Auditory Amusements

We were in Niagara Falls (spotty cell service) and Michael answered his phone

Michael: You're lucky you caught me.... we're in Canada!
Marissa: Where?
Michael:  Niagara Falls
Marissa:  Are you going to elope?!   Oh wait.   You're already married.

An Exercise in Futility.... or Why I Hate Ticketmaster

Warning- a long post.  But the details make the story.
Next month I am tagging along with Michael on his New York city trip.  YAY!  An even bigger yay?  Alison agreed to see the Radio City Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular with me!  Ohmygosh!!!  I have loved the Rockettes since I began watching the Macy's parade.  In fact, each year when they appeared on the TV I leapt up from the couch and did my own solo kickline in the family room while my mom peeled 25 pounds of mashed potatoes for the family Thanksgiving dinner later that day.  The bookcases shook, I jumped around, hoping to be a Rockette some day.  Ironically, I fall within their requirement to be between 5'6" and 5' 10 1/2" tall.  I am not, however, proficient in tap or jazz.  Alas.

So this evening I logged on to the Radio City website to purchase tickets for my trip to Mecca-  I mean Radio City- in November.  Unfortunately, Radio City employs Ticketmaster as their distributor.  Have you ever used Ticketmaster?  They are awful.  You put in a price range and they inevitably give you the worst tickets in that price range, despite your request for 'best available'.  You cannot request a specific row or even section.  "Orchestra" and "Mezzanine" are as specific as we get with them.  Grrrr.

Now would be a good time to mention that I did a google search of the best seats in Radio City for watching the Spectacular.  The results were quite helpful..... any seat in NN through A.  Sections 300, 400 or 500. Tons of selection!  Lots of choices.  Excellent.

Due to the lack of specification options online, I decided to call Ticketmaster and request my specific seats. The first time I called, I waited less than 5 minutes to speak to Brian.  I clearly shared with Brian my preferred performance date and time and number of tickets.  After he asked my price range, I said I actually had a certain area of the theater in mind, regardless of price.  This resulted in much confusion from Brian, as he is evidently not used to searching this way.  I requested seats in double N as in Nancy through double Z as in zebra.  I was placed on hold.  No big deal.  Brian came back.  "I have two seats in row N, seats 308 and 309.  They are on the aisle"  I calmly explained to Brian that I actually wanted seats in "Double N.... Nancy Nancy" Row N is about 5 rows from the back, while row NN is about 12 rows from the stage.  Big difference, Brian.  I was placed on hold, and promptly disconnected.  Michael said he hung up on me because he was confused.

Undeterred by Brian's rudeness and/or incompetencies, I called back.  The wait time was again 5 minutes, but I had to jump through all these hoops with the electronic voice lady.  "Welcome to Madison Square Garden.  Radio City Music Hall.     Please state the name of the even you want tickets for.  Please state the date of the performace you'd like.   Now I will list all the times the show is performed that date.   When you hear the time yuo'd like, say it back to me"  GOOD LORD!  THis was not requried the first time.   I complied with crazy electronic lady and was routed to Alex.  I explained to ALex that I was on the phone with Brian and had been unexpectedly disconnected.  We went through the same song and dance with the performance date and time I wanted (evidently electronic voice lady and Alex are not communicating) I again explained that I did not have a price range but rather wanted to search a specific area of the theater for ticket availability.  Lucky for me, Alex seemed more with it than Brian.  He placed me on hold and came back to tell me he had seats in section 300 in Row T, and some other seats in section 500 in Row U.  Again, I reiterated that I was only interested in orchestra seats that were in double N (Nancy Nancy) through double Z (zebra zebra).  The rows he suggested were at the very back of the theater under the mezzanine.  I was not interested.  Alex put me back on hold, and I was promplty disconnected.  Again.

Grrr.  For the third time in 30 minutes, I redialed the 800 number for Ticketmaster.  I said "representative" to the electronic voice lady and this time had to wait 'less than 10 minutes' to get to an operator.  This time I spoke to Carlos.  Before we even got to my show of choice, I explained my phone woes with Carlos (and used the words 'very frustrated') and asked him for his direct line, should we get disconnected.  He was unable to do that, and asked if I wanted to speak to a supervisor about the problem.  I said I didn't care about a supervisor, just wanted to buy 2 tickets.  But I keep getting disconnected, and wanted to be sure to be able to complete a purchase, so I gave him my number, so he could call me.  Perfect.  We are off to a good start.  For the third time, I explained my date, time, and performance requirements to Carlos.  He even asked if I had a promo code.   "No I don't.  Do I need one to purchase these tickets?"  Carlos assured me no, that a promo code would give me a discount, but was not required"  He probably thought I was a nut.  I was on hold, but could hear Carlos typing.  A very good sign.   Carlos came back onto the line and said "Ma'am, I have seats in row NN, section ___"  and the PHONE WENT DEAD!   For real?

