Dear Sears, **** Off

I sent a comment to Sears when I went to the website to search for sewing machines and was attacked by a Prom ad – including clicking paparazzi cameras and techno music. I complained.

This was their response:

Dear Meredith,

Thank you for contacting sears.com regarding your inquiry. We apologize
that you are not satisfied with our advertisement. Unfortunately, the
only way to avoid this is to turn the volume off on your computer. We
thank you for your feedback and appreciate that you took the time to let
us know that we did not meet your expectations.

Look for Great Ideas throughout the store and find Sears exclusive
innovations from great brands like Sony, Kenmore, NordicTrack, Craftsman
and Reebok.

Shop sears.com now to pick up great products for the season

Sears Customer Care

That kills me. The only way to avoid it is to NOT PUT MUSIC IN THE DAMN WEBSITE!! This goes for every other commercial site out there. No music. And especially for those of you who still insist on using midis in your personal site. Stop it. We hate the music. It gets us in trouble when we are surfing at work. It annoys the crap out of us, especially when we can’t turn it off.

But back to Sears. To add insult to injury, they bomb me with ads in the customer service response. I’m not sure I want that sewing machine after all.

As a side note, I just went to the website now, to find the link for the sewing machine and the obnoxious ad for prom is gone. Hmm….

Current Pet Peeves

I’m in a funk. Work is a bit….hmm….difficult right now. Ok, try bloody f*cking frustrating. And other than that I don’t have a lot of news. So for your reading pleasure I’m going to rant for a bit. Ignore if you like.

People who send every email marked as highly important. It’s not & I don’t care.

Big trucks that drive on my bumper. You are bigger than me and it feels like you are going to run me over. All that does is make me want to drive as slow as I can to really piss you off.

Cars with loud bass and open windows outside my office. I shouldn’t have to hear your crappy rap music in my 4th story office.

Husbands who stay up past 11 pm. And therefore keep me up.

Asking for my input and then completely ignoring and disregarding everything I’ve said. Especially when my way is better than yours, or makes more sense.

Wasting my time by requesting a 30 minute meeting for something that a 5 second email could cover.

And for good measure, the Writer’s Strike. Get back to work you lazy sods. I need some new TV.

Hopefully after I work on the computer a bit, the mac will be ready for WOW again. Maybe playing WoW will help me release some of my frustrations.

Our Home Should Be Our Sanctuary

This article kind of annoyed me. I’m not really going to get into the whole Joe Horn debate. I’m slightly on the fence with the issue to be honest, and it’s a can of worms I don’t want to delve into in my blog. I’m really NOT political.

But I had to leave a comment.

As someone who was recently robbed, I can tell you that there is a lingering feeling of vulnerability. We replaced the knocked down door, and most of the things that were taken, added deadbolt locks. I’ve lost my grandmother’s wedding and birthstone rings forever. The only things I have left of hers (other than my memories) are now gone. I’ll never get to pass them down to my daughter. I can never replace that.

I can tell you this, the police had me file a report, but they don’t really care about finding this guy. So he’ll go on to rob someone else’s house too. They gave me no hope that my stuff would be recovered, despite having pictures and serial numbers.

I’m having an alarm system put in. Maybe that will help me not jump at every noise, wondering if the guy is back to get the stuff he didn’t take the first time. Every noise I hear at night scares me. I keep wondering if he’ll come back now that he’s scoped the place out. If they want in, they’ll get in, locks, deadbolts and alarms aside.

It’s not about personal property being more important than a human life. The issue is that we should be able to feel safe in our own homes. That doesn’t happen once you’ve been robbed. The police are too busy with “real” crimes to care about burglary. In the grand scheme of things, there are worse crimes.

I’m glad we weren’t home when our robbery happened. I don’t know what we would have done. But, I want to learn to use Jonathan’s gun just in case. Could I shoot someone unarmed? I don’t know. But a warning shot might scare them off. Someone breaking into my house with the intent to kill me or hurt my family? Hell yes, I’ll shoot them.

What Can You Do With Old Pantyhose?

I’m lugging up a little more than my usual to work today. I have the Mac, my protein shakes since I’m still on liquids, and Apple Cider. I bend over to drop off the cider I brought (to make Dad’s famous Winter Apple Cider – recipe later) and I feel a *rip*. No big, probably just my pantyhose.

