This Christmas I'm thankful I no longer work for the Postal Service call-in help line, where I heard "If I mail a package on Dec. 21, will it get to England by Christmas?" "Where are my packages! You've ruined my children's Christmas?" "How dare you leave my package on the porch!/How dare you not leave my package on the porch!" "No, I didn't waste my money on a tracking number, you should be able to find my package without it! What do we pay taxes for?"

Did you know the Postal Service is self-supporting? No tax funds go to the Postal Service.

I did not refrain from telling the customer waiting for the machine after me who was crowding me so much that she was actually resting her box on the machine while I was still using it that she was impatient and rude and bothering me.

Oh my god. I think I forgot to tell the story of when I went to get new tires for my car. I ordered up my new tires, handed over my keys, and I sat down to wait with a Pratchett novel. Wait wait wait. Some guy walked up and handed me a a slip of paper with something from Proverbs on it. I get evangelicals wherever I go, so I shrugged and used it as a bookmark. Wait wait wait. I waited an hour and a half longer than they told me to wait when I placed my order, without complaint. I poked my head out the door to make sure my car was back in the parking lot before I approached the counter. I asked after my car. I helpfully pointed out that my keys were on that clipboard over there. Clerk started ringing me up. I had my card ready to swipe.

Then a fellow customer marched up to the counter and loudly complained that she'd been waiting AN HOUR and when she came in they said FORTY MINUTES and on and on and on AND ON... and the clerk still had my keys. I let her bitch and moan about her TWENTY MINUTE EXTRA WAIT. Until I flipped out like a mammal. Turned to her. Said, "Look, I've been waiting for almost three hours now. Could you please wait your turn so I can get my car?"

And while that may sound polite, apparently the way I said it terrified the clerk so badly that he apologized for my wait three times.

Good lord, shrift.

The last time I was in the post office, a guy almost got stabbed because he cut the line because he "only wanted to ask a question." Yeah, a question that took several minutes to answer, just like the rest of us were waiting for!

MSProject might be my new favorite thing. Even if my stuff is still bullshit, at least now it looks pretty.

Chronic of Narnia rap from SNL: [link] Hilarious.

I second the recommendation for this, if people haven't seen it yet. It was so funny.

Few things make me laugh as hard and as consistently as Chris Parnell rapping. Love him.

Heh. I love it when people go all vigilante to enforce common sense rules of etiquette. Around here, far too many people just let people cut in line. I guess people are too afraid that the rude people are armed.

Czech bread appeared to have turned out well. So I learned something from my trials last year, I guess. I am now consuming, and sharing with select co-workers, an apple gallette I made using Trader Joe's frozen pie pastry and a number of heirloom apple varieties (Snow, Baldwin and Moyer's Prize). I put the apples in bare, put just a teaspon or so of spiced apple cider on them, some cinnamon, some brown sugar and a pat of butter. I wish I'd done just a little more, like add some lemon juice, more brown sugar and some nutmeg and allspice but I was in a rush because of the Czech bread-making.

[link]

Today's installment of a special place in hell is for the people who go to the post office with out taping their boxes

I disagree, and not just because I had to go to the post office with a partially untaped box the other day after I ran out of tape. I think the special hell should be for my (hopefully soon to be former) dentist's office, except for the x-ry guy. He was cool, but the rest of them all suck.

Kat, what was the name of your dentist again?

I've finally tracked down my discomfort with the whole Narnia series. I read the entire series as a kid, and it never sat well. At least part of it is the whole worship of Aslan thing. I guess I was a closet agnostic even then (if agnostic is the word I want for being uncomfortable with the idea of worshipping a being as opposed to respecting a being).

I don't tape boxes till I reach hte post office because I'm always afraid they're going to want to see inside.

I often pack at the Post Office, because Priority Mail supplies are free. But I don't do it in line, I go up to the guy with the cart, get my supplies, and do my packing on one of the tables designated for that purpose.