Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I'm a Star!

I picked up the 97X Green Room Volume 5 CD and my name is in the liner notes (I did know this already, so knew to look)!

Also, Rob and I went to the Beer Club event at Datz Deli, which was a blind tasting of 6 different beers. I got 5 of the styles right, and 4 of the countries right. I beat everyone else, including Rob and the guy who orders the beers for the Deli! I won two free drinks and a hat that I gave to Rob. Go me!
Jenn

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Getting there!

I accomplished a lot today with my new scrap room furniture. I love it! More pics in the next day or so, once everything's put away and labeled.


Jenn

Not sure this dog can be any cuter...

Click on the pic to make it bigger, and just TRY to resist those eyes :)
Jenn

The love(s) of my life

Besides Rob of course :)

Madigan is on the left and Malley's on the right.
Jenn

Friday, September 18, 2009

What I'm up to today

My shelves in my scrap room were bowing - so one trip to IKEA later, I have new shelves to put up!
Everything on the shelves needed to be moved to the other side of the room.


Where the old shelves were and where the new IKEA Expedit shelf will go!

In process of being assembled!

Unfortunately I have to run back to IKEA because the top shelf was cracked, so it has to be exchanged. I'm putting the rest together so it'll be ready to go when I get home.

More pics to follow as I fill up the cubes!
Jenn

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

World's Best Wife

I believe I qualify for the award for the World's Best Wife.

I went to bed Monday night, and woke up about 2 am realizing I hadn't made Rob's lunch for the next day - so I got up and made it.

Whoop-dee-doo, you say?

The real reason I qualify is this:
I was holding an ice cube, heading toward the sink to toss it, when Rob steps in front of me, drops his drawers, and asks if he has a bruise on his butt. OH-SO-TEMPTING to put that ice cube where the sun don't shine. But I refrained. Can you believe it?!?

That's why I am the World's Best Wife. :)
Jenn

Monday, September 14, 2009

Country Bob's


Several months ago I received two bottles of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce from one of the owners and was asked to taste and review. I've been bad and failed to review - but we have definitely tasted!

The sauce was originally created in 1968, and the company as it's known today was formed in 1982. They do fundraisers, which I didn't know - much better than buying over-priced wrapping paper from the kids! The bottles are plastic and easily recyclable (#1). They are a Christian company and their motto states that "Christ is our CEO".

I'm not a big fan of sauces by themselves. However, I have added All-Purpose Sauce when making burgers and meatloaf with yummy results. I used to use either A-1 or BBQ sauce in my meatloaf, but have switched to just Country Bob's. Actually, I pulled a meatloaf from the freezer for dinner tonight that has the sauce in it! The sauce is fat-free, gluten-free, and low in calories.

Rob, my husband, puts the sauce on everything - just the other day he loaded it on a grilled chicken sandwich. Rob is very picky with his sauces - especially ones that aren't fire-hot. Country Bob's doesn't have that processed taste that many all-purpose sauces have, and it adds a lot of flavor.

If you are looking for a sauce that goes in or on just about everything (not sure I'd like it on ice cream lol), be sure to pick up Country Bob's All-Purpose sauce at your local store!

Jenn

Banana Bread!

Don't these brown, mushy bananas look yummy? My mother-in-law would probably eat them this way, but for me, the only thing to do with them is make banana bread!

So I combined all the ingredients, and mixed. I own a mixer!
This is the result - I've already had two pieces with butter, and can't wait until breakfast tomorrow morning to have a couple toasted slices!
For all you smart-alecks out there, I made the bread from scratch and DID NOT use a mix! Here's the recipe to prove it:

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp oil (I use applesauce instead)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
2-3 really ripe bananas
1 cup finely chopped nuts (I didn't add nuts)

Enjoy!
Jenn

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Doggie Play Date

I spent the day yesterday at my parents' house. I brought along Madigan in hopes she'd actually PLAY with their puppy Holly (she normally hides from other dogs lol). Malley stayed home because she's stuck up and growls at other dogs.

Madigan and Holly had a rough start - Madigan (black dog) was scared of Holly, as shown here. I can understand that - Madigan is 42 lbs and Holly is 65, and barks a lot!
Just in case you can't see the look of terror, here's a closer shot:
But then she finally started to play and they had a great time!
She was so patient with my nephew, Brayden, too. He grabbed hold of the tags on her collar and led her all around the house.
Needless to say, my baby girl slept the whole way home!
Jenn

My Morning Coffee

No, not real coffee - ick lol. I drink sweet tea to start my day :)

I'm talking about a button on my Firefox toolbar that loads all the web sites I check daily (or weekly). Warning, lotsa enabling to follow!

