Honey, don't lick the shopping cart!

You know those people who wipe the shopping carts down with sanitizing wipes? Well, I'm one of them.  But, I'm also the parent of the reason you should be one of them too.

My oldest son never outgrew the oral phase.  You know the one where everything goes in their mouths?  He has always been the one to check the texture and taste of everything with his mouth (and I do mean everything).  Today, in two different stores, I had to ask him to stop licking the shopping carts.  I knew people could hear me, I knew they were thinking "how disgusting!" and they were right.  What's the typical incubation period for winter kid-crud?  That's about how long I have before he's sick and he shares it with little brother.  It makes for a long winter.

So, the next time you see a mom wiping down a shopping cart, remember that it might not be because she's paranoid or neurotic, she might just have a shopping cart-licker...or might have read this.

I'm hanging up now. Do what you want with that information.

I find myself wondering what has happened to customer service.  The "service" is seriously lacking in some of these interactions.  Today has been a long day of generally poor service for me.  It seems that everywhere I went sales people were a little too stupid or self absorbed to do their jobs.

Stop number one was at the pet store.  I was purchasing a new carrier for our newest friend "Dave" (picture below) so he could take his first trip to the Vet today.

I had a "15% off cat supplies" coupon.  After the order was rung up, I politely pointed out to the clerk that the coupon was only applied to the cat toy I purchased and only $1.05 and not a full 15% off the purchase.  She mumbled something about not being good at math and that she'd already rung the coupon and an implied "oh well."  I then asked if she could just have the manager manually take off the discount and I was shocked to find out that she WAS the manager.  After assembling the entire store staff they managed to correctly, or perhaps incorrectly (but it was at least 15%), give me the discount.  20 minutes I won't get back.

Stop number number two was at Borders.  I know they're basically heading for bankruptcy, and I can see why.  A bunch of employees walking around browsing books, one apparently on break, drinking coffee and one making coffee - not especially good coffee either.

And when I got home, a call to my credit card company.  The main reason was I accidentally submitted two online payments and needed one of them removed.  That was resolved quickly.  However, I also thought I should point out that the reason I even had to manually make said online payment was because the autopay I set up for the 22nd of the month never actually paid.  She told me "it did pay on December 22".  I said, but it's January 25th.  I said, I'm fine, but another customer might not be.  I know I wouldn't have been if I were on vacation and checking that the payment had gone through today.  I pointed out to the rep (I don't say customer service rep because she was bordering on rude by this point and lacking all intent to serve) that there might be someone in the company who would like to know that the system failed and did not make a scheduled payment.  She said I was the only one that happened to - of course, because she's talked to EVERYONE, right?!  So, I told her, "I'm hanging up now.  Do what you want with that information."

It's a SIT and spin, not a STAND and spin

My youngest (the one who says "Wheeee!" before he goes down the stairs) got a sit and spin from Santa.  He refuses to acknowledge the "sit" part.

There haven't been any injuries (yet).

The New Siding is Wrong

This has been an ongoing saga around here and I've put off posting anything until I was a little less angry and little more sure of the situation.  I'll still hold off on naming names, but I assure you, I will badmouth the contractor if this doesn't get finished correctly and soon!

For those who don't know the situation, let me start at the beginning.  Almost a year ago, there was a blizzard - Snowmaggedon or whatever your pet name for last February was.  So, with a couple of feet of snow on our roof, our gutter gave way and fell right off the house.  On it's way down, it cracked a couple of pieces of siding.  Fast forward through insurance adjustors, siding matching process and quotes, I found someone to special order the closest matching siding and re-side 2 sections of the house for a price that the insurance claim would cover.

Just as they got the end, I noticed it didn't look right.

Apparently someone ordered "dutch lap" siding instead of the straight profile we needed.  Sigh.

So, we wait for the correct special order siding to come in and the crew to come back out and take it all down and put the new stuff up.  They finish long after dark and I head out the next morning to see this:

Need a closer look?

No optical illusion.  It's crooked!  Really crooked.  In fact, it's more than a half inch off level.

So, now we wait again.  Think we'll have the siding right before the next blizzard?

In case you're wondering...here is the little crack that started it all.