I hate rebates.  I really, really hate rebates.

Last month I bought myself a new cell phone, having had the previous
one for over two years.  Because it was two years old, there was a
trade-in allowance of $100 available, except that's not strictly
accurate as any applicable rebate was subtracted from the
allowance.  There was a $50 rebate offered on the model I
selected, so Verizon knocked $50 off the price up front, with the idea
being I'd send in the rebate form to receive the remaining $50.

Ha!  Bet you think I lost the form, right?  Bet you think I
can't lay hands on the receipt, eh?  Bet you think I delayed too
long so it didn't get postmarked in time, true?

Wrong.  All wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I have the receipt, the form, and sufficient time to get it in the mail.

What I'm missing is the darn BOX the phone came in.   The bar
code is supposed to be cut off and sent in with the form and the
receipt.   Can't find the dumb box anywhere . . . I'm pretty
sure it got tossed away. 

ARGH!!! 

Okay, last time this year, I promise. 

View From The Porch:

This last one isn't especially awe-inspiring, but it pleased me quite a
bit.  I'd been trying to get these circles for the past few nights.

BTW, the Night Portrait setting worked fine; look at this one taken of Don as he waited for the fireworks to begin:

He complained about being blinded by the flash but it was all his own fault . . . I was attempting to get a picture of him looking off into the distance, but he suddenly looked at me instead. 

Hope everyone had a spiffy Fourth! 

Hope everyone has a super
 

We are constantly bemused at how Dmitry's tastes have expanded. 
Tonight we had Chicken Jambalaya for dinner (don't be impressed - it
was Chicken Helper), which is fairly spicy and includes rice.

He loved it and went back for seconds. 

I guess one way of passing the time is as good as another.

Still . . . . memorizing the value of pi to the 83,431st decimal place?

Not sure I see the point.

By jingo, I'll get the hang of taking photos of fireworks if it kills me. 

Got two more nights to practice.

Don and I went to dinner at the Olive Garden tonight, as the
advertisements for Roasted Chicken and Mushroom Canneloni were more
than I could bear.  First we were told it'd be 10 - 15 minutes,
which was okay . . . after all, it's a Saturday night.  We sat in
the bar area to wait, planning upon getting a drink to take to the
table with us.

Except no one ever came to see if we wanted anything.

After about ten minutes our name was called and we were led back to a
section with several empty tables and a few occupied.  So why were
we kept waiting, with all this space available?

We ordered our drinks and entrees, chose salad instead of soup (it's
almost a hundred degrees outside), and settled in.  The drinks
came quickly, with the salad hard on its heels. I do enjoy Olive
Garden's salad!  They make the best croutons, and I'm a fan of
fine croutons.  Chatting, munching salad, occasionally sipping our
respective drinks, we prepared to enjoy a leisurely dinner.

Except here came the entrees.  I'd barely touched my drink, we
were both still working on our salads, the breadsticks were unmolested
in their basket, but here came our main courses. 

The server pushed our salad plates to one side and put down our dinners, cautioning us that the plates are hot, so be careful.

Talk about "Here's your hat...what's your hurry?"

So much for a leisurely, relaxed, unhurried meal.  With the main
dishes sitting and cooling while we tried to finish our salads, then
the servers asking every two minutes how everything is and were we
leaving room for dessert, we felt rushed.  Most disappointing,
especially as it wasn't very busy, and when we left (less than an hour
after arriving) there was no one waiting. 

Was it something we said? 

As I said a post or two previous to this one, Brianna's just turned
five years old, and today was her party.  Various family members
gathered at a park in Hurst to munch chicken and cupcakes, play
pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, take some whacks at a Spongebob pinata, and
just generally goof around:

Never did hear what my brother, Louis, was expounding about to Dmitry.

Bethany's turn to try to pin the tail on the donkey.

Brianna has a try at the pinata, as Bethany watches.

Bethany's dad, Matt, takes a crack at it, though with Jason raising and lowering it, it wasn't easy.

Dmitry has a try, after much urging by other family members.

It was a stubborn critter, but eventually spilled out its contents of candy and toys.

Then it was on to cake and presents!

Hooray!  An "Annie" DVD to replace the one lost since her last birthday. 

Jonathan and Dmitry demonstrated there's lots of good, wet fun to be
had with bottled water as they took turns splashing each other.

An excellent party.  ;^)

Found a driving behavior 53 times worse'n talking on a cell phone or
being mildly schnockered, and that's driving while continually having
your head twisted around to play peek-a-boo or otherwise entertain a
small child in the back seat, glancing to the front every so often.

I was behind a woman in a Beretta who did that as I was on my way to Tom Thumb just now,
and believe me, it was unnerving.  She did it on Montgomery, she
did it getting on the freeway, she did it while on the freeway.  As
may be expected, her determination to provide entertainment for the kid
in the back led to some mighty erratic driving . . . too slow followed
by too fast, interspersed with drifting into other's lanes.

What on earth gets into people? 

That was unexpected, though it turned out to be a pleasant
experience.  Got in the car to run a few neglected, overdue
errands and turned on the radio (a change in itself, as usually my
preference is a CD), to be greeted by a Christmas song. 

Christmas?  On July 1st? 

Yup.  KVIL is having 'Christmas in July', though I'm unsure
whether it's just today, the weekend, or what.  No matter, it made
a delightful change of pace, especially as clouds and rain moved in.

Tell you what they should do next year, and that's attempt to get
Hallmark to advertise the coming of their Christmas ornaments, which
show up this month.  It'd be a natural tie-in, wouldn't it?

Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho.