"Sold to Very Nice People"

Why, yes, I think we are! The sign was hung in the window of our new VW Golf from Medicine Hat. I'm still a little stunned at having a new vehicle, but we're both really happy with it. It's super fun to drive, really roomy, very quite, very comfortable, has lots of pep, gets great gas mileage...etc, etc, etc.

Yay!

My Grandmothers

Last weekend I went to Vancouver to see my parents and visit my grandmothers. I flew in from Regina on Thursday and when my parents picked me up at the airport we went and did a bit of shopping right off the bat before heading back to the campground where my parents had parked the trailer. On Friday we went to Pitt Meadows to see my Nana, Da's mum. She's going to be 95 this August. She seemed quite pleased to see us all.

After visiting with Nana, we went to have supper at my Auntie Valerie's house. It was lovely to see her, as I haven't seen her in roughly 5 years as well. She was very nice and welcoming, but refused to be in any pictures. So, it's just photos of me and Mum and Da. On Saturday we went to see my Gramma, Mum's mum. The facility she's in is gorgeous and her window looks out onto the courtyard and fountain. We spent the afternoon playing BINGO, which was a hoot.

That's right, I won a game! Four corners.
~

Since it's been so long since I saw either of them, I was expecting the worst, but was actually pleasantly surprised. It was an exhausting whirl-wind trip, but I'm glad I had the chance to go (thank you to my parents and their Airmiles!)

Oh, and a picture of me and Gus on the fold out couch bed that I slept on in the trailer. He was quite pleased when Mum folded it down and was pretty sure it was meant for him.

Dear Seally,

Dear Seally,

Thank you very much for the new mattress. It was such a relief to find that a large international company such as yourselves will still take the steps to honour a warranty. It doesn't bother me at all that the bed which we spent over a thousand dollars on when we were right out of college and living in a basement appartment only got 3 good years out of it, followed by over a year and a half of back trouble and finally another 7 months of not being slept on. Of course this is not the sort of thing that happens often, what with the stunning 10 year warranty you advertise with your beds. A lengthy warranty like that brings to mind beds that last longer than the owner wishes to have them, which I'm completely positive is exactly what Seally produces.
So I'm sure you can imagine our surprise when the sides of the bed bulged, the middle sagged, and the "Eurotop" disconnected from the mattress. Thankfully though, Seally has that 10 year warranty to assist in these awkward and unexpected situations.
I sincerely appreciate the assistance your sales representatives provided to me over the span of 7 months from the time of my initial call to the furniture store in Saskatoon where we purchased our bed in June of 2005. I can also completely understand how there would be no one to return my calls when your sales representative for the province of Saskatchewan quit and did not follow through with her final calls back in October. I certainly have no hard feelings towards your regional sales manager in Edmonton who repeatedly called a phone number in Rosetown despite clearly being told several times that the number is out of service and that we don't live in that town anymore and haven't for 3 years. Rest assured, Seally, this doesn't sound at all like an excuse. It's very understandable that this sales manager would be reluctant to send any other sales representatives to see my dilapadated mattress in Swift Current, being that we are "so remote". Absolutely. That large highway that runs straight through it...what's it called again? Oh yes, the TransCanada Highway. It has definitely done nothing to connect Swift Current to the rest of the country. It's understandable to have that perspective all the way over there in Edmonton. I certainly wouldn't want to put anyone out of their way just for the benefit of my sleep.

I also greatly appreciate having the "do-it-yourself" warranty kit sent to me at our previous address in Rosetown (which, as I said, we haven't lived at in three years). A new warranty kit was received a couple of weeks later and I can absolutely understand why a large company such as yourself would want to set such strict regulations on warranty claims to make it a little difficult for people to claim warranty...you wouldn't want to make it too easy and have just anyone getting a free mattress when their bed failed to withstand the test of a couple of years. I'm sure you can understand my reluctance towards filling out the warranty card information when the problems my bed seemed to have didn't fit into the descriptions (the sagging wasn't "at least 1.5" deep when measured with a ruler and broomstick).

It was such a relief to find that my emails (I'll admit they may have sounded just a touch frustrated at this point) to customer service were responded to immediately and that, despite a change in policy, you were willing to send a sales representative to my home to look at my mattress herself. I can understand why you would have denied my request at first, scolding me for not purchasing my mattress in a furniture store (though I did), and there is nothing suspicious about your regional sales manager stating that he had been confused and had been emailing ANOTHER Jessica in Swift Current with a bed problem who also wanted a home inspection as well (my isn't is a small world afterall!!).

It was no trouble waiting for your brand new Saskatchawn customer service representative to plan a day to come to Swift Current. The meeting was brief and she acknowledged the bed was certainly defective. I certainly wasn't concerned that she would have any preconceived notions of what "kind of customer" I would be from her supervisor forwarding my emails to her. No, I am certain she viewed me from a totally non-biased position.

Imagine my delight when she called me a week later and told me they would credit my bed at a furniture store in town! How exciting! I understood from very early on that the credit for a bed warranty was an ammount that would allow the customer to purchase the today-equivalent to the bed that was being warrantied. This was excellent news! Our bed was quite good (prior to it's total deterioration). So Brad and I went off to the furniture store and looked at mattresses with a very helpful woman who gave us the ins and outs of Seally mattresses. We decided on one that felt and appeared very similar to what we had before. Imagine our disappointment when we found the credit from Seally was $649, an amount that would not cover the ful cost of their lowest end mattress (which was certainly not what we bought 5 years ago). We learned the mattress we wanted would cost an extra $150, plus tax on the entire mattress at $79, plus the cost of a mattresspad at $99 that would allow us to be eligible to receive the 10 year warranty again, should this unlikely event ever happen again.

But don't worry Seally, we weren't at all put off by having to pay an extra $320 for a new bed only 5 years after "investing" in a mattress that would "last a lifetime". No no, we don't have any hard feelings at all and are sleeping peacfully on our new mattress completely confident that we will never have to deal with this again.

Thank you so very very much for all of your speedy assistance in this matter,
A Passive Agressive Future Serta Customer.

Correction

This evening Brad and I were looking at our littel greenhouse and realized somewhere along the way it got turned around and we've been looking at it backwards. Which means the little shoots that I thought were his (that are doing so well) are my little pansies! YAY! (and take THAT Brad with you little teeny sprouts!!).

Grow My Minions!!

Brad and I decided to be ambitious this year and attempt to grow some of our own plants, so we bought a little plastic greenhouse and he planted some peppers and tomatoes. I had taken the seeds from my portulaca, marigolds, and pansies last year (I only took the seeds from the pretty coloured ones) and saved them in sandwich ziplocks for the winter. We planted the seeds into our greenhouse about two weeks ago and waited impatiently. Brad's started poking up first much to my disgruntlement. But this weekend some of my wee little flowers started to appear! Now we're just about neck and neck for who has the most growing!

I think this one is a marigold. (actually, it's one of Brad's peppers)
~

This is Brad's. BOOOOO Brad! (correction: I have just discovered this is mine! Yay!!)

A Weekend's Work

Since Brad has been hard at work in the basement over the past few weeks drywalling, mudding, sanding, priming and all that jazz, it was the plan that I would paint the room this weekend. I had decided on a colour and then promptly lost the paint chips. So, I went to Home Hardware this weekend, spent about 10 minutes browsing the chips and decided on the colour on really nothing more than a whim. Of course, I did take the chip to the front window to see what it looked like in actual daylight. I got my puckets of paint tinted and walked out with our new spare bedroom colour.
When I opened the first bucket, I was a little startled to see just how purple it was. I was going for sort of a smokey purple. Something bordering on grey. The colour I chose was decidedly not grey. Nor very smokey. As I started to cut in the corners and ceiling I was wondering what Brad would think...Oh well! He had told me to pick whatever colour I wanted! So I continued on and painted the whole room in "Heather Field".
So yesterday we put on the second coat and Brad painted the door white. The next step is to get the ceiling stippled, then put in the new floor (likely laminate), new windows, some baseboards, and we're done!

(Oh, and, Brad likes it)

Las Vegas: We came, we saw, we walked until we could walk no more, we left.

Vegas was pretty awesome. As I've told anyone who will listen, it was super overwhelming and everything was big and loud and bright. But we enjoyed ourselves and walked so much we don't ever want to walk again (much to Ollie's dismay). I took a few pictures while we were there and will display a selection of them here along with some witty repartee.

Me and Brad on the plane leaving Regina. This was intended to be the "before" photo, however there is no "after" photo, as I was haggard and wretched looking on the flight back and don't care to remember. Food poisoning + too much wine and festivities will do that...but that's not till later.
~I love Spanish.
~

This photo was taken on Friday morning. I hauled Brad out of bed bright and early with exclamations of "We're in Vegas! Time to get up!! We're in Vegas!! Time to get up!!" He obliged and we left the hotel for a breakfast at IHOP. We then went to the monorail where I took this photo.
~

A random shot of the strip from a walkway
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The fountains at Bellagio. They weren't running at this particular time, but I thought it was a neat spot and an awfully impressive building. Also, a quintessential "Vegas" photo.
~

A fountain outside of Caesar's Palace. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a neat looking fountain.
~We went to Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum at the Venetian. This is me with Mel back when he was dreamy. I am expressing my disappointment at what he will become. Also, he is rather short, which seems weird to me.
This one's for you, Mare!
~Me and Cameron Diaz? Oh, we go way back! She's such a card!
~

