I'm a recovering newsgal adjusting to life as a stay-at-home mom in a new town, Greenville, South Carolina. What's news to me is a brave and very new world these days but the journalist in me still wants to contribute.

aka the random writings of sally buffalo

Oh Christmas tree

Wed, 12/22/2010 - 19:41 — sallybuffalo

Due to technical issues, See photos here.

Our Chirstmas tree -- the first for the Buffalo-Taylor family -- is oddly perfect.

It's just not our thing. We procrastinate, and then we come through in the end with somewhat modified (some would say half-assed) results.

At Halloween, for instance, we bought one small pumpkin, never carved it, bought Cole a pajamas costume and took him trick-or-treating to one house (though really that was his decision, owing to the tantrum he threw over the whole thing).

This time, it almost magically worked out in our favor. It's a Christmas miracle.

Our visit to DC: a slideshow

Thu, 11/04/2010 - 20:23 — sallybuffalo


Play from YouTube

Dear United: A customer complaint

Sun, 09/19/2010 - 20:42 — sallybuffalo

I am writing in the hopes of finding a sympathetic ear who will agree to reimburse us for the minor out-of-pocket costs we incurred after an unpleasant experience with your airline recently.

The grand total is $20, to repair a car seat broken by United baggage handlers.

Yes, I learned through a lengthy ordeal with numerous inconveniences and multiple trips to the airport (with a baby in tow), that United considers checked car seats “limited release,” not covered by the same damage policies as other baggage.

But the term “limited release” is not anywhere on your web site, which I referenced for information on checking a car seat before we traveled, and was never mentioned to me when I called the airline to ask about the same. Nor was it mentioned by the agents who checked the car seat, either on our trip out to Kalispell or the return, or by the agent to whom we first reported the damage.

I ironed a valance. For real.

Sun, 09/12/2010 - 15:34 — sallybuffalo

Just weeks ago even this is not something I would have foreseen.

I didn’t even know what a valance was, to start. Then we moved into this house and there were these ugly, frilly things hanging over the windows. Simply removing them was not an option, since someone had mauled the walls hanging the things. That would mean spackling and painting and that was not going to happen in this rental.

So I learned that they were called valances and that it’s not uncommon to spend $50 (and probably a stupid lot more) on each one of them.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen either. Thankfully some fairly quick research revealed that Target sells no-frills, solid-colored valances for $10. All right, $30 for a mild, low-cost improvement to the place.

Mission: Get my s@%! together

Thu, 09/09/2010 - 20:09 — sallybuffalo

So part of my quest for balance involves organizing the family life. (Hence my post on Google Tasks.)

We’ve been operating on triage for quite a while now. Ronnie and I were still combining possessions from his move to California when Cole and all his accessories and complications came along. And then we moved back to Ronnie’s townhouse on the East Coast, where he still had a bunch of stuff, and acquired a bunch of new stuff to optimize the place. And then we moved to Greenville, where we had more space, so hey, why not bring it all along, throw in some new purchases and then add on a truck-load of even more stuff from my London-bound sister.