Mom and I went to Hancock Fabrics when I was in Missouri to look for patterns, in case there was anything there I wanted to sew up. They had McCall's patterns on sale for $1.99, but there was nothing that sparked my interest. Mom found some doll patterns she wanted for her inventory and she needed some interfacing.
We went to check out and we were using a 40% off coupon from Jo-Ann, which we could use at Hancock since they honour competitor's coupons. The woman rang up the order and told Mom the total was $21 (and change). Mom asked her if she had scanned the coupon. She then did so and said, "Your new total is thirty-one dollars." Uhh....
Mom said, "How could a discount coupon make my total go up?" The lady told her it didn't. Mom said, "But you just said my total was twenty-one dollars, then you rang up my coupon, and then you said my total was thirty-one dollars."
The woman then pointed to the small thing on the counter that you slide your credit/debit card into and said, "You can't always go by that. You have to watch this here." Then she points to the cash register monitor. Um... aren't they connected, though? At this point, Mom and I both say, "But you TOLD US the total was twenty-one dollars."
"I DID NOT!"
Mom gives me her "Am I nuts?" look. Just then, the woman at the next register (the two cashier stand back-to-back) asks, "Is there a problem?" Mom tells her the issue, and the woman comes over to look at it. Mom tells her that if it'll help, she'll just take the coupon back because at this rate, she really can't afford to use it anyway. I walk away before I die laughing. They get it straightened out, and we leave. The woman never would admit that she ever did tell us the total was $21.
A few days later, Mom and I went to Kohl's because she needed to take something back. While we were there, I bought three pairs of pants (a pair of jeans and two works pants - yeah, I being optimistic) that were on clearance. We checked out around 8:30 p.m. By the time we got home, let the dogs out, and Mom fired up the computer to check her email about half an hour later, there was a 20% coupon for Kohl's starting the next day. The coupon was good for anything in the store, including clearance items.
We went back the next day with the pants, the receipt, and the coupon to see if I could get my 20% back. We explained the situation to the customer service representative working the counter, she processed my refund, gave me cash back (yes, actual cold, hard, cash!), and gave us our coupon back so we could continue to shop in the shop in the store with it. When Mom asked if she needed to mark our bag since we were going to browse in the store, she looked at us and said, "Oh - you brought the merchandise back with you? In the future, you don't need to do that. Just bring your receipt in. That will be plenty fine, ma'am."
When we were in line to check out (they have one main line and then you go to the first available cashier), Mom asked the woman behind us if she had a 20% coupon. She didn't, so Mom gave her one of ours. When we got there to check out, I checked out first and used the remaining coupon. Then I gave the coupon to Mom to use. And the cashier (1) didn't even care that we were recycling a coupon, (2) actually knew how to ring up a 20% discount both times, and (3) let us take the coupon with us since it was still good for a few more days.
Now THAT's customer service.
08 January 2011
07 January 2011
Ambrosia Fruit Recipe
1 20-oz. can pineapple tidbits
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 t. grated orange peel
2 medium oranges
2 medium unpeeled apples, diced
1 teaspoon flaked coconut
1. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup juice in a saucepan. Set pineapple aside.
2. Add brown sugar and orange peel to the juice; heat until sugar dissolves.
3. Peel and section oranges into a large bowl reserving any juice; add the apples and pineapple.
4. Add pineapple juice mixture and stir gently.
5. Chill.
6. Just before serving, sprinkle with coconut
Yield: 6 servings
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 t. grated orange peel
2 medium oranges
2 medium unpeeled apples, diced
1 teaspoon flaked coconut
1. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup juice in a saucepan. Set pineapple aside.
