WTF! no. 09

Why is it so difficult to get a doctors appointment when you actually need it? Like when you have a problem and want to see a specialist, the extremely rude receptionist goes “umm, dr.so_and_so’s next availability is 3 months later” … so lets put it this way… if you have a disease that’s going to kill you within 3 months, you can’t do anything about it because – well, you can’t be seen till then? hm… what makes it even better you say? when you finally make it to your aappointment, every chair next to you is empty… OH and here’s the icing on the cake: when you finally get checked - dr.so_and_so says “OH MY GOSH, WHY DIDN’T YOU COME IN SOONER FOR THAT?!?!”

UGH WTF!!~

Vacationing: The High Sea’s!

I have gone on a few vacations throughout my lifetime! Four of which have been on Caribbean Cruises. Once you go on a cruise, you never want to go without one! So far I’ve experienced the voyages of three different cruise lines, Princess, Norwegian and Carnival. Each of these ships were different in many ways, the only similarity was the multi-cultural staff which was WONDERFUL and always helpful – when you go on a cruise the staff really makes you feel as though you are royalty.

My first cruise was on the Star Princess in 2005, I had never been on a cruise before, and my boyfriend (now husband) had purchased the tickets while he was stationed in Iraq as a surprise getaway for the both of us (best idea ever!). The Star Princess is one of the grand ships put on the seas by Princess. This wondrous vessel had 17 decks! Including a 18th deck, but the only thing there was the sky lounge; where you can party all night! The crowd on this ship seemed to be very upper class and made sure to act and dress that way daily! The live entertainment was lovely too, very classical – the main shows were mostly ballet and Broadway style, along with classical singing. The food was fabulous and you had the option to eat on your own (with your guests) or choose to eat at a shared table. We often elected to share, so we can talk to other guests. We were always the youngest at the table – so it was really interesting to listen to what life experiences others had to share. Since this ship was so large it had indoor and out doors pools and plenty of on-board activities. Interested in this ship? Read more about it on the Princess website: http://www.princess.com/learn/ships/tp/index.html

My second cruise was on the Norwegian Dawn in 2006, it was for my honeymoon! This was my favorite cruise out of all three! You’ve seen the commercials – I’m SURE! But Norwegian really does give you freestyle cruising. You can eat in the buffet, one of the many mini restaurants; (DELICIOUS FOOD), or you can dine in the main hall without any time limits. The crowd and rules were more laid back – they weren’t so strict about the formal night dress codes and etc. The entertainment was superb! I’m big on musicals and the entertainers on this ship really outdid themselves! Very off broadway-esque and modern! The dancers and singers were really talented and it looked like a lot of time was put into the performances. The final production was a Bollywood piece, and the show was awesome! It was like Cirque du Soleil – everyone was amazed!  Unlike the Star Princess, the Norwegian Dawn is a mid-level ship, which means it only has about 13/14 decks so it’s not a large as a grand ship – BUT it sure felt like one. The casino games were great too, a lot of ways to actually win. I know what you are thinking! “You can never really win in a casino” – BUT the games on this ship give you better odds of walking away with some loot, nothing huge but better than holes in your wallet. I loved this ship and overall cruise experience, the best out of them all! Check it out: http://www.ncl.com/

My third cruise was on the Carnival Miracle in 2007, it was for my one-year wedding anniversary! This was my least favorite cruise experience. Don’t get me wrong the ship was beautiful and the staff was great, as the others – but the schedules and rules were too strict and the offshore excursions were limited and on a tight schedule with the ship (unlike the others). The Carnival Miracle is also a mid-level ship – this time around we got a room with a balcony, which we never have done before (only because I was 4 months pregnant and thought I might need air). After that I think I’ll always opt for a balcony. The entertainment and final show weren’t so great, unlike the other ships; the talent seemed to be really off-key, not dancing in sync and just very second rate – not happy about that! Although the crowd and atmosphere were very laid back – the dining options were very limited, which I didn’t like either. The best part of this cruise was the fact that I was away from home and cut off from the world! I still enjoyed the experience but not as much as I did on my last two cruise’s. If you are interested in finding out more about this ship – Check it out here: http://www.carnival.com/Ship_Detail.aspx?shipCode=MI

