Whatcha reading? Watching?

I like to hear what everyone is reading and watching, to make sure I'm not missing out on the good stuff!  I was very slow on the uptake to The Soprano's, just having watched all 7 Seasons this year!  What an amazing show...the crazy thing was, I never really knew anyone that watched it so didn't have any spoilers to worry about.  It was the best series I've watched in a while.  We've moved on to another organized crime show, The Wire.  Another HBO show.  Seems like everything we watch and enjoy is on either HBO or Showtime!  Game of Thrones, True Blood, Dexter.  The Wire takes place in Baltimore and centers around a (I'm only on Season 3) couple of different inner-city drug dealers.  You watch from both the police and the drug dealers points of view.  Excellent acting and just a very well done show.  Shame there are only 5 Seasons total.  Thanks to HBO Go we can watch many HBO programs at our leisure...I LOVE that about the XBox!

Well, I gave in to the hype, like every other woman on the planet!  I started reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.  I am almost through the 2nd book and haven't been able to put these down.  Could it be written better?  Yes.  Is it a little cheesy at time? Sure is.  Do I love every minute of it?  Uh huh, sure do.  I can't get enough Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.  It's like Twilight for adults, without all of the vampires and werewolves.  I was pretty shocked at first when I'd read up to Chapter 7 of the first book, and we hadn't even gotten to a kiss yet.  However, when it picks up, it picks up.  If this movie comes out, I can't imagine it could be rated anything less than X!  It's pretty graphic...but, if you're not into that, don't let that stop you.  It also has a plot that moves quickly, and with some substance to go along with it.  It's not Shakespeare, but it WILL entertain  you.  Oh, if you haven't seen this SNL Sketch making fun of Mom's reading it...do yourself a favor and watch that here.  When I'm reading these books, I've certainly already cast my characters as well.  I can't picture anyone other than Ryan Gosling as Christian Grey now...Ana was a little harder.  I picture a younger, innocent, Dawson's Creek era Katie Holmes.  I'm not sure if anyone fits that bill these days.  I don't care who it is, but please don't make it Kristen Stewart!

Girl vs. Squirrel, and Updates

Wow!  Been a long time since I posted, so I'm going to do a rapid wrap-up of the last month or so.

1.  Girl vs. Squirrel.  Where to start...oh I know, I hate them.  As someone who unconditionally loves most furry, scaly, non-human creatures these heartless little terrors are now on my "no-fly" list.  They eat my flowers, they dig in my mulch, they scare off my birds, and they move the tarp in our koi pond and cause leaks!  We went the humane route, trapping and releasing.  No go.  We then tried feeding them alternative food so they wouldn't eat the bird seed, or dig in the mulch for food.  Um, fail #2.  Finally....air rifle it is.  Judge me, judge away.  I don't care!  You PETA alums can rest easy though...the current score is Squirrels: 972, Lindsey: 0.

2.  Dad and I attended our 6th Abbey Road on the River this past Memorial Day weekend.  We had a blast, drank some cold brews, and saw some AMAZING music.  We both agreed this was by far the best year yet for band quality.  We rocked until the wee hours of the morning, and braved the scorching heat all in the name of tunes!!!  Since the weather was so perfect, some of the bands ended up performing longer than scheduled and we were lucky enough to hear a version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody so perfect, I don't know if Queen themselves did better.  It was brilliant!

3.  Jake's 21!  We traveled to Western Kentucky to surprise Michael's little bro Jake, on his 21st birthday.  We enjoyed a PERFECT weather weekend, enjoyed the outdoors, visited with family, and hopefully helped Jake ring in his legal age in style.  We also go to meet Neko, our new "niece".  She is Pat and Ashley's (Michael's sister) new puppy!  She is half husky, half Great Pyrenees, and all cute!!!  She was running the show with the other dogs, and might be part polar bear too.

