Oh, this is the start of something good.. don't you agree?

Today I will begin a slow journey west...

I am leaving Virginia Beach until November or December, not sure exactly when I'll be back.

First stop: Farmville, VA to visit Alison Brandon :)

Things I'm NOT a fan of: update

So I was feeling homeless on Saturday while my dad and I were waiting for Emma to be ready to go to the baseball game. We had helped Rachel get Tommy's father's day present into her van and then Emma needed another 20 minutes to get ready to go. Which wasn't enough time to go back to the hotel and rest a minute before going to get Emma... so I said "oh dad, we can go get coffee." Thinking "there is a Starbucks around the corner."... Then I remember my vow to never visit the Starbucks at Red Mill ever again.

Thank goodness for the new Target in the area, since they have a Starbucks inside.

So I went there and had some Starbucks... without the lady being mean about my order!

12 on the 12th

So KK and Dan have been keeping a blog for quite a long time, and I stop in every so often to see what they are up to. They feature a cool monthly post called: 12 on the 12th-- where they post 12 photos from their. It's a pretty neat feature and I didn't find it until after May 12th, so June will be my first attempt. (Sidenote: Blogger hates me when I try to upload pictures, so the formatting is messed up)




8:22 a.m.
Awake (which I wasn't happy about), attending Julia's 5th Grade Promotion Ceremony (my thoughts on that at another time...)







10:05 a.m.
Leaving the elementary school for home. All the 5th graders got to make a hand mark in the hallway. It was cool, all the classes before them had done it as well. It reminded me of Winslow Middle School, where all the 8th graders got to make ceiling tiles before they moved on to high school.

12:00 p.m.

Making our way to a place to sit on the beach, Caleb refused help carrying the toys.











12:19 p.m.
Caleb's second bucket of water at his mama, thankfully she got out of the way this time.






12:20 p.m.

Caleb learning not to mess with his mama.

1:08 p.m.
Caroline lets the waves come to her.










2:31 p.m.
Last picture before leaving the ocean.

5:23 p.m.
In the car heading to see the Norfolk Tides play the Charlotte Knights

6:16 p.m.

Waiting for game time.

6:33 p.m.

That would be a little bit of heaven in my lap. I refuse to watch the Unwrapped on Hot Dogs, because I like eating them way too much.

8:49 p.m.

7th Inning Stretch

9:14 p.m.

The promotional item for the Tides game was thunder sticks... which gave me the BIGGEST headache EVER. I wanted to beat that child with the sticks....

Things I am NO longer a fan of: Starbucks at Red Mill and Walmart

So I needed an oil change. Yesterday when I got to Walmart at 9:30 a.m. it was a 2 hour wait so I decided that getting to Walmart this morning when the oil change part opened was a better plan. So I arrived at about 7:03 a.m. and was the 4th car to get there. So that’s like an hour right?
So the lady takes my information and my keys and says “it’ll be an hour and a half.” Which I figured was going to happen so I decided to walk to Starbucks and get a drink.

Now I understand that my coffee order is a LITTLE intense. The order taker was working the other day when I visited with Rachel and Caleb, she kind of teased me about my order then, but it was also 4 p.m. and so I wasn’t tired, I was just drinking coffee. (wow talk about a run-on). So this morning I ordered: latte, tall, soy, 140 degrees, no foam with hazelnut…. So she calls it and I only managed to catch that she got the temp wrong. So I said “actually, 140 degrees” and she says to the drink maker “oh, NOW she wants it at 140 (stupid laugh to herself about just HOW funny she is)…” I am not amused.

My drink gets made and I walk out of Starbucks, get around the corner down the way on my walk back to Walmart and take a sip. And hmm.. that’s funny, this tastes like hot soy milk with coffee in it and there seems to be no hazelnut. I looked at my cup and she didn’t add the hazelnut. And with my knowledge of the cost of a cup of coffee- today I paid for the flavor. I would’ve gone back but after the attempt at being funny about my drink I didn’t feel like hearing “oh NOW she wants flavor.” And I didn’t bother with a receipt so she could’ve made me pay for it again.

Quick side notes on receipts: when you buy something like coffee or a massage, something you’re going to eat immediately that doesn’t have a tip written on the receipt or something you can’t really return (like a massage)… isn’t the receipt kind of the service. Why waste paper when you’re taking a cup with you (free advertising)?

Now back to Walmart. I return to Walmart, crappy cup of coffee in hand to wait for my car to get finished. I look over some stupid magazine and see my car getting vacuumed and whatever. Then they move it forward to do the actual oil change. At which point I decide to wander the store because I wanted to buy Snappy Lube: The Greatest Place To Get Your Oil Changed EVER (Christiansburg store, not the Blacksburg one) a postcard that said Virginia Beach so I can send it to them and tell them that they are greatly missed. I mean seriously, how can I not miss the fact that they did a great job and always took 15 minutes or less? With two cars in front of you.. let’s be real, in my last five years of using Snappy Lube there has been one time that they have had more than a one car wait. And that was the time I went with a friend, so it wasn’t even a boring wait.

So I can’t find a card anywhere and walk back to the oil change part of the store. About five minutes later they are pulling my car out… so I go and FIND the employee responsible for checking me out and ask him if I can pay so I can leave. He comes over and my paperwork hasn’t come through yet… so we’re waiting… He asks the girl vacuuming another car where it is and she refers him to some other guy and he comes over and explains to the cashier that my oil pan has a stripped plug and they couldn’t change my oil because they weren’t sure if they would be able to get it back on. This was the point that the misty/humid air started to get to me, cause I think I was starting to fume a little. So the cashier comes back and he’s like, “I guess they couldn’t do it.. the manager is coming over.” (and we talk about what was wrong with the oil pan). And while I’m waiting I’m growing frustrated and I tell him “I don’t understand how there is something wrong, the place I’ve been going in Blacksburg has never had a problem changing my oil.” I can feel myself sounding harsh and frustrated, so I apologized to him because I know it’s not his fault. As we’re chatting, I can see the manager, NOT coming over. So I’m waiting another three minutes, which you’re thinking, “suz, it’s three minutes, calm down.” Which fine, think that, but at this point I’ve been waiting for an hour and a half—and NOTHING has been done to my car. Ok, I’m sorry, not nothing: they did vacuum it. But I am ready to go home.

So the manager comes over and the cashier says “this is the girl with the Honda” and she says “oh she’ll need to talk to Joe that worked on her car,” at this point I looked at her and said, “I think I’ve understood enough from him (point to cashier) that I don’t need to speak with him, I’ll just go home.” And then I went home.

We're all more likely to tell people about the bad service we receive and not the good.
Maybe it's because we rarely enjoy good customer service...

Family of Bloggers

Today two of my seven siblings started blogs...

check them out:
Rachel
Hannah

And my dad already has a blog:
Daddy Sherbak

It's like we're a family of computer dorks... when really they're not computer dorky AT ALL.