My fourth cruise was on the Norwegian Dawn in 2009, it was for my third year wedding anniversary, my dad’s 60th birthday and my mom’s 55th birthday!! This used to be my favorite cruise line out of all three! Perhaps it was due to the economy, but the menu and activities were lacking this time around, it just wasn’t the same. This time I travelled with my husband, toddler, my parents and brother (plus his wife) – it was a big crowd. The “Under Two Zoo” was nothing but a cocktail room that had a few toys thrown on the floor, until 5pm, then all the babies had to leave and let the adults have a cocktail meeting, so at this point if you had a child under two, you had nothing else left to do till the next day. The entertainment was still superb! the entertainers were mostly the same people from 2007 and they still  outdid themselves! Very off broadway-esque and modern! Not as happy with this ship as I was a few years back, but the economy has hit everyone hard, so everyone has to make cuts – I guess… Check it out: http://www.ncl.com/

Overall I loved being at sea all four times and I will continue to cruise as long as I have the funds and opportunities, out next cruise is schedule for the winter and we are finally going to try Royal Caribbean, I will update this post then. My husband would still really like to try out a resort once – but I think I’d still enjoy cruising more. I guess we will see!

Karen Hepp for the Holiday’s

From 2008

Being a FOX 5 News Anchor, do you have to work during the holidays?
Because news is 24/7 we do work holidays, and I’ve missed many dinners with my family. But, they try to spread the pain. This year I was off Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, but am working Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. It all makes for interesting holidays, often my family would come to me when I worked in smaller markets. One year, when I was working in Rochester New York we celebrated at an Ethiopian restaurant, while the staff was nice, but the food was horrible and my brother and sisters still complain about our far from festive feast.

If you are sitting with the family and you get word that a big story is about to break, do you have to get up at the moment and go to work?
It really depends on the nature of the story and how big it is. If something as terrible as 9/11 or a major plane crash happened, everyone would be expected to call and rush in. But, most times the station is well enough staffed the crews on duty can handle the crises.

What is your favorite childhood holiday memory?
My uncle Joe dressing up as Santa and handing out gifts from his sack, for years we had no idea it was him. Simply the best. Also, My family would go to a charity event where they handed out funny hats, and we’d all wear them after and take increasingly sillier pictures. One of the funniest was taken by a toll both operator, who clearly thought we were a car full of happy nerds.

 What is the one dish you can not go without during this season?
I’m a big Thanksgiving fan- lots of food and love, none of the stress of the shopping. So, I love turkey and cranberry sauce. But, I cherish new traditions and surprises too. It’s fun to visit friends and have their favorites especially if they’re from other countries and backgrounds.

 What was the one gift you received, that blew you away? who was the one who gave you that gift?
My husband proposed to me at St Patrick’s Cathedral Christmas day 4 years ago. I wasn’t expecting it at all. He went up for communion and when he came back he was clearly emotional, and tugged me in the pew close to him. In front of my whole family he asked me to marry him and I burst into tears, I’d never been more surprised or happy in my life.

 Do you have an advice on what you feel the best gift to give is?
I like time the best, when my husband promises to do something with me I know he really doesn’t want to do. The thought really does count- the best gifts are the ones you get or make with the person in mind. Being a new mom I try to get my friends all the things I loved best that made my life easier, or really cute items from off the beaten path.

We here at TBO Designs, Inc support the troops and have a lot of them as subscibers. Do you have any holiday wishes you would like to relay to all of the wonderful men and women overseas, at home and veterans?
My husband’s father was a world war 2 veteran, and Brian’s greatest role model and friend. He is so proud of his service and misses him dearly. We have the deepest respect for all the men and women who wear our uniform. Our family is so appreciative and grateful to all the troops overseas. We thank them for their sacrifice and hard work, especially during the holidays and pray for them always.

NEVER BUY, FROM BUY.COM

I’m an avid online shopper; I prefer it to shopping off line, because well there are no lines! It’s quick, easy and usually pretty reliable. I have never had any problems with any online retailers! I still don’t have a problem with any of them; but one, BUY.COM. I’ve shopped on their website before, but usually for simple merchandise like DVD’s and small gifts, usually nothing over $50.00 at a time and usually the product arrives and I don’t have any issues.

