Incursio

Memphis area folks, if you are in need of some hardware help - you should check out the super friendly folks at Gate City hardware . I needed some chrome whatnots and doo-dads for my motorcycle, and these sorts of things are tough to come by in a retail fashion.  Sure you can order anything online - but that won't help you if you need to experiment.

Previously I have written about trying to find good sports bars in Portland that allow people under 21. First post , Second post . For crying out loud, people under 21 like to watch sports too! We have found another one in inner SE Portland to add to the list.

I have been working with Chrysler Financial this week trying to resolve some issues with a vehicle financed through them. Every time I call I take notes of the call, including who I speak with. Each call, I have spoken to someone who is Indian. Not Native American, but Indian from the subcontinent of India. Each person has had a very thick accent, with at least two of them being extremely hard to understand. I have not been able to ascertain if they are actually in North America or actually in India... However, here are the names that they have given me: Nick Wilson Sharon Mark Cooper Nicolas Adams Samantha Williams Either they are making up more American sounding names, or I just happened to call the only 5 Indian customer service representatives who happen to have completely American names. Considering the fact that I have worked with hundreds of Indian people (I am in the IT industry) and not a single one has had an American sounding name - I would consider the odd...

I wrote in the past about the difficulty of finding good sports bars that allow people under 21. Here is an update to that... This year we have had some better luck, and have more information to share. In Portland, there are a few sports bars which allow kids or people under 21, and here is what we think of them. " OnDeck " in the Pearl reversed their "no minors" policy. But they still suck. Their menu is not all that great, they don't have the most or best TVs or TV placement. Their staff seems to be unmotivated, and in fact it just seems like the whole thing is run by people who don't care about the business at all. I cannot recommend OnDeck at all, even though they have one of the coolest locations in the city. They have no kids menus at all, and they wont even work with you (like make a small version of something on the menu). The service sucks. So over all there is no real reason to go there unless you happen to live right nearby. Much...

I am the fellow who sits in the restaurant patiently while the waitress does everything but take my order. I am the man who stands quietly while the department store clerks finish their chit chat. Yes, you might say that I am a nice guy. But guess what else I am? I am the customer that never comes back. It amuses me that you spend thousands of dollars to get me back into your store when I was there in the first place. All you had to do was to give me a little service and show me a little courtesy. -taken from the back of a business card for R&J Service Inc. Truck Repair, Portales, New Mexico. (Rick and Jerry from R&J Service were great guys. I have had their business card since the early 1990s.)

I enjoyed dinner this evening at Mama Mia in downtown Portland. Kudos to them. The food was very good, and not too pricey. Adult meals ran from $10 to $20. But what impressed me the most was that it was a very classy atmosphere, and yet they still were very kid friendly. They welcomed my child with crayons and a picture to color. They have good selection on their kids menu. And the staff was very friendly to my child throughout the entire process. While I was eating, there were 5 other families that I could see in the dining room. No kids were running around or being noisy or problematic. I really appreciate when restaurants embrace kids. Not every kid friendly place has to turn into chuck-e-cheese. Some people just like to have good meals in nice places with their children. And usually these people will have taught or be in the process of teaching their children that in a nice restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) you should behave yourself. I both dislike...

In a comment I made to BikePortland they censored the word "Jerks". They censored three words I used. The first was "Asshat", which while I clearly don't think that to be a terrible word, I will at least give them the leeway to censor that on their own site. However I am not sure what the problem was with the word "Jerks". Here is the original text of my comment: Too bad River City Bicycles is staffed by clueless asshats. I went in there twice in the last couple years to buy some moderately expensive bike things (a couple at about $300 each). The first time they were jerks, I chalked it up to maybe a bad apple or someone having a bad day. Last week we tried again and they were jersks again. So we left and spent our money elsewhere… Too bad too, I am in the market for a new Cannondale and they won’t get my business. (Note, the second occurrence of "Jerks" contains a typo extra s, I understand that already - no need to comment a...

Damn. Oregon is not included. T-Mobile Gets Sued Over Termination Fees But it is at least a start. If the suit is successful I can see some sweeping changes to mobile phone contracts. In fact, I predict some "pre-emptive" changes possibly coming soon. I have never understood why they charge so much for service cancellation fees. (They being not the magical "They" that is responsible for almost anything, but rather in this case I mean mobile phone providers in general). I mean - at most they are out the cost of the deal you got on the phone. They already usually charge you a setup fee, activation fee or something like that... That covers their manpower needed for the slightly-above-minimum-wage employee to type your name into the computer and open your box and show you the "on" button. Other than that labor involved, they mostly just need to recoup the cost of the phone. Say there is a groovy new Nokia phone that retails for $200 without any p...

Today we went to watch a couple NFL games (that were not being broadcast on local TV channels) at a sports bar that we had been to many many times in the past couple years. On Deck (although their web page sucks, here is the CitySearch profile ). We would go with our family because it was a great location, central city Portland (Pearl District / Brewery Blocks)- they had pretty good food (nothing awesome or worth mention but solid sports bar fare) and the TVs and atmosphere were great. However, as of just a few weeks ago they no longer allow minors. According to one waiter, the new management felt that minors would be exposed to too much swearing. (I am fully aware that it is a BS story but that is what they said). There was no management available on-site that I could speak with, but I was given contact information and I will be contacting them to find out what gives. I mean come-on. Kids who parents watch sports enough to go to a Sports Bar to catch the untellivised games...

An Inconsiderate Bitch Some of you who read that title might assume that I am speaking of a woman who does not think of others. Well, in a way you would be correct. However, the actual point of this post is to bitch about people who are inconsiderate. in·con·sid·er·ate ( ĭn ' kən-sĭd ' ər-ĭt ) adj. Thoughtless of others; displaying a lack of consideration. Tonight we ate at an italian restaurant, Amalfi's in North Portland, on Freemont street. The restaurant was nice, had reasonable prices, and the food was very good. All in all, I would recommend it - even despite the experience we had while dining there. We waited quite some time, approaching an hour, for outside seating. Outside, between the main entrance and the sidewalk there are two very neat tables with a gas firepit in the middle of each. We had walked past the restaurant a couple of times and thought it looked quite nice so we decided to try. We got our table and my family sat down to enjoy the...