A little rest please.

The only thing I wanted to do today was sit. I work long hours all week long and look forward to doing absolutely nothing on Saturday morning. My wife was awaken by our youngest son at 6 am. This apparently put her into a foul mood for the day. She then woke me up and insisted that today was a day where we were going to accomplish something. She presented me with a long list of repairs I needed to address such as replacing the kitchen faucet and painting the living room ceiling. I guess I should be happy it didn’t include installing a Toto toilet or something. There is no way I am going to start a bathroom project on a day when everyone is home. The last time I tried this it was such a pain because everyone was constantly parading in and out of the bathroom. My new rule for bathroom projects is that everyone except me needs to leave the house for day. I am putting my foot down about next weekend and insisting that I get to sit around and do nothing.

We got an Applebee’s coupon in the mail, so DW went out to eat with her brother last night. When she tried to pay the bill, the waitress refused to accept the coupon, saying that she had been supposed to give it to her in advance. She said she actually gave her a short lecture (though I’m sure from her perspective it was just information) about it.

My thoughts:
1. How weird. We’ve used coupons at lots of restaurants and never seen that policy.
2. Why is it so important? Does knowing about the coupon in advance affect the service and/or food they give the customer?

Here’s the funny part: When seeing DW’s confusion (DW doesn’t even send back badly cooked steak, so I know she didn’t argue with her), she gave her the discount but REFUSED TO TAKE THE COUPON. Essentially, she gave randomly gave her a discounted meal.

My thoughts:
1. Huh?

Anyone work for Applebee’s or a restaurant with a similar policy and have any light to shed on this?

Honesty

Yesterday we found ourselves in he position of having to tell someone the honest truth. Sometimes telling the truth is a really hard thing to do. This was one of those situations where there was no other option but to be blunt. The short story is that this one parent we know kept pressuring us to join a group that her family belongs to. For just about a year we have come up with every excuse possible to avoid being available to attend the meetings held by this group. We have said we couldn’t come because of illness to wackier reasons like needing to shop for affordable life insurance. Finally, when she called 3 times this week to remind us about a group meeting it became clear that honesty was the best policy. My wife told her as nicely as possible that the group simply was not a good fit for our family and our belief system. That although we enjoyed the company of various members of the group that as a unit we just couldn’t get behind the core beliefs of this group and would not be attending any meetings in the future. I am hoping this woman finally understands what we have been subtly been trying to say for the last year.

What the heck is up with the stupid “snuggie” blankets? They are everywhere! I think they are completely ugly–I’d much rather just find a nice soft blanket in my house. My FIL got one for MIL last Christmas and I thought “what the heck is THAT?” I don’t understand them, but I guess some people must be buying them! It’s all in the marketing and creating demand. One Day they had the “Today” show hosts wearing them! I wish I could come up with a “snuggie” idea. We thought it should be called a Slanket..a blanket with sleeves. I later learned that there is a competing product out there with the name Slanket! They all just look like an oversized robe that people wear backwards? I don’t have one but I just don’t get the fascination with them.

Home all the time.

This week I spent time organizing our recycling and getting it ready to take to the recycling center. It occurred to me as I cut up card board box after box that my wife needs to leave the house more often. I seriously must have cut up 50 boxes from all the Amazon books she has ordered over the last few months. I realize that most of what she orders is for home schooling our children. The notion occurred to me that she really never leaves our house more than maybe once a week. I know this doesn’t bother her in the slightest but it kind of bothers me a little bit. I would go stir crazy if I stayed home all day for days on end. I am going to have to get on her to take time for herself and go out on the town more often.

Gross!

Did anyone out there watch Oprah recently and the discussion of meat? I’m willing to pay more for my chicken and beef. What an eye opener. Don’t get me wrong, I will still eat meat, but I want to buy food that’s naturally raised. Produce is another story……..I never thought I’d go organic but I’m really leaning toward that. After I watched the moving that Oprah mentioned Food Inc (it’s a darn good movie), it made me want to eat minimally processed processed meat, vegetables, and fruit that are natural and/or organic and skip the big grocery sales (you know, the ones that are sponsored by certain large food companies that happen only once or twice a year) as they sell mostly processed junk food which isn’t really healthy.

Bored stiff.

Last week we changed our satellite television package. The price was about to become double what we were spending per month. The only affordable option was to change our package to a more affordable option until the expiration of our service contract. Our new channel collection offers considerably less to watch. The children are quite happy because just about the only channels we get are cartoons. My wife can’t find anything to watch and is spending her time online doing who know what. I secretly think that she is listening to television shows while pretending to be shopping for car insurance and paying bills. I will be honest and say that I would go back to our old programming package if given the option. Right now unless I want to watch the NASA channel or DIY network there isn’t much else for an adult to choose from. It really makes you understand why they have a budget package and why they offer so many opportunities to preview the more expensive packages for free. You really know what you are missing out on when you don’t have it anymore.

Best New Artist…

Man, this is the worst Best New Artist line-up ever! None of the people really make me feel ‘wow they should definitely win a Best New Artist Grammy’. MGMT is really good and creative so it’d be cool to see them win, but they really didn’t have a huge amount of impact.

There are other new country people I’d have nominated-Gloriana or Love and Theft-not really that big on Zac Brown Band, at least the songs I’ve heard.

For some reason I could have sworn The Ting Tings were nominated last year lol. I love “That’s Not My Name” so if they win good for them. I thought Keri Hilson was nominated also a couple years ago. I guess “The Way I Are” wasn’t nominated?

They should have nominated David Cook or Jay Sean or Parachute or someone else more relevant and exciting than Silversun Pickups.

I wish “Fireflies” blew up a little sooner, I would have loved to see Owl City as a BNA nominee!!