Quick update

Well, after a nicely crafted email to Value City Furniture's corporate website I got a call from a customer service rep today.

The result - Nothing.

"Sorry, I spoke to the store manager, and they wont deliver or pick up from your address"

Thats it, I am done fighting with these people.

Obviously they have no concern for customer service - even when they sell you damaged goods.

I shall return this furniture, get it replaced and go on with my life.

I make a solemn vow never to purchase anything at this company again.

I learned a very valuable statistic a long time ago.

For every satisfied customer you create, they tell at least 2 - 3 people.

For every dissatisfied customer, they tell at least 10-15 people, who then tell another 2-3 people each.

You do the math.

So Value City, I'm done with you.

Annoyed

I'm tired and grouchy tonight. Tired because I've been going non-stop for 2 days, and grouchy since I had a really bad customer service experience this week.
So, since this is America, and this is our blog, I am going to share my opinions on this matter.
We have been waiting for almost a year now to buy a nice desk for our study, I work at home when I am not in the office, and Marci being a teacher needs a place to get paperwork done.
We finally found the right desk at Value City Furniture in Harrisburg, The price was right, and it was the ideal desk for us. So, last Thursday I made the decision to buy it and bring and end to this endless search.
I went to pay for it, and the sales person informed me that "we don't deliver to your address."
"What?" I asked. This seemed odd as, they have delivered furniture to us before, and we lived further away. Not wanting to argue, I just asked to see the manager.
Out walked this man, after making me wait a little, and I informed him of my problem.
"I'm sorry" he told me, "I have to draw the line somewhere, we don't deliver to your address"
I explained how absurd this was since, they have before, and they do deliver to other places that are further from us - this was clearly marked on their map, pinned up on the wall next to the cash register. The conversation went like this:
"I cant believe you wont deliver to my address - we live 4 miles away from East Petersburg, and clearly you deliver to that location, its on your list"
"I have to draw the line"
"This is crazy"
"We'll with the price of fuel....."
To cut a long argument short - I walked out ready to use some special words on this man.
I called my wife, and she calmed me down. I agreed that we could just rent a U-haul and get the furniture ourselves. So we did this over the entire evening last night, only to get most of it home, to find it badly damaged.
That's right. Are you mad yet? Can you feel my pain!!!
So I saw another manager today, and let her know that she needs to come and get here damaged furniture since I was not renting another u-haul, only to hear the same thing.
"I'm sorry sir - we don't deliver" So, now I have to organize more transportation, and more time out of my life to return their damaged crap, which they promised was good for delivery. "it will all be inspected before you pick it up sir" I was told last week. Right.
What do I get for this: $50
That's right, the desk cost over $1300, and I get $50 for my wasted time and gas.
Nice.
So now I have a delivery for Value Sh!@#y Furniture.
You suck.

Sean.

Man shoots lawnmower.

Well, it finally happened.

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man was accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn't start. Keith Walendowski, 56, was charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.

According to the criminal complaint, Walendowski said he was angry because his Lawn Boy wouldn't start Wednesday morning. He told police quote, "I can do that, it's my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want."

A woman who lives at Walendowski's house reported the incident. She said he was intoxicated.

Walendowski could face up to an $11,000 fine and six years and three months in prison if convicted.

A call to Walendowski's home went unanswered Friday morning.

Stupid lawn boy.

A day in the life...

Marci and I took a little road trip yesterday. Not because we wanted to, but because I had to see a customer, 4 hours away from home. I knew it was going to be a long day in the car by myself (This happens a lot in my job) so I asked her if she wanted to come along for the ride. Originally, she turned me down, as the prospect of sitting in the car for that amount of time I'm sure wasn't that appealing, I could hardly blame her. We woke up the next day, and she told me that she had thought about it and decided she wanted to go.
Great! I was glad, we get to spend the day together, and I don't have to be all alone.

A funny thing happens to Marci when she goes for a long ride in the car. We usually start out chatting, listening to the radio. Then after about half an hour, she gets really quiet, and this straight ahead stare seems to creep its way onto her face. As I glance over occasionally, I can see that her long eyelashes are starting to slowly bob up and down, getting gradually lower and lower. I smile to myself. I know what is happening, I've seen this before time and again.
Then I offer the usual "Are you getting sleepy sweetheart?"
I always get the same response: " I'm getting sleepy, I think I need a nap"

Then, she pushes her seat back, folds her arms, takes a deep breath and lights out.
Invariably, her head falls to the right side and she's fast asleep.

This past trip yesterday, was a true testament to the power of the "sleeping car"
We left at 8 AM, and she was out by 8:30.
I took a picture.


Do you fall victim to this phenomenon?
She woke up around 35 mins. later, and told me I had to pull the car over at the nearest rest stop for a potty break. (That is another event that seems to happen on all our road trips)

Anyway, we had a great time. I helped fix a customers 140 ton crane, and 2 hours later we turned around made the trip home.

Hooray beer.

Last night we went to the new "Iron Hill Restaurant and Brewery" in Lancaster with our good friends, Preston and Kelly, and our new friends Nathan and Jackie.

This place is very cool. They brew all their own beer on site. They are very proud of this, as the very enthusiastic waiter reminded us more than a few times during the course of the dinner. Highlights of the evening included watching Kelly sip her way through the "sampler." This is a collection of approximately 12 different samples of their own brew, ripe with exciting names like "Ironbound Ale and Vienna Red Lager" Even more fun was watching Nathan actually drink all 12 glasses of his sampler, each one being followed by a satisfied grin. Truly a devotee of all things brewed with hops and barley. My own personal favorite was the "Pig Iron Porter." A lovely, rich beer where "the distinct roasted and chocolate notes are well balanced by a slight bitterness."

