Help Wanted, Help Found

My dog Steve was decidedly pleased when I got the mail today. This is a picture of him with a Kashi TLC Pita Crisp. We got a WHOLE BOX OF CRACKERS in the mail today!!! Yippee! (Note: some of my friends get free beds, trips, cards and clothes....but I have to say I am pretty stoked with free snack foods! (My caboose isn't this...*ahem*...luxurious from salads y'all!) I LOVE all things Kashi. We have eaten most every cereal, cracker and cereal bar they put out. We signed up online to get the newsletter and any freebie surprises. I have received free coupons for anything they offer a coupon for, along with four or five additional $1.50 coupons for my friends. I always sometimes share them with my actual friends. Never have I received a whole real full size box in the mail from them. (Perfect with a Three Floyd's beer!) I don't know if they are all that different from their awesome TLC "Tasty Little Cracker" line, but they sure are awesome. Of course...

We do not buy much processed food. I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan's book Food Rules and so we strive to eat real food and cook most of it ourselves. Except when we go for fast food naughtiness too often. (Ahem, I digress.) At any rate, one night when my brain was scrambled and dinner was NOT going to happen without some help from my husband John, he went to the grocery store for us. John chose a pot roast from the refrigerated section. A POT ROAST! You know, the food item your Grandma makes on Sunday afternoons because it takes hours to do it right? Well this one took a few minutes in the microwave, and was so delicious we scraped our plates and I was a little angry there was not more of it. I was THRILLED, mortified and stunned about how easy it was. Since the ingriedient label wasn't as long, complicated and gross as one might imagine, I decided we would buy this again sometime as soon as possible. A few days later we were in the grocery store and I was l...

The Apple Computer Store: Heaven or Hell? Some of you see this modern technology store as a holy place worthy of a pilgrimage. Well let me tell you, I pilgrimaged and it isn't Heaven. Maybe Hell is a bit harsh...but let me share the customer service experience I had this week. My husband has turned me into a Mac person more because he knows a lot more about these sorts of things than I do. I think the branding of Mac as hip and cool is super effective. As a Mac user I feel ten years younger and twenty pounds thinner not to mention MUCH smarter just because I use a Mac. But here is where I am not thrilled: The customer service at the telephone level. I had called a few days earlier and set an appointment at the Apple store at University Park Mall in Mishawaka, Indiana for 12:15pm Thursday June 30th to have our iMac G5 looked at. It was NOT performing whatsoever despite my hubs efforts to do all the stuff we can do to make it work usually. They asked my name and maybe my...

Help FOUND through Assistant General Manager Ron Potter at Menard's in Valparaiso, IN We bought this grill with some yard sale proceeds and were excited to return to our charcoal grilling foodie heaven! It was on sale, nice sized and good lookin'! My dear Husband battled with some shlocky hole alignments in putting it together, but other than family entanglements expected with two tiny kidlets, assembly was timely. We used it for the first time on Father's Day. (If you must know, we grilled onion burgers. Yup, they were tasty.) What left a bad taste in our mouths was the top of the grill on which the paint peeled up. We are not idiots, we didn't light a huge fire and close the grill or anything...this was just a shoddy product. A shoddy product that we paid cash for since we live debt free. A shoddy product for which we threw away the receipt , not expecting this would need to be returned. The booklet for "The Original Outdoor Cooker" charcoal...

Help Found: Michael's Craft Store By Heather Curlee Novak We moved to Valparaiso a year ago, but the basement and garage look like we have yet to unpack. Among the little often overlooked chores were several art pieces I had purchased over the years but never framed or hung up. One inspired morning (After six years or longer per piece.) I finally drug out all that needed to be framed in our home. My previous professional framing experience was Hobby Lobby, which I love, but everything always cost fifty dollars. Three small things framed: fifty dollars. One poster framed: fifty dollars. And it took two trips because I had to go back and pick up my completed pieces a week or two later. Which now meant hauling tiny tots in with me and carrying them and my work out again. So you may see my reluctance to take four items in to Michael's to get them framed. I towed along my sleeping infant and charming two year old to finally get this nagging "to do" TO DONE...

I am a fake redhead. I've been a fake redhead for about 20 years and most every month of those years I have colored it red my very own self. I love salon color and know it is better in every way, but I just rarely have the budget for it when I know I can do a fair second for so much less. I have even tried beauty school color but it is just too hit or miss for me. Besides, I can color my hair in my own bathroom as my two bitty kidlets sleep instead of hiring a sitter and scheduling everything to go to have it colored by professionals. So I slack. Recently I gawked at a beauteous head of red red red hair as we dropped our kids off at the YMCA to go work out. I said, "Please tell me that is not natural, and then tell me where you get it done!" The pretty lady laughed and said, "Actually I work at a salon, Vanis , here in Valparaiso." We talked and I struggled not to ask to touch her red hair like I did before when I had hair lust." I plan to che...

NOTE: This is a review of the OLD BUCK"S Shoe Repair. As of Fall 2011 new owners have taken over and the store looks great and the folks are attentive and personal...I cannot wait to have a reason to go in there again! Help WANTED: Buck's Shoe Repair, Valparaiso, IN PART TWO By Guest Blogger Sharon Angelina (If you missed part one of this hilarious and harrowing tale of terrible service please check out yesterdays' Part One!) (continued from yesterday) I would have interrupted, but never did find a polite pause in their important conversation to do so. I coughed, cleared my throat, insinuated myself in FRONT of Mr. Customer, and plopped my bag of boots on the counter. Finally, in one grand irritated gesture, Mr. Buck gave me a quick scowl, swished a customer repair ticket out of his chest pocket, growled, "Fill this out," and resumed his deep conversation. That was enough. I said "NO, I just want to know if these can be fixed." I reached in...

NOTE: This is a review of the OLD BUCK"S Shoe Repair. As of Fall 2011 new owners have taken over and the store looks great and the folks are attentive and personal...I cannot wait to have a reason to go in there again! Help WANTED: Buck's Shoe Repair, Valparaiso IN Sharon Angelina, Guest Blogger & commentary by Heather Curlee Novak This one came in to me loooong but so good and painfully bad I just have to keep it intact. Enjoy PART TWO tomorrow! It all started in fall of 2003 with the fake snakeskin boots. They were trashy, had chunky 5 inch heels, and were found in a bin at a resale shop. I couldn't pass them up. They spoke to me. What can I say, I was going through a phase, that's another story. But after I got them home and snuck upstairs past my kids to try them on in private with my plaid mini skirt, I discovered the heel on the left boot was wobbly. I knew they were too good to be true. I immediately regretted the six bucks I had spent on them, t...

Hines Plumbing ...these guys are like a good (not great) relationship; the end result is satisfying but you might be doing most of the calling! Jack the owner is very upfront about cost which is helpful if you are on a tight budget like we are. We have called them for a number of issues from a leaking sink to a flooding basement. I have had to call a few times to confirm appointment times or even get them to come out but since we have a relationship already I haven't given up and called someone else. Persistence here seems to get me the guy in the end, right? But I'm paying them...wow, lots of joke potential there right? My only true disappointment was when they assessed the front water and sewer lines needed to be replaced they didn't warn us what the yard would look like when they were through. Destroyed. War torn. Embarrassing. Sure, they tried to do a bit with the dirt pile and spread some grass seed after I asked, but they sure aren't landscapers! I al...

Help Wanted: www.borders.com By Heather Curlee Novak with Lee Burdorf, Guest Blogger My friend Lee sent me this story about his experience with Borders Books online: I ordered a book online from Borders.com. I feel badly about their closing the store here and having problems. So, I thought I would give them some business. When you order things online you usually get an instant confirmation by email. When I hadn't received the email confirmation after several hours, I decided to call Borders to see if there was a problem. After sifting through several recorded messages, I got a live human. But he obviously was in a foreign country, probably India.* I could barely understand him and it took forever to explain to him my problem. I was on the phone with him for an agonizing 20- to 30 minutes and he was still unable to find my order. Finally, I asked if I could speak to his Supervisor. A woman came on the line and told me they had my order but for some reason it hadn'...

This story is from my friend Sara from her trip to Germany. This is real "Raving Fan' service. As a matter of fact I do have a Customer Service story. While in Munich earlier this month I stayed at the BAYERISCHER HOF. I slept in the first morning. When I finally got down to the lobby it was beyond the breakfast hours. I asked the Concierge where we might find a coffee at this time of day. He named a coffee house on the town square. As I looked blank he whipped out at map to show me where to go, Then he said "No. It is too complicated. My colleague will show you. Also, as they might be busy at this time, I'll call to get you a table." So he called and his colleague,Tina, took us to the door. I thought she would point us on our way. But NO. She began walking with us, down the street for two blocks, then across a sweet little park, turned right, across this new street and on a few buildings, in the door, into the elevator, up to the "first" floor an...

This customer service experience story is from my friend Dana. She is a web savvy and customer service oriented woman I met eons ago in Chicago who runs "Words To Sweat By" out of San Jose California. Find her funny motivational workout gear here . This is the story in Dana's words: What should have been a quick trip to Sears turned into a two-hour long debacle. We went into the tool section to buy (you guessed it) a tool chest for my DH. He knew what he wanted but also needed to fiddle for a couple of minutes to confirm. After 20 minutes someone finally came to help him, but then once he had decided (10 minutes after that) it took another hour and half to complete a transaction. Because we had started working with one sales person, it appeared we couldn't be helped by another and the one who had helped us kept helping others and telling us "one more minute". When he was finally ready to help us, he took the numbers that we wrote down, but didn'...

We moved to Valparaiso, IN almost one year ago and have delighted in checking out a variety of edibles available here. We live downtown so walking is our favorite option to access the charming and delicious downtown square's abundance of foodie indulgences. Last night my hubby and I had a walking date night. We strolled all over looking at houses, talking about our two Peeps and life in general. We ended up at Blackbird Cafe on Lincolnway for a cup of the black stuff and a sugar indulgence. It was not my first visit. The first few times I went for anything from a breakfast sandwich to a piece of pie for breakfast. I was always pleased with the results but grew to expect SLOW service if I ordered anything that needed to be made. I realized the service wasn't slow because they thought a lot of themselves, so I was OK with it. All staff was pleasant and helpful and the quality of the food made it worth the wait. The shining gem of this place I learned while on the phone wi...