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Deb, if you want another, less mistake filled hat, I'll knit one for you in time for NEXT winter. Yes, NEXT winter. Any color you want.
Friday, February 19, 2010
D's Hat
I haven't had much time to knit lately, but I did manage to cobble together a hat for my friend Deb. I knit it too fast. I was doing so in an attempt to get it out to her before winter is over and it's too warm for her to need it, and so made more mistakes than I'm happy about. However, I loved the pattern and will knit it again. It's free on Ravelry!
Deb, if you want another, less mistake filled hat, I'll knit one for you in time for NEXT winter. Yes, NEXT winter. Any color you want.
Deb, if you want another, less mistake filled hat, I'll knit one for you in time for NEXT winter. Yes, NEXT winter. Any color you want.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Divine Smells
I'm learning to bake (good) bread. And it makes our house smell YUUUUUMMMMYYY. Before we went overseas I had a couple of years of attempts, but no great successes with homemade breads (the years of mediocre to bad bread). Now I've found the right combo of recipes and altitude adjustments, things are grooving around here. I'm all for the ease and convenience of store bread, and I still buy buns for the sausages and hot dogs we love to eat around here, but recently I learned that in addition to the loads of extra stuff bread just doesn't need, some manufacturers add SCENT to their packaging to make their bread more appealing. Seriously? So now about once a week I bake a loaf of sandwich bread and about once a week I bake something fun.
This week we're using up apples. Travis' mom and her friend Ruth Ann stopped here for a couple of days on their way to their next adventure (Egypt) and brought a heap of perishables, including what seems like an entire bushel of apples. I knew if I baked a pie Travis would eat one piece and the rest of the pie would just sit and fester, wilting away while we all just passed it over for less sweet snacks. Lo and behold, a recipe for Apple Challah. This, I think, will get eaten.
Based on Travis' reaction while it was baking, and his hovering as I pulled it out of the oven, I don't expect it to linger!
This week we're using up apples. Travis' mom and her friend Ruth Ann stopped here for a couple of days on their way to their next adventure (Egypt) and brought a heap of perishables, including what seems like an entire bushel of apples. I knew if I baked a pie Travis would eat one piece and the rest of the pie would just sit and fester, wilting away while we all just passed it over for less sweet snacks. Lo and behold, a recipe for Apple Challah. This, I think, will get eaten.
Based on Travis' reaction while it was baking, and his hovering as I pulled it out of the oven, I don't expect it to linger!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
My Favorite Superbowl Commercial
My favorite Superbowl commercial didn't even air here in Denver. But it did star a person who's very popular here in our household. In fact FFM calls her nearly everyday on his play cell phone. Aunt Karen's been busy lately and has been getting a lot of commercial work. So far she's been in ads for a casino, Cold Stone, Hyatt, and this one is an Arizona homebuilder.
http://www.fultonhomes.com/pages/superbowl_ad.aspx
This ad aired in Arizona during the Superbowl and Uncle Q sent a link so the rest of us could watch it. Aunt Karen stars as "Substandard House" (one of the green and white ones) and it's easiest to spot her as the house with the longest name. She filmed this right before we visited them in Phoenix at Thanksgiving and regaled us with stories of trying to run in giant shoes, trying to catch and throw a football with giant white hands, and getting tackled.
Way better than all those Bud and Doritos ads we got here. Way to go Karen!
http://www.fultonhomes.com/pages/superbowl_ad.aspx
This ad aired in Arizona during the Superbowl and Uncle Q sent a link so the rest of us could watch it. Aunt Karen stars as "Substandard House" (one of the green and white ones) and it's easiest to spot her as the house with the longest name. She filmed this right before we visited them in Phoenix at Thanksgiving and regaled us with stories of trying to run in giant shoes, trying to catch and throw a football with giant white hands, and getting tackled.
Way better than all those Bud and Doritos ads we got here. Way to go Karen!
The Wrong Car
We are having dramas.
While there are a lot of big decisions Travis and I can make while living on two continents, discussing merits of new couches, TVs, even houses and school districts, etc over Skype, there are two things I can't decide and buy without him physically being here. 1) hard backed chairs 2) a car. For those items he's just got to be here in person so we can make sure his lanky, well over 6' frame will fit.
