A tale of great customer service

Last year, at Valentine's day, my mother-in-law bought our daughter a pink, stuffed cat. Pinky, as he's been named, is my daughter's "favorite and best!" Pinky sleeps with her every night and comes down every morning to sit with her as she has breakfast or watches TV. Out of the last four show-and-tells at school, she has taken Pinky to show off four times. I'm not exactly sure how to make this clear to you, but....

She really loves this cat!

My wife and I live in terror of the day something happens to Pinky. Since we got our new dog, we've found she has a fondness for chewing on stuffies. Since he is well loved each day, Pinky spends a lot of time in the washing machine and has lost a lot of his luster. You can see this clearly in this picture with him and a not-so-loved sibling.



So, on a whim, we decided to look around some to see if we could find another kitty just like Pinky we could keep on hand as a "spare". Now, we know clearly that should we need to replace Pinky, it isn't going to be a one for one swap. She'd know immediately it wasn't him. Our planned cover story is that Pinky's brother came to town to be her friend since Pinky got lost. Or, something like that.

After poking around for a few, I decided one night to just look at Pinky's tag. Sure enough, the name of the company, Galerie USA, was there along with a URL. Score! I was a little discouraged at first as it appeared they might not deal directly with individuals, but figured I'd drop them a line all the same.

I relayed basically the same story to them as I have now to you and a day later I got an e-mail back from someone in customer service with a picture attached of a stuffed pink cat. She wanted to know if this was him, and if so they could help us out right away. It wasn't the Pinkster, so I sent her one of what's left of our boy (note: see the above picture again). The next day, they replied right back with a picture of a brand new Pinky!

I replied that was our kitty and offered to pay however necessary to get him in hand and was told...nope, thanks, just send us your address, we'll send him out to you. Wow! When I sent the address, though, they told us they were sending...well, let's just go to the picture...



Yup, that's Pinky, second from the left, surrounded by THREE siblings! They sent us THREE! They arrived today and are waiting patiently for the day they can come out of their box in the closet (our second daughter is arriving next month, perhaps she will one day get her own Pinky).

Now, granted, this was a small gesture and probably cost them all of $2 to do this, but that's not the point. Joni, the lady I dealt with spent a couple of days e-mailing me back and forth trying to find the right toy and then shipped them out within minutes of confirming we had the right one. It made a big difference to this dad to know there are potentially a couple of future tears that could be avoided by our having something to fill the void should it ever come, and that means the world to me.

Thank you, Galerie, and especially Joni, for helping us out. You got 2012 off to a great start for us!

Kango Play Center and Academy

Today I once again got to spend some time in the morning with my family at Kango Play Center and Academy. Located in Henrietta*, Kango is an indoor playground/kid entertainment facility.



Similar to The Sandbox in Fairport, Kango offers lots of fun stuff to help you whittle down all of that extra energy your little one might have stored up. There's a bounce house with giant slide, a ginormous climbing gym, electronic games, slides, trikes and even a roller skating rink. They have a little cafe where you can get kid-friendly foods like pizza and burgers and the food's actually quite good.



But, the best part for parents: where ever your kid can go, you can go. That's right, done watching them have fun climbing up to the ceiling? No problemo, head on up and join 'em! Granted, the walkways up there are designed for kid-sized statures, but crawling around up there is just as much fun as running. Trust me. Just wear light clothes, it gets hot up there.



My wife and I ended up buying a membership ($80/year for a family, but save your receipts as they'll deduct previous admissions off of that) because Maeby just loves it there. We normally go during the mornings, so there aren't as many folks there, but even when it's crowded (like this morning for the Halloween party) it's not insane.



In the electronic gaming area, they have ski-ball and a number of other easy games that little kids can do well at. You get tickets for playing which can be turned in for those ever-so-valuable-when-you're-two little rubber bugs and dice that kids love so much. I really think it's one of her favorite parts of our visit to pick out her prize. Today she got a little blue ring that had googly eyes. :)



They also do day care and pre-school, so if you have need of services like that, I have to imagine it's a great place to put your kids. The staff is always present and the owners have been there every single time we have. They really do appear to love what they do, and it shows. It's a fun, safe place to let your kid be a kid for a few hours!

*Note: it's located in the Eagle's Landing office park which is a new one across from Bowl-A-Roll bowling. When you go in into the park, stay to your left and follow the road around the curve. When you get to the main parking lot, you'll see Paychex on the left, Kango's in the building on the right.

Ya gotta let the good days just happen

Last night at work I received a frantic call from our babysitter. Her daughter had bonkered herself on the edge of a table and was bleeding profusely. Since my boss is a bit more flexible and my wife was loaded down with appointments at work, I headed out to pick up my daughter.

I arrived to find our other friend covering for the babysitter and my daughter thoroughly engaged in an episode of Wonder Pets in which the team, through teamwork, attempt to rescue a baby chimp from a space capsule before it's hit by a meteor. I won't spoil the episode for you, but it is a nail biter!

We headed out and had a good time talking and singing the Wonder Pets theme when I noticed a giant Tim Horton's cup dancing around in front of the store around the corner from our babysitter's place. Hmmm...what's that on his sign? Free...Iced Cap?!? Oh, hell yeah! We pulled around the corner and into the lot just in time to see employees heading out with a tray full of my favorite icy treat! "You want one?" they asked. Duh!

Back on our journey home, we passed by the airport. Whenever she & I are in the car, I always look out to the northeast as that's where the planes come in from. I've been waiting for a time when I could pull over and let her catch a glimpse of a plane coming in extremely closely, and tonight did not disappoint. I saw something coming in, and it looked like I had enough time, so I raced into the parking lot of the Sugarcreek and jumped out of the car. I pulled her out quickly and stood her up on the trunk of the car with just second to spare before this roared overhead:



Since it's not that clear from the photo, that's a Hercules C-130, one of my favorite military planes. This graceful, prop-powered behemoth was the perfect plane for her first close-up. She practically fell over trying to keep an eye on it and she let out a loud giggle as it roared past. I said "Wow, was that cool or what? You could almost touch it!" "I can touch it?" she asked? Maybe someday, Sweetie, when I take you to your first airshow. :-)

We got home, and once I convinced her she couldn't have chocolate for dinner no matter how many times she said it, we decided on soup. But, we didn't have any that either of us wanted. So, we headed over to my least favorite store, Walmart and grabbed a couple of cans of Chicken & Stars which we shared. Although it was fun introducing her to this childhood favorite, I think we'll wait a while before trying it again. Who knew it could take a two year old an hour and a half to get every last star from the bottom of her bowl...

After dinner, we played for a bit and then got her ready for bed. She went down easily and Daddy headed down to spend some quiet time with his computer before Mommy came home....which had its own levels of fun we'll gloss over... ;-)

Oh, and this finally arrived!!



That's a "Remembrance of the Daleks" Collector's Set. Only available in the UK, our good friend Michelle (the babysitter that started this tale) was able contact family to get it over to me. Ever since I first saw that episode a lifetime ago I've wanted a Special Weapons Dalek, and I'm pretty sure this is the only time it's ever been available in miniature form. SQUEEE!!

Taken together, each of these are minor incidents, but together they made for one hell of a good night. Probably one of the best I've had in a long time. I'm sorry Michelle's daughter had to get five stitches for it to happen, but I certainly wouldn't trade it for anything!

Sentences childless people are not likely to hear

"Mommy, what's this?"

"Ugh, it's a booger Maeby.  Wipe it on the napkin."

"No."

"Maeby, give me the booger!!"

"Noooooooooooooo!!!"