When a Child Drowns....

It's very easy for everyone else who wasn't there to criticize and blame the parent or caregiver, the one who was "supposed to be watching." I have been and will continue to be critical of how many people parent (or don't parent) their children. In the Shellie Ross case, I think people are making some assumptions that I am not prepared to make.

I don't know how big Mrs. Ross's property is or where the chicken coop is in relation to the pool. 25 years ago, before cell phones and blogs and tweeting, the very same thing could have happened. Mom walks out to the chicken coop to check on them or gather eggs or feed them, the toddler walks away while she's doing her chore and falls into the pool.

I don't know if the critics have children. I don't. I have cats. I keep a pretty good eye on them when I'm at home, but yesterday, hubby and I were having dinner on the sofa, watching a show on TV, and Petra jumped up on the kitchen counter maybe 12 feet away (and behind a wall, but not behind a door). She pulled down a burrito that was cooling on the counter and started helping herself to the contents. Hubby walked in with his plate and caught her at it.

Do I think that a lot of parents could play closer attention to their children? Absolutely. Mrs. Ross probably tweets from a cell phone, an accessory some people consider as important as their heads. If you make or receive more than three cell phone calls on an average day, I think you're on the phone too much. I see people talking on phones while they drive, walk, bike, and use the toilet. They make and receive many personal calls or text messages at work. I recall hearing stories of children drowning in a pool or mop bucket or tub while their caregiver was on the phone. Doesn't even have to be a cell phone; the old landline variety can be blamed for some of those deaths. A landline phone ties you to the wall where the phone is plugged in.

Mrs. Ross had her cell phone with her and was outside with her son. She says he slipped away in two seconds. Maybe it was really 30 seconds or a minute or five minutes, but it wasn't long.

If you have ever turned your eyes away from a child in your care, what happened to Mrs. Ross could have happened to you, Twitter or no.

Bryson's death is a horrible tragedy for the Ross family. Mrs. Ross will live with this for the rest of her life. She will second guess her actions. She will question her choices on December 15, 2009, for as long as she lives. She doesn't need anyone else to do it for her. On that evening, her life was spinning and her heart was contracting in her chest and she turned to her friends for comfort. 25 years ago, she might have screamed for a neighbor. She might, even today, have called her mother or her sister or her best friend in order to ask for prayers, to express her grief and her horror and her fear. Instead, she texted. It's second nature to her. That brief message took just a few seconds and reached many people who Mrs. Ross considers to be her friends.

I don't know if her harshest critics follow her blog or her tweets or if they heard about that tweet second-hand. It sure didn't take them long to hop onto the internet to tell everyone in their circle of cyberfriends what they thought of the incident. It's kind of hypocritical, isn't it? To condemn someone for spending too much time on the internet in an online forum. To chastise someone you don't even know for not spending enough time with real people, from the computer in your house where you're presumably not talking with a real person because you're too busy typing. To do telephone interviews with magazines so you can get some attention from someone else's tragedy.

My dad died two years ago. It was an expected death from cancer, and my mom and my husband were there with me. When he passed, we each took turns on the phone calling the hospice worker, the funeral home, the church, and family. It wasn't long before I got online and sent some emails and posted on some forums. When you're hurting and grieving, you're in a daze, I'm sure even more so when it's sudden. You need to do something but there's nothing you can do. While the paramedics were working on her son, Mrs. Ross had to stand back, out of the way, and wait. She was restless and frightened and aching, so she tweeted. She asked people to pray for her son, because it's all she could do at that moment.

So cut her some slack.

It needed to be said.

Do you know the difference between "right" and "write"? If not, you should watch this video by Chris Pirillo.

Remembering Pap-Pa

My mom's brother, my Uncle Howitt, is in town for a couple of days, and I had dinner with him and my mom on Sunday and hubby joined us for dinner on Monday. We had great conversation about food and customer service and the legal system and how things have changed. He and mom recalled the outhouse they had when they were little, and even after they got indoor plumbing, as kids they'd use the outhouse to avoid catching their momma's eye, because she was likely to put them to work if she saw them.

He told the story of how a reporter from the paper was out visiting him one day, and Pap-pa (what I always called my grandfather) mentioned that they were in for a harsh winter. This was in 1976. The reporter asked how he could possibly know that. Pap-pa showed him the dog's coat and said if the fur doesn't thin out in the spring, it's going to be extra thick for a cold winter. He showed the reporter an anthill that was close to the ground. If it was going to be a mild winter, Pap-pa said, the anthill would be eight inches off the ground, but instead, the ants were digging deep, to be ready for a cold winter. The reporter took it all down and wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about this old country farmer's antiquated ideas about weather forecasting. Come October, though, and an early hard freeze or two and the reporter came back, to do a follow-up story about how accurate the old farmer's predictions had been.

Too often we forget or discount the old ways, but that ancient wisdom came from experience and from having to make do without the internet and live Doppler radar on the 10pm news.

What digital SLR should I get?

My mom has indicated that she will buy me a digital SLR for Christmas. She's going to get the same make and model for herself, so I can figure it out and help her. I've read good things about Pentax, plus you can use 35mm Pentax camera lenses on their digital cameras (so I've heard) and we have some of those. Big benefit.

I have also heard some really good things about Nikon and Canon models.

What do you think?

Banner Ads can be so misleading.

I was on Facebook, and I should have known better. The ad showed a couple of small pink Tupperware containers and a pink ribbon and said that the free sample offer would be ending in 11 minutes. Mm-hm. And the next free sample offer will start in 11:01.

But I fell for it. I clicked. It took me to QualityHealth.com and asked for a little basic information, including mailing address, age, and general medical concerns. The next thing I knew, I was responding to page after page of "don't you want to buy a Nissan?" and "don't you want to get 180 health-related e-newsletters two or three times a week?" questions. Grrr. But I finished the survey (honestly, I'm afraid to stop, because what if I end up signed up for something because I specifically didn't say no). Did they say that my free samples would be in the mail? Did they even mention what free samples I would receive? Of course not.

So, I hunt around and look for a way to contact the company, and when I find the form, what options do I see listed in the drop-down menu for subject? Stuff like "Complaints" and "Advertised Offer Not Available" and "Samples Not Received." A little further digging finds that this site (and other sites targeting people looking for information on specific diseases and conditions) is run by Marketing Technology Solutions." Based on their own corporate website, linked-in page, and a press release about a lawsuit they recently filed against a rival, MTS seems to be in business to put ads in front of people seeking medical information and to "generate leads" -- in other words, collect personal information from people so that pharmaceutical companies (and apparently other businesses like Nissan) can try to sell them stuff.

Now, I know there's no such thing as a free lunch, except that the reason you're giving me the free lunch is in hopes that I'll want the same thing for lunch tomorrow and I'll be willing to pay for it. Luring me into the restaurant, having me fill out a bunch of surveys, then sending me away hungry is not the way to win my trust or my business. All I'm asking for is a little honesty in advertising.

Marketing Technology Solutions should be ashamed of themselves, but they seem to have come up with a scheme that brings them in a lot of money from medical companies and that's all that matters to them. Same for Facebook. They ought to ban misleading ads, but they're in it for the money, too.

Enter to win a Kindle

Click here to enter at Noobie.com.

I would love to have a Kindle, because I would like to read some books that are only available as ebooks, and I would like to carry the complete works of Shakespeare and some reference books with me all the time.

The Soggy Book

Over the summer, I won a book called Counting the Cost. It's a depression- era love story, inspired by real-life events recounted by author Liz Adair's family members. A couple of weeks ago, the book arrived in the daily post. It was soaked.

A wet book is a ruined book, and as we have not had any satisfaction from the local postmaster, the branch manager, or our carrier on those few occasions in the past when we've had a serious issue with mail delivery, I didn't bother with them.

Going back a few months, when the USPS was talking about cutting back to 5-day-a-week delivery and raising postage rates again, I sent a letter through the USPS.gov website. I pointed out the damage that one of our carriers did to a package by jamming it into a too-small mailbox instead of driving down the 600' driveway to deliver it (we were home at the time) or leaving a slip. The branch manager told us the package should have been insured if it was important. The carrier said, if it's important, use FedEx or UPS. Seriously.

I got an email back asking for some very specific details, which have been forgotten over time. This was more than five years ago, before we moved to our current house.

I went back to that e-mail and hit reply. I explained that I'd just received this book, and it was soaked through, meaning it did more than get wet from the mail truck to my mailbox. The box itself was closed; the doors (front and back on this model) were up tight.

I received an email back asking for specific information about the date of delivery, where it was mailed from, and a few other questions. They were not responsible for compensation, but they would investigate.

I answered their questions and hit send, and I got an automated response that said, basically, I was sending it to the wrong place, the address had changed, yadda yadda. Long story short, I ended up copying the Postmaster General of the U.S. with my final report.

