Customer Service or Dis-service, you be the judge

Y'all, I really hate to be the person who just rants and bitches but unfortunately someone has to do it.  And once you turn 50 you lose that little part of you that just gives a shit what other people think. So, there's that.  It is now my job to call people on their bullshit and not to take any.

I was on etsy or pinterest or one of those sites that leads you down a rabbit hole of websites and found my way to a website that is selling some really cute, cute things that I thought I needed for Christmas gifts.  Really cute.

And so I looked at the website for the "about us" to see who these people are, where the money is going to, etc.  And there is a whole bunch of photos of the people who own/operate/run this company, but no information as to where they are geographically.  No physical location.  I clicked on the "contact us" button to ask a few question regarding a couple of items and it opened up an email.  So I went back and looked and yes, only email, no phone.  WTH?  No phone number?

I emailed and explained what my questions were and said I would like some customer support.  I got a really prompt return email with these words Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately we don't offer all call center at this time, as we are an online business only. But I can help you via email!


Okay, that seems odd to me that because you are online you don't think people will ever need to talk to you.  That makes it even MORE likely that people will have a phone inquiry.

After several more email back and forths with the customer service person I placed the order with the choice of using Paypal for my payment since I didn't feel great about giving my credit card information to people who don't even have a phone.  And I sent her an email saying that I had ordered and to let me know if there was a problem.

And you'll never guess what!  

There was a problem.  She didn't get the order.  So I spent a ridiculous amount of time going all over their website trying to figure this out. And the website order form kept giving me a gigantic yellow yield sign saying I am required to give them my email address.  On the paypal payment page it had a square to check if I wanted them to share my email with the company or not, so I went back and checked that box and filled everything out again for the FOURTH TIME and you will not believe this but where they wanted me to fill in my email address?  THERE WAS NO SPACE TO PUT IT!!

If I put my cursor in the tab above it and hit my tab key it dropped right down past the email question to the next space.

So I sent off yet another email to the customer service person describing the situation and said please have someone call me to place this order or I am just going to forget about it.  And gave her my phone number.

And you'll never guess what happened next!

SHE EMAILED ME AGAIN!  She didn't call me!  Here is her reply to my request for them to call me:  Thanks for keeping me updated. So sorry the websites being difficult! Just to let you know I am going to do, I am forwarding this conversation to the owners so they can try to troubleshoot.

And if I can get your order via email, we will send you a PayPal invoice and order that way!

Are you believing this?  I got that one last evening and I had to sit on it overnight to not reply "Are you fucking kidding me??"

This is the email that I shot back to her today "I appreciate you being so prompt and getting back to me right away.  Because customer service is such a big part of the shopping process to me, I am going to say that it feels really awkward to me that there is no way to reach a person on the phone and try and resolve the issues i am having with this order.

I have gone out on a limb and trusted leaving my phone number with a total stranger and said that I would prefer if someone could just call me and we could get this ironed out.  And I get yet another email instead of a call.

So this makes me suspicious of a company that doesn’t have a responsive way to help customers through a website that has some issues.  No phone, really?  I just don’t think I can give my credit card and home address information to a company that doesn’t have phone support.

Sorry we couldn’t have done business together.  Your stuff looked really cute."

What do you think?  Are these people on the up and up?  Will they respond?  Will I ever get a phone call?  Would you try to work this hard to spend money?

I just don't understand the whole "one size fits all and this is the ONLY way we do business" mentality.  Every person has different needs and if you are dealing with the public you are going to run across loads of different kinds of people.  And all I wanted was a few questions answered and then for them to fix their stupid order online form that wasn't working.  

My guess is that they will not reach out to me to try and rectify this and I will not get to purchase these cute things and I will have to go to Plan B on the Christmas gift list.

Let me know your thoughts on this or just how you feel about customer service in general.

Happy New Year

I made a conscious decision to NOT do a retrospective on this blog.  I don't have 5 gazillion posts to go through, and it's really just not something I would do.  I have tried and tried to make a list of goals in Jan. and follow up with them monthly and then at the end of the year, grade myself on how much I accomplished.

Let's face it, I am not good at this.  This is why I am not enrolled in an online school.  Self-starter?  Not so much.

So if you were looking for that kind of a post today, I will have to direct you to my friend sluggy's blog where she did a fabulous job of recapping and grading herself.

However!  I am here with some lovely and entertaining photos for you!  Yay!!

Without further ado, here come the pics.

I decided to take a picture of the new vintage 1960's aluminum tree with each of the colors of the color wheel shining on it.   In my head, you would be able to see how beautifully each of the colors looked and how distinctive.  We each selected a color we liked the best.  I thought I would like the blue, because blue and silver is such a perfect combo, but no!  I actually liked the amber/gold on the silver best. It was a really nice glow.  Take a look at these and see if you see any difference.  I am sorry to tell you that for me the color variations didn't show up at all.

