Warning: This is a long, silly story about how I am now sitting with a bag of frozen vegetables on my leg.

I have been taking weekly walks with a good friend of mine, C, for the past few months. Normally, our routine has been to meet up at a local parking garage that is almost deserted, one of the many places around these parts that didn’t develop as originally anticipated due to all the financial chaos going on lately. However, it has been a great place to walk because it has a slight incline (thus giving you a little extra push, but just a little) and we are covered for the most part from the elements. One lap up and down is one mile, so we’ve been doing three laps and manage to get in a 3 mile walk in about 50 minutes.

Of course, with temperatures in the 90s now, it has been crazy hot out, and I have to drive a pretty good distance to this place since it’s on the opposite end of town from where I live. This and the fact that C is a total gym rat and recently renewed her membership at a local gym, which included a bring a friend for free any time clause, caused her to suggest that we attempt a walk inside on the treadmills at this place. It is about a 10 minute drive from my house, so it’s closer, and we would not be out in this horrible heat.

I immediately told her, “No, I hate gyms. “Why?” “Because there will be people there!”

However, C persisted: “This time of day no one will be there. The place is deserted!”

I didn’t buy it, but she continued to insist that we would practically have the place to ourselves; wouldn’t I at least try it?

C has been raving about her wonderful gyms for years. This one in particular she has often suggested I join because it is so close to where I live. She is a major social butterfly, so for her, the whole gym social thing is appealing, but I have never been able to get through to her how much I hate that kind of thing. I want to workout, not chit chat with a bunch of people I barely know, people I would normally never know except seeing them at the gym.

I finally relented. C had come up with the idea of walking in the parking garage, and I had at first thought that was going to be stupid, but it turned out to be a great workout and not that bad of a drive after all. If there weren’t many people at this place, I may like it. I had used a treadmill once before and found them to be kind of cool.

Even as I was getting ready to go, I had a bad feeling. I realized that I couldn’t wear the normal crappy workout clothes and baseball hat. I even had the urge to put on earrings before walking out the door! However, I went.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I could barely find a place to park. I meet C inside the lobby. Before I even said anything, “Well, there are a few more people here than I realized. I guess because it’s summer time.”

“A few?”

The place was packed, jamming to the rafters! Size 0 pubescent 20-something girls were elbow to elbow. Music was blaring as big screen TVs showed Kim Kardasian talking to her mom and a plastic surgeon, all of which was displayed on a teleprompter since the sound was turned down.

“There really isn’t anyone here,” C insisted.

“Okay, you can believe you don’t see people, but I do see them, just so you know.”

We made our way up to the second floor.

“See, there are two machines next to each other, and that one doesn’t have anyone on it either, so there will be no one on the other side if you want to take that one. You’ll be alone.”

I didn’t say anything. Obviously, this was going to suck, but I was there, ready to workout, what the heck.

We set ourselves up next to two machines.

“How do you work this?” I asked her.

“Oh, push that start button, and then just push that to make it go faster.”

“That’s it.”

“Yes.”

Looking back, I should have also noticed the big read “stop” button on the right of the panel, but I didn’t.

So we are treading along. We are talking about organic food and my book and so on. I actually had wanted to talk to her about a few other things going on with my life now, but since we had a full audience of other gym rats, I realized our conversation was less than private.

We were about 10 minutes into all of this treading, and I picked up my washcloth to wipe my face. As I set it back down, it fell on the treading part of the mill, and I bent over to try to pick it up. Of course, this was so stupid because I ended up stopping and getting thrown off of thing.

A tiny little girl tried to help me up, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, just hurt my shin.”

C is now freaking out, “Should we call someone!? OMG! OMG! Are you okay!!”

“Okay, I’m outa here,” I tell her, and I stuff my few belongings in my bag and head out.

I’m a little bruised, not just the ego either. I have bruise on a pinky finger knuckle and a large welt growing on my leg now (thus the bag of frozen vegetables on my leg), but hey, I came home and did a 20 minute “walk away the pounds” DVD! At least I got about a 30 minute workout in, even with all that drama.  So there gym people! I so didn’t need to drive over there and watch Kim Kardasian and make a total ditz out of myself.

