Wade and I spent the weekend in Paducah celebrating Papa’s (Wade’s Grandad) 90th Birthday. We arrived late, late, late Friday night and spent most of Saturday with the Burch/Broach family. Wade was in charge of pictures and I served cake, which put me in the perfect position for snacking!
After the party we all returned to the house for a nap and then BBQ for dinner. Wade and I spent most of the evening there and then went to my mom’s house for a little baseketball and some dessert.
We didn’t do a lot of shopping in Ecuador. I bought an Alpaca scarf and a couple t-shirts, but my favorite discovery was cinnamon Trident gum. I love the soft gum, which I can no longer find in Cinnamon. It appears to still be popular in Ecuador. I managed to gather quite a supply before we headed home. Wonder if I should have declared the gum for customs?
Happy Birthday Jamie!
I normally rant about bad customer service and I plan to do that again. But first a good review. I am extremely impressed with L.L.Bean. I have ordered from them before, but never had a problem. Last month I ordered custom totes for my sister and me.
My mistake, but I did order the bags monogrammed. When I received them, the color thread used for the monogramming didn’t coordinate (in my opinion) with the bags (not the one shown above). I didn’t think LL Bean would do anything because they were customized. I was wrong. They immediately offered apologies and let me choose whether to try a different color or get my money back. How nice. Why aren’t all companies like this?!?!
Now on to the annoying rant. Ethan Allen is a pain. I bought four prints on sale in the Ethan Allen store in Nashville. As they were wrapping up the prints, we realized one of them had a couple of large scratches on the glass. I asked if they could give me a better price for the damage and was told “no” because they were already on sale. I then asked if it would be possible to find one that was not scratched. The sales lady found me one in an Ethan Allen on the north side of Nashville. I paid for all four at the first store and picked up the fourth one on our way out of town. It was wrapped up and I didn’t look at it until I got to my dad’s house. It turns out I didn’t have four different prints, but three prints and a duplicate. I called the sales lady I had dealt with and she agreed it was their fault and then also informed me they don’t normally take back sales merchandise. It was determined that Melissa would return the print for me and the lady would find a replacement.
After many annoying days and few returned phone calls, I spoke with the manager. They told me the duplicate print had to be returned within 10 days of purchase and they were still trying to locate me a replacement print for the same sale price. Melissa makes the return and then the lady informs me that they cannot ship the replacement print to me. I will have to pay if I want it shipped. At this point it is three weeks later and much frustration. I find the print in Milwaukee for $50 cheaper. I leave a message for the sales woman and tell her to please refund my money and I will buy the print locally. She returns my call and says she has managed to “sweet talk” the manager into paying for shipping. Gee – think you should have done that to begin with?
I get back from our trip and still have no word on the print. I finally got an email today saying it was shipped to their store on 3/21, but they haven’t received it yet. Will it ever end?
I came back from my vacation expecting a little warmer weather. Wade and I had taken bets that the snow would have melted during our week away. We saw tulips and blooms all over the South. When we landed in Milwaukee we saw fresh snow. It turns out this is the second snowiest winter in recorded history. Below is the ranking:
It’s supposed to snow six inches on Thursday so there’s still a shot for us to have the snowiest winter in history. What a first year in Milwaukee!
Today was the big day – Daniel and Karen got married. Wade spent the morning running errands with Daniel. I went to breakfast at Waffle House with Liz and Adam’s parents. Then we dressed for the wedding and arrived willing to help. Instead we watched the comedy show going on in the groomsmen’s dressing room.
Then it was time for the ceremony. Everything went smoothly and the name is now Karen Chandler.
The next stop was the Fraternal Order of the Eagle for the wedding reception. Betsey and Dan were also at the wedding so we had a nice Tech reunion.
After the reception hall was cleaned up and returned to pristine condition, Wade and I made a quick trip to the mall. I had bought him a shirt at Dillard’s when I was in KY and he didn’t want it. There are no Dillard’s in Milwaukee so we carried the shirt with us the entire trip to return it in Huntsville. The shirt was quickly returned and we joined Adam, Liz, and Adam’s parents for dinner. Then we sat and talked in the hotel lobby till almost 12:30 – we are trying to plan another joint vacation.
After an all night flight from Quito to Atlanta (arriving at 6 am), none of us were in top form. Wade and I were leaving everyone in Atlanta and renting a car for our drive to Madison, Alabama for a wedding (or so we thought). After much arguing with Delta and paying a hefty fee (they wouldn’t let us have our bags without the fee), I realized I had gotten our itinerary wrong. I just knew from day one that we were leaving the group in Atlanta. It turns out we were supposed to leave the group in Nashville. Wade was great about it and just said, “I’m glad I have a wife who makes mistakes.”
We retrieved our bags and the nice woman at the National Car Rental counter had sympathy for us. She got us a one-way rental to Huntsville for the same rate we had secured in Nashville. Jamie’s boyfriend had arranged an early birthday breakfast and we finally got out of the airport and on to breakfast. We had a wonderful “Southern” breakfast – grits, biscuits, gravy, etc.
Wade and I alternated driving and finally arrived in Madison, Alabama for Daniel Chandler’s wedding. We checked into our hotel and both took a nice long nap. We woke up in time for a quick visit to Daniel’s house and then on the rehearsal at the church.
We hadn’t given the wedding much thought and were doing good to arrive with appropriate attire. We were pleasantly surprised to realize Adam and Liz would be at the wedding too! Adam and Wade were excited to learn the rehearsal dinner was being held in an old jail.
Today was a leisurely day. Our flight is not till 9 pm. We spent the day in the hotel and most of it in our room playing spades with Melissa and Chris. We switched partners various times over the week so I am not sure who ended up the overall winner. We ordered room service and were basically lazy all day. What a nice way to end a wonderful trip!
Most of today was spent traveling. We packed our bags and boarded a flight for Quito – high altitude and cold temperatures. We had quite a bit of free time and I was excited to use the gym and spend a few hours with my book. The first activity of the evening was a visit to Quito Colonial City. A parade was arranged for us and we enjoyed seeing the native dress and dance.
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 Wade and I with local dancers |
The next stop was the Santo Domingo Convent for dinner. We dressed in white robes and had a delicious dinner with roses covering every surface. 80% of the world’s roses are grown in Ecuador so they are always in abundance. During dinner we were serenaded by an Opera singer and entertained by a well known finger painting artist.
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 Wade and I waiting for dinner |
Happy Birthday Laura!
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