Free Software at Giveaway of the Day (different each day)
Enter daily to win a printer at Staples
Daily Deal at 1 Sale a Day
Daily Deal at Woot
Daily Deal at Shnoop
Daily Deat at Sellout.Woot
Daily Deal at Yugster
Daily Scrapbooking Deal at Scrapbook Steals
Daily Scrapbooking Deal at Scrapbook Moja
Daily Scrapbooking Deal at Crafty Steals
Daily Scrapbooking Deal at Peachy Cheap
Daily Scrapbooking Deal at Crop Chocolate
Daily Scrapbooking Deal at Flowers to Flourishes

I have various other sites for entering contests daily, and some weekly sites as well.
Happy shopping!
Jenn

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Disney on Ice

Last Thursday I got an e-mail offering free(!) tickets to Friday's performance of Disney on Ice - Celebrations, so I got them for me, Jill, Steph, and Steph's dd and her friend. Paid a total of $7.15 in service charges on the 5 tickets!

We all 5 loved the show - guess you're never too old for Disney magic! Here are some pics:
Jenn

Praising good customer service

I've had an adventurous few days, talking to more companies on the phone this week than I do in a few months! But I have discovered that good customer service really is alive and well.

Earlier this week I got a strange voicemail from HP, asking me to call them to confirm my order and shipping address. I hadn't ordered anything from HP directly (although we LOVE their products - my laptop, dock, printer, Rob's laptop, printer are all from HP), so the first thing I did was Google the number (found out it was legit) and then checked my cc statements online. Turns out someone had gotten a hold of my cc info and was happily buying laptops and doing expensive people searches (hello, that's what Google's for).

I called my cc company, Discover, and they removed the fraudulent charges (including one from HP that had come in as pending!) and closed my account. No liability for me, yay! The customer service rep worked quickly to get the account closed, and was super-nice. She even offered to overnight the new cards.

Next call was to HP. Their standard procedure is to call to confirm whenever the shipping address is different than the billing address. That's awesome of them! They were really nice too, and put a note on my address to confirm if future orders come in. I do order my ink from them (free overnight shipping), and placed an order after we got the fraudulent order canceled lol.

I had to change my cc number for direct autopay for a couple bills, and those customer service departments were friendly as well.

Of course you know already my experience at the emergency vet and how pleased I was with their customer service.

Last night I went to one of my favorite restaurants with a good friend of mine who I hadn't seen in awhile. Tampa Bay Brewing Company always has great service. No server ever writes down your order, and they ALWAYS get it right. We finished up, paid, then sat there for another hour or two. Normally when that happens, I am ignored by our server after the bill is paid. Not the case at TBBC - our server kept stopping by to see if we needed anything. He got a $6 tip on my $20 bill (plus whatever my friend gave him).

My favorite call/visit was this afternoon though - we bought Southwest plane tickets, and today I found that the fare from Tampa dropped $17 each, so I called to see if they'd give me a credit. Right away the answer was yes, before the rep even knew my confirmation number. She seemed confused by my saying it dropped $17 - turns out each of our roundtrip flights dropped $46!!!! So we have a total of $92 good toward future travel, good for a year! Woohoo! I love Southwest, even without the assigned seats.

When you get good customer service, be sure to say something - everyone I talked to was appreciative of my kind words and support.

Have you had any good experiences? Share so we can all do business with those companies (I've linked all the ones I mentioned)!
Jenn

Sunday, September 6, 2009

What a pathetic picture!

My poor baby girl - we had to take a trip to the emergency vet last night, and now she's got to wear a lampshade collar (I know that's not the real name, but that's what they look like lol. Madigan has a ruptured anal gland - not as gross as you might think, but it's not pretty either. She was sedated and so when I took her home she was real woozy and stumbled around. Then she woke up and fought like the devil to get that collar off. She succeeded a few times before I tightened it - much to her dismay. She spent all night crying and occasionally banging it against the ground, wall, chair, anything to get it off. Didn't work :) I've left it off today, which is a good thing - every time I approached her when it was on, she got up and abruptly turned around so she was facing away from me. Silent treatment from the baby!
If you are in my area and need an emergency vet - I HIGHLY recommend the one on the northeast corner of Kings/Lumsden next to the Mobil/Exxon station. They were great!
Jenn

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Cards from Stamp Club class

My monthly stamp club class at Violette's was today - we made some pretty cards using the Core'dinations papers and Cuttlebug embossing folders.
Jenn

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Cleaned out the pantry today!

And look what I found.
Normal thing to have in a pantry, sounds yummy even.

Until I checked the date.
Apparently I don't cook or clean the pantry often enough to notice these things. That does mean March 2, 2028, right?

Fajitas anyone?
Jenn