Footprints on the Moon

I’m finding myself quite annoyed with Comcast this evening. I realize that this is not exactly an unusual feeling for someone to have towards the cable company, but they really walked on my nerves today!

I’ve been spending my day today being rather lazy… since I’ve been coughing my fool head off all week, I decided today would be a good day to relax, rest and let my body try to heal. As such, I haven’t done much today beyond napping, and I certainly haven’t made myself presentable. I’m still in what I wore to bed last night– a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt. Dirty hair thrown into a ponytail and generally looking like I might belong in a commercial for best acne treatments. So understandably, I was less than thrilled when someone rang the buzzer at the front door, and even less thrilled when I discovered that it was a Comcast employee.

So he comes to the door, and he just wants to “verify what services I have.” This wouldn’t be so bad, except they had another employee out here… maybe a month ago? Who was doing the same thing. And the other employee didn’t try and tell me that my service was listed incorrectly (hasn’t changed since the day I signed up), and didn’t try to upsell me to a phone plan that I don’t need and “free” movie channels. I told him no since I’m not interested, but he still spent several minutes trying to convince me to upgrade, how easy it would be, and would only cost me a couple more dollars. Yeah, your base price for the new plan is only a few dollars more than my current total including the taxes and fees. Sounds like basically free to me… NOT. Sorry, a phone plan I don’t need and don’t want is not a good deal even if it’s “only” a couple dollars more. The thing that really got me was that his story kept changing.

First he was just checking my service because they’re working at the box, and didn’t want to change anything without verifying with me. Then he was a retention specialist, and he could offer me these services for free! He told me that they are currently in a pricing war with AT&T, DirecTV, DishNetwork, etc that’s why he could offer this to me right now. Sweet, so now I know I can call up your competition and probably get a better price. Thanks!

A few hints to the Comcast dude:

1) Don’t show up at my door unannounced and try to sell me more services.
2) When you DO show up at my door, get your story straight. I had about three different ones by the time he left.
3) No is a complete sentence. I shouldn’t have to tell you no four or five times to get you to take my answer and leave.
4) If you want to cut me a great deal? Offer me a promotional rate on the services I already have. If I wanted phone service, I’d have purchased phone service a year and a half ago when I signed up with Comcast.

I’ve been considering giving up the cable in order to save some money, and today’s visit is one large shove further in that direction.

While we’re on the subject of wedding related stuff, let’s talk about engagement rings. Have you heard the rumors that Jon (of & Kate Plus 8 fame) is engaged to his new girlfriend mere weeks after filing for divorce? If your answer is no, then I have to wonder which rock you have been living under, but that’s not the point. According to the rumors, he bought her a $100,000 ring that has a skull surrounded by 4 black stones. Hmm… to each his own, I suppose, but that certainly wouldn’t be my cup of tea! It doesn’t need to cost $100,000 (in fact, it better not!), but I would like to have a diamond in my engagement ring, a real one. Just in case someone comes to you in the future asking for advice on my ring tastes… now you know. It doesn’t include black and skulls.

I won’t even get into what I think about Jon traipsing all over France with a skanky new girlfriend/maybe fiance when he’s got 8 kids at home.

I am not one of those girls who has “never thought about it” when it comes to weddings and all the details. I’ve got some ideas of what I want (besides the man, of course!), and I love to look at other people’s pictures. It’s never been hard for a friend to get me to help them look through bridal magazines and brain storm ideas when they were getting married. But recently, I saw the coolest wedding invitations ever.

A couple sent everyone a Viewmaster with a custom made reel that had all of their pertinent wedding information on it– both in text and pictures. I never would have thought of anything like that… I didn’t know you could DO that!! Click here to check out the pictures, if you’re interested.

No, I have nothing to announce, they were just so cool that I had to share!

Oh. My. Goodness. I’m always finding kitchen gadgets that I want, and today is no exception. I found a pan that I really, really WANT. It’s a bite-sized brownie pan! You heard me… go check it out. I’ll wait. Here’s a link:

Wilton Bite-Size Brownie Squares 24 Cavity Silicone Mold Pan

How freaking awesome does that look? I WANT ONE! If anyone from Wilton is reading this, please, feel free to send me one of these pans! I’ll review it over on Jenn Cooks. Maybe I’ll even share some of my bite-sized brownies with someone else. Maybe. They’ve got a whole line of brownie products now that I’d like to try… including a mint chocolate crunchy topping. But I’d be happy with the pan!

…DQ has a dollar menu!! I’ve been seeing it on TV for a little while. Their “sweet deals” are certain menu items that you can buy two for $3, three for $4, or four for $5. It includes a cheeseburger, hotdog, chicken wrap, onion rings, french fries, side salad, soft drink, small sundae or a small dipped cone. Sounds good to me!!

