5.30.2008

Don't Bug Me

I stumbled on this and had to laugh. It's the simple things sometimes...


Every time I vent or get excited about something, our 10 year old son always says "I feel a blog coming on!" Luckily, they even have a version of the shirt for him stating "my mom will blog about it."

I should get one and wear it to Sam's Club or Home Depot!


5.27.2008

This Week's Wine Rack Find

Modern. Sleek. Simple. Period!

Napa Wine Rack
www.plushpod.com
$59.00

5.23.2008

Extraordinary Kisses, Sparkle Pagers & Lots of Concrete

So Callie and Erica are just about out of the closet. Wonder where that story line will lead to? Seems like the writers reached a creative block and couldn't figure out what to do with them, so let's make them gay. Alex Mark is diggin it though!

We also found out more about Meredith's mother and why that made her so dark & twisty. Poor girl! Later on she figured out that since her mom was such a great surgeon she did it to get Richard back. It wasn't necessarily an act to end her life...

Meredith gave Cristina the "Sparkle Pager" just to cheer her up instead of dancing or drinking it out. That's funny! Great moment was when Chief tells Hahn that she needs to teach and let her residents learn (not realizing Cristina was hiding out behind the desk). Turning point was when Cristina was teaching Lexie how to do the stitch on the banana while jammin out on her ipod. Cristina's quote when she hands the Sparkle Pager back was awesome! "I'm drunk on the power of having the sparkle pager"

Let's talk about that poor kid in the concrete and the ignorant girl, Lola! I'm glad they finally kissed at the end, but if that was real life you wouldn't want him to fall in love with her after finding out she wouldn't go hold his hand when they were chipping him out of the concrete (because of peer pressure from those jerky boys).

I don't even want to talk about Rebecca other than that's such a sad story line. Glad Izzie was stubborn and made Alex give in that she needs help. Does she deserve the clinic now that Bailey can't open anymore time up for? Let's hope she can prove herself!!

Who knew Lexie was a thief that has a photographic memory? Do you think that George really failed his test by only 1 point? Didn't seem that way at the end when Chief gives him another shot at taking the test. Hopefully 'ol Georgie pulls through his exam!

The two brain cancer patient was an interesting story line. I felt bad that her parents tried to keep them apart. The sex scene was somewhat unnecessary and could have been left more to our imagination. Awkward...yet they were in love...and it's tv.

How great was the end of the episode? It took a lot for Rose to tell Derek he needed to tell Meredith the news of the successful trial. Yay, the return of MerDer!! The house of candles was cheesy, but really cool at the same time. That must have taken a ton of time to set up (if it were in real life). Good thing they don't live in ND, because the flames would have been extinguished from the damn wind here! Anyway, I hope nothing happens to McDreamy on his way to tell Rose... That's my only fear!

Let's Not Forget The Kisses...
Sloan & Callie, Callie & Hahn, George & Lexie, Mer & Der, Alex & Rebecca, Alex & Izzie, Chief & Adele, the 2 brain cancer patients (gasp), Lola & the concrete boy...Who did I leave out?

Which kiss was the best?

5.22.2008

This Week's Wine Rack Find

Simple yet creative way to hold up to 6 bottles of wine. Many other unique items found on their site including designer toilet paper! And don't leave out the toilet aquarium referred to as the "Aquariass" (okay, that's really weird)...

Pile Wine Rack
www.urbanpeel.com
$89.00

Cookeys Celebrate



Way to go David Cook! He won by an impressive 12 million votes!! He's been my favorite Idol during the whole process, so I'm pretty psyched he won.

Jammin out with ZZ Top and starring in a Guitar Hero Commercial was just the icing on the cake. Did you notice Archuleta took the PG-route and wore boxers in his GH Commercial? Golly-garsh! The bit with Mike Meyers with his new movie was pretty funny too, especially when they were comparing the beards of the Davids!

Anyway, Congratulations & Best of Luck to David Cook!

5.13.2008

@Garyvee on Conan O'Brien

Sniffy sniff... Conan & Gary were hilarious! YeeeeeHawwww!! Found it posted on a blog (plus some of his other appearances) and you need to watch it. Good stuff!

Check out Gary's daily wine blog: Wine Library TV
Follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/garyvee




A few favorite lines:

"Just say have you ever poured the wine out beforehand?" - referring to decanting

"On the nose, I get a little bit of a sheep butt. Like really fertilizer, stinky, sheep butt." - you gotta smell everything

"You wanna try it? Are you ready to push on the nozzle and make the liquid come out?" - referring to boxed wine

And, something I didn't need to know... Hot dogs & boxed merlot are delicious ;)

5.09.2008

Grey's Episode: 414 — A "wow" episode in my mind

Here are a few thoughts about last night's episode...

I loved how Bailey was asking Mark questions through the door, followed by an obviously naked Callie! And, then she proceeds to ask her the same questions.

