You go, Dear Abby!

I was reading an article about a woman that wrote to Dear Abby with a problem.  Nothing new there. Her problem was that she and her spouse did not approve of the lifestyle of their gay neighbors, so therefore she did not invite those neighbors over when it came time for them to host a neighborhood shin-dig.  She writes to say that she and her spouse are now being excluded.

Hooray!

We have neighborhood gentleman who are gay.  They are the most wonderful neighbors ever.  We love them and they love our daughter as if she was their very own.  I've written about Mr. Don and Mr. Glenn before.  I would never want to leave them out, though I'm certain that in situations in life they have been left out.

We've shoveled each others driveway aprons.  They have cleared out sidewalk on more occasions that I can count.  We've swapped food back and forth.  We've played at their house.  They've played at our house.  We've gardened at both houses.  Mr. Don had his hip replaced and we checked in on him and K took care of him when Mr. Glenn was at work.  Mr. Don drove me to have my foot casted.  We've passed baking supplies back and forth across the street.  I taught Don how to can.  They have watched K and have picked her up from the bus stop.  We've chuckled and shared neighborhood dirt. I've called them to borrow linens and not only do they have them, but they've delivered them freshly laundered AND pressed!  (My sister was jealous.)  I think that it is a safe thing to say that all of us enjoy having each other as neighbors.

How so very sad.  That lady is missing out on a couple that she is not even willing to get to know.

Renewing the dreaded cell phone contract.

I've been dreading this for some time.  It was cell phone renewal time.  The current contract was rolling, but needed updated and whatnot.  We share a family plan with my in-law's, so my FIL went price shopping for all of us.  The cheapest price he found was with our current carrier, AT&T.

Last night, we convened, discussed what we wanted and pressed on to the store.  While I was busy trying to find a parking space that wasn't filled with parking lot snow overruns, Hubs and his parentals went in to prep the sales person.

I come in, she was crunching numbers and talking about how our bill was going to be a little bit more, there is data . . .

"But we don't want data.  We don't want smart phones.  We just want what we have."

"But they are only $5 more a piece.  You are paying $20 for the basic phone and frankly, we only have 2 that you could chose from to purchase anyhow.  You could do smart phones. . . "

"We don't want smart phones. I wasn't a fan of the touch screen on the LG that I had and I'm just not looking forward to it."

"Oh, the basic phone vs. smart phone is so much different.  Look!"  :insert phone demo:

FIL says, "How can we make our bill less?"

"Oh, you can't.  The bill would be $143.50."

My response is, "Does that include tax and any other fees?"

"Well, no."

"Then basically, I can go to Verizon and for $160, I can get far better coverage for the same price."

"I have to disagree."

"Can you tell me that you have coverage in, let's say, Amish Country?  I have to be honest, I've never found that we have coverage down there or many places south of here."

"Well, that is true.  Our towers are taller and can accommodate more callers, but Verizon has more towers, but they are shorter, don't accommodate as many callers and they drop calls all of the time."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a signal is a signal and if there is an actual emergency, I would rather have the option to call back than not to call at all.  I didn't tell her this, but every Verizon customer I've spoken to after this has never had a problem with dropped calls.  We just can't afford Verizon, which is why we don't have them.

After confirming that $143.50 is the lowest, I looked to Hubs and said loud enough for her to hear, "What happened to the $100 quote?"

"Yeah," says Hubs, "What happened to the $100 quote we talked about?"

"Um, yes, well-- it is for just unlimited calls and unlimited text."  Almost simultaneously we all exclaimed, "THAT'S ALL WE WANT!"

"Oh."

So it took a half hour to get it through the salesperson's head that we wanted as we said- just what we had.  We were able to walk out of there with a contract for 4 phones for $96 including tax and whatnot.  Hubs is a public employee and as such, he gets a discount.  Fine with me.  I'll believe it when I see it when the bill comes.  It still doesn't make sense when she said it would only cost $5 more per smart phone that if we wanted as basic as we were saying, the bill should have only been $120 for 4 smart phones plus taxes and whatnot.

