It's been a while since I've been to our local public library. But today I needed something they had and so I went. Since it had been so long, I didn't know where my library card was. Before I could get what I needed, I would have to get a new card.
The card process all went smoothly; my old card, where ever it is, was still active. All the information was still the same. There was just one little detail to take care of- the $11.50 overdue fine. It had been there, waiting to be paid, since May of 2005!
Could someone else be using my account? What were the books? How overdue were they?
Bonsai books? A stack of books about bonsai? I didn't check out any bonsai books! I've never turned in any books 28 days late. Who else could have used my....Hmm...
So, whoever you are, you bonsai-loving, overdue-book-returning rascal, your fine has finally been paid. And you are sooo lucky they didn't charge interest!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Rats!
We’ve had a little visitor for the past month or so. Steven’s pet rat, No-Doze (a little less than 8 ounces of energy and curiosity), has come to stay with us while he looks for a new home for either her or for the both of them. (Don't get yourselves all worked into a dither- I know some of you are repulsed by little critters.) She’s been pretty polite, quiet and really not much trouble at all.
I don’t have room for the kind of cage she really needs, so she stays in a little cage at the end of the kitchen counter by our back door. Unfortunately for her, this is only a couple of feet from where I plug in my blender or flour mill. She’s had a few frights with all the noise from the blender.
Today I needed to grind some wheat. The flour mill is a lot noisier than the blender, so I decided that I would put her in a bathroom, close the door and let her run around for a while until I finished with my flour. Not wanting her to make a mess, or chew on anything, I put the wastebasket, the plunger and the bowl brush up on the back of the toilet where she wouldn’t get into them.
Between batches of flour, I heard a noise in the bathroom and went to check on things. She had climbed up the bathmat that was hanging over the edge of the tub and had knocked a small bottle of shampoo into the tub. No big deal- I went back to my flour mill.
After I finished the last batch of flour, I hear another, louder, noise from the bathroom. Since it was now safe to put her back in her cage, I went to get her. There she was, on top of the toilet tank. Somehow, she had gotten herself up the smooth sides of the toilet and then up onto the tank, where she had shoved the plunger onto the floor and nearly knocked the bowl brush off as well.
I suppose if I went and looked carefully and really thought about it I could figure out how something that small could get itself all the way up those slick surfaces, but what I really don’t get is how she managed to undo the bolt at the base of the toilet!
Consumer Woman rides again!
I decided I needed to step up my game, wardrobe-wise, for a business conference I’m going to, instead of wearing levi’s. I didn't want to wear a dress, either, so I went to the mall to look for a pair of Docker-style pants. One pair is all I needed because I already have a nice pair of pants that are part of a suit. After trying on many pairs of khaki pants, I selected a pair and also splurged on two pairs of warm knee-high socks. I had a coupon for $10 off. After I paid, I walked down to the other end of the mall to check out a sale I had heard about while waiting in line to pay for my pants. What did I find on a 70% off rack at the sale? That’s right, a pair of pants that looked a lot like the one’s I had just bought. They were marked down to $9, almost $20 less than the first pair. I bought the $9 pants, of course, which turned out to be $5.40 because that brand had an additional 40% off the clearance price (talk about icing on the cake!) Then I went back to the other store to return the $28 pants.
I asked the clerk if she would re-calculate the sale to apply the $10 coupon to my two pairs of socks (the $10 discount had been spread out over all three items instead of being taken off the total purchase at the end). She said she couldn’t do it, because the coupon was a single use coupon and I had already used it once. “Is there a supervisor you could call to take care of this?” I asked. “No,” she said, “they are way stricter than we are.” In a fit of pique (don’t worry, it was a very polite fit) I told her that I would just return the socks, too.
When I got home, I decided to call the store and just let them know that their loyalty coupon hadn’t inspired much loyalty on my part. After all, my coupon was right there in the cash drawer. The evidence of the coupon was right there on my receipt. I wasn't tring to make a completely different purchase. Why couldn’t they just do it? I called the store, asked for a manager, and told her my story. After apologizing for my dissatisfaction (not for their lame policy, just for the fact that I was unhappy), she offered to give me my $10 discount if I wanted to come back to the store. (At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to drive all the way back. Then I decided that if I am going to complain, I should go back and give them the chance to make it right.) After five minutes of listening to another clerk explain all the reasons that there was no way someone could honor my request, the manager arrived and sold me my two pairs of $8 socks for $2.15 ($10 off plus a multiple item discount).