Does anyone else think that Meredith's therapist looks kind of like her mom?

Favorite Scene: The part with Yang singing "Like a Virgin" while Lexie looked on. Sandra Oh is actually a pretty good singer! Who knew?

The military scene was a little much for TV in my opinion. I don't necessarily have a problem with the subject matter itself, but I think they took it a little too far for Prime Time TV. Needed a little more advanced warning especially with a younger audience at home watching.

Favorite Quote: "I am the right hand of the man" — George O'Malley

What about George being the Chief's Intern. I liked how he got mad at the end and said it's not a real job. That story line was kind of funny, especially when he evolved into the "Sex Police" and was handing out the date & tell forms to all the staff. It was "so Alex" to forget about his night with Lexie. Jerk! We never did get to hear that he's not going to be a dad. Next week?

It was nice to see a reaction from Cristina when she is forced to fill out the form even though Burke is not there anymore. With him winning the Harper-Avery Award and Cristina spilling out her "unseen hand to his brilliance." Another great quote from her, "Hahn treats me as if I was his hand. And I'm his ghost."

One more reaction... Glad that it appeared as though Adele & the Chief were making amends.

Many surprises in these new episodes! What are your favorite moments?

5.08.2008

This Week's Wine Rack Find

I love the complexity of this one and the contrast of the different color wood. Creative way to hold seven bottles of your favorite vino! Lot's of unique items on their site, too. Worth a browse!

Wine Knot
http://www.vivionline.com
$110.00

5.07.2008

Shop to help the fight against lupus!

Being afflicted with lupus myself, I think this is a great idea to raise money for research. What a great way, too — shopping!!!

Please help support lupus by clicking to the sites of your favorite retailers through ShopforLupus.org, and a percentage (5 - 20%) of each purchase will go to the Lupus Research Institute. Includes popular online retailers such as Red Envelope, 1-800-Flowers, Amazon, Old Navy, iTunes & More!


Here are a few great links for those of you wondering what lupus is all about:

My Idol Prediction for Tonight

This should be pretty obvious to everyone, but Jason Castro is going home. I usually don't like when Simon diggs into people, but Jason was not very good (and hasn't been for quite some time now). Bob Marley is rolling over in his grave right now! I need to listen to some good reggae to get over that disaster!

Side-note: My favorite Marley song --> Sun is Shining



Cover Art


Bob Marley: Grooving Kingston 12 -
The JAD Masters 1970-1972

Bob Marley & The Wailers
iTunes
Thought it was cool that Davey did a Duran Duran song (Hungry Like the Wolf)...Brought back many early junior high memories. I remember when we did a Penny-Drive in 6th grade to win a contest for a concert at our school. Oh, teenage heartthrobs! John Taylor was my favorite. My room was even plastered in posters of them :)

Anyway, Syesha was incredible and I don't usually pay much attention to her. She was a star last night though!

I have to say that I love this blog — Rickey.org and that he does an awesome job capturing the moments (and humor) on Idol.

Check out this awesome collage from his site...




5.05.2008

New Slogan for Home Depot? "You can do it. We don't want to help"

I recall reading a post from Daily Rx's Blog a while back pertaining to what I'm about to enlighten you with today. The customer service switch is apparently stuck in the "OFF Position" and people forgot to bring their brains to work, too. What's scary is BeBizzy just posted about a bad experience also. Is this becoming the norm?

Profit or the People?

So the other day we found out that our Home Depot is one of the 15 being closed in the nation due to smaller profits than the other umpteen thousand stores in the US. That is the logical and visible reason to close these stores. Look at the numbers and if you're not up to par, you're done. But there is also something that should be observed to avoid more closures. A little bit of customer service goes a long way people!

It's not just this chain of stores either. It seems to be everywhere lately! Granted the economy is not doing well, housing is the worst ever, yadda yadda... You could go on forever — but there's no excuse for bad customer service. A little disclaimer... I'm sure there were nice, friendly and SMART people working at the store we visited, but we did not come in contact with one. And, I'm sad they will no longer have jobs after a few weeks.

Saturday morning in an effort to procrastinate from our outdoor chores, we decided to take a detour to Home Depot. Just wanted to see if there were any great deals we couldn't live without before the closing. We managed to find a cart-full of items that were actually on our list for indoor/outdoor projects.

I Thought Math Was Simple

We carefully chose a checkout lane and before you know it our items were being rung up so we could quickly get out of the zoo that was forming in the store. "Angela" starts off by scanning our first item twice. Not a good sign. I alert her to the matter and she hastily voids the mistake. I'm watching the list of items on the credit card screen and wondered why a few aren't ringing up with the discount we had anticipated. Maybe the total goes down at the end when the final tally is entered? Not sure. I'm not going to confuse her yet, so I keep watching. It was humorous watching her scanning technique. Swipe it 20 more times, maybe it'll ring up!! Why not just enter the keycode and get it done. Laziness? I think so. I used to work at a local grocery store back in my high school days. Technology back then wasn't as pristine as it is now, but I never had issues scanning things!