So here's to good food, fellowship, and to the brewmeister. You Sir, are responsible for endowing upon us that sweet nectar of life, beer.

Cheers.

Change

We're a little bored with our blog. Sean suggested that we change to Wordpress and found that they have a free blogging setup now. But I'm not sure just yet. I looked at it a bit yesterday and I feel that I can do everything here on Blogger that I can do on Wordpress.com. And I'm simply too cheap to pay for web hosting, so that I can use Wordpress.org or the iWeb software on our Mac. So for now, we're just changing the design. Maybe that will take away some of our boredom.

Back to Work

Well our weekend trip to Spruce Lake came to an end all too fast. We had a great time.
The weekend's activities included a nice hike (where I found a lovely little stream and waterfall) a good round of mini golf, and a visit to see some cute puppies.

Who could ask for anything more you may ask? Yes I know, us Steele's live on the edge.

Worthy of mention is the old, creepy, abandoned hotel we found. The old Buck Falls Inn. Once very much the place to be in the Poconos, now derelict and according to local lore, quite haunted.
Oooooooh.

You decide for yourself.

Click here to see the pics.

Camping - American style

Hi folks,

Marci and I are camping with her folks in Spruce Lake retreat in the Poconos Hills.

I say "hill's" beacuse most folks around here mistakedly call them the Poconos Mountains.

Newsflash, these are hills. I have seen and hiked real mountians, and these are definelty not really mountains.

Anyway, we are camping American style. Our camper is air conditioned, we have surround sound, and I am updating this blog via a wi-fi connection.

When I was a kid we camped with a tent, some firewood, a small trailer to pull behind the car and some hot dogs for food. If the weather was warm enough we would sleep under the stars, and listen to the sound of the wind gently breathing through the limbs of the pine trees.

We cooked dinner over the camp fire, and an old guitar usually provided the evening's entertainment. The days were spent hiking the in Drakensberg mountains, and drinking ice cold water straight from the pristine streams. (See above picture for clarifiaction on what a mountain looks like - that is the Drakensberg, in SA)

I treasure those days, they are great memories for me.

On another note, today I went for a hike to a lovely waterfall to take a few pictures. The hike back up the hill with my tripod slung over my shoulder was long and hot. The 87 degrees and humidity didnt help.

It felt really good to get back into the air conditioned camper......

Post vacation summary

It's been a while since I added to this blog, so here goes. Now that we are almost 3 weeks past our vacation, I have had some time to gather my thoughts and consider my observations.
1: 18 hours on a plane is about as exciting as going to a podiatrist.
2: Is it normal to be constantly saying to oneself, "hmmm, 3 weeks ago today we were......" followed by a sigh.
3: That nice relaxed feeling you have the first couple of days back to work, lasts for just that - a couple of days.
4: There is no place in the world like your own bed.

That's about it so far. At least, that is all I can think of at 10:36pm at night.

In other news, Marci and I bought a pool membership in our development. It's really nice, and after mowing the lawn in the 346 degree humidity this afternoon it was worth every penny.

I have also finally completed editing our pictures from the trip. Unfortunately the weather was against us. My dreams of a National Geographic - esque photographic envoy were not realized. This was a complete shame as Cape Town is so beautiful. We pretty much had rain the whole time. A trip out to Cape Point which has stunning natural vistas, seaside cliffs and ocean views was met by a thick fog that obscured visibility to a mere 30 feet in front of the car. The only vista I got was a picture of a stinky baboon, taken by Marci leaning out of the car window. Oh well, better luck next time I guess. I did manage to get some good shots. After weeks of editing, tweaking, adjusting and nitpicking at every picture (fellow photographers know what I mean) I have compiled a collection of my favorites. Check them out here. These are posted purely for artsy-farsty necessity and perhaps some self indulgence.
Enjoy.

What If . . .

This is not the first time I’ve been tagged but it’s the first time that I’m actually responding to a tag (Sorry, Rachelle, for never answering your request). But since I’m on summer vacation, I have some time on my hands. So, thanks to Robyn, I have some questions to answer. Here we go:

1. If you could inherit a comfortable home in any city in the world that you could use but not sell, where would you want it to be?

• Can I have 2 choices? Paris and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

2. If you could be instantly fluent in one other language that you currently do not read or speak, which would it be? Why?

• Spanish . . . it has become such a predominant language, it’s beautiful and I could sure use it to communicate with many of my students’ parents.

3. If you were given an hour to spend an unlimited amount of money in any store in the world where would it be?

• Banana Republic . . . I just really like their clothes.

4. If you had to give your children to the care of someone famous, whom would you pick?

• I’d give my hypothetical children to Kirk Cameron (remember him from Growing Pains). Hey, he’s not as famous these days but I know we share similar values and he's already doing the father thing.
  

5. If you could cast an actor now alive to play you in a new film, what kind of film would it be and whom would you choose?

• It would have to be some sort of comedy (hey, I live with Sean and life gets a little comedic around here), with a little romance thrown in to satisfy my girlie side. I think I’d like Sandra Bullock to play me. I’ve always liked her. But I really like Julia Roberts too. I’m so undecided about these things.

6. If you could have an elegant dinner alone with anyone presently alive, whether you know them or not, who would you want it to be?

• My favorite guy, Sean!

7. If you could resolve any single dispute, anywhere in the world what would you solve?

• Child abuse and neglect

8. If you were instantly able to play one musical instrument perfectly that you have never played before, what would it be?

• The guitar! I love when Sean plays the guitar and have talked about having him teach me (think that may put a strain on the marriage?).

Now I get to tag some folks, something I’ve never done. Take a crack at it friends . . Glen or Amy, Rachelle (feel free to blow this one off like I did for you), Chelle, and Katie.

(And feel free to reply to this post with your own answers!)