Month: July 2003

Service King: Good Service

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Back in November, I walked out of Kroger to discover some small cracks and paint chipped off the left side of my rear bumper. I wasn’t pleased, but I chalked it up to a rogue shopping cart. And, figuring that it’d be below my deductible anyway, I wasn’t in any particular hurry to have it fixed (it was only a cosmetic issue and didn’t affect the car).

Earlier this month, I decided that I should get it taken care of since I’d have to get it fixed sooner or later anyway. I recalled that Scott Secrest mentioned a repair shop during the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event at Cosmo’s. So, I e-mailed him about that and it turns out that it was the Service King near Plano Dr & Kingsley.

I went there for an estimate and it was about the same (or a bit less) as other estimates I had. But, I decided to give it a shot since they appeared more professional than some of the other outfits. I scheduled the appointment for Monday.

I brought my car in and, conveniently, there’s an Enterprise car rental in the same building. I was almost expecting Enterprise to take advantage of its “free customers”, but they gave me a good rate as well (about $24/day).

They estimated that my car would take about four days and it was finished today (four days). I went to pick up the car and the workmanship was top-notch. I wasn’t certain, but it looked like they may have even washed my car as well (a nice touch). I can see why Scott recommended Service King — they did quality work and the staff treated me professionally.

If you need collision repair on your car, I’d recommend Service King. If you’re looking for a specific name,the guy I dealt with was Bruce Williams.

Ah, Got a Roommate

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On Friday, I wrote that it looked like I had found a roommate. Well, Mike and I went over to the leasing office and signed all the papers on Monday. So it’s official now — whew. Not that I was expecting any problems, but it’s a relief to have all the Ts crossed and Is dotted.

It’s also nice to have a couch once again — Jason took his futon with him when he moved out, so I had nothing to sit on for a while. But, Mike has a blue L-shaped sectional couch that is much more comfortable than my floor ;).

Another One Bites the Dust

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

As I was going to check my e-mail this morning, I found that the screensaver wouldn’t wake up after shaking the mouse. I then noticed that the PC was off and the power switch wasn’t having an effect either. I had a hunch that it was another dead power supply.

I dug out my power supply tester and, sure enough, it was dead. Dead power supplies are fairly rare, but I was especially annoyed that this was the second time this brand had died on me. Around this time last year, my original power supply died and I replaced that with a 300 watt power supply from JGE. Then, that replacement died only a week later and I replaced it with the same model.

That replacement last until today, apparently. But, I wasn’t going to be fooled again. I wondered about JGE’s quality control at the time and I’m now convinced that it’s not very good. So, I drove down to Fry’s and selected a 350 watt Kingwin power supply (I would have gone with 300 watts again, but the 350 was about the lowest wattage I could find.)

So, $50 later, I had a new power supply. I took it home and installed it: voila, a happy PC once more. Interestingly enough, a sticker on the box said “Silence”, but I figured that was just marketing hype. However, it was actually markedly quieter than my old power supply.

So far, I’m pleased with Kingwin. And, it’s bound to last more than a week ;). In any case, I won’t be buying JGE again.

Katie’s Party

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

I went to Katie’s party on Saturday night and I had a good time — it was just what I needed after moving things all day (I helped Leia move in the morning and my new roommate Mike move in the afternoon).

Katie lives in a large house in Highland Park — she doesn’t own the house, but she’s staying there to fulfill some insurance requirements for one of her friends (somone had to stay in the house, apparently).

Each room was decorated in a theme based on a country. For instance, the foryer had a Japanese theme (complete with a giant kimono encased in glass hanging on the wall). That room scared me a bit, but some of the other rooms were more tasteful. As I headed out for the evening, Katie suggested that I blog about the food. Sure, I can accommodate that :).

I first had some mini double-chocolate Oreos. Yeah, both the cookie and the creme-filling were chocolate. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a a chocolate nut, but chocolate-filled Oreos didn’t quite have the same creamy essence as the original vanilla creme. Perhaps if the filling was dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate, they might be even better.

There were also some iced sugar cookies. Yeah these were the regular sugar cookies with thick pink icing that you can find at any grocery store. But, they were very tasty (as always). I think I had two of these.

In the freezer were some Blue Bell ice cream sandwiches (the small kind). These were obviously fresh from the creamery, as the cookie was still crisp. I didn’t mind that, though I suppose I’m more used to having ice cream sandwiches with more of a soggy cookie. Fresh ice cream sandwiches have more of a crisp cookie because the cookie is completely dry and crisp when ice cream sandwiches are made (like a graham cracker). But, over time, it absorbs some of the moisture from the ice cream and softens. (I learned all this from Unwrapped on the Food Network.)

This party was well-stocked with snacks. It’s not often that you’re offered iced sugar cookies, and you can’t go wrong with ice cream sandwiches either. It seems that the major snack-categories were all covered. Snackarific.

May Have Found a Roommate

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I’ve been looking for a roommate for a while now and I may have found one. Since Jason moved out, I’ve been signed up with several roommate-finding services (Roommates.com RoommateAccess and RoomieMatch, to name some of the more useful ones).

As usual, the services would send me matches every day based on my location and the apartment’s rent. I’d look over of them, and send messages to people that I thought would make for a reasonable roommate.

So, among those, I sent a message to Michael yesterday afternoon. He stopped by to check out the apartment yesterday evening and today we’ve agreed to become roommates. We’re going to the leasing office tomorrow to fill out the paperwork. It all seems too easy ;).

If all goes to plan, Michael will be moving in this weekend (since he has to be out of his current apartment by the end of the month). I’ve offered to help him move, so this may be the second move I’m helping with this weekend. It’ll be good exercise, so I don’t mind.