2. Add brown sugar and orange peel to the juice; heat until sugar dissolves.
3. Peel and section oranges into a large bowl reserving any juice; add the apples and pineapple.
4. Add pineapple juice mixture and stir gently.
5. Chill.
6. Just before serving, sprinkle with coconut
Yield: 6 servings
06 January 2011
Bag Check Game Show
Every year when I go to Missouri for the holidays, Mom and I hit the thrift shops for clothes and we hit Half Price Books. I love HPB. Not only are the books at least half-price, but between Christmas and New Year's Eve, everything in the store is an additional 20% off. Plus, they have DVDs, CDs, calendars... what's not to love? It's a huge store with books of every genre imaginable. Needless to say, every year, I come back with suitcases much heavier than they were when I left Philadelphia.
This year was a little different. Not only did we hit up the thrift shops and HPB, but my mom had gone through her closet and cleaned out all of her clothes that she no longer wanted, not longer fit her, or that she thought I might want. So I had those to go through, too. I made out pretty okay there, too.
Oh, and did I mention that I also get my birthday presents from my family while I'm there, too? The first year I have moved here, I had brought back the wrapped presents, and I opened them while Mom was on the phone. But (1) that was just sad and depressing and (2) now TSA would not be happy with us if we did that. So, yeah - heavy suitcases.
Now, Mom usually has a postal scale that we can use before we head to the airport so we can tell if my luggage is over the 50-pound limit (she uses the scale for weighing her eBay store packages). But it's been finicky lately, so she didn't want to risk completely angering it with my massive suitcases. Last year, her scale said we really close, so we took an extra tote bag to the airport just in case the airport scale didn't agree with her scale (since unloading the suitcase and paying USPS to ship a small box to me would be MUCH cheaper than paying the overweight baggage fee).
We got to the baggage check-in counter, and - moment of truth. I knew the red bag was the heavier of the two, so I had Dale heave that bag onto the scale first... 53 pounds. Oops. Okay. We confirm with the woman that we would have to pay the fee for those extra three pounds, and she says we unfortunately would. We make Dale take the red bag off the scale and put the grey bag on to be weighed ... (insert drum roll here) ... 45 pounds. We ask the woman if we can exchange the load at the counter or if we need to step back. She says we can do it at the counter.
VERY aware that there is a line of people behind us waiting to check in and get on their flights, Mom and I spring into action. We basically shove poor Dale out of the way (after he's been slinging bags around for us) as Mom flings the grey bag to the ground, opens it, and starts handing me clothes to make room for books. I simultaneously do the same with the red bag and start handing her books (before you even ask, NO, we did not have all books in the red bag and all clothes in the grey bag!). We were like a well-oiled machine. Well, a talkative one.
Mom: Why are you handing me paperbacks? Don't you have any hardbacks?
Me: Here's one!
Mom: ONE?
Me: Why are you handing me yarn???
Mom: I thought it was a shirt!
Me: Here are two more hardbacks!
Mom: We should be good. Let's weigh this one now.
We got the grey one zipped back up and weighed it. It came in just under 49 pounds. So we figured the red one should be under 50 pounds now. I threw it one the scale, and it was now regulation.
When we were done, we were cracking up. The whole thing actually took less than the time it took for the guy next to me to get his flight changed (he was on the same flight with me to STL, but the 25-minute delay was going to cause him to miss his connecting flight, so he had to get a new flight).
I really felt like we were on some wacky game show where you had to balance the bags in less than 30 seconds or something!
Then we went to the gift shop where I bought a shirt for Ria, and Mom pretended like she didn't know either Ria or me. It's okay, Mom; we know you're just jealous that our shirts are so awesome.
This year was a little different. Not only did we hit up the thrift shops and HPB, but my mom had gone through her closet and cleaned out all of her clothes that she no longer wanted, not longer fit her, or that she thought I might want. So I had those to go through, too. I made out pretty okay there, too.
Oh, and did I mention that I also get my birthday presents from my family while I'm there, too? The first year I have moved here, I had brought back the wrapped presents, and I opened them while Mom was on the phone. But (1) that was just sad and depressing and (2) now TSA would not be happy with us if we did that. So, yeah - heavy suitcases.