And no, I did NOT just put the same damn picture up there 8 times.   Anyhoo, isn't it a beautiful silver aluminum tree?  And it was easy peasy to put together.  It came inside a new box that is housing the original 1960 box and all of the original little waxed paper sleeves for EACH of the 152 branches are there.  So, now we have to take it apart very carefully and put each of those 152 branches back into their own original little waxed paper sleeves.  (I can't tell you how much this appeals to my weird OCD self!)

Next year, this will be my main tree.  Yay!!!

And next to the tree, we have my buffet in the dining room that this time of year houses my gorgeous pewter angel and Christmas tree collection.  I love them.  Underneath them is this beautiful red and gold embroidered cut out table scarf thing my mama brought me from either Spain or Portugal.  I need to ask and find out for sure.  It is exactly the measurements for that buffet.  Just like it was made for it.

Sadly, I started taking photos of my Christmas stuff in the midst of moving things around and getting them ready to box up.  But next is the huge crystal bowl full of shiny iridescent ornaments that sits in the middle of the dining room table.  I am thinking that a bunch of those ornaments would be just perfect on the new vintage aluminum tree.  What do you think?

Next is a picture of my current main tree in the living room.  The reason I took this picture was to show the variation in the clear lights.  This is one of those damn pre-lit trees from 2 years ago.  The 2 year old original lights on it don't work except for a bunch on the very top of the tree.  So I strung a bunch more new lights on it and you can NOT believe the difference in color!  You know, old incandescent light bulbs have warm white and cool white and boy can you ever tell the difference if you happen to mix them?  Same thing here.  They all say "Clear White", but that is not the case.  Definitely got the warm vs. cool thing going on.  Grrrr.  Still hating the way quality has nose-dived on Christmas lights.

Next up is one of my largest nativities.  I love this one because of the bright vivid colors, the touches of metallic paint where it should be shiny, and especially how the angel just hovers above the stable.  She is beautiful.

And what Christmas decor would be complete without a Leg Lamp??  "It's a Major Award!  It must be I-talian, it says FRA-GEEE-LAY!"

This is one of my prized nativities.  I bought this when we lived in Mexico City.  It is a corn husk doll nativity.  The most amazing detail on each of them.  You can tell at a glance who each doll is.  I bought a herd of extra angels to stand around the holy family.

Here's a close-up of the 3 kings.  Notice how in Mexico they always have one dark-skinned king, and each of the kings has different garb and carries different gifts.  Awesome!

Next, I took some pictures of some of my ornaments.  Not necessarily my favorites, but some fun ones.

First up is one of the commemorative ones from the Texas State Capitol.

In this one you can see one of my many Christopher Radko walruses.  On the left is one of the little toothpick God's Eyes that the kids and I made in 1991.  When we moved to Guadalajara in August of 1991, our shipment of belongings didn't arrive and we had no ornaments.  So we sat down and made little God's Eyes out of toothpicks and embroidery floss and larger ones of 4 - 6 inch skewers and yarn. It was a really pretty tree.  And every year since we put the God's Eyes on to remember the year we had no ornaments.

Oh, and on the right of the walrus is a pewter ornament of The Alamo.  I have a lot of pewter ornaments.

In 2002 we moved to Minneapolis, and I went in a Hallmark store and they were doing different Santas from many countries.  So I found the 2 Santas that represent my heritage.  First is the Irish one.  He has the most gorgeous Celtic knot design on his coat.  Just beautiful.

And then the German one is more rough-hewn, made to look handmade.  This reminds me of the German relatives who make absolutely everything by hand.  He is a very nice Santa.

Another painted glass walrus, not Christopher Radko, but very nice and plump.

In this shot you can see that I found the pickle ornament and down below the pickle who do you find?  My favorite cartoon character!  Foghorn Leghorn!!  He has a teeny little Henry Chickenhawk next to him.

Another pewter ornament.

This ornament is very special to me.  When I started being a doula I went to the San Antonio Birth Doulas Christmas party where we traditionally do an ornament exchange and this was the ornament I got.  It was made by a wonderful young doula named Erin who had gone to school at RISD.  She made it of silver and the 3 teeny Christmas balls on it are little gemstones.  It is very sweet and means a lot to me.

This last picture is one of my newest ornaments.  This came from my very best friend Beth (mom of the Georgia Peach).   There is an organization in town that works with mentally handicapped people and they have started making these crosses.  They are made of nails, 2 long ones going up and down and 2 shorter ones for the arms of the cross.  Then the whole thing is wrapped in beaded wire and hung on a pretty piece of ribbon.  I left the tag on mine that says it was made by "Lil Will".  Isn't that the most precious thing?

Thanks for sitting through this little pictorial of some of my Christmas stuff.  Thanks for coming here to my little blog and sharing in my life.  It means a lot to me.

My wish for the coming year for each of you is a little time to relax, enjoy yourselves and find the love and peace surrounding you each day.

Happy New Year!

