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Friday, December 9, 2011

Bill Me Later

Bill Me Later is a division of Pay Pal which I never use.  But some months ago I was looking at zip line gear trying to decide what I wanted.  After much soul searching, I had decided on a wheel, a carabinier (or however you spell it), a seat and some ropes.  Sent off order and didn't think anything more about it.  That was in September.

About mid-October I got a call from Bill Me Later asking me to pay my bill.  But, I said, "I never received any items and don't even remember purchasing anything, can you tell me what I bought?"  No, they couldn't, only the date I supposedly purchased something for $264.00.

Yesterday, I was finally able to get a Bill Me Later customer service representative who found out the business I was supposed to have visited, a name to contact, and an email.

So I emailed, Nathan, and he was able to figure out the problem....I ordered the items but for whatever reason, they were never sent out!  So I asked him to contact Bill Me Later, return the funds they had paid him, and get me out of this mess.

Well.....now I have a credit with Pay Pal...which I NEVER USE and probably will never use for the invoice, the fees and the interest.  But...I have to figure out how to get the money from Pay Pal to Bill Me Later even though they are the same company.  ARGH!

Wish I gotten the name and number of the gal who had helped me to get Nathan's name!

Too late to figure things out tonight and too busy for the next two days to reread all the dos and don'ts.


Monday, December 5, 2011

Musings on a warm winter evening

In the quiet of the kitchen the clock loudly ticks down the hours and the day.  And this month...the year.  How is it possible that 2011 is almost over?  It seems like the Millenimum was just last month. Is it just me or are the days moving faster and faster?  Filled with so many wonderful guests sharing the magic of the mountains here at the Iron Mountain Inn; filled with friendships which grow stronger as the years grow longer; and especially filled with the beauty of the mountains.

What a fall we had this year!  All that snow and rain last winter and spring created one of the most colorful falls I ever remember - here or in New England!  Guests who visited in October were getting up early to catch the sunrises and then returning to catch the sunsets.  Rust, burgundy, cream, yellow, pale greens, browns, reds, silver-all the colors were represented this year.

Ordinarily I prefer spring and its softer colors, but this year....I have to give the nod to autumn.  And with my new Nikon 5100 I hope next fall to capture the colors with greater skill.  I've so much to learn!  And with suggestions from the group I Love Photography hosted by Cricket Walker, I purchased David Busch's book on the Nikon 5100.  Working my way page by page, illustration by illustration.  It'll take me at least a year to read it and I'm sure it'll take me at least 10 years to learn how to use my camera.  It's a lot smarter than I am!

Just like computers!  I love them and guess it's a good thing I don't have high speed internet as I might never get up from the desk in the kitchen, or the one in the office, or the tablet in my car.  Luckily I don't have a smart phone or I'd probably be like "the young" and only communicate via text, not in person!

My problem with computers is that they lead me astray!  I start researching something, or reading my emails, or chatting on Facebook and the next thing I know 5 hours have gone by without my knowledge.  And then there are the strings which look interesting so you click on it and that follows something else which catches my eye and the next thing I know is I have dozens of tabs opened up and I'm way off on a tangent completely unrelated to what I started out looking for!

As the Nikon photography class I took in NYC in November called it, "Face-crack" because it is addictive.  I am addicted to it and I try to break the habit, but there is so much interesting stuff out there.  I want to dip into all of it!

But see....almost 30 minutes have gone by and I've got to finish!



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Valentine's and Chocolate

A big red candy heart! That has always been the way to my heart on Valentine's or any day of the year. I have to admit....I'm a chocoholic! I'm not the only one I know, but I don't really have any compunctions about eating any kind of chocolate....cheap, year old Easter bunny ears, but yes, I do appreciate a good piece of chocolate.

And my 8 year old granddaughter seems to know the difference from good and great! She had been eating a brand name chocolate bar when she saw the beautifully wrapped Godiva chocolates and asked for one. I bought one, but insisted she take a drink of water to clear her palate from the other chocolate before tasting the Godiva.

With her first small bite, her eyes lit up and she smiled. "This is really good!" I agreed and said there were lots of different chocolates some better than others and I was glad she could tell the difference. But know she always wants to "gold chocolates" when I visit!

Each day when I go to the post office to get my mail, there in the box along with the mail is a Dove chocolate piece courtesy of our postmaster! It's a particularly nice surprise when the box is full of bills! Rolling the piece of dark chocolate in my mouth as I toss the junk mail into the wastebasket right there at the post office...ummm! And when I've been out of town or unable to pick up my mail for a few days....those pieces of chocolate are something to look forward to!

I took a Royal Caribbean cruise with some friends a little over a year ago and one of the stops was at a small island where I was able to take a crazy taxi up into the hills to see the remarkable waterfall! As waterfalls go, it didn't compare to Niagara Falls, but for a small Caribbean island it was lovely. And the ice cold pineapple drink served from a wooden hut was just the ticket on a hot day after the climb up to the falls.

But while we were walking up to the falls through the jungle, my young guide picked up a brown pod and took out some slimy white seeds. She told me these were cocao beans which, when dried and baked make chocolate. You'd never have known it from the seeds!

Quoting from a monograph from the Culinary Boot Camp of the CIA in Hyde Park, NY, the bean is spelled cacao before it is roasted and processed and cocoa afterward. It's a long process before that piece of white slime turns into "the food of the gods".

Again, referring to the monograph, there are many types of chocolate products which each have their own uses and tastes. Cocoa powder results from almost all of the cocoa butter being pressed out of the cocoa mass. Cocoa butter is the fat which is extruded from the pressed block cocoa; couverture consists of cocoa mass, sugar and cocoa butter; milk chocolate which is cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter and at least 14% milk solids; white chocolate consisting of cocoa butter sugar and milk solids; and Baker's chocolate which is pretty bitter.

At the Iron Mountain Inn B&B we use the powder to make rich hot chocolate to go with the brownies topped with fudge. Each of our rooms has a small dish holding various types of snacks from Hershey's kisses to chocolate mints. But most of our guests enjoy the chocolate chip cookies from the bottomless cookie jar. These are made with white chocolate chips, dark chips or milk chocolate chips. And when we can find them, the coconut M&M's. We have to make certain the ingredients for these cookies are always on hand as guests do seem to like them!

We also make chocolate covered strawberries for special guests and they are always on the breakfast table for Valentine's week, in fact for the entire month of February which we call "Lover's Month".

Now it's time to go and make the cookies - they all seem to have disappeared!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Mountain Winter


Well, it's been quite a winter so far - and it's only just started! After being stranded on top of the mountain last year for 4 nights and for 5 nights this year, it was time to move to the flat. So it's at the Lake House till the weather improves.

One thing about the snow, there have been some spectacular pictures. There was enough snow on the deck to build a snowman! And this one lasted quite a while. But the heat of the sun - it showed it was 80 degrees melted things quickly.

Deer come through the yard digging through the snow for grass underneath. Dogs from the neighborhood travel through also as well an an occasional bear.

The sun coming up over the mountains hitting the water of Watauga Lake at the foot of the lawn is a great way to start each day. And a full moon shining on the lake at night....an even better way to finish a day.