Six Great States

I’m not a fan of hair salons, be they snobby ones on Newbury Street in Boston, or ones who like being snobby at the mall chain places. I’m always looking for good ways to care for and style my hair at home.

We’ve been having a lot of heat and humidity here lately, which makes for some bad hair days. I have straight hair, which is less of a problem…but what about those women who have naturally curly hair? The humidity makes it go wild, and it is totally unmanageable!

If you are one of these women, and you don’t want to be demeaned and talked down to by snobs at hair salons, there is an answer. Try a ceramic flat iron. With one of these, you can easily and safely straighten your hair at home.

My friend Kat lives in Florida, where heat and humidity are the norm. She has long, heavy, curly hair. She also lacks the money for expensive salon treatments, She got one of these flat irons, and swears by it. I’ve seen what she looks like with her long, STRAIGHT hair, and she looks gorgeous!

For less than the cost of one pricey salon treatment, one of these wonderful hair appliances can be yours. As I said, I will never need one myself, because I have stick-straight hair…but this is a public service announcement for those of you ladies who could use such a thing!

The other day, I posted this rant about the MBTA and their Charlie card system.  Well, it gets better.

So I didn’t know how much I had on my card…I don’t get to the stations much in order to refill my cards, since I don’t ride the T that much.  I had to go to a doctor’s appointment in Medford today, and I tried using my card on the bus across the street from my house.  It only had a nickel on it, so I had to pay the surcharged fare in cash.

I was supposed to have a ten minute layover at the Malden station before my bus connection to Medford came.  But thanks to the 106 being late, I had less than five minutes.  I figured that I could quickly put more money on the Charlie card and still catch the next bus.  And I WOULD have been able to…if the damned machine could read my credit card!

But it couldn’t.  I tried another card, that didn’t work, either.  That was when I said, screw it, I’ll pay cash again…but then I saw the 101 bus LEAVING.  That meant I had to wait a half an hour for the next one.

My appointment was for 2:20, and if I’d gotten on that bus, I’d have arrived at the office at around 1:50.  Taking the later bus meant that I just might barely make it on time.  Still, I called the doctor’s office to let them know that I night be a little bit late.

While waiting, I tried every single Charlie machine in that station, in an effort to get one to put the damned twenty bucks on my card.  I have two MasterCards, one from PayPal, one from our bank, and I was trying both of them.  Most of the machines could not read either card, no matter how many times I tried.  And yeah, I put in in just as the little picture showed.

I didn’t use cash because I only had a few bucks on me…no time to find an ATM, and then, the machine might not like the bills I put into it.

FINALLY, I got one of the machines to take my PayPal MasterCard.

And, in case you want to leave a smart-assed comment about how perhaps there was something wrong with my cards…save it.  I used the bank MasterCard to pay my co-pay at the doctor’s office, they swiped it, and it worked just fine.  It’s not my cards, it’s their damned stupid machines.  Par for the course with the MBTA.

This is why they need to get this online shit going for refilling the cards.  If I could have refilled my card before I left the house, none of this would have happened, and I would not have been late for my appointment.

Having the 2:10PM 101 bus arrive ten minutes late didn’t help, either.

But they’ve got me by the balls…either use a Charlie card, or pay a surcharge.  And they know that they do have people without cars by the balls.  You know damned well that when Mike isn’t at work with the car, we drive to places, rather than use the T.  But sometimes, I have no choice.

MBTA, if you are going to have machines that take credit and debit cards…can you at least make sure they flucking WORK?  Considering the outrageously high fare I paid to go to a place that would have cost me 52 cents in gas if I’d been able to drive, that’s the least you can do.

I hate the MBTA.

…at Old Sturbridge Village. From the newsletter:

More than 2,000 advance tickets to the July 4th evening fireworks celebration at Old Sturbridge Village have already been sold. Because of the brisk pace of advance ticket sales, Village organizers say the event is on track to set attendance records and they are urging members and visitors to reserve space by purchasing advance tickets online at http://www.osv.org/. Cost is $10 per person; children under 3, free.