4.  We're going to be international travelers!  We booked our first trip to Europe for this fall, and I simply can't wait.  I've always wanted to go, passed up an opportunity in college to travel abroad but plan on making up for it!  We'll be spending 14 days in England, France and Belgium.  We have a full itinerary planned and I can't wait to soak up some culture and see some amazing sites!!!!  I'm also open to any and ALL advice/suggestions from folks who have been.  I know some things that top our list are Tower of London, West End Theatre District...a Jack-the-Ripper tour (even if it's cheesy I gotta do it), Palace of Versailles, The Louvre of course, River tour of The Seine, Sacre Couer, tour of the catacombs, Brugge...just to name a few.

I think that's it.  Oh, and thanks Rachel for the motivation :)

Management really does mean everything. Old National Bank, you fail.

I'm hit or miss when I demand good customer service.  If I'm at an expensive restaurant, then yes I will accept no less than stellar service.  However, if I'm at at drive-thru and someone cops at attitude with me, I realize I'm ordering an .89 burger and cut my losses and move on.  If I'm on the phone with my cellular provider and I have a problem, I expect them to let me do most of the talking, and listen.  If I'm dealing with any government agency...well, I probably don't need to elaborate there.  An industry where I've never given much thought to the quality of customer service, was banking.  This is until recently.


I was a customer of Old National Bank (notice the past tense there) for over 10 years.  I opened my account in college and it was my first ever debit card!  Very exciting.  I regularly banked at the branch in Carmel, IN and enjoyed nothing less than spectacular service.  I was always greeted with a warm-welcome, fast friendly service, if I had to call in for something an actual human answered and quickly resolved my  problems!  After moving to Louisville, KY a little less than two years ago, my feelings for Old National changed faster than Clark Kent in a phone booth.  No one even looked up when I walked in the door.  No one said a friendly hello, nothing.  When I'd use the drive-thru window I would have to press the button and wait for what felt like forever, in reality it might've been a couple of minutes.  Still too long in my opinion.  I had the pleasure of waiting on a teller to finish a personal phone call before she could help me.  I overheard a Manager and a teller discussing another customer whom they'd just ended a phone call with very negatively right in front of me!  They were mocking this person right in front of another customer, me!  This was pretty much the last straw after almost two years of extremely poor customer service from this branch.  I finally closed my account and when I did was asked why.  I gave a PC answer of "another bank in town offers interest on free checking, no service charges, and foreign ATM refunds".  (all true - Commonwealth Bank and Trust - they're GREAT)  When I said those words aloud I was told "No banks do that".  So, not only have you been giving me terrible service, charging me fees, but now I'm a liar?  Enough!  I happily walked out of the branch at the corner of Shelbyville Road and Hubbards Lane, never to return.  


It gets better.  I decide that I owe it to my ten year relationship with this company to write a letter.  Someone might care!  Someone might change this, someone Might.  Do.  Something.  I wrote a letter to the Regional Vice President here in Louisville, whose name I will not mention.  I gave this man one week to reply.  I thought that was fair.  Maybe he's on vacation.  I hear nothing.  I hear nothing until I have to email him a second time.  Here is the response to that second email:

"Dear Ms. Bailey,

I apologize, but we mailed you a response by regular mail earlier this week.  I am attaching a copy of the letter.  We mailed the letter to an Indianapolis address, which is the address on our system.  This address may be outdated, which could be why you didn't receive my reply.  Now that I think about it, I should have responded by email since that is how you communicated with me.  Sometimes I am a little too old-fashioned.  Regardless, as the letter states, I apologize for our service breakdown and appreciate your reaching out to us with the issue.  We understand your frustration and disappointment with us, but hope you will give us another chance.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.

Best regards,

X"


Really?  You sent it to an address you KNEW I didn't live at?  Guess what...IT WAS THE WRONG LINDSEY BAILEY.  They sent it to Lindsey B. Bailey...not me.  Like I said.  Management means everything, and this is clearly an issue from the top down.  This person sent a stale snail-mail reply to the wrong person.  And you know what?  Had I received an email back apologizing, saying something would be done....I wouldn't be writing this today.  I wouldn't be putting it on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, and you might not have heard my story.  