Who could resist George Clooney? Is it weird that my husband obliged me and took my photo marrying another man? (I couldn't bring myself to put on the wedding dress they had there...the thought of how many sweaty people had worn it prior gave me the heebie-jeebies.)
~

Proof that Brad was actually there too.
~

The gift shop had Elvis Sunglasses. Like you're surprised.
~
That is the end of the photos I have for Friday. We wandered around the strip for a while longer and bought tickets to David Copperfield that night. It was a pretty good show at the MGM Grand. In one of his illusions he appeared to turn into smoke and pass through a fan only to appear in another cloud of smoke directly in front of our table. I'll admit, I didn't' see him coming. Once he appeared he leaned over and shook our hands. Brad commented after that it was kind of neat to shake his hand, but that it was strangely smooth and delicate feeling. I agreed.

After the show we went to Carnival Court at Harrah's where we met up with Leah, Mike, Stacey, Randy, Andrea, Ian, and some others who I hadn't met before. We had a few drinks and then bailed quite suddenly when we realized we'd both had enough for the day and needed to go to bed.
~

Saturday morning we didn't get up quite as early. The night before Ian and Andrea had given us a voucher for 2 for 1 tickets for Cirque Du Soleil KA at the MGM Grand, so once again we got on the monorail and made the 45 minute trek down to the hotel at the other end of the strip. We bought tickets for the show and then went to the Imperial Palace to see the world's largest classic automobile collection.

The show was for Brad's benefit, but I did find something that I wouldn't mind having. Hello, Jaguar!
~

Brad's favorite.
~

Another quintessential photo: Me with Palm Tree.
~
That's the end of Saturday's photos. After the car show, we went back to the hotel, relaxed by the pool (while Brad gambled) and then went for supper at Fellini's. It was a fantastic supper and we headed back down the MGM for the Cirque Du Soleil show. KA was completely amazing. The set alone was mindboggling, and the acrobatics were breathtaking. I was completely blown away and would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it.

After the show we went back to our hotel room.
~
Sunday morning we got up reasonably early and went for Brunch. Afterwards we decided to explore the hotel a bit more and go to the top of the Stratosphere tower. Our hotel room came with free admission and I was itching to try the thrill rides. The view was incredible and the rides were on the very top of the tower which was exciting. I rode the Big Shot, which shoots you up in the air and drops you back down. This one actually scared me a bit as it shot up so quickly it knocked the wind out of me. I also rode the X-Scream which is like a teeter-totter/roller coaster. You're strapped into seats and when it teeters down, the seats slide down to the end, so it feels like you're being shot off the edge of the building. Not terribly scary, but fun anyway.

Me on the Big Shot...or, my boot anyway.
~

Brad and Me on the top of the tower looking out over the strip.
~
I spent a bit more time at the pool while Brad gambled a bit more and then it was time to get ready for the wedding. Leah and Warren were getting married at the Bellagio, and Brad and I were all dressed up and didn't feel like dealing with buses or monorails, so we cabbed it instead. this made us arrive insanely early, so we explored the botanical gardens at the Bellagio.

~

Leah was stunning and she and Warren couldn't' stop smiling at each other. It was a beautiful ceremony. It lasted 11 minutes, according to the person who video taped it.
~

Words to the wise. Apparently what happens in Vegas doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas. Apparently it can be broadcast all over the internet.
~
After the ceremony Brad and I walked to the Cheesecake Factory for a bite to eat (it was next door at Caesar's Palace, but still took us 30-40 minutes to walk the distance). (Oh, and I had white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Delicious.)
We went back to the Bellagio after supper and gathered at the suite they had rented for the reception where I proceeded to drink probably too much wine. Then we went to a lounge/bar in the hotel called Caramel. It was pretty hoity toity. By that time I only wanted water. The waitress informed me, rather haughtily, that they only had bottles of Evian. So that's what I ordered. $8, barely half a litre, opened, tasted like tap water. Oh well. I took the bottle home in my purse. I left in in our hotel room, but I wasn't about to let them get the deposit back. Ha!

This is me and Brad at Caramel. It was dark. I blame the dark and the startling flash for the foggy look on my face. Yup, that's what it was for sure.

~

So there...that was our Las Vegas vacation....my feel are still sore and covered in blisters and I'm still a bit tired. In all fairness, we had to be at the airport on Monday morning at 6 and I didn't get any sleep that night...hence to lack of "after" photo.

I don't want to talk about it

The wind started Thursday night, carried on all day Friday and still howls today. It also brought snow on Friday morning. It has since melted, but I don't want to talk about it.

