It’s in the asking…

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Yesterday as I was walking home from work I was approached by a man with a paper cup in his hand saying “excuse me,  I’ve left my little niece in the McDonald’s on 14th and I have to buy her food because her mother is at work but I don’t have any money can you help me she’s really hungry and I have to get her some food and I can’t leave her alone much longer”.  Yes, it really was all one long rapidly fired sentence.

The guy was about a mile from the McDonald’s but at least we were walking in the right direction, and who would leave a “little niece” on her own and wander so far from where you’re going to spend the money?  But, whatever,  while I was dithering over a response thinking that his story was crap and he should just ask me for money, he fell into line with me and said “well, I’m going to tell you some jokes” and proceeded to tell lame ones like “what did the fish say when it swam into a wall?  Dam!  You get it?  he was in a dam”.   “What do you call a deer with no eye?   No ideer” and a couple more that I don’t remember before finishing up with his pièce de résistance:   “what’s the best nation in the world”?    Donation.   Can you give me one – my little niece is really starving”.

I did dig around and find some change for him but I felt conned even though I wasn’t being conned because I knew he was playing me – though I suppose I was conned because I did give him money.  But,  I was really, really annoyed that once he had the money, he turned around and walked in the opposite direction of the McDonald’s!

The other week a guy gave me a tulip for my dollar.  Admittedly, it probably wasn’t his to “sell”, (it had half a dirt-covered bulb still attached)  but his schtick was smoother -  “a flower for a flower” type of thing – and it didn’t make me feel conned or annoyed;  it brought a smile to my face.

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Have car will sit ….

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This made me laugh – the police bike-riders were squashed into the police car:

Air & Space

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As you know, when he’s not playing manservant to me, my husband is an astronomer so it’s not surprising that the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum is his favourite museum.  It seems that he is not alone as, according to the Smithsonian website, that particular museum is the most visited in the world.

Just how many people visit the Air & Space Museum?  An average of 9 million a year!

The museum was originally called the National Air Museum when formed August 12th 1946 by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Truman.   It was renamed the National Air and Space Museum in 1976  to take into consideration the space race of the 1950′s and 60′s.

Anyhow, the manservant loves to take visitors to the museum and step-children are not excepted.    Their first day here we got the “kids” out of the house way earlier than they wanted to ensure we’d be there at opening time to beat the crowds.  As you can see it was pretty empty when we first arrived We wandered around looking at all the interesting spacey things and had plenty of time to read all the little tags and notices.  ~ These are a few of my favourite things~

Here is the Locksmith & Amanda, jetlagged but enjoying the museum

And, following on with the space theme,  today the shuttle piggybacked into town.  Most of our office staff was down near the National Mall watching it fly overhead.  This photo was taken by a work mate as I was one of the few left to “man”  the office.

Achoo….

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For the last few weeks I’ve been miserable with red eyes, scratchy throat, streaming nose and some really impressive  a’choos.

I expressed to everyone that I’d never had allergies like this before.  Never!    I was doing my blood pressure readings some damage with all the stuff I was taking to get everything under control enough to leave the house.    People at work asked if I was affected like this every spring and I’m sure they didn’t quite believe my “nope, never before”  answer.

Now I’m vindicated …..

Last night my weather lady said:   From 1998 through 2011 the average daily pollen count was 361 gcm (grams per cubic metre) and this year the average daily pollen count is 841*.       I arrived here in 2000 so it is therefore true that I’ve not experienced such a load of evil yellow stuff before.

* I emailed my weather lady today to ask if that was an average over 365 days of the year or just spring and she responded:     It’s my understanding that it is the Spring average

About an hour later she sent this nifty chart.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of April and May compares …..

And I look forward to summer when everything dies!

Econo-boy had a very normal vacation to Cancun and DC and has returned to work in Sydney.  Oh,  he did forget the pin to his fancy iPhone and when it was reset he lost all his holiday photos  – that sucks but it wasn’t life threatening.

The Locksmith & Amanda are currently enjoying the sights of New York before returning here this weekend.    Then they head off to California for a week on their way back to Sydney.

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The second coming…

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A second exciting arrival happens today  -  the locksmith and his wife Amanda.    They are coming in through LA and have a *much* tighter connection than Econo-boy had through San Francisco and the locksmith has a tendency to dawdle along not worrying about things – definitely not my genes there!

Econo-boy arrives back from Cancun tomorrow evening and I will have a wonderfully crowded house for a week.    I am sorry the princess will not be here also but she assures me she intends to have a quality one-on-one trip next year.

And yes,  I’m tracking the locksmith across the Pacific and once I know they’re on the connecting flight I’ll be doing the same as they fly across the states.

Econo-boy is coming…

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My second son is coming to visit and he’s nearly on US soil.  Actually he has about 2 hours to go but as he’s already been in the air for 12 hours another two is pretty trivial.    He has a 4+ hour layover in San Francisco and eventually lands in DC at 11.59pm tonight!  (I’ve told my boss I will be very, very tired tomorrow but I will make every effort to be at work on time).   Tomorrow morning he flies to Cancun and then comes back to DC on the weekend and stays for a week.  

I’ve been tracking the flight,  like any anxious mother.  Poor guy has a seat in that horrible middle section; and not on either aisle  -  no idea how he is threading that 6’3″ tall, wide shouldered body in there!

Zazzle ain’t so dazzling

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I’ve used Zazzle quite a lot, both to print cards using my own designs and to have posters and canvas prints done.  The cards have generally been good and any issues have been with my layout but I’ve had problems 90% of the time with the posters/prints as the word “framed” seems to become invisible on the order and my items arrive rolled up in a tube  – so not framed!

In the middle of a sleepless night in February I did some sympathy  thank you cards and placed an order.    They were ‘created”  and “processed”  during daylight hours and allegedly  “shipped”   the next day.    Constant checking of the tracking number showed that  “a label has been created”.

I’d paid for 2 day shipping so after a couple of days I contacted Zazzle and asked when that created label would be attached to my package.  It took them a day to respond with:  We are very sorry to hear that you have not yet received the items that you ordered. At this point, sufficient time has passed from the shipping date that we can now pursue your issue with the courier as a package that has been officially “lost in transit”. 

They offered to place an  “urgent replacement”   in their production queue which I accepted as I wanted the damn cards -  I need to get my thank yous out.

Guess what?   More than one week later and I still have no confirmation the “urgent” order has been put in their production queue, let alone something as exciting as a shipping notice.

Now,  Zazzle has always been quick to offer replacements in each case they did not send me what I ordered but I  wonder why they do not have better quality control/inspection.   I don’t suppose I can assume that I’m the only person to ever have problems with Zazzle (that would be horrible luck)  therefore Zazzle must spend a lot of time replacing orders and that must increase the end cost to their customers.

If I’d declined their offer of an “urgent replacement”,  had my account credited and placed a totally new order  I’d have the cards by now.

I’m glad I didn’t have a date specific occasion that I had to have these for.  And someone out there, in the middle of their holiday prints, probably has cards that say thank you-for-your-sympathy,  with a photo of my father Max.

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