The USPS transformed some of their blue mailboxes into R2-D2 across several cities, to promote up and coming Star Wars stamps, and Tampa happened to be one of the locations. So here’s my picture of the droid, we found R2 downtown today at the corner of Kennedy and Pierce. The force is strong with Danielle, as she spotted the mailbox from miles away.

Dear Verizon,

I absolutely cannot handle your fluctuating speeds every minute of the day. Fluctuating between dial-up speed and “DSL speed”.

Also, I’d like to know why you “have no control over news server speeds?”

jebus, I’m about to smoke, dkjafldsfjdaflasjdfja1!$#!$!!!

For all you Tampa folks out there, the Royal Palace on S. Howard will be open every Monday this month and 100 percent of their sales will be donated to the Tsunami Relief Fund. I went for the first time this past Monday and the Royal Palace is by far one of the best authentic Thai food restaurants in the bay area. Not to mention the service is fantastic. If Thai doesn’t float your boat you can always go a couple of streets down to Sally O’Neals for lunch, ask for Danielle, and tell her Jessica (whoneedsoxygen.net) sent you ;).

Here’s a few belated pictures from Frances and Jeanne. I have 3 albums to upload but haven’t setup the new gallery yet. More to come.

1. First picture was from Frances, after being frustrated being without power for several days.

2. Second picture is from Jeanne that just passed, a branch that was impaled into the roof of the front porch.

3. Third picture, also from Jeanne, was a branch that caved in the fence and tried to dismember our BBQ that’s hidden underneath it. Don’t worry, BBQ is fine

Alright, as a resident I’m obligated to chime in on the local news, subject being hurricane Frances. Hurricane Frances has a projected path to swoop into the east coast of Florida and sweep across to the west. While it’s entirely possible for the hurricane to change its course as we previously witnessed with Charley, it’s still worth being updated on its path. There’s no doubt that Frances is bound to cause serious damage wherever it lands.

I just read that the port of Tampa is closed and won’t be opening until Frances is gone, from what I’ve read this means that there will be no shipments of gasoline into the bay area until after the storm. I don’t know if this has been officially confirmed yet, but if it is, what gas is here is all there is until it’s reopened? Who knows, all I do know is that everyone who does have to refuel to be alert of price gouging. This happens around here EVERYTIME.

If by chance you feel you were a victim or have seen a store that is participating in price gouging you can call the state hotline at 1-800-646-0444 and report them. You can also visit www.800helpfla.com. Businesses that are found to be guilty of price gouging are subject to civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, and up to $25,000 for multiple violations in a 24-hour period. This isn’t just limited to gas either; this includes food, water, etc.

Some interesting info on Hurricane Frances:
1. Frances is currently a category 4, with its winds being 145MPH
2. It’s REALLY FARKING BIG, twice the size of Charley, it’s been said that it’s larger than Texas?!
3. It’s diameter of destruction is equal to the distance from the southern tip of Florida to Altanta, GA.
4. 1 Million people have been evacuated thus far

I’ve been humbly invited to join the Tampa Bay Blogger Fest. Thanks to Sarah for posting the evite to me.

Event description from evite:
“This is a get together for all Tampa Bay bloggers! If you’ve got a blog then you are welcome to come. Whether you use EE, MT, TP, LJ, WP or whatever! If you blog, come on down and party! SO’s are welcome! Please RSVP. Splitsville is 21+ after 8 PM. Please note this event is for those of us over 18.”

I might make it, I wonder if any of my LJ friends are going to go?

Hurricane Charley is on his way to Tampa. This is the first time that a hurricane has ever hit Tampa since I’ve lived here. I’ve been getting hammered with phone calls all morning from people trying to find out what’s going on and where we’re going to evacuate to. I have two ferrets and two computers, so I’ll be right here. However, I’m pretty bummed for not getting a UPS. The last thing I’ll be doing is evacuating to some crazy hurricane concentration camp. I still don’t know what the big deal is, I mean, it’s only a category one. The only thing I’m a bit concerned about is the possibility of tornadoes popping up. Shudder to think. In the picture you can see the Tropical Storm Bonnie by the panhandle, why didn’t they name Hurricane Charley Hurricane Clyde instead?

Just a brief update, been busy this past week, sprained ankle and digital crack has taken up my free time.

Last night I heard a small blip about Verizon rolling out fiber optic lines in New Tampa, I think, but they didn’t really go into much detail. I decided to scour to find more information about it, being I use Verizon DSL.

