Our Oakland Blog

They Love to Fly. And It Blows.

2011-03-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

Last year we traveled Delta on our annual vacation to Michigan and, when our flight was *very* delayed, we were given 4 $100 vouchers by Delta. While unhappy at being delayed with an infant, we felt well taken care of.

Tonight, we tried to use those vouchers online. Cindy picked the flights, entered the payment details, and then went through the painful process of entering the numbers for the vouchers (it seems that the QA folks never got to that part of the website!)

Three of them worked fine -- but the fourth returned a value of only $23 instead of $100! Cindy called customer service. It took 30 minutes, but finally someone told us: there's basically nothing we can do. Apparently, someone else had used $76 of that voucher. Our only recourse is to call and leave a message at the Fraud Hotline -- which is unfortunate because we want to buy these tickets tonight.

The CSR said that if the fraud were resolved within 24 hours they *may* be able to apply that voucher to our purchase as well.

Anyway, after nearly 40 minutes of waiting on the phone, we were told that we might as well just buy these tickets now and deal with the wonky voucher later.

So Cindy hit the "confirm" button: and the website told her that the fare had gone up while we were on the phone. We were staring at the "confirm purchase" screen the whole time -- it's not like we started a new reservation or anything. The fare went up before we confirmed payment details!

Cindy was STILL on the phone with customer service and asked if she could talk to someone about the fact that we were now being charged more because it took Delta 40 minutes to tell us that there was nothing they could do about the fact that the voucher Delta had given us apparently isn't any good -- and she was put on the phone with a rude Customer Service manager named Sarah who told my wife that she (Sarah) was not interested in helping her (her words, when my wife asked if she could give her a credit for the difference, were "I'm not going to do that.") At the end of the call, Cindy asked to participate in their customer survey...and Sarah hung up on her. Was it intentional? I have no idea. But I do know that if I were a CSR and I wanted my survey scores to be high, I wouldn't connect the unhappy customers to the survey.

To sum up: Delta gave us a voucher. That voucher is no good. While trying to resolve WHY that voucher is no good and what we can do about it, our fare went up (we were on the Confirm Purchase page in the browser -- it's not like we started a new search or anything).

To boot: we called the Fraud Hotline number we were given...and the voice mail box is full. Nice. So, as it turns out, there wasn't even really a way for us to report the fraud in the first place.

So not only are we out our $73, we're paying an additional $$$ in fare.

Yup. They love to fly. But it blows.

Lisacakes

2009-12-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

Our neighbor Lisa makes amazing cakes. Here's some photographic evidence (click on each photo to see a larger version).

Here's the one she made for Sawyer's first birthday (that's Lisa and her husband Bryan in the photo). Note that she asked for Sawyer's favorite toy, and we gave her the dumptruck and rubber ducky in the foreground.

Here's the cake she made for my 40th birthday -- note the yardlines (40), the score (40 - 0), there are 40 Cal fans in the stands (and one Stanford fan, who is Cindy, and who is holding a baby wearing red AND gold).

As a bonus, here's a cake she made with a "penguin" theme for another neighbor. The "water" is 3 different colors of boiled sugar. The penguins jumping off of the iceberg are individually sculpted and handpainted (and, of course, edible!).

Goodbye Kay and Doug!

2009-04-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

We are all so sad to see Kay and Doug Godwin leave the neighborhood, but we're excited to see them moving on to a terrific life in Ashland.

We all gathered on Sunday to wish them goodbye and snapped this pic:

From Kay and Doug's Party

(If you want to download it, click it to see the big version and then right-click to download. Or, I'm happy to e-mail it to you!)

Lookin' for new pics of Sawyer?

2009-04-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Check 'em out over here.

The Little Giggler

2009-02-18T16:11:00.000-08:00

Sawyer's now 10 weeks old (almost 11!), and he's really getting into the art of laughing.

For some reason, his favorite thing is me saying "Go Bears." It makes him so excited he just giggles and giggles.

Here's about a minute of video: me cracking him up, and him cracking us up!

