This Is One Bill We Were HAPPY to Pay — October 31, 2010

Brace yourself – I’m about to start complaining.  :)

David and I found ourselves uncovering a weird set of events this week.  It confirmed some of my long-held suspicions……

Back when I was driving the Toyota that David drives now, we had a couple of different options added on.  Specifically, we added remote start capabilities and then later we added a keypad so we would have another form of keyless entry for the car.  Both of these were just fun add-ons (although once you have remote start, you really can’t live without it ever again, hehe.) Well.  We’ve uncovered some flaws and I’m still a little angry about all of it.

We had the remote start for about a year or so before we got the keypad installed.  We went to the same place for both of these add-ons.  It’s a local place in Marshall that is well-known in town and that is always quite busy.  After we got the keypad, everything seemed fine at first, and then I started to notice a crack in the door scuff of the car.  (That’s this gray piece:)

I nearly immediately knew that when the guys installed the wiring for the keypad they also broke this piece.  The timing of it all was just right, and there was no other reason for it to be cracked.  They were probably able to initially place it in such a way that the crack wasn’t visible — until the car went over enough bumps for everything to settle out….and of course by that point there would be no way to say for sure that they were the ones who did the damage.  I think that’s really unethical, especially since you know they were aware of the situation. I showed it to David, but we agreed to let it go for a bit.  It wasn’t something that required repair, and since it was something only the driver would ever notice, it wasn’t all that unsightly overall.  (just annoying.)

So time went on, David had his wreck in the other car, he ended up inheriting the cracked car, hehe, and life’s priorities were such that we didn’t really give too much thought to getting it fixed.

Recently, David started talking about wanting to get the door scuff repaired…..mainly because ANOTHER piece of the car was being weird and he figured we could fix it all at once.

This is the pillar trim.  It covers the air bags in this part of the car.  For some odd reason, it had started coming loose.  David was able to push it back into place several times, but it finally got to the point where it would no longer really stay where it was supposed to.

So, our Toyota dealership ordered us the parts.  Guess what they uncovered with the pillar trim?

When the guys installed the remote start, they wrapped the wiring AROUND the airbags in this pillar.  Around the airbags??  Really??  That basically rendered the airbags worthless and unusable.  I find that to be pretty terrifying.  You can’t tell me they didn’t know that they were doing this! When I think of how long we’ve driven around in total ignorance of this situation…wow.

Toyota fixed the wiring setup so we would having functioning air bags once again, and our door scuff is now replaced and looks great. I’m so happy we got the door scuff fixed or else we never would have uncovered the air bag problem.  That was a repair bill worth paying!

Needless to say, I’m just dying to expose the people who did this shoddy work.  I’m going to try to refrain from doing it on here, but I will be very vocal from now on in discouraging anyone from going there.  It’s crazy to me that this even happened – and who knows what they’ve done to other people’s cars.  Kind of scary!

 

 

 

PS- Bonus points for anyone who noticed that those pics were actually of MY car…not David’s.  :)  The pieces are identical in both cars.

Holding Down the Fort! — October 28, 2010

Yay, David is back in town!  He’s been gone all week for training in Huntsville.  This happened for me during a week when I actually had no other obligations at all (except for work), so my first thought was to be as lazy as possible during my time at home alone.  I planned to lay on the couch and watch lots of tv!  Then I started looking around and realizing how many little to-do projects I could get done instead.  Oh, my projects.  My brain is always full of little projects I need to be doing around the house (and everywhere else, really.)  The problem is that I don’t like to start a project unless I can do it correctly and most of the time I don’t feel like I have an adequate amount of un-interrupted time to get it all done.  So, I set out this week to use my time wisely, and I got a lot of things done!

I got lots of little piddly things done, and also some of my larger projects. Both cars are cleaned out, vacuumed, dusted, and spot treated for stains on floor mats.  I vacuumed the house and moved all the furniture around in the living room to clean behind everything.  I treated our leather chair to make it shiny and new-looking.  I got our checkbooks in order.  I also dumped my entire silverware drawer in the sink and washed every piece of flatware, the divider that sits in the drawer, and also the drawer itself.  That’s a double yay for that project!  Don’t you hate it when you look into your silverware drawer and see a crumb?  It makes me feel like the whole thing is defiled, hehe.  So, I was very busy in my quiet quiet house.  I still have a lot of projects yet to do, but I am pleased with my progress so far!

