Birdfeeder bonanza

A few months ago, Daniel decided that we needed a birdfeeder. By needed, I mean the can't-live-without-for-another-day kind of need. We made a trip to Menards in search of the perfect one... didn't want it to look like a little house, not too big, not too small, etc etc. We ended up picking one that is pretty much a mesh tube with a lid on top and and a ledge on the bottom. Because of the open-mesh style, we had to get sunflower seed instead of regular bird seed because the regular stuff just falls through. Turns out the sunflower seed either comes in packs similar to what you would eat at a baseball game, or a 50-lb bag. Guess which one we *had* to have? Yes, we've had a 50lb bag of seed sitting in our garage for the last couple of months.

The weather was nice last night and I decided to fill our feeder for the first time in a few weeks. When we were sitting on the couch, I looked out the window and discovered the creature who has been scaring all the birds away...

Inglourious Basterds

This film as one would expect. Typical of Tarantino's style and general taste for 'shocking' moments. The movie is bloody, overly violent, but still enjoyable. Tarantino continues his taste for episodic material with this film, breaking the story up into several 'chapters'. However, I did find this movie to be somewhat predictable (assuming you've seen his previous works). I wouldn't mind actually being surprised by something in one of Tarantino's films every once in a while. The storyline is mildly intersting, littered with scenes that simply feel like reworked Kill Bill content - but I suppose that is what most are going to see.

My general feeling was... meh - although Brad Pitt delivers an excellent performance

I attempted to embed the trailer, their site sucks apparently, I'll try again tomorrow

EDIT:

Sears Fail

csfail

630-924-8801 10:26AM, 10:47AM, 10:53AM, 2:01PM, 2:20PM, 2:27PM 7,4,4,5,5,17 Minutes 800-732-7747 10:32AM, 10:44AM 8,12 Minutes

800-341-2517 2:06PM, 2:30PM 13,10 Minutes

The above is my dutifully transcribed history of my 85 minutes back and forth with Sears this morning. Is it confusing? Seem ridiculous? It is.

Some background, we bought new appliances at the beginning of July (the impetus for out spending freeze). The fridge was 1/4 of a inch too wide... so we bought a second fridge. Sears was great for this, they credited the old one, delivered the new one all was well. Except that the 2nd fridge didn't match our appliances, despite our having asked specifically that question.

As such, we returned that one too and ended up getting one from Abt. We coordinated the pickup and dropoff and everything went fairly well. The only issue is that the sears folks thought they were picking up the FIRST fridge... AGAIN, however we straightened that out and off we went.

I've been diligently checking my credit card waiting for the credit on this second fridge. I called once the first week, twice last week, only to be told each time that it was 7-14 business days before I would see the credit. I kept asking if everything looked ok, they kept saying yes.

Well, this morning I called and they told me something new, 7-10 business days, call the store they will have to issue credit everything appears to be fine. Called store, they tell me to call their delivery group - only they can issue the credit, call delivery - call the store, only they can issue credit. SIGH. I attempt my standard tactic in this situation. The dreaded conference call. The store doesn't pick up this time, I leave a message.

Three hours later, no one has called. The whole process begins again. I try for the conference call... again. The guy in the store actually chuckled when I ask him if I could do the conference. HE LAUGHED AT A CUSTOMER. Well done.

Finally I had both parties of the same company on the phone. They commenced with the arguing, with each other. back and forth for about 10 minutes they asked who and why and how. Eventually the store relented and said they would be crediting my card. However, he 'knows' corporate policy and this is NOT it [I roll my eyes] just give me my money.

Just to add insult to injury - we paid a portion of this with a check. I'm told I have to come in to retrieve my $250 bucks. After work I trek in and ask the manager "any manager will be able to help you". She has no idea what I'm talking about. Great. "Go over to appliances, I wasn't told about this" off I go. I stand there waiting - manager wanders over t oan employee who had just finished ignoring me for a solid 4 minutes - he knows nothing. Another manager wanders over - OH HE KNOWS - he just doesn't remember where it is.

Another 5 minutes of waiting and I had my envelope and was practically running out of the store.

If I hadn't called, I wouldn't have received credit. If any ONE person I spoke to in previous weeks had even BOTHERED to look at anything on the account they would have been able to see something was amiss.

I won't be buying anything more from Sears any time soon.