Here’s how my evening went tonight:
We arrived home after parent watch for my oldest daughter’s dance class to discover that Maria had forgotten to put dinner in the oven before she left. No biggie, just run to McD’s and eat Maria’s yummies tomorrow.
But before I leave, I notice that half of the string of icicle lights hanging over our sliding door is out. Maria got one of those light sting testers this year, I’ll try it our before I run out for dinner.
The instructions on the tester read like this:

• Test the batteries in the tester. Check.
• Hold the tester near the end of the wire set, 5″-6″ from the plug and push the button. If the light lights and stays on, check the fuses. If it lights and goes out go to step 3. Check.
• If you have a 2 strand light go to section A, if you have a 3 strand light go to section B. Uh, it’s two at the plug, but three in the center. Hmmm. I’ll try two first.
• Remove the last two bulbs from the strand and test them in the bulb tester. Uh, the last two of the part that doesn’t work, or the last two of the part that’s out? I guess the ones that are out.
• OK, I can’t get the bulbs in the little tester thingy. I gotta take them out of the little sockets and test em. What a pain. Ok, they’re fine.
• Next, take out the last bulb in the string. Hold the tester near the last third of the bulb and hold the button for 4 seconds. If the light flashes on and stays on, revers the plug in the outlet, as shown on the back of the package card. The package card?!? I was supposed to save the package card?!? OK, it stays on. I pull the plug and turn in 180 degrees. It still stays on. Well, it flashes bright and stays on dimmer, does that count? Is that what it did the last time? I flip the plug again, it looks the smae. Huh? Well, let’s go onto the next step and see what I can find out.
• Next, you move from the last bulb to the next to last, then to the next, and so on. Hit the button ad if the light flashes and goes out it’s fine, if it stays on – you’ve found your bad spot. Sounds easy. Well that one’s good, that one’s good – I think. Does a dim light count as on? Let me check the first one again. It’s dim too. What about the rest? They’re all dim! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?!?
• I throw the ‘tester’ down the basement stairs and head to McD’s, beaten by icicle lights.

So I hit McD’s drive through. There’s this little screen where I order that’s supposed to show me that they got my order right. Typical to so many drive through’s in Columbus, I order and the screen doesn’t change. It still says “This screen helps us improve order accuracy.” when the guy tells me it’ll be $13 something, please pull around. Does this happen anywhere else? Why have the stupid screen just to tell me that it’ll help accuracy?
I get to the last window and they hand me my food. Skeptical because of the screen, I pull up 10 feet and check the bag. Yep, they’ve forgotten the cole slaw. Argh!
So I head inside to get the slaw. The manager brings it out and before handing it to me she feels compelled to explain that because the slaw is cold they can’t bag it with the hot sandwiches and fries. The drive through person must have not have had a chance to give it to me or forgot. “That’s OK”, I say a little tersely, take the little bag and leave. I’m really thinking “Hey, I’m a little tense here, I just got taken down by icicle lights and I’m pretty ticked. I really don’t care about your bagging issues, JUST GIVE ME THE SLAW!”
As I head outside I notice that it’s raining. It wasn’t raining when I left the house, but now that I have to get out of my car it’s raining. It’s at time like this I wonder if God really does tweak these situations – you know, bringing on the rain – to make a point. I don’t think so, but right now I’m wondering.
So I get home, apologize to my daughter who saw my little fit of rage with the tester, and we laugh through dinner. Yeah, the night was frustrating, but life’s too short to stay angry at icicle lights and cole slaw.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. – James 1:19-20

