wizards name), and the Baltmore Orioles were the "big 4" teams of my youth, yet the only team I follow and root for is the Redskins. Dad was a big fan, and passed that onto me. The rest of the sports teams in the area never appealed to him for various reasons, so they never appealed to me until later in life. In that vein, here are the reasons I like the teams that I do (and perhaps one or two for teams that I despise):

Pro Football - Washington Redskins - number one in my heart. 'Nuff said.
College Football - I don't have a specific team that I root for all the time. If pushed to make a decision, though, it's between Michigan and Tennessee. Michigan because I liked their helmets when I was a kid, and Tennessee because their mastcot reminded me of Davey Crockett.
MLB - Chicago White Sox - I used to watch TV on an old black and white TV in the basement when I was a kid. Channel 20 (WDCA) would show Oriole games at night sometimes, and the first baseball game I watched was the White Sox/Orioles. Greg Luzinki hit two home runs, and the Sox beat the Orioles. In addition, I was a kid and I liked their uniforms better.
NHL - St. Louis Blues - I thought the name was clever, and Brett Hull was a scoring machine with Adam Oates feeding him the puck. Curtis Joseph came along later and cemented them as my team.
NBA - Utah Jazz - Pro basketball was the last of the four sports that I started watching, and I found out that Grandma Haslem was a big Jazz fan. I had no idea that Utah had a professional sports team, and it seemed like as good a team as any to root for.

A gentle nod of appreciation to the following teams that I subliminally root for:

Pittsburgh Penguins - that's all living with Jim for six years, then hanging out with him and his family in the space between then and now. I saw many a Pens game at the Cap center, and almost got into a few fights for cheering too loud. This is the main reason I hate the Capitals now, and their fair weather fan base.
Anaheim Ducks - Chris Pronger became my favorite Blues player, once Curtis Joseph and Brett Hull both played for the hated Red Wings at some point in their careers. Why not?
Washington Nationals - I still hate the name this many years later, but figure I can root for them since I wanted baseball back in the Nation's Capital for years.
Miami Heat - I liked Glenn Rice when he won the National Championship for Michigan, and he was drafted by the Heat for their inaugural season. I also thought their marketing department came up with a really sweet logo that survives to this day. Dwayne Wade is my favorite NBA player, anyhow.
San Diego Chargers - the late games in the NFL took place on the west coast, and San Diego's uniforms were very cool for the younger me. The lightening bolts on the helmet and pants were the best.

Now, a few teams I hate -- besides the Dallas Cowboys, which everyone who reads this blog should already know I consider the anti-Christ.

The Oakland Raiders - I don't mind people being passionate about their teams, but these people are just annoying. I hate watching the silver and black face paint, the shoulder pads with spikes, the skulls, outfits and general mayhem of the fans. I admit, part of this hatred is due to the spanking the Redskins took in the Super Bowl from them -- I am adult enough to admit it.
The NBA teams as a whole - I really just don't like much of the NBA at all, including the Jazz and the Heat, as their league is made up of wannabe "thugs" with their full sleeve tatoos, wearing their bling on the court, and the fact they allow teams to draft kids right out of high school. That just irks me for reasons that I have a hard time articulating without sounding partially racist, so I'll leave it at that.
Detroit Red Wings - they are the Yankees of hockey. They buy the players they want, and have a great team year in and out. Succeed breeds animosity, I guess. Plus, they always seem to beat the Blues - even when we had a great team a few years ago and were ranked higher in the playoff seeds. Fetchers. *mutter* Plus, they ended up signing Brett Hull and CuJo to contracts, which tainted their image in my mind ... Hull more than CuJo, though.

And there you go.

For the LOVE!!

Okay, I just noticed that iTunes has raised the prices on their songs to $1.29 ....

That BLOWS!  Yet another price increase on something.  I'll just chalk this up to the recession, I guess.  Just like Edy's and Breyer's Ice Cream now coming in 1.5 quart containers, down from 1.75 quart, down from a half gallon.  This sucks.

Whatever happened to Customer Service?

