Whatever happened to Halloween?

I can't believe how quickly this year is passing. It is almost scary. All the stores have their Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff all out and I even saw one with Christmas stuff out already. The guy that sits next to me at work has had his cube all decked out Halloween style for a couple weeks now. Seeing all that and hearing people talking about their potential costume choices reminded me of something from my grade school experience:

My mom dressed me up as a witch a lot. At least it seemed that way to me. I also recall that she did a great job making me a very scary and ugly witch. My face was caked with pukey green costume make-up, complete with fake warts drawn on. I was hideous. I remember nervously heading off to school in all my witchy splendor and wondering what everybody else would be wearing. Once there I discovered that I was the only grotesque looking witch in a sea of princesses and fairies. I was mortified.

Looking back on the situation now, I am glad that my mom dressed me up like that. I mean, it's Halloween! Isn't the theme of this holiday supposed to be all about paranormal things like ghouls/witches/monsters/etc? Why the hell are there princesses and puppies and little Nemo's running around? What is scary about that? When and how did Disney hijack Halloween anyway?

If you are going to be a princess, at least be an undead one or something.

Lovely locks

I love my husband's hair. And I love that he has a lot of it and probably always will. And I also enjoy the fact that he lets me do whatever I want to it sometimes. He's such a good sport.

When we first got married his hair was short and darker-ish. I called the color 'nondescript' because it was neither blond nor brown nor red nor anything really. But then he decided to grow it out and that is when the fun began. To the right you will see him with his longer but fairly normal hair color.

After it got longer he let me highlight it, fluff it out, straighten it and even put pig tails in it.

(And yes, I'm fully aware of the fact that it's a good thing I never became a hair stylist.)

Naturally Mr. X got sick of all this and cut his hair short again. Now the craziest I get is once he let me put a flower in it - just for a second.

Aawwww. He's so adorable.

Odds and ends from the weekend

This weekend I 'accidentally' bought some new clothes. I say accidentally because I certainly didn't go to the store with any intentions of making purchases other than some viactive chews and some vitamin C drops. But a girl can't help but want to have some cute new clothes to wear when she sees her husband for the first time in a month, right? Ya, so I was weak. It's a good thing the store happened to be Target instead of Neiman's. (what can I say, I'm a classy girl) Either way, I'm about to be making zero dollars for the next three months so I can't be spending money on such frivolous items. I resolve to become cheap and stingy like my little brother Ross. (no offense Ross)

Also, for those of you that were wondering, my car is back! Woo hoo! It is nice to have it back. I just hope it stays fixed this time. The mechanic said that it should give me no more problems but that they had a Subaru about a year ago that had the same problem and it kept having to come back in as well. They ended up having to put in a new spindle (whatever that is) in that one. The didn't do that to mine but they said my spindle is just fine so they don't expect any problems but to bring it right back in if I have trouble again. Nice. So on that uncertain note I drove my car home. I never went more than 50 on the freeway the whole way.

Haus der 1000 Uhren

Most people are aware that cuckoo clocks, Germany and the Black Forest go hand-in-hand. When you go to Germany, especially in the Black Forest region, you will see these clocks all over the place. I love them. They are so intricate and fascinating and I desperately wanted to get one as a souvenir for our home. (Never mind that I have no idea where I would want to hang it once I got it home.)

So during my cuckoo clock window shopping I decided that I wanted something sleek and sophisticated. (Yes I know, sleek and sophisticated aren't generally the words one would use to describe a cuckoo clock.) So I had my eye on this one:
Then my SIL, who is obviously much smarter than me, pointed out that it would be silly to get a plain cuckoo clock as that's not really the point of them. They are meant to be intricate and fascinating so why not get one that could keep you mesmerized for hours? Like these:

If you look closely at the picture of the "sleek" clock, you will see that it cost €189.60. So if you calculate that against today's horrid exchange rate with the dollar, that small clock with no fun little moving parts will cost you $264.85. (That's with today's exchange rate of 1.3969) The really cool clocks in the latter pictures are well over $550.

Needless to say these pictures of cuckoo clocks ended up being my souvenir instead of the real thing.

The car saga continues...

