FilteringCraig

The owners of all NBA teams voted last week whether or not they approved of the Sonics’ proposed move to Oklahoma City.  The vote was a landslide 28-2 in favor of allowing the move.  The only two dissenting voices were the Portland Trailblazers, owned by Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.  That means that for whatever reason, Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers voted to approve the proposed move.

Now, I don’t want to jump to conclusions about what Gilbert’s reasoning was in voting this way.  He might be friends with some people in the new ownership group.  He might be looking to make sure he maintains all the autonomy that he can as an owner of a huge sports franchise like the Cavaliers.  If he doesn’t support one ownership group’s rights then they might not support his rights at some point in the future should he decide to do something.  Those are all points of conjecture because I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that Gilbert is not in tune with the desires of Cleveland fans on this issue.  Gilbert is based in Detroit, and he has done a very good job of ingratiating himself to this community.  He purchased the Cavs and put lots of money into the team, the arena, and the city in general.  He put a satellite office of his Quicken Loans business in the city and hired employees to work there.  These contributions to Cleveland cannot be understated.

Still, I think that he has a few things to learn about Cleveland sports fans.  Most of us feel defined by the loss of the Cleveland Browns.  We feel defined by the outrage, the petitions signed, the testimonials before government, the moral victory of keeping our team name, the horrendous start to expansion and everything else that went along with Art Modell moving our team out of the city.  And these same Cleveland sports fans who feel defined by this occurrence in the NFL are the ones who are paying the ticket prices and watching the commercials and buying the food and jerseys at Quicken Loans arena to support Gilbert’s Cavaliers team.

For him to fall in line with the rest of the other 27 owners who voted to allow another city’s team to be ripped out from under them as he represents Cleveland is a travesty.

Again, I don’t know his reasoning.  I just can’t imagine the excuse that he could come up with that I would find acceptable.  I find it embarrassing to think that someone who wants so much to be accepted by the city of Cleveland and who needs the city of Cleveland to remain successful would so misjudge the way he should have voted on this issue.  I know he wasn’t elected by us, but in a sense we elect him year to year based on the team, the arena, and yes, even our sentiment for him personally as the owner of our team.

With that in mind, I would love an explanation and I would love for Cleveland fans to express how unhappy we are to be included in the group that was willing to have Seattle’s team ripped from their city.  As we in Cleveland know, it is always the fans that pay the most when a team moves, and we know only too well how high a price it is.

I tried to make a soup from scratch this weekend and it turned out really well. I kind of made it up as I went along after looking at my mom’s hamburger soup recipe. Anyway, here is taco soup which is like a tortilla soup with ground beef (or in my case ground turkey.)

1 Pound Ground Beef (or Ground Turkey)
1 Packet of Taco Seasoning (I like Ortega, but I have tried others and they are all pretty good.)
1 Large Green Bell Pepper (Diced)
1/2 Onion (Diced)
2 Small Tomatoes Diced
1 Cup Frozen Yellow Corn
1 Cup Uncooked Brown Rice (1 cup of uncooked rice was 4 servings)
5 Cups Water (4 Cups of water if you cook the rice ahead of time)
1 Large Can of Tomato Sauce
1 Can of Black Beans
1 Can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 Tbsp Black Pepper (or to taste)
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder (or to taste)
1 Tbsp Red Pepper Flakes (or to taste)

In a pot, combine the tomato sauce, cream of celery soup, the water and the uncooked rice. Use medium heat, or you can use a large crock pot like I use on the high setting. Stir frequently so the rice doesn’t clump at the bottom.

In a large frying pan, brown the ground beef or turkey, and drain. Put ground beef back in the pan and add the onions, peppers, and corn. Cook at high temperature as you add in the taco seasoning and spices to your tastes. If the mixture is really dry, add in little bit of water so you can cook it for about 5 minutes without it burning.

After you cook the mixture in the frying pan to your satisfaction, mix it into the big pot and cook on medium to low for a couple of hours or until the mixture reaches the consistency of a thick soup. It shouldn’t be as thick as chili, and it shouldn’t be as runny as vegetable soup. Right in the middle is where you want to be.

I served it with some broken up tortilla chips on top, but I would have loved to have it with some grated cheese and possibly even some sour cream on top. That makes the recipe significantly less healthy, though.

Anyway, the soup turned out great for me. Jen liked it too. I probably should have taken a picture, but oh well. We will see how good the leftovers look.

Jen and I are on vacation. I am sure I don’t need to keep reminding you all of that, but it feels so good to say it to myself. So, I will keep saying it.

