A Little Mountain Air

Ever heard of Mountain Air Country Club?  Me neither, but I'm so glad that Michael's sister and her fiance invited us to go this past weekend!  What they said was true, no false advertising here:

"Atop the placid Blue Ridge Mountains, just 35 minutes from Asheville – "North Carolina's most vibrant and charming city" – resides a community that embodies the soaring spirit of the mountain beneath its feet and the divine beauty of the forests that surround it.

We welcome you to browse our website and discover why Mountain Air was named "America's Best Community".

Video I took of the sunrise.

It also just happened to be Asheville's "Bele Chere" Festival which hosted music, art, food vendors, and of course a little bit of beer.  We decided to beat the heat and camp out at Wedge Brewery which turned out to be a very cool place.  The beer was good, the atmosphere was unique with metal art throughout, and the best part was that I got to meet up with my cousin, Kevin, whom I never get to see.

Hole right outside the cabin.  

We headed out for North Carolina on Friday evening and arrived to an absolutely amazing mountain view, complete with a stunning golf course and some of the most beautiful "cabins" I've ever seen.  Read:  these weren't cabins.  This gated community is one of the most immaculate I've had the pleasure of going to.  The landscaping was perfect, the view unmatched and it was a great weekend with perfect weather and company.  The dogs didn't mind it too much either.  Pete was right at home on the balcony and didn't seem to want to leave it!  Rigby was a little anxious at first but she eventually settled.  Cousin pup, Neko, wasn't a huge fan of the balcony but had fun playing with our dogs when they'd come inside.  I woke up each morning to see the sunrise and beautiful clouds roll over the mountains.  I snapped some pictures and returned to bed, but didn't want to miss the scene.  I'm glad I didn't!  It's pretty during the day, but you can't beat the fog rolling in each morning.

Mountain Dogs

O hai!

We also ran into some "locals" on our way back from Bele Chere on Saturday... two baby black bears and their Momma!  They were just casually crossing the street and when we pulled closer to take some photos the babies ran up the tree as fast as their little legs would take them.  Momma waited on the ground to make sure we weren't going to do anything.  Pretty cool.  It's the closest I've ever been to a bear in the wild.  I was surprised how small they were, even the mother.

Whit and I at Palomino

After my trip to Indy last week for a conference, I'm beat.  I was so happy to spend some time with Whitney and say hello to my former residence, but I'm fine with not going anywhere for a while!  Next up is a conference in Denver in which I return five days before we depart for Europe.  Oy Vey!  It's gonna be a busy Fall!!!  Have I mentioned, I'm ready for Fall?

Sahara Summer, Supernatural Shame Spiral

I don't remember a summer being this hot or arid.  It's brown, it's dry, and it's crusty outside.  Like a burnt grilled cheese sandwich.  Also, I don't remember raking leaves in July which is exactly what we did this past weekend!  At least the grass has somewhat returned to a non-crust state, but my beloved flowers I've babied so much this spring and summer are still looking pretty rough!   The two gigantic tulip poplar trees in our front and back yards are shedding leaves like non-other.  Honestly, it's pretty annoying.

WTF Season 5

Speaking of annoying, what's going on with True Blood these days?  My one time favorite show has turned into a spiral of supernatural mockery.  I mean, I'll still be tuning in for Eric Northman and Jason Stackhouse...but who is writing these plot lines?  Who gave Terry Bellefleur a main story line?  Who is making the decisions at HBO?!  I expect more from Alan Ball having created another fantastic series, Six Feet Under.  I stopped reading the Sookie books after about book 11, in which they really went south. I can't even keep a straight face when the smoke monster that they so obviously ripped off from LOST makes an appearance.  They turned a great, strong, female lead like Sookie was into a character that I really don't even like anymore.  All she does is whine and throw balls of light from her hands.  Sigh.

Tower of London

In other exciting news, only 67 days until we leave for Europe!  But who's counting!  Our list of things we want to do and see just keeps growing and growing.  Is it even possible to perfect a balance between seeing all of the popular sites, and enjoying the true culture of each country?  I know we're going to try!

I'm really proud of this!

Today our company posted its first infographic on our website!  This is something I'm very proud of, as it was a LOT of blood, sweat and tears for myself and another colleague!  You might find it particularly interesting if you care about Healthcare Reform, or the healthcare industry in general.  I wanted to share this as I'm very very proud of how it turned out!!!  Whoo hoo!  (Also a huge shout out to Jason Pierce at MPerfect Design for making this possible!)   You can click for full-size.

Happy 5th Birthday, Spencer!

I'm a few days late, but it's hard to forget Spencer's birthday since it was triple seven's!  Spencer was born on 7-7-07 at the Humane Society of Indianapolis.  I adopted him at six weeks of age, and he's been my little furry companion ever since.  

Name:  Spencer Smalls
DOB:  7-7-07 - lucky seven's!
Hobbies:  Meowing incessantly, laying on vents, trying to open invisible doors on walls, chasing bugs, watching leaves, watching things that aren't there, eating, pooping, cuddling, reading lolcats.

Happy Birthday, Spencer!

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.