Okay so you know how my car had to be towed last night? Get this: the helpful tow truck man jacked up my car even worse. The car people are saying the my wheel bearing was bad (never mind that it was supposedly brand new) and they are replacing it again but now I have even more problems. I have no clue about car stuff so I made the mechanic write down for me what the tow truck driver did: Both shaft boots on my rear axles were torn by the hooks from the tow truck. The towing company, Dugger Towing, tried really hard to weasel out of having to reimburse me for the tow (nearly $130) and the damage ($?) by trying to come up with a lot of other ways this could have happened. Luckily the mechanic backed me up with this stuff. Now I just have to make sure they actually do reverse the towing charge on my card. Anyway, I am now driving a cherry red Dodge Caliber. I miss my Subaru (even though I'm really hating on it right now).

Highs and lows

So on my way home from work as I was driving home from the bus stop to my house I was excitedly proclaiming my wonderful news of the Leave Of Absence to my SIL when.....I felt my car lurch and heard grinding and scraping sounds. This was all followed by more lurching and my car seemed to want to pull itself off the road. At first I thought maybe I had a flat tire. I pulled over and saw that wasn't the case. So I got back in and kept driving but the situation was deteriorating quickly with lots of grinding and scraping and lurching which even slowing down and putting my hazards on wasn't helping. So I got off the freeway and pulled into the nearest place I could to check my car again. Everything still looked fine. Then I touched the metal part of the wheel (I'm a mechanical genius obviously) and yanked my hand back as it was positively sizzling. I checked the other wheels to find that they were easily touchable. Cripes.

The end of the story is that I had to have a tow truck tow me and my car home and I'll have to have a tow truck tow me and my car to a mechanic tomorrow morning. (I have NO friends or relatives that live closer than 60 miles away!) And then I'll have to call a car rental company to drop off a car at the aforementioned mechanic's place and race to work all the while freaking out about how much all of this will cost me.

I'm such a baby too: I cried on the phone when I called my parents. I cried on the phone when I called my boss to tell him. And I cried at the tow truck driver when he showed up. Frustration of this nature turns me into a wreck.

My husband is lucky that he is in Germany driving a phat Fiat Panda instead of my fickle Forester.

EEeeeeeee!!!!

I got the Leave of Absence! This morning they were 100% an absolute no and so I gritted my teeth and handed my resignation letter over. They told me to keep the letter and now I get to keep my job too. Woo hoo! My company is, by far, the best company I have ever had the pleasure to work for - they really try to keep their employees happy.

Spotlight on Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM

I thought I would do a spotlight on where I currently live because it counts as a place to which I have visited, right? Right. Plus I think that a lot of people that have never been to northern New Mexico have some misconceptions about it. And also, it has some redeeming qualities despite what you may have heard me say. (I moved here from Southern California so it's hard to top that - sorry those of you that are reading this from NM)

So for those of you that don't know - no, it isn't Africa-hot here. Or Arizona-hot. Actually, according to weather.com, in Albuquerque the hottest month is July and the average high is 92 during that month. (In Santa Fe it is even cooler) The average low during the coldest months, December & January, is 24. What we do have that is similar to Arizona is a monsoon season, which I absolutely love because the thunder and rain storms are spectacular. It will be warm and sunny all day long and then in the afternoon a fierce storm will roll through accompanied by a fantastic sound and light show (the thunder & lightening, of course).

Since Albuquerque and Santa Fe are nestled up at the tail end of the Rockies there are lots of mountains around for back-to-nature things like hiking and camping.

The Rio Grande runs through New Mexico and so during the monsoon season and during the spring run-off it makes for great river rafting trips. There is a lot of open land here so there are farms and ranches and things like that so it is easy to do things like horseback riding. (me in the front, Mr X in the blue shirt in the back - his horse was kicking everybody esle's so no one wanted to stand next to poor Mr X)Every October in Albuquerque there is a Balloon Festival. I think it is the world's largest hot air balloon festival...at least that is the word. It is pretty impressive to see, especially at night when they are glowing. This pictures doesn't do it justice but maybe it will give you an idea.