A couple of days later, I get a call from my local postmaster, the same person who, when we tried to call him about a previous problem a few years early, said we needed to talk to the branch manager without even listening to our complaint (which involved the branch manager's attitude). This time, he was really apologetic. He was going to go to my house and look at my mailbox and talk to my carrier and find out what happened. Wow!

An hour or so later, he called again. Said the carrier told him the package was wet when it got to Pensacola, and because he didn't follow procedure and package it up with a note explaining what happened, he was going to reimburse me for the price of the book.

At the same time, the Ms. Adair's PR lady had kindly offered to send me another copy of the book, which arrived about 10 days later (I was beginning to wonder if my carrier was taking revenge) and it was in great shape. I have offered to pay for the book, since the Post Office came through, and I'm waiting to see how to make out the check and where to mail it.

I know that the post office handles a whole lot of mail without any problems or damage. I know that accidents can happen. I do wonder what befell that first package. Did it fall into a puddle? Was there a leak in one of the mail trucks en route? How long did it sit in water? If it fell into a puddle, as long as it was retrieved quickly and wiped off, it wouldn't have been ruined. As you can see from the photo, the package was torn in several places -- did that happen before or after it was exposed to the water? Was it really nobody's fault, or was someone having a bad day and when the book fell into the water said, "Screw it, someone else'll pick it up." The Postal Service uses plastic tubs to sort and carry the mail; if water got into one of those tubs, either being carried through a downpour or because of a leak in the truck or some other reason, the mail in that tub would just sit and soak until it was re-sorted or delivered.

It's up to every person in the chain to be alert and considerate to ensure the safe delivery of the mail. I thank the outstanding men and women of the U.S. Postal Service who give their all to make sure the mail gets through. To those who think their job is not important, that they don't get paid enough to care, I hope you find a new job really soon, something that really isn't important or meaningful to anyone, because we'll all be better off without you.

Something I Don't Get About Google Alerts

Google Alerts is supposed to be a great tool, and I have a really unusual name so it should be easy. The thing is, I get the same page, the same mention of my name, fairly regularly. One of the few other Auriette's in the world is a racehorse. She was racing '96-'98, from what I can tell. These same old articles keep showing up in my Google Alerts. I'm alerted about some of my tweets. Today I got an alert about a comment I made on another person's blog three weeks ago. I don't receive alerts about most of the blog prizes that I win, which are often posted on the giveaway blog. I signed up for Google Alerts to try to help me find out about wins, just in case the sponsor doesn't notify me directly or the e-mail gets lost. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to work that well.

New Salad Dressing is Coming

I have this morning off work, so I was at home during business hours, and I called the number on the O'Charley's Honey Mustard again. Now, the name on the bottle is Donelson Foods. I couldn't understand what the phone system said the company's name was, so when I reached a person, I asked if this was also Donelson Foods. She mentioned the O'Charley's Dressing and asked if I wanted HR. I explained I had a bad bottle of the dressing and she transferred me. That person (I didn't make a note of her name) mentioned clearly Choice Food and Diversity Food. I left a detailed message, then I started looking around. Apparently, what the phone system says is Vietti Foods. I guess they still make some foods under that umbrella, but then I found a press release that referenced "Choice Food of America formerly Vietti Foods" and how they were teaming up to form Diversity Food to reach the multicultural market. I was going to follow up with an e-mail to someone, if I could figure out their email address protocol, when the phone rang. The woman apologized, told me the person who handles these things is out of the office until Monday, but there's been another complaint about products with the 13Oct09 date stamp, so they would send me a replacement two-pack next week. She gave me a direct-line phone number to call if I don't receive it in the next couple of weeks.

I knew something had to be wrong with it, and I didn't let it go. I was polite on my message, but I also mentioned that I'd left a message before and never heard anything, and that I really hoped someone would call me back this time. Maybe the message didn't save correctly, or the person I left the message for has been out of town all this time. With voice mail, you never can tell. The person today seemed genuinely apologetic that no one had called me back. It pays to be persistent.

Why do places not return calls?

We bought this O'Charley's Honey Mustard dressing, made by a place called Donelson Foods, and it turned out we still had another bottle (we get them in 2-packs at Sam's Club), so it was sitting around for a while, but the expiration is not until October and the stuff we just finished was good until June according to the label, and it was still fine. So, it looked really dark and separated, the new stuff, and I shook it up and I poured some out, and it was really runny and looked nasty. I keep forgetting to take the bottle to work with me to call, so I called one evening, and they were closed, but they said I could leave a message, so I did. No one called me back and I'm really irritated about that.

HP is addictive.

HP is giving away a really nice laptop and a mini. And an awesome Timbuk2 bag to carry them in. I have an HP desktop that I love, and you know what? The DV6 Laptop they're giving away in a series of back-to-school blog contests is even more powerful. More RAM. Slightly bigger hard drive. Plus a Blu-ray player, which I don't even own one yet, so that would be a really nice added feature.

The mini is tiny, but it would be perfect to carry in my purse (I'd have to clean it out of course) for comparison shopping while we're on the go. Don't you hate it when you're out and you see something and you wonder if it's really a good deal. What do the other stores have? Are there any sales? Pop into the nearest hotspot and you have your answers.

Head over to Daddy Forever right now for your chance(s) to win. You can enter up to four times using different methods. This blog I'm writing? This is one of my four entries.

There are a few more days in this ongoing HP promotion, and you can find more participating blogs and details about the prizes at HP's Back to School site.

Yes, I know I just blogged that I won an Acer laptop. Am I greedy? Maybe... But hubby's parents don't have a computer at all, so if I win this very sweet HP package, I will choose one of the smaller computers to send up to them so they can have e-mail. I think that if they ever used the email, they would enjoy being able to communicate with family members who don't live close by.

Think about your own reasons to win and start visiting Daddy Forever and the other participating sites for your chance.

Finally!

I won a laptop! Thanks to Deal Seeking Mom and the fine folks at Acer, I will be receiving an Acer Aspire Timeline. It sounds great! Only 3.5 pounds, about an inch thick, and 8+ hours of battery life. From what I can tell, the processing speed is only moderately slower than our desktop, and the Acer has more RAM. It's got a 13.3" screen, which is a little larger than most netbooks. The 80gb hard drive is small, but external drives are not that expensive if I find I need more space. What I mainly want it for is checking email & entering sweepstakes online and for word processing (will I finally finish that novel?).

I got the notification on Thursday and Deal Seeking Mom confirmed receipt of my shipping and contact information on Friday. I'm hoping Acer will be able to ship next week, so I'll have it in time for my road trip on the 18th. I'm driving my mom to Indiana and flying back. It's going to be incredibly awesome to have a laptop for the trip!

That reminds me, I should start looking for wifi hotspots at the Indianapolis airport!

The Spirit of Cooperation

So, over at StudySuccessful.com, they're giving away some HP computers. Regular readers will know that I'm obsessed with trying to win a laptop or netbook, and here's my chance to win both and shut up about it.

For my chance to win, StudySuccessful wants to hear about a great cooperative experience in my academic career and something that went terribly wrong. Many of my experiences working with people in school went pretty well (except for the evil girls in middle school science, but there's nothing positive in that story). The best example for the purposes of this story was "Of Thee I Sing." That's a musical that the University of West Florida theatre department put on in the fall of 1984. I had a couple of lines and the rest of the time I was in the chorus. The "star" of the show was Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, but he only rehearsed with us the last week or so. But I digress. The great spirit of cooperation was within the cast. A lot of us were in theatre classes together. This was about the third show I'd ever done in my life (not counting the Christmas play in elementary school where my big part was ripping off bits of fake fiber snow and throwing snowballs), so it was all very new to me. The director was kind of crazy or at least forgetful; I remember one of the actors standing up to him when the director was yelling at us for not doing what he wanted because he had changed his mind and forgot to tell us. During rehearsals my friend Michelle gave me a great piece of advice. She said, "No matter what happens, just keep smiling," a piece of advice that I had to use on this particular show, because something did go terribly wrong.

I had a quick change backstage, and somehow the button on my sleeve got caught in a hairpin or something, and it took me a minute to extricate myself and pull my clothes on. By that time, the dance number had started and I wasn't in place. All the guys had partners except Bob the actor, who left dancing alone and wondering where I was. Michelle was backstage (she wasn't in this number) and I whispered, "What do I do?"

"Get out there and keep smiling!"

So, I put on a big smile and sashayed across the stage and joined the dance. I wonder sometimes if the audience knew what had happened or if they thought it was just part of the number.

Working on a big musical like that is a great experience in teamwork. Everyone relies on everyone else doing what they are supposed to do, being in the right place at the right time, for everything to go smoothly. When something goes wrong, you have to help each other out to get things back on track. To work together successfully on any project, you have to fulfill your duties, and when something goes wrong, you can't just point the finger at someone else, you have to step up with help or solutions or just part of the problem.

