Evey, Adro, Baby Dexter

If we don't chat again before then... HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's make 2011 the best year ever!!!

Photo of Evey, Adro, and Dexter, Rosalina and Brent's baby boy.

Side note: I bought three CDs from Love Garden today... new Kings of Leon ($7), old school Kill Creek ($5) and a live Radiohead ($7) CD. Oh yeah!

We're saying "butt" a lot

Evey is saying a lot of nonsense lately, and she seems to drop a lot of "butt"s in there, and then giggles. Once in a while she'll also say, "You're dead!" and we're like, "What? Don't say that, that's not nice."

Some of the nonsense will be like, "I'm going to call you cherry burrito." And then she'll laugh. Or she'll string random words together, like, "I'm going to sing and pretend that you're a banana and we're going to ESCAPE taco balloon BUTT tomatoes!!!"

I'm sure it's just a kid thing, a stage. I need to remember she's 4, and the word "butt" is really funny to her, and she probably just wants to speak more like an adult, but she's not well versed in stringing together complex sentences of more than a few words.

Boom-shaka-laka!

-- Evey has been saying "Boom-shaka-laka!" a lot lately after I said it once the other day.
-- I've got a new work computer, it's a MacBook Pro. I'm still trying to learn my way around it. There are fundamental differences that I'm struggling with, like the lack of a "home" key and an "end" key. Overall pretty awesome computer, though.
-- Adro is going to love these photos. You know how I know? Natural light. She loves pics of Evey from my Fujifilm Finepix when Evey's in natural light. Sadly, I haven't found a way to trick the camera into more photos like this unless the lighting is just perfect.
-- Week three of the new job started today. We celebrated by having "jeans and a ball cap" day.
-- Just sent an email to myself. Turns out "jeans and a ball cap" day has been extended to all of 2011. Man, I love my boss.
-- It's unbelievable to me that 2010 is days away from being over.
-- Grandma Judy took Evey swimming today. Evey was WORE OUT. She slammed a chocolate milk after waking up from her late afternoon nap. That's a 4-year-old's idea of refreshment, right there. That much chocolate milk after a day of swimming would have made me throw up.
-- $1 for a year of ESPN the Magazine? I don't love that magazine, I barely like it, but at 4 cents an issue, how can I say no?
-- Movies Evey got for Christmas: Toy Story 3, Star Wars, The Swan Princess, Lilo and Stitch, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Her favorite so far? Lilo and Stitch.
--
-- Adro was right. Sometimes, it's hard to say why it was a good day... but it just was a good day.

HO HO at iHOp

I hope you'll forgive me, we didn't get a Christmas card out this year. It's just been abnormally busy, with me changing jobs. Heck, you can tell my mind is elsewhere, I've barely been blogging here lately... Also, I haven't been updating my fantasy NBA team (gasp!) I used to HATE IT when people did that, now I'm doing it.

Here is a photo we could have maybe used for a Christmas card though. I like it, except that Evey is a bit out-of-focus and Santa has a tatt. I took it with my new cell phone (a Samsung Epic that I love, but that might have to be returned soon -- sorry, Hendo!)

But this was awesome... it was two Fridays before Christmas, and we stopped in to grab breakfast at IHOP. Santa was sitting in the back of the place having a cup of coffee. Evey sat by him and was shy, but clearly happy to see him.

It was a great Christmas for us. Evey got a new pink bike from Santa, and she's thrilled. We got to have my Mom over, which was great. We hosted Christmas Eve (my family, my Mom, and the Johnsons) and Adro simply nailed the dinner, and everyone had a great time.

We hope you had a great Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) as well. I'll try to get better at updating Evey's (and my) blog as I get a grasp on my new job.

My brother-in-law, MJ, said on Christmas Eve, "it's going to be a great 2011." I agree, don't you?

Best color man in the business?

Evey took this photo of us with her "black grandma," or, as we call it, her "black camera."

We had another awkward moment at our house this weekend, where one person didn't know what the others were talking about... and that one person was momentarily appalled.