I gave Carlos a few minutes to call me back, and he didn't.  I actually said outloud: Come on Carlos.   I am getting very agitated.  Since Carlos didn't give me a direct number nor did he call me back, I had to call the damn 800 number again.  I shouted "representative" to the annoying electronic voice and waited, again, to speak to someone.  A woman (whose name I did not catch) answered and I explained my situation again.  Told her about disconnected phone calls, 45 minutes on the phone, and requested to speak to a supervisor.  The lady asked me my preferred performance date, time, and number of tickets, so that she could have it ready for her supervisor.  Then she asked to place me on hold.  NO!  I actually pleaded with her to please not put me on hold due to my track record earlier in the day.  She agreed to not hit the hold button and to instead place her headset on the desk.  I thanked her profusely.

Before too long, supervisor Luis came on the line to place my ticket order.   I told Luis about the issues with Brian and Alex and Carlos.  I expressed my frustration with calling Ticketmaster four times and being required to talk to the electronic voice and wait on hold in order to complete a simple transaction.  I want to buy two tickets.  I will pay any amount of money you ask.  Just get me into the damn kickline show.  I mentioned that Carlos said he had NN available but we got disconnected.  Could Luis please help me?  (FOR THE LOVE OF PETE)  Lo and behold, he could not!  All the seats in NN (Nancy Nancy) through ZZ (Zebra Zebra) in my requested section were available to American Express Gold cardholders.  The (few) available to the public had been sold.   The NN that Carlos had found was evidently in section 200, way off to the side.  Carlos offered me garbagey seats in the back of the house that I did not want.  I then asked if there were options in the lowest mezzanine level, since my website said that would be OK if no orchestra NN-ZZ were available.   Lucky for me there were two seats 6 rows from the railing, which is OK.  But I was still kind of ticket off.  I agreed to purchase those.  

And do you know what Luis said?  "How will you be paying for these tickets today, ma'am?  American Express is Ticketmaster's card of choice for transactions"  ARE YOU FOR REAL, LUIS?!  So without skipping a beat I said "Well, Luis, as we have already discussed, I do not have an American Express card, which is why I cannot purchase the seats I'd like.  I will be putting the charges on my Visa card."

In case you wondered, I did successfully purchase two tickets (on the visa card) and Al and I will be attending the show next month.  And we better like it after all that nonsense.

525,600 Minutes.... How do you measure a year?

Michael and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary yesterday.  We still don't have a wedding album, mostly because we have yet to be in the same state as the photographer for more than 48 hours, and also because it costs eleventy* billion dollars.  One day we'll get there.  Other than that omission, we're doing pretty well.

One of the highlights of a one-year anniversary, if you ask me, is eating the top layer of your wedding cake.  I know it sounds gross....  one-year old cake and frosting?  Frozen?  Ick.  But there are super detailed instructions online that my lovely mother followed to a T.  She even hauled the cake in a cooler when she and Dad came up to see the Crookers in July.  Marilyn housed it in her extra freezer, and we obtained the blessed pastry on Saturday.   We put it in the fridge overnight, and let it sit on the counter beginning Sunday afternoon.  It looked pretty good!  But how would it taste?!

After we returned from from a lovely dinner at Taughannock Farms Inn, which last night provided a gorgeous view of Cayuga Lake and the trees just starting to change colors, we took the plunge.  My fingers were crossed, as I had no backup plan for dessert.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to report that Kiedrowski's cake freezes and thaws like a dream.   I am a proponent of properly freezing one's wedding cake to enjoy the following year.  The cake maybe didn't taste as good as it did the day it was baked, but it was really good!  The sparkling wine didn't hurt, either.

*TM Pannie

How 'bout some beer for the guys?

To kick off Labor Day weekend (aka the END OF SUMMER AS WE KNOW IT up in the Finger Lakes) Michael and I had a lovely dinner chez Crooker, where we enjoyed a nice meal on Cayuga Lake, before laughing hysterically for 90 minutes at a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.   It was a great way to start the holiday weekend.

