Off To the Races II

Vivy loves the new toy Emily bought at the consignment sale yesterday - it won't be long until she's walking on her own, I bet. She's stylin' in the new outfit from the Bondurants.

Vivy Sightings

Here is the Pooky napping.
















Bathing is finally fun.
















Mommy and Pooky hangin' outside.

They're both wrong

I didn't know whether to shrug or laugh when I heard about the latest Edmunds fuel efficiency report on a Crown podcast. The bottom line is that properly inflating one's car tires doesn't make too much of a difference with fuel efficiency (do it anyway because it's important for safety and maintenance reasons). So McCain and Obama were vigorously agreeing on a moot point.

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html#test5

I Love American Express

American Express is a great company. Not only have I been able to decorate my entire dining room using AMEX points, but I have had two recent experiences with AMEX that makes me love them even more.

A few weeks ago, Steph's car broke down at our house. I called the AMEX roadside assistance service, and they dispatched someone to come tow the car. I was still waiting after an hour and a half, so I called AMEX again to follow up. The woman I spoke with was so great-- she said that it was unacceptable that I had waited over an hour for the tow truck and that she would send another tow truck to our house as well as follow up with the first guy. I truly felt like a valued customer and loved it!

If that weren't enough, I got a call on Friday from AMEX about a suspicious charge on my card. They had been monitoring my account and noticed that someone bought $488 worth of vitamins from an online vitamin distributor out of New Jersy. They had already suspended payment, and they closed my account in about 30 seconds over the phone. To top it off, I had a new card delivered to my door on Monday. Amazing!

I know, I sound like a cheesy add, but AMEX, you really are the best. I love you!

Black Snake

I was reminded yesterday that I haven't posted about my recent encounter with our resident black snake who was the subject of one of our first blog posts in 2006. About a month ago, I walked out the side door of the house to go somewhere and boom, ran smack dab into Mr. Snake, eye to eye. Shocking is an understatement.

I tried to help him down, but I guess I startled him and he wriggled, hissed, and fell down. It sounded painful, but he kept moving vigorously so I figured he was fine. The first time in my life parseltongue would have come in handy.

Point being, I caught him again and tried to remove him to the natural area where he's done such a good job clearing the moles and voles. Unfortunately, I dropped him again on the way and he actually crawled through a vent hole into our crawl space. I guess that's good, but it's taken a couple of weeks to get over being creeped out by the thought of his proximity.

Inspiring

I hadn't heard of Randy Pausch until today when I read he passed away. If you can get passed the tragedy part, it's really cool that he had a few months to get things in order, cherish his family, and deliver this lecture.

http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/729049.html

I would prefer immortality, but this is a nice 2nd best.