French Vanilla Iced Coffee

I have to admit I don’t watch a lot of television. I do admit to watching American Idol, The Shield, NCIS and other occasional series, but that’s about it. Oh yeah, The Young & The Restless I watch at night during dinner and I try to listen to the People’s Court with Judge Marilyn Milian in the afternoons.

What I don’t watch is reality TV. I’ve never seen Survivor, The Flavor Of Love, The Great Race, etc.

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When the mail arrives, do you look at the stamp before you open the envelope? Does the stamp matter to you? I ask because I was stuck in line at the Post Office today when an older woman went up to buy stamps. Oh no, not just any stamps, she wanted Christmas stamps, but they could not be rectangular, they had to be square. The clerk said he only had one type left but pointed to several other types on the bulletin board that were available. Nope, not good enough for her. He made the mistake of saying maybe another clerk (there are only 2 there) had some, so of course she interrupted the other clerk mid-sentence to ask — loudly — if he had square Christmas stamps.

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Driving behind a truck today with a bumper sticker that read, “don’t like the way I drive? Dial 1-800-EAT SHIT”, I realized we’re a really crude nation. And, it’s getting worse and worse.

Been down the candy aisle in your local grocery store or pharmacy lately? They have this chocolate moose with little tiny chocolate pellets and yeah, you guessed it, it poops out little chocolate pellets. They also had a penguin that has the same features — push a button and it craps out chocolate.

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They now want to ban all restaurants from using oil with trans fat because it’s so dangerous to your health.

Some restaurants say no, it will change the price of the oil they buy from $10 to $35 and they can’t afford it. Sports bars will be hit hardest as all their appetizers appear to be fried.

I’m waffling on this. When I buy food products for my house, I’m careful what I buy. When I eat out, I try to be careful, but you don’t know how much salt they use or what types of oil.

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So, I’m watching TV the other night and on comes a commercial. I ignore most of them, but I heard “fried macaroni and cheese” and thought I was hearing wrong. Nope. It was a commercial for TGI Fridays. Not only that, they now have “CRISPY GREEN BEAN FRIES” — Crunchy and crisp battered green beans with a cool creamy Cucumber-Wasabi Ranch dip.”

Now, fried macaroni cheese is a scoopful of elbow macaroni, smothered in fake Velveeta cheese, then covered with batter and deep fried.

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So, as you’ve noticed, the blog has a new look. I joined the masses and switched to Word Press for software. I also found a new theme design and while I loved the old one, I like this one, too.

I lost a lot of the old posts but that’s ok since I saved most of the ones I liked!

Do you like this?

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Some days I want to scream and yell when telemarketers bug me. Usually they call my business line, and businesses can’t register with the national Do Not Call registry, so I play with them — when they ask to speak to the person who handles our phone service I pause, then say, “oh, we don’t have a phone” and you can hear the stunned silence on the other end of the phone. Other people tell me they simply say “hold on” and put the phone down to run up the other person’s phone bill.

Wednesday at 5:15 PM my home line rang while I was eating dinner. Anyone who knows me knows I ignore my phone when I’m busy, but with elderly parents, I sometimes check who it is just in case. I saw a toll-free number, assumed it was a telemarketer, and went back to eating. Last night the same thing happened. I then called the number and it was my bank. Now, if there were an issue with my account, I would think they would call me during regular business hours. But, to be safe, I called them and was on hold no less than 15 minutes, and gave up, figuring if it was important, they would call me.

Tonight, at 5 PM, I sat down for dinner and sure enough, the phone rings. I check it and it’s the same toll-free number, so I picked it up.

“Hello”

“Hello, I’m calling from such-and-such bank about your checking account

“Yes?”

(At this point, I knew it wasn’t an issue, because a real bank employee would ask to speak to me by name since they only talk to the account holder when there is a problem).

“I’m calling to let you know about some specials ….” and I interrupted.