Worst Blogger Ever Returns

Hey there!  Yes, it has been 2 full weeks since I last posted anything.  Yes, I do realize I am in the Worst Blogger Ever category.  But, I have been really busy.  For reals.

My sweet little Rachel Pie is home and we have been busy staying up damn near all night long playing cards, drinking tea, drinking eggnog, crocheting, watching Christmas movies, you know, the usual.

Plus there have been many days of trudging through the grocery store to get everything we need to make:

A. Chex Party Mix.  It is not the holidays around here without tons and tons of Chex Party Mix. My s-i-l and I both make it and we go through that stuff like there's no tomorrow.

B. Tamales.  Tamales are a traditional thing to make for Christmas eve and we really try to make good ones and have enough to get through New Year's.

C. Christmas candy and treats to pass out to the neighbors.

D. Regular meals during all of this holiday shenanigans.

Now about the candy, let me tell you this, I got the recipe from the blog of someone else, and since I haven't asked her permission to send you over there, I won't do that just yet.  But if she tells me "yes, please send your 5 readers over here" I will do just that.  I got the recipe she calls Crock Pot Candy and thought it seemed like a really fun idea.  So I bought all the ingredients and did as it told me to layer them up in the crock pot and leave them for 3 hours.  DO NOT TOUCH OR STIR FOR THREE HOURS! And then you stir it all up and drop by spoonfulls into little miniature cupcake papers to set up.

I left it the requisite 3 hours and went in to find a 2 inch thick wall all the way around the inside of the crock pot of burnt all the way to charcoal mess.  It was horrendous.  You have never smelled anything so gross.  Not to mention it took days to soak, scrub and chisel that crap out of the crock pot and try to get rid of the burnt smell.

I got a few more ingredients and tried again.  I'm so brave, right?

This time I checked it after 1 hour and it was almost ready.  After 1 1/2 hours it was perfect.  My crock pot must run really hot in the low heat button.  I don't know what's up with it.  But half the time was just right for my crock pot.  I guess crock pots are like microwaves in that they are each a bit different and quirky.

So Rachel Pie and I got all the little shiny gold and silver papers ready and dropped all the ooey gooey goodness in to them and I added some crushed peppermint on top for festiveness.  We packaged these in little tins with gold tissue paper and passed them out to the neighbors.  And within an hour of returning home several of them had called to say how much they loved the candy.  Now I don't know about you, but when people come calling with treats I tend to put them on the holiday table to serve along with all my other goodies.  I don't generally open the package and scarf them down right there at the door.  But that is what they seemed to do, and they all loved them.  New recipe to add to the holiday repetoire.

Today is our 30th wedding anniversary.  Can you believe that?  Mr. Big Ed and I are officially old farts if we are that damn old.

Here's something else you aren't going to believe!  (Lisa Pie's blog, where you come to find the unbelieveable and be astounded)  Mr. Big Ed is known far and wide by his lack of the shopping and gifting gene.  The man just doesn't like to shop and is oblivious to gifts, getting or receiving.  It has taken a lot of years for him to get to the point where he is today.

In fairness, it has taken me a lot of years to learn to tone it down when gifting to him, because his not wanting a lot of stuff and a lot of fuss made over him is not a character flaw.

So when we exchanged our anniversary gifts, I almost fell out of my chair when I opened the box to find a 36 inch strand of Tahitian black pearls.

I'll just let that sentence stand alone and let that thought soak in.  Pearl is the traditional gift for 30 year anniversary.  Black pearls are one of the things that would be on my bucket list of things to acquire.

I may have toned down my gift giving just a tad too much, since all I got him was a cute little thing to heat up his towels for after the shower.  I am not saying it's a crap gift, but next to black pearls?  It didn't look all that awesome.  I hope he enjoys it as much as I will enjoy those pearls!

I want to do this

You may or may not know of my love of AC/DC.

Here is the list of the Top AC/DC inspired Christmas light extravaganzas.

Enjoy!!

This one is my favorite, not just because it's my favorite AC/DC song, but because it's THREE HOUSES all synched together to the music.  How awesome is that??

Any one think The Colonel and Miss Betty want to team up with us for an AC/DC themed Christmas?

Merry Christmas!

Seriously Random Stuff

Another of those posts that kind of follow my thought pattern.

1.  Do you ever watch t.v. and see a commercial that is either so hilarious or so horrible you immediately think, "Holy shit, I have to remember to blog about THAT!"??

Well, I do that all the time.  And by the time I get to youtube and go to look it up so I can share it with you, I can't remember what it was.  It's gone.  Poof!

2. We are still looking for a home for the little Mama Kitty who is the cutest, sweetest, most precious little teeny kitty you ever saw.  If you are at all interested in providing a loving home for this girl, let me know.

And before you ask, no.  She can not stay here. Angus MacPhee absolutely hates her and would make her life a living hell.  Angus is a dick.