Needless to say, C and I have plans to head back to the garage on our next walking venture.

I haven’t been blogging here much lately because other than the jewelry book landing back on my doorstep, I have been working on school stuff for the fall. That includes making lots of blogs for my classes. So I have been blogging, just not here!

I have been using blogs for awhile as on-going class assignments for a few reasons. First, it is a way to allow my students a chance to express their opinions. A great deal of the writing I teach is analysis, so while technically they do give their opinions, most feel like they aren’t since they can’t use first or second person (I and you) in their work. So on the blogs, they can let it rip, as long as it as least half-way grammatically together.

Another reason to use the blogs is it gives them tiny writing assignments on a regular basis, just 4 to 6 sentences. Added up over the semester, I think it makes a difference in their thinking. They are limited in the length of their responses, so they have to be selective with their words. They have to actually write complete sentences, so they can’t just slap up any old pile of bologna too. It has to be grammatically correct bologna at any rate.

Finally, it helps them connect to each other a little since it creates a virtual conversation. I don’t treat it like a message board, so they aren’t required to respond to each other, but often they do after they start relaxing and get into it a little.

So far, weblogs have worked well with my full on-line and my blended (a mix of web and traditional) classes. I did try it last year with one traditional class, but I just could sell it that well. Students were too used the idea of walking out of class and away from the subject. To ask them to get on-line and write their thoughts was too much for most of them.

This year, out of 6 classes I have only one totally traditional class. This means 5 blogs, folks! Some of it I can recycle, but some of it I had to add to and tweak a little. I have found some great on-line resources too, especially for my technical communications class. In particular, I have used TED.com and embedded some pretty cool videos over there that relate to what we are studying. Students are more visual than every these days, so being able to add a video to my blog posts and then connecting that to reading material has been a big winner for me, especially when some of the videos include celebrities like Jamie Oliver or Mike Rowe.

If there are any teachers out there who would like some TED URLs, feel free to email me and I’ll send them to you or maybe even post them here, though I have a pretty long list!

This is Rocky Boo-Boo Powley giving you his googlie-eyed look. He is also silently testifying that pet blankets are much more snuggly buggly when they are made out of baby yarn.

While this blanket has a few, shall we say, well, it’s been “tasted” a few times, it has stood up much longer than another blanket I made for him and his bro (Jasper). I think between the holes (it was a granny square) and acrylic (OMG!), it just did not cut the puppy mustard (or ketchup) in our house! However, this first blanket (which I originally made to give away to babies in need but it didn’t turn out that great so I gave it to our “boys”) has been enjoyed daily. I guess the babies in need lived in my own house, and I just didn’t realize it.

Obviously, this has me pondering the notion of making dog blanket number 3, this time using baby yarn scraps. Oh, and double crochet will be used this time versus granny square.

I’m back from the Bahamas and into the blogosphere again, yeah! Friday I left out of Port Canaveral, Florida for a short cruise to the Bahamas with my mother, who is a cruise-o-holic. We arrived in Nassau on Saturday, then hopped over to Royal Caribbean’s Coco Cay island on Sunday, and came back home on Monday.

I’m not much of a traveler and had a feeling that cruising would not be my cup of tea but went for my mom’s sake. My dad has gone on probably about half a dozen of them with her and is “over it.” He describes cruises as watching the same movie over and over and over and over again. My sisters have too many familial responsibilities to just pick up and go, even though both of them would love to take a cruise. As a result, that left me since my summer vacation is so long and I have an understanding hubby who doesn’t mind holding the fort down and taking care of all our furry babies for a few days.

Cruising is something that I suspected would not be a good fit for me, but I wanted to do this for my mom, and I think she enjoyed herself. Now before I get any lip about how I don’t know any better, let me say that I really did give it a try. Some of it was fun, most though, well, I split it up into two lists:

Here’s what I liked:

• yoga on the beach (great workout & taught by a hunky Swedish dude)
• great food (mainly during dinner, very gourmet type stuff, fabo service, and I did have wine, more each day in order to keep my sanity)
• nice little gym & got to try out a treadmill for the first time, very cool, I so want one now
• wonderful service & friendly/helpful ship’s staff
• shopping and buying lots of crap I don’t need
• beautiful weather, got a little coloring even though careful not to become a lobster

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• waiting in line
• living in a tiny box of a cabin
• noise, noise, noise
• waiting in line
• zero privacy of any kind
• hours of boredom because most of the ship’s activities (karaoke, bingo, name that tune, disco night, napkin folding) are stupid
• fighting off photographers (If you fart, there is someone there with a camera begging to take your picture. This started before we even stepped one foot on the boat.)
• drunk rude passengers
• drunk nice passengers
• walking up stairs because there are too many drunk people crammed in too few elevators
• oh, waiting in line, did I mention that?

Seriously, I could see how this would be fun for some people and maybe for me if I had something to occupy my time that I enjoyed doing. For example, if I were on a craft cruise where we all made jewelry or crocheted or had yoga classes or did something other than drink and play idiotic games that are only fun if you are totally drunk. I did bring a book and some magazines, but with all the racket going on it was difficult to get much reading done. I really should have brought a crochet project.

This would be a good trip for large groups (families, drinking buddies, clubs, or sex in the city type of girl-friends) or for couples. Otherwise, I found it really boring. I do think my mom had a good time, so that is what is most important. Now, I just have to work on getting one of my sisters to go next because I’ve done my daughterly duty. I’m ova it.

As I slowing sink into my school vacation, I am able to look at my to-do list with a more realistic eye. On the one hand, I’m bummed that I won’t be able to do it all, but on the other hand, it feels good to have more of a focus than I did about a week ago.

So far, I’ve managed to get my Etsy shop looking more presentable, and now that I’m in the groove over there, I hope to keep up the momentum, at least throughout the summer. Also on my list was a blog face-lift; however, that is going way back on the back burner for awhile and off the list. Between the cost of a new template, the time required to learn some techie skills I currently don’t have, and the fact that I can’t possibly keep a super active blog going all the time, I decided it was just not something I could or should focus on right now.

All that said, I have some promising projects in the works, some related to Etsy, some related to craft writing, and hopefully, I’ll have some interesting news to share in a few weeks.

Ah, running barefoot in the grass! It is officially summer time at the Crafty Princess house. I posted my grades yesterday, have one more day to show up this week for the graduation ceremony, and then I’m free until almost the end of June!

After getting up early for a doctor’s appointment this morning, then doing some grocery shopping, I had the rest of the day to myself. On the one hand, I’m thrilled to be off for awhile. After teaching six classes, keeping up with my About.com site, and working on a new book this last semester, I really can use some down-time. However, on the other hand, my mind is racing with a to-do list that is forming in my brain. I feel compelled to have something, or lots of things, accomplished during my time off.

But where do I start? The list is crazy long, and I know it will be impossible to do it all. There are so many ideas swimming around in my brain that I’m having a hard time focusing: my Etsy shop needs some attention; I’d like to give this blog a face-lift and seriously get some ad revenue going on it; there are a stack of books here I’ve been dying to read, yes, reading for pleasure!; I need to continue my house reorganization efforts I started during spring break; every window in this house needs new curtains in a desperate way; there are tons of old tutorials on my About.com site that need template updates; oh, I could go on and on!

Am I the only crazy person that feels like I have to working during my vacation time?

Today is one of the last days of my spring break, and it occurred to me that I really hadn’t done anything as far as “getting out.” Other than make a few trips for groceries and the usual, I hadn’t gone to a movie or even gotten by hubby to take me out to dinner. I thought about it and then realized that I’m just happy to be home and having fun crafting, writing, and even cleaning (yes, crazy, I know!). So I opted for my chef (aka husband) to make a dinner of roasted vegetables while I got some web work done and as well as a little jewelry making.

I’m not a huge potato fan, but these fingerlings looked so delicious at the grocery store that I couldn’t resist.

I am fine with no meat, but the husband doesn’t know what a non-meat meal is, so he cooked something for him to go with the vegetables. I think this is pork loin?

Our garden is looked pretty rough now, but he managed to find a bunch of fresh rosemary out there still.

Then he covered asparagus and carrots with olive oil as well as the herbs and roasted those.

He did the same with the potatoes, and they were amazing! Yumo x 1,000!

Ah, here are some of the fruits of my labor over the past few days. I should have a before picture, I know, but it was just so horrible I was ashamed to show anyone how messy this house was. I still have a long way to go, but I have about a month or so until my summer break is here. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum. Even small steps like getting our kitchen pantry in order (pictured above) can take so long to accomplish. It reminds me of those logic tests you have to take in school some times: “You have 10 boxes of cereal each 8×10 inches in diameter and 12 bottles of salad dressing, 2 x size, 4 y size, and the rest z size, and you have 1 shelf axbxc in size. How do you fit all of this crap on that one shelf?”

Then you find wacky stuff as I mentioned before. In the kitchen, I found about 5 pot lids with no describable mates. Why do we have these lids if we have no bottoms to the lids?

Other than the pantry and a few closets and cabinets, the other major milestone I accomplished was finding a place for my husband’s beer making equipment. I bought him a little beer kit a few Christmases ago, and though it took him some time to finally make the beer, once he got into it he discovered that he really likes it. This hobby combines his enjoyment of cooking with his mad-scientist side. He is now a card-carrying member of the Mr. Beer of the month club, and for the longest time all this beer stuff was all over the kitchen. I took advantage of a brief camping trip he made, and voila, when he returned showed him his new cabinet cleared out for all of his beer stuff. We are both very happy it all has a home now.

EDIT: Since posting this, I have learned that the flowers did make it on time for the service, and I received a personal phone call from an FTD representative profusely apologizing for this mess. It does not change my mind about anything I wrote below, but I thought it was worth communicating.

This post is about the evils of big business and the continued loss of customer service in too many large American companies. It also includes a rant about one company in particular, FTD, a company that I hope to warn as many people as possible about. (As a side note, please do not leave a comment and tell me how I should never use on-line florists and should try to get local ones instead, yeah, figured that out by now, but thanks anyway).

I recently had an awful experience with the company FTD, who advertise themselves as “the flower experts,” and it got me thinking about how customer service seems to be a distant memory when it comes to large companies like this one. Customer service is a big issue for small companies who specialize in niche markets like crafting, but for many large companies like FTD, the customers’ needs are overshadowed by the “bottom line.” They are out to make a buck, period. If that means lying to customers and outsourcing jobs to other countries (the company is based in Illinois), so be it. Maybe their underhanded tactics will lose some customers, even a lot of customers, but thanks to the Internet, there are so many more suckers out there the customers they lose can easily be replaced.

Here’s my FTD horror story, and from what I’ve heard from others, it’s not unique at all:

My sweet 91 year old grandmother passed away recently, and the service is being held a few thousand miles away from where I live. My sisters are also not able to attend, so we decided to combine our resources and put in a donation to her local Meals on Wheels (which used to help my grandmother out before she had to move to a nursing home) and send a small plant to the service with a note about the donation. I volunteered to take care of all the details, and after searching on-line, selected FTD to purchase a small pink rose bush from.

I started to order it on-line but realized there was no information provided to tell me when the plant would arrive. I called the customer service number and asked about it, and the FTD saleswoman assured me it could get there on the specific date and time that I requested and proceeded to take my order. She seemed nice enough but was very difficult to understand due to her thick Indian accent, and I had to spell out practically every single word I spoke so that she could understand me. Of course, this should have been a red flag, but I persisted.

Finally, I completed the order, and a few minutes later received a confirmation email that included the note I asked to be included with the plan. Here is another red flag: most of the words were misspelled. For example, grandma was spelled granma. However, the email allowed me to go in and make corrections to the note, so that’s what I did.

I didn’t hear anything for a few days, and then I received an email with a tracking number. I tracked the package only to discover that the time I asked for delivery was not the time listed. I asked for it to show up at 10am, thinking that would be plenty of time for the 2pm service. Fedex had it listed as arriving at 3pm! I immediately called FTD, talked to yet another person with a very heavy Indian accent who asked me crazy questions like what was the address it was being shipped to! I didn’t have it with me, and asked him back, “Don’t you know where it is going?”

I finally got a chance to ask him about why the package was going to be delivered later than promised and was told that “FTD cannot guarantee delivery.”  I said, “So the woman who I talked to yesterday who promised it would be there by 10am either lied or doesn’t know what she’s doing; is that what you are telling me?” He simply replied, “Yes.” Un-freaking believable!

I’ve been going back and forth with the FTD customer service on-line email form too with just about the same amount of success. In fact, I can tell from the canned answers that no one has actually read what I wrote.

I do a fair amount of on-line shopping, both with large and small companies. Good customer service is more important than ever to me when I do not get to touch the merchandise. Some companies (QVC, Lands End, Jjill, Rio Grande, LL Bean, just to name a few) seem to have a strong understanding of how to acquire and keep good customers. It is because of this that I return to them again and again to shop.

Then there are places like FTD who are on the opposite end of the spectrum and personify much of what has gone wrong in American business today. Banks, mortgage companies, some car manufacturers, stock brokerage firms all have gone by the motto “customers be damned; take the money and run.” And what do we all have to show for this attitude? This has trickled down and negatively affected the national economy. Too many corporations have no ethical backbone and view the American citizen as a chump to be taken advantage of.

How can we fight against this?

I don’t think there is one answer. I know for me, the next time I call a company and the person on the other end of the phone has to have me spell every word I speak, I’m simply hanging up and moving on!

I am on day two of spring cleaning while on spring break, and so far, I’m making some decent progress. Along with general cleaning, I’ve been going through closets and cabinets in an attempt to find more space for all this, er, ah, “stuff” that we have accumulated over the 15 or so years we’ve lived in this house, and I’m finding all kinds of things I had forgotten about.

Some of my finds are on the weird side. For example, I discovered a slew of small candles tucked away in a cabinet. Now, the thing is that I never use candles because I have dogs and cats running around the house, and burning flames and pets just don’t mix. I’m guessing these were all gifts at various points in my life from well-meaning friends who do not own pets themselves.

Here are some other odd items I have found and discarded either on the trash heap out front or will discard via Goodwill later this week: a rotary dial phone (those suckers are heavy too!); a fax machine (we have no land-lines in our house any more and from what I remember some of the buttons on this thing don’t work anymore); a chocolate fountain that has never been opened (and my husband and I are constantly battling weight problems so this thing has to go!); a stack of VHS tapes, some used some not; an assortment of cloth place-mats (which I rarely if ever use); a box full of old checks from the 1990s. Well, I think you get the picture!

On an up note, other than my house is finally coming together slowly but surely, we’ve been discovering some jewelry stuff around here that I’d totally forgotten about. Recently, for example, my husband was cleaning the soldering area we have set up in our garage and found a whole bunch of unfinished charms we had cast many years ago. They require some filing and polishing, but I plan to get them out and up on my Etsy site. With the cost of silver these days, these babies are worth something. Pictured above is one from the stash that I already have cleaned up, a little sterling silver gator charm. Now my husband is the filing person around here, and I do the polishing, so that means I’ll need some cooperation from him on this venture.

Another find was a fairly large bag of finished jewelry. I think I was carrying it around about 3 or 4 years ago when I was working at another job. People always wanted to see my jewelry and now and then would buy a piece or two, so to keep it out of the work place, I would bring it in a bag and allow them to take it home or look through it during lunch in the break room. I need to go through it, but some of this might also go up on my Etsy site or even here on my blog.

Today, I tackle the kitchen. I don’t think I’ll get the entire room completely cleaned (spring break style cleaned at least), but my goal is to find some space for my husband’s new hobby of making beer. He’s got this stuff all over the kitchen to the point I can’t get to the  pantry without falling over little beer kegs. I’m going to clean out some cabinets and see if I can make room for all his beer stuff. Who knows what I might find?