Pen-Elayne on the Web

What We -ave Here is a F--lure to Co--uni-ate

One of the reasons I like consolidating errands is that if one or two don't turn out as expected at least I'll have gotten something accomplished without feeling like I've made a wasted trip. Today was my day to hit the Times Square/Port Authority area after work, and I found myself 1-for-3, sort of. It was a real learning experience:

I couldn't believe it, but 42nd Street is a hell of a lot noisier than 34th is. Robin blames this on all those dancing feet on the avenue they're taking you to.

There's a Red Lobster franchise at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 41st Street. This pleases me greatly.

I think my cell phone fixed itself by the sheer act of me queuing up at the 2nd floor service center of the Sprint Store on 42nd and 6th. As Robin observed, perhaps all it needed was to be in touch once more with its inner Sprintness. Likelier the battery that was in Rob's phone (which I also had with me and which I exchanged with the battery in my phone whilst in the queue to make sure it was the phone and not the battery-- yes, yes, I should have thought of that before I left home) is now working just fine, and the battery that was in mine is on its way out or just wasn't charging properly. We're recharging it in Robin's phone now to check it. If the only thing that turns out to be wrong with my phone is that it can't charge a battery any more (we do know it's not the recharger, I've tried three different ones including my boss' recharger in his office with the same results), I'm loath to make a return trip to the Queue from Hell.

Between the holiday pushing schedules back a day and the publication of JLA/Avengers #1, I got to see the upper floor of Midtown Comics for the first time ever, as the checkout queue was so long they had to shunt some folks upstairs.

ShortLine and Gray Line are both owned by Coach USA but are not treated as the same bus company by the Port Authority. The NY RenFaire site, as well as Coach USA's own site, gives the impression that they are. The ShortLine bus leaves a half hour later than the Gray Line bus, which I knew. You can purchase tickets for the ShortLine bus on the upper level of the Port Authority's north wing, using a debit card or a check but not a credit card. You can purchase tickets for the Gray Line bus on the lower level of the same wing, next to where you get the tickets for the bus to Newark Airport (for the few people who still do that instead of just taking the train), provided it's open, which it wasn't by the time I got there. Unfortunately, neither bus leaves from the GW Bridge bus station.

So you know, I didn't find out what might be wrong with my phone or battery, and I didn't buy my RenFair bus tickets, but I picked up some comics and I learned stuff. And no schlep is a total loss if you learn stuff.