J + A : February 2014

Friday, February 28, 2014

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Snowflakes

As much as I hate to see more snow, we had some beautiful snowflakes falling this morning.

(You hear J moving the trash can, not thunder)

More snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, but my fingers are crossed that it's the last snowfall of the season and warm weather is just around the corner!

Update: Those big flurries have turned into a surprising amount of snow! So much for a 30% chance of flurries today.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Puppy Pillow

If you hog the pillow when it's time for bed...

... you become the pillow.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Complaining Works

About a month ago I bought a box of Quaker cookies for us to take in our lunches. It turns out that one of the packages inside the (sealed) box had not been closed during the manufacturing process or had come open since. As I'm known to do in this sort of situation, I mailed the defective package to Quaker along with a letter. My letters to companies always begin with how much my family LOVES their products and then go on to tell them how DISAPPOINTED we were to discover a problem with one of their products.

Most times, complaining works! We almost always get at least a replacement for the damaged goods, and sometimes we get even more. This turned out to be one of those times. In today's mail we received two Quaker mini crocks and three $3 off coupons along with a letter of apology.

I'm a satisfied customer.

But wait, there's more. FedEx also left us a package today from OXO. At the same time I mailed the cookies to Quaker, I also mailed our wine stopper to OXO. Some of the rubber had started to pull away from the stopper so I sent the same sort of letter along with the damaged stopper. OXO sent us a brand new stopper - one that's been redesigned since we got our last one.

Once again, I'm a satisfied customer.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Strike a Pose

Last night I was looking through photos from the past year and I laughed as I came across a series of group photos we attempted to take at a wedding. Getting six adults to pose together is hard enough, but add in a baby and hilarity ensues.

Amazingly, one or two of these are actually pretty good.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Snoopy

Some mornings we remember to open the blinds in the guest room after we wake up. Other mornings we forget. Luckily, on the mornings we forget, Allie gives us a friendly reminder by repeatedly tapping the blinds with her paw until we open them.

She takes her role as guard dog very seriously.

Or perhaps she's a real-life "Snoopy."

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Eat Your Veggies

I dropped a piece of spinach* on the floor as I was making dinner tonight. Allie will eat almost anything off of the floor, but she wasn't interested in the spinach for some reason.

Like any good dad would do, J picked it up and added it to her food bowl as he was filling it.

Remember to eat your veggies!

*This spinach is not part of the current recall, but you should check any spinach in your fridge:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/spinach-recall-taylor-farms-e-coli_n_2687967.html

Monday, February 17, 2014

Accomplishments

I never thought I'd say this, but I envy the weather at the Winter Olympics - if only we could have such warm temperatures and such little snow here!

However, there's nothing like a long weekend with snow on the ground to help you get a lot done around the house. Here's what we did this weekend:

Finished our taxes. Sadly, we are not getting a refund.
Scanned and filed important documents that had piled up in our inbox.
Blasted our arms at the gym.
Groomed Allie in the garage - she looks so pretty now.
Washed lots of laundry (and still working on it).
Did some general vacuuming and cleaning.
Put together a donation for charity be picked up on Wednesday.
Watched some of the Sochi 2014 action with Allie.

"When do the dog sled races start?"

Thanks to TurboTax, doing our taxes wasn't too bad. It helps that for the first time in several years we didn't buy a house, live in two states, earn money from more than one employer each, or pay college tuition and student loans.

TurboTax also added some humor to the process thanks to its online help forums. Here's our favorite question and answer that was posted:

Q: I have a dog in my truck

My dog make sure no violators in truck. Since she has to be walk at least four plus times a day, she is my exercise coach, allow me not to gain weight. Can I claim her well being?

A: No, this is not allowed by the IRS.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Time to Brag

Please excuse me while I brag about my awesome husband.

The brakes on one of our cars had been intermittently chattering. Two different shops found two different reasons for the chattering.

After learning more about brakes and the specifics of our car, J diagnosed what was really wrong with the brakes. He got a quote from the dealer but thought it would be worth his time and effort to fix it himself. And it was.

Our car now has new rear rotors and brake pads.

Here's the cost savings breakdown.

Dealer quote: $580

Cost of parts: $198 (including $20 for jack stands that will be re-used for future projects)

Savings: $382

And yes, we've since driven the car and it stopped when it was supposed to.

DIY FTW!