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War practice
The weekend was full of highs and lows.
Started out on Thursday... I went to the bar with the guys so I could get my stuff back that I'd sent home with Hjalti from the last event and get it cleaned and re-packed. Tried to squeeze the van into the last spot in the lot, which was, unfortunately, too small for a van. Scraped the bumper of the car I was trying to park beside, no damage to the van. Went inside for paper to write an apologetic note and leave contact info. When I got out, car was gone, so not my problem I guess.
Had dropped my husband off at work on the way out to the bar. On the way home, decided to drop the car at home and walk the doggies over to pick him up. The next day, I discovered I lost my keys at some point on this walk (locked the door behind me so I knew I had them when I left, but Jason let us in and so I didn't notice keys were missing until the next day). At this point, there had been a good couple of inches of extra snow. Running late on the event preparation when I notice keys are missing, and have arranged to drive a bunch of people, so really must be on time. Decide to skip hunting for the keys and just walk to Jason's work and steal his instead. Still, upset by loss of keys as remote and fancy-ass programmable theft-prevention car key cost about $300+ to replace. Also miffed at loss of time incurred by hunting for keys in the house and then walking to Bioware for Jason's keys.
Arrive at the kennel at which the dogs are supposed to be staying at 5pm. Kennel hours are 3-6pm, so this should be fine. No one in the office. Ring the bell, cause a zillion dogs to bark their brains out, no response. Have been told in the past that there is a monitor in the kennel so they can hear them in the house and that dogs are always supervised and checked out if there is a lot of barking, so I am reasonably sure there must be no one in the house either. Am also somewhat irked as signs on the wall indicate that a) prices have increased and I was not told and that b) although they now allow you to pick your dog up on Sunday, they still charge you for the day, which I was also not told on the phone, so the dog-boarding budget has now been substantially increased. Phone them, can see the phone in the office ringing, results in more barking. Leave message asking where they are. Wander around the yard, introduce beagles to horses (beagles are simultaneously super-excited/LOVE horsies and completely terrified). Wander up to the house. Cannot see a "front" door, only a side door with no steps and a back door with a very unwelcoming closed-in porch area. No lights are on, no sign of life really. Nothing is shoveled and snow is over my knees. Head back to the car. Phone kennel to leave new time-stamp and again ask where they are. Start phoning people and try to make alternative arrangements for doggies. No luck. After waiting an hour, decide to give up. Jason agrees to stay home. Hjalti is instructed not to bring the spare armour for Jason. I pull out of the kennel's property and start heading for home. 5 minutes later the phone rings "where are you" "on my way home" and won't-shut-up woman explains why her husband wasn't paying attention (despite being told to watch for my arrival) and also informs me I have left my bin of doggie supplies on the porch of the kennel (crap, that's what happens when you wait in the car for an hour - sigh). Apparently her husband was in the house the whole time with her sick child and I should have known to walk all the way around the house, slog through the snow up to their front walk and fetch him, despite no notes on the kennel stating that and me being at the kennel during the hours it is supposed to be open. So it's obviously MY fault. Try to cut the conversation short as the cell now costs $.25 per minute and I don't want to discuss the matter with this woman. While I am driving back to get dog stuff, call back the husband and ask what we should do? (try to get in touch with Hjalti and get his armour and hope he hasn't left and leave the dog with this obviously irresponsible woman or just leave him at home with the dogs) As husband has major assignment due at work and is still in no shape to leave the office, decide he will just stay home. Picking up my stuff from the woman at the kennel (probably looking visibly irritated as I am about a half an hour from home and we are supposed to be packed and leaving the city in half an hour, so I am letting my friends down), am subjected to more of her excuses and justifications "just because we make mistakes doesn't mean we don't care" or something of the like. Not important as no longer need a kennel at this point. Plop the box in the back seat, am closing the door of the van as the woman storms out of her kennel and shouts "like you never made a fucking mistake!" at me. I try to say something to the effect of "I just don't want to pay $70 to leave my dogs with you after this inconvenience" (which is totally true) but she slams the door and retreats before I can get a word out. Mature and professional, all in one sensational package! Was toying with the idea of finding a new kennel after the hour long wait. Am SURE of it now. Hate looking for a new kennel. My friend insists I should phone her or e-mail her to complain about her behaviour (swearing at me like the situation was my fault, though even if it was, swearing at a customer is still shockingly unprofessional and does NOT leave me with the impression that she'd take good care of my precious puppies). I am inclined to just walk away as contacting her again would open the lines for further dialog and I would be quite happy not to ever encounter her again. Friend also says I should contact the "better business bureau", but I don't think swearing is any real indication that you are running a poor business. Not going to hesitate spreading the word of her un-hingedness around with friends though. My anti-recommendation for a kennel is http://www.tuscanykennels.com/ and yes, I did initially nearly write them off for the tackiness of their website. It was worse, once upon a time I think it played music.
