The Refrigerator Saga: Pt. 2

On Wednesday, My "new" refrigerator arrived. I say "new" because we purchased it at the Sears Outlet.   The tags on the fridge said "New with Cosmetic Damage"  but as I was preparing to put MY food in the fridge  I found food smears, crumbs and hairs inside.

Maybe "new" means something different to Sears?

I called Sears and I was hoppin' mad, mad because we had noticed a little "something" on the inside of the freezer at the store and the salesman assured us that is was probably just dirt from the "testing facility."  He lied to us.  The labels lied to us.  I do NOT tolerate lying. The manager was very understanding and apologetic.  He offered to refund us some money.  I was mollified.
Then I turned to the missing parts.  In the store we noticed 2 rubber gaskets missing from the drawer shelves.  The salesman assured us that these parts could easily be obtained at the Sears Parts store which was just down the road, BUT, this store was closed at 6 pm on a Saturday and just down the road was the complete other side of town for me.  So I planned to make a trip to the store later in the week.  After the refrigerator was filled I called the Sears Parts Store to make sure they had my parts in stock.  Not only did they not have the parts in stock they couldn't even find the parts list for the fridge that I bought.  Not only that but the lady on the phone Did. Not. Care.  She was having a conversation on with someone else while we were on the phone and she made ME get online and start looking for parts.  After about 30 minutes of this I just hung up on her as she was continuing her other conversation.
Then I called Sears.  The central location Sears not the local outlet store or the parts store and the girl was VERY polite but ultimately unhelpful because, as before, she could not  find the parts list for my fridge.  She will get back to me in about 5 business days.
 I spent all of my Wednesday dealing with a fridge that I already spent a week or two buying.
When the Fridge was delivered the delivery man was unable to connect the water to the fridge because "the customer has a leak in the water pipe."  I agreed to let him off the hook because he claimed he could not remedy this situation even though I was led to believe that no matter the condition of our water pipe the delivery man could (pardon the pun) hook us up.
 He left and I called a plumber.  (I love our plumbers, they are top notch.  The dissatisfaction in this post should in no way be attached to the awesomeness of Pro Drain. Oh, did you know I was in a commercial for them?  Check it out and then call them for all your plumbing needs.)  The plumber came on Friday and he just screwed on the valve.  There wasn't a leak, it was just loose.  YUP.  Thanks Sears!  So the PLUMBER hooked me up and then I eagerly attempted to get water from the dispenser.  Nothing.  I looked up the owner's manual online (yeah, the outlet store didn't have a manual either) and did all the trouble shooting and learned that the fridge is indeed getting the water.  The icemaker is even making ice but the dispenser is not dispensing.  When the lever is pressed there isn't even a sound.
So, I called Sears again!  The friendly gentleman at Sears duly read the owner's manual and ran me through all the steps again and made an appointment for the repair man.  He will be here on Tuesday.
What do you want to be that the owner of the hair and food crumbs I found in the fridge had this same problem?

I am so beyond annoyed at this situation.  I have 50+ guests coming THIS FRIDAY!  I should be living my life, cleaning my house, preparing fro guests, serving my neighbors and family not calling Sears all day every day.
At this point I am thinking I would have been better off finding a fridge on Craigslist.  I thought that buying a fridge from Sears would have provided a little less stress but it turns out to be the opposite. We chose this one at Sears because of it's size but reluctantly  as we gave up the color we wanted and the layout we wanted for the correct size and a water dispenser, the water dispenser that does not work.  So, really, we like nothing about this fridge other than the fact that it fits in the kitchen.

I thought that the HARD part was finding a refrigerator that would fit in our little kitchen but still have enough space.  Turns out, that was just the beginning.

Low Tech, High Maintenance

I want to listen to the radio when I am in the kitchen preparing dinner. Just the AM radio, I don't even need any fancy FM stereo.
I have a radio not 10 steps away from the kitchen in the Library but it has one of those little cord antenna and I can't pick up any stations on it. I don't need a clock, there are already three in the kitchen just a radio.
I could stream from the computer but the radio stations' streaming only works with a Microsoft operating system, which I do not use.
Apparently this is too low tech for the 21st century.

So last night Moose and I packed up all the little mooselings into the car and went to Best Buy for two items.
When we got to BB I was in the lead filing past the DVD's when I noticed the kids were starting to lag behind, I turned around and I couldn't see Moose, then I saw him bent over looking at something on a low shelf in the Blue Ray Section. We don't have a Blue Ray player so I walked over to him and said "What are you looking at Honey?" In a sweet little wifey voice. He stood up and he was NOT Moose. I had never seen that guy in my life. I said "Oh, you are not my honey, I am sorry." Blushed, and turned around. Then I saw Moose wondering what on earth I was doing. I walked over to him and said "That man is NOT my husband. Where were you?" Home Theatre section.

