Of Freezers, Hunks Of Meat, DNA & The 3 Stooges

The last 2 days have been almost as much fun as last Friday was.
More time spent on the phone, which is one of my most favorite things. HA!

Update on the freezer.......
It's gone....as of 10 am Tuesday morning.
Hurray!!!

The asst. manager guy from Home Despot....er, Home Depot arrived with an assistant(assistant to the assistant manager?)in a sort of truck thingy vehicle and took her away.
The asst. manager even called me when they got back to the store and took my c/c number to issue me a refund.
I didn't even have to go to the store to get my money back.
Cool beans.

My local HD store gets two thumbs Way Up from me for the way they handled this situation.

Now I just have to decide what to do about a freezer as the old fridge's freezer compartment is not a long term solution for us.

On Monday, after running various store errands with my sons, we stopped in at Lone Star for lunch.
Oldest and I got a lunch steak and baked potato.
When I cut into my steak it was as far from Medium Rare inside, as I could have possibly ordered it.
I ate one piece and then decided, WTF?, I am NOT going to be ok with this steak being done incorrectly after all.
So I got the waiter's attention and sent it back for the kitchen to try again.
The replacement was done a tad Rare but borderline rare was better than the first one which was approaching well, so I pronounced it sufficiently cooked and munched away.  They also brought me a second potato which I couldn't possibly have eaten, so I boxed it and took it home.

Before we finished the meal, the manager du jour came over to "table touch"(technical restaurant biz term) and inquired about our visit.  The waiter had briefed her on the steak trouble so she said she was comping my lunch as, "It should have been done correctly the first time."
I did not argue the point and thanked her for the gesture.
And $11.29 stayed in my wallet on Monday. ;-)
Of course, the waiter got a real nice tip too.....

Then Monday afternoon, the Whirlpool authorized repair person finally called me.
I told him, thanks but no thanks as that POS appliance is going back to the store, so he need not bother making a trip out to visit it at my house.  But thanks for finally calling me for an appointment, 3 days after Whirlpool sent you the request for service!
Asshole......see if I EVER call you if another appliance of mine goes on the fritz.....

 

Monday evening I get an email back from FamilyTreeDNA.  These are the folks I bought a DNA testing kit from last month for $199.  Then they sent me a mass email as a user about a great DNA testing kit sale, not 3 weeks after paying them $199 for a kit.  Now that same kit is on sale for....$99.

Of course they got an angry email from me the evening I received that notice that they were charging HALF of what I was made to pay.
As a way to placate me, they are refunding $50 of what I paid(though I still don't see a credit for this on a c/c bill).
It's not total satisfaction but it's better than nothing.

So I won't totally tell all my readers to avoid FamilyTreeDNA for all your genealogical DNA testing needs like I was going to.
I will say that if you buy their product, wait for the inevitable sale price.

Oh, and be prepared to wait TWO MONTHS at least for your test results once it's received in their lab.
My problem is, if they take TWO MONTHS to provide test results when they charge $199, imagine how long test results will take once they drop the price by HALF and get inundated with orders!
Just don't be holding your breath....

Then let's move on to my youngest son's flute camp registration.
He's attending a flute camp at a university a couple of hours away from here next week.
I registered him online, on the school's website with a credit card over a month ago.

They sent a zip file with release forms that need to be signed and brought with us, as well as a file with other information(what to bring, daily itinerary, how to pay the balance of the tuition, etc.).
Of course when I went late last week to pay the balance due with my credit card, on their linked web page where you can make c/c payments, I get the "this page is missing" page.  Some numbnut at the school in charge of the website has either moved or taken down the payment page.

Numerous tries later for 2 days and I still get the error page.  Obviously, the link is broken.
So I call them and leave a voice mail.
Then I email both the woman teaching the flute camp and the dept. secretary at the school on Friday.
The teacher emails me back Friday evening that she'll forward my situation on to the woman in charge of the camps and they will be back to me.

Of course, with all we were doing on Monday, I totally forget to follow up on this until 5:20pm on Monday.....as no one had called or emailed me by then on Monday.  So I called and the phone rang and rang and no voice mail kicked in, so I could leave a message.

Then I found the email with the zip file attachments, which was from yet another person at the school and emailed her Monday around 5:30pm and asked if somebody ANYBODY! connected to this camp could please call or email me.

On Tuesday morning, I come downstairs to an email from her.  Evidently it seems like everyone in charge of camp stuff at this school decided to go on vacation the same week! so that is why no one has gotten back to me until now.
This dept. secretary gives me the option of her finding someone else who can find a way for me to pay via online(?!?!....just fix the freaking link to the webpage!)or I can mail a check.
Figuring that trying to pay online will just lead to more emails and frustration as these folks don't seem very technologically savvy, I decide to write a check to snail mail there.


So I have to ask her for the mailing address, as that also was NOT in the literature they supplied me upon registering.  You would think when she suggested that method of payment that she would have volunteered an address?
She replies with the snail mail addy for a check payment.
Then I have to email her again for how to make the check out to, as neither she nor the literature gives an inkling about this point either.
***exasperated sigh***

Like pulling teeth on a shark, folks......

So I got the check mailed out and with the Holiday weekend, it will be a race to see who/which arrives at flute camp first.....our minivan carting #2 Son there or this check payment.  I'll have to print out emails to bring to prove that we made payment and to show the reason that this payment is NOT there yet is due to the chucklehead's running this shebang.
Leave it to people in academia to not be able to efficiently run a flute camp.
After dealing with 2 children attending colleges, I have run into this lackadaisical type of attitude with higher education institutions and employees all the time.  They are like government bureaucracies, in that, they have no motivation to be efficient, organized and on the ball.  After all, if a "customer" is not happy, they aren't in danger of losing their job, like a private sector business employee.
This type of crap out in the business world doesn't fly for very long, because the people who run things badly are soon out of business.
This is one of the reasons I really detest dealing with educational institutions.

