Okay, enough about The Vegan Collection! They’re jerks, and we need to move on.
The big news is Corinne is almost two years old. Yea, I know, already? It’s true, she turns 2 on Monday. Needless to say we’re throwing a birthday bash for her this weekend. The guest list is fairly exclusive, and it’s going to be the in thing for the 2 and under set this weekend. Okay, not really. But because of the storms we’re having it at our house, and we were only able to invite Corinne’s friends and their immediate families.
We spent last weekend on house stuff, and our downstairs living room looks a lot nicer. We’re almost ready to buy that large screen TV. The weekend before that we went to the birthday party for one of Corinne’s friends, and I played in my monthly CthulhuTech game.
Corinne is doing well. Is it normal for child under 2 to have memorized her books? She’s as good at reciting them as I am, and I’m reading the things. She still loves Caillou, but her new things are The Wonder Pets and Yo Gabba Gabba. The strange thing is we don’t even have cable, and she’s still hooked on these shows.
Last night I discovered an application that will allow me to write and upload blog posts directly from my phone. I can’t imagine writing anything but a short update using it, and I’m sure the rate of spelling and grammar errors is going to go way up. On the other hand it could make writing quick updates incredibly convenient.
Other than that things are fairly quiet. No news is good news, I guess.
In the wake of the recent earthquakes in Okinawa and Chile, I thought I would re-post the link to 72Hours, the City of San Francisco disaster preparedness website. Our disaster kit and plan is in pretty good shape, but we still have some loose ends to take care of. How about you? Do you have a plan?
I just wanted to let everyone know that last night The Vegan Collection issued us a partial refund last night. They gave us back the price of the shoes, tax, and half of the return shipping. They said splitting the return shipping costs was “fair” because although they sent us shoes that were 3 sizes too small, the shoes themselves weren’t actually defective.
To be honest I’m happy we got at least some of our money back. I was expecting them to keep everything. But I will certainly never buy anything from The Vegan Collection again.
This video helped me appreciate something I took for granted when I was younger. We shopped for our own food and cooked it. I was encouraged to try new foods and I learned how to prepare them. Not all of it is food I’d eat today, but thankfully it didn’t come in a bucket or a flat square box. Processed foods and takeout meals were the exception, not the norm (I distinctly remember asking for a TV dinner once for my birthday). I’m glad I see the value in being familiar with my food and I’m glad I can share this with my daughter. My favorite food as a kid was spinach. What fun to explore and find out what Corinne’s favorites will be! Right now she’s hooked on tangerines and mangoes, and that makes me proud.
Raelene has been trying to find me animal free dress shoes, wallets, and belts for some time now. When she found The Vegan Collection, she was ecstatic! Little did she know what she was getting into.
So about six weeks ago Raelene ordered me a pair of vegan dress shoes. Unfortunately the shoes that arrived were significantly smaller than what she ordered. I wear size US 10’s, I’ve fit US 9’s on my feet but was in pain, and I couldn’t get my toes inside these shoes. They fit Raelene, not me. Okay, no problem we thought. We’d contact the company and let them know we received a mismarked pair of shoes.
Raelene contacted the website, and over the past weeks they’ve continually refused to admit that there might be anything wrong with the shoes. We even emailed them pictures of the shoes they sent us next to the 10’s I’m currently wearing, showing clearly that the Vegan Collection shoes were nearly 2 inches shorter. No response other than to say the Vegan Collection shoes run a little small and that the owner’s shoes fit fine.
We mailed the shoes back for a refund, which initially they claim they issued over a week ago. Unfortunately we have yet to see any money from them. Last night they sent Raelene an email saying that we had to include a note saying the shoes were defective if we want them checked, despite the fact they are now in possession of the shoes.
Right now they have our money, they have the shoes, they have all the handling charges, and they’ve given us no reason to believe that they’re going to give any of it back. Quite the opposite, actually. We keep getting emails that approximate customer service, but I believe they’re simply trying to postpone us going to the BBB a little while longer. At this point I’ve given up on the idea that we will ever see our money.
There are few options for those who want leather free dress shoes, belts, and wallets. Unfortunately this is not a place to get those things. Buy from them at your own risk, or better yet avoid completely.
On Saturday we went to a birthday party for one of Corinne’s friends. The weather was beautiful, so the party was held out doors. Corinne enjoyed running around and playing, talking on a toy phone and pushing a child sized shopping cart around. It was a lot of fun, and she was exhausted by the time we got home.
Sunday was Valentine’s day, so Raelene and I concentrated on having a nice and romantic day. It started off with pancakes and sausage (all vegan, of course). Then we decided to try and do some volunteer work, but Corinne ended up falling asleep in the car on the drive over. So I stayed with her while Raelene helped the N&E Safety Patrol pick up trash at Grant Elementary School in Richmond. Afterwards we ran some errands, and we had a nice big romantic and heart healthy salad for dinner.
I had Monday off for President’s day, so we had a third day together as a family. In the late morning we picked up a tricycle from Freecycler, who as it turns out had two more riding toys for us. We now have 3 trikes, one with a push handle that is sized perfectly for Corinne and 2 more that are too big. We also now have 2 plastic outdoor riding toys in addition to the wheelie bug inside. I think Corinne is good for riding toys for now.
The Freecycler lives near a really nice park in Berkeley, so we wheeled Corinne in her new push trike over and let her play for a while. She loved it, and she absolutely loves the trike. When we got home I took the dog out for a walk and pushed her around the block, and it wasn’t long before she was back on the trike and demanding mommy take her out as well. She even successfully buckled herself in, which is pretty amazing given she had to get a leg through a loop to do so.
We made some good headway in cleaning out the shed, although we still have way to go before we’re ready for Corinne’s birthday party. It’s a lot of work to get rid of stuff.
