off again

The Halloween party was an epic success - so much so that Sexy Englishman & his housemates are no longer allowed to throw parties with more than about 20 people. We had 200 people show up! It was awesome. & one of our favorite people in the whole world made a surprise visit from London... I was furious at not being told beforehand but so so happy to see him. I couldn't decide whether to whip him or hug him. SE & I, along with Cute Gay Guy & a couple other people, partied through to Sunday morning & then started cleaning up. This was our "bar" at that point.

We had such a great time we're not even going out for Halloween tonight. Plus, we're flying out to the Bahamas tomorrow for his college friend's wedding, & we have to look nice for the über-posh people there. It's going to be at Lyford Cay. The dress code is 4 pages long, I am not kidding. They are so crazy, for breakfast they say that men don't have to wear panama hats but it's encouraged. I'm excited to wear my new dress from Selfridges though!!

hanzoswords.com sucks ass

I decided to be Go Go from Kill Bill for Halloween, since I already have a slutty schoolgirl outfit & they have a ball & chain at the dungeon where I rent. I bought a mini samurai sword online from hanzoswords.com, because she had one & I always wanted a sword. It was $11 + $11 shipping so I was pretty happy. When it arrived, though it looked good, it couldn't be opened. I tried for a couple days but it was jammed. I left a voicemail for them, which wasn't returned, & then emailed. They replied in a few hours, telling me to get another person & try to open the sword that way. I thought that was kind of stupid, because if I can't open it on my own, regardless of my strength, the sword is useless. Who wants a prop sword they can't even pull out of the scabbard? & if I open it once with someone else, it's still inoperable all the other times. Anyhow, I told them I wanted a replacement by Saturday at the latest. This was Tuesday night. Sexy Englishman, his housemates & I are throwing a huge Halloween party on Saturday so I need it by then. They email back that it's no problem, they can do that. I ask again to confirm that they can guarantee it will get here by Saturday. They say yes, they just need a tracking # for the one I have when I send it back by 6:30 pm eastern time Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I take care of it by 3:30 for $20 because that's the cheapest way I can get a tracking #. I don't know much about shipping so I sigh & say, fine whatever send it FedEx as long as I get it out on time, just do the least expensive way. I email the site. No answer. I email again at 6:30 to make sure they got the first email, because I want that sword in the mail tonight. I get a reply at 9:30 saying "Oh sorry, didn't have time to check mail before I went to the post office this afternoon, we will have to send it express tomorrow (Thursday) & that will cost about $20, but we'll reimburse today's shipping costs since it was our mistake." I said fine just send it to SE's apartment because I won't be home much the next few days. I comment that they must have a great deal with the post office because it took me that much to send to them, & the unfriendly reply is "Oh. No. I did not ask you to send it express. 2 lbs should have been $7. I will only give you that much." I'm already pissed off at this person for not checking her email in time to send the thing out earlier, which is costing them more & entirely their fault. I don't know anything about parcels, the corner shipping store told me what they could do & $20 was my lowest option if I wanted the tracking # hanzoswords demanded.

I feel that I've been quite reasonable & clear up to this point. They send me a defective sword - I ask nicely for a new one. I said I wanted a new sword only if they guaranteed delivery by Saturday - they said yes. I shell out $20 without complaint & email the tracking # as requested, twice before the deadline - they mess that up, won't reimburse most of the shipping & act like I'm the one in the wrong. I email SE's address twice for them to send to - & today I come home to a notice from the US Postal Service saying "Sorry we missed you! You have an express mail package." TWICE I told her the address. I understand that they're busy for Halloween, but this was very simple & they fucked up repeatedly. This means I have to come back to my post office, among the myriad things we need to do to get SE's apartment ready for 300 partygoers, to pick up the damn sword that should have been ready two weeks ago. Fuckwits is a word that comes to mind.

Update: customer [dis]service tried to argue with me over email about this. I told them I wanted someone to call me last week since no one ever returned my voicemail. They said there was nothing to discuss, please pay the bill for shipping, we did everything we could. I explained succinctly & politely why that was not the case & got another dimwitted "please pay the bill, thanks for your business" message. I said I didn't want to keep going back & forth over email & to please call me. All I've gotten since Monday is PayPal reminders, which apparently they send out 3 at a time. Keep digging the hole deeper, dummies...

Update in March 2008: hanzoswords found this post & commented on their side of the story at length, but they used my name so I had to delete it. I told them they were welcome to re-post if they took out my name. It seems like they still don't quite understand what happened, but they canceled the PayPal bill for the shipping & at least made the effort to apologize to me, so maybe it's just their one employee who is messing things up.

if you don't know what kind of asian I am...

don't fucking call me kim chee, idiot. Or say konichiwa or ni hao. (a) You're almost certain to guess wrong, (b) you know you can't possibly be saying it right, (c) that makes me want to talk to you even less & most importantly (d) that's not my damn name. Assholes.

yay for boots!

Finally it is cold enough to wear boots again. I missed my beautiful black leather. Plus, since it's raining, it is a practical decision as well. Now, what to wear on top...

In other news, I finished the project at Giant Multinational Corporation so I no longer need to commute to yucky Jersey every day for work. It was 1.5 hours each way! Which comprised 3 trains & about 30 minutes of walking. Planning to cocktail &/or bartend, preferably the latter, though I need to learn how. Can you believe I could get paid more as a cocktail waitress than a lawyer?!?! I've been enjoying sleeping & going to the gym this week.

& most exciting of all, I cooked dinner for Sexy Englishman last night! I can follow a recipe fairly well but I pretty much use my kitchen to store books, boil ramen, or throw 10 things in a pot & call it soup. We go out to dinner 5 or 6 nights a week so it's not like I need to ever put on an apron. I wanted to show him how much I love & appreciate what a wonderful boyfriend he is, & was hankering for some shrimp fra diavolo, so I decided to make it & surprise him. It turned into shrimp & scallops fra diavolo with the help of about 7 internet recipes put together. I bought supplies at Citarella - if you live near one, it is so awesome for getting fresh everything - & went over to his place & plunged in. I have never made pasta that wasn't just boiled noodles with sauce on top so this was new to me. I had to peel & de-vein the shrimp myself, sauté them & the scallops while boiling the pasta, & then toss them all together. Fortunately I didn't try to make the sauce myself (thank you Rao's). SE was surprised & happy when he came home - he said it was very yummy. Next time I will boil the pasta & sauté everything less though. I underestimated how quickly seafood cooks. But overall, yay for my first proper attempt at cooking!

comic of the day

Nice.

Halo 3

My name is [RD], & I can't play Halo for shit. I can't play anything after Super Nintendo actually. I tried to play Gears of War with Sexy Englishman the other weekend, & thought I sucked because we were coming down from a marathon afterparty, but this past weekend I tried the new Halo & couldn't even get my guy to look at the right eye level, let alone direction. I spent most of the time looking for my team! I even got lost trying to find them. I was doing one of my inadvertent whirl-around-with-head-thrown-back exercises when I fell off a small cliff & got completely disoriented. I really want to learn how to play but SE & his housemate Young Entrepreneur are too good at it & I'm a complete beginner, so I guess I'll have to wait until they beat the game & then maybe they can teach me. I always thought of myself as a bit of tomboy who was pretty good at boy games so now I'm sad. You'd think all the years of violin would make my hand-eye coordination good but apparently not in this case.