RV'ing

1-28-12 Saturday (All You Can mEAT)

2012-01-29T11:47:00.001-05:00

So. This morning at 7am, Jim and I awake to Dasher throwing up in the bed. Under the covers. Between us. When I heard it, I woke up and pushed the covers down. It was too late. Luckily it wasn’t very much. It was enough to get us out of bed and to go through the sheets to the mattress pad. It certainly could have been worse; it could have been 6am.

At about 8:30am, the drywall guy arrived. With his head up close to the ceiling holes, he realized that the insulation is missing. It was probably wet and thrown out by the plumber. The drywall guy wasn’t prepared with insulation so he’ll have to come back. It’s really not his fault. The builder doesn’t typically have insulation between floors, however, Jim and I paid extra to have that done.

Jim worked on taxes while I washed bedding and clothes, vacuuming and mopping, and all that fun stuff that you wish you were doing.

We’ll be partaking in Charlotte Restaurant Week tonight with dinner at Chima Brazilian Steakhouse. I’ve been wanting to go there and tonight’s the night. There will be a group of 8. Here’s tonight’s menu:

Fellow blogger and Carolinian, Flartus, commented on my previous post about our experience at Bonterra. Flartus’ other half is a chef at a restaurant that partakes in Restaurant Week.

The problem was that the place was empty… it was only 5pm. I was disappointed that Open Table only had that time open when clearly we could have been there later.

Thanks to Flartus,I do have a better understanding of what happens to the restaurant during Charlotte Restaurant Week (aka Queen’s Feast). She explains the behind-the-scenes info here. More about our Chima experience later…

We ordered blinds from American Blind and Wallpaper Company at the end of November. Jim had emailed them asking about the delay. They said Levolor was experiencing material shortages and they knocked off 10% from the price. It’s taken a long time but they arrived yesterday! Jim installed the five in the dining room and office. Similar to the ones in the bedroom, we ordered top down blinds. We like these the most because it allows for light and privacy during the day and privacy at night.

Mike and Billy met us at our house for the trip over to Chima. The plan was to meet everyone else at 8, go somewhere and have a few drinks and then return to Chima for our 9pm reservation. Everyone got stuck in uptown traffic so we ended up hanging out at the bar inside of Chima. Here’s some photos of the night:

Above: Jim, Billy and Mike await the others arrival.

Above: Erin & Josh

Above: Ja-Nessa & Jason

Above/Below: Ja-Nessa is served lamb.

Above: Billy & Mike.

Above: Josh & Billy.

Above: Jim & Garret

Above: Erin & Josh

We had a lot of fun. The food was excellent. The salad bar was far from ordinary. It had many unique, if not strange, dishes. My favorite meats that I had was the flank steak and chicken wrapped in bacon. Delish. I didn’t even get to try some meats as I filled up fast on the salad bar. Trust me, this was a good thing. I left that place not feeling overly stuff like I’ve been known to do.

If you’ve never been to one before, a Brazilian steakhouse is a MEAT buffet. The appetizers and side dishes are brought to the table, family style. The salad bar is a get up and serve yourself type of thing as for the meat… servers (aka Gauchos) come around with meat on a huge skewer. The skewer usually has different sides with varying degrees to doneness. “Top sirloin?” “How would you like that cooked?” They start to carve it right of the skewer while you use small tongs to hold onto the piece which is being served like so:

Each person has a disk/sign that they flip according to: ready for more meat or on hold. The Gouchos look for the “yes” side and then offer up the meat they have.

Stock photos:

Above: Salad bar

Above: Alcohol bar

Above: Meat bar… Not really since they come to you.

It was yummy. I’m told that regular price for a place like this is typically $50-60 per person. Ouch. Thank goodness for Restaurant Week!

1-25-12 Wednesday (Calculate A Higher Return)

2012-01-28T14:07:00.001-05:00

I swapped with a coworker to have the morning off so that the plumber, drywall people and trim/molding guy could make repairs.

The plumber needs to fix the caulk (again) at the master tub spout. I think the spout is too loose too.

The trim guy needs to replace baseboard from the floor repair a couple of weeks ago.

The drywall people needs to patch various holes from the previous water leaks and some nail pops. Jim wants to leave the cut outs for the plumbing just in case. He’ll later trim it out to make it more attractive in both linen closets. In exchange for not fixing the 2 plumbing cut outs, we’ll have them fix the old dinette fixture spot as well as where Jim had to fish the speaker wires into the wall.

Everyone arrived just about at the same time. That’s good I suppose, although I felt like a party host trying to juggle guests. The drywall guys didn’t have any drywall. Really. Basically they “weren’t told about the size of the hole” so they left to go to some of the other construction sites on the block and see if there was any around.

The plumber accessed the pipes in the wall, made the spout tighter, I think he trimmed the pipe, not sure and then recaulked.

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I’ve been kind of down on work lately. Sometimes I feel like there’s so many obstacles at my job to make a sale or make incentive. They calculated incentive for the past quarter and it didn’t look right to me. With the help of my coworker, Ja-Nessa, I found about $800. That’s a lot of money. There’s so many of us that don’t double check and I wonder how much we’re losing as a result? Unfortunately, I had no idea how to manually calculate my numbers which describes many of us on the sales floor.

It’s so important that we have great customer satisfaction surveys. On a scale of 1-5, only a 5 counts. A 4 or less = 0. Do you know how many people don’t always give top scores? Unfortunately, too many 4’s equate to 0 incentive no matter how hard I worked for it. I call it “incentive control”.

Meanwhile, a wonderful panel of people sit around all day listening to some of my calls, waiting to score me down for missing a word in my script. Maybe they’ll catch me forgetting some obscure ever-changing rule published in a database that’s difficult to navigate. Another form of “incentive control”. I often joke that I might get scored down if I wasn’t rubbing my tummy and spinning around while citing special disclosures to my client. Don’t laugh, I think it happens.

I try to think about the great aspects of my job. Let’s see, having one to begin with is a plus I suppose. I like that I don’t have to get all dressed up like I’m going to Walmart or something.

There’s other negatives that I can’t discuss here because they’d be to specific.

I can easily take time off of work. I can leave early or come in late with little penalty. The pay scale is fair. I like my coworkers. I’ve made friends at work. It’s close to home. Sure, there’s a lot of plusses but also a lot of room for improvement.

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Anyway, Saturday night is Chima Brazilian Steakhouse! It’s the 2nd and last restaurant we’re doing for Restaurant Week. Stay tuned!

1-22-12 Sunday (Bride Of Man Stuffing His Face)

2012-01-24T20:19:00.001-05:00

Today is snow tubing day at Hawksnest in Seven Devils, NC. Due to rain they were closed Saturday. This morning we checked the website for updates several times. Eventually this update appeared:

So with snow pants, gloves and hats packed, we drove approximately 2 hours. We stopped off for lunch at Canyons of the Blue Ridge, a place we liked last year. We liked the food and the view. Unfortunately, there was so much fog, it was difficult seeing 20 feet out ahead. I just imagined we were up in the clouds.

I looked across the room and spotted this woman and her husband:

I thought of this:

What can I say? Her hair was very tall, almost egg shaped. Poor thing. Bless her heart.

Onward to the snow tubing! We arrived and were disappointed by the scene. No snow. Just the man-made snow on the actual course.

We entered the parking lot and saw some people who were getting ready to leave. We asked how it was. They said it was getting slushy and people were getting stuck half way down but they had fun. At $30 a person, Jim and I decided to skip it. We watched some tubers and confirmed it wouldn’t be as fun. Just to prove we were there (and because we’re a cute couple):

We decided that despite the 2 our drive each way, the conversation and the scenic ride were worth it. We managed to plan a vacation. Virginia in May/June, details are being worked out. Anyway, we stopped at a huge antique store and browsed. We then stopped at a gay friendly campground called Starlite Trailer Lodge to check out their property. We may consider it as weekend getaway in the future. I’m not sure.

1-21-12 Saturday (Babies Make Me Sick)

2012-01-21T19:45:00.001-05:00

It’s been a week since I last posted. I guess with being back to work it’s the typical day. Work, dinner, TV. Maybe we need to get out of the house in the evenings just to be active or something?

Last Sunday we went to see Twilight. During any type of horror movie, I’m fine. I like them. I can separate fiction from non-fiction in my mind. There was a birthing scene that made me feel ill. The top of my head was covered in sweat and I got very nauseated. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind to “think it through” to calm down and instead I was caught up in the moment. The LONG scene was torture for me and eventually I was fine. I told Jim about it afterward and we had a chuckle. I’m not sure where all that came from. Oh, and 2 large sodas, and a large popcorn was $18.75. Holy shit!

We were supposed to go snow tubing on Sunday but with me having to work Saturday, we just had to much to do and figured we’d go this weekend.

On Monday, my second weigh in, I lost 2.8 pounds. This weekend and next will be tough. We’ll be enjoying Charlotte Restaurant Week once again. Nom, nom, nom. More details later after tonight’s visit!

Wednesday, I swapped schedules with a coworker and went in at 11:30. I had a dentist appointment. As usual, problems were spotted. I’ll be undergoing yet another root planing (aka deep cleaning, aka scaling) which will be broken up into 2 visits. I’m so sad by this. About 2 years ago I added flossing to my daily routine. Because I went a while between cleanings and my condition is marginal, my doctor felt it beneficial to get a good start. I also have a couple of front teeth with a 2 millimeter movement so I’m gonna need to see a periodontist who maybe able to help with synthetic bone or something. I was so distraught. What am I doing wrong? Jim and I only used ADA approved toothpaste and brushes. We floss. The hygienist swears by Sonicare. Anyone care to give me advice? It looks like there’s a few kinds. I’m gonna see if I can get a prescription from the dentist (Dave) and maybe I can use my Health Care Spending Account on it? I started looking/comparing the models on the Phillips website. So many choices, so much money.

Work has been good. I’m definitely enjoying my new position. I’m doing a lot more Home Equity applications with my clients as well as improving their return on deposits. I don’t know much at all about investments, brokerage, etc nor do I need to in my current role. I deal with CD’s, checking, and savings as well as loans and lines of credit other than mortgages. Some of it is so easy some of it is hard or complicated due to state and federal regulations combined with various scripts I have to remember to read during certain situations. Oy.

I forgot to mention, a couple of weeks ago, Jim and I booked flights to Florida for the end of February. Separately. It was his idea for he and I to do separate long weekends for a couple of reasons. Someone would be home for Dasher and Clea. #2 is so we don’t have to split our time there with our families but rather spend the entire time with our individual families. I’ll see my mom and dad, grandmother, aunt, cousin and perhaps some other family. In addition I’ll visit with Mike and Dave.

We met up with Deanna and Dave (my dentist) for dinner at Bonterra for Restaurant Week. Below is the 3 course $30 menu we ordered from. Jim had the mushroom salad, filet, and cheese cake. It was OK. I had the feta croquettes, pork tenderloin, and lava cake (I hate to think about how many points this was). Jim and I split the meats so we could enjoy a variety. When I cut into the pork it was raw. I had to send it back. It came back, mostly cooked. There was a VERY pink area Jim didn’t eat. It was not tender either. We had a great time with friends but I’ll pass on the restaurant in the future. We have one more restaurant to hit next weekend. I’m so excited about it too. Stay tuned.

And no, I didn’t ask Dave for a prescription for Sonicare. Why ruin dinner with dental talk? We did get to hear a few amusing stories from Deanna (The HR Lady). I love her stories.

Dr. Dave of University Dental

Deanna (The HR Lady) from Employers Advantage, LLC

2009: Bums, smoking, littering, and chicken bones in San Francisco.

2010: Failed gym attempts, cupcakes, laziness.

2011: Sexist calculators, Restaurant Week.

1-14-12 Saturday (Scary Cutting Things)

2012-01-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

It's my last Saturday at work and then I'm on the Monday to Friday 9-5:30 dream hour schedule! I've been on the new early hours for a few weeks and now with the addition of the weekends off, it will be great.

On Wednesday the carpet people, framers, and plumber came to the house to take care of a few things on our warranty list. A major issue upstairs was that the hall floor squeaked and was sunken in a little. It was actually a concern during the walk through and I convinced Jim to turn the other cheek... then it got worse. So the carpet people pulled back the carpet, the framer - not farmer - pulled up the floor and had to shave down a truss or something so that the floor board could lay flat. Using a noisy sawzall device, which scared the bejebus out of the cat and dog (and maybe me a little), they corrected the problem. The carpet people came by a little later and all is back to normal.

2 spots in the master bathroom creaked very loudly. I was worried they'd have to tear up the linoleum but it turns out that the floor to wall moldings were too tight causing the creaking when the floor flexed. Not that we feel the floor flex but I guess it's just enough. I'm so happy that it was a simple fix but still amazed such a "stupid" thing could cause a ruckus.

As for the plumbers... oy. All leaks have been addressed but the master shower temp control had some play so they replaced the valve. They also had to fix the flange behind the temp lever in the guest bath. I'm still unhappy with their latest and not so greatest caulking attempt. Look at the caulk. It looked bad the next day.

Weight Watchers in going well; on my first week I lost 5.8 pounds. Maybe water weight maybe fairy dust, I don’t care it’s an achievement and I’m happy. It’s really not that hard. A friend, Amy, is also on the diet and I was telling her about an Android app that you can scan barcodes and it calculates points. It’s so awesome. She immediately downloaded AN app and her and her husband went around the house playing with it. Through conversation I found out she downloaded the “real” Weight Watchers app that allowed integration into the points tracker with her iPhone! I searched the Android market and found the better app so Amy and I are grateful to one another. What a find!

While I worked my last Saturday, Jim did a couple of projects around the house. He installed a flexible track lighting in the kitchen over the bar area and a small chandelier over the dinette table. The amber shades on the track lighting set such a warm tone. I immediately loved it when I came home. We have yet to find a dining room chandelier that we like for the price we want to pay.

Above: Chandelier-less dining room. Well, there’s actually one that came with the house, isn’t centered and is pinned against the ceiling so we wouldn’t hit our heads on it during the move.

Above/below: Dinette light and ribbon track lighting. Oh, and wonderful holes that will be patched in a couple of weeks, left over from the plumbing leaks.

Above: Jim buried the last speaker wire so we’ll sweet talk the drywall guy into patching it.

Above: The living room.

After running several errands (returns and what-nots) we went to the motor home to get our snow pants. Snow tubing season is upon us! We then went to a Red Robin for dinner. It wasn’t our usual location and I’m glad for that. Service sucked. I went for a veggie burger on a whole grain bun with a side of steamed broccoli. I thought the flavor to be, well flavorless. The burger was way too thin. I do admire Red Robin’s website. The ability to build and customize your meal with nutritional info is fantastic:

I chose their gardenburger although they also offered a Boca burger. I don’t like Boca burgers all that much. I love the Morningstar Farms varieties, especially black bean. I LOVED the black bean burger I ate a Ice House last weekend. Oh well, a diet is about sacrificing.

1-7-12 Saturday (Santa And The Porta-Potty)

2012-01-07T08:14:00.001-05:00

OK, so to catch you up, on New Year’s eve morning, Grandma, Jim and I went to Mimi’s. The 3 of us enjoyed a delicious breakfast and a mimosa toast.

For dinner we went to Olive Garden. That was the extent of our New Year’s eve celebration.

