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We went out to dinner the other night, since it was my dad's birthday, to a restaurant that is named after a city in southern China. For some reason the English name said Northern China, which confused me no end until my parents told me to stop worrying about it.

There was the customary pot of tea with three white china tea cups. I got a glass of water set in front of me, with a pink straw, and wondered if I should feel insulted.
Well meaning people can be entertaining.

Spent quite some time wading through the ATT website today, attempting to find out how to renew the internet service. The website has too many links and java applets but not enough site map / organization logic. Not to mention every time I want to browse the offers they had me enter the phone number and then a message would pop up that informed me that, they're sorry, but I've either placed an order already or am already signed up for service - which I know, of course - our current contract expires in September - but would I please call such and such number to inquire about -

And so I spent some time waiting in the automated message system, with mechanical voices which kept asking me if I knew ATT has a website that is VERY VERY HELPFUL (after a few minutes I was wondering if going deaf is too drastic a measure to take against this type of auditory assault - and why haven't the legislation banned THIS yet as a cruel and unusual punishment?) before I was answered by a man who - what was the description they used in the Hitchhiker's trailer? - Sounded like he was about eight feet tall and had been smoking cigarettes since he was ten?

The phone reception was terrible though, and neither he nor I could make out half of the things the other person was saying, so I had to hang up and try again using a land phone. I've decided, the second time around, to keep browsing the site with the vague hope that something useful would show up and then I would be done with the messaging system and well-meaning people who insistently mispronounced my name.

I am done, but I still haven't found anything useful yet and my, it's September already, isn't it?