Pet Peeves

Daily Dose of Angst – ICEE & SLURPEE

5 Comments / Pet Peeves /

About a month ago TW made noise about wanting a 7-11 because an ICEE would be good right now.  I bit my tongue and did not say "Ummm Daily’s has ICEEs" because I did not feel like going out to get one.  Bad me.

A few days later, I was picking up Michelle from downtown and thought I’d surprise TW with an ICEE.  I stopped, I grabbed a cup, I pulled the lever on the COKE flavor and thick brown gooey liquid came pouring out.  Not ICEE like at all.  HMPH.  It was crowded at the counter, so I just left.

A couple of weeks went by and TW had a bad day at work, Ms Mary died, so I figured I would get her an ICEE on the way to pick her up.  I stop.  I pull the lever.  MORE BROWN GOO.  Again, it was crowded and I was in a hurry so I didn’t say anything.

Another not so great day today and I needed to go out anyway so I went to Daily’s.  I pull the lever.  GOO again!  An employee just happened to walk by so I mentioned that her machine hadn’t worked in a month.  She said it works.  I pull the lever and goo comes out.  She said "See, it works."  Huh?

An ICEE aka SLURPEE is suppose to be thick.  They have those dome lids because you should be able to OVERFILL the FREAKING cup without it pouring out all over the place.  That machine was not making ICEEs it was making GOO barely thicker than what was coming out of the fountain machine.

The woman shrugged her shoulders and walked away.

What in the heck is wrong with people that they don’t know what an ICEE aka SLURPEE is suppose to look like?  What in the heck is wrong with people who can look at something like that and say "See, it works."???

Not amused, at ALL.  I already boycott their gas pumps because the darn things never work properly.  Now, I am boycotting the whole store because not only do their ICEE machines not work, their employees don’t even GET that there is a PROBLEM with the machines.

Geez.

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Daily Dose of Pet Peeves – Tagging

Pet Peeves /

I have finally embraced tagging.  Not quite in all its glory but in as much of its glory as I can handle with my life and my schedule.  I’ve found tagging incredibly helpful in tracking down blogs or blog posts about a particular subject.  I have some tag searches set up to feed me anything that is tagged with key words like "diet" and "webmd" and "onlinecommunity" or "communityindicator" "womenshealth" … stuff like that.  I find interesting stuff through those tag searches.  Sometimes I find pure garbage.  Sometimes I find things that are tagged improperly.  It’s the stuff that’s tagged improperly that is ticking me off right now.

There is one particular newspaper, located in my area of the world – a large newspaper (relatively speaking) – with a female blogger (cool!).  This female blogger is tagging every single post she makes with the technorati tag "blogher" and I’m getting annoyed.  Some of her posts are sort of interesting.  But,  I’m to the point now that I won’t even go to her blog because when I do, she’s not blogging about blogher, darn it.  She’s drawing me there with the promise of  "blogher" and she’s giving me – other stuff.    (She did blog about Blogher… once… and it was awesome that she
promoted my partner in health that way. Very Cool. So she obviously has been
to Blogher. She knows about the website.  She’s listed her blog in the Blogher blogroll, too) 

I’m all for promoting the Blogher conference in any way shape or form, but this particular newspaper blogger is bugging me.  I wish she’d quit it.  She’s not actually promoting Blogher by tagging this way.   I know, I sound all grouchy and like some sort of "tag police", whatever.  It’s a pet peeve.  Pet peeves make me grouchy.

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Daily Dose of Pet Peeves – Moonstruck Chocolate

2 Comments / Foodie, Holidays, Pet Peeves /

I have this little pet peeve and I was reminded of it again when I ordered a present for my mom (at the last minute) for Mother’s Day.  My pet peeve is webpage title lines that do not apply to the webpage you’re actually reading.  (The title line is the very top most part of your browser, probably a blue bar, next to the icon of the type of browser you are using.  If you’re on my blog, that title line says Daily Dose of Denise – if you’re in a specific post, it says Daily Dose of Denise: Daily Dose of ______) 

A lot of websites use a generic title line, it stays static through the site, regardless of what page you’re on.  That’s ok with me, as long as it isn’t in some way misleading.  For instance, I don’t mind if every page I’m on at Amazon just says Amazon.com.  I don’t mind if I’m at WebMD  and all of the pages just say WebMD.  (Neither of these sites have a static title line, I’m just saying – I don’t mind when sites do this.)

I do, however, mind a static title line if it is misleading to me because it is not representative of the page I am on.  Let’s pretend I’ve been watching a lot of TV and I’m really falling in love with the Toyota Yaris (I’m not watching a lot of tv nor in love with this car, I do like the commercials though).   I am bored at work and decide to go and look at them on the Toyota webpage.  Imagine I click the Toyota Yaris icon and the title line changes to Toyota.com – Hybrid Vehicle.  Ummm the Yaris is not a Hybrid but I, knowing not much about cars might assume that it is.  I might base my buying decision on this, get to the dealer and find out that it is not a Hybrid after all.   Bummer and it would really annoy me – maybe so much that I decided not to buy that Yaris after all.  Maybe so much that I wouldn’t buy any car from them at all.  (Luckily, Toyota does not have this type of misleading web design so my Prius lust is safe.)

Moonstruck Chocolate, on the other hand does, sort of. 

TW was surfing some very pretty chocolates, just a few days before Mother’s Day.  I asked her where she was surfing and quickly made my way to Moonstruck Chocolates.  See that pretty pink chocolate handbag?  See the browser title line?  It says "Moonstruck Fine Chocolate Truffle Gourmet Gifts".  That’s cool!  I like that.  I’ll click in and see what they have!  So I click the pretty pink purse.  (Pink purses are not my mom’s thing,  maybe they have something else….)  I’m on the Chocolate Couture page and the title line now says "Unique Chocolate Gifts, gourmet chocolate gifts".  Excellent.  I scroll down and I see these adorable flower pots.  Yes! Totally my mom’s thing.  I click and look up there at the title line, it now reads "Gourmet Chocolate Truffle, Unique Dark Chocolate Gift"!  OMG excellent my mom loves dark chocolate!  I click and I order and I’m done. 

Two days later, my mom calls me to exclaim about how gorgeous these things are!  She wants to know all about them but isn’t ready to eat them yet because she wants to share them with Ken.  I tell her I thought she’d like them and they’re dark chocolate! So enjoy! 

She calls me back on Sunday to thank me – they’re awesome but ummm they aren’t dark chocolate.  What? Huh?  I go to the webpage and I still see the subject line.  It says dark chocolate! Did I screw up and miss the place where I had to indicate the type?  No.  Alas.  The description on the product clearly says milk chocolate.  Sigh.  I was in a hurry.  I read the title line because it appeared before the images.  I saw the pretty picture and I ordered.  My fault.  But still.  The title line lured me in.  If it hadn’t said dark chocolate, I’d have read the real description and I’d have kept clicking on the site til I found dark chocolate.

I wrote to Moonstruck.  I thanked them for the very pretty chocolate that my mom enjoyed, because she did.  It was good.  But I also suggested they change the title line in the browser because it was misleading.  I did not ask for a refund.  I was not rude.  I simply pointed out that I was misled and would not like to see that happen to someone else.

Moonstruck’s rep emailed me back and needed me to describe what I was seeing because she was not seeing this title line.  I explained browsers and I sent a screenshot.  Her reply to this  sent me over the edge:

Thank you for your reply.  We appreciate your emails and the comments you mentioned.  We have again reviewed the site and pages in detail and do not see anything mentioning Dark Chocolate when referring to the Flower Pots.   The browser bar description is not referring to our flower pots and would most likely be displayed whether you were looking at our chocolate flower pots or boxed assorted chocolate collections, etc.  The verbiage does not come from Moonstruck Chocolate but from our web browser.

Ummm hello.  The verbiage does change from page to page.  It isn’t static all of the way through. And, more to the point – What do you mean it doesn’t come from Moonstruck Chocolate?  This is your page.  You own it.   

I didn’t want a refund.  It was MY fault for trusting the title line and not reading the description very carefully.  My mom did, enjoy the chocolate.  What I wanted was a thank you for bringing that to our attention and I’m sorry if this caused you to order a product you might otherwise not have ordered.  Even just a thanks for bringing this to our attention would have been FINE.  I would have blogged about the good tasting, pretty chocolate that was inexpensive (inexpensive being a relative term).  And I would have ordered from there again and again and again.

Now.  I’m not. 

If you run a web-based company and your title lines are misleading and misrepresentative of your product or your site then change them.  Or own up to the fact that you MIGHT be misleading people.  Do not tell me this is not your problem. Goodbye Moonstruck, it was not so nice knowing you. 

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Daily Dose of Diet – Pet Peeves

6 Comments / Diet and Exercise, Pet Peeves /

A recent blog entry on Blogher titled Bathing Suit Season is Coming Ladies, Start Your Diets made me shudder.  Thankfully it bugged Liz and it bugged Skye and it bugged Candace so I got to sit on my hands for a bit and hope the shuddering passed.  It didn’t, so here I am.  Why, why, WHY do we do this?  I say WE because I do it too, at work.  It’s a quick and easy way to pull women into a discussion about diet but it’s wrong, wrong, WRONG and I am vowing never to do it again.  Not for any reason.  EVER.

Have you ever seen an article about diet, about bathing suits or about warm weather that is titled "Bathing Suit Season is Coming, Men, Start Your Diets"?  No, you haven’t and I assume you never will.  In fact I hope you never see that article because it’s still wrong.

Diet should not ever be about fitting into a bathing suit.  It should not ever be about having fun in warm weather or going swimming.  Diet should be about overall health and not going to the beach, the lake or the pool.  Enjoying the beach or the lake or the pool or any other activity should not ever be dependent on how you look in your bathing suit or any other item of clothing. 

And while I’m ranting, weight loss or maintenance should not be a tool for empowerment or something that reminds you that you are "being all that you can be".   If so, those anorexics and bulimics are soooo  all they can be, aren’t they?  Controlling that food intake and managing the laxatives is certainly empowering.  Go eating-disordered people!  And those folks with metabolic disorders and hormone related weight problems or who are just plain happy in a size 14 or size 20 certainly shouldn’t feel empowered and aren’t being all that they can be, either – who cares if they are perfectly HEALTHY at such a weight? 

As long as we give food and diet that sort of "power" we are at risk of disordered eating patterns of some type.  If you only feel emotionally strong or empowered  when you are controlling your weight then you are risking your emotional well-being everytime you sit down with a bag of chips or order a nice dessert at a restaurant.   I’ve eaten an entire bag of chips in one sitting and I liked it!  And it does not cause me any emotional harm nor does it make me feel less powerful.  FOOD does not OWN me.  My WEIGHT does not CONTROL me.

Looking beyond the initial post, at the comments, Kalyn did talk about how important it is to lose weight and eat properly for better health.  But those comments were only in response to women who found the initial post troubling.  And she returned quickly to the topic of looks and appearance and what other people might think of us if we are overweight.   The idea behind the first post was dieting in order to look good  this summer and at no time did Kalyn manage to turn that around to anything healthy – either emotionally or physically.

Why do women continue to perpetuate the dieting for bathing suit beauty myth?  Why do we continue to use the phrase "thin is always better than fat"?  Why do we encourage each other to believe that we can’t enjoy a happy, physical life unless we look GOOD in our bathing suits?  Is it any wonder anorexia and bulimia are on the rise?  Is it any wonder our daughters grow up thinking they are ugly and hating their bodies?  I don’t think we can blame "the media" or "hollywood" or even "men".  I think the blame lies squarely with us. 

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Daily Dose of Charleston – Confusion

Community Chest, Day to Day, Foodie, Pet Peeves, Travel Log /

So we went to Charleston last weekend.  I was tempted to say "home to Charleston" but since it’s only me who considers Charleston "home" I resisted the urge.  I wonder if there will come a time when I don’t feel the urge to say "home to Charleston"?  I haven’t actually lived there for a gazillion years, (I hate the word gazillion and am only saying it because of RJ, which is another post so remind me to talk about that another day), and everytime I go "home" it looks less and less like "home".

I did successfully avoid the "bridges" for the most part.  The new bridge jumped into my line of vision at the Meeting St off ramp that looks so incredibly not like "home" that I almost drove off of the ramp because the traffic pattern was so wrong but other than that I avoided seeing any potentially heart breaking changes over there.  My mom found the book I had to have and I bought it in the Millenium Music Store – which is another building so not like "home" thatthe only reason I can go in is  because all of King Street looks so bloody different I can sort of pretend it didn’t exist at all when I was a kid and was just dropped into place after I moved away.  The book is a tiny flippy photo book of a "white car" driving across the Grace.  I love it.  I love that my mom saw it and chased me down across the store to tell me I needed it.  You can see the flippy book in action – go look! (click the books!)

Another incredibly not like home experience was driving through the Charleston Naval Shipyard.  OMG.  I have not been on the Navy Base since before I got married.  How run down.  How different.  How amazing.  I can’t begin to describe the differences or the sameness.  Unless you’ve experienced the Charleston Naval Shipyard in all it’s glory, unless driving through it in the 70’s felt normal and routine, there is just no way to explain the feeling of driving through it now for the first time.  My mom had not been back since then either so she is probably the only one I know who understands just what that was like.

Since I’m talking about this trip "home" I might as well talk about the &%$# airshow.  It was air show weekend and Jenn lives on the airbase.  What horrible timing I have.  There is not a worse weekend to be on an air force base than air show weekend and I can say that last weekend was the worse air show experience I have had in my entire life of air shows – and there have been dozens and dozens, at a half dozen air force bases around the world.  What idiots create a traffic plan to get civillians, military members and military family members TO the airshow but never stop to think that SOME military members and military family members might want to NOT attend the airshow? Or more importantly, that someone might actually want to LEAVE the base at 9am and NOT attend the airshow?  There is nothing more ridiculous than routing people from military family housing TO the airshow parking in order to get them OFF of the base – and then discovering that once you get them to the airshow there isn’t actually a plan to get them OFF of the base.  There’s nothing worse than talking to nice airmen at checkpoints at each corner of the base only to be told something totally different and usually completely opposite from what you were told at the previous checkpoint.  Whoever planned the airshow at Charleston Air Force Base this year should be given an Article 15.  Someone take care of that, please.

On the otherhand, the reservists manning the Pass and ID desk in BLDG 51 on Friday were awesome people.  Thanks for covering for the active duty pukes who blew off their Friday and left you holding the bag.  I appreciate it.

Another positive experience, though other members of my family may disagree, was the discovery of a new restaurant in North Charleston – Sesame (corner of Montague and Spruill – same side of the street as NCHS but right before the railroad tracks, off to the right – for those of you who may attempt to find it).  When I say new I really mean new – it was in its first week of business, I believe.  A rundown looking little concrete block building with a ton of vegetarian options on the menu – and when I say a ton, I mean a ton.  TW and I split a total of 6 different types of "mini" black bean burgers.  We tried three different appetizers (the onion rings, the bruschetta and the wings – the wings weren’t vegetarian) and all three were very good.  The sweet potato fries were possibly the best I’ve ever had.  These folks make their own mustard, ketchup and mayo and TW was in love with the ketchup – which is weird because she hates ketchup.  My girls were making strange moaning noises over their brownie sundae and the lemon iced blondie was reported to be ok but not as good as the brownie.  (Desserts are made by the folks at Five Loaves) There was some not so good stuff that happened during our dinner – a ticket mix up caused the bulk of our party (everyone except me and TW) to have to wait a good 30 minutes extra for their meal.  Then the medium to medium well burgers were not actually cooked to medium/medium well.  My sil ordered the "mini burger sampler" and got 2 of the burgers she ordered but the 3rd one was not the type she ordered.  The manager did remove her meal from the bill and gave her a free dessert, without prompting to do so.  If you visit this restaurant – order your burgers well done or order the black bean burgers instead.  Try the South Carolina burger, it has homemade pimento cheese on top! 

One other Charleston thought – don’t go to the Crap Crab Shack on Dorchester (heading toward Summerville it’s on the right, just past Ashley Phosphate).  We’ve been there twice and nobody except my sister in law and my son in law like it.  (If you do go, order the red potatoes and ask for some of the dipping sauce for the fried green tomatoes to go with – it’s the only thing I’ve found worth ordering).

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Daily Dose of Hate – Money

6 Comments / Day to Day, Health and Wellness, Money Talks, Pet Peeves /

Don’t ask me why I am reading I will teach you to be rich, I can’t answer that question anymore than I could have answered it when I was reading Hello Dollar.  Maybe I can answer it.  Now that I think about it.  I think I am reading it (and read Hello Dollar before it) because it’s almost normal to do so and I have hope that I won’t always hate thinking about money, talking about money, moving money around and spending money.  Being rich is not my thing, paying my bills is my thing and that’s pretty much where I draw the line.  If I’ve got more money around than that, then I give it away. 

Where was I?  Oh yea I was here and trying to come up with things I hate spending money on – like a normal person.  The answer everything is not normal, right?  So I read the post and the comments and then the follow up post and comments.  And I saved both as new and released them and went back and grabbed them and saved them as new and then released them again.  See, even reading blogs about money makes me more nuts than I already am!  What do I hate spending money on?  Here’s my list, and it’s making me nervous to even begin to type it.  Not as nervous as that 101 things list but close….

1) Healthcare.  After 41 years of not paying for healthcare, of never paying for a prescription and of buying over the counter medications only rarely, I still can’t get use to paying for healthcare.  Either the insurance payments or the copays.  Michelle and Chris’s copays I pretty much have gotten use to but my own and TW’s – those make no sense.  I am always surprised by something that either is or isn’t covered and in my head any RX copay should be $9, that’s the Tricare way and I’m finally use to that.  Avmed and Blue Cross should both follow along, it’s the only thing Tricare seems to do right.

2) "Well Car Check-ups".  These make absolutely no sense to me at all.  I hate them, hate spending money on them and have finally, after the last one, refused to ever participate in them again.  Ever.  For any reason.

3) Parking.  I hate paying for parking whether it is a parking meter or a parking garage or airport parking or a field across from a concert. 

4) Service charges when buying tickets or services online.  $3.95 service charge at Gatorfood.  $7.50 at Ticketmaster.  $2 at  Fandango.  Blah. 

And there you go.  My list.  Kind of boring.  I could have talked about how I hate spending money on food and stuff like that but that would scare you, some of you more than others but still probably not a good to scare you for no good reason, right?

What’s on your list?  Weird stuff like food or normal stuff like parking?

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Daily Dose of Health – Review

5 Comments / Day to Day, Health and Wellness, Pet Peeves /

It’s time for a little review, folks.  Feel free to share this with your dumber family members and friends.  Like if you have a brother who is 38 and hard headed and married to a really very nice woman who may not always make really good decisions, that’s a good person to share this review with.  Right now.  Before it’s too late.

If you’re playing hockey and it’s the 1st period and you start feeling these things:

  • Shortness of breath
  • Tightness in the chest
  • Really tired and weak arms
  • Blurred Vision
  • Racing heart

    • You should leave the game immediately, not in the 2nd period when you collapse.  You should go to the emergency room immediately.  Got that?  Go. To. The. Emergency. Room.  If it’s your husband who is 38 and in pretty decent health and not a hypochondriac who loves hockey more than, well, more than anything and he leaves the game in the second period because he has shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, really tired and weak arms, blurred vision and racing heart… Take. Him. To. The. Emergency. Room. Right. Now.  Do not suggest he go home because the ER wait will be long and he can just see his doctor in the morning.

    Got that?  Make sense?

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    Daily Dose of Advice – Gainesville

    Pet Peeves /

    Here’s a little advice for folks living here, take it – or don’t.  Your life, your choice….