So, David is back, but that doesn’t really mean that I’m going to actually see him!  Our schedules are completely running in opposite directions until at least Monday night – I’m talking, we won’t even be able to share a meal together until at least then.  We’re like the Looney Tunes cartoon characters who meet over the time clock, “Hey Ralph.”  “Hey Sam.” and then the whistle blows and we’re off to our own separate adventures!!

Oh well.  It really is okay.  I don’t mind being home by myself. (….unless I see a bug!  Then all bets are off!!)  I just like waking up in the mornings and knowing that there is someone else in the house with me.  That’s a good thing!

Deals are Everywhere! — October 20, 2010

Shane and I spent the day in Longview yesterday.  We planned to go to Longview originally because I had a doctor’s appointment, but over time our list grew to a huge fun list of activities!  hehe.

I had warned Shane earlier than this doctor’s office tended to be overrun with little old people.  Every time I go in there, it’s me and then an entire crew of them.  :)  When we got there, however, the waiting room was basically empty.  Shane chose his seat.  (The waiting room is L-shaped, by the way.  There are chairs all over both areas of the L shape – but once you choose your seat in one room you can’t really see the other part of the room to see who is over there.)

So, when I left the waiting room, he was just about the only person in there.  When I was finished and came back out – hehehe — one side of the room was still empty.  Shane’s side, however, was totally filled up with little old people! I couldn’t help but laugh.  He was in the middle of all of it.  On the way out the door I was like, “What happened back there?”

We had a gigantic list of errands, but we stopped early to eat lunch at Smashburger.

Neither of us had ever been there before, but I had a small personal victory right there in the parking lot.

Shane gets very tickled by some of my driving quirks – most notably the fact that I hate turning right into parking lots where you have to park “straight-in” (as opposed to parking diagonally.)  I think part of his amusement started on this day back in March when my parking plans went completely awry as I tried to turn right to get into  a spot:

Unconventional, maybe, hehe, but I am in the lines, am I not?

I had never noticed this about myself until he pointed it out, but it’s true!  I prefer turning left. You get lots more room in which to figure things out.

So on this day I brainlessly pulled into the parking lot and proceeded to park right in front of the door.  I was just starting to veer to the right when I heard Shane murmur something to the effect of, “Uhoh, we’re going right!!!”

That was when I was determined to do the most perfect parking job of all time!  Look at this!  TEXTBOOK work, it is!

I think I have redeemed myself in this regard now.  :)

Smashburger was good!

Shane got a barbeque burger with bacon and cheese, and I had a grilled cheese.  We both got fries, but I completely don’t know what happened – I was too busy looking at the menu and forgot to ask for seasoned fries!  Next time!!  The grilled cheese was quite yummy.  The bread was toasted perfectly and it was super cheesy.

We also discovered that we both love fried pickles, so we got some of those too.  These were extremely salty, salty, salty!  Good though.

The only thing we weren’t impressed about with Smashburger was the tea.  It was Tazo tea and the sweet tea was flavored with some type of fruity flavoring.  Meh.  It wasn’t unbearably awful, but sometimes it felt like you were drinking the essence of flowery air freshener.  I think I will stick with water here from now on.

The cool thing is that both of us got coupons on our receipts for free sides next time!  We already know that we’re going to do: get seasoned fries (for the fries that come with my kids’ meal,) then use coupons to get free seasoned sweet potato fries, and also free fried veggies.  (asparagus, carrots, and green beans!)  I get a drink as part of my meal which I will pass to Shane, and he will order water which he will pass to me.  We’ll only pay for my meal ($4) and then whatever main course he gets (burger or hot dog – no sides)  It’ll be a great deal!

From there, we started on our true mission for the day: my new coat.  :)  Shane got a really cute pea coat last year and I immediately wanted something like that for me.  We started our coat shopping too late last season so this project has been a year in the making!

