Russell Stover

I had every intention of taking pictures on our trip yesterday, but I walked out of the house and forgot my camera. No worries though...it was completely rainy and gross and we didn't do much. We had a chinese buffet, walked the mall, sold Jon's cards, then headed home.

I did score several jewelry making things at JoAnn's Fabrics on the cheap and we stopped at the Russell Stover candy store in Abilene, KS. It's one of those places we've always said we wanted to stop at but never did. Yesterday we decided to do it.

The store is pretty nice, though new things are pricey. They had chocolates Valentine's Day and Easter that were marked down at a pretty good discount. We snagged some "bloopers" for cheap, some salt water taffy, and Sherbet fudge.

This won't be a normal thing, but the outlet is close so I'd definitely be up for making another trip at some point. And right now, that Sherbet fudge is sounding good...

Back in Groove

Now that the first meeting for Relay for Life is done, I’m back to feeling gung ho and motivated for this again. We have our theme picked out…”Footloose”…and it seems as if our fruit sale is going okay after only two hours. Our biggest seller is bananas. Haven’t done a money count, but it’s looking good. I’ll be extremely happy if we can get rid of all the fruit we bought today. I’ll be even happier if we run out due to high demand.

Tomorrow, Jon and I are taking a day trip to Salina to meet someone who wants to buy some Magic cards from him. I’d like to get an early start to the day and just have a serendipity adventure…no planning, just checking out what looks like fun and browsing around the city. Having never been to Salina except to drive through it, this should be an adventure. It’ll also give me a chance to take some pictures. We’re working with a tight budget, but I’m fully of the mind you can still have a nice day on just a little bit of money.

This means I might have something exciting to post on this blog in the next day or two. Here’s to hoping.

Relay for Life: Trying My Hand at Organizing (Again)!

Right before we moved, the prospect of having my own place, getting involved in more things, and doing something good with my time all seemed like a great ideas. I was highly motivated, had all these thoughts and all this energy, and was ready to just go. But between then and now, I got tired.

I decided to head up a Relay for Life Team for work. Cancer has touched a good number of people, including myself, and it’s another cause I feel strongly about. Plus, I’d always heard good things about the Relay for Life. It’s a tiring venture: an all night walk where members of your team take turns walking so that everyone has at least one team member walking for 12 hours straight. I had a good response for a first timer and we currently have a team of ten members.

But with everything else going on, I’ve been slacking, and by slacking, I’m also beating myself up a little bit. I don’t want to let the team down. I want to be a good captain and I want to raise our team goal. But in the several years since I’d last organized anything, I’d forgotten that even responsibility doesn’t overshadow my procrastinating ways.

I’m sort of back on track…kind of hanging on by one rail…but I think I’m getting there. We have our first meeting tomorrow and our first fundraiser a week from Saturday, a garage sale at my place. Luckily I had the foresight to take the Friday before off so I could gather tables, make signs, etc. We also have several other fundraisers which are pending approval.

Wish me luck in organizing this and making it successful for our team. If anyone out there would like to make a donation, the link is http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=11338073&pg=personal&fr_id=17355

I’m also looking for fundraising and theme ideas, so don’t hesitate to give me your thoughts. Or send me some momentum in a bottle. I think I’m going to need it.

Not What I'd Define As an "American Hero"

There are a few blogs I read, not because I agree with what they’re talking about but because they often give me things to think, blog, and rant about. I’m so middle of the road about most things and so non-confrontational that I never really get into Troll Wars on blogs, but there are times when I really just want to throw my hands up and say “What the hell are you talking about?”

I recently had an issue with the “celebrations” of the murder of Dr. Tiller. I don’t agree with abortion, but I do agree with choice. If a woman chooses to have an abortion, that decision is between her and God. As I may have said before, I don’t believe anybody has a right to speak for God. You can speak about him, you can tell of your own worship…heck, even though it’s not my thing, I don’t have an issue anymore with people who evangelize. As someone on another forum once said, it’s great that you’re so passionate about your beliefs. But it’s not for any of us to decide what God loves or hates. So when I found out that people were celebrating a murder in the name of God, I was pretty irritated.

