The Whole Thing Makes Me Sick

Somehow I got on this email list. I pretty much disagree with everything they send out, or at least the ones I actually read. (I tend to just delete most of the emails) But I do occasionally read them, just to see what they're trying to say. This one I pretty much read with my mouth hanging open. There is just no part of my brain that understands the rabid need so many women have to defend their 'right' to kill their unborn children. How did we even get to such a place?

Their argument is that taking away this right to 'manage how many children we have and when we have them' is an outright war on women; it's 'not about abortion' but an attack on a woman's right to choose. Seems to me they've been waging a war on their own babies for years - and that seems far worse on every level. Why don't they exercise that right to choose in a timely manner - before there's another life involved? You want to choose 'when and how many children to have' (which sounds an awful lot like they're using abortion as a birth control method, doesn't it?) then choose. You have every right to choose. But choosing should not involve murder. Stop abdicating your responsibility to choose until 'Oops!' there's a baby you just don't want, and if you kill her before she's born you can go on with your life as if nothing ever happened...

And maybe that's what boggles my mind most of all. Why do these women who so desperately want to 'control their own bodies' only seem to be fighting for the right to kill their babies, while ignoring all the points where they really should be making those choices - don't be having sex with random guys, use birth control... Perhaps if we take baby killing off the table, they'll fight harder for the right to make the choices they should be making.

Anyway, here's the email. All emphasis is theirs.

Dear Anna,

Most women who have abortions are already moms.¹ Being able to manage how many children we have and when we have them has been nothing short of revolutionary — not just for women and mothers, but for our country as a whole. It has helped to narrow the gender pay gap, improved the health of women and their families, and led women toward access to increased economic and political power.

Following on the heels of Georgia², Alabama just passed the nation’s most restrictive reproductive healthcare bill that, if allowed to go forward by the courts, would impose criminal penalties on any doctor who performs an abortion, even in the cases of rape and incest. As moms, we know the lifesaving importance of access to reproductive healthcare for ourselves, and we cannot even begin to imagine the horror of a high schooler who has been raped learning that terminating her pregnancy is a criminal action. Despite these horrors, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey immediately signed the bill into law.³

* Join MomsRising in telling every governor that they must protect access to safe abortions and resist the attack on a woman’s right to decide when and how many children to have — or whether to have children at all — which is nothing short of a war on all of us, including mothers and our daughters.

Across the land, other states like Missouri and Louisiana are considering bills designed to provoke the reversal of Roe versus Wade, which protects a woman’s right to choose under the U.S. Constitution. (In good news, some states like New York are passing protections of a woman’s right to choose in response to the bans.)⁴ Ultimately, it’s up to governors to sign them into law. Signing such anti-choice laws signals a governor’s active participation in the war on women that wants to take away our bodily autonomy and our ability to make our own family planning decisions.

This coordinated effort to take away choice and deny reproductive health care involves states with some of the worst health outcomes for women, including high maternal and infant mortality rates.⁵ Politicians who say they value life should advocate for policies to solve the public health crises that are killing women and newborns, not dismantle women’s health care.

Governors must protect women, moms, and families, and stand firm against the attack on a woman’s right to choose, which is nothing short of a war on women.

Make no mistake, this war on mothers and women is not about reducing abortions. If the goal of those who are passing such severely restrictive laws was to avoid abortion, then they'd be passing access to free birth control, which is proven to lower abortion rates,⁶ not setting lifetime imprisonment laws for doctors who help women in need. What's really happening is a direct attack on women and moms having bodily autonomy, economic freedom, and sovereignty in our lives.

Twenty-five million women — that’s one in three women of reproductive age – now live in states in which abortion under any circumstances could be outlawed if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade.⁷ And this war on women, mothers, and our daughters particularly harms women in low-income families and communities of color, who face more barriers accessing reproductive healthcare.

Lawmakers should not be attacking women, who are half their constituents. Instead, they should be supporting us by passing paid family/medical leave like every other industrialized nation has done, access to health care including birth control, affordable childcare, equal pay, fair treatment of immigrant families, and an end to the mass incarceration that tears too many families apart — and not a rollback of our rights.

Women are the foundations of families, communities, and the economy. Tell governors to protect women and stand firm against the attack on a woman’s right to choose.

Please forward this email to everyone you know who believes in a woman’s equal right to freedom and her own autonomy, and ask them to sign too.

In solidarity,

- Kristin, Monifa, Gloria, Donna, Elyssa, Felicia, Sili, Tina, Casey, Maggie, and the entire MomsRising/MamásConPoder team

So, apparently, lawmakers should not be attacking women. but women should be allowed to attack the most vulnerable and helpless, killing them with impunity. And they have the nerve to talk about horrors.

Please note, I removed all the links. If you want to support this nonsense, you'll have to look up your own links.

When You Really Need the Survey Link

I went to the grocery store today. I've been putting it off as long as possible because I just got back from Camp Outreach on the 1st - and there is enough shopping leading up to and during Camp that I just don't want to do it again until I absolutely have to. But sometimes you just need food in the house, so I loaded digital coupons to my account, made my list, and went to my local Pay-Less grocery store. (Not that we actually didn't have food in the house; we just needed some of the basics like eggs and bread and lettuce. We could probably eat for several months, just maybe not exactly what we might want.)

Sometimes my receipts include a link to fill out a survey. I don't always do them, and often they're a bit annoying, asking me why I didn't rate my visit as Highly Satisfactory. I guess they got tired of me saying that it was just an ordinary shopping trip - nothing to get all excited about but nothing to complain about either - because I haven't gotten a survey link in a while.

Today I was really hoping for one. Though I wouldn't have rated them Highly Satisfactory today, either...

I bought a 32 oz. carton of Simple Truth plain yogurt today. The sign said the yogurt was on sale 2/$5.00 or $2.50 each, and there was the additional digital coupon for 50¢ off, which I could have used 5 times in that transaction, but I only needed the one carton. When I checked my receipt after checkout, the yogurt had rung up for $5.79. I found the yogurt in the ad while waiting at the service desk, and wondered if perhaps I had grabbed the wrong type of yogurt - Greek as opposed to regular. When Alise (the young lady at the service desk) came to help me, I told her that I thought maybe I'd just grabbed the wrong kind, but she glanced at the ad, told me that it was the right yogurt, but I had to buy 2 of them to get the sale price.

Ummm, since when?

I told her that No, it has never worked that way; I can buy any quantity and get the sale price - unless it's a special sale where it is specifically advertised that way. I went back to the department and took a picture of the shelf tag stating that the sale price was 2/$5.00 or $2.50 each.

BUT...

Alise still insisted that I had to buy 2 to get the sale price. I really only needed one, but I told her to go ahead and ring up two - better to pay $5.00 for 2 cartons than $5.79 for only 1 - and I would go back and grab the second one before leaving the store. I also told her I wanted to be sure I could use the second 50¢ coupon that I would have had taken off if I'd bought both together. So, she rang it up and gave me 79¢ cents back. When I questioned the amount - $5.00 for 2 cartons of yogurt minus $1.00 in coupons should equal $4.00. So, since I paid $5.29 - $5.79 minus 50¢ - for the original carton, the difference should have been $1.29 NOT 79¢. When I questioned it, she printed out the adjustment receipt - $5.29 credit, 2 cartons of yogurt at $2.50 each, minus a 50¢ coupon - equals 79¢. Which seems to work, but I actually lost 50¢ somewhere in there... 

Now, perhaps the store has recently changed things so that we actually do have to buy things in the quantities advertised, but I haven't seen anything letting me know of this change. Alise said that she's worked at this store for over a year, AND she had asked a fellow employee, who also said that I should have had to buy 2 to get the sale price. What she couldn't tell me was WHEN this became effective. If the sales really do work this way now, I'd really like to know. Otherwise, somebody needs to let the employees know that just because something is advertised as 2/$5.00 (or 10/$10), doesn't mean we have to buy in those exact quantities - unless otherwise specified. There are some sales that work that way, but those are always clearly marked.

Also, when I went to grab my 2nd carton of yogurt, I realized that YES, I had grabbed the wrong type - the Greek yogurt was in the wrong place right behind the sign. The Greek yogurt was on sale for $5.79. The regular yogurt was on sale for $2.50 per carton. So, I put the Greek yogurt in its place and pulled 2 of the regular, from the back of the case, since that is what I paid for.

And I sent an email to Kroger customer service.

Clean Air at Home is Extremely Important

It is already hard enough to breathe just with all of the chemicals and pollution that are released into the atmosphere on a daily basis. Cigarette smoke, car exhaust, perfumes and colognes, you name it. For those of us who are sensitive to these things, it gets harder and harder to go out in public. Thankfully, it is still possible to have clean air at home - except when the neighbors decide to burn a big pile of brush or hire someone to spray chemicals on their yard when my windows are wide open. But maybe that's just me...

And I really don't want to stay closed up inside my house all the time using the furnace in the winter and going straight to air conditioning in the summer, never letting any fresh air in. At least as long as there is fresh air to be found.

At least inside the house, I have control over the air quality. I try to use natural products like vinegar, baking soda, and peroxide for cleaning, and I've started using essential oils and diffusers to freshen the air. I never could stand those 'air fresheners' in the aerosol can; they just tend to make things worse.

One of the biggest challenges to clean air in the home can come from water damage and mold. Thankfully we don't have a problem with that, but haven't we all heard about people who have discovered mold in their homes and can no longer live in them? That has to be absolutely devastating. Water damage, whether it's caused by flooding from rains, a tornado going through your neighborhood, a plumbing leak, or something else, is something you want to take care of immediately so that it doesn't cause further problems.

For something like that, I think it's best to hire the professionals and get it taken care of right the first time. You'll want to choose a company that has been in business a long time and handled every problem imaginable in this field.  Choose a fire damage restoration houston tx company that has the proper equipment to handle fire damage, water damage, and mold the right way.

And when the neighbor is burning that brush? Close the windows and be thankful that at least the air inside the house is breathable.

Not Good Enough

It really bothers me when people are too lazy to put their shopping carts away when they're done using them. Not only is it annoying to attempt to pull into a parking spot only to find it blocked by a cart - or two or three, because once someone does it, others are sure to follow along - but it can cause damage to cars in the parking lot. It only happened to me once, but take it from me, those rogue carts can come barreling across the parking lot and run right into your vehicle on a windy day!

What bothers me just about as much (OK, as much) is when people sort of put the carts where they belong, but they're too lazy to actually do it right. How much extra effort would it really take to push that cart forward so that there's room for other people's carts behind it? An extra shove, a couple steps...

But, NO, I guess they figure just getting it there, sort of almost into the cart containment area is good enough. Who cares about those who come later? Or if the cart even stays where it was parked?

Sorry, not good enough! I always try to push my cart as far forward as possible and move the carts in front forward if I can, but if the first person didn't even bother and there are several behind it, there's only so much I can do. Those carts get heavy and very hard to push.

But seriously, why? Am I the only person who thinks that if you're gonna do something, just do it right? And doing some things - like putting your shopping cart away at the end of your shopping trip - really aren't optional. So just give that extra shove or take that extra step of two. You already made it to the shopping cart area...

Well, That Was Stupid

I think I've lost my shopping mojo.

Stupidly I got sucked into an ad on Facebook - not that they're all bad; I got some really good deals right around Thanksgiving. I saw this video for a very cool looking notebook that is reusable - up to 500 times. And, the pages can be easily scanned and saved online. Or so they say; I guess we'll see.

I clicked the link where they told me the notebook wasn't available anywhere else, was 75% off, and almost sold out - and I stupidly fell for it. Normally I look and research and read reviews, but this time I just went ahead and grabbed one. It wasn't until later that night when I actually got on my computer instead of my phone and started looking for more information. That's when I found the exact same notebook on eBay, for much less. But I figured that was OK because all those were coming from China, and I'd have to wait longer to get it. Jason loves drawing and can quickly fill up a notebook, and since he (and his mom and sister) are coming to visit over spring break, I figured it would be nicer to get it sooner so we can play with it together. So, I didn't try to cancel the order. (not sure I could have anyway)

Then I got notification my order had shipped.  It took a couple days to actually get any info on the tracking, but when the information finally updated I found out that the notebook I ordered is coming from China. Seriously? The site says they ship from the US, unless the stock runs out, and then they may ship from their warehouse in Asia. So, since they told me the notebook I was ordering was in stock (though there were only a few left), it appeared that they were actually in stock and should have been coming from the States. Nope. So now I don't know if it will be here in time for me and Jason to try it out together...

Of course, I could always order one from Amazon (yes, they have them too), pay less, and get it here in two days. But then, I don't want to spend even more before I've even had a chance to try it out.

Oh, and speaking of Amazon - I got a delivery from Amazon today. Except I didn't order anything from Amazon. Nope - I ordered some pens for this new notebook. From eBay. They were lots cheaper than the pens offered on the site - even with that use-within-48-hours special 15% off discount code they sent me after I ordered the notebook. Why do stores do that? A discount code after I just bought something from you does me absolutely no good. So, I ordered the pens after I got the shipment notification for the notebook - but before I realized it was coming all the way from China. Two days later I have pens - shipped straight from Amazon. That's right, they're cheaper on Amazon. Apparently, this seller takes orders for things he or she can get cheaper on Amazon and then has Amazon ship them directly to the buyer - pocketing the price difference. It's a dollar or two, but if you 'sell' enough things I'm sure it adds up.

Have you ever heard of such a thing? Not something that had ever occurred to me, anyway. And apparently, it didn't occur to me to check Amazon for these pens. Yep, I'm losing it.

Hopefully, Jason and I will enjoy the notebook. Eventually...

Walmart Doesn't Ad Match Anymore. What?

One of Walmart's most positive features has always been the fact that they will match competitor's ads. Why run all over town to do your shopping when you can just get everything (for the best prices) under one roof?

Imagine my surprise when I get to the checkout at my local Walmart last night to find out that they are no longer matching ads at the cash register. Seriously? When did that happen? Only last month according to our cashier, but still I guess I haven't been doing much shopping recently (I haven't) because I had no idea this was even coming.

We went to Menard's last night to pick up a couple toilet seats, because a couple of ours just broke - of course not last week when Menard's was running their 11% rebate on everything, or any one of those many previous weeks of 11% on everything. (Did anyone else think Menard's was just going to do the 11% back rebate from now on? It certainly seemed like it for a bit.) But, anyway, our toilet seats wait until there's no sale and no rebate, and then they break.

Since we were out anyway, I figured it was a good chance to grab a few things we needed and not have to go out another day. Meijer had some produce in their ad that I really wanted to get, and since Meijer is right by Menard's it just made sense. But I needed to go to Walmart too to grab some Borax and baking soda for the laundry (because Walmart always has the best price on those), so I decided that it would save time if I just took the Meijer ad to Walmart. I could grab the Borax and baking soda and the produce - and only have to go to one store. Which, in the past, would have worked perfectly - but now Walmart doesn't match competitor's ads.

So, instead of saving time, it actually took more time because we had to drive back to Meijer to get the stuff I thought I could get at Walmart.

When I asked the cashier about the new policy, he said that Walmart wants people to use their Savings Catcher. I've been using that for a while. If something I buy happens to be on sale at another store, Walmart lets me know and gives me a credit. Nice, huh? Except that there are a lot things that aren't included, produce being one of them. (and quite a few other things I've price matched in the past)

Savings Catcher currently does NOT apply to:

• Any food, consumables, or health & wellness items that do not meet the eligibility criteria above (See section “Does Savings Catcher compare all items on my receipt?”)
• Items purchased and paid for with WIC benefits
• Produce
• Items sold in the Bakery department
• Fresh or variable weight meat
• Items sold in the Deli department
• Seafood
• General merchandise items including, but not limited to, outdoor living consumables (such as such as fertilizer and bug spray), office supplies, apparel, DVD’s, electronics, CD and gaming media, toys, housewares, small appliances, sporting goods, home décor, bedding, books and magazines, shoes, jewelry, furniture and seasonal products
• Non-branded items
• Tobacco, alcohol, firearms, gasoline, tires, prescription drugs, optical and photo products and services, or products that require a service agreement such as wireless, automotive or financial products

Source: Savings Catcher FAQs

I did a bit of research today to see if I could find any info on this annoying policy change. It looks like not all Walmarts have stopped ad matching, but that doesn't mean they won't all soon follow. The Penny Hoarder has a list of Walmart stores who have stopped ad-matching along with a request for readers to let them know if their local Walmarts have changed policy. (I submitted mine!)

Is your Walmart on the list? If so, how annoyed are you?

Newspaper Delivery Options

As I mentioned, we recently went to Florida with our family. As always, when planning to be away from home for any length of time, I had our mail and newspaper held. Mail is easy - have it held at the Post Office, and then have it all delivered when we come home. But, when I go to have the newspaper held, I have a few options:

Looks logical, right? The only problem is that there is absolutely no reason for that first choice. When I missed a paper or went on vacation in Wisconsin, the amount for those papers we did not receive was deducted from our monthly charge. Simple, right? We did not get the papers; we did not have to pay for them.

Here it does not work that way. I was talking to one of the customer service representatives a while back and asked about the fact that my monthly charge never varied - even though I'd had some missed papers or vacation holds. She told me that once we built up an entire month's worth of credit, we wouldn't be charged for a month.

Well, that monthly charge just keeps coming.


We only get the paper Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - though we'd rather just get the Sunday paper and leave it at that, but that's not an option. For a few weeks in a row recently, our Friday paper was not being delivered, so I reported it online and asked that our account be credited. Eventually, I got a call from the newspaper telling me that they couldn't credit anymore that month - we apparently missed a lot of newspapers, not sure what was going on. It's a bit confusing, but when a paper is missed, they just extend the month a bit and charge the credit card on a later date than it would have been - or something like that. I'm honestly not sure if that's true or not because my credit card is charged automatically, and I haven't figured out exactly when the charge comes through. I probably should look at the history, but let's give them that...

Then, since I was already on the phone with someone from the newspaper, I asked about my vacation credits - because I've been choosing that first option every time we go away for a weekend, and now that we've lived here for 4 years, we should have built up at least enough credit for a free month. Right?

Nope!

Apparently, if you go on vacation here and choose that first option, you just forfeit your newspapers, even though you've paid for them. No credit.  That just seems wrong on so many levels, but it's really frustrating that they even list that first option. Just leave it off and be clear and upfront about the fact that I can either donate my newspapers to a classroom (which I did this year and would have done in the past) or I can get them all delivered when I get home - but under no circumstances is that going to affect my subscription or the amount I will pay for the month.

Watching Some Dancing

Our local ABC station decided we'd rather watch football last night than watch Dancing with the Stars. They were wrong. I don't mind attending the occasional Colts game, but when it comes to my Monday night television viewing, I really want to see DWTS. (and seriously, I saw on the news that the Colts stopped playing before the game was over and lost. Again. So we would have all been better off watching Disney night on Dancing with the Stars.)

Anyway, we're watching it now and I just fell in love with Lindsey and Mark's dance. It was just so good - and even earned that "10 from Len" - and in my opinion should have gotten all 10s.


So far Lindsey is definitely my favorite. I'm also really liking Drew from Property Brothers. I wasn't so sure at first, but he's really improved and really seems to be having a great time out there.

Who's your favorite this season? Have you started voting yet? I often don't start until later in the season, waiting to see how everyone will do - and obviously I could not have (knowledgeably) voted last night since I wasn't even able to watch. </pout>

Because I Have So Much Free Time

When I first started blogging, I used Photobucket to host a lot of my images. Thinking about it now, I'm not sure why. I've used Blogger for ages, and I can just use Google for all the images I need for my blog. They even make it super easy to add photos from my phone - which happen to be pretty much the only pictures I seem to take these days. (see example 'eclipse' photo on the right)

And now, after all this time, Photobucket has decided to change things (read: they want money) so that I can no longer use my Photobucket images on my blog - not only all images going forward, which would be OK since I haven't actually used them to host any blog images in ages (did I mention how easy it is to use Google?) - but every single image that I have ever used. So, everywhere that I have an image I hosted on Photobucket (and included in my post with code provided by Photobucket), I now have this super ugly graphic telling me that I need to upgrade my account. Oh Yay.

So now I have to go back through every post looking for those ugly graphics, figure out what image was supposed to be there, and then get them downloaded from there and re-uploaded (to Blogger and Google), and then fix the code so that the images display properly. Because, of course, I have nothing else to do with my life...

Thanks, Photobucket. I love you too. (jerks)

And, yes, if I wasn't such a perfectionist, I'd just let it go. They're all old posts anyway. Except for those things in the sidebar - what were those, anyway? And the background on my recipe blog. That is the final straw! (or was - got that one fixed at least)

(jerks)

Soul2Soul Tour Review

Jeffrey and I had a date night on Saturday - dinner and a concert. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's Soul2Soul tour was in Indianapolis, and we thought it would be fun to see them. We've loved Tim & Faith for years and were really looking forward to this concert. It had to be good, right?

Two major entertainers, with multiple songs their fans would love to hear, touring together. They could easily fill up the whole evening and leave us wanting more.

McGraw has sold more than 50 million records worldwide and dominated the singles charts with a stunning 41 #1 singles. He is currently riding the Billboard Country Airplay chart with 3 singles in the top 20, a feat he was the first to achieve, and now the first to achieve for a second time. He is the most played country artist since his debut in 1992, with two singles spending over 10 weeks at #1 (“Live Like You Were Dying” and the genre-breaking “Over and Over”). His recent multi-week #1 single “Humble and Kind,” off his “Damn Country Music” album, is his 59th release to hit top 10 or better, and spawned a New York Times Best Seller book. - Soul2Soul Tour

Why in the world would they need an opening act? I definitely wasn't expecting that, but some guy came on stage. I have no idea who he was or what any of the songs he did were, because the sound was horrible. HORRIBLE.

This was our first clue that the concert might not be as good as we hoped...

I was seriously hoping that it was the opening act's sound guy and that the sound would improve when Tim & Faith took the stage. When the opening act was over, we watched while the stage was reset, and we waited for Tim & Faith - for the concert we came to see. The stage was gorgeous. Tim & Faith came up from underneath and began singing, and...

Sadly, there was absolutely no improvement to the sound. There was so much bass and reverb that absolutely nothing else could be heard. Oh, we could tell that Tim & Faith were singing, but we could barely hear them and could not understand any of the words. And because of the wall of sound, it wasn't just the vocals that couldn't be heard - the sound from the band just kind of blended into the noise, and we couldn't differentiate any of the instruments or music. I'm sure some of those songs were familiar, but who could really tell? It was like the sound guy thought he was putting on a hard rock concert and really had no clue what Tim & Faith's music actually sounds like. We've been to several concerts, and this was absolutely the worst sound ever.

There were quite a few very disappointed people who left early, and several comments about the sound on the Facebook event page - though I'm not sure anyone ever read those. They certainly weren't being read or monitored by anyone during the concert because the bad sound stayed bad.

Stage/light show was awesome but sound was awful. Sad that we couldn't understand any words. Anxious to start hearing new songs on the radio so I can hear the words. Still love Tim and Faith but a big disappointment in the show in Indy last night.

The sound was horrible!! Left at 930 bc you could hardly make out what they were singing... and to think we drove 3 hours for a headache!

Sound is awful. Can't understand the words and can hardly even tell what songs are being played. Disappointing to say the least.

We left after Faith's set. It was exhausting trying to make sense of the sound. We came to hear Tim and Faith, not overpowering band and back up singers. I was so disappointed!

The sound really was AWFUL. But we stayed until the end, maybe because we kept hoping it would get better, which it did not. Maybe we're just suckers for punishment, or maybe it's just that we'd paid good money for these concert tickets. We may have been in the cheap seats - though there really is no such thing as a cheap seat when Ticketmaster gets through charging all their fees - but we still expected a decent concert.  (We saw Bon Jovi last month in seats on the same level but almost behind the stage, and while the view wasn't as good, the sound was MUCH better for that concert) This venue hosts numerous concerts, so I'm pretty sure that the sound is usually decent. It has to be, right? They couldn't regularly sell worthless tickets, right?

The lights and visuals were awesome, but sadly not worth much if the music isn't there to go with them. I would have been happier listening to Tim & Faith with absolutely no extra splash - if only I could have HEARD them.

The light show was worth a little something, though I hate to think that Tim & Faith have put that much into their show (heart and soul) and do not realize that the sound is so bad that their fans cannot hear or understand anything they are saying or singing. Because I have to believe they don't know what the show sounds like from out in the audience. It's either that or they're trying to impersonate rock stars instead of being the genuine people I thought they were.

Overall, it was a VERY disappointing concert - a waste of money, and a waste of time. And definitely not up to par with their past tours.

McGraw and Hill have been dominating the music charts since the early ‘90s. They began touring together in 1996 on McGraw’s Spontaneous Combustion tour. In 2000 they created the Soul2Soul franchise with their record-breaking “Soul2Soul” tour, becoming that year’s top grossing and most successful U.S. tour. Their success continued in 2006-2007 when “Soul2Soul II” returned to the road, which was the most attended tour of the year in any musical genre and remains the highest grossing multi-year North American tour in country music history. Pollstar Magazine named it their “Major Tour of 2006,” beating out Madonna, The Rolling Stones and The Red Hot Chili Peppers for the honor.  - Soul2Soul Tour

So, what did you do this weekend? I hear Garth Brooks was in Champaign...

Rules of the Aisles

I don't like shopping very much at any time, but it's particularly crazy this time of year.  There are so many people in the stores.  It's practically impossible to get from Point A to Point B, grab the things I need and get out of there.

So now's as good a time as any - probably a really good time - to ask:

When you meet up with someone in the store aisle, which way do you move so that you can get past each other?

To me it seems obvious - move to the right. The same way you'd move if you were on the road driving. I asked this question the other day and had at least one person wondering if that's a rule in the store aisles.  Is it?  Does it need to be an actual rule? What about common sense and trying to help traffic flow through the store so that we can all get in, get our shopping done, and get on with our lives? While avoiding that awkward dance where both parties move in the same direction, and then in the other direction - back and forth until someone finally stops or makes a dash for it.

But why do they seem to always choose to move to the left first? Isn't it ingrained in those of us who drive to move to the right? In my mind, these are the same people who always insist on walking on the right-hand side of the road with the traffic, but somehow that doesn't follow them into the store.

Mostly I just avoid the awkward dance. I move to the right - because that's the only logical thing to do, and I can't do otherwise - and then just stay put until the other person goes around me.  And I do a lot of extra walking - looking for the empty aisles to walk down instead of fighting through the people-clogged aisles if I don't need anything in those particular aisles and am just trying to get from one side of the store to the other. If there are any unclogged aisles...

There's nothing as frustrating as not being able to move. Or get where I need to go. So many of these people seem to be in no hurry whatsoever, and they really seem absolutely unaware that there is anyone else in the store with them. The question of which way to move probably never even crossed their minds, because why would they ever need to move over. Or move forward at anything greater than a snail's pace?

I think I'll just stay home until this insane season is over. Or forever. Aren't there services that deliver groceries now? Or at least bring them to your car after you order them online.  That sounds nice. Maybe I'll check that out...

More Missing Words

Recently I mentioned my frustration with those cryptic symbols on laundry tags, and while those may be annoying, I think I found something even more annoying.

This weekend my husband had to assemble something - something that most definitely needed to be done correctly.   And this is what the directions looked like:

No words. No explanations. Just a bunch of very helpful incredibly confusing pictures.  Thankfully he's pretty good at stuff so he got it figured out - except for those one things that we have no idea what they are so they didn't get put on.  Hopefully it's not a big deal...

Again - why can't they just use words? Along with the pictures.  The pictures might actually be helpful if there were some words to go along with them.

Deciphering the Laundry Code

Have you noticed the laundry labels on clothing lately?  Seriously, what do those cryptic symbols even mean?  It seems that nobody really knows.

On Good Morning America yesterday they put up several of those laundry symbols, and the guesses were kind of hilarious, but nobody got them right.  Are those symbols supposed to make things easier?  Or just confuse us all so we wash things wrong, ruin them, and have to buy new clothes?

Why can't they just use words?

I hate the dumbing down of everything - from laundry tags to street signs.  Are we just assuming that people can't read, but they'll be smart enough to decipher the symbols?  How's that working?  I can read, but most of those symbols make absolutely no sense to me.  If we really think that people who can't read can decipher those cryptic little symbols, why don't we just let them decipher the usual symbols - called letters.  Formed into words.

Of course, possibly it's because everything is made in China these days and it's easier just to use symbols instead of repeating the washing directions in every possible language - which could lead to some really big labels.  In the meantime, I guess we all need a little help decoding those laundry symbols.  Seriously - how many of these did you know?  Better keep the computer handy when doing laundry.  (or download the available PDF, print it out, and keep it near the washing machine)

How to Remove That Sticky Residue

I saw something on Pinterest recently for a homemade 'Goo Gone' which is supposed to work well to remove the sticky residue from labels and price tags.  But when I had a label to remove recently, I couldn't remember what the recipe was, and realized I hadn't pinned it.  So, I reached under my sink and grabbed my handy can of Bar Keepers Friend®.  Guess what?  It worked wonderfully!

There was no scrubbing involved or trying to figure out if cold water would work better than hot.  I just sprinkled some on my sponge, added a little water, and wiped the gunk off.  It was awesome!

Of course, I've only tried this twice, once on plastic and once on glass, but I really need to remember this in the future.  That sticky, gunky residue is always such a pain.

Have you found anything that works for you?  If you have some of this stuff, give it a try.

The Rest of the U.S. Cellular Story

Anybody remember when I posted all the problems we were having when we canceled U.S. Cellular service? - Nothing BUT Empty Promises

I said I was going to post the rest of the story, and then I never did.  First we were in the middle of trying to get things resolved, so I didn't want to cause any extra problems - though it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway.  And then, I just didn't do it.  So, in case anyone is still interested...

We left off when Jeffrey finally got our account canceled and the charges reversed, and we finally got the cases we ordered.

---

Then - a couple weeks after we thought the account was canceled, our daughter, who was still a U.S. Cellular customer tried to get one of our old phones activated, only to find out that it was still active on our account.  So he again had to call and see where things stood.  Apparently the account was in line to be canceled, but no one had gotten to it yet.  That customer service agent took care of it right then, I think.  But then when we passed another one of our old phones on to one of our daughter's friends, who is still with US Cellular - this was several weeks later - they were told that the phone had been reported lost or stolen when they went to activate it.  Being the owner of the phone, I know I never reported it lost or stolen.

We eventually received a final bill, which was supposed to be automatically zeroed out (promised by the customer service rep who actually did cancel our account), but Jeffrey called just to be sure it was taken care of - can you really blame him, after all of this?  At that time, he was told that the phone could not be activated because there was still a balance on the account - NOT because it had been reported lost or stolen.  At that time, while he had the customer service rep on the phone, he specifically asked about each of the phones we had on our account - 3 of them - to be sure that each one was free to be passed on and activated by current US Cellular customers.  He was told that they were all good to go.

Then, a few days later, Beth called again.  They were in a US Cellular store trying to get the phone activated.  Again.  Guess what?  They couldn't do it because "the phone has been reported lost or stolen."  We were just told a week or so before that that it was available for activation.  Guess not.  Since we were on the road, Jeffrey told the customer service rep at the store to put her on the account so she could deal with it.  It was supposedly going to be taken care of, except that she called again the next day.  When they told her that they couldn't activate the phone because it was supposed to have been returned, which was another lie. That phone was part of my compensation for working with the U.S. Celular Better Moments Blogger Brigade, and  there is nothing in the contract saying the phone was to be returned at the end of the program.  In fact, if we hadn't moved out of the US Cellular coverage area, they would have given me a new phone to use, again as part of my compensation.  My phone was part of my payment, making it mine to do with as I chose.  I chose to let someone who is a current US Cellular customer use it.

Why is that so hard??

This is when I posted to U.S. Cellular's Facebook page because I was just so frustrated.  I got a pretty immediate response, telling me they would look into this and that this was not the experience they wanted me to have.  After giving all the pertinent information about the account to the USCC Social Team representative, I got this email:

Hello, Anna.

 

I want you to know that we have not intentionally caused these difficulties with transferring your phones to other US Cellular customers.  We would have nothing to gain by doing that. 

 

I have taken a long look at your account and there is not any apparent reason why this is happening. I have submitted a research ticket to our Internal Support department to resolve this issue. This process will take a few days.  I will contact you by email on Wednesday with an update.

 

Thank you for your patience.

 

Best Regards,

Danielle G.

USCC Social Team     

and then I waited... and asked for updates, and never got an answer - from the Internal Support department.  I got emails from Danielle telling me she hadn't heard anything, but the ones who were supposed to look into it and resolve the issue never responded.  2-1/2 weeks later we still hadn't gotten an answer.  But then I talked to Beth, and she told me they'd tried again and got the phone activated after all.  So, I guess someone at U.S. Cellular got things taken care of, but they never bothered to get back to us and let us know what was going on.

But at least it got taken care of, right?  And I never had to think about U.S. Cellular again - and never bothered to finish the story - until recently when I was talking to a friend who still lives in Wisconsin and recently changed cell phone providers and signed up with U.S. Cellular.  It all sounded good - national plan, better signal, etc.  Except they didn't bother to tell him that when he got out of a U.S. Cellular area, they'd really throttle his data speed.  Did you know that U.S. Cellular doesn't have much area anymore?  They've sold out in many markets.  And since my friend is a truck driver, he's out of the U.S. Cellular area often.  Oh yeah, the signal is great at home, but when he's on the road that data he needs to do his job is not available.  Does U.S. Cellular care?  Not at all.  They got him to sign a contract.  Sucker!

So, if you're looking for a new cell phone provider, do not look at U.S. Cellular.  It's just not worth the headache and the hassle.

I Want My Sunday Ads

When we moved to Anderson, we wanted to subscribe to the Sunday paper - for the ads.  While I know you can access pretty much any store's ad online nowadays, we still like getting them in the paper.  We really don't read the paper, but we like to sit down on a Sunday morning with our coffee and the newspaper ads.

We'd been getting the Milwaukee paper in Wisconsin so we decided to subscribe to the Indianapolis Star instead of the local Anderson paper because we figured the big city newspaper would have more of the ads we wanted to see.  WRONG!  There really weren't very many ads in the paper at all.  Jeffrey even drove to the gas station a Sunday or two just to buy the Anderson paper so we could compare.  Every time, there were more ads in the Anderson paper.  So we canceled our Indy Star subscription before too long and subscribed to the Anderson Herald Bulletin.  It costs a bit more, because you can't get just Sunday but also have to get Friday and Saturday.  Still, definitely more ads.

After canceling the Indy paper, I would periodically get phone calls trying to get me to re-subscribe.  Every time I told them exactly why I'd canceled the subscription - not enough Sunday ads.  Each time I was assured that they had added more ads, or that the holiday season was coming up so there would definitely be more ads.  I was even offered a Sunday only subscription for only $6/month.  My cheap frugal little heart really wanted to grab that one, but I said NO.

But in July I got another call offering me three months for the price of one, and I was again assured that there were more ads in the Sunday paper and several ads in the Thursday paper, which was also included in my subscription.  So I decided to give them another try.  It had been almost a year since I first canceled the subscription so maybe they really had changed.  We also kept our subscription to the Anderson paper, so I kept track of the ads every week in this Sunday newspaper ad comparison.

The results were pretty interesting - The Indianapolis paper usually contained about half the number of total ads compared to the Anderson paper, and there were usually more coupons in my Anderson paper, too.  One week the  Indianapolis Star only had 3 ads.  Three! Talk about ridiculous.  And that Thursday paper they told me had ads only contained a Kroger ad - which I get in the mail either Wednesday or Thursday anyway - and sometimes an ad for a weekend sale at Kohl's.

Needless to say, I have again canceled that subscription, and I have no intention of ever subscribing again. If you live in the Anderson, Indiana area and you like your Sunday ads, avoid the Indy Star.  The 'big city' paper really has nothing on our local paper here in Anderson.

Anybody else look forward to their Sunday morning ads?  And comics!

Nothing BUT Empty Promises

We have had a long relationship with U.S. Cellular.  Up until recently, they had been our only cell phone provider.  Ever.  We were always happy with them.  When it was time to upgrade our phones, we usually got better deals as current customers then they were giving to the new customers.  Customer service was always great, both in the store and on the phone when we needed something.  I even worked with U.S. Cellular last year as part of the U.S. Celular Better Moments Blogger Brigade, sharing my experiences and opinions of U.S. Cellular.

But then we moved to Indiana, where there is NO U.S. Cellular coverage.  I continued to use my U.S. Cellular phone for a while, and it worked fine, but apparently more than 50% of your usage needs to be in a U.S. Cellular coverage area.

At least 50% of your monthly voice usage for each device on your account must be used in U.S. Cellular's licensed markets. No more than 200 MB of your data usage in any month for each device on your account may be used in U.S. Cellular's non-licensed markets.

 So, when my contract was up in May, we switched to another provider.  Cory and I both got a new Samsung Galaxy S5, and we decided to use some of our U.S. Cellular Belief Points to order new cases for our new phones - before completely canceling the U.S. Cellular account.  We earned them; we might as well use them, right?

The day after we got our new phones, Jeffrey got a call from U.S. Cellular because we had ported our numbers to the new provider.  They wanted to know if he wanted to change the plan - from a family plan to a single line plan, because his phone was the only one still active.  He told them No, we were going to have to cancel the entire account; we were just waiting for our Rewards order to come.  The customer service representative he talked to seemed very friendly and understanding.

Then we waited.  And waited.  I kept checking the status of our Rewards order, but nothing seemed to change.  In the meantime, our current billing period came to an end, and a new one started.  We were halfway through the next month, no one was using the U.S. Cellular account (Jeffrey's phone was still on it, but he hasn't used it since we moved here because he has a company phone.  It should have been canceled ages ago), but a payment would be due very soon.  At this point, Jeffrey called customer service several times.  First he was told the cases we ordered were out of stock, even though the web page still showed them in stock, and we had been able to order them.  He was told that if we canceled our U.S. Cellular account now, to avoid further charges, that the Rewards order would be canceled too.

A few days later, he tried calling again to see if we could perhaps order a different color case or something - anything to get the order shipped so we could go ahead and cancel the account.  This time he was told, not that the items were out of stock, but that the order had been set aside because we ordered cases for the Galaxy S5, and we did not have any of those phones on our account.  Which, in a way, is very nice of them - except that they didn't call, email, or otherwise contact us to see if we did indeed mean to order those particular cases.  They just did not ship our order.  So, the person Jeffrey talked to that night promised to send them out right away, and we would have them by the end of the week.  Only the end of the week came, and still no cases.

So he called, again, and got some other story.  This time they told him that our order got held up because the computer couldn't make sense of our account.  We had a family plan, but there was only one phone line on the plan.  So the order just got - lost? ignored?  - something.  He was promised that we would have our order by the end of the following business day.

Guess what?  Nothing!  At that point, Jeffrey called again, told the supervisor he asked for to just cancel our account, effective at the end of our last billing cycle, because the only reason the account hadn't already been canceled then was that we were waiting on this order.  A couple of phone cases - paid for with Points that we had earned by being long-term U.S. Cellular customers - worth about $80 retail, just weren't worth the headache and hassle, and paying for an extra month of service that we weren't using anyway - which would have cost us more than the value of the phone cases.  It just felt like they were dragging their feet, stalling, and doing whatever it took to keep from sending us our order - and keeping our account open.  So the account was closed that night.