In the winter we usually get great snows and there are lots of ski resorts all over to enjoy. Of all the things northern New Mexico has to offer, this my favorite thing to do. (for the snowboarding and I'm mediocre at best but who cares really?) The first is from Santa Fe Ski Resort and the second is from AngelFire.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Last spring my SIL, Nicole, joined me for a week of fun in Europe. (Thanks Nicole!) One of the places we visited was Lucerne, Switzerland. It is breathtakingly beautiful there - but I'm not going to show you gorgeous pictures of the scenery (this time), I've got other pictures instead.

In the heart of Lucerne there is a Glacier Garden that is an interesting place to visit. One of the things inside this garden/museum is a really fun mirror maze, it is the best I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. (I am not really sure what it has to do with glaciers...maybe nothing but next time I'll pay closer attention.) Once you fumble your way through the maze there are a few goofy mirrors outside. Nicole and I took a lot of silly pictures and I was browsing through some of them last night ... every time it makes me laugh and creeps me out a little bit. So for your viewing pleasure, here you go:

Remember Mr T?

Update

Okay so Mr X's boss has relented and is very graciously (read: reluctantly) allowing him to stay in Europe for the full amount of time he requested. Woo hoo! The European Adventure is still on!

Oh, and my car is fixed finally and my boss let me use my OT to cover the time I was out during the week dealing with my car. I must also mention that I owe an apology to the Jiffy Lube located at Pennsylvania and Montgomery in Albuquerque because the problem with my car was not caused by them and they directed me to a place that did a wonderful job fixing my car and taking care of me. (Those other jiffy lubes that I mentioned are still BAD - don't go to them!)

It is amazing how much my outlook on life has improved with the happy resolution of these two things.

Update on my trip

Due to some really bad management skills displayed by some select people, I may very well not be able to join Mr X abroad next month. Everything is kind of up in the air right now as we are currently waiting for those people with the aforementioned bad management skills to come to some sort of final decision in their own good time (because who cares about our time, really?).

1-2-3 Strikes you're out, Jiffy Lube!

Strike 1: The offending site - Jiffy Lube located off Eubank in Albuquerque NM. In an attempt to charge ridiculous amounts of money to customers for something easily done by one's self, Jiffy Lube usually checks the air filter in cars to tell you need a new one and that they can easily do it for you. I always say no because I'm perfectly able to go buy my own air filter and replace it myself. So once again I said no. So after this oil change I went to another store to buy my air filter & replace it. When I popped the hood up I discovered that the plastic covering that goes over the air filter had a place for a bolt broken right off. Between the last times I touched it, Jiffy people were the only people rooting around int there. Plus there were fresh finger marks in the dust and grime around the filter. I realize that this isn't the end of the work and the plastic was probably brittle and it was surely an accident. But couldn't they at least have been honest about the whole thing and let me know? To me, this incident conveys a lack of respect and honesty from Jiffy.

Strike 2: Mr X took the car to another Jiffy location off of Coors for an oil change. Everything was fine before we took it in. We came home with an oil leak. So Mr X took the car back to show them. They informed him that it's normal for there to be a bit of oil leakage afterward and it should stop in a couple days. (What?!? I've had lots of oil changes in my lifetime and not once have I found that to be normal. Apparently Jiffy thinks we are as moronic as we look.) It didn't stop. Mr X took it back again. This time they did another oil change to "fix" things and sent us home again. Nope. Mr X took it back a 3rd time and this time the manager looked at it and discovered that his Jiffy people had managed to accidentally crack our oil reservoir. He personally replaced it and gave us yet another oil change along with a coupon for a free one at that location. We promptly threw it away. Once again, this displays a lack of respect and honesty and pride in one's work.

Strike 3: Mr X tried a 3rd Jiffy location for an oil change (off Montgomery) and, since they offered it, a rotation of the tires. Now my back right tire is all misaligned and making loud noises when it rotates. So now I have to take the damn car back to Jiffy and yell at them again and get them to fix it without charging me anything because it is their folly. Wish me luck. Hopefully they fix it and everything is fine because I can't afford to take it somewhere else and pay to have it fixed.