Well, yes. Two seconds later I feel a huge draft near my ass. Sure enough, I’d ripped the hose part completely away from the support panty part. Lovely. So now I’m going to spend the day with one leg encased like a sausage, and the other as half a thigh high.

No, going barefoot is not an option for me.

Ever.

I even sleep in socks.

Note to self, bring extra pair of hose/tights to work. I might have to run to the nearby ghetto Kroger.

Dad’s Winter Apple Cider Recipe

Ingredients:
1 bottle apple cider
handful of Imperial Red Hots
2 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves

Directions:
Pour the cider into a coffee urn.
Add the other ingredients to the basket.
Close and perk.
When done, enjoy! Easy peasy and delish.
Note: You can adjust the sweetness by adjusting the amount of red hots you add.

This is a family favorite once we get cold weather. I’ve made it every day this week at work and it seems to be a hit here too.

Crime Hits Close To Home

I came home today to discover that someone had broken into our house. They broke into the garage, and from there into our bedroom. They cleaned out my jewelry box (which included my grandmother’s wedding ring and her garnet birthstone ring), and took one of Jonathan’s laptops and my camera. I called the police and we’re filing a report. The laptop and my grandmother’s rings are the things that upset me most. Her rings are irreplaceable. They kicked in the door, so we’re having to replace that as well. I think it’s time to move to an alarm system.

All in all, we’re OK. It could have been worse. Though I’m not sure I’ll get over losing my grandmother’s rings. I’m going to have a glass of wine now.

I could have been snotty…

but I wasn’t. I got a voice mail yesterday from someone at work. Someone I’ve met once, and we’ve only exchanged 1 or 2 emails. The first comment she made was a rather patronizing one regarding spell check on our email. I should make sure I use it. Hmmm…. I do use it, and I’ve only sent her the one email ever. That immediately put me on guard. The next comment was regarding me asking about phoning in… blah, blah, blah….

I called her back. My immediate reaction was to say to her: “You probably haven’t read my resume, but I have a B.A. & an M.A. in English. I’m capable of spelling and as an IT person, I’m certainly capable of utilizing spell check. This phone call obviously wasn’t meant for me. Perhaps the next time you are almost nasty to the person you are calling, you should double check your intended recipient.”

I didn’t say that. I just told her I had no idea what she was talking about in that voice mail. She confused me with someone else at work – who is in a different department. The only thing this other person and I have in common is the first initial of our first name, and that we both worked for my original company before the merge. It’s really kind of hard to confuse us.

Out of Sorts

I’m out of sorts today. I think this is one of those days I should have just stayed home. The feeling of my office has changed, and I don’t feel like I belong anymore. All the people I like have left. People I don’t like stayed. I dread checking my email and answering the phone. Every day is just a drag, and I’m counting down until I get to leave. Which Jonathan and I agreed would be when I get pregnant. Well, after the baby is born. But I’m not pregnant yet. Which leads to me my other topic…

I haven’t talked about this much. Jonathan and I have been trying to conceive for six months now. It’s still early, so we haven’t resorted to drastic measures – no drugs or testing. It is disappointing, even if it’s normal. According to some research I’ve done, it usually takes 6 months to a year for most couples to conceive. So really, we’re still in the early days.

It’s really difficult not to get your hopes up each month, and that two week waiting period is a nightmare. I always wonder, should I take this medication? Is that safe, on the off-chance that I could be pregnant? So mostly I just act like I am. Which kind of makes it worse when I’m not. At times I think to myself, “I gave us drinking and smoking for this?!”

I’m sure everything happens for a reason. I really do believe that. So I’m hoping the fact that we haven’t gotten pregnant has a purpose. Maybe so we can get all the debt paid off. Maybe so we can still afford to travel. Once we’ve done those things we’re meant to do, it will happen. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

It feels like a long process for me because I started “prepping” for conception last year. I had my surgery to get down to a healthier weight. I quit smoking for New Year’s. I started pre-natal vitamins. I changed my diet to increase my calcium intake. I started reading books on pregnancy. I’ve spent the last six months tracking my BBT and just starting using my Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor.

Sorry for the rant, but as I said, I’m feeling out of sorts today.

On My Freaking Soapbox!

Ok, I ran across this at IDLYITW.

I don’t watch American Idol. I have in the past, but honestly the shows where they are weeding out contestants bother me. A lot. Suffice it to say, I haven’t been following this year’s group.

Apparently MeMe Roth of National Action Against Obesity says Jordin is too fat to be the American Idol. I checked out this website, being kind of sensitive to fatty comments.