Now, Mom usually has a postal scale that we can use before we head to the airport so we can tell if my luggage is over the 50-pound limit (she uses the scale for weighing her eBay store packages). But it's been finicky lately, so she didn't want to risk completely angering it with my massive suitcases. Last year, her scale said we really close, so we took an extra tote bag to the airport just in case the airport scale didn't agree with her scale (since unloading the suitcase and paying USPS to ship a small box to me would be MUCH cheaper than paying the overweight baggage fee).
We got to the baggage check-in counter, and - moment of truth. I knew the red bag was the heavier of the two, so I had Dale heave that bag onto the scale first... 53 pounds. Oops. Okay. We confirm with the woman that we would have to pay the fee for those extra three pounds, and she says we unfortunately would. We make Dale take the red bag off the scale and put the grey bag on to be weighed ... (insert drum roll here) ... 45 pounds. We ask the woman if we can exchange the load at the counter or if we need to step back. She says we can do it at the counter.
VERY aware that there is a line of people behind us waiting to check in and get on their flights, Mom and I spring into action. We basically shove poor Dale out of the way (after he's been slinging bags around for us) as Mom flings the grey bag to the ground, opens it, and starts handing me clothes to make room for books. I simultaneously do the same with the red bag and start handing her books (before you even ask, NO, we did not have all books in the red bag and all clothes in the grey bag!). We were like a well-oiled machine. Well, a talkative one.
Mom: Why are you handing me paperbacks? Don't you have any hardbacks?
Me: Here's one!
Mom: ONE?
Me: Why are you handing me yarn???
Mom: I thought it was a shirt!
Me: Here are two more hardbacks!
Mom: We should be good. Let's weigh this one now.
We got the grey one zipped back up and weighed it. It came in just under 49 pounds. So we figured the red one should be under 50 pounds now. I threw it one the scale, and it was now regulation.
When we were done, we were cracking up. The whole thing actually took less than the time it took for the guy next to me to get his flight changed (he was on the same flight with me to STL, but the 25-minute delay was going to cause him to miss his connecting flight, so he had to get a new flight).
I really felt like we were on some wacky game show where you had to balance the bags in less than 30 seconds or something!
Then we went to the gift shop where I bought a shirt for Ria, and Mom pretended like she didn't know either Ria or me. It's okay, Mom; we know you're just jealous that our shirts are so awesome.
05 January 2011
Jell-O Pie
Put 2/3 c. water in a pan and bring it to a boil.
Remove water from heat.
Stir in packet of Jell-O (any flavour can be used).
Fill a one-cup measuring cup with 1/2 c. of water.
Put ice in measuring cup until water meets the one-cup point.
Pour ice/water mixture into Jell-O mixture until ice cubes are dissolved.
Put into refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Remove from refrigerator, and stir in one tub of thawed whipped topping.
Pour into graham cracker crust.
Set in refrigerator for an hour or so.
Remove water from heat.
Stir in packet of Jell-O (any flavour can be used).
Fill a one-cup measuring cup with 1/2 c. of water.
Put ice in measuring cup until water meets the one-cup point.
Pour ice/water mixture into Jell-O mixture until ice cubes are dissolved.
Put into refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Remove from refrigerator, and stir in one tub of thawed whipped topping.
Pour into graham cracker crust.
Set in refrigerator for an hour or so.
04 January 2011
A very NASCAR Christmas
As Ria could tell you, not very many of the Christmas presents in our family are a surprise. Part of it is a byproduct of year-round Christmas shopping, and part of it because we spend a lot of time together (or did before I moved to Philadelphia - but the rest of them do). So when we're together and someone says "Oooh, I like that!" someone else will say, "Want me to get it for you for Christmas?" and we will, but then we'll take it home, wrap it up, and the other person will have to wait until Christmas day to open it.
When we were in Charlotte for Race Week, we bought each other a LOT of stuff for Christmas. I got Mom a Joey Logano stuffed teddy bear. She got me Kyle Busch pajama pants and a Carl Edwards coat, and her husband bought me a Kyle Busch hat. "Joey bear" as he was dubbed came home to Philly with me (because I didn't trust Mom not to leave him alone until December), but the rest of the haul went to Missouri to be wrapped up.
