Saturday, May 30, 2009

Pizzalog #4

Getting in and out of my car for work a bajillion times a day provides a little wear and tear on my car. Sometimes the big bags of pizza will hit my air vents and break the lever that lets you close the vent (this only happened once, and it's on the passenger side which isn't as bad since I'm usually the only one in the car, and hence nobody is usually in the passenger seat). Other small (aka cheap plastic pieces) frequently break off and end up on the floor. Don't ask me how many pieces of my car I've thrown away because I don't know where they came from or how to put them back. Eventually you realize how important each little piece of your car is. For example, all the little plastic parts on a seatbelt that don't really make your seatbelt more safe, but they make the seatbelt look a little better. They also make the seatbelt less harmful and annoying to you. I burned my arm on the metal part of the seatbelt when I got into my car today. Later on, the same part of the seatbelt got stuck between the cushion of my seat and the metal on which my seat sits (the metal that lets me adjust forward and backward). And because all of the nice little plastic parts were gone and the seatbelt was stuck in the seat, I got a bruise on my leg. As I was getting into the car with a big bag of pizzas, I fell a little and crashed down hard on the stuck seatbelt. My life is so hard.

:)

Pizzalog #3

If you haven't already, you should read #1 and #2.

Now for #3. One dark night, I was delivering pizza to some family housing near campus. At my school, campus sidewalks are wide so that authorized vehicles can get to where they need to go. This family housing place had the same wide sidewalks, but also had automated gates to prevent unauthorized people from driving on them. It was a dark and busy night, so I hurried to the apartment and gave them their pizza. Did I mention it was dark? My lights were on, facing the direction of the apartment. Because it was so busy, I decided to run back to my car (toward the bright lights on a very dark night). Needless to say, I couldn't see very well. I was running pretty fast. Remember those automated gates I mentioned? Imagine getting clotheslined (sp?) by one of those. Yeah. Welcome to my world of awesome.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Picture This

A new Walmart is being built near my home. When I drove past it last night, this is what I saw:


And the dang thing isn't even open yet!!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Summer Fun

The husband finally convinced me to put down my book and go outside for some fun. We decided to round up some friends and go play frisbee golf on campus.
Here's a sweet action shot of the husband:


One of the friends (and me in the background, but don't look):


The husband trying to explain to the guys the next "hole". They look a little confused.


Another one of the friends (who ends each throw in a girly ballet pose. This picture shows him entering this pose.):


These last few pictures are for our niece. In order to travel around the world, she created a flat twin (a notebook with her picture on it). This gets mailed around to people she knows in different places. We received her flat twin and decided to take her frisbee golfing with us. These are a few pictures with Flat Emma.




What a joy to have a relaxing and fun summer afternoon.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Pizzalog #2

If you haven't already, you should read Pizzalog #1 which describes a little about why I am doing this. And now with #2:

I was delivering pizza one night, and I was taking an order to a small house in a small town just outside of Logan. As I was walking up to the door, a small child came over to me, dressed in a long sleeve orange shirt, overalls and flip flops. The child had long-ish blonde hair and a cute face. Pushing a stroller, the child came over and showed me the doll in the stroller. I knocked on the door and the child's mother came to the door. "Your little girl is so cute!" I said after receiving payment for the food. The mother responded, "He's a boy."

Let's be honest. Do you let your only child, a boy, push around a doll and a stroller?

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Pizzalog #1

As most of you know, I deliver pizza to pay the bills. Like many jobs that have person-to-person interaction, sometimes weird things happen. I'm sure that many of my friends get sick of my stories because they all start like this: "One day, when I was delivering pizza...". I recently realized that you, my blogging friends, rarely get to hear these stories. I have many in my archived memories (which I often have a hard time retrieving, ask the husband) so over the rest of my time working pizza I will try to remember all of my wonderful stories and share them with you. We'll start with the most recent.