The next day we got these:

They had been shipped the night before.  Why did it have to take almost a month?  And multiple phone calls?  Either they are just extremely incompetent - and the term 'customer service' is a joke - or they were taking it very badly that we had to leave them - even though it had been explained to them multiple times that we were only changing providers because they do not offer service in this area.

But that's not the whole story...

I Was Going to Bake Bread

I bake! (Photo credit: bcmom)

I do a lot of baking.  I'll probably do even more now that the weather is starting to cool down.  I've told you my favorite ways to warm up on a cool day haven't I?  Bake something!  Or wash dishes.  They both work really well.  Of course, baking is more fun, but it does usually mean there are dishes to be washed.

Anyway, I was planning to bake bread this week.  I had my sourdough starter pulled out of the fridge to warm up.  And that's as far as I got.

I was planning chicken wraps for dinner Monday night, and I turned the oven on to heat.  Then I got busy taking care of other things while I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Now, this new oven has always taken longer to preheat than my old oven, but I eventually realized that it was taking way too long.  So I checked, and the oven, which was supposed to be heating up to 400° was barely even warm.  Yep, something was definitely wrong.

I had to bake the chicken in the toaster oven, which worked fine, but dinner was really late.  We tried turning the oven off and back on, resetting the breaker just in case something hadn't been done right after our power outage on Friday, though everything else seemed to be working fine.  Nothing changed.  No heat.

It still did not immediately occur to me that I wouldn't be baking bread the next day as planned. Finally after dinner and dishes I realized that wasn't going to work, so I just fed the starter and put it back in the fridge

Thankfully, when we bought the house, we asked for a Home Warranty, so the next day I called to have somebody come and fix my oven.  First they said it would be next Wednesday before someone could come look at it - more than a week - but then they found someone who can come sooner.  Hopefully it will be tomorrow.  They needed my oven's model number and serial number so they could be sure to have the right part - hopefully it's just the bake element - and be able to get it fixed the first time.  However, finding those numbers proved to be a challenge, since there was nothing in the oven where it was supposed to be.

No numbers anywhere

She thinks she figured it out anyway, so here's hoping they got the part in and will be calling me in the morning to come and fix my oven.  If it's something more serious than the bake element, at least it can't cost us more than $100 because of the Home Warranty.  However, it might be a while longer before I can use my oven again.

It's been hard enough living just this week without an oven.  At least it's not Thanksgiving.

Save Money on Car Insurance?

You know all those ads you see on television and all the mail you get promising to save you money on your car insurance and just call for a free quote?  Well, we've been calling and asking.  It can't hurt to ask, right?

Except that all these things we've gotten with promises of savings are just plain LIES.  Lies, I tell you.  But still, we have to get new car insurance - not because we didn't like our old insurance; we did.  Just, for some reason, because we've moved we have to get new insurance.  Why?  I don't know.  To keep the insurance people here in business, I guess.  Because nobody would actually buy insurance from them given a choice.

Seriously, we want to insure the exact same cars and the exact same drivers, and even will be driving fewer miles since Jeffrey works only 5 minutes from home instead of 30 minutes like before.  They should be able to save us some money - at least a little just for that.  But no - they want us to pay half again to twice as much for the exact same thing.  And we have no choice in the matter, even though we know it doesn't have to cost that much.  We have to choose the lesser of all the evils and buy from someone here.  Instead of just keeping our old, much more affordable car insurance.  I'm still not exactly sure why...

It just feels like a total ripoff. 

What, Do They Drive on the Other Side of the Road There?

So we're moving.  And we're going to have to get new drivers licenses in our new state.  Never mind that I have a perfectly good drivers license already that doesn't expire for another 5 years.  And also had to renew the sticker for my license plate, because it expired today - and we move out of state in 11 days.  I called to see if I could get an extension or something.  But no - basically she said, "you're really just screwed.  Whether it's 1 day or 365 days, you still pay.  The same amount.  It's an annual fee."

Apparently I can't wait 5 years or even 1 year to renew things that I've already paid good money for.  I guess the respective DMVs or DOTs or whatever they are have to make money somehow...

Then today Jeffrey mentioned that to get these new drivers licenses we have to take a written test - as if 20+ years of driving doesn't count for anything.  Seriously, isn't the written test for new drivers?  What, are their rules of the road so very different there?  Do they drive on the other side of the road or something?  I mean, written tests are fine for new drivers who have just taken Drivers Ed and studied all that stuff, but the rest of us have been out on the roads driving.  Who remembers how many feet you're supposed to signal ahead of a turn?  And even if I did know how many feet, I wouldn't really know what that means in real life - I just do it.  I'm also one of the few people who seems to know that, on the highway, you're supposed to drive in the right lane and use the left lane for passing.  And, this probably has nothing to do with a drivers license, but I'm also one of the few people that knows pedestrians are supposed to walk on the left side of the street, facing traffic.  At least one of the few in this town - maybe they all know that over there.

Unless, of course, they drive on the other side of the road there, in which case pedestrians should still walk facing traffic, but it would be on the right-hand side of the street.

Seriously, I doubt any of the rules in the new state are any different than in all the rest of the states, which kind of makes a written test a bit ridiculous for people who have been driving for years.

And then there's the fact that a valid current Wisconsin drivers license isn't good enough for ID.  No, they want a birth certificate, and my social security card, and I don't know what all.  Really?  Let's just treat all the new people as if they don't know anything and as if they lied to get the license they currently hold.  Yep, way to make me feel at home.