My New Swiffer

I used the coupons for free replacement products today from Swiffer. We will see how long this one lasts!

MORE Medical Mistakes

Unbelievable wrong side surgeries are occuring too close to home. Here is a link to a recent story on Good Morning America about the Rhode Island Hospital...

http://http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3925810&page=1

This is just a mere 60 miles from home. It could have happened here at L&M, a mere 2 miles from home, or anywhere for that matter.

As Chris Cuomo said, "this isn't (0r is) brain surgery" it's just a matter of knowing left from right! A client and I were discussing this story a couple days ago and she said the last time she went in for surgery she was surprised at how many people in the operating room had asked her 'which side?' Now it all makes sense to her. If you are having surgery don't be afraid to speak your mind and let the doctor, nurse, surgeon, etc. know where to operate.

When we made our last ER visit I did notice signs posted for the staff to 'pause' or wait 10 seconds before doing a procedure, just to clear their mind and think about what they are doing. I guess this small precaution should be implemented at every health care facility. Had those surgeons at Rhode Island Hospital taken the 10 seconds to clarify left or right, the 3 mistakes may not have been made!

Hospital Mistake

The day after my last post about my daughter having a week long cold, we had to bring her to the hospital. She had a fever for a couple days and she was miserable so I knew something more was wrong with her. After 4 hours in the emergency room, a breathing treatment, and chest x rays, the doctor finally came in and said she had an upper respiratory infection (a cold) and he could not give her any medicine. He said just go home and continue to do what I've been doing for her. When I left, I was pissed because I could tell she was sick. I got home and put her to bed and 10 minutes later the phone rang. It was the hospital. The nurse said the doctor failed to look at the xrays (that he had ordered) and another doctor saw them and diagnosed my baby with pneumonia. I needed to go back to the hospital and get a prescription for antibiotics. Well, that made me feel better because I just knew it! But then I wonder, what if that other doctor had not stumbled upon those x rays? My daughter would still be suffering and perhaps worse. Anyway, the next day I went to the pharmacy first thing in the morning to get the medicine. Turns out they had given the wrong dose. The pharmacist called the hospital and pointed out their mistake and got my baby the right dose. Thank goodness someone was paying attention to what was going on! She is better now but next time I will know to speak up and ask the doctor or nurse to double check their diagnosis and perhaps ask for a second opinion.

Little Colds

My little one has a cold and has had it for a week. I used to give her Little Colds for her cough and congestion but to my dismay they took all such medicines off the shelf. They say it's not proven to be effective or safe. I can tell you that it's effective, my doctor says so too. When my daughter doesn't take it she coughs all night and wakes up often, when she does take it, she doesn't. There you go, effective. The problem is giving too much but if you can read a dropper there's no excuse. There have been i think 20 something deaths in the last 40 years which is a very small portion. I am afraid that if parents don't have these medicines to help their children when sick they may give them medicine meant for older people, cutting the dose, which could be much more deadly. I am also worried about my own child of course. I worry about her feeling miserable, I know how I feel when sick, and not getting much needed rest because she is uncomfortable all night long. I really hope they re examine this decision and put it back on the shelves.

Tips

"I don't tip" is a famous quote from the movie Resorvior Dogs. Mr. Pink says "I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job. " See the entire conversation here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105236/quotes . I, on the other hand, do tip at certain places. If I sit down and eat a meal and have a waitress, I will tip. I do not tip at fast food or coffee joints any more. I used to work at Dunkin Donuts and I relied on my tips every day. But when you actually think about it, why should they get tips and McDonalds or Subway employees don't? They are making the same hourly rate so why? I had stopped tipping a few months ago because they could never get my order right and then this thought occured to me so I never went back to tipping. Sometimes I feel like I get an attitude from them as they are handing back my change but why should I help support their kids when I have one of my own? All of my, and my fiancee's, coin change goes into my daughter's piggy bank and we cash it in once a month and transfer to her college fund. I think I am doing the right thing. Thanks for listening.

Daylight Savings Time

It is now 7:30 pm and I feel like it's bed time. It is for this reason that I despise Daylight Savings Time. Sure it's nice to know it's time for me to wake up when the sun rises, but I don't have to leave the house for another hour so I feel like that hour of sun light is wasted. Then at 4:30 when I pick up my daughter from daycare it's almost dark. Now we are eating dinner an hour earlier, at 5:30 instead of 6:30 just because it's dark and it seems like the right thing to do. Therefore, when I wake up with the sunrise in the morning I am hungrier than I was at this time last week. The worst part is I have to start my Christmas shopping soon and who wants to do that after work in the dark? I would much rather have that hour of sunlight in the afternoon as opposed to the morning. I think they should put the time back the way it was and leave it alone!