Fiber.... It's not just for breakfast

I remember about 15 years ago or so, Disney built a Stepford town called Celebration just outside Orlando. One of their big pitches was fiber optic cable instead of coax for better internet and cable connections. People started complaining because, as I recall, the fiber was in the houses or apartments, but not on the street leading up to it.

Today, my mom complains about her cable and internet connections because the coax running up to her house has literally been there since I was in high school, in the '80s. She blames a lot of her connectivity issues and poor picture quality on the antique (ooh, make that "vintage") cable, but the company refuses to change it.

Me? I got my cable installed for internet only about five years ago. Yep, good ol' coax.

I know it's expensive, but Cox and and the other internet and television providers are making money. We're paying for these services, a little more every year. The companies are constantly asking us to upgrade and bundle and give them a little more hard-earned cash every month.

So, why aren't they investing in us and giving us a better quality product?

All this came up today because I discovered a new website: fiberforall.org. It's run by AU Interactive out of Sarasota, Florida, and its purpose is to educate people about fiber technology and which communications companies are taking the initiative to switch over.

If you don't know anything about the great fiber debate or if you're very interested and one a one-stop-shop to keep up with developments, check it out. Hopefully we'll all get the chance to experience fiber connectivity at home in the near future.

Win from author Eve Silver

Eve is a two-faced writer. As Eve Silver, she writes dark contemporary paranormals and historical suspense. Her alter-ego, Eve Kenin, writes speculative romance (think science fiction). It's kind of like if Superman decided to write for the newspaper, too. You'd get excellent writing from him and Clark Kent, but they'd have a different perspective.

Eve is having a contest at her site to celebrate the release of her latest Silver book, Seduced by a Stranger.

GRAND PRIZE: $50 gift certificate to the online bookstore of your choice PLUS an authographed trade paperback edition of the anthology NATURE OF THE BEAST.

FIRST PRIZE: $25 gift certificate to the online bookstore of your choice PLUS aN autographed trade paperback edition of NATURE OF THE BEAST.

SECOND PRIZE: Autographed Trade paperback edition of NATURE OF THE BEAST.

So if you win, you get to sample Eve's writing, and you might even get to stock up on some of her other books. I haven't read any of her Silver book, but I'm definitely a fan of Kenin!

Here's the URL to enter http://www.evesilver.net/contest.html. Stop by before August 31 for your chance to get in the drawing.

Ode to Internet Friends

Painting our nails, doing our hair,
sleepover party, talking and beer,
separated by miles, but friendships so dear,
you all know what I’m going through.
You all know what I’m going through.

JenHinton.com is our corner bar,
where we whisper of fears and wish on a star.
Our hearts are together though we come from afar.
You all know what I’m going through.
You all know what I’m going through.

The Classy Closet offers advice,
guidelines, suggestions, and tips to entice,
the Chicks Who Chat will share any vice
You all know what I’m going through.
You all know what I’m going through.

You are my friends, my helpers, my mates,
you understand me, you know what it takes,
you don’t ever judge me, you’re not ever fake.
You all know what I’m going through.
You all know what I’m going through.

Why is it....

That I can think of all kinds of things to blog about when I'm in the car or at the store, and then when I have blogger open in front of me, it all flies away?

It pays to shop around.

My mom and I spent all day Wednesday going to car dealerships and looking at Wagons and Crossover SUVs. She has an 11-year-old wagon and wanted to replace it with a newer vehicle. She likes to haul a lot of stuff, so a car wasn't going to cut it.

Finally, she had it down to the Subaru Outback, which is more of a station wagon build and the Toyota Rav4, a crossover SUV. On Friday, we went back to both dealerships, test drove the vehicles, and learned a little more about them.

Joey at Subaru was nice, a brand new car salesman. The ratings weren't quite as good for the Subaru. Also, my mom had seen some sort of sale advertised three weeks earlier, but no one knew what she was talking about or offered to pull out old sale papers. That was kind of a black mark.

Jed at Bob Tyler Toyota was also nice, a very good salesman, and we went in and made an offer. After some back-and-forths, he took an offer to the Sales Manager. Came back with a counter offer of $24,908. We haggled some more, Jed went back to the SM, and he came back with the same offer.

We left. We went back to Mom's and I looked around online at other options. Was there something we missed? Every other vehicle in the price range either was too small or the company's in bankruptcy or had poor ratings, and if we were going to stick with the $24,000 price, why look at other vehicles that cost the same or more?

So, I went to the VW dealer's website, and I asked for a price quote on a Jetta Sportwagen. I received an automated response, but as of yet, no prices. Then I went to the Quality Imports website and checked the prices on a 2009 Rav4 from their dealership. I clicked on the "make us an offer" tab and made a very low bid. Within a couple of hours, I had gotten an e-mail quote and then a very reasonable offer by phone.

We figured we'd be on the road at least three hours, plus the time to complete the transaction, if we went to Ft. Walton Beach, and Jed had spent a lot of time with us showing the car this week. So, I called him, told him that I had an "out the door" offer of $22,622 from Quality. Could he match it? "I'll make it happen," he said.

I picked up my husband from work at 5pm, stopped by for mom, and by 5:45pm we were at Bob Tyler Toyota. We played the game of him writing the amount on the paper, mom initialed it, then he took it to the General Manager (bypassing the SM, he said). When he returned, he had a new number written on the paper. Still more than $24K. And I lost a little respect for him, because he basically said that Quality must be lying to us, just to get us to drive over there. There's no way they could be selling the vehicle for that low. Bob Tyler paid more than $21K for the car, so how could Quality have an invoice price of $20,900? I said that Marty at Quality told me they'd make their profit through a dealer rebate (sounds like the dealer holdback I read about on Edmunds). Jed insisted there were no incentives available for the Rav4 (although holdback isn't an incentive). We said we had to check it out.

After we left, I called Marty at Quality and basically told him what Jed said and asked to verify the price of $22,622. He checked and called me back and said he'd left off a couple of fees to the tune of $10.50. I said I could live with that and we'd see him in the morning.


My mom and I hit the road about 8:30am and we arrived around 10am. We took I-10, because we figured Highway 98 (the beach route) would be at a crawl on the 4th of July. Marty said the car was being gassed up, so we started the paperwork. Turns out they hadn't calculated the sales tax exactly right because of us living in a different county. Then we added on the extended warranty and road hazard protection for a grand total on the check of $24,246 and change. So for less than Bob Tyler wanted to charge us, my mom got the vehicle she wanted, plus she is protected for seven years against anything going wrong with the car AND for several years, she's covered for any flat tires or rim damage.

I'm really tempted to fax the final bill of sale over to Jed to prove that Quality Imports was true to their word.

Quality Imports also gave us a free lunch. They were having a cookout and Scion enthusiasts show. Here's a little video I took with my new Flip Mino, which I won from Liz at This Full House. I'm still kind of getting the hang of the video, so it's not the greatest, but do check out the Green Boxzilla. It's awesome!

Never give up... Never surrender....

The watchwords of the crew of the Protector, the sci-fi spaceship made real by aliens in the delightful comedy film GalaxyQuest.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I'm never going to give up my quest to win a laptop computer. Or a notebook/netbook/mini or whatever other cutsie name they come up with for a compact and portable personal computer.

My quest has today taken me to The Mommy Files, where the prize is a Toshiba Portege A-600. It weighs just over three pounds and includes an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor SU9400, 3GB of SDRAM, a 320GB hard drive, and a DVD-SuperMulti drive. It comes with Windows Vista installed, but nobody's perfect. I also love the fingerprint reader. Wow, just like James Bond.

Hope on over to The Mommy Files before midnight on Wednesday for your own chance to win this beauty. And my offer stands -- if you win, and you don't really need the computer, I'll be happy to take it off your hands.

Don't it make my brown eyes blue...

So, DH left work at 5pm and walked down to the theatre and he looked over to where the line formed for the Elcano, and he said, "Doesn't look like there's a line today." So we hotfooted it (literally, it was boiling) one block east and a couple of blocks south to the gate of the port, and the cop was turning people away. And it wasn't 5:30 yet!

Flashback to Saturday. We parked at DH's work, and he said, "Let's go look at the farmer's market" so we walked over to the next block and looked at the stuff, and then we headed down to the port. The line was out the gate and up to Main Street, so we waited for about an hour, and we were about 25 people away from getting inside the gate and they shut it.

The Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a Spanish tall ship, a sailing ship, that is visiting Pensacola as part of the Fiesta of Five Flags and the 450th Anniversary of Pensacola. Nothing was said about how the gate was going to be shut 30 minutes before the tours were scheduled to end. Not until after Saturday morning. Then the paper says the gates will be shut a half hour before the tours end. So, we should have been able to get in on Monday. Nope, they shut it earlier.

Now, I would imagine that these tours are nothing new for the Elcano and its crew. They should have some reasonable idea of how many people they can have aboard during a three-hour tour window. How about having someone at the gate counting off as people go in (there's a clicker that counts, we used them at Disney before)? How about looking at the line and establishing a cut-off point before people waste their time standing in the hot sun for an hour?