Jim’s grandma left on New Year’s Day. Jim and I spent the day shopping, browsing, and whatever.

Monday a few things happened. It was my first day in my new position. The place was so empty though. All of the people in my previous department had the holiday off. I got double-time-and-a-half so I can’t complain although it’s my nature to complain so consider it a complaint. That was all tongue-twisty wasn’t it? Anyway, I would have preferred the time off. My first day went well; we weren’t terribly busy but thankfully not slammed with calls either.

I also started back up on Weight Watchers. I am the heaviest I have EVER been and I’m embarrassed about it. Enough so that I wasn’t going to post the details but then decided that perhaps it would be best to. I mean, then I can gloat about all the weight I lose. I am 214 pounds. Size 38 pants. It’s all in my belly. I get out of breath. I look terrible. I can’t bend over to tie my shoes. I have constant indigestion. My feet hurt no matter what shoes I wear. My back hurts 80% of the time. There’s just so much to it.

When I first started Weight Watcher’s I posted what I ate and such. I won’t be doing that. Honestly, I don’t have the time. I’ll definitely be bragging about any milestones.

On Tuesday night while cooking, I found some drops of "water" here and there on the dark wood floors. I thought it odd and wiped it up only to find that it was "muddy". Long story short, as I cleaned up various spots I found it to be diarrhea and later discovering it also had blood mixed in. It was from Dasher. I stopped everything from cooking and Jim took Dasher to Banfield (out of Petsmart). They ran some tests and such and diagnosed it as irritable bowel for the moment. He was prescribed an antibiotic, and some special soft food. He came home with Jim that night and we continued dinner. Later, I thought about what he had been eating. I've been giving him some rawhide sticks as treats. Small ones. Plus he has a large rawhide that he chews on from time to time. Facebook friends agreed that rawhide is evil and can tear a dog up so it's all going in the trash.

Disgustingly, for the week I've been inspecting his poop and it's solid so I'm hoping all is OK. We have a followup appointment for next week. The day after the event, someone from Banfield called to check up on Dasher. I was very impressed with that level of care. I'll be sure to let them know that too.

A couple of weeks ago I won a bid on a video game through eBay. I checked on the tracking number through USPS and it was “delivered” on the 29th. While researching, I didn’t realize eBay had the old address and Paypal had the new one especially since eBay owns Paypal. After work I went to the rental house and spoke to the new renter. Here’s the conversation (I recorded it with my phone):

I sound like a dork and I’m even more of a dork for making it into a video (which was a lot of work). Did the guy seem to hesitate a little?

It’s been a couple of days and I haven’t received any mail or cards that had previously written “not at this address”. Why didn’t my forwarding order take care of this? I guess I’ll stop by a post office since I can’t get a human on the post office phone number.

I stopped at the post office near my house and she tells me to go to the post office near my old house. I hate the post office. It’s about even with DMV. I go to the other post office and they tell me the item was redelivered yesterday and that they don’t show a forwarding order on file for me. Really? I did it online in September. You charged me $1. I’ve received mail with yellow stickers. You people suck. Why doesn't the online tracking show it being redelivered. You told me it would reflect and changes when a postal worker touches it. I stopped by the rental again and the wife answered. The husband came to the door as well and said they had it. Yay! I guess I was wrong about him.

Above/Below: Jim wanted my to take a photo of the Christmas lights before he took them down

Saturday morning (1-7-12), Jim opened the bedroom blings and spotted 9 deer at the lot on the other side of our drainage ditch. They went to the lot across the way and later back into the woods. We enjoyed watching them and a couple of them played here and there:

I took several photos from the bedroom and utility room. I love this stuff!

I posted the photo on Facebook this morning and someone wanted to know where Santa was. I laughed. I think he was using the porta-potty.

By the way, after all the hassle for the video game, it's not all that great... sigh.

12-30-11 Friday (Choosing A Door)

2011-12-30T18:20:00.001-05:00

On Monday I had off for observance of Christmas. Jim had to work. I grocery shopped, did laundry and cleaned the house. I got over to Ikea for a hell of a hanger deal:

I had to buy 2, put them in the car and then come inside for another 2. They’ll work rather nicely in our coat closet.

Later in the afternoon, Grandma came. She’ll be here for a week. We had corned beef and cabbage from the crockpot and then strolled Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. I couldn’t get many photos because Christmas light photography requires a tripod and I was more interested in enjoying the lights rather than photographing them. I swiped some photos off the internet to give you a general idea:

Here’s a few photos I snapped:

Above: Grandma and Jim

Above: A big tree made of orchids.

Above: Grandma and Jim

Above: Jim and me

On Tuesday, it was back to work for me and into training. It was very boring. Today’s lesson focused mostly on the “type” of customer I’ll be working with. If I had to hear the word “affluent” one more time, I think I’d scream. It’s even more annoying when it’s been pronounced as “a-flu-ent” rather than “af-lu-ent”.

Dinner at 300 East. Yum. We’ve been there several times and most of the time service has been slow. Tonight it was spot on and the best experience there ever. Jim warned the server that he’d be high maintenance with diet soda. She hooked him up:

Grandma went to use the rest room. Jim and I watched her look at the doors to figure out which restroom was which. This is a fairly classy place so this is an unexpected:

Notice the male designation? Grandma giggled.

Wednesday it was stay at home and enjoy a crockpot of Bean Soup. Yum. The recipe is here. Jim and I caught up on several episodes of Ringer. Anyone watching that show?

Thursday a trip to Cheddar’s for some yummy dinner followed by more TV show catch up.

Friday. A nice short day at work. We finished ahead of schedule and were allowed to leave at 10am! This was a nice surprise. I have the weekend off and start my new position on Monday. I’m still waiting to hear back about the weekend off shift bid that I place but am hoping I won.

Grandma and I went to Ikea. There was a deal on champagne flutes, 4 for 99 cents! We bought 14. The limit was 12, I got those and Grandma got an extra 2 in her order.

We have so many… now what?

So lastly I have another pronunciation complaint from work. Beneficiary pronounced as “ben-a-fishery”. Ugh.

12-25-11 Sunday (Trashed Christmas)

2011-12-24T12:40:00.001-05:00

Friday after work, Jim and I headed to Red Robin for dinner then drove to Mooresville to partake in some slot car racing at Race City Raceway. This was a Groupon purchase Jim made. We had fun but got bored fairly quickly. There were 3 tracks and I was disappointed the big major track was being used for a club/team racing event type thing. I was further disappointed that we can't just switch tracks. I understand why because of colors and such but maybe allow swap out colors/tracks at the half way point. I think keeping it fresh may have made me speak more favorably about it. For now, we'd never go back.

The track we used.

We stopped off at the Concord Mills Mall to get Jim a new phone holster at Bestbuy. It got caught on the race track and snapped off. We're going back to the mall Christmas Eve for our traditional "we don't need to be at the mall but enjoy getting in the last minute shopper's way while we enjoy cookies and people watching" event. And that we did.

I worked Christmas Eve, but not a full day. I left early. The phones were slow so I was kind of bored. I didn't have anyone nearby to socialize with. I'm glad to have a smartphone. Words With Friends, Scrabble, Pandora Christmas music, and Facebook kept me entertained. Then I got bored again and decided to blog.

For Christmas day we were invited to Beth’s house. On the way out of the neighborhood, Jim spotted this at the end of the street:

They threw out their tree on Christmas day? A little overzealous? Maybe they were going out of town for a while? Odd.

Dinner at Beth’s was awesome. We had a great time intermingling with her family. We already knew some of her family as well as our other friend Ruby and Jamie.

Above: Ruby & Garret

Above: Ann (Beth’s sister) cuts up the beef tenderloin.

Above: Hostess, Beth.

Above: Ruby makes Grasshoppers. Yum!

Above: Beth’s brother, David, grill master.

Above: I only remember some of the names so I won’t attempt it.

We ate so much. We had so much fun.

12-19-11 Monday (Floaters)

2011-12-21T09:04:00.001-05:00

On Saturday night, we used a Groupon (surprise!) at a local restaurant, FireWater. I had the NY strip which was both seasoned and cooked very well. Jim had the Sirloin Oscar (Fire Grilled sirloin with loaded whipped potatoes, blue crab, asparagus, and sauce béarnaise) which he enjoyed and was impressed that the sirloin was so tender. We’ll be back, besides we have one more Groupon. It was almost a perfect dining experience except that we had empty glasses, empty plates and wanted our check for too long. I think our waiter took a meal break and the woman covering for him didn’t do her job until Jim asked her for the check. We were pretty annoyed.

Another work oriented dream of mine may possibly be coming to fruition. I recently got the 9:00 to 5:30 shift but still work Saturdays. They’ve released a shift bid for the same hours with weekends off. For some reason I can’t see the bid. Each time I ask about why I get a different answer. I’ve been told it’s because I just got a new schedule and not eligible for 90 days. I was given that new schedule, I didn’t bid on it and besides, the other 6 people who got the same schedule assigned can see the bid, why not me? I was told not to worry, they system won’t take their bid. I was also told because I’m going to Premier and they have different schedule bids. OK, then why is one of my coworkers who is going to Premier getting access to it? For each excuse they give me, I have one too. So they told all the people who recently changed shifts (7 of us) that we weren’t entitled to the new schedule. OK, fine, I’ll be grateful for what I got. A day later, a supervisor emails 6 of us (left me out!) that we are eligible for the shift bid. Great. I still can’t see it. I asked her why I was left out, she said she didn’t know I was one of the people who got a new schedule. Then the Premier excuse came up again. Naturally, I kept pushing and they’re looking into it. For the weekend off bid, I’m fairly certain I will win 1 of the available 2 shift bids they’re offering.

I took today off as a floating holiday (FH) to make up for Thanksgiving. First I was told I’d get a FH then not, then yes, then no. Another thing I had to keep pushing for. Management had various difference of opinions. Yes, I know, another “situation” with work. I’m not sure what the continuous problems are but I have to stay on top of it otherwise I think I’d get screwed… and not in a good way. Upper management had to get involved in editing my schedule to accommodate the day off. Sigh.

On Sunday, Jim and I hosted brunch. We had 5 guests: Deanna, Ruby, Jaime, Erin and Josh. It was potluck style and very yummy. Quiche, sausage balls, waffles, sausage, mimosas and Bloody Marys. Did I mention yummy? I had a great buzz going which caused me to forget about taking many photos. Ooops. It was fantastic visiting with friends before the holidays.

Above: Jim, Josh and Erin

Sunday evening our new Select Comfort, Sleep Number bed arrived. They took the old mattress and box spring, set up the bed, and were out of here quickly. I didn’t wait for my side to adjust before setting Jim’s side which apparently interrupted my first commands. I thought my side seemed awfully firm (I wanted 35) but I slept on it anyways. Jim was at a 45. This morning, I was sore. I slid over to his side thinking something is wrong and his side seemed softer. Well that’s odd, his side is softer yet mine is set to be softer. I grabbed the remote and found mine was at 65 or 70 or something like a rock. Ooops.

12-14-11 Wednesday (Close The Open Kitchen)

2011-12-19T08:17:00.001-05:00

Wow, so many little things to talk about. Little tidbits of useless information. Sometimes I jot things down or snap photos and think, “I gotta remember to blog about that.”

Our washing machine has a delay start. I actually use it and now more than even with my new hours. I throw a load in before work, set it for 8 hours and come home to freshly washed clothes that I just have to throw in the dryer. I have to admit, I thought a delay start was weird at first.

I started my new 9-5:30 hours this week. Our friend, Mike, from work, also got the same shift. His other half Billy also works with Mike and I but had a great schedule from the beginning. As a matter of fact, on a side note, he was in one of the classes that started after us that got a better schedule and caused a lot of us to question management about the unfairness. Back to the story… the new shift is wonderful! Not too early, not too late. In fact, the day seemed to have went faster. Maybe more people around us, or the daylight, not sure what did it but I’m thrilled. For a celebration, well not really, Monday after work, Mike, Billy, Jim and I had dinner at our house and then went to McAdenville. It’s a small town that decorates that town very well for Christmas. You can drive through their town and enjoy the lights. I included the link about their 56th year doing this, and all the other FAQs that you might be interested in. It’s free and the traffic was very doable on a Monday night. Night time Christmas light photos are tricky to get so I swiped some photos off the internet:

Our Sleep number bed is scheduled to be delivered Sunday. They told us 3 weeks so I’m pleased it will be earlier than that. I think it’s the whole under-promise and over-deliver thing. Works for me.

On Thursday they had me move desks. It took me 2 hours. Armful by armful I carried my stuff across the building. That day I was also off the phone for a 2 hour “end of year celebration”. I think that was a politically correct way of saying “Christmas party”? They catered in Olive Garden lasagna, salad and breadsticks which was tasty. The people who were scheduled off that day got… the shaft. 2 hours off the phone is golden but unfortunately those who missed out don’t seem to get a “make up day”. We did all get red leather 2 pocket letter holders with our logo imprinted on the front. A letter holder? Merry Christmas.

I’ve told you that 10,000 employees work at this one facility alone so I can only imagine the cost involved in Christmas gifting. I just felt as though the letter holder was a miss. Who keeps letters/envelopes? With internet bill pay (which our bank offers and makes this gift ironic) I have to wonder what next years gift would be? I know, a stone tablet and chisel. An abacus. I must admit, sitting here and thinking of something in a similar price range for tons of different people is tough.

Speaking of Olive Garden, we love it. Many a friend has been down on me for enjoying a chain Italian restaurant but I must admit, I do like their cream sauces. I save my red sauce orders for local Italian restaurants. So, we had a Groupon for a local restaurant called “Open Kitchen”. Friday night we went. It was horrible. The lasagna was 90% cheese with a small square of crap in the middle of the bowl it was served in. The sauce tasted sweet or something. It was the worst spaghetti sauce I’ve ever had. Reading reviews about it, people were commenting they thought it was nutmeg or cinnamon. Ewwwww. When we went to pay at the register, Jim presented his Discover, the old man accepted it, said we don’t take Discover and TOSSED it down on the counter. It took all Jim had not to tell the man he sucked as much as the food did.

The problem with Jim and Groupons is that a lot of times it’s an impulse buy and we don’t research about it. Well, I researched after the fact for this blog and found many negative and somewhat amusing reviews. People can be so creative. If you want to see a few, click here. I read Jim some of the humorous reviews and found out that the owner (assumed owner) grumbled about the economy and how no one pays with cash anymore and about Groupons. That man is very lucky I didn’t hear that shit coming from his mouth. What a foul place. So let me tell you how I really felt…

A few more miscellaneous pokes about this place, grated cheese sits in a shaker on the table as if you’re at a pizza joint. At least Olive Garden and other Italian chains offer fresh grated cheese. We watched the bus boy clear a table, shake off the table cloth and then flip it over. Is this normal? Is that even Health Department approved? Ugh.

12-11-11 Sunday (Ugly Sweaters)

2011-12-12T08:39:00.001-05:00

The other night, Jim and I stopped at a grocery store. In the plaza was this place:

Sure enough, looking inside we saw shoes on one side and electronics on the other. What a weird combination. Perhaps husband and wife desperately desired their own business but they couldn’t agree? By the way, are shoes or electronics from NY different than other parts of the country? It reminded me of an excerpt from a blog entry while in Roswell:

Jim bought a Groupon to see a movie at the Gem theater in Kannapolis. The coupon was to expire soon so we went to see the Muppets. We’re not a big fan or anything, it’s just that it’s a one screen theater so choices are limited. It was an interesting theater.