Until then, Hubs laughs and every now and then says, "You know, she was trying to bamboozle us."  "Yes, yes she was."  "She was determined we were to get smart phones."  "Yes, yes she was."  I was not impressed.

None of us got new phones, despite my need to replace mine sooner than later.  No one really understands my push against smart phones.  It is one more distraction that I do not need.  Truly.  Would I use it?  Yes.  That's the problem.

What's the point?

A mom didn't like what was on the front of some t-shirts at a store.  I get that.  She felt that they may have violated city law for where they live.  I get that.  However, the article says,

"Plus, she plans on returning the t-shirts for a full refund at the end of the store’s 60-day return policy."

If she doesn't want kids to be purchasing the shirts that she believes are inappropriate, then why is she returning them?  Does she realize that when she returns them, the store will either resell them at a discount or send them off to an outlet for discount pricing?  Just because she purchased them and held them for 59 days, returns them on the 60th doesn't mean that they will light a match to them.  In fact, a big hairy deal being made out of it just makes people more curious and honestly makes people want the mom banned item more.

I'm just sayin'.

I am picky about what my daughter wears.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't allow words stamped across the butt and frankly think that a young child should not be wearing a bikini.  I also watch cuts of shirts and shorts.  That doesn't mean that I run all over and throw a fit about it, expecting children to wear Dugger-like bathing suits and skirts to their ankles.

Thoughts?

Calamity Day 8: It's all of my fault.

Yesterday, I knew that there was a big, fat storm coming.  I decided that if I placed my spring wreath on the front door, it would take notice and dissipate. 

 Just in case you wondered, it didn't.  In fact, I think that it made it worse.

 It could be worse.  My driveway has walls, but I'm certain that up north scored more.

Today I decided to put out my "Welcome Spring!" flag.  I mean, maybe the spring wreath wasn't hint enough.  You can blame me when the epic storm of the century rolls through.  

In other news, K had an optional volcano to build for extra credit.  "She's doing great in science," says Hubs.  "It's extra credit and those opportunities don't come by often.  We'll be building a volcano."  We did!

We didn't have brown paint and it was Sunday and we were being snowed upon with about 4" then.  None of us wanted to go out, so Hubs suggested some gray house paint.  I mean, if it's good enough for the house . . .  I had some leftover Modge Podge from when Aunt Donna decided that she was going to save all of the puzzles that the puzzler ladies built downstairs.  It took once and she decided that once was enough.  K sealed it.  It sat on the floor near the heat vent for a day.  It was time for lava.  Well, since it was extra credit, I asked K if she wanted it to be rainbowy with glitter.  SURE!  Rainbow and glitter it is.  It has to work and frankly, I think her teacher cares none about the colors.  

An update to K's recent illness is that despite having a negative rapid strep in office, today I was phoned by the nurse to say that it was positive and she needs antibiotics.  Huh.  We were all surprised.  

I end with, my your snows be small, your warmth be much and may we not float away by the end of the week when all of this melts.  If Noah comes rounding the bend, I'll let y'all know.  

It tasted as if I had just licked a horse's hoof.

K and I decided to do the cheese tour.  You see, when you visit Heini's Cheese Chalet, you get to sample all of their cheeses.  It is delightful!  Yesterday, I tried some different cheeses I hadn't tried before.  One was kefir cheese.

It tasted as if I had just licked the hoof of a horse that just walked through manure.  Hubs was laughing so hard at my reaction that I seriously think he was on the edge of crying.  Seriously, it tasted like fresh manure smells.  It tasted awful.

If I were at home, I would have spit it out.  Unfortunately, I had to continue to chew and swallow, hoping for a highly flavored cheese down the line.  Thankfully, there were a few with onion that killed the flavor.

Whew.  I know that people loved it, but I had to share my opinion.  If you like the taste of manure covered horse hooves, Kefir cheese just might be for you!