Recently, as I was on my way home from work, Rachel called me to let me know she was going to place an order with Domino's for dinner.  It was the end of a long week for the both of us with work/school, so ordering pizza just sounded nice and easy.  They were running a special, the 5-5-5 deal, where you could order any combination of one topping medium pizzas and their new sandwiches.  We've used their online ordering service previously, and never had an issue.  So, Rachel place the order while I was en route home.  They gave an estimated delivery time of 35 to 45 minutes, and an hour later we still didn't have our order.  The oldest two were complaining they were hungry, which started to grate on our nerves the longer it took.  Rachel and I both called the store on our cell phones to try and ascertain why our order still had not arrived, but due to their automated answering service, were stuck on hold.  The door knocked, and an hour and a half later -- our food had arrived.  I signed the credit slip, and the driver apologized for the time it took saying, "We had no orders, and then within minutes we had 40 orders at the same time."  I gave him my standard 10% tip and he left.  Upon review of the receipt, I noticed that they had three bottles of soda listed on the ticket, but I had no soda delivered.  I asked Rachel about it, and she went ballistic.  The only way to get the 555 deal that day was to order three sodas, and the fact they were missing in addition to the severe lateness of the food was frustrating.   Rachel tried to call the store to find out what happened, but became mired in the same holding zone of phone calls experienced earlier in the day.  She had to get to work anyhow, so she grabbed and jetted to work.

Here's where the problem came in -- we had paid for soda that we never received, and all calls to the store were met with no resolution.  Rachel decided to send an email complaint via their website to see if the issue could be resolved.  Since the Domino's account we use to order is in my name, the very lackluster response was sent to my webmail addy.  Basically, the response stated, "Sir, we're sorry you had a bad experience.  This store is a franchise, and we're sending your problem to them with the hope they will contact you to resolve the issue.  Thanks for sending us an email.  Leave us alone now."  I was pissed, but since I've worked in retail I decided to allow the local store to contact us and make things right.  A week went by, and I was done.  I sent a follow up email to Domino's corporate telling them that I was completely unsatified with the lack of concern on their part to my complaint.  I paid for product that I never received, albeit $3 of soda, but that shouldn't matter.  I was working on the "it's the principle of the matter" at stake, and not the amount of money.  I was less tactful in my mail than Rachel was, and ended up having to edit portions of the email since I had exceeded the 1000 character limit.  I just informed them of my unresolved issue, and that since the local store was unconcerned about my issue that I expected corporate to take care of it.  Monday I received a response from them that is paraphrased, "Sir, we're sorry that your problem wasn't addressed by the local store.  We're sending you some gift certificates to placate you, even though we still don't admit fault.  Our franchises act independantly of corporate, so I'll again pass your concern onto them for training purposes.  Go away once you receive your certificates, which should arrive in 7-10 days."  I swear, if they're $5 off an order of $25 dollars coupons, I'm going to go ballistic.

It just seems that companies these days could give a crap about their customers once they have your money.  If you've paid for a product or service that is consumable, tough crap if there turns out to be an issue.  I'm waiting to see how this turns out, because I'm not going to take my father's line of "FINE, I'LL GO SOMEPLACE ELSE YOU JACKA--!"  Sure, there's plenty of places that offer pizza, but Domino's oven baked sandwiches (bacon ranch chicken especially) are so good.  *sigh*

Sunday

Rachel ended up having to work again today.

Whenever she's at work, I do have some Daddy/daughter time with the girls which is good and bad at the same time. It's good because I get one on one with them and I see firsthand the things they do, which Rachel only tells me about after the fact. It's bad because I do not possess the same level of patience as Mommy does with their less than savory antics and I get frustrated with them easily.

Linz recently has become fascinated with animals, even taken to acting like them. Today, Allie had Linz and Ry-Ry penned up underneath the kitchen table in the "bad animals" cage. She was using the chairs to pin them in, and was feeding them crackers. It's so much fun to see their imagination at work, and how a little thing like the kitchen table can occupy my girls for a few hours. It also allowed me to watch part of the Red Wings/Ducks hockey game in peace, with only the occasion "bark" or "meow" drifting into the living room. That was the cute part. Later in the day, Linz was playing quietly in the back room with a Magna-Doodle type toy. Ry decided she was being too quiet, and took it from her and ran away. I now have a screaming Linz running at me, a screaming Ry because I caught her and took the toy away. In addition I have my own personal play-by-play announcer Allie giving me the blow by blow account of the events that led up to the toy being taken. Frustrating. It ran downhill from there, culminating in finding Linz in the bathtub, fully dressed in her clean pajamas after I had already given her a bath and dried her off.

Serenity now....