BUMMED....SAD.....BUMMED.....

I just realized an hour ago that my favorite and ONLY hat I own is gone....
I am a big fan of Puma...I own too many Puma shoes, some bags, shirts and a few other Puma items. However this was my only Puma Hat....I am not much of a hat wearer, and lately I've been wearing my Puma hat alot....especially with this hot weather this summer.

Anyhow, was at Liberty Park yesterday for Pioneer Day here in Utah...had my hat on all day..hot and sweaty, went to sit by the entertainment stage and socialize, relax and wait for the fireworks....I recall taking my hat off and setting it in my lap...that was the last time I remember it....hung out for a while after fireworks then grabbed my lawn chair and walked back to the van...was dark then, so beloved hat must of fell out of my lap or chair at some point and did not notice....

Anyhow, I don't covet much...but I am sad my hat is gone.......I went to Puma.com to order another one just like the one I had but the black ones are out of stock...they have other colors now I just have to decide which color....and that will take me awhile until then I'll just mourn my hat and hope that whomever found it enjoys it..it's practically new, hardly worn and well, I miss my hat!!!!

It's Mind Boggling To Me!!!

Those that know me well enough, know that I have a very low tolerance for fast food workers and store clerks who take their job so seriously.

I have in the past, had many encounters or should I say 'run-in's' with store clerks and fast food workers. Almost all the time ending with me getting what I wanted in the first place.

So, it is no surprise that these past two days I have had two episodes with a store clerk and a fast food worker...and it got me irked enough to blog about it.

First Scenerio:

I have found a great appreciate for paper bags at grocery stores. I rarely get the plastic ones anymore. I ask for paperbags. While two months ago, while shopping I decided to take with me to the store the paperbags I had saved, thinking, "why not reuse them, they are perfectly fine". So off I went to Smith's Grocery with my 7 paperbags. When I got to the register, I handed the cashier my paperbags and said "oh you can reuse these". As she finished ringing up my purchases the last thing I saw on the screen was a credit for "Bag Refund $.35" I asked her what that was for and she said "for your paperbags" She explained to me that whenever a customer brings back their paperbags to reuse they get a .5 cent credit per bag. I loved it!! So now I bring back my paper bags all the time...and always got my little credit, plus doing my small part for the environment.

So, yesterday morning I went to Smiths, paperbags in hand. Had a $20.00 bill to pay for my items. My bill came to $20.19, so I was short .19cents. I looked and said to the cashier "oh you didn't give me my bag refund for .25 cents. (5 bags I brought back) She looked at me with this glare and said sarcastically "Bag Refund???" I replied, "Yes, bag refund" She proceeded to tell me she heard of no such refund, I then explained it to her, she said she would ask the manager, then said to me "$20.19"...I said, "First, I want my bag refund credit and you can call a manager now"....This other lady was behind me and she was alittle annoyed I could tell, but she also wasn't aware of what was going on because she got to the register after our conversation had started. The cashier called the store manager, he came, she explained to him in a tone as though I didn't know what I was talking about, about the "bag refund" ...he immediately said "oh yes, it's .5 cent per bag, how many bags did you bring sir?" I said "5" he said great..and showed the cashier how to type it in and he left. Do you know this cashier did not apologize to me or say another further except. "$19.83"...so I, being annoyed, said to her "See you owe me money now and now you learned something new for the day" She looked at me and smiled. Annoyed she was and couldn't admit she was wrong. Oh and the lady behind me, she clued in and said "Why did I not ever know about a bag refund, I will start using paperbags and bringing them back, it's extra gas money!" I smiled and left, alittle annoyed that this cashier acted as though this .25 cents was coming out of her pocket...but also vindicated.

Scenerio 2:

I went to Arctic Circle tonight. Order a number 5 meal, got to the window, paid the cashier and said "can you put in some extra fry sauce and napkins" She looked at me and said nothing. I assumed she heard me. She handed me my bag of food, I looked before driving off and saw only two fry sauces in the bag but lots of napkins. I said "Excuse me, can I get some more fry sauce please" She then told me "It's .10 cent extra per fry sauce, how many do you want?" I said "10 cent?, what? She said yes, their new policy is extra fry sauce is .10 cent each. I said "You don't have this posted and I think that is overcharging, I could go in the joint and get as much fry sauce as I want" (Because inside you pump the fry sauce into those little white cups yourself"...She said "That's our policy" I then handed back to her my bag, and said, here you can have the food back and drink, I want my money back. Do you know she looked at me in utter shock!! She said "Excuse me sir? I said "I am not paying .10 cent for extra fry sauce, so I don't want the food at all, you can just give me a refund" She said "I can't do that" ...I said "get your manager" she said "Sir can you pull up to the white line and I will have my manager go out there" I said "No, I can't" ...why I wouldn't is because once I pull up, then they have the upper hand and can make me wait there as long as they want. This way, I sit at the window, everyone behind has to wait and it gets them to rush in the store. So fast food lady gave me a look and shut the window, I saw her go over to her manager talk to her, they both looked my way and then the manager came to me and said "Sorry sir, you want a refund why?" I said "Because I want extra fry sauce and I am not about to pay for it, when I could walk inside and take as much as I want" I really do believe they rip you off at drive thru!!! She was like "ok, I'll give you the fry the sauce this time, but please know our new policy is extra fry sauce is .10 cents each" She handed me a HAND FULL of fry sauce....6 to be exact and all I originally wanted was 2 more!! I said to her "while next time I'll go inside and get as much as I want." She looked at me, I looked at the cashier with that "See I got my fry sauce plus more" look and drove off....I was irked and couldn't understand why that cashier felt an undying duty to hold on to her fry sauce and collect her .20 extra cents. When in the end they gave up .60 cents to me!! I knew the manager knew it wasn't worth refunding and losing $5.83 cents back to me and having to throw away a burger, fries and coke over .20 cents...she knew it. She just probably didn't expect someone like me to come through and put up a fuss over what I call their OVERCHARGING!!!..( Oh stick a pump at drive thru, like inside, and let us customers pump all the fry sauce we want!!)

