Things are looking up in Pensacola, if the two guys I talked to this morning keep their word.

First, I finally got the right number for the higher up that had left the message last week. After I reminded him who I was and why I was mad, he said it was a "misunderstanding" that led to the local stores having the May toys.  They're "working" to get the new ones into the local restaurants.  And, he's going to send me a complete set in the mail, for free, as soon as his people get back from Thanskgiving vacation.  Hopefully that will include Vader.

Then, I had an e-mail from a different district manager than the one who stopped answering my e-mails. Apparently, the city has more than one DM.  He said the new toys should begin arriving Friday, and supposedly he's going to have one of his stores set aside a set for me (again, he didn't say anything about Vader).  I assume I'll have to pay for those, but that's fine, as long as I get one set to open and one set to keep packaged.  I'll probably try to pick up a few extras during the end run, since I have some overseas friends I trade with.

I've got at least one each of all the watches, with a couple of extras (gotta keep one of the Hans with me at all times <G>).

Gift cards - we went in over the weekend and the stupid woman didn't know how to ring them up.  Now, I told her how to ring them up, because I was there for the training session the first time I bought one, but she didn't listen to me).  So, the next day, we went in to the same location, and the cashier said they could just give them away without ringing them up.  So, I completed my set, and got an extra set. 

Hopefully, these two guys from this morning will keep their promises, and the toys are taken care of and I'll be happy.

I'm still not sure I'll eat at Burger King again after the promotion.  It took an awful lot of effort to get this stuff.

Auriette

We had lunch on Monday at one of the local Burger Kings, asked if they had the SW toys in, the stupid woman tells me yes, then proceeds to give me the old toys.  On Wednesday, I called several BK locations, and the only ones that had any toys in said they had the old ones.

Thursday, my husband called the same one where we ate on Monday, and the woman told him they had the new toys in, but weren't allowed to open the boxes until they got rid of all the old ones.

I'll be calling the BK HQ in Miami Friday morning to complain. This is a national campaign. They should have to let you have new toys.

Thanks for the talc tip.  My husband has a couple of Doctor Who masks (one latex, the other out of a much harder rubber) that started breaking down a few years ago.  The latex one is a total loss. He's still trying to save the other (a back-up mask made for the actor).  He's been searching the 'net for some way to preserve it, but no luck so far.

Those are awful cute, but a tad pricy for something so small.... I wish I could win the lottery.

But is there a little chopped up Anakin figure floating in the lava?

Seriously, I haven't seen any of these lamps anywhere, but I haven't been seriously hunting for them.  Now I will.  Some of them are kind of weird, but hey, so am I.

Somewhere packed up I have a mini-hurricane lamp with a black line drawing from SW printed on it.  Some of the printing had started to rub off a little when I found it at a thrift store or the like.  I've never heard anything about those anywhere, so I'm assuming it was unlicensed.

I picked up the Ep3 DVD just after midnight on the 1st and spent the whole day (my birthday) watching the trilogy.  What a great way to spend the day! 

I enjoyed seeing the deleted scenes.  I think they should have kept the formation of the Alliance in the movie -- after all, Leia follows in her mother's footsteps.   I agree that the "Within a Minute" piece went on far too long.  I haven't watched the webumentaries or listened to the commentaries yet. 

Watching the whole saga at once like that, I was struck for the first time how like her father Leia is.  Just as Anakin makes cracks at Grievous, she smarts off to Tarkin in Ep4.  Whereas Luke's more like mom, ready for adventure, but a little more serious in nature, I think. 

I sure wish they'd have an all-day movie marathon -- I'd love to see all six in theatres back-to-back.  Awesome!

Well, I'm looking for a job to the north.  Last year, we had Ivan. This year so far, we've been hit by T.S. Cindy, Hurricane Dennis, and the very outer edges of Katrina. We're getting some wind and rain from the fringes of Rita today.  Anyway, Tim says he can't take the stress of living in Hurricane Alley anymore.  Right after Katrina, I applied at a couple of TV stations in Tennessee (Chattanooga and Nashville).  They haven't called yet, though.  It's supposed to be this bad every year for the next few years.

The leaders of New Orleans/Louisiana have no excuse for not being absolutely prepared for the worst.  I understand they've had flood scenarios based on storms of different categories hitting along the Louisiana/Mississippi coast for more than ten years.  Their request for federal funding to shore up the levees was denied.  Even so, they knew this was coming, or should have.

National Geographic article from last year - very enlightening:
http://205.188.130.53/ngm/0410/feature5/?fs=www3.nationalgeographic.com

Right after Katrina hit, I read an interview with a woman in Mississippi -- she said something along the lines of "I moved here from Florida to get away from hurricanes. Now I've lost everything."  I think this year has been a wake-up call to anyone who thought hurricanes were Florida's problem. They are everyone's problem if you live along the Gulf or Atlantic coasts.

I'm glad that everyone from that area on this board seems to be okay.