Review of CATS- The Musical

I saw the musical Cats this weekend after wanting to see it for sometime. It was touring here in Colorado and I caught it at the Buell Theater. I gotta say, we had great seats- box seats are the way to go at the Buell if you can afford it. But, unlike all the other musicals I have seen including Wicked, Miss Saigon, Les Mis, etc., there really is no plot and I wish I had read the background and information on Wiki (see above) before I went. Actually, even reading the APPLAUSE program for the musical before intermission would have helped.

It was good and left an impression but not necessarily an excellent one. I would watch it again many, many years from now but not anytime soon. All in all, I did laugh, I cried a little from boredom... it was okay.

A simple thank you

Since the Holiday Season has come and gone, there has been plenty of time to reflect on gift-giving and receiving. For example, I always give a gift card to our post master- after all, he performs a service - often, a thankless job. I like to give to the guy in my office who empties my trash and vacuums daily- he certainly appreciates the small token of my appreciation. I like to give thank you gifts to the secretaries in my office and the cleaning crew. In any case, this year I did drop off a gift for our Pediatrician's office but we received no acknowledgment of the gift received. Same goes for the secretaries in the office. I received one card of thank you from one of the five secretaries who really appreciated my gift. I also received a thanks for the cleaning guy and the postmaster but alas, no one has even acknowledged receipt of my gift.

My motto is within a week of receiving a gift, you should at least orally or in writing thank or acknowledge receipt of the gift. To not do so, is just downright rude and will certainly ensure that you may never receive anything else in the
future- EVER! In any case, as I continue to wonder whether the pediatrician received our thoughtful gift, I continue to thank my friends and family for gifts received and thoughtful items given to the girls. A simple thank you or word of acknowledgment really goes a long way!

IUD- Mirena

Well, it is inevitable as a mother of two and a wife who really does not want more children at this stage because of sheer exhaustion and finances, we were bound to make the decision on how to best prevent unwanted or rather, unplanned pregnancies. The best option in my mind was for my husband to get a surgical procedure. After all, it really should be the man's responsibility too... but that is an invasive option. My sister in law is an OB-GYN so we did discuss it with her and although rarely talked about among friends and colleagues, I started asking about what birth control method others used. Overwhelmingly, among women who had kids, the Mirena was the most popular and came the most recommended by doctors as well.

So I did my research on both the Paragard (10 Years) and Mirena (5 years). Paragard has no hormones which means no adverse affects whereas Mirena, in about 5-10% women, causes weight gain, mood swings, and other issues associated with hormones. In any case, I decided I did not want periods anymore - I had become quite accustomed to not having them after 2 kids and 2 full years of nursing with each one so.... the Mirena appeared to be the best choice.

There are so many rumors and blogs out there by single, young women who have never had kids on how painful it is and the horrible effects of Mirena especially insertion. For me, it was a breeze and I wish I had not been so nervous to get it inserte. There is 1-minute of cramping and that is about it and some blood which is fine because you are on your period anyway. In any case, I write this 1-day after the Mirena but I will update the blog as appropriate to share my experience on it and with it. In the meantime, if you are going to get this IUD, take Ibuprofen (400 mg) one hour prior to your appointment and then just go home and relax. They do a follow-up appointment 6-weeks after insertion so hopefully all is going well by then or I will update this blog.

Happy Family Planning!

Lost, Damaged or Stolen Passports

Some mistakes are more costly than others.... as I learned this weekend. We have damaged passports as a result of not doing something simple- like zipping a bag they were housed in. For some reason, my husband and I decided to play with a safe and locked our passports in it - not a smart move at all. In any case, there was water damage and most of the documents were fine but the passports did not make it because I did not ziploc a ziploc(R) bag- ARGH!!

It is so frustrating to make a costly mistake like this one. Granted, my daughter's passport would not work past another 2 years- kids' passport are only good for 5 years because their faces change so much but most adults can have passports for 10 years. So, needless to say, this is frustrating news since a passport runs anywhere from $125 down to $45 depending on what your needs are. Most passport books are $100 for a 10-year booklet. Renewals are cheaper so losing the original, have it stolen or damaged really does add up - fortunately for us, we caught this before a big trip - it would not have been good to have discovered something like this on the eve of a huge international trip. In any case, it is always good practice to have a valid passport so my husband and I should at least get ours replaced. Oh, the fun things we have to do to stay .... well, valid!

Nuts!

Despite years of hearing the stories, seeing the issues, I have to admit I was completely caught off-guard today --- all I could say was, "nuts!" I took my daughter to her daycare today for her Christmas party or Holiday party or whatever they call it these days. Anyway, my husband had signed me up for cookies. I decided not to run to the store in the sub zero temps and just make what I had at home so I made chocolate chip walnut and macadamia --- you guessed it -- NUTS!

Anyway, as we entered the day care, I was told, you can't bring anything with nuts into this school- we are a "nut-free" zone. I started think to myself, what? Are you nuts? Then I thought better of it. I know for a fact that one of my good friends to this day swells up like a balloon if she encounters nuts in any form including peanut oil. So, I turned the cookies over and we just went to the party. Apparently, you have to bring store bought, sealed items, or you cannot bring anything at all. The latter is just fine for me. As I looked at all the dietary restrictions in the classroom I was in, I realized one of my daughter's classmates was allergic to "tree nuts." Well, there you have it folks - I am glad my cookies were confiscated and in the end, I learned a valuable lesson. So, from now, it is store bought items only for me and definitely no... NUTS!

