Pulp Free

In celebration of my 4th wedding anniversary, I thought I’d share the list of music that we chose as part of our reception dinner, bride & groom and mother/father dances. We had every hope to actually have a unique, non-traditional wedding when we started planning it – but in the end, even the music proved quite classic for this couple. Most of the music is instrumental as it was selected to provide background music for our dinner guests – (ugh – I just hate the idea of music being deemed “background” – probably another post on that later…) Not too loud, not too soft… Not too up-tempo, not too zzz, zzz, zzz… You know – just right “dinner music”. The classic “Fly Me To The Moon” is one of our favorite 60′s Big Band tunes that is simply timeless and when you include Natalie Cole “Unforgettable” classic for our mother/father dance, we become very traditional! No matter – our evening celebrating with friends and family was truly a great time.

Below is our track list – each with a 30-second sample…

1. – The Look Of Love – Chris Botti
2. – Through An Open Window – Chris Botti
3. – Acoustic Highway – Craig Chaquico
4. – Arizona Daybreak – Craig Chaquico
5. – Angel Eyes – Jim Brickman
6. – Expedition – Kurt Bestor
7. – Feelin’ The Same Way – Norah Jones
8. – Nightingale – Norah Jones
9. – Faith In Angels – Peter Mayer
10. – Kisses In The Rain – Rick Braun
11. – Catching The Sun – Spyro Gyra
12. – A Kiss Under The Moonlight – The Rippingtons

    Bride Groom Dance

13. – Fly Me To The Moon – Kenny G

    Father/Daughter – Mother/Son Dance

14. – Unforgettable – Natalie Cole

A few days ago I received a promotional e-mail from Zillow.com, an online real estate database, that had listings titled “No Turkeys Here! See Celebrity Kitchens”. I usually just delete e-mails from Zillow.com because it saddens me to know how much value my own home has lost according to their “Zestimates”. But since the preview had already started to download I was interested to see that it listed Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson on the top of the page.

Celebrities entertain us, but how adept are they at whipping up a Thanksgiving dinner? Since we’re in the throes of holiday madness, here are some celebrity kitchens for inspiration. Plus, they’re all for sale!

Lady Gaga I could mostly care less about… But oh yeah… Kelly Clarkson has been my imaginary girlfriend since I first saw her on American Idol!! Here was a chance to own Kelly’s own house!! Now Kelly has only lived in it for the last three years but wouldn’t that be a nice piece of Kelly Clarkson memorabilia? (And, yes… It does sound a little creepy!!)

At a little less than 5,000 square feet and around 3/4 acre lot, I’m thinking the size is okay… But perhaps the $1.49 million price tag might be a bit much for me to swing as a second home. And I’d have to figure out a way to want to live in Nashville, Tennessee.

One of a kind stone home in Belle Meade! Awesome screen porch w/ FP. 2 Bedrooms on Main Level, including Master, Updated Kitchen & Master Bath. This home has it all! 5 BR/5BA, Rec Rm, Den, Study, Office, 3 FP, 3 car Garage, Irrigation & new Landscaping.

Personally I was impressed with the pictures of her house, inside and outside. I’m a fan of red front doors and all stone exteriors. Colored walls, white trimmed woodwork, and wooden floors mimic a lot of what I already have in my own house today. Personally I was hoping to see some recording studio tucked away in the basement but didn’t see anything like that in the listing. Maybe if Kelly would just autograph one of the walls, I could live with that…

So – does anybody want to help start a “Buy Kelly Clarkson’s House Fund” with me? Maybe Kelly could offer up an imaginary boyfriend discount? Or if she met me, perhaps she’d want to stay… get to know me, make it permanent? LOL!

It’s been a rough past few days for me. You see, I have a strange need to know what the weather is and what it’s going to be. So much so that I actually have three weather stations in the house that provide both 7-day and 3-day forecasts and current temperature. You’ve probably seen the 7-day models from a few years ago… Sharper Image had them available around Christmas time and I promptly put it on my Christmas list that year!

The 7-Day Forecaster continuously displays forecast data for 150 U.S. locations from AccuWeather.com — no PC or internet connection required. Always know daily high and low temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, UV index, pollen, and air quality alerts. This 7-Day model also features pollen and air quality alerts. Back-light changes color to indicate temperature at a glance.

Now you have to be saying – “There’s a hundred different ways to figure out what the forecast and weather is going to be! Just stick your head out the window, turn on the TV or GASP! Look it up on the Internet!!” – and you’d be right. But I’ve just grown to love my colorful forecaster and all of it’s semi-accurate forecasts. I think they even have some humor… (Tropical rainstorm in Saint Louis? And I’m all for being Sunny & Delightful)

But late this past Sunday night – the data provider in Saint Louis suddenly went quiet. No more updates. And now my temperature and forecasts are no longer working! I did submit a ticket and promptly received a response back from customer support:

Dear Dave,

We received the first reports from the area this morning.  We have contacted the wireless provider so that they can investigate.  We do not have a time estimate yet, but we will work to get the matter resolved as soon as possible.

