Wicked Attitude

This was the question we found ourselves asking when our 13 year old dishwasher started quitting its day job of cleaning on the top rack.  Well of course you can’t replace one thing and not the rest right?  I mean you could if you wanted the same color but we don’t.  We didn’t get a choice of our appliances when we moved in so we wanted a say this time, which means stainless steel.  We started racking our brains on where to look and off we went.  Our biggest dilemma was the fridge because we have limited space (33″) with our current fridge but most are 35 7/8″ which would cover 3″ of our window that we never use.   We decided on the GE Profile series and we both really liked the features of the bigger one but felt we needed to find the smaller one to rule it out or see if we should go with it.

To hopefully save anyone else out there some time, I’ve listed what we found out there and keep in mind the prices may be different depending on your area.  We asked the same question of all of the following stores…how much to install a microwave since it’s the smallest appliance that needs to be switched out.

HH Gregg-$120 to install and they had the highest prices of anyone we looked at.  The “sale” price was the regular price listed elsewhere.

Lowes- $130 to install and our particular “salesman” was like a racist Larry the Cable guy so we decided if we went with Lowes it sure as heck wouldn’t be with him.

Sears- $159 to install and while the salesman was nice and we’d probably feel okay going with them, his talk of how badly they were cutting back hours made us feel like they were ready to close their doors anytime.

Home Depot- $99 and the saleswoman was quite possibly the most helpful person we’d encountered.  The delivery charge is refundable by rebate for the stove and fridge so it’s essentially free and the more you buy of the Profile series, you get money back in the form of a check card so we’d get back $300.

Needless to say we’ll be going with Home Depot and it’s important to know all accepted competitors coupons.  I believe that Sears was the only place that said they’d match and then beat it by 10% but I don’t know if that was a limited time thing or not. 

We also stopped by a place that sells scratch and dent appliances not because we were interested in those but because we wanted to see the 33″ model and they had a few of them in stock.  They just happened to have the bigger one and the smaller one right next to each other and that made the decision easy.  Bigger one!  I highly suggest you do this if the model you are thinking of is not in stock at places you look.  Chances are a scratch and dent place will have it and you can look before you buy.  They also save you a good $500-800.  We would’ve considered them but every one of the ones we liked were dented far beyond what we considered acceptable.

So hopefully some of our legwork will give you a place to start!

Update:  We bought ours from Home Depot who matched Sears 15% off sale at the time.  We just checked HH Gregg’s prices on the exact same models with their 20% off “sale” and we still paid $20 less for each appliance!  Bottom line, don’t buy from HH Gregg, they obviously will always be the highest price even with a supposed sale.

Seen this commercial?  Well you may THINK you have but there’s a new disgusting twist to the Sea Bond dental adhesive commercial.  Buckle your seatbelts 15 seconds in for the seductive geriatric tooth lick!

So I’m watching E! News Daily and there’s some style segment where they tell you how to get designer looks for less.  They show Vanessa Hudgens and Lauren Conrad in “high rise jeans/pants” and call them “chic” and “boho” (gag) but put them on the recently more curvy Jessica Simpson and they’re “Mom Jeans.”  WTF!?!  The double standard in this society is disgusting and they wonder why girls have body image issues.  They might as well have said “if you’re thin you have the right to wear what’s in style and if you’re over a size two, stick to a tarp because nothing will look good on you and we’ll make sure we tell you how bad you look.”  The media can truly suck it.

This isn’t a review for this workout but I’m just curious, why are they coming out with a Dirty Dancing workout 20 years after the movie?  “Learn to move like Baby and Johnny” is what the trailer touts.  Um, okay.  So since Patrick Swayze is now in the forefront of the news with his cancer, does some money grubbing douche feel like they’d better do it while he’s still alive??  I just don’t understand why this would come out now.  I mean for all of your Dirty Dancing fans, have at it but it just seems a little suspect to me.  If I’m going to buy a dance/workout video for Dirty Dancing then I want someone from the movie in it.  Sorry…as you were…

Gotta say I was a little surprised that the octuplet chose to implant 8 embryos in her uterus.  I have a family member who underwent fertility treatments and they implanted 3 and I told them they were going to have triplets and they laughed at me rattling off the statistics of how unlikely it was that would happen.  Well guess what, they had triplets and in the midst of one of many hard times they were encountering having 3 newborns, the mother screamed “I did NOT sign on for three!”  Well, yes you did.  When you choose to implant a certain number of embryos in your uterus, you need to come to terms with the fact you could end up with that many babies.