We had a few large items in the cart that she used the hand scanner for, and once again rang something up twice. Our total sky-rocked to $500 and I corrected her once again. We now noticed the weed trimmer actually rang up higher than what the price on the shelf claimed. I questioned her about it and she explained that didn't include the sale price. DUH!! I know that, but it rang up higher than what the price on the shelf stated. I hate being the person tying up a lane, especially when it's so busy! After finally getting the message through to her she deducts the difference between the wrong price and what we told her it was supposed to be. Still not the right price. Side-note... many of the 10-30% discounts were not reflected in the total she presented us with. A major oversight on somebody's part. I know I looked at signs to make sure the items we chose were included in the liquidation sale.

After exposing a major attitude and the fact that she's now socializing with another checker, we decided to completely abandon our cart. Probably not the best decision, but at that point saving money on a few items is not worth it. I've abandoned carts online for many reasons. Buyer's remorse, steep shipping charges, a better deal somewhere else... But never have I done that in an actual store. No Home Depot deals for the Welder family :( I'd rather go to Lowe's anyway! The whole incident gave me a small feeling of "sticking it to the man" I guess.

Since When Did Items Become So Hard to Scan?

Yesterday we shopped at Sam's Club to stock up on items for the upcoming months. Once again our cashier wasn't friendly, but I tried to avoid another Home Depot incident. They sell energy drinks in bulk at Sam's and I think our cashier should partake! My husband and I had a hard time looking at each other when she was mangling our 2-pack of Clamato juice over the laser. If we looked at each other I would have died laughing and had to excuse myself. She was dragging it over and over and over and yet it wouldn't scan. Maybe the UPC was too close to the laser? Or maybe the UPC was no where near the laser!!! Yanking it 20 more times ought to make it work, right? NOPE. Finally she got her scanner gun out and handed the mangled mess over to be put back into our cart.

Retail Camp – Summer 2008

I have an idea; Retail Camps for cashiers. Here's a brief course outline:

  1. Scanning 101: If an item doesn't scan after 30 seconds, enter the code into the little computer!!
  2. Customers Are Smart - Elective: If a customer asks you to correct something, do so with pleasure and admit you were wrong.
  3. Physical Education - Bicep Curls: If you can't lift the items to be scanned, consider a different job.
  4. Human Emotions & You: Greet every customer with a smile — even if it hurts!
Can anyone think of other classes they should include?

5.02.2008

You Coded! Great Grey's episode last night...

Grey's 2nd episode since the strike, "Piece of My Heart" aired last night and was excellent! I liked it even better than last week's new episode. Here's a brief rundown and some of my favorite parts. No holding back in this episode, by the way, as the show starts with many surprises in the first couple of minutes!! Oh yeah, and the return of the "Sparkle Pager", hehe.

Addison temporarily returns to Seattle Grace for a surgery and is shocked by all of the changes (mainly relationship statuses). I actually hope they bring her back to Grey's. Didn't like her much before, but when she left to do Private Practice I noticed how much she really needs to be a part of Grey's. She even hugged Meredith and even points out that she did (without knowing she broke up with Derek). Meanwhile the "Happy Couple's" clinical trial has its first patient. Amazing how a brain tumor can control your emotions. From laughing to screaming, yikes! So will Meredith become the next brain surgeon at SG? Could be an interesting twist to the relationship story line.

Poor Izzy just wants to get back in touch with George and ends up interfering with his popularity along with his party.... I like how she "googled recipes – spent the night with a search engine." Funny stuff! Also liked, "YOU CODED" (followed by hand gesture)! Still like the "Seriously" tagline better I think, but that was great.

Callie & Dr Hahn's "relationship" was funny, yet really awkward to watch. Will be funny to see how that progresses in Dr. Hahn's eyes. I like how Callie decided to leave and get a little "McSteamy action" after the bar.

Rebecca returned with shocking news for Alex. In typical fashion he reminders her that he's not "that guy" and he has a dark past with no family-man intentions. Wonder what's in store for that story line? So when Izzy got Rebecca's results back and it was certain she was not pregnant, does that mean she lost the baby? Or that she's setting Alex up for a relationship? Sidenote, I loved when Izzy went all Ghandi on the HIV patient that's expecting. Interesting stats though comparing the odds of a child being born with HIV vs Down Syndrome (higher probability).

Poor Cristina! You have to feel her frustration of getting repetitively blown off by Erica. I mean she's just plain rude to her and all Cristina is trying to do is get some action in her field of expertise.

The best moment was Addison (The Ex-Wife), Meredith (The Dirty Mistress), Rose (McRebounding Nurse) & Derek were all in the elevator. Then when Mark appears next!! Excellent Grey's elevator scene. Loved it!

Anyway, those were a few of my favorite highlights. I'm not up to writing a novel today...

5.01.2008