I understand if it's full, but use some common sense and don't waste people's time.

So, I'm very sad. I could be made happy again if I won a beautiful Vivienne Tam-designed HP Mini. If you read my blog regularly, you know how badly I want a laptop of any description, but I have coveted this Vivienne Tam one for months, since it was first unveiled. It's gorgeous, it looks like a stylish evening bag but it's a computer! The website BlissfullyDomestic.com is giving one away today. I won't win, because I want it so badly. Such is the way of things. Still, I have to try. You might as well try, too, and if you win, and you really don't care about it that much, you could give it to me, and that would be your good deed for the day and help you get into Heaven.

Win a Sony Reader

84 words

Is it the Swine Flu?

Oops, sorry all you darling little piggies. I should ask, "Is it the H1N1 Influenza Virus? I have had the most major headache all day. It's definitely a sinus headache. I hope that's all it is.

We did eat Mexican on Wednesday night, but it was at Moe's Southwest Grill and I don't think that anyone there had been to Mexico recently. Well, unless they went on spring break or something. If I die, REMEMBER THE ALAMO! No, there's no relevance. I just felt a battle cry would be nice at a time like this.

Trickster is having a lot of sinus issues today, too, but according to the American Veterinary Association website, cats don't get the swine flu.

In the meantime, I am easing my pain with the pleasant diversion of trying to win things. The prize du jour is a charm bracelet from Things Remembered. They have some beautiful charms that you can customize. Visit MommyGoggles and leave a post about your favorite charm from Things Remembered.

Did you ever do something really generous for someone...

And then they turn around and kick you in the butt and tell you that you didn't care enough?

That's basically what happened to me today.

I wish I could go back and retrieve those two months of my life that I gave up, when my dad was dying.

Don't Trust Online Tax Services

We came home Thursday to a big package from the IRS saying we didn't report some of our income last year and we owe a big chunk of back taxes and interest.

Last year, I filed my taxes through the government's Free File program, using eSmart Tax by Liberty Tax Service. Maybe they should call it eDumb tax. Apparently, it didn't include any of my 1099s when it totaled up my taxes.

Now, some people (including my husband) say that I should have realized that our wages and various incomes (a grand prize cash win among them) added up to more than the total on line 1. However, I worked two jobs for two months, I got a substantial raise at job #1, when I did my taxes I realized that job #2 had been paying me less than I was supposed to be paid, my husband went full time at his job for the first time. The final total was much more than the previous year, so it sounded right to me. I suck at math.

And besides: if I have to sit down with all the paperwork and add it up manually, why should I take the time to plug it all into the software? It's supposed to do it for me and get it right!

We went back to the Liberty Tax Service and looked at last year's returns, and I see in Step 6 where I filled out all the 1099 information. The software just didn't add it in.

Obviously we have to pay it; at least we still have some of the big win in the bank to cover it. I do plan to include a letter of explanations with printouts from the Liberty Tax site, and I also plan to send copies to Liberty Tax explaining just how much their "free" service ended up costing me. I've been told they have a guarantee and should cover the penalties, which makes me feel a little better.

Beware.....

Customer Service Kudos

When last I blogged about Lowe's, I was pretty irritated at my neighborhood store. After I blogged, I used the "contact us" form at Lowes.com to report my problem. Within a couple of days, I got a call from a manager at the local store wanting to try to figure out who the women were that gave me the problem. She looked up my cousin's name and printed out their gift registry, and she left that and a 10% off voucher at the customer service desk. I went in the next day, picked out a light fixture from the list and used the discount. The quick response and the discount went a long way to making me feel better about the store.

Then today, we had a message from PetSmart. We'd been in a couple of times over the last week or 10 days, only to find a big empty space where the Iams Digestive Care 16.5 pound bag should be. I sent an e-mail to Iams, to see if they discontinued the size, and they confirmed that they still make it. I also sent an email to PetSmart, to ask if they were still going to stock that size in the store, because the shipping charges on a heavy bag of cat food are pretty outrageous. Well, the message today said that the food had been ordered and to call the manager when I had a chance. She was very apologetic that they'd been out of stock, assured me that the food had been ordered on Monday and should be in by next Wednesday. She sounded very sincere when she said how sorry she was that the store had run out. So, I'm feeling pretty good about PetSmart, too.

A great classic of 20th century cinema....

Some movies are worth paying $20 for on DVD. Others I wouldn't buy for $20, but when I find them in the five dollar bin at Wal-mart, they're a must have. So it is with Smokey and the Bandit, the fun-lovin', free-wheelin' story of rebellion on the open road. When I saw the title, I thought surely it must be Smokey and the Bandit 2 or perhaps Smokey and the Bandit 3: Smokey is the Bandit. But no, it was the 1977 original, the first movie that made me think that it would be cool to jump a car over something (a goal I still hope to attain someday). You know what went wrong with Smokey and the Bandit 2, at least for me? It was that it didn't fulfill the promise delivered at the end of the first movie. The fellers (including Sally Field and Fred the basset hound) were headed to New England to bring back some lobsters. Instead of doing that story, though, they brought in the elephant and it was all downhill from there. The less said about Smokey and the Bandit 3: Smokey is the Bandit, the better.

Why are stores so stupid?

Or maybe I should say, why do they hire stupid, lazy people to work there? Or maybe the people weren't as stupid as they acted, and they really weren't given the proper tools to help the customer.

My story:

We stopped at Lowe's tonight and we decided to ask about my cousin's gift registry. I looked at it a couple of days ago at Lowes.com, but I'm out of ink. I thought the store could print it for me.

Well, first the dumb girls behind the counter discussed the ending of the registry program and how they thought it was already over. They finally figured out that I was right, and the program is still alive. Then they looked up my cousin's name on one of the registers and found the listing, but they couldn't print it. So, they go back to the desktop and ask me for my cousin's phone number. I don't have her phone number. So I say, "I don't have her phone number. I looked it up online under her name." Then the lady smarts off at me, saying, "Well our system is different than the website." So, get online, bitch. I didn't say that. I just said that we'd have to buy them something somewhere else, and we left. I know they have a garden hose on their wish list, so I'll just look up the specs and buy one someplace else. From the very beginning with those chicks, it was like I was interrupting them, and they just didn't want to help me. That's the attitude I got, anyway. In this economy, they ought to have been falling all over themselves to try to make a sale and keep the customer happy.

But on to more pleasant topics, like the chance to win a 8GB iPod Shuffle. It's a promotion over at Debt Relief Place. It's a company that's in the business of helping people get their debt under control. They also have a handy debt calculator. Check it out and enter to win!

Movies at Home

DH and I have always loved movies. We've been film buffs since we were kids. Unfortunately, it's hardly worth going to the movies anymore. People take unruly or bored children to see films that are way over their heads, they get phone calls, they even make phone calls during the movie. They converse like they're at home on the couch instead of in a theatre full of people who paid good money to hear what the actors have to say.

That's why we stay home. We watch movies at Hulu or on DVD. We watch TV shows at the network websites. Oh, I guess I didn't mention that we dropped our satellite service in 2004, because it had gotten so expensive. You can get packages cheaper than $70 a month, but they're designed for people who like sports and home shopping.

That's why I was really excited today to learn about the Roku, a device that lets you download movies from Netflix and watch them on your TV. Of course, I'm always a bit skeptical of new technology and monthly fees. I want to try things out first, and 5 Minutes for Giveaways might just be giving me that chance. They are, as you might have guessed from their name, having a giveaway, and the winner gets a Roku and a six-month membership to Netflix. How cool is that? Visit 5 Minutes for Giveaways if you want to put your name in the pot. Or just wish me luck!

Since when did silver kill a vampire?

Growing up, I watched all the old Universal horror movies and I read a lot of books about creatures of the night. You killed vampires by staking them with a wooden stake. You can keep someone from returning as a vampire by cutting his or her head off and stuffing the mouth full of garlic. You can repel a vampire with a cross (although I will accept Fright Night's premise that you have to believe).

Werewolves were killed with silver. Shoot it with a silver bullet. Bludgeon it with the silver head of a walking stick (as Lawrence Talbot did, but not before he got bitten). I believe I saw one film where a silver candlestick was involved.

At some point, I think it was in the '90s, the two myths got intertwined somehow. Now silver is associated with killing vamps. At least in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, a silver bullet only slows down a vampire; it won't kill one.

It's just kind of irritating.

Scroll down a little bit...

A little ways down the page, you'll see a banner for writer Annette Blair. I made the banner and posted it here as part of a contest Annette is running on her site, and in the first drawing, I WON!

Here's the good part for you -- you still have a chance to enter and win. Just visit AnnetteBlair.com. If you don't have the ability to create a banner, you can still enter to win, so visit the site, check out the details, and while you're there, get the scoop on all her delightful books!

