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March 28, 2006
Home again Home again JiggityJig
So you know that feeling in the pit of your stomach. You are driving along the interstate, enjoying the ride, the weather, being one with the road. You round the curve in the road and there he is and there too is that feeling in the pit of your stomach when he starts to move and his lights come on.
I just know that guy passing me must have experienced that feeling at the moment he saw that MA State Trooper. I'm also sure he didn't feel like "The Man", as his license plate stated, anymore. I couldn't help but be pleased it wasn't me this time; I have slowed down some these days, ya know.
Of course, I also couldn't help but think of the old saying "If you are passing me then for sure you are going too damn fast!" I like people who pass me; they flush out the speeder readers. Snort
Now, I'm home, it's almost too quiet but I just may be asleep so I won't really notice.
Posted by frani at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)
March 24, 2006
On the Road again
I am in CT, I should be napping while Kieran is and Maura is at swim lessons. oh well, I can fall asleep later.
I volunteered to drive Lori to the airport. How the hell did I Know she was flying out of LaGuardia and not White Plains?
There's just something about driving right by Shea Stadium It's not something I see very often; and it's about the size of all of Burlington, VT, isn't it? I couldn't gawk, well because I was driving, but then again I really couldn't miss it. It WAS huuuge.
Wee-hawker.
Posted by frani at 01:18 PM | Comments (3)
March 23, 2006
Holy Grail
Well let me tell you...things were just a little exciting for me last night watching this auction go down. BUT, it's ours..allllll ours. It's Red Ruby Depression glass on it's own little stove and I've only seen one other one come up on eBay in the last year and a half we have been looking. Now lets just hope the seller packs it well. We've had 3 pots arrive broken over the course of collecting; it's so disheartening to have these "rare" pieces arrive broken. Yeah, I'll take a refund BUT I really wanted the pot! xxxfingersxxx
So I'm mostly packed..ok, maybe it's piled. It shouldn't take long to get things collected and into the car. Shouldn't being the operative word here. I'm not showered or dressed and I'm blogging..you be the judge.
I think I've turned into my father. I remember when my parents would come to visit us. It looked liked they were moving in for a month. They brought all sorts of things with them; fortunately most of the stuff left with them as well. Pillows, coats; you'd think they were going to the Artic and their survival skills would be put to the test.... and my father's own oatmeal and food things; geesh I wouldn't let them starve really I wouldn't. They had a whole box of just their meds....ours fit neatly in our dopp kits. One time they actually did bring the kitchen sink...we were going to use it in the basement. Hhhmmm we never did get it hooked up down there. Oh well. the other thing they used to bring was "extra" stuff they bought at BJs. I couldn't quite understand how come they shopped at this giant discount retailer when it was just the two of them but my father was addicted and they shared with us when they visited. *I* shop at Costco for the two of us and only bring my sugar cubes (Hey my DIL is diabetic!)and coffee, ok and really sleep is so important, we need our pillows. But, really, I swear my father used to roam around their house looking for things to share with us.
Yesterday as I roamed around the house looking for things to share with my children...grabbing some ruby red grapefruit, Jelly Belly jelly beans...I was struck dumb "I'm my father!!!" Oh well, he was a pretty good guy; it could be worse, so I continued putting the grapefruit in the box.
May I slice one for you? snort. See you soon and the rest of you , have a fine day.
Posted by frani at 07:11 AM | Comments (2)
March 22, 2006
This and That revisited...
I'm not going to rant about the snow that is currently falling..it's light and coming down ever so slowly. Nothing to get too excited about compared to what I saw elsewhere in the country yesterday on the news. Someone must of fooled Mother Nature and she didn't think it was nice. Spring will come, I know it.
I've noticed some increased activity on my blog of late. Welcome people, sit a spell, leave a comment or two, it won't hurt. I know signing in to comment can be a pain but I left some helpful hints in the comment section..sigh..I'd rather have no comments than spam ya know. (pppssstt...and yes, I noticed a Hertz IP address 18 minutes after I posted my rant)
We had another plumbing issue here. My kitchen faucet spout, of the pull out sprayer head variety, cracked in the cold about 4 years ago. I was in no mood to replace it right away because it was fairly expensive, it still worked but looked flawed. Yeah, well we all have flaws, suck it up. Recently it started spraying erratically out the crack; not a good thing if you happen to like being dry so I got out the ever trusty black sticky tape. Did I ever tell you I wrapped a leaking garbage disposal in black sticky tape and it held so well that when I finally replaced the disposal, the innards were actually crumbled? Gotta love black sticky tape. Digression aside, taping the sprayer head stopped the the erratic spray but prevented a steady stream of water so it was time to take the fix to the next level.
