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Fell in Love with the Avett Brothers

Riding home with a friend, you end up hearing new songs on the radio if they happen to like a different radio station than what you listen to in your own car. This friend had Sirius Radio and a station I’ve never heard before, that played in the background while we rode together.

The song that caught my ear was called, “Winter in My Heart” by a group called the Avett Brothers. It’s a simple little song, not complicated musically, but it was very touching. I think that is the hallmark of a great song – bringing forth an emotion with lyrics that touch your soul.

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FTD Florist Messed Up My Order

My mom’s birthday is today and since I can’t go to Florida to celebrate with her, I wanted to send her some flowers. I figured all her friends would see the flowers and be a little impressed and help make my mom feel special on her birthday – it’s a big one – one of the dreaded birthdays that ends with a zero.

So, I ordered an arrangement of flowers for her from the FTD web site. I found a discount coupon code on one of the coupon sites that said I could save 20% off anything on the site. When I went to the FTD site, there was a special message about free shipping this week, too. Actually its not shipping so much as a service charge and delivery fee.

So I picked out the arrangement of orange lilies that are her favorite flower and tried to use the coupon code to save the 20%. Well, when I used the code it made the free delivery offer disappear. I couldn’t find any way to get it back. So I canceled that order and tried to place a new order to save the service charge and it wouldn’t show that screen again. I think there was something put into my computer’s cookies that flagged the site to make the free shipping deal be excluded. That pissed me off, but they don’t give you any options to get help late at night.

So, I caved and ordered the lilies and charged it on my card with instructions to deliver the flowers today – her birthday. Well, the day went on and on and I never heard from my mom about having received the flowers. I figured she would call me as soon as they arrived. Finally, around 5:00 I called her to say Happy Birthday and she told me that a flower delivery had just arrived, minutes before I called. I forgot that it was an hour later in Florida because of the time zone change. I should have called earlier, because it turns out that the flowers they delivered were not lilies – they were red roses.

I am SO PISSED OFF. If the damn florist did not have lilies, they should have called and told me or given the order to a different florist. Of course, the fine print says that the florist has the right to substitute flowers, but the least they could have done was called and told me they didn’t have lilies. I NEVER wold have sent her roses – she HATES roses. She says roses remind her of death. Every funeral she has ever been to has had a casket spray of red roses sitting on top of the casket. That’s the LAST message you want to send a loved one on their birthday!!!!

I will NEVER use FTD again. I will call a florist in Florida myself and ask them on the phone what flowers they have and make sure they get my damn order right!

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Special Dates Every Year

One of my friends on Facebook posted a sweet tribute to his father, who had passed away 10 years ago today. He mentioned that some dates are always going to have special meanings to him. He listed off a few, like his father’s birthday, his date of death, Christmas, etc. that always evoke memories and make him sad.

I think a lot of us miss people on the major holidays, but I try to remember the special people who have passed on with happy memories and a celebration of their lives. I feel badly for people who dwell on sadness and never get over grief. It is hard, but death is a part of life, and my special dates and memories are good ones.

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Laundry Drama

Now that the glow of a new purchase has worn off, the new washing machine that we bought is starting to bug me. There are a lot of things wrong with it. It works – the clothes get clean. But there are a lot of things about this front loading washer that I hate.

In the first place, the settings do not allow you to select a cycle that just rinses one time and then spins it dry. So, if you open the door and find a puddle of soap suds, you have to run an entire hour long cycle again just to get the excess soap out of that load. That is a waste of water, electricity and time.

Next, the drawer that you pull out to pour in the soap bleach and fabric softener is too high. When a short person is pouring bleach into that drawer, it can very easily splash back right into her eyes. That is extremely painful and dangerous.