Anyway, after a brisk workout consisting of running a 5K and lifting weights in the posh exercise center (yes, I am bragging about exercising on vacation,) Jen and I sat down for some breakfast and I saw a super-ridiculously tall woman dining with her husband and baby at the next table over. As she got up to go to the breakfast buffet, it occurred to me that she looked like someone.

Then, it also occurred to me that there is a women’s tennis tourney happening in close proximity to our hotel here in Florida. As it turns out, we were eating next to Lindsey Davenport and her husband. They have a very very cute baby too. No dirt. We didn’t bother them or anything dumb like that. Just kind of fun to have a celebrity sighting.

I am a dummy.  I got to the airport today to go on vacation in Florida and the ticket counter woman informed me that my license was expired as of February 10th 2008.  WHOOPS!

The good news is that they let me on the flight and word has it they will let me fly back.  In the meantime, I have this awful sinking feeling in my stomach because I don’t have a valid driver’s license.  Not that it is a really big deal, but I just don’t like it.  Apparently, I will have to take the written test when I get back in order to get my license reinstated.

No worries though, I scored a mean 9 out of 10 on the practice test online after misreading the last question.

Until then, I will have to ride shotgun in our rental car in Florida.  Jen is distraught to not have a designated driver for the vacation.

I was pushing around YouTube last night and I got on a jag of Canadian rock when it occurred to me that I hadn’t listened to The Tea Party in a long time, while a couple of their albums were favorites of mine for a long time. I started looking for my favorite song by them called Psychopomp. People here in the US never became all that turned on to this song, but you will see by the reactions of Canadian audiences how big the song was.

Then I found out that the band broke up and the lead singer is still out on his own doing solo stuff. Check out the solo version of Psychopomp.

And after watching these two videos, I remembered how much I loved the band Chore, also from Canada. They never hit it huge in the States either, but they have some really amazing songs. Here are two of them, General Warning, and The Hitchhiker.

Every now and then here on FilteringCraig, I have to lose my mind over a product, or a store, or a service, that has been so completely and utterly brutal that it deserves the fire and brimstone from the depths of my angry soul. Home Depot has drawn such ire at this point that I think this puts them at the top of the list.

All this started because Jen and I decided to buy some new furniture. We bought a bedroom set including a king size bed, and a dresser. We also bought a very nice three-piece leather sectional that was uber-comfy in the furniture store showroom. I imagined days upon days sitting on my butt watching sports and movies on our beauteous LCD TV complete with Media Center PC. Cue the needle scraping across the record on the record player (even though most of us are at least on CD’s if not MP3’s. Come to think of it, the needle scratching off the record is something I am going to miss when it becomes completely culturally irrelevant at some point in the future. ANYWAY…)

The couch wouldn’t fit in the house. The knuckle-draggers from the furniture store were unable to get it into our house. Not through the front door. Not through the side door. Not even through the five foot (2.5 foot opening) sliding glass door on the side of our humble abode. Not after taking the smallish feet off of the couch and trying many different angles. The couch wasn’t coming in.

What to do, what to do? See, I had already given away my old couch, which I truly didn’t want anymore. I really wanted this new couch. We had talked about getting French doors put in the patio to replace the nasty old sliding glass door. We called the furniture store and told them to hold the couch in their warehouse. We were getting new doors to spruce up our house and so we could have our new couch delivered through brand new French doors which would open up wide enough to use the full five foot opening in the side of our house.

After a few measurements and a bit of research we headed to Home Depot. We found out that our 60 inch opening was atypical for French doors. We found out that they never keep them in stock. So, we started looking through catalogs at 5 foot wide French doors. And then, armed with information, but still in need of expertise, we started working with a Home Depot salesperson to get some doors.

First things first, we said we didn’t know what we wanted to do in terms of installation. I have access to people who can do things like install doors. That being said, time was of the essence with my couch sitting in a warehouse and not in my family room. So, I asked the sales associate if it mattered if I had installation lined up yet or not. She told me that it didn’t matter at all. “At any point in the process, you can choose to have Home Depot install your doors.” (***Note this phrase.) So, she guided us through all the options with our new French doors on her computer screen. She assured us that the doors and entryways are all pretty standard. She plugged in some approximate measurements and we made some decisions on materials, and away we go. We paid for the door on our credit card and left Home Depot with a sunny disposition knowing that our new doors, and thus our new couch was on the horizon.

After talking to some people about getting our door installed, it seemed to be too much of a hassle, so Jen and I decided to use Home Depot to install the doors. In their store, they list a basic door install price of $349. Being a savvy shopper, I knew that it couldn’t possibly come in that cheaply. I was sure that our door would cost more than that to install. We called and the install company sent someone out to measure the opening. At this point, I assumed that he was just out to figure out how many shims and sealing materials he was going to need for our door. Then, right before he left, he said some magical words to me. “The good news is that the door you ordered is going to fit.”

