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Not My Hair in the Food

Posted on January 13, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

The title pretty much explains it all. Last week, TechyDad stopped on his way home from work to pick up some dinner because it was one of those nights. We opted for some subs. I was really in the mood for some grilled chicken and ordered that. As we were eating our dinner, I noticed a medium length hair of a color that is not mine sticking out of my sandwich.

Insert gagging noises, expressions of horror, and rage.

That was the end of my meal since there was no way I was eating something that was served to me with an unknown hair within it. TechyDad called the store and was told he could go back in for a new sandwich and see the manager. Oh sure, just what we want to do so late on one of the coldest nights of the year with two kids that need to go to bed soon. NOPE, I was not taking that as an answer. I decided to call and ask to talk to the manager. The manager came onto the phone and blew me away with the cluelessness. She did not get how bad this situation was, offered no solution, and certainly NEVER said she was sorry. The next morning, I went to the website of the main company since I did not have a way to get in touch with the local owner. This is what I wrote to them:

My husband decided to stop on his way home to get subs for dinner to take home. He ordered a roasted chicken and veggie patty. As I was eating mine, something caught my eye. A hair was embedded in my sandwich that was clearly NOT mine. That was it, I was done eating. I was disgusted with this. What I was not ready for was what happened when we called the store. First, my husband called. He was told to go back to the store to talk with the manager. He hung up and told me. It was dinner time, we have two young children, and it was freezing. He was NOT going back to the store at that point in time. I picked up the phone and asked to talk to the manager. It was a little after 6:00 at this point. I did not get the managers name. She was less than helpful at best. The manager clearly did not get the gravity of the situation. She stated "Oh you are upset and don’t want your food?" No kidding I was upset, disgusted, and appalled with how she had no clue how to handle this. I told her I was finished and was going to contact corporate. This is when she suddenly seemed to care and wanted to know what she could do. I told her no thank you and hung up the phone. Your Twitter feed helped me to located this page to report the incident. I would like to know what is the proper protocol for avoiding hairs into customer food and what is supposed to be done when a customer finds one within their meal.

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter.

After some time, an e-mail from the owner of the store arrived. It was 2-3 sentences long and did not really apologize, state what happened, or anything else. They may have thought it was a sorry, but it was not. Stating that you are “sorry that your experience at my store was not satisfactory” and telling me to print out the e-mail for a free sub next visit does not cut it. Nope, my business will now be going to a new location and I will make my own sandwiches at home without feeding my family hairs.

So my question to you this week:

Have you ever gotten a hair in your food at a restaurant? What did you say and what did they do in response to the situation?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #186

Categories:
Aloha Friday food glorious food Local Business nasty things PSA stupidity vent

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – 10th Anniversary Edition

Posted on June 27, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As I have mentioned before, Friday was my 10th Anniversary with TechyDad. He went to work, NHL went to school for his last half day, and JSL and I stayed at home to do some cleaning. We had someone stopping by later in the day to check on a clogged bathroom sink. Thanks to this sink, we were forced to wash hands in the bathroom tub.

The day did not exactly go as planned. You see, thank goodness the plumber came early. He showed up at 11:30-ish instead of 2-3. I had to leave shortly after to pick NHL up from school. When he left, we knew we had some large issues. He said he would go to lunch, get supplies, and come back about an hour later to get to work. In the end, he was at our house until about 7:30 at night. Our initial plans were shot and even other items had to be changed. Still, we made the best of the situation.

The Good:

We went to my parent’s house to have cake with the boys before putting them to bed there. Thanks to fumes, we could not stay in our house. Here are the delicious cakes that we had

Once the kids were FINALLY into bed, TechyDad still wanted to head out to dinner. Since it was almost 9:30, we had limited choices. I recalled a new Sushi place not too far away, so off we went to Mr. Fuji Sushi. Our experience at Mr. Fuji’s was amazing. The food was delicious, the people there super nice, and the atmosphere wonderful. Since it was so late, we ordered two appetizers and three sushi rolls to share.

To start we had Age Tofu and Vegetable Tempura

Then we had a Philadelphia roll, Avocado Peanut roll, and Sweet Potato roll

Yes, I believe this is the best sushi I have had in a long time. We will definitely be heading back to Mr. Fuji again soon.

The Bad:

We thought that the plumbing issue would require snaking the pipes. When they tried to do this, the snake refused to go down and kept going up into the pipes instead. When JSL and I left to pick up NHL at school, they were debating a few options.

Try to go in the attic and snake things and it may last 1-2 years IF we are lucky.
Replace the old pipes in the section that appeared to be the root of the issue with PVC pipes.

I went to pick NHL up and bring the kids home for lunch.

The Ugly:

When they arrived back at our house, I saw them hauling a long section of PVC pipe. I knew it was the best thing, but I was paranoid and worried about things. As they started to work in the basement on cutting the pipe open, it started to get more complicated. They could not get to the top of the pipe from the basement. Suddenly, wall removal was needed. Yes, I think I aged several years in this afternoon from making big decisions on the fly and listening to the noises in my house. I knew that they were capable, but it was driving me batty.

The guys came back upstairs to give me the news and I immediately knew we made the right decision. You see, the pipe in the basement was nearly closed shut. The old material has basically closed itself shut. I never went to look in the basement until a while later. I gave permission to remove wall to get at the sink pipe within there. The hole got larger than this, but you get the point from this view:

After a lot of power tool noises and labor in the bathroom with the wall and pipe fighting, they finally got that sucker out. Check this bad boy out. Yes, this nasty object was pretty much what was happening down stairs in the basement as well. Here is our corroded galvanized pipe from within the wall:

It was not an easy job, but these guys were amazing. They dealt with my paranoia and got the work done and well. They even cleaned up the mess when the tiles on the wall next to the sink spontaneously fell off – no I am not joking. Apparently, they were not put on right by previous owners. This was good under the sink since nothing was ruined getting to the pipes behind the wall. I was too sick at the mess during that time to take a photo. I am also sparing you from photos of the basement pipes and sludge that came out of them. Let’s just say old toothpaste and soap are not pretty nor do they smell nice.

In the end, the pipe is fixed, a few more will need this down the road, and we need a massive bathroom rehab soon. More good news, the pipe works and we have a new faucet that is not leaking. Thanks to spray that was used during the cleaning process on the tiles/pipes, there are horrible fumes in our house. It has been a rough few days and we are so very lucky that my parents are here for us.

So there you have it, the good, the bad, and the ugly of our 10th Annversary!

Psssst. . . if you need a good person for home repairs in my area – just let me know. This work, along with the roof, and broken main water valve were done by the same person. Highly recommend.

Categories:
bad news decisions family food glorious food house messy nasty things photos TechyDad vent yummy

It isn’t easy feeling green at 2

Posted on December 27, 2009 8:43 pm by TheAngelForever

Yesterday afternoon, JSL took a nap. Thanks to this, he was less than anxious to go to sleep at bedtime. He was antsy as he tossed and turned in my bed. He started to whimper a little bit. Here is our conversation:

Me: "JSL what’s wrong? Does something hurt?"

JSL: "I have headache."

He crashed his head into the pillow and laughed. Of course, I wonder how a 2 1/2 year old knows what a headache is. So I try to figure out a little more.

Me: "Your head hurts?"

JSL: "Yup and my belly!"

Insert toddler laughter as he rolls all around the bed. I called in TechyDad to tell him what was going on. We both figured it was a stall tactic.

This morning, the little guy was restless in his crib. We pulled him into bed with us. He kept yelling "Owie" over and over again. I asked what was wrong. Once again, he said his belly hurt. I asked if he was hungry and wanted to nurse and he said yes.

Minutes after this, JSL proclaimed he was "all better, tummy no hurt!" He jumped off the bed and ran to see NHL in the other room. The boys started to argue over something. The next thing I heard was JSL tossing his cookies and TechyDad calling for me. The poor little guy was raced to the bathroom where he was retching. You could actually see the waves of nausea moving across his stomach. I assessed the situation and cleaned up the dining room floor. Meanwhile, the house started to shake as JSL let out a giant sized belch. This sucker was as loud as some of the hockey players I had heard at bars when in college. His reaction . . . he jumped and proceeded to cry in JL’s arms.

Two additional episodes followed within a two hour span. The last was about 20 minutes after we gave him Tylenol. Thanks to his low grade temperature, and tendency to spike high and have febrile seizures, I called the doctor. I wanted to know what to do give him to avoid fever and dehydration. She called back after church and told me to get Tylenol suppositories. She said keeping his temperature down was more crucial at this point since he would not dehydrate that quickly.

Of course, I could not find our box of FeverAll and had to head out to the store. At my second pharmacy, I was able to find some along with bubble gum flavored electrolyte drink. At 11:00, I used one of the FeverAll’s and within an hour he was asking for crackers. We gave him a few to start. The little guy barked for more. He had more and some water. An hour or so went by and everything stayed down. At lunch time, he has some plain pasta and a full sippy cup of the bubble gum electrolyte drink (typically he refuses these). At this point, we could see he was exhausted. I shuttled him into my bed and he fell asleep while we watched Paula Deen on Food Network.

Tonight, he was upset at dinner. He wanted couscous, but we had none made and were not planning on any. Crackers kept him quiet and so far his tummy has stayed settled. Now we are just monitoring his temperature since his cheeks are bright red and his temperature is still elevated for JSL.

Lesson learned, even a two year old knows when they are not feeling well. We will never doubt him again and will quickly move him to the bathroom. Now we are just going to sit back and see if anyone else in the family gets this bug….I have a feeling it may be me. Oy!

Categories:
jsl kid talk nasty things photos sick kid weekend

Hidden termite control

Posted on September 21, 2009 12:46 pm by TheAngelForever

This morning I wrote a rather large check to the exterminator. As much as it hurt me to write that number on the line, I realized that we were lucky. Two weeks ago we called two exterminators to come and look at something. While they were here they found termites in our basement.

This began a huge roller coaster of emotions over the last two weeks. I was disgusted by the larvae that was causing us trouble upstairs, but glad that they made us catch the termites in the basement. It may seem silly, but I likely would not have noticed these mud tubes on my walls and let the termites gain more control and do further damage.

The exterminator was here with two other people. The three of them worked from about nine in the morning to a little past eleven. They did quick work cleaning/treating the word in the basement, drilling holes in the concrete for chemicals (and patching of course) and setting up the bait systems along the perimeter of our house.

When they were finished, the check handed over and contract signed, I went outside to look at the work with the exterminator. He had previously shown us what the bait systems would look like, but I did not realize what we would see once they were in the ground. Here is one of them in the grass along the side of the house:

I had seen these before at other houses, but I had not clue. I just assumed that were something else. Now of course I know their secret of termite control.

Of course, I will never judge someone over termites. We are powerless over where these critters decide to seek food for dinner. This time they selected my house, next time it could be yours. My suggestion to you, inspect your basements and know what to look for. . . then if you suspect something get a professional in to do a free inspection/estimate.

Now we just wait and see what happens. The exterminator will be back in November to look for activity at the bait stations all along our house. After that they will come back in the spring to check again. We will continue this 3-4 month routine for the next 2 years until we see nothing at the bait areas. In the back of my mind I keep chanting "Die termites die . . . that’s what you get for messing with us!"

Categories:
house looking back nasty things photos

Plan of action, of the bug kind

Posted on September 15, 2009 8:25 am by TheAngelForever

Although I may complain about the winter often, there is one part of it that I enjoy a lot. What is that you ask? Well, I love the fact that almost all of the bugs from the spring, summer and fall are pretty much gone. I rarely have to think about them, look at them or clean up thanks to them.

The Friday going into Labor Day weekend I found larvae at the base of my hardwood floors. All weekend we did a massive clean up and found more of these nasty critters. Monday I left messages for two highly recommended exterminators in our area. Calls were returned to me the next day. The one was not able to schedule a visit to come and look until Thursday morning. I took that appointment. When the second called I admit, I lost it on the phone crying over bugs! Not a proud moment, but I was disgusted. While he was on the phone with me he asked me to describe the larvae. He quickly told me that he did not think that they were powder-post beetles. Instead he figured they were some sort of pantry pest that came in a packaged food that we bought at one time or another and were spreading around our kitchen and house. He was going to make a special trip out to us that evening to check things out.

Tuesday in the early evening Exterminator #1 showed up. He came inside, kind of looked at the larvae. In hind sight it bothered us that he identified it as Larder Beetles from a standing position. I kid you not, he never once got down to take a closer look. He basically told us to get rid of any food items in our pantry that were not in hard plastic containers. So basically all of the granola bars, cereal, cake mixes and the list goes on and on.

Next he went into our basement to look at the piles of saw dust . . . or so I thought. We were wrong. That was simply sand thanks to ants pushing their way into our house. Lovely, but not horrible. Next we saw his face get very serious. He started to really look around over the laundry area at the base of the house. What we heard was not something we expected. The exterminator saw mud. Not too long before this, I had mentioned to JL that I saw something new by the window and wondered what it was. Well, thanks to these nasty pests upstairs we found that we had a termite problem. He suspected it was new. He looked quickly around the entire basement and went outside. Found two more spots in our yard that had termites. We were verbally quoted a price to rid the termites, but it had NO warranty. We were told a written estimate and explanation would arrive in the mail within a few days. Please note it has now been a week and nada has come.

JL and I opted to start working on the cabinets in the kitchen. Wait, check that. JL has been doing the work since I am too disgusted by the entire thing. Together we opted not to go on a massive food ditch until we met the second exterminator.

Thursday morning Exterminator #2 arrived. He came in, got on the ground and looked at our larvae. He said it looked like a pantry pest, but could not 110% identify since a lot of them look alike. He told us to clean everything out, vacuum often (hardwood floors are great places for them to hide in), use hard plastic storage and clorox to wipe down areas to kill any larvae eggs that may be around and unseen. Gross yes, but sadly a fact of life.

He went into our basement and looked at the termite troubled area. He agreed that no structural damage was made to our house and it was very localized. A lot of time was spent pushing on wood, looking into hidden areas along the base of our house. Nothing else was found at the time. When he went outside he actually took something out to measure the area around and when asked checked our garage. Eventually he excused himself to go into his truck to write a proposal. Yes, you read that right – he did it on the spot! When Exterminator #2 came out of his truck he had a truly professional package with state laws on pest control, their plan of action, their warranty (wahoo), and the proposed cost. The only small catch was two areas would not be under the warranty at this time since they are not able to be accessed (front/back porches). He went over the plan of action and took our a termite bait station to show us. Approximately 14 of these will be placed around our house and forever monitored for activity to get rid of the termites.

When he left JL and I were pretty sure we knew which exterminator we would be going with. Friday afternoon we were packing up the car to head to my niece’s second birthday party out of town. On my way into the basement something by the back door caught my eye. MUD! Yes, there were actually termites there that both of the exterminators missed. My heart sank and I felt sick. The ride to our destination was long as I kept thinking about the new termites. Before I left I put in a call for Exterminator #2 to see how this would alter our proposal. Monday early evening he called back and said it would not change a thing. JL and I were relieved and on the spot asked to schedule him to take care of the termites. Next Monday he will be here for half a day working inside and out to set up the system. This is going to cost a lot of money, but we can disclose it if we sell the house and transfer the warranty and system to new owners. This is huge! In our area termites are pretty prevalent. Many of our neighbors have dealt with them over the years (before we owned the house). Apparently in the north we are lucky and only have one type of termites, but they LOVE sand ground and that is what most of our area is on.

Lesson learned is to pay attention to things in your basement. Thank goodness we caught this early and hopefully will be able to kick this quickly before more termites decide to call our house dinner.