Saturday morning we were running errands and heard an awful vibrating crunching noise when putting the car in reverse.  Bad for backing out of parking spaces, fine for driving forward.  A quick stop into Sears Auto Center taught us that writing a problem down on the chart does not mean the 'tech' will even check into it, will lie about checking into it, and upon finally listening to the problem, will declare that it's probably a transmission problem, but they "don't do trannies"and suggested we stop by the local Mazda dealership.  The nearest Mazda dealership is more than an hour away, but luckily other dealers can often handle these issues.  There are non-Mazda dealerships in Ithaca, so this is not looking so bad.  Unfortunately, nothing car-related (except Sears) is open in Ithaca on the weekend.  Not even the sales department.  Want to buy a car in Ithaca?  Sorry, folks.  Only Monday through Friday, till 5 PM.  Wow.  That's a great way to make monthly numbers.

This being Labor Day weekend also meant that a Monday visit was not going to happen.  I work 8-4:30 during the week, and we only have one car.  Could get tricky.  Since were were going to New Jersey on Friday for Marissa's graduation, we could likely swing by a dealership there, since they have more convenient hours, and could likely diagnose and hopefully fix the problem.  It was a good plan.

Friday morning we learned that the NJ Mazda didn't do 'that kind of work' on the weekend and we'd have to leave it there till at least Monday.   Not good, since we need to be in Ithaca Sunday afternoon.  We also located a specialized transmission shop on the same road.  Worth a shot, right?

Right!  Guy took the car for a test drive, put it up on the fancy car elevator thing, and discovered the problem.  He asked "Which one of you was off-roading?  There are fresh scrapes on the under carriage, and tons of rocks caught in the gear mount"  Surprisingly enough, neither one of us had recently been off-roading... but what had we done recently?  Driven down the Crooker's driveway.  It's a steep, windy driveway in the woods, on a cliff, to get to their lake house.  There are rather large ruts caused by construction vehicles and the like.  The little Mazda sometimes has trouble, and evidently, last Friday was no exception.  The nice mechanic pounded out all the rocks, and we were good as new!  YAY!  No transmission issues!

We went to the front to pay and the owner said (with a nice Jersey accent) "What, do you want a bill for that?"  Smarter folks than us would say "Nope!" and then run as fast as they could, but we indicated we were prepared for one.  We were told "A lot of guys would charge you an hour's labor for that, which is $98.  I'm not gonna do that"  I liked the sound of this; we asked how to compensate them for their time.  And the owner said "How about you go get some beer for the guys?"  Seriously?!  "OK!  What kind of beer do you like?"  So we went to the adjacent liquor store and got a 12-pack of Sam Adams, which cost $14.99, and we were set.  It's my favorite car repair, ever.

Harry Potter and the Wizarding World

This post is late in coming, but I've been busy, y'all.  I'm working 40 hours a week, Michael is taking 20 (!) credits at Cornell, and someone has to do laundry and buy groceries.  The blog has taken a back seat.

So in mid-August we headed to Florida to check on our house, make sure the PT Cruiser still starts (Yay!  It does!) and of course, visit the newest addition to the Florida theme parks....  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It was fabulous.  Let me give you a short review so when we're back in Florida next summer (Please Lord, I cannot survive more than one Ithaca winter) you can all visit and see it in person.

You enter in Hogsmeade, where it is [supposed to be] Christmas time (don't mind the palm tree in the center)  The buildings are covered with snow, and the chimneys are, of course, crooked.

And what's a Wizard village without the HOGWARTS EXPRESS?!  The 98% humidity is causing my hair to fly out like crazy.  Or maybe I was just imitating Hermione, with her thick frizzy hair?  Not Emma Watson- she has good hair.  The book Hermione.

Do you have something to mail?  Visit the Owl Post

There are owls in the rafters

and stuffed ones in the window!  Hilarious (don't mind the glare)

Do you have shopping to do?  You can visit Olivander's

Honeyduke's, Zonko's

sorry, I loved Zonko's

After you're done shopping, be sure to meander down the street to.....

Hogwarts!

There is a ride inside and it's absolutely fantastic.  I took lots more pictures here.  I wasn't kidding about the invitation.  Fingers crossed, we'll be back in Florida in June and we would love to go back to Harry Potter multiple times with guests.

Accio Florida vacation!

Monopoly Redesign? Blasphemy!

This...

...is the new Monopoly board.

Can they do this?  I learned this afternoon that the CRAZY folks at Hasbro have created a new version of the beloved Monopoly game.  Evidently this new version, dubbed MONOPOLY: Revolution Edition will be available in Fall 2010, which according to my calendar begins next month.  (Gasp)  Here are the specs, as listed in the press release.