Even sweeter? DQ wants to know… what kind of deal would you be willing to make to try their Sweet Deals for free? I’d be willing to blow my diet. Repeatedly. Oh wait… I do that when I’m the one bankrolling it. Hmm…

I went shopping with some of the money from my tax refund. Some of the money is in savings, and there’s yet more that I haven’t decided if I’m going to spend or save. I’m still considering the whole Orlando vacations thing, but right now I’m thinking that’s going to be a no.

One of the things I *did* buy with the money, though, was a Burt’s Bees Hand Repair Kit, and a kit for my feet… I don’t remember what that one was called. And some lip balm, of course. So I’ve been pampering my hands and feet the last couple nights. I was laying in bed last night reading a book, with cotton gloves on my hands, and cotton socks on my feet… and I’m thinking, “I smell like a fruit basket.” Lucy obviously thought so too, as she kept sniffing my toes.

I had coconut foot creme, lemon butter cuticle creme, banana hand creme… I also have some of the almond hand creme, if I decided to mix it up a bit. And then of course, I got up this morning before work and put on my favorite bath and body works scent, which is currently Mango Mandarin. Yep, I smell like a fruit basket. I can only imagine what I’d smell like if I used more of their head to toe products– I don’t think any of them have the same scent!

So I *finally* got my W-2 on Monday… I know, they don’t have to have them mailed out until January 31st, but I’m impatient. I wanted to know exactly how much I’d be getting back so I could make plans. Besides, the earlier you get your tax return in, the faster you get your refund! I filed my taxes this week (still have to mail in my state return, thanks to a processing error), and I’m expecting a decent chunk of change back. Now I just have to decide what I’m going to do with the money! Buying New York Yankees tickets is not on my list, but I do have a few other ideas…

First I thought I’d buy a treadmillbecause I’ve wanted one for a long time…

Then I thought, well, I could take that money and use it for an upgrade– I could buy the camera I’ve had my eye on for agesand I really liked that idea…

But then I thought about the conference I wanted to attend this fall, but couldn’t afford. I could use my tax refund to pay for my conference ticket, airfare, hotel and extra expenditures.

Or I could be really boring and put the money in savings or onto one of my credit cards. Mark this one in the “what I SHOULD be doing with the money” column. Realistically, I’m leaning toward options 2 or 3… or both, but I’m having a hard time deciding.

I’m about to share with you exactly why some of my friends are starting to talk about needing Solo Slim diet pills. Or why we’re having an extra good time on movie night.

The title says it all: Pina Coladas. I usually make mine with vanilla ice cream rather than ice because then it’s like a Pina Colada milkshake and soooo yummy. Then, on Friday night, I was at the grocery store to pick up a few things, and needed some more vanilla ice cream because my friend Amy was coming over. Edy’s ice cream was on sale, so I was looking for the vanilla when I spotted this:

I thought to myself, oooh that sounds so good! And then I realized, DUH, pina coladas! I immediately snatched that up and went on my way. Let me tell you, they were AWESOME.

Pina Colada mix, Coconut Rum, Ice cream and a blender — the recipe for a good Friday night. And I’ve got to say, that ice cream is pretty delightful even without the rum. I see it says Limited Edition, but I hope it will be around for awhile!

That seems to be the main question I heard all week… are you going shopping on Friday?? My answer? Only if Amazon’s Black Friday deals count! Honestly, I just do not like shopping on Black Friday… I don’t want to get up that early in the morning, and I don’t do well with crowds like that. I DO have my Thanksgiving day paper though, and I’ll look through the ads, but I highly doubt I’ll find a compelling enough deal to get me out of the house. Of course, I had no intention of going out last year, and I did. Last Black Friday, I was at the store, bought what I was after, and was back home in bed before alot of the sales even got going.

This year, I’m glad that a lot of retailers are hopping on board the online sales… every year there seem to be a few more stores that realize there is a whole group of people who would be happy to spend their money with you on Black Friday, they just don’t want to stand in a line of rabid people at 4 in the morning. So I’ll probably be at home, looking at Amazon books, digital cameras, and other online deals.

But the BIGGEST reason I have no intention to go out shopping tomorrow?? Other than a couple small finishing details, I’m already DONE with my Christmas shopping this year. I finished buying everything 2 weeks ago. Woohoo!

That seems to be the biggest buzzword in TV these days… everyone wants a high-definition television. I saw a side by side comparison of HD and regular TV the other day, which of course I can’t find right now. It was a pretty striking difference, but I can’t say that I really care one way or another about having HD TV. Sometimes I think that’s a good thing! For one, I’m not running around spending a ton of money on a special TV or cable service.

My boss told me the other day to think twice about HD. He just got ATT’s U-verse, and in order to get HD on his TV’s he had to buy a special kind of HDMI cable that cost, get this, $125. EACH. He said he bought one for one television, but he’ll probably never upgrade the other TVs. Can’t say I blame him on that one… $125 per TV is INSANE. Hearing things like that make me glad that I’m perfectly happy with my fuzzy TV reception!