New Stats!

2009-02-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

Sawyer had his 2-month checkup with Dr. Gerwein this week. Everything looks great. He had his first shots, which did NOT go over well.

He screamed immediately, and his entire head turned bright red with anger. After about 10 seconds (or 30, depending on which one of us you ask), the screaming subsided. The pain wasn't long lasting, so a quick bout of nursing made him forget. But we knew that one of the shots was tetanus, and we knew (from recent personal experience) that a tetanus shot hurts more later on than it did originally.

He went home and took a nap...and when he woke up, he screamed. And screamed. AND SCREAMED. We did everything we could, finally giving him a few drops of Tylenol. Wow -- it's hard to see your kid in pain!

His stats at 2 months:
23.5" long (75th percentile) (he's grown 2 inches since birth)
12 lbs., 6 oz. (74th percentile) (he's added 2 pounds, 13 ounces since birth)
40cm head (60th percentile)

Latest Sawyer Photos

2009-01-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Click on the picture to see a bunch more photos!

Get Yer Sawyer Pics Here!

2009-01-04T23:04:00.000-08:00

Because some folks have been asking...here's the latest batch of Sawyer photos!

Sledding in Tahoe

2009-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

We went spent New Year's week in Truckee with the Cirulis and the Weigels.

Sure, there were the normal problems--kids fighting over the top bunk, and the traditional Weigelette barfathon.

But there were highlights, too: we discovered Dave's cross-dressing side, and Dave and Greg made an awesome sled run on Friday! Here's the video.

By the way, YouTube caught me trying to use some copyrighted music in the background (sorry, Kool and the Gang). So this version has no music. Check my Facebook videos for the original.

Hmmm, can I embed a Facebook video here?

Welcome Home, Sawyer!

2008-12-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

Cindy at 20 weeks

2008-07-28T09:29:00.001-07:00

For those of you with enquiring eyes...

My new favorite movie

2008-07-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here it is (two versions: small and crisp, large and blurry).

Keep that left up, Rocky! Protect your head!

Our little rocker!

2008-06-19T20:31:00.001-07:00

In the second one, he/she is clearly seen rocking out. Cindy's been listening to a lot of heavy metal...

Our garden!

2008-06-19T20:25:00.001-07:00

Check it out!

Peas, beets, carrots, and greens in one bed.

Sweet peas, peppers, and basil in another.

Corn, tomatoes, beans, and squash in the last...

Shaun's party

2008-06-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to California, Shaun and family! And thanks for the wonderful evening.

By the way, free advice to everyone: don't lend Chichi your camera!

Day at the Races

2008-02-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Europe photos!

2008-01-27T16:05:00.000-08:00

Well, it took 8 months, but I finally finished editing our Europe photo slideshow.

Last March we took a 3 week trip with our very good friends Laurent and Celia. We spent three weeks traveling: one week at their apartment in Barcelona, one week with Celia's family in Sicily, and one week in France (Paris, Normandy, and Annecy).

It was an amazing time--seeing Europe with Europeans is the way to go. I rarely felt like a tourist; I felt much more like a "guest." And that's a very, very good thing.

Thanks to everyone who opened their homes to us, and thanks to our guides for showing us such a good time!

This video is LONG! It's about 12 minutes. Watch it if you please!

Hmm, not sure if that worked on Google Video, and it's too big for YouTube.

Here's part 1 on YouTube...

And here's part 2...

Check out the new kitchen!

2007-12-24T23:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some kitchen photos.

Note that we've got the Schnitzelbank table up against the bar -- that's not where it normally lives. It was the kids' table during Christmas Eve dinner!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

My commute

2007-07-31T16:06:00.001-07:00

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3364691

I love my husbnd!

2005-09-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I love and miss myhusband and my dog. :-*

Cindy photo

2005-09-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

2005-09-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Once again

2005-08-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

This time, I was just making sure I didn't forget my password.

Totally blogging

2005-07-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'm on blog fire.

I have a blog?

2005-07-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

I guess I do.