But enough of this for now.

Finally score for this post.....

Freezers   0
Steak Restaurants   0
DNA Labs    1/2 pt.
University run programs  3 Stooges-none of which knows what the others are doing

ME  broken freezer-free, free steak in the belly, $50 back in wallet and ready for a straight jacket having to deal with Moe, Larry and Curly

Sluggy
 

The Boring Blog Giveaway WEEK 3....Time to Enter Again!

It's Summer.  Things slow down this time of year in the Bloggiverse.
I think it's time for a return of.........

Sluggy's BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!

 

Here's how it works if you are new here.......

 

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

Here is what went into the Box today.....

 

 

1.  1 Aim Toothpaste

2.  1 Pepsodent Toothpaste
3.  1 Reach Toothbrush

4.  1 Reach Dental Floss

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email addy and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about Your 2013 Goals(if you have any).

At halfway through the year, how are you doing on those goals?

Do you need to adjust them and why?

 

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get 2 EXTRA entries on this and each new Giveaway Post.......

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can go check it out. **If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in an extra entry comment once each week of this giveaway.

2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post so I can go view it.  You can do this extra entry once each week of this giveaway.

 

These giveaways run about 4 weeks, depending on how often I get a blog post done.  The winner will be drawn from all valid entries received before the closing date of the giveaway.


 Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "Oldest Son home for 6 days & We need to eat down all this frozen food since the new freezer died" Week.

 Let's get to it.....

 

Here's what was planned last week--

Sunday--Grilled Steak, Tossed Salad
Monday--Leftovers or BLTs
Tuesday--Crab cakes, stuffed clams, green beans
Wednesday--Breakfast for Dinner use eggs
Thursday--Grilled Hot Dogs on Rolls, Beans, Mixed Veggies
Friday-Something Chicken in the Crockpot with Veggies and Rice
Saturday--maybe Take-Out since #1 Son is due in that evening

 

Things went as planned until Thursday evening when I discovered the brand new freezer had shit the bed.....are you tired of me harping on this blasted appliance deal yet?  I know I am.....

 

Friday and Saturday were a free-for-all of "eat what I can't cram in the freezer and will go bad after a couple days in the fridge" Nights.  Not very good for my waistline but we survived it.

And #1 Son didn't come home Saturday; he came home on Sunday.

I spent $20.25 on $29.30 worth of groceries at a single store last week.   Some fresh produce, fruit and #2 Son wanted a frozen pizza.

 

Total spent in June was a whopping $280.74, so I had $119.26 leftover in my food budget.

Nice.

8-)))

 

 

Going into this week the leftovers that remain are--1 hot dog roll and half a container of half & half.

Because of the freezer, I had to cook up about 6 pounds of steak.....sniff, sniff......

I made a big batch of stroganoff and a crockpot of chili with it all.  The chili will be for the kids to eat for lunch and/or snacks this week.

 

It won't be a 'usual' week for us in the dinner category, as the oldest is home so that warrants some eating out and cooking things he likes(meaning lots of meat meals).

 

(I've made bold the leftover items I've used in the menu below.)

 Here's this week's meal plan--
 

Sunday--Beef Stroganoff over rice, Salad
Monday--Chinese takeout as Hubs is out of town(comes out of entertainment budget, not food)
Tuesday--Chicken Enchiladas(using pepper strips and chicken from freezer)
Wednesday--Not sure, 2 of us might be out of town for the day..Hubs will make pasta or have leftovers.....if we don't go, Quiche(using up half & half)most probably will be served and squash.
Thursday--Cook-Out(if the weather cooperates)-not sure what yet beyond dogs and burgers.
Friday--Red Robin(#1 Son's birthday meal he requested)(entertainment budget, not food)
Saturday--Beef Stroganoff over rice or Chicken Enchiladas leftovers, Brussel Sprouts

(Sunday next will be whichever leftover we don't have on Saturday too, along with some veggies. lol)

On the shopping list so far--Monterey Jack & Swiss cheese, fruit, eggs, squash and corn, rolls, chips, ground beef for the cook-out so far.

 

I've got my $400 food budget for July available and ready to start spending.

That's what's appearing on the kitchen table this week here at Chez Sluggy.

 What's getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy

What is Your House Costing You?

Life is expensive.
Yah, like noooooobody  already knows that, right? ;-)

Everyone has to live somewhere and it's not free.
Whether you rent or own, there are expenses associated with housing.
Are you in a housing situation that you can afford?
The cost of where you hang your hat is more than just a rent check or a mortgage payment.
Do you know how much your home is really costing you?

Sharon over at Midlife Mom Musings and Morrison over at My Life In Focus asked that question a month or two ago in regard to home ownership--What is it costing you?

They figured out their expenses for the year that were directly affected or a result of their home.....things like the obvious mortgage, but also taxes, services like water, garbage disposal and sewage, as well as electricity(and propane or gas for cooking/heating) and insurance.  Money spent on home maintenance and repairs should also be included in your total. 

We own a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath,  2 story home with a 2 car garage, on a 1/4 acre lot in a small town outside of a metropolitan city area. The development the home sits in dates from the 1980's.  The house is just over 2,100 sq. ft.(not including the basement).

