HO! HO! HO!

Tonight was "Kelly-Land," an annual holiday party hosted by Kelly-Group Keller Williams Realty here in Newberg. Each year they transform their turn-of-the-century farmhouse office into a winter wonderland complete with lights, decorations, snow, free pictures with Santa, free mochas for the parents and a stocking that the kids get to fill with free toys.

This was the first year that Isabel was actually willing to sit with Santa and didn't cry! I was very proud of her. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, Isabel replied, "A candy cane." Santa laughed and said, "How about a doll too?" Isabel replied emphatically, "Yes!" It was pretty cute. I really like how her picture turned out. (They will email us the "official" one later, but the ones I took over the photographer's shoulder turned out great.) We also got to chat with Jessica, our realtor who sold us our house. (She works for the Kelly Group.) She was very excited to hear that we still love our house and wants to come by to see the place all decked out for the holidays.

We also got our Christmas tree today. In the spirit of being "green" we bought a live Noble fir and have it in a pot our our living room. We will plant it after the holidays. We also got the energy efficient LED lights for the tree. I will have to try to get a picture of our tree. It's very cute.

How to be a total jerk on Ebay...

I just have to share this. I cannot believe how dishonest some people are.

I have been looking for a new pair of tall leather riding boots. After trying on several pairs at the local tack shop, I have decided on Ariat boots as they are unbelievably comfortable. I have been looking for a good deal online and the other day I came across an Ebay listing for a pair in the exact size I need, that had been tried on once, but were other wise brand new. I thought, aha! Here is my chance to get a very nice pair of boots and save a lot of cash. There was a pretty good "buy it now", but there was also the option to make an offer. So I thought what they heck, I think I'll make an offer and see what happens.

Of course, the seller did not accept my first offer and sent me a counter offer. I countered back and so did they and so on and so forth for a few days. Also, a random but important side note in this little story is that I also emailed the seller and asked them to send me additional photos of the boots, including the bottom of the boots specifically. Which they did right away.

So this morning, I countered with what was pretty much my final offer. I agreed to their price, but wanted free shipping. You see, when you are making an offer on Ebay, there is a little section to add "terms" to you offer. If the seller accepts your offer, they also have to accept the terms you set. So the terms of my offer were that the seller pay for shipping.

Fairly quickly I got an email from Ebay saying that my offer had been accepted. I was excited and was logging into my Ebay account to pay for the boots when I got an email directly from the seller (not through the Ebay message system). The email stated, "i am so sorry i cannot find them and will have to cancel - hope you understand." Then I got an email from Ebay stating that the seller was requesting to cancel our transaction. I was thoroughly confused at this point and hadn't had enough coffee. I thought who the hell loses a pair of boots, especially when they just took additional photos for me the day before, but oh well. I agreed to cancel the transaction and didn't think much more about it except to be pretty disappointed.

That is until I saw that the seller had re listed the exact same boots only moments later. OK, now I'm pissed. What the heck was this person doing? Then I tried to make an offer on the boots only to find that they had blocked my ability to bid on the boots. Now I'm furious. I can only guess the seller didn't realize my offer had included the additional terms until after they accepted it.

I immediately reported them to Ebay as a fraudulent seller. I had to actually call Ebay to report them as the stupid resolution center was too limited in its options and this little fiasco didn't fit into any of their drop down menus. When I told the very nice customer service rep what this person had done, she was pretty shocked too. Unfortunately they can't force this guy to revoke his cancellation of the transaction, and they won't tell me what exactly is going to happen to the seller, but she did say "Oh yes! This will definitely affect his ability to sell on Ebay again." I hope he/she gets more than a slap on the wrist, but knowing the way things work, probably not. All I can say from this experience is don't buy anything from horseysaddles4u.

Happenings

My father-in-law commented yesterday that I haven't posted in a while. That's because not much has been going on that is blog worthy. The Thanksgiving holiday was crazy and busy, but filled with lots of friends and family. My birthday was un-eventful. With Josh working we didn't have anything planned, other than taking me out to eat at some of my favorite places. (mmmm...sushi....)

Greta has been taking a break from showing to grow up both mentally and physically. She is just coming out of a massive full coat blow. She has also hit that awful skinny teenage phase that many Cardigans go through. I will be entering her all four days at Portland (thank doG for the bred by class price break!) I guess that means I gotta start taking her to handling class again so she won't pull the crap she did at Richland.

Isabel is completely day time potty trained. Hooray for small miracle! She is talking up a storm and is excited for Christmas. Everywhere we drive at night, she has to exclaim and point out all the lights appearing on the houses and yards.

Josh has been home from work the last week for injuring his back while moving a patient. Nothing serious, but bad enough that when he had a pretty major fire his last shift, he was pretty boogered up after the adrenaline wore off. So he has been getting chiropractic three times a week and that has been helping. The doctors recommended being pretty conservative and taking at least a couple of weeks off before returning to work given the nature of his job. I agree. Backs are nothing to mess with!

I have been busy riding my horse every chance I get. We have started taking dressage lessons twice a month and am already seeing progress! Yay! I have also decided to start my usual New Year's resolution early this year and have begun trying to get back into shape. I would really like to drop about 25 lbs by spring. I am trying to do strengthening exercises a couple of days a week (sit ups, push ups, pilates, etc) and go for a walk or bike ride the other days. My mind really wants to start running again, but my body says no. Every time I do, my knees and hips punish me horribly. Sigh. I hate getting older. Josh keeps mentioning wanting to try triathlons again, but wow. I don't know about that. That was a lifetime ago that we were young and supple (and stupid) enough to want to swim a mile, bike 25 and run a 5k (or whatever the distances were....) That just sounds way too, uh, energetic for me these days...

You Suck At Craigslist

Need a good laugh?

Check out http://www.yousuckatcraigslist.com/ ...

Much like sites like the Fail Blog and F. U., Penguin, this one makes me giggle! Guess I like very low brow humor...

You Know You're a Dog Person When...

You're too lazy to cook dinner for your husband but spend half an hour putting together the dogs' food. Josh walked into the kitchen as I was prepping the dog bowls last night and exclaimed, "They eat better than I do!"

I have to admit, the chicken, pork neck bones, beef heart, peas, blueberries and Missing Link did look more appetizing than the fish sticks and tater tots I had thrown into the oven for the humans...

(I will, however, spare you a photo as some people might be grossed out by the raw meat...)