The Creepy Crimson Reaper

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Halloween 2007 is officially over. What a busy day! I made 3 trips to the school today. Once to drop Alex off in the morning so he didn't have to ride the bus. Once to attend the costume parade and then once to pick him up after school. I should have walked to attend the costume parade, the parking lot overflowed into the road, both sides in both directions all the way down to my street. It was quite a big production and it was nice to finally be able to attend one. The 2 photos above are from the parade. The first is Alex, the Crimson Reaper and the second photo is after the parade without the sweaty masks on. Well, George Bush left his mask on, but the Reaper and Dick Cheney removed theirs immediately.
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What a beautiful day this was. According to our local meteorologist, DE, the last 5 CNY Halloweens have all been above 60 degrees. And as high as 75. This year was about 65. It was perfect. After I picked up Alex, we went to Toys R Us. We found this nifty voice recorder gadget ($7). You can play it back and warp it too. It was so much fun in the store, we had to get one. We've been having fun with it all day. Even getting the dog involved in the fun. We highly recommend it for hours of harmless (any possibly extremely annoying) fun.
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The Trick-or-Treaters started arriving at about 6:00. We had about 45 total for the evening. Alex the Reaper brought back quite a haul. He even shared some. It was a busy, but fun-filled day off. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Back to Reality

Last night I was thrilled to be able to get to bed early and no longer be consumed with worry over whether the Red Sox would win the next game or not. Now I'm feeling major let-down that the season is over! I can't win!!

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Life does go on however. Tomorrow is Halloween and I took the day off. I've never done that before, but I figured I should. Alex is having a 1/2 day at school and a costume parade/party. I thought it would be fun to finally get to experience that with him. This is the final "elementary" year with the fun parties and such. So I thought it was long over-due that I attend a Halloween event at his school. Alex is going to be a "Crimson Reaper". He wanted to be the Grim Reaper, so he will be that, with a fun, bloody twist. The mask he found has a little rubber heart with tubes that you squeeze that sends blood gushing out into the face. It's really rather gross. I'm sure I'll have fun photos and possibly a video or two tomorrow.

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2007 World Champs!!!

Pitching with the Papelbons

How cute is this?!

3 Down, 1 to Go! - - Plus A Few More Complaints

I will start off on a very positive note. The Red Sox are up 3 games in the 2007 World Series!! Last night's game was a little stressful, but all that matters is the score in the end. And speaking of scores, this is an interesting thought. Anyone born after the 1986 World Series has never experienced the Red Sox losing a game in the World Series. Let's keep that stat going. Game 4 tonight! Go Sox!!

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Ok... a couple of "consumer complaints".

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Complaint #1: I was driving by my sons school yesterday and noticed that it said "October 26: School photo retakes". Huh? I never received his photos, so how on earth would I know if he needed retakes?? They sure cashed my check in a hurry, but I never got the photos. 2 years ago I didn't get his school photos either. Last year I opted not to get any because I was so irritated with the company. This year I tried again. How can a company operate like this? I have their number, I have sent an email and I will call first thing Monday. Give me my photos or my money back, you people suck.

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Complaint #2: I got my (Cingular, AT&T or whatever they are this week) wireless bill this morning. Last month I had a few charges that I disputed and they told me I would get a credit this month. Do you think that happened? Nope. I'm not talking about a few pennies here either, I'm talking a $10.79 charge for something I did not approve. I have since removed text messaging and internet access from my phone because of all the unwanted charges I was getting stuck with. No more. I'm not going to take it from these people! If they do not credit my account this time, I will switch to Verizon as soon as my contract is up and I will tell them that. First thing Monday, after I chew out the school photo people.

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I guess I'm officially a fed-up consumer! I'm tired of these people/companies taking advantage of us. They think we'll just sit quietly and not say anything or not complain. Well, maybe I used to be like that, but not anymore! Go me!

Complaint Department

I am just full of complaints today! I don't normally feel like I'm a complainer, but boy, lately I'm just full of them. Or maybe I'm tired of spending my hard earned money and getting crap in return. Crap products and crap service. I reached my boiling point!




My latest complaint is for the Glade Oil Scented candles. I bought 3 refills last weekend. I've bought these before and enjoyed them. I don't get them very often since they're kind of expensive for what you get. In a package, there are 3 oil scented candles. They each last about 4-5 hours. But the smell is wonderful. So I get them every so often as a treat to myself. Well, this time the entire package was full of duds. None of the 3 candles would even light for more than 15 seconds and they each burned down the wick so far they would not re-light. So they were useless. I got online and sent my complaint email to Glade (SC Johnson) and today I received a check for $3 and a nice coupon book for more of their products. (Not for the candles though, thankfully. I do not think I will buy them again.)



So, for my complaints so far today, I have "earned" $11. 63. Which would have otherwise been money down the drain. Maybe I should complain a little more often.

DHL sucks!

I'm irritated. Very, very irritated. I ordered 2 ALCS shirts for my son & I on Tuesday through mlb.com. I've ordered things through them before and had no problems. I really wanted the shirts for the World Series. That would have been fun to wear our ALCS shirts during a game or two. Since we live in NY, there are absolutely no places to buy Red Sox gear, let alone ALCS gear, anywhere in a 200 mile radius, so buying online is really my only choice other than driving to Massachusetts.

Well, here is the tracking information for one of the shirts. (My shirt. Alex's shirt was shipped a day later, and is now sitting with my shirt somewhere in E. Syracuse.)

10/23/2007 - 5:00 pm Picked Up by DHL.
10/24/2007 - 5:29 pm Depart Facility Wilmington - Clinton Field, OH
10/25/2007 - 7:40 am Arrived at DHL facility. East Syracuse, NY
10/26/2007 - 2:26 pm With delivery courier. East Syracuse, NY

So the extra money I spent to get "Guaranteed 2-day delivery" has left me with nothing. I called DHL this morning and gave them a piece of my mind. It really got me nowhere, but I managed to make some poor woman feel bad. I told her how ridiculous it was for a company to guarantee something that they cannot guarantee. And how I would NEVER use DHL again for anything. She said the package "might" be delivered on Monday. I told her that really sucked since the World Series could very well be over by then.

I also sent a very angry email to mlb.com. I told them I would never order from them again and I asked for my money back. So there's a possibility that I will never see the shirts anyway. But that's fine. I'm too irritated to even care anymore. I should have had Rebecca pick me up a couple in Boston this weekend...

The shirt I will probably never receive.

UPDATE:
After getting a "form email" returned from mlb.com, I decided to call them. I managed to get credit for the shipping, but the items are still in transit. I will receive them eventually. But I won't hold my breath.

Tax Credit: $ .64
Shipping Credit: $ 7.99
Total Credit: $ 8.63