product placement except not really

Emotional roller coaster

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Panera is toying with my emotions, guys.  A few months ago, they had a salad I loved.  The spinach power salad was awesome, and I got it every time I was near a location that offered it.  When they took it away, I was pretty disappointed.  So imagine my elation yesterday when I got an email from Panera with the subject “Celebrate the summer with a spinach salad.”  They brought it back!  Hooray!  John and I had just discussed picking up dinner from Panera for tonight (because going to the store is beyond us after a long work week), and now I could get my favorite salad.  The world is a wonderful place.

Today, though, I got a second email from Panera.  Subject: We’re sorry – we made a mistake.

We were so excited to send your monthly MyPanera® email yesterday that we failed to notice that the Spinach Salad we featured is no longer available. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

We’d like to suggest that you try the Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad instead.

We hope you’re enjoying your summer — and thanks for understanding.

— your friends at MyPanera®

I was (I am) disappointed.  At least they sent a nice email.  But hey – it reminds me that I’m capable of making a similar salad myself.  We’ve been doing that with that salad I love from the Cheesecake Factory (French Country Salad) these past weeks, too.

French Country Salad

  • Good lettuces
  • Steamed asparagus
  • Pickled beets
  • Crumbled goat cheese
  • Balsamic vinaigrette
  • Pecans or walnuts

Spinach Power Salad

  • Spinach
  • Crumbled bacon
  • Boiled eggs
  • Fried onions (optional)
  • Some sort of sweet onion vinaigrette

So good, so good for you.  And it doesn’t count as cooking, so I can still say I don’t like to cook.

It’ll be a while before the machines are ready to take over the world

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We still have a land line at home.  I’m not sure why, really.   We use it to make some calls (the vet, the pharmacy), and our parents use it to reach us sometimes, but they use our cell phones at least as often as the land line.  We mostly ignore it because despite registering for every Do Not Call list out there, we get tons of telemarketers, political robocalls, and other spam.  We talked about getting rid of it not too long ago, but I think our main reason for keeping it is because it’s our primary contact number for every bill, every account, every everything, and it would be a pain to update those.  Not the greatest reason to keep paying for it.  It’s Vonage, so it’s cheap, but still.

As long as we still have it, though, I get some entertainment out of its visual voicemail feature.  All voicemail goes to my Yahoo account (another dinosaur, but I have better reasons for keeping it), but Vonage doesn’t always do a good job of transcribing what was actually said.  Sometimes the program gives up altogether, but usually it tries.  Just about half an hour ago, I got this visual voicemail:

“Hi Ms. Bird, this is Sharon calling from pointless mom. Just calling to let you know that your contacts are ready for pick up. Thank you”

That’s Vonage’s punctuation, not mine, and this is better than most since at least the second half makes sense.  It’s also only the second half that told me it was my eye doctor’s office calling.  I might suggest they change the name of their practice to Pointless Mom when I swing by tomorrow.  Much funnier.  I don’t know where that came from, though.  It doesn’t even rhyme with the actual name.  Speaking of names, no names had to be changed to protect the innocent – Bird is not my last name, and Sharon is not the name of the woman who called.  (I listened to the actual voicemail, too.)

None of this is convincing me to keep a land line for the house, but it has convinced me that I don’t have to worry about evil robotic overlords just yet.  Or maybe they just want me to think that…

About time

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I got a new phone!  Yippee for me!  The very nice guy at the Sprint store fixed the button before we left for our trip, and it worked great, all the way up to the morning we left to come home.  The button quit on me, and I gave up on my phone.  I did some research, and not too long after that, I showed up at my neighborhood Sprint store and bought the Samsung Epic 4G Touch.  We’re very happy together.

I am way far behind on my internetting, so I’m off to visit my blog-buddies for the evening.

A brilliant (and probably not original) idea and some good news

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While coming home from my disappointing pedicure yesterday, I found myself behind a car at a stoplight.  The light changed, but the guy didn’t go.  I waited a couple of seconds, he still didn’t go, so I lightly tapped my horn.  It didn’t come out so light.  I wasn’t irritated, I wasn’t in a hurry, it was no big deal, but to the guy in front of me, I must have sounded like “Hey!  Jerk in the car in front of me!  What are you, asleep?”  Not what I meant.  But I have a solution!  Every car should be installed with two horns.  One little one so you can politely nudge someone when it’s clear they just need a little help, and then the normal obnoxious one, still with the big button in the middle of the steering wheel, so you can find it easily in an emergency and pound on it when loud blaring blasts of your horn are called for (which is practically never, unless you live in New York, but that’s a whole different thing).  Problem solved.

Also this weekend, my most recent phone problem got fixed!  Yes, it still reboots when it overheats and I can’t always find the GPS satellite (so yes, I’ll still be shopping for a new phone soon), but last week, the button that lets me turn my screen on and off quit working.  WAY more annoying.  The only way I could do anything with my phone was to plug it in (or unplug it).  Then the screen would light up and I could make a call or check email or whatever.  Otherwise, nothing.  I took it to the Sprint store in the mall where the friendly technician took the whole phone apart and cleaned the button.  For free!  (Because I don’t have the protection plan and he can’t charge me for it and technically shouldn’t have been working on it at all.)  Yay!  And because I am a happy and grateful customer, I bought him a frappuchino.  And a cookie.  He also told me that I’m eligible for my upgrade in June, not August, and that technically, I’m eligible as of May 17th.  Double yay!

This would make my commute so much easier to handle.

Where the grass is labeled

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This is still my favorite XKCD comic.  I think.  It’s one of my favorites, definitely, because it’s one of the ones I continue to laugh at, even though it’s been years since it was posted.

Also, this one.

Do you have the Draw Something app?  Our friendly neighborhood Wombat asked me that exact question just the other day.  My response (after immediately downloading it to my phone) was “I do now!”   I am so very bad at it, but it’s fun.  It’s like Pictionary without the yelling.  (Usually.)  And Wombat is being very gracious about my terrible drawings.  She’s good – she drew a great cheeseburger.  I really suck.  Truly.  But if you download it and you want to play, send me an email!

They have FEET!

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Do you get the Uncommon Goods catalog?  You should.  Because it’s got some cute stuff in it.  A few weeks ago, I bought myself a sugar bowl and little pitcher set.  I couldn’t resist.  I mean, look at them.

They’re just the cutest things.  Then John noticed that the feet look a lot like the Monty Python foot.  I knew there was a reason they called out to me.  It was fate!  And THEN I noticed that when you look at the pitcher from the other side, the placement of the handle makes the little pitcher look like it has a butt.  The cutest butt.

So, no, I don’t work for Uncommon Goods or know anyone who does (in case you were wondering).  I’ve just ordered a few things from them and I really like their catalogs.  🙂  And they sell pitchers with butts.