Mind you, I am still smarting over the last faucet incident where it took me three obsenity filled days to remove the old faucet and a half hour to install the new one, so I wasn't too excited about replacing my kitchen faucet. I was also just plain annoyed because the thing was not inexpensive to begin with. ah - ha...I bet they sell replacement parts. A little Google, a little "find dealer in my zip code", a little trip downtown, $75 to the nice lady at the desk, unscrew old sprayer head, screw on new sprayer head...VOILA! No Obsenities but I have hurt my shoulder patting myself on the back.
In the Now you've gone too far category...I saw a commericial for Hoover's new Sport Utility Vacuum Cleaner. I suppose I could go off on this in sooooo many directions but then again, I recall a day I was enamoured of the concept of the ride on vac as once described by a friend. Hmmm, I'm still not sure if the Soccer Mom crowd is going to buy into this particular SUV, I don't think Hoover has the "name power" to attract them. I also wish my commercial filter had been turned on when I saw that....not something I needed to know about.
So I'm gearing up for a little trip to CT tomorrow for the weekend. Yup, I'm getting a Grandkiddie fix. Maybe this time I'll take some pictures but don't count on it...we have things to do, ya know and after that I'm too pooped to think about pictures. So far, I know there is preschool and 2 sets of swim lessons, a birthday party and religion school to attend to. We can do that, afterall Daddy will be there, we are only going as reinforcements while Mommy goes to FL. I heard something about the possibility of the kidmobile going in for some maintenance while Mommy is gone...maybe I'll take pictures of Daddy putting the kids in his Lexus. snort...there is always my car and I do believe the birthday party is within walking distance.
Time to Roast some coffee beans...
Have a fine day all......
Posted by frani at 07:11 AM | Comments (3)
March 20, 2006
Oh Hertz, You Hurt Me So!
I've Chronicled our adventures with Hertz rentals from time to time ( Here,and Here and Here) and it's usually had to do with Upgrades for the Man with the Gold Card. I hesitate to talk about his business too much because ..well, it's his business. If I tag along and am going to drive the car too, well, then maybe I can complain about getting the Minivan or the Lincoln Town Car while still requesting a Compact. Ahem...sometimes the humor is lost when one gets a boat of a car in a metropolitan area.
The Man with the Gold Card uses Hertz for the convenience and ease in picking up his vehicle...he's got the art of reading the board with his name and car stall assignment down to a science and rarely has to break stride while on his way through the rental car garage.
I make his reservations; I still haven't got the formula down for really getting the car he wants but for the most part it works for us. BTW, Hertz...save those upgrades to Town Cars and other biggies for the vacation traveler who will be thrilled with them! all the Man with the Gold Car wants is a nondescript car in the range of a Corolla or similar size ( Snort, 3 years ago I was looking for Mazda 626s!). Can't tell you when the last time he got one of those.
Ok, Back to this week's issue. I've never really encountered a problem with the price though...before this weekend, that is. I thought we had figured out the issues but when I went to reproduce it for the purposes of this blog, I found the opposite to be "true". I'm so confused, I don't know what True is anymore. There in lies my rub with Hertz....I now feel betrayed...they really are no better than any other company doing business. Why had I kept those rose colored glasses on for so long? I feel violated, hurt, disappointed, wronged and just may break into a Country Western song at any moment now!
Oh? The issue you ask? Well, I needed to rent a car for just short of two weeks. I got a price of over $1000 to begin with, then realized I had not "logged in" to the site so his Gold Member discount wasn't calculated. Whew...it went down to $917. Hmmm..the Man with the Gold card was not happy with that so he went checking on Sat morning at Avis and National and other competitors and found huge differences in pricing. This sooooo needed looking into because it just didn't make sense.
Well Suh, imagine my shock when he looked for the same quote and wasn't signed in as The man with gold Card; Mr No Name was going to get that car for $525! HHmmm...The scientist in him started changing the search parameters and I'm sure he had a system but the changes had to do with things like the time of day and signing in or not...or even designating whether he was arriving via air or not or even whether he was traveling on "Official Company Business" since he has a Business Account discount. The prices seemed to double under the "perks"....!!!
Today, I did some more testing but found the time of day rental price in my queries being opposite what I found over the weekend. Hhhmm...now I'm confused again...........