We decorated the tree back on the 3rd but I kept forgetting to blog about it. Typically, Jim decorates the exterior enough to win neighborhood awards. This year he said he wasn't going to do anything because we just spent so much time decorating the new house and it was time to relax. He decided some Christmas cheer was needed. Jim decorated and lit up the outdoors WITHOUT over-doing it. It came out nice and at some point I'll try to catch some night photos.

Above: Usually we have 2-3 Christmas trees. This year, just one with our "travel ornaments" and other childhood favorites.

We were invited to my coworker's Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. Some said it was supposed to be an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party but the order of the words was presented as the underlined version. I took it to mean any ugly sweater and that's what we did. Goodwill, here we come!

I don't have a picture of the sweater Jim wore although you'll see him wearing it later in this post so stay tuned. The 2 sweaters I chose are shown below. I actually wore the one on the right and gave the one on the left to a coworker who needed an ugly sweater.

Below: A group photo from the party. What a fantastic theme! I'm jealous I didn't think of it.

Below: Jim and I in our super sexy sweaters:

Below: Host Josh, Hostess Erin

When I move into my new position, I'll be a cubicle away from a window view. Unfortunately, here's the view:

On Sunday we went to the mall. I spotted this man in a purple hat, shoes and pants "complimented" by a full length white fur coat. Really.

Jim has a lot of headaches and goes through pillows like there's no tomorrow. I talked about all that in a previous blog posting here. Me? I have mysterious back pain that is attributed to a fat gut, poor posture or who knows what. X-rays never determine anything so I really don't know. What I do know is that I sometimes have excruciating pain after certain circumstances. As we walked around the mall, I was having severe pain. Jim spotted the Comfort Select, Sleep Number bed store and wanted to check out some new pillow they offered. An inflatable pillow! I have said several times that would be a great product so that you could adjust the firmness and it wouldn't wear out. Being a savvy salesperson, Liz, asked me how our current bed was to which I replied, "It sucks. It has a sink hole in the middle the size of the Grand Canyon and any attempt to slide toward the middle of the bed results in a black hole suction effect that demands I return to my prior position. We have a hard time justifying the price of one of these beds,” etc etc. Liz was surprised and said, “tell me how you really feel.” We tried out various pillows and beds and eventually decided on the P5 model. It’s definitely an investment. We got 12 months no interest… Jim was nervous, it’s a big chunk of change. I just hope it’s as great as I’ve convinced him that it should be! I’ll talk more about it later or as pieces arrive.

Now you’re all caught up!

12-6-11 Tuesday (The Good, The Bad, The Whiners)

2011-12-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

Before I get started, I must say that to tell my story, I’m going to be vague. I’m not sure who reads the blog so I’ll change some names here and there. With all that being said:

Financial Institution pays incentive close to Nov 15. On Nov 16, mine did not arrive. I inquire with coworker who confirms it was actually paid Nov 5. Awww crap. For a few days I email my boss and his boss. Everyone is working to correct it, blah blah blah. I’m eventually told it will be paid Dec 9. Huh? Why the long wait? We get paid every 2 weeks, we’re “off cycle” and no one can get it done. It’s againt company policy to get an incentive check “off-cycle”. By Nov 29 I escalate this issue several times more. Eventually going to my boss’ boss’ boss. She says, “We have 60 days to pay an incentive per <such and such a document>.” So much for the human touch. Let’s just spew off company policy loopholes, shall we? “We’re a big company and there’s a lot of red tape to get a check off-cycle.” Did she just throw that card out at me? So what you’re saying is it’s a lot of work and you’re just not worth it? I was VERY unhappy. I walked away from her, red-faced.

I consulted with my friend Deanna and little can be done about incentive checks. I can’t believe laws, government or whatever only protects basic pay but they walk away from incentive, bonus, etc. Nice.

I went to lunch and discovered from coworkers that the same issue occurred with coworker Jane. She didn’t get an incentive check either but they corrected it on the Nov 25 check. I called Jane and verified the information. I was irate to say the least. Why’d she get hers and I didn’t get mine? I left work early in what I’d call a tizzy.

The next day (last Wednesday) I was off. I called Human Resources. The automated prompts were enough to scare an employee away. They were long with many, many choices per number. Any moment I expected to hear silly options like, “if you are an employee who pole dances on weekends dressed as a midget woman, and have a complaint, press 956.”

So, Edith from HR answers. I tell my story. She says, “I was out on leave for a while and I’ve been waiting for my pay for a month and a half.” Is she making this shit up? Am I supposed to give her a hug? Seemed unprofessional but I let it slide. I mean, who does an HR person complain to when they receive bad treatment? I continue on. In between my various statements, it sounds like Edith is doing the crying sniffle thing. You know, the holding back the full blown cry sorta thing. I continue thinking maybe she has a runny nose or something. I point out the fact the another employee, Jane, was in the same circumstances and that I was treated differently. Edith reminds me that I’ve made a very serious accusation. Damn right. I hear sniffling again. “Edith, are you crying?” “I’m so sorry, this is so unprofessional of me.” “It’s OK, no worries. Was it something I said.” “I’m so sorry, it’s just that you <something about an employee being wronged by a company>” I was flabbergasted. I got off the phone and called Jim. I felt guilty. What should I do now?

The next day I arrive at work and am asked to talk to my boss and his boss. Oh boy. I’m assured that there was no ill intent. Boss’ boss explains that she dropped the ball and didn’t follow the incentive schedule of events correctly and missed the deadline to rectify issues and that unfortunately an off cycle check wasn’t possible. I received many an apology as well on a personal level. Although my incentive check never arrived earlier than I was told, I retracted some of my complaints with HR. And no, I didn’t speak to Edith again.

Now for some good… I was informed Monday that me and several coworkers will receive early shifts. It’s another HR nightmare that I wasn’t a part of. You see, while being interviewed and in training we were told as people moved up, more desirable shifts would come available. So they hired a new class with morning hours and our “class” was upset that were weren’t offered that. We were told things like, “don’t worry, they won’t get those hours, they always post it like that.” We backed down and when the newest class completed training, they had the morning hours. We were again upset. A few months later, another job posting spoke of morning hours. Many in my class called HR and filed multiple complaints. The new class was given evening hours and we were told we’d have some of the morning schedules available to us but based on performance. Some of us were still upset while I wasn’t worried. My performance was very high and I felt confident I’d get the new schedule. A month later my boss’ boss held a focus group meeting and we were invited to voice our concerns, suggestions, opinions, if any. The schedule was brought up and we were told sometime in December but the spots would be limited. We’d have to “requalify” to be considered for it. Huh? I already qualified so now I have to make sure I remain in the top percentile to qualify. Ugh. Luckily, as I said, I received the new schedule and it’s effective this Monday! 9:00 to 5:30 with the same days off: Wednesday and Sunday. Still no weekends but a definite improvement. Jim and I will be able to enjoy dinner together once again!

My place sounds like an HR nightmare, I know. If you knew the other 5 stories I have, you’d wonder. They’re not all stories about my company, but of the individual screwed up people that used to work for us or still do. They range from how do they still work here to how’d they make it that far? Our class started with 17 or 18 and we’ve lost 6. I’ve made great friends from our class. I’m bummed some are gone and glad others didn’t quite make it. I feel compelled to break out into Lion King song with “Circle of Life”. Elton would NOT be proud though.

11-27-11 Sunday (Birthday Gifts)

2011-11-29T10:37:00.001-05:00

Recently Jim and I went for a deep tissue massage. It was a birthday gift from him. Yesterday we went on a Charlotte Segway tour which was another gift from that same birthday. Truth be told, we don’t exchange gifts for holidays or our birthdays but this year I think it was a good excuse to justify these Groupon purchases.

We had a 4pm reservation with Queen City Segways. After a short tutorial, well a very short tutorial since we’ve rode Segways in DC, we were on our way with 6 other people. We had a great time riding them. The tour itself wasn’t all that great. It was difficult to hear the guide, Luke, there wasn’t that much information anyway. I think it was more about riding the Segways, enjoying the views and the perfect weather we had. We did get to see some areas of Charlotte that we haven’t see before. While going through a cemetery we saw a grave for a slave. Another tombstone’s epitaph read something about being killed by a lion. Neat stuff. Here’s some photos and videos of our adventure:

11-25-11 Friday (Hiding Merchandise)

2011-11-25T18:10:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, Jim finished up the guest rooms and our bedroom:

Above: Master bedroom

Above/Below: “Twin” Room.

Above: “Queen Room”

We also stopped into Sam’s Club to see if we should renew our membership. They don’t carry much of what we buy at BJs so we didn’t renew. While there, we witnessed people lined up for samples. Yes, lined up. Get a life people.

I was out in the backyard and spotted a goat. Yes, I said goat. We saw 3 of them through the now bare trees of in the distance. We got the binoculars and confirmed.

Outside of our neighbor are some private homes with large properties. One has horses so I’m guessing this is what we’re seeing. Funny.

If you don't remember, I work for a bank. I'm a phone banker. A product specialist would be the fancy title. I open accounts and take loan applications. On Friday I applied for the next level up, a Premier Banker. A little more money, a prestigious title, and some more product knowledge such as IRAs. I had to interview for it. As of today's blog entry I made the cut. I'll actually start that in late December.

Thanksgiving was awesome. Jim's dad, his girlfriend Julie and Grandma came Wednesday (from FL). On Thanksgiving we all cooked. I did this, someone did that, it was great teamwork and we had fun. Wine always helps too. hic.

Actually we started with mimosas. The champagne bottle cork was amusing:

In the early afternoon, Jim's brother John, wife Tonia and 6 month old Colton arrived. Oh and their 2 dogs too. Dasher enjoyed the canine company (a little too much) and Clea just fled for her life. 7 adults, 1 newborn, 3 dogs, 1 cat... full house.

We needed a few supplies so off to Walmart we went. Surprisingly empty. Cashiers waited for customer to come to them. I felt guilty going there but when I remarked to the cashier about having to work, she was happy to do so and needed the holiday pay. The store was setup to handle Black Friday. Pallets of stuff were wrapped with signs forbidding sale.

I was actually scheduled to work Thanksgiving. I swapped with Mike and took his Wednesday instead. Jim had off and took today (Black Friday) off in addition. Sometime during holiday relaxation Jim made a list of Black Friday deals he wanted. We never do Black Friday. It's crazy. People are insane. Boycott the businesses that make their employees work. Say yes to family time. Etc, etc, etc He asked if I wanted to go and so I did. Crazy? Yeah very.

Some Walmart deals started at 10pm and others at midnight. Yes, on Thanksgiving. Poor employees who have to gobble (funny I know) down their food, nap and go into work. It sucks and I contributed to that. But how many employees preferred that? Dunno. Anyway, we arrived at 10:30, no parking anyway. Having a Jeep with 4 wheel drive is handy. We hopped the curb and parked in a field. It worked.

The parking lot was nuts and the inside of the store, well that was just out of control. There were no carts available. We couldn't find anything we wanted on our list except for 1 desk chair (we wanted 2).

Black plastic covered pallets were all over the place. Walmart personnel guarded the pallets until midnight. Guards and support people were all over the place. With 1 chair in hand we made it to the checkout. Every register was open but naturally the line we chose seemed to have had someone who was attempting to hack the IRS' computer system through the use of a credit card terminal. I have no idea what the issue was. We made it out!

We went to Target. The advantage here was the while there was a line wrapped around the outside of the building, it wasn't too long, they opened at 12, it was 11:35 so the wait wouldn't be so bad, the store was closed so the line of people was manageable. It was an organized splendor. Shopping carts were aligned inside the store so that we could civilly grab a cart. The savage beast brewed from within. On Jim's list was $5 scarves that he thought he'd pickup for his Grandmother. It was close to the entrance and he grabbed them as though he was on some 60 second shopping spree. Meanwhile, I spot a Playstation 3 for $200. It's a good deal, but I already have one, but it's a good deal. I grab it. Jim catches up with me and questions why I took one. Well, maybe family members back at the house want it for that price or someone else? I dunno. I can always return it. It's the thrill of the hunt... I think. Maybe the thrill of the successful hunt? Anyway, we got way too much stuff there. I plea insanity.

Because Target wasn't apparently enough, off to Old Navy we went. Jim picked out some jeans for $15 each. The checkouts had 5 of 8 registers open. 2 lines went from the front to the back of the store. Hell no. Jim "hid" the stuff he picked out and planned to return on Friday to get his stuff.

Jim's family departed Friday morning. Jim had the day off and went shopping. I went to work. I don't know if I could have handled more shopping so I guess it was for the best that I didn’t go.

UPDATE: Jim did get the jeans he wanted. He had hid them behind a stack of jeans as far as he could reach.

11-19-11 Saturday (BBQ At The Peep Show)

2011-11-20T09:12:00.001-05:00

It’s been a sad, worrisome week. On Wednesday, Jim returned from Florida. Damn, that was a lot of driving. I think it was approximately 10 hours each way. When he left, Morgan’s condition hadn’t improved. In fact, it had gotten worse. Update: I’m happy to report that as of today, he’s improving a little each day. Great news indeed!

I’ve done all the shopping I needed to for Thanksgiving. A 20 pound turkey. The guest list isn’t 100% just yet but so far Jim’s Dad and his girlfriend, Jim’s Grandmother, and possibly Jim’s brother, wife and nephew depending on his brother’s work flow. Either 5 or 8. We’re prepared either way.

Jim and I were at Home Depot the other day. Jim spotted:

There’s no supermarket in this plaza so it amused us. There’s a story here somewhere. Can you imagine all the strange stuff store shopping cart guys see?

Another strange thing we spotted at a local BBQ restaurant was this mushroom. I haven’t seen one like this so it had my attention:

The BBQ restaurant we went to was called Old Hickory House. Ready for a review? Strangely the building has no windows. Jim asked the server who has worked there 14 years. According to her, this restaurant has been here since 1970-something. Previously it was Moose Lodge and before that a peep show place. Maybe a gentleman’s club? That would explain the lack of windows. The server was awesome, friendly, humorous and down-to-earth. An asset to owner. We had BBQ pork sandwiches. They were huge and jam packed with pork. Unfortunately the Texas toast we ordered it on was soggy. Maybe it needed more toasting time? The BBQ flavor wasn’t my preferred tasty. I thought it a little tangy for my liking but Jim enjoyed his. Jim’s hush puppies were cold and had to be sent back. Oddly, my French fries varied. Some were room temperature and some were scalding hot. The baked beans were meaty and flavorful.

Images off the internet:

In other unimportant news, we’ve had some chilly weather. With a low of about 27, we’ve had some frost.

Above/Below: 2 corners of the yard.

Jim has been decorating. Today he arranged and hung a collage in the dining room. He was smart about his process.

Above: He used a large piece of cardboard to lay out his collage on.

Above: He traced out the artwork and measured the hangers on the back of each piece.

Above/Below: He hung up the template and made his nail holes.

Above: The finished product.

11-15-11 Tuesday (Insignificant Boofing)

2011-11-16T17:13:00.001-05:00

I realize my entries are typically multiple subjects. It’s what I do. This particular one has a list of small insignificant things to tell you.