On the other hand, I recently read in one of these blogs where Dr. Tiller was called an “American Hero.” Sorry, but I don’t agree with that either. He offered a service…a highly controversial service which has been called into question… but a service nonetheless. I don’t normally hear doctors who help cure cancer called American Heroes, or dentists called American Heroes. An abortion doctor is not an American hero. An American Hero is a soldier who fights for his country or does something that in some way impacts a greater portion of the country for the good.

Last I knew, abortion really hadn’t done much for the population as a whole.

Sunday's Random Thoughts

Our internet was finally hooked up on Friday night and since then I've been enjoying watching our Netflix Instant Viewer through Jon's XBox 360. While I'm missing out on True Blood since we don't have HBO, I totally feel like we're getting a deal with our less than 10 dollar a month Netflix subscription, at least at the moment.

Does anyone else remember "Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater"? My siblings and I used to watch it when we were growing up. We'd head down to the Glens video rental kiosk (when they still had it) and find all the episodes on VHS to watch at home. Back then it was the epitome of cool. When it came in Instant Viewer, I snagged it to the queue right away and watched a few episodes. Still love it, even though the cool factor has shifted to total cheese. But it's still fun! Robin Williams as the homeliest frog prince ever kicks it...I love Robin Williams, just never would have thought of him as a "prince."

But the random thought comes from the fact that the second episode was "Rumplestiltskin" and I realized how much I don't like that story for several reasons. Now quick disclaimer here, I dont' know if I've ever read the original version, or if there really is an original version. Jon said he thought there might have been something that to do with collecting body parts which probably would change things, but the story itself and the way I know it to be portrayed just bugs the heck out of me.

First of all, you have a miller who puts his daughter's head on the chopping block and promises her services to the king. It might not be the same as pimping, but it's close. Then you have a king who for all intents and purposes couldn't care less about the girl. He just wants the damn gold. I've read enough historical and fantasy romance novels to know that this may have actually been realistic. That doesn't make it any less annoying.

Now I understand that Rumplestiltskin is supposed to be the "bad guy" and that of course you wouldn't give your first born child to a weird little man. But let's face it...he DID help the daughter out when she needed him. If he were a mob goon, I'm sure the new Queen wouldn't have even had the chance at a little name guessing. It's pay up or check out with those guys (from what I hear). So here this poor little dwarf is, helping a girl out, and she stiffs him, all the time keeping the big secret from her jackass husband because after all, he only married her because "she" made him rich.

The whole thing seems ridiculous. And I don't know why it even bugged me today of all days, and it really didn't bug me enough to lose any sleep over, but I felt the need to rant about it since ranting and TV could both me considered hobbies. Maybe.

Dear ATnT

I’d like some clarification on what it takes to be a customer who actually receives competent service.

Several months ago, we ordered to DSL. After being told we’d be hooked to internet and waiting a week for it, we were given the “Oops! Sorry, we can’t install at your address” line. It wasn’t the fact that you couldn’t install the line that bothered me, though that was pretty irritating in itself. It was that your system not only gave us the wrong information, but no one bothered to call or email us when the “glitch” was found. My guess is that the “glitch” wasn’t found until we called you on it, but what do I know?

Against my better judgment, we decided to go through AT&T again for DSL after we moved. I didn’t expect much this time around, but I suppose a little part of me thought that maybe the first time was a fluke and things would run nicely this time. We were told that our internet would be hooked up on May 28 so that it would be ready when we moved in. It didn’t really come as a shocker when we didn’t have internet on June 1, nor was I surprised when my fiancé was told it had been hooked into the wrong apartment and it would be a week before someone could come out to fix it. The new date was June 8, 2009.

Today is June 8 and we still don’t have internet. After being told a tech would be here between 8am and 12pm, my fiancé called to see if they could pinpoint a time. He was told that the order didn’t go through and now they wouldn’t be able to send anyone out until June12.

Seriously? I can’t believe that one of the biggest chains in the nation could care so little about customer service and competency. Then again, maybe I can. Maybe for some reason, we’re the only ones who have issues with you. Maybe everyone else gets great service from AT&T and for some reason you’ve decided to make all your mistakes in this one little area of the world.

The first time we had issues, you obviously didn’t care. This time around you don’t seem to care either. That’s fine. Obviously, as one customer in a sea of millions, we’re not your top priority. It seems that customer service isn’t reallyy our top priority either, but I’m sure you’re doing the best you can, especially if you’re making it a point to screw over as many people as possible. Screwing is a tough business these days.

