Salad Spinner Suggestions?

Our salad spinner broke this week as it took a dramatic plunge from the upper cabinet to the kitchen floor. There were springs and plastic bits everywhere. Does anyone out there in Montyland have any salad spinner suggestions? Ours was an OXO Good Grips spinner. While a salad spinner may seem like a commonplace item, they are surprisingly expensive for what they are. A good salad spinner can make or break a dinner. Noone wants soggy lettuce.

Office Depot treats their customers like CRAP

Hello my blog readers. I wanted to share this with you. I for one am sick of the treatment I get at stores sometimes. I went to Office Depot near to, but still before, their closing time. I was greeted by a smiling manager, who, WHILE SMILING, locked the door in my face leaving me out in the snowy/crappy weather I braved to get to the store in the first place. I wrote this letter (below) to customer service. I don't think anyone will take this seriously besides me, but I will never be shopping at Office Depot again. If the manager did anything else but SMILE at me while he closed and locked the door I might forgive him, and the company, but his gesture was indicative of someone who was trying to be on a power-trip of some sort and got their jollies by leaving someone in the cold. Not the proper etiquette for someone representing an entire store if you ask me. Below is what I wrote.


Hello, I want to describe you you a store experience I had this evening, January 15th. It was for your store #2260 across from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. I arrived at your store a bit late, at 8:58 PM according to the watch I have (which is tuned to the atomic clock, so I know it is correct). I was a bit late (but still within store hours) because it is snowing/raining outside and conditions are fairly bad on the road. Your store says it is open until 9. I get there and the manager opens the door to let a customer out. I try to get in, saying I know exactly what I need and it is only one item. The manager smiles, locks the door in my face and walks away. If I didn't REALLY need what I was getting do you think I would have driven there in this rainy/snowy weather??!! I am very disgusted at the treatment I received ESPECIALLY since the store was technically STILL SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN! I do have a blog, and will be posting my experience on it for all to see. In this day and age of the internet, I would think you, as a large company would be more cognizant of the fact that EVERYONE has a voice and is able to use it. I will NEVER be shopping at Office Depot again. There are many options around for my office supplies and I will now be using them instead of you. Hopefully I can convince others of the same.

I hope you may see fit to train your employees in that if someone is coming to your store in snowy/rainy bad weather thy might REALLY need what they are coming for!! They should show some decency and let them in next time ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STORE IS STILL SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN!

What I have found out about HDTV and QAM

One day while bored, I made a great discovery about my television. I did not buy this television new, I received it for free over craigslist as it was broken. It just needed a new fuse and I was ready to go. It is a Samsung CRT at 32 inches. Well, as I said, I was bored and going through the diagnostic menus on the television. I saw one that said "1080i" for something or other and reasoned that my TV could get HDTV signals! All I needed was an appropriate tuner and an antenna.

So I purchased a used Sony HDTV tuner with and ATSC/NTSC tuner. I also bought a TERK amplified HDTV antenna for $30 on Amazon.com.

So, some definitions here.. ATSC tuners are able to pull in HDTV signals broadcast by local TV stations. NTSC is the old analog standard. Therefore, this tuner is able to pull in signals from the antenna and from the Comcast basic cable package I have. Very nice, except where I live I only get 2 HDTV stations this way.

I have read much about QAM modulation and most of the info out ther is very confusing. QAM is how cable companies such as Comcast send their HDTV signals. Local stations are sent out unscrambled, such that ANYONE WITH AN HDTV, A BASIC CABLE PACKAGE AND A QAM TUNER CAN GET HDTV! If you have these, there is no need to get the "HDTV" package that the cable companies push if you do not want anything more than local channels in HD. Most tuners now built into TVs have QAM but some don't, so you will have to check your specific TV set for this. If your's does not have QAM, you can get a set top box such as the Samsung DTB-H260F which is one of the only ones to have QAM at a reasonable price.

Basically, to sum up, if you only want local channels in HD (NBC, ABC, Fox, etc..) you might already have them if you have a basic cable set up. Check your TV instruction manual and see if you have a QAM tuner as well as ATSC/NTSC.

Hope this helps someone...