OK, so they finally changed the light bulb over the men’s sink at work on Monday. Not bad, only a week later. It was so dark in there, I washed other people’s hands by mistake. I hope they don’t report me to HR. The new bulb seems brighter. Well, yeah brighter than the bulb being defunct but I mean brighter than when a bulb existed. Now instead of a flashlight we need sunglasses. Perhaps my brightness-opinion is a little off because it was dark for so long. By the way, I really didn’t think I’d have so much to say about a bulb at work.

While I’m on the work subject, several months ago I came across a wireless headset. It’s the same one I see a few people at work (especially supervisors) use. These things are expensive. $300 new. It was Jim’s from a previous job. I tried to make it work but I guess I didn’t have the connections right and my clients were never able to hear me. I tried this thing several times. Recently I once again found it in a box and decided to try again. A supervisor helped me with the various settings and viola it worked. I’m on the phone all day and love the ability to roam between calls. It’s like I’m in an off-leash park! I can’t go very far since as soon as I get a call I need to take action on the screens. If I had known this was so perfect for me, I may have paid $80 on eBay to get one. Woof, woof.

We’re still talking about work right? Can I tell you how many people don’t understand a debit card vs. a credit card? I’ll offer a customer a credit card and they’ll say, “I already have one”. I’ll ask who it’s through and they’ll reply, “with you.” No you don’t. That’s a debit card for withdrawing money from your account via an ATM or Point of Sale. “but it says Visa”. I have to explain further… and sometimes even further. These are probably the descendants of the people who thought that as long as they have checks, they have money in the account.

Oh, and still work related… sorta. The trees at work (which is a huge campus) are so colorful. Although I don’t have a window seat inside, I do admire the fall foliage. Stunning:

And finally, something not work related, a weird ad that came up on Facebook:

Friend Jennifer explained “boof” as a kayaking term but I’m still baffled by the last sentence. Must be a foreign language translation issue? Shouldn’t the ad people at Facebook have helped them with this? Just sayin’.

11-11-11 Friday (Evacuations)

2011-11-11T10:36:00.001-05:00

My last entry was actually on Mike’s birthday. That day I stopped off at the store and picked up a HUGE balloon and cupcakes to take to work. We have to swipe our badge to get through a revolving door leading in/out of the building. I got in with the balloon, cupcakes, lunch cooler, jacket and drink without incident. The door has various sensors, at least one for weight and who knows what else. I left work a little earlier than Mike so I didn’t get to witness it for myself but I heard the balloon caused him some issues. Let’s picture the situation as he described to me:

He tried to take it home. He attempted going through the door several times only angering the revolving door gremlins and having them electronically yell various security related slurs (yes it talks). I’m sure he was embarrassed. I’m sure he may have even been a topic at the dinner table. “So this guy with a huge balloon…” During one of the many attempts he made, the balloon got caught in the door and nearly popped. It was resilient. The door backed off. It knew who was boss. Can you imagine the loud boom if it had popped? That right there may have caused mass hysteria with an evacuation. Headlines? “Bank evacuates for balloon – 2 trampled”. Surely balloons would be banned from our building. All thanks to me. Or thanks to Mike? Who takes the blame? At this point, if it had been me in this situation, I would have abandoned the damn thing and not told anyone. Mike was dedicated to the cause. Back to the story. He decides to walk to the main entrance where no evil revolving doors exist. It’s quite a hike there. He makes it! There’s no one around and the doors are locked. He hikes back, takes the elevator back to the 3rd floor where he started, puts the balloon back at his desk, goes home, and is greeted by Billy who asks, “why are you so late?” Happy birthday Mike.

Speaking of our huge facility, the light over the men’s room sink has been out for several days. In speaking with a co-worker about the ridiculousness that can sometimes be a big corporation he suggested that with all of the managers and cleaning people in and out that you’d think someone reported it. Perhaps that’s the problem. Too many people have filled out form GHA-56a aka “Light Bulb Change Requisition Form”. The light bulb change department is baffled. How many bulbs does that bathroom have? Maybe it was too bright to begin with? This has gotten so big it’s made it to the board of directors and may be resolved over several meetings. “This topic was resumed from last week's discussion, but is incomplete, pending resolution of some action items. It will be continued next week. Let’s discuss the probable ban on balloons in the revolving door…”

Jim’s stepdad, Morgan, has been hospitalized with pneumonia and hasn’t been doing too well. On Wednesday he was placed on a ventilator. Jim left NC by car to be supportive to his mom in FL. Jim made great time there and as of Thursday night, Morgan’s condition remains the same.

On a lighter side, Jim was in Walmart Thursday night and spotted a guy carrying a lemur. He asked if he could take a photo and the guy said “sure, I get that all the time”. Well of course you do, we love freaks.

The Fort Myers Walmart has a lemur-carrying-man, ours has a strolling Mariachi band. What’s yours got (aside from PeopleofWalmart.com)?

How’s Clea and Dasher doing? While washing one of the pet beds I temporarily replaced it with another. Dasher didn’t care for it so he decided to lay on Clea. Perhaps a snuggle? Perhaps in protest.

The fence is done! We had the guy come back out to fix a few minor issues. Many spots on the shadow box portion had nails that were too long thus creating a sharp object protruding. Some hinge bolts went too far in, some wood didn’t meet up very well. He cheerfully fixed it. After all, we did hold back some of the money until he made good on it.

The house has been coming together. I steamed, washed, ironed and whatever else to get the guest room drapes, comforter and bed skirt looking nice and pretty. I’ll take photos later. I have to wait till Jim gets back to help me neatly put the bed skirt on.

As of Friday morning, Morgan’s condition has improved a little.

11-7-11 Monday (Inconvenient Licking)

2011-11-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

Psssst. By the way, I've been blogging from work between calls. Shhhhhhh. I even read other people's blogs when time permits but with the computer restrictions, it won't let me comment on blogs that use embedded comment forms. Oh well, I can't have everything I guess. Anyway, sometimes I'm too busy, sometimes not. Usually I type the text portion and then fit the fabulous photos in later at home. Yes, I said fabulous.

On Sunday we invited Mike and Billy over to celebrate Mike's birthday. It was the perfect excuse to get a lot more done in the house. Jim staged the curio cabinet, and then Monday I removed everything, cleaned all the glass and put it all back together. Jim is great at setting up the decor. It's his specialty. I just chime in when I don't like something but overall it's fabulous. Yes, I said fabulous.

My specialty? Organization via lists, drawer organizers, closets, etc. It's my thing.

Before we started the mad rush to have things ready for entertaining, Jim and I went to Golden Corral for breakfast. I made some observations within the first 15 minutes I was there:

The woman at the next table licked her fingers. This is gross. It's gross when cashiers do it to separate plastic bags. It's even more gross when people do it while paying - who wants to touch your spit funk? It's even more gross when you do that at a buffet and then handle serveware. This is why Jim and I sanitize our hands constantly while at a buffet. We get our plate of food, stop at a sanitizer, fill our free palm with sanitizing goo, return to the table, set the plate down, rub in sanitizer, pig out. Despite the precautions we take, all I can say is ewwwww.
At the very same table, finger licking gal's companion takes out a napkin, tissue or other and blows his nose. Go into the bathroom, blow your brains out and then wash your hands.
Several tables away, a woman removes her straw, makes the tip flat and picks her teeth. THEN she tries to return it's shape and returns it to the cup and takes a drink.
While straw explorer woman goes at it, her 12-14 year old dining companion keeps one leg up on a spare chair as if she’s chillaxing. You know, constant trips to the buffet are awfully tiring.

I’m glad I was able to share that with you. After a disturbing breakfast we went to Walmart. Sometimes an equally disturbing place. Once home it was time to organize, clean, hang pictures, etc. Later, dinner with Mike & Billy.

Above: I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, biscuits, green beans, corn.

Above: Mike is a chocolate lover, just like me.

Ever hear the term “photo bomb”? It’s when a serious photo is taken but something funny, unexpected or the like happens in the background. For example, see the next 2 photos of our cat Clea:

Above/Below: Thanks Clea.

Oh, and while I’m at it, ever see photos float around titled “There, I fixed it”? Here’s Jim’s version of a shelf support while we wait for the drywall to get fixed.

Remember when Jim tied a handheld mirror to the light fixture to be a wall mirror? Refresher:

That brings me to today, Monday. The fence guys are here for day 1 of 2 to build the fence!

Hey future guest bedroom users, here’s the latest look thus far:

Above: Dubbed the “Twin Room” because of the daybed/trundle feature. This room will be silver, a primary red and black. A modern look.

Above: We’ve retired the palm tree bedding for the “Queen Room”. This room will be red, gold and brown. I still need to get the bedskirt on and the rest of the bedding. The drapes need steamed.

Now accepting reservations. Fabulous.

11-4-11 Friday (Do-Overs)

2011-11-07T17:41:00.000-05:00

Earlier in the week, my department decided to change our desks. Most of us had to change cubicles. The purpose was to make room for another department and keep the teams together. Although a lot of us didn't like the move, it gave us time off the phones and regroups our teammates together. It made sense. If nothing else it will make our team inspired decorations easier to do.

A while back Jim wanted me to pick up some Halloween candy. I picked up a bag. Actually, it was a large assortment of Smarties and whatevers. Jim questioned if it would be enough. I guessed 5 Trick or Treaters. He didn't like that so the day before Halloween he asked that I pick up more. I did. When I got home and asked how many trick or treaters he had, it was only 5. We laughed. Some day that man is going to learn that I know all. When I lived in NY we had so many trick or treaters because it was all city blocks. In a lot of newer areas, everything is in subdivsions or communities. Sometimes it's not that easy to go to the other subdivisions so perhaps we only get the kids in our own neighborhood?

The day after Halloween, we noticed another spot on the ceiling. It's in a new location. It wasn't very big and we questioned one another if it had been there prior. I put in a warranty repair request in writing to Adams Homes (11-1-11 9:30am)

Wednesday, no call or email from Adams Homes. By Thursday morning I had to email them again:

After over 24 hours have passed, the water spot on my ceiling has doubled. We have not received a phone call or email from Adams Homes. My service experience thus far has been disappointing. I want a supervisor to contact me before noon. Once again we have ceased using the master bath.

Soon after sending that email the plumbing company called. Megan said she received a warranty service request. I asked when she received it. She said, “yesterday morning”. The delay wasn’t Adams Homes. I emailed Adams Homes:

Misty thank you. We know the drywall repair has been delayed on our part and is in no way part of my complaint. We have delayed the drywall repair to be sure no other issues existed.
I thank you for being quick to get the work order out to Ammons but unfortunately their delays, lack of communication and lack of quality reflect on Adams Homes. I have let Megan know ahead of time that her guys should be cutting any drywall with shop vac in hand to catch drywall dust.

Adams Homes did respond and offered to have a cleaning service come in after them. That made me feel a lot better about the situation.

On Friday:
Derek from Ammons Plumbing called at about 8:51 stating he'd be at the house by 9:15. He arrived as promised. Derek took good care in not creating drywall dust by using a razor knife to cut into the drywall. It took a little over an hour and no leak was found until he cut the hole open a little larger.

While moving a cold water line, water quickly dripped from the T connector which feeds water to the master bath sinks and I think he said toilet but maybe the shower. He replaced the connector.

On the previous water leak, the plumber caulked around the guest bath faucet face plate. He showed me where some of the water was leaking into it and said that it should have been caulked during installation. I challenged him saying that I was sure the manufacturer of the faucet had a gasket or flange behind it and that caulking would look ugly. He did a nice job but the caulking did not dry clear in some spots. On today's visit, Derek inspected the guest bath faucet flange and disagreed with the need to caulk. He said he'd order or obtain a new flange/face plate and correct the problem. I was unhappy with having both tub nozzles and faucets caulked during that visit knowing that is not how the manufacturer intended it's installation.

Hopefully I will not have any future plumbing leaks, but if I do, I know that Derek is the guy to fix them. Once again I will delay the drywall repair (a total of 4 holes) until it dries out and we're sure no further leaks are found.

Back to Wednesday. A busy day for me. While off I did quite a bit of shopping and some returning as well. I also decided to bake another cake. Click here for the post about the previous cake fiasco.

This time I used Baker’s Joy:

It came out perfect.

Back in June, Jim bought us deep tissue massages from Living Social. With them expiring soon, we decided to redeem them. It wasn’t quite what Jim and I had expected. Being “massage-stupid”, we didn’t know it would hurt during the massage and that afterwards it wouldn’t be relaxing. My muscles felt better in the end but not quite like a massage I’ve had before. I did comment on that to both massage therapists who explained that what I would have enjoyed more so was a Swedish Massage. Ohhhhhh. No fault of theirs. Live and learn.The water spot doubled.

10-31-11 Monday (Metallic Art Perversions)

2011-11-05T08:09:00.000-04:00

Wow. I think I've been busier now than when we started the move. Jim's family is coming for Thanksgiving so that has given us some incentive to get our asses moving on setting up the house.

I started unpacking all the decor boxes on the 28th. Pictures, crystal, etc.

I cleaned the hutch glass shelves and doors. I used Windex and coffee filters. The best combination ever. Coffee filters have a great texture to help scour off dirt while being gentle and lint free! Yes, way better than newspaper. Softer too.

Friday night, Jim loaded up the hutch:

I must tell you that when we packed stuff up over 3 years ago, we used tons of towels.

That pile above only represents a SMALL portion of towels we used. I've already washed another pile similar in size to that.

Here's all the towels we're donating to either goodwill or preferably an animal shelter:

3 years ago we bought cheap throws from Big Lots. I used a bunch of them for the cat and dog. We've amassed quite a collection now that I've unpacked them all. I washed them, folded and stuck them in the linen closet until I figure out how many I want to keep.

I took the pink ones to work for a friend, Amy, who absolutely adores anything pink. She was thrilled.

The towels below are hot tub towels. Yeah, I'm not sure how many people we ever thought could fit into the hot tub at once. We over-did it at the time I guess.

Saturday arrived and I had off from work for a Community Service day so that Jim and I could give testimonials for NACA. Community Service. It sounds like I'm a criminal with a sentencing in hand but my company will give me two days off a year for volunteering. I took that opportunity. We had to stand up in front of about 100 or more people with our testimony. Jim more or less stated that he wouldn't recommend Adams Homes. He went on to say that NACA is a wonderful program but their customer service was lacking and to not let them push you around. We found that they acted as they were doing us a favor rather than treating us as a customer. The representatives from NACA happened to have stepped out of the room during our testimony. Funny. We answered a few questions from possible future members.

After all that we left and went shopping! Oh, also returning too! The Jeep was very full.

At Garden Ridge we returned hundreds of dollars worth of stuff we didn't use. We filled up 2 carts with new purchases. 1 cart was full with 75% off items. We truly scored. That cart was under $100!

Next off to Bed Bath and Beyond. We returned $500 of stuff. I spotted this artwork, had Jim hold it up and snapped a photo. What do the wine bottles look like to you?

You did see it right?

Speaking of seeing things, our new fireplace has a haze on it. I tried cleaning it but it's on the inside of the glass. Looking at it and the directions, I don't see anyway to get behind the glass. It's an allen & roth by Lowe's so I went to their site and emailed them the situation. They emailed me that it was referred to a local store and then later another email from an actual store employee revealed that we'd have to remove the unit to get behind there. That doesn't make me happy. What DID make me happy is that they actually responded. Kudos to them!