3. My across-the-street neighbor was robbed yesterday morning.  In broad daylight.  While he AND his yard worker were both around.  It was a completely bizarre incident.  And 4 years ago when Ernest T. Bass was dropped off here I tried and tried to get my neighbor to take him.  And if he had, well, I don't think that idiot thieving thief would have made it into the garage.  Ernest T. is quite loud and protective of his property.

4. The Texas wildfires are popping up all over the place.  The area just east of us that is on fire is said to be the size of Connecticut.

5. Did I ever mention here that I am growing out my hair color and going all natural?  Well, I am.  Since menopause is totally kicking my memory's ass six ways to Sunday, I decided that I need to lessen my brain's exposure to chemicals.  Also, I am super annoyed with seeing people in their 70s trotting around with jet black hair.  And I didn't want to be one of them.

So I decided to embrace my silver hairs and let them grow in and let's just see what we shall see!  So far, people are very complimentary of the new color.  I never know if they really mean it or are just taking pity on the poor old gray haired lady.

6. This is the first year that we have kept the round card table up in the living room all year.  We put it up at Christmas time to do jigsaw puzzles near the Christmas tree.  And this year?  It has just stayed up and we have continued doing puzzle after puzzle.  It has to stay in that room because we can close it off away from the cats.

7. Remember the little crocheted bottle cap trivets I was making?  I got 3 more done before I ran out of bottle caps.  So that is 3 Christmas gifts done.  I need to get a source for clean, unsmashed bottle caps.  Any ideas?

8. Our garden is completely dead.  Nothing survived this horrendous drought and 4 months of 100+ temps.   I am worried about our massive oak trees.  I could give two figs for the damn stupid grass, but my trees?  That's another story.

9.  Normally, I have good book recommendations for you, but not now.  Lately, all I have been reading is about food, healthy diets, good food for your body and for the environment.  And you know what?  Some of these things contradict each other!  It's confusing.  I can't decide whether to try out The Diet That Seems Easiest To Work With or The One That Seems Best For the Earth and Hardest For Me.

It's a bit daunting and overwhelming, all this information.

10. And finally!  My last thought for the day.  Well, my last thought to share here, not necessarily the last thought I will have the whole DAY!

Life is good.  It can be as complicated as you want, or as easy and simple as you want.  It's all in how you look at it.

I have a friend who I play Mah Jongg with who has a needlepoint sampler on her wall that says something like "The difference between Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones, is in how you use them".  And that's kind of what I have been thinking.  The situation is what it is regardless of how you feel about it.  You can choose to have negative feelings about something but that doesn't make the facts negative, does it?  Facts are facts.  A situation is what it is whether you choose to love it or hate it.  Which set of feelings will get you through the day?

Holiday Traditions

Yesterday I was asked by one of my clients for suggestions that they could adopt as their own holiday meal traditions.  His family does the big turkey and all that stuff ( basically it's a rerun of Thanksgiving) while her home celebrated with a Mexican feast.  Now that they have their little one she was looking for something fun to try out this year as their own big Christmas meal.  We both went about our business and continued thinking about it and then said to each other at the same time "Paella!!"

In my house we have a big paella for Easter dinner.  We did it once and loved it so much that we have continued it and made it our family Easter tradition.  I don't think you can force a tradition into existence, but you have to start somewhere, right?

So I am writing down my recipe and loaning her my paella pan so they can try it out and see if they need to go buy a pan for next year.

Anyhoo, it did get me to thinking about our particular family traditions.  Traditions that Mr. Big Ed brought from his family, things that I do because my mom did them, or my aunt or one of my grandparents, and also the traditions that we have cobbled together over the long history of our marriage.

Mr. Big Ed's family was not big on stockings.  They were go to Midnight Mass people and then come home and eat the tamales that his Mom had worked on all day and then open presents.  I don't guess anyone felt the need to wake kids up early after all that to do stockings.

My family was HUGE on stockings.  We still are.  Our "stockings" are essentially large paper grocery sacks full of stuff with your stocking hanging on the front.  We totally over-do it.  It is an obscene display of over abundance is what it is.  We also did a big Christmas Eve thing with dips, pate', tamales, chili, and tons of cookies.  But we only got to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  Then Christmas morning we had our stockings, a special breakfast and then we got to open our gifts.

The holiday traditions that we have put together for our little family unit has grown and evolved and with each move to another country we added in something we picked up at each new place and also had to shed a few that were just not practical in the new place.

Our Christmas Eve and Christmas day is a real hybrid of what we each have brought and what feels right for us as we have grown.  For example, there were a number of years when 3 out of the 4 of us were vegetarian.  That right there will put a spin on your holiday menu.  And we try to work around what is important and a priority to each of us.

