Bookstores

So, I was actually going to sit down last night and write about my loathing for a certain bookstore but when I sat down to prepare the post things went all haywire.  I guess I should explain the exact nature of the "haywireness" so that you understand where I'm coming from.

My Mac Mini is brand new (only a few months old) and was purchased because my Mac laptop got computer brain cancer and just died.  The motherboard (the brain) expired and there is no coming back from that.  The poor sucker was a goner and a brain transplant would have been more expensive than getting a new machine.  Thankfully, Shane (my hubby) knows a thing or two about computers and was able to take ALL my data and transfer it to the new machine.  So instead of a full-blown panic attack, I only had a minor one.  

Anyway, that is the reason why I knew the weird things going on with the computer had to be software related and not hardware.  Long, boring story short, it turned out that Photoshop was to blame (kinda).  As everyone knows, Photoshop is a memory HOG.  It likes to suck up all available RAM and not leave any left over for other programs.  It's kind of like a child who doesn't share his toys.  

Yes, I have a point and I'm getting to it.  My point is that I only had Safari open (because I was trying to blog) and was trying to edit two photos for the post.  The machine was acting really, really weird and slow when I tried to go between programs.  So, I finally gave up (it was really late) and decided to shut everything off and give it the night to "rest" and see if that helped. Well, it looks like that might have done the trick so here I am posting. 

Now, back to what I was going to write about initially.  By the way, if any of you have gotten lost through my rambling, you were warned.  There is a reason why this blog is called "Random Thoughts."  That's the way my brain works and why my posts are always all over the place!

Ok, on to the bookstore rant/complaint.  (I'll keep it short.)

J and I had lunch with Shane yesterday and I had about 20 min to kill before meeting him.  So, I decided to go to Borders because I had a coupon and needed to get the next book for Social Bookclub.  I normally go to Barnes & Noble but Borders was closer to the restaurant (and I had a coupon).  It's important to note the coupon fact.  If you knew how much I spend on books you will realize that a coupon is a good thing!

Anyway, I can't stand Borders because of the way the store is laid out and how the book categories are organized.  And, because I have had some snotty customer service experiences in the past!  But, in spite of all that, I decided to just pop in there and get the book I needed.  I couldn't remember the author's name but I had the title.  So, I tried looking the book up in their store search thing and that yielded nothing.  I then went to the fiction section and started looking by author name (I used my iPhone to look that up--thank God for Apple) which was fruitless.  I then decided to see if it was in the Biography/Memoir section.  Well, I couldn't find a biography/memoir section.  I looked up and down the whole tootin' store.  Fruitless.  Never mind that this whole time Jackson was getting antsy because he wanted to walk around and I wouldn't let him.

So, I walked out of there muttering about the vileness of the entire store/corporate office, etc.  Now, you are probably asking yourself, "Why didn't she ask for help?"  Well, I'll tell ya why.  There was not a friendly face to be found anywhere.  No one at the "Customer Service" desk or anyone stocking shelves, etc.  There were only the cashier people and I didn't want to stand in line with squirming child and wait to ask one of them.

No book and darn them for tempting me to give them another chance by sending me coupons!

Ok, I gotta run but I thought I would post a card I made yesterday while J was napping.  And, leave you with a cute photo of him playing with some new puzzles.

I got the color inspiration from the ribbon which is brown/blue.  The colors are hard to see in this photo but I like the way the card turned out.

And, here is Mr. J giving that zoo animal puzzle his full attention.

Ta ta everyone!