Anyway, back to organizing the house...

We stopped at a ginormous Rooms To Go clearance center/warehouse that we're lucky to have here in town. We were on the hunt for a dinette sideboard/server. We found one for $300 and it was perfect. We paid for it and were to come by later (once the Jeep was emptied) to pick it up. When we came by later, there were 4 chips on it. I wasn't happy. They'll refund the price up till the point that we actually take it. It was the only one they had so we negotiated and they offered $50 off. Sold. Jim did a pretty good job at touching it up.

Above: Jim "installs" it.

Sunday we continued with the decor. Here's the new piece with our Garden Ridge clearance (Tuscan art, clock and wine metal art) finds.

Below: The fireplace mantel and art to the left are in place.Above: The right speaker wire in the wall wouldn’t work so it’s outside the wall until Jim buries it.

Above: Dasher. Just cause he's so darn cute.

Below: More cuteness: Dasher and Clea.

Jim installed more shelving in the pantry!

For an odd twist, Jim came up with a solution for dead space. We don't want nor really have the room for bar stools but the space under the bar was looking pretty plain so he hung up these plaques. Creative isn't he? Do you like it? Is it strange?

A new comforter for the master bedroom:

10-24-11 Sunday (Rock Climbing!)

2011-10-25T17:25:00.000-04:00

We met up with Mike and Billy for a roadtrip today! Off to McDonalds for breakfast first and then a 2 hour drive.

First I want to tell you that we ate in a recently remodeled McDonalds close to home. What a dumb remodel. The majority of seating were picnic bench style or ottomans. I'm not sure about you but I hate sitting to meal with no back support. Jim says it's so people won't be comfortable and will leave sooner. Probably so. The other thing about the seating was that the few seats that did have back support seemed to be a hard surface with a piece of leather (or pleather) stretched over it. Why bother? No padding or fill, can't slide across the leather, and it probably tears easier. It's like it looked comfortable but wasn't at all.

My next observation was the help wanted poster. I'm not down on anyone who works there. You gotta start some where, or maybe you like it or maybe you'll be an owner or manager someday or maybe they have hours that work for you or ? I just giggle at the "all majors" part. Gee, they'll even take me if my major is accounting? Spectacular!

Onward to Chimney Rock State Park! The drive was scenic, but not 100% spectacular. There's still a lot of green and not as much brown, orange, blue, and yellow quite yet. Blue? Just checking if you're paying attention or not.

The elevator at the park was closed for renovations. The walk up all the steps was grueling. My knees felt like they were on fire. We took many breaks to catch our breath and rest our legs. We made it to Exclamation Point. This excerpt from their website sums it up:

"At an elevation of 2,480 feet, Exclamation Point is the pinnacle of the Park. It exceeds Chimney Rock’s elevation by 200 feet. Standing here, you can feel proud and justifiably weary because you have just driven and hiked over 1,400 vertical feet from the entrance to the Park, which you can see way, way down in the valley."

Awesome views, tired bodies, empty stomachs. It was already 2 and we were hungry. Unfortunately we decided to skip the waterfalls. The good thing is that on the way out of the park, we upgraded our passes to annual passes for $11 more per person. So sometime in the Spring, we'll make the trek back to see the falls.

Here’s the day’s photos:

Chimney Rock Photos

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For a late lunch, early dinner we ate at LaStrada Italian restaurant. Italian sounded good to us AND they featured outdoor dining overlooking Lake Lure. We over heard a server talking about a Charlotte location. We confirmed with the guy at the hostess desk which turned out to be the owner/manager’s son. They do indeed have a location here but 45 minutes away in the Wesley Chapel/Matthews area. The food was delish.

That’s all I got!

10-19-11 Wednesday (Dangers!)

2011-10-22T08:06:00.001-04:00

I kept pretty busy today. There was a lot to do and I certainly didn’t get it all done. I , of course, got some laundry done.

I’ve been keeping things we don’t want in a pile for Goodwill. Honestly the pile has grown into several piles. We’ve decided to put what we can on consignment. Unlike Goodwill, there will be some sort of monetary compensation, and unlike Craigslist, far less hassle. So I took a few snapshots of the dinette furniture and gold couch, sent them to the consignment lady to see if she’d take them on. She will.

She only suggested taking photos of large items for pre-approval, smaller items can be brought in.

I sure miss Linen N Things. The good news is that they still survive as an internet entity only. The bad thing is that I hate ordering items that I’ve not seen in a store first, especially when it comes to décor items where colors may vary. I took a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond and Anna’s Linens and picked up a valance for the kitchen window. I want the Tuscan look sans the theme to appear every where. I think they key is to have a few patterned themed items and the rest in complimentary colors. I haven’t tried out my new purchases yet, I do have 3 from prior purchases to return because they were too sheer.

Above: Stock photo from Anna’s Linen’s site. I bought only the valance.

Next I went to a Kmart. I haven’t been to one in a long time… mostly because the closest is 30 minutes away. I did spot this while shopping:

Above: The straw placement. Too funny. They had a Buzz Lightyear too but his upper body swiveled and wouldn’t line up like this character.

I struck out at Kmart. There wasn’t anything there that I liked. Once I got home I baked a cake. Using a rose shaped Bundt cake pan that I have with some strawberry cake mix, I set out to create a gorgeous cake.

It’s been a few years since I’ve made it. It always comes out so nice. I then take a white icing and drizzle it down the sides. It’s pretty… most of the time.

I used Pam. Pam let me down. I think in the past I’ve used the flour spray (I didn't have any on hand). Oh, and yes, I absolutely did drizzle the icing on it anyway. Using my huge Tupperware cake holder, I entombed my disaster ~~forever~~ until Jim got home. When he arrived, I joyfully shrieked, “I baked you a cake!” He walked over, lifted the top, we laughed a lot and then had wine. What’s wine got to do with it? Absolutely nothing. Perhaps if I had some prior to baking, it would have come out fine or I would have been too drunk to notice the deficiencies.

Time to make dinner. No, no, it went fine. I made pork stir fry and it came out delish. For something a little different, I bought a package of those Ramen type dehydrated cheap ass noodle things. I discarded the 1260mg ~~flavor~~ salt packet.

The direction were a little amusing. Read step 3, bold:

The only thing better would have been some photo depicting the disaster. Oh, like the one’s I’ve gotten before:

Above: Costco Sep 2008

Above: Yellowstone Sep 2008

Above: A bag Sep 2008

Above: Seattle Dec 2008

I live for this stuff.

10-16-11 Sunday (Sign, Sign, Nowhere A Sign)

2011-10-19T07:37:00.001-04:00

We set off to make a bunch of returns and then to Shane’s Rib Shack for lunch. We had 2 free meal coupons from a previous visit during some scratch and win type promo. A free 3 piece chicken tender meal and a chicken tender salad.

I was surprised by the size of this salad. The bowl was deep! Of course I had to chose the fried tenders. Mmmmm.

After lunch, we set off to a zoo approximately 45 minutes north of us. Zootastic Park was a Groupon purchase Jim made a few months ago. It was another zoo, similar to Tiger World that we had been to recently. It wasn’t dumpy but not 100% professional either. Some of the cages/exhibits didn’t seem quite right for viewing the animal. Like a skunk in cage with a solid lower half that blocked views. We later found out it was a monkey cage at one time. Speaking of the skunk:

The exhibits disappointingly lacked signage. There was not a sign anywhere that told any info about the animal, not even what kind. The visit starts with a tour and then you can roam around on your own. The benefit of the tour is that most animals were removed from the cage, spoken about, and offered up the chance to hold or pet it. The unfortunate part was the screaming kids, the slowness (for us) of the tour overall since everyone was offered a chance to hold or pet the animal.

Overall, we enjoyed the visit. Most of it was a giant petting zoo. Here’s some more photos:

Above: OK this one was just because the fly didn’t move.

Above: We purchased some interesting looking gourds.

After our zoo trip, we returned home to tackle a few projects. Jim worked on the garage while I went grocery shopping. Walmart sucks at peak times. They just can figure out that if they’d keep the shelved stocked, customers will (a) have more to purchase and (b) be happier.

Above: Apparently Charlotte is very good about eating their veggies. The frozen veggie aisle looked pretty sparse too.

Above: Jim installs 6 cabinets in his garage. Yes, his garage, my kitchen.

Above: I installed this in the laundry room. Isn’t it cute?

Above: I also purchased and installed a surround sound system. Speakers to be mounted later.

Above: I built this chairside table.

Making progress. There’s still SO much more to do.

10-15-11 Saturday (Automated)

2011-10-18T08:35:00.001-04:00

I’ve been working on getting our X10’s sorted and eventually installed. X10 is a geeky, tech, home automation type system. The general overview is that with use of a computer, remotes and modules, it enables us to remotely control lights and such with macros, timers and remotes. We have a ton of different modules.

Our collection which I sorted by module:

Above: This is only 2 kinds of modules, the rest are in the box.

So anyway, there’s motion sensors, switches, outlets, plug in modules, etc. We used a lot of these in our prior home years ago… especially for Halloween and Christmas lights.

I went to work today while Jim worked on his beloved garage and shopping. He did pick up 2 awesome dinette chairs:

Tomorrow, we take a trip to a zoo. Stay tuned…

10-12-11 Wednesday (The Lord Visits Walmart)

2011-10-14T12:59:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I unpacked 2 huge boxes in the kitchen. Jim and I call serving dishes, chaffing dishes, etc "serveware". We've amassed quite a collection over the years. We like to entertain.

I unpacked the boxes and washed what I had room for knowing that today I'd be able to complete the rest. Success! It was a big job. I washed everything and then found a home for it all. Here’s the stuff, keep in mind that some of it was put away before the photo was taken. Oy:

The Artimino Crystal flatware got cleaned and put away too. Here’s a photo and blog entry about it from December. We’re still looking for another set since we only have service for 4. If anyone sees it in a Dillard’s or somewhere, please let us know!

I went grocery shopping. Well, actually first I returned a bunch of stuff. Oh the joys of moving into a new place... returns. It's all about buying stuff, taking it home, not liking it, not the right color, incorrect fit or whatever and then returning it. In fact, we do this so much during the new home process that we keep returns with receipts in a Rubbermaid Tote to await it's return to the store. Really.

Returns... that brings me to a rant. You'll only understand or perhaps even sympathize with me if you shop at Walmart. When you walk in the door with a return, the greeter swoops in, has to scan each item, punch a few things into his scanner gun to get it to print a sticker. Meanwhile, the tiny printer doesn't do anything and ya just have to wait. Finally a sticker pops out of a tiny printer. Inevitably, the greeter has difficulty peeling back the sticker from the wax paper. This becomes a process. He/she then points you into the direction of the service desk. Are you with me so far?

So the other day I walk into Walmart with 7,878,857 little furniture protector cushions and shelf grip that Jim bought in OVER-preparation of the move. With the protectors, some throw rugs, and other things I no longer wanted, it must have been about 20 different items. Now referring to the paragraph above about the return process and combine that with my 20 item return equals me throwing a little attitude. Just a smidgen. I purposely went into the entrance closest to the service desk and when Mr. Greeter intercepted me I explained that I had too many items for him to scan and that I'd be going directly to the service desk that was 25 feet away. He said OK, but he was annoyed, I could tell. I then went to the service desk and she immediately asked where my stickers were. I explained that I wouldn't let him sticker everything because I had so much. She said... ready? "Lord have mercy." I couldn't believe she said that. She might as well said, "oh boy, here we go." Her name was Alice. At least twice I reminded her that if she had a problem helping me then to call a manager. Twice she went silent. After our transaction, I did eventually complain to a manager.

So today, I made returns. 6 of them. I let the door dude scan everything. It took forever. It's like punishment for making a return. Scan, push some buttons, print a sticker, affix sticker, repeat. Once it didn't print and he had to do it over but then it printed 2 stickers. Ugh. Alice was not my service desk worker this time.

The other evening while Jim and I were driving home, a fox trotted across the road. Trotted. Get it? Anyway, it crossed the road ahead of us. Jim has spotted one several months ago and I was bummed I didn't get to see it. Now I'm happy... in case you wondered.

Above: Not the actual fox we saw.

Speaking of wild life, today while running errands I saw bulls. With horns. Big bulls. Big horns. Only a few miles away from the house! I didn't get any photos but next time I'll be ready.

Thursday night, Jim removed the coat closet shelving and created a coat closet slash appliance storage:

Above: Jim mess of tools for the project.

Above: Coat half

Below: Appliance half

Jim double stacked the coat closet which, wait for it… doubles the hanging space. The pantry has more room for things we don’t need or have. In the end, we’ll have empty unused space but not to worry, all the while I’ll be thinking, “I have extra space and you don’t.”

10-10-11 Monday ($20 Hath Septeber)

2011-10-10T17:16:00.001-04:00

Some time Friday afternoon, Pete and T arrived from Michigan. I happened to pull an earlier shift so I was able to join Jim and company for dinner.

On Saturday while I was at work, Jim took them to Linville Falls and Little Switzerland. I heard the views were wonderful, the falls great and the leaves started changing. Unfortunately the restaurant Jim and I patronize often wasn't open due to some event going on.

On Sunday we had mimosa brunch at Mimi's.

Above: T and Pete.

We attempted to go to the Renaissance Festival. We tried. The traffic barely moved and appeared as though no end was in sight. After wasting a half hour we changed direction and headed for a home show. While in route, we passed a mall and it was decided to switch gears and get some shopping done. Jim and I shopped, Pete and T humored us. We didn't stay there very long. We went home and planned dinner.

While at the mall, I spotted this changeable Egyptian calendar:

Above: It’s $20. Imagine the price if September were spelled correctly?

The leaves continue to change. I think we’ll need another trip to Little Switzerland next weekend.

Jim and I didn’t work on the house this weekend; it was a nice break.

10-7-11 Friday (A Short Tour)

2011-10-08T20:31:00.001-04:00

OK, here’s the house so far:

Above: Utility room – The cat litter/food area on the left is temporary. It keep the litter and food up and away from Dasher.

Above: “Twin Room” – It’s been dubbed thee because it will have a twin bed/trundle bed setup in it. Right now it’s a catch all.

Above: “Queen Room”. It’s not for Queens, just a queen sized bed in it.

Above: Guest bath. We had no corners downstairs for the curio so it’s going to be in the upstairs hall.

Above: Master bath – The redneck hanging mirror has been replaced with full length cheapy mirrors as another temporary solution.

Above: Master bedroom – We still need real window treatments throughout the house. Cha-ching.

Above: The office/loft. With our futon from our Florida home and our family room furniture, this unexpectedly became a sitting area. I suppose if we ever decided a home gym was in order, we could ditch all that. There’s still much to do in this room. Any knik-knaks sitting around are only being displayed because they got unpacked along with other stuff. Artwork, window treatments and knik-knaks will be dealt with last.

Above: Dinette/Kitchen: That’s the Target table. We’re still in need of chairs. The light wood sideboard is there temporarily until we find something different and then we’ll recycle it to a guest room as a dresser. My wants/desires for the kitchen is Tuscany. I don’t want all the typical wine, espresso and chef themes. I just want “a look”.

Above: Entry/Dining room: The entry rug didn’t stay. We didn’t like it. The stack of boxes on the right are all décor stuff. This photo was taken a few steps up on the stairs. I love this room.

