New Job??

So unfortunately, I find myself on the prowl once again for new career. 

I really do enjoy the job that I have right now, it's just the way that things are run that is driving me bonkers.  I get that this company is new and all, only about 6 years old, but you are nationwide, so why is it you haven't figured this out yet. 

The clients we assist with finding people are limited.  We have three basic clients in Michigan and to be honest we only staff for one of those clients on a regular basis.  I mean the guy I work with has messed up so many times with the one client that they have actually come close to dropping our company all together.  If it wasn't for my smoothing things over they wouldn't have this client anymore.  And do I get any thing in return for this feat?  Of course not.  A minor nod and thank you but nothing more.  I know that I should be appreciative of the thank you, but it wasn't exactly the best thank you.

So today, I find myself being possibly offered a new position with another staffing firm and I told them I would take it if they offered it to me.  So hopefully they do.  This firm is double, if not triple, in size of the current place I work and they have several more clients.  And by several I mean they have at least 20-30 more clients than that of my current company, who is obviously well too afraid to take on more clients because this is getting ridiculous.  They have nothing in order here.  NOTHING!

I have tried to have a conversation with the "Boss Man" but it seems it just goes in one ear and out the other most the time.  I have made them aware as well that I am looking for other positions, so it should come as no surprise to them when I up and leave. The best part is, my "Co-worker" if you can call him that, since he doesn't do a lot of work, has admitted to me on several occasions that when I am out of the office he doesn't know what to do.  I don't like to toot my own horn, but that's saying something!

Anyway, I just wanted to vent a bit about this because I know that it's soon coming to an end here for me, but I am going to be moving on to BIGGER and Better things!

Lamb...Friend or Foe?

Anyone got any good Lamb recipes?

Customer Satisfaction... A thing of the past?

We went out to dinner this past weekend, much as we do many weekends, hoping to have a good time, good dinner and good service.  Apparently this is getting too much to ask for. 

We hit up Fridays, over by the Woodland Mall since we happened to have been out that way already, and couldn't wait to get our food even before we got in the door.  We love the food here.  Maybe not at this location inparticular, but at Fridays.  We almost always get the same thing for an appetizer, their JD Sampler.  (For those that don't know, JD = Jack Daniel's).  And like usual we ordered this up.  Now the last couple times we have ordered this item, the ribs haven't really been prepared very well, however this time they were done well and tasted fantastic.  The shrimp and chicken were great as well.  With this start we were really hoping for some great dinner. Especially since the waitress was on top of everything, she was filling our drinks right as they were going empty and always asking how things were.  She wasn't ever too far if we needed something else.

Dave ordered the JD Flat Iron, Medium.  I of course splurged and got the three course meal they have going for 16.99.  This included Green Bean Fries, Angus Flat Iron and Oreo Madness.  The green beans came out pretty quickly as expected and tasted like old fry oil for the most part, but I didn't say anything.  Just went on with life and picked at them a little until our main courses arrived.  Once the steaks arrived at the table it only took one look for me to see they were going to be undercooked.  I asked for medium as well on mine and both our steaks were oozing red juices.  After cutting open the steak, sure enough Dave's was underdone quite a bit, but mine was borderline mooing.

Don't get me wrong, I like a pink tender steak, but it needs to be pink, not red, and I even ordered according to their menu, Medium like I said, because that states in writing Warm Pink Center.  This was not what I got.  Instead I got this.

To me this is maybe a medium rare but you are pushing it a little.  This isn't what I ordered at all and this was according to their description of how the steak would look cooked they way I ordered.  Of course, when you get food not prepared the manager comes out and tries to make everything ok.  This manager was a froot loop of a lady let me tell you.  She immediately offered to take the steak back and re-heat it.  Because we all know that makes everything better, when you re-cook a steak in which all the juices have already leaked out all over the plate.  Even if they were able to achieve the look of a medium steak, by the time it does it's all dried out now and the tenderness is dramatically gone.  So just as I suspected she brought it back out and it was over done and dry.  She then offered to immediately get me a new steak.  I told her I didn't want it but she insisted that the kitchen manager do so himself and this would ensure that I get the steak the way I ordered.

Of course!  That's what needed to happen, the Kitchen Manager needed to prepare it.  Wait!!  If the KM was going to prepare it to make sure that it was cooked to order, why isn't he cooking all the steaks?  That makes it seem pretty apparent that she didn't feel her kitchen staff could pull it off.  You would think to save money they would just make the KM do it all, I mean according to her that was the only way to make sure it was right.  Right?

This is what I hoped for.

(I couldn't include a picture of what it looked like
when they finally got it right, because they never did.)

So come to find out, even the KM can't cook a steak Medium because it came out red as rare can get again.  Go figure.  At this point I am ready to leave.  I can't take any more.  I'm full from the Fries that came with my steak and the extras she brought me with the next one, and of course I did eat half the appetizer and some of the green beans, so it's not like I am starving and desperate for the steak.  I am about to make the decision to leave, when I recalled that I ordered the "Oreo Madness". 