    To the folks getting off of the bus in front of the new bank on Newberry Rd, just beyond NW 43rd, at 7:30am.  Do not attempt to cross six lanes of traffic to get to the OTHER bus stop.  Walk 25 steps backwards to the corner, where the light and the crosswalks are.  Do you not understand that Newberry in that spot runs DIRECTLY east/west and at 7:30am cars can barely see each other and they certainly can’t see you or your 10 year old son as you attemp to cross ILLEGALLY in that spot.  I know it’s cold.  I know you don’t want to walk the extra 25 steps back and the extra 25 steps foward.  Do it anyway, it’s safer.

    To the woman at the corner of University and whatever that street is that the stadium is on, right there with the flashing marquee.  Just because the WALK sign lights up, that does not mean you should immediately step into the crosswalk.  You do this everyday and everyday a car attempts to HIT you by turning right.  You live in this town.  You know that red lights really don’t mean anything and green lights mean everything to drivers.  Pause and count to three before you step out.  Or better yet, LOOK BEHIND YOU.  One of these days, you ARE going to get hit.  And I don’t want to be there to see it. 

    And to the people surfing here with the Mac everyday, no advice for you.  Hi.  Having fun?  Are you bored?  Would you like me to suggest some activities that might be of more interest to you?  Some blogs that you might find more to your liking?  Some volunteer activities within the community?  Are you hoping I’ll talk about you?  No?  You’d rather just sit here quietly, day after day, clicking page after page?  Well ok.  Just as long as you know that I know you’re here.  And I know what you click.  And I know why you click.

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    Daily Dose of Starbucks – #52 #60

    3 Comments / Coffee & Tea, Pet Peeves /

    Every morning TW and I stop at Starbucks.  We generally stop at the Starbucks where everyone knows our name and the baristas know our drink.  Sometimes we have to go to the Starbucks downtown but that’s just once a week or so, we don’t like that as much.  Lately though, there’s been a problem with our morning Starbucks run and it doesn’t matter which Starbucks we visit.  Two problems, actually.

    The Way I See It #52 and The Way I See It #60

    I was really excited to lose the holiday cups and get back to the traditional white cups with inspirational discussion worthy "The Way I See It" quotes.  That excitement has turned to frustration and dare I say, loathing?

    I am sick to death of both #52 and #60.  Teddy Roosevelt is not the most inspirational of our presidents, in my opinion – I’m sure some of you adore Teddy and that’s fine – you can have all of the cup #60s if you want them.  Eavesdropping on baristas is something I do everyday and believe me I could write better cups from my eavesdropping than the little tidbit on cup #52.  The big problem though is 30 straight days of those two cups.

    It appears as though all Venti cups in this town (is it the southeast? the country? the world) have those two "The Way I See Its".  (We’re going to Atlanta this weekend and I am hoping to prove it’s not the entire southeast!) (We went to Atlanta last weekend and unfortunately the #52 and #60 problem occurs there as well!)  The other size cups have different "The Way I See Its" and I’m tempted to change cup sizes just for something NEW to read and look at and talk about.  Won’t that make Starbucks sad?  If I stop spending $11 a day and spend $8 instead?  And after I get sick of those Grande cups, because I’m afraid I’ll get trapped with two new numbers, then I’ll have to switch sizes again, to a Tall,  and spend $5 a day.  And after that, I’ll have to stop going to Starbucks altogether.

    Something had better be done about this cup issue, and quickly.  At this point I’d be thrilled with the Christian message "The Way I See It" cups that we read about last year.  At this point I’d be thrilled with quotes from the current President Bush.

    **Updated after the trip to Atlanta**

    I’m just that sick of cups #52 and #60.

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    Daily Dose of Lessons – Laundry

    3 Comments / Day to Day, Pet Peeves /

    I have learned a valuable lesson. Very valuable. Before you rant about the vast amount of laundry, be aware that the appliances are listening.



    The washing machine is unhappy. It tries to agitate, it does not succeed. It won’t even try to spin. It is successful, however, at making a really horrible noise when attempting the agitation and ignoring the plea to spin.


    I miss my washing machine. There is laundry to be done and I want to do it. Right now. Please washing machine. Forgive me for complaining. Forgive me for complaining and not taking the time to sing your praises. Pretty please, let me do laundry!


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