Our farm dog, Max has passed away. Max was a full breed black lab and lived a full life to a ripe old age. As he was ~15 at his passing, we don’t remember much about how he came into our farm; his true age or where we got him from. We assume we got him in 2004 or so and he probably was a free puppy from Brownton area where his dad visited his purebred mom after hours.

Max for surely spent his puppy time visiting Gustavus Adolphus college and wooing all the coeds. He also loved to tag along with Michael and the other dog we had at the time – Jake. As he grew, he would constantly chew on and try to fight Jake, who couldn’t care less. They were best of buddies but often would get in trouble by running together away from the farm. They always came back when they were hungry or thirsty.

As a black lab, Max loved the water and would often hang out in the water of the pond or a drainage ditch if it was nearby. He helped hunt his share rabbits and squirrels, but never really caught one. He loved going for truck rides and was always not more than 10 feet away when you were doing something on the farm. Michael brought Max into town a few times as he remodeled his house, but Max would whine and whine that he couldn’t be outside and roaming where he loved.

After Jake passed, Max was the top-dog on the farm and enjoyed that role. He later had to contend with a dog James got that wouldn’t let Max be the alpha. That dynamic led to fights that almost killed Max and left him with lasting ear damage.

To the end when he could hardly stand the heat, cold or old age, Max was a trooper and would always come around for a pat on the head and to be by you. He was a great dog that will be missed.

I am actively continuing with my hobbies:

Manufactured Spending

Mystery Shopping

I’ve spent considerable time and passion on both of these two areas in the last few years really.

I’ve also kept up my interest in technology. Now if I could meld all 3 together into a job that mints $$$ I’d be set.

Seeing as I haven’t updated this site in ages, hopefully it won’t be another 4 year gap in posts!

I think this has been in the works since AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) and Lutheran Brotherhood merged to create this ‘behemoth’ in the Lutheran Fraternal Benefit Society.

I have not seen any improvements from this link-up since it’s beginning. They have merged organizations, de-emphasized Lutheran in their name and have done nothing to market to their core constituency ~ Lutherans. Why don’t they spend their time, energy and money to market products that Lutherans would feel was worth their investments? Why short-change your society when their are numerous organizations already doing what you hope to do?

I’m not sure who’s getting the pay-day from this organizations slow disintegration, but I’d stand to bet it’s those that are in power and making the ‘executive’ decisions. What greed and selfishness.

For more insite, visit:

Thrivent for ???

Next, Thrivent for non-Lutherans?

I sent the now parent company of Ertl, RC2 an email inquiring about possible replacement by the company.

This is the response I got from ‘Karen’ in Customer Service:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding model kit parts.

The Company announced on 1/11/2007 that it will discontinue its Racing Champions, Joyride, Ertl, and AMT die-cast and model kit automotive collectible product lines. The Company plans to continue with its strategy to reposition its Johnny Lightning Brand. Production for 2007 will remain as planned at this time.

We are sorry to hear of your problem with our product. We focus on producing quality toys and collectibles, however on a rare occasion quality issues can arise.

With the wide range of products and items we market, it is impossible for RC2 Brands to keep replacement parts or stock on hand. The Company has established return policies with the retailers who purchase our products directly. Please return the product along with your receipt to the place of purchase for an exchange or refund. The return is subject to the discretion and return policies of the retailer.

You can also try contacting one of the following retailers: Gold Coast Hobby 516-759-4094 or Model King 732-240-3987 for purchase of replacement parts.

Thanks for your support of Learning Curve Brand products.

Consumer Services

to which I responded

Your response somehow didn’t surprise me.

Given that I too work in Quality Control, it’s extremely difficult to imagine that our respective companies would put out a product that is less then perfect in the eye of the customer. But it does happen from time to time, as we both can attest to. The big difference is that for my job, I have to claim responsibility for the quality of my company’s product and do what I can to make it right in the eyes of the end user/customer.

Evidently, your company does not believe in quality or customer service, based on my exchange with you. Furthermore, the fact that your product is made in China and your customer service information is not existent in any tangible way via your company’s website should have been huge red flags to me.

I am disappointed as a customer, as for a good, joyful part of my childhood growing up on a family farm in the rural Midwest was spent carpet-farming with what was viewed as the best in farm toys ~ Ertl. I attended numerous toy shows and purchased numerous toy farm machinery for my carpet-farm. All these products were made with the Ertl logo.

While it’s easy to see why you’re company continues to use the Ertl brand, I am extremely disappointed in the product you currently put out and lack of response to quality concerns. (By the way your email response in corporate speak is so vague it actually means little. Numerous mention of the year 2007 are made, but what that has to do with present day issues are not addressed. I suggest you fire your copy writer)

While we live in the age of the Internet and Social Media, I will take it upon myself to spread the experience I’ve had with your company. It should be a hoot to hear my relatives that currently own Ertl toys and their response to this saga.

Enjoy making your cheap Chinese shit, I wish your company nothing but the worst.

So, there you have it, a part of my childhood has been sold out and now peddles cheap crap under the priceless memories of a once quality brand!

Married 1 year 3 months now. That’s going good and enjoyable.

Work.

5 years at full time (got nice set of Monogrammed drinking glasses… ooh aah)

7 years at part time gig… whoa that’s long…

House

Numerous, numerous projects. I started with big ideas and they are slowly taking form as finished products.

First/main level completed to my liking.

Currently working on Garage wall (drywall)

Whole 2nd story
New ceilings/walls throughout, bedroom bigger, smaller bathroom, totally redo bathroom minus tub/shower, adding closets to bedroom, moving doors from bathroom to hallway entrance to back bedroom

Bits and pieces outside
Gutters, gardens, trees/plants, landscaping

Bits and pieces of basement.
Redid walls along steps to basement, remove/reroute all scary things that start/terminate in basement

Attic.

Redo insulation and seal all gaps, and the list goes on forever….

98 High Ave

Try out piotter.us/weddingphotos for all of the official ones, plus a set my 2nd cousin so graciously did for us.

Also a few family/friends have posted a few to Facebook, which I now have a nifty link to facebook.com/mpiotter

All the wedding can also be seen at the wedding website: michaelpiotter.com/wedding as well!

Enjoy!

I don’t think I’m very proud of this, but given the hoax I was pulled into in the sake of a deal being too good to be true, I must out a horrible company and it’s crooked, deceitful, and down right pathetic attempts to literally steal your ‘wedding money’.

The bozos are Associated Consultants Inc, supposedly out of Minneapolis, Mn. What they do is try and bilk young engaged couples into a crooked ponzi scheme idea that by spending $2400 on there average cookware. They use all the tricks in the book to con you into thinking you must buy there product then and there, no questions asked.

Associated Consultants Inc supposedly sponsored a bridal fair in St Cloud, from there they steal your information and while probably selling it off to marketing firms all while letting you know if you visit with them for 2 hours (not the 3.5 it turned into) that you could win all these fabulous prizes and get a chance to purchase a one of a kind product.

The lure was a free camera (film, not digital mind you) and a trip to Carribean destination. Plus throw in a meal (just happen to run this fraud from 5 pm on).

Slick sales guy goes into his mode describing his companies shit and then comparing in every way possible to the competitors all while relentlessly accentuating the positives on his comany’s crap and making the competitors look negatively bad in every possible light, both from the way it’s sold, the way it’s made, what county it may be made in and on and on till you are bludgeoned with negativity about everything but…. the shit they are trying to sell you.

Does some fancy tricks like standing on china cup and throwing plate on floor (reinforced props, no doubt). Cutting away pots and pans to show best of everything in Associated Consultants shit, and worst in all others.

Oh and no water used in cooking system, but when we are cooked up our ‘meal’, which consisted of a few pieces each of chicken, and under cooked carrots/broccoli; water is generously ‘sprinkled’ on everything? Odd system. Indeed.

Sorry suckers that stayed at the end got the opportunity to waste their money on this overpriced crap. Out of the 7 couples attending, only 2 left immediately (we took ‘crystal’ glasses instead of trip to crime ridden Carribean…. er Mexico) What a sham, and the dufus/ his company easily got $10,000 that night from the suckers that stayed and bought outrageously priced crapware.

I could go on and on about how shitty this deal was/ wasn’t and how it was a 3.5 hour waste of time. But I don’t want to waste more of my time on such a piece of shit company ~ Associated Consultants Inc.

While Associated Consultants Inc tried to play to every letter of the law, it’s despicable that a company would scam people in such a way to make a buck. As one of my co-workers said after I told her and she had been to something similar, why can’t these people get a real job for a living, instead of suckering fools out of cash?

Obviously there’s enough fools to milk.

By all indications, Federal law states that tax documents should be mailed out by January 31 for previous year (bumped to February 2 due to 31st falling on a Saturday). Well giving WF the benefit of doubt, I should have had my documents as of this post.

I called WF last night and they stated that 1099s would not be mailed out until the end of February. So I decided to call the IRS to get their take on this discovery. Seems that IRS is already swamped, as it took them a full 15 minutes to get a person on the phone to talk about this. Not real stellar, but I have heard that’s what the government does ~ make you wait. They say I have to wait until the 15th before ‘worrying’ about it. We’ll see.

Personally, I would like to stick it to WF. I had liked them for a while, but they are starting to wear on me. Their policies are wishy-washy and every person you talk to, gives you a different answer.

The bozos are rescinding their executive retreats as tax-payers don’t appreciate giving the poor bastards gobs of bail-out money and all the while the big-shots enjoy the good life.

Good grief.

The biggest reason I am miffed, is that due to the home buyer credit, I am entitled to a fairly hefty refund, which would come in nice for home improvements and/or a upcoming wedding.

Plus the whole fact that we live in a digital world where computers do the banking work for them, it’s stupid that they would get any kind of reprieve.

Plus, they’re screwing with the feds, so you know they are so toast. Probably has something to do with the bailout $$. It makes everything slow to a government like snail’s pace.

Screw you Wells Fargo!