The conversation went like this (while watching college basketball):

Seth: I like Fran Fraschilla. He's one of the best color guys out there.
Hendren: Yeah... he's one of the only good ones.
Erica: ...what... are you guys... talking about?!?
Seth: Fran Fraschilla -- the color guy.
Erica: (upset now) WHAT?!?
Seth: Wait, wait, wait... the COLOR COMMENTATOR... you know, not the play-by-play man, but the color man... the color commentator?
Hendren: What did you think we were talking about?
Erica: Well, I heard Seth said he thought this one guy was the best 'colored guy,' and then you chimed in and said, 'yeah, well there aren't many of 'em...'

Maybe you had to be there... but we got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Seth Jones named editor-in-chief of Golfdom magazine

It's been a busy week. Here's why:

Seth Jones, a 12-year veteran of the golf industry media, has been named editor-in-chief of Golfdom magazine. He previously served as the senior associate editor of Golf Course Management magazine. Jones officially assumed the role of editor-in-chief of Golfdom on Monday, Dec. 13th.

A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for GCM in 1999 as an intern. Upon graduation he was hired full-time, and quickly moved up the ranks of GCM thanks to his award-winning writing and photography talents. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In his 12-year golf industry media career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few.

"I'm honored to be named editor-in-chief of such a fine publication as Golfdom," Jones says. "Though I'm changing magazines, I'm excited to be covering the same great industry. It's the people who make this industry great, and I look forward to telling even more of their stories."

"I'm very excited about Seth joining our team, and taking the magazine to the next level," says Pat Roberts, Golfdom's longtime publisher. "The Golfdom brand has been serving this market since 1927, and we've been lucky enough to publish it since 1999. The combination of Seth's experience and enthusiasm ensures our readers will continue to enjoy and learn from the industry's leading publication."

Chief among Jones' responsibilities will be to find and write engaging cover stories for Golfdom. Jones will immediately add his editorial voice to the magazine, beginning with the January Golf Industry Show preview issue. Jones also promises to ramp up Golfdom's on-line presence by increasing content on the Golfdom blog and Twitter feed.

Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and TOCA. He can be reached at his office at 785-690-7047 or via e-mail at sjones@questex.com.

Golfdom's primary readership is superintendents -- the people who manage and maintain golf courses. Golfdom, which was founded in 1927, strives to educate and entertain its readers through content that underscores utility and provides practical information to help them in their careers. The original Golfdom magazine was founded in 1927 as the industry's first business journal and was published until 1981 when it was closed due to changes in the market and the original publisher's declining health. In 1999, Questex Media's Landscape Group revived the title to launch a new upscale publication designed to fill the niche between the highly technical association journal and the newsy tabloids.

Thank you.
Pat Roberts, Publisher

YESSSSSSSSS

That's my girl!

First photo with her new toy camera… (Grandma Judy took it).

 

Three more hours to go here…

 

Seth Jones

Senior associate editor, Golf Course Management magazine

Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA)

1421 Research Park Dr.

Lawrence, KS 66049

(785) 832-3682 (direct)

(785) 424-4890 (cell)

(785) 832-3665 (fax)

sjones@gcsaa.org (e-mail)

 

Read GCM on the web, www.gcsaa.org

 

Christmas tree decorating by Evey

I used to hate putting up the Christmas tree when I was a kid.

Watching my own girl put up each ornament and then come running to me for another? Magical.

Even with a level-3 hangover.

Happy 4th birthday big girl!

I can't believe how big you're getting on me! BURRITO!!!

Shake your butt!

That's Evey's new catch-phrase. I should probably tell her to shut it down, but it's so cute when she sings it.

Hosted a Christmas party for my GCM team this weekend. A great time, nice to get together with everyone for a few beers. Of course a few became a lot, and this morning I was dealing with a level-3 hangover. Oh well, worth it.

Too much to do, too little time. This might be a quiet week around the blog. We'll see.

And here's a photo

Of Bat-Girl. Have I already posted this? I don't even know. It's been a crazy week. I'm going to bed.

Radio song

It's pretty unmistakable, how sorry the radio waves are in northeast Kansas.

In my Camaro the other day, I needed a good song to perk me up. The iPod was stashed away, and i didn't know what cd (rage against the machine's first) was in the cd player. I clicked through my pre-selected choices...

Of the music choices, two stations were playing Def Leppard. Different songs, but... Def Leppard? Who is still into this band? If they played a show in this area tomorrow, how big a venue would they need? (I'm guessing Liberty Hall.) And how much would they have to price their tickets to sell out a place like the Sprint Center? $5?

