Mind your Manners at Check-In - Tesh Tuesday

Be Polite to The Front Desk Staff or They Could Make Your Stay Difficult

Will you be staying in a hotel anytime soon? Don’t be rude to the front desk clerk! Why? Because that’s the quickest way to get the worst room, or get charged for a bunch of extras – like phone calls and bottled water. According to MSNBC, the hotel industry has been reacting to the recession by cutting staff, freezing salaries and eliminating perks for workers, making hotel employees crankier and more likely to overreact when guests are rude, drunk or obnoxious. Here are ways hotel employees exact their revenge on difficult guests:

• First, they can make you wait. Even if your room is clean and ready to be occupied, the clerk might put you in “time out” and ask you to have a seat in the lobby. If you’re really awful, they might ask for your cell phone number and tell you they’ll call you when your room’s ready.

• The desk clerk can also freeze your credit card. Hotels routinely place an authorization “hold” on a card for the nightly room rate, plus taxes, and an estimate of incidentals, like mini bar and restaurant charges. If you’re particularly annoying, they might hold a huge amount of money on your credit card – maxing it out so you can’t use it anywhere else. That happened to a couple on their Hawaiian honeymoon, whose card was declined everywhere they went. Even calling the credit card company didn't help because it would take five days to reverse the hold. The lesson: Keep your cool, and always travel with two credit cards.

• Probably the easiest way the desk clerk can avenge your rudeness: By giving you the worst room in the house. In fact, they might give you the worst room just because they don’t like your attitude.

• Finally, the hotel clerk can even make you pay more than other guests. Cyrus Webb is a former hotel employee, and he says that rude guests are often charged more for services like phone calls and food. Sometimes clerks add extra charges for Internet access, the mini bar or movies you assume were included with the room, and you might not even know until after your Visa bill arrives.

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Wedding Weekend!

I Can't wait until tomorrow!

Our sweet friends Carrie and Brett are tying the knot!

Cheers to many happy years together!

I'll have those Cookies to go.....

I just had to share this article from eHow...

How to Bake Cookies in Your Car

By Sheryl Maiorano, eHow Member

Bake cookies in the car???

Yes, you read correctly.

It is a well known fact that during hot summer days the temperatures inside a closed vehicle soars to well over 140 degrees!

This is why they tell you to never leave children or pets inside your car even with the windows cracked during the warm to hot months of spring,summer and in some places fall.

As an experiment to show just how hot a car can really get during the summer I dare you to bake cookies!

Yes, you really can bake cookies and even cakes inside your car during the summer!

Let me show you how

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• hot car
• reflective windshield shade
• cookie sheet
• favorite cookie recipe
• time

1. Step 1

   Park your car in direct sun, hopefully with the windshield pointing at the sun

   .

2. Step 2
   
   reflective windshield shade

   Take your reflective windshield shade and place it along your dashboard shiny side up.
   
   Not up against the window but rather laying flat along the dash
   
   Roll up the windows
   
   close the door

3. Step 3
   
   chocolate chip cookies...yum yum. my personal favorite!

   prepare your favorite cookie recipe and place cookies on baking sheets as usual

4. Step 4

   Take cookies on the baking sheets out to the car.
   
   By this time you should get a nice blast of hot air when you open the doors.
   
   Place baking sheets on top of your reflective windscreen shade making sure that your raising cookies do not touch your windshield or slid over the edges of the baking sheet.
   
   Close the car doors

5. Step 5

   Check your cookies after an hour or so to see if they are done.
   
   When done remove from car and place the next sheet of cookies on the dash.

6. Step 6

   Once cooled you and your family can enjoy fresh baked cookies without the use of electricity or natural gas.
   
   Free cooking. what's better than that???

7. Step 7

   Tomorrow you can enjoy that fresh baked cookie smell in your car on your way to work.

Read more: How to Bake Cookies in Your Car | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5015606_bake-cookies-car.html#ixzz0wKDkL1G3

Shhhhh...

If you do one thing for yourself this weekend,

go buy this book.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

Are you sad, lonely, broke, angry, sick?

Go buy this book.