Last night, I was delivering pizza. Our store closes at 1 on Friday nights, and around midnight we got a call for an order close by. It's a good neighborhood, and it was my order to deliver. Hoping for a good tip, I packed up the pizzas, breadsticks and the Diet Coke and headed out the door. I got to the house within 20 minutes from the time they called (this is normal for us). Picking up the credit card slip for them to sign, a pen, and all their food I headed to the door. I knocked. Waited. Knocked again a little louder. Waited. (After working pizza for 2 years, it's easy to tell if anyone is coming or if anyone is there. Sometimes people order pizza then run to the gas station to get a soda or whatever. Or they order while on their way home and we beat them.) At this house, the main light was on and I knew someone had to be home or they would be back soon. I rang the doorbell. Waited. Knocked again, long and hard. No response. The next step in this case is to call the number that they called from. I did this 3 times with no answer. I called the store at which I work to ask the manager whether to bring the pizzas back or what to do. He said to try knocking again. Leaving the food in the car and taking only the credit card I went to the door again. This time as I neared the door I noticed that their blinds were up a little bit so I peeked in. I was suprised when I saw a woman asleep on the couch. Knowing she was there I knocked and knocked and rang the doorbell. Peeking in, I found she was still asleep. Laughing, I called the manager again to ask what to do. He told me to step inside and try to wake her with my voice. "Okay," I said, "I'll call you back." I opened the door and said, "Ma'am?" No response. Not even a twitch of the hand. "Ma'am, your pizza is here," I said a little louder. She snored a little louder. Standing there in shock I decided to touch her hand, thinking that would surely wake her up. It didn't. I squeezed. I patted. I practically yelled trying to wake her up. Nothing. By this time I'm thinking this is the funniest thing that has ever happened to me.
I called the manager again, who in turn called the store owner. Since she had paid with a credit card the debate was whether to leave the pizza inside the door or bring it back to the store. While I was waiting I decided to get a head start back to the store. But they told me to leave it there so I turned around and went back. Peeking inside, I saw she was still asleep so I knocked. Peeked again and saw her hand twitch. This was the first movement I'd seen of her the whole time (including when I touched her). I knocked again hard and continuously for about 10 seconds. Peeked in yet again and she had moved off the couch! A few seconds later she came to the door, completely out of it. I hand her the credit card slip and ask her to sign it and she sets it on the couch and takes the pen and food to the kitchen. She came back about 20 seconds later with a piece of pizza in her hand. "Do you know where the thing to sign is?" I respond, "I think you dropped it on the couch." She goes back in the kitchen. Thinking she doesn't have a clue what I said I stepped in and grabbed the slip. "It's right here, ma'am." Handing it to her, I pointed out the spot to sign and the spot to write the total. When I got it back, she had slashed out the tip line, written 4.00 on the total line, wrote the total (the wrong total, adding the tip completely wrong) on the signature line, and signing where the delivery persons id is supposed to go.

Amazing.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Still Alive

It has been a while (yet again) since I last posted. This time, my excuse is that I just haven't felt like writing. I still don't really feel like writing, but you guys deserve an update.

School is out for the summer, and neither of us are taking summer classes. I'm excited for that, sort of. This entire past week I have done hardly anything. If I'm going to survive this summer I definitely need to get my butt in gear and start some projects or something. Like my research for grad school. The problem with that one is that I've done the fun part. Now I need to do the boring things like search the web to find data and read journal articles. I dread the latter. They make me fall asleep. So, to keep from going completely insane because of my research, Mark and I decided to do a few touchups in our house. It's fine the way it is, but good is good and great is better. So, we bought a new light fixture for our pool table room. Already that room is really coming together. We have a few more ideas, but we have yet to decide on much else. Anyone like to paint? We can probably use the help sometime.

Our other plans for the summer are a lot of weddings, a few vacations, and working pizza the rest of the time. We sound busy, but we're not. Trust me, I would know. Anyway, I'm curious about how many people actually read my blog. Usually there's not much to comment on, so I understand why you don't leave comments. Today I'll ask a few questions that you can answer in the comments section. Sound good? I thought so.

1. Do you like to paint? (And would you want to help us sometime this summer?)
2. What is your favorite meal? (And can I have the recipe?)
3. What is your favorite vacation spot?