Now this octuplet mom’s motives seem very suspect to me.  I don’t like feeling that way about it but she’s a single mother in her mid-30’s who lives with her mom!  Where the hell does she propose stuffing these children in the 3 bedroom house she shares?  The neighbors and apparently the girl’s father aren’t thrilled according to one article I read.  My thought is she figures with shows out there like Jon and Kate Plus 8 (who I actually watch and like) , that freakish Dugger family and there’s some new family with an unGodly amount of kids out there with their own show that she could maybe become a part of that TV genre and make some money.  Again, this is just my opinion and I have no idea if that was her intent or not but given her current circumstances, I don’t really see any other logical explaination for doing that.  This woman is going to rely on the handouts of others and big companies to hear her story and donate products to her and I’ve got news sister, in this economy, good friggin’ luck!  While the medical community can’t really regulate this kind of thing, where is the ethical line where a doctor should be able to at least say “you know what, I refuse to implant that many given your situation and I’m not going to treat you.”  Just what we need, another gaggle of kids who didn’t ask to be born into what are going to have to be a strained and economically impossible situation.  Way to go.

Update:  The octuplet mom has hired an agent and is hoping to get money for interviews or be an on-air “child care expert.”  Read more about this developing story here.  Gee, I hate being right.  Oh yeah and if you want to be a child care expert, common sense would dictate that if you only wanted ONE more child that you would not implant 8 embryos.  Common sense would also dictate if you’re an unemployed student that you wouldn’t breed, which is essentially what this woman has become.  So sorry sistah, you have no credentials to be a child care “expert.”  Next.

So I’m reading this article about how the Senate unanimously decided to delay the digital transition by four months to give more people time to prepare for it.  Just waiting for it to become official.  Now unless you’ve been living under a rock for 2 years, the normal person has been bombarded with messages from their local news stations and the little old people in commercials who tell you about the “government’s coo-pon progrrm” (read: government’s coupon program for those who don’t speak geriatric).  Let me spell this out for the Senate…(excuse the caps)

IF PEOPLE DON’T GET IT WITH 2 YEARS PREP TIME, 4 MONTHS ISN’T GOING TO MAKE A FRIGGIN’ BIT OF DIFFERENCE!!!

I couldn’t get away with not hearing about the discount government program and yes we got ours and have had our basement tv hooked up for almost a year.  We even gave the other card we got to my mom and told her to check around for anyone without cable and give it to them.  Of course now what’s happened?  The coupon program has run out of money to help supplement the cost the last I heard.  Sorry procrastinators!  I mean why do we always end up doing this for people who have had ample time to do this or that and then those people complain and everyone else who had their end cinched up on time has to suffer?  I thought I was finally done seeing “XX days until we have to switch to digital” on my local news like it was the end of days or something!  Sigh. 

Old people…please…get the HD converter box (Zenith is the one rated the best by consumer magazines) and go back to your nap.

I’ve been watching The Price is Right for…well, a long time.  When you stayed home from school, it wasn’t a sick day unless you had Bob Barker on the tube and you were trying to play along with the games.  When Drew Carey became Bob’s successor, he had some big shoes to fill and after doing this for over a year he’s made the show his.  There are little changes like getting annoucer Rich Fields more involved with the show, especially the showcases, Drew talks to the models and isn’t grumpy like Bob was the last 6 years of his run and my favorite is when Drew makes fun of or is shocked by the prices of some of the prizes.  “What!?  $2000 for Kate Spade luggage!?!” or “yes because we all need some Oreos to go with our curio cabinet.”

What I’ve noticed over the past few weeks is a trend shifting in the showcases.  Today one of the showcases was a set of Viking appliances (which is kick ass but I’m old enough to appreciate how much those are), a year’s worth of groceries, a night with a personal chef for a cooking class/dinner party and a trip to New Orleans to various restaurants.  The other showcase (the historically better choice) was like a hovercraft, a Harley and something like a dining room set or something I can’t even remember right now.  I understand we’re in a recession and damn near a depression but people want to see those showcases with a trip AND a car or something big and grand, not two mediocre showcases with prizes that you could win at a raffle.  (Groceries, personal chef, etc)  It’s that promise of something really over the top that people want to see not a reminder of our economy being in the crapper and people getting groceries for a year.  That’s just kind of depressing and I’m not ready for my game shows to turn depressing as well!