In October, when I met Jack Roush in the pits at Kansas Speedway (which I WILL get around to blogging about someday), I got a really good picture of him. I decided to get this picture printed and framed for Mom's husband because he hates Roush with a passion. So I thought it would be a fun gag gift:
Anyway. First, I opened the Kyle Busch hat. So I put it on:
Then, I thought it would be funny to have both a Kyle hat and a Carl jacket on. So I put the hat back on. Then some point later, I opened the Kyle pajama pants. So I promptly put them on, too. For some reason, I doubt I'll be starting any fashion fads:
This prompted my mother to tell a story about when I was a kid. ALLEGEDLY, I was given some underwear, and I was very excited about this. So I put them on over my pants and wore them for the rest of the day. I asked Grandma if this was true, and she said it was. I said, "Grandma! You were supposed to bail me out!" She said, "Oh, I was?" Duh.
When we were in Charlotte for Race Week, we bought each other a LOT of stuff for Christmas. I got Mom a Joey Logano stuffed teddy bear. She got me Kyle Busch pajama pants and a Carl Edwards coat, and her husband bought me a Kyle Busch hat. "Joey bear" as he was dubbed came home to Philly with me (because I didn't trust Mom not to leave him alone until December), but the rest of the haul went to Missouri to be wrapped up.
In October, when I met Jack Roush in the pits at Kansas Speedway (which I WILL get around to blogging about someday), I got a really good picture of him. I decided to get this picture printed and framed for Mom's husband because he hates Roush with a passion. So I thought it would be a fun gag gift:
 |
| Upon opening it, he said, "A picture of the ugliest man in the world!" |
Anyway. First, I opened the Kyle Busch hat. So I put it on:
Then, after awhile, I got warm, so I took it off. And after awhile, I opened the Carl coat. And I had to try it on:
Then, I thought it would be funny to have both a Kyle hat and a Carl jacket on. So I put the hat back on. Then some point later, I opened the Kyle pajama pants. So I promptly put them on, too. For some reason, I doubt I'll be starting any fashion fads:
This prompted my mother to tell a story about when I was a kid. ALLEGEDLY, I was given some underwear, and I was very excited about this. So I put them on over my pants and wore them for the rest of the day. I asked Grandma if this was true, and she said it was. I said, "Grandma! You were supposed to bail me out!" She said, "Oh, I was?" Duh.
03 January 2011
Pumpkin Pie Pudding
1 15-oz. can solid pack pumpkin
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup biscuit/baking mix
2 eggs, beaten
2 T butter or margarine, melted
2 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
2 t vanilla extract
whipped topping, optional
In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Transfer to a slow cooker coated with a non-stick cooking spray. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until a thermometer reads 160ยบ F.
Serve in bowls with whipped topping, if desired.
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup biscuit/baking mix
2 eggs, beaten
2 T butter or margarine, melted
2 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
2 t vanilla extract
whipped topping, optional
In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Transfer to a slow cooker coated with a non-stick cooking spray. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until a thermometer reads 160ยบ F.
Serve in bowls with whipped topping, if desired.
02 January 2011
Why Ria owes me... a LOT
Every New Year's Eve, the local hockey team (a CHL team) has a game and we always go. Even though our team isn't all that good, they've managed to climb to first place (as of NYE), which doesn't say much for the rest of the teams in the conference, since our guys REALLY aren't that good. For instance - we're really good at killing our own penalties. And most of the time, when we pass the puck, there's not even anyone there - not even an opponent to be passing to accidentally! Most of the time, the kids who play exhibition games during the intermission are better than our guys.
But at least it's entertaining and it brings back fun memories of when Mom and I had season tickets to the KC Blades games (an IHL team) years ago. We just happened to get our tickets next to where the wives/girlfriends sat and got to know them throughout the years, which... well, if you've met either my mom or me, you can probably imagine that we had some fun times and adventures away from the games with the women, too. :)
Anyway, back to the game on NYE night.
