Birthday Extravaganza 2007

Joint b-day party for Judi, Molly & Tim at our house. Mom & dad, Susi & Tom & Lily & Parker, and Judi & Jon & Clancy & Christopher were there.

The Theme? Mexican Fiesta. We had piñatas, margaritas, cervezas, enchiladas, and quesadillas! We only had things that ended in -as.

Good times were had by all (except for during the piñata time...Lily was very unhappy during piñata time.)

1st Video:



2nd:



3rd:



4th:



5th:



6th:





AND STILL ONE MORE TO COME!!!

stupid squirrels

Ok, so I have a window box thing on our back porch. I have chile peppers growing it in. Kinda fun, I get fresh chiles whenever I want, whatever. Today, I realize that it really needs water. I go out and as I'm watering the plants, I see something big and fleshy looking sticking out of the dirt, and one of the plants is kinda pushed on it's side.

what the heck? I get a closer look, and it then looks like plastic or something...what the heck??? I poke it, it's softer than I expected, but still kinda firm...what the HECK???

I tug at it, and realized that it was buried pretty deep in there. I pull it out, and it's a freaking breadstick, much like one that you would expect to get from The Olive Garden. Why the heck is there a breadstick buried in with my chile peppers?

stupid squirrels.

My Friends Parker and Lily

Ok, was just looking through some old pics on my computer. This is probably the best picture ever. Look at those fatties. Picture is 7/29/06.

















and NOW look at them on 9/8/07.

Sears / LG #8

Yeah, my best recommendation out there is a) don't shop at a Sears Outlet store and b) don't buy LG.

Sears got us a new washer. It was delivered, hooked up, and the next morning, I come to the basement to find a huge puddle coming from the bottom of the washer. The hose hook-ups were dry. It was the machine itself that was leaking.

Went back to Sears, told them they needed to come and pick it up and refund my money.

Molly found a G/E washer at Home Depot for a little cheaper. Smaller capacity, but whatever.

We got it, and we've had absolutely no problems.

:)

I hope my baby looks like this

This guy is simply fantastic. I love him.

Sears / LG #7

So I called Sears today. I ended up on the phone with a pretty angry representative who didn't actually want to help me. She put me on hold for a minute, then all of a sudden the phone was ringing and I was on the line with someone else. I was unaware that I was being transfered, and this new rep didn't know anything about my situation. I asked what department she was in and she said that she handled "escalated service issues." I told her that this was exactly what I needed. Her name was Wanda. I told her the story of my washer and everything that had happened so far. She was pretty much appalled. She got on the phone with someone at the Sears store where we had bought the washer. She came back about 5 minutes later and told me that all I needed to do was to get to the store with my receipt, documentation from LG's servicer showing the attempts to repair and they would work on getting me a replacement.

Finally, someone wants to take ownership of this issue.

Sears/LG #6

Received voice mail from Sears service department --- We don't service LG's. You'll need to call the manufacturer directly. They also left me the phone number for LG's service department. Awesome.

Sears/LG #5

• July 13th---I call LG. I explain the entire story to the rep and end with, can't you just give me a new machine? Nope. We're not going to replace a machine that can be repaired. I tell her that if it was repairable, it should have been repaired by now. She puts me on hold. She comes back and asks where I bought the washer. I tell her Sears. She tells me that I have to call Sears. That they have an agreement with Sears that Sears will service LG units purchased from Sears. I tell her about how Sears told me that they don't service LG Products. "Well, they're going to have to." I asked her who was going to tell Sears that. She put me on hold again. When she comes back to the phone, she tells me that she has a rep from Sears on the line who will help me further.
• I can't remember how many people at Sears I talked to that day. I was transferred around several times, a couple people were really concerned about the problems that I'm having, but couldn't actually help me, so they transfer me on. I get another rep on the phone (and after explaining everything again), she puts me back on hold for a few minutes, and then comes back and tells me that she's put in a service order and that someone will contact me within 24 hours to schedule the service appointment. I remind her that Sears has told me that they won't service the unit, so putting in a service order won't actually help me. "I'm sorry, but this is just the complaint department. All we do is log complaints." Nice. She transfers me off to someone else, and while I'm on hold, the call gets disconnected.
• I call back and talk to a new rep. By this point, I'm sure they've got some decent notes in their system about me and my lovely washer. I ask to talk to a Supervisor. "Is this Tim?" I tell her yes, and she asks what the problem is. I talk about how the previous rep really didn't help me. We don't need service (cause Sears can't provide it). I need a new washer. She puts me on hold. After talking with her Supervisor for a while, they find a list of manufacturers that they service. LG is on the list, but it has a line through it with a note that says "we do not service." But then they find that The Great Indoors services them, and The Great Indoors is a Sears company. So all I have to do is set it up with them and I should be good to go. She gives me the number and transfers me.
• At this point, I have to pass the phone to my wife since I have to get to work. She talks to them and they say that they already have a service order in for us (the one opened two paragraphs up). They'll call us by Monday 12pm to confirm an appointment.

