3s

Things come in 3s, right? Cuz I gotta say, the dogs are irritating me. Usually, they are not this bad. So, we have the brownies, the dew claw and....one of them ate a piece of wooden track to Ryan's new train table. The train table we just put together while he was asleep on Saturday night (see how boring we are) and he was so excited to see on Sunday morning. Yes, that table. The early birthday table that we had to put together first because if it was missing pieces we needed to know, and we are the kind of *lucky* people who get the boxes that are missines pieces. I did not want THAT kind of drama the night before his birthday (halloween), nor did I want to be on the phone with customer service for the next 2 months trying to get a screw while Ryan looked at a broken table. Turns out the table was in perfect condition, Ethan even remarked on how nicely it was packed--did you know there are packaging engineers? Not that Ethan is a packaging engineer, but there are people who do that for a living, they figure out how to pack something. Wow. Or...boring. Whatever.

So, the table was up for 2 days and we already have 1 eaten track. Why oh why?

Ryan's invitations finally went out in the mail yesterday for the party. I also agreed to host a play date party here for our play group where we will celebrate his birthday, and I'm in charge of snacks and goodie bags. I'm getting the overwhelmed feeling. 2 parties, 2 menus, 2 sets of goodie bags. Yeah.

And customer service. Where has it gone? I think Maria did a post on this a while back so I don't want to steal her thunder, but come one people. Retail = customer service. If you don't like people, don't work retail. Because I noticed the last train table box at Toys R Us was dented, I looked for someone to see if they had more in back. It took me a while to find someone, and when I did, he made it look like I was so much trouble. He got on his litle walkie talkie and asked who was in charge of the department, and the manager came back on and said whoever it was was on the register so he would have to help the customer. I AM THE CUSTOMER. Then he says, well I can't answer her question. So the manager asks, what's her question. Then he turns to look at me. Did he not hear me the first time? Should I just take the walkie talkie myself and have a discussion with the manager? So I say, I'd like to know if you have any more train tables in the back. The box is dented. He sighs (i kid you not) and repeats my question. The manager says, all the Thomas stuff is out on the floor. He thinks he is done, when I say, Its not Thomas. Then the manager tells him to check the computer. Yeah...something he could have done 5 minutes ago. On his own. You know, scan it and check inventory. Duh. About 3 years later he comes back to say they don't have anymore--while I'm not sure I believe him, or if he even checked, I'm just excited we got the last train table under $100. Did I mention we were standing near the registry this whole time. There was a computer right there. Not sure where he disappeared to. All this time Ethan is trying to keep Ryan busy...in a toy store you would think thats not hard to do, so I mean busy as in, not grabbing every toy and thinking its his.

This is a bit too complainy. So, on a positive note. I did my 2 miles this AM and am considering trying to jog. I know....watch out. Things might start falling from the sky. brandi+running = disaster.