And that is why my nickname is Consumer Woman.
I asked the clerk if she would re-calculate the sale to apply the $10 coupon to my two pairs of socks (the $10 discount had been spread out over all three items instead of being taken off the total purchase at the end). She said she couldn’t do it, because the coupon was a single use coupon and I had already used it once. “Is there a supervisor you could call to take care of this?” I asked. “No,” she said, “they are way stricter than we are.” In a fit of pique (don’t worry, it was a very polite fit) I told her that I would just return the socks, too.
When I got home, I decided to call the store and just let them know that their loyalty coupon hadn’t inspired much loyalty on my part. After all, my coupon was right there in the cash drawer. The evidence of the coupon was right there on my receipt. I wasn't tring to make a completely different purchase. Why couldn’t they just do it? I called the store, asked for a manager, and told her my story. After apologizing for my dissatisfaction (not for their lame policy, just for the fact that I was unhappy), she offered to give me my $10 discount if I wanted to come back to the store. (At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to drive all the way back. Then I decided that if I am going to complain, I should go back and give them the chance to make it right.) After five minutes of listening to another clerk explain all the reasons that there was no way someone could honor my request, the manager arrived and sold me my two pairs of $8 socks for $2.15 ($10 off plus a multiple item discount).
And that is why my nickname is Consumer Woman.
Goodbye, old friend
Last Wednesday was the end of an era. We said farewell to the piano that we have had for about 34 or 35 years. I don’t really play the piano, just pick out tunes and try out ideas for songs and arrangements once in a while. Back in the day, though, our old friend was a real workhorse. Everyone practiced their piano lessons on this piano. It displayed a multitude of Christmas decorations, gingerbread houses and family pictures and provided a place to hide from brothers or sisters or parents. occasionally it was the final resting place of toys and trinkets that were small enough to fit through a small gap below the keyboard.
It’s really showing its age, what with all the scratches, hammer marks (inflicted by a brand new hammer on Christmas day many, many years ago), pencil and crayon marks, scuffs and the scars of wood carving experiments. The piano bench doesn’t match because the original bench wore out ages ago and one of the keys makes a funny noise; I suspect a stray penny is the culprit.
Still, despite its age and cosmetic challenges, it is a fine piano that should be played more often. It didn’t make much sense to keep it around when it almost never gets used by me. I had told all the kids a few years ago that the first person that had room for it could take it to their house. M&T recently bought a piano of their own, and LL found a free piano locally.
Luckily for our piano, Jenn plays the piano and doesn’t care what it looks like if she can have a piano in the house now. So our old friend is going to stay with them for a while. Some day, if it’s reasonable and Jenn has found a better, nicer piano, the old piano will go and visit E if she wants it. In any case, it will stay in the family for as long as we have people to pass it along to.
So now, my living room has a big empty space. I won’t be looking for anything to replace it until after we pay for our trip in April/May. We’ll rearrange the stuff that is there and figure out what to do later.
Any suggestions?
It’s really showing its age, what with all the scratches, hammer marks (inflicted by a brand new hammer on Christmas day many, many years ago), pencil and crayon marks, scuffs and the scars of wood carving experiments. The piano bench doesn’t match because the original bench wore out ages ago and one of the keys makes a funny noise; I suspect a stray penny is the culprit.
Still, despite its age and cosmetic challenges, it is a fine piano that should be played more often. It didn’t make much sense to keep it around when it almost never gets used by me. I had told all the kids a few years ago that the first person that had room for it could take it to their house. M&T recently bought a piano of their own, and LL found a free piano locally.
Luckily for our piano, Jenn plays the piano and doesn’t care what it looks like if she can have a piano in the house now. So our old friend is going to stay with them for a while. Some day, if it’s reasonable and Jenn has found a better, nicer piano, the old piano will go and visit E if she wants it. In any case, it will stay in the family for as long as we have people to pass it along to.
So now, my living room has a big empty space. I won’t be looking for anything to replace it until after we pay for our trip in April/May. We’ll rearrange the stuff that is there and figure out what to do later.
Any suggestions?
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