Seahorse Restaurant

My fiancee and I went to the Seahorse Restaurant last night for dinner. It was my first time there. Overall it was a good experience but I do have some complaints. Bread was given as an appetizer but it was burnt on the outside so we ate the insides and left the crust. Next came the salad which was just lettuce, bleu cheese crumbles, and a few croutons dressed with some funky mustardish sauce. I am not a fan of bleu cheese but my fiancee is so he ate mine. He did not like the dressing, his was drenched in it. Also, not knowing what exactly it was or what was in it, he was afraid to eat too much because he is allergic to eggs. I thought it was just ok, so I ate a few pieces of his lettuce. I think they should give you a plain garden salad with a choice of dressing, or something along those lines. When the entrees came though, we were impressed. He got stuffed sole with mashed potatoes and some strange broccoli type vegetable. Mine was baked shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta with cheese. Excellent! It was served in the dish it was baked in on a plate but the dish kept spinning around every time I took a bite, so I had to hold onto the hot dish the whole time. And last but not least, our waitress, who I guess has been there forever and is quite comfortable, only checked on us once to refill our wine. When we left she was outside by the front door smoking a cigarette. Now, I'm a smoker also, but I certainly wouldn't stand at the main entrance to advertise it to everyone. So only because of my spectacular scampi, we will be going back on our next date night. Mon, Tues, and Wed they have a special of 2 entrees and a bottle of wine for only $21.99.

Complaints, Suggestions, Ideas, Reviews, and More!

I have decided to do more than just complain about things on my blog... It makes more sense to try to help change things or make them better than to just b*@!# about them. Like BASF does, they don't make things, they make them better! So I have decided to add things like suggestions and ideas. Even reviews on restaurants and such. This should be much more interesting!

FEMA assistance

A few months ago there was some serious flooding in parts of CT. FEMA came to survey the damage but decided that the costs were not enough for them to get involved. You would think that since it was a small amount to them they would just say ok and give funds to the victims, who I'm sure think that it is no small amount. I don't understand why the Government can't help out Americans with a few bucks but they can approve ANOTHER 40 something BILLION dollars to spend in Iraq. Here are some articles about the damage and the lack of assistance.


http://wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?s=7228478

http://wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?s=7272113

Ruby Tuesday Restaurant

In the mail today I received a $5 off coupon on my next visit to Ruby Tuesday. I guess they must be starving for business and trying to get people in the door. This might not be the case if they had better service to begin with. Last month while visiting family in Maine, we went to dinner at the Ruby Tuesday in Waterville. It was right down the road from the hotel so in a way it was convenient. There were 10 of us in the party, including 2 hungry children. We arrived at the restaurant around 7:30 pm and had to wait in the lobby for about half an hour. I understand that a short wait may be necessary to accomodate a large group of people for dinner. 5 or 10 minutes is acceptable, 15 minutes AT THE MOST. We could see the table where we would later be seated from the waiting area. It was covered with dirty dishes and the hostess told us over and over it would just be a few more minutes because they were cleaning it off. For the first 20 minutes not a single employee went to that table to clean it. Finally, when my sister in law spoke up and said she would go clean it, she had been a waitress before, they started. At that time the manager came up to the hostess booth and asked if we had been helped yet. I told him that we had been acknowledged, but I wouldn't say 'helped'. He then took us over to the table to be seated and failed to apologize for the wait or even tell us to enjoy our meal. The waitress came over and took our drink order but we still had to wait. Now it has been 45 minutes, it's way past my daughter's bed time, and she's starving! Normally if you are getting an entree with the salad bar you can just go up to the bar and start. Every time I go, I get the salad bar for an extra $1.99. Do you think the waitress said "go ahead and help yourselves to the bar"? Of course not... 10 minutes later when she came back with the drinks and took our entire order, then she said it. Finally we were able to eat! After that I decided no more Ruby Tuesday for our family.... but I'll give them one more shot since I do have a coupon.

Response from Swiffer

Here is the generic response letter I recieved from Swiffer. Same exact letter as I received several months ago. Lets see what I receive in the mail in 2-3 weeks!

Thank you for sharing your disappointment with our product. Our goal is to produce high quality products that consistently delight our consumers and I'm sorry this wasn't your experience. Please be assured I'm sharing your comments with the rest of our team. Since your satisfaction means a great deal to us, I'm following up with you by postal mail. You should receive my letter within the next 2-3 weeks. Thanks again for writing.P&G Team[---001:000367:38649---]