Mary Anne Carter
Mary Anne has her own blog now
May 17 2012

Motorized buggies at the store

by Mary Anne

I appreciate the fact that Wal-Mart has those motorized carts available for the people with disabilities, I really do. In recent months, my hubby has been shopping with me on mornings, and he utilizes those carts when he comes with me. He needs one to get around such a large store.

We are early birds; we get up around 4 – 5 am every morning. We have a Wal-Mart that is open 24/7, so we try to get our shopping done really early in the morning before the crowds hit.

We were sorely disappointed yesterday when we arrived at our Wal-Mart around 7am and found that we could not even get to the motorized carts; they were blocked by one of those machines that they use in the parking lots to retrieve the regular shopping carts. It took me over ten minutes to find an employee that was willing to move that thing out of our way.

Once that was done, we found that only one of the motorized carts had been plugged in and charged overnight, and it was blocked in by all of the carts that had no charge at all and could not be moved easily. We could not find an employee to move the “dead” carts out of the way, so my hubby and I were forced to try to drag the “dead” carts by ourselves to get to the “live” cart.

Very frustrating, very disappointing.

Categories: Family and friends, Opinion | No Comments »

May 13 2012

Crafting jewelry from empty soda bottles

by Mary Anne

My kids know that I love trash to treasure crafts, so when they found a really interesting book about using empty soda bottles to make jewelry, they bought it for me for a great Mother’s Day gift. The name of the book is Magical Butterflies by Donna Manchester. She gives directions (and lots of pictures) on how to use empty plastic soda bottles, paint, wire and beads to make really gorgeous pins. I think that I already have most of the supplies to make some of them myself.  I’m looking forward to giving it a try!

Categories: Around the House, Crafts, Fun, Life | No Comments »

May 10 2012

Tired of junk mail

by Mary Anne

I don’t know about you, but I get so tired of all of the junk mail that I get almost every day. What irritates me even more is all of the resources that are wasted producing and delivering the junk mail! When I get junk mail, sometimes I shred it, sometimes I just toss it in the trash.  Sometimes, if it has a postage-paid return envelope in it I will tear up everything except the postage-paid return envelope, put it all inside the postage-paid return envelope and mail it back to the company that sent it to me.

I think that the US Post Office continues to raise the rates of stamps because they are not getting enough work (competing with Email, UPS, FedEx, etc) so this is a relatively painless way to give them more work at the expense of some other company! So, it is creating a little bit of job security for the Post Office workers, and some job security for the people who end up opening the envelope at the company it is going to! And, hopefully, their company recycles (most big companies do) so maybe the papers will get recycled there instead of filling up the junk yards in the local municipalities!

Categories: Around the House, Business, Life, Local, Opinion | No Comments »

May 7 2012

Yummy sounding new recipe

by Mary Anne

This past Christmas I gave a crock pot and a crock pot recipe magazine to my youngest son. He had asked for them, and I was pleased that he has taken an interest in cooking and was glad to give them to him! He let me borrow the magazine to look at the recipes, and I found one that I thought I’d try this weekend. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, orange marmalade, chicken broth, teriyaki sauce, broccoli and carrots. 

I’m not quite sure when I’ll be going grocery shopping next, but I’ve got all of the ingredients on the shopping list – I think it sounds yummy, don’t you? My hubby might even eat it if I promise him that there will be no onions in it!

Categories: Around the House, Cooking, Family and friends, Life | Comments Off

May 5 2012

Grandfather clocks are the comfort food of home furnishings

by Mary Anne

I think that grandfather clocks are the comfort food of home furnishings. Every house that I’ve been in that I felt welcome and at ease in always had a grandfather clock in the living room. There simply seems to be a feeling of warmth and comfort that I associate with the grandfather clocks.

My mother has a very handsome grandfather clock in her living room.  The clock is standing in a corner, lonely and unused. The clock has been there for about the past twelve years now, a silent sentinel, quietly standing watch over the room.

I have told her that I feel bad that this gorgeous clock is not being used. She told me that the ticking sound “bothered her” so she stopped using it. I asked her if I could have the clock for MY living room because I have always found the ticking sound of a clock to be a comfort. I think that one of my other sisters will probably end up with it as an inheritance piece instead – she has always favored them.

 

Categories: Around the House, Family and friends, Home Improvement, Life, Opinion, Shopping | Comments Off

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