87!

Last night I shot an 87 at Manitou Ridge golf course. First for my league round, I got my best ever score of 41 on the front 9, including pars on the final 6 holes. I then went out with some fellow league members to play the back and shot a 46, including 2 more pars, for a total score of 87. This was my first ever score under 90! The weather was perfect and it was just a great night for golf.

Here's my scorecard:

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	OUT	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	IN	TOT
Par	4	4	4	4	5	4	3	4	4	36	3	4	4	3	4	4	5	3	5	35	71
Troy 7/28/05	5	5	7	4	5	4	3	4	4	41	5	5	5	3	6	5	6	6	5	46	87

Adobe PDF Reader alternative

I found this on another blog today and decided to try it out. I'm very happy with how quick it opens any PDF I click on in my web browser - both Firefox and IE work. I recommend you give it a try - it's called Foxit Reader. Be sure to extract the files in the zip to a directory, then run the exe. I extracted mine to C:\Program Files\Foxit Reader. Enjoy!

Black River canoe trip

On Saturday Bonnie and I went canoeing and camping at River's Edge, north of La Crosse, WI. The canoe trip was on the Black River, and it was quite the experience. We figured it was a 3-4 hour trip, typical of most tubing or canoe spots we've been to in the past. We were surprised to hear from the van driver it might take 5-6 hours to complete. Even he was low in his estimate, as it took almost 8 hours to get done, and we found out we canoed approximately 10 miles, wow! The water was very low, which made the current weak, and lots of paddling necessary. What made it worse was just not knowing where the end is. Every turn you felt like you'd see the landing spot, only to see more trees and river ahead. There are no distance markings anywhere along the route, so you are at the mercy of hope that the end will soon be near. Warning to others: if you are asked to come to a fun day of canoeing on the Black River in Holmen, WI, be prepared for a long day with plenty of sunscreen, food, water, butt padding, and stamina!

Twins in a funk

I'm so frustrated right now with the Twins. Can these guys look themselves in the mirror and say they are giving 100%? The only thing that keeps Tori Hunter in there must be his defense. He is the most impatient batter, along with Jacque Jones. These guys never make the pitcher work. They're up there swinging on the first pitch, putting themselves in a hole. Then strikeout too often on bad pitches as they miserably try to protect the plate. It just seems the coaches can't get through to them, as I never see anything change. This team better rise up and pull things together to win some games or the wildcard is going to be a long shot. I'm afraid the back to back to back is going to end.

form.fieldnames gotcha

Today I was working on a form. One of my text fields is named "training_date". When I submit the form, here is what I see when dumping the Form struct.

ADDRESS myaddress
EMAIL mail@email.com
EMPLOYER scur
FIELDNAMES NAME,EMPLOYER,ADDRESS,PHONE,EMAIL,TRAINING_LOCATION,SUBMIT
NAME troy
PHONE 2223333
SUBMIT Submit
TRAINING_DATE 1/2/05
TRAINING_LOCATION roseville

Notice in the data dump that we see a value for the field "1/2/05" - this is good and expected. However, the field TRAINING_DATE is not listed in the FIELDNAMES key - this is bad. It was bugging me, as I needed to loop over that list. The weird thing is I could change the fieldname to "training_dat" or "training_date1" and it was working. After being stumped for about 15 minutes I showed it to a co-worker. He recognized it was probably the "_date", did a quick google search, and found the answer.

Here's a snippet from the <cfform> livedocs.

Any form field name, from the cfform tag or an HTML form, that ends in one of the following suffixes invokes server-side form validation:

* _integer Verifies that the user entered a number.
* _float Verifies that the user entered a number.
* _range Verifies that a numeric value entered is within specified boundaries.
* _date Verifies that the user entered a date; converts to ODBC date format.
* _time Verifies that the user correctly entered a time; converts to ODBC time format.
* _eurodate Verifies that the user entered a date in a standard European date format; converts to ODBC date format.

