Another Baby Blanket....

I was just talking to Tim on the phone and I mentioned that I was about to finish another baby blanket. Tim asked, "Who's it for?" Well, I don't really know.

My friend, Jenny, had made a nearly similar style blanket and posted on her blog about it. Her post inspired me to try making my own version. I believe that her blanket only had one layer of flannel, while I made mine two layers. That's the difference between living in California versus Illinois, I suppose. Anyway, it turned out not bad for my first try with this style. What you can't see from the photo is that one side is wider than the other (I only noticed this when I tried to fold it up).

The funky shape made me realize that should I want to continue to make this style of blankets, I will have to make some changes, or should I say purchase a couple of items. The top two things on the list being a larger cutting mat for my rotary cutter and a longer "ruler" for my rotary cutter. I *think* that would help me out.

A Vegetarian Niece

Tim's brother-in-law and our niece have been visiting from California since Thursday. They flew in to attend a wedding. Anyway, our niece is vegetarian. This is fine, however it is not how we typically cook in our house.

Over the summer I had seen a recipe in one of my magazines for Black Bean Burgers. At the time I thought that it wouldn't mind trying them and that I should try them whenever our niece is in town.

On Saturday, before they left for the wedding, Tim cooked burgers on the grill. I quick mixed up the burger portion of this recipe. I did eat one. They turned out to be rather tasty, I might add. If you are ever looking for an alternative to meat, I would recommend them. I guess I should have taken a photo of them or something, too.

Bunny Killer and a Baby Blanket

For those of you in the know, we have a Siberian Husky named Jager (Tim picked the name). She really is a very pretty dog. However, she tends to go through phases where she will make mischief. Her mischief includes, but is not limited to, digging holes in our yard, ripping up nice new $40 rugs, tearing to pieces any stray laundry that might be left in her "room" (a.k.a. the laundry room). Admittedly, except for the digging, she hasn't done most of the other things in a while. Yesterday morning, I was getting ready for work and I happened to glance out the back door (keep in mind I don't have my glasses on yet, so I can see, but not so much). I can tell the dog has something she is preparing to rip to shreds and I thought it was a dish towel or some old shirt that had been inadvertenly left outside by Tim. I walk up to the door, the better to see with, and figure out that the dog had a bunny :-( I don't know how she got it, since the bunnies usually avoid our yard like the plague and with good reason, obviously. So, we now have a bunny killer.

Tomorrow, I am attending a baby shower for Tim's nephew and his wife. This will be my third "great" nephew/niece. So, I have to bring a gift. I decided to make the requisite baby blanket. That is, as I was growing up, my mom and aunt always made these baby blankets to give as shower gifts. It is simply flannel (with a baby print, of course) with satin blanket binding. A lot of people love them because they are a bit bigger than the normal baby blanket. I will do some add-ons, too. But, I do have to say that it is not really cheap to make one-but they are worth it, I think. It costs anywhere from $3.99-$6.99 per yard, typically, for the fabric and the blanket uses two yards. Then, the binding is something like $5.99. So, that brings the price for the materials up to anywhere from $14 to $20. How much is time worth? Tomorrow morning, I will be off to find the add-ons. Not the best photo in the world, but I wanted to add it anyway.

Geeksquad...Customer Service, Not So Much....

So, tonight, I FINALLY picked up our computer from the Geeksquad. On, Sept. 30, in the evening, it just seemed to "crash and burn." It was acting weird and I tried a virus scan (which I do regularly, anyway). In trying to deal with an issue it brought up, I tried to log out and log back in. Wasn't able to log back in and I kept getting this frozen blue screen with some message in white text. So, since I know nothing about fixing any sort of computer stuff, I sent the computer off with Tim on Wed., Oct. 1, to be dropped off to the Geeksquad at Best Buy. The ticket they gave him had an estimated completion date of Oct. 4th, although they verbally told him a week. Well, after a week goes by Tim calls them. Now mind you, Tim uses the computer for his business...I have a work laptop that is as slow as molasses...I am not comfortable letting him use it to do all of his online banking and such b/c I heard that they told another employee when they issues her a laptop, "now this isn't for your personal use at your home..." So, Tim had to make arrangements to go to either his brother's or sister's house to do some of his work. I also had to installer our printer drivers on the laptop so that I could print some things I had made up for school. Back to the story.... Tim calls them after the week and they are "running diagnostics now..." I think they call him on Wed. the 8th and say that they just need to "restore" the computer and it will go quicker if we drop off our restoration cd's. So, on Thurs. morning Tim drops off the cd's and PAYS for the service. They say, it should be done by Friday (keep in mind they are already beyond the week at this point...) or first thing Sat. morning. Tim does not hear from them and so he calls on Sat. morning. They say, "Oh, we don't know why this isn't done yet, we'll start it right now, it should be done today and could be picked up tomorrow at 10 a.m." So, I call them this morning, first thing. STILL NOT DONE. I tried to nicely explain the timeline to they guy on the phone and that it is extremely poor customer service/business to tell people that work will be completed by a certain time and then it's not! I mean, if you don't know how long it will take, say that. Don't tell us it will be ready X day and then it's not...and then change it on us two more times and have no reason for it, either.


I asked to speak to a manager when I picked it up. Conveniently, the manager was already gone. Did it have something to do with the fact that when I talked to the guy on the phone this morning I said that I would be there at 7:30 p.m. this evening to pick it up and that I WOULD be asking to speak to a manager??????? Possibly. And, the manager won't be back until Tuesday. I left Tim's name and number since he was the one that dealt with them most. We'll see if he calls.


As an added twist, I also think that they sent the computer back to use with different side panels. Our computer has a grey/silver/black front and I am reasonably certain that it also had grey/silver sides...and now they are white? We have a Dell computer, and the panels do say Dell...but the white struck me as not being the original sides. So, we'll see what they have to say about that, too.

I also decided that I am going to put Best Buy (since they are the source for Geeksquad) on the "only purchase from them when I have not other choice" list. I invite you to join me.