So, I did months of research, went to a timely autoshow in Phoenix over Thanksgiving and sat in what seemed like every reasonable vehicle there, made a spreadsheet, and narrowed the field. Upon his arrival in Denver all we had to do was test drive, agree we both liked it, and make sure he fit comfortably (a big vehicle doesn't always mean he'll fit, he fits in my little sports car but you can't cram him in a Hummer with a spatula).
So we picked our vehicle and decided on the features that are the most important to us. It turns out these features are pretty unique, and not part of the standard packages dealers have on their lots. We hemmed and hawed, and sat down to talk with our moms who have been kindly loaning their cars to us. We're currently a one car family, except when Travis' mom is out gallivanting the globe and leaves her car here for minding. My car, which is the aforementioned sporty car, doesn't go in the snow, so it's been living at my mom's house and she's loaned us her four wheel drive (our 1 car right now) during this unusually snowy winter.
Both moms, in that motherly way, assured us that we should go ahead and keep borrowing the car(s) for another 6-8 weeks while we ordered and waited for the delivery of our custom built car, with exactly the options we wanted on it. Keep in mind I'd already BEEN borrowing my mom's car since the first big snowstorm in October! Travis' mom left her car here for three weeks in Dec/Jan while she was away and now has left it again for three weeks while she's gone again.
We wait...and wait...and wait. The car manufacturing plant shuts down for two weeks at Christmas....
Then we get word the car is on it's way, hooray! I tell my mom her car will return soon! Our car broker, Debi, arranges her man to come in on his day off to put the clear bra on. She tells us we can come on Saturday afternoon to pick it up. We're thrilled. Travis and I show up at the dealer with a bounce in our step, Debi takes us out to look at our new car, she hands me the keys. It's shiny, it's red, it's just like we wanted. I climb in, breathe in that great smell, look up at the sunroof FFM and I really wanted, Travis and I sit in the comfy front seats and then peer into the back....
The rear seats are all wrong.
We'd ordered a bench seat and they'd installed captain chairs.
Ugh.
This was the whole big deal from the very beginning, The sunroof/bench seat combo was the hard one to find. The sunroof/captain chair combo is sitting on a car lot somewhere and could have been shipped in, we could have had it two months ago. Debi's annoyed. She calls the guy at the dealership who placed the order (who is at home on his day off) hoping that maybe they just sent over the wrong car. There is silence at his end of the phone. He realized he made a mistake and ordered the wrong car.
Ugh. Ugh. UGH!
Word for now is that we'll probably have to wait another 6-8 weeks. We discussed just taking the car that's here, but we'll have this car for a long time and I'm a bit of a car geek. I want the RIGHT car. I don't want to be annoyed by some dumb BIG mistake in our car for the next 5, 7, 10 years. We'll know for sure on Monday if there's not someway to put a rush on it.
While there are a lot of big decisions Travis and I can make while living on two continents, discussing merits of new couches, TVs, even houses and school districts, etc over Skype, there are two things I can't decide and buy without him physically being here. 1) hard backed chairs 2) a car. For those items he's just got to be here in person so we can make sure his lanky, well over 6' frame will fit.
So, I did months of research, went to a timely autoshow in Phoenix over Thanksgiving and sat in what seemed like every reasonable vehicle there, made a spreadsheet, and narrowed the field. Upon his arrival in Denver all we had to do was test drive, agree we both liked it, and make sure he fit comfortably (a big vehicle doesn't always mean he'll fit, he fits in my little sports car but you can't cram him in a Hummer with a spatula).
So we picked our vehicle and decided on the features that are the most important to us. It turns out these features are pretty unique, and not part of the standard packages dealers have on their lots. We hemmed and hawed, and sat down to talk with our moms who have been kindly loaning their cars to us. We're currently a one car family, except when Travis' mom is out gallivanting the globe and leaves her car here for minding. My car, which is the aforementioned sporty car, doesn't go in the snow, so it's been living at my mom's house and she's loaned us her four wheel drive (our 1 car right now) during this unusually snowy winter.
Both moms, in that motherly way, assured us that we should go ahead and keep borrowing the car(s) for another 6-8 weeks while we ordered and waited for the delivery of our custom built car, with exactly the options we wanted on it. Keep in mind I'd already BEEN borrowing my mom's car since the first big snowstorm in October! Travis' mom left her car here for three weeks in Dec/Jan while she was away and now has left it again for three weeks while she's gone again.