Do not use these suffixes for your field names.

Online banking not 24/7, what gives

You would think in the internet age, that online banking would be available 24/7. Why be constrained by normal banking hours, normally Mon - Fri, 9 - 5? Tonight I try paying my Visa bill, and scheduled it for Sat 7/16, 1 day before it's due date of Sun 7/17. After I submitted the form, the date got changed to 7/18. The 16th is a Saturday, so apparently the logic changes the date to the next normal business day, which in this case is the 18th, Monday. Well, if I didn't pay close attention, I would have been nailed with a finance charge, just for that small 1 day late payment. So I cancelled the payment, and changed it to Friday, 7/15. Come on, why can't internet banking be just like all other online businesses, open ALL the time?

what was that value in my cfquery recordset

To get a field's value in a specified row, here's the code. I always forget exactly how to do this, as I don't use it very often. So I figure by writing it down, I'll learn it once again, and I know to look back at this blog in the future for a quick refresher.

<cfset myval=" queryname.fieldname[rownumber]">

Wedding Crashers

This new movie looks very funny, Owen and Vince usually make great comedies. I just did a promo for this movie, and "crashed the trailer". Check it out, it stars myself and Chris Ellis here.

My experience with Star Supply

Today my dad called asking about my contact info for Star Supply in St. Paul. This reminded me about my dealings with them last summer during the addition construction project on our house. I wrote a letter to Star's management, outlining some of the bad experiences I encountered during the plumbing parts ordering process. Here's the juice on what I went through, hopefully my letter made them recheck their procedures, but I doubt it.

Negative Event	Result
Tub model was wrong	Bruce ordered the correct drop-in model. But instead the under mount model was shipped to Star from Bain Ultra. Bain mistake??? Decided to stay with model sent, not a major difference.
Tub pump had broken part	My contractor opened box to find broken piece that connects pump to PVC to tub. Bruce gave me # to call and guy was helpful and directly shipped me a new part.
Under mount sinks had defects	Cambria crew was onsite and opened sink boxes. These sealed boxes had never been opened before. Both sinks had minor "chips" in finish, enough to warrant getting them replaced before they could finish their work. Called Bruce, and luckily Star had 5 in stock. Cambria left for a few hours to another job. I had to make unexpected trip to St. Paul to replace sinks. City Desk guys were helpful as I got to pick 2 best sinks out of 5 in stock.
Delta faucets needed thick mount kit	Plumber could not install faucets because my 3cm Cambria top was too thick. Called Bruce who ordered me 2 thick mount kits. Plumber could not finish that day, and I had to make extra trip to Star to pick them up. Would have been nice to get heads up somewhere, perhaps by Bruce, that this might be necessary depending on vanity top chosen. I'm not blaming Star here, but someone in the industry should think ahead - my contractor, my plumber, Cambria sales, Delta literature, or Star Supply. No warning from anyone until plumber was onsite and found problem.
Tank reorder was white, needed linen	Standard 12" tank was too close to my finished wall due to plumber's oversight. Called Bruce and he ordered new 10" version. I drove to Star to pickup my order to find out Bruce ordered white and I needed linen. Not sure how this happened as all my other stuff ordered prior w/Bruce was linen color: tub, toilet, and sinks! This resulted in canceling plumber for next day. Lucky for me, linen tank was shipped down within 2 days from Duluth and delivered to my door. Don at City Desk was helpful.
Tank kit missing 1 gold nut in bag	Plumber arrived to re-install 10" tank. Bolt kit was found to have only 1 nut and 3 washers. This resulted in me making unexpected trip to Home Depot during AM rush hour to get him the 1 nut he needed to finish.
Shower kit missing o-ring and collar piece	Plumber could not complete shower due to missing Delta parts. Called Bruce who gave me # to call and guy was helpful and directly shipped me new parts. Plumber had to come back anyways for sinks and toilet, so he did this one on that return visit.