Right in front of us was a guy wearing a NASCAR coat. He had long hair pulled back into a ponytail. This in itself isn't really that remarkable, except that most guys who have long hair and pull it back usually wear their ponytail down on their head. Not this guy - he wore it high on his head. And he used a light blue scrunchie to hold his hair up. Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with this; it was totally harmless. It's just not really how Mom and I pictured a NASCAR/hockey guy wearing his hair, you know?
But the topper of the night was the Super Fan. He sat on the front row by the penalty boxes. He wore an orange outfit (including a hockey mask/helmet) and a light blue cape (orange and blue are the team colours). He had a stick with cowbells on both ends (KC hockey fans are known for ringing cowbells at key points during the game - but usually just holding a single cowbell in one's hand). He also had a big drum that he would pound with a giant stick to lead cheers. But the most... "interesting" part is that the guy would lift up his shirt when a face-up would occur near his seat and show the opponents his rather large belly which had "YOU SUCK" written on it." I IMed Ria to tell her about this, and she requested pictures because at her hockey game, she had nothing this exciting at her hockey game. At first, I was only able to fuzzy pictures as he exited his section:
But, of course, this didn't show the belly action. So I kept trying to get the ever-elusive belly shot.
Finally, during the second intermission, I caught him in the concourse. I ran in front of him and a photographer and I were both getting shots of him. He saw me and said, "You can take the picture, but you have to hug me, hon!" I shrugged and said, "Okay!" thinking, "Ria BETTER appreciate this!" I hugged him and he pointed to the photographer and said, "I won't hug him, but I'll hug you!" and laughed. I wished him a happy new year, he reciprocated, and we went on our way.
But at least it's entertaining and it brings back fun memories of when Mom and I had season tickets to the KC Blades games (an IHL team) years ago. We just happened to get our tickets next to where the wives/girlfriends sat and got to know them throughout the years, which... well, if you've met either my mom or me, you can probably imagine that we had some fun times and adventures away from the games with the women, too. :)
Anyway, back to the game on NYE night.
Right in front of us was a guy wearing a NASCAR coat. He had long hair pulled back into a ponytail. This in itself isn't really that remarkable, except that most guys who have long hair and pull it back usually wear their ponytail down on their head. Not this guy - he wore it high on his head. And he used a light blue scrunchie to hold his hair up. Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with this; it was totally harmless. It's just not really how Mom and I pictured a NASCAR/hockey guy wearing his hair, you know?
But the topper of the night was the Super Fan. He sat on the front row by the penalty boxes. He wore an orange outfit (including a hockey mask/helmet) and a light blue cape (orange and blue are the team colours). He had a stick with cowbells on both ends (KC hockey fans are known for ringing cowbells at key points during the game - but usually just holding a single cowbell in one's hand). He also had a big drum that he would pound with a giant stick to lead cheers. But the most... "interesting" part is that the guy would lift up his shirt when a face-up would occur near his seat and show the opponents his rather large belly which had "YOU SUCK" written on it." I IMed Ria to tell her about this, and she requested pictures because at her hockey game, she had nothing this exciting at her hockey game. At first, I was only able to fuzzy pictures as he exited his section:
 |
| The Missouri Mavericks Super Fan! |
But, of course, this didn't show the belly action. So I kept trying to get the ever-elusive belly shot.
Finally, during the second intermission, I caught him in the concourse. I ran in front of him and a photographer and I were both getting shots of him. He saw me and said, "You can take the picture, but you have to hug me, hon!" I shrugged and said, "Okay!" thinking, "Ria BETTER appreciate this!" I hugged him and he pointed to the photographer and said, "I won't hug him, but I'll hug you!" and laughed. I wished him a happy new year, he reciprocated, and we went on our way.
 |
| "YOU SUCK!" |
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