For 2012, my list of expenses included.....
Insurance-$596.00
Sewage---$407.40
Taxes----$3116.33
Garbage--$336.00
Electric-$2432.28
Water-----$743.31
Repairs---$265.00

What I didn't include was money spent on the lawn/landscaping/gas for the mower/plants/etc. as I don't have figures for those expenses handy.  Most of that was paid for in cash and I didn't keep the receipts.

My Housing costs for 2012 were $7,896.32 for the whole year, or $658.03 per month, which comes to $21.63 a day.

And if I take that figure of $658.03 and compare it to renting a comparable house here, it is at least $350ish less than it would cost me to rent one.  And that rent wouldn't include the utilities or renter's insurance.
So we are doing well staying put here for now.

The water is higher because we have a pool so we use more than someone without a pool.
The electric is higher because the home is all electric-heating and cooking.  We do not have central A/C....yet! ;-)

The main reason my home costs us so little is because we paid it off in 2007 so there is NO mortgage.

Compared to our net take home pay, we are spending well under the recommended 30% of our after tax income on housing.


So what's your house costing you every year?
Are you afraid to figure it out because you might not like what you see?
The first step to budgeting and figuring out what it cost you to live the life you are leading is to get a handle on what you spend.
Run the numbers.....it might surprise you to see what it costs you daily to stay in your current home.
You might find that your house is unsustainable for your income and you might be better off not owning it.

Sluggy
 

JUNE 2013 Budget Results.....Food & Toiletries Spending

 

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JUNE 2013.

I have posted June's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2013 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in June.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 5(3 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 17.
******************

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant supply)

OOP  $43.16

Value  $71.07

Savings  39.27 %
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $121.70

Qs/Ads  $57.71

Value  $179.41

Savings  32.17%

WEGMAN'S
OOP  $85.29
Qs/Ads  $26.11
Value  $111.40
Savings  23.44%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $30.59

Qs/Ads  $27.64

Value  $58.23

Savings  47.46%

I am no longer adding my rebates received into my food budget directly. I will use them on food on occasion and will note that when used.  I will keep track of rebates/gift cards/certs received here as before however.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN June.....$0.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....$0

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Weis at 47.46%, Maine Source at 39.27% and Shursave Markets at 32.17%.  l only shopped at 4 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$280.74

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$139.37

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$420.11

TOTAL Savings of...................................32.18%

This closes out the June food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into June with my usual $400 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  Ended the month with $119.26 left over.
 

I did NO Rite-Aid shopping last month either.

I'm still trying to figure out what my baseline for food costs is since the dietary change in April.  Scratching my head about the low spend on food this month....not sure why because we didn't suddenly increase the eating out or anything.  Maybe it was a combination of eating less at meals(so the food went further)and #2 Son working so not eating dinner here.  I also did no stocking up(much) in June and we ate down a bit on the frozen stuff....which turned out to be a VERY GOOD THING, what with the new freezer going kerflooey(technical term).

Looking ahead to July---I'm lowering our budget to $300 for  this month.  I won't be stocking up on any frozen foods and we'll be eating down what I have in that category, given our freezer situation at the moment.  I am hoping to not buy meat products until what we have in the freezers is gone this month.  Most of the food budget in July will be going toward fresh fruits and veggies and some dairy.
**Update** I might keep the food budget at $400 instead, since Daughter told me that Sears(where she works)is having a nice sale n freezers for the 4th of July week.  I might break down and buy a Kenmore freezer as she says they aren't made by the factory in China that makes Whirlpools.  I suppose it's a different factory but still in China however.lolz
So in case I do buy another new freezer this month, I'll keep the food budget at $400 since I'll need to get a few frozen items.

 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2013 so far--
 

2013 Total Saved $1,562.88

2013 Yearly Total Value of Items  $3,770.44

2013 Yearly Total Spent $2,207.56

2013 Yearly Savings Total of  41.45%

 

Again in June, total savings percentage for the year has gone down just over 1%.  The month of June was 32.18% saved(which was 7% worse than May's savings).
The yearly total so far is still over 40% so I am good with that.

 

How much did you spend on food in June?
 

Sluggy

Well THAT was Fun!

Ok, so yesterday was about as far from the description of fun as I want to go!

Seriously, yesterday sucked major ass.

I spent large chunks of the day on the telephone or waiting for someone to call me back.
Even when it's someone I want to talk to, being on the phone is not my idea of fun.

So I am assuming you have read my previous post about my 3 week old NEW Freezer dropping dead for no apparent reason.
That was just the beginning of this stretch of "fun".

Luckily for us, we had kept our previous refrigerator of a couple of years back.  Something in that fridge that regulates the temperature in the freezer part of it went "kerflooey"(technical term)and it started staying on until the freezer parts froze up.  You would have to turn off the fridge/freezer every now and again, let it thaw out and then turn it back on.
Not a good thing for all the FROZEN food in it, right?

Since at that time, we couldn't get a repair person out here to change the part that was going "kerflooey"(technical term), we had to buy a new fridge, since we could get a new working one asap.  We stuck the old fridge in the garage to use for stockpile storage and to some day repair it if the new one died or one of the kids needed a fridge on down the line.

So when the new freezer having died was discovered, we plugged in the old refrigerator out in the garage next to it, and I transferred as much of the contents of the new freezer into the old fridge's freezer compartment.  While not everything would fit, I was able to save the more valuable food items.....the meats and cheeses and butter.
Screw the vegetables......
Hey!  What would you save?  ;-)

So currently, this is what my new freezer looks like.....

What I couldn't squeeze into either of the refrigerators freezer compartments I shoved into the fridge parts.  Most of what got put into the fridge parts will need to be cooked and used soon, as it won't keep but for so long.

