Victoria's Secret: Still Not 'Very Sexy'

Just about a year ago, Victoria's Secret's CEO proclaimed that the company would start making their clothes sexier and less juvenile.

I just received my spring catalog in the mail and opened it with great anticipation.

Here is what I saw: the amazingly UNsexy "Side-Bow Cheeky Panty." Really? This is new and sexy, huh? My husband would beg to differ. Or how about this: the "sheer halter babydoll" in polka-dots. Totally sexy ... if are a big fan of Dr. Seuss.

I'm of course pointing out the worst ones. Some items in the catalog are moderately attractive. But nothing jumps out and says "Wow! Sexy!" to me. Try again, Victoria.

We got a new Car!

My husband and I decided a few months ago that we probably needed a new car. Our 1991 Chevy Blazer and 1994 Nissan Sentra, while beloved, are certainly getting up there in age. Best to have at least one newer car.

By reading reviews, we narrowed our desired car to one of these 4 choices in the small SUV class:
Toyota RAV4
Ford Escape
Honda CR-V
Subaru Forester

Over the past few months, we have been visiting dealerships. I suppose I should have been blogging about each visit, but I confess I've been strapped for time. So instead I've kept notes on various topics and will soon begin my "Car Shopping" series.

But here is the summary of the results:
After our first round of visits, we narrowed our choice down to Toyota Rav4 vs. Ford Escape.
And finally, this past weekend, we chose the Toyota Rav4. [And I have named it "Red XIII" after our favorite Final Fantasy character.] It almost broke my heart to not buy American in these current economic times. But the Rav4 had one feature that no other small SUV offered: an optional 3rd row. This gave us a lot of flex, if we should decide to have a second baby. Had it not been for this, I would have bought the Escape, because it is a fabulous car.

Here is Ford's consolation prize: I am going to write here for everyone to read and search engines to crawl, that Ted Britt Ford of Fairfax, Virginia is utterly fabulous. I absolutely want our next car purchase to be a Ford, just so I can buy a car from them. Great people. Totally professional. Completely not the typical 'car salesman' model. Loaner for life program. Amazing service bay. And our sales consultant, Dave Glover, was just so cool. This is a guy we'd have as friend: Former military (like my husband), small kids (like us), likes video games (like us). Dave is a straight-talking, common-sense kind of guy, and we have already recommended him to our friend who knows he wants a Ford Escape, but hasn't yet decided between the regular vs. the hybrid.

So, kudos to Toyota for having the idea of putting in that 3rd row and kudos to Ford for creating an excellent small-class SUV made in the USA.

Spirit Airlines: Low Cost for Little Customer Service

My friend Joanna Pineda recently had a very bad experience with Spirit airlines. So, this article in the New York Times' Sunday Business section (March 29, 2009) caught my eye: "Don't come crying to this Airline." The article talks about the Spirit business model of ultra low cost service, which translates to little or no customer service. The word 'non-refundable' is ABSOLUTE at Spirit, apparently, and has garnered many complaints. CEO Ben Baldanza calls this a "mismatch of expectations."

I guess what I take away from this is that when you book on Spirit, online, you need to very carefully verify what you are typing. Also, they need a big, RED, FLASHING notice that explains that this money is totally nonrefundable and if the flight is cancelled don't expect any help getting a new one. Perhaps that would solve the 'expectations mismatch' that is causing all of these issues. And there will probably still be lots of people willing to spin the roulette wheel for the chance at a $9 plane ticket.

American Century: A+ for Customer Service

I made a mistake this year. I contributed too much to my Roth IRA. All those numbers. All those IRS forms. It changes every year, and it is all incomprehensible. Luckily, my personal electronic accountant friend, TurboTax, caught the mistake.

So, I picked up the phone and called American Century Investments, who is holding the tiny bit of money that is my Roth IRA.

Wow. What an amazing customer service experience.

• There are no menus. You call and the auto-attendant says "A customer service rep will be with you soon," and they mean soon. I waited about 30 seconds, and we're only 9 days from TAX DAY.
• I spoke to 2 reps; they both spoke perfect english and understood exactly what the problem was and what I needed. Recharacterize $ X from 2008 to 2009? Absolutely.
• And without prompting she gave me all the info I needed at the end of the call: The current date and time, her time zone, her name, the confirmation number for the change, the dollar amount of the change, and when I'd see it in my account.

Really amazing. Kudos to American Century. But stay tuned ... my friends have been sharing stories of not-so-nice customer service, so I'll be ranting on that, soon!

My Kingdom for a Mozart Magic Cube

As mentioned previously, my 1-year-old's favorite toy is Mozart's Magic Cube, by Munchkin. He plays with it for 15-20 minutes to put himself to sleep at night, and he plays with it for 20-30 minutes to entertain himself upon first waking up in the morning. This Cube is a very important part of our lives.

On Wednesday of this week, at approximately 8:05 A.M., he broke his Cube. He has taken to flinging it out of his crib after playing with it, and this time it cracked. The plastic strip holding in the batteries broke. Shrieks followed (mostly from me).

While my husband fixed breakfast for the little one, I carefully pulled the strip off the Cube and super-glued it. Then we headed out to work/daycare. When we returned that night, the strip seemed solid. I reassembled it, gave it back to my son ... and it was broken again within 90 seconds. More shrieks. I had to rock my son to bed for an hour because he couldn't play with his cube to go to sleep.

At 9:29 A.M. the next morning, I was standing in the pouring rain in front of our local Buy Buy Baby. At 9:31 A.M., I was racing through the store behind a clerk who was leading me to the magical Cubes. By 10:00 A.M., I was home, handing my son his Cube for his morning nap.

Whilst he was napping, I wrote to the Munchkin company. I asked if I could buy a replacement battery strip from them, so that my original Cube can be made functional again without buying yet another Cube if he breaks it again.

I just heard back today from Amanda Maria at Munchkin:

Thank you for contacting us, we recognize that customers like you have made Munchkin Inc. the company it is today, and we truly appreciate hearing from you.

I’m sorry to hear that the cover of your Mozart Magic Cube broke. Currently we do not sell the covers yet I do have some here for replacement and would be happy to send you one.

If you could please confirm your mailing address I will be sure to get a replacement out to you.

Wow. I can't buy a replacement, but they'll send me one for free. That is just awesome. I love you, Munchkin Company.

Waging War against Sodium: Chicken & Stars

Once upon a time, salt was a precious and rare commodity. It was so valuable that skilled workers were sometimes paid in salt, thus making them 'worth their salt.'

NOW, however, salt is so plentiful that we are practically swimming in it. As I have mentioned before, too much salt makes people in my family feel AWFUL, so I am constantly on the lookout for it. This vigilance is now translating to my choice of foods for my 1-year old son. If I was the perfect Mom, I suppose I'd make all his food from scratch. But as I work part time, I need to buy some of it.

As he is transitioning to 'real' foods now, I am starting to study the labels more, and I am HORRIFIED at the amount of salt.

DRI (Daily Recommended Intake) Charts show Adequate Intakes (AIs) at approximately 370 mg for a 6-12 month old and then they jump to 1000 mg for 1-3 year old. Note: These numbers vary based on the reference you are using. The Dietary Reference Intake Chart of the USDA seems like one of the best references [For those of you saying 'Hey, what happened to RDA?', this new DRI reference apparently replaced the plain old RDAs in the late 1990s.]

So, armed with this data, I headed to the grocery store in search of Chicken and Pasta Stars. I found 3 items to try:

• Beech Nut Let's Grow MiniMeals: Chicken & Stars
• Gerber Graduates for Toddlers: Microwavable Meals: Pasta Stars with Chicken & Vegetables
• Campbells Soup: Chicken & Stars (25% Less Sodium)

Here is how they compare:

	Beech Nut	Gerber	Campbells
Serving Size	6 oz	6 oz	4 oz
Salt per Serving	160 mg (27 mg/oz)	400 mg (67 mg/oz)	480 mg (120 mg/oz)
Cost per Serving	$1.33	$1.29	$.40
Taste	Tasty	Tasty	Watery, Salty

I gave up on Campbells a long time ago; they just have too much salt for my genes. That leaves Beech Nut and Gerber for me to write to.

I won't bore you with my correspondence to Beech Nut. I told them how fabulous they were, and thanked them for so little salt, and they wrote back that they were very pleased to hear this and wouldn't I like some coupons? Sure, awesome.

My email to Gerber was not as kind:

I am starting to look past Stage 3 foods as my baby is just turning 12 months tomorrow. I have begun to read the nutrition labels on your Graduates line of products and I am HORRIFIED at the sodium content. What are you thinking? The current USDA Dietary Reference Intake Charts put the intake of sodium for a 12-month old at approximately 400-600 mg PER DAY, but your product has that much in just one serving! So unless all he eats the rest of the day is water and raw fruits/vegetables, he is going to get too much salt. Why are you putting so much sodium into your products? I just compared your product with the new Beech Nut Let's Grow line and their nutritional content is much better in this respect.

Here is their response:

Our 3rd Foods™ and Graduates® lines are designed for children approaching one year of age or older. At this point, most children are being exposed to table foods which contain more seasoning. The amount of salt added is very carefully controlled so that the level of sodium in these products is considerably less than comparable adult products. These items are intended to bridge the transition period between a diet of baby foods and foods solely from the family table. Although the sodium content may appear high at first glance, it is important to remember this includes both added salt and the naturally occurring sodium in the ingredients.

Here is what I don't understand; I poured over the Gerber and Beech Nut labels. They have the same ingredients, they both are tasty, and they have similar shelf-lives. So why does Gerber have over double the salt? I don't understand it at all. You've lost me, Gerber, you've lost me.

Happy Kinkling Day!

'Kinklings' are special raised, deep-fried doughnuts, and are made practically as many different ways as there are different cooks. There seem to be different varieties of them all over Europe. I have experienced them as a German/Dutch tradition that has come across the Pond to Pennsylvania (Amish Country) and Maryland (Frederick), where I grew up.

I believe that the term Kinkling is actually a Frederickism and that the more recognized term is
Fasnacht (a.k.a. Fastnacht, Faschtnacht, or Fassenacht)

The story: Fastnacht means 'Night before the Fast' in German. These tasty treats are made the day before Lent starts; i.e., the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (a.k.a. Fastnacht Day, Kinkling Day, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras). Lent is traditionally a time of fasting, and the idea is that the day before should be spent eating a rich feast before the coming fast. Thus Kinklings/Fasnachts.

I worked to make them for the first time, today, with my Dad (who hasn't made them for about 20 years). It was quite the experience.

Here is what I can share for any other aspiring bakers out there:
Read the Bread 101 site for information on how to make sure the dough rises and that you don't screw it up. Once you master this part of the baking process, everything else is proverbial cake.