Mistake.

Big mistake.

Real big mistake.

I ate at Garcia’s today, at the invitation of JS, a salesman here at The Big Cabinet Shop, in thanks for helping him get up to speed on the software we use here.

I’m not saying the food was bad, au contraire. It was good. Very good. Too good. I ate so much that here it is three hours later and I still feel like I just pushed away from the table.

Bloated, distended, uncomfortably full. OK, mostly my fault for ordering a large item when I normally eat a small lunch, but c’mon – this is the original Garcia’s on 35th Ave. south of Thomas, not one of the franchised locations. How can you NOT overeat there?

I highly recommend their food, especially the freshly made salsa and guacamole. Order anything, slap the guac on it, and go to town.
Just don’t have to go back to work afterwards, because that’s a criminal act.

Mistake.

Big mistake.

Real big mistake.

I ate at Garcia’s today, at the invitation of JS, a salesman here at The Big Cabinet Shop, in thanks for helping him get up to speed on the software we use here.

I’m not saying the food was bad, au contraire. It was good. Very good. Too good. I ate so much that here it is three hours later and I still feel like I just pushed away from the table.

Bloated, distended, uncomfortably full. OK, mostly my fault for ordering a large item when I normally eat a small lunch, but c’mon – this is the original Garcia’s on 35th Ave. south of Thomas, not one of the franchised locations. How can you NOT overeat there?

I highly recommend their food, especially the freshly made salsa and guacamole. Order anything, slap the guac on it, and go to town.
Just don’t have to go back to work afterwards, because that’s a criminal act.

I work in a Big Cabinet Shop, in the layout and design area. In other words, I create the paperwork that the shop floor uses in order to build the cabinets. Most of the cabinets are self-explanatory, since we base our cabinetry on a 3” increment – the cabinets are a width that is evenly divisible by 3.

Once in a while, there is a cabinet designed that needs extra attention – it cannot be built just by looking at the elevation print that is supplied in the paperwork. This is either a special or custom print, depending on complexity and composition. Any cabinet that does not face the viewer squarely needs a special print, because the software we use measures the width of the cabinet from a fixed point – if the cabinet is angled, it measures how wide the face is from left to right, and if the cabinet is actually wider but is set at an angle, the apparent width is less than the actual. For example, a cabinet that is 17” wide, but sitting at a 45° angle to the other cabinets on the wall, will appear to the software to be 13 15/16” wide, and will be labeled as such. The cabinet list at the bottom of the page has the correct width listed, however.

In order to facilitate the correct building of the cabinets, if a situation arises where a special or custom print is needed, a note is written on the elevation view to that effect: “SPECIAL PRINT C# 2, 3, 5” indicating that cabinets 2, 3, and 5 are different from the norm. A special print is then generated – a separate piece of paper, with the correct dimensions and a cut list for all the parts involved. If it’s really complicated, a set of orthographic drawings will be included on the print.

The quality inspector just came up to my desk and asked me if this cabinet (#5, in this case and the basis for the example above) is really 13 15/16” wide or 17” wide. I confirmed that it needed to be 17” wide. He confirmed that they had built it according to the elevation, not the special print.

I wonder what they do with the special prints that are included in the job papers? It doesn’t seem that they use them in order to build the cabinets….

Bunchamorons.

Is it just me, or does it seem like there are more and more vehicles in the Phoenix metro area with Mexican plates? It seems like they are starting to outnumber the snowbirds and other out-of-state visitors.

Tonight, on the way home, I was passed (and by passed I mean, of course, blown by like I was sitting on the side of the road on blocks) by a Grand Marquis with Chihuahua state plates. Of course, he was right ahead of me at the next red light, and when that light turned green he was off like a rocket again.

No wonder my auto insurance keeps going up.

<ring>

The house phone is ringing. Since TMBWitW and I have cell phones, we don’t normally answer the house phone.

<ring>

I’m sitting right next to it, I’m the only one home, so I figure I’ll answer it.

“Good morning, Cartter’s” – dead silence. Oh great, I’m on an autodialer and the lag between the answer and the person is –

“Yes, is this the Cartter residence?” (If you had been polite enough to have been listeneing while the phone was ringing, and you had heard me answer the phone…)

“Yes, it is.”

“Is Scarlet or Cary available?”

“This is Cary.”

“Mr. Cartter, this is (name of insurance company) calling to update our records. This phone call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes (second voice: OK, now just go right into it) Is your home phone number XXX-XXX-XXXX?” (Great. A trainee. I’ll bet they teach her all sorts of illogical questions.)

OK, now I understand that the autodialer dials the phone and hands it over when someone answers. But, really, since you are reading your script from the database that the autodialer used to dial my number, why is it necessary to ask if this is still my home phone number?

“Yes, it is.”

“Mr. Cartter, did you recieve a letter asking for an update of information for your policy with (name of insurance company)?”

“Yes, and my wife returned it with the updated information either yesterday or the day before.”

“OK, thank you for your time. (second voice: give him the contact information in case he has any quesitons) Mr. Cartter, in case you have any questions about this phone call, please call 1-800-XXX-XXXX and refer to contact number XXXXXXXXXXXX.” <click>

Me, staring at reciever: “Well, I’m glad I don’t have any questions, since I didn’t record that conversation and I didn’t have anything to write with.”