Customer Service

Couple of stories... We're lovin' the new bed, but here's our sad story. Last week Dave rolled out of bed and we heard a crack! That's right, a crack under the bed. After a little bit of investigation, we found that one of the boards had snapped. So, we went back down to the store to see what could be done. And, we really didn't get anywhere.

I stayed in the car with Sadie and Dave went in alone. He was told that they really couldn't do anything. The best we got out of them was some random board that's supposed to be the replacement. We haven't tried it yet, but I'm just kind of frustrated that we didn't get better help.

On a better note, last night I went to get dinner at Cafe Rio. I decided to splurge and orderes chips with queso dip. Unfortunately, they didn't have the queso done. I really didn't mind waiting. It wasn't that big of a deal to me. Nevertheless, while I was waiting they offered me a free drink, and since I ended up being there a little longer than they thought I should have been, they threw in a free dessert.

There are very few jobs where customer service of some sort or another is not used. I know that it can be tough to deal with difficulty people, siguations, etc, but as a customer/consumer I definitely appreciate getting better customer service and having people at least try to help make things better.

Holiday Weekend

The month of February is American Heart Health month. In light of this, I suppose someone decided that Valentine's Day should fall in this month. :0) Okay, I'm sure that's not the reason why we celebrate Valentine's in February, but it is actually heart health month. (A few of our doctors have been/will be on 2 news talking about heart issues.) Moving right along...

In sticking to Porter tradition, Dave and I ordered a pizza for Valentine's and watched a movie. Nothing too exciting, but we enjoy it. I've been trying to plan a "surprise" trip for Dave's birthday. However, it came to the point where I decided I needed his input. I was planning on going to Boston, but due to a random conversation I managed to fake Dave out so he thought we were going to Hawaii. It turns out that it was a good idea to get some feedback.

Apparently, and somewhat to my surprise, Dave would rather go to Hawaii than Boston. So, that's the new plan. If anyone has any suggestions/recommendations on where in Hawaii we should go, they would be much appreciated. I bring this up because I had made Dave brownies - like the ones he made me when he proposed - and that was my Valentine's Day "present" to him. He in turn bought me roses, which I love.

On Monday we did some errands and then got together for dinner with some of our neighbors and good friends. We had a Chinese dinner, which we prepared. It turned out pretty good. Of course it was nice to just have an extra day off together as well. I always love spending time with the hubby.

Why I Married a Finance Major

In case you might be wondering, we have not fallen off the face of the planet. I have had things to write about, and simply haven't done so. Nevertheless, I'd like to tell you a little about the reason I married my Dave.

First of all, I married my sweetheart for his car. Yup, '95 Ford Probe. Oh yeah. Just kidding. While I liked Betty Mac, she just wasn't my all time favorite vehicle (sorry) and I really picked Dave because he was a finance major. Do you have any idea what kind of perks come from that?! Beginning of the year when everyone is thinking about working on taxes, finance majors (or at least my financial genius) already have it done.

Yesterday we got our federal return in and a few days ago our state return arrived. In January, Dave would check the mail so diligently, hoping that W-2's, etc would come in. Well, needless to say, we did get all the paperwork in and a couple of weeks ago we got our taxes submitted.

That being said, as quickly as it came in, it has already gone back out. Several weeks ago Dave ran into a "curb" when he came to pick me up from work. This was due to less than exceptional tires and bad weather. Our Jeep took a pretty good hit. While we thought/hoped it was just the alignment that needed to be fixed, it just didn't work out that way. Dave managed to move everything under the hood over a few inches. It's all still functioning fine, but the repairs basically consisted of "re-building" a lot under the hood to get everything back in place. Thus, 1/2 the return went out the window...or I guess under the hood. :0) I'm not upset about it. I'm glad we were able to get it fixed. Now the Jeep runs actually better than it ever has.

A chunk of the remainder of the return went to a long-awaited, much anticipated, much needed purchase. Dave and I have been on my cute little full size bed...approx 3 1/2 years.

It has worked okay for us in the past, but we felt like it was time to upgrade the bed and get something a little bigger. We ventured out to find a queen set, but ended up with a king. I never thought that I would ever have a king size bed. (I think because I'm not all that big.) As we were out researching, it turned out that we got a better deal on the king than we would have a queen. So that's what we did.

Of course you can't just buy a new mattress, so we bought an entire bedroom set. It's so sweet! Actually, I think it looks really good and it's more "grown up" than our last bed. Surprisingly, we managed to fit our bed and 2 night stands in our room. We weren't sure all 3 pieces would make it in. We also have a dresser now, which I'm pretty excited about. We used to have storage under the bed, but the drawers were a lot smaller.

So pretty much our return came in and went right back out, but it was still nice to get something back. Returning to my original thought, I actually didn't marry a finance major for his car or for being a finance major. I married him strictly for his looks. Alright, that's also not true. There are a number of things that I love about Dave. Namely that he loves me and takes such good care of me. I'm grateful to have such a wonderful husband.

California 2o1o Pics

Finally got the pictures downloaded. Here you go...

On the plane ride down to Ca.

A sunny Saturday in California.Screamin' California










Kim and Dave
Just a picture at the end of
the day. (Note the Christmas
lights were not all down yet.)Dave on the beach.Kim on the beach.Searching for oyster shells.Had to break down and buy rain
ponchos...due to the aliens...of
it could have been due to rain.There's a ride/game based off of "Toy
Story". Dave did awesome! He got like 250,000
points. So he got a medal from Buzz and the aliens
for his superb efforts and assistance.








