Sunday, March 28, 2010

Hi,

Dreary day today.  It started out fairly overcast and then got totally cloudy and was raining fairly hard.  That’s OK, it’s that time of year.  Yesterday was pretty nice and I got all the gardens cleaned up and mulched, except for the area around the water feature and where the elephant ears go.  It’s still a little early to plant the elephant ears, but I may plant them just to get all the gardens finished (planting them now won’t hurt them, they just won’t do anything until the ground is warmer).  I also got all the life jackets, fish netting, witch balls, etc out of the basement for the “Beach”, cleaned up and scattered around the Beach.

In December, 2008, Allan G rented the entire Inn for a workshop with a group of associates from U Pitt.  He rented a white board, easel and markers from Office Depot and had Office Depot deliver and pickup the equipment.  About a month later, I started getting Office Depot catalogs addressed to Allan G at my Inn.  I called Office Depot and the customer service representative I spoke with asked for the codes on top of and below the address.  She said everything was taken care of and I was deleted from their mailing list.  She asked that I wait eight weeks for the system to clear out anything that was already scheduled in the system.  Three months later (and three catalogs) I again called Office Depot and went through the same ritual.  Again I was told I was removed from their mailing list and to please be patient for eight weeks.  Two more times I went through this and then contacted the Better Business Bureau in South Florida (where Office Depot’s headquarters is).  I did this through the BBB’s web site and within a week I had a call from an Office Depot manager that apologized and asked me to detail what I had gone through.  I gave her how everything had happened, she said she saw what had happened and would be able to remove me from their mailing list.  Of course she asked me to be patient for eight weeks for the changes to take affect.  I have not received a catalog from Office Depot since.

BUT, this week I received a solicitation from the Pittsburgh Business Times and the US Postal Service addressed EXACTLY as the Office Depot catalogs were, Alan G with the Parador Inn and my address below that.  THEY SOLD MY ADDRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m assuming they did not do it in spite, it was probably just one of those incredibly stupid things greedy big companies do when people are taken out of the system and the system takes over.

I gave four tours yesterday to brides (one is already scheduled for August, they just wanted to see the rooms again to do room assignments).  This afternoon I have a neighbor’s daughter coming over for a tour for her wedding.  Also, Danielle stopped by to see the place.  She’s the photographer for ModCloth www.modcloth.com , they do new retro clothing here in Pittsburgh.  It looks like they are going to use my place for a photo shoot Wednesday for some new clothes they are coming out with.  Cool.

Well, it’s still pouring down rain, it looks like da boiz aren’t going for a run in the park today.  They don’t mind, I do.  🙂

ed