Cyber Monday came about and I received an intriguing e-mail from buy.com, claiming they are having major sales on electronics! Usually I ignore these e-mails but I had my fingers crossed that I would see a good mp3 player on that list because about two weeks ago mine stopped working after a good 3 years – Low and behold!!! I see the exact MP3 player I wanted to purchase from Best Buy for $250.00, the Creative Zen: M series. Buy.com was offering a refurbished Creative Zen: M series, 30GB MP3 player for $99.00! I immediately decided I had to get it, before it sells out.

I waited a little over one week and received my new MP3 player, I was psyched; turned it on and began uploading my music and pictures! Everything worked and looked good; that is until, the next day – I tried to turn it on so I could continue uploading songs, but it wouldn’t turn on. I knew that I charged it to the max when I first got it, so the battery wasn’t dead – but I decided to try charging it again, but when I put the charger into the device, no lights came on, which I found odd. I left it for an hour or so and nothing, I kept trying everything and nothing worked, so as one would imagine I was pissed off.

I logged into my account on buy.com and clicked on “help” so I could find a customer support number. Guess what? There was no customer support number! Only an e-mail system – FINE, so I sent them an e-mail, 15 times with no responses. I started to get annoyed so I went on google and did a search to see if I could find a number for them, instead I found a few blog’s where bloggers were complaining of the same issues and that they found a number, but it directed them to buy.com customer service in India and all of the sales rep’s they would speak to were no help at all. But I still had to try and contact them; I thought I might have better luck! But I guess not because I spent 3.5hrs on hold once, until I got tired of no one picking up, then for another 1.5, then 2hrs later that day when I tried again. So I went back to the blog’s and found a corporate number for them in the USA.

I finally got through to someone on the buy.com corporate number – to only be told buy.com can not exchange or refund me that I have to call the manufacturer. Lesson learned, never buy from buy.com – they sell you a product, if it’s a defective item or you need to contact them, they make sure you have to work hard to find a number; it’s interesting how they try to hide their customer support number, no one responds with their email system – my whole experience was horrible. Now I am sitting here, waiting to reach someone at Creative in the hopes that they could help me, if not – I’m stuck with a broken MP3 Player, $106.00 gone forever and will have to end up buying a new player.

So, for anyone out there, a word of advice: NEVER BUY, FROM BUY.COM, because if you do and something goes wrong, consider the money you spent – gone for good.

WTF! no. 08

Good ol’ public transportation, its so easy, quick and convenient – until someone with some bad body odor sits right by you or when you are sitting on the right side and someone is on the left side, with very little room in the middle, but of course the biggest person who comes in decides to squeeze themselves right there, crushing you to death.

WTF! no. 07

When someone calls you and says “so what do you want to talk about?!”. YOU CALLED ME! so you think of something or just hang up until you figure it out, so that way we both don’t hear silence and breathing on the phone.

The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons Movie
Opened July 27, 2007 | Runtime:1 hr. 27 min.

I would give the movie 2.5 stars, although I wasn’t a big fan of the show on FOX either. I went to see the movie because my husband wanted to see it pretty badly. As for humor it was dry and repetitive, to me at least- you would be better off turning the TV show on, not much of a difference, out side of your wallet. The color and animation did look a lot better on the big screen though, I’ll give them that. The characters all were portrayed accurately, although favorites weren’t given much big screen time. Overall it was just like watching a pay-per-view two hour episode.

Although due to this movie, The Simpsons and Burger King joined forces to give us: http://simpsonizeme.com/ where you can submit your photo and then watch as you become a Simpson. That’s me in the photo!

Rating: **1/2

WTF! no. 06

Don’t you hate it when you call technical support and they keep you on hold listening to elevator music, to finally answer an hour later to then tell you they need to transfer you to another department and that cycle continues until – you get so pissed off, you hang up and figure you’ll just try again later in hopes that someone helpful or located in this country would pick up next time.

WTF! no. 05

Don’t you hate it when you are standing listening to your MP3 player and other’s could obviously see that, but that one special person still comes up to you and begins to ask you for directions? grr.

WTF! no. 04

Don’t you hate it when you are standing in line and there is someone in front of you, with two items but insists on holding up the 10 person line by going through their coupons with the sales clerk to see if any of the coupons they ripped out would work with their current purchase, for about 3hrs. Ugh.