I’m still sick, so I’m going to go to bed early tonight and hope for the best for my flight tomorrow. Until then here are three videos worth watching (in my humble opinion). Cheers!
I’m getting tired of blogging about my car, but yesterday I went to have a SMOG inspection as it’s required after 6 years (that corrupt industry is a whole other blog topic for another time). My car failed the electrical test. The guy at the testing station asked me if the car had recently been serviced or if the battery had been removed. Of course I told him yes. What I learned was that it takes about a week of driving to get the electrical system in sync to pass the California test. I payed $50 for nothing. I wish Honda of Hollywood would have told me that. Then, on the way home, the gas gauge suddenly showed “empty” when it had been nearly full the day before (and I’d only driven ten miles!). So I went back to Honda of Hollywood. They put it up on a lift and determined there was no leak, and the gauge just must have been stuck from the accident. Grrrrrr! Not how I wanted to spend my Saturday morning. So here’s the letter I’m going to send to the president of Honda of Hollywood. What do you think?
My name is Carey _______, and I’m the person who owns the 2002 Honda Accord your body shop took 4 months to repair. First, let me start by saying that Peter, in your body shop, was always courteous and professional to me, but that did not make up for the fact that this damage:
took nearly four months (to the day) to fix. It’s clear to everyone involved (including people I spoke to at Honda of Hollywood) that this car should have been totaled, and I must question the integrity of your business to embark on fixing a car that should have been in the junk heap in March when the accident occurred.
This whole situation would almost be comical if it weren’t for the fact that I am currently facing out of pocket rental bills of over $1500 for an accident that was not my fault. In addition, I have had to take several hours off work to rent, return and re-rent cars in the four months you were supposedly fixing my car.
I have been a Honda customer for over 20 years. I have used Honda of Hollywood exclusively to service my car since I moved to California six years ago. I am mortified by the way this situation has been handled, and have documented it extensively in the public domain on my blog. In fact, if you Google “Honda of Hollywood Customer Service” my blog is the #1 hit. I have saved every voice mail your shop ever left me. Many of them repeat the same untruths week after week. (I lost count how many times the car was going “across the street to have the engine put back in”.)
Sadly, now that I have the car back my problems persist. Yesterday morning I took my car to get a smog inspection as my vehicle registration required after six years. The car failed the electrical portion of the test, apparently because the battery had been removed for so long. Your employees knew that I needed to get a smog inspection, and no one informed me of the fact that I had to “drive around for a week to get the electrical system in synch.” After wasting $50 on that test, I realized that my gas gauge that had been nearly full an hour before, was now empty. I drove back to Honda of Hollywood (for the third time in three days), and they proceeded to put my car up on a lift to check for a gas leak. They had me stand under the car (a clearly posted OSHA violation) to tell me they couldn’t find a leak, and that the gauge had probably just been stuck. (I won’t even go into the fact that you had my car for four month as apparently ran the tank empty not replenishing it before you gave it back to me! When I had my accident in March, gas was practically $1 cheaper a gallon than it is today. Classy!)
When I walked across the street to talk to a Sales Representative about trading it in for a new car, they looked at me like I was crazy. The bottom line is that you collected nearly $14,000 from the insurance company and after four months I still have a loose driver’s seat, a stuck gas gauge and who knows what other problems. I suppose I’m going to have to consult with an attorney, as well as the Better Business Bureau, but I want to give you the opportunity to make this right. I know that you are a respected leader in the Hollywood business community. I also know that a few honestly well tagged Google hits can drive business away from any company in the 21st Century. I hope that you will do the right thing here and correct this egregious wrong. I await your reply.
Sincerely,
Carey ______
On to happier things…
Here are some photos from this weekend:
Tressa and I by the orange tree with the sun in our eyes.
Spaghetti dinner at Aunty LuLu’s 
Strawberry shortcake for dessert!
Tressa giving her favorite cousin a relaxing massage while Cole laughs in the background!
Amos and I went here after Rock Sugar had an hour and 1/2 wait!
This is a bit much!
Fried clams on the half shell!
Jessica & Hannah at brunch yesterday.
Jessica, Seth & Hannah
Happier days…the day I got it.
I’m not sure what all these awards were for, but they couldn’t have been for fast service!
Somebody needs to go back to Estimating School!
This was just the bill for my first rental car, from March 21st to June 7th. I don’t even know what the bill was for the portion from June 7th until today. Honda of Hollywood has to eat that. I still have to fight someone for the 4 weeks in between the time Safeco stopped paying for my rental, even though their insured caused the accident. Melissa Blumhagen was NOT friendly at all and quite rude and condescending on many occasions (I have her voice mails saved). Welcome to the blogosphere Melissa!!! 
Amos and I had dinner tonight at Century City, and saw Batman – The Dark Knight. The movie was every bit as good as you’ve heard. A word of advice, go to the bathroom before it starts, as it’s long, and you won’t want to leave to pee! Another word of caution, this movie is DARK! Heath Ledger gives an Oscar worthy performance. Chilling really.
The line to get in went around the whole theater.
This is a new restaurant at Century City. It was packed!
My quest to rid the world of all paper continued today when I got this email from my Homeowner’s Association. They apparently got the stack of unopened mail that I marked “Return to Sender – EMAIL ONLY” last week, and this is how it played out:
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Carey Anthony |
Please review the attached report. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
There has been an increase and special assessment. Your dues are due whether you get a statement or not.
We cannot email each homeowner their statement and correspondence as it is special treatment that is not affordable to all and the association does not pay extra for this service.