Next, the drawer has three channels for adding the liquids and they are very shallow. When pouring any of the soaps, bleach or fabric softeners into their proper channel, it is very common to have a lot of splash into the wrong channel. It really pisses me off to be pouring bleach and have it spill over into the fabric softener channel. That means during the rinse cycle there will be bleach coming out and onto my clothes and that won’t get properly rinsed out. Since there is no separate extra rinse setting, that mean you have to wash the entire load over again.

I hate that it takes a full hour to wash a single load of clothes. It does not matter if the washer is totally full or you have only a handful of undergarments that need to be washed by themselves, it takes an hour. That is way too long – especially for a small load of undergarments. Those should only take about 20 minutes to wash. An hour is way too long.

I hate this washer and hate the so-called engineers who designed it. I would never ever buy a GE front load washing machine again and hate to be stuck with this awful one. If I could sell it and get even half my money back I would rather buy a new washing machine that put up with this crappy one much longer.

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Summer Clearance Bargains

I visited the department stores yesterday and they were all gearing up for the Fall and Winter seasons. I browsed through fall fashion of sweaters and cardigans in oranges and browns and tried on winter boots and scarves. But I’m not exactly ready for the fall season. I like summer and wish it can last forever.

On the way out of the mall, I happened to stop by a Home store. The Home store put their summer goods on clearance. They had nice patio furniture, grills, and fun summer home accessories at half-price so I took the opportunity to make my summer last longer by purchasing some summer items. I decorated my house with blue throw pillows, breezy curtains, seashell candles and voila, I feel like summer days are not quite over – usually we have nice weather until November. Then we never know from one day to the next what temperatures to expect. It can be 70 degrees one day and then 36 degrees the next!

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Every Girl Needs a Pair of Cheap Sunglasses

cheap sunglasses

There are kiosks in all the malls selling designer sunglasses. I know some people are paying $300 – $500 for a pair of sunglasses. That’s just crazy!

There are plenty of inexpensive sun glasses that look fabulous on a girl. You just have to figure out your face shape and then what shape of glasses frames and lenses look good on you.

And then, there are those wonderful cheap sunglasses that look good on everybody! I have a pair of RayBans and they are my favorite sunglasses!

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Canceled My Vacation

Well, this is not good news. My grandmother is in the hospital and we are all very worried. I might have to drop everything and go to Florida to visit her or help my mother take care of her.

I canceled my vacation plans so I don’t have a problem getting off work to deal with family issues. I don’t think they would give me a hard time about it, but you never know. I would never want to take advantage of my boss and his good will, either. So I think the prudent thing is to cancel the trip and just stay flexible until we know more about what’s going on with my grandmother.

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Shopping for New Flip Flops

There must be hundreds of different kinds of flip flops but I like the cheap, basic Zorries that are one color with a strap the same color. They only cost about one buck and they last for a couple of months. I think the other flip flops are a big gamble when you buy them. Will they last? Will the strap break through the bottom? Will they let you slip on wet surfaces?

My flip flops are a staple of my wardrobe and I have some nice sandals, too. But I mostly just want my cheap flips flops when I get home and kick off my high heels for the day. They are my comfort item.

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My Dog Loves Bacon!

There’s a long running commercial about a dog that loves bacon. He runs into the kitchen yelling, “Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!” but he gets fooled with a fake bacon dog treat that is supposed to be so good that dogs think it is bacon. My dog is too smart to fall for that. In fact, my dog loves bacon but hates those particular dog treats. When I opened the bag and gave the contents of the fake treats a big sniff, I expected to smell bacon but I sure didn’t. It smelled AWFUL and NOTHING like bacon.

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Paper Plates – Really?

Never realized until yesterday that some people do not uses dishes for their meals at home. They use paper plates. I guess this is because they do not either have real dishes or they don’t want to wash their dishes after they eat off them.

I don’t understand the logic of either one. It has to be expensive to buy paper plates, they are more expensive than real dishes after just the second or third purchase! And to be too lazy to wash your dishes? OMG! If you are THAT lazy, you are hopeless.