Cue the scratching record sound again.

You mean there was a CHANCE that our standard sized door wasn’t going to fit? We ordered a door that might or might not have fit in the side of our brick house? Apparently, standard Home Depot door installation process has the install company come out and measure the opening FIRST. Before ordering the door. Apparently the opening sizes aren’t quite as “standard” as they led me to believe. But still, we dodged a bullet because the installer assured me the door we ordered wasn’t going to be a problem.

Now, maybe I should have known the standard process. Maybe I should have logically figured out that a real professional measurement by someone capable of installing the door was in order before you buy the door from the manufacturer. But I never claimed to be an expert. I was looking for advice every step of the way, and I took Home Depot guidance.

So, the installer sent his measurements and estimates back to Home Depot and I got a call from a manager at Home Depot telling me that the estimate for installing the door was in. Including labor, materials and everything else my install price was going to be $811.

Cue the scratching record again. EIGHT HUNDRED AND ELEVEN DOLLARS? I said earlier that the standard listed install price on the sign in Home Depot was $350. I knew that it was going to be more expensive than that, but MORE THAN DOUBLE THE PRICE??!?!??!? WOW. After complaining a bit about the bait and switch that I felt like they pulled on me, they were able to lower the price to $762 by not charging me for some of the molding and materials. I still felt like I was the victim of a robbery at best and a raping at worst, but my thoughts again moved to the couch in the warehouse that I so desperately wanted to place my butt on to watch the Indians and cinematic gems from my media center.

I gave in and said “go” to the install. Keep in mind that after waiting for the door to be shipped to the store and waiting for the measurement and all that jazz, we are about four weeks into the door process. At the beginning, I wanted this door thing to be a two week ordeal before realizing that nobody carries any inventory of 60 inch French doors.

Install day arrived, and coincidentally it was also the Indians’ home opener. I met the installer at my house and he started out by throwing the tape measure around. Then he went to the truck and threw the tape measure around my door. After some time, he started taking molding away to throw the tape measure around some more. Then again, back to the truck.

I don’t think I even need to say it at this point. You all probably know where this is going. The installer claimed that he was 5/8ths of an inch too big for the opening and it wasn’t going to work. He said he was going to take the door back to the store, but that he was sure we would get it all worked out and I would eventually have a new door. I was massively disappointed. My stomach turned to knots and honestly, it was a level of frustration that brought me to a serious level of dejection that I haven’t seen in quite some time.

Here we were about five weeks into a process that began because I wanted a new couch. All this because we couldn’t get this couch in my house during a furniture delivery.

And then my dejection started to turn to anger. Upon leaving, the installer made a flippant comment. “Well at least now I won’t have to miss the Indians game.” I didn’t say anything, but my blood was boiling. I don’t know if he was avoiding the install because of the Indians home opener, but now, with that comment, the installer at least opened up that suspicion. Either way, he took the door back to Home Depot.

And this is the part of the story where we get to meet Jeff. Jeff is a manager at the Home Depot in my area, and I didn’t even change his first name to protect him. Why? I don’t care about him. I have never really gotten into a screaming match with someone on the phone before I met Jeff. He is the reason that I will do everything in my power for the rest of time to keep from giving a dime to Home Depot.

Jeff called me to follow up on the failed installation. One of the first things he says to me is that he is trying to figure out how it is that my measurement came after I ordered the door. I was confused by the line of questioning and finally asked Jeff how, exactly any of this was helpful to me as a paying customer to get my door installed. And he said to me, “Well, I have already talked to my manager and you are supposed to get measured before you order the door. You ordered a door that is too big for the opening and we aren’t going to take this one back.”

CUE 357,863 RECORD NEEDLES SCRAPING, BUT NOT IN UNISON. EACH IS DELAYED FROM THE LAST BY SOME NUMBER OF MILLISECONDS CREATING A RECORD SCRAPING CACOPHONY, THE LIKES OF WHICH THE WORLD HAS NEVER EVER HEARD.

This is when I started screaming at Jeff. “Let me get this straight. You are questioning me in hopes of figuring out an order of events where I am to BLAME so you can get out of having to take this door back into inventory? Do you treat all your customers like criminals? Do you think I went through this process ordering your employees around, or do you think I was following their advice along the way? I was assured that I could choose Home Depot as my installer at any point along the way. I would appreciate you helping me find a solution to the problem we have rather than looking to stick me with building inventory. You are the ones who sell building supplies for a living NOT ME.”