So the manager brings this out to me and I couldn't believe that they actually labeled this dessert, Oreo "Madness".  Who were they trying to kid?  Have you seen this dessert?  If you took an oreo, and stretched it to about double it's size and same thickness on the actual cookie part, you would have the size of this dessert with about an inch thick of so called cream filling, which is really bad tasting ice cream or frozen actual oreo cream.  Either way, if it wasn't for the chocolate and caramel they smeared on the plate to make it look "pretty" with a strawberry, it would have been horrible.

(Shown actual size.)

Needless to say, Fridays is slowly making their way on to my list.  I just don't know when or if I will ever go back.

What are you thinking?

How stupid can people really be?

I received an email this morning.  Yes that's not that abnormal, however the contents of this email surprised me.  It was email telling me that I have won a prize for just listing an item on Craigslist.  Granted I haven't even touched this item for nearly two months and completely forgot about it,so someone went through a lot of trouble to get me a message about winning this prize.

At first glance, the email appeared to be from the CEO of Craigslist...or at least that was what she was claiming to be.  She was offering to give me completely free, an Apple MacBook with a $1300 value.  Claiming that Craigslist was teaming up with The Apple Company to give away many prizes and because I have placed an ad on the site I was a winner.

Here is the email.

Attention Megan Verburg,


My name is Angel Thomas, Chief executive officer of Craigslist. We have recently joined up with The apple company for a one-time promotional event today, we are giving away complimentary Apple MacBooks to randomly selected folks who have submitted an advert on C-list. You have been selected as one of our latest winners for today. We randomly choose numbers to match up with ads on Craigslist and your advertisement matched with our latest drawing.

We have nowNow we have joined up with Apple inc to market their hottest product yet, the Apple MacBook. Once yet again, we have been running this campaign for one-day only. All you need to do is CLICK HERE to visit our website created for this promotion and key in your email to get yours for free. Simply be sure to enter your email so we may locate our records to ensure that we have reserved one for you. That's it!


Congrats on winning a free Apple MacBook (valued at $1399). If you've any question or issues, feel free to email me back. However, you should claim your free MacBook first to ensure one will be set-aside for you personally before the deadline ends. We do understand that you may possibly not receive this email until after the deadline, however, we advise you check the web site and enter your email to see if we still have got yours on hold, which we often-times do because others haven't claimed theirs on time.

Angel Thomas
CEO, Craig's list

Now, this email got my attention for another reason.  If this is indeed a scam, how did they get my information such as my direct email and my name?  I don't respond to any of the ad responses from my email that is used for the ad itself and I never include my name.  This email included my name, first and last, and was sent to the email I used to sign up for Craigslist.  An email which is selected to remain blocked when posting on this site. 

A couple things have me worried.  One is that my information has some how been stolen from a group that says they will protect my information for using their site.  The second is that this person could easily have hacked in to my information had I been stupid enough to actually click the link she placed in the email.

Needless to say this email was reported to Craigslist and to the IC3.

Please let me hear your opinion on this.

Rain? Really?

Apparently today's teens are afraid of a litte water and hard work. Either that or their parents, teachers and coaches have coddled them in to submission.

My 13 year old daughter was supposed to have a track meet today and they cancelled it, all because of a little sprinkle of rain. Last I knew they only cancelled outdoor sporting events for Lightning. But this was back when I was in school almost 15 years ago, so what do I know now. When I called the school to find out if it was on at 2:15pm they said yes. Then at about 2:40 my daughter called me and said they cancelled it. So I called the school back just to double check and sure enough was told that they cancelled it for weather. And she didn't even know if they would have practice. I was quite surprised when I asked about why it was cancelled and she actually told me that the track could get wet. Wait a minute! You mean that it rains and the track gets wet? No way, that couldn't ever happen!

I can recall all through school running in rain for practice, meets and invitationals. I only recall one track meet ever being rescheduled for weather and it was down right storming out. Lighting and thunder in full force. This school doesn't even know if they will reschedule their meet. I get it's not high school and all, but what does this teach our children? To mine, I think she feels like it doesn't matter that it got cancelled because no one made a big deal about it. Not even the coach. So much so that she didn't even know if practice was on because the coach didn't tell her. I had to call the school and find out that way. How pathetic.

Well to say the least, I am not impressed by the current public schools athletics department. And I am not sure the future holds any promise.

Advanced Technology

Advances in Gaming.
(This is a blog I wroter several years ago and I completely forgot to post it then.  I jut found it and thought I would share.  Keeping this in mind, note that the Kinect has released)

How funny that you can do everything from your phone now a days. It really puts in to prospective how things have changed. I'm only 30 and it seems like in just my lifetime the advances in technology have been astonishing. When I was 8 years old we weren't playing games like, Need for Speed, I was playing Pole Position. We had an Atari game system, which when compared to the Xbox 360, looks like a spinning top or marbles.