Happy Birthday USA

We just finished up a great Independence Day weekend. Plenty of fun and food with family and friends. I also saw an amazing movie that really inspired me and made me appreciate the great country we live in. I highly suggest anyone out there to watch America's Heart and Soul, a documentary by filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg. This film is about 90 minutes in length and shows a wide array of people across our great nation. From a rancher in Colorado, to a dairy farmer in Vermont, to salsa dancers, a gospel singer, a boxer, and rock band members, the list goes on. Trust me, you'll love this film. On another note, now that the 4th is over, summer is going to fly by. It seems every year, once we hit the 4th, fall is just around the corner, yikes!

BestBuy.com's misleading "sale" pricing?

Today I was intrigued by a 10% off all DVD players for 3 days online only sale at BestBuy.com. I hoping to score a DVD/VCR combo for Ben's play room. The price of a unit I found was $79.99, but when I got to final checkout page, it was still 79.99, they never took off the 10%. So I call their support number, and they tell me the price already reflects the sale, so 79.99 is the final sale price. That didn't sound right to me, so I called the Roseville store, and sure enough, the regular store price is also 79.99. So I call back to online support, and tell them the whole story again. They can do nothing for me, but escalated my call to the "Solutions Team". It will take 2-3 business days for a response. By then the 10% off sale will be over, and I wonder if they'll justly help me when they call back. At this point I'm frustrated with the misleading prices at their online store, and may just find a DVD player somewhere else.

Update 7/7/05
-------------
I just got an email from BestBuy support. They tried calling my home number twice, after I asked the rep to have them call me at work! Here is the email I got, and sure enough, the guy says I can no longer get the 10% special! What a joke.

Troy,

Thank you for contacting Best Buy about ordering on BestBuy.com. I'm Anthony with Customer Care.

Although we were not able to reach you by phone over the last three days, we appreciate your interest in the 10% discount for the DVD Players.

To take advantage of the promotion for the Insignia(tm) Progressive-Scan DVD Player/4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, it was necessary to place an order within the promotional dates. At that time, we would then be able to apply the necessary discounts to your order. At this time, we are not able to honor the previous promotion.

Currently, this DVD/VCR combo is priced at $79.99. There is also no interest financing for 6 months with the Best Buy Credit Card.

We look forward to your next visit to one of our stores or to www.BestBuy.com. Please do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concerns.

Best wishes from Best Buy,
Anthony and the Customer Care Team


Update 7/14/05
Another friendly note from BestBuy Customer Care Team today. Still filled with the same BS...

Troy,

Thank you for contacting Best Buy about our 10% off promotion. I'm Kelly with
Customer Care.

We apologize for the difficult experience you had when placing an order on Best
Buy and not getting your 10% off.

Our Insigniaâ„¢ Progressive-Scan DVD Player/4-Head Hi-Fi VCR - Silver, was
offered at 10% off as a special promotion for a limited time. While we are unable
to give you a that 10% off, we invite you to check our site often as our
promotions frequently change.

Thank you for sharing your comments with Best Buy. Please do not hesitate to
contact us with additional questions or concerns.


Best wishes from Best Buy,
Kelly and the Customer Care Team

TRACKING NUMBER: A00004272277-00014868408

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy
Sent: 07 Jul 05 15:39:46
To: customercare@bestbuy.com
Subject: Re: BestBuy.com Case # 18802926

Anthony,

I knew this would happen. Did you not see the "alternate" phone number I gave to the customer support rep? She only had my home number on file, but I work during the day, like most of your customer base, and asked to be called at work. Please call me to discuss this further!

Troy Pullis

Note to self - avoid movies from Wes Anderson

I just finished The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and found it to be a total flop. Bill Murray is this wacky guy who goes out on deep sea adventures, and films them as documentaries. Half the time he is smoking a joint, and telling his interns to do something for him. The director also did Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, also strange films. My brain is not wired to watch movies made by this goofball film-maker.