Life Perspective: Reviews & More

 I recently had a very bad experience with a clothing manufacturer whose ads all said the company was based in the United States. The promo posts told the story of a mom and pop operation who made all their unique clothes by hand but were closing their doors to spend time with their grandkids. I liked the pictures of the clothes, prefer dealing with US-based companies and was touched by their story, so I ordered a garment--a Van Gogh top. For the next several weeks I was strung along with "tracking reports" that indicated my purchase was slowly making its way across IRELAND. But wait! There's more!  Wait a minute. If this was a mom and pop operation where they made all the clothes by hand in the U.S., why was my package crawling across Ireland? I wrote the company--Continuety-- and asked. A representative replied that they had wawrehouses around the world. Huh? Mom and pop based in the US who make all the clothes by hand produce enough to have distribution centers around ...

 Dating tips on how to tell if your boyfriend is conning you, just in time for Valentine's Day. Read it here:  Are You Dating a Con Artist? Find Out Here! | Christian Activities

 WARNING! Groupon deals may not always be as good as they seem!  On May 18 a Groupon ad appeared on a Facebook page I was visiting for a pair of 14K Solid Gold French Lock Hoop Earrings at an extreme discount of about 80% off the normal $200 price making the beautiful earrings shown only $24.95. Wow! $200-something earrings for only $24.95??? I couldn't sign up fast enough so I became a Groupon customer on the spot just to get the earrings. The earrings were 12mm which I assumed was diameter from the picture where the French lock shown was proportionately smaller than the rest of the earring. When I received the envelope from Groupon, I thought it was empty. I couldn't feel any lump or bump at all. I tore it open expecting to find nothing and shook the empty package just to make sure... and a tiny pair of earrings fell out, about the size of my pinkie fingernail. Doll-Sized Earrings Looking at the tiny earrings in my hand, I couldn't help but think the minia...

My bathroom still has no wallpaper, no fixtures &  a hand mirror thumb-tacked to the wall - since June 2011 The situation with Eric Roper and Landmark Construction of Nashville, TN, just gets odder and odder. A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a woman whose older parents are pursuing legal action against Eric Roper and Landmark Construction because she says he performed the same kind of sloppy works with the same basic crew (Kenny and Frank) on her parents' house in 2010. I believe her parents suffered water damage during the Nashville flood as I did under my house. In my case it was followed by subsequent massive water damage when my washing machine hose burst in the night a few months later and pumped some 2500 gallons of water into my house. Like he did with me, Eric reportedly informed this family he was a licensed contractor. As he did with me, he allegedly told this family he would bring the documentation "another day" and never did. They were ...

Don't get me wrong. I like Snapple tea. I buy the Snapple Peach Ice Tea several times a year when it's on sale. I particularly like the fact that although at 39 grams it is relatively high in sugar, Snapple does not contain high-fructose corn syrups Recently it was on sale at Publix, so I brought home three 6-packs of Snapple All Natural Peach Tea (it was a buy 2, get 1 free deal). I noticed a little graphic at the bottom of the label that said "THE FINALE" next to a star. I found a star under one of my Snapple bottle caps, and got a little excited, so I read the label more carefully. The label said "Find a star and you could attend THE FINALE" and on the side it said if you found a star you could win a trip to the America's Got Talent Finale "or other great prizes." If your cap has a star, you're a winner! Turns out, the Snapple tea bottles have stars under some lids -- and I am betting under lots and lots of bottle caps -- w...

I have been meaning to write this up for a while, but I kept waiting for Michelle Sadler or someone else at Harpeth Valley Utilities District to return the messages I left requesting an official amount and a quote. Since they have declined to do that, I am having to use my own estimate. The Nashville flood of 2010 turned streets into lakes near my house Harpeth Valley Utilities District Takes $200 out of Flood Victim's Pocket In May of 2010, Nashville experienced the worst flood in a century when the Cumberland River overflowed its banks and the Corps of Engineers opened at least one dam upriver to prevent more flooding. The Harpeth River flooded into Bellevue, and even on my hill, I watched water pour into my crawl space for 2 days during the continuous rains. However, FEMA and my insurance company would not go in the crawl space to check, and from the opening they said it didn't look like the flood line reached very high. Later I was to discover how wrong they were. ...

This photo is just a Wikipedia picture of a Toyoto. My little Toyota Corolla was a lovely champaign color and was a four-door. It had a lot of my father's belongings in the trunk and some of my own belongings in the glove compartment -- all legally taken by Oil Change Plus in Nashville. How to Lose Your Car to a Car Repair Shop Without Defaulting on a Bill In the late 1990s, I had a car stolen - legally by an automotive service and repair business called Oil Change Plus in Nashville. Although this happened in Nashville, Tennessee, from what I have learned, it could happen anywhere. Read the details at:  How to Lose Your Car to a Car Repair Shop Without Defaulting on a Bill - Associated Content from Yahoo!   

I have a very bad feeling about those charity book signings I was involved with over the holidays (see my December 16 post), and I apologize to anyone who bought a book or donated money as a result of my efforts. If you want to read about my experience with a possible scam, check out Conned at Christmas - Cookies for Kids Crumbles.