All in all I think I've been pretty forgiving of the Jiffy Lube chain, but after 3 disappointing experiences at 3 different locations I feel that the chain either just really isn't that concerned with doing a good job for it's customers or they consistently hire people that don't care about doing a good job. Either way means pain for me, so you're fired Jiffy Lube!

(I'll try to stop complaining about poor customer service for a while now.)

The Decline of Good Customer Service

As most of you know, I'm headed overseas early next month. So naturally I bought airline tickets to get me there. I used a search engine to find the cheapest ones available just like most people would do. Unfortunately for me, airfare.com had the cheapest tickets for what I wanted.

When I bought the tickets the website informed me that due to the highly discounted nature of this fare they would have to issue paper tickets and that would cost me an extra $15 to process and get those delivered to me. The website stated that I would receive these tickets via FedEx shortly. So I waited. And waited. I sent an email inquiry to the customer service address I had for them (I detest confrontation). Of course I received no response so I gritted my teeth this morning and called the help line. The help line is poorly set up, no direction other than "please enter the extension for the person you are trying to reach." Pressing '0' gets you nowhere, so in a desperate attempt to get a person I just punched in '111'. Ta-da! The phone rang. After being on hold for a bit I finally got a human being on the phone with me. His voice relayed the idea that he hated his job and I had probably called just to make his life more difficult. After explaining to him that I still had not received my paper tickets even 2 weeks after the purchase he informed me that they had changed the status of my tickets to 'electronic' rather than paper. I asked if that meant that, without a doubt, when I got to the counter to check in for my flight I would not have to have any paper tickets? He said of course in a way that insinuated that a. I was an idiot and b. that I was boring him. So I asked why airfare.com didn't send me a notice of this change? His response? "Uh.... they were going to send out an email about it." After I got off the phone I sent an email to them again, this time also requesting reimbursement of my $15 along with an email confirmation of the change to my tickets. I will call and email every damn day until I get my $15 back AND my email confirmation. I will also be calling the airlines directly to confirm that I am indeed booked on their flights and that I DO NOT need a paper ticket.

This brings me to my question: Whatever happened to good customer service?

Now this isn't just airfare.com that prompts this question. I have had poor customer service from GE, Best Buy, KB Home, Aveda, 3-Day Blinds, Lowes, Home Depot, my student loan company CFS Loans, Wells Fargo, ADP, Brinks, Orkin, Ryder, Jiffy Lube,etc. And those are only the ones I can think of right off-hand. Please feel free to include your own "don't use this company" words of warning in the comments. Unfortunately that may mean that there are very few companies that exist from which people have received good customer service. Neiman Marcus is one with whom I have had good interaction. That's all I can think of at the moment.

Here is an article I read regarding this issue recently.

I wonder if this poor service trend is simply due to lack of respect of other people. Lack of empathy? Lack of pride in one's work? Laziness? What do you think causes it?

Spotlight on Troncones, Mexico

A few years ago Mr. X and I went on a trip to Troncones, Mexico. Troncones is just north of the more well known Ixtapa/Zihuataneo area of Mexico. If you don't know where that is, it is on the Pacific side, south of Puerto Vallarta but north of Acapulco. When we flew in we caught a cab from Zihuataneo to Troncones (about $40) but on the way back to the airport we simply caught a bus ($5-ish). I called it the chicken bus because we rode with live chickens and buckets of stinky fish and all sorts of fun things. The doors didn't close and that is especially exciting when you are flying down the rode at like 80 miles an hour and no seat belts.

We stayed in a simple beach side B&B. There were something like 5 or 6 bungalows there that rented out for about $20/night (off-season, since we were there in February). We were lucky because our bungalow was the closest to the ocean.

They were pretty simple - concrete floors, a bed, and a wall that separated the sleeping area from the shower and toilet (no door). I liked the shower because it was in the bungalow but there was no roof over it so you felt like you were showering in the open due to the trees and plants growing just above your head. Every morning breakfast was served under a palapa on the beach. It was usually an assortment of tropical fruits with toast. You just had to make sure your bags were up off the floor so things like cockroaches and scorpions didn't crawl into them. Freaked out because I found cockroaches in my shoes, I made Mr. X search my bags for more of them and that's when he found this scary scorpion in my bag. Lucky for us the scorpion didn't survive the encounter but we did.