So why is this band still all over the airwaves? Do Kansas Citians really still clamor for Def Leppard?

My self-imposed boycott of 96.5 is still underway. I take some solace in the thought that I could have clicked over there for something better. But I can't, based on principle.

I know, sattelite radio, cds, iPod, etc., can help calm me down. But it seems to me that Kansas City deserves better radio. I'm just constantly shocled at how bad it is.

A recent issue of Rolling Stone did open my eyes recently, about the death of alternative rock, on the airwaves. There were something like 3,000 country stations nationwide, while there were less than 300 alternative rock stations.

I'm fine with 3,000 country stations... But maybe if rock stations would play a more modern selection, maybe more would survive.

Sucker!

I took Evey with me to the barber shop the other day. The wait was long, but she did good. She stood right in front of me while I was getting my hair cut, enraptured by the process.

After I was done, Mike offered Evey a sucker, and she took it. But Evey doesn't like much candy except for chocolate. I knew she wouldn't eat it. No problem.

We walked down the block toward the car, and I decided to pop into Love Garden, see if Evey would give me some time to peruse. Brilliant on Love Garden's part, they have one of their old cash registers set up in the corner, at knee level, with some small person stools around it. Evey found this and started playing. "Dad, if you need me, I'll be over here," she said.

Perfect. That cash register bought me some time to shop.

I checked on her every few minutes. Eventually, I saw her unwrapping that sucker. "She'll be giving me that soon, once she figures out she doesn't like it," I thought to myself.

A minute later, Evey was pulling on my jacket while I was cruising through the used CDs. "Dad," she said. "Can you take this? I don't like it."

"Sure, Evey," I said. I was about to put the sucker in my mouth -- no sense in letting it go to waste -- when...

"I dropped it on the floor -- it's yucky."

The sucker is inches from my tongue. I look at it. It's got dirt on it, a black hair, half a dust bunny. It was disgusting.

I'm so, so glad I didn't put that thing in my mouth. Thank you, Evey, for the last-second warning.

Original rules of basketball

I saw this in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine (a pretty interesting issue, actually). The original rules of basketball, up for auction.

These rules once came into Willie C's while I was a waiter there. I remember this guy came in, sat in the back, and he had this black briefcase with him. He didn't sit in my section, but another waiter told me about what he had, so I had to go check it out.

I went back there and asked him about it -- he opened the case and showed it to me. It was sort of like the scene in Pulp Fiction when Vincent Vega opens the briefcase. "What'd you bring it in for?" I asked. "Would you leave this in your car?" he asked. I guess not, but I think I'd keep my onion rings away from the thing. The guy told me he was Naismith's grandson, and that's how he came to own this document. I remember Naismith called the game "Basket Ball" and I found that interesting.

Anyway, I kept it short with thise guy because I didn't totally believe him. But then I saw this story and I was reminded of him, and I figure, yeah, that was probably him, that was probably the original rules of basketball, and yeah, this guy is going to have an extra $2 million soon.

Interview with Evey -- take two

This is a follow-up to the "Interview with Evey" video I posted a few weeks ago. Taken immediately after I filmed the first one. This one has some funny moments too, (OKLAHOMA?!?) but again, I would only recommend it if you are a big fan of Evey Melosa Jones.

It should be noted that I love the lighting in these videos, and will probably do more interviews with Evey standing in the same spot... she looks like a little angel standing there.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'll be back to posting next Monday.

Jesse and Cinderella

Here's another photo of Amelia and Evey, this one from Grey's Halloween party a few weeks ago.

I wonder how many of you are out there still working on a Tuesday before Thanksgiving... and how many are already on vacation. Neither me or Adro took any vacation for Thanksgiving, we figured we'll save it for Christmas time.

I'm not at all excited about the Beatles being available on iTunes, but I am very excited for the 200,000 songs eMusic added to their catalogue last week.

Parents, if you're looking for some cool free computer games to entertain your kids, check out www.yogabbagabba.com. Under the "Gizmos" section they have some pretty cool stuff that allows the kids to paint with the mouse and be a little creative.

Is anyone impressed that a tequila bottle can pour a shot? How's about taste -- is that still important, Cuervo?

