FEAR THE STEPFORD'S

Fear the Stepford Moms
Yesterday afternoon Hubby and I went out to our friends, Jason and Nicole’s new house. The soon to be married lovebirds closed on the house yesterday. They are living behind Jason’s old roommate/fraternity brother/BFF (a cop) and his wife (a teacher). The guy building the house next door was our wedding photographer. He said he would love to take Baby Derricks photos! Anyway, there are an abundant number of police officers and their wives (who are either nurses or teachers) living in the development. There are 2 officers wives there who have children 3 weeks apart. The new mommies were out in the yard with their almost coordinating walking outfits (down to the shoes). What really got me was the fact that both women had the babies in matching strollers. YES matching strollers. The toy hanging above the babies were the identical too. My hubby knows the daddy’s/officers and we stopped by as we were leaving the development. The daddies said we should go ahead and move out there and began to rattle off all the reasons why. The mommies agreed that it would be good because Derrick is 3 weeks older than the first baby and it would all “just be perfect” Stepford mom number one said. We had been playing around with the idea of living there but the Stepford wives changed my mind in an instant.

I BROKE DOWN

Tara I have to thank you. I finally broke down and bought the Diaper Champ Diaper Pail. I had been using the trash can with a lid and it has worked. Until this last week. EEEWWW the smells have been bad. I kept telling myself that I would not buy a trash can that costs more than $10 . I fought the power for 11 weeks and the fumes beat me. I will loose many battles in the time yet to come. I think the next one will be the car. I think the big car seat will fit in my cat as long as no one over 5'3 wants to ride in the front seat. But the fire chief do not agree.

It had been a long time

I had this picture on an E Mail sent from Kevin and had to share. Things have been busy around here that is why I have not blogged in quite a while. I will give you the run down.
1. Still going to the Y 3 to 4 times a week for at least an hour.
2. Went to Florida for Easter weekend. We were in Tampa on Thursday and hung out with Jamie, Jenna and Jenna's parents that night. Had lunch with Chadd, Melissa and Rylee Friday after noon before heading to Ft. Lauderdale. Friday night John and Arrianna came to the house to see the baby. Saturday Derrick's mom hosted a dinner party for the family to meet her grand son. I will post some pictures later.
3. I started back to work. My DM transferred me to the other store because some managers had left the company while I was on leave. I kind of thought it was going to happen. I was told on Tuesday at 5 PM. I started work Thursday at 10AM. My GM was super mad on the short notice. Do not worry I have the same job title. Bitter sweet move. Dropping Derrick George off was hard. I did not cry that day because I had been crying the 2 weeks before. I was leaving and Sylvia was holding him as I was walking out the door I told him to be a good boy and he REALLY cooed OK. I know he was just making noise but it was cool.
4. I did hear back form the management of the restaurant and he wants to send me some passes to come back. I had expected that but here is the kicker. He wants me to call him before I come in so he can make sure my visit is good. Why should I have to call to make sure that my visit will go well?????????

A New Venture

I have to agree with the lovely Jenny McCarthy about hoping to deliver a 50 pound baby. In roughly 13 hours it will be an 8 week birthday for Little D and according to the short term disability time to cut off my check. I am perfectly healthy to go back to work (so they say). I am glad the Federal government thought differently and granted us 12 weeks away from work, granted, they are not required to pay you. I am going back in 8 days. I just got way off the subject I was heading for.

For the first time in almost 8 years is I did something rather shocking. I went to the gym (YMCA). There are a few reasons why. The main reason is I am a chubby chubby. I KNOW I KNOW "YOU JUST HAD A BABY" Here is the catcher I had and 8 pound baby not a 50 pound bag of potatoes. I have lost over 20 from the day I left the hospital. There are still at least 30 if not 40 left to shed off. 50 would put me at wedding weight, I got super thin for the wedding. On my first day to the gym I took a tour of the Y with a super fit blond named Tiffany. Tiffany will be my "personal trainer". Today Tiffany showed how to use all the cardio equipment. When did the equipment get so hi tech??? After class I hopped on the treadmill and walked for an hour. I felt great except for the Jello leg feeling as soon as you step off.

I hope to go in the mornings big Derrick is at work. I will already be up with little Derrick. I have began walking around the hood with him in the Snugglie. That is a work out and he really loves it.

Thant is all for today fellow bloggers and other random strangers.

BTW: No word from the restaurant

You might be a redneck if....

Bring Back the Service in Customer Service!!!!

