FedEx VS The State of Florida

I know I have been out of the Blogging Loop for the past week or so and I apologize for that but my life has been a little chaotic. Where to begin....
So, as some of my readers may know.. my husband is in the Navy. He has applied for this program called STA21 in which you go from an enlisted person working 5 days a week to an enlisted person going to school 5 days a week and being paid for it the whole time. At the end of your college degree you then move on to bigger and better things... OFFICER! Well, he is super awesome and has great potential at anything he wants to do. So, after months of preparing his package and getting things together and working his butt off, he had everything in order except for his High School transcripts and diploma. Well, we went to school in Florida and now live in VA, so getting them meant sending off for them. Not a big deal though... So we though.
So, at the beginning of June we went to Kinkos where there is a FedEx and shipped off a release form, our money order for 12.00, and a return label for over night shipping. The cost of shipping was $30.00 so we could have the over night priority shipping. It was sent off on a Friday and since the state of Florida is closed on the weekend it meant they would receive it by Monday at 10:30am. Not a big deal considering we needed these at the latest by July 31st. So, off our package totaling a value over $70.00 went to the state of Florida's department of Education. Knowing that the processing time was 2 weeks for Florida to get your records together we waited but then some family things came up and we forgot about it until around July 20th when we realized it hadn't come and we were getting down to the wire. So, we called Florida and they said they hadn't received a package from us! When we called FedEx they said someone had signed for it at the DOE in Florida on Monday at 1015am. This is where ti gets good. We needed those records fast!  We had 10 days to get them! We could have sent, yet another, money order and return envelope but the DOE has a 10 day processing time through the mail and they aren't equipped to do over the phone or fax/email requests.
So, being the awesome great wonderful Navy wife that I am, I climbed into the car with my 3 year old, one bag, and some snacks and drove the 700miles to Florida to my parents house and stayed there and the next day, went to Tallahassee (2 hours away) and grabbed those records. For some reason, the DOE in Florida will do next day requests if you pick them up but getting them in the mail takes 10 days! Well, we got the records and the STA21 package sent off. Now, we wait. One thing I did learn from this experience.... DON'T trust FEDEX, the post office would have been wayyyyyy cheaper for the same damn thing, and being a good military wife extends further than the kitchen an laundry room. =)

Geek Squad or the Devil!

First, I would like to state, that I love my Android. Its the best phone I have ever owned! Its pretty much a little computer for my pocket that can dial out, do radar detecting, police scanner radio, and brew me a fresh hot cup of coffee every morning! Before my Droid, I was a Palm user. What made me switch from Sprint Palm to Verizon Droid is an entirely different blog for another day but lets just say, 3 weeks ago, I didn't know how much I actually loved my Droid. 3 weeks ago, on June 25th, my Droid started acting up. The battery wouldn't hold a charge unless it was plugged in and the operating system wouldn't load. I was basically getting the black screen of death. Being the smart savvy shopper that I am, 2 months prior to this when I purchased my Droid phone I also purchased the Best Buy phone insurance. It sounded like a great deal. 10 bucks a month for everything being covered (water damage, dropping it, manufacturing error, and freak toilet seat falling from space). What made this deal super awesome was the little cute high-school girl that sold me this phone insurance said that if my phone couldn't be repaired right away I would be provided with a temp. phone at no cost.  So, I took my phone into Geek Squad and after waiting in line for almost an hour to talk to someone, the guy told me that it could take up to 1 month to fix (Strike 1). He assured me, though, it shouldn't take that long; that it usually takes about 2 weeks tops because the repair center is right down the street. Hm mm.... Best Buy doesn't do in store repairs? Okay, so 2 weeks was okay I guess because it needed to be fixed. I asked for my temp. phone and they asked me for a 150.00 deposit for this temp phone! Um mm.... "but the cute little high school girl said I wouldn't have to pay anything for the temp. phone" (Strike 2). Ugh, I left my phone anyway hoping that it would only take the 2 weeks to fix since the repair center is, of course, right down the street. Well, today is the 21st of July and I still don't have my phone. I called them and the girl who answered told me that if my phone doesn't come in by the 28th (the date they promised me it would be back) that they would put in an escalation request for it to be repaired. Um... Strike 3. They are about out! What makes me cringe at this whole thing is, after Best Buy ganked my phone from me, I found out that if I took it into a Verizon repair center I would have got a whole new Droid 2 days later.

Freedom Of Speech only counts when its in Obama's favor!

I honestly see the connection here. Obama was elected by popular vote, which he got due to his "fanatic". If it weren't true, they wouldn't have worried about getting it down so fast!

This is the whole article copies from http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=12806261
"DES MOINES, Iowa - An Iowa tea party group on Wednesday replaced a billboard comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin, calling the sign a bad decision that reflected poorly on the organization. Workers papered over the sign in downtown Mason City at the request of the North Iowa Tea Party. "We got it covered up first thing this morning," said Kent Beatty, the general manager of the company that owns the billboard. The roughly 200-member tea party group had the original sign put up last week. It showed photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," ''National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism." After the billboard drew sharp criticism by other state and national tea party leaders, members of the local group sought the change. North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said he and other leaders agreed with critics that the image of Obama between Hitler and Lenin was offensive. He said the images overwhelmed the intended message of anti-socialism. "They are absolutely right in their criticism because the image of Hitler just totally wiped everything else and it misrepresents the tea party movement," Johnson said. "They were right from the standpoint that the image was not a positive reflection on the tea people." Johnson said Hitler images are usually not allowed at North Iowa Tea Party gatherings. Removal of the sign was welcomed by the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, a New York-based group. The North Iowa Tea Party "acted properly in removing the grotesquely offensive sign which should never have been put up in the first place. Had they not acted to remove it they would have severely damaged the credibility of legitimate political causes they espouse," the group said in a statement. "We ask that political groups do not trivialize our suffering in the future by making false analogies with Hitler's horrendous crimes." For now, the sign has been plastered over with one urging people to notify officials before digging. But Johnson said the North Iowa Tea Party plans to put up a new sign soon. That sign will feature a quote that some attribute to Thomas Jefferson that reads, "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." Others argue Jefferson never wrote the statement. Listed below, in smaller print, will read, "The North Iowa Tea Party stands for individual responsibility, freedom, liberty, less spending, smaller government." "It's going to be little more bland," Johnson said. 'We paid for a month, so we don't want to waste the money.""

Who's Afriad of the Big Bad Wolf...?

 

This is Lady. She is a Wolf/Malamute Hybrid and she is 3 years old. She is a rescue puppy from a rehab center in North Carolina that tries to take wolves and hybrid wolves and rehab them back into the wild.   Lady, however, walks to the beat of her own drum. She thinks she is a human and was way too domesticated to be returned to the wild. I like to think she was either the “ugly duckling” who doesn't know she's a wolf or she is the smart one who figured out she will never have to hunt for food again.Sadly, wolf hybrids have become one of the most controversial canines over the past few years. They are seen as aggressive and bad family dogs because when one attacks the media blows it out of proportion. However, when a regular average popular dog type attacks, you never hear about it. There have been more attacks over the years from Boxers, Shepherds, and even Dalmatians thank wolf hybrids. A lot of people cant handle wolf hybrids because they do require a lot of attention and exercise. Lady has major separation anxiety because she is very pack oriented and if she isn't placed in a room when we leave the house, she pees on the living room floor. She has never chewed anything of ours but she is very curious and gets bored easily and will rearrange items in the house. Its almost like a game to see if she can hide them from us and if we can find them. With enough attention, love and respect you will have a wonderful addition to your family for many years. I wouldn't recommend leaving any dog alone with a young child just because they are jittery but Lady loves our son and I feel safe with them playing in the same room.    She is very protective of him and lays by his bedroom door at night. Her old family had an infant, and whenever a new person would come into the home, she would always check in on the baby to make sure it was safe. Most wolf hybrids dont usually make good guard dogs and if you adopt one for that reason you will be sorely disappointed. Wolves tend to avoid conflict and if they accept you as the alpha dog they are going to look to you for protection. When you adopt a wolf hybrid you aren't adopting a dog, you are adopting a new family member. 

Awe...Cry...Laugh. All around great time!

Childs Revenge on Parents!

THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE MOST DISGUSTING THINGS I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME. I AM ACTUALLY SHOCKED WITH MY JAW ON THE FLOOR RIGHT NOW!

Parents Who Smoke on the Playground Deserve a Punch in the Face

I have a lot of pet peeves. I cant stand listening to someone crunching their food. I hate dishes being left out. I hate things being out of place or unorganized. And I really cant stand feet hanging out a car window. But, one of my biggest pet peeves has to be smoking in public areas. I hate how there are signs posted all around doors at shopping malls, grocery stores and restaurants  that say “NO SMOKING”, so people decide to smoke 10 feet from the door instead of next to the door. While, I have to thank them for not smoking right next to the door of the facility I am entering, I don't think 10 feet is going to help. I still have to pass them going in and out.I am an ex smoker. I smoked for almost 5 years and the day I found out I was pregnant with my son, I threw away half a pack and haven't looked back. When I did smoke I never smoked in-front of doors that people had to walk through, I never smoked in restaurants  even when you were allowed to, and I always moved away from people when they needed to pass me. It was my choice to smoke and fill my lungs with waste but those who don't smoke, it wasn't their choice to fill their lungs with my second hand smoke. Now, all these places I mentioned are bad places to smoke, but the one place I absolutely hate, hate, hate to see someone smoking is a playground. Yes, people actually light up their cigarette at playgrounds where children play! I think it should be a punishable crime to light up at a playground around kids. Studies have shown secondhand smokers have a risk of coronary heart disease that is 30% higher than for nonsmokers who are not exposed to secondhand smoke. 3000 nonsmokers die every year from lung cancer caused by ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke). Imagine the impact on a child. According to the EPA, between 200,000 and 1,000,000 kids with asthma have their condition worsened by secondhand smoke every year. Also, passive smoking may also be responsible for thousands of new cases of asthma every year. Children who breathe in secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from dental cavities, eye and nose irritation, and irritability. Kids are very impressionable when they are young and seeing an adult or an older teen smoking is only pushing it into their heads that its okay. Also, a lot of these parents think its okay to just throw their butts on the ground. All they think is, "hey, this cigg is out, its not going to burn down the playground so why not". They dont think about that baby thats playing in the sandbox or crawling around in the grass that comes across that butt and decides to eat it, or the squirrel that comes across it. No, they just care that the trashcan is 10 yards away and they are too lazy to walk over to it.

If you are reading this and you are one of these people, SHAME ON YOU! I'm not going to tell you to stop smoking, because that's your choice and who am I to tell you how you should live or die. But think about other people and kids. Think about who you are effecting and who you are killing with your smoke. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Parents-Who-Smoke-on-the-Playground-Deserve-a-Punch-in-the-Face/111463688880851#!/pages/Parents-Who-Smoke-on-the-Playground-Deserve-a-Punch-in-the-Face/111463688880851?v=wall