Because of that, yesterday was also a very bad day for my healthy diet too.
Between the stress of the day and feeling the need to save/use as much of the food as I could, I ate A LOT.  Not "gosh, I'm going to burst!" eating but too much and some decidedly unhealthy things.
Like onion rings.....fried onion rings.  Between #2 Son and I, we polished off the whole bag yesterday.
And not a regular sized bag you get at the grocery store.
It was a restaurant supply sized bag.
But it was so good while I was doing it. lol

And then there were breaded chicken strips and 2 boxes of creamed spinach.
Ok, it was spinach but just too much salt for me now in these premade boxes of it.

So today, I am on a strict food intake plan.
Lots of water.
Mostly veggies(I can use up some of the none prepared veggies I need to save.)

I'll move some more of what is left into the fridge(like those red and yellow pepper strips in the photo there)as the temp. in the freezer is now below refrigeration recommended levels.

And this coming week's menu will see some Mexican food dishes(the peppers and homemade chili I had in the freezer), a meatloaf(also in the freezer),  pulled pork(ditto) and 2 beef dishes(since I couldn't fit all the steak I had into the little freezers so I cooked a crockpot full of beef yesterday).

Our #1 Son is coming home for a visit tomorrow and will be here all next week so having to cook all this meat is a happy coincidence, as he's a big time carnivore.
He will be more than happy to help me out and eat all this stuff! lol

As for yesterday and dealing with this deader than a door nail freezer......

Whirlpool was called first, as they claim to have made this lemon.
They will only pay for an authorized repair person to fix this and pay for the parts needed.
A 3 week old freezer and they will repair it NOT replace it.
This did NOT make me happy.
And if I am not happy, watch out.....

The CS person said the soonest she could get me an appt. was in a week.
Fantastic.
Then she went back into her database and found someone else in the area.
She was faxing the information to this authorized repair person and he/she would be calling me later that day to set up an appt.

While I was on hold with Whirlpool the mail lady came to the door to have me sign for a certified letter.  It was a summons for #2 Son in regard to his car accident.
Yep, he got a ticket.  Between that and his phone bill for July, there goes his whole paycheck he just got. 
Now he wasn't happy either.

I felt like I needed to DO something so I chatted online with the credit card company next.  I just wanted to have something on record asap with them if this came to having to dispute the charge with Home Despot, if they would not "do" something about the freezer.

In the meantime, while waiting for a call about repairing this POS freezer, I got on my cell to make other calls I needed to make.....like to reschedule a dr. appt. and to find out who was suppose to be sending me a new memory card(flash thingy)for my BiPAP machine, since the insurance had me mail them the card that came in the machine.  I ended up yelling at and then hanging up on a division of our insurance company that oversees durable hardware because they never returned my phone call on Monday and made me call again on Friday, plus they didn't include vital information in the literature they are constantly sending me, which would have AVOIDED this whole situation and not had me go 2 WEEKS without a memory card in the BiPAP.

Gee, let's make someone a tad on EDGE already, go over the sanity cliff, shall we?

Then I made a phone call to the contractor/repair person we have used before to schedule when he can come do the things we need doing in the house this Summer.
And he tells me, business is so good(plus they are so behind finishing jobs)that he can't fit me in until January 2014.
WTF?
Didn't someone tell all these people ahead of me on his schedule that there is a recession on and nobody had the money to afford remodeling/repairing stuff??lol
I am glad he was upfront with me, about the long timeline for getting to my jobs, but I was NOT expecting a 6 month wait!

So now I have to go to Plan B.
And no, Plan B is NOT to just not have the repairs done. lol
I'll be calling a franchised handyman service.....better yet, get 2 estimates from 2 different services and decide on which one to hire.

After hours of waiting on the Whirlpool repair person to call me, I thought, "What the hell am I doing here?!?  This blasted appliance is THREE WEEKS OLD!?  Who should have to REPAIR an appliance that dies when it's practically brand new?!  This is Bullshit!"

So I called Home Depot.
Well, first I went on the HD website because that is where I bought this freezer from.  And I called their 800 number.  And after a solid HALF AN HOUR on hold, they disconnected my call.
After that bullshit, then I called the local Home Depot.
And I started off talking to the poor woman in the appliance dept.  I really really tried not to take my foul mood out on her.  It was difficult, believe you me! lol

After explaining what had transpired so far and that I had decided that I just wanted to return the freezer, she put me on hold and went and talked to the store manager.  She came back and said that if I could get the freezer to the store, that he would accept it as a return.
WTF?

I told the woman that this was unacceptable, since I didn't own a delivery truck and I would have to RENT one(read SPEND MORE MONEY on this situation!)to return this major appliance.  It wasn't a dorm fridge I could shove into the back of my minivan and haul down.
She put me on hold again to go talk to the SM.
She came back and took my name/phone and said the SM would call me back later, as he was in a meeting.
So I left her the information and hung up.

And to my shock and surprise, a couple of hours later, the SM did call me.
After some talk about exchanging this lemon for another of the same freezer(no WAY in HELL!)I said I really wasn't amenable to owning this brand of freezer, especially not the identical model.  Having this experience has made me a bit gun shy in regard to owning a freezer.
So he sort of agreed with my POV and said he could come get the freezer on either Tues. or Wed. of next week with the store's truck and refund my credit card.

Now this local HD manager didn't have to make the decision to take this freezer back technically, because even though it was delivered from that store, I had bought it on the website.  He could have made me go through channels and waited for corporate to tell him to take it back.  But he didn't.
I guess he got a sense that if I had to go through any more bullshit over this stupid freezer, I might rent a truck anyway, bring it back to his store, dump it in the middle of their parking lot and set it on fire.  And he certainly wanted to avoid that, right?