About 4 months ago I purchased a home gym. With my wife and me in our late 30 (she’s hit 40 since), we were loosing the battle of the bulge and it was time for corrective measures. So we settled on a Bowflex type machine and we found that Weider has been making similar machines for some time and, in general, they had good reviews. We decided to purchase a mid level machine (now called the Crossbar Max) for $599 plus $99 shipping. Well, before I purchased it I found a nicer machine, the Platinum 800, on sale at Home Shopping Network for $599 (it’s $799 direct from Weider) with free shipping. I was a little concerned about the motorized weight system in the 800, but I was reassured by the 10 year warranty on the mechanism (now lifetime). So I bought it.
It arrived at our home on August 2nd in a huge sofa sized box left on our front walk. I had to unload it right there because the box was too heavy to move into the garage. I immediately had to call Weider because the plastic front leg was broken. It took about 1.5 – 2 weeks to get the part. In the process of assembling it another part buckled and after using it for about a week, we had to wait another 1.5 – 2 weeks for that part to come in. So we’ve had it for 5 weeks, down for nearly 4.
We got it together and after using it for a couple of weeks, the weight system failed and stuck at 340 pounds. I called Weider; they ordered some parts and arranged for a technician to fix it. After 3 weeks of waiting on parts and then the technician, it was working again. 10 weeks of ownership, down for about 7.
Almost immediately it began to fail. The weight system would not adjust for small increments; say between 10 and 15 pounds. I had to recalibrate it after every use and sometimes it would be out of calibration before I was done with my 20 minute workout. Finally, it stuck again, this time at the other end of the range – 10 pounds. I called, they ordered more parts and arranged for another technician. They said they would send the parts second day, but they did not and they arrived a week later – broken. I called again, they said they’d send new parts, but they were back ordered until December 15th. Oh-kay, well that was enough. At this writing we’ve had it for 17 weeks and it’s only worked for about 8 of them. By the time the parts arrive and get put on it’ll be 21 weeks of ownership with 8 weeks of use. How do I send this thing back?
I spoke to Weider service about returning it. They don’t handle that, only fixing them and will be glad to help me get it repaired. I emailed Weider customer service who forwarded it to Weider sales who emailed back to me saying I needed to talk to Weider returns. Returns told me that I needed to call Home Shopping Network since I bought it from them. I asked why it was their problem, but all I got was something like ‘this is our procedure’. They did give me the number of Icon corporate (parent company of Weider) if Home Shopping Network wouldn’t help me.
Just to say that I did it, I called Home Shopping Network. That way, when I called Icon corporate to get them to come get the thing I could honestly say that I followed their procedure. I spoke to a nice woman, Millie, who informed me that because it was over 30 days she couldn’t do anything, I’d have to call Weider. Big surprise. When I told her that Weider said to take it up with Home Shopping Network , she put me on hold to talk to her supervisor.
Millie came back and said that her supervisor, Becky, had ordered a call tag sent and that they would completely refund my money once the unit was received. Huh? I’m sorry, did I hear that right? Yep, 120 days out and with very little fuss they’re going to take it back for a full refund, including return shipping. And I don’t even need the original box, which is a battle I was prepared to fight. Wow. Now, we’ll see how well this goes (15 – 21 days to process the call tag), but I must say right now I’m impressed. Home Shopping Network had absolutely zero responsibility in this yet they’re stepping up to the plate and taking care of the customer. Thank you. Now everyone go buy something at the Home Shopping Network. 🙂

Here I sit, in my PJ’s (OK, not really) in my living room (really) typing away on my new laptop, not wire to anything yet connected to the internet. Ain’t technology cool?
Take that Dan Rather. 🙂

About 10 days ago my wife learned about a web site called Freecycle. It basically gets people in a city on an email list (A YahooGroups list) for the purpose of giving and recieving stuff. The rules are, you can post a message of a OFFER to give something away or a NEED of something. Then someone who wants what you’ve got or has what you need emails you and a transaction takes place. The catch is anything offered has to be free. It’s a pretty neat idea to help folks with unwanted things find a home for them. In the 10 days we’ve been on it we’ve gotten rid of the Fitness Flyer we weren’t using, an old worn out Weber grille, and an Epson printer that worked but had the habit of spewing and smearing ink on the page every now and then. The printer was gone within 24 hours of us getting our new one. Additionally, we picked up a new Casio keyboeard (and stand) to replace our eldest daughter’s that just quit one day and my wife picked up some kind of designer skirt outfit.
Great idea, go check it out and see if your city’s on the list.

