Monday, January 31, 2011

(Hunter ) Ice Ice Baby

Niles, Michigan had their 6th annual Hunter Ice Festival a couple of weekends ago.  Mom was in town so we decided to go.  We took Cecelia.  They both enjoyed it, as did I.

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Of course, a butterfly.

 

 

 

 

 

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We wished the lights were on ~ still beautiful.

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Be careful, Mom, you’ll get piles!  The whole bar and stools were made ice.

Edit that…I AM Finished with the Baby Cross Stitch!

EDIT:  The baby arrived and the X-Stitch is complete.  I just have to hand it over to Momma to get it framed.

Welcome to the world, little Audrey.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

 

I can’t completely finish this until the baby arrives ~ I won’t know some of the critical details until then, you know, like her name, weight, day…

I am working on the outlining too – but that goes quickly and I am just a little too impatient and excited to share my latest project!

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AT&T Small Business Division Sucks

I have U-Verse and really like it.  The service has been phenomenal.  I couldn't have wished for better installation and customer service.  I have had that for over a year, so it made sense that when I needed to install a line for my home office, that I would turn to AT&T.

Wow. What a difference a Business Division makes.  From the start, I ran into unprofessional customer service experiences.  The initial call was littered with the guy I was speaking to needing to put me on hold so that he could tell the yahoos’ in the office to shut up.  Apparently Darrel is the office target and wasn't there yet so it was the prime time to bellow "Where the Hell is Darrel?" while stealing his office supplies. 

The guy was obviously new. He was kind and as helpful as he could be.  Too bad after an hour plus, he sold me the wrong product.

By the time I was off the phone, Darrel was there and looking for his office supplies.

After about 4 calls with the Small Business Division, I was satisfied with the products and was comfortable with knowing the appropriate order was cancelled.  Now, I wait for installation.

conway440The day of installation was an event in and of itself too, but I already blogged about that last month.

 

Then, they forgot to activate my toll free number. 

THEN when I had to report that clients weren’t able to get through to me on the Toll Free number, they closed the ticket since they got my voicemail.

THEN TODAY, I tried to pay my bill and it took me over 2 hours to manage that.  Apparently you can't pay online for the first bill nor can you even register yourself for the online access. I can see why it would take me 8 hours or more of time on line with their customer service people to find that out.  Grrrr.

The redemption came in the form of Amy.  She was nice and appropriately apologetic.  She was borderline inappropriate by starting to dis her company, but she kept it in check.  She also proactively reviewed my bill and found that I was being overcharged.  I still can't get online.  I'll leave that rant and rave for another day, I guess.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Great Day In Indy

Mom & I decided to go down to Indy for the day.  Why?  Why not?

We stopped @ The Fashion Mall and found some drawer pulls for my friend’s nursery.  She told me not to worry, but I am just that co-dependent.  We are glad I am, for once!  Pottery Bard Kids had the perfect knobs for what she needed.  Not only that, but…. THEY WERE ON SALE!  Even better was when they rang them up…they came up even cheaper.  What a bargain!  The trip was already successful.

We also stopped off @ the Teavana store to see if they had a replacement filter for Mom’s clear teapot.  The employee GAVE one to her.  No joke.  So, we decided we needed to buy something. $12 for 2 chai teas later…we were off to the rest of the mall.

There really wasn’t anything else too exciting about the rest of the mall, so we headed out for lunch.  I can’t express how great Maxine’s Waffles & Chicken was!  Not only was the food great, but the service was amazing.  This will become a staple in my life once I move back to Indy.  It’s only 32 blocks west of the house I want to buy.  I figure if I ride my bike, I can justify eating those amazing home potatoes. Go to their website.  You’ll have to love it ~ it’s playing Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.”

We then went to Fountain Square to check out The New Day Meadery.  You heard me right, Mead!  Also known as Honey Wine!  The owners were behind the bar and they were not only nice, but their product line is TASTEY!

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The last stop of the day was to Sun King Brewery.  It was located a block from Maxine’s.  I ended up with a growler and just finished it 2 nights ago.  I bought the smaller sized, since I when I get the larger imageones, the beer tends to go flat before I ever finish it.  This half sized growler was perfect, as was the beer and the friend with which we met.