Let me say this: everyone needs to recruit Shane when it’s time to go clothes shopping.  hehe.  We started shopping last week and continued this week, and goodness.  He buttoned up about a gazillion coats for me, tied the sashes, tightened the belts, and critiqued them all.  He also took pictures of me in the coats we liked so we’d know our final candidates when the time came for the real decision.  (Good idea, right!)

We finally found my new coat at JC Penney.  I really like it!  I’ve never owned a coat this nice, so I am going to feel ultra fancy this year.  It was even 50% off!

We stopped by Great American Cookie Co. to get our free cookies!!  You can do it too!  From now until the end of the month, you can take a new or used book to their store and trade the book for a cookie.  Yummy!  We traded in two books and each of us got a cookie.  That was exciting!  (Thanks Julie!)

We also went by Old Navy and found some amazing bargains for Shane.  His favorite work pants were on the clearance rack for 50% off of 50% off!!  He stocked up on those and a few other amazing deals.

After all this, we still decided that we needed to get in some exercise, so we went to the trail in Longview and did a little more than 3 miles.  We ran somewhere between 40-50% of it!! We hoped to beat our 5K time, but I guess the race adrenaline wasn’t with us (plus we’d also eaten a lot of food!), so we were moving a little slower than we wanted.

But the greatest deal of all came from our stop in Hallsville on the way home.  Brookshire’s has been running this crazy sale.  Gold Peak tea on sale for $1 a bottle!  That’s already a good price, but they also have been offering coupons for $1 off each bottle. FREE!  FREE GOLD PEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FREE!!!

THEN, when you buy four bottles of tea, you also get three pounds of bananas for free.  WOW!

Marshall didn’t have very many coupons (although I used all 3 they had), so Shane and I decided to see what Hallsville Brookshire’s had to offer.

We nearly missed the Gold Peak display on the little section of the end cap, but we were in luck!  There were two tear pads of the $1 off coupons nearby!  Shane and I each had one hand on a tear pad as we looked at each other with the same glint in our eyes:  “Do we dare to take them all?”  “OF COURSE we take them all!”  “R-I-I-I-I-P-P-P-P!!”

THIRTY TWO coupons.  That means thirty two free bottles of Gold Peak!! That also means that I was potentially entitled to a gigantic number of bananas, hehehe.  I decided that nine pounds of free bananas would be more than enough, so Shane and I spent a pretty good amount of time running bananas back and forth to the scale trying to get as close to 3 lbs as possible for each set.

We headed for the checkout with a heady sense of accomplishment. I tried to explain to the cashier that the easiest way to check us out would be to split up our transactions into separate groups, but there was no listening at all and she was determined to do it all in one fell swoop.

You probably know that the register was not a fan of this because she was having to manipulate the prices of the bananas to make them free – since only it only allowed one free set of bananas per transaction – and of course the register thought there were way too many coupons for this situation!

She had to call a manager over, and the manager just looked very tired at even the thought of navigating this deal.  Hehe.  I tried to explain what I was doing and she worked at it for a bit, but it was too much to just step into blindly, hehe.  She was like, “You don’t really qualify for the free bananas because you haven’t really BOUGHT the tea.”

I started preparing myself to explain the difference between “buying” an item and actually “paying” for an item, hehehe, but she gave up before I even got the chance and said, “Well, what do you say you owe us?”

I knew I had gone wild on one set of bananas and went over the 3 lb mark, so I said, “I owe you four cents.”  She said okay, took my four cents and set us free.  Do you realize what an amazing feat this is!!  We were giddy.

We headed home in all our excitement.  As we got to the Marshall city limits sign, I saw something unusual:

Me: Is that an OWL on that sign over there?

Shane: What!  I didn’t see it!

Me: It HAS to be an owl!  That is so cool!!!  There’s nothing else it could be!  No other bird turns like that.  I saw all of the front of the body, but no head!  I’M TURNING AROUND!

We did a little twirl in the middle of Hwy 80 and then twirled around again to go past the sign.

Me: Aw man!  It’s gone!!

Shane:  WAIT!  There it is!  It’s on the power line!

Me: I’M TURNING AROUND AGAIN!!!!

Commence the second set of twirling.  Hehehe.  That made four complete twirls on a four lane highway, you might know.