If you're outta here, have a great Thanksgiving. And hopefully KU can give Mizzou a little game on Saturday.

Highs and lows

Highlight of the weekend: Bart's annual pre-Thanksgiving feast -- good friends, good food and bad karaoke.

Lowlight of the weekend: Getting a $133 ticket from Lawrence Police Department for allegedly skipping a stop light by cutting through a parking lot. Apparently it is illegal to change my mind about stopping at the liquor store.

Best food of the weekend: (tie) Whataburger brought across the state line by Travis and Amelia's birthday cake (pictured), made by Jess.

Funniest moment of the weekend: When Evey told me, as her and Adrianne left for church, that if any dragons or dinosaurs came to the house, that I shouldn't get scared, but I should call them right away.

Official saying of the weekend: "Come on, burrito." Maybe someday I'll explain. Burrito.

Evey's nightmare

Evey took a nap at Elvira's today, and awoke crying, frightened from a nightmare she had.

She told Elvira all about it. When I walked in to pick her up, she told me all about it. And then she wanted to call all her family and tell them about it, too.

Adrianne handed the phone to Evey and told her the number to dial to reach "Papi," Adro's dad in Texas. He answered, and he got to hear all about the nightmare.

Since I heard the story of the nightmare twice, I thought I'd describe it here. She describes the nightmare in vivid detail, using a few big words.

So, this is the afternoon "lightmare" Evey had:

"I'm in a spooky house and my Mom is there. She wakes up and tells me to go home but then she disappears. So then I go down the stairs and outside to find her. There's a yellow ducky. And it's dark outside. And then there's a creature! The creature has black eyes. I have a green pear. So I throw the pear and the creature follows it with its head like this (mimics following the green pear with her eyes). It was a scary creature, I didn't like it."

I told Evey not to worry about it, it was just a nightmare, and she wouldn't have the same nightmare tonight. She asked me, "So what am I going to dream about?" I told her I had no idea. And then she said, "I know -- I'm going to dream about Disneyland and Disney World."

Relieve Your Pain!

Sadie and Evey at the Missouri Comets open house.

Whatever you do

DO NOT SEE SKYLINE.

Awful, just... Awful.

Warning: work talk ahead

I don't write about work here often, and I don't know if this blog is indeed something of a journal of my life or a travelogue of Evey, but, something happened yesterday that I feel the need to write about.

My editor-in-chief, Ed, was laid off yesterday.

It's a shit economy, we all know that. It's been hard on the publishing business. It's been hard on my company. And yesterday, the domino fell that cost my boss -- one of my few mentors -- his job.

It sucks. That's not eloquent, but that's the way I feel about it.

Ed gave me my first shot at a job in journalism over ten years ago. I started with my company as an intern while I was still in college... I was a junior at KU at the time. I still remember the phone call I got from Ed offering me the internship... it was on my first cell phone, and this cell phone -- I think the company was Cellular One -- was about the size of a Burrito King burrito. It barely fit in my pocket.

I'm in class at 2:30 in the afternoon -- I remember the class, it was on the first floor of Fraser Hall. The instructor was a younger woman, she was nice, but too young, and something about her... I barely listened to her. My cell phone rang during class -- yeah, faux pas on my part, but I was hopeful for Ed's call, and I didn't care if it interrupted class. I think this was before 'vibrate' on the phone was invented.

I leave the room to take the call. "Seth, Ed from GCSAA... we enjoyed our interview with you, and if you think you can handle the schedule, we'd like to offer you the job."

I knew that it was a big-time call. I knew at that moment that it was important for my career.

I didn't know at the time that I'd still be working there in 2010. I didn't know that I'd meet the future Mrs. Jones there. I didn't know that that phone call would lead me to a beautiful wife, a beautiful daughter, a beautiful house, and the most kick-ass man-cave I know of outside of Bruce f***ing Wayne's. But that's what that phone call was: opportunity.

I've worked for Ed for the last 12 years. He's the only editor-in-chief I've ever had. And he single-handedly was responsible for keeping our team intact. He's a father figure, and my GCM team is more of a family than it is a work team. Ask people who work for other teams in my building: they envy the work environment of the publications team. And that's a credit to my former boss, Ed.