I’m not sure if actually talking to someone there is going to help since every other time we’ve talked to someone they make it clear that they’re doing nothing more than reading from a script. Since you’re so good at keeping up with things, I’m sure we’ll have our internet on Friday…because golly gee, AT&T is right on top of everything! Of course if we don’t, then we’ll go the other a route. While I do prefer DSL over cable, I also prefer to work with a company who doesn’t jack me around every chance they get.

So thank you, AT&T, for all the hard work you put into frustrating this small portion of your customer base. I know I’m not important, nor is the work I do through the internet…not important enough for you to actually use some intelligence when getting addresses right and making sure orders go through.

Keep up the great work.

A.

Michigan Trip Day 1

Technically, I suppose this could be considered day 2, but since all of yesterday was spent on the road, I kind of consider this to be the first real day of vacation. The drive was extremely long and a little boring. We left town at about 3:30 am, but that turned out not to be such a great idea because I didn't get enough sleep. Finally, somewhere in Missouri, I pulled over to a road side stop and took about a 40 minute nap. I was going to take some pictures, but when I woke up I was feeling refreshed and ready to get back to driving.

Jon is a heavy duty car sleeper and he ended up crashing out on me early. I listened to alot of music and managed to get through my new Lacuna Coil CD twice (awesome music so listening to it twice wasn't bad at all). We made several pit stops for bathroom breaks, a few for gas, and one for food. It was lovely to find that Taco Bells in Michigan are a little more competent than the ones in Manhattan. Once he woke up, we put on an audio book called "The Amazing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl." It's geared for teens but we were really enjoying it. Tomorrow we head up north and will get to listen to some more of it.

We got in a little after 8 eastern time last night. Mom and I went to Wal-Mart to get dinner stuff and we stayed up until Dad got home at around 11:30. Then we crashed hardcore. I had every intention of sleeping in, but I only made it to 8:00 this morning beforeI was up. Mom and I watched Repo!, which she liked (I knew she would) and I chatted with the parents for a little bit until Jon got up. The rest of the morning was just kind of mellow. We walked to the post office to drop off our change of address forms, and Dad introduced us to one of the elderly neighbor ladies he visits. She's kind of feisty. She wanted to tell the manager of the park to shove a turkey up her butt...how many elderly ladies do you hear say stuff like that??

This afternoon, I got to do something I've been waiting all year to do. We went thrifting (garage sales are next weekend). We hit the Salvation Army and the Goodwill store, and I scored a bunch of stuff. I got these two skeins of yarn which will look really good together for some project.

I also scored another big bag of yarn with more pastels, one of them a pretty pink that I'm using to make my a scarf for my friend's new baby. (Can't get the pics to load for those this time arond though).

I also found this pretty pillow with the cool oriental pattern on it. I think we bought one like it from our neighbors when we got our sofa and chair, so I grabbed this one up. I almost left it, but my mom made a good point when she mentioned that even if it didn't work for our living room, for fifty cents we had an insert for another pillow.

Jon picked up the Mulan soundtrack and I found this adorable jar that has no real purpose other than it was cute and I liked it. I'm thinking it will be good for q-tips.

I don't think I've ever taken a trip where I haven't brought along something to read. This time around though, all my books were packed. Granted, I have enough knitting and crocheting stuff to keep me busy, but I enjoy Jennifer Crusie so I picked this up for some pre-bedtime reading. I couldn't resist these little tupperware containers, mainly because I want to try to make Bento boxes and these are the perfect size and shape for them. My only reservation was the pattern on top of the white lidded containers. However, I think Jon's going to help me paint them, so that can just be another crafty project. After thrifting we came home to relax. Come to find out, my parents do have internet, it's just not wireless so we're having to share one connection. Not really a big deal. We're heading to my grandma's tomorrow and I'm pretty sure there will be no internet to be had where she lives. Tonight we're just going to hang with the parents and leave fairly early tomorrow morning for Mio. So far, the trip has been nice...my parents even took the news of the engagement well and everyone is getting along. My sister can't bring my nephew over tonight, but I'll get to see him next Wednesday. Next week I'll also get to hang with some friends down here and do some more thrifting.