Me:  I SEE IT!!  I see it!  Take a picture!!

It was so amazing!  We got to watch it fly and everything.  I’ve never seen an owl before and this was out in broad daylight.  It was so pretty!  We could even see its little yellow beak.

Finally, we made it home just a few minutes after David got home from work.  We were still pretty hyped up from our couponing and owl spotting adventure, so he got some kind of crazy mish-mash of a rundown, “My cute coat…..SMASHBURGER!……..pretty owl…..four cents!!!!!!…….cookies were free!…….bananas everywhere!….twirled around on Hwy 80 four different times…..yep, over three miles!…….FOUR CENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

hehehehe

Thoughts on “Social Network” — October 12, 2010

Shane and I spent the day in Longview yesterday.  We were both off from work and decided to go play in Longview.  This was my first time to go there in forever!

We had plans to sleep in somewhat and then get up and go eat lunch.  I somehow started hitting snooze repeatedly, so I nearly threw our schedule off completely, but everything turned out to still be salvageable!  I was just having the most vivid dream!  I dreamed that I found a combination alteration shop/vegetarian buffet right here in Marshall, and I was just very excited about it all.  hehehe.

So, we decided to try Cotton Patch Cafe for lunch.  We had never been there before!  We were supposed to go a few weeks ago, so I got on their website and joined their e-club so we could get a free appetizer.  I don’t really know what happened, but the coupon completely expired on us.  I decided we’d go ahead and just see if they’d take our coupon after all.  And guess what?  They did!!  I was really excited.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Julie and many of the others who whole-heartedly coupon at CVS, it’s this: be bold in asking about coupons.  Sometimes places will surprise you and even take the expired ones – since it’s clear that someone went to the trouble to lug the coupon to the store, hehe.  So, we got cheese fries!  I think we all know that the only thing better than cheese fries is FREE cheese fries.  They were delicious and we were starving so it was wonderful.

We completely fell in love with this place.  It was just perfectly delicious.  Shane got chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and okra:

The portions were huge!

I got the Wabbit Platter.   You get either 5 veggies, or you can substitute a house salad for 2 of the veggies and then choose 3 more.

I decided that I wanted to be fancy and try one of the Wedge Salads they have.  This is where they cut you a huge chunk off a head of lettuce, put toppings and dressing on it, and leave the rest for you to deal with.  ha.  This was my first time to try a salad this way.

I’m pretty mixed in how I felt about it.  It was good – definitely.  The salad was fresh and I liked the dressing.  (It was a southwest salad – corn, tortilla strips, etc.)  I just don’t know if I think it’s worth all the work it takes to eat it!  You feel like you’re cutting and cutting and cutting and then none of your dressing and toppings get mixed together with the lettuce as well as what you could do with a tossed salad.  I don’t think I even ended up eating but just a fraction of it.  It’s a dramatic presentation, but I think tossed salads are just a better choice. (Note the few remnants of cheese fries in the background.  We tore into them with gusto!)

My other veggies were just wonderful:

Of course, by the time I had my fries and my salad and my rolls, there just wasn’t much room left for all this too!  I filled up a to-go box with all of this and made practically another meal off of it!  Shane sent the chicken fried steak leftovers home for David to try.  He agreed that it was really good.  I am glad – I definitely want to go back!!

Next we went to see “Social Network.”  We went to the Hollywood Theatre in Longview.  I haven’t been to that particular cinema in forever!  Normally we go to Carmike since they have digital projection, but this time Hollywood fit our schedule better – and I had heard that they had gone digital, so I was curious.  Was I ever impressed!

The last few movies I’ve seen have been at theatres which still project film, so it was a treat anyway to finally see something in digital again.  Hollywood uses Sony projectors, and wow, whoever set up their machines did a great job.  It was calibrated to be the most beautiful picture – perfectly crisp and in focus!  The black/white contrast ratio was incredible.  I felt like I was standing in Best Buy gaping at the most advanced hdtv they had, hehe.  It was just a complete “wow” factor.  Shane and I both were like, “oooh, pretty!”

