The Hybrid Experience

During our recent vacation, we rented a car for two days and because the compact car that I had reserved, a Ford Focus, reeked of cigarette smoke, the lady was kind enough to let me have the Toyota Prius- a Hybrid vehicle. When she asked me if I had ever driven one before, I looked at her funny. I said, "how different can it be?" She just grinned. I could not even turn it on when I got in. She came and showed me what to do and then, how to run it. It was interesting. All the controls were through some panel screen (like a GPS screen), and it was very complicated until you got used to it - took me just enough time to get it before I had to return it.

The ride was smooth, and the car was slightly larger than your usual compact. We could fit all our stuff in it, both car seats, and still had room for one person to squeeze rather tightly between the car seats. All in all, I really enjoyed the hybrid experience. I enjoyed it even more on our trip to the airport to return it. I had to fuel it back to FULL. I was expecting to pay over $10 for the 120+ miles we had put on it but I was very pleased when it stopped pumping at 2.4 gallons. I spent a grand total of $5.70 to fill it up after 48 hours of driving it. We drove it for well over 70 miles on day 1, and an additional 70 on day 2. It was terribly hot and we were running the A/C constantly too. We had to- I was nursing the baby in the car, we would wait in the car while one of us ran into the store, and so on. So, I was excited to see that I only had to spend a little change on the gas.

After driving it and the small bill for gas, I am SOLD on it- I wish more dealerships and auto manufacturers would make hybrids- for vans, for cars, etc. I know we need the space to have a wagon or SUV, but I would gladly pay a little extra if they made them hybrids. It would reduce our dependence on oil while still permitting a great ride. Leave it to Toyota to have a good one at the same price sticker as a Subaru Outback. We had a great hybrid experience and hope that they continue to make cars and trucks more affordable and more fuel efficient. I am honestly considering one for my next vehicle.

Do you take "cream" with your tea or coffee?

However delayed this blog is, I had to write about the tea incident that occurred while I was visiting my folks in Virginia. My mom is a conservator by nature. For example, when I give my toddler-daughter Vitamin D milk in a bottle or cup, any left overs are used by mom to make her tea. Even though my daughter has back wash, etc., my mom feels compelled to not waste anything – down to meals. She will eat what my daughter does not and so on. I think you get the picture. Well, lesson learned I think is when it comes to some things, ‘tis better to just let it go.

Case in point – when I was visiting Virginia, I had bottles for both my infant daughter (2 bottles) and my toddler too because she cannot seem to drink milk out of anything other than a bottle. We are not too hard on her and still indulge her so she drinks her milk out of a bottle. Anyway, while we were in Virginia, I had to thaw out frozen breast milk one day for my infant so my mom could feed her while I was taking a nap with my daughter. My mom did so and it was approximately 3 ounces of breast milk. The bottles are marked with my infant’s name but it is not readily available or apparent- you have to actually lift the bottle and read below. My mom did not know this because rarely is my infant bottle fed. She is exclusively breast fed. So, needless to say… I think you know where this is going … My infant did not drink the bottle and my mom put it back in the fridge. Later that same, she made tea and waste not, want not, she thought she was using Vitamin D leftovers, combined with some other milk for prayers, combined with Actual Vitamin D leftovers. Little did she know at that time, that she had 3 ounces of breastmilk, an ounce of milk used for prayers, and 3 ounces of Vitamin D leftovers all in one pot. If you know hot to make Indian masala chai, it is all combined with water in a pot, spices and tea added with sugar, and then boiled. Boiling it releases the caffeine from the tea and makes the milk and water and sugar come to life. Ha! Needless to say, it smelled funny because breast milk, when boiled, does not separate, but just smells odd. As soon as I put my lips to the cup, I could smell something. It reminded me of how my infant smells after she spits up. Ironically, my infant was reaching for the cup as if it smelled to her of momma. In any case, after 2 sips, I said… This is spoiled and then did not drink it. My mom, on the other hand, kept drinking it and saying it tasted horrible but could not stop drinking it. My dad was saved because before he could get a cup, mom my decided it was spoiled milk and tossed all the tea. It was not until morning that she realized what she had done.

That night, I kept searching for Nisha’s bottle of milk and just decided to talk with my mom in the morning – of course, before I could do so, she admitted to me what happened and was quite embarrassed about it. I wonder if she views “waste not want not” differently now. Oh –no she doesn’t, she merely blamed the entire saga on me because of my lack of labeling and moved on. So, next time someone talks about mistakenly drinking breast milk, I do not laugh - I have been there, done that. Thank god it was my milk :-)

On a side note, when I googled, "frozen breast milk" I got this article and I had to share (OH BOY!) Breast Milk Off the Menu!