Nearly every day we walked down the beach to Manzanillo Bay because it was a pretty decent surf spot (there was a place we could rent boards right there at the bay) and an excellent place to snorkel. We saw puffer fish, sting rays, lobster, jellyfish, and all sorts of other fish.

There was a little restaurant that served the absolute best chips and guacamole I have ever tasted.

In fact, the food that we had in this tiny town was incredibly delicious and very inexpensive. I think lunches and dinners were somewhere between $5-$10 for both of us together.

I believe the town's population is around 500 people so there's pretty much just one street running through it and it's not paved. When we wanted to go somewhere else we just walked to the end of the street and caught a chicken bus.

The thing I liked most about Troncones was the relative lack of people at all. The street was empty. The beaches were usually pretty much completely devoid of anybody. It was quiet, relaxing and peaceful. I would recommend it to anybody.

Imminent Departure

*warning: sappiness content of this post is high*

So this is my last day with Mr. X before he leaves for Germany. He will be over there for a month before I join him. Last time he left for nearly 6 weeks before I joined him and it was torture. Whenever he is gone I always reflect on how I've only known him for a mere 5 years and in the big picture life it short so what on earth am I doing voluntarily opting to be apart from him? I'll never get that lost time back and when I reflect on that it makes me feel small and petty somehow for doing this again and again. All of these feelings are amplified when I read stuff like this. The reason I stay? Money. Don't get me wrong, temporally speaking money is important. But spiritually, mentally, emotionally and eternally speaking money doesn't matter. I'd much rather be poorer and with my husband than rich and alone. So it buoys me to think that hopefully this is the last time we do things this way.

On another note, I am looking forward to dinner tonight. Whenever Jeff leaves he gets to go out to dinner at a place of his choice. Being a very typical man, he wants meat. Lots of meat. So we are going to a barbecue place that is pretty tasty. (and meat is gluten free without sauce on it so that make life easier for me too!)

Introducing Mr. T

Mr. T is Mr. X's brother and one of my favorite people. I would say that probably a good majority of the pictures I see of him he looks like this:

or this:

and sometimes, he diversifies with this look:

very photogenic, don't you think?

As you can imagine from his pictures, he's always a lot of fun. Luckily for you readers, from time to time Mr. T will make 'special appearances' when he is at his best (photogenically speaking, of course).

If any single ladies happen to read this I'll just go ahead and let you know up front that Mr. T is already spoken for by the sweet and lovely Mrs. T. Sorry to disappoint.

(Mr. and Mrs. T)

Book report

Instead of camping, Mr. X and I did a number of things over the holiday weekend. We watch movies, played tennis and racquetball, and hiked. (I am very sore from these things today and it feels great.)

I also read a book. It was called The Painted Veil. Set in 1920's England/Hong Kong, it is about a very self-absorbed young lady that marries for all the wrong reasons and then cheats on her spouse and breaks his heart. When it is too late she sees the folly of her ways and tries to become a better person which she seemingly succeeds in doing....until she screws up (screw being the operative word here) again. Finally, realizing she's weak, she extricates herself from the situation and vows to raise her illegitimate baby to be a better person than she...The End. Yes it ends rather abruptly, I thought. I didn't particularly like this story but I suppose it was interesting enough to me because I read it in less than 24 hours (much to Mr. X's dismay).

Did you camp too?

Mr. X and I had great plans to go camping over the Labor Day weekend. It was going to be our first and only time for 2007. Pretty sad, huh? We decided to go up to the northern part of the state and find some wooded and pleasant place near a river/stream/lake/etc so we could fish as well. Some friends of our had been planning on going with us so they asked us to wait for them before heading up. They couldn't leave until Saturday so that's when we planned on going, but then Friday night they had to back out. By then It was too late to head up that night so we decided to stick with the original plan and head up Saturday morning.

Saturday morning was way too late. We left our house around 8am and drove around for ages looking for a place to camp but we kept coming up empty. There were ridiculous amounts of people crammed into all the campgrounds we saw. Very disappointed, we turned around to head home around 3pm or 4pm. I console myself with the thought that it probably wouldn't have felt much like getting back to nature with it being that crowded.