And now, time for a little rant!

I visit my local Hallmark store once a month and stock up on all my greeting card needs for that month.  It's a little trick I do to keep me organized and ready to go when I need to mail birthday cards, anniversary cards, etc. with enough time to get them where they need to go.

Within the past month, my Hallmark store has undergone a transformation.  The store is no longer full of cards.  It is now filled with almost everything else.  This Hallmark store now carries Pillow Pets (really?, yes, really).  It now carries flip flops.  It has an assortment of clothing.  You've got to be kidding me!

The card section occupies a measly 1/4 of the space.  They've condensed all their cards and made room for everything else.  It is crazy!  I am all for change and keeping up with the times, but this seems like a bit much.  People go to Hallmark to buy greeting cards, not a purse. 

I made a comment at check-out that their card selection now rivals what you can find at a grocery store.  The woman just looked at me and made a face.  Really, my Safeway across the street or Wegman's down the road offers just as many cards as this Hallmark does now. 

Maybe I am off the mark here, but I really wish Hallmark would stick with their brand and excel in what they know.  I was all for moving ahead with the times and making sound-enabled cards.  Heck, I even paid the $5.00 a card more than a few times and sent them to people.  I am all for them making recordable, personalized cards.  And by all means,  please sell stationary, frames, and photo albums.  That all seems to be in line with the greeting card industry.  But coffee mugs?  Or bags?  Or dishes?  Really?

And that folks, is my rant for the day.

Kindergarten rant! - Annoyance #3

I've saved the biggest annoyance for the end of my rant series. The reason this is the biggest? Because it doesn't end!! Whereas the National Building Museum and the seat belt debacle will have a nice, clean finish to the story, my annoyance with Ian in kindergarten will continue for an entire year. Allow me to explain....

Fairfax County has 139 elementary schools. Of the 139 elementary schools, 101 elementary schools offer a full day kindergarten and the rest are only half day. Guess which group we fall in? Ding. Ding. Ding. Yep, you got it. In 2 weeks, Ian will be starting half day kindergarten. There was a plan to roll out all the elementary schools to a full day kindergarten, but somewhere along the way, budget cuts happened and it was this, among other cutbacks that ended up on the chopping block. Ugh! So not only will Ian's school not go to full day, it may never happen...not even in time for when Sam starts school in 3 years.

To make matters worse, all Fairfax County elementary schools offer an early dismissal on Mondays to give the teachers time for lesson plans. So, my child's half day kindergarten gets cut even shorter on Mondays. Folks, I am not making this up. I find Mondays to be a complete joke and a waste of time.

Here's Ian's schedule for the 2010-2011 school year:
Please keep in mind that I have requested the afternoon session. There is a morning session that meets and dismisses before Ian's begins.

Monday: 10:25am to 12:30pm
Tuesday thru Friday: 11:40pm to 3:00pm

Here's the real kicker -- last year, Ian went to preschool, Monday thru Friday, from 9:30am to 1:30pm. As a Pre-K student his day was longer than it will be in kindergarten. Seriously. And, Ian's 2 year old sister, going to preschool this year will be there for a longer period of time than his brother on the 2 days she attends.

I don't think I'd be so annoyed if it was uniform all across the county and every kindergartner had the same schedule. It doesn't seem fair to me that a good majority of the 5 year olds out there will have a major advantage to learn more and have double the amount of time in which to do it. The curriculum for all kindergartners are the same regardless of how much time they are in school, but the opportunity for enrichment programs (music, computers, phys-ed, etc) will all be condensed in order to fit in the core learning. It frustrates me to no end that this injustice is currently in play.

How is this fair? How can this possibly continue? Either make all the kindergartens full day or have everyone be half day. It just isn't right.

I keep hearing from everyone what a huge step kindergarten is and how its hard to believe our kids are old enough to go. But, I have to be honest with you. I feel like I am going backwards from what Ian was doing last year in Pre-K. With a 2 hour day on Mondays and 3 hours the rest of the week, I won't hardly have time to even miss him.

If only the seatbelt wasn't that necessary. - Annoyance #2

In the 8 years and over 125,000 miles I've had my car, I've always taken it to be serviced at the Honda dealership in the NoVa area. I've never had one complaint and feel like I am well taken care of. They will have my business for as long as I live in the area. This past Saturday, however, had me rethinking my strategy.