So, I get back to my place at about the same time as everyone else arrives. Later than I had wanted/planned, but nothing to be done about that. We get on the road very much later than intended, but again, that's life. About half-way through the trip, things really go South. Hjalti hits a barricade, makes a lovely 1" gash the length of his truck. As I am following, I only see the barricade AFTER he bounces off of it. I narrowly miss the barricade (but still lose a bit of paint to the white plastic thingies in front of it), swerve out into oncoming traffic (we only passed a handful of vehicles in the entire trip, why did one of them have to be there and then????), and narrowly miss a head-on collision by tossing my van into a ditch. CAA proved to be virtually useless, with most of their tow-trucks away for March break (one of the operators was in Disney Land curse him). Luckily, with 8 people, you can get a van out of even a relatively steep ditch. Everyone seemed thankful to be alive, I was still pretty pissed that I'd managed to end up in the ditch though. Car goes in tomorrow to be looked at. I assume it will need some tire repair and an alignment at the least. Hoping it's not too much worse.
Anyway, after that, the bad stuff was pretty much done. They partying on Friday night was pretty low-key, but still did wonders for my mood. The food all weekend was GREAT! The site was pretty awesome. The fighting on Saturday was AWESOME! I still suck, but sucking in a unit is fun anyway. Wernar worked us pretty hard, so everyone pretty much just crashed Saturday night. The drive home on Sunday was wonderfully uneventful.
Last night, Jason and I went on a key-hunting walk. I dug through the snow in the area where I figured I lost them. Nothing. On a whim I asked at the pub under his office if my keys had been handed in, and lo, they were! The bar tenders were somewhat confused as to why they had been there so long (didn't figure the losee had been walking), but I have them back, so that's one less expense.
Anyway, I think I may be driving Einar to the airport today, so I should bathe my doggies and get dressed myself.
Started out on Thursday... I went to the bar with the guys so I could get my stuff back that I'd sent home with Hjalti from the last event and get it cleaned and re-packed. Tried to squeeze the van into the last spot in the lot, which was, unfortunately, too small for a van. Scraped the bumper of the car I was trying to park beside, no damage to the van. Went inside for paper to write an apologetic note and leave contact info. When I got out, car was gone, so not my problem I guess.
Had dropped my husband off at work on the way out to the bar. On the way home, decided to drop the car at home and walk the doggies over to pick him up. The next day, I discovered I lost my keys at some point on this walk (locked the door behind me so I knew I had them when I left, but Jason let us in and so I didn't notice keys were missing until the next day). At this point, there had been a good couple of inches of extra snow. Running late on the event preparation when I notice keys are missing, and have arranged to drive a bunch of people, so really must be on time. Decide to skip hunting for the keys and just walk to Jason's work and steal his instead. Still, upset by loss of keys as remote and fancy-ass programmable theft-prevention car key cost about $300+ to replace. Also miffed at loss of time incurred by hunting for keys in the house and then walking to Bioware for Jason's keys.
