Safe in Fredericksburg

We are in Fredericksburg. We got here about 8pm last night. Not too much traffic and the dogs behaved themselves in the car. We still don't really know where Gustav is headed, so we won't worry about him just yet. We are getting ready to watch the LSU season opener. It was originally scheduled for 5pm tonight, but with the hurricane looming, they moved it up. LSU typically does better playing at night, so we'll see how they do on a very early morning. I think they will be fine. We were awoken this morning by an LSU song. It was great! The dogs also have their school spirit going on with their LSU jerseys. Texas plays tonight at 6pm so we'll all switch clothes to cheer them on. Anyhow, we're excited that college football is back. Not so excited that hurrican season is in full swing. Gotta run, the game is about to start. Hook 'em, Tigers!

Labor Day

So we are headed to Fredericksburg to visit Jeff's parents. We have to pack a lot since Gustav has not gotten far enough for us to tell where he is going to hit. We hope it doesn't hit us or Louisiana, since most of my family still lives there. But we've secured what we're going to secure and Jeff may make a trip back down here if need be. Hope everyone stays safe and dry. Happy Labor Day!

Results

So we just got home from my doctor's visit. I had my 3 month scans yesterday. My leg looks fine, but there is a 4mm (ie, very tiny) area of suspicion on my right lung. They claim it wasn't there on the last scan so that's why they are concerned. It doesn't look like the other tumors I had before. It's not rounded and uniform like the others were. So the plan is to just wait and see. I go back the first week of November in 8 weeks instead of 12. That's about it. We are not too concerned because they have done this too me twice before and it's turned out to be nothing. We saw the scans from May compared to yesterday and could really see no difference. But we are not the experts, so what do we know? If it does turn out to be a tumor, it's still way too small to do anything about anyway, but it is treatable, so that's good news. Anyway, that's the news for today.

Furniture woes

So as you all know, we ordered some new furniture a couple of weeks ago. Everything was delivered on Thursday, August 7, except our chest of drawers, which is on back order. We got the china cabinet in and everything looks great. Except when the delivery guys came with the china cabinet, they failed to remove all of what they call "gliders" off the bottoms of the two pieces. These gliders are small plastic discs nailed into the bottom of the top piece and the bottom of the bottom piece so you can move them into place without scratching anything. Since only half of these were removed, the top and bottom pieces didn't sit flush like they were supposed to. This is a problem. These two pieces are extremely heavy, so Jeff and I were not able to take the extra gliders off by ourselves. I had to call the store and explain the situation and have them send two guys back out to remove these gliders. Now I should also mention that while they were delivering the pieces, they did some damage to the piece, which they reported and were going to send someone out to fix this, about a week later. They were going to send the guys out the next Thursday and we would receive a call on Wednesday that told us what time to expect them. Jeff gets a call on Wednesday saying they didn't realize that 2 guys were needed and the next available time two guys could come out would be the next Thursday (Aug 21, two weeks after delivery!) This was unacceptable so after asking to speak to a manager, someone was all of a sudden able to come out early Saturday morning (Aug 16.) This was also the day that the guy was coming to fix the damage done by the original delivery guys. So we had someone coming between 8:30-9am to take the gliders off and someone coming between 10-2 to fix the damage. So the 2 guys show up bright and early on Saturday morning and take the gliders off. He was also the guy that was scheduled to come fix the damage. They had booked him twice for some reason. This was great news for us, since we didn't have to wait around all day. He ended up hurting his back lifting the piece. We felt bad about that, but what can you do? We knew it was super heavy. So we went about our day and later on, Jeff gets a call from the store saying that the guy is not going to be able to fix the furniture today because he got injured on a job earlier that day! Do these people not communicate with each other? He got hurt at our house, but the job was done. Whatever. Long story short, the guys removed the gliders, fixed the scratches and also noticed that one of the gliders had been removed from the top piece, but the nail had not. So when the first delivery guys pushed the top piece to straighten it out, they scratched the crap out of the bottom piece. (Are you following all this? It's kinda complicated). Anyway, this gauge is pretty significant, yet you can't see it since the top piece covers it. But who wants new furniture that is damaged? So they took pictures and were supposed to file a report. They said that they were going to have to take the bottom piece back to the warehouse and fix it and then bring it back. I'm envisioning more headaches for me, since someone has to be home for them to pick it up AND bring it back, and who knows how long that will take. I can't use my cabinet! I want to put my stuff in it! Very frustrating. So Jeff and I thought that the better option was for them to give us a credit to our account and we would call it a day. We hadn't heard anything from them, so we called on Tuesday afternoon and found out that they had ordered a new bottom piece and that was on back order! Ughhh! We asked to talk to a supervisor about keeping the piece and just crediting our account the depreciation value of the piece. They said a supervisor would call the next afternoon, which would have been Wednesday. Fast forward to today, Friday and I hadn't heard from them. So I just gave the customer service people a call and asked them what is going on. After 23 minutes on the phone with her, most of which I was on hold and never spoke to a manager, I got an offer of $100 credit, which I refused. I think they are getting off easy with only giving me $100. I know it's going to cost them more than that to come pick this old one up and give me a new one. Plus, I STILL can't put my stuff in it since I don't know if I will be able to keep this one! So I am now waiting on a call from a manager on Monday because they have to talk to corporate to see if they can give me more than $100 credit. So it's been 2 weeks and my china cabinet looks beautiful in my dining room. But it would look so much better with all my nice things in it too! Hopefully we can get this resolved pretty soon. I will post pictures whenever we get everything in it.

Grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary

So last weekend, Jeff and I made a quick trip home to Lafayette, Louisiana for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary party. They didn't know we were coming so it was a pleasant surprise for them. We had a wonderful dinner at Don's Seafood Hut and got to visit with some family we haven't see in awhile. We had a great time and congratulations to my grandparents for making it 60 years together. What an inspiration!

Tax free weekend in Texas

It's tax free weekend in Texas, but really only on clothes. I found a list of what is exempt and what is not. Happy shopping!



TAX-FREE
Baby clothes
Backpacks for use by elementary and secondary students
Belts with attached buckles
Boots - cowboy, hiking
Caps/hats - baseball, fishing, golf, knitted
Coats and wraps
Diapers - adult and baby
Dresses
Gloves (generally)
Gym suits and uniforms
Hooded shirts and hooded sweatshirts
Hosiery
Jackets
Jeans
Jerseys - baseball and football
Jogging apparel
Neckwear and ties
Pajamas
Pants and trousers
Raincoats and ponchos
Robes
Shirts
Shoes - sandals, slippers, sneakers, tennis, walking
Socks (including athletic)
Shorts
Suits, slacks, and jackets
Sweatshirts
Sweat suits
Sweaters
Swimsuits
Underclothes
Work clothes and uniforms



TAXED
Accessories (generally) - barrettes, elastic ponytail holders, wallets, watches
Backpacks - unless for use by elementary and secondary students
Baseball cleats and pants
Belt buckles (without belt)
Boots - climbing, fishing, rubber work boots, ski, waders
Buttons and zippers
Cloth and lace, knitting yarns, and other fabrics
Dry cleaning services
Football pants
Golf gloves
Handbags and purses
Handkerchiefs
Hard hats
Helmets - bike, baseball, football, hockey, motorcycle, sports
Ice skates
Jewelry
Laundering services
Leather goods - except belts with buckles and wearing apparel
Pads - football, hockey, soccer, elbow, knee, shoulder
Personal flotation devices
Rented clothing (including uniforms, formal wear, and costumes)
Roller blades and skates
Safety clothing, glasses
Shoes - bicycle (cleated), bowling, golf

Damage from Eduard

New Furniture

So Jeff and I have been wanting to purchase some new pieces of furniture for our bedroom and dining room and we went out today to look. We were mainly looking for a new chest of drawers and new nightstands for our bedroom, but we were also scouting out new china cabinets as well. So we went to a local furniture store and found a nice set that we really liked and would go well in our bedroom. It was even named "Fredericksburg". How ironic! Anyway, it was pretty expensive but exactly what we were looking for. We then headed down to Finger's Furniture to see what they had. They didn't carry that same brand but we found something comprable and much cheaper that would work. We also found a beautiful china cabinet that would look awesome in our dining room and match the furniture in there. And the price was right, so we couldn't pass it up. So everything but the chest of drawers will be delivered on Thursday! We're very excited! Here are the pictures of the new furniture:

Old china cabinet:


New china Cabinet:


Chest of Drawers:


Nightstand:


I can't wait for them to come in!

Garden Woes

So most of you know that I planted a small pot/container garden this year. I have some tomatoe plants, banana peppers, jalapenos, green bell peppers and chives. The garden has been growing ok for me. I've had great success with my banana peppers and gotten a few veggies off the other plants. I've been having trouble with one jalapeno plant. Seems these nasty, fat green horned catepillers like the spicy plant. I've killed about 5 of them off this one plant. They hadn't touched my tomatoes or the banana peppers, just the one jalapeno plant. Until the other day. I looked at my garden on Wednesday and had about 5-6 banana peppers that were almost ready to pick. I was going to give them a few more days to get a little bit bigger. I went to check on them on Friday night (it was evening, so getting dark out) and noticed that my banana peppers were all gone! Looks like someone/something plucked them off with their teeth! I thought that a bird had gotten to them and was thinking that Maggie was a poor watchdog if she let the birds eat all my peppers! So Saturday morning I got up and went to see the plant in the daylight and noticed that not only were the peppers gone, all of the leaves were gone as well! And then I found the vandalizer- The biggest green catepiller I have found yet! I promptly removed him and killed him so he couldn't destroy any more of my plants. I'm hoping it can recover, but I'm not too sure. We'll see. Here are the pictures from the rest of the garden:



Anyway, the rest of the garden is plugging along slowly but surely. I'll keep you posted on it.