For the record, I don’t think the cute, young AI is fat. Or overweight. Or “thick”, or “chunky” or any other adjectives.

I don’t disagree with everything MeMe is saying. I think she does have some good points, about proper nutrition, feeding kids real food instead of junk food. Jonathan and I had already decided to do some of this with our own children. Some of it makes sense.

But nowhere on her site does it say what MeMe’s qualifications are to be telling us about obesity. She doesn’t appear to have any medical training, or nutritional, or any at all. But as there’s no information about who the group is on the website, I’m just guessing here. There are pretty links to her appearances on TV, though.

Picking on fat people is “sanctioned” discrimination. People get away with it, because “health issues.” No. You just can’t discriminate against minorities, gays, women, etc. anymore without some advocacy group shouting in the media. But fat people don’t have an advocate. So it kind of pisses me off when I see women like MeMe Roth, who probably never had a weight problem in her life and therefore doesn’t understand, picking on a cute little teenager.

Note to skinny people: fat people know we are fat, and that we have higher health risks. We don’t need anyone else to point it out to us.

UPDATE: 6:32 PM

Here’s a “bio” I found for MeMe Roth at her blog site.

About MeMe Roth
MeMe Roth, president and founder of National Action Against Obesity, is host and organizer of the Wedding Gown Challenge, where women enter into marriage at a healthy weight and maintain it for a lifetime. As an anti-obesity advocate, Ms. Roth’s efforts to eliminate junk food from schools, eradicate Secondhand Obesityâ„¢ (obesity handed down from one generation to the next, as well as from citizen to citizen), and to celebrate women committed to remaining fit have been featured on FOXNews’ The O’Reilly Factor w/ Bill O’Reilly, Your World with Neil Cavuto, CBS’s The Early Show, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Post, Playboy Magazine, The New Jersey Star-Ledger, TimeOut New York, Big Apple Parent, WABCRadio, 106.7 LiteFM, Q104.3, Parents Magazine, Vicinity Magazine, Suburban Essex Magazine, School Administrator, American School Board Journal, The Winnipeg Sun, UPN Channel 9 News, News Target, Baristanet.com, The Item, WCRN Boston, BigFatBlog, Nippon TV, The Associated Press and Health Magazine. Ms. Roth’s agenda: “Let’s finally recognize obesity as abuse—abuse of our children, abuse of ourselves—and together take action against it.”

I still find it highly suspicious that there is not a word about her education and training. What gives her the credentials to be an expert on obesity? It seems to me that her only qualifications are that she sends out copious press releases. I love the fact that there is NO personal information about her available on the web. A search of my full name would disclose at least where I attended college. Nothing on Mrs. Roth.

I Really Hate Barking Dogs

So I’ve been watching TV, trying to relax after a super crappy day and I’ve literally been listening to the neighbor’s dog bark for a half hour. Literally. I don’t know what I can do about it. Yap, yap, yap, yap, non-stop for 30 minutes.

They are outside and apparently don’t care that their dog is an obnoxious, yappy earsore. Heck, they don’t even tell the dog to be quiet most of the time, and when they do it goes something like this: “I’m gonna whoop your ass boy!” (Imagine redneck drawl here)

Seriously, anyone have any ideas on what I can do? I’ve thought about one of those supersonic devices, but I don’t want to have to spend any money. I’ve yelled over the fence, to no avail. Any other thoughts? Do I have any recourse?

HA! Another Reason…

for all of you to cover up your feet.

Podiatrists warn against spike heels, pointy toes, ballet flats — even flip-flops

Some of you know already that I have a foot aversion.

I don’t like them. I don’t want to see them. I don’t even want to see my own feet, though they gross me out a lot less than other people’s feet. I knew I was going to marry Jonathan when it was 6 months before I saw his feet. (He wears socks around the house like I do.) Some of my friends (you know who you are – Heather!) like to torture me by putting their feet on me. Ugh.

And seriously, some of you should never be allowed to leave the house in open toed shoes. You know who you are. If you have that wonky second toe, cover it up. Even if you’ve got a nice pedicure, that can’t disguise your wonky toe. Men, get a pedicure if you insist on wearing sandals. We don’t need to see your crusty feet. It won’t “unman” you. Otherwise, wear some freaking socks.

Ok, rant done. But seriously, read the article and cover your feet. In sensible shoes.