I made a resolution to be a little less cynical this year.  I am tired of being barraged by ads everywhere and I got my last bit of cynicism out as I cursed the ball dropping over a huge Toshiba ad and then quickly broke it as I saw everyone wearing blue top hats provided by Nivea.  I think that’s a record even for me.

If comedian Kathy Griffin made a resolution to not say anything others would view as inappropriate on the air, she broke that one an hour into the new year.  Griffin was being teased by a heckler in the crowd and dropped “I don’t go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth!!”  Quickly cut away to commercial.  It was a much more toned down vibe when they came back from break as they announced 3 Doors Down and both Anderson and Kathy looked like they may have been scolded.  Kathy didn’t really speak much after that.  I wonder if she’ll be asked back.  Regardless, we were shocked and laughed our asses off.  That’s what happens when you put the 2 time Emmy winning, razor tongued funny lady in a live situation!  The whole reason we tuned in to CNN was to see what she would do this year and with that comment alone, she didn’t disappoint!  Happy 2009!

Update: As pointed out by people in the comments section, she apparently made that comment to a crowdside heckler not Anderson Cooper which makes the comment even better.  I somehow missed the heckler’s comments but her comment perked my ears!  Thanks for pointing that out, I updated the post accordingly!

I heard something on TV last night and I realized I’ve heard it over and over and it’s kind of annoying.  (Imagine…ME thinking something is annoying!)  When people refer to the SCENT of a candle as the FLAVOR of a candle.  I know that Webster’s first definition of flavor is odor or fragrance but most of us associate the word flavor with the secondary meaning which is the quality of something that affects the sense of taste.  I don’t consider the words scent and flavor interchangeable.  I don’t ask what scent of ice cream you’re eating.  Or worse when people sniff body sprays and ask what flavor it is.  It’s not hurting anyone, it’s not Earth shattering, just an observation of something that makes people sound ignorant.

I made some mini pizzas last night and the first bite scorched the roof of my mouth even after having rested.  Don’t you hate it when that happens and then you’re faced with two choices, playing with the injured, puffy mess with your tongue and wait for it to recede the next day or play with the injured, puffy mess with your tongue until the membrane peels off and then thoroughly grosses you out.  I chose to go with the first option though I’m usually more guilty of the latter.  Don’t know why I felt like sharing that with you but I did and I’m sorry.

We were looking for a family to adopt for Christmas and our local Red Cross said they were “full” and didn’t need any more donors but we could donate to the RC as a whole if we wanted.  Um, no thanks.  The point was to adopt a needy family not throw money into a pot where I have no real confirmation that it’s going where they say it’s going.  (Refer to abuses of money after 9/11 and Katrina)  So I keep looking up other organizations and it’s like pulling teeth to try and find what we’re looking for so we’re still on the search.  Many say the “deadline” is already passed.  Um, there’s still 9 days until Christmas so I don’t see how that’s possible.  “Sorry Mr and Mrs Jones and children…I didn’t meet the deadline so no Christmas for you.”  Why can’t there just be one central website that refers you to places based on your location?  If you should happen to know of such a site, feel free to list it in the comments. 

Well, suppose I’ll sign off for now.    Have a good one!

It’s official, we’ve broken down as a society.  Assholes who deserve to burn in hell have become the majority.  The Seattle Times reports about how the man who was trampled by deal seeking zombies was actually taunted as he lay there dying.

The paramedic stops pumping. The man’s shirt has been pulled to his neck, revealing his belly. A woman in the crowd mutters, “Pregnant.”

The women laugh.

Another cracks a joke.

To the woman who muttered the word pregnant, to the other who cracked a joke and/or laughed and to anyone reading this who found that disgusting display amusing…there’s a special place in hell for you all and I hope you know what it is to be publicly humiliated before taking your place in hell.  I do hope it’s not as you lay dying though because even I wouldn’t wish that fate on pieces of crap like you.  Where is the decency in this world people?  What happened to the America that we saw after 9/11 and witnessed people treating each other with dignity and respect and reaching out to help one another.  What would people have done if the same man was laying in the rubble in lower Manhattan and heard of the same story?  People would be outraged.  But since this was just a greeter at Walmart, one whom I might add didn’t even want to be up there because he’d transferred to back door duty after “getting fed up with rude customers”, it doesn’t seem to matter. 

If you want to read more about this sad commentary on the gutless turds we call fellow shoppers, click here.