And THAT idea had crossed my mind during the day on more than one occasion......

We did check with our homeowner's insurance, in regards to the loss of all that food when the freezer died and whether it was a coverable event in our policy.  Unfortunately for us, lightning didn't take out the freezer or our house hadn't burned down.  If it had, we would be entitled to compensation for the value of the food lost.

So in closing......
My son is broke until next payday.
My dr. appts. schedule is fine.
My BiPAP will be carded by early next week.
I have to go to Plan B in regard to our living room repairs.
My fridges are both running crammed full of food.
The credit card bill I paid for June will be retroactively going down when I get a refund on the freezer.
And I have a beautiful object d'art aka a new non-working freezer sitting in my garage until the middle of next week.

Oh, yes.....and the Whirlpool authorized repair person STILL  hasn't called me to set up an appointment 24 hours later.
This means I'll have to continue to Tweet and Facebook about how crappy anything or anyone connected to WHIRLPOOL really is.

Sluggy



 

@^%*%^$#@$@^#&%^*&!!!

I swear I am so mad at this moment that I could bite the head off of a live chicken.

Remember that brand new Whirlpool freezer I bought and had delivered not 3 WEEKS AGO from HOME DESPOT?

Well it's dead as a doornail this evening.
I went out to the garage about 9 pm to get a dish of lime shebert and the shebert is green liquid.
I immediately felt the outsides of the freezer and they were cool to the touch.
Since it was purchased and delivered to my garage and plugged in 3 weeks ago,  the outside walls have been warm to the touch.
Now it's stone cold on the outsides of the thing.
And the compressor is not running.
But the interior light is on when you open the door.
And the interior temperature is slowing rising.
We didn't have a storm or a power surge and nobody had monkeyed with the circuit breakers.

The thing is dead after a mere 3 WEEKS and I want someone's head to roll for this!

Damn you Whirlpool!
Damn you Home Depot!!

Whirlpool is suppose to pay for parts and labor to repair this.....if it's repairable......but that isn't going to save all the food in the freezer!!!

And their "Customer Experience Center".....yes they call it that in their voice mail.....doesn't open again until 8 am ET.....because, you know, your new 3 week old appliance wouldn't possibly break between the hours of 8pm and 8am, right?
So I can't even BEGIN to locate an authorized repair person until tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile I have HUNDREDS of POUNDS OF FOOD rotting away in my garage!!!

Can you tell I am upset?

I had better go before I start swearing like a sailor.

THANKS ALOT HOME DEPOT AND WHIRLPOOL....THANKS FOR A BIG FAT LOAD OF NOTHING.

Pissed as hell and Needing medication about now Sluggy

Working on Designing the Living Room

THIS is MY big project for the summer.......

My living room

We use to have actual living room furniture in this room.....a sofa, a chair, a coffee table.
But we've never really used this room as a living room much.
It was storage space mostly....at first for our items we moved here from our old house and then as storage for my eBay escapades.
This and the ajoining dining room were gated off from the rest of the house a few years into living here, when we added dogs to the family.  These 2 rooms had WHITE carpeting(who in their right mind puts white carpeting in high traffic common areas of a 4 bedroom house!?!?)and 2 of the dogs developed the habit of wanting to use them for their.....ahem.....toileting needs.
Yah.....that didn't go over very well with moi.....!

Now it is time(WELL PAST TIME really)to turn this room into something more useful than for storage and with seating. 8-)

I need to have some work done before decorating came begin.
1-The new A/C system needs to go in.
2-What is in the room needs to go find homes elsewhere.
3-The walls and ceiling need some repair work done.
4-The crown molding needs to be finished.
5-The walls need painting.
6-The room needs new flooring.

We have begun the list.
#1 will be started on July 8th and should be finished up by July 10th at the latest.
Now I need to contact the handyman/contractor persons we have used in the past to take care of #2-6.
If they can't fit me into their schedule in a timely manner then I may go to a licensed handyman repair service that has a franchise here locally.  They can handle #2-5.
And then I'll have whichever store that we buy the flooring material from send their installers to take care of #6.

Then I can buy furniture, any accessory pieces I need and throw the room together.

Piece.
Of.
Cake.

Right? lol

Here is a pictorial(think Pinterest tho I don't do that)of what I have to put in the room so far and what I am considering.

The flooring will be bamboo, a light natural bamboo so you know.....

First the area rug I have already.....

 It's 3 tones of green(lime, olive, grasshopper), 2 tones of brown, beige and ecru.

For one of the walls I have this print......

It's a light yellow ochre tone with black in a thin black slat frame.

And I am doing an arrangement of shadow boxes with Japanese plates in them on the largest wall.
Here are some of the plates.

I have 9 different plate designs that I can change up.....

 The back of the plates.....I have no CLUE what this says....lol

And I have shadow boxes like this......

Mine aren't painted yet and they have backs.  I was going to paint them black but now I think I'll go with dark brown so they are not such a stark contrast to the walls and the plates....and brown ties in better with the rug, though the print I am hanging is yellow ochre and black.

Here is the kind of arrangement I am planning on.....

I was  thinking 4 or 6 shadow boxes, depending on what works best for the space.  With 9 plates I can change them around when I feel like it.

The walls are going to be some light shade of off white/ecru/etc.  Close to white but warmer....not orange.

Some of the furniture I am considering.....

 a smallish chaise sofa in a beige woven material....