This is a letter I e-mailed to a large restaurant chain regarding my visit:
On Friday, March 30, 2007 at 8:00 PM my husband and newborn son joined another family to eat at ____________. There were a total of 9 in our party, 4 adults, 3 children and 2 infants. To begin we were told we would be sat in “15 minutes 20 tops”. After 30 minutes we approached what seemed to be the ONE hostess on duty regarding the extended wait. She told us there was mistake and she thought she had sat us already. We were sat just after that. The servers’ initial greeting was warm and friendly. We placed our drink order with her. The kid’s drinks were first to arrive. One of the beverages was incorrect and was later fixed. The drinks from the bar arrived long after the kid’s drinks. We placed our food order after all our drinks were delivered. The food began to come out in an acceptable amount of time. First, two kid’s meals came out. Soon to follow was my husband’s food. A few minutes later the rest of the adult’s entrees slowly made their way to the table. After roughly 5 minutes of food delivery, the other adult entree was delivered. We are still at this point missing one kids meal. (The same child whose drink was incorrect). Our friend ordered his steak medium and was received well done. I had suggested to the server that a replacement steak could be in the next size up. Both the re-cooked steak and the missing kid’s mini hamburger meal were brought to us at the same time. The second steak was fine. Never did the server come back to check back on us after the second steak was delivered. We never had a manager come by and acknowledge that there was a problem. I did see him at another table playing with cell phone earlier in the evening. The server came back to clear some plates, after I had stacked them on the table. Her smile and friendly personality that she originally greeted us with was gone. The bill was correct and the payment was processed in a timely manner. As we were rounding up all the children, one of them had knocked a Ramekin of ketchup off a plate. We asked our server for some napkins so we could be considerate and clean up the mess and she disappeared to the back. We waited. One of my friend’s daughters asked another associate who was just standing at the end of the bar, for some napkins and was told “She went to roll you some”. How hard is it really to grab some napkins for a guest who had left the table just to get some? She told her mother what was said and she went up to the bartender for the napkins and he nearly threw them at her. As my friend was cleaning up some of the spill I saw my server talking to other servers at the end of the bar about our table and napkins. I was extremely aggravated at the situation and walked away. For the first time in my life had I ever even thought of removing a servers tip.
I have lived in Valdosta for 13 years and have never been a huge fan of this ____________. My husband and I go to ____________ each time thinking it will be better than the last and we are sadly disappointed each time. The dining room is almost always dirty. The ledges are filthy and the floors need sweeping. We have stood at the front door waiting for an associate to greet us for minutes not seconds. There have been occasions where we were never greeted by a server at the table and had to ask a bartender for service. Why should I have to ask for service? We have had cold food, burnt food and even hair in our food (all at different times). There was never any type of compensation or even a visit from a manager. We are highly disappointed by the lack of concern from your staff on this occasion as well as most of the others. Every time my husband and I leave the restaurant we say we are never going to come back. After a few months we try again, hoping for a better time but are as usual, disappointed. What is the definition if insanity? Repeating the same action over and over expecting a different result.
Customer service drives this and many other industries. Every business that deals with the public, from lawyer’s and doctor’s offices, to pet groomers and grocery stores, are held up to a certain standard. If a person feels that they were not being treated politely they can spend their money somewhere that they are treated well. There are dozens of gas stations in town; I visit the same one repeatedly. I go there not because it has the lowest gas price or it is on my way, I go there because the staff is always warm and friendly to me every time I walk in the door. The same thing can be said for my hairdresser, car repair shop and grocery store. All of these businesses perform a service. People who pay for a service should be treated with kindness and consideration that they deserve. Customer service begins with a smile and a warm sincere greeting and should end with the same. There should be people willing to help as well as buck up and take the blame for a problem, apologize for it and most of all fix the problem. This restaurant needs fixing. I look forward to hearing from you.

As most of you know I am a manager for a HUGE casual dining restaurant chain. I did not want to name the restaurant to the public because it would miss the point.

Why is Home Depot sufferings and Lowe's is thriving??? Customer Service!! Home Depot has even have admitted to that. If you are in the service industry please use the manners your parents taught you as children. Please, thank you... If you have children teach them manners. If you are not happy with the service you receive let them know and go somewhere else.

If you have problems, tell headquarters about it. When you e mail, the "head guys" read the complaints. The complaints that my company receives are first seen by the VP of my company. He forwards them to the DM's and all GM's. They are also posted on the web so that all the stores in out franchise can read it!!

Companies need to know there are problems. They can not fix them unless they know that they are there. Once again use your manners, be polite. Sometimes you need to cool off a little before you tell them. I had to cool down after leaving or I really could have shown my ass. We really need to bring back customer service!!!!!!!!!!!!!