When I came back to that classroom -- the class was probably anthropology or something -- the young teacher barked at me for taking a call during class. I took it with a smile, apologized, told her it wouldn't happen again. And then I looked out the window and drifted away. "Seth Jones, intern, Golf Course Management magazine," I thought to myself. "On top of the world."

Twelve years later, I am on top of the world. Thank you, Ed.

There was a party in KC!

Last Saturday the Joneses and the Kaminskis went to "Yo Gabba Gabba Live! There's a Party in My City" at the Midland by AMC.

Yeah. sorry Kaminskis -- we were watching Muno, Foofa and Brobee at the same time KU was making its historic come-from-behind win over Colorado (35 points in the 4th quarter? Who knew?)

But the YGG show was really pretty good! There was an impressive video board at the front of the stage, which contained a door the characters could walk out of. The stage show was elaborate, with good sound and lots of dancing. Cannons fired off confetti a few times, and there was a balloon drop. And Biz Markie was there to do Biz's beat of the day in person.

But the best part of the show had to be watching your kid's reaction. Check out the third photo, the one of Evey looking at the stage. She's just having a blast.

The show was about 90 minutes long with an intermission. I got a little bored at one point, but for the most part the show was fun, even for me.

And if you haven't been to a show at the Midland by AMC yet, GO! Such a beautiful theater.

Recycle this!

Editor's note: I wrote this a week or two ago, when I was exceptionally drunk.

SO, a harsh realization may have come up recently.

This harsh realization has to do with TUBE TVs.... yeah, TUBE TVs.

So, I'm pretty new to the flat screen world. I can actually remember when the first flat-screen came into my home. It was... a good day.

But what about these old tube TVs?

I remember at our last garage sale I tried to sell a tube TV... maybe a 20-inch?

I had it out, with the price tag of $20. Why not? This TV could potentially be the perfect piece for somebody.

One garage saler told me, "I tried selling a TV that was bigger, for half the price, and it didn't move." Uh-oh.

So, yeah.... that TV is still in my garage.

A week ago (why did I choose such a long-winded post today?!?) my MIL (mother-in-law) was at my house, and I was trying to convince her to hang with us. "Oh!" she said, "I need to go to Free State to recycle the old TV in my car!" (speak this line in a M-I-L voice for complete accuracy.)

I told her, "Let me take care of it" (because I'm cool like that). She said, "OK." And then she said, "Let me give you $15..." and I think, "SCORE!" and then she says, "so you can recycle it."

And I said, "Hold up... you gotta pay $15... to recylce it?"

"Yes..."

"Give me $10 and I'll throw it in the river for you!"

(In an exasperated voice,) "Seth, there is enough trash in the river already!"

"Ok, Ok... $5 and I'll chuck this in the river for you..."

She knew I was messing with her, but I think for a second she thought that I might actually go throw that TV in the river. So I promised her that I would deliver the TV to the recycle people... even though the thought of paying $15 to get rid of something just baffled me.

But you know what? The recycle center -- where you pay $ 15 per item??? Was PACKED.

So now, it occurs to me, that rather than selling my shitty TV for $20, I most likely have to pay someone $15 to take it away from me!!!

Unless they wanna take it to the river....

The comprende category

I've been trying to explain some concepts to Evey lately. I don't know if this is reasonable, but I figure there's no way to tell unless I try.

For example, I tried to explain to her daylight savings on Friday afternoon, as we waited to pick up Mom from work. I told her to stop me if she got confused at any time. I finished my talk, and asked her, "Comprende?" and she smiled and said, "Comprende."

She did not seem too worried about the fact that the sunset was around 5 p.m. today, so I am keeping that one in the "comprende" category.

Then tonight, Evey asked me if we could watch "Pocahontas" while I was in the middle of watching the Chiefs game.

I decided to explain to Evey that Dad doesn't enjoy "Pocahontas," that he thinks it's a jingoistic piece of crap, and that the sound of Mel Gibson doing the voice of John Smith just grates on his soul. I told Evey that Dad likes to watch the Chiefs games. I asked her if she liked to watch Chiefs games. She said no. I asked her if Mom liked to watch Chiefs games. She said, "No, Mom likes to watch QVC." I told her that was right. I asked Evey what her favorite thing to watch was. She said "Scooby Doo." I asked her if she understood that Evey, Momma and Dad all have different things they like to watch, because they all have a different idea of "fun."

