I had to get up early this morning at 7:00 and get ready and right out the door to go to an interview up in the city. After this past week’s schedule, getting up early this morning was not easy.
It was really hot and humid this morning so walking three blocks through construction in downtown along the riverfront was not very pleasent. The interview went well. We won’t know anything until at least next week because I am not being officially submitted until Tuesday. But if everyone could pray for me, this is a really big deal for us. Thanks.
After the interview, I went down to the UofR and hung out with Eric for a little bit. We were only there for about half an hour before Amanda called and needed us to run over to Babies’R’Us and help her with something. So we drove over there for a little bit and then back to the hospital. By the time that we got back to the hospital I had managed to get a hold of Min and Andy and they came up to the city to meet me for some lunch at Perkins.
Our lunch at Perkins went so poorly that we have decided never to return. The general manager made it quite clear that she wasn’t interested in having any vegetarians as customers there so we will please her greatly by avoiding her deteriorating restaurant chain. After a lifetime of frequenting the Perkins chain (there used to be one here in Geneseo for those of you who don’t remember.) I think I know that I am able to make substitutions on the menu. Traditionally Perkins has been a very friendly place interested in customer service. But, according to the manager, there are no longer any menu item changes allowed – even if it would mean higher profit margins for the company – because their corporate inventory control system is so pathetic that it can’t track inventory as well as Burget King’s was able to ten years ago. Nice to see that there has been progress. Supposedly, according to the unpleasent manager, they cannot give us bread or eggs instead of meat on a breakfast item because the inventory system will report the meat anyway (who wrote that software?) and they will be out of sync and that is more important that happy or returning customers. Interesting philosophy. It was extrememly frustrating because the new Perkins menu has added meat to almost every menu item so that there is no way for a vegetarian to order anything. Not even a salad or breakfast. At Denny’s there is only a few non-meat items but they willing make substitutions all of the time without hesitation. Well, obviously Perkins doesn’t want me to be a customer there and I am more than willing to appease them. Fortunately, we received a “survey” with our bill so I went online and let corporate know what I thought of Carrie Giambra, their rude, unprofessional manager. I plan to call them and talk to them as well to make sure that they understand just how upset I am that they treated us like that. I have never been treated so rudely in a restaurant (okay, actually Tom Wahl’s once treated me worse back in 1993 and I didn’t eat their again until they got bought out by Bill Grays, now they are a really nice place.) I never thought that I would be happy that Denny’s bought out Perkins in this area but boy am I glad now. They are half the price and twice as nice (oh, that was insulting, I mean ten times as nice.) Denny’s now has a bigger menu and plenty of stuff that I actually want to eat. I had to get a belgian waffle at Perkins because it was the only thing without meat. Just to make sure that we got as much exposure as possible to my little rant about my now least favourite restaurant still in business (hopefully I can fix that) – I posted this over at Perkins Sucks – SGL2 as well. Maybe I will podcast about it too when I get the chance. Boy its nice being a popular blogger.
After lunch Min did some shopping at Babies’R’Us while Andy and I went to Target. I found one of my favourite movies this year, Shaun of the Dead at almost half the price that I have yet found it anyplace else and picked it up. I saw it down in Annapolis with John and Michelle the last time that I was down there. It is hilarious. But you really should watch Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead before watching it so that you will have a better appreciation for a lot of the humour. After Target we went to Borders. We weren’t there for long but, of course, I couldn’t resist getting at least one new book. I always have to get something.
By the time that we got home, it was pretty much time to start getting ready for the AoE2 game. Jeremy came over at 6:30. Tony was finally released from prison and allowed to come over. So he was at the house around 6:00. I will keep all of the other details at The Friday Night Game. Both Jeremy and Tony spent the night as usual.