Surprise, surprise - being heard feels good. So let's try that again.

First of all, I need to offer up a well-earned correction.  Happily.  Last week, with very little subtlety I tore into Williams-Sonoma for not attending to my initial plea for help in replacing or repairing a big ol' KitchenAid mixer gone kaput.  Thankfully somewhere out there in the collective dingy basement of those scouring the internets, my wee little post made its way up the ladder to the PR Director at Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco.  Fast forward through a few emails and you now find me dealing directly with the General Manager at our local Williams-Sonoma.  I'll keep you posted on the mixer.  But, rest assured, Williams-Sonoma has surprised and impressed me immensely.  

Which has me thinking - where have I missed out on past complaints that a special someone keeping an eye on little ol' us here @ andthefamilybuick might have been able to do something about?  So as I wait for a brake job on our generic family wagon (don't EVEN get me started on the enigmatic duality of Firestone here in Ballard), I think the time has come to pick at a few scabs.

Hey, NPR - remember that car we donated this past summer?  Yea, the Volvo with like 180K miles, the busted head gasket that essentially meant we needed a new engine, and the caked-on decade and a half of good memories.  Yea, you sold it at auction and gave KUOW here in Seattle 700 bucks.  That one.  Well, we never even got a travel mug.  Or a tote bag.  I know you have our address 'cause we get new pleas for pledges every few weeks, it seems.

Hey, Apple - remember me coming in nearly a year ago to see if you could repair my wife's old iPod (screwy internal drive) a few months after I'd replaced my laptop with the shattered screen (my daughter innocently pulled it by the power cord off the breakfast counter)?  Yea, the guy you told that you'd give 10% off a new iPod if we donated the old one.  I must have misheard you.  What did you really say?

Actually, this is pretty fun.  So one more.

Hey, President Obama - remember me, the guy who's been defending you even as seemingly every other dolt who could afford a bumpersticker back in '08 has jumped ship in protest of some sort of nonexistent gripe about your job performance? Remember, the dood with the broad historical reading of politics who's nonetheless learned a bit from past forecasting mistakes and the past election cycle called it for both your and McCain's nominations back in November '07?  No, I'm not one of those going all "MassHole" on this Scott Brown special election and calling it the end of ObamaCare while wasting time building strawmen and blathering about "revolution".  And no, I'm not those guys demanding that the Dems dig in their heels and fight back.  I'm that other one, up here in the Northwest wearing the Milwaukee Brewers hat.  Yea, the old classic logo one - that's me.  The one looking for you to show how well you can play the rope-a-dope routine on health care.  Pull the compromise bill.  Push through a smaller bill on the obvious stuff.  Pivot to the economy.  Frame the argument, don't take it spoon fed by the haters.  And play more basketball.  The country somehow seems to feel better about itself when we see you loose and lithe on the court.  Thanks for that.  Oh, and if you want, could you erase my NSA file?  You should be fine if you go back to about '87 or so.

Hope your own customer service success stories also go all the way to the top today.  Rock on.

Saying goodbye is toughest because I finally vacuumed her a few weeks ago...

Have you ever had a car that you thought would live forever? Let's say you never even named it because you were sure that you had plenty of time to bond in the future and on some cross-country drive it would speak to you at 2am and say "Call me Lucinda" or "Cheever" or "Mr. Mustache"? That was the relationship I had with our Volvo. !80K miles, no accidents, stints in California, Texas, Vermont, Washington and all points in between. I can't take credit for our Volvo - my wife brought it into our relationship. However, now I'll always be a Volvo guy. Yet as of yesterday, I've been told that we need to start seeing other people. See, our Volvo has a blown head gasket. The water and oil and the dairy and the meat or something are combining and we're done. A new engine would be throwing away money. Lots of money. Thankfully, I've got the most honest mechanic I'd ever imagined breaking the news to our shell-shocked family. I'd love to honor it by driving our Volvo off a cliff into the Columbia River or send it out to sea on an ice flow. But apparently that's not legal now that Obama's in control.

Sarah was out of town with Maya for a long weekend, during which I caught a few flicks. I can't say that I was blown away by anything I saw. "The Wrestler" is barely a B-plus, largely thanks to Marisa Tomei (rawr!). "Frost/Nixon" is a weak B, mainly due to overeager expectations on my part. "Milk" was a reluctant B, because I found myself fondly remembering Gus Van Sant's much better "My Own Private Idaho" at a number of times during the film. All in all, any of the trio is a million times better than last summer's "Indiana Jones". Then again, flat beer and stale pretzels served in a shoe are also exponentially better than that turkey.

Hope your own car earns a tender hug and an oil change today. Rock on.