And Evey responded that she has fun watching "Scooby Doo," but Mom doesn't have fun watching it, because she's afraid of the "Lake Monster."

So I'm going to list that one in the "no comprende" category.

Photo is of Evey and her classmates at dance class.

(I like to imagine, when I'm posting via wireless, that the blog post looks like that scene in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" where Mike Teevee gets transported into the TV, and my blog is like that moment when Mike becomes colorful little squares floating in the sky, from one instrument to the other.)

Remember, remember

The 5th of November...

...I can think of no better way to celebrate the 5th of November than to go see Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

I'm such an anarchist.

Honey? Where is my super-suit?!?

Election day

We took Evey to New York school to see her great-grandma Virginia, who works as an election voulunteer (been doing it for a loooong time).

They had a kid's voting booth, so we let Evey at it. Most of the kids were 3rd and 4th graders, but what the heck. She tried writing her name on the voting registration but couldn't keep her name anywhere near one line...

But the worst part? She chose the box for Sam Brownback! No, Evey, nooooo!!!

It's ok. I've got 14 years to teach her...

Evey's Halloween costume

Interview with Evey

Friday Zombie O'POMP

In honor of Halloween, the one and only ROB ZOMBIE!!! I saw him at the Independence Event Center, bought a ticket in the parking lot for $30 ($55 face value) and went inside and rocked my mamma-jammin socks off! I worked my way up to about the third row of the pit! And me and Zombie both rocked our gray hair!

(i wasn't the oldest one there, either -- shock rock legend Alice Cooper opened! Are you serious!?!)

Jump!

Evey jumping -- no, SKYING -- at tumbling class the other day.

The girl's got her Dad's hops, circa 1996. It's phenomenal, really. We've had KU women's basketball coach Bonnie ...something-or-other ask if she could visit Evey's tumbling classes... I told her to chill out, Evey's only 3! And besides, she's surely going to be a Jayhawk when she's old enough... invest that recruiting time elsewhere, with older girls.

Would you like a quesadilla?

Why yes, Evey, I WOULD like a quesadilla!

Balance beam

Evey's dance class instructor says Evey's really good at the balance beam. She should be; every time we're in a parking lot Evey has to stop to walk on the top of every wheel stop she sees.

(Yeah, I google'd 'what do you call those concrete things in parking lots' to come up with the term "wheel stop.")

Friday O'POMP

Here is a photo of Evey with Neuty and Bella Boom. Evey is rockin' Trish's sunglasses.

Had a city league game tonight. Before i left, Evey handed me some of her sunglasses and said, "here, Dad, wear these, because people will want you to look cool."

If you are looking for something fun to do tomorrow night, the Wild West Film Fest will be showing at Liberty Hall starting at 7 p.m. They'll be showing some 30 5-minute movies made in 48 hours, including one in which I star in. It's an interesting event, there are good movies and bad movies, but hey, they're all shot in 48 hours and under 5 minutes in length!

Cheers to Elliott Smith, wish you were still alive, I never got to see you perform in person. Seven years ago today. Now i must have a beer, even though i had previously planned on refraining tonight...

Happy Anniversary!

Me and my wife celebrate our 4-year anniversary today. Happy anniversary babe, I love you!

We're not doing much to celebrate today. Adro, I'm probably on my way to buy flowers as you read this. Also, maybe we could go get lunch today? We could even go to Jason's Deli, even though I hate that place.

Tomorrow (Friday night) we are going out to properly celebrate. A few beers, then dinner and a movie. We're going to the Wild West Film Fest at Liberty Hall Friday night, where I'll have a movie showing (hopefully).

I told Adrianne this as we walked in to work the other day... I was nervous that it came out awkward, but she said "awww," so it must have came out right -- I love her today more than I've ever loved her before. And that's a good thing. This is our fourth year of marriage, and I think this was our BEST year of marriage so far.

Sure, we still have our disagreements. Remember, my wife is a perfectionist, and I am not. But together we're a great team. We're really starting to figure this out.

So, I love you babe! Happy anniversary.

(By the way, our beautiful little Evey took the photo at the top of this post!)