So those are my stories and though I might sound cheap, know that I am not. Just that I have a very low tolerance for workers who take their paperbags and fry sauce too seriously. Unless they owned the company I could understand them better, but really come on! Peace and Smile!

Facebook or Myspace??

I joined Facebook a few months ago, and since them, I have enjoyed it so much. I like it much better than Myspace. My favorite reason is that Facebook is for an older and mature crowd. I have found and I have been found by quite a few old friends, especially from High School..and that's like 20 years ago!! I was excited to start getting requests from names that were blasts from the past!!

Today I logged on and saw that I had a friend request from a great friend..Marcy Morris!! I was so excited because last month I was thinking about her and her husband Kindel....and was regretting losing touch with them in the past 8 years...I have known them for about 15 years and I was actually a groomsman in their wedding!! Kindel's parents were so great to me as well...I have so many great memories of the Morris family!! I have a letter that whenever I am feeling down that I pull out and read...it was a letter Kindel wrote me 13 years ago when I was feeling down, alittle insecure and kinda overwhelmed......he was so sincere, honest, and uplifting in the letter to me that I cried when I read it the first time and even now when I pull out that letter it brings a tear to my eye. That letter at the time pretty much set pace for me on how I try to treat others and do for others. It changed my outlook so much at the time and gave me a new direction.

In addition to Marcy finding me on Facebook, last month another old friend found me and emailed me...it took me by surprise because she was like a sister to me way back when, opened up to her probably so much and well, had a "crush" on her too...but anyhow, we called each other after she emailed me and it was like just yesterday that we talked, couldn't believe it had been over 13 years since we last spoke. The best part of that is that her sister lives here in Utah and is getting married August 1 and was looking for a caterer...so BAM...Brandy called her sister, her sister called me and I booked her reception for our company!

Then there are my old high school friends..Po-Sun...he is a great guy, Cassie and Julie..wow!! It was pretty cool, my friend and I were sharing stories a few weeks ago through email about an old friend named Eric Degn...we literally said in an email to each "wow, wonder how he is these days?".....do you know that LITERALLY about two weeks later I had a friend request from him???? Talk about DEJA VU!!! WOW........so anyone not with a Facebook account...I really suggest you get one....it's much better than Myspace...some positives about Facebook is... it's easy, no need to "fancy" up a page, no bulletins or spam, it has some great features like sharing books, movies, trivia, quizzes to compare with your friends and well, though I will keep my Myspace page, I don't use it too often anymore...so get up on Facebook people!!

I Can't Think Of A Title................

So, it has been a few days since my last post...oops...had lots I could of blogged about, but then well, yeap..you know...laziness won me over!



Ok, so I have two things I want to blog about right now, one is a annoyance I have and another is a gratitude I have...



Lets start with this:

Self- Check-Outs....

I learned I don't like them! They don't work too well, especially with produce and large bulky items. Whenever I try to use these checkouts, I get stuck behind some moron who can't figure out how to scan things or pay for their stuff.
Then sometimes, I AM the moron!
When that happens, it's embarassing and frustrating. I can't stand that "Please place item in the bagging area", or the "Item removed from bagging area" man...then you get stuck and you have to wait for the cashier working the self check outs to fix it. Sometimes it seems better just to go wait in line for a "live" check out clerk. I think that we should get discounts for using the self check out stands because obviously they aren't paying employees to have all the registers open and speaking of that, when was the last time you saw all registers open at a store? Especially Wal-Mart...oh, don't get me started on Wal-Mart...anyhow....The silly thing is that while the self check out stations seem to be intended to replace humans, they end up using just as many people since they need at least one person to hand-hold people through the process since people are often confused about and can’t figure out how to make those systems work. So I declare from this day forward I won't use self check outs, let a "live" clerk scan my items, punch in the codes for my produce, bag my groceries and take my cash!

Ok...now something I am grateful for:

Ten years ago if you were to tell me that I could watch television on my computer, I'd laugh at you. However, here I am watching all my shows online, for free.

It's funny, I decided last December to cancel my cable service. I was paying way too much and realized I was watching free local channels mostly. Then I found out that I could go online and watch those cable shows I like for free! Though online shows come on the day after they air on normal television, it works out fine, because I was usually using dvr to record those shows anyhow until I had time to watch them. Anyhow, every station has a website and you can click and watch full episodes on demand at your time and leisure!
I also enjoy and recommend two websites: www.redlasso.com and www.hulu.com
On redlasso you have to wait a few weeks for an opening of a free account, but you can catch clips and shows from stations all over the U.S. I love it!
The second site, hula, it's awesome you can watch full episodes of new and classic television and news shows as well as free movies!! That's right they have a library of full lenght movies you can watch....

So I am grateful for free online television and limited commercials!

So out with self check outs and in with online tv!!

Remember to smile!