rainy (SB day 2)

Well, Spring Break Day 2 was not nearly as exciting as Day 1...if you consider painting to be exciting, that is. As anticipated, most of the day was spent embracing my inner financial-planner and doing my couponing and shopping. Not exactly blog-worthy materials, but such is life.

Oh, but wait. I will have to say that there have been major innovations on the dog-food front. Now, I'm not particularly brand-loyal when it comes to Lola's food...we tend to stick with one brand because a) she likes it and b) she's much less gassy than with other brands we've tried. But you know, I'm always one who can be swayed by some clever marketing, a good coupon, or...truth be told...the packaging. Yup, I switched dog food brands yesterday because of the PACKAGING (and a coupon). I have surely reached new lows. 

source

See that? It's a ZIP TOP on the bag. Hello, Pedigree? Yeah, you're brilliant. Thanks, you just made a new customer. Why it took the dog food industry this long to come up with that, I don't know, but I'm just thankful they did. It is one of my biggest pet peeves, trying to properly close a gigantic 20 pound bag of dog food with a chip-clip or something. And I would love to just keep the food in a big tupperware container, but alas, we don't have a pantry, so I have to keep it in a bottom cabinet, and the tupperware containers (big enough to hold the whole bag of food) are way too big to fit. So I have to use the big bag every day, and this zip top is gonna be a game-changer. And now I beg of you-- if you are some Dog Food Industry Insider...please don't tell me that this food is made of horses' brains and chicken feathers. I don't want to know. I have a limit as to how many food-industry-related things I can worry about and I am already at my limit. Thanks.

Um...so anyway...where was I before I started ranting about DOG FOOD BAGS? (Hello, I'm Erika, and I blog about stuff so boring you didn't know it even existed.) Right, my day was uneventful. I did, however, manage to be productive and.... (drumroll).... write a counter-demand to the insurance adjuster handling my personal injury claim in regard to the car accident!

I've been putting it off since early December, if that gives you any clue about how long they've been waiting to hear from me. The truth is, I have no plans on settling until it's been at least a year from the accident (August). About 5,000 people have advised me to do that due to the fact that it can sometimes take awhile for long-term neck and back injuries to be made known. Secondly, the lowball offer they've made me is disgusting and insulting and it's taken me 4 months to figure out the mature way to word the letter without just saying "Are you effing kidding me?? I have PHOTOGRAPHS, do you really want a jury to see those? Please do not think that because God chose to miraculously intervene and let me walk away from that accident that it was any less traumatic for me and my family. Do you seriously think I was able to replace my perfectly good and reliable car with anything comparable using only the money YOU gave me? Um, no, we had to dig into our savings and use money we COULD BE USING TOWARDS GETTING OUR CHILD, but instead, had to buy a car with? Do you think that makes me feel good inside? Do you think I can even DRIVE in the area where your lunatic client chose to run a stop sign anymore? No, I cannot, and to be honest, I can barely drive ANYWHERE anymore because I am so anxious in the car. Please do not mistake my kindness thus far in this process for weakness, because I am anything but. And I can guarantee you don't want to see me on the witness stand, WITH MY PHOTOGRAPHS, because you will cry and so will the jury and then so will your wallet. Thank you very much and have a nice day."

It took me a few minutes to come up with the mature way to relate all that. And if you're a new reader/stalker and haven't seen the pictures from that accident, click on the link above. And tell me how these people are going to offer me some scumbag lowball pennies and think that's somehow okay? I think not. Now, I am absolutely not planning on raking them over the coals or anything, and I really have no intention of doing anything dramatic. I'm not litigious like that. But I certainly could, and let's be honest: insurance didn't get to be the gigantic, rich-ass industry it is because they deal fairly with people. They take advantage, clear and simple, and they won't be taking further advantage of me. End rant.

Um, so then I baked some beer bread and it was awesome. We watched BL and I could barely pay attention because I discovered (well, was told about) Young House Love and couldn't stop clicking around and thinking of how lame my house is and how awesome I should make it if only I were craftier/handier/richer. 

And now I have to go get ready so I can have a MASSAGE!!!! Happy Wednesday!