Mafia Chickens

Carmine

That's right.  I said "Mafia Chickens".  You know, fowls who participate in organized crime and such.  I would like to introduce you to The Soprano's.  The Soprano's are 4 Buff Orpington chickens that now reside at the wonderful Stites Farm.  They're comprised of the rooster Carmine, and three hens Carmella, Carlotta and Camille.   They were a gift to Mom from Michael and I on Mother's Day.  She'd been talking about wanting chickens for over a year, and has the perfect place for them, as the previous owner also kept chickens.  (Kept chickens?  Raised chickens?  Had chickens?)  For the first week they will need to remain enclosed, but once they know the routine they'll be free rangers!  Not being the biggest fan of all things avian,  I was a little skeptical but they're actually pretty cool.  All they really do is eat all day...which I can totally appreciate.  A huge thanks to Michael that drove these feathered friends up from Louisville...safely enclosed in Rigby's dog crate.  He said they were quiet as a mouse.

Carmine had been hanging out with humans for a while waiting for his forever home at Fresh Start Growers Supply in downtown Louisville, so he even lets you pet him sometimes!  The girls will eventually come around I'm sure.  We are hoping for chicks and farm fresh eggs at some point and until then Mom will be placing golf balls where she'd like the hens to lay the eggs...apparently this works?  Until then we'll keep speaking in New Jersey accents for them and enjoying the fun.

Here are The Soprano's in action...yes I know it's sideways but I can't figure out how to rotate it so just cock your head - no pun intended!!!  UPDATE:  I fixed it but didn't want to remove my clever pun.  

The Ladies

Kentucky Derby Weekend

In traditional bluegrass fashion we put on our big hats, drank some mint juleps and bet on the ponies!  It was so great to have my friend Jennifer in town for the festivities, all the way from Boston.  We really lucked out with fantastic weather and ended up taking in much of what Churchill Downs had to offer.  We were just past the finish line so we had a pretty great view of all the beautiful horses.  We attended the Kentucky Oaks on Friday the 4th, and it was great to have a long weekend.  Jennifer made it down late Thursday and we were able to get up early for a pre-Oaks gathering at a friends before heading to the track.  That evening we had dinner out at a fantastic Cuban restaurant in town, came home to relax a bit, then headed out to keep the celebrations going.

Heading into Churchill with Michael, me, Jennifer and Kevin!

Gorgeous horses!

Oscar!

Saturday we enjoyed a more low key day by watching the Derby on TV and having a cookout at home.  Michael's famous garlic and cilantro steaks (thank you Bobby Flay!) made a cameo and they were as delicious as always!  We headed downtown to an amazing new restaurant called Decca (shameless plug, Michael's company did this website!) and enjoyed the patio and beautiful ambiance of their waterfall feature.  Oh, we also ran into Oscar Nunez and Kate Flannery of "The Office"!  Who play Oscar and Meredith, respectively.   He was very nice in person and both appeared to be enjoying the festivities of the Derby!   All in all I couldn't have asked for a better weekend weather wise, company wise, food wise - anything!

Fantastic group and a great day.

Jennifer and I in our lovely hats!

Landscaping Project: Complete!

 After a year of working on things off and on, I think we're finally confident that the landscaping project is complete!  Sure, there are more things we want to accomplish in years to come...but for now we're on official hiatus of doing any more for quite a while.  Our backyard oasis is ready to be enjoyed...it's come a long way from the jungle it was on move in day!  After ripping out hedges, weeds as tall as me, and lots of blood sweat and tears, we can sit back, relax, and enjoy.  Here are some before and afters to see the dramatic difference!

Here you see the grossness that was move-in day:

And here you see current day fruits of our labor!

Holy overgrowth!

Ahhh...but those bricks were HEAVY.

Weeds as tall as me!

Now beautiful backyard oasis!

Koi pond was a hot mess...

Now it's gorgeous!

Front walkway, barely walkable!

Ahh, much better.  Again though, I can't stress enough that those bricks were HEAVY.

Some new seating for the other part of the deck

This project has been Pete and Rigby approved!

All 7 of our fishy's swimming around with their new water plants.

Eh, needs more pets.

A rare moment when everyone is content to hang out together in the basement...