Being from Texas and having lived in Mexico for a number of years it is way up on the list of "Must Haves" that we make tamales for Christmas Eve.  Being from Texas it is equally important that we have the Velveeta/Ro-tel queso dip stuff.  From Mr. Big Ed's family we have onion dip with Ruffles.  Not just any onion dip, it needs to be the Borden brand store-bought stuff that you bring home and add a bunch of fresh black pepper and stir it up really well.  Lots of cookies and baked goods figure in.  And everyone loves the spicy roasted nuts.  This has gradually morphed into having cheese enchiladas, more tamales, guacamole and rice for Christmas dinner.

Usually for Christmas morning we will make a special drink.  Sometimes it is Bloody Marys or champagne and orange juice, but most times it is Mexican Hot Chocolate.  (Only Ybarra's not that crappy Abuelita's brand)  I either make a stuffed French toast or sometimes these ham cups that have either sauteed mushrooms or spinach in them and topped with eggs and then baked.  These are delicious.

I have cut way back on my giant bags-o-stocking stuffers.  No one wants all that much stuff.  I would rather buy one really fabulous bar of the best chocolate made than have 30 pieces of crappy candy.  So, that's kind of the way things are going for us.

I see our traditions as more of a fluid, moving thing rather than a set-in-stone "this is how we have ALWAYS done it" sort of thing.

So, here's what I want to know:  What are your holiday traditions?  What are the most meaningful things you do that if everything else fell away, this is the thing you would try to keep?

Lemme hear from you!  And remember, it is most important to be relaxed and enjoy the time together.  So don't sweat the small stuff and the details.  It will be wonderful even if the cards aren't all sent on time.  It will be just the way it is meant to be whether or not those bows match or not.  Enjoy your selves.

And thank you for reading.  And even more thanks for commenting through this year.  It really means a lot to me and inspires me.  That's my present from you!

Look at my loot!

At the Esperanza Peace Market I shopped at last Friday, I got lots of treasures.  I did manage to get a few unique gifts for my list, but I also got a few spur of the moment things for me.  They may still end up as gifts, but who knows!

Take a look at these goodies.

Those two photos above are skeins made of strips of recycled Indian saris.  The top photo has two skeins on top that are made of wider strips and the bottom ones are really thin.  Absolutely gorgeous colors and sheen and shimmer.  Then there are hand-turned rosewood knitting needles.  They are fairly large (size 17) and should work perfectly with those fibers.  My fingers are just a-twitching to get to them!

These solid color skeins are so cool.  Just vibrant and pearly colors on top of being amazing to touch. Guess what it is made from?

If you are like me you probably did not guess Banana Fibers!  Now, is that just most wonderful use of a plant that might be going to waste?  I kept trying to get closer up pics of the sheen and texture, but they just want to reflect the light and that makes them look blurry.  I wish you could touch the screen and see what I am talking about.

This also got me to thinking that I could head to Goodwill and get some tacky 100% silk dresses for dirt cheap and tear them into similar strips and make something out of them.

Guess who would rather be doing something else rather than putting up the stupid Christmas luminarias?  Heee!!

Did you know??

Did you know that you could send in a picture of your child, your dog, your very own self, or anyone you want and they will put that face on M&Ms?  And they will make a batch for you in any color combinations your little heart desires?  If you go here you can scope out that info.

Did you know that you could also choose to make a batch of M&Ms with your team colors and logo?

Did you know that you can create your very own personalized pair of Converse All-Star Chuck Taylor hightops?  As cool as the Chucks are already, imagine how cool they could be with you as the designer! Now you don't have to dream about what if the awesome pink shoes had lime green insides and purple laces.  Create them yourself right here.  Love these!!

Did you know that with Pocketmod you can carry all sorts of small lists around with you in your pocket and not have to carry large bulky calendars, sudoku books and such?  This is one of my favorites!

Did you know that there is an organization out there that will go in and clean homes of cancer patients? Yes, there is.  Cleaning for a reason is that group.  What a fabulous idea.  You may want to bookmark this group and keep them in mind for referrals.

Did you know that Saturday night we move our stupid clocks back one hour? (I hate Daylight Savings Time.  I think it is a lame ass idea and we need to dispense with it.)

Did you know that Christmas is 48 days away?

Did you know that Thanksgiving is only 20 days away?

Did you know that your friend Lisa Pie is just a fount of (mostly) useless knowledge and trivia?

Have a fabulous weekend!

In other news . . . . .

Yeah, I just could NOT believe my eyes and ears when I saw/heard about this!

Check it out HERE

Who all wants one for Christmas?
Hannukah?
Kwanzaa?

anyone?

I am so far behind I can't even believe it!

I looked up at the calendar this morning and I am shocked.  Shocked, I tell you!  Do you realize it is two measly little months till Christmas?  That's 8 weeks.  That is nothing.  Nothing!

The whole being gone for almost 4 weeks has put me further behind than I already was to begin with.  I have not even printed up my Christmas list.  I haven't even begun my gift-making.  I haven't done anything of consequence, really.  Gawd, just typing this is making my shoulders slump and sag and making me feel the full weight of my slackerness.