Though the new game still features the traditional streets of Atlantic City, property values have risen to reflect today's prices. Instead of collecting $200, players will take in $2 Million every time they pass GO. Helping them track their millions is an electronic “banker” that also serves as the die, and music player. For the first time, sound effects and music clips from hit songs from five decades, including "Umbrella," "Bad Day" and "Drive My Car," provide a soundtrack throughout the game.

I don't think I like this.  Part of the fun of playing Monopoly is having money in different colors, right?!  Maybe that was only me, enjoying every opportunity I had to color-code my life, even at a young age.  I mean, my dad won every damn time we played.  I had to look forward to something.  Have you ever played a board game with my dad?  It's an experience.  Once, Al, Dad and I played the same game of Monopoly for days.  Eventually he had so much property with houses and hotels, my sister was taking out mortgages on her own properties in order to land on his.  And she was young!  Definitely younger than 10.  So clearly, the colorful money was a highlight among that torture.   Side note:  Thanks to Dad and his ruthless playing, I regularly win all board games I play today.  But back to the game.  In addition to eliminating the opportunity to hone one's math skills, this new system eliminates the die?  No rolling?  What do you do?  Press a button and see how many spaces the 'banker' says you can move?

And getting nit-picky, I also find the wedge-shaped properties to be odd.....

Who wants to live on a lot shaped like this?  And as a side note, they have REMOVED Community Chest and Chance cards!!!!!  Dude.  I cannot handle this.

The 'sound effects' they are including are quite disturbing.  What the hell?  MUSIC during MONOPOLY?!  No thanks. Batteries do not belong in Monopoly, if you ask me.  I suppose adjusting the prices for inflation is a practical change, but this is a board game, folks.  Not reality, per se.  I mean, I have gone to jail countless times in Monopoly, but not real life.  And for the record, in my mind, Boardwalk will always cost $400.  Not $4 million, or whatever it is, adjusted for inflation.

But the most bothersome, and the LEAST OK?  The new plastic playing pieces!  Where is my metal iron?  Thimble?  Scottie dog?

While this is clearly ridiculous, there is a saving grace..... it appears that Hasbro will continue to distribute the original, classic, (correct) version of Monopoly.  I, for one, hope no one buys this piece of junk.  Monopoly is not Monopoly without metal playing pieces, rainbow colored money, dice, and a square board.

Time Travel: August 5, 2006

In some calendar years, certain specific dates stick out in your mind.  Some dates (Christmas, your birthday, etc.) are memorable year to year, and others are monumental only once.  For example, May 20, 1989 I lost my first tooth.  (I know the day only because it was Nene's wedding day)  Or Easter 1994 was the one when Al had both a broken finger and three stitches in her head.  June 24, 1994, right when I got home from my piano recital, was the night a tabby kitten showed up in the garage.  More on the kitty another day.... perhaps we can make Time Travel a weekly installment!  For me, today is a one-time monumental day.  Four years ago, on August 5, 2006, darling Ashley married a wonderful man: Jason Kempf.  

Fun story: August 4 is the day I met Jason; I walked out of the shower wrapped in two towels (one for hair, one for body) and there he was on the couch in the basement.  Surprise!  Didn't know he'd be there.  Without skipping a beat, I stuck out my hand and said "Hi, I'm Jules"  I suppose that was kind of the initial test.  What will Jason think of Jules?  He likely thought I was crazy, so he is quite perceptive!  Anyway.  Back to 8/5/06.  

It had been more than three years since Ash, Pannie and I had seen each other, and the reunion was all that it should be: loud and full of screams and hugs and general glee.  Not only did Pannie and I get to spend a little time together (with M, too, of course), but we were finally seeing Ash again!  The duo would finally be a trio again.  Good things come in threes, after all.  Now is a good time to point out that Ash was the first of my friends to get married.  Not only had we finished college and entered into the real world with jobs and paychecks, monthly rent and checking accounts, now Ash was starting to BEHAVE LIKE A GROWNUP!  With a husband and a new last name and a big old party to celebrate.  It was a little crazy to comprehend at first, my first friend acting like an official grownup.  It was a lovely weekend, and the start of many summers with at least one wedding to attend!  

The morning of August 5, 2006 consisted of:

Ash sitting in the kitchen getting her hair done.  (Hi Thomas in the background!)

A lace-up corset-type dress worthy of Gone with the Wind

Pannie telling her joke about the grasshopper walking into the bar to stop the waterworks 

The day continued to celebrate the love that was all around us:

Becky and Roy celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary, Michael helped them cook

Lifelong friends squeezed in some quality time

And two wonderful people were married

Congratulations, guys.  Here's to many more happy years together.  We look forward to sharing in all of the other wonderful celebratory moments in your lives.