LKL’s Blog

Amazon is one of my favorite stores, online or off. I quickly became addicted to buying books from them, and I’ve since graduated to kitchen items (my second favorite thing to shop for). A week ago, they were offering $25 off an order of $125 in housewares, so I took advantage of that, along with free super saver shipping. Unfortunately, a single item was on back order, so the whole order wasn’t to be mailed for over a month.

In order to avoid having to wait so long, I decided to replace that item with another, but it turns out that isn’t possible. I deleted the old but there was no way to add the new, and since I was no longer over 125, the price went up by $25. Plus, the ship date didn’t change, even though everything in my order was in stock.

I wrote to customer service, who responded by fixing the ship date (there was some kind of glitch) and upgrading me to regular shipping. I thanked them for that, but explained that I was still disappointed that I couldn’t add an item to meet the coupon requirements. I wasn’t mad, but they reacted as if I were threatening never to shop there again. They said that since I’m such a great customer, they’d go ahead and take the 25 off anyway.

How can you not love being treated like that?

We recently found out that our well water is highly contaminated with e. coli bacteria. Strangely, we don’t have any symptoms, but this may be due to the fact that we were sick from e. coli more than a dozen times during the 2½ years we spent in Morocco. In any case, everyone kept telling us that we needed to dump a bunch of bleach in the well to disinfect it, but since I do not use bleach (it is very toxic), I wasn’t wild about that idea. After much research, I found a better solution: ultraviolet purification. I just thought I’d share one of the more helpful pages I found, in case anyone else had similar troubles: Everything You Need to Know about Ultraviolet Water Purification

It turns out I probably don’t have strep throat since I have developed laryngitis, and the two do not normally go together. Laryngitis is a funny thing - my voice was scratchy on Friday, completely gone yesterday, and is very hoarse today - which I guess means it’s getting better, but I still feel awful. Here are some interesting things I’ve discovered about laryngitis:

• When you whisper, kids will whisper back
• I shouldn’t even be whispering, as according to the Mayo Clinic, whispering puts more of a strain on the vocal cords than talking
• My French R is completely unaffected

Time to drink my 4,391st cup of tea.

The annual Leonid meteor shower is happening tonight - if you’re in western Europe, western Africa, or eastern North America, you might want to check it out. Beginning Saturday night at around 11:45pm EST / Sunday morning 4:45am GMT and lasting for around 2 hours, you may see an average of more than 2 shooting stars a minute. That’s a lot of wishes!
CNN: Leonid meteor shower nears peak

I for one am ecstatic that this poisonous, vicious election is finally over. I’ve been reading the news all morning, and once the last two Senate seats are decided, I’m done with it. Whether or not you’re happy about the results, you can’t deny that things are going to be different.

Note how I skillfully avoid expressing my opinion about the actual results. I should be a journalist.

I’m so glad the American elections are almost over. The personal attacks from both sides have been horrendous - I’ve heard very little “why you should vote for me”; the majority of ads have been “why you should not vote for ___ - s/he is bad, stupid, incompetent, a liar….” The venom spewed from both parties is shameful. Now it’s time to choose between the lesser of two evils and be done with it - I’m off to vote.

Americans will be voting next week in what is expected to be a historic election. Voters need to be informed, and this site offers a great deal of unbiased information about how incumbents have voted on every issue ranging from abortion to war & peace, as well as what challengers have said about those same issues. Please, be informed and please vote.
On The Issues - Every Political Issue on Every Leader

(I apologize if this post seems rather stilted - I didn’t want to show my bias)

Most of the original seven wonders of the world have disappeared, and now you can vote for new ones. This is an official initiative open to voters from all over the world, so don’t miss your chance to contribute to this historic decision. Some of the finalists include Stonehenge, Alhambra, and the Eiffel Tower, and the New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on 7-7-07 (you’ve got to love the date). Learn more and register to vote at The New 7 Wonders of the World.

I’m obviously way too old to trick-or-treat, we never get any trick-or-treaters back in the boonies where we live, and I’m not a huge fan of costume parties, so to celebrate Halloween this year I’m going to see The Nightmare Before Christmas on IMAX. I’ve always loved this movie, and seeing it on a huge screen in 3D can only make it better.

I’m not a complete Halloween grinch though; here are a couple of links to help spread Halloween cheer:

• Halloween in France
• Pumpkin recipes

The happiest day of my life so far was either the day I paid off my student loans (which were so high that my then-boyfriend broke up with me, for fear that he would somehow end up having to help pay them) or the day I quit my “real” job and started freelancing full time (which happened to be 1 January 2000). One might think that my wedding day would be the happiest, but since we’d already been together for 6 years, the wedding was just a formality.

The happiest day of my life yet to come will be the day that I move to France (which is still completely up in the air - no response to my visa appeal yet).

What was the happiest day of your life?

This post was inspired by Scott Adams