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I’ve had my laptop for about 3 years now and have had almost component replaced in it replaced. For them most part it’s been a good little laptop and I am definitely glad that I paid for the 4 year on site guarantee!!!. Well recently the motherboard went out on it and that had to be replaced. It took almost two weeks before they actually came out and replaced it. Me arguing with them(Politely, of course), before they would even think about doing anything they assumed it was a battery problem. Nothing could dissuade them of that even though I had just purchased a replacement battery a few months earlier. Finally they replaced the motherboard and everything worked….until now.

Just recently I had another problem with my laptop, it still works, but the sound card is apparently dying. When I say dying, I mean a very slowwww death. When it works I get to hear any noise coming from it warping in and out. It interferes with shutting down Windows and sometimes the driver can’t even start the card at all. Before attempting to contact Dell I replaced the driver, removed the driver(to make windows reinstall it), completey unpowered the laptop(attempted to turn it on with no battery or power. Don’t try to tell Dell that though. I decided instead of waiting on hold for 3 hours only to not understand a word of what the support representative was saying, I used the online hardware support chat. Before you ask yes, yes I did it from a different computer. Give me just a little bit of credit.

See for yourself how well the conversation didn’t go. The names have been changed to protect the guilty and any sensitive information has been removed. Other than that nothing in the conversation has been changed in order to make myself look better or Dell look worse.

I went to Utah Gay Pride 2006 this year and took my camera. Unfortunately….or fortunately I think I went a bit overboard. I filled all of my CF cards and just barely lasted through the parade. Sorry no pictures from the Pride Festival itself. The entire album is here and below are a few photos from the crowd favorites:

    

    

So recently I wrote about my impressions of realestate as a first time home buyer. Now that this has been going on for a while I have a few stories to tell.

Shortly after that post I found a place and put in an offer. The seller dragged their feet and dragged their feet and then finally responded that they had accepted another offer, but the story doesn’t end there. I continued looking at other places and a week later the seller called back with a counter-offer to my original offer. It turns out that the other buyer had pulled out and they were desperate for another buyer. Little did I know I was about to get punished because the other buyer pulled out. We countered each other 3 or 4 times, which is an ordeal in and of itself. Anytime I submitted an counter-offer it was submitted/sent to the seller within a few hours. Unfortunately. it generally took 2-3 days before they would send anything back. Kind of odd behavior from a seller that claims they want to sell quickly. Finally we had agreed on everything except for the amount of earnest money. Out of the blue they countered wanting twice as much earnest money ($1000 vs $500 that was initally proposed). I could afford the $500 not the $1000, they apparently wanted this because the previous buyer had pulled out and thought that I might somehow do the same thing. I then countered with a slight increase and once again they dragged their feet for 3 days and guess what…….they accepted another offer. They wasted about 3 weeks with all of the delays only to go to someone else, but I’m not bitter….REALLY.

Last week I tried to look at another place that seemed like it would be perfect, if only I could have actually seen the inside of it. I attempted to go see it with my agent after rearranging my schedule a bit. Everything went great (once we got the lockbox open), we got into the complex, found the condo, unlocked the deadbolt and then were defeated. Apparently the selling realtor doesn’t have a key to the door knob itself, who knows why. She had warned my agent to bring a screw driver since it is generally habit to lock both the knob and the deadbolt after showing a place. Two screwdrivers and a pocket knife later we still could not get that door open. My agent called the other agent and arranged for her to get that door opened and I rearranged my schedule again to go and see the place. We got there and ALL of the lock boxes were missing, the previous day there were 4. That can’t be a good thing that some random thief has stolen and now has keys to 4 condos in that building. We gave up on that one and I might be getting a little bitter…..just a little.

Wish me luck I just submitted an offer on another property yesterday, hopefully I get this one. Otherwise the title above may become true!!!

So every once in a while when I am being lazy or just crave it I venture down to my local Taco Bell. You see I am hopefully addicted to their chicken quesadillas. But that is part of the problem, although I like quesadillas I hate tacos. Why is that a problem? The chicken quesadilla meal comes with a taco, so normally I just ask them to substitute out the taco for a bean burrito. It’s normally no problem since according to the menu a taco and a bean burrito cost the same amount($0.99).

Well yesterday I was feeling the urge to stop by and and get my usual meal. When the lady went to ring it up, it came out a dollar cheaper than it usually does. Now I’m an honest person and I questioned the lady on it and discovered something very interesting. Since I wanted a burrito instead of the taco; she rang up the drink, quesadilla and bean burrito separately instead of in a meal. Is this just a fluke or have I really overpaid a dollar every time I have gone to Taco Bell for the last 2 years?

I guess I’ll have to go back and find out what happens next time…