“Look, you’re interrupting my dinner. Calling me and disturbing my dinner is the way to make me leave the bank, not want to open yet another account. Next time I’m at the bank making a deposit or withdrawal, while you have me captive, then and only then can you try to sell me something new. Until then, do not call me again to try to sell me something.”

And, I hung up.

Think they’ll call again? I bet they do

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SIDNEY, Neb. - A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years of probation instead.

His crimes deserved a long sentence, District Judge Kristine Cecava said, but she worried that Richard W. Thompson, 50, would be especially imperiled by prison dangers.

“You are a sex offender, and you did it to a child,” she said.

But, she said, “That doesn’t make you a hunter. You do not fit in that category.”

Thompson will be electronically monitored the first four months of his probation, and he was told to never be alone with someone under age 18 or date or live with a woman whose children were under 18. Cecava also ordered Thompson to get rid of his pornography.

He faces 30 days of jail each year of his probation unless he follows its conditions closely.

“I want control of you until I know you have integrated change into your life,” the judge told Thompson. “I truly hope that my bet on you being OK out in society is not misplaced.”

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“The nation’s largest beverage distributors have agreed to halt nearly all sales of sodas to public schools — a step that will remove the sugary, caloric drinks from vending machines and cafeterias around the country.”

Huh? They have soda machines in schools? This blows me away! When I was in junior high school and high school, there were cafeterias. In junior high school they separated those who bought lunch from those who brought their own lunch. I never bought lunch but did see other who did, and all they had available was milk. It was in those little half-pint containers and cost a nickle each. They didn’t have coffee flavored or chocolate flavored milk. There were no vending machines. The school lunches were pretty disgusting if you ask me! I remember lots of fat and carbs and salty foods and my mother would not allow me to buy lunch at school.

When I got to high school, we could sit with those who bought lunch, but there were no vending machines. Again, you could buy milk and that was it. They didn’t sell bottled water, either.

I read about these kids who buy soft drinks and candy bars during class breaks, or during lunch. They showed a television special with the kids buying french fries and cookies for lunch. Fries? What the hell do they feed these kids these days??!! They had nothing like that, it was full lunch or nothing, period. They didn’t sell bags of chips out of a machine or anywhere else, either.

Lunches were spaghetti with cubes of cheese and lots of bread (a carb lovers delight!), meatloaf and potatoes and salty gravy, bologna sandwiches with butter (ick!), frozen pizza, etc. Today you read school lunch menus and they have special veggies, special fruits, all veggie meals, etc.

What’s funny is I don’t think those sugary sodas AT SCHOOL are causing obesity at all. It’s the stuff they eat outside of school, and the fact most kids are on the computer 5 hours a day or playing video games. In my day we went outside after school and were active. We walked to school, a mile-and-a-half each way, every day. And no, we didn’t walk 5 miles through the snow with no boots after milking the cows at 5 am!!

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I am tired of dealing with outsourced workers. Now, I understand why industry does this. In America we want a decent wage for our time. We want benefits, time off, paid holidays and more. Other countries are happy with a small amount of money since it buys them so much more.

I’ve talked to many people who are outsource workers. My web designer, is in fact outside the USA. I hired him based on his skill and his pricing. For what he charges me for 10 websites I’d pay someone else the same amount for a single website, for the same comparable work. I’ve talked to programmers in India who work for $5 an hour and they know guys in the USA who get 20 times that and more. But, they can make $50 in a day and that can pay their bills for a month. In the USA it pays a days’ worth of bills.

So, I understand it, but don’t like it. When I call for tech support, for instance, I need someone who speaks English and understands it. I don’t want to be put on hold while as they tell me they need to go look up the answer. I don’t like having to have them repeat themselves since I can’t clearly understand them. I don’t like having to repeat myself over and over to try to make them understand what I need.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone last night with 3 outsourced workers in India. I called to ask a simple question. They asked me everything but my middle name, tried to get me to make changes to a computer system with no issues and at the end I simply lost patience, said “this is not working, good night” and hung up the phone. The language barrier was just too frustrating for me.

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