February 24, 2014

I shot a bird

To add to my post about Tiffany & Co. and broken jewelry from yesterday…I also recently bought Scott a piece of jewelry from a hometown, local, small business.  It broke.  They said, "Pay to get it fixed or buy a new one."  They made me pay $100 MORE to get a new chain (more expensive because it's sturdier), but they also wouldn't guarantee their work.  So, small business, large business, doesn't matter.  That's Kranich's of State College, PA by the way.  Stay away from them too.
I will, however, sing praises for Kay's Jeweler's.  Every time I've had a loose stone in my wedding ring, they've fixed it.  For free.  For some reason, they didn't blame me and charge me extra…Interesting.
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I was utterly exhausted last week with no known explanation (seasonal affective disorder, Missouri, February are all likely culprits).  All I wanted to do was sleep.  In fact, I never felt worse than when I woke up Friday morning.  I wasn't feeling coffee, but I stopped by Panera because I knew I wouldn't make it through 8 hours of being "on" without at least a latte in my system.

Their espresso machine was broken.  I don't really know how that's possible, given that they are PANERA.  But whatever.  I ordered hot green tea instead because I love their honey ginseng tea and figured it'd be better for me anyway…they were out of tea bags.  HOW does that even happen?

I ended up with some kind of ginger tea that was a waste of $1.79 and then I drank a Pepsi at 10am.  

Anyway, the point of all this:  All I wanted to do was sleep in on Saturday.  However, I'd promised Scott that I'd go on this quail hunt thing.  I call it a quail hunt thing because he and his friend take the dogs to bird-stocking farm every couple weeks for practice.  You buy the birds, they "hide" them in the fields, you walk around, the dogs flush, you shoot.  Not real hunting but, with two nine-month old bird dogs, it's great practice.  Kind of like an Easter egg hunt with moving targets and weaponry.

I had to get up before 6am, we drove an hour, walked through a field all morning, and drove an hour back.  However, I love Scott, I love Scout, and I enjoy our friends Rachel, Blake, and Duchess the Weimeraner.  So it was actually kind of fun.

Rachel, Rachel's sister, and Duchess


Blake and Duchess.  Duchess and Scout have grown up together.  This is them at 7/8 weeks.

I did shoot a quail but, you see, what happened was that as the bird flew up, I couldn't decide what hand I wanted to shoot with.  I'm right-handed, but I usually shoot left-handed.  My waffling caused me to end up shooting, unprepared, from my hip like some kind of mafia gangster.  But I did hit the bird.  


This is a video-still, so it's nice and grainy but I think you can tell that Scott = horrified.

13 comments:

  1. I'm going to second you on the whole "kays." Thing. I've had nothing but phenomenal service from Kay. And that's actually where all of my staple jewelry is from. I'm not a big jewelry girl--but I have a necklace I wear every day (kays). J got me a promise ring when I was 18 (kays). He got me ANOTHER ring for xmas one year (kays). And our wedding sets (kays). They've replace, repaired and cleaned all without problems. And because we are loyal clients, our wedding sets came with HUGE discounts. It pays to know your jeweler. The guy was just so happy J was finally putting a ring on it (after buying from him for 7 years haha--I think he was probably as excited as I was).

    The whole freaking bad day thing? I hate hate HATE when crap like that happens. And I swear it always happens to me. Especially whenever I think I'm going to treat myself--the restaurant/place is always having wonky problems.

    I'm really glad you enjoyed the hunting thing even if you didn't get to sleep in. J wasnts a spaniel so so badly--and I told him if I actually cave and allow us to get a second dog (I need my head examined) that he would have to promise me to train it in hunting. Although--the deal with Bailey was that he'd take her running. He's never run one set with that dog. Le'sigh. But yay for fun with friends, husbands and dogs!!

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  2. Shooting from my hip like a mafia gangsta <-- dying laughing over here!

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  3. Sounds like an enjoyable weekend!

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  4. Kay has always been amazing when it comes to my ring! That's too bad that you've dealt with horrible customer service lately. I applaud you for going hunting-I've told Dylan it's not something I ever care to do! And I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to bring me along anyway.

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  5. I'm going to agree with you on the Kay's type jewelers because we haven't had issues with items in the past. Keith had been engaged to his HS girlfriend with a ring from there, she broke it off after she told him she had been cheating on him and he took the ring back to Kay's and they did everything they could to make him happy by letting him exchange it for a class ring and a really nice watch. So really it just depends!

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  6. My bridal set is from Kay and a lot of my friends have fancy schmancy, expensive rings elsewhere, but I have had nothing but great service from Kay as well. I think I'd have broke down and cried on Friday if I were you, lol.

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  7. I've always had great service from Kay too.

    How is it possible that Panera's espresso machine was broken AND they were out of green tea bags on the same day??

    I'm impressed you shot a bird like a mafia gangsta.

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  8. Gangster! I love it. Hey you got it. That's good any way you slice it.

    I've never had issues with Tiffany. I've taken stuff in to repair frequently. Maybe it's the store?

    I hate the MAC store near my office and their service is awful when I don't like something and take it back, but the MAC counter at Macy's is awesome so now I go there instead.

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  9. The most memorable good jewelry service I've ever gotten was from walking into a Helzberg Diamonds...I have never even bought anything from there, but we were looking for something for my graduation gift a couple years ago and while we were looking the salesguy asked if I wanted my rings cleaned--that was the best cleaning job they've ever had, they looked brand new again, and he pointed out a loose diamond that I hadn't noticed, so I could get it fixed. Zales is where I actually bought all of my rings, and I've had them all serviced there for free, but I was so impressed with the Helzberg guy for taking the time to do a good job inspecting a ring that I hadn't even bought from the store!

    And that's pretty cool that you did get a bird! I've just done target practice, never hunting. I don't have the patience hunting requires.

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  10. Dude, I'm impressed you actually hit the bird shooting like that. You got some skills!! Maybe you should actually hunt more often! ;)

    Our jewelry store here generally has good service, but not as good as I would expect considering Isaiah's bought a ton of jewelry for me there. I was wanting to get my ring sized down a little bit because I lost a bunch of weight after we got married and my ring was (and still is) too big, and they wanted to charge an arm and a leg even though we bought it there AND he's bought tons of stuff there. So...they're friendly-ish, but they don't do much by way of discounts and such for repeat customers. But that's pretty par for the course in Sitka.

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  11. Your mafia gangster comment just made me LOL!

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  12. I knew you were in the mafia!! Lol. I've had super bad luck at the Panera closest to us (which is a 2 hour drive), the last time I was there, the interac was down and they were out of $5 bills and $10 bills for giving change.

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