I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie!  I had read some reviews about it and the consensus for the most part was that once you see this movie, you’ll really think twice about mindlessly logging into Facebook.  It’s true!  The movie really illustrates what an insensitive and greedy person founded this gigantic cultural phenomenon.   For me, when I think of Facebook, I think of what they want to portray – a place to locate and connect with friends.  Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, never really set out to make Facebook the fun pastime that it has become.  It was just really interesting to see what went on “behind the scenes.”    It really makes you think about how great ideas and inventions come to be.  I often feel that the person who gets lauded for the great ideas probably has stomped all over other people’s dreams and ideas.  Part of inventing is playing the game of survival of the fittest, I think, and it’s not surprising that this followed that same ritual.  What is surprising is just how mean and aloof this guy really is.  You don’t expect such boorish behavior from someone who created an online environment with such a social atmosphere.

I loved the way the movie presented the way Facebook worked to rise above all other social networking sites.  I heard of Facebook long before I ever signed up — in fact, as we all might remember, there was a time when most of us were not allowed to sign up!   I apparently slept through the entire Friendster era, but I had a MySpace and maintained it diligently before Facebook came along and somehow squashed MySpace into the dirt.  I wish the movie would have elaborated more on that idea – how exactly did Facebook become such a powerhouse?  And, how has it stayed there?  I think the Internet community is pretty fickle, so why are most of us sticking with Facebook?  What would happen to make us want to migrate to something different?  What could possibly come next that would take our currently-ever-faithful eyes off of our newsfeeds and status updates?

I would highly recommend seeing this movie!  It’s not something that you’ll laugh your way through or be able to mindlessly muddle through.  It’s really a modern history lesson – but still very entertaining and informative.  I think the best part about seeing this movie in a cinema is that it forces you to see the entire thing in one sitting.  You don’t want to watch this movie in pieces – you want to pay attention.  You need to see it all at once to really feel all of what it’s saying.  It makes some great points and it gives you a lot to think about!

Our First 5K!! — October 11, 2010

Yay, I am posting something again!  :)  I have been laying low ever since my post-a-thon during vacation, but I back.  hehe.

Shane and I did our first 5K over the weekend!  It was very exciting!

Marshall hosts the FireAnt festival downtown every year.  They also include a 5K, but this is something I have never tried before.  One day a few weeks ago, Shane randomly mentioned that he’d like to do a 5K sometime.  An idea was born!  We got the information and started getting all excited about the entire event.  hehe.  I, for one, was just irrationally excited!

So, a few days before the 5K, we decided to do a little trial run of the proposed route.  It made a large loop around town and back to the starting point.  We were actually hoping that we could make this our new walking route in Marshall since we aren’t always able to make it to Longview to walk over there.  So much for that idea!  Goodness, that route took us down some of the busiest streets in Marshall!

We were fighting traffic at every moment of our walk and there were very few sidewalks.  Worse, most of the places that did have sidewalks had them located across the street from where we needed to be for our next turn, and even those were in bad disrepair.  (One of the sidewalks just abruptly ended in a tangle of bushes and dead shrubbery — about 4 feet above the actual road with no way to get down but to turn around and go back!)   It was crazy.  We also started fearing for our lives at one point when we saw a guy just randomly walking towards his house holding a full sized RIFLE, of all things, and there were some other questionable people sitting in their cars blaring loud music towards their house.  eeek.

We also walked through a residential area where it smelled like the people were raising rhinos – we felt like we were at the zoo again, and at one point we ran through a section where the stench of death was so strong that we just knew we were next!  (A vulture was sitting nearby watching us with hopeful eyes — really!!)

So, our hopes for the future were nearly dashed by that trial run.  hehehehe.

Shane came over Friday night so we could prepare for our event.  We were getting nervous.  Please know that we had in no way actually trained for this event, hehehe.  We normally walk our routes and although we go at a fairly remarkable pace, we also use our walking time as our ideal setting for talking time, so we’re never timing ourselves or rushing our way through.  We were very scared that we’d be the last ones!  We sat at the table and tried to talk ourselves into actually carrying through on the 5K.  David was sitting nearby trying unsuccessfully to watch tv over our giggly nervousness.  “What if we’re the last ones and everyone else has already packed up and left??”  “What if the police escorts us and it’s US and then the police car at the tail end of the race?”  “What if everyone else there is like professional and we’re just there plodding along?”  “Oh, please let there be some old people there so we won’t be last!!”