Best letter of complaint -- conclusion

So the next day, I get this email:

Ok we have gotten to the bottom of all of this and we will send you an email with a corrected escrow statement. Basically what happened is we collected from the seller to pay for first half of the taxes at closing but then when they came due they still showed that they were not paid so we cut a check from your escrow account to pay the taxes and the check the title company sent from the sellers got returned back to the title company and sent to the sellers which it was there responsibillity to pay the taxes.

If I didn't have you confused with someone else I would have checked into it more then I did and I appoligize for that but everything should be straightened out now.

Thanks

OK, I understand some people have trouble with there/their, but seriously, how can she keep spelling “apologize” like that?!? And why not just add one more “L” to “responsibillity” since we’re adding extras anyway? Three would make it even more absurd and even funnier.

I have a hard time comprehending her email as it is in desperate need of some punctuation marks. Every time I start reading that first paragraph I end up gasping for air midway through. Adro translated it for me thusly: they gave the sellers some money back they shouldn’t have when we closed… and then they wrongly came to us for the money… and when I squawked I made them reconsider what they had done… and it turns out they came to the wrong guy.

Got it? Got it.

Sorry, sellers, but apparently this shit sandwich was meant for you. It’s nothing personal.

Anyway, Adrianne was very happy with me that day. Though I actually understood nothing of what was going on, I apparently worded an email sternly enough – and with a fierce understanding of the “spell check” function – that I got a banker to actually do her job, and I also got the Joneses some money back.

Letter of Complaint part 2

Adrianne went straight to the office to rummage through the paper work on the house.

I knew this would really piss her off, in fact, it’d ruin her day. I wasn’t happy about it either, but if you know me, you know stuff like this doesn’t really ruin my day, it pisses me off for about ten minutes and then I move on with my day. I was worried that Adro, however, might not get to sleep that night, she’d be so pissed.

And as you know, when Momma ain’t happy, no one’s happy.

The next day I sent out this email to our mortgage loan officer, CC’ing or real estate agent:

Hello (name and name),

I recently got some bad news in the mail regarding my mortgage payment (see attached document) and just wanted to take this to everyone and see what happened? Is this accurate?

Thanks for your insight.

Seth

This was the response I got (her misspellings):

I am not sure what happened with the escrow account but my suggestion is to call US Bank and see what it would take to make up the shortage so your payment doesn'y increase this much. I have went back and looked at everything and I know sometimes because of the time frame that we closed it gets kind of strange because your taxes are due but yet they are not ready to be paid out yet and that can mess things up.. If you choose not to pay the shortage then your payment won't stay this way the entire time it is really up to you as to what you want to do.

I appoligize that I am just now returning your email but I didn't get the first one and we were closed on Friday..
Thanks

You can probably imagine I wasn’t real happy with this response. Besides the butchering of the English language (appoligize???), we never had any dealings with U.S. Bank for our loan. It seemed like she barely read the documents I sent her, and apparently asked her 9-year-old to type the response on her Blackberry while she dealt with more important customers…

Hence, my response:

(Name),

How is US Bank involved in any of this?

Neither of my questions were answered. The only thing I see in your reply is that things can get "kind of strange" and that "can mess things up."

I don't know who screwed up, but as a first-time home buyer, I put my trust into others, and somewhere along the lines a rookie mistake was made, and it's costing me over a thousand dollars. This rookie mistake should have been avoided.

If I were at a restaurant, I'd ask to speak with the manager. But this wasn't a cheeseburger I bought, it was a house -- the largest purchase of my life -- and someone failed to cross all the Ts and dot all the Is. That's the irony of the whole thing, isn't it? If I were at a restaurant, I'd at least get an apology from the manager and maybe a free dessert! But when buying a house, I get a poorly written email stating the obvious.

Don't worry, I'm not kicking over tables here or anything. I'm just looking for some customer service. You don't need to apologize for being slow to respond, that doesn't bother me. The $1800 I lost and the lack of real answers I'm getting is what bothers me.

-Seth

So she emails me back pretty quickly this time, but now she’s apparently wide awake and the effects of whatever drugs she was on have worn off. Turns out she had me “confused with someone else.” Even though I scanned and attached all the documents regarding the matter. She promises me she’ll “do some more research.” And by the way, she spelled “apologize” “appoligize” again and that just about made my head explode.

