u/tooOldOriolesfan

I feel bad for employees that have to deal with people. My brother agreed that if I ever worked with the public, my career would be measured in minutes and not hours or days since I have very little patience :)

Last week we went to Texas Roadhouse around 330pm. It was fairly empty and we sat at a fairly empty bar. Behind us was a row of booths.

I was tired and just wanted to get some food and relax but some older guy sat in a booth behind us and had an issue with his steak. I couldn't catch all of the details but unfortunately could hear some stuff which just kinds of ruin the experience.

A young manager was talking to him and it sounded like he wasn't happy with the size or maybe thickness of the steak and the manager kept trying to tell him they could give him another one but it would be the same size and he would complain and say stuff like the last time this didn't happen, etc.

I just get uncomfortable in being near those situations despite not being involved. After a while I guess the resolution was for the guy to leave who had to ask someone to get his walker. He was pretty rude about it.

Then a guy who was seated with his family at the next booth turned around and let the older guy have it, telling him that was rude and not a way to talk to someone just doing their job.

I did hear one person say I hope he isn't driving so maybe he had some alcohol prior to coming in to the restaurant because he wasn't there that long.

No real point to this point except it is rough dealing with the public and even if you aren't involved in a situation it can still ruin a night out.

For quite some time there was a place to get eyeglasses at a reasonable price off of Scottsdale Road. I think it was east of the road and somewhere between Thomas and Indian Bend.

So far my searching is failing and I'm thinking it either went out of business or moved elsewhere. It had been there for decades.

Anyone remember or know what I'm talking about?

I don't think they did any eye exams but just filled eyeglass prescriptions at a good price. It has been at least a year since we last went there.

Thanks.

I've split living between Maryland and Arizona in my working career. We are visiting Maryland and was wondering if anyone has any strong preferences where to stay for a few days to a week?

We've stayed at Turf Valley and that is decent although at times it is booked with events.

Just wondering if I'm overlooking something in EC, Columbia, etc.

Thanks.

Generally I don't value the hotel credit that highly since it often is at inflated prices or just at a hotel that even with the credit, it would cost more than what I normally would spend. Last year I did manage to use it on a Europe trip and it worked well, highly dependent on your travels.

I had one that was expiring and saw a Hyatt Grand in Scottsdale and it was under $300 for the night. We could do a short staycation and hit a couple of restaurants we like in the area (I lived in Scottsdale for a decade but now about 30 minutes away).

The hotel was fine, low season, high temps, etc. as expecting in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in June.

The guessing game is figuring out what fees the hotel has and what is covered by an $100 credit from the FHR program.

In this case it was stated:

1. $100 resort credit, no alcohol and must be charged to the room

2. Breakfast for 2

3. Room upgrade

4. Late checkout (4pm)

Room upgrades are seldom much unless you get lucky with a suite, room views are ok but don't do much for us. Late checkout is nice.

The breakfast was a bit confusing because at check in the guy said to talk to the restaurant. At the restaurant the host and the server weren't sure and said to talk to the front desk.

It ended up covering the buffet and a gratuity (18%). The buffet, as usual, was horribly overpriced ($32 per person) for its limited selection.

Turned out parking was $32 and there was a $50 resort fee. Somewhat maddening was that the resort fee was not charged at the time you paid for the room since the room was $230 and the $300 hotel credit would have covered it.

Then I found out on checkout that the $100 credit would have covered both the resort fee and the parking. Instead we used part of the credit for some gifts since we didn't want to throw it away.

Maybe it is common knowledge or maybe it just varies from resort to resort as to what is covered by the credit.

All of these games hotels play to get around paying taxes. If only taxes didn't include so many gimmicks to allow people/companies from paying what they should.

Still was a nice mini-break and the pool area was good.

The cheapest business class one way ticket I've been seeing is over 200,000 miles/points.

I have nothing urgent but am keeping an eye out for a flight from Paris to the US later this year (december).

Was just wondering if others have seen anything good miles wise lately?

I have an UDR7 Ubiquit that is located in the SE part of the house and covers the bedrooms/kitchen on that side of the house. I have an unifi AP (older one) that is mesh connected to the UDR7 in the NE part of the house which doesn't get a lot of activity.

Finally I have a wired unifi AP (another older one) in the main bedroom and covers that room and the living room.

The main bedroom and living room are back to back and obviously share a wall (drywall, not brick or anything unusual). On the bedroom side there is an old Panasonic Plasma TV with a firestick. On the other side is an OLED LG tv with a firestick, my receiver, dvd player and some wired speakers.

At times either the bedroom tv or the living tv gets poor connectivity and shows will run into buffering issues and I will have to force one to the dedicated 2.4GHz network that I usually reserve for simplifi security, eufy and other IoT stuff.

Is it possible that the 2 firesticks or maybe the tvs are interfering with each other at times?

I find it strange since it is rare the two systems are on at the same time since it is only the 2 of us living here.

I'm just puzzled since it is extremely rare we have issues anywhere else. When I check the signal level in the management software (from ubiquiti) it does show that one connection is of poor quality.

The access point is in the main bedroom but only about 8 feet from the living room tv.

Any thoughts?

If I use BA miles (avios) to book an American Airlines economy ticket, what tier is it?

What I'm wondering is whether I can do things such as:

1. Upgrade it to premium economy?

2. Seat select?

3. Need to pay for checked bags?

I have a bunch of BA miles I haven't used in a while. Ideally I'd use them on a trip from the east coast to Ireland/Scotland.

Thanks.

Now everytime I come back to my computer 1Password is locked and I have to enter my password. This wasn't happening a few days ago.

What has changed and do I have to install a desktop app to avoid this? If so, I might as well go all in with Apple and get rid of 1Password and save a few $$$.

Do a lot of restaurants expect bartenders to bring in their own crowds during their shifts?

I've never worked in a restaurant but have spent a bit too much time in them and notice certain bartenders tend to bring in a lot more customers. At times it almost appears that the owner expects the bartenders to bring in crowds.

Obviously some bartenders are really good with customers and customers might show up more with the better or more personal service. Just as an example, I'll go to this one Morton's steakhouse (not really representative of the places I was thinking about but...) infrequently and didn't go for several years due to living out of state and covid but when my wife and I returned the bartender immediately recognized us which impressed me and probably have caused us to go back a bit more than we normally would.

Just curious.

I've never owned a hybrid before and my wife has the 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid. If it sits for a week or so the electronics are dead (e.g., cannot remotely open the door locks) and you have to reset the battery.

Is this normal for all hybrids?

If so, it sure would be nice if the process to reset it would be easier. Trying to pop the plastic cover off the door handle w/o breaking it is tricky. I've found it easier if I use a larger screwdriver.

Then you have to press the rest button which sets off the car alarm and press start. Finally let it run or drive it for 30 minutes.

Just seems pretty inconvenient especially if you had the car parked at an airport parking lot or somewhere and it was late and dark outside to get that door handle off.

Anyhow just curious. Thanks.