Of course, my rant was interrupted multiple times by him trying to get a word in edgewise, but I lost my shit. I lost it to the point that I actually had a pain in my voice from clenching so badly while I was yelling. I have never been so livid at any store in my entire life. I understand that Home Depot didn’t want to take the door back because I am sure they are graded as a store on inventory efficiency, but don’t be confused. Inventory isn’t Home Depot’s primary business. Customer Service is probably number one, followed closely by building supplies. Jeff was trying to maneuver to the point that he wanted the customer to be so dead wrong that he would have to buy a second door and be stuck with the first door that possibly wouldn’t fit into an opening in his house.

At this point, I start reaching out to those resources that I had in the first place to possibly take over installation duties of this door. If the opening isn’t wide enough then we are going to have to do something about that. I couldn’t possibly eat the money it cost me to buy the door. If I wasn’t going to get anyone to work with me at Home Depot, I would at least try to make the best of it. My uncle came out, measured the opening, and then went to Home Depot with my receipt and demanded to measure the door. By his estimates it is going to be REALLY tight and we might have about a half inch of room width-wise in the opening to get the door in. That is not a lot of wiggle room, to be sure.

Still, it looks like we might have a door installation take place sometime in the next two weeks, and then I can get my couch.

Is it any wonder that I have been playing Call of Duty 4 so much lately? I have been working on gaining experience points based on killing, and more specifically the number of headshots you can rack up. Is it any wonder at all?

But it doesn’t end there. I officially canceled the Home Depot “installation” this morning and they wouldn’t refund the total amount. When you get measured, it costs $30. That money goes toward the installation price, but there is another destination charge in your installation fee which is non-refundable. That fee is $50. So, they weren’t able to refund the $50 destination charge where the guy came and couldn’t install my door after the measurer told me there would be no problem. So, basically they extorted $20 from me at best and $50 from me at worst. And the nerve of the woman on the phone to say, “It’s only $20 because the measurement was $30.” I told her to go ahead and process the refund, but that she shouldn’t say “It’s only $20″ because I basically paid that $20 FOR NOTHING AT ALL.

Congrats to all those of you who made it here to the end of this post. I appreciate you listening to me vent. Hopefully you will learn from my mis-steps and the retardation of the dummies who helped me get to this point in my journey.

Here’s hoping that this story eventually ends well. In the meantime, screw Home Depot. Never again. You are truly dead to me.

So, this doesn’t make up for anything. It doesn’t make up for the fact that the Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tourney this year. It doesn’t make up for the losses in their conference. It certainly doesn’t make up for the loss in the championship game to Florida last year with Greg Oden and company. But it is a nice thing for a team that is trying to rebuild after losing some of the best freshmen to ever play at the college level.

This current Buckeye team with freshmen Kosta Koufos, Evan Turner and Jon Diebler is just starting their college careers. They aren’t like the shooting stars that played for Ohio State last year. More than likely, they will be in Buckeye uniforms for at least 3, if not 4 college seasons. With that in mind, the Buckeyes took a big step toward bigger and better things in years to come by winning that other tournament, the NIT.

Mix in some good recruits, and the Buckeyes will be dancing again before too long. Until then, all you can do is try to win the games they let you play in and the Buckeyes certainly did that in NYC last night against UMass.

Since I haven’t written much lately, here is a rambling unedited post that could have been a review on a better day.

Jen and I have been watching John Adams on HBO starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, both of whom I like. But, for some reason, despite needing to watch every episode, I am generally unimpressed by this mini-series. It looks great. The history is interesting. I think the writing is over the top. I understand that John Adams was a lawyer, a thinker, and all that, but it still seems a bit much. It feels to me like it was written in a booze and drug-fueled orgy of Ken Burns and Aaron Sorkin. The perfect sentences and unbelievable conversations fly as if every pre-revolutionary person had a sense of perfect balance in dialog.

I guess I could have just stopped after saying it is unbelievable.

And still, with all that being said, I am drawn to watching it because I find the history so fascinating. Paul Giamatti does a good job when he isn’t over-acting and over-delivering the lines that have been written. Laura Linney’s performance feels the same.

The bottom line for me is that if I was in high school and I was watching this, it would be the greatest movie ever, primarily because I would be watching it in school. Because I am not in school, all I can say is that it is entertaining, and interesting, while mildly annoying in spots.

I guess the fact that it I am comparing it to Band of Brothers because they were both HBO historical dramas doesn’t help John Adams’ case either. Adams wants to be as good, moving and as important as Brothers, but there is just no way to pull it off. Maybe it is because we have so much more distance away from John Adams’ era in the historical timeline.

Then again, maybe it is just not as good.