Storm of the Century

So, last night in Colorado, I would say we had the storm of the century. Sure, compared to what others may get, it was nothing but our neighborhood got hit hard. Leaves were everywhere, hail was so loud, I could not think, our roof leaked, our basement got flooded (mainly because they left the window wells open), and the power was out for at least 2 hours. Thank God the food did not go bad or I would have been pissed. Some people in other parts of town did not get their power back until three in the morning! That would have been too close for comfort for me - I have frozen breast milk and if that would have gone bad, I would have been really upset.

In any case, we are having our basement finished and so water got into the basement- due to a combination of factors but mainly cause the window wells are exposed and open and the windows were also left open. If the windows were closed, we may have gotten some water but not alot. We will need to figure out the window well situation before completing the basement and this certainly made us rethink some things. It turns out our area and two other cities along the same main street in Colorado were hit hard with our city and another the hardest. It was a scary storm and I am just glad that more damage was not done. I feel blessed we have a roof over our head and the children are safe. I am not sure how people cope with losing everything - their home, their property, etc. I guess as long as those we love are safe and healthy, everything else is secondary.

Cricket Broadband Connection Update

I decided to call tech support again today - Monday, a working day. I figured maybe the losers were working the call centers abroad on the weekend. I was right. Today, I got someone who actually helped me change some settings on my Windows Vista. They were security settings. I had to uncheck one box under user accounts (the introductory screen) and boom! It worked. Another thing that you need to do if you are running Vista or XP with security is this: Make sure you download the software FIRST onto your desktop (The zipped version), then after you plug the card in, unzip and install the software. This will prevent your system from crashing and will recognize the device. Soon, the device driver will install and then you are all set to use your A600 Broadband card.

I am an IT person at heart. I kept googling solutions this weekend. The best one told me to download the software from the cricket website instead of relying on the broadband USB Modem to install it for me on my computer. Next, I decided to take a chance and ask for tech support on a normal working day and lied to the technician. Instead of telling her I got the blue screen of death, I told her the modem was not being recognized. She took me through the right steps to install the card, and voila, it worked. Do not let them tell you that you need to contact Windows. That is a load of crap. It is their hardware, not the software. They need to help you change the security settings not Windows. In any case, good luck. For now, I am going to see how it works since I have 30 days and then we will see. Good luck!

Buyer Beware: Cricket Broadband sucks!

I had the unfortunate experience of ordering an A600 modem from Cricket Broadband. What attracted me to this? I wanted no contracts and at $40, I could log on from anywhere, so I thought. I received the A600 Broadband modem. I paid a butt-load of money for it. The over-excited sales rep guy misrepresented to me that if it did not work with my computer, I would get all my money back. He lied. Worse yet, the customer service reps (based out of China is my guess) were horrible to deal with when I needed help. The tech support guy and gal were even worse. So, to make a long story short in this first introductory paragraph - DO NOT GIVE YOUR BUSINESS TO CRICKET. I have already filed a better business complaint against them over this incident and plan on fighting with my credit card company to get my activation fee because in sum, I ACTIVATED NOTHING!

So, here is what happened. I enthusiastically picked up my package at Fed Ex- signature required or you cannot get your card. Then, I plugged into my laptop. It should automatically install. It did not. Instead I got the blue screen of death- better known as a system crash. This happened all 7 times. I meet all the requirements. I tried in two other laptops with different systems (all meet the requirements). Same blue screen of death. I call Cricket for tech support. They suck and told me it was a windows error. It is not of course because two other computers with different OS all had the same problem. So I call tech support again hoping to get someone smarter. Wrong again! So I call customer service to ask for a refund. Mind you, I just got it yesterday and have not even activate it yet because I cannot even use it. I got the supervisor who was reading from a card provided to him in some outsourced factory in China who told me my activation fee could not be reimbursed because (and I quote), "the modem works fine - it is my equipment error." I lost my mind and just hung up because there was no point arguing with a drone in another country. So, there goes my hard-earned American cash. I will NEVER recommend Cricket to anyone as a result and if I can even help one person to NOT get their service, I have done my job. The customer service after you order something from them is horrible. There is no contract, sure, but you definitely get what you pay for and when it comes to CRICKET, this cannot be more true. I will be taking my business elsewhere because I never want to deal with this company again. Oh wait, I need to get my money back first. Damn it! When it comes to Cricket Broadband or Wireless, Caveat Emptor.

Reassessing my wishlist on this Blog

I just looked at my wish list on this Blog - let's see how we're doing shall we? I think it is time to delete and regroup and then add some more to the list.