:cringing face:

The 17 Year Traditional Anniversary Gift: Furniture, Fever and Flu or Fugazi?

The short answer in my house is that neither I nor my husband went traditional.  He went to the local CD resale store and purchased 3 Fugazi CDs and a DVD for me for our anniversary.  One CD is called "Furniture," so he gets partial credit, right?  I gave him a gift card to said resale store and Resident Evil 6.

On to fevers and flu.  K woke up and told me that she hadn't slept well and was feeling like garbage.  I took her temperature later.  Yup.  102.4 F.  The weekend plans were canceled.  :(  She cried.

The traditional colors of the 17 year anniversary?  Yellow and turquoise.  Well, yellow is on my CD covers and turquoise is on his game cover.  That counts.  Right?

Fugazi and killing zombies.  Wouldn't work for most people, but it works for us.  Until then, we have a strep culture test awaiting us at the pediatrician's office.  Good times!

Happy Valentine's Day!

ETA:  K had a stomach virus that had an up and down fever (no Motrin involved) with a spike to 102.9 F.  She was kind of food sensitive for a few days, but is now back to nearly full speed.

The $10,000 challenge.

It made your eyes perk up and it brought you here to read a story.  No, it isn't some get-rich-quick thing.  It is a story of my husband asking my father for my hand in marriage.

Hubs went to ask my father for permission to marry me.  They talked about a great many things, including the fact that I believe that my father thought I was high maintenance.  (I'm not no maintenance, but definitely not high maintenance.)  In the end, my father told my husband that before he could marry me, he had to have $10,000 in the bank.  That's a lot to ask of a young man who just graduated from college and who was doing an internship.  Hubs was doing his internship through the Student Conservation Association at the local National Park.  He was making 50 cents an hour and working full time at the internship, if memory serves.  He was also working a job at a plastics company through a temp service so that he would have money to pay bills.  Despite all of this, he accepted the challenge.  He had one year.  We had already decided that we would marry the following Valentine's Day.

This started Hubs and I on the way to talking about finances and how to manage to save $10,000.00, have money to live on while paying for a wedding and I was still in school.

Hubs worked for The Davey Tree Company during the summer as a tech.  We agreed that whatever money he made, he would put away as much of it as possible.  I would pay for the wedding.

Then my wisdom teeth went south.  They needed to come out and while my parents had insurance for me, the balance left was $350.  I made payment arrangements with the oral surgeon's office.

We found a hall and loved it.  I made payment arrangements with them for the hall and food.

I paid an installment plan for my tuition.  All through college, I would pay as much as I could and take out as little as I needed in loans.

We agreed that we would get rid of all credit card debt before we got married.  Hubs had his credit card maxed out at all of $500 limit.  I had a card from Kaufmann's and a Visa card.  Neither one carried an overlyesque balance, but an agreement was an agreement.

October came and despite all of the different financial stuff we had going on, Hubs was able to present my dad with the savings passbook from the bank to prove to him that he was able to save $10,000.  My dad couldn't deny Hubs marrying me that coming February.

It was a crazy thought in the beginning, but 2 months after we were married, the wheel (yes, wheel) came off of my car, whirled through the air and landed on the front lawn of a local country club.  Damage to my car was $1400.  4 months later, Ohio eCheck blew my motor.  I still owed $3700 on my car.  We had to pay it off and get a new car.  We could only afford to lease a compact car, but we eventually bought that car after lease and  kept it for 16 years.

This is where I tell you that the money that my dad made Hubs save came in handy.  We had a savings from wedding gifts, too.  Still, it was nice to have it.

2 1/2 years after we were married, we bought a house.  We put a down payment on that house and though it wasn't a huge down payment, it came from that initial savings of money we had.

Many things have come up through the years, but we've continued to have savings.  We've had money stowed away in an account that we ignore.  My dad insisted that it all start that way and while it seemed like it was a tall order to ask of a new college graduate and a college student, but we managed it and we were glad to have it.

So my engagement was tagged with a $10,000 challenge.  We won! :)