Why can’t Mother’s Day be on like a Tuesday instead?

Who decided Mother’s Day should always be on a Sunday? Is there a certain person that decided that for everyone or was it one of those things that just happened? It’s a little inconvenient. It’s a great concept, don’t get me wrong. A day to celebrate the Mom’s of the world, particularly the one(s) in your life. And they deserve it. But why is it on a day when everything is closed, especially florists? Buying flowers is like a massive scavenger hunt around here if you actually want to buy them in person. Of course you can always order online, pay extra fees and have them delivered in a box by some random person. Because who doesn’t enjoy being charged more for the same thing just because they can?

Last year we didn’t really plan ahead which is really unlike me and as a result we almost didn’t get my Mom flowers. Everyone was closed and the ones that weren’t had nothing. We actually found one at the last minute and I had to settle for something I probably wouldn’t have picked if I had a full selection. She loved them of course and they were beautiful. But I wasn’t satisfied. This year will be different! We found a florist that is not only open on Sunday but offered pre-order online to guarantee you would have exactly what you wanted. Perfect! Why don’t more places do that? Seriously?

I guess I just find it surprising that there aren’t more options to buy flowers on Mother’s day somewhere local. Instead you feel almost trapped into using an online service. Have you visited an online flower delivery site lately? I landed on www.Teleflora.com earlier this week and was surprised at how quickly the price shot up. I’ll even show you what happened.

I browsed through the site for a bit and decided that I really liked an arrangement they call “Teleflora’s Sunny Smiles”. I thought my Mom would really like it and clicked the picture which brought up their ‘quick view’ screen. It offered two price options, a standard and a deluxe. The standard was listed at $29.95 and the deluxe at $39.95. All I had to do was provide the delivery zip code and it would be added to my cart. Below is a screen shot of the prices and the one I selected.







I picked the standard for the advertised price and typed in my Mom’s zip code. I clicked continue and was brought to my shopping cart. To my surprise the price had changed. Not only did it increase but without much explanation. I assumed at first it was based on where it’s delivered and for some reason we live in a higher fee area. Then I looked down and found yet another surprise. The picture below is a screen shot of my cart.







What was the first thing you noticed? How about the $14.99 ‘service charge’? Whatever the hell that is. I noticed they took off the $10.00 as part of the sale which brought the arrangement back to the stated $29.95 but they were then tacking on an additional $15. Just like that my order was up to $45.00. How wonderful. They weren’t done yet though. On the next page came the shipping.







It would be an additional $14.99 minimum for shipping unless I wanted it to arrive on the Friday or Saturday (which I would). Then it was $17.99 and $18.99 respectively. Fan-freaking-tastic. In a blink of an eye my $29.95 flowers magically became $63.93. The price literally doubled right before my eyes and I wasn’t getting anything extra. Is this beyond excessive to anyone else besides me? I love my Mom more than I can even say but I think she would want to smack me upside the head for paying that. That is if I didn’t do it first.

In the end I ordered a comparable and equally beautiful arrangement with vase included through someone local for $35.00. I was able to place the order online and choose in-store pickup for Sunday, at the time of my choosing. I will be able to view/inspect the arrangement before paying. Best of all, I will have the joy of seeing my Mom’s face when I hand the flowers to her.

Money can’t buy that kind of moment.

I want to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there! You’re all amazing! I hope you have a beautiful day with the people that you love, especially your children no matter their age.

“A Mother holds her children’s hands for a short while, but will be held in their hearts forever.” – Unknown.

I'm still alive and I'm coming back!

I abandoned you. I disappeared without notice for over 3 months. You could hate me and refuse to read anything I post and be perfectly reasonable. Except I hope that you’ll come back anyway. Because I love you. I love each and every person that spends some of their precious time reading my randomness. I’ve missed the writing and I’ve missed you, the readers. Even if you haven’t missed me too, I hope you return anyway. Please take me back?

I wish I could say I was off saving the world as my excuse for being missing in action. Like helping orphans or maybe rescuing animals! Instead, my only reason is we were super busy. Not much of an explanation is it? Life just showed up and took us for a speed ride and we were left playing catch up. Like playing cleanup crew at my Mom’s after the massive Rhode Island flood and then getting our house ready for a couple family members moving in since the flooding made their previous home unlivable. Sadly this wonderful blog was tossed in the back of the closet like an old sweater and is only now being pulled back out for fresh start. I’ve missed it.