 An accent chair in a circle pattern similar to the area rug in browns/tan/lt. blue/off white.
I am torn on the chair.  I don't want to be "matchy matchy" with patterns and colors....the chair is similar to the rug but the colors aren't quite jiving each with the other.  I don't know....this chair might be too busy with everything put together in the room.  I suppose I could put the room together without this chair(or another one I if I find something better)and then once it's all in the room, see if this will fit in style wise.

 A smallish reg. sofa in a med. brown woven material that comes with pillows that match the chair above.

My ideal sofa is a tan/light brown/darker than off-white option with a sectional/chaise feel.  Preferably in leather.
I like the styling of the sectional/chaise end look but most of the ones they make are just too HUGE for this room.  I don't want the couch to take up the whole space.  I don't need a sofa bed so that doesn't limit my selection of options.  I am thinking leather because I want to keep this sofa for a very long time and we just have a tendency to stain all our upholstered seating here.  Go figure. And no, I am not talking about the dogs getting up on it. lol
I would spend the extra money on leather if I could find one, the right color and small enough.  If I could find the sectional  style small enough I'd be in heaven. 8-))

If we have to go with a woven fabric instead of leather, I am leaning more toward the darker sofa, as it will show wear less.

This is a square ottoman/padded coffee table that opens up for storage and one side raises up flat for use so you can serve beverages and have it be a taller height when used for that purpose.

The ottoman/coffee table is dark brown.
My preference for this item is a round one but until recently I haven't found a round model I liked.  Boscov's has one advertised now for a good price similar to this one(only round)with storage but the storage is 4 separate comparments(each one small)plus it doesn't have the raised side/serving option.

I have this Dale Tiffany lamp which is Craftsman inspired to put into the room.....

He's the grandson or great grandson of the Tiffany and he makes lamps.  It's a tiffany style shade on an organic shaped brown textured ceramic base.

I also have a pair of Asian enameled Ginger Jar type lamps-which might not jive with my room's color scheme though so I am still up in the air on the lamps.  (They have some pink and seafoam and turquoise colors on the bases.)

I also have an Asian styled sofa table(tallish that goes behind your sofa)which I may or may not use as a behind the sofa table(depends on the arrangement of the furniture which isn't settled yet).  I may put this sofa table in the dining room as a side table if it doesn't work in the living room space.

As for the curtains, I have a bolt of fabric I have been carting around for 10 years now to make drapes for the room.......

It's a lime green mediumweight polyblend with a monochromatic all-over circle pattern.  This photo makes the color appear more washed out than it is.
It goes with the area rug well(same tone family)but I am scared that large swaths of this on the windows will sort of "overpower" the color scheme because it is so bright....not that I don't like it this bright. lol

So I took a swatch and tea stained it.....in the first photo the bolt of fabric color is closer to the actual color in person, in the second photo the swatch is closer to the actual color of the tea stained sample in person.....

The tea staining takes the 'sheen' off the material's color and tones it down a notch.  I'm not sure if it tones it down too much and makes it too boring.....the walls and sofa colors will be boring enough.

The curtains will be floor length tabbed curtains, like this.....

I had wanted to make grommet curtains like this.....

Though I can get large grommets, I can't find a way to affix them to the curtains as the fabric I have is sort of bulky.  I have been looking for grommet curtains in an acceptable color and fabric for YEARS now that will go with my rug and vision with no success.

Now, feeling that my lime green curtains might be too too much visually for the room I also picked up some other curtain options at BB&B last month......

 

 Green/brown/tan striped curtains panels with a slight sheen. One of the green tones in this drape matches the tea stained tone of my fabric swatch I dyed.
 I don't need or want the room darkening feature of these and I fear the stripes, though in my color scheme, would fight with the circular shapes in the rug.

A tan grommet drape in a dark off white.   It's plain and boring and will basically blend in with the wall color....but do I want that?  It is the ONLY grommet drape I've found that doesn't look like a cheap piece of garbage.

A tan silky(not sheer though)with a substantial sheen to the fabric drape.  It also has leaf/blossom patterns(line drawings)embroidered in a dark brown thread into the fabric in an all-over pattern.  You can make it out barely in the photo.
I am not sure if I like this embroidered stuff or not.  This drape is a bit darker in color than the previous boring drape above so it will stand out a bit from the wall color and the sheen and embroidery gives it a "pop"....and it's not too busy visually to fight with the rug and other patterns I might put in the room.

Another option would be to use one of these manufactured drapes and insert a length of my lime green fabric into one of the drapes.  Like a border piece at the top or bottom of the curtain like this.....

I was thinking I could cut off the bottom of the drapes and add a panel of lime green at the bottom as that would be easier than adding it in the middle or at the top like in the photo.  Though the panel near the top is pretty smart looking.....
Of course, if I do this, I would use either of the solid color off-white drapes to doctor up, NOT the striped drape.   The striped drape would be hideous with this treatment! lol

So that's where things stand at the moment in my decorating adventure.
I am going for clean, fresh, modern, uncluttered with an Asian feel.
At least that's what I am hoping for.....lol

Sluggy
 

Where Were You When the World Changed?

In September of 2001 I was 42 years old and living in Pennsylvania when this happened....

               The World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City

In December of 1955 I was 4 years away from being born when this happened....

 

     Rosa Parks arrested in Montgomery , Alabama

In July/August of 1917 I was 42 years away from being born when this happened.....

        Women suffragists arrested for picketing the White House, Washington, DC

And in June of 1969 I was 10 years old and living in Virginia when this happened.....

                The first newspaper photograph(by Joseph Ambrosini) published in the Daily News, of the Stonewall Riot in Greenwich Village, NYC

All these events are Watershed Moments in our country that fundamentally changed us as a Nation.