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...the fog has lifted. Silly Me..TWO WORDS..BUSINESS TRAVELER! Hertz is no better than any one else when it comes to screwing the Business Traveler who by the way IS their REPEAT customers, Who tend to be their LOYAL customers, Who they claim to REWARD for their continued patronage. Seems the price doubles when it would be the time of day for a Business Traveler to pick up his car...PM on Sunday night and AM during the week.
Shame on me...it's my own fault...I know better than that with the Airlines. Making reservation is such an adventure..time of day, connections, season, destination, school vacations. One could be traveling the same route 3-4 times a month BUT let one of those trips overlap with a holiday or school vacation and the price doubles. Screwing everyone of course BUT really screwing the frequent business traveler.
But you know what part really bothers me about this whole scheme? It's the notion that Big Business is picking up the tab for Business Travelers. That Big Business doesn't care about the price of travel, the Man with the Gold Card just needs to get where he is going and it's not like it's coming out of his pocket so it's ok to stick it to the Big business who is employing the Man with the Gold Card....Wrong. It's just plain wrong and it IS coming out of the pocket of this Man with the Gold Card.
Once again I'm struck dumb by my own naivete...I'm so embarrassed for not having realized this before now. ...and I call myself a seasoned traveler. HA! I think I need to go tune by guitar and wail a bit more.
Posted by frani at 09:00 AM | Comments (3)
Awesome Photo
I just had to Share this photo from National Geographic with all of you....Get it? Huh ? Huh? Get it?
Ok, for those on my level of astuteness...it had to be explained to me that the camel shapes were the camels shadows on the desert floor...the photo was taken from a plane above them. The white things are the actual camels! ( Here's the link if you want the url: Camels
pppsssttt...btw, my server was broke last week...what the heck do I know about those sorts of things. Thank you Demian, thank you Greg for fixing me.
Posted by frani at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
Proof
...I hope this isn't going to become a habit but at least I just happened to have the camera close by last night when I spied this.
Posted by frani at 07:30 AM | Comments (1)
March 12, 2006
Snort
I've never been a huge Jeff Foxworthy Fan but this just cracked me up
Psssst... I got tried of listening to it fire up all the time so now you just get the link - enjoy
Posted by frani at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)
Spring has Sprung
.. . The grass has riz I wonder where the posies iz .
Actually, I really cant tell if the grass has riz very well because its so filthy dirty out there. So typical March with all the mud dirt and yuck. Vermont needs a bath and some fresh clothes for sure.
Signs of Spring: temperatures were in the high 50s, rumor has it we haven't seen temps that high since the end of November.
It was downright hot on the new porch-yea, plastic screen coverings - they done good.
The Kids in the neighborhood emerged - I have no idea who they are, where they live but there is a bunch of them!
Someone has a new puppy; a chocolate lab had some little boy on the other end of a leash..... very cute.
The neighborhood cats are able to roam unimpeded by snow. Nice to see who has made it through another winter - that cat is still alive? Knoel was having a chit chat with one old cat I refer to as Sylvester. He seems to be nice enough, has been around for years but I still haven't the slightest idea who his people are.
I've even spotted a few of the seasonal birds out and about - geese, chickadees, flamingos; you know, the usual spring varieties. Not that I would really expect anyone else to acknowledge seeing them.
Well, I wont count on this weather lasting (actually, its already cloudy and windy today) nor be surprised if we get a few more snowstorms but its been nice prelude to Spring-gives us hope.
Posted by frani at 08:38 AM | Comments (1)
March 10, 2006
Adventures in Wal-Marting
It's been a whole week since I had an occasion to visit our local Wal-Mart. I think I failed to chronicle our adventure sooner because I'm still recovering from the trauma. I've never cared for Wal-mart at all but ever keeping the open mind, I feel its best to visit our perceptions from time to time to make sure said perceptions haven't needed an update. Nope. I still don't care for Wal-Mart
My first trauma involved noticing the hair Salon just inside the entrance. This is just so wrong on so many levels that I just can't even begin to address it.
Less than 30 feet more into the store is the "snack bar". Although I find the smell of popcorn enticing, I just could not get by the second trauma of my visit. Someone had parked their mother (mother in law, sister, aunt, grandmother or whatever charge she was) at a table to presumably wait for further entertainment. As if being parked at Wal-Mart wasn't humiliation enough, don't you think they could have gotten her out of her flannel pajamas first?
I'm telling you, we hadn't even got into the main shopping area and I was already twitching from 2 traumas!