Attention traditional retailers: The Internet is coming. Correction, it’s already here. You can buy anything you would in a local store – your store – online. You need to realize that these stores are your competition. All the talk about the advantages they have in not maintaining a showroom and that shipping must be accounted for just won’t wash anymore. We are cross shopping them to you. Frankly, just as they have advantages over you, so do you over them. You have real people that can help us. You have the actual product that we can see and touch. You have the instant gratification factor; with them I must wait for it to arrive. The playing field is not that un-level.
I write this because I have made two large purchases recently and been hassled when trying to apply your price match policies to a web based business. Kudos to Lowe’s for matching Internet prices on the 550 sq. ft. (that’s$1,500 worth) of Bruce wood flooring I bought last fall. Shame on them that I had to try 3 different stores before I found a manager that would do it (in violation of your policy, I think.) Shame on Sears on refusing, at 2 stores before I gave up, to price match on the Weider Crossbar Platinum 800 I just bought to the price at Home Shopping Network. You lost a $600 sale, but I still got my home gym.
It’s time to start treating them like competitors, because they are and while you ignore them or whine about how unfair it is, they are taking your customers away.
Thank you.

Daniel at Alien Soil posted about this a couple of days ago. The idea here is stuff that you enjoy but feel hguilty about is. Not guilty in a sinful sense but more like guilty in an embarassed sense. I was thinking about this a while back because a friend came over and laughed out loud at one of my CD’s (you may too when I reveal it later). So here goes, things I’m not so proud to enjoy:
Music – The CD that caused the laughter was Nelson, After the rain.. Yeah, the big hair brothers from the early 90’s. I also have and enjoy Wilson Phillips and Bangles -Everything. I bet my friend thought those were my wife’s. Nope.
Movies – I actually tend to like chick flicks that guys tend to roll their eyes at and only go to because their wives like ’em and it might, you know, help heat things up later. Me, I actually enjoy them. If it helps heat things up later, that’s OK too. 🙂
Food – I love cookies. Not too shamefull there, but I actually tend to prefer the store bought, store brand Chips Ahoy wanna be cookies to home made or brand name. Oh, and I tend to eat 8-10 or so at a sitting. With a big glass of milk. Mmmm.
TV – I love Alias. Yeah, I know it’s about as plausible as a Nader victory this November, but I enjoy it. Too me its just far enough away from ludicrous to be entertainment. The other thing that’s embarasing about it is that most guys that watch only only do so to oggle at Jennifer Garner, but I actually like the story (and try not to oggle at Jennifer Garner).
Cars – I am a car guy at heart. I have a classic T’bird in the garage now (1960 Convertible) and long for a sportier ride than my current Escort. But I absolutely love minivans. No real guy likes these mommy-mobiles, but I think they’re one of the best things in vehicles to come along. No other vehicle can match a minivan for the combination of drivebility, interior space, people hauling ability, comfort and economy. The more manly SUV usually costs more, has less space (except the real biggies), gets worse economy and drives worse.
Well, there’s my list, what’s yours? Don’t forget to go to Alien Soil and read Daniel’s too.