Sleep - yeah, right - that can stay on the list cause it ain't happening.

Decent Nursing Bra- CHECK! Got it- right before I started work I knew I needed a more supportive one and one that would hide those embarrassing moments. So, yes, done and done!

Bathroom Door Construction - CHECK! Believe it or not, yes, this one is off the list because I got it done. During our basement finishing, this was also taken care of which is quite exciting.

Spa Day - CHECK! My husband treated me to an overnight at the Omni Interlocken and it was marvelous and spectacular. I loved it and cannot wait to do it again sometime.

Snow Blower- Duh-- how did that even make the list. Let my hubbie shovel away right?

So I will be editing my lists soon and adding some more- I think these are a must in light of recently assessing my personal needs and my family life:

Sleep will remain on the list along with spa days at least now and again.

I think I need a date alone with hubbie at least once a month. We have not had that in quite some time. Even if we curl up on the couch with some tea or ice cream after the girls are asleep and watch a movie, this is a must!

I need to add black basic coach purse to use for my military weekends on the list.

And of course, new fall clothes especially business attire. My current wardrobe is fitting snug and falls short of being professional at times.

I think once I edit the list, it will be more in line of recent events. Reassessing the wish list is a must and helps me prioritize what is important and needed as well.

Basement Finishing

We are having our basement finished. We are undertaking no small project, might I add, and when you add up the costs, you could probably get a pretty nice car for what you pay to finish a basement. You could always cut corners and do it rather cheap but then, you get what you pay for. We decided we would do it right or not at all and so we went straight forward. In looking at companies, we did everything - I did the service magic thing but in the end, we narrowed it down to two companies whom we had referrals for. Both came highly recommended. I was comfortable with one company and my husband another. Since my husband is the more picky one of the two of us, we went with who he wanted. Frankly, I did not want to hear about it later when things went wrong - and they usually do :-)

The "sales" side of the construction company assured us the basement would be done in 3 to 4 weeks. WRONG! As anyone who is familiar with construction knows, that is never the case. If they tell you 4 weeks, assume double that and you won't be disappointed. At this point, 3 weeks into it, I will be happy if they are out of my home in August. Needless to say, things are going okay. The basement looks great thus far - the dry wall has almost been finished and soon, it will be time for the bigger items like the paint, the walls, and the fixtures and cabinetry. It is coming together nicely and I am looking forward to the end product but it is interesting picking out things like countertop laminates, lighting fixtures, and cabinet colors. A remodel can be exciting but also tedious. You get what you want but at the same time it is a little work too. You get to design and build and it is kinda neat to see it all go down. Let's hope they finish soon so we can get in there and enjoy it before summer turns to fall.

Everything's better in Colorado....

I recently went on vacation to Virginia. It was a great family trip but of course, while I was there, I started to appreciate all the things back home - everything is better in Colorado once you leave it right? Of course, I love Colorado when I live in it too but here are just some of the things I missed. I definitely missed the dry weather. Sure, humidity is better for your skin but dry weather does wonders for your hair. My hair always looks better in Colorado which is why my wedding was there :-)

I really missed the mountains but alas, I had the ocean nearby in Virginia so that was a nice change of pace. I definitely did not enjoy the humid climate and the heat, my God, the heat, but I gotta say, there is something to be said about jumping into a cold ocean in that heat- it feels damn good! It also felt great to jump into the water park area at Busch-Gardens too.

All in all, we had a great trip but it is funny how you miss things you take for granted when you go away.

If I were an airline employee....

... I would definitely read this blog!

This weekend I had the fun experience of travelling again. Ah the joys of flying in America just makes me wanna buy my own airplane someday. We flew Southwest airlines this time and generally it is the best customer-service oriented airline out there... and that is actually true for the most part. The customer service I received before purchasing tickets and during the purchase was INCREDIBLE! While United, US Air, Delta, and others put you on hold for hours, Southwest has a call-back service- amazing! I loved it. The lady we got on the phone was awesome and took care of all the details for us.

Then came the day of travel which was not a busy travel day mind you - 4 July. We headed to the airport and arrived at the ticket counter exactly 1.5 hours before our flight time which is what the recommended time is for DIA and from Southwest's own website as well. In any case, the line was LONG - extremely long- it was winding around several times and looked horrible. Only 4-5 employees working when so many were travelling on Southwest. In any case we opted to stay in the line instead of checking in outside at curbside which was faster even though it was crowded - MISTAKE 1. I thought that because I was requesting special permission for my husband to escort us to the gate that it would be better to do with an agent inside- MISTAKE 2. We got to the front and got a bitch named Christine at the Southwest ticket counter. Let me tell ya - if you see her or her name, run - do not walk - go check-in outside. This woman clearly did not want to be there and did not want to be nice to our family to say the least. I was surprised my bags even made it to Norfolk. She refused to give my husband a boarding pass to help me to the gate with my infant and toddler. We asked a TSA lady afterwards if we could get a boarding pass for him and she was like -"of course- get it from your airline - we're not busy at all" The security lines took less than 5 mins to traverse.