In order to save my sanity and the sanity of everyone around me, I am here to publicly declare that I am simplifying my Christmas plans.  I will take a vow to the following:

1. I will do less decorating.  I will think of it as "tasteful" rather than half-assed.

2. I will spend less.  Less on cards, letters, new lights, gifts, items to be made and gifted to the neighbors.

3. Gifts will be smaller, useful and probably through Heifer or Kiva. I love both these organizations and let's face it, no one in my gift-giving and receiving group is in great need.

4. I will spend more time with people I love.  My gift will be the time I get to spend with them.

5. I will spend money on my holiday bags for my homeless guys.  They will receive no cuts in their bags due to my bad management of time.

Quick little aside, 2 days ago I was driving to go meet a new client and one of my regular homeless guys was walking on the median but towards the front of the line, and away from me. So I tooted my horn at him and waved.  He comes running back, and saw me.  Then he smiled really big and says "Hey, I know you!"  He accepted his usual donation of peanut butter crackers, raisins and $ with his usual "God bless you".  And it struck me that walking up and down with a little sign and watching hundreds of people refusing to make eye contact with you has got to just wear down your soul.  I can not even fathom how degrading that must be.

If you have been coming here and kindly reading my little blog for any time at all, you know that this is something near and dear to my heart.  Several years ago I heard on the news that some horrendously high percentage of Americans (like 70 or 80%) are 2 paychecks away from being homeless.  And with the mortgage crisis and the recession I can only think that that number is even higher.  I have no business  ever looking down my nose at anyone else in sad circumstances.  And so I try to give a helping hand, along with a handshake, just a little touch of human kindness and a smile and always, always eye contact.  This costs me nothing other than a few cents and some forethought to have items in the car at the ready.

So, this is my newly-revised and re-vamped Christmas plan of action.  It is through necessity and hopefully will all be done with love and joy in my heart rather than desperation and resentment.

How goes the holiday plans at your end?

More Randomness

Firstly, and most importantly, I want to say a big Thank You!  to all of you who are reading my drivel and still come back for more.  It does my heart good to see a comment or two.  So thank you.  You are appreciated.  And I mean that sincerely.

Secondly, Did you know that in 3 months and 9 days it will be Christmas?  Have you considered that?  Have you started your gift making, shopping, planning, listing, wrapping, decorating?  Any of it?  Heaven knows I haven't.  Good Lord, the year is 3/4 gone and I haven't even started!  Aaaarrrrgghh!  What am I going to do this year?  I feel like I am running out of ideas for good, clever and useful things to make.

Third, Halloween candy!  I am so excited about going shopping today for my first batch of Halloween candy.  Typically, I end up buying it 3 times between Sept. and Halloween.  So, today is the day!  Candy corn!  Reece's!  Teeny little Hershey's bars! Those cute little pumpkin things that taste just like Candy Corn!  Woot!!  Which is your favorite?

Fourth, Michael Franti has a new album coming out next week.  You need to run over to his site and check it out.  If you call me, you get to hear him on my Caller Tunes, plus he is also my default ringtone this year.

Fifth, Speaking of default ringtones; do you assign ringtones to certain individuals or groups of people?  I do.  And of course, I think some of my choices are hilarious!  Some are not necessarily hilarious but they are appropriate.

Sixth, tonight is the finale to the snoozefest that was Big Brother this summer.  And it is about flipping time.  Good Lord, has this season been boring.  Also, just before that is the season opener of Survivor with Jimmy Johnson and no hairspray.  I hope he hangs in for a really long time just so we can see him without hair products!  Love it!

Seventh, I wanted to update you on my sickly pet situation.  Fergus Jackson MacPhee, the kitty who was at death's door this summer?  36 hours before the cruise?  He is doing really well.  His transfusion plus this tonic made of vitamins and liver and heaven only knows what else has made a world of difference.  Not to mention all the prayers, well wishes and good vibes.  Yea Fergus!!  And Maxwell Banks II, the schnauzer with bladder stones?  He is on the mend and had all his staples removed from his incisions. He is on a special diet for now.

I am truly grateful for all your thoughts towards my little furry 4-legged babes.  Thanks, internet friends!!

Christmas Rant

Here I am ranting again. Believe it or don't. Who could be such a Scrooge McGrinch as to rant and moan and bitch right at Christmas time? Me, that's who.

On to today's rant! My local radio station that plays nothing but Christmas music through the season started early. Really early. They actually started playing Christmas music the week BEFORE Thanksgiving. That's pushing it as far as I am concerned. Before you all start throwing things at me and calling me Ebenezer please know that I love me some Christmas music. I play Christmas cds in my car all year long (until my kids start complaining and trying to pitch the cd out the window). Suffice it to say that I have heard every. single. Christmas. song., hymn., carol, ditty, what have you that has ever been recorded. Many of them hundreds of times over the course of this holiday season. So far.

There are a few Christmas songs that irritate the beejeebers right out of me and I thought I would rant and bitch about my Top Five Annoying Christmas Songs that need to be NEVER played again. However, I could only come up with a Top Three. This is how BAD, and HORRIBLE these three songs are. They are soooooo horrific that they stand alone.

Drum roll, please . . . . . . . . . . .

Starting the list in the Number 3 position of Most Annoying Christmas Songs that Never Need to be Played again:

3. I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. (sorry if I screwed up the title, but it is soooo bad I have tried to block it from my mind)

2. I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus - Now seriously? This is what passes for "cute"? Who the hell thought this was a good idea? Makes me want to slap the dog water right out of whoever is singing this tripe.

But the Number One spot for M.A.C.S.T.N.N.T.B.P.A. is reserved for the Big Mac Daddy of all crappy trashy Christmas songs: (ready??)

1. Santa Baby. OMG, this makes me want to poke sharp, hot things in my ears so that I never have to hear this again. The fact that I won't be able to hear ANYTHING at all after that doesn't even cause me to pause. This is the worst sort of crap ever written, recorded or listened to.

It was not too many years ago that we had REAL Christmas songs, White Christmas, Silver Bells, even Frosty the Snowman and Burl Ives (God love him) singing Holly Jolly Christmas. But now we have absolute crap. I think we deserve better.

Anyone else have other Christmas songs that they just can't abide listening to one more time? Feel free to share it here. I guarantee it will make you feel better !!!

Gifting from the Heart

It has been a really busy two weeks and I noticed I had not posted anything in about 10 days. Then I had a million thoughts running through my head about what I should say. You know they were all clever and witty, don't you? :)

First off, it has to be said: HOORAY FOR DONNY OSMOND!!! There will be nay-sayers out there who think one of the others should have won, but I am really happy to see him win this.

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving has a bad place in the calendar. It gets overshadowed when you are young because of Halloween and then Christmas. It really takes some work to push the turkey day up to the forefront to get the recognition it deserves. Our Thanksgiving Day turned out beautifully. We have had bigger crowds before, but we have never had better food or better or more willing participants in the kitchen. I had the lists made and recipes handy and people just milled in and out making something and crossing it off the list. There was no fighting, no moaning or bitching, no one forgot the rolls, and every year someone in our family forgets the rolls and they burn. And guess what? As if remembering the bread wasn't enough, we also had a couple of hours of spare time in the middle where everything was ready to go in the oven but it wasn't quite time to put them in yet. So we all got to relax, watch some t.v. or take a quick nap, or a shower or whatever it was people did. My new rule regarding Thanksgiving: Everyone who was here this year, has to come back EVERY YEAR!! It was perfect. And I am so grateful and thankful for that.

One more thing before I get to the gifting portion of this post. My tea hoarding challenge update. Tomorrow is the 1st of December and that means for a full 11 months so far I have been working down my tea supply this year. The only new teas I have brought in are for Mr. Big Ed who is not participating in my challenge and herbal teas like chamomile that I consider to be medicinal. But everyday regular breakfast teas, green teas, etc. I am STILL winnowing down those tins. I am almost ready to crack open those hermetically sealed teas and re-label some of the saved tins to house the new teas. Can you believe I had this much tea in my pantry? I sure as hell can't!

What has my tea hoarding challenge taught me? Well, first off it has taught me restraint in the tea aisle, that's what. Secondly, tea companies might want to offer their teas in 2 sizes. Some of us may want to try 2 or 3 varieties, but buying a tin with 50 bags of each flavor is just crazy. And that is where I seem to have gone wrong, thinking I could try all kinds of new teas 50 at a time. And the third and most important lesson for me has been that I don't need to have all the teas, just a select few that I seem to gravitate to on a daily basis anyway. My sister and I always bring a tin of tea when we visit each other, so I know at some point during the year she will come and bring an interesting tea for us to try.

Gifting through the years has morphed from being so much fun when I was a kid to becoming a chore and a huge task to make sure everyone got something and no one was left off the list, then adding in the neighbors, the co-workers, the husband's secretary, the postman, the paperboy, the yard guy, etc., etc. I have kept my Christmas lists for the last 10 or more years and I have been noticing the changes. I used to think I had to buy the best, the latest, the most cool up-to-date crap out there for my kids and nieces and nephews. If I had the $$ I have spent on expensive, non-useful gifts over the years, I would have a ton of money, that is for sure. None of this is to say that I wish I hadn't gifted at all. That's not it. I just wish I had gifted from my heart and not been led by the commercialism of it all.

The gift of time, the gift of an experience is certainly more memorable than one of 20 new games for the Nintendo, game boy, X-box, Wii. Who remembers that Aunt LisaPie gave them Super Mario Bros back in 2000? No one, that's who. So, I am completely changing my strategy for gifting. In the last few years I have gone to gift cards from http://www.heifer.org/ or from http://www.kiva.org/ for birthday gifts, but I still felt I needed to get something tangible for Christmas.

