Crumpet and Morgan

It's been a while since I've posted a picture of Crumpet and Morgan together.

Here they are this afternoon ... lazily looking out the window.

As a reminder, here they are eight months ago, a week after we got Crumpet (she was about ten weeks old).

She's definitely grown!

Happy Groundhog Day!

I'll never book an Air Canada Vacations vacation again

When Gord and I went to Bermuda for New Years, we bought the package through Air Canada Vacations. It included our flight down and back, our hotel, transfer to and from the airport and the hotel, our meals and drinks.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Toronto about 8am on the Saturday morning (New Years Eve). When we checked in at 6am, we were told that we would be flying standby (according to the check-in agent, the flight was full) because our travel agent hadn't reserved us specific seats on the plane (and charge us an extra $15 each). If we couldn't get on our flight, it was our tough luck and we'd have to suck up the cost of the hotel for the night we wouldn't be there. Huh? Needless to say, we were shocked.

I travel quite often for my job and I've bought many vacation packages over the years and I have never paid for a plane ticket only to fly standby unless I paid an extra $15 to be assured a seat. I have paid the extra $ on flights but this was because I wanted a specific seat. When one buys a plane ticket, you assume you are getting a seat, not getting a seat if there is one left over for you.

We had to wait for over an hour until we knew we had a seat. This was not a good way to start a vacation. As it turns out, the seats we were assigned were purchased by a family who paid the extra $15 for them (so the seats were issued twice). The flight wasn't full so they sat elsewhere.

I emailed our travel agent immediately when we reached Bermuda and she reserved us specific seats to ensure we could get home (thus charging my VISA $30). Initially we were told we wouldn't be to sit together because the flight was full. But as it turned out it wasn't ... there were extra seats.

On January 6, I contacted Air Canada Vacations online about the seating policy. I also explained about our flight being delayed a day because of the weather. They promised a 48 hour response ... 72 hours later I got an email that said they were looking into it.

On January 17, I finally got a response back from Lisa, Customer Relations, that included:

Air Canada has the capability to oversell flights in order that we operate at full capacity, yet we do so very cautiously. Since it is monitored continuously to ensure accuracy, in the majority of cases this process is very effective. The result works to the benefit of passengers and the airline alike by ensuring not only full utilization of seating but also that the greatest number of persons travel on the flight of their choice. On occasion, however, we do find ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to deny boarding to a customer.

That being said, it is not customary to oversell an Air Canada Vacations flight, and our records indicate that flight AC 942 on December 31, 2011 went out at 87% capacity. As such, I am unable to provide you with a detailed explanation as to why you were not assigned seats at check-in.

Lisa offered to look at covering our additional expenses for our extra day (my VISA card has trip interruption insurance and I had a cheque from them within a week) and "as a gesture of goodwill" give us a 20% discount on our next Air Canada booking (right now Air Canada is offering 50% off flights so we can do better without the "gesture of goodwill"). BTW, the discount code doesn't even work.

On January 23, I wrote back thanking Lisa for her offer but said instead I want to be refunded the $30 we were forced to pay for ensure we had seats, which she said herself she doesn't know why we had to. It's a hell of a lot cheaper to pay me the $30 than the $400 for the extra day and the 20% discount. Financially that doesn't make sense.

I hadn't heard anything so wrote back on January 30 asking for a response.

I got this email from Lisa today (February 1).

Thank you for the follow-up email. I am truly sorry you remain dissatisfied with Air Canada.

Although there is little more I can add to my initial explanation, I understand your experience was disappointing. Please be assured Air Canada strives for excellence and we apologize we let you down.

The goodwill travel discount was offered to demonstrate our regret for the lapse in our usual high standard of service. While we realize this does not meet your expectation, we earnestly hope you will accept this in the manner it was intended. Respectfully, we are unable to offer additional consideration as requested.

We would like to thank you, once again, for contacting us. We recognize we did not leave you with a favourable impression on this occasion but we look forward to an opportunity to provide you with a more positive travel experience in the future.

We appreciate the opportunity to review your concerns.

Really?! Basically she has blown me off. What kind of customer service is that?

I responded immediately with an email that all I want is my $30 back and I'd be happy.

Powers of observation

We bought our bed at IKEA almost ten years ago.

We had the option of adjusting the base that supports the mattress (there is no boxspring). When we put it together, we had an older dog and a younger dog so we put it at the lowest option so both dogs could jump up. The top of the mattress just peeked over the frame and was the height of my knees (so not very high).

We are now dogless ... and it's been on my mind for a while to raise the base so it's at a normal level. So I did that today. I pushed the mattress off, unscrewed the base and put it back on at the highest height (about five inches higher) and slid the mattress back.

Gord isn't the most observant person so I was curious to see how long it would take for him to notice. If you remember, it took him an hour to realize I'd replaced our old clunky TV with a 46 inch flat screen in June.

He was home about five minutes and noticed the small light on his nightstand was gone (it broke when I pushed the mattress off the bed). I said it had fallen and let him believe the Crumpet had knocked it over.

When he was getting ready for bed, I scampered so was settled in under the covers reading ... waiting to see if he'd realize there was a change with the bed. Needless to say, I expressed my surprise when he noticed right away.

He went on and on about how he'd make a great witness for the prosecution since he notices everything.

"Really?", I asked.

So I asked him what colour teeshirt I'd been wearing that night (I'd just put my nightgown on about ten minutes earlier).

"Um ... light green? With a purple tinge?"

Does teeshirt in the picture above look light green to you?

I rest my case.

CentrSource

I am not much of a shopper ... I have to be in the mood to shop.

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Happy shopping!

Princess Teena?

I've always been interested in genealogy.

I signed up to Ancestry.ca last spring and inputted what I knew about my mother and father's sides of my family, in addition to Gord's.

And it's just like the commercials say ... small green leaves appear on the top right corner of a person's box if there is anything in the system about them. It could be historical documents or if this person is included in someone else's tree. Very cool!

The bad thing is is that it's addictive ... it's not hard for me to get lost for hours and hours in there.

I've ended up in touch with some distant cousins plus some of Gord's not-so-distant ones.

I'd heard that I was related to Marilyn Monroe and I was able to track how. Her first husband, James Dougherty, was my first cousin, twice removed on my father's side. My great grandmother and Marilyn's former father-in-law were sister and brother.

This afternoon I was checking some leaves attached to my 9th great grandmother on my father's side, Martha (1640 - 1714). I came across a document that was prepared in 1929 tracking the lineage my 5th cousin, 4x times removed, Sophia.

For fun, I started inputting who in the document would be my ancestors. It goes ultimately took me back to Pepin de Heristal, who was apparently my 41th great grandfather (635 - 714). Also included in the lineage was King Edward I of England (1239 - 1307), who I was my 22nd great grandfather. His son, Edward II, succeeded him as king. My family branched off through Edward II's sister, Joan, my 21st great grandmother.

Crazy, eh?

This is picture is of King Edward I ... can you see the resemblance?!

The County General, Toronto, ON

Gord and I had supper tonight at The County General (Queen W/Shaw). It opened last year and it's the first time I've been there (Gord's had a couple beer there).

We got there about 6:30 and had to wait about a half hour for a seat ... so we were told to sit by the window (we sat on the window sill and had a glass of bubbly Riesling).

Two seats opened at the bar and they were ours.

As you can see, the place was jammed.

I ordered the 6oz County Burger and Gord ordered the Fried Chicken Thigh Sandwich.

Here's Gord's sandwich ... he said it was really good.

Here's my burger ... it was juicy and delicious!

The ketchup for the fries was made there ... it had a bite to it and you could really taste cinnamon.

Here's how your bill arrives.

The food is good and there's definitely a vibe. I'll be back!

One for the Money

Gord and I saw One for the Money this afternoon.

From Toronto.com ~ A proud, born-and-bred Jersey girl, Stephanie Plum's got plenty of attitude, even if she's been out of work for the last six months and just lost her car to a debt collector. Desperate for some fast cash, Stephanie turns to her last resort: convincing her sleazy cousin to give her a job at his bail bonding company ... as a recovery agent. True, she doesn't even own a pair of handcuffs and her weapon of choice is pepper spray, but that doesn't stop Stephanie from taking on Vinny's biggest bail-jumper: former vice cop and murder suspect Joe Morelli - yup, the same sexy, irresistible Joe Morelli who seduced and dumped her back in high school. (Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, Daniel Sunjata, John Leguizamo, Sherri Shepherd, Debbie Reynolds)

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this movie. I enjoyed the book (and have read all in the series) so had to see the movie.

Fans of the series were quick to give their negative opinions when Katherine Heigl was cast as Stephanie Plum. I must admit I had my doubts about her in the role and she wasn't too bad. I had always pictured someone like Sandra Bullock in the role, though she is too old now.

The movie followed the book pretty closely. There were some women who were sitting to the right of us who were definitely fans. They giggled girlishly in some spots.

In the books, Joe Morelli and Ranger (especially Ranger) are hot ... smoking hot. The actors playing Joe and Ranger were definitely not smoking hot ... they were kind of bland. They should have cast these roles better/differently. Katherine Heigl was the biggest "star" in the movie.

I like Grandma Masur in the books ... she's quirky. I found Debbie Reynolds annoying in the part. She wasn't Grandma Masur.

I read an article in yesterday's Toronto Star where Katherine Heigl said she'd like to do others in the series. It should be interesting to see if she does given the poor reviews of this movie.