You can email me every month to request the invoice but it will not automatically get emailed to you.
Thank you for your understanding.
Thank you.
LOL, it costs you money to mail the statements. It costs 0 to email them! It’s the 21st Century. Figure it out!!! I’m not asking for special treatment, I’m asking for normal treatment. Thank you!
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Carey
Thank you for the response . We will work out something special for you. Your current statement was emailed to you yesterday. However’ if you do not receive one in the future your dues are still payable before the 15th of each month as billing is a courtesy because your CC&R’s require you to pay your monthly assessment no matter what.
Best Answer – Chosen by Voters
This is actually quite common. I know a lot of people with this phobia. Sticks do have a weird texture, so don’t worry, you’re normal and not the only one.
Pehaps my last entry should have been called “One of Those Weeks”. Continuing my streak of bad luck this week (I didn’t even mention in the previous post that my camera broke again…long sandy story), the rental car had a flat tire when I left work today! Since Enterprise was closed already, I called AAA. (No, I don’t change flat tires. That’s what AAA is for!) Lisa’s husband graciously offered to come, but AAA got there in less than 15 minutes which was great. It could have been better though… As he was changing the tire, I texted Lisa:
Talk about your flat tires!
And soon we were melhores amigos!
The birthday girl with mamã…
and paizinho.
Eu te amo você ama-me
If you’re interested in the rest, click the photo above.
Doing the limbo.
This was a $200 cake that Jennifer got for free when a friend of the baker’s called to say they had an extra cake!! The “sand” was brown sugar and the shells were white chocolate.
The rest of the photos can be viewed by clicking the above photo.
This morning I went to get a haircut before heading to Amanda’s birthday party. I had a coupon for this place called Sportsclips, so I decided to give it a try. Big mistake. This place is clearly geared towards men who love sports and love women. The “stylists” are dressed in these ridiculously tight outfits and they’re paid to flirt shamelessly. The gal who cut my hair took an hour to do it, and I could barely even tell a difference. Her perfume reeked and she kept asking me the most vapid, inane questions while turning my chair toward the football game I had no interest in. I just wanted it to be over!
After the haircut, I drove to Huntington Beach only to discover that I had read the invitation wrong, and the birthday party is actually tomorrow! So I left, and decided to meet Eric at the Spectrum for a movie. On the way there I got lost in a crappy part of town, and the traffic was a nightmare. It took me an hour to get from Huntington Beach to Irvine. In the meantime, the rental car I’m driving (as I still don’t have my car back) ran out of oil!
Andy fell asleep in the first 10 minutes of the movie!
How often do you see a car coming out of the top of a garage?
Believe it or not, I actually owned one in college!
Don’t worry, we were just posing!
Joel and his new toy
Vroom vroom!
We had the first part of Cole’s (Andy & Tommy’s favorite cousin ) two part birthday extravaganza tonight with all his little friends. Part two will be Sunday. Tomorrow, my college friend Luci is coming from Brazil for her 2 year old’s birthday party! Lots of kids and parties…my kinds of weekend! I have to wake up early and drive to Newport Beach, so I’ll just post these pictures (more here) now and wish everyone a nice weekend!
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Carey Anthony |
This is just an idea, but what if we got something to
eat tonight and took it to Laguna Beach and watched the sun set? Would
the kids be into that or no?
Carey
I think that’s a wonderful idea! I could get
subway for the boys (and for us too if that’s what you want) &
I’ll pack a cooler of drinks. We could put a blanket down on the grass at
Main beach in Laguna & have a great picnic. Gosh, every once in a
while, you come up with some good ones! See, that’s why you get to make
all of the decisions! We could pick up the sandwiches right after
gymnastics & pick you up at your office…it’s on the way. What time
are you off?
Civil twilight? Did you make that shit
up???
If the video below doesn’t work, click here.
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Carey Anthony |
Well, today I was passing our front door and I happen
to look out the side view of the door and this is what I saw….funny,
that a few seconds before I took this picture, Sauke, our dog, was
laying right there on her pillow with her face right next to the glass
and didn’t even see Mr. Woody….Too funny!
Why will he be dead? Is he sick? Maybe you can catch him and take him to a vet?
Carey
Please spare him!
Don’t force me to blog about your husband being a killer!!
I’m house-sitting and dog-sitting for Buster & Roxy this week and next, down in Mission Viejo. Tonight I met my cousins and friends for Taco Tuesday at Tortilla Flats. It was a beautiful summer night on the lake.
After being impressed by Amos’ car and reading my post about The Golden Compass last year, Pang was nice enough to work some Photoshop magic (a skill I don’t have) on the picture of me sleeping through that boring movie!
Regular readers of this space know that I despise snail mail. This year, I have decided to only open mail twice a year, in July and December. Period! (Christmas cards are a whole other conundrum: http://weblog.xanga.com/CareyGLY/632811811/the-christmas-conundrum.html). All of my monthly bills are on autopay, and anyone else who I might owe money better email me! This is the stack of mail from the past six months that I didn’t even open. I simply wrote “RETURN TO SENDER” and “REMOVE FROM MAILING LIST”, and stuffed it all in a mailbox on my street corner today. On some of these envelopes I wrote my email address. We’ll see how effective my new strategy is. At least I’m making all these companies pay for postage twice. If everyone did this, it might start making a difference!! (Did you know there’s one number you can call to stop all pre-screened offers of credit and insurance? Also, there’s a # to call to opt out of all of those coupons and circulars that come in the mail. Simply check the fine print on each item and call the number listed for the publisher.) 
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