Friday, January 19, 2007

Props and Slops

THE PROPSI love giving props to people and things who make me happy. In no particular order, here are my latest true loves:

Budget Rental Car
Saved $200 on a week's rental just by stopping by the Budget desk on a whim while on my way to the Avis desk where we had already reserved a car for the week. No reservation? No problem. AND THEY WERE SO FRIENDLY!!!
Hyundai Sonata
This is the car we rented. We've always owned Camrys or Accords (plus my new fave, my Subaru Forester), but this Sonata was the CANDY. Who knew??? Comfortable, spacious, get-up-and-go. And a pretty thing! We fit all our luggage, we two adults, the two kids, and their car seats into that baby with LOTS of trunk room to spare.
Commerce Bank on Concord Pike & Silverside
I read recently in the News Journal (local-local!) that the most convenient place to cash in your coins was this bank's machine. No waiting in the supermarket lines, no "store credit" instead of cash. TRUE TRUE TRUE. And not only that, but the whole bank's staff was friendly, helpful, and SMILED at me when I didn't even stand in their lines! They even gave me two free checkbook registers when I asked, and I'm a freakin Wachovia customer. Hell they are open on WEEKENDS, people. Maybe I'll look into it.

THE SLOPS

Hanes socks for my boy
I didn't think a huge name like Hanes could make a stinky product, but the white ankle-high athletic socks I bought my 3.5yo are PILLING. I have never owned an athletic sock that pilled. Have you? It is strange and very UGLY, seeing that the fabric lining of his sneakers is navy blue. The fuzz pills on his white socks are GREY, and the socks are but a week old.

Microsoft Windows 7
Can you just shoot me now? I didn't observe my usual rule of letting a few months go by before upgrading to the next version. The NEW and IMPROVED Windows treats ANY link that is designated to open in a new window as a pop-up and blocks them. Weather.com local alerts, for example. Also, links on my blog (I always tag them to open in a new window so you don't leave me--*snif*). So you have to press Ctrl at the same time as clicking the link now. And the TABS on that mutha? I just can't figure it out. And I'm not dumb. At least I didn't useta think so.

4 comments:

Alphabeter said...

Do you mean Microsucks Internet Explorer 7?

I wouldn't give an AOL user that thing!

Get Firefox. I will provide the tissues when you see how much sweeter (and free-er) it is and need to cry.

Christa M. Miller said...

Hmm, I haven't had the pop-up problem with IE 7. Ask D if there's a setting to change somewhere.

Also, re-check the tabs when you click on a link... I did get a new window to come up, first of all, but your IE may be configured to open those links in tabs instead. It just means you have to click on the tabs instead of the "Back" button to get back to where you were. :P

The main thing I can't get used to is that the function buttons (Refresh, Stop, Home, etc.) are scattered all over, and much smaller so it's harder to find them.

Mary Louisa said...

Alphabeter, I do have Firefox, but some of the sites I do business on regularly don't work quite right on it (yet?). Isn't it interesting how Firefox has used tabs for a while, and NOW MS does???

Christa, I think the problem may lie with my Google pop-up blocker. It has never in the past given me a problem with, for ex., BLOGGER COMMENT WINDOWS. But now it blocks them! I think it is MS's way of forking up the Google toolbar, forcing people to drop it and use the MS automatic pop-up control. I purposefully didn't code the links in this post to open in new windows b/c I was tired of dorking with it! :( a

ITA about the losses of the drop-down menu and the buttons being different/displaced.

Rob Gregory Browne said...

You think IE7 is bad, wait until you experience Vista. DRM city. Microsoft wants to control everything we do.