I [heart] Davids It helps me to say these things aloud, I think.

Several weeks ago I noticed a bird on the bird feeder that didn’t fly away when I went outside. On closer inspection, it appeared that the bird was blind, either due to natural causes or injury, it was hard to tell. He flew away and it was crazy to watch him fly! He couldn’t keep a steady altitude and actually did not run into anything. I kinda gave him up for lost. I didn’t know what his chances were “in the wild,” as wild as our suburban neighborhood is, anyway.

Well, look what I saw when I got home tonight!

We’ve been Netflix subscribers for about a year – it was Dave’s Christmas present to me last year. We’ve been really happy with the speed of delivery and the choices available. I have nearly 200 movies in my queue right now!

What we have not been happy with is the sometimes questionable quality of the DVDs we receive. We have had too many movie nights ruined by an unplayable or skipping DVD.

So, I sent an email to Netflix and here’s the thread.
___________________________________
Hello Jennifer,Thanks for your inquiry.I certainly apologize for any difficulties you may have experienced with the quality of our discs. I can assure you our warehouse staff performs an inspection on each and every DVD before it leaves our warehouse, and will scrap those that cannot be cleaned or repaired. We do rely heavily on our customers to notify us of any defects or damages experienced, so we thank you for your feedback. If a movie is not visibly damaged and there have not been any previous reports of problems, we will ship the copy to the next customer.I have passed your comments on to the appropriate department so that they may review their Quality Control procedures.If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Thanks, LilyanNetflix Customer Service

—–Original Message—–> From: jeniqdickens@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 7:43:13 PM> To: customerservice@netflix.com> Subject: DVDs and Mailers: Condition>>> Subject: null> I’m a happy Netflix customer but I’m (not pleasantly) surprised at how> many movies arrived scratched. Some are unplayable but most just skip in> all the important parts. I expect more consistent quality from the DVD’s> I receive from Netflix. It is very disappointing when we line up a movie> with friends on a Saturday night and find that we can’t watch it or we> have to miss the important bits because the DVD refuses to play certain> chapters. I know I have recieved discs that could not possibly have> played perfectly for the person who had the disc before me, so I wonder,> Are these discs being reported as damaged and you’re waiting to see that damage report confirmed by another user, or are they really not being> reported?> I hope that you can find a better way to keep these damaged discs out of> circulation. Thanks.

So, here’s our latest disc, BlackAdder III.

Dave brought me treats back from his Netherlands trip.

He ate a dry salad on the plane so that he could bring me back this teeny tiny little bottle of salad dressing, and he also brought this mouse-shaped set of salt and pepper shakers.

Then, he and his friend Cindy went to the grocery store and he picked up some local coffee candies. Yum!

I also got a fabulous magnet! We get fridge magnets from wherever we go. This one is a little teeny 3D flower box with tulips. I’ll have to post a pic, it’s so cute!

More nature pictures from our house.

We have the Advanced Pole System from Wild Birds Unlimited. We have three large seed feeders, two hummingbird feeders and a place to feed mealworms, too.

The hummers are quite bold! Here’s a blurry photo of one of the hummers perching on top of a stake I use for my tomato plants.

And Dave snapped this picture of me pruning the tomato plant. While I was out there working, I could hear the drone of the hummingbirds’ wings passing overhead!

Check this out. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, let me clarify.
It is a very tacky fountain placed in front of a neighbor’s house. Why? I can’t imagine. I know my tastes aren’t for everybody, but I just thought living in this fancy neighborhood meant no cars up on blocks and no tacky bear fountains, too.

Here, maybe you could use a closeup.

Typically the turkey sandwich at your local deli is a safe bet, but not at Panera Bread. Have you ever had one of their Turkey Artichoke Paninis? Very tasty little treat. Want to know why?

Here’s why:
Serving Size: 15 oz
Calories: 840
Sodium: 2610mg
Total Fat: 37g
Total Carbohydrate: 83g
Saturated Fat: 12g
Dietary Fiber: 6g
Trans Fat: 0.5g
Sugars: 11g
Cholesterol: 85mg
Protein: 43g

Nice, huh?

DVD-Rom drives can only read DVDs, not CDs. Whooda thunk it?

It appears that Dave has arrived safely in the Netherlands just about one hour ago. 🙂

Sunday night we went to the last Carolina Rollergirls event at the Skate Ranch before they move to the Dorton Arena. I couldn’t find anyone who would go with me so I dragged Dave. He’s such a good husband. However, he was very disappointed that there was no beer at the Skate Ranch. When I told him they serve beer at Dorton arena, he actually sounded excited about the possibility of seeing the girls skate again. Teflon Donna’s my new favorite jammer!

I really loved the “girl power” feel of the rollerderby. It made me all emotional to see those girls out there, all different shapes and sizes, flaunting their stuff and having everyone love them for it. I got all misty-eyed. I think there’s got to be some hormonal imbalance there. Anyway, who’s up for a skate party??

I went to the Raleigh Comic Book Show on Sunday around noon. I was excited because I got Elfquest 3 and 4 (though not the Donning publications) for $10 each. Not bad! 🙂 It’s so nice to have those books in full color. I also picked up several issues of A Distant Soil. I don’t know much about that series but seems interesting.

I was a little nervous about going to the show, not sure what to expect. But most everyone was nice and no one made fun of me for wanting to buy comic books – imagine that. 🙂