Above: Living room – Yes, the couches have “spikes” and “Tattle Tale Pet Alarms” on them to ward off evil cats and dogs. Cat for fur, dog for scratching. Yes, at the time of photo, the sofa has a price tag on it. We didn’t remove it until we were sure we were going to keep it.

Later today, friends Pete and T will arrive for a four day weekend!

10-5-11 Wednesday (Builder Water Torture)

2011-10-07T08:08:00.001-04:00

When we last left our ~~calm~~ annoyed blogger, Garret, he was expecting the plumber to come today… at 9:00am. By 10:15, no plumber. I had to call the Adams Homes Warranty Department. They’d have to call me back after checking into it. With a return call from them, the story is that there was a “mixup”. Like what? I don’t know and frankly didn’t care. The plumbers showed up at 11:00am. I pointed out the water stains, my suspicions and the like. They ran the water in the tubs for a long time. They stood downstairs staring up at the ceiling as if awaiting a message from God. Psssst, God said fix the leaks. I was standing upstairs and had better reception.

Since the leak investigation process takes a while, why not check out a photography link from my friend and dentist, Dr. David Lesansky? With his superhero, alter-ego, photographing self marketed as “Jack”, I present to you his gallery of amazing photography: Jack’s Darkroom. He likes arches and doorways as well as industrial scenes. I like old dilapidated barns and such. Visit his darkroom, support him. There’s no photos of teeth, you’ll be fine.

The plumbers are still investigating so I’ll remind you about 3 of my favorite photos that I took:

Fabulous, huh? The rest of my favorite are on the blogs left side-bar toward the top or you can see them here too.

Do you remember the story of the dentist, foot in mouth, orange walls… sound familiar? It’s a classic story. It’s usually a faux pas Jim would do. Really. Here’s the back story if you’re interested. A reminder:

Back to the plumber. He believes that water is getting behind the faceplate and he wants to caulk it or he can cut a hole in the ceiling to be sure. I opt for a hole in the ceiling since caulking this just doesn’t seem right. What did the manufacturer of the faucet suggest? Why didn’t the plumber who installed it do that? Why didn’t the builder catch that? This plumber of the same company that plumbed the house said he’d always recommend caulking. I decline… for now.

The cutting of the ceiling begins. About now, I think I want to cry.

The drywall dust… It sucks:

He says “there’s a river up there”, while gesturing toward the lovely hole. They go upstairs to run the water some more and I climbed up the ladder for a peek:

They think it’s coming from the drain. He needs to cut a hole in the master linen closet to inspect and repair. I had to empty it’s contents of sweaters, sheets, and towels. It almost pushed me toward the cry I so much wanted to have. I feel like we’ve worked our asses off just to get the house the way it was only to undo it. To run in reverse.

He finds the water valve leaking.

Above: Yep, looks wet.

Next he needs to cut a hole in the guest linen closet to investigate that leak.

He shows me some water laying on the floor.

I watch in the hole as the other plumber splashes water at the water controls. Water leaks down as captured in the next photo. I finally agree to caulking around the fixtures.

The plumbers finished up the repairs and did clean up the immediate vicinities. I still had to dust and what not.

I hadn’t realized that he “sealed” up some of the holes. We probably would have liked them to stay open to allow air to circulate up there. We’re concerned about mold too. I told the warranty department that we’d like to put off drywall repair for a couple of weeks. We have company coming this weekend and we’d also like to be sure the leaks are completely gone.

By the way, this morning I captured this photo from the side of the house while walking Dasher.

For Thursday’s post, I’ll take photos of the house so far… See ya then.

Moved

2011-10-05T16:20:00.000-04:00

9-30-11 Friday:

The Time Warner saga continues. Jim called Time Warner, spoke with a manager or two and got even more of a discount. They waived the transfer fee and deducted 2 weeks off the bill. Another guy came out very late and worked until about 10pm getting the cable issue resolved. He had to run cables along the ground from other junction boxes up the block. Most everyone in this neighborhood seems to have satellite. The phone and internet are now functional. The cable TV, nope! Ugh. I talk to the guy and he doesn’t know anything about cable boxes and such. He just does exterior install type stuff. Really?

Grandma was going to leave today but we asked her to stay a little longer for today’s task. Earlier in the day, Grandma baby sat Stanley Steamer while they cleaned the rental carpets. The lease requires that we have the carpets cleaned and provide a copy of the receipt to the rental management company. Even though we have a carpet cleaner of our own, it was definitely worth having someone else clean them. Aside from the work involved in doing it one reservoir at a time, it’s also the time in general. There is still so much to do. It’s not even been a week yet.

The other day I mentioned how the cable has no ends:

I emailed the salesperson about this and her reply:

“we do not install the connector. never have, even with the previous builder i worked for. time warner has their own cable connection they install & will cut off the connector.”

Wow. I don’t even know what to say. Sure I do. Bullshit. I reminder to all, you get what you pay for.

10-1-11 Saturday:

Yeah, it’s been a week now since we’ve been in the house over night.

Today Haverty’s came to deliver our furniture. Well, more like a kit. I answer the door and the guy is holding a protection kit (that we did indeed pay for) and no furniture. I thought he was kidding. He says that the rest is coming on such and such a date. But excuse me, I have emails confirming delivery. He had to check with a supervisor. It turns out that an error caused the furniture to be routed to the rental house. The furniture is on the truck but buried so they’ll come back later today.

Jim spotted a water mark/stain on the ceiling by the back. Above that sits the master shower. Oh boy. Just great. We’ll cease using that shower and contact the warranty department.

I called Time Warner about the cable TV. She resets the guest bedroom cable box remotely but says since the TiVo uses a Tuning Adapter and CableCARD that a separate department which is closed will need to be contacted and I’ll have to call back. I ask that she have them call us. She puts me on hold, comes back and claims to have left a voicemail for the department.

Off to work I go.

After the furniture guys deliver the furniture, Jim suggests returning the over-sized chair for another sofa. It looks like two sofas will fit nicely. He found out that our new set has already been discontinued and the only other sofa in the area (without waiting a long time for delivery) is a floor model located at the Pineville Haverty’s. Grandma and Jim go check out the floor model, and purchase said piece. I left work a little early, joined Jim and Grandma, returned to Haverty’s with the mini van, picked up the sofa, ate dinner at Tony Roma’s and then returned home. Busy, busy, busy.

10-2-11 Sunday:

We managed to talk Grandma into staying yet another day. Good thing because we needed to get the over-sized chair back to Haverty’s. Since they didn’t open until noon today we killed some time by stopping by a Big Lots to see their media/fireplace. We think we might like the one over at Lowe’s or BJ’s better.

After seeing Grandma off on her next adventure, Jim and I ate lunch and then went shopping. Big time shopping.

We went to Target for a new dinette table:

Then we went to Lowe’s. We saw a great fireplace/media cabinet. I was VERY leery about a fake fireplace. The flames look fake (because they are) but if I distance myself from it, looks fine. What I do like about a fake fireplace is that we can use it without heat.

While at Lowe’s we spotted a nice gas grill on sale for $129. Score.

With only having the Jeep, we had to make a few trips to pick up all this stuff.

10-3-11 Monday:

Today I returned the keys to Henderson Properties. Cindy, who happens to be the same skank that was there when we applied for the rental, was once again her condescending self. I must tell you that we were given 2 keys and after a problem with a door lock, the maintenance man (idiot) gave us a 3rd key. Anyway, I hand Cindy the keys, garage door openers, and carpet cleaning receipt. She says, “Which key is for which lock?” Well, we don’t use the keys we use the garage door opener so I said, “I don’t know.” She says, “So, you don’t know what key fits what lock.” “NO”. Her tone and condescending tone almost caused me to say, “I already answered that question, perhaps I can speak with someone who understands English?” But… I didn’t. I hate her.

I emailed the Adams Homes Warranty Department at about noon today. They require warranty requests to be in writing.

1- The floor in front of the master bath tub creeks very loudly.
2- Water is leaking onto our dinette ceiling. Knowing the master shower is above that, we have ceased using that shower. The drywall is puffy, damp and stained.
3- Since the water has been leaking, the floor hasn't been creaking as badly... possibly 1 & 2 are related?

10-4-11 Tuesday:

I got a response from Adams Homes via email at 9:30am saying someone would contact me as soon as possible. Nearly 24 hours since my email and that’s the best they can do for a new buyer who’s only been in their home a week? At 12:30 I emailed them:

Please be advised we have discovered another wet spot circling the recessed lighting in the kitchen. This could be a result of the other shower.
As of the time of this message it has been over 24 hours since the initial problem was reported. For a new owner with a water leak, this is very disappointing.
In advance, I'd like you to know that wood floors lie underneath these leaks. I'd also like to request that my NEW home be left spotless, as it was found prior to repair work. This should include drywall dust, elimination of water marks, replacement of potential moldy insulation and the like.

Yes, another wet spot. This email was just to get it in writing, so after sending it I immediately called. I was told someone would call me. I was late to work, they called at about 1pm. They scheduled a plumber to come out tomorrow.

Stay tuned…

Oh, so for some humor, Jim was tired of using a hand mirror since we still need to buy mirrors. Here’s his solution:

Rednecks be proud…

The Move

2011-09-30T17:31:00.000-04:00

Friday 9-23-11

Yes, I know I'm a week behind with this post. Some of us have moved you know.

Today (well, the 23rd), I waited for the hot tub movers to arrive. It has been raining all day. Luckily they felt it wasn't too bad and arrived in the morning knowing that I have to be at work at 12:30.

They followed me over to the new house, set the hot tub into place, collected their $250 and then departed. Jim will get the electrical hooked up and then fill with water quickly. We're excited to soak in it after working hard on the move.

In other news, Jim's Grandma, has arrived to help out! She'll unpack, clean, organize, direct and dog watch as needed! What a great help she'll be!

Here’s my parking lot at work… the leaves are changing…

Saturday 9-24-11

It's move day! It rained most of the day. Ugh.

I took off from work today.

We hired 4 movers at $60 an hour. It's the same guy we used when we first moved to Charlotte. This was such a tremendous help. We supplied the moving truck (U-Haul). Up and down the stairs to the infinite degree. Worth it. Totally worth it. Jim directed the movers while I boxed up remaining last minute stuff. Grandma took Dasher over to the new house and started putting some stuff away. We had Robin come over and help Grandma as needed. When I had nothing else to box up, I too went to the new house and started unpacking the kitchen.

Above: It’s been almost 2 years since we’ve seen the dining room.

It took 2 trips and we got MOST of our stuff. When will the rain stop?

Sunday 9-25-11

Trying to remember the order of what happened when is maddening. Some may say it's not really important to get specific dates/events correct but for some reason it is for me. Maybe me just being anal retentive... not sure.

I can tell you that this morning, I made waffles and Jim, Grandma and I enjoyed a Mimosa.

Above: This is the gift box that our realtor gave us.

Above: This photo is for Flartus who said on a previous post:

Mike and Billy came over and assisted us with a final U-Haul run. What needed moved was a few miscellaneous items along with all of our outdoor stuff. We didn't take the outdoor stuff the other day since it was all wet. It was still a big ole mess. The ground was so saturated it was pure mud. Jim laid down cardboard as a path for us to walk on.

Above/Below: And naturally if the rain hadn’t been enough, a neighbor was having a party.

Jim connected the hot tub electrical and started filling! Tonight, we shall have hot tub time!

Monday 9-26-11

As you read the other day, here's where I got the news that Time Warner will come out sooner than October 12th to get me hooked up with service.

I worked on getting the bedroom somewhat presentable.

Above: Clea (cat) and Dasher (dog).

Tuesday 9-27-11

Today I received a comment on the blog from hitchitch in reference to getting Internet established. It shouldn't be much longer though but I decided to look into it anyway. They referred me to connectify.me for a free program that would allow Grandma's laptop become a WiFi Hot Spot. I decided against it. I didn't want to have to install a program on her laptop. I decided to look for a program to use my cell phone. I found one! Free too! And it works! Not wirelessly, but rather as a tether. If you want it from the Android Market, it's called EasyTether. I installed a program to my phone and to my laptop and then connected the two via a USB cable. Fast speeds too!

Jim finished reassembling the office furniture enough that later in the week, I can start loading up the shelves and what not.

Wednesday 9-28-11

Grandma and I headed to the rental to finish cleaning. She and Robin got quite a bit done the other day. We cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, magic-erasered the walls, cleaned windows, etc. Phew, what a lot of work... Later in the evening when Jim came home, we went to dinner and then returned to the house to get the TV, TiVo and associated mounting brackets. I spackled some more.

I started setting up all the equipment Time Warner would need for the install. We paid our builder to have some cable outlets installed and this is what we got:

Above: Really? Not even a cable outlet with the connector protruding? Not even a connector on the end of the wire? You people suck.

Thursday 9-29-11

Speaking of sucking. Time Warner came out today. They ran a cable from the yard junction box to the house that they’ll have to bury in the future. That was the big install? Nothing works. The guy told Grandma that Time Warner has to do something at the box. Jim called them and they didn’t know what we were talking about. They attempted to get a hold of the installer but failed. Jim had to speak to several people and spent a long time on the phone. The supervisor is crediting us $30 a month for a year. I’m not sure how Jim got that deal, maybe because he mentioned going to satellite? Tomorrow a supervisor is supposed to call me to tell us what’s going on.

9-26-11 PSA

2011-09-26T18:32:00.000-04:00

So, I last told you about the Time Warner issue with not being able to have service until October 12th. Aside from them sucking, what this means is no internet, phone or cable. Right now it's not a big issue since I have so much unpacking and organizing to do.

Recently I've discovered that I can now get Blogger access at work so I'll try to get my posts typed up and transmit them later.

What I can tell you so far is that the move was a success. It's great to be in the new house. I have photos. I have to figure out how to get them from my camera to work. Jim's Grandma is staying with us and being an enormous help. She's got a laptop with an AT&T internet connection. I'm trying to figure out how to broadcast that internet connection so that Jim and I can use it. Somewhere I have a special router that can use cell phone cards so that might be an option. Verizon wants $30 for me to use my cell phone as an internet hub. That's a little rich for my blood.

Oooooo, update, update. I called Time Warner at lunch to get an update. Ms Awesome asks if I want to change the install date. Well, yeah. She re-explains the process of needing an engineer, a scientist, a politician, and a local gardner for a new install which is why it takes so long HOWEVER they can get it done THIS Thursday the 29th. Would I like to switch the date? Uhhhh, hell yeah. So, the 29th it is.

In the meantime, when I return from Facebook, Scrabble, and blogging haitus, I'll post more info and pictures.

9-22-11 Thursday (Extra Credit)

2011-09-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

There were big plans for today. I was to load the trailer up before work and then after work, Jim would take it to the new house to unload. Simple right?

Well, I carried box after box from the second floor down to the living room, then into the garage and eventually into the trailer. It was tiring. Just like yesterday. The out of shape slash old slash stairs suck played into my frequent breaks. I joked with Jim that I should just stay home and get this all done. He agreed, so I skipped work. By early afternoon, I has wished I had gone to work. I was exhausted. My legs felt like Jello. I muddled through and finally finished.