So now that life has returned to some form of normal I’m back and ready to go! So many moments have come along that had me saying, “I could blog about that!” Clearly I never really got out of the habit of thinking about what to write even though I wasn’t here to do it. This time around will more or less be the same except for one thing. I’ve decided to leave the ‘Moronic Monday’ segments in hiding for a while. I want to bring my blog back to how it started with just pure random posts whenever they strike, instead of a schedule. Maybe I’ll bring it back later once I get going again, but for now lets just say it’s on vacation. I can let you guys be the real decider on that one!

I hope you forgive me for my absence and decide to return as my wonderful readers! I’ve still been reading all my favorite blogs but haven’t been commenting all that much. I’ll pick up on that more too, I promise!

It feels good to be back! I’m sure we’ll continue to have fun just as we did before.

-LB

Moronic Monday - My computer is trying to kill itself!

As I write this, my hubby is desperately trying to revive my computer, which has decided it no longer wants to live. The end of last week it started acting kind of funny but the full on crash came Saturday afternoon. Out of the blue my screen went green with a black box in the center warning that it was infected. Then everything went to hell in a hand basket.

Since then I haven't been able to use it at all. It's been in my hubby's hands with scans and programs running to save it while I use his Mac that I hate. Honestly, there's nothing wrong with his computer, I just like mine. I know where I have things saved and like my system. Basically I'm like an old person that doesn't like straying from my norm.

I've been telling my hubby that my computer is my crack. Although I've never had any real type of addiction and never tried drugs, this is what I imagine a crack addiction would be like without the high and legal problems. I absolutely HATE my computer (because it hates me and pulls this kind of crap) but I can't live without it. The second I can't have it at my finger tips or it won't work properly I get all aggravated and feel a little lost. As sad as that is. That's essentially the definition of an addiction, I can't live without it but I can't stand it either. Ugh.

So because my computer is having surgery the real Moronic Monday is on hold. I can't really access my usual stuff to write it so here I am on my hubby's laptop. Let's all hope he can save it without me losing any of my stuff. I have too much music, too many pictures and far too many documents saved to lose everything without backups. I've had to do it before and do not want to be there again.

Fingers crossed people!

A new year, a new decade and new plans!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you were able to ring in the new year in a positive way no matter how you celebrated. For us, it was a simple night in which seems to be a recurring theme. We’re not drinkers or partiers so those type of scenes aren’t fun. A couple years we’ve gone out to a show or event but we also enjoy just cuddling at home. We ate pizza, popped in some movies and watched the ball drop at midnight. Simple? Yes. But it worked for us.

I’m still a little amazed we celebrated entering 2010 since it feels like we just did this for 2009 like 3 months ago. I’m really not sure where the whole year went! I think we spent so many months (8 in total) hunting and waiting for our house that it sort of swallowed up 2009. We were basically in limbo for most of it. Our life went on hold in the beginning of February and started moving again the first week of October. But now that we’re settled in our house we can enter the new year ready to start fresh!

As for our new plans, we seem to have plenty! We never call them New Year resolutions but the concept is basically the same. Quite a few have to do with the house as I’m sure no one is surprised about. There’s always something to do, fix, or change with a house so that list has been growing since we moved in. One I’m looking forward to is new windows! The ones we have now are well past their prime and are so drafty. Many we could never leave open as they would fall out of the tracks due to some of the clips being broken. It will be so nice to have efficient, functional and nice looking windows. I cannot wait! Another is a new dishwasher since our current one has decided it’s a good idea to leak each time it runs, which is just so much fun.

Besides the house, we have plans to add a dog to our little family! I’m not sure exactly when this will happen but I’ll share pictures and info when it does. Our plan is to adopt an adult dog from a local shelter or rescue. Although puppies are adorable and fun it’s great saving a dog and giving it life it might not otherwise had. A lot of the time they almost seem to know they were saved. Some people call that foolish but many who rescued a dog in some way would agree. I’m looking forward to having a little fur-baby sometime soon since we were unable to due to the no pet policy at our apartment.

We also have a couple other plans that I can’t share yet but I will once they come through. Hopefully it will be very soon sometime in the next few months!

I’ll be back on my normal routine next Monday now that the holidays are over and things will be getting back to normal. I hope everyone had a great holiday season with whatever you celebrate. Ours were great minus the blizzard we had before Christmas that dumped 15 inches of snow. That was a mess and a half!

Thanks for finding and sticking with me much of 2009. It’s been lots of fun and hopefully will be even better this year! I love reading all of your comments and emails so keep them coming!

2010 here we come!