Hurrah for Norad! Bah-Humbug to Crate&Barrel

As I sit here on Christmas Eve and reflect on the final countdown to the Big Day, I want to mention something fun that has warmed my heart and something that has not.

The Coal in the Stocking Award goes to ...

Crate & Barrel, who refused to host any charitable evening events this year, for reasons that are completely non-obvious.

For the last 3 years, I had attended the Doorways Holiday Gift-buying Event at Crate & Barrel in Arlington, Virginia. The event was always PACKED. The registers were running non-stop. The event was always held a weekday evening. It is inconceivable that C&B would have made anywhere close to this amount of money on a 'normal' evening, so it is very unclear why they discontinued this support.

But as several of us were discussing tonight, we made no purchases at Crate&Barrel this year. The only reason we purchased anything the past years was because of the charity event. We are all hopeful that they will restart the practice next year.


The Stocking full of Toys goes to ...

NORAD's Santa Tracker! What a great way to entertain and teach a little geography, too. Watching the site, and its incredibly cool tie-in to Google Earth absolutely entertained an entire household of kids and adults alike at my friend Joanna's house tonight.

Merry Christmas, and may God Bless Us, Everyone.

Attention Charities: Please remember to be charitable, yourselves

After a long hiatus due to work and family, the holidays have brought me back into the blogging chair. My first topic: Charities.

Due to the recession, these groups are working extra hard to bring in donations, but they seem to be forgetting the very issue that is causing them to work so hard. That is, for the people who are out of work, donations may simply not be an option. If someone says 'No,' they probably mean NO. So, you'd think that these groups would move on. But not all of them.

Let's take the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as my example.

My mother's high school friend died of Leukemia. A British friend of mine is currently struggling with it. Therefore, I decided to make a donation to them this past March. Not huge. I think maybe $50? My husband's job was looking quite iffy at that point, so I didn't want to stretch it.

The first thing that struck me was that I almost threw away my receipt. It looked just like another solicitation,and I almost trashed it given I had just donated. But on a hunch I opened it, and in very small print was my receipt. I'm not even sure it said 'Thank You." If so, it was dwarfed by the huge "WE NEED MORE MONEY" above it.

We've gotten non-stop calls from them since then. My husband usually picks up the phone, so he's simply been telling them that I wasn't home. But this past week, I happened to be the one who picked up the phone. I was also the one who hung up on them 5 minutes later.

Here's a summary of our conversation:

LLS Caller: Hi, LLS needs more money.

Me: Didn't I donate to you already this year?

LLS Caller: Yes, but we need more money.

Me: Sorry, I only donate to each charity once a year. Call me back in 2010.

LLS Caller: You don't understand. We need more money

Me: No, you don't understand. I already gave you money.

LLS Caller: No, you don't understand. We have a donor who agreed to match all donations, so we need more money now.

Me: That's great. Hopefully that offer will still be on the table in 2010.

LLS Caller: No, it won't be. We need your money now.

Me: Sorry, it's not going to happen. My husband was laid off in May. I am working from a budget.

LLS Caller: I understand, but we need money now.

Me: I've already told you I am not going to give you more money this year. I'd like to end this conversation, now.

LLS Caller: We need your money. We can't wait

Me: I'm going to hang up on you, now.

LLS Caller: Don't you understand? We need your mon--

[Blissful Silence]

Maybe I'm not being sensitive to the urgent need. Maybe I'll be the one labeled as the Scrooge. But honestly, how much good am I doing to anyone if my family and I end up needing charity, ourselves?

Please, all you non-profits out there, please remember that you're not the only ones struggling. I recommend treating each donation as a gift rather than an entitlement. You might even get more money that way, in the long run.

Video Games Live: Wow!!

If you are looking for something to do with the family, and anyone at all plays or likes video games, this is the show to go to: Video Games Live!

We just saw this show last night, at WolfTrap in Vienna, VA.
It was absolutely fabulous. Big Cheers to game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall for making this happen. Their site has more info and upcoming Dates.


The really neat thing is that it wasn't just great music. They included game clips, which really made the music come to life, as well as introductions by some of the game designers. They try to pull in anyone local in the industry, so Sid Meier, creator of the Civilization series, was at our concert to speak about CivIV.

They did a Skype link to do a live interview with the man -- Ralph Baer -- who invented the ping-pong video game in 1969. He's 89 now, and he seemed to get a kick out of being interviewed from the concert. Before 'calling' him they showed the video of him and his partner Bill playing the game. I had seen that video before, but following it up with a live interview with him really brought it home.

They also had some interactive segments. A costume contest, a Space Invaders game, and a Guitar Hero contest. Guitar Hero was amazing. For those of you who don't know it, Guitar Hero a console game where you play 'fake' instruments that attach to the console. On the harder settings, it is HARD. 'Zak' from the audience got up there on stage and won a laptop by getting 200,000 points on expert mode, in front of a screaming audience. It was really amazing. I can't even get by on 'easy' mode playing guitar, so I was impressed.

If you want to get an idea of what the whole thing was like, one guy video taped pretty much the whole thing, in NY. It's 7 pieces on YouTube, starting with them walking into the venue and entering the Guitar Hero contest.

All I can say is that when this show comes back someday, WE ARE THERE!

Target: Left Hand, meet Right Hand

My friend Maria wanted to buy some new pants from Target (a.k.a. Le Target Boutique)
so she checked for what she wanted on their website, first.

When you look at products on their website, the page will say whether the product is available just online or "Item is available online and in stores." If available in stores a BIG RED BUTTON appears that says "Find it at a Target Store." You type your zip code and within seconds ... Presto! A beautiful list of locations, distance from the provided zip code, and - most importantly - whether the item is available or not at that location. It's great!

So, Maria found what she wanted and the website said there were lots of them in stock at the Target store north of Alexandria, VA. So, off she went.

When she arrived at the store, she showed a staff person a printout of what she wanted. She was immediately told, "We don't carry those here. That's a webpage you are holding. Those are only on the website." She explained -- twice -- that the website had indicated inventory in their store. The staff person was not getting it.

So she went to a manager. Explained the situation. And SAME RESPONSE.
"I'm sorry Ma'am. You're confused. This is a store, and that is the website. We have different inventories". She tried to explain that the site said it was checking store inventories, but the manager persisted in insisted that she was confused. She finally left, absolutely furious at Target.

Hey Target Folks: Maria and I program web databases for a LIVING. It's what we DO. It's what we've done for A DECADE. We are not confused ... YOU ARE.

To summarize, there are two issues here:

1) The "Find it" function on the website clearly doesn't work. Whatever inventory system it is pointed to does not in fact reflect the real inventory at the stores

2) The staff at the stores are not only unaware of this function, it appears to be INCONCEIVABLE to them that the function could even exist. I think that some serious training is needed here, folks. Start small and simple, with an easy concept like "The Customer is always Right." Then you can build up from there.

Nutro Cat Food Recall

For all you cat owners out there ... Nutro Dry Food Recall.

Get your own Lids!

They now make special containers to put Cheerios and Gold Fish and other little cracker-type munchies in for toddlers. The lids on these containers have slits in them so the little one can reach through and grab a few bits, but hopefully not spill the rest ... mostly.

It's a nice idea and there are several brands. I grabbed a couple of Snack Traps. They work reasonably well.

But here's the catch: they only come with the lids with the slits in them. If you want to store or carry them around for any length of time, and don't want the crackers to get stale, you need a 'real' air-tight lid. They don't come with these lids; you must buy them separately. For several dollars plus shipping/handling.

No way. Here's what you do instead.

You go to visit your vet, and you pick up a couple of the free pet food lids that they always have sitting around. Personally, I got a few "Hill's" lids.

And Presto!! Instant lid. Quick. Effective. Free.

DMV: UGH

Look up the word 'bureaucracy' in any thesaurus and the phrase 'Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)' will surely be listed as a synonym.

Here's my current conundrum: My old 1994 Nissan failed Virginia State inspection in a fairly spectacular and very expensive way. As we just bought a new Toyota Rav4 last week, this gives me the flex to say "Time to donate you, faithful Sentra." To donate the car, I need the title. And of course, I can't find the title. So, time to contact Virginia DMV and get a reprint.

They have a wonderful site with all sorts of great online options, and all sorts of accompanying problems.

1. Bad secure key. That's the first issue. It would appear they are in the process of changing domains. My mailing I just got from them sends me to http://www.dmvNOW.com but as became obvious very quickly, the site's secure key is still tied to http://www.dmv.virginia.gov. Sooo, when you click on any form link you get BIG SCARY SECURITY ERRORS. Understanding the web as I do, I just put in an exception and keep going, but I bet a lot of others don't. Best to fix that, DMV. I suggest using just one domain myself; stick with .gov. You are not a .com.
2. A 'request a PIN' form that requires a PIN to submit it. Everything on the DMV site -- including the ability to request a reprint of your title -- requires a PIN (Personal Identification Number), which you must request to be sent to you in paper form. So, I filled out the request a PIN form, submitted it, and immediately got sent to a confirmation page that required a PIN. That is ... awesome.
3. An automated phone system that drives people into a dish-breaking rage. Feeling that I had struck-out online, I tried their automated phone system. Requesting a PIN was an option. Great. You had to enter your customer ID. OK. The auto-attendant started up "If your customer ID begins with an A, press 1. If your customer ID begins with a B, press 2. If your customer ID begins with a C, press 3..." As I looked at my 9 digit Customer ID in front of me, I felt I could not make it, so I abandoned the cause.

At this point, I am hoping that my ill-fated PIN request online went through. I guess I'll know in a week. In the meantime, my car can hang out at the Nissan Dealership, I guess.

[If you're sitting there saying 'Why don't you go to a DMV office?" My response is Ha-ha-ha-ha. The last time I went to one was 10 years ago. It opened at 9am. I got there at 8:30am. The line stretched around the building 3 times and I was told that it was already too late. i.e.,. They counted the people and calculated that they wouldn't be able to get through them all by the time the office closed.]