When you have One Job... Do it Right

I wore a 'safari necklace' to work today. It's made of wooden beads and wooden animals. (Giraffe, tiger, elephant, lion, etc) It's very pretty and I get lots of compliments on it. There's one part I don't like about this necklace, and that is the back of it; the part that lays on the back of my neck. It's made of alternating wooden beads & discs all the way around. This results in the wooden discs either hurting my neck, or catching my hair in them, or both. Usually both.

I was showing it to a co-worker, and remarked about the disadvantage of it, and she had this to say,"You know, they have ONE job, it's to make a necklace. You'd think they could do it RIGHT and think about the person wearing it and design it for comfort as well as appearance. One Job! That's all they had to do. Why couldn't they do it Right?"

She said it all.... I rest my case.

Salad & Water -- vs. -- Quarter Pounder, Fries & Coke

I walked into McDonald's today for a quick lunch "to go".
As I stared up at the menu and was impressed that they offered a "healthy" option combo of salad & bottled water. This lunch included the Asian Salad and a bottle of Dasani water. (By the way, for those of you who don't know, Dasani is "purified" water, NOT spring water)

I said to the clerk, "I wonder why a 'salad & water' costs more than a 'burger, fries and a coke'?!"
She was confused so I pointed to the sign up above, which showed the salad as $6.19 and with tax I had just paid $4.59 for the #2 combo.

Well she didn't know, so she asked another person, who fumbled for an answer, during which, a 3rd person leaned into the conversation and said,
"Because the salad costs more to put together."
"hmmm", I said, "salad, mandarin orange segments and sliced almonds vs. meat, bread, potatoes, and a soft drink... I don't think so. "

Why do they think they need to charge us more just because people are suddenly caring what they put in their bodies?

I'm just not 'buying' it. And so I didn't.... and I won't.

Flowers for Mother's Day? ...Order in April! and DONT use 1-800-Flowers!

I don't normally speak poorly of a company on the first time they fail to come thru with what they advertise, but this is the 2nd time...

"1-800-Flowers" or online at www.1800flowers.com ... for the 2nd time DID NOT deliver the flowers I ordered.

The first time was for a birthday, my daughter's birthday, and it was 3-4 years ago. I ordered those with plenty of notice... 3-4 days, and they never did show up! I swore then that I'd never use them again, and I waited a good long time before giving them a second chance. This year... that 2nd chance came... and they flopped.

On Friday, May 12, I ordered flowers for my mom to be delivered to her at her office. She has room for them there and can enjoy them all week long... The website promised SAME DAY DELIVERY if the order was placed before 2-pm in the time zone of the recipient. I made sure of making that deadline - I ordered at 9-am central, which was 7-am in her time zone...so they had 7 hours of advance notice!

Not only did the flowers not arrive on Friday, but they called me later and asked for her home address so they could deliver them on Saturday... I supplied them with not only her address but also her Cell phone number to make arrangements in case they missed her again. Did they arrive?... NO Did they call her?.... NO.

It's Sunday now.... still no flowers. I called them and asked what they intended on doing....

Yes, they did agree to issue a full refund, but that doesn't put flowers on my mother's table, now does it?

gRAMMAR gONE bAD

I'm sure you have heard a few of these that just make your skin crawl... due to all the grammar lessons we endured in our schooling... feel free to add some of your own!

"I’ve ran into that" -- SHOULD BE -- "I have run into that" (or) "I ran into that"
"I seen it" ---SHOULD BE -- "I have seen it" (or) "I saw it"
"The report will be ran overnight" --SHOULD BE -- "The report will be run overnight" (or) "The report will run overnight"
"We was going to call you" --SHOULD BE -- "We WERE going to call you"
"Was You?" -----> "WERE you?"

Leave me some space!

It seems lately I am posting about traffic gripes, but that is what's griping me lately so that's what I write.

Did you ever wish you could have a way of telling other drivers how you feel? Bumper stickers are wonderful but many times written too small, thus defeating the purpose. This morning I entered the interstate and came up to speed as quickyo as possible. To accomodate this, a car in the 'slow lane' moved over (thank you!) to allow me on. It seems she (yes, SHE) also decided just HOW fast I would get up to and when it would be safe to move back into the 'slow lane' in FRONT of me. And I DO mean directly in front of me! How did she know I was done speeding up? (I wasn't) But time and time again people do this, change lanes in front of me, and leave very little space between us. This leaves me no where to go, but to change to the 'fast lane' and pass them. This leads to my Leap Frogging that I referred to in my earlier post of April 28... it's an endless and fruitless move....