But I sit back and chill. I’m not expecting any good news, I just want to know what happened and I want someone to know I’m unhappy that the ball was dropped and I’m the one who gets to pay for the fuck-up.

Then, I get this email…

(The final part, tomorrow...)

My best letter of complaint yet

You may remember a year or two ago, I posted a couple letters I wrote, complaining about bad service. Both letters saw positive results, and I received reciprocity. (I love reciprocity, it’s one of my favorite things.)

Well, several months ago I was at it again. This time I saved the Jones family $1,800, so I’d have to say it’s my best letter of complaint yet.

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PART I: The letter

Adrianne typically grabs the mail out of the mailbox after work. She was opening a letter at the foot of the stairs, and I heard her mutter something like, “Holy shit.” “What is it?” I asked. “This letter… something was messed up, and it says our house payment is going up… $150 a month… for the next 12 months…”

It was effectively the “chance” card in Monopoly… that letter you get in the mail that says, Make general repairs on all your properties… pay $25 for each house you own, $100 for each hotel.

I guess it’s better than Go directly to jail, do not pass go, but this was a shit sandwich delivered to us by our friendly U.S. postal service employee.

I asked Adrianne to show me the letter. I read it. The letter instantly just looked ugly, one of those letters that’s printed off in two seconds by a giant printer, spit out, unceremoniously folded and stuffed into an envelope. No one even signed a name to the letter, it was just from ‘the bank.’

The letter plainly stated that we had not paid enough in taxes when we closed on our house. We were short around $1,800… ‘the bank’ informed us that it could demand this money in one lump sum right now… but since it was a benevolent bank, it would allow us to pay back the deficiency over 12 months.

Now, we could afford the extra $150, but that’s not the point. The point is, what happened? Why did this happen? Why weren’t enough in taxes collected? And why am I the guy left holding this letter?

Tomorrow... Part II...

Friday O'POMP: what can brown do for Seth?

Email sent to my coworkers, 10/13/10:

Attention people of Earth,

Do not be alarmed by the brown-haired man sitting in my office tomorrow. That's me. In character.

Y'see, we're making another movie this weekend. I've somehow been cast as "the son." The problem? I look older than "the dad." Hence, the dye job my wife will be performing on me tonight.

Hopefully this will peel about 10 years off my appearance... so I only look 40.

Thanks,

Seth
AKA
"The son"

Gimme 5 (if you want to)

• I'm doing a bowling charity event on Friday for Junior Achievement. I'm supposed to raise money for this event. If you'd like to shoot a donation my way, click here. One request... no more than $5, please. I don't like hitting up my people for money, but asking for a $5 bill for this, I think I can handle that.
• Special thanks to Kendall Heiman for answering the request for an old carpet that we'll use this weekend for our next movie.
• The new ESPN 30 for 30 about Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic? Whew... that was a tear-jerker. Did you watch it? What do you think about the fact that Valde, Dino Radja and Toni Kucoc never appeared together?
• I was at Best Buy today, and they had a DVD of the Rolling Stones on tour in 2001... 5 DVDs, over 50 songs. Originally $30, on sale for... $3.99. I couldn't pull the trigger. The thought of 5 DVDs, it was overkill. I'm not a big enough fan to handle that. If it were one or two DVDs, a tight set of their greatest hits, then yeah, I'd own it right now. But 5 DVDs, I just couldn't do it, even for the cheap price. But if you're a big Stones fan, you should go check that out...
• I stepped on a snail today. This really bothers me. The sidewalk in to my office is some underground railroad for snails apparently, because there are always a couple crossing it... this one was too close to the door and I didn't see it. Not a good way to start the day.
• 
  
• Went and saw my Mom this weekend, and she was doing great. Awesome getting to hang out with her. She even cooked me my favorite dish, coleo and beans. You know I had to take some of it down at 2 a.m. after I got back from Abasolo's house.
• Speaking of Abasolo, me and Greg took down team Abasolo (Mike and Mario) in horseshoes. A GAME OF HORSESHOES!
• Saw a shooting star in the sky Saturday night, that lingered for about 10 seconds. Pretty cool.
• What did I wish for? I didn't wish for anything, I just thought, "thanks," because life is pretty great, you know?
• Unless you're that snail.