Jim had left work early, and for help, picked up a coworkers son, Robin, who had previously house sat for us while we were on vacation. We crammed a few more things into the trailer and went to the new house to unload. Naturally we let young master Robin do most of the stairs climbing. We finished up, took him home and went out for Five Guys for dinner. Mmmmmm.

As a side note, earlier in the day I called several utility companies to set up the account service transfers. So I called Time Warner. I wanted to know if its possible to have service in two locations, like an overlap, just how power and water companies do it. The guy I spoke with, we'll call him Ditz, said no but I could set up a new account and then cancel the old one. I said it wouldn't be beneficial since I wouldn't have to get a new phone number. So he started processing my request for service transfer and says my number can't move. Huh? It's only a 15 minutes away from my current address. Still in the same city. He said it works off of substations or something like that. I ask for a supervisor. He placed me on hold, comes back and says he was wrong, the number can stay. I'm left wondering if he just wanted me to get a new account for credit? We continue. He tells me the first available install date is October 12th? What the ? Yes, I understand my house is brand new and doesn't have cable. I ask for a manager. I get Ms. Mgr who empathizes very well and tells me that the 12th is a computer generated date and it might be sooner but no promises. So 20 days without cable, Internet, or phone? Really? With this economy we can't get more contractors and what not? We have a TiVo that we love and can't be used with satellite so right now we're kinda stuck. I'll just keep raising a ruckus I guess. I'm so annoyed though. Maybe I should call again and again and again?

9-21-11 Wednesday (Quizzes)

2011-09-23T19:20:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy week.

Wednesday was our closing. It went OK but of course I have some complaints. Please reserve your gasps for the end. The lawyer that did the closing seemed like an idiot. Plain and simple. Jim found more mistakes on the documents than he did. The lawyer didn't do the standard "this document basically says this that or the other thing, please sign here." He was more of a "sign here" type of guy. If it wasn't for this being Jim and I's 3rd home purchase together, we'd be baffled. I assure you, the lawyer didn't know any of this. Jim questioned a $33 entry on the HUD, the lawyer said "yeah, weird" then finally figured it out and later made a strange comment that we almost cancelled closing over $35. Jim and I both ignored it and assumed it was his terrible attempt at humor. I know for sure that it was weird because after the closing I said to Jim, "I wasn't sure how to take that guy. When he started talking about..." and Jim finished my sentenced.

After we closed, the woman at the NACA desk gave Jim a verbal pop quiz. She treated us like we were kids and was testing what we've learned. Then she said some more ridiculous stuff and whipped out voter registration cards to make sure we changed our address AND are registered to vote. Odd. She then immediately schedules us for our volunteer session (part of the NACA deal) for late October to tell other people how great they are. Wacky.

Our realtor, Donna, was there for closing. Afterwards, she opened her trunk, grabbed a cooler and gave us champagne and OJ for Mimosas! Very sweet, but since we weren't going home but rather to our new abode with no refrigerator just yet, we had to decline our gift, pending Donna's delivery for Saturday. We're high maintenance. I know. Prior to the closing, we had loaded up the vehicles with a few things such as paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap, dishtowels, sponge, etc, etc.

We then headed out for lunch then to the U-Haul place for one of those big double axle trailers. Yes, we'll get a regular truck later in the week. We headed to the rental and emptied out the attic storage of Halloween and Christmas decor boxes. It pretty much filled up the trailer, give or take. We have way too much. Up and down the steps at the rental, over and over, rinse and repeat, made me realize that 1- I'm out of shape. 2- I'm old. 3- Stairs suck. It wasn't fun.

We got it loaded up and arrived at the new house where Jim cut a hole in the wall. Huh? Well, during construction, the space under the stairs was going to be covered up. Jim eye-balled it as being the perfect place for heavy Christmas stuff that we'd rather not schlep up steps. Why not use the space instead of the intended waste? Prior to drywall installation, Jim measured and mapped out where the studs, electrical and what not would be. With tools in hand, Jim cut a hole in the garage drywall. He did manage to saw right through the cord, creating a pretty spark. Oy. He'll later frame it and add a door. I'd like a secret bookcase wall. You know, where you have to pull a candle for it to open? Well, maybe it won't be so much of a secret if I blog about it, huh?

Above: Whoops

Above/Below: 2 piles of Christmas and Halloween. Most of which will fit in the space under the stairs.

Above: Our ~~pretty~~ wall.

We've been asked why we didn't have the builder do it. Well, finances. Who knows what they would have charged. Also we were at the maximum price that the builder would let us do without paying for anything else up front.

9-18-11 Sunday (Who’s Gonna Take Responsibility?)

2011-09-20T09:10:00.001-04:00

Before I get started on today’s post, I need to catch up on some whining, complaining, and overall judging:

Above: These flags were given to each employee for 9-11. Along the seam states “Made in USA” and I’m ashamed. The ugly seam is showing on the incorrect side of the flag. The red and white stripes are both crooked AND not equally sized. Pitiful. I don’t blame my job for this, I blame whomever the manufacturer was. What I may blame my job for is that they purchased these hideously made pieces of… OK, moving on.

Above: This is my neighbor, Tequilla’s home. She also built with Adams Homes. A couple of weeks ago I introduced myself and pointed out her siding issue. It’s warped/buckled. She hadn’t even noticed. She was nonchalant about it saying something about how several homes in the neighborhood had this happening and that she was waiting until a year after the build (per instructions given to her) to contact the warranty department. I cautioned her not to since the siding may not match. Luckily for us, Jim had remembered that the builder changing siding companies when we signed contract. Phew. I later found out that she had taken my advice and requested a repair.

Above: Dear rental neighbor with a constant 6 (typically) vehicles in the driveway that don’t seem to move, how about removing that lawn mower box that’s been sitting on your hood for 3 weeks already? I hope the combination of morning dew and sunshine permanently fuses the cardboard to your paint. Maybe one of your 956 inhabitants can clean the yard up a little.

The scans I posted below are from the rental company’s price list of what they’ll charge if I don’t leave the rental in pristine condition. I found it funny to have prices for some of this stuff although I can understand it’s a necessary evil:

OK, I’m glad I got that off my chest. Let’s talk about today:

We started the day with trying a local restaurant for breakfast. Dino’s Family Restaurant. The restaurant had an article about itself from 1986 framed and posted. This place has been around a long time. Unfortunately, I could tell. The place was overall “creepy” to me. I felt like any minute a roach was going to join me for breakfast. The food was OK (omelets), however I couldn’t really get beyond the creepiness. I couldn’t wait to leave. One humorous tidbit appeared at the bottom of their menu:

Above: “We regret that we cannot be responsible for personal property.” Having this sort of disclaimer on a menu troubles me.

Just about the time that the creepiness had worn off, we arrived in Rockwell, NC for an outing at Tiger World which lead to more creepiness. This was a Groupon trip. This place was kind of like a zoo in someone’s backyard. More accurately, if I had to describe a redneck zoo, this would be perfect. In defense of this place, once I researched it to post within the blog, I found that it’s more about animal rescue and nonprofit than being a zoo. They had animals that were missing a leg or an eye. I applaud them and think I’d return if nothing else but to support them. Ready for more photos?

Above: The Lochness Monster was a nice touch but not really executed very well.

Above: The fencing between the various tigers, bears, wolves and what nots was disturbing. I was actually worried they’d get through and attack us. Really.

Above/Below: Reptile World was a dive. A pieced together exhibit with a couple of snakes and turtles.

Above: Jim in Reptile World with his bag of nuts to feed the animals with.

Above/Below: He was great at catching… see video.

Above/Below: Bad views.

After our zoo outing, we headed home (a 40 minute drive) to Charlotte. We stopped off at a Rose’s discount store and had a little fun:

Above: The most awesome thing about this photo is it was actually Jim’s idea!

Well, it was entertaining to us… Within our area, Jim spotted this in front of a funeral home:

It’s weird. The top reminded me of something nautical or like a parade float. What the ?

Wednesday is the closing!

9-15-11 Thursday (How Do You Like Your Eggs?)

2011-09-15T19:50:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, being Wednesday, nothing exciting happened. I did manage to make a couple of returns, pack a box, do laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom (yeah, just one), removed some nails in the walls and patched them, etc.

The builder's salesperson, Michelle, called me a few times to verify where some of the issues were from the walk-through. She wasn't part of the walk-throughs and therefore didn't know each detail. Ted who knew the issues wasn't at the house so Michelle was double checking all the work. I eventually emailed her the photos I had and a list of the concerns.

Adams Homes is pretty hot to close. NACA had emailed requesting a closing date for Monday but Jim and I will not commit to a closing date without completion of the punch-list. The rush is on, the contract is only extended until Thursday 9-22-11 at this point.

When Jim came home we went out to dinner and then stopped at a couple of furniture stores. We're rethinking the bedroom furniture purchase for both style and price. We may just cancel it out all together and wait until all the other small purchases are made.

Fast forward to Thursday, we had the walk-through at 8:00am. We weren't 100% happy with a few of the repairs and noticed 3 things we hadn't noticed prior OR didn't exist prior. One of the brick decorative porch columns has a crack running down 2 bricks, and paint booger in the dining room and something else that eludes me right now.

Some time later in the afternoon, I receive a text to schedule another walk-through for tomorrow at 8:30am. Jim will be late again to work as a result and isn't very happy about it. Why didn't they just scrutinize their own work prior to us coming this morning? It's constant wastes of time that continue to irritate us.

Above: I felt this entry needed a photo...

What is with the lack of quality? Some readers have commented about the quality along the lines of: Do you really want this house? What don't you see? -- The good thing is that we've watched every step of the way and had Jim's dad, who owns a construction business in Naples, FL, come and look at everything before drywall went up. I have to believe or maybe want to believe that all will be OK. Adams Homes is such a big builder in Florida with a general good reputation... what's going on here in North Carolina?

While at work, some where around 7:30pm, Jim emails me that he worked late to make up his time and that he stopped by the house to see the brick had been repaired and that the front door still had a chip in the paint (as found this morning) and the caulk was still missing from the corner of the house for the 3rd time. He's not going to tomorrow's walk-through as a result. It's probably too late but I emailed the sales person about what Jim found and warned her I'd be angry if it wasn't at 100%.

Friday morning, I arrive at the new house to find Ted and a couple of painters are already there and have everything complete. Egg on face much? Yeah. We had no idea they’d get there early in the morning to get stuff done. I felt completely stupid that Jim didn’t come AND that I had emailed the salesperson. Either way, what a relief. Now, we’re waiting for a closing date which is Wednesday.

9-12-11 Monday (The Not So Final Final)

2011-09-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

The saga continues. Click here (for previous post) if the next paragraph doesn’t make any sense.

Adams homes was unwilling to extend the contract! Odd that they still seemed confident that they’d have everything done although we knew otherwise. They were positive that the 4 items the NACA inspector found would be corrected before his re-inspect Tuesday and that the other outstanding items would be placed a promise to repair after the fact. We were leery.

We met with Ted, the Adams Home production manager, for our final walkthrough. Well, now it’s going to be more of a semi-final walk through. Ted told us that the superintendent, Roger, is no longer with the company. Now this all makes sense. Roger quit and didn’t care about the outstanding items so most were never addressed. At the end of today’s meeting, Ted thanked us for coming in to redo this all and was awesome to work with. He really wowed us with his willingness to correct any issues.

From the NACA inspector (non-cosmetic issues only) were 4 items on the list:

Anti-tip on stove. This was completed but when Jim tested it, the stove severely wobbled. It needs adjustment otherwise I’m sure it will fail tomorrow’s re-inspection.
Cracks in garage floor and side of house. The garage floor was sealed but not the side of the house.
Dishwasher hits knob. They adjusted it slightly and hopefully enough to pass inspection but they will be redoing some cabinetry and the draw to accommodate the dishwasher.
The swale in the front yard was a trip hazard. This has been widened to be less shallow. I think it’s barely noticeable except for the grass that appears dead in it. I think they should have replaced the sod in it since the dead grass draws attention to it.

Remember the prior entry the builder stated in an email:

Ted spent some time out here the other day going through the house. All items from the initial walk through and NACA repair list are complete. Most of the items from your additional list are complete as well, however they had to…

Item 1 and 3 a definite disappointment. Item #2, you only got half that fixed. So as I said yesterday, you guys lied. You wasted our time.

As an act of good faith, they are going to pay the $75 re-inspection fee. I just wish they would have been honest enough up front and said, “Hey listen, Roger is no longer with the company, we’re not sure if he addressed all your concerns, would you mind coming back in for another walk through?” Then we wouldn’t have been so upset about the “waste of time”.

We’ll have another “final” walkthrough tentatively for Thursday of this week. Per NACA, we can’t close by the 15th so Adams had to extend the contract. Here’s some stuff they have to take care off:

Above: Bad caulk job

Above: Noted at first walkthrough and wasn’t addressed. It’s like Roger just removed the tape and nothing more.

Above: House number bolts are rusting, one missing.

Above/Below: Bottom of the banister.

Above: Scratch in the wood floors.

Above: Banister at the top of the stairs.

Above: A small problem that was made worse.

Above: Weird blemish above the light fixture that was never corrected even though it was pointed out during the initial walkthrough.

Above: Finger prints above the toilet tank.

Above: Gouges in the door frames.

Above: Still there from the initial walkthrough.

Above: That’s only part of what there is to see.

Above: No biggie. The stopper took off some paint.

Above: They painted around the downspout.

I think in the end they’ll be able to get most all done before re-inspection. Most likely the cabinetry/dishwasher/knob problem will still exist and they’ll provide an addendum stating so if need be for closing.

Ted was great to work with. I’m glad Roger is gone. Too many times we were met with opposition for a correct repair.

Jim and I stopped into Furniture Row and bought the bedroom furniture we saw over the weekend. Just as with the fridge and sofas, we made sure we can cancel for a full refund. Their Labor Day sale runs until 9-23-11 but I wanted to get it over with and locked in at the sale price. We may cancel the bedroom furniture just due to the money factor. It’s the last of the big ticket purchases we ~~needed~~ wanted, however, we think the small purchases may gobble up a lot of money. Besides, we can make due with our hideous bedroom furniture for a while. It functions.

9-9-11 Friday Through 9-11-11 Sunday

2011-09-12T17:55:00.001-04:00

The new house is draining the life out of me. Yesterday Jim and I decided that we just don’t give a shit. The builder must think we’re picky (and we are) and we think the builder is substandard.

I haven’t really written every detail about this build so far in case the builder reads the blog. Why does that matter? Because I still need to do business with them and me bad mouthing them certainly won’t help in any sort of negotiations. So what’s changed now? Everything… and I’ll get to that in a moment. I don’t plan to sit here and revisit all the bad things that have happened along the way and post them now. I don’t intend to tell you how Jim and I have had many an argument over this house. I try to be excited about it, I try, but I think I just don’t care anymore.

If we break the contract, we lose $1000 deposit, the time and money invested in additional caulk and insulation. NACA will disqualify us from using their program. We lose $275 for the first inspection. The furniture and fridge we ordered and paid for can be cancelled and refunded. We made sure of that before committing. The remainder is worthy of sacrifice.