A Sigh of Relief

Brad's passport came yesterday. PHEW!! If you're counting down, like I am, we were at 6 sleeps till we leave for Vegas. No pressure. Ok, so that's a lie, there was a ton of pressure and I was on the edge of a full panic moment. Brad contacted the passport office on Tuesday though and was told it was going to print. I also sent in an emailed inquiry and received a response on Wednesday saying it had been shipped. It finally arrived yesterday and I breathed a sigh of relief. NOW I can start getting excited for our trip! A tidbit I never knew; if you mail your passport application, it takes 20 business days to process, whereas if you take it in to a passport office, it only takes 10 days. That would be why I received my passport less than two weeks after dropping it off in Saskatoon, and Brad's came a month after mailing it. I guess it all makes sense, but it is something that I really would have liked to have known ahead of time and might be good information to have included on the application form instruction page. Anyway, no harm done, we've got it and we're going! WOOT!

(Please note, the above picture is not, in fact, Brad's passport. In googling passports I found a blog entry about a woman whose cat needed a passport to move to Ireland. Clearly this amused me to no end).

Saskatoon, Vassy, John Mayer, Oh My!

Back in the fall Vassy sent me a text that said "Do you like John Mayer" to which I replied "Ummm, YES!" Then she asked if I would go to his concert with her in April. My reply was "CLEARLY!!!" (or something to that effect). So April finally came around and I packed up my little suitcase and left for Saskatoon on Monday.
We wined and dined and shopped to our hearts content (well, almost...let's be real, I cuold NEVER shop till my heart was truly content, but we did what we could with what time and finances allowed). It also ended up being the perfect chance for us to get together before she leaves for Edmonton on the next page of her bright career!
Here are the photos:

We treated ourselves to a little pampering and had manicures. The manicurists were absolutely hillarious and entertained us while making our nails pretty.
~All dolled up for John Mayer
~We went for supper at the Freehouse. Amazing food. And the wine went down real good too!
~~We meant business! (Don't judge, it was a long walk to the bar!)
~
I love the zoom on my new camera! This is what it looks like from the 44th row on the floor
~And this was what he looked like when I snuck up to the 6th row and took a picture with the zoom.
~~~

Big Bike

In May I will be one of these smiling people riding the Big Bike for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Heart and Stroke is one of the organizations that I never hesitate to donate to and when I found out the Regional Office where I work was starting a team, "the Taj Mahaulers" (the building we work in has been refered to as the Taj Mahal since it was renovated probably about 10 years ago...not because it's really nice, but because everyone thought it was a waste of money). I get the opportunity to ride a giant bike around town and look like a fool? Um, CLEARLY!!

We're having a competition with another Health Region facility and the team to raise the least money will have to wear stupid hats. While I will do some active fundraising, I am secretly hoping the other team raises more...silly hats doesn't sound like a punishment to me. :)

So, now comes the good part, the part where I hit you up for money! Mwahahahaha! If you would like to sponsor me and donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, you can click on this link: http://blba.us/i.asp?id=331127-284558335-1 which will take you to my team page and you can sponsor me.

Thanks so much!!

Vegas, Vegas, Here We Come!

The time off has been booked, the flights have been booked, and our hotel is arranged; we're goin to Vegas!
My friend Leah (former twin sister from Smithers) is getting hitched in Vegas in April and she invited us! So we searched and searched and found a reasonable deal. The difficult part was definitely that we`re going down over a weekend. I hear the deals are just ridiculous if you travel during the week, but we think we did pretty good for a Thursday-Monday deal.
We`ve booked at the Stratosphere and opted to pay the extra .73 per night for a room with a view (14th floor or higher). We're there for four nights and essentially three full days (plus Thursday evening) and other than Leah's wedding, we have no idea what we'll do while we're there, but I'm definitely extremely excited about it! Maybe that's why I'm still awake at 12:19 on a work night?

Now the only question is what to do with Ollie while we're gone. Mum, wanna come puppysit? :)

Blog Interupted...

...by fog. A thick fog descended upon Swift Current this week, coating the trees, houses, car antennas, and anything not moving under it's own free will with hoar frost. Sure it looks pretty, but hoar frost on power lines means power goes out. On Wednesday and Thursday I can say without exaggeration that the power went out more than a dozen times. So, the computer stayed off.

I went for physio on Wednesday morning and while I was standing there waiting for my appointment to begin one of the "good ol' boys" came in and, as sacred tradition for said Good Ol Boys Club mandates, commented on the weather.

Here is the conversation:

Good Ol Boy: "Some fog, huh? Well, you know what this means...in 90 days it'll rain. Good news for the farmers."
Receptionist: "Really? Fog means rain in 90 days?"

Good Ol Boy: "That's what they say...either that or wind"

Hmmmm, so what we've learned from this exchange is that fog is a surefire way to predict that in 90 days there will be either rain or wind. In Saskatchewan. Rain. Or Wind. So if it doesn't rain, it'll definitely be windy. Huh. You don't say. And people scoff at superstition.