Do you save your receipts?

I do. It comes in handy when you find something on sale or clearance a few weeks after you pay full price. I also try to save all the receipts from purchases of Star Wars collectibles. Someday, my goal is to get everything catalogued (I started once, then the program crashed on me; I think I overloaded it) with price paid, current value, etc. Unfortunately, many stores use thermal paper now, and the receipts end up fading until you're left with a stack of blank pieces of paper. Paper that isn't even useful to write notes on, because pens don't tend to like thermal paper. Now there is a way!

Check out ChicShopperChick for a review of Neat Receipts, a scanner and software specifically designed to make sense of all your receipts. You can also register for a chance to win one (wish me luck!).

Introductions

This HP Magic Giveaway has introduced me to a lot of interesting new blogs, like Geeks!, where I have found a lot of new friends. I've even learned about some Spanish language blogs, which I normally wouldn't go to, but thanks to Google's Translation page, I'm able to check them out for the contest and find some cool discussions.

On CiberPrensa, I found a great discussion about Twitter vs. RSS feeds. I've heard a lot about RSS feeds, and I'm still not entirely sure how they work. Maybe you have to have special software. Twitter, I'm using at work and some in my personal life. It is kind of fun to be able to post a quick update about something special going on. A lot of people use it as a moment-to-moment diary, which I still find kind of strange. I don't need to know that you just went to the bathroom or had a snack. I hope I can get some more Twitter followers, both for PLT and for my personal account, so I can reach more people when I have something of some kind of importance to say.

I do agree with the article, which says that it's easier to carry on a conversation via Twitter, instead of just referring people to a post or having a one-way conversation via a feed or a blog.

Here's the link to the CiberPrensa article in its original Spanish.

Here's the information on how to participate in CiberPrensa's HP Magic Giveaway. You can take part whether you have a blog or not.

Joy of Giving

HP is giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars of computer equipment this Christmas. Some of the sites that has a giveaway going on now are Stop, Drop, and Blog, Living in Theory, and Geeks Room.

My husband and I are very blessed. We both have decent jobs (so far, at least), and we’re only in debt for the house and our single car. I'm lucky enough to be working in a community theatre, which touches the lives of patrons, volunteers, and students every day. Tim and I can afford to buy Christmas gifts, go out to eat, and take very good care of our eight rescue cats. We cannot afford to buy, or at least we can’t justify buying, a laptop computer. That’s the main reason that I am trying to win one of these HP Magic packages. Also the Media Connect would be really cool to have.

I would like to give one of the computers to my in-laws, who don’t have a computer at all. Maybe it would be the desktop or maybe the HP mini would be enough for them. I figure they will mainly use it for e-mail with their three children and only granddaughter, and perhaps they’ll occasionally check out a website. They have complained that companies, organizers and the news media just assume everyone has internet access and they can’t follow the links to get more information or fill out forms. I’ll give them the printer, too, so they can print photos that are e-mailed to them. It would be so nice to be able to e-mail them information about a recall, or a promising cancer treatment (FIL has cancer), or just to send photos. They live in a small town, sort of near their oldest son, but hours away from DH and his sister.

One of the computers I will donate to Pensacola Little Theatre. It’s a non-profit organization, and I happen to work there. The computers we have are decent, but they are slow and sometimes lock-up. A laptop computer could also be used to run sound effects for the traveling shows we take to schools and the productions we do in our black box theatre. It would give a lot more control to the sound operator than trying to hit the cues just right on a portable CD player.

The fourth computer in the package, I will give to a deserving young person. I will ask around at the theatre and contact friends who work at other non-profit organizations. I would like to find a young person who does well in school, is respectful and a contributing member of his or her community, someone whose family just doesn’t have the money to provide a home computer. Not only will the gift help that person, but it might show others that being a good person can lead to rewards “just because.”

When I was a child, Christmas was all about what I got. Now, I buy for myself most of what I want. I enjoy the pleasure of watching someone else receive something special. As I said, we’re doing okay financially, but I’m not really in a position to surprise total strangers with really nice gifts, especially not something like a computer. This competition would allow me to play Santa and give someone else a very special Christmas. You can’t buy joy like that.

Toys for Christmas

If you live in modern America, religious teachings aside, Christmas is all about Santa Claus and presents. Geeks!, Chris Pirillo, and Sears are teaming up to give away bundles of Christmas toys, which you can keep or give away. Choose from a LEGO package, a Star Wars package, or a Games package. Just visit the site and comment on the giveaway and which package you'd like best -- that's one entry. Tweet about the giveaway for entry #2. Blog about it (like I'm doing right now) for entry #3. It's a random drawing. What have you got to lose? Visit the site today to sign up.

I'm dreaming of an HP Magic Christmas.

Seriously, I keep having dreams about the various HP Magic Giveaways going on. They all have different rules and regulations for the entry, and my dreams are always the same. I'm trying to read through the blog to make sure I'm doing everything correctly to get my entry, and my cats won't leave me alone so I can concentrate, and then I wake up, and Wicket and Kali are tag-teaming on my head to wake me up for a midnight snack.

It really is a magical promotion. When it's all over, I'm going to have to find someone from HP to come speak to my chapter of the FPRA. Hopefully they'll be agreeable, because it's a really fascinating promotion and I'd love to know more about how they pulled it together.

A Star Wars Camera! This I've gotta have!

I've never made any secret of the fact I'm a major Star Wars fan and collector. When I first saw the adorable Star Wars digital camera, I wanted it desperately. Of course, my husband points out we already have a digital camera, and the Star Wars one would not be carried around anywhere it might be damaged, so what's the point? He's very cynical about the Star Wars collection. So, now there's a chance to WIN a Star Wars Camera, thanks to the lovely folks at Sakar (the manufacturer) and MommaFindings. So, head over and check out the giveaway, but don't covet the camera too much, because it's mine!

The Holiday Season

My husband brought up a news story about a woman who was going out of her way to say "Merry Christmas" to people at stores in order to see what they replied. My mom responded that she was going to say "Merry Christmas" to people, and she doesn't care what religion they are. See, I think that's just rude. Of course, it would help if people wore buttons that indicated what holiday(s) they celebrate. If someone is wearing a Christmas Tree pin or sweater, I feel confident in saying "Merry Christmas." If someone says "Happy Holidays" to me, I appreciate the sentiment. Heck, I'm happy if my sales clerk thanks me for my business or asks me to come back again, rather than just grunting and moving on to the next customer.

Businesswomen and Bitches

Here's an interesting story about a woman who started a business and bilked a lot of moms out of their hard-earned money. Did she deliberately rip them off? Or was she just following standard business practice? The discussion is on Composite: thoughts of poetics and tech

From the same blog: a discussion of bitchiness. I think the attitude is overrated. What do you think?

Finally, is the businesswoman in the first post a bitch to be condemned or a bitch to be admired for her bitchiness?

Cell Phones

Several of us in the office today had a good chat about the overuse of cell phones and how rude some people are. A bunch of audience members who came to see Rocky Horror at PLT were using their phones to take photos and send text messages during the performance. One person complained of people coming to her home and in the middle of the conversation, they'll answer their phone, usually for something trivial. Another person complained of getting phone calls when he's trying to have a nice dinner out. That's why not many people have my cell phone number!

My pirate name is:

Mad Charity Rackham

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

I wrote eight pages on a screenplay over the weekend.

I figure if I write eight pages every weekend, I'll have a completed screenplay by the end of the year. Then I can re-write it. Hey, it's better than what I was doing, which is not writing at all.

I have been entering sweepstakes, and I found another good one. I would absolutely love to have the prize -- a digital photo frame. Sure, they're fairly common and you can get them for under $100 bucks (not the one they're giving away, that's $249), but it's a cost I cannot justify, but I really would like to have one. We have so many digital photos and it would be great to be able to display them like this.

The giveaway is at Lisa Reviews (hey, maybe if I actually updated this blog more often, people would actually read it and I could give stuff away, too). Anyway, go to the Sony site, look at the digital photo frame, then go back to Lisa's site and comment on what you love about the frame, and you may just win a frame of your own. And if you win I will be so, so jealous.

I am so tired.

Okay, so it's midnight. I had a function after work, then we had to go eat, then we had to come home and give Indy his insulin shot, then we had to go back out to Wal-mart and Home Depot, and then I had to change the litter boxes, and only then did I get to sit down for some quality time at the computer.

I really think I wouldn't be so tired if I could just get six or seven hours straight of good solid sleep, even once or twice a week. I can't even remember when the last time was that I slept more than four hours without something waking me up. The cat. The dog next door. The garbage truck. Gotta go to the bathroom. The phone. A bad dream. Always something.

Sure it wouldn't help block out the noise, but I sure would like to have a Sleep Number Bed. At least I could be comfortable when I'm lying there not sleeping. I'm trying to win one from beds.com -- (the link I had here is dead now).

I'm just a little frustrated.