We wait...and wait...and wait. The car manufacturing plant shuts down for two weeks at Christmas....
Then we get word the car is on it's way, hooray! I tell my mom her car will return soon! Our car broker, Debi, arranges her man to come in on his day off to put the clear bra on. She tells us we can come on Saturday afternoon to pick it up. We're thrilled. Travis and I show up at the dealer with a bounce in our step, Debi takes us out to look at our new car, she hands me the keys. It's shiny, it's red, it's just like we wanted. I climb in, breathe in that great smell, look up at the sunroof FFM and I really wanted, Travis and I sit in the comfy front seats and then peer into the back....
The rear seats are all wrong.
We'd ordered a bench seat and they'd installed captain chairs.
Ugh.
This was the whole big deal from the very beginning, The sunroof/bench seat combo was the hard one to find. The sunroof/captain chair combo is sitting on a car lot somewhere and could have been shipped in, we could have had it two months ago. Debi's annoyed. She calls the guy at the dealership who placed the order (who is at home on his day off) hoping that maybe they just sent over the wrong car. There is silence at his end of the phone. He realized he made a mistake and ordered the wrong car.
Ugh. Ugh. UGH!
Word for now is that we'll probably have to wait another 6-8 weeks. We discussed just taking the car that's here, but we'll have this car for a long time and I'm a bit of a car geek. I want the RIGHT car. I don't want to be annoyed by some dumb BIG mistake in our car for the next 5, 7, 10 years. We'll know for sure on Monday if there's not someway to put a rush on it.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
One For the Little People
25 minutes and 49 seconds.
That's how long I was on hold today waiting to cancel a credit card. Flipping back and forth between continents and currencies we've got extra credit cards that now just sit around doing nothing. Several years ago I canceled one, Discover, since we couldn't ever use it outside of the US. It took about 6 minutes. On the slate for today, cancelling another that just sent a letter about a new annual fee.
I called up credit card from Big Bank X and had a pretty short wait time to talk to a real person, less than five minutes. We chatted about my credit card needs and why I wanted to cancel. So far pretty straightforward and it was at this point that Discover simply cancelled my card. However Big Bank X informed me that I needed to talk to a Customer Representative Manager and therefore would need to hold. OK, say I, they don't seem busy, my last hold time was short, and it's nice and quiet around here at my house since it's nap time. I'll hold. 25 minutes and 49 seconds later, after hearing "Please hold for the next available Customer Representative Manager" every 15 seconds, I got a real person.
I don't have a speaker phone. I wish I did. I could have been folding laundry. I did, however manage to do some one handed unpacking and am glad my phone is at least cordless. I'm glad I was able to use my land line and not use up nearly half an hour of shared family minutes on a pointless hold that I'm positive was banking psychological warfare intended to make me hang up so I wouldn't cancel my card.
Take that Big Bank. You're not paying for bonuses out an annual fee from ME this year! ;)
That's how long I was on hold today waiting to cancel a credit card. Flipping back and forth between continents and currencies we've got extra credit cards that now just sit around doing nothing. Several years ago I canceled one, Discover, since we couldn't ever use it outside of the US. It took about 6 minutes. On the slate for today, cancelling another that just sent a letter about a new annual fee.
I called up credit card from Big Bank X and had a pretty short wait time to talk to a real person, less than five minutes. We chatted about my credit card needs and why I wanted to cancel. So far pretty straightforward and it was at this point that Discover simply cancelled my card. However Big Bank X informed me that I needed to talk to a Customer Representative Manager and therefore would need to hold. OK, say I, they don't seem busy, my last hold time was short, and it's nice and quiet around here at my house since it's nap time. I'll hold. 25 minutes and 49 seconds later, after hearing "Please hold for the next available Customer Representative Manager" every 15 seconds, I got a real person.
I don't have a speaker phone. I wish I did. I could have been folding laundry. I did, however manage to do some one handed unpacking and am glad my phone is at least cordless. I'm glad I was able to use my land line and not use up nearly half an hour of shared family minutes on a pointless hold that I'm positive was banking psychological warfare intended to make me hang up so I wouldn't cancel my card.
Take that Big Bank. You're not paying for bonuses out an annual fee from ME this year! ;)