This year, whatever the gift will be, it will be well-thought out and truly given from the heart. It may be a hand-made gift, it may the gift of time and an experience together, it may be a store-bought item that I know will really bring a smile. And it may be more gifts from Heifer or Kiva.

And if you are reading this and thinking of getting me a gift, please know that my favorite thing is spending time with you. It's a gift that always fits, it's never the wrong color, and we both can enjoy it equally and together!

Christmas Presents

Okay, if you are on my Christmas list and DON'T want to know what you might be getting, turn away. Close this screen and don't peek. If you are not on my list and want to know what I am doing so as to give you some inspiration, please read ahead. If you think it is too early to think about Christmas and gifts, well you are just wrong!

So, Christmas gifting is a year-long process for me. I work and plan all year long as to what I am going to be doing and who gets what. For the last 5 or 6 years I have tried to switch to mostly all handmade gifts rather than store-bought. I am trying to get the focus back on the intention behind the holiday and the reason for gifting rather than supporting Best Buy and Target. I had frankly gotten fed up with gifting "gift cards" and can I tell you how many of the damn things go lost in my house? And I am sure mine is not the only house they go missing in. I think buying gift cards is like tossing money into a black hole.

A couple of years ago I started planting loofahs. And that year everyone on my list got their own personal loofah to scrub with, a crocheted cotton wash cloth, jars of bath salts and a bar of homemade soap. These were all gifted in a crocheted shopping bag. No waste involved here at all, no paper, no tape, everything was usable.

Before that I made flavored vinegars and olive oils. Those were really good and easy to do. The trick was finding beautiful bottles with corks to package them in. We made some pickled mixed vegetables from the garden back when we weren't living in a drought and actually HAD a garden to pick things from!!

This year I am making the cutest aprons you have ever seen. They are just precious! I am really excited about them. But not as excited as I am about this . . . . . .

For 2 almost 3 years I have been working on a cookbook as a fundraiser for San Antonio Birth Doulas http://www.sabirthdoulas.org/index.html This is a non-profit organization I work with and it is very dear to my heart. Finally, after all this time the cookbook has gone to print! Hooray!!! So I will be gifting most of the people on my list a cookbook and a new apron. I am really excited about this. Now I just have to come up with a clever way to present them.

The cookbook is very family and baby friendly. The chapters are not the usual Appetizers through Desserts. Instead we have more than 400 recipes that are categoriezed in Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Arts & Crafts, Lunch Box & Snacks, Parties & Celebrations, Pregnancy Post-partum & Baby. All the recipes are tried and true and sent in by people who work with SABD and their family members. I am really proud of it.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these cookbooks (all the proceeds go straight to the works we do), please let me know. I would be happy to mail some out to you so that you can gift a few of these yourself.

Oh, and if you know someone who is having a baby I have printed up a new batch of the baby food cookbook I started back when my kids were small. I worked on it and refined it over the years and it is really nice. Same thing with this one, I am donating all proceeds after my printing costs back to SABD. So you can feel good about making these purchases knowing you are not only gifting a high quality book that will be used to nourish your loved ones, but you are helping us to help under-privileged women and babies. Talk about your win-win situation!

Sssshhhhh..... Guess what?

It's 3 months and 3 weeks till Christmas!

There, I said it. And do you know Hobby Lobby has had their Christmas trees up for weeks now? I flat refuse to go into the Hallmark stores because they think they need to put their ornament displays up in JULY!! This means that next to the Clearance July 4th stuff there is a BIG Christmas ornament display and smaller Halloween, fall and Thanksgiving displays. It is just. too. much. Information overload, indeed!

Back to it being only 3 months and 3 weeks away from Christmas. I am continuing with my theme of home-grown, hand-made and original gifts. I do buy a few things for my youngest nieces and nephews from their wish lists, but for the most part everyone on my gift list is getting a hand-made gift. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about doing this. I really enjoy coming up with gifts that I hope everyone likes and uses, I am just starting to feel the time crush.

Normally by this time of the year I have made a ton of things and put them away in a closet to be dragged out in November and sorted. I shut down my massage room and turn it into Santa's Workshop in mid-November. There will be post-it notes all over the room designating whose gifts are going where. You can tell I am a very visual learner, can't you? Anyhoo, see up above where I said "normally by this time of the year . . . . . . " well I haven't really done that this year. And due to the Great 2 Year Long Drought of '08 and '09 our garden didn't make this season, so I don't have jars and jars of goodies to gift people either.

So I am going to have to print up my Christmas list and start getting really creative about what can I *really* pull off in this short amount of time.

Do you do this? Do you enjoy making things for others? I love the intention of making something with someone in mind and thinking about them whilst you are creating. If so, please post some fresh ideas that I may not have thought of yet. If you also make gifts all year long and save them up and are looking for some new ideas, let me know and I will post a list of some things I have done.