Lastly, we went to Easly Winery which is located next to the Sun King.  Funny thing is, it’s been there since the 70’s.  Which means it was there when I lived there before…never knew it!  They were nice enough to stay open for an extra 15 minutes for us, so I liked them!

Block-of-the-Month #2

I have started the 2nd “Block of the Month.”  The patterns are released the 2nd Sunday of the month from Amy @ The Red Purl” http://www.redpurlknits.com/classes/

 red purl

I bought 4 skeins of the “Azul Profundo” from Malabrigo Yarns and I hope that this will help me get 6 of the 12 months – I am thinking of doing just a few colors mixed in and trying to keep most of it this blue, but that will depend on if Amy gets more of the color in.  True to my Amish style of knitting, I have already screwed up within the first few rows.  It actually looks like it could be part of the pattern.  even if it didn’t, I don’t care.  It gives it character, as do I.

Ok, I Have Cleaned the House, So Now Come Buy It.

I am at that point where now that I have made the decision to sell my house, I just want to do it.

Of course, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IHOL (International House of Lisa), but I am ready for the change.  I need the change. It is weird and hard to imagine myself living in a different place at the moment, but there is a house in Indy that I found that is still on the market.  I keep seeing myself in that house.  It’s making the waiting a little more difficult ~ I like it so much and I am trying to not keep my hopes up, but…

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Dad

Yesterday was Dad’s birthday.  Made me start thinking.  He’s seemed so unhappy since he retired a few years ago.

There are a couple of very specific memories I have of Dad that helped solidify my perception of what a father and husband does.  It’s tough now, to see him “falling from grace” and letting the depression of retirement consume him.

Every family has it’s feuds.  Our family is no different.  One memory that showed me the amazing character that my father possesses was at a family event that sparked a feud.

It was spring of 1980 and we were at my paternal grandparent’s house. There are a lot of aunt and uncles, cousins, great aunts, great uncles, so on and so forth.  This event was a baby shower, I believe, for my Uncle’s 1st child, whatever it was, there were a lot of us there.  We are also the type of family where we disciplined the younger kids (within reason!).

I was 7 years old at the time and I have a cousin that was 1 month and 1 day younger than me.  Any time that we went to Gramma’s, she would call our cousin’s mom and have him come over.  He was a terror.  Gramma wasn’t much nicer.

On this occasion, my cousin had come in from outside with muddy feet and placed them on the chair.  My Mom tapped his foot and said, “put your foot down.”  Before she got the last word out, my cousin’s mother (she never married my uncle), swung at my Mom.  Her talons were so long and she got so close to Mom’s face, that she caught her contact lens.  Mom is taller than this woman, but didn’t (and still doesn’t) know how to fight.  She simply grabbed the woman’s hair & held her at arms length while the woman scratched & clawed @  Mom.

Someone ran outside to get the men.  I was watching from the pass-through in the next room. When the uncles ran in and grabbed the woman, she turned on them until she realized they were each 2X her size.  She then relaxed and cried while they had her restrained.

Everyone was frozen with shock.  Gramma was the 1st to react.  She went to the woman and started to console her.  WHAT?  Mom was sitting there bleeding through her clothes from this woman’s attack and she’s consoling the attacker?!  That’s my Gramma…

I ran into the back room, buried my face, and cried.  One of my uncles came to get me.  I walked into the kitchen to help find Mom’s contact and to see and hear my Dad standing there pointing at my Gramma and saying, “We will not step foot in this house again until you apologize to my wife and my children.”

There were only a couple of people that followed us out of the house.  Gramma was kind of scary and no one really wanted to “cross” her.  One person that wasn’t worried about it was Gramma’s brother. The uncles helped get us all in the car. 

Dad was true to his word.  We didn’t see many of them for a long time and even when we did start to see them again, it was never quite the same. But, the thing that sticks with me is how Dad put his (immediate) family first and he never mentioned himself.  Wish he would remember that passion and love now.  It’s got to still be there, right?