Roofing Companies in Colorado - J&K Roofing

Note: Since this Blog was written, I did receive a response to my written complaint and J&K is following through on what happened or did not happen- they will attempt to remedy the situation so I am feeling a lot better about the fact that I did write a letter to try to resolve issues. If you would like more information do feel free to email me.  J&K has gone above and beyond since my letter to their manager. In fact, I had a minor leak due to my siding and the manager and his best crew came out and took care of the issue right away! It really does help to write a nice letter and try to resolve the issues so you can regain the relationship you have with the roofing company. I have to say, that since this blog was written and I had this experience, J&K has done everything to re-establish their relationship with me and follow through on the roof and the warranty.

I write this after my roof has been completely replaced -- I write this because I hope others homeowners will read this before they hire a roofer to completely replace their roof - it is the single most important decision you will make in the lifetime that you own your home. Very few things are as important as the roof over your head - okay, the furnace in the winter time, but as far as expense and functionality, a roof is critical for your home so my advice to you is to do it right but to pick a good roofer. Everything else will fall into place.

The type of shingle you pick will depend on where you live and your climate but the single most important decision you make is the contractor who installs it because if it is the best roof in the world, the $20,000 roof, it makes no difference if your roofers are not skilled or are horrible.

J&K Roofing came highly recommend by our realtor who has not failed us much in the past with his recommendations on contractors. J&K Roofing Company has been in business in Colorado since the '80s and they repaired our roof when we first moved in too. However, we made the mistake of signing a contract and going under proposal before we saw other jobs in our neighborhood. We should have watched and waited - granted, the mortgage company had our check and was hounding us to get repairs done but a little waiting and watching would have served us well. In our neighborhood, well over 20 new roofs have been put in because of the recent hail storm and many more will get done in the spring and summer but I know we needed to get under contract to get the ball rolling with our mortgage company. In any case, we went under contract with J&K around August 20, 2009 with a request date to have the roof done by September 30, 2009. As you can guess September 30 and October 30 came and went and we had no roof replacement. That should have been another big sign and we should have terminated our contract with them but I called their main office because I had child care issues after November 14 and I was guaranteed that it would be done by November 14. The date we were scheduled for was November 10 and that day arrived - the day of reckoning. The sales guy who came out to sell me the roof and show me the colors was no where in sight. He said he would be. Nope - just a crew of Hispanics and what seemed like just 2 guys on Day 1 of the roof - not much was done indeed. In fact, I was told by J&K, both salesmen, Nick and Chris, that the roof would be done in 1-day. It was not! The foreman on sight told me the salepeople just say that and that this would be a 2-day job or even three! I was losing my head because as you know it is tough to get daycare for your children especially if they are stay-at-home. By Day 1, the skeleton crew had done NOTHING - I mean, nothing - maybe ripped some of the existing wood shake roof off and thus began Day 2 on Veteran's Day. It was loud but I thought for sure they'd be done on Day 2.... after all, they had told me ONE DAY. There was no differing site condition, no unusual construction circumstances or bad weather. There were five guys on the job this time and by the end of Day 2 they had some of the new roof up, and most (but not all) of the old roof off.

Day 3 began and unfortunately, my infant daughter remained at home with all the hammering and all that fun! I was told by the salesman who had never physically shown up to the site that it would be done by noon on Day 3. Noon came and went. The roof was not done. The crew worked the longest on this day and after dark, was still cleaning --- of course, the yard was covered with nails, roofing material, and debris. Our new egress window covers were scratched. Oh, did I mention they had damaged our gutter when backing up into our driveway? So they had to replace that too. Yeah, what fun this roofing job has been for us! Day 3 was nearing the 4pm hour and I was concerned they would not finish but it was "substantially complete". On Day 4, they showed up and eye-picked the nails in my yard instead of running a magnet as they should have so, now my backyard is covered with snow and they will have to return after the big melt. They left a piece of plywood dangling in my tree, did not clean my neighbor's yards where there was plenty of debris, and essentially left my yard full of nails. Even when I walked through with the salesman - the one who was supposed to be there when the job started and daily but failed to show, we picked up over 20 nails just in that walk and does not include the backyard where all the snow was!

I was appalled at how things were handled by J&K roofing, Colorado. They had come highly recommended and all I can say is - do not hire them! The worst part is that on Thanksgiving day, two guys returned with a magnet but the backyard was covered. The guy immediately when I opened the door was unprofessional and yelling at me about where the trash was. I told him (but I doubt he understood) that there was some roofing material hanging from the backyard gutter and the yard (both front and back) needed to have a magnet run through it. He basically yelled at me and made me feel bad for trying to get the job done and showing me what he pulled. I plan on writing a letter to J&K main office when I send them the first payment. I will withhold the second payment until they come and clean the backyard but I am going to request they not send the man that was on the job because he was an asshole - a complete dick wad. He comes to my house on Thanksgiving and treats me like I did something wrong- Are you fucking kidding me, J&K?

The best advice I can give you out there if you are looking for a roofer in Colorado or anywhere else is do your homework, talk with your neighbors, get their advice, but most importantly, watch their roofs go up and go with a company who appears professional in every way, that visit the job site after they complete the job and inspect and are thorough, that clean well, and keep the yard and personal property clean and scratch-free, but most importantly, go with a company that treats you with respect because remember, when things go wrong with your roof and you need to call in your warranty, you want a company who will respond and send people who are professional, courteous, and do the job right and efficiently. J&K Roofing is anything but all of the above in my most recent experience. If you have any questions, post a question here and I can tell you other companies in our area who are doing a good job or that I have heard GREAT things about.