It wasn't until I was 12 that the Nintendo game system came out and that blew our minds. Super Mario Bros was amazing, with the jumping up on blocks and over creatures and monsters and the coin collecting. It was great. This made Atari games look like a game of jump rope. And the upgrades just kept coming.

Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega and Sega Genesis all come out with in a five year span. My brain racked with excitement when my homework was done. Then it was which game to play. After High School I let gaming go and didn't touch another system until I was 22. This was thanks to my husband.

Introducing me to the Microsoft manufactured Original Xbox, I became what u would call an avid gamer. With its dynamic for the moment visuals and it’s more than complex controller when compared to the 5 button controls for the Nintendo and Sega systems, it became something to fill times of boredom quite fast. It didn't consume my life, but it was time consuming. I found myself attracted to the shooter games which most girls that play video games, don’t venture to. These were games such as Halo and Halo 2. There were nights when my husband would get home from work at 3am and he and a bunch of co-workers/friends would play Halo until all hours of the morning. At times I even found myself up with them to play mini tournaments.

Sony made its way to the gaming scene as well with the Playstation. Somewhat like the Xbox, you played games on CD and the controller was also more complex. The PS2 soon followed its predecessor and the graphics and controls were also upgraded.

As the PS2 made its way in to many homes and introduced free online gaming (which didn’t meet many owners standards), it was only a short time until Microsoft realized they needed to keep the playing fields even. They upgraded the Xbox to the Xbox 360. One word described the system: WOW! The games improved like hell fire and blew me away. But it wasn't until we bought an HD TV that we really reaped the benefits of our purchase. The system was expensive, nearing 500 dollars compared to the 99 we paid for our 1980's systems. But as we soon found out, well worth it.

Now with games such as Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 I found myself liking games even more. The HD TV brought the games to a new height. Xbox Live gave the feeling of being right in the action, it was hard to believe that so long ago I was afraid to die on Centipede and Super Mario Bros. It was ten times more intense. Walking around corners in Halo not knowing if something was going to jump out and shoot you or stab you was exhilarating and the adrenaline rush was like that of riding a roller coaster for the first time.

With the release of the 360 Sony upped the ante one more time releasing their PS3. Not only was it an incredible gaming platform for graphics but it introduced the Blue Ray player installed right within itself. But the game play online just couldn’t compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Again this online play was free, which Microsoft has yet to introduce, but the quality of free is known over and over again. You get what you pay for.

I soon found myself enthralled with the guitar and band games. These games putting me right in to make believe land of being a rock star. You could now return to the feeling of being a kid or fulfill a long time fantasy of actually starting a band. What makes it more realistic is how they make contests for your Rock Band or Guitar Hero Band that allows you to show your talents as a gamer by making videos and playing challenges online against other bands.

With gaming expanding more and more everyday, Nintendo felt they needed to catch up. They tried the Game Cube and the DS and presented us with the Wii. Which brought what was supposed to be body full action to the gaming world with bowling, tennis, baseball, golf, boxing, yoga; the list is endless. Using the Wii-motes you use your arms like the racket, the bat, etc. It’s a great addition to the gaming family with kids that want to game. The Wii makes it much easier for them to play than trying to learn the complex controllers of the Xbox and the PS systems.

So, as I look back on my time in the gaming world I wish that I could have had the games that my kids now have and the ones they will soon have with the release coming soon from Xbox 360, the Kinect.  You will no longer need a controller.  The controller will be your body and there will be no more cheating the gaming system as there is with the Wii.  They attempted to make it a healthy gaming option to only have kids and adults the same finding ways to play without being active.  The Kinect will put the Wii out of existence.

Accomplishment....

Belle Tire...

So, last time I was on I told you about a situation with a Belle Tire employee who represented the company extremely poorly while visiting a Hooters establishment near his place of work.  While I understood why he was behaving in some of the ways that he did, I don't think other ways he bahaved was really called for in a place like Hooters.  I am not going to rehash everything that I have already said, so I will just get to the point fo this blog.

I received a response from Don Barnes, Marketing Director.  I was relieved to see that he had taken action based on my email.  I have never gotten a response for a complaint in the past of quite this magnitude.  This is the email I received.

Dear Megan,



First I would like to apologize for the way our employee was behaving. We coach and teach our employees that they represent Belle Tire even when they aren't at work. Yesterday I was able to identify the employee and disciplinary measures were taken. Along with that an entire company wide email was sent to every single employee reitterating Belle Tire's policy.


Don Barnes
Marketing Director

I am not sure what exactly the form of discipline was taken for sure, but I can say that I haven't seen him back in Hooters.

Hooters Rocks!