We arrived at the headphone section.
As I have stated before I have small ears. Generally this is a good thing because small ears = beautiful ears in my opinion, but it does cause a problem when it comes to headphones and earpieces. Earbuds do not stay in my ears or are too big and hurts them. Ear pieces are too heavy and hurt my ears. We tried to find something that will work.
We ended up purchasing some Nike Vapor phones which ended up being too big for the inside of my ear and too heavy and pinchy for the outside of the ear. I think I will forgo coolness and get some good old headband style earphones. (By the way headbands press on my head and give me a headache so I can't wear those either, only all fabric headbands around here.)

We looked for the plain old low tech radio, - we did not find there though apparently there is one available at Best Buy online. Which brings me to how stupid major retail stores are with their websites.

When I go to GAP.com I am not looking to buy at Gap.com I am deciding if it is worth my time to find someone to watch the kids and get in the car and drive to The GAP and shop. I would never buy an article of clothing unless I knew it would fit me.
For example, this fall when I was looking for a black turtleneck online and I found turtlenecks at Gap.com and decided it was worth a trip to the Gap to check it out. The guy in the store looked at me as if I had said "Polyester Leisure Suit" instead of "turtleneck". I told him they had one on the website. He told me that they don't have a lot of things that are on the website.

Don't they get it?!? Use your website to drive traffic to your store you big retail morons! And then have the items the people want. They treat the websites as separate endeavors when they SHOULD be an addition to the store.
All their websites accomplish is me getting a sitter and wasting my time going to The GAP for no good reason when I could have just stayed home and bought online. This makes me want to not shop at retail stores because they are a waste of my time but I don't want to buy online because I want to try on my clothes first! So I don't buy anything and their stock falls and the economy is in the dumps all because Gap.com had a turtleneck and the store didn't and the only profit was made by my babysitter.
I did not get a black turtleneck form Gap.com I went without. So anyway bestbuy.com has a little radio but I think I will be buying it from anyone BUT bestbuy.com.

Holiday Deal

I did a little Holiday un-shopping today. By un-shopping I mean, I went out to the shops and returned things.
At the Lego Store I like to think I made some one's day. After I returned a gift that was no longer needed I handed my $5 coupon to a lady in line who had a pile of Indiana Jones Legos in her arms.

At Target I returned a towel and Christmas lights for 24.98 or so. Then I picked up leg warmers (because I know I will never make any for myself and it is -15 degrees in Kalispell), a small gift for Commander C's best buddy, a pair of socks on clearance, and the main point of the trip, a pair of Yoga pants for myself so all the guests at Christmas don't have to see me in my jammies that have holes in the crotch. The pants were 19.99.

Or so I thought. At the register, my total was 19.44. What? "I asked the clerk really, that's the total?" I accepted it and then looked at the receipt the pants rung up as pants for $4.98. I was sorely tempted to go get 3 more pairs. In the end I left Target with needed necessities and about 5 and a half bucks.

I love a bargain.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Yes, snow. That is the theme for our journey. As we were driving out of Portland, My mom informed me that is snowed in Kalispell and in Spokane. While in Spokane my mom told us that is had been snowing in Kalispell all day long. My Father-in-law called to tell us about the snow and to check the Montana DOT pass cameras before we leave. My dad called to inform us that there was supposed to be a huge snow storm in Plains until about noon (our travelling window.)

We are poorly dressed. I did not allow the kids to bring pants and long sleeved shirts. Summer will come, our wardrobe demands it!

I am so glad that we are going to Hawaii in 3 days.

Also, FYI the Down East Basics store in the Spokane Valley Mall is not a store but an easy to walk right past kiosk, at least for the next 2 weeks at which time there will allegedly be a store. I am thrilled my new French Blue Wonder Tee.

Hawaii is good for the economy

Not only do you spend oodles of money getting to, staying in, and partaking of tourist delights in Paradise, but you get to spend tons of money preparing to go to Hawaii. Our modest list includes a new digital camera, swimming suits, underwear, luggage and clothing. We are also spending our money from China, I mean the government stimulus package on this trip, any other year we would have wisely saved it for when the Chinese want their money back.

I don't have a whole lot of time to shop for clothes or rather I avoid shopping for clothes with 3 munchkins in tow at all costs. So, I have been shopping online, a dangerous proposition for someone who rarely finds clothes that fit on the rack. My swimming suit has been purchased in pieces. The top has not arrived yet but the bottoms came last week... That mass of coral you see above that is my swim bottoms. That tiny hand that is my hand, see how you are looking down my long arm, that is how far I had to hold the camera to get the entire piece in the frame. I couldn't believe that much fabric was needed for my suit, I was right they could have used less. I also learned something else, swim skirts aren't just nice, they are now a necessity for me. There are parts of my body that will never be seen in public again. This *ahem* little number will be sent back to Land's End post haste. It is a really cute style but not on me and that color simply will not do.

I was buying other items of clothing online just yesterday. I found a dress and a few tops and purchased them and I had to pay shipping. Then today the same place unveils their swim line, and they have just the right swim skirt for me. Alas my order has already shipped so I will have to pay shipping again. Yuck. That is a lot of shipping for one suit, which is also good for the economy.