So, we headed back to talk to the manager at Southwest at DIA and she looked more dissheveled than Christine but at least told us to find the lady at the end of the curbside check-in who would get it for us... GREAT! We should have just checked in outside. Now, mind you - we are 40 mins away from our departure time. The lady outside helped us promptly and we were on our way. Security at DIA was a breeze. If you travel with family and liquids, go through the special family line - it was moving I tell ya and in no time, we made it to our gate with just enough time to board. Time for nothing else - no food, no milk, no time for the restroom because of the goddamn line at check-in for Southwest. And if Christine had not wasted an additional 10 mins of my precious time, I might have gotten food for my kid and myself. So, this whole incident got me thinking. Christine, if you are reading, do read on. I had time on the 3-hour flight to think, how I would treat people if I were an airline employee that morning, working that Southwest counter at DIA on the
4th of July.

If I were an airline employee,

1. I'd appreciate having a job to begin with.
2. I'd treat customers who were good customers and not assholes with the same respect and courtesy they are showing me. After all, it costs NOTHING to just be nice.
3. I'd look at how long my line was and send one person out there to find out who would miss their flights and get them in line first.
4. I'd ensure that despite the long lines, I do all I can for the customers because they are loyal enough to purchase expensive-ass tickets with my company (and possibly save my job) instead of that "other" airline.
5. I'd not be a bitch to a woman with two kids travelling alone for the first time just asking for assistance from her husband. Cost to the airline- $0, cost to Christine (the bitch) - $0.
6. I'd be nice to passengers (once on board) and help them as much as I could because that is my job after all.

and finally, if I were an airline employee....

7. I would just smile and do my fucking job! If I did not like it, I'd quit and become part of an industry that is less customer-oriented and more computer-oriented or perhaps work mopping floors and cleaning toilets because that is where I belong.

Flying Solo

This past weekend, I flew solo with my two kids. Some call it being brave and amazing, I call it insanity. I also do not think I will be dabbling in these types of adventures again anytime soon. I was surprised that the first leg of the trip which was almost 3 hours long went well. My little one did not sleep though and neither did the toddler. However, my toddler was content reading, smiling at people around us and making faces at them and so was my infant. We spent time munching on airplane snacks, drinking juices and watching Sesame Street without sound. We landed at our connecting destination and things "appeared" fine. I got several thumbs up and "you're doing great!" encouragment from people around me and the flight attendants.... it was bound to go downhill from there and it did.

In Baltimore, my daughter refused to eat any food I got for her and sonce we are potty training her, that did not go well either. It all came to a "head" (so to speak) on Concourse B in Baltimore International. I think she was exhausted and then did not want to go "potty" in her diaper and was probably too constipated anyway so the entire thing went poorly - she was screaming from pain and crying - she exhausted herself after crying for 45 mins, refusing to get on the aircraft and worse, refusing to buckle herself in. Meanwhile, as she is screaming, my infant passed out in the ergo carrier. As I boarded the plane, as I wandered in the terminal and so on, people kept staring at me- I felt the weight of the stares, the weight of "talk", the weight of the smiles and many "awwws" and "ooooohs" of those who actually did understand and sympathized with me. A man travelling solo with his two kids on this 28-min leg of the flight actually helped me out and said it was okay. He had been through this too - his kids were 2 years apart. In any case, I felt horrible and cried a bit myself too. I was exhausted, hungry, and humiliated.

It was relief when she finally went and calmed down a bit and enjoyed her trip and visit with the grandparents and relatives. Flying solo is not easy so all you people out there who stare and judge - shut the "BLEEP" up and offer assistance. Oh I almost forgot - there was a guy in the row in front of me on the Denver to Baltimore leg who refused to move and let a mother sit next to her daughter. What an asshole! I do remember that and thought, thank god I rushed to get on board early so I could sit next to my two-year old. His excuse for not changing his aisle seat for another aisle seat was "well, I prefer to sit here because this passenger is more petite." What an ass. When I compared the two passengers, they were roughly the same size and both were nice and cute. Anyway, people like that give passengers a bad name and deserve to be escorted off the plane mid-air with a parachute in hand. Haa More to come on our trip in more postings.... Buckle up and enjoy the ride.