Best regards,

- Brian , Customer Support

Whew! Thanks Brian!! Glad somebody is on it! I’m having a hard time with my forecasts falling off day by day…

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally getting up enough courage to back away from FarmVille. Seriously, did somebody lace this Facebook game with crack? While I wasn’t one of the first to jump into this black hole of time & space, I would say I was early enough in to have laid waste to too many hours to count. At first it was fun – you know… All my friends were doing it. I had a buddy who had a pretty high level obtained and I just had to beat him!! (Truth be told, he’s no longer playing…) It was a great way to divert some time. Harmless fun, right?

Plow. Seed. Harvest.

Rinse. Repeat.

That started over a year ago – and now it’s hard to put it down. I get it – there’s no real value or point to it. Most of my friends have stopped playing, why can’t I? I haven’t bought any Farm Cash so at least I’m not out any real dollars…

I did think about quitting cold turkey. CafeWorld – gone. Even put FarmVille out of play for a bit and switched most of my time over to FrontierVille – it’s now gone as well. Both applications deleted and all that dead time gone for good. FarmVille – just a break. Then hopefully a delete as well. But how can I resist?

Oh little FarmVille Truck Seeder – I’ll miss you.

Now I do have two friends still at a higher level than I (I’m only level 72 with 465,232 XP). I know, let it go… Just let me get those pumpkins harvested first…

I suppose if you’re going to do something you didn’t mean to do… this would be one way of feeling pretty stupid about it. I’m talking about accidentally purchasing the TomTom iPhone application from the Apple Store while trying to test out application sharing with a friend of mine. Essentially the iTunes Store’s Terms of Sale state:

REFUND POLICY

All Sales and rentals (as applicable) are final.

Now I already have a TomTom ONE 130-S that has suited me perfectly for the last year. Small, compact, works great, cheap, includes Text-To-Speech – and if I happen to lose it or were it to get broken – I wouldn’t lose much sleep over it. But when my friend purchased the TomTom app I thought it would be interesting to try out after watching a CNET video on application sharing. (Watcher beware – I can barely watch much of Brian Tong… Your mileage may vary…)

Long story short – while my friend authorized my iTunes with his account, we debated on whose credentials to provide when hitting the download of the TomTom application. My account won out and instead of getting a second copy from his account, ka-ching happened and my credit card was charged $99.99 for this application…

Ahhhh crap I thought after we started debating on what actually just happened. I looked at my previous purchases and sure enough – I bought myself my very own copy. Thankfully there’s a button next to each purchase that allows you to submit a request based on each purchase. In my case – I clearly marked:

I inadvertently purchased this application

Since the whole effort of getting refunds from Apple have been laid out in the news in the last few weeks I was pretty sure that I had no chance of getting a refund. I tried to think “maybe this could be useful after all” but it wasn’t helping. Even after using it on a recent trip to Minneapolis did I find that it wasn’t even worth $10. (This particular entry isn’t about the application so I won’t go into it here…) So I waited a bit and sure enough, I received a response from Jeff @ Apple. I explained my efforts and intentions and then shortly a second response was received:

Jeff, here from the iTunes Store again. Thank you for clarifying things for me! At this time, and as a one time exception, I have reversed the charge for “TomTom U.S. & Canada,” as it appears you were not signed in to the correct account at the time of purchase. Although you may have authorized your computer for your friend’s account, you must also be signed into the account originally used to purchase the item in order to redownload at no charge. In three to five business days, a credit of $99.99, plus any applicable sales tax, should be posted to your Visa Card.

Please note that according to the iTunes Store Terms of Sale, all sales are final, so this is an exception which I cannot guarantee will be granted again in the future.

Whoa. I was on track for getting a refund. I quickly replied back to Jeff with this comment:

Thank you very much for your generosity in this one-time exception from Apple and the clarity in process for account management. I sincerely appreciate your effort in managing my request and assisting with my mistake.

And sure enough, a few minutes later, Jeff replied back:

Jeff, here from the iTunes Store. You’re more than welcome – my pleasure! Nothing makes us happier than to hear that we have helped our customers. I wish you the best and hope that you will continue to enjoy shopping the iTunes Store in the future. Have a great day, David!

With Warm Regards,

Jeff
iTunes Store Customer Support

So I’m very happy that I was able to get a fantastic Apple customer support person and that Jeff was generous enough to provide a refund. Now while seemingly no real impact for Apple for this refund – word on the street that developers can get taken for a ride doesn’t seem so fair… But in any case – I’m glad that the $100 is back in my account.

Thanks, Jeff!