Keep fighting the good fight all you warriors!


Sluggy

Long Boring Genealogy Stuff...But with Pictures!

Ok, not so long really....but still boring. lol

There are two genealogy areas I work on.

First there is the "near" ancestors....the ones I remember being alive and the 6 or so generations before them.  These 6 immediately previous generations are the ancestors that I hope to be able to link up to genetically when the results come back from my DNA samples I sent off recently into the bowels of a Texas lab.
I got confirmation that they received my "material" last week.
So now I wait, if not very patiently, for the results.

6 generations before my time takes me back to the late 1700's.
In some of my family blood lines, that is far enough removed to transport my ancestral lines to the far off continent of Europe.  In other of my blood lines(mostly on my mother's side), the late 1700's finds these 6 generations already removed to the New World.  Some of that number having been removed to the Americas more than 100 years before that time!

One of my earliest ancestors that has been traced arrived in the Virginia Colony in 1635 with his wife and 1 servant.  So as some of my ancestors were making their way across the sea from Europe, I had 2 blood lines already here for about 160 years.
It boggles the mind sometimes.

And then there are the "far" ancestors.
The ones many MANY generations removed from me and known, stretching back into the Middle Ages in some cases.  I can't possibly live long enough at this point in my life, to research every last person others have "put" into my lines.  I hope that whoever added these folks had some source material to back up their claims but I don't have the time, funds or resources to prove every leaf on the tree of our family.  So I add ancestors who other's claim to be legit to our tree for now.

While the paper trail and quality of research can be spotty at best in this very long chain of ancestors, I take it at it's face value and work to substantiate the claims when I can.  There are many questions and holes but I keep them on the tree until I find enough evidence to counter the claim that their branch belongs on my tree.  Once it's clear the facts don't fit and the blood doesn't match, I perform some pruning and cut them loose.

Which brings me to my Vassar ancestors.
A couple of years ago, at the beginning of my "where did I come from?" quest I found a relative I never knew existed by the name of Reginald Vassar.  He is my 2nd cousin and was, at that time, 90+ years old.  He had been doing Vassar genealogy for many years and had amassed a great file on many generations of our Vassar ancestors.

John Little Vassar and his wife, Lucy Ellen Baker Vassar were my great grandparents on my mother's side.
Reginald Vassar and I share Hugh Wiley & Sarah Anne "Sally" Smith Vassar (my 3 x GGs)as common ancestors. 

Hugh & Sally had a son, John Alfred "Jack" Vassar.  Hugh & Sally had another son, Richard Levi Douglas Vassar.  John is my 2 x GG and Richard is Reggie's GG.

And this is our most "famous" current relative......

I'm not sure exactly how we are related(I need to do the research on that)but we are cousins (X number of times removed), of some kind.  My brother has told me that my mother's cousin Dean has partied with Phil on occasion.
The fact that she is related to Phil Vassar has pleased my daughter to no end, as she is a BIG country music fan. 8-)

And no, we are not related to the folks who founded this......

Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY

But then again, Matthew Vassar's line came over from England in 1796, so we might be connected back in the Old Country. ;-)

But I digress......

Through the work of Reginald, another ancestor Lyndal G. Vessar(who wrote one of the comprehensive books on Vassar genealogy many years ago)and countless others through the years, I have my Vassar line nailed down back to 1595 for specific individuals.  There is general Vassar/Vessar family genealogy going back further to France in the 12 century. 

The surname springs from the Lorraine region of France and came from a landed ranking-Feudal Vassals(one level below a Baron or Viscount).  Variations of the name include VaVassour, LaVasseur, Vossier, etc.
Here is how James Vassar, a poster on an Ancestry dotcom message board, explains the origin of the surname better than myself.....
""Vassar" is a derivative of an Old French military title and an old ancient roman military legionary title. The old french title is "vavassour", which translates as "Vassal of Vassals", comparable to the phrase "king of kings". The ancient roman word is "vavasorrium" (or something like that), roughly equivalent to a captain or a lieutenant, maybe. The vavassour is equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon military-political position of "thane," that is why Vassar is sometimes spelled "Vassal." Essentially and for all intents and purposes a vavassour is a landed feudal knight, or a knight that had land granted to him by his feudal lord. All landed knights were vassals or military servants to their feudal lord, but they were not peasants as some snobs have told me. So, a vavassour is a "knight of knights." I have read a few references were he is referred to as the old wise and senior knight that is in semi-retirement and still gives advise to the younger knights."


Everything was going well for us until 1599, when the Reformed Protestant church, of which these ancestors were supporters, was founded in France. These French Protestants became known as Huguenots.

  Painting,  " An Eyewitness Account of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre" by Francois Dubois


Long story short, this led to the "War of the Three Henrys" and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in which Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris and massacres of Protestants swept across France after that, which led to a massive exodus of Protestants out of France into neighboring countries like Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Prussia and England.  Though no one knows the true number, I've read the extermination of French Protestants amounted to half a million souls.  That's a whole lot of people by 1572 standards.

Eventually, the Huguenots who remained were forced to convert to Catholicism but about 200,000 chose instead to leave France.


My direct line of ancestors chose to emigrate to England during the reign of Elizabeth I.  Elizabeth, being Henry VIII's daughter(Henry who had founded the Anglican/Protestant Church in England and driven out or killed Catholics and burned and looted their monasteries) was a Protestant herself and welcomed these religious refugees into her kingdom.  She was generous with financial help throughout her reign. 
My direct ancestor was one John Vassar/Vesser.  His parents had fled France after the St. Bartholomew's massacre for England though we have no record of their names as of yet. John was born in Gravesend, England in 1595.  He married an English bred woman named Elizabeth Dowe/Dew.

