I’m thoroughly enjoying my Goodreads app. It’s a great way to catalog and keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to read in the future.
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No more buying books only to realize it’s familiar after finishing the first chapter. A definite win in my book.
Oh look, I made a funny. 😉
Living with algorithms that constantly bombard me with pickles and ridiculous cat products, I was a little surprised to learn my Goodreads app doesn’t seem to know me that well.
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Need help finishing it?
Uh, no. I completed and surpassed my goal quite a while back.
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Okay, I drastically underestimated the amount I read in a year. Sue me, I’ve never counted before. Next year I shall be more on point.
But short reads? Please. Don’t recommend those skinny little overnight books.
When last I blogged about the bedroom renovation project from Hell, we’d decided to throw in the towel and get a full refund on the faulty custom built windows. Our contractor was going to handle that for us since they were purchased through him on his account. It’s not the route I wanted to take, but something had to be done.
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Yeah, I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
Our contractor attempted to get the refund and spent a half hour arguing with the sales rep before being bumped up to the manager who told him no refund could be made by the store until the Marvin window service expert approved it.
This is the expert for whom we’ve been waiting over three weeks and the reason my husband has smoke coming out his ears while he sputters about small claims court. They keep saying he’ll be here but he hasn’t shown yet.
After endless phone calls our contractor tentatively got a date to meet the service expert here and then… yes, you know there had to be a then…. then he had an unexpected death in the family and had to fly to Virginua.
Of course he did.
I expected nothing less.
Our contractor wants to be here because he knows if the expert tries to weasel out of a full refund they’ll blame him for faulty installation and he wants to defend himself. I want him to be here because while I know he tried everything to make the windows work… I don’t know exactly what steps he took.
So as it stands now… the expert is supposed to be here tomorrow, but our contractor won’t be, as his flight doesn’t get in until midnight.
I’m honestly hoping the expert is true to form and arrives a day or two late as I don’t want my husband to burst an artery arguing with the guy.
Veterans Day is important… and in this house it does not go unrecognized.
Hitting the road with our flower bouquets early yesterday morning, we set out to visit my husband’s family.
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His father is buried in Maine’s largest Veteran cemetery.
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Lovely well kept grounds on the top of a hill…
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With mature trees and many places for peaceful reflection.
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The second family member we visited was my husband’s uncle who was buried just this summer at the new Maine Veterans cemetery.
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This setting is more traditional with endless rows of white headstones.
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Personal endearments are allowed at the bottom…
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Like the AKA Grump my husband’s cousin chose. Perfectly fitting as he was a lovable old grump.
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There’s something about walking through these lines of identical markers that shatters me every time. All those service members who sacrificed for their country.
It’s beautiful… and quite humbling.
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This airman made me smile. I hope he finds some coffee.
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Apparently Crown Royal was more to this soldier’s taste.
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Our final stop of the day wasn’t a Veterans cemetery, just a small country graveyard. Quite a few of the husband’s ancestors are buried here but we’d come to thank his other uncle who fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
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It’s not often you find someone who saw all three.
As I’ve previously stated, I’m all about the macaroni and cheese. It’s the ultimate comfort food and while I usually make an old fashioned recipe of my MIL’s that includes the dreaded Velveeta, I’m always willing to try other versions.
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6 cups of cheese? How can you go wrong.
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This looked promising when put together. Very smooth and so creamy it seemed positively soupy.
(I had to add crushed Ritz crackers tossed with half a stick of melted butter because the husband likes a topping.)
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Out of the oven it looked good.
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But when I spooned it out? The consistency was weird, almost quiche like.
And the flavor? Virtually non existent. Dull. Boring. Bland. Dry. And even though it had a large bowl of cheese… not cheesy at all. How the Hell did that happen?
I’ve been known to consume my weight in mac and cheese and that little square was all I ate… so you know it was bad.
Prices have gone up everywhere on everything. It’s nuts and no matter how much we bitch and complain there’s not really anything we can do about it except pay more… and bitch and complain.
This is me.
Bitching and complaining.
We live in Maine…a clean, beautiful, environmentally friendly state. We have returnable bottles and cans, a ban on plastic grocery bags and numerous recycling programs. You rarely see trash on the sides of the roads and while all that is wonderful it comes at a cost.
Like this one we just had to pay to dispose of a dead window air conditioning unit.
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Yikes.
And speaking of ridiculous charges?
When I reserved our rental car for the week long anniversary trip I planned… the price was $654.73.
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Until I got to the confirmation/pay page and it jumped to $911.39… a difference of $256.66. That’s one helluva lot of add ons.
Surcharges/Fees:
County Tax 5.00%:
Concession Recovery Fee (11.11%)
Customer Facility Charge 5.00/ day:
Vehicle License Fee 4.00/day:
Taxes:
It’s the world we live in… but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
😡
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 