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.

Samurai Mom Goes to Washington

...or to the Sherwood Town Hall meeting with Congressman Wu to be precise. The questions were not pre-screened.

Near the end of the meeting I was called on. I reminded the Congressman that he had not answered the gentleman's question about whether or not he had read the "cap and trade" bill before he voted on it. I also reminded him that he had not answered the lady's question as to whether he would commit to reading the health care bill before voting on it. I then said that I would like to know if he read any of the bills passed recently that spent gigantic amounts of money and that I would like to know if he would to commit to reading all future bills before voting on them. Then I said
"As someone that votes and sends you to congress I expect you to read every bill before voting. If you cannot do so or don't have the time I expect you to abstain or vote "no." If you can't do that, if you think that that is to much of a work load then maybe this isn't the job for you."

Wild applause from the audience.

He insisted that he had kept all of his campaign promises over the top of people yelling "Answer her question!" He did not, and I am still waiting for a satisfactory response, Congressman.

I was lucky that he called on me, I owe it all to my youthful and demure appearance Appearances can be deceiving as Congressman Wu found out. He went right back to asking questions of the frail looking elderly who were angry but a little more reserved and less pointed.

After the meeting was over I was congratulated many (20?) times, had my hand shaken repeatedly, was called a patriot and was accused of being just 18!

There were oh, so many other things I wanted to chastise him for but this one is what fit with the meeting. I am amazed that the thoughts came out so calmly, clearly and in order. I didn't lose my head and I didn't call anyone names! I was so angry but I don't think I gave that away in my voice.
The beauty of what I said is that it runs across the board. EVERY voter wants their congressmen to read bills before voting on them. No one but congresspeople think that not reading bills before passing legislation is OK. I realize that it is probably impossible to read every word of every bill. That just makes my point; the bills are too long, too complex, too full of pork and there are too many of them. If people refuse to support a bill until they have read it thoroughly then eventually the "way it is" will change!

As we heard tonight, Congressman David Wu has repeatedly refused to commit to reading bills before voting on them.

***This video will be active shortly, as it turns out it remembered it fairly well, and honestly, people did yell for him to answer my question.***

In Memory of Our Liberty.

I was pondering the future of our nation this morning and I sat down to the Book of Mormon heeding the promise that it is written for our time and will show us all things that we should do.
I opened the book and the pages fell to:
Alma 46
3 Now the leader of those who were wroth against their brethren was a large and a strong man; and his name was Amalickiah

4 And Amalickiah was desirous to be a king; and those people who were wroth were also desirous that he should be their king; and they were the greater part of them the lower judges of the land, and they were seeking for power.

5 And they had been led by the flatteries of Amalickiah, that if they would support him and establish him to be their king that he would make them rulers over the people.

10 Yea, we see that Amalickiah, because he was a man of cunning device and a man of many flattering words, that he led away the hearts of many people to do wickedly; yea, and to seek to destroy the church of God, and to destroy the foundation of liberty which God had granted unto them, or which blessing God had sent upon the face of the land for the righteous' sake.

11 And now it came to pass that when Moroni, who was the chief commander of the armies of the Nephites, had heard of these dissensions, he was angry with Amalickiah.

12 And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it-In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

Insert a different name for Amalickiah and president for king. Think about how "wroth" the people are with their brethren in power. Think of the constitution and our 1st and 2nd amendment rights. Think about activist judges who do not judge but legislate.

If the book of Mormon is written for our time, what is our Title of Liberty who is our Captain Moroni? Is it you, is it me, is it your son? Is it the prophet? Who will defend out nation?

Concievable Instances in which I Would Consider Voting for Obama

Here are some of the conceivable instances that might induce me to fill in that little circle for Obama. Lets just say I am not easily parted from my constitutional right and civic duty.

1.IF the prophet officially told the church to vote for Obama (just FYI that is highly unlikely)- or a strong prompting from the spirit. By strong I mean Alma the younger type revelation with the angels and the coma and such. Little whisperings aren't going to cut it.
2. IF someone were holding my children hostage and would kill them if I did not vote for Obama. But I am limiting it to my kids ( maybe niece and nephews), the rest of my loved ones will have to fend for themselves because the constitution and I are tight like that.
3. IF the CIA were using me as an agent and could convince me without a doubt that my small vote would in fact save the world and ensure peace and stability everywhere and that Obama's policies will all be thwarted by secret government agents thereby protecting the nation from his lunacy.

I thought of other things like a one bajillion dollar bribe or a vacation in Prague, (but seriously how could I live with myself knowing that I sold out my country) or he suddenly reverses his position on the economy, taxes, the purpose of government, national defence, global warming, energy, the war, health care, education, abortion and others. But even if he did that I wouldn't buy it because he always changes his story to be what people want to hear. "Well when I said 'spread the wealth' I didn't mean spread the wealth." "When I said 'lipstick on a pig' I didn't mean Sarah Palin." Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Uhuh, uhuh, uhuh. I wouldn't trust him to bring in my mail.

I heard someone yesterday say that "Barak Obama always says he wants to change America, not Washington. I like America, I don't want it changed. I want to change Washington."

Word.

"Stand Next to Me While I Humiliate You, Dear."

I have to hand it to John Edwards, at least he didn't make his wife stand by his side as he admitted his infidelity to the world. It is one thing for a man to have his wife stand by his side while he denies charges but to make her stand there next to him while he tells the world that he didn't love her enough, find her fulfilling enough , and didn't respect her enough to be faithful and the he is sorry he got caught is despicable. I always wonder at those women standing up next to their lousy husbands trying not to look humiliated. DO they think they can help salvage their husbands political careers? I am not inclined to vote for people who disrespect their wives and cover up their transgressions.

Max Power Does Not Abbreviate

I think there should be a rule that abridged books should have "Abridged" in flashing red lights on them. I find it very irritating when you pick up a book only to find out later that it is abridged - I want the whole thing. Please to not pre-digest for me.

I have been listening to John Adams by David McCullough while driving across Montana, Idaho, and Washington. I liked it so much I picked up a copy of the book for my mom. I was flipping through the book and I started noticing passages that I certainly did not hear in my copy. So, I found the audio book case to see it I had the whole enchilada or not. I looked and looked and found nothing then finally in the tiniest font, amongst repeated "Simon & Schuster"s there it was "An Abridgement of John Adams." (see arrow on picture)
Apparently Edward Herman (who reads fabulously) wasn't up to reading the whole book.