How Old Am I?

A cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast...
Whatever happened to Diet Coke and Pop Tarts?

Just Part of the Job

Sometimes, BigJoel's job stinks.  Like when he has to miss important events such as HannahKate being presented as part of the Homecoming Court at the Hometown High School football game.  Or when the fire alarm (which is excruciatingly loud, by the way) goes off in the middle of the night and I can't figure out how to make it quit.

But there are other times, when the job has its perks.  Like when I get to travel fun places with him.  Or more recently, we had the opportunity to go to Game 5 of the World Series.

So I've never been a huge fan of baseball and attending the World Series was certainly not on my "Bucket List", but I am a huge fan of spending time with BigJoel and this definitely goes on my "How In The World Did I Get Here? List" of interesting experiences stemming from Joel's job.  

It was really quite amazing to be present when a team actually won the World Series...even if it wasn't my team.  We'll get 'em next year, Rangers!  It was a great run.  You made me actually enjoy baseball which is almost as impressive as making it to the World Series.  Can't wait until Opening Day in April.

Persistence Pays Off

When I started my new job back in April, Joel bought a speaker dock for me to have at my desk.  This way I could listen to music and charge my iPod at the same time.  It was a cute little thing.  Just the right size.  Here's a picture.

Unfortunately, after only a few months, the device stopped working one day.  Suddenly.  As in, right in the middle of a song.  One minute I was listening, the next all was quiet.  Of course it had been longer than the allowed time for returning the item to the store where it was purchased, so I had to contact the company.

On my first attempt,  I was assisted by a "non-English speaking" person.  I don't mean that ugly.  I'm sure the gentleman was quite fluent in his native tongue, but I have found in my own personal experience with second language learning that talking on the telephone is difficult.  Needless to say, after the third or fourth time of the man saying, "Ok thank you.  I hear what you are saying, see.  Can you tell me if the device is...[insert the next troubleshooting solution from the manual here]?" I was frustrated and so was he.  We had come to the end of our ability to understand each other, so I told him thanks and hung up.  Within an hour, I received an email from the company saying, "Thank you for calling...if we do not hear from you in 24 hours, we will assume your problem is solved...would you like to fill out a customer satisfaction survey?"

But my problem was not solved, so they did hear from me again.  The second time I called, I spoke with "Matthew".  I remember his name, because I was relieved that I could pronounce it.  Matthew was very friendly and was finally able to discern that I did have the device plugged in, and was operating it correctly; it had simply stopped working.  Matthew said that if I would email or fax him the receipt, he'd replace my speakers within a week.  Yay!  So I emailed the receipt and I waited....and waited...and waited.  I even faxed it for good measure.  I thought it odd that I did not receive a confirmation that the receipt had been received, so I called again.

My "non-English speaking" friend answered the call.  I just hung up.

I waited a few days and called again.  I reached "Scott".   I told him the story and he pulled up my "case".  It appears that they had not received the attachment with my email nor the fax.  (At this point, I'm upset with Matthew because why didn't he let me know he never got my receipt?  I had received another "Thanks for calling...we assume we fixed your problem...customer survey" message and Matthew never mentioned that he hadn't received my attachement.)  Scott said not to worry, he would handle everything.  It turned out that by this time, the original speaker was on backorder.  It figures.  Again, Scott said not to worry.  They would send a device of greater value.  Seven business days, he said...

After fifteen business days, I still had not received the replacement.  Of course I'm totally exasperated by this time.  Normally, I'm not a "return" kind of girl, I just cut my losses and carry on; but this was not a cheap device and it had malfunctioned after only two months.  I'm standing on principle at this point.

So this past Monday,  I called the company again.  I pretty much have the number memorized now. "Colin" answered my call.  When he pulled up my "case" he said, "Oh my, this has been going on far too long..."  Thank you, Colin!  He apologized and promised to send out the replacement via UPS 2 day shipping.  Yeah, yeah.  I'll believe it when I see it, buddy.