My friend Virusdoc has a cool post today about acquiring stuff that other folks throw out. Although not as ‘active’ as he, I too appreciate the joy of finding gems in other’s trash. Some of my finds:

• Back in junior high school, a friend of mine had no bike, her family didn’t have the money to buy her one. Well, our neighbor was throwing away a bike that needed some help. I snatched it up and either I bought parts for it (not likely, how much $$ does a 6th grader have for that kind of thing?) or just patched it up with stuff I had and gave it to her.
• Right after we moved into our first apartment with a washer/dryer hook up this avacado green washer and dryer showed up at the dumpster. I quickly dragged them into our basement. The washer turned out to be no good, but a $10 belt and and afternoon of work and the dryer was just fine.
• When we moved into that apartment mentioned above, the previous tenant had left a bunch of stuff behind. They were moving out of state and there was no room on the truck I guess. Unfortunately the guys painting the apartment got some of the better things like a CD boombox and microwave, but we got a stuffed chair and ottoman, office chair with casters, wire office cart and a large file sorting tray, sort of like a mega in and out box.
• The best one, however, was a few years ago. I was delivering newspapers in the AM to bring in extra money to allow Maria to stay at home with our 2 kids. I learned that a woman at church was about to junk her ’88 Subaru wagon. She got a new car and didn’t feel right about selling the old clunker and it’s troubles to anyone. I offered her what the junkyard would give her ($30 – $50), but she said if I wanted it I could have it, but warned me it was always overheating. I got it home, put in a gallon of water and drove it for over a year on the paper route, adding water every couple of weeks. The only thing it needed during that time was a timing belt, which I changed myself for less than $50. The belt broke a second time when I was done with the route and I donated it to charity. It brought $75 at auction.

I must admit, however, I am a little self conscious about riffling through stuff at the curb. Most of my ‘finds’, like the car, haven’t been that public. I’ve past by some stuff because I didn’t want to be seen out ‘dumpster diving’. Still, it’s nice to get free stuff and give it a new life.

This is either kinda cool or really goofy, I’ll let you decide which. I have no idea what ‘Book Meme’ is, but I saw it at the Thinklings and thought I’d play along. Here’s mine:

After being asked to speak on the subject of grace recenttly, I was told that people would enjoy my talks because grace was ‘in’ in Texas churches.
Milton Jones, Grace the Heart of the Fire

Frankly, I was hoping for a better quote from such a great book. In the spirit of fairness, my wife’s Heal you Headache book by David Buchholz, M.D. was just as close, Here’s what it says:

Somatosensory symptoms of migraine include numbness, tingling, pins and needles and falling-asleep feelings on one or both sides of the head, face, neck or body.

Hey, you can play along too:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
Oh, I followed the links from the Thinklings back through someting like 6 or 7 websites. We all need hobbies. 🙂

While I was in Wisconsin I rediscovered my interest in science. If you’re like me, however, you may love science but I never took a science class in college (despite earning a Bachelors of Science) so much of it gets over my head pretty quickly. There was this Popular Science magazine laying around at my friend’s parent’s house and I read this article about some way out there radical theories about the nature of the universe and how many dimensions we live in. Very well written article that manages to make mind blowing concepts pretty understandable and even humorous. I am not going to attempt to explain it, you’ll have to go read it yourself, but here’s snippet:

If the following seems ridiculous, far-fetched or just outright outlandish to you, rest assured: It is. It will probably hurt your brain, as it has hurt mine, and as it most definitely hurts the brains of those who come up with this stuff for a living. The following asks you to accept ideas that are counter to the fundamental basis of our experience, the framework through which we comprehend everything from setting down a coffee cup to the arc of a home run as it sails into the upper deck. The basic point of what follows — and by the way, what follows is not fanciful provocation but has been worked into contemporary consciousness by the brainiest physicists alive today — is that everything that you have ever experienced has in some small but significant way been an illusion. Why? Because everything you have ever experienced you have understood as happening in three dimensions of space — up-down, left-right and front-back. Yet this is not how things happen. Things happen in more than three dimensions of space; to see them in only three is to succumb to a trick that the universe is constantly playing on us.

I recieved this in an email with the desciption that “NASA calls this picture “The Eye of God.” Well, a little research revealed that it indeed was in NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day back on May 10, 2003, but there’s no record of NASA calling “The Eye of God” according to About.com’s Urban Legends and Folklore site.
Still a cool picture though.
My first try at getting an image in a post. I think I’m getting the hang of this web thing.