At the holidays, I won an overnight stay at the Hilton on Pensacola Beach. I decided to give it to my in-laws. I made the reservation on Saturday, with them arriving at our home on Sunday. Sure, it's only one night, but it's on the beach, it'll be nice. I had a different certificate for Sunday and Monday night, and they went along with that one okay. So my husband tells me Tuesday morning, the day they're supposed to check in to the Hilton, "They don't want to stay at the hotel." Great. Our diabetic cat Indy hides every time they walk in the front door. I don't know how we're going to give him his insulin while they're here. Remy needs to take heart medicine first thing in the morning. He's likely to be under the bed. With Indy.

Here's another thing. I told them yesterday, "Hey, the Blue Angels practice on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings between 8:30 and 9:30. You can probably see them from the hotel, across the water."

"Oh [father-in-law] can't get around well. He probably won't want to go."

Okay, it's his own fault he wouldn't get his knees replaced years ago, but all I say is, "You don't have to go anywhere. You can probably watch them across the water."

So, DH calls at 8:30 this morning. "We're heading over to the house now."

By 9:15, they were parked on the living room futon and we hear this wooosh overhead.

"What was that?"

"It's probably the Blue Angels. You can't see them from here for the trees and buildings. You could have seen them from the hotel." Which you didn't have to check out of until 11am.

It's not that I dislike them. I don't have anything in common with them except my husband, but I don't mind spending time with them. It's just this whole stubborness of we don't want to or cannot physically do anything.

So, I called and cancelled the hotel reservation, and since it was the last bloody minute, I had to mail in the certificate or get charged a cancellation fee. I should have gone out there myself, but I figure DH is going to have to shepherd his parents somewhere while I give the cats their medication. I also didn't want to be rude. I'll never do that again, though. If I win a night at a local hotel, I'm going out there by myself. DH and I can't both go, because of the cats needing the medicine. But I could go out there alone and get a good night's sleep without Wicket (the needy cat) waking me up at 4am.

Okay, no more ranting. I'm really angry at losing the hotel stay, but there' s no point in dwelling on it. Live and learn.

Technology That Rolls

If you read this blog regularly, you know we have more cats than Indy, Remy, and Wicket. There's Trickster, Misha, Presto, and Jynx, too. Dyson has a new vacuum cleaner that sounds heaven-sent for a household like ours. Lots of hair and dander, and both DH and Trickster have allergies (not to each other). You can read more about it at An Ordinary Life. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? I would totally love to have this instead of the old hand-me-down vac we have now. It'd be more useful than a night at a hotel, too. (I just can't give it up, can I?) Anyway, you can even win one, by visiting the An Ordinary Life website. Can't beat that!

Finding the Silver Lining

I was in front of the mirror, plucking away with the tweezers, when I realized that one benefit of aging and going gray is that the hairs above my upper lip aren't as dark anymore. Gotta find something positive, right?

I want a laptop so bad!!

I can't afford to buy a laptop, so I keep trying to win one. It's not impossible. Someone has to win, and maybe someday it will be me.

The latest win-a-laptop contest I've found is on The Tech Don, a really cool site with all kinds of reviews and articles about tech stuff. They are giving away three (3) laptops, each valued at $3,000. That is awesome!

Here are the prizes:
Toshiba Portege R500-S5004 - a lightweight computer great for traveling
Dell XPS M1730 - designed with power for gamers
HP HDX - a portable entertainment system that plays Blu-Ray discs

Great options, huh? I would be thrilled to own any of these machines.

So, I signed up at The Tech Don and you can, too, up until Sunday April 27. Maybe we'll both win.

What are you waiting for??

Ever read a book so good, you wish it had more chapters?

This morning, I finished reading the book Hidden, by Eve Kenin. This evening, I was thinking how I wanted to lie down and keep reading, and I was sad when I remembered that I'd finished the book. The author did a great job creating a believable futureworld with compelling characters. Hidden is mostly told from the point of view of Tatiana, a human with genetic enhancements that make her a superwarrior. She's already killed one evil genius. Now she's after two more, before they can implement a plan to kill thousands, if not millions of people. A loner by choice, she unwillingly teams up with Tristan, a seemingly capable warrior with secrets of his own. Dorchester Publishing describes the book as "action romance." I say it's one of the best science fiction or "futuristic" romances that I've ever read. It's the sequel to Driven, which I haven't read, but I'm definitely going to be picking up a copy and delving back into Kenin's dark futureworld known as the Waste.

So today, I finally watched Cloverfield.

Tim said it wasn't as bad as he was expecting. I found it irritating. And a little nauseating. I can't be sure that it was Cloverfield's jerk-and-swish shooting that made me ill. It might've been the packet of Little Caesar's garlic butter sauce that really probably ought to have an expiration date printed on it. It's two hours later, and I still feel a little ill.

The reason I found the movie irritating is, it took too long to get started. Maybe the long introduction at the party was intended to make me care about these people, but it really didn't. It was too all over the place. Once the action got started, I found myself comparing the film to live news coverage on 9/11. Some people might say, well that was real, so of course it was more compelling, but the thing is, I can suspend my disbelief quite easily.

Here's an example. The theatre where I work had a haunted house last year. One of the actors was setting up a scene and passing out some trinkets to our group and explaining that we'd have to use the trinkets at specific times in order to save ourselves. I found it all kind of spooky and scary, and I know my jaw was dropping, and my husband asked later if I was putting on for our little group, and I said no, I was just getting into it. Sure, I knew that our guides were Barbara and Rodney, people I've worked with in the theatre before (I've known Rodney for 20 years), but there's no point in going into a haunted house attraction and then standing back and saying, "Oh that's Rodney. He was really good in Brighton Beach Memoirs back in the '80s." You have to suspend your disbelief and get into it to have fun.

So, I was ready and able to believe that some sort of giant creature was attacking New York, and I didn't even have to see good shots of the creature to enjoy the film.

Back to 9/11 -- we didn't know exactly what was going on or what was going to happen next. The TV crews would stop someone and get a brief description of what that person had experienced, and then they'd move on. It wasn't just screaming turmoil like in Cloverfield. The extended shots of them just running along and nothing happening wasn't suspenseful, it was just dull. When something did start to happen, it was more irritating, because the camera's going all over the place. The one time when we might have found out a little bit about what was going on, in the electronics store (when Hud points the camera at the TV), he can't stay focused on that for a minute and a half. He's got to switch between two TVs and the crowd and outside and inside.

The basic story was fine. The acting was good. I just wish they'd found a better way to present it.

And now, for a list of movies featuring my favorite giant creature.

1. Jurassic Park - Still sets the standard for CGI
2. King Kong, 1933 - A classic
3. Gojira, 1954 - The original Japanese version is longer and slower-paced but an excellent cautionary tale
4. Them - Fairly well done story of giant ants terrorizing southern California
5. King Kong, 2005 - Peter Jackson's nicely done remake. It's a little longer than it needed to be, but for the most part, beautifully executed.
6. Ghostbusters - "It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man."
   

Air Unfair

Boy, it's tough finding a decent price for an international flight these days.

For weeks, I made frequent trips to atiflights, cheapoair, cheaptickets, orbitz, farecompare, travelocity, and various other websites (including air carrier sites but excluding Expedia, which I think kind of screwed me on a trip to L.A. last year). I noted the prices. The next day, some of the prices went down a few bucks. Then they all started going up and up. Were the rising prices ever going to fall?

I wanted the long leg to be a European airline, but when Delta offered a fare less than $700 per person (inc. taxes and fees -- yeah, I know!) I couldn't resist. Well, I resisted for a few days.

Were any of the other carriers going to discount their fees? Where was the site that showed the available vs. reserved seats on the British Airways flight I wanted? Should I wait until a couple of months out and watch for bargains or jump on this low fare now, 7 1/2 months out? Oh, the agony of indecision. I asked my husband, who was more indecisive than I was. I looked at all of our options on BA and Virgin Atlantic (inc. buying the international leg directly from the foreign airline and booking the connecting flights separately). I compared premium economy both ways to economy to premium out and coach coming back.

Finally, I noticed that the sale was ending at midnight. I had about four hours to make a decision. Tim and I talked. I checked all the flight sites again. Then I started filling out the online forms to order the tickets. Then I had to create a frequent flyer account for Tim. Then I had to start over. While I was considering seat options at seatguru, my booking session expired, and I had to start yet again. The clock was ticking. When I completed the order, I think I had just a few minutes to spare. I checked the site again after midnight and found that the price had jumped almost $160!

I still check all the sites occasionally, and I'm sure I will continue to do so for the next 7 1/2 months, just to torture myself.

And now, this week's episode of You Too Can Be a Winner.

This site is giving away a flash drive that's pre-loaded with child safety software. Now, instead of pinning a note to the inside of your kid's coat, just hook this flash drive to his/her backpack. If the child gets lost or has a medical emergency, it's got all the pertinent contact info stored right there. Of course, if your kid has a tendency to lose things, maybe it's not such a good idea. Who knows who might find the drive and how they could use that information.