Well, sure enough, Colin is a man of his word.  This evening around six o'clock, the man in brown rang my doorbell and left me a box.  A huge box.  Hmmmm...... Remember the original device?  So cute and compact?  Here's the new one.

It's amazing.  It has great sound and even came with a remote control.  But it is HUGE!  I have no idea where I'm going to put it on my desk...think anyone would notice if I did away with the office phone to make room?

But I am so excited to be able to listen to music from my iPod again that I hate to complain.  Colin is my hero.  And now I can finally fill out that customer satisfaction survey...

Now This Is Exciting...

All of these clothes are being donated to charity because they are now TOO BIG for me...by at least two sizes.

Who's Kid Is That Anyway?

So HannahKate has started another blog.  I think she has two, or three, but she keeps forgetting the passwords so she can never update them.  This one is called Confessions of a Decidophobic.  A decidophobic is a person who has a fear of making decisions.  I thought she made that word up, but I Googled it and found that it really exists.  I guess I should know that, because I believe I might suffer from it myself.
Anyway, she's embarked on a mission to write 30 Letters in 30 Days.  Its a pretty impressive challenge, so I wish her the very best.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do it also.  It seems like a fun idea, but I don't know if I can come up with enough material for 30 days.  There might not even be 30 people that I know/like well enough to write a letter to.  We'll see.  I've given myself a deadline of October 31 to make up my mind.  (It's becoming more and more obvious where HanK gets her "decidophobia", isn't it?)
While I'm still mulling over my options, you should check out Hannah's blog.  She's a pretty neat kid young lady.

Storm Clouds

A fierce storm blew through Hometown yesterday evening just before dark. The clouds looked as if they were on fire.

Good Taste

I'm not really sure where or when my obsession for taking pictures of food began, but it is now a tradition, or a habit...or maybe a vice.

Since we've been trying to eat healthier, I was a little concerned when I met Joel in New York City a few weeks ago.  I know its the "City That Never Sleeps", but it is also the "City That Always Eats."  So as much as I hate to admit it, we planned our days around breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The good thing about this however, is that I was able to be very deliberate with my culinary choices without too much fear of the consequences being reflected on the scales when I returned home.

Anyway, here is just a "taste" of how much we enjoyed NYC.

 First, was breakfast at Bubby's.  

I had Eggs Florentine.  The waitress told us Bubby's has the best hollandaise sauce in the City.  I believe her.

 Later that day, we tried out A Salt & Battery--a little place in Greenwich Village.  There were only two parties inside, but that left no room; so we ate outside and enjoyed the beautiful fall day along with some "color" commentary by a local shop owner.

We both had the polluck, or haddock, I can't remember which...but I do remember that it was absolutely delicious.

On Monday evening, we got caught out in a rain storm.  We took shelter at a "Famous Famiglia" pizza place and had a little late-night snack--pizza and garlic knots.

For once, I was able to take Joel somewhere he'd never been--PopBurger.  Paige, Elizabeth and I discovered this place up by Central Park on our last trip.  I love the presentation of the two tiny burgers in a box.  They advertise "luscious mouth watering buns" and "firm fries."

On Tuesday evening, I wanted Italian food.  We explored a couple different options, but ended up at an old favorite place--Carmine's.  Neither of us really thought about the fact that Carmine's is not a place for a party of two.  Because the portions are so large, you actually need three, four, or maybe more, friends to dine with.

We had Caesar salad, stuffed mushrooms and chicken scallopini.  Even though we ate until we were completely stuffed, there was still had enough food left over to feed a few homeless people on the subway.

And do you want to know the most exciting part?  Even after all these awesome restaurants and rich food, when I stepped on the scale the day after getting home, I only brought back an extra .4 (as in, less than half) of a pound!  Oh, the damage could have been so much worse!  All that planning paid off...and 10 hours of walking each day probably helped a little, too.  No wonder New York has so many restaurants...between never sleeping and walking everywhere, you need to eat a lot to sustain yourself!