Today would’ve been my grandmother’s 94th birthday today. Still is strange not having her around.

Happy birthday, Grandma, whereever you are.

I stopped into Best Buy on the way home from work Friday. I was looking to buy some batteries for our video and digital cameras. When the cashier prodded me for my phone number, I politely declined and paid for my items, not thinking much of it as I left. Only today did the signifigance hit me.

I love Best Buy’s product selection and I love its prices. I especially love its return policy. It gives me confidence when I shop to know my satisfaction is guaranteed.

But returns can be costly to retailers. Best Buy has competitive prices and margins to protect. Obviously, the phone number thing is for tracking customers, but it wasn’t until today I remembered the extent of Best Buy’s efforts to discourage bum customers.

Radio Shack used to pester their customers for their phone numbers. Customers eventually got tired of being hassled and instead told them where to go. They don’t do that anymore. Apparently

Your job as a retailer is to make it as easy as possible to spend my money. Used to be that shopping at Best Buy was effortless until you actually had to pay for your items. Then you’d wait in line all morning while two cashiers rang up sixty customers. Now the cashier hurdle is gone, but the phone number thing has sprung up in its place.

Hey, BB: you can’t have my number. Let it go. I never had a thing for you: we were just friends. And please don’t start treating your customers like statistics.

Looks like this cold has been with me for seven days. Whee. It stopped being fun a long, long time ago. Come to think of it, it was never fun to begin with.

I’m in the “unproductive coughing fits” (“UCF”) stage now. This is exacerbated by my being at home this weekend, when something Hallie or Travis will do or say will set me laughing, which leads to UCF as mentioned above. I’ve had far too many laughs this weekend to keep from coughing. But I wouldn’t trade the laughs for anything.

Word to the wise: stay healthy.

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After dinner last night, I picked up my ancient Casio keyboard for the first time in I don’t know how long. With Hallie as my audience, I banged out a recognizable Beethoven’s Fur Elise, surprising myself with how much I remembered. My Audience didn’t ask me to stop playing as she sometimes does when I haul out my guitar, so I assume she enjoyed the music.

It was fun just wrapping myself into the music. I definitely need to play more.

I picked up a cold the past day ot two and I’m feeling the effects. We didn’t sleep much last night since Travis apparently had the sniffles. To top it off, I had a trying day at work. Woohoo.

I’m going to climb into bed and maybe watch the NCSU-Maryland game. State’s offense should be just the thing to put me to sleep.

Gotta give a shout out to the Old Nole, who has a birthday today. Happy birthday, Dad! I hope one of your gifts is a new hosting provider. :-p

But wait, that’s not all! Celebrating the big oh-two today is my lovely neice, Audrey. Happy birthday, Audrey!

Every year, I look forward to a weekend of volunteering for the Tour De Cure, the charity bike ride from Buies Creek to Wilmington. I’m bummed I’ll miss this year’s ride because we’ll be on our way to Italy.

Yeah, I know, I know. Italy vs. a weekend spent driving 600 miles around eastern NC and sleeping in a tent. I’m not knocking Italy at all, but I love helping out for this event. It’s a great cause and I always make new friends and meet interesting people.

Hopefully, there’ll be other events I can participate in this summer.
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There was no time for blogging last night because I was way too happy catching up with my newly-reunited family. There were plenty of smiles and dances shared once I got home. Hurray!