The man's side of it!

This picture of Cubby, one of our cats is for my "doubting Tomas" daughter who thinks "cats don't smile, only dogs maybe." That she posted in comments under Oooops! Check out that very happy kitty with the big smile Michele!

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The next day after we purchased our glasses, Cassie and decided to cancel our order. We felt we were taken advantage of, and misled by the advertising at America's Best Eyeglasses. So after discussing our options Cassie called them up and canceled our order. Cassie told them we would be in later that day to pick up or prescriptions. Cassie waited out in the van while I went in to take care of business. On the way in I had a thought to try negotiating with them to get a discount and if that didn't work then I would just get the prescriptions and leave.

I entered the store and stated my business to the salesperson at the counter. She immediately said she had to get the store manager to help me and left. Oh oh! I thought. I'm going to get hassled. But the manager was very nice and sorry that we had to cancel and got the paper work to start the process. She asked me why I was canceling and I told her that the ads were very misleading. Based on the ads we thought we could get 2 pairs of glasses for $99.00. One for Heidi and one for me. Then when they explained that it was 2 pair per person we were going to get on pair of glasses and one pair of sunglasses for each of us. After picking out the frames we liked and getting measured the optician started to come up with price. "Yeow!" I said. "What happened to the 2 pair for $99.00 you have advertised?" The Optician said " Your glasses are progressive bifocals that costs more!" "Heidi's are high index and that costs more!" "The advertisements are for regular glasses only." To the manager I said. "Well we thought we could afford them, but when we got home and checked our finances we found that we couldn't." I told her that Cassie and I are both disabled and have no insurance. Neither does our daughter. We were hoping to use our Caremark discount card here to save some money, and get the glasses at the advertised prices. We were told you didn't accept discount cards.

The manager asked how much the discount was for and I told her 20%. The manager said she didn't want to lose a customer and would we take the glasses if she gave us the discount? I said the price was still too high but if we dropped the 2 sunglasses and she gave us the discount we could afford that. "Done!" She said. The price worked out to about a third of what it would have cost us and Cassie and I were very happy. The ads are still very misleading and we're still not happy with that but at least we will be getting the glasses at an affordable price.

There's a lesson here. Don't take prices at face value. Try to negotiate for a lower price or a bigger discount. The markup on glasses, furniture, clothes and many other items can allow some store managers leeway to lower their price and still make money. I am going to try this more often.

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Heidi and I need new glasses. The place we used to go to when we had insurance was great. But now that the union insurance is gone and we now rely on Medicare Cassie and I pay out of pocket for our glasses. We decided to go to Walmart to get the glasses. Alas, while we were watching the news the other day a commercial for "America's Best" eyeglasses declared with jabbering bobble headed people in loud and obnoxious voices, two pairs of glasses for just $99.00 with a free eye exam. "Wow!" Cassie exclaimed. We should see if there is one located near us. I agreed and went to the computer to Google America's Best.

I found a place in Trenton about 45 minutes away and I was able to make an appointment online for this morning. We hopped in the Batmobile and away we went. The establishment is clean and well lighted the people there were friendly and very helpful as we signed in and filled out the necessary forms. We didn't have long to wait for Heidi's and my eye exams. I was first and while Heidi was getting her exam I went hunting for the perfect pair of glasses.

Now you have to understand. everywhere around the store were signs stating you could buy 2 pairs of glasses, single vision, for $69.99. Bifocals were a bit more at $99.99 that's with a free eye exam for both. Wow! I thought we can get a great bargain here. Boy was I wrong! Here's the ads:


These ads are very misleading. The bottom line is we left the damn place less almost $900.00 in our pockets.
I feel as if I was bamboozleded!

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I saw these two and their routine and just about rolled on the floor laughing!

Check it out:

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So, tonight I made Flounder Mediterranean. (I posted the recipe on my Favorite Recipes Blog)Cassie made the white rice and fresh string beans. It was all delicious! I noticed though that the bottom of the oven was really dirty and greasy. I told Cassie I would run the clean cycle after dinner.

So after dinner without thinking I set the oven to self clean and went back to my office. About 15 minutes later my cat Cubby comes into the office meowing real loud (well, as loud as he can, his meow is a squeak). "What's wrong Cubby? I asked the little guy. I reached down to pet him but he moved out of the way squeaking even louder! Then from the kitchen I hear "OH NO THE OVEN"S ON FIRE!" So I ran out to see what was burning.

Apparently we let the oven get too dirty between cleanings and the grease on the bottom was bursting into spurts of flame as the oven cleaned itself. But that wasn't what the problem was. Cubby was getting excited about all the smoke pouring out of the oven. As if it was on fire. The smoke filled the kitchen and started spreading to the other parts of the house. We opened all the windows and set the big room air circulator fan near the kitchen to blow away the smoke. It wasn't until all the smoke cleared out that Cubby finally calmed down. He was alert to the smoke even before the smoke alarm went off. and was warning us that there was a fire.

That little cat is my hero! Now as soon as he comes out from under our bed I'll give him a nice treat. Heh heh!

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I read this article posted on Boing Boing and almost cried! What they need to do is take the idiotic and fanatically dangerous Vice-principal and place him in the public square in the stocks or pillories for about a week, then tar and feather him and then run the idiot out of town. The man obviously has his head up his a__!

Actually this is too good for the idiot. Maybe have the boy flog the principal in the stocks. Yeah that appeals to my sense of justice.

We are talking about the blade from a pencil sharpener like this:

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From Boing Boing

20080911175701039.source.prod_affiliate.9.pdf Original in PDF Format

9/12/08 will be remembered as the day we finally caught one of the bad guys -- a 4th grader with a broken pencil sharpener.

A 10-year-old Hilton Head Island boy has been suspended from school for having something most students carry in their supply boxes: a pencil sharpener.

The problem was his sharpener had broken, but he decided to use it anyway....

The boy -- a fourth-grader described as a well-behaved and good student -- cried during the meeting with his mom, the deputy and the school's assistant principal.

He had no criminal intent in having the blade at school, the sheriff's report stated, but was suspended for at least two days and could face further disciplinary action.

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