I called on a Monday to make an appointment for regularly scheduled maintenance. While getting my requested service day and time for that Saturday, I mentioned to the service rep that my driver's side seatbelt was not clicking easily. You need to slam the seatbelt in to get it to catch. It was getting frustrating every time I got in to drive somewhere and would have to deal with this easily 4 or 5 times a day.

The service guy said they would take a look at it when I brought the car in. Fast forward to Saturday at 10:00am. I pull the car up in the service lane and go to check in. I give my information for the service department to look up my record. Mr. X reads my file and says I am there for the oil change and am having seat belt problems. Without even looking at the seat belt, he instantly tells me that they will have to order the part and it will take 3 or 4 days. WHAT!?!?! I politely respond with, "If you knew I was going to need a new seat belt, why didn't you order the part when I called to make the appointment on Monday?" Mr. X had no response to this. I then asked how long will it take to install, once the part arrives. Mr. X says, "1.5 hours, because they have to take the seat out."

You've got to be kidding me. So now I am waiting 1.5 hours for the oil change (Fine. I was expecting that.), but now I need to come back and find another 1.5 hour block of time to give the car to them for the seat belt to get fixed. Completely ridiculous and very annoying.

I just wished they had the forethought to order the part when I called them on that Monday. I guess I expected more from them.

Stay tuned for annoyance #3 and the biggest one yet.

Building a better system one lego at a time. - Annoyance #1

Things, events, people are annoying me! My next 3 blog entries, starting with this one, will be dedicated to the biggest offenders. I usually can let most stuff roll off my back and move on, but not this. Enjoy these rants and if you wish, feel free to write in with your own annoyances. It is freeing getting them off your chest.

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. is having an amazing Lego exhibit. On display are large-sized replicas of famous landmarks (St. Louis Arch, Empire State Building, etc). My Toppall team and I found ourselves with a rare, free afternoon on a recent Sunday and decided to head downtown to visit the museum. I had heard from my friend Amy, who went the day before, that tickets had been sold out on that particular Saturday and they purchased tickets to return the next weekend.

I looked online at The National Building Museum's Website to see if tickets could be purchased online or through a phone call. No. The only way to get tickets was to go in person. Tickets could be purchased up to 2 weeks in advance. Jeff and I decided we would arrive before they opened and hope for the best that same-day tickets were available for those that didn't get them in advance.

Upon our arrival, which was 15 minutes before the doors opened, there was a sign posted stating that tickets for the entire day were already sold out. Ugh! So we went with our back-up plan to get tickets to return on Sunday, August 29th.

Here is my big-time frustration: In this day and age of technology, why is it not possible for them to have ticket purchase available online? Why must you go in person to museum? Why do they not state somewhere on their Website which days are already sold-out before you pack up the kids and schlep (Yiddish for: A tedious or difficult journey) down there? Furthermore, why in the world do they not keep a small reserve of tickets available for same-day purchase? This makes no sense!

I am beyond annoyed. The only good thing is that we live close enough to be able to come back and visit. I can't imagine the disappoint of tourists who are out of state and are not able to fit this in to their sightseeing because of the antiquated, ridiculous ticket system they have set-up.

I always try to look at the bright spot and focus on the good -- once we got the tickets for our return viewing of the Lego Exhibit, I had Jeff and the kids accompany me to The American Art Museum, which was only 3 blocks away. They have a Norman Rockwell exhibit that I was dying to see. I love, love, love Norman Rockwell art. Other than Sam screaming almost non-stop from the minute we got in (they said no strollers were allowed and she was very relaxed when we had to surrender the stroller) and Ian complaining about needing to eat lunch (because, you know, we starve the kids), it was a wonderful exhibit. Kudos to Jeff for realizing how important this was to me and helping to do damage control while I looked around at the paintings.

But in the true fashion of what Norman Rockwell created in his art, you can't get more every day Americana than a two-year old screaming, a five-year old complaining about being hungry, a mom doing her best to ignore the chaos that is following her from exhibit room to exhibit room and an exasperated father wishing with all his might that this turmoil would end as soon as possible. I am sure Mr. Rockwell would have had a field day recreating our outing to the museum.

Stay tuned for annoyance #2. :)