Sears/LG #4

• Stephanie calls me on July 7th (two weeks later...great overnight service) and tells me that the part has finally come in and they can come out on Wednesday July 11th between 10-am and 5pm. "You mean 1st call, right?" Well, she'd request it, but can't guarantee it.
• Technician calls me on the 11th and says that he'll be at the house between 12pm and 2pm...Probably closer to 2 since he has 2 calls ahead of me. By the time he shows, I'm already at work. My wife calls me and says that it's fixed. He even ran a test on it where it zipped through all the cycles in 5 minutes. There were no problems with the spin cycle. Finally.
• Molly calls me about an hour later. She was doing a load of wash and got the "UE" error code. I tried the system reset when I got home. No help.

Sears/LG #3

• Stephanie at the repair company calls me at some point during the week of June 4th. The part has come in and they can come out on Monday June 11th between 10am - 5pm. My wife has a doctor's appointment at 3pm and I cannot afford to take more time off from work because we're leaving for Mexico on June 12th for 10 nights. I accept the appointment in hopes that they'll show before my wife has to leave, but when they don't show by 1pm, we have to cancel the appointment. Rescheduled for June 22nd.
• Technicians show up on Friday June 22nd. They're downstairs for not more than 10 minutes before they call us to come downstairs. The guy sounds slightly panicky. LG sent them the wrong control board. According to the tech, they ordered the correct control board, the box had the right part number on it, but the wrong board inside it. They're going to order a new one, have it rushed and possibly overnighted, and will call us next week to schedule an appointment. AND, they'll make us 1st call of the day.

LG/Sears #2

• The contractor did show just a few minutes after 10am. I was fairly impressed. I showed them downstairs to the washer. I went back upstairs & did stuff while I heard them tinkering away in the basement. After not much more than 10 minutes, they technician came back upstairs and said that it was fixed. "Loose sensor." Shortly after they left, I went downstairs and did a test wash. "UE" flashed on the screen during the spin cycle.
• Remembering what the LG Customer Service person told me about doing the system reset, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and try it. No luck. Still unbalanced.
• By now, it's been about an hour and a half since the technician left my house. I call the contractor and ask if they can come back. I am told that the technician is already in Zion (almost 60 miles from me). There's absolutely no way he can come back today, they don't work on the weekends, Monday is a holiday, so yes, I have to take another day off from work on Tuesday and wait around for them to show (sometime between 10am - 5pm)
• On Tuesday May 29th, they show up closer to 1pm I think. I'm upstairs, hearing tinkering & what not. The technician calls me down and informs me that it's not the sensor as he had thought, it's the control board. He doesn't have any with him or in stock at all at the office, so they'll have to order one. (Note that I told them when I made the original service call that LG told me that it was either a sensor or control board problem). They'd call me when it came in.
• At this point, I'm rather upset. I call LG to see if there is anything that they can do to help me out. Get the part faster, see if they can make me 1st call of the day when the part comes in, can they call their contractor and help me? Nope. They don't talk to their contracted repair companies.
• My wife calls Sears to see if there's anything that they can do. They can send out repair people of their own. They put in a work order. Sears calls me on Monday to let me know that they don't work on LG products and that we have to deal with the manufacturer directly. If we try to just return the machine to the store and swap out they'll charge us a 15% re-stocking fee plus a new delivery fee.

My New LG WM2277HW Washer from Sears

May 9th, 2007, Molly and I went to Sears and bought ourselves a new washer and dryer. We got an LG WM2277HW front loading washer. Very fancy looking! It was delivered on May 17th

I went to test out the washer. When I came back down to the laundry room after an hour or so, the display screen was flashing an error code--- "UE" According to the owner's manual, "UE" means that the load is unbalanced. I tried it again, redistributing the clothes. Nothing seemed to work. Tried it empty. I kept getting the UE code.

I finally called LG Customer Service on Friday May 18th. I explained the situation to them. The rep was very friendly and helpful. She said that the machine most likely needed a reset. She walked me through how to do it. She said that I would need to let it sit for a half hour, but to call back if there were still problems.

After my half-hour was up, I did a test load. UE! I called back. They told me that it probably had a bad sensor or control board. She gave me the phone number to the closest authorized repair contractor to me. I though it odd that they didn't just get it setup for me, but whatever.

I called the contractor on Monday May 21st or Tuesday May 22nd & told them that LG thought it was the control board or sensor. The earliest they were available to come out was that Friday May 26th between 10am and 5pm. They actually refused to give a window of time smaller than that. I would just have to sit around and wait ALL DAY for them to show.