Either way, an extra flash drive (or thumb drive or whatever you like to call yours; I prefer "spy device") always comes in handy.

Yikes!

I just figured out that I'm not getting paid at the salary I was quoted when I accepted the job. I'm sure I signed something with the figure on it -- but I have no idea where my copy is. I started worrying when I did my taxes last weekend, and I did the math when I received my paycheck on Friday. The boss was already gone for the day, so I sent her a detailed e-mail, and I hope it will be as simple as her cutting me a check for the right amount. My husband told me from the beginning that he didn't want me to take this job, so I can't even bring it up, because I'll just hear non-stop rants until this is resolved.

In the meantime, I'm entering to win. Check out this latest blog giveaway:

http://www.fromdatestodiapers.com/2008/03/beach-fever-giveaway.html

Just leave a comment about your favorite item at the Pigtails and Polkadots online store for your chance to win.

Weird Weather

The weather's been really strange this winter. A few bitterly cold or freezing days. Lots of warm days. Lots of wet days. Windy days. Two tornados, including one that passed between my husband's workplace and mine, just a few blocks apart. It makes me really nervous about hurricane season.

Here's the latest contest plug -- You can win a free vacuum cleaner by posting a comment. With seven cats, I could use a really good vac.

"Oh, but 'baby fish mouth' is sweeping the nation."

That's one of the funniest lines in "When Harry Met Sally" and now Baby Fish Mouth is the name of a new line of infant shirts emblazoned with new takes on old movie lines. Cute stuff! Check it out at Seven Dogs and a Baby -- you can post your ideas for new movie lines to put on the shirts and you might even win a shirt for the little one in your life.

I want a portable video player.

I don't need a portable video player. It would serve no useful purpose in my life. I would, however, love to have one. I could load it full of Star Wars trailers and Harrison Ford clips that I now store on CD-ROM. I don't know when I would watch them. Maybe if I have a doctor's appointment, I could watch in the waiting room. That would be cool.

Anyway, I'm trying to win a portable video player. If you'd like to try to win one, too, here's the link to the site. Best Buy provided the prize.

http://www.5minutesformom.com/2848/win-an-insignia-bluetooth-mp3-player/
http://www.bestbuy.com

Weird Dreams

Any other night, my cat Wicket would have woken me up at 3:45am. Today, of course, I wanted to be up at 4am, so I roll over and look at the clock at 5:11am. I rushed to the computer to book my tickets for Ivanov, Ken Branagh's new play at the Donmar West End. Sometime between 4am (10am London time, when the tickets went on sale), and the time I logged on, the booking site crashed. So, I called. Got my tickets, great seats. Then I went back to bed.

I couldn't sleep. I was so excited about having my tickets. Then I got too warm. Then I got too cold. Finally, I was in my living room, only I suddenly realized it's not my house and I'm freaking out when I realize, It's a dream. At that point, I looked out the window and saw an obviously cardboard cutout moon hanging from fishing line, and a small pig ran in the front door to greet me. "I shall call you Presto," I told the pig, then felt bad because Presto is my very overweight cat, then I woke up.

Megapixel Madness

Our first digital camera was a Sony Mavica. We liked it because it uses floppy disks instead of memory cards. Why buy an expensive memory card when you can buy a cheap box of floppys? I used it on trips to Washington D.C., L.A., New York, and London. But, 10 years later, it's now obsolete. The photos are less than one megapixel each. So, on a trip to New York last October, I bought a Kodak Easy Share 6.2 megapixel camera for $99. I didn't research it: Staples was handy to the hotel, the memory card for that one was cheaper than for the other $99 camera they had in stock, and I didn't have much time to make a decision. I've been happy enough with the picture quality, the images blow up nicely, and if I actually sat down with the book and learned all the features, I'd probably be even happier.

The thing is, though, I still drool over double digit megapixel cameras. It would be great for vacation photos and pictures of the cats -- stuff I want to print out or iron onto t-shirts. More megapixels would be good for work, too, where some of the snapshots I've taken have been published in newspapers or the theatre newsletter. It's a luxury I cannot afford, however.

But check this out: the folks over at Momsational are giving away a 12 megapixel Nikon camera.
Give me those nice bright colors, gimme the greens of summer, makes you feel all the world's a sunny day. I want this so bad that I'm telling you about it so that I can earn some extra entries in the giveaway.

http://emomsathome.com/momsational/win-a-nikon-coolpix-p5100-121-mp-camera-courtesy-of-mypictalescom/

So that's the link. If you win, can I borrow it?

Help for Romantic Writers

What the Oscar is the movie industry, the Golden Heart is to romance writers. Now Golden Heart winners and other popular romance authors are sharing tips for creating a successful manuscript. A lot of the elements, such as plotting and character development, can apply to other book genres and screenwriting. Check it out.

The Wet Noodle Posse had such a great time with our month of Golden Heart prep that we're giving away writing tips...one month at a time. In addition to book and critique giveaways, join Q&A sessions and read guest blogs from bestselling writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Gena Showalter.

Check out our line-up of topics!

January-Getting Started (goals, choosing story idea, focus, etc.)
February-Character Development (names, physical descriptions, backstory, etc.)
March-Plotting
April - Conflict
May-Research
June-Business side of Writing (market, marketing, promotion, etiquette)
July-Prepping for Conference (both for national and smaller conferences)
August-Inspiration (for stories and for keeping yourself going)
September-Writer Health (physical and mental)
October-GH Preparation
November-Writing Challenges (NaNo, BIAW, turning off the internal editor, etc.)
December-Editing/Revisions

Get great information in a fun community! Visit http://wetnoodleposse.blogspot.com

The Year in Review

Here it is, December 30, 2007. It's been a year of incredible highs and lows for me. It's been really, really busy, too. Hard to believe that it's almost done with.

In January, I won a contest to make a short film. You can read all about the process at my Unofficial Payoff Website. I did a crappy short film back in college, and it was a thrill to make a "real"movie.

At the same time, I was fighting to get a new job as P.R. director for a local theatre. I got the job in February, just after I shot my movie. I gave two months notice at my other job, so I put in about 60 hours a week in March and April. I also went to L.A. to edit the movie and to New York to tape a promotional piece for in-house use at MTV.

On April 24, my movie went live online and my dad passed away from cancer. Don't ever smoke. Cancer is a horrible way to die. Both my dad's parents died of cancer, too, and I really hope I don't get it. I don't smoke, but I figure I'm genetically predisposed to the disease. At least having the movie out there gave me something else to talk about besides how sad and miserable I was.

May 1, I went to work full-time at my new job. I was still depressed over my dad's death, and I found out that I really suck at sales, which is part of my job. Maybe I wouldn't be so bad at it if the economy were better. Just when my old employer advertised two producer positions, things got better at work. When the jobs were filled, I began to question my career change again.

In September, my mom and I took a firearms class at the Sheriff's Office and got our concealed weapons permits. I'm a really good shot! I haven't actually received my permit yet; I was born overseas, and I had to send them evidence that I'm really a U.S. citizen, so that's held things up.

End of October, I won a major prize in an online contest -- $10,000 and a trip to New York City. That was a great way to end the year. I took my college roomie to the Big Apple with me, and we saw three shows. I couldn't spend a whole lot, because we need a new roof, and I also want to go to England in Fall, 2008, to see Kenneth Branagh on stage in London and David Tennant on stage in Stratford. It's taken a full two-months for my husband to finally accept that we are going to England. Now, instead of rolling his eyes when I bring up the trip, he actually discusses it with me. That's gotta be worth something.

On Christmas Day, we continued our tradition of watching one of my favorite holiday movies, "Die Hard." Yes, it is a Christmas movie. It's set on Christmas Eve at a Christmas party. If I ever receive an automatic weapon for Christmas, I will happily use the line, "Now I have a machine gun. Ho, ho, ho."

On December 31, we will follow our other holiday tradition of ending the year by watching "When Harry Met Sally" on DVD. If you haven't seen the movie, it culminates at a New Year's Eve party. I'm sure I have a copy of "Peter's Friends" around here, as well. Another great movie about a holiday gathering. I'm sure it'll be especially poignant this year, since it also deals with loss of friends and family.

We don't have cable, haven't since Hurricane Ivan in 2004. We only watch DVDs. That's why I'd love to win a contest over at 5minutesformom.com -- it's a year's subscription to Netflix, which I have heard great things about, but never tried. One of the distribution centers is supposedly very nearby, so getting and returning movies is very quick by post. If you'd like to check out the contest, here are the related links:

http://www.5minutesformom.com/2755/netflix-orville-contest/
http://www.orville.com


Wishing you all a safe and happy 2008!!

Always Looking for a Handout

If you know me, you know I like entering contests and sweepstakes. I'm even entering one right now.

See, Wyclef Jean has a new CD coming out: Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant, in stores DEC 4.

I signed up at Sony and by blogging and telling my friends about the CD, I get a chance to win a trip to meet Wyclef plus a camcorder. I really want a camcorder.

Now I'm off to enter more sweepstakes. I'd really like to take that camcorder on a trip to England.

Ah, the Holidays....

It's been tough already this year and it's going to get worse, I'm afraid. First Thanksgiving without my Dad was okay, just a few weepy moments here and there. My aunt and uncle held their annual feast, but most of my Dad's other relatives weren't there this year, so I guess that made it a little easier. All his clan is getting together for Christmas on December 1, and Daddy's birthday is December 2. Then comes Christmas.

My new job shuts down for the week of Christmas, so I'm going to keep my mind off things by trying to write a screenplay. I had some experience this year, writing a short play in about four hours for "24 Hour Theatre." I also wrote a short screenplay, about five minutes in length, in a couple of hours, inspired by a contest on the website for "The Lot" TV series, but you had to actually make the film to enter the contest, and I didn't have time to shoot it. I tried to get a friend of mine to handle that part, but she was too busy, too. She still wants to make the film sometime. Anyway, I've been thinking about the characters and plot for a science fiction film for a long time, so I'm going to try to hammer out a first draft.

Of late, I've been reading the Mediterranean Nights series from Harlequin. I like a happy ending, but the books seem almost too short; I'm used to reading stand-alone titles I guess. The interesting thing about this series is that each author is adding an intriguing new bit to a mystery that, I'm assuming, will wrap up in the final book.

Here's another book that sounds intriguing. I've only read the excerpts on the author's website, but I love fantasy and romance, and this has the best of both:

ENCHANTING THE LADY
“The imagination of J.K. Rowling and the romance of Julie Garwood
all rolled up into one fabulous novel.”~Erin Grady, author of Whispers
Please visit: http://www.KathryneKennedy.com

Happy holidays! Hope Santa puts just what you want under the tree!

Happy Christmas!

It doesn't feel like Christmas this year. My husband says, for him, it's the weather. It's been up in the 70s lately, though it's a little cooler this Christmas Eve Morning, and overcast. "Looks like snow," Tim would say.

I think I've just been too busy to think about it. Spending time with my dad, who has cancer. Taking the cats to the vet. Working. Applying for jobs. Entering sweepstakes. There's not enough time in the day to do everything I need to do, or feel I have to do, or want to do, and then feel excited on top of it. I have some presents for my parents and for Tim, but I don't feel like any of them are really great gifts.

The whole feeling of Christmas is different everywhere. I was in a store the other day and heard "Silver Bells" on the Muzak. "In the air there's a feeling of Christmas. Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile...." That's how the song goes, but the people I pass generally aren't smiling. They're talking on their cell phones and rushing around, not paying attention to anything else around them.

I think it's more than just commercialism. The world is so fast-paced now. Communication is easier but personal connections really aren't. It's easy to say that we need to simplify Christmas (there's a whole book about it), but you'd have to be really committed -- and not at all competitive -- to do it. It's hard to buy great gifts that people aren't expecting because most of us just buy what we want when we want it.

Maybe it's just me.

Is it different for you? Do you feel Christmas in the air?

Retirement Plans

Today, I took an online poll that asked what I think is the best way to save for retirement. You know - company pension plan, savings, property, mutual funds, etc.

I vote for the Lotto. Old people always win that, right? That's what I'm counting on to get me through my old age. Either that or I'll become a greeter at Wal-mart.

Raising an even more inconsiderate generation

Tim and I went to the movies on Sunday. We saw "Superman Returns", in its third week of release, so maybe it won't be too crowded. Eh-n-n-n-n, try again.

The good thing was, we didn't notice anyone make or receive a cell phone call during the movie. That's a first for the Rave Theatre. Unfortunately, a couple of people brought small children, I'm talking like 3 years old, to see this PG-13 movie. This long PG-13 movie. The one directly in front of us talked almost continuously.

If I went to see a movie aimed at little kids, I would expect to see little kids in the theatre. But come on, people! The least you could do is get up and take the child outside. The family in front of us, the dad completely ignored the child. The mom shushed him a few times.

You have to understand, your life is different once you have children. Every generation, people develop a deeper belief that they can always do the things they want to do, and if they annoy you, well that's your problem. Sorry, that's not the way it works.

It is not my problem that I forked over $14 in the expectation of actually being able to hear the dialogue, music, and sound effects in the film. I expect to be able to watch the movie and think about the movie, not watch the movie while simultaneously wondering why idiot parents brought a 3-year-old to a movie designed for teens and adults.

You need to have consideration for other people around you. If your child is typically quiet and you decide to take him or her to a totally inappropriate movie, and the child starts making noise, take it outside. Ask for your money back if you're not that far into the movie. Heck, if the movie's just about over, it won't hurt to ask. The theatre folks may be impressed enough at your consideration of others, they'll still give you free passes.

If you lose yor money, maybe you'll think twice next time. Teach your kids to be quiet while watching a DVD at home. Train them to appreciate the movie and be considerate of others. Then maybe when they're parents, they'll teach their own children to have common sense.

Black Pepper

My mom and I had lunch Saturday, while shopping for anniversary party supplies. She had a hard time, as she does every time she dines out, finding something that didn't have black pepper in it. She's going to a meeting of her high school class reunion committee soon, and she called the restaurant, and they said they really don't have anything without black pepper in it, except for salads, but the dressing all has the black pepper.

Zantac and some of the other acid medications specifically say not to eat black pepper when you're taking it, and yet, it's next to impossible to find prepared foods that don't have black pepper in it or on it. My mom can't eat it because it makes her sick.

My point is, hasn't anyone made the connection between the increase in acid reflux and stomach problems and the proliferation of foods that are cooked with black pepper? Sure, we're all under increased stress these days, but that can't be the only cause.

And why is it that corn needs to be sprinkled with black pepper? The breading for fried chicken? Grilled steaks? Green beans?

My problem is onions. I don't like them, and they make Tim throw up. Everyone puts it in their potato salad. Some restaurants put it in the coleslaw. I've even found 'em in the green beans. If I can't order it without onions, we won't eat it.

Tim says the problem is that the stuff is all being manufactured -- most restaurants don't cook from scratch anymore. The manufacturers, in turn, are making the stuff faster and cheaper, and they're starting with low grade, tasteless main ingredients, so they add the black pepper or the onions to try to add flavor.

Now, I've read that the veggies we have nowdays are not as flavorful as the ones we used to have. The flavor was bred out as they genetically manipulated the stuff to last longer, so it could be shipped from Costa Rica or wherever.

I wish I could afford to eat organic.

Whatever happened to....

Cracker trays?

My mom and I are working on their 50th wedding anniversary party, and my mom wants to set out the crackers in one of those half-tube cracker servers that used to be very popular, but apparently not many people know what they are any more. I did find some at Orientral Trading Company, clear plastic in a set of three. I guess we'll order some of those since Party City didn't have any, and my mom says everyone in her garden club is looking for them for the table-decorating event they put on every year. They've been using the ones my mom inherited from her mother. Weird how things stop being made. No doubt next year someone will start manufacturing them for Target or Crate and Barrel and then they'll be all the rage, and everyone will act like it's something brand new.

What does it mean, if you dream you were shot to death?

I got shot twice in the chest in my dream last night by an Asian man I've never seen before. He was riding in the back of George Carlin's cab. George was a friend of ours. Tim and I decided to hang out with him for a while after we went back in time and did something important related to the Chinese ambassador and a reception.

Of course, after I got shot, Tim used the time travel device to go back in time and warn me and then he went after the Asian man. And the weird thing is, he opened the cab door and the Asian man looked at him and said, "I knew you had a time travel device." Then Tim shot him in the head.

That's when I woke up. I have nothing against Asians, by the way. Maybe it had something to do with all the news coverage of the North Korean Missile Tests.

Why do businesses ignore the chance for free publicity?

At the TV station where I work, two of our newscasts every day have a business news segment. We run the stocks of local interest, the oil prices and whatnot, on a graphic, and the anchor reads a business-related story. Maybe it's a new store opening, or a big donation to a charity, or something about taxes.

On several occasions, we've contacted a new business, or maybe they're opening a new location, and we ask to come out and shoot some video, and maybe interview a manager, and they either refuse or never call back.

What is the deal?

A 30-second commercial spot has to cost in the hundreds of dollars, if not the thousands, and here we're giving you 30 seconds for free. Maybe 45 seconds. You don't have to hire a cameraman or a writer - we do it all for you. And it's not airing during a commercial break, when people are going to the bathroom or grabbing a soda from the fridge.

I mean, I can see some small businesses maybe not realizing that they can get free publicity and not contacting us on their own. But when we call them and offer a free plug on the top rated news show in the area, why the hesitation?

Weird.