Moving right along, we were there because one of my shopping companions wanted some socks. One would think the prospect of obtaining socks would be less than challenging but then one would again be wrong. Two stock clerks were sitting on the floor of the sock aisle which was really a good thing because the stock of socks was a little sparse to say the least. I would suppose it would have been appropriate to assist my companion with her sock search or at the very least move so at to not hinder her search any further. But again I would suppose wrong since they barely quit their bitch fest to give us the disgusted evil eye. I think they must have thought we were eavesdropping. As if... at this point, I was more than relieved to hear my friends declare the trip Wasted and they'd had enough entertainment for one afternoon.
As we made a hasty exit, I couldn't help but notice the pajama clad old lady was still sitting at the snack bar, I wonder if anyone ever went to claim her. Remind me to be somewhat cautious if either of my sons ever rouses me from slumber with a suggestion we take a trip to Wal-mart.
Thank you very much, have a nice day. (and maybe someday I wont try to edit out all the typos my tablet pc makes for me Please excuse spacing as well))
Posted by frani at 11:15 AM | Comments (5)
March 09, 2006
Life in the Cat Lane
See that beam going across the livingroom? Yeah, that one closest to the upstairs landing. See Knoel? Yeah, he was on it last night. Sigh, I Knew it was just a matter of time before he jumped (flew) over to it. Actually, I suspect he has been over there before, ya Know, practicing his moves to get the most reaction from his people. Yeah well, he ought to learn CPR before he attempts more gravity defying feats. I didn't see him go over to it but I certainly was standing there watching him fly back to "safety". As a matter of fact Knoel is known for his flights to heights...
Remembering - Knoel nearly gave Leo a heart attack when he rubbed up against his leg while up on the scaffolding last summer.
I've seen him on the roof more than once and the tenants have been startled by his peeping tom tricks.
The squirrels know that he will follow them up a tree 30 feet at least.
He seems to be pretty agile...of course there was that one pesky fall from a lower branch and a dislocated back leg but so far, nothing worse than that.
I saw him fly across the kitchen doorway from the counter to the top pf the refrigerator that only sticks out of the wall by 3 inches at the top.
I've also found Knoel perched on top of the screen door on the porch...yeah all 1 inch wide top of door. Must be those huge feet of his act like anchors or something.
I was saying the other day that I'd like to come back as my cat but I think I'll choose to come back as ~Elmo, I don't much care for heights.
Posted by frani at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2006
How Come?
How come when I can't access my MT editing page, do I feel this great urge to write something here, only to come up empty again when I can connect?
How come just because I buy King size Sheet sets, the manufacturer/ packager assumes I want king size pillow cases? I don't! I really don't like all that flappy pillow case excess.
How come there is a need for ice cubes not long after throwing out all the "stale" accumulated ice cubes in the freezer? Just as well, they were are freezery tasting, anyway.
How come this tablet PC translates my made up words for me (freezery-takes nearly an act of God-keeps coming out freezing)but won't correct my spelling of because! oh wait, it doesn't need to when I'm writing on the tablet because I can write it correctly-just cant type it! Well, it translates other words game that I don't Want it to! maybe Lie first let it do its thing so you can see first what my handwriting gets deciphered as. (see?)
Just what does "How come" mean, anyway?
Posted by frani at 08:25 PM | Comments (1)
March 03, 2006
March March March...
March is easily my least favorite month of the year. November is a close second, unless of course if it IS November then it's my least favorite month. It's ugly out with the dirty snow piles and muddy feet, blech. ....and March is boring.
I took this lull in activity to go through my bathrobe pockets. Not much there, little bits of paper and fuzz I picked up off the carpet. However, there was a reasonably intact cat toenail...hhhmmm, you'd think I'd remember picking up a cat claw 'cause that could have had potential for excitement. Maybe I was already too far gone to notice.
Cabin Fever.......
It could be worse though. At least this year, I have our new room and fireplace along with my sudoku addiction to keep me amused. My partner in crime gave me this great chair for my birthday....this could be a photo of me but it's not. I'm not blond and I don't have a brick fireplace/hearth or a kid on my lap, but it's close...I have a green chair. Hopefully she has good coffee in that cup...probably tea though...wonder what she's reading...hhmmm could be Cat in the Hat. Oh? Not really worthy of contemplation, huh?
March, Cabin Fever.
Onnnnnnnnnnnn the other hand...so many blogs I read have real drama in them that is painful soooo I ought to be really thankful all I have to contend with at the moment is Cabin Fever.
I'll look at my daffodils a lot, count my new pet snails and consider myself fortunate that it's a good day. Have a good weekend all.
Ppppssstt... thanks for the Happy Birthday wishes. Dru Ann, that could have been me in the balloon but nope, too cold around here for me to go up there.
Posted by frani at 06:31 AM | Comments (2)