Your math teacher always said, "Check your work"

Saw this video on the news tonight. Evidently, this guy was paying his utility bill online, but he misplaced the decimal point. Instead of paying the $113.00 that was owed, he ended up submitting a payment for $11,300.00. He didn't notice until his bank account was cleaned out.

[side note: I'm impressed that he had $11k in his bank account in the first place]

Anyway, if that wasn't bad enough, the utility company refused to refund his money. They gave him a credit! Like he says in the video, he pretty much has his bill paid up for the next seven years or so.

Can you imagine? I mean, it seems like poor customer service is the norm these days, but come on! This was obviously a mistake.

The company finally did issue a refund, but only after he went to the media. How kind.

We love the SLO life

Last weekend, my parents were kind enough to offer to keep the kids a couple nights, so we jumped in the car and took a SLO trip. No, we didn't drive slowly, it stands for San Luis Obispo, and it's a little slice of heaven. Besides being a beautiful area, it's where the two of us met, fell in love, and lived the first year of married life, so it holds a lot of special memories. We make the trip as often as we can, especially since McLintocks has the best food I've ever tasted in my life.

We stayed in Pismo Beach at the Sandcastle Inn. It was ok for the price and on such short notice. However, we both decided that we much prefer the nearby SeaVenture for their fluffy beds, yummy breakfast delivered to the room, and the personal spa on every balcony. Next time. :)

Here's a view of the hotel from the beach; it's the one with the blue canopies

We had a pier-view room, and as advertised, here's the view of the pier from our room

"Man's Best Friend"

This was the best composition I could come up with for this yellow airplane giving scenic rides. Click the picture to make it a little larger.

Here's Brian in a cool tree at the North Beach Campground . A short walk through this well-maintained state campground leads to the monarch grove (pictures below!)

Trail to the grove

I think this guy was stalking the monarchs

Here's an example of what you can see at the monarch grove. There are huge clusters of monarchs hanging everywhere from the eucalyptus trees. Look closely at the center of the picture; they look like leaves at first glance.

The monarchs come to the beach to spend the winter

Strangely missing from this collection is the photo I *didn't* take. If anyone who was there that morning were to post a blog, I'm sure they would have this picture posted. It was a shot easily captured by those having trouble getting their lenses to reach the top of the trees where most of the clusters were located. Two monarchs were on the ground doing the twitterpated tango, if you get my drift. About 15 people were hovered around in a huge circle taking pictures. I think this is what reality TV has done to our culture; have they no sense of decency?? Give the happy couple some privacy, for goodness sake!

The snowglobes are here, the snowglobes are here!

Happy day, my snowglobes came today! I promised pictures, so here they are. I'll take a group photo once we get them all into a display of some sort.

This one might be my favorite. It's got the whole crew surrounding the Disney castle, complete with fireworks going off in the background. There's a blower inside the globe to keep the "snow" falling, and it plays "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes"

Close-up detail of the lovely Belle

He's going to Disneyland!

Don't forget these guys on the back!

Snow white and her friends

She rotates as "Whistle While You Work" plays; check out Bashful hiding in the back behind the globe

I love the detail on the jewels

It's Doc, but he looks pretty Happy as well

Everybody's favorite, Dopey. I didn't realize until I watched the movie as an adult that he never speaks

I had a little trouble photographing this one because of lighting issues, but the fiber optic fairy is very cool. It plays "Toyland"

I love the interaction between these two; look at Pinnochio's gaze

The famous spaghetti scene between Lady and the Tramp. It plays "Bella Noche." Bad news, though- the lights don't light up properly, so this one's going to have to be shipped back.

Despite the name "Mickey's Nightmare," I think it's really cute. It plays (what else?) the "Mickey Mouse March"

Did I pick a favorite yet? I think this one might be it. Colby and I watched "Pete's Dragon" together recently; Elliot is so loveable! This one plays "Candle on the Water"

Our plan is to construct some sort of shelving in the art niche to display these. Hopefully we can get something strong enough to hold them all up!

Me and my Valentine

This was taken at our church's Sweetheart Banquet last Friday night. Actually, it's a picture of a picture, but that's beside the point.

The cool thing about our matching shirts is, those hearts are actually little lights (think the "life meter" on the old nintendo video games). When we are close together, all the lights are on, but when we get farther apart, our "meter" gets low and only half the hearts light up. It's really rather clever. :)

Thank goodness I'm not breastfeeding anymore

A little earlier today, Colby wanted a bite of my crumb cake. Not wanting him to take too big of a bite- they're in the 100 calorie package, so the servings are pretty small!- I just held it in my hand for him to take a bite. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, my finger was smack dab in the middle of his top and bottom molars, so when he chomped down.... OUCH. I guess he figured I didn't need that fingertip anymore.

When the kids were babies, at times they would get a little overzealous while nursing and bite the...uh.."hand"... that fed them. After the fingertip episode, I'm *really* glad I'm not breastfeeding anymore.

This artist got my portion of creativity

Aww, how sweet!

Awesome photographer

I learned of Danielle Biel when I took a wedding coordinating class last year (or was it the year before?), but I only recently discovered her website and blog. Can I just say, I *LOVE* her work? This is one of my favorite weddings that she's posted. I especially like the photo of the rings on the invitation and the one where the bride is holding up the photo booth pictures. Awesome work. If I ever needed a wedding photographer, you'd better believe it would be Danielle. She also does family, baby, maternity, and boudiour photography. (http://www.skyebluphotography.com) I hope one day to get all four of us in for a family session.

Snowglobes!!!

I've always loved snowglobes, Disney ones in particular, but had never gotten any myself. That changed this past Christmas when Brian got me these two beauties:

Aladdin and Jasmine on their magic carpet ride; it plays "A Whole New World"

Tinkerbell in a bottle, I think in Captain Hook's quarters; it plays "You Can Fly"

Well it just so happened that today they were having a fabulous sale at the Disney Store online- up to 70% off snowglobes! Of course I had to jump on it, especially since they were also offering free shipping on orders over $60.00.

I originally had eight of them in my cart, but I didn't want to go overboard (too late!), so I narrowed it down to just six. The other two will have to come along later.

So now I anxiously await the arrival of my newest snowglobes: Lady and the Tramp, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mickey's Nightmare (not scary), Pete's Dragon, Disneyland, and Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy. I'll add pictures when they get here. Now to find somewhere to put them all!

What does his sphincter have to do with it?

"McCain all but Clinches; Romney Departs"

Is the first half of this headline funny to anyone else? And not for political reasons either...

Bathing Suit Contest, 1922

This is supposedly a vintage photograph of a bathing suit contest in 1922. My how times have changed!