It will change the way you think.

It will change the way you live.

I love it. I love it so much that I want you to love it too.

I read this book a couple of years ago with my mom and it really changed my attitude on life. As time passed, it was easy to let my thoughts and actions return to the way they used to be. I dug this book out of my closet and read it again. It's not rocket science- it's common sense. Once you read it you will live a better life.

Here is a link to the website so you can read more about the book and even watch a trailer for the DVD. Some people are skeptical but I am a believer. Hope you give it a try.

(No, I am not getting paid for this. I just like to share things that work.)

"Book of the Month Clutch"

Leave it to Kate Spade to tempt me with another adorable

(overpriced) accessory.

It's the Book of the Month Clutch!

Looks like a book, acts like a clutch. Perfect.

The Great Gatsby (my personal fav)

The collection also includes...

Emma, The Importance of Being Earnest, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities.

One new “book” will debut every month as a kind of fashion “book-of-the-month” club.

The Book of the Month Clutch ($325) is available here.

Photos from Katespade.com

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Debit or Credit? Tesh Tuesday

Sometimes It's Better to Choose Credit Over Debit

How should you answer the question: “Debit or credit?” Since debit is basically cash, that may seem like the smarter move, but there are a few times when credit is much better than debit. Here are the facts, courtesy of Money magazine:

• Use credit instead of debit when you’re making a major purchase, like a big-screen TV. Especially if you buy online, because what you see isn't always what you get. Why? Because if the goods or services aren't delivered as promised, your credit card company will deal with the merchant on your behalf. You owe nothing until the problem is resolved. However, if you use a debit card, the money’s gone from your account, and you have to wrestle with the merchant to get your money back. Using a credit card for major purchases will also give you increased warranty protection and insurance against theft.

• Use credit instead of debit: When you’re buying gas, renting a car, or checking into a hotel. Merchants want to make sure they get all their money. So on a debit transaction, they figure out the maximum you could spend, and put a hold on your bank account for that amount. For example, at a gas station, they’ll freeze $75, and even if the total sale is $30, the extra $45 won’t be unfrozen until the transaction is finalized, which can take up to 48 hours. Hotels and car rental companies freeze even more, to cover incidentals or damage. So, it may cost $800 for a four-day hotel stay, but the hotel could freeze $1,100 for six whole days.

• The final reason to choose credit over debit: Liability. If your credit card or account number is stolen, you’re responsible for $50, max. With a debit card, they could empty your entire account, and it might take weeks to get your money back, and you have to go through a lot more hoops to get reimbursed. Another worry: The more often you use your debit card, the more you’re potentially exposing your card number to scammers – and the more likely you are to be ripped off.

Have you ever lost your engagement ring? I have.

I consider yesterday's experience one of the most intense moments of my life.

I was being productive and scrubbing the kitchen from top to bottom when I noticed I still had my engagement ring on. I sat it on the counter far away from the edge in a safe spot enclosed by my keys, a candle and a stack of mail. It was completely surrounded.

An hour later I convinced Michael to run to Target to scope out steam mops (he was thrilled). As we were heading out the door I went back to grab my ring-it wasn't there.

I said "Very funny! Where did you hide it?"

With the most serious look on his face he replied "I don't know what you are talking about."

The next 45 minutes are a blur. Trash cans were emptied and turned over, canisters were moved and moved again, the disposal was checked at least 9 times and every other crevice and hiding spot in the kitchen was examined.

That's when the tears came. We're talking big tears- the kind that fall after you see your dog get hit by a school bus. I started working myself into a panic and thankfully Michael calmed me down.

Our attention finally turned to the cat.

I was convinced he ate it. In my mind I was ready to pack him up and send him to the animal hospital for an x-ray.

Michael scanned the kitchen with a flashlight one last time.

There it was.

In the fringe of the rug. (Our sweet kitten's favorite resting spot)

Thank GOODNESS he didn't eat it.

I was SO happy. I sat in the middle of the floor covered in trash and cried and apologized and cried so more. I felt so bad and so good at the same time.

Whew! Crises averted.

At least the cat has good taste.