I've been frustrated

I've been dealing with Dufresne furniture since their tech visit to our place on November 25. Our lovely leather recliners have some issues. The biggest 2 being the leather front panels are splitting from the vinyl backs and the recline mechanism on my particular chair has broken. Further, I had to have the tech back to look at our kitchen stools because the micro-fibre is breaking down on all four chairs. Anyway, the issue right now is the leather chairs. I've been getting the run around for weeks on what the final verdict is on my chairs. Then yesterday when I pushed for an answer the Dufresne rep said now the insurance company thinks its my cats fault. AND I QUOTE:

Donna, please advise Turoris that this was not caused by pets and I'm surprised that it has taken them 2 months to ask that question if this is what they thought. The vinyl is splitting from the leather, there is absolutely no evidence of an animal going at the chair and as I stated our cats are declawed. The mechanism that failed is in between the two seats and clearly not accessible by cat.

We bought this furniture at Dufresne because of its long standing history in Winnipeg, great pricing and our several other purchases in the past. We have been so happy with our purchases (spanning over 20 years) to date and I'm shocked that the insurance company is taking this angle with what is undoubtedly a warranty issue. END QUOTE

I just had another email and now the insurance company apparently thinks Palliser (the chair manufacturer) should pay. I can't speak. Who knows when this will all get resolved.

On another note - remember doctor dude, the naturopath? He had given me a Thyroid supplement that in my head just equaled some kind of "vitamin" type thing. I searched it online today - guess what? Its not authorized for sale in Canada and the specific one I'm taking has been found to be contaminated with bacteria. There is a Health Canada warning about it. But after talking with him about it (btw - he's so sorry that he can't get me the same supplement any more). He says I should get my thyroid tested now to see if I should be on a higher or lower dose (none of which he mentioned when he first put me on!!) And maybe I want him to write a letter to my GP to have him prescribe said supplement. He continued to say this is Health Canada playing games and they just don't want the naturopath's dealing in "glandular" medicine. This is a long story short. And the short story is he's completely shaken my faith in what he's telling me. I mean the common sense stuff fine. The gluten free way I've been eating seems to be making a difference in my overall well being. But I gotta say his cavalier attitude to what I told him is really bumming me out.

I'm expanding my horizons, yes - I'm trying Green Tea. I mean quite literally. The stuff in the cup is actually green - kind of looks like algae. I bought a huge Costco size package of Green Tea for work and decided it was high (tea) time to try it. Thing is - I don't like tea, coffee or anything in between. The odd time I'll have black tea only because sometimes you need something hot and Hot Chocolate is just has too much junk in it to drink on a daily basis. I've even started drinking plain old hot water. No bad after taste there. It just makes me feel old - you know. hot water is something your grandma should drink. Funny thing happened over the holidays (funny ha, ha, not funny peculiar). At work when I drink hot water I get it out of the hot water spigot/spout, whatever on the coffee machine. I decided to have it at home one evening and boiled a pot of water just for me. Poured my cup and had some almost immediately. FOR THE LOVE OF THE IRISH (recently watched PS I Love You again - really must get to Ireland). How come boiling water is so freaking hot!!! Well, lesson learned. Next time the kettle whistles I will be a little more patient.

Hmm. the green tea wasn't so bad. Actually like it better than black. Just have to get over the algae mental block I'm cultivating.

Christmas, New Years and a few random thoughts

Christmas came without any real regard for whether or not I was ready. I mean present speaking its a good thing it came, as sometimes I just keep buying if I still have time... I managed to buy all the groceries I needed to cook a successful Christmas dinner and the girls helped me get the house ready to host. This is the first time since I met dh that I spent the entire day at home. Completely different and rather nice. Driving across town or wherever has always been a part of our day. This time the kids were in pj's till early afternoon. Nice... I feel dinner was a glorious success. 8 people round the table and all turned out great (except for that stuffing issue...always learning LOL). Emotionally speaking Christmas always comes at me in various ways. Some days I'm alive with the magic, other days I struggle to find Christ in Christmas. I believe that topic is a much longer post for another day...

New Year's was a blast. After 3 days of painting the girls rooms some amazing colours I was more than ready for a relaxed night with friends. (side note - BTB & K are amazing painters - would never have tackled this job without them. Now I feel like I could actually paint a room on my own THANK YOU!!)

New years - Nothing like eating for 2-3 hours - ummm Fondue!! We did Oil, Cheese, took a break then did Chocolate!! Much fun. So glad BTB, K and A shared the evening with us. One thing that was different this year was no overnight guests. As I told Samantha - it's not wrong... its just different. We did miss R&J and the boys though. I'm sure they had a simply fabulous time at Moose! One of these years I'd like to go out on the town with a big group of people. But not till my girls have their own plans. Who knows, maybe they won't - its always been a wonderful family night that they seem to enjoy as much as we do.

On Friday, DH and I let the girls sleep in and went and did something we can't do on a weekend. Went and gave blood! DH hadn't been in 10 years!! They gave him a first time pin LOL. Also went to visit DH's 96 year old aunt. Hadn't seen her in quite a while. She is sharp as a tack I tell ya. I just can't believe her clarity. She gets around mostly with a walker or wheelchair but can still take a few steps. She pretty much takes care of herself. AMAZING!! She is engaging, happy and finds more things to talk about than just her aches and pains. We could all take a few lessons from her. Loved it when we went to take her to the dining room and she stops to check her hair in the mirror. Great lady!!

Going back to work tomorrow. Yipee...