Saturday morning came and we were up bright and early.  It was fairly chilly outside, so I fashioned myself a little setup in case it was one of those times when it’s so cold that it makes your nose start running:

HAHAHAHAHA.  This is an old lady technique I learned from all those days of sitting with my grandmother’s Sunday school class at church.  Just tuck your Kleenex into your sleeve or watch band and ta-da!  Easy access.  I am still shocked that Shane let me be near him while I was sporting this contraption.

We decided we needed to take a pic of ourselves pre-race since we didn’t want to carry cameras or phones.  We were going to be slow enough as it was.  :)  This proved to be very difficult for some reason:

The weather was absolutely perfect for our day.  We got there, registered, and waited for time to begin.  All of ETBU’s Cross Country team showed up.  hahaha.  We got very psyched out just watching them warm up.  We were like, “Oh, this is not for us!”  “We just need to go home.”  “WHERE ARE THE OLD PEOPLE!!?”  hehehe.

This is our scene a few minutes before the race!  Pretty!

We got very excited once we saw a few kids arrive, and we were nearly joyous when we saw a lady come along pushing a stroller.

They got us huddled up near the starting line.  We positioned ourselves near the back!  Yep, it was already starting out to be us and the police car since it was directly behind us.  haha.  I almost backed out at the point when I heard one guy asked the lady near us, “So, where’s your husband today?” to which she answered, “Oh, he’s doing a full Ironman competition next week, so he’s on a rest day in training for that.”  ohhh…….

The starting gun went off, and off we went!  We decided to start running first so we totally wouldn’t embarrass ourselves by walking over the STARTING line.  hehe.  ETBU and tons of others got pretty far ahead of us, and that was fine.  We never saw them again!  We weren’t last — thanks to the stroller lady — but our pace definitely kept us near that final police car.

Let me say: that route just like magically transformed itself once it was part of the official race route!  I LOVED having the roads blocked off!  We very rarely had any traffic issues and all the cars yielded to us!  That was nice.  Our route went by really fast just because we weren’t having to stop constantly to deal with traffic. There were no scary guys with rifles and no vultures!  It was great.

There was only one point where we really embarrassed ourselves.  About 2/3 of the way through, they had a little water station set up.  Okay.  Remember that this was our first race, right?  We saw it and started debating over whether this was going to be like watching a marathoner in a movie – where they drink the water all dramatically and then throw the cup to the ground.  The people in front of  us got their water and then put their trash in the bags provided.  We decided we would do the same.  Well, as we were going for the trash bag, the water guy says, “You can just throw it on the ground,” but it was too late.  We were all over making sure we were good stewards about throwing away our trash.  After we really looked up, we realized how much time was wasted during this activity.  hehehe.  Everyone had gotten very far in front in just those few seconds!  Oh, what novices!  Did we forget that this was a race?  :)  Next time, we are going to throw cups on the ground with flair!!

We started nearing the finish line and started congratulating ourselves on our efforts.  We walked most of the route accompanied with short bursts of jogging.  It was a good combo, really.  We started running the last little bit towards the finish and we started feeling very triumphant!  People were still at the finish line!  They didn’t pack up and go home!!!!!  In fact, everyone around started cheering for us!  “Runners coming in!!”  “Runners coming!!”  “You can do it — go all the way to the end!”  A guy was calling out our time – “42.35!”  Everyone was happy and clapping and congratulating our efforts.  We totally felt famous!  (And yes, you are more than welcome to scoff at our time.  It’s okay – we weren’t trying to win – we just wanted it to be fun!)

We collected our free water, gatorade, and bananas.  hehe.  We also have our shirts!

These are going to be our new workout shirts for all our future walks and our feeble tennis attempts. (our new adventure – tennis!)  We have been gloating over our 5K ever since!  We definitely want to do this again!  Maybe we’ll actually train some next year, hehe, but if not, then oh well!  It was still lots of fun and we are proud of ourselves for actually getting out there and doing some so completely different from our norm.  :)