February Birthdays, Part II

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Jordan is now in the double digits! Friday she turned 10. Here's the picture of her and her new baby boy. She liked Jillian's Baby Alive enough that it was what she wanted for her own birthday as well. Next weekend the girls will shop with the rest of their birthday loot!

February Birthdays, Part I

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Our birthdays are grouped together, so to make sure everyone has their own day, I have a deadline of needing this posted before tomorrow. Saturday, our little bean turned 7. Her birthday fell on a busy weekend, but she got some excellent time with her buddy Maria, not to mention gifts, cards from grandparents, and an ice cream cake!

First Consumer Feedback Entry

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And a double wammy too!
If you know me, you know I have strong opinions about customer service. I’m sure I’ll have additional entries both good and bad, but today I want to share one of each….

The Good:
For any labeling, signs, etc., I urge you to check out http://www.signspecialist.com/. Not just because they give me a discount for saying so! Soon after we moved, I got some decals for the mail box. They were great. Similar application to the cling I added to the front door, but easier to handle (in part due to size and my recent experience with the cling, but still I think anyone could do it). Here’s their pitch:

Our Decals, Graphics, Signs, and Lettering are not 'off the shelf' stickers. But are custom made to your design specifications. Design your own Sign, Decal, Lettering, or Stripe Online.

You really have to check it out, I can’t list all they do, from the little letters I got, to car decals, to camo (they’ll do your whole truck or boat!), on and on and on. What really impressed me was the depth & variety of images they have that you can use with your decals.

Yes, I am easy, part of the motivation for me is to display pictures of their work for future discounts, but this proves, I will be using them again. Here’s a look at our mail box, after completion, which was back in October. It looks the very same today, through rain, ice, snow, wind, & sun:








For the type of customer service I usually rant about….
I understand that Comcast has agreed, in part, to purchase insight cable which services Bloomington. I know that many of you are there, and I want to say right now…. GET A DISH! I’m partial to DirecTV, but it doesn’t matter which dish you get, just don’t let it be Comcast.

I’ve heard the stories before, but as a DirecTV customer for the last 7 years, as my parents have been for much longer, I’d forgotten just how bad cable can be.

In VA, I have Comcast for cable & internet. I’m on my second modem, which doesn’t work well. I know they can’t control outages, and there have only been a couple, but they’ve been the full day to two day variety.

Worst of all for me personally, is that their call center is inept, does not follow up, and will generally talk down to you, though in six short months, I’ve become more skilled at diagnosing my cable boxes issues then they are. I’m also on my second cable box. The channel lineup has changed twice in six months, and again, customer service is not where they pride themselves.

In the last two months, Consumer Reports have discussed Comcast in a variety of ways. Two months ago, they spoke highly of the trend toward “triple play” options, which Comcast offers. I agree that these are good things, however Comcast ranked overall 9th of 10. Verizon FIOS won hands down, for more on that see Chris’ blog and know that my answer is “one day, I’ll have it too!”

Breakdowns were done for each category, but TV service was ranked again this month. The top four, in order, were Verizon FIOS, DirecTV, Bright House (a local cable provider), and Dish Network. Comcast was 10th of 12.

All I’m saying is my experience has not been an anomaly. There is a reason for the ratings, and listen to me Bloomington, get a satellite!!!

Minor Updates

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Hard to follow Robin's succinct blog debut, but somone must!

I made a few minor changes, most notable was adding the category view of the archive.

Otherwise, not much doing today, it's Hockey Day in Canada, which I think should be an international holiday! :o)

An Amazing Day in October

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I decided that since our blog has been full of the gloom and doom of our life that it needed some perking up. So, with that in mind I would like to talk about the best day of my life hands down, my WEDDING day. (This is the part where women will perk up and read fervently and men will roll their eyes and think blah blah blah).

Ok, so we decided to get married on October 26th for a couple of reasons, well maybe more but three come to mind. 1.) We wanted to get married ASAP, 2.) It was also the same day that my parents were married and we thought that would be a nice tribute, 3.) With my father’s health declining we wanted him to be there to share not only his 44th anniversary with my mother but our big day.

So, we did all the planning in 6 months with little issue, and I need to give big kudos to my Sweetie for doing a lot of it!! He wasn’t your typical guy who said, “Whatever you want dear”, he was involved from start to finish. The only thing he didn’t have his hand in was the choosing of my dress and the bridesmaid dresses. Although, when I came home from ordering my dress he wished he had some say in that as I went a teeny tiny bit over budget. :o)

Anyway, to the day itself. Mine started off with a big breakfast with my ladies and then on to get my hair and make up done. Thank you Weezie for being my chauffer!! We arrived at the church and Angela laced me up like a pro.

I had a few moments for reflection before and after some pre ceremony picture taking and realized that not only was I not nervous, but for ONCE I was making absolutely the best decision of my life. I was completely at peace with everything and felt a smile come down from above as if to say, “Good job child”. When my father saw me, he gave me a big hug and kiss and didn’t offer to let me run for my life like he did the first time around!!!

We walked down the aisle and it was like a fairy tale from that moment on. After a beautiful service we took some more pictures and then off to the PARTY!!! I am not sure if anyone else had fun, but we sure did. I heard that the appetizers were good (wouldn’t know as we basically missed that hour taking pictures). Then our introductions, and food a plenty, oh and I can't forget the open bar!!!

For those of you who were wondering the palate cleanser was called champagne rose petal. Yes, actual dried rose petals were crushed into the champagne sorbet. You either loved it or hated!!

Next to come where the toasts. Blaze gave a very touching toast that attributed to the close friendship that he and Tony have. Angela (aka DW) gave a wonderful speech as well. To finish it off my friend Maria gave a sweet speech highlighting some of our finest moments together.

The next two crowning moments for me were my first dance with my new husband and the father-daughter dance. Tony and I are not so much like Fred & Ginger :o), but we made it through without falling or completely making fools of ourselves. My Dad did his best to guide me gracefully around the floor, but with my 2 left feet that made it somewhat difficult.

Then my father came up and gave a wonderful speech on his knee about my mother and him their love for each other, and the 44 years they have spent together. It was touching and not many dry eyes were left and just when you thought it was over they danced to their song.

One thing I remember as a child was watching my parents glide on the dance floor together. Even with advanced cancer and many years past them, they still looked like Fred & Ginger to me.

We are very thankful to all that showed up to celebrate a day that we will never forget for the rest of our lives.