We’ve come to realize through a lot of the process that Adams Homes isn’t about quality. The moldings in the dining room have been terrible. Admittedly, we’ve examined the moldings in the model and spec home and found them to be pitiful too. The best we could do is snag the major flaws for repair and accept many other flaws on the paint and fit and finish. We figured that maybe we never noticed them because of the furniture in the home AND because we never sat down at a dining room table right next to the moldings to see the flaws in all their glory. My point is that although it seems like we’re picking this house apart, trust me, there’s a lot we said “fine” about.

So we’ve been going back and forth with the builder about some unresolved issues that I mentioned in the entry on the 28th and then the NACA inspection on the 31st. NACA wants us to close before the 15th; the pressure is on. So the builder wants to schedule another walkthrough… but hello, most of the items haven’t been addressed. The builder tells us all is done including replacement of the front door. I was there Thursday morning (not on the inside) and saw the door looked the same. I come home and say that I had just been there. They write:

I just talked to my manager, who just left the house, and he said that he was assured that the door would be done sometime today and painted tomorrow.

As to the items on the inspection/repair list, those have all been done. He has also looked at the original initial walk list and all of those items have been done as well.

But since you have indicated that there are items that still need to be compete he would like to know if you can meet with him sometime Monday afternoon.

Suspiciously I go back out to the house late afternoon. Nope, still not replaced. We say we’d like to look at the house over the weekend before taking time off work. Our salesperson writes:

Ted spent some time out here the other day going through the house. All items from the initial walk through and NACA repair list are complete. Most of the items from your additional list are complete as well, however they had to order another new door as the replacement came in dinged as well. It will be here, installed & painted on Monday. While the painters are here, they will take care of the spot in the dining room & the spot by the stairs. It is imperative that you schedule your walk through & final NACA inspection by Tuesday afternoon at the absolute latest to allow for closing documents to be prepared for Thursday's settlement. The locks have been changed to the new key and I no longer have access to the house. Ted will be able to address any other concerns you may have at the walk-through, and plans to have the painters nearby in case there are additional touch ups that were overlooked. Feel free to stop by over the weekend, however, my key no longer works for your home and I will not be able to get you in.

Now remember, “everything except a few touchups are done.” We tell them several times that we do not want to take time off work until it’s all complete so now they’ve decided to squash that with the whole “we have no key and locks have been changed story.”

Friday night, I get off of work at 9 and off to the house we go. We checked all electrical boxes and found the key in a/c cut off box. Hmmmmm. It fit the lock. How odd. Here’s my email to all parties, minus the photos (click on any photo to open a new window and bigify) I’ve included for you:

It's so unfortunate someone would tell you incorrect information to pass on to us. After work this evening, we stopped at the house and found the key at the a/c cut off switch. It opened the doors. Have the locks been changed? Let's go over the list again and review what had been addressed:

1- The front door repairs/replacement -- Awaiting replacement.
2- There's a gap in the moldings on the stairs opposite the iron spindles. -- awaiting paint.

3- To the lower right of the dining room front window is an un-semi-glossed circular spot next to the trim. You can kinda see it in the photo. -- awaiting paint.

4- The vent over the kitchen window has a bend in the louver. -- still bent.

5- The dishwasher door hitting the drawer knob issue. -- it still hits. It rubs constantly when opening/closing the dishwasher. Someone counter-sank a hole for the knob to slightly recess in and it appears glued in place. It looks hideous. Replace the drawer. Correct the problem. By the way, this is my biggest issue right now… We may consider them changing out (all) knobs to a nice lower profile to resolve the issue if need be.

6- Drainage/grading/sod: I can tell you now we're not happy with the yard overall. We've been stopping by there often and especially after rains to see what the rain has done. We've addressed our concerns multiple times. The sod on the right side of the drive sits higher than the concrete. It should have been graded down to account for the height of the sod. This makes the water pool up against it. We were told that it will settle in. We will not wait for that. Sorry, but we're not going to wait for this to happen only to be told it's normal or too late down the road. We mentioned in an email that we were concerned about the dryness of the back yard. Our email went unacknowledged. On several visits the soil/dirt was so dry it had cracks in it. Grass is growing in some areas and mostly not others and now there's weeds to boot. The care instructions from Roger say the seed should be watered daily to keep the soil moist. There's many dead spots in the sod as well. The yard is so disappointing. It's ugly. The swale looks better but we're still concerned with the drainage and hope that it's been taken care of. We've not seen it with any rain since it was changed. While I say it looks better, it still looks like a swale through the middle of the front yard. When I asked for it to be wider I should have specified how much wider. I was thinking 6-8 feet wide, gently sloped so that it did not look like a swale but that the yard just had some contour like the driveway. None of the other houses in the neighborhood have a swale. Why should mine? It looks crooked and ugly. Do any of you have or want such a feature in your front yard? Will Adam's homes stand behind this solution to make sure the driveway and yard drains and the front yard does not stay wet for days after it rains? -- we didn't look at this tonight.

7- Stove anti-tip. -- wasn't reinspected.

8- The door of the dishwasher had a dent/ding. -- It's still there.

9- The drywall spot above the upstairs guest bathroom light fixture was marked for repair by Roger but they didn't fix it. -- It's still there.

10- The drywall and banister looks a little "rough" at the top of the stairs. -- It still looks horrible and doesn't appear any different.

11- To the left of the master bedroom door (hallway side), up where the rounded part of the wall meets the ceiling there is a "hole" that needs filled and painted. -- Poorly "repaired".

12- I am concerned about the "haze" on the new wood floors. It's kinda like adhesive residue. -- I did not reinspect for this.

13- The drawer next to the fridge space had two knobs on it. We requested it be fitted with one knob as is the spec home and model center. -- Looks great, thanks!

We will not close until they are all addressed properly.

14- New! The carpet on the way up the stairs doesn't meet up to the wall on the right side.

There are 13 items for resolution. We were told all were done, then when I questioned about the door, the status had changed. That leaves 12 items, 8 of which have been confirmed as not being corrected.

Adams Homes wanted us to take off time from work to reinspect our home and marvel at the repairs that haven't been made. When all items have been corrected, please contact us for a re-inspection on a weekend or evening hours, convenient to us, prior to a final walk through with Ted.

__________________________________

Do they think that if it wasn’t on the initial walk through that it isn't gonna get fixed? I got news for them, see item 14, I’m adding that to the list. This is a purchase of over $150,000. A mortgage is 30 years. Get over it. We’re told standard protocol is to walk through the house once, address those items, reinspect and close. I understand that. I understand the reasoning. Perhaps this wouldn’t even be an issue if the work would have been QC’d prior to us even inspecting and then dare I say repaired correctly after noted.

I was so upset at the time I wrote this post on Saturday morning. I went to work and received a reply from Adams who naturally scolded us for going into the house and mentioned “trespassing” and such. They went on to explain the difference between the builders key, homeowner’s key, and what ever else:

I have picked up the key from the AC outlet box and it indeed is different than my builder key that works for all of my homes. The house has been keyed to the homeowner key, and apparently this one was left for the painter to get in Monday in case the door is delivered while all of us are in our sales meeting…

Per the addendum that NACA required us to furnish, you must close on or before September 15th. If closing does not occur by then, it will be up to both parties to determine if the contract will be extended.

Oh really? Well, they’re having you lie, or you’re willingly lying, whichever but what I didn’t tell them is that the key in our a/c box ALSO worked the spec home up the block. So unless you rekeyed those locks too… bull.

So I call Michelle (salesperson). The conversation is heated. I actually felt more comfortable talking to her on the phone than through emails. You see, attitudes are flying to and fro through words which unfortunately may not have any attitudes at all. Written word lacks a definitive tone. Michelle mentions in a off sorta way that the sales manager is at her wits end and is debating on not extending the contract. Awesome! So I said -- actually that’s something Jim and I have discussed and we’d consider the same. We’ll lose a little, get the $1000 back and be on our way!

If you had asked last night we definitely wanted out but now of course after sleeping on it and having talked to Michelle I feel like maybe they’ll make things right. I don’t think they can get everything done Monday before the walk through though. I also think that some of the items we saw are unacceptable. If they had let us inspect before the walkthrough they could have saved us a lot of hassle. They have time to address the other issues as well. Now they’ll have to wait till we point them out during the next walk through.

I called Jim and we agreed we’d continue with the walkthrough (which still seems dumb and doomed to us) if they’ll extend the contract. If they don’t extend the contract there’s no point. We later figured that either way, we’ll proceed with the walkthrough so that we’ve met our contractual obligations.

It would be to their benefit to make this house right and continue with the sale. The spec home that looks just like ours minus the changes and upgrades has been on the market for 5 months. There was a contract on it 5 months ago but it fell through so it’s probably closer to a year.

On Sunday, Jim and I went furniture shopping again and found an awesome bedroom set.

Stay tuned…

Labor Day Weekend 2011

2011-09-06T15:50:00.001-04:00

For Saturday we were invited to Ruby's for dinner. I had to work but decided to leave early to attend. I mean who can resist steaks on the grill?

Jim dropped off his car to Tire Kingdom to get his strut mounts replaced due to a rattle noise on bumps that they had previously diagnosed. Beth picked him up and off to Ruby's they went.

I arrived at Ruby's a little later. What an appetizer spread! There was so much food and more importantly, delicious food. Oh and guzzling down some sangrias. All so yummy.

Sangrias plus the Wii equals insane fun!

Above: David on the Wii.

Above: Beth (center) and her siblings Annie and Dave.

Above: Who took this damn photo? That’s me, sorry you had to see that.

Above: Ann

Above: Jim

On Sunday Jim called to check on the status of his car. It had been 24 hours since he had dropped it off. The guy told Jim he couldn't confirm the noise and suggested he come in for a roadtest tomorrow (Monday) after 11am when another employee will be there because he's leaving for the day. Wow. 24 hours for nothing.

For the rest of the day we did more furniture and appliance shopping. We settled on couches from Haverty’s. A plain, clean line sofa… we bought two reclining sofas. Naturally we’ve delayed delivery until we move.

Here’s the picture from the other day:

At Home Depot we took advantage of their Labor Day sales and bought a new side-by-side fridge.

Later that evening, Mike and Billy came over for some burgers on the grill. Jim mixed the ground beef with some minced garlic, a little panko breadcrumbs, mustard and Knorr’s Onion Soup mix. Strange stuff, I know but they taste good. He made them flat and extra large figuring they’d shrink. They puffed up like a frickin’ balloon and took forever to cook. They were tasty though.

Monday rolled around and Jim and I were both off for the holiday. We again went shopping, mostly just looking, and had brunch at Mimi’s.

Here’s some photos I snagged over the weekend:

Above: How cute.

Above: Jim spotted these arrows facing the wrong way!

Above: A neighbor’s rabbit yard sculpture complete with broken ears. It’s been like this for months. People… it’s time to let go.

Above: Unfortunately the camera-phone delayed too long to photo. There is a lawn mower on the back seat and a stove severely hanging out of the trunk. Oy.

8-31-11 Wednesday (It Sucks, But It’s Very Good At It)

2011-09-02T18:00:00.000-04:00

Hello. It’s me. It’s Wednesday. I was off. Here’s what you missed for the week:

First off, the vacuums story. Yes, plural. You remember I purchased a Roomba, right? Well, I use it just about every other day. Vacuuming so often can be tiring… to Roomba that is. Not so much for me. Every time I tell Jim I vacuumed he says it doesn’t count as work just to push a button. What about the time involved in emptying the debris cup? Or ~~carrying~~ lugging it upstairs? No credit at all? I was asked what the pets think about Roomba. They don’t care. Sometimes they even get bumped with it. Clea tries to attack the bristles on the side. Here’s what I found after Roomba completed a cleaning cycle:

Above: Is Clea cuddling with it? Guarding it? Waiting for her next play date?

I thought Roomba + our existing Hoover upright would solve all our vacuuming needs but then we decided we’d need something better for the stairs. Truth be told, the very heavy “self propelled” Hoover we bought 7 years ago kinda sucks. The suction isn’t all that great and the air powered hand tool barely works. So what do we do? Well, we consult Consumer Reports and buy an Electrolux Oxygen.

I will tell you that we used this model to clean the RV while visiting Jim’s Dad. We thought the suction to be amazing. I researched pricing. The average price $325(Walmart) or more. I got a factory refurbished (with a 2 year warranty) for $180, no shipping charges through eBay. I ordered an $80 powered handtool from a separate vendor for $20. Although the power tool hadn’t arrived yet, the vacuum came today and worked extremely well on the tests we through at it.

That’s a lot of info about vacuums, isn’t it?

OK, so Monday I made salads for the week:

Not nearly as exciting as vacuum talk is it? Hmmm, that’s what I thought. Let’s talk about my hair… or lack of… or actually growth. The backstory: Several weeks ago I got razor rash/burn or whatever on the back of my head and couldn’t get rid of it. I’d constantly irritate it when I’d shave so I decided to take a break from shaving my head. I’ve been getting compliments and may leave it. What do you think:

That was Dasher in the photos too. It’s hard to see but I was feeding him pieces of cat food, which he loves.

So what do you think? Shave it? Keep it as is? Grow it longer? I took several angle shots so you could keep in mind the bald spot on the top.

Wow, this is going to be a long post. Mainly because of all the photos.

I met up with Ruby, a good friend, excoworker and travel agent extraordinaire. She actually manages the AAA Travel center in Huntersville. We had lunch together and then returned to her office to talk about vacations. Call her at 704-897-0592! Anyway, she put together several trips for Jim and I. I was interested in a Europe tour, Alaskan cruise, Hawaii or perhaps San Francisco. Europe was well over $5,000 and had to be put aside. Since Jim and I hate the beach and laying out for a tan, we thought we should probably cross out Hawaii. San Francisco is awesome. Maybe we’d even see the Naked Tat Man again? Much more fun than Big Foot or something…

Jim and I went out for dinner last night and talked about the possibility of going on an Alaskan Cruise as the most probable vacation. We’re thinking June 2012 or June 2013. Any suggestions, must-see’s, ports of call, ideas, tips, tricks, feedback? Jim’s grandma has been on an Alaskan cruise so we’ll pick her brain. I’m in research mode…

Today we had a NACA inspection at the house. Minor problems included the dishwasher hitting the kitchen drawer knob (we knew about), 2 cracks in concrete (garage floor and exterior side) need sealing, drainage ditch is trip hazard (we’ve been trying to resolve the driveway/grading issues), and the stove isn’t in it’s anti-tip brace. These issues have to be resolved, reinspected and then we can close.

While we waited for the inspection, I took more photos:

Above: Loft-office space.

Above: Guest room #1 of 2.

Above: Taken from upstairs looking down into 1/2 bath. To the left would be the dining room and front door. To the right would be the living room, dinette, kitchen and back door.

Above: Upstairs guest bath.

Above: Master bath. Tub is on the left behind the door.

Above: Master bath, sinks are on the right.

Above: Downstairs 1/2 bath.

Above: From the middle of the kitchen. Left door = pantry, middle = garage, right = coat/extra closet.

Above: I know I take a lot of photos of this but I love it.

Above: View of the loft/office area from the master bedroom door. The door to the right is the utility room.

Above: “Honey, I’m home”.

After the inspection, Jim and I went to Growler’s Pour House for dinner. He bought a Living Social certificate which is very similar to a Groupon. The place is a bar, limited seating and a very limited menu:

What we had was good but we weren’t expecting such a limited menu.

Oh, and just in case this entry wasn’t long enough AND you’re not tired of hearing about the house, here’s two walk through videos I filmed: