If the Shoe Fits...

Today is my birthday.

Not that it, of itself, is necessarily a cause for celebration - other than, you know, considering the alternative.  I've never been one of those to shy away from marking another successful year on this planet.  I've pretty much enjoyed every one of my birthdays - all 56 of them to date (which makes me 57 this year because you can't really consider the actual date of one's birth.  I don't recall anyone having a party that day - certainly not my mom.  It's kind of like which year was the first of the new century - 2000 or 2001?)

But today, because it's my birthday (or more likely because the movie came out and we had nothing more urgent on our calendar this morning), my Prince Charming took me to see Cinderella.  (Which is actually saying more than you might think since I don't think he's ever quite fully recovered from when I suggested seeing Angela's Ashes.)  We figured since we try to hit the very first showing on a Saturday or Sunday morning we would beat the rush and while there were more people than usual for a 9:50 am showing, the theatre was no where near full (how do they keep these things open anyway?)

It didn't take me too long to realize though how woefully under-dressed I was.  There were many princesses (of all Disney varieties - the most popular, of course, was the Elsa costume from Frozen and I have to admit if I had forked over the money that those things cost my little princess would be wearing it until she outgrew it...and probably then some!)  One dad, with his bevy of beautiful little girls even wore his tux!  Now THAT'S fatherly love!!!

If you see this movie (and I really recommend that you do - even the hubby liked it!) be sure to stay until the very end...the very end of the credits, that is.  I don't really know why Disney, when they've already paid for the talent to perform in the movie insists on getting some lesser quality to sing the main theme (ala Frozen - I mean, seriously, they got one of the best talents of Broadway today - Idina Menzel (or whatever John Travolta is calling her these days) to voice Elsa and then they get DEMI LOVATO to re-hash the song over the credits?  That's like getting Celion Dion to voice Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast and THEN asking Angela Lansbury if she'd do the single for the credits!)

Anyway, Disney has some new song for the soundtrack but if you wait until after that muzak gets done, you'll get to hear a very sweet rendition of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes sung by Lily James (Cinderella herself), which is followed by a fun version of Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo by the fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter).  It's fun...and much, MUCH better than whatever/whoever sings the incredibly non-memorable song over the initial credits.

If that weren't enough of a birthday celebration, I also got to Skype with both daughters and their boys and even had a phone call from my calendar-challenged son, Chris.  Lunch out with the hubby, dinner out with friends.  Birthdays, as Martha would say, are a good thing!

~later, another year older (and still looking for some pie to celebrate the 14th in style), tw

PS - I did manage to find some pie on the 14th (National Pie Day) after all - key lime pie for my birthday.

The Art of Negotiations

If you've ever had your retail clerks' union go out on strike, you probably know it's no fun.  The dilemma of whether or not to cross that picket line is a difficult one.  And the union that represents retail clerks typically represents others in your community as well (I remember once when we lived in Missoula discovering that librarians at our public library would also be out.  Who knew?)

Twenty-five years ago was a very different time for us...certainly financially...and to make our budget work I needed to make use of the deep (REALLY DEEP) discounts that Safeway was offering to entice customers into their store.  Though represented by the very same union that was striking, the union had elected to NOT picket at Safeway that year.  So "technically" I wasn't crossing a picket line to shop there.

We were recently faced with the prospect of a strike here and this time my choice was not so hard to make.  Yes, the union had decided that if they went out they would be picketing my local grocer (QFC).

I no longer have to trail blaze a path all over town(s) to shop the best deal.  Instead, I have developed a relationship with my local store which I highly recommend.  While I don't know each employee by name (I should...hmm...maybe time to put that on my resolution list), we do know each other by sight and it's a wonderful relationship.

For instance, last November I was in search of ten turkeys so we could make up boxes for some military families.  The store manager happened to be there that day taking some VIPs through the store.  Seeing and recognizing me he interrupted his meeting with these people in order to ask if I was finding everything I needed.  When I explained what I was looking for, he excused himself from the others, took me directly to the meat section and made sure that the employee arranged for me to pick up the turkeys and sold them to me at cost.  All of which happened because we have frequently seen each other in the store.

There are so many stories like this I could share - each department seems to have employees that have gone out of their way to assist me!  There is absolutely no way I would be able to cross a picket line that affects these people!

Fortunately I don't have to because at the 11th hour, after a lot of serious negotiations, an agreement was reached and my favorite store (nor any others) will be "shut down" due to a strike.  I happy for all involved that a strike was avoided (because it always seems that nobody wins) and particularly pleased that the notices recently posted on store windows indicating the hiring of temporary workers to keep the stores open during a strike are now being taken down.  We're all back to business as normal!

Wow!  Serious negotiations by both parties to avoid a shut down.  Hmm...if only our elected congressmen and senators could have done the same we would have saved something like $24 BILLION!  (Yeah, you read that right.  That's what the estimate is for how much the government shutdown cost us, the taxpayers, because as we all know those "representatives" got paid regardless!  And remember, the "fix" was only a temporary one - we'll be doing this song and dance again in a few months.)

So the lesson to take away from this is simple - negotiating can and does work.  Something we should keep in mind next election.

~later, making my grocery list now, tw

Is it just me???

If Congress keeps restoring payments (House Approves Back Pay For Furloughed Workers as Shutdown Continues - doesn't that amount to an extra paid vacation at the expense of the taxpayers?) AND benefits (House Votes Unanimously to Restore Military Death Benefit Snagged by Shutdown) AND furloughed employees are returning to work (Pentagon Says It Will Recall 300,000 Furloughed Civilian Workers), can we really still refer to this as a "government shutdown"?

Don't we have to come up with another term?  Otherwise how are we going to be able to tell this apart from any other useless day in DC?  (Although come to think of it, holding all these emergency votes - which are passing unanimously, partisanship be damned - does amount to the most real work some of these legislators have done since their election day!)

later, wishing our government "leaders" would stop acting like (my apologies) six-year-olds!, tw

Rising to the Occasion

I am continually amazed how, in times of difficulties, there are people who will rise to greatness.  (Yeah, I realize there are a lot of people who will also sink to new lows - I'm talking to you CONGRESS.)

During this government shutdown we are all being impacted in ways we just didn't see coming.  My son-in-law, currently deployed with the Army, was unable to call home on Tuesday.  The "Army Morale line" was part of the shutdown.  (Thank goodness Congress at least provided that his family will still receive his paycheck!)  Families and children headed for vacations and field trips, long ago planned, are arriving at museums, landmarks and national parks only to find them shuttered.  And our own beloved "panda cam" at the National Zoo has gone dark (which apparently was the worst thing about the government shutdown according to Rep. Tim Walberg (R) Michigan).

But some people are willing to take on the mantle of our fallen leaders.  Stephen Colbert, self-proclaimed Leader of the Colbert Nation and Earl Lord of the Afterscape, has promised to provide "all canceled government services" during the shutdown.  When he heard that Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Le had to cancel their wedding because their venue (the Jefferson Memorial) was now off-limits, he stepped up to deliver.  Wednesday evening, he (as an ordained minister of the American Marriage Ministries) made sure they were indeed married (on television)! 

It wasn't the wedding they had planned but I'm not so sure they minded too much.  They were after all serenaded by both Mandy Patinkin and Audra McDonald and the bride carried a rather unique "bouquet" (Colbert's recently won Emmy).

Congrats to the bride and groom...and thank you to Mr. Colbert!

~later, thinking how much better we would all be if we could "shutdown" Congress, tw

But it looked good on paper...

Benidorm, Spain

Once a sleepy little fishing village in Spain, the city of Benidorm is now famous for it's high-rises.

But one particular high-rise (InTempo) is about to change that "famous" to "infamous."  The project began innocently enough in 2005 and inauguration was scheduled for mid-2009.  I guess no one was (or should have been) terribly surprised when this completion date "slipped" since the builder went bankrupt in that year instead.

Despite these omens, construction began and continued, albeit slowly and bogged down by strikes, additional funding issues and, as it turns out, some serious design flaws.

Rather than cut their losses (at ANY point during this faulty project), they pressed on...and on... and on.  The workers were only concerned with their wages as their health care benefits were doled out in the form of an innovative exercise program (until the building reached 23 FLOORS it didn't even occur to management to set up a freight elevator for the 41 workers who had to trek up and down stairs to do their job!)

But this is a tenacious developer who didn't understand the meaning of quit (apparently in either Spanish or English)  Twenty-three floors?  HA!  This luxury apartment will rival anything in Dubai and we'll just tack on another 27 floors!

And that, as Mattias would say, is when there was trouble.

By April 2011, the concrete finally reached the 46th floor, well ahead of the plans apparently for the 47th story.   And in July the finally-installed freight elevator collapsed sending 13 workers eventually to the hospital (to save money they had not created a vehicle entrance to the place and so ambulances were unable to access the site to get to the workers - some of them seriously injured).

But the icing on the cake?  In January 2012 - after creating this 47-story monstrosity - it was finally discovered that when they "grew" this project from 20 stories to 47, tthey neglected to allow for an additional elevator shaft!    Yep, that's right - if you purchase an apartment above floor 20, be prepared to haul your stuff up THE STAIRS!  (These are either going to be the healthiest apartment dwellers ever or they are truly going to redefine the term "minimalistic living"!)

I wonder what that got in Dubai that this rivals?

~later, tw

PS - I know you're wondering...who would buy a place like this?  Believe it or not, 35% of the apartments are already SOLD!  What, you say?  They must be offering huge discounts to get people to buy into this.  NO!  Developers have not reduced the prices at all!!!  A one-bedroom apartment will run you ~358,000 euros (that's ~$500,000 USD!) and I imagine that's on an "elevator-reachable" floor.  Prices go up incrementally every 10 floors (so basically if you get the place on the 47th floor you're out of air, out of gas and out of money!)