So please... when changing lanes... LEAVE ME SOME SPACE.

Thankyouverymuch.

Leapfrog?

While traveling the 4 lane highway to Bloomington to get to work, I came up behind a slow moving vehicle who was trying to pass a semi. It was difficult for him, I guess, as he was barely going any faster than the truck. Ok,... so I gave him a little space and stayed with him. The fellow behind me (and it was a fellow) didn't see all this and decided he could go faster if he were in front of me. Now, there are only 2 lanes in our direction, so he had to get in the slow lane and go around me to pass... and he did. And then he saw .... the hold up was not ME.

"I hope you're happy", I muttered to him. "You're SO much farther ahead now!" LOL

This leap-frog behavior continued as we managed to get around the truck, he pulled off into the right lane finally and I passed him and several others. For the next 20 miles we kept changing places and finally as we both exited at the same exit, one behind the other, it was evident.... It really doesn't matter... we both got there at the same time.

What makes people do this? Why do they think it will make a difference? All I can say is... What's Up With That?

What Happened to Teaching Manners to Kids?

Note: This happened a few weeks ago and I'm just getting around to posting it.

I'm the first person to agree that kids ought to be allowed to act like kids and have fun. Along with that though, comes teaching them when to be quiet and respectful of other people.

Case in point, someone brought their kids into work today. How did I know? I could hear them from 40 yards away... squealing and squeaking and squawking...and jumping off of a chair as if they were from Dr Doolittle's last cast. I don't know how young or old they were... but I do know that whatever parent/grandparent/guardian brought them in should be silencing them and teaching them to use their 'inside voice' ... even the dog on TV has been taught to do that! I also know that My mother or grandmother would never have allowed this behavior in public, or doesn't the "adult in charge" realize it is interrupting people who are trying to work? I guess they brought the kids in to see where Mommy or Daddy works.... or perhaps the babysitter or Grandma was taking them shopping or the like and stopped by for a few moments...

...Ahhh finally, I heard someone "Shhh" them... after all this time (at least 15 minutes have gone by.. long enough to irritate me, distract me and move me to writing this!) I thought perhaps the word "Shhh" had been eliminated from the American Parent's Language. Many times lately I have been in stores and heard kids screeching at their parents for one thing or another... the parent IGNORES them. I realize that "ignoring demanding kids" is one method of correction, but when it is interfering with someone else's shopping, reading, or whatever the public place is for... it shouldn't be practiced at that time. Parent's PLEASE use some discretion as to how you discipline your child... or in some cases... Please DICIPLINE your child!... That's what public restrooms are for... (hint hint)

Whatever the public place is... there is a proper behavior they need to learn for that situation. If you take them into an office,... Please... inform them AHEAD of time (just before you open the door to go in) that they will have to be quiet and careful to not disturb others that are working... at least I should be working instead of writing this... and I WOULD be... IF I could concentrate. Maybe it's time for lunch...

It's NOT a turn lane!

I live in a rural areal where the main 'street' is a highway... Route 99 we'll call it. There are roads that cross this highway leading to residential homes, churches and the like. In this area of the state, they didn't see fit to paint in 'right-turn lanes' to get the traffic off the main road while they are slowing down to approach their turn. Some people pull over into the painted 'shoulder area' on the right and use it for that purpose and others choose not to ...since it's not actually a 'turn lane'. I don't know the legality of using this area as a turn lane, but that isn't the issue I'm bringing here today.

The issue I have, are with the drivers BEHIND the car that is turning. It seems that those people (I don't mean to generalize, not all, but many of them fall into this category) presume or at least think the turning driver SHOULD move over into the shoulder area to turn. In fact some of them will not slow down at all, thinking perhaps they can coerce the driver into moving into that 'lane'.

HELLO!!!!... it ISN'T A TURN LANE.

Whether we CAN or not... it isn't put there for this purpose. Hence... it would really be nice if you would quit EXPECTING us to move into it and just come to terms with the fact that if You don't want to slow down while waiting for us to make our turn.... CHANGE LANES; move into the left lane & go around us!