But there was religious unrest in England after the death of Elizabeth in 1603.   John applied for permission to sail to the New World and signed an oath of allegiance to the Crown & the Anglican Church. The Church of England was the official religion of the Virginia Colony and anyone sailing there to settle had to be certified and promise to conform to the Church's doctrine and practices.  Even Quakers who removed to Virginia from England had to have their children baptized and recorded in the CofE.

According to the ship's manifest, in the spring of 1635, John Vasser, his wife Elizabeth, and their
indentured servant, Wm. Baker, sailed aboard the barque "Alice" with Richard Blake as Master of
the Ship. They departed from Gravesend, County Kent, England. This port was the embarking point
of the London Company émigrés headed to the Va. Colony at Jamestown. (Though the London Company had been disbanded in 1624 and Virginia became a royal province, ships bound for Virginia still embarked at Gravesend.)

While much of my time had been devoted to double checking the facts I could on the Vassar line, recently my attention turned to the line of John Vassar's wife, Elizabeth of the Dowe or Dew family.
I began to trace back the path that has been laid out for Elizabeth's ancestors and it led me into the realm of English royalty.
Now any time I find my ancestors hooked up to famous or infamous characters in history I become suspicious of the motives.

Many amateur genealogists do genealogy to connect to their actual roots.
And then there are the others, who only do this to find famous relations, so they can show off to their friends and somehow feel important since they can claim a link to somebody "Fabulous".

One of my earliest friends in life recently told me she is descended from Lady Godiva.  Of course I didn't ask her for proof or shake my head at her claim but I do wonder where she got this information and if her assertion is valid.

When a fellow Ancestry user who shares ancestors with me, notified me recently about some information that has just come to light about our Baker line, I used this occasion to reach out to a number of other Baker researchers/members on Ancestry to let them know and to invite them to be guests on my family tree and perhaps share information.

Only 1 of these fellow genealogists replied to me so far.
His response.......I will copy it in it's entirety....

"Hi, my Bakers go way back to Sir John "Bloody" Baker who I believe was first Chancellor of the Exchequer for UK. See Bramhall Castle."

Now a person really interested in history and genealogy would have replied either "Yes, let's get together and work on this stuff." or "No thanks....I don't care to communicate with you."

But I got someone who used this opening to brag about his infamous ancestor who did some really dastardly and horrid things.
Add in that this person claims kinship through a supposed Christopher Baker, a son of Sir John Baker.  John Baker and his wives had 2 sons, neither of which was named Christopher.  Perhaps he has information I don't but I am skeptical about his claim, especially in light of the context in which he shared it.

I just get the feeling that this guy does genealogy for all the wrong reasons.

And the rest, they say, is history.
And "it" can wait to be explored another day.





Sluggy


 

Happy Leon Day!

Happy Leon Day everyone!

I almost forgot it was Leon Day today.

Yes, it's exactly 6 months before Christmas Day...or 6 months after Christmas Day if you look at it that way. ;-)
Or to put it another way, there are only 182 more shopping days until Christmas! 8-))
Did I scare ya? lol

So with 6 months to go, it's time for a check-up.
How is your HOLIDAY SAVINGS PLAN doing?

What's that?
You don't HAVE a Holiday Savings Plan?
You aren't putting away money for Holiday spending??

Why not?
If you celebrate one of the Winter Holidays, aren't you going to be buying gifts for people, special Holiday food, going somewhere special for the Holiday, etc?

The Holidays come around every year....like clockwork really!

Shouldn't you have a plan to keep from going into debt for the Holidays?
Now is the time to do something.....anything in the way of putting money aside for the Holidays.

Take action asap and get out of that "Oh my goodness, it's *insert the Holiday you celebrate here*!  Quick, go buy stuff and put it onto a credit card because we didn't plan ahead and don't have spare cash for it!!" mind set.

If you have thought ahead before now to have a pile of cash for Holiday spending, it's time to check in on where you are in your saving progress. 
Do you have enough saved and/or is there enough months left to have enough saved for the spending you plan to do?
If you find you are behind schedule in your Holiday fund, then make plans now to ratchet the savings up.
You'll be glad you did when December rolls around.

Who needs the added stress of the thought of credit card bills rolling in after January 1st because you bought stuff you couldn't afford in December.

Start 2014 by not going into(or deeper into)debt!  It all starts NOW.....

Sluggy

Want To Win Stuff? Lookie Here! Week 2

It's Summer.  Things slow down this time of year in the Bloggiverse.
I think it's time for a return of.........

Sluggy's BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!

 

Here's how it works if you are new here.......

 

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

Here is what went into the Box today.....

 

 

 

1.  1 small tube of Volume Shampoo bby John Frieda

2.  1 2-pack of Olay Soap
3.  1 bottle of Axe for Her Body Wash(Anarchy)

4.  1 small tube of Aveeno Body Lotion

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email addy and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about plans to fix up your home(whether it's a house or an apartment) ....

Do you have any plans to spend money on remodeling, repair/maintenance or just freshing up your interior living spaces?

Do you have a budget or is it a "we spend whatever it takes" kind of project?

Will you do some or most of the work yourself of do you call in professional help?

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get 2 EXTRA entries on this and each new Giveaway Post.......

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can go check it out. **If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in an extra entry comment once each week of this giveaway.

2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post so I can go view it.  You can do this extra entry once each week of this giveaway.

 

These giveaways run about 4 weeks, depending on how often I get a blog post done.  The winner will be drawn from all valid entries received before the closing date of the giveaway.


 Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy