The Imperial Sun has Set

For over 10 years my place for Chinese, be it Szechuan or Hunan, has been Imperial Sun on SR 161 just east of Cleveland Ave.

Ran by Leshen Sun and her husband, this was the place to go both in terms of the ambiance and the quality of the food.

When it comes to ethnic food (aside from Italian and French) I follow three points of non-PC bias.

1. Someone from that ethnic group should be serving the food
   
2. Someone of that ethnic group should be cooking
3. Someone of that ethnic group should be dinning there.

IS had all three. Plus we got to know Leshen. She would carry John in the back to let him watch the cooks work while we finished our meal. So now when John walks into a restaurant, he wants to go to the kitchen.

IS was also home to the first dates with the two women whom I had a long term relationship with, Heather (my girlfriend from college) and Jean..well you know how that worked out .

Tonight when we stopped by the IS lights were out and the dreaded "Business Closed" sign was on the door. While we had photos of the dinning room and the booth where we had our first meal together, it wouldn't be the same without Leshen welcoming us and then enjoying the wonderful food.

As we pulled away, Jean looked at me and said "This must be what its like when you get old and the places you used to enjoy are gone... I don't like it." Neither do I.

The death of service

It would be one thing to post yet another tail of horror at the hands of the burger jockeys. Yet it is quite another when an employee of one of the swankiest national cook store in the swankiest mall in Columbus, suffers from a total brain lock which was about to put me down $17.99 + tax.

The store is William- Sonoma know for its quality kitchen gear that you pay out the nose for. My Aunt had picked me up for Christmas, a duel probe digital cooking thermometer. Problem was that I had already picked up a nice one to do the holiday Prime Rib. So my plan was to return the thermometer and get a nice digital kitchen scale. I didn't have the sales ticket so I had $17.99 + tax in store credit which I used for the scale.

The scale I picked was more computer than scale. Over 900 foods had been preloaded into this thing so that it would spit out the nutritional information based on the weight of the item. It was too much. So I went back to return the scale and just get store credit for the thermometer.

Now I worked in retail for 5 years. This is a simple transaction. Return the scale, credit my card what was placed on it then give me store credit for the rest. This was not to be so simple.

A lady in her late 40's helped me and without hassle returned the scale. She then handed me my credit slip which was short the $17.99 +tax for the thermometer.
"Excuse me, but where is my store credit?" I asked
"I credited your account so we're settled" she replied.
"But what about my return? Should I get store credit for that?" Stunned that she's not getting this.
"No. The return was used to reduce the price of the scale. I return the scale at that reduced priced. You didn't pay full price for the scale. Do you understand?" She said just one tone away from patronizing.
"But your not giving me back the thermometer that was used to reduce that price nor its value in store credit. So I'm out the vaule of the thermometer. Do you understand my point here?" I asked still stunned that I'm having this conversation. I mean this is William-Sonma! If this was Wall-Mart, that would be one thing but here..

She then went to a co-worker and asked him to come over and explan to me the situation. He looks at the sales ticket for the scale, looks at her return slip then looks at me and then without any preamble "We owe him $17.99 +tax in store credit".

At this point I could hear her brain cells being crushed as they tried to figure this out. Just as I had, he walk her step by step and she still didn't get it. They argeed that she would go back to the floor and that he would finish the transaction.. Which he then messes up by not backing out, wait for it, the $17.99 +tax. At this point, he gives up. We're level and he doesn't want to do another void.

So before you go and whack that kid for not knowing how to count back change.. remember at least they didn't try to short you.

Capt. Pat Rapicault

I was looking to catch the final score from tonight's Pats/Colts game when I saw the intro for a 60 Minutes' segment on the Marine's dealing with the insurgents in Iraq.

One stuck with me. Capt. Pat Rapicault. Born in France, came to the US as a student, became a citizen and joined the Corps. His English part France and part Mississippi. Took the point and wouldn't look into the camera because he was too busy checking for hostile contacts that could hurt his men.

KIA by a car bomb while driving back from a mission.


Too many gone to go back now. Yet too many more are yet to fall. And for what?

We joined the Y

Phase one of the plan to

1. Lose weight
2. Give boy a place to burn off some energy between the pool and the courts.

Our trip to Disney

A bit too long for a blog posting but if you'd like, here is my journal from the trip with photos..

The heat saga

While most of Central Ohio went without power after the ice storm on Dec 23, Jean, John and I have been without heat since Dec 21.

See when John and I came home from getting his big boy bed, the CO detector in the basement was beeping. So I head down thinking it's the battery. Change the battery and it picks right back up with the beeping.

Not wanting to take a chance, I called the Mifflin Township Fire Department. The dispatcher thinks its dust but to be sure, he sent a truck over with a detector. It picked 12 Parts per Million at the door and 25 next to the furance but since the hot water heater is so close, they couldn't say for sure. What they did say was that we needed to call the gas company ASAP to have them check.

The gas company read 8 at the furance with their detector but it jumped to 12 when we turned the furnace on. Since 10 is normal and 30 is when the canary starts to get sleeepy, the call was made to cut the gas to the furance.

We have a home warrenty that covers the unit but they just wanted to replace it with a so - so 80% effecticy unit meant to last 5 to 10 years. So we took the payout and invested in a +92 Trane..

What a way to start the new year

After a nice visit with Jean's family for New Years, all that was left to do was to pick up my car that I had left at my sister in-law's, hop on the freeway back to Columbus in time to set the DVR to record that movie about Dynasty (OK, I'll fess to my boyhood crush on Joan Collins), maybe play some X-box and then get to bed. For tomorrow, the new Trane furnace was going to be installed.

This was not to be...

Just after picking up my car which has been in Cleveland since Thanksgiving being worked on by a friend of the family with Jean driving the van with John just ahead of me. On Ledge Rd just before RT 8, I was pulled over by the Northfield Village Police. Your's truly had forgotten to renew the license plate...in April. I could have sworn I did it but the OBMV computer showed I hadn't.

So my sled got impounded.

To add insult to this, the citing department couldn't give me a ride across a major intersection (RT 8) since he would be out of jurisdiction.

Now I've got to pay

1. The plates with any fines (you would think the OBMV would send you a reminder if you forgot to get the plates.. I mean the library starts mailing me after I'm a week late for a $4 book)
2. The ticket (guessing about $90)
3. $10 for the impound release
4. The tow and storage fee ($128.52 with tax)

Needless to say I was beating myself up pretty good. I mean, my only other ticket was for failure to display the front licence plate. Written by my Dad's own department. I had an FOP card but I didn't pull it out. That card would have gotten me at worse, a written warning. My Dad let into me about not pulling that card but I didn't think I would be cited and, well, I didn't have my front plate. It was in my back seat because I hadn't picked up the new bolts I needed. So I was guilty.

Just like I'm gulity now. Mistake or no mistake, I didn't get this done. This is so embarasing for me because I know better. Plus I hate that skepital tone law enforcement takes.. It's not personal but still, I hate that for this contact I was viewed as someone who was trying to get away with not paying my share. So now we have to pay the above when things are already tight with the new furance going in.

Plus I was also afrade that Jean would go off on me but she was pretty supportive given everything. She noted that Levi (who fixed the car) could have gotten stopped and been without wheels (since his truck got totaled). Jay or even I could have gotten nailed heading to work and stuck. So if anything, the timing was about as good as it could be for something like this.. But still..rather than enjoy my day off, I've got to run around then head back to Columbus.. So far, 05 isn't starting out so well

Resolutions

Never been all that good at making them let alone living up to them. So this year, allow me to steal some words from Jamie Cullum and mashup a few of my own.

Next Year,
Things are gonna change, Gonna drink less soda
And start all over again
Gonna pull up my socks
Gonna clean my shower
Not gonna live by the clock
But get up at a decent hour
Gonna read more books
Gonna keep up with John rather than the news
Gonna learn how to cook
And spend less money on food
File my email away, everyday
and Only drink the finest water
Resolutions Well Baby they come and go
Will I do any of these things? The answers probably no But if there’s one thing, I must do, Despite my greatest fears I’m gonna say to the world How I've felt all of these years...