Since we were already soaked,
we decided to go on some of
the water rides. It was great!
Just a cute couple of Porters.Kim's Donald Duck. Yes, I drew it.Eating lunch in the monsoon
with the cousins. At least it
had stopped raining horizontally
by this point. It was still coming
down pretty good though. We rode some rides with the cousins.And this was the best
"group" shot I could get.Disneyland around sunset,
the last day before we came home.

A Few Thoughts/Updates

If you want to throw your boss off, try texting them about something going on in the office while you are out of town. For example, (speaking totally hypothetically of course,) let's say the boss stops at Taco Time to get some lunch. If you text him and say to enjoy his taco while you're in...I don't know, let's go with California, you will probably have a shocked and confused boss.

It's also great to (hypothetically) get back into town, stop by the office to pick up a few things, and leave a note on your boss's computer saying not to be so paranoid. The kicker is if you sign the note so that he knows it was you, not a co-worker who wrote the note. :0)

My tribute to "Singin' in the rain". One of my co-workers was in a community theatre production of "Singin' in the rain," which we (the medical assistants in ny office) went to see. It was a really good show. We had fun seeing this co-worker out side of her natural habitat. She did an awesome job. If any of you have seen "Singin' in the rain" you will probably recall Ms. Lina Lamont. She's the annoying, nasally one. Just for fun I thought I'd see if I could do her voice and I must say that I do a pretty darn good Lina.

In other happenings, we now have added security measures in our home. Jack has always been a huge people kitty. (At least with his mom and dad, not such a fan of other people.) He generally follows us around and likes to be where we're at. His latest effort to keep the family safe is to walk in to the shower each night, check it out, and make sure all is well. Don't know where he picked it up, but it's just what he does.

Oh yes, the vacuum died recently. We have kind of been looking around for a replacement, but have you seen the cost of a "cheap" vacuum cleaner?! Luckily, one of my friends on facebook posted that she was trying to get rid of her old vacuum. I think it was a fluke, but definitely a blessing I saw the post. She just lives a few doors down from us, and when we got home we had a vacuum sitting on our porch. Yesterday I got to use it. Can I tell you how excited I was to clean our floors! As a general statement, I actually feel like I had a pretty productive day yesterday.

Spring Trip (Early) - Part 2

Monday was day 2 of Disneyland. Rain, rain. We wore jeans that got soaked and closed-toed shoes...that also got soaked. Nevertheless we had a blast. It was great for keeping people away from the park. With each day we spent at Disney the lines got shorter and shorter. By our last day we pretty much just walked onto all of the rides. Apparently I'm getting older or something because I kept feeling sick, even on "kiddie" rides. Oh well.

We discovered a pretty good joint, the French Market, in the Disneyland park. It was a little more pricey, but not too bad. The food was excellent. I found out that one of my cousins from Utah was at Disneyland the same time we were. So on Tuesday we all met up.

There was horrible rain in the morning! It was like a monsoon. We ended up going back to the French Market for lunch with the cousins. Not such a good experience. They put a few tables inside - since it was raining horizontally outside. Unfortunately, the fire alarm went off and they sent everyone out in the storm. Double unfortunately, Dave's tummy wasn't feeling so good and he needed a bathroom. He went to the nearest one, which had also been evacuated. He eventually found one though.

Tuesday afternoon cleared up and turned out to be quite nice. It was great because no one was there. We definitely enjoyed our time away, but honestly by the time we reached the end of the trip, we were ready to come home. We flew out Wednesday morning, which was probably a good idea. We had to be at the airport by 5:00 AM. That part was not fun. Since we got back to Utah at 10:00 AM Dave had originally planned on going in to work half day, but he ended up going with me to Logan to get the kids. (I appreciated) the extra time with him.

Sadie did really good while we were gone. Everyone loves her, but I was excited that she didn't have any accidents in the house at my mom's. Jack on the other hand had a really tough time. He just doesn't do well being away from home and away from his peeps. I sure got a lot of loves from him when we picked him up. He struggled the first part of the trip home, but did well the 2nd half. We missed the kids while we were gone and were happy to see them. It was awesome to get away for a few and I think now we're good until the next trip.

Spring Trip (Early) - Part 1

Due to a lack of computer availability, this is a slightly delayed post. Nevertheless, here it goes. Last Friday Dave and I flew out to California for a much needed vacation. Yes, in all of the times we have traveled to Cali, this was the first time we flew. We took JetBlue, which we were rather impressed with. We flew into Long Beach, Ca. It was awesome! It's a tiny podunk airport. We got a loaded Chevy Cobalt - leather interior, heated seats, sunroof. Also, awesome. :0)

When we got to our resort we found out that we were on the wrong side of things. We stayed at Beso Del Sol, which we have stayed at before. However, when you check in on a Friday, (instead of Saturday,) you get the crazy bar side of the resort where nuts are out until late 99. Friday and Saturday nights were kind of long, but luckily the rest of the time wasn't too bad. The other issue was that we were right next to the Pacific Coast Highway. Noise, noise, noise...until late 99.

We spent the greater majority of our trip at Disneyland. It's just what we Porters do. We had 3 day tickets; so we were there Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. Saturday was the busiest day at the park, but it really wasn't too bad. We were able to get a lot of rides in and we had a blast. The weather was in the 50's-60's our whole trip. It rained a lot while we were there, but it was much better than 30's and snow.

On Sunday we spent a little time at the beach. There were a few nuts out surfing...in the cold, cold water. They had wetsuits of course, but even still I wouldn't even stick my toe in the water to see how cold it was. We went up to Burbank Sunday night. We gt to visit my aunt and her family for a few hours and we went to dinner with them.