As it turns out, Verizon is indeed going fiber-optic with the new service being called Fios. Verizon will be offering three tiers of this service, 5 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 30 Mbps. From what I’ve read so far its cheapest package will be the same as its current DSL price, $34.95. Boasting that even the slowest Fios package will be able to deliver a 2 hour video in 15 minutes as opposed to an hour (an hour and a half in my personal experience).

Besides blazing speed, Verizon is looking to further expand their grip on the market by adding VoIP service and eventually television.

The project is underway in Texas, California, and (_drumroll_) Tampa Bay. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to this.

A welcome sign across the street from the Ice Palace, greets visitors coming to watch hockey.

My family and I hail from Brooklyn New York, we are born with an innate knowledge of pizza. It’s a given for anybody that’s lived in New York. You can not fool us with your New York style pizza. That being said I’m going to expose the truth behind a certain pizzeria in Tampa, Brandon, and Seffner Florida that claims to serve New York pizza.

Munchies Pizza and Wings. If you live in Tampa you should be familiar with it. Especially if we know each other because I can guarantee that we’ve shared a pie there before together. It didn’t take long for this establishment to get quite popular in the area. In fact, they got so popular that they opened up a store out in Brandon, or Bloomingdale, whichever. I’ll tell you right now, most of you might agree, but once an independent place sets itself up in chain-like fashion, the quality is going to descend. That’s just what happened to Munchies.

After several bad experiences with their service and their food, last time I ate at the Munchies in Tampa, my pizza was covered in cinnamon and was swimming in a pool of grease, we never ordered from them again. That was just one more notable incident.

Well, yesterday, after a day of swimming and pool volleyball we decided to order pizza. Of course I’m the odd one out and refuse to eat chain pizza. Then my friend, Vanessa, tells me there’s a couple of Munchies that opened up out there and we could try them. So, I obliged. I figured, perhaps their pizza has retained some integrity from the day of opening.

Let me cut to the chase. We called and ordered two specials, which was 2 slices and a drink for $3.99, a chicken Parmesan sub, and fried mushrooms. The time we called was about 5:10PM. They informed us that our order would arrive in 40 minutes.

They called back around 5:45ish and wanted to verify the address and correct directions. Okay - so I assume the delivery person is on their way. Wouldn’t you? So we continue to wait.

Around 6:00PM they call back and said they are out of mushrooms and chicken Parmesan so we had to change our order. Yes, they call an hour later to tell us half of our order wasn’t in stock. Our friend Marsha said to hell with it and cancelled hers and left. Danielle changed her order to the special, 2 slices and a drink.

6:20 rolls around and I tell Vanessa that she should call them back to see if they left yet, because she had to leave at 6:30 to pick up her cat from the vet. She calls and the person on the phone says the delivery guy just left. Vanessa says, “It’s been almost an hour and a half, do you think we can get a discount?” The lady on the phone says, “Yes, no problem.”

Well, Vanessa had to leave, seeing how it’s a little after 6:30 and Danielle and I wait around for them to show up.

It took two people to deliver the food. We answer the door, take the food and the guy tells us that our total is $14.61, with our discount. Three specials at $3.99 a piece including a discount came to $14.61. I’m not a math wiz by any means, but I’m not that dense.

I look at this guy and I say, “$14.61 for three specials and it’s an hour and a half late? Do you really expect us to pay for this?” He looks at the ground, and Danielle just hands him the money, and my head is throbbing with anger. They leave and I open up the box of pizza and well, there was no way that was going in my mouth. It was obvious that the original 4 slices had been sitting there and when we had to change our order they waited for the other two slices and tossed some cheese on the original and microwaved it. At least, I hope that’s extra cheese on top.

We call again. Danielle speaks to the manager of Munchies and they offer to send us out a 14” pie in replace of our order for free. Sounds like a good deal right? No. A 14” pie costs $8.50. Danielle asks the lady if the pizza could be there in a half an hour. She gets put on hold and then someone hangs up on her and then she has to call back. The lady tells her that she can’t guarantee a delivery in 30 minutes. I tell Danielle to tell them we’re taking their food back. Which is what we did. When Danielle got there the place was empty all the workers sitting around doing nothing.

Trust me when I tell you, Munchies sells bad quality pizza under the impression of being New York style. New York would be enraged had they seen this pizza this establishment was trying to pass of as New York style. It was wretched.

I thought I would share a bad experience of a once very excellent pizza parlor in Tampa, ya know, for the locals out there. I think I might have to follow this up with my favorite pizza picks in the Bay area. Because if you’re munching on Munchies, you might as well just call Dominoes.