Another!

Dear Southwest,

Today you sent me another credit card offer. I sent you a "cease and desist" on one of the last ones, but now I suspect the reason I get so many is that I am on your lists twice?

Fingers Crossed,

The Apt Wife

Ridiculous!

OK, so apparently people are re-thinking full body scanners because someone got ridiculed, but at the same time people are giving some cops grief for arresting someone and giving them a Miranda warning too quickly? Seriously?

Again!

Dear Southwest,

I didn't check my mail over the weekend, but it turns out you sent me ANOTHER offer letter for a credit card. So after a nice respite, we are up to two a week again? I won't hold this against you (anymore than I already do) since I know you can't have received my cease and desist quite yet.

Forgivingly,

The Apt Wife

Last Chance!

Dear Southwest,

Yesterday you sent me ANOTHER credit card offer. Today I am sending it back, with a plea for you (or the company who does this for you) to cease and desist. Otherwise, I will be tempted to create from these offer letters a very embarrassing piece of conceptual art.

Sincerely,
The Apt Wife

April Southwest Update

There was a good long stretch there where I thought perhaps the Southwest Credit Card offers had gone away. But, alas, one arrived yesterday. Still, there was a good 4 week stretch without one!

I will confess, I haven't called to try to stop them.

Rant: Leaving the Engine Running

When I lived in Manhattan, I had to walk down a street that was lined with USPS trucks in the morning. Nearly all of them left their engines running, turning the street into basically a huge carbon monoxide cloud that spewed black particles into my hair. Each morning I would fantasize about new ways to make them shut off their engines.

Ever since those days, I have had a pet peeve about people who leave their car engines running for no particular reason. For example, yesterday I spied a fellow in a black TransAm. He was parked at my supermarket, talking on the phone, and running his engine. It wasn't a hot day. There was no need for airconditioning. In fact, I can't help but think the sound of his engine would have interfered with the clarity of his call. 10 minutes later, still running, still on the phone.

As always, it is behaviour like this that leaves me baffled. Here are the possibly explanations I have arrived at so far. Please feel free to comment with your own:

1. He is trying to commit suicide. He doesn't realize he needs to be in an enclosed space or have something that hooks his exhaust directly to their car interior. Or he is trying to do it quite slowly.
2. His wife doesn't know he lost his job yet. He is hoping that the empty gas tank will make it look as though he went somewhere. Sadly, he is not smart enough to realize the odometer is going to give him away. It is this lack of brainpower that demonstrates why probably why he lost his job to begin with.
3. He doesn't know how to shut off the car (this explains a lot about the overall look of the TransAm. Perhaps it has been running since he bought it?)
4. He is preening. "Hey look at me! I have a car that runs!"

Shelf Liner: Old School?

We live in a pretty new apartment. I don't think we are the first to live here, but we are, at worst, probably the third.

Things like the kitchen cabinets are, therefore, pretty new. But, like many rentals, they are pretty cheap. From cleaning out the bottom of them, the laminate on them looks as though it is going to peel off, which leads me to wonder: should I have lined them with "shelf paper"? Or is this an anachronistic practice?

When I got my first apartment, more than 20 years ago, one of the first things anyone did was run down to the hardware store and buy some shelf liner. It was one of the ways of making the apartment your own (did you favor the cabbage rose pattern? or were you more of a geometric patter person?) Often this was necessary because the bottom of the cabinets was, well, gross. Other times you were just trying to cover the lining that was there before you.

As I have lived in newer and progressively nicer places, this habit has fallen away. Was it me? Or do people just not do this anymore in general?