Arrive at the kennel at which the dogs are supposed to be staying at 5pm. Kennel hours are 3-6pm, so this should be fine. No one in the office. Ring the bell, cause a zillion dogs to bark their brains out, no response. Have been told in the past that there is a monitor in the kennel so they can hear them in the house and that dogs are always supervised and checked out if there is a lot of barking, so I am reasonably sure there must be no one in the house either. Am also somewhat irked as signs on the wall indicate that a) prices have increased and I was not told and that b) although they now allow you to pick your dog up on Sunday, they still charge you for the day, which I was also not told on the phone, so the dog-boarding budget has now been substantially increased. Phone them, can see the phone in the office ringing, results in more barking. Leave message asking where they are. Wander around the yard, introduce beagles to horses (beagles are simultaneously super-excited/LOVE horsies and completely terrified). Wander up to the house. Cannot see a "front" door, only a side door with no steps and a back door with a very unwelcoming closed-in porch area. No lights are on, no sign of life really. Nothing is shoveled and snow is over my knees. Head back to the car. Phone kennel to leave new time-stamp and again ask where they are. Start phoning people and try to make alternative arrangements for doggies. No luck. After waiting an hour, decide to give up. Jason agrees to stay home. Hjalti is instructed not to bring the spare armour for Jason. I pull out of the kennel's property and start heading for home. 5 minutes later the phone rings "where are you" "on my way home" and won't-shut-up woman explains why her husband wasn't paying attention (despite being told to watch for my arrival) and also informs me I have left my bin of doggie supplies on the porch of the kennel (crap, that's what happens when you wait in the car for an hour - sigh). Apparently her husband was in the house the whole time with her sick child and I should have known to walk all the way around the house, slog through the snow up to their front walk and fetch him, despite no notes on the kennel stating that and me being at the kennel during the hours it is supposed to be open. So it's obviously MY fault. Try to cut the conversation short as the cell now costs $.25 per minute and I don't want to discuss the matter with this woman. While I am driving back to get dog stuff, call back the husband and ask what we should do? (try to get in touch with Hjalti and get his armour and hope he hasn't left and leave the dog with this obviously irresponsible woman or just leave him at home with the dogs) As husband has major assignment due at work and is still in no shape to leave the office, decide he will just stay home. Picking up my stuff from the woman at the kennel (probably looking visibly irritated as I am about a half an hour from home and we are supposed to be packed and leaving the city in half an hour, so I am letting my friends down), am subjected to more of her excuses and justifications "just because we make mistakes doesn't mean we don't care" or something of the like. Not important as no longer need a kennel at this point. Plop the box in the back seat, am closing the door of the van as the woman storms out of her kennel and shouts "like you never made a fucking mistake!" at me. I try to say something to the effect of "I just don't want to pay $70 to leave my dogs with you after this inconvenience" (which is totally true) but she slams the door and retreats before I can get a word out. Mature and professional, all in one sensational package! Was toying with the idea of finding a new kennel after the hour long wait. Am SURE of it now. Hate looking for a new kennel. My friend insists I should phone her or e-mail her to complain about her behaviour (swearing at me like the situation was my fault, though even if it was, swearing at a customer is still shockingly unprofessional and does NOT leave me with the impression that she'd take good care of my precious puppies). I am inclined to just walk away as contacting her again would open the lines for further dialog and I would be quite happy not to ever encounter her again. Friend also says I should contact the "better business bureau", but I don't think swearing is any real indication that you are running a poor business. Not going to hesitate spreading the word of her un-hingedness around with friends though. My anti-recommendation for a kennel is http://www.tuscanykennels.com/ and yes, I did initially nearly write them off for the tackiness of their website. It was worse, once upon a time I think it played music.
So, I get back to my place at about the same time as everyone else arrives. Later than I had wanted/planned, but nothing to be done about that. We get on the road very much later than intended, but again, that's life. About half-way through the trip, things really go South. Hjalti hits a barricade, makes a lovely 1" gash the length of his truck. As I am following, I only see the barricade AFTER he bounces off of it. I narrowly miss the barricade (but still lose a bit of paint to the white plastic thingies in front of it), swerve out into oncoming traffic (we only passed a handful of vehicles in the entire trip, why did one of them have to be there and then????), and narrowly miss a head-on collision by tossing my van into a ditch. CAA proved to be virtually useless, with most of their tow-trucks away for March break (one of the operators was in Disney Land curse him). Luckily, with 8 people, you can get a van out of even a relatively steep ditch. Everyone seemed thankful to be alive, I was still pretty pissed that I'd managed to end up in the ditch though. Car goes in tomorrow to be looked at. I assume it will need some tire repair and an alignment at the least. Hoping it's not too much worse.
Anyway, after that, the bad stuff was pretty much done. They partying on Friday night was pretty low-key, but still did wonders for my mood. The food all weekend was GREAT! The site was pretty awesome. The fighting on Saturday was AWESOME! I still suck, but sucking in a unit is fun anyway. Wernar worked us pretty hard, so everyone pretty much just crashed Saturday night. The drive home on Sunday was wonderfully uneventful.
Last night, Jason and I went on a key-hunting walk. I dug through the snow in the area where I figured I lost them. Nothing. On a whim I asked at the pub under his office if my keys had been handed in, and lo, they were! The bar tenders were somewhat confused as to why they had been there so long (didn't figure the losee had been walking), but I have them back, so that's one less expense.
Anyway, I think I may be driving Einar to the airport today, so I should bathe my doggies and get dressed myself.