After a full day of July 4th fun ending at 5:00 p.m., OSV will reopen from 6:00 - 10:00p.m. offering music, magic, family games and activities followed by the fireworks display at dusk. Activites and events include:

6:00 - 19th-Century Magic with Robert Olson (in the Parsonage Barn)
6 to 8 - Quinebaug River Boat Ride ($3 fee; under age 3 free; 15-minute ride)
6 to 8 - The Heritage String Band (on the Common near the Towne House)
6:30 - Reading of the Declaration of Independence by State Senator Stephen M. Brewer (on the Common)
6:45 - Sack Races (near the Playground)
6:45 - 19th-Century Magic with Robert Olson (in the Parsonage Barn)
7:00 - Lucky Bob the Comedic Juggler (on the Common near the Center Meetinghouse)
7:00 - Pie-Eating Contest (next to the Center Meetinghouse)
7:15 - Water Balloon Toss (near the Playground)
7:30 - Lucky Bob the Comedic Juggler (on the Common near the Center Meetinghouse)
7:30 - Pie-Eating Contest (next to the Center Meetinghouse)
7:45 - 19th-Century Magic with Robert Olson (in the Parsonage Barn)
7:45 - Sack Races (near the Playground)
8:00 - Pie-Eating Contest (next to the Center Meetinghouse)
8:00 - Lucky Bob the Comedic Juggler (on the Common near the Center Meetinghouse)
8:15 - Water Balloon Toss (near the Playground)
8:30 - Pie-Eating Contest (next to the Center Meetinghouse)

Bring a picnic or enjoy one of our many dining options at the Bullard Tavern, Village Grille, Little Cakes, Oliver Wight Tavern, Village Cafe and two special venues just for July 4th - a Seafood Shack offering steamed mussels, clams, New England Clam Chowder, and Lobster Rolls and a Hot Dog, Hamburger, Sausage & Ale Stand. Soft drinks, beer and wine will also be offered for sale. See all July 4th dining options.

Don’t miss the fun and fireworks - get your tickets online now!

We thought about going to this, but it’s a bit of a hike.  But if you’ve never visited OSV before, this would be a great time to check it out!

Seven meals for seven bucks a pop, all during the seventh month of the year. In these days of high prices for everything, doesn’t this sound good?

Well, the Halfway Cafe is doing just that! During the month of July, you can choose from any of the following tasty entrees, for only $7 a pop!

Shrimp Scampi Ravioli - Shrimp filled ravioli, finished in a scampi sauce served with mixed greens.

Mexican Lettuce Wraps - Grilled marinated fajita seasoned chicken with tricolored tortilla strips on lettuce leaves served with salsa, sour cream, shredded cheddar, avocado, and flame roasted corn and peppers.

Buffalo Mac & Cheese - Creamy macaroni & cheese tossed with buffalo chicken, baked with herb bread crumbs.

Calzone - Our own dough filled with Italian sausage, peppers and onions, with mozzarella and marinara.

Pulled Pork Sandwich - BBQ pulled pork on a toasted roll served with cole slaw & Halfway fries.

Asiago Ham & Cheese Panini - Virginia ham, swiss cheese grilled apples, and whole grain mustard on grilled Asiago focaccia served with Halfway fries.

Spicy Turkey Salad - Grilled marinated turkey tenderloins in a spicy Cajun dressing, with peppers and onions, served on a bed of summer rice salad.

This is not fancy gourmet cuisine, but it’s tasty enough, and you can’t best it for seven bucks! We’ve only eaten at the Marlborough location, but I imagine the food at all of the other locations is the same. In addition to Marlborough, you can visit the Halfway Cafe in Dedham, Watertown, Canton, Holbrook or Marshfield.

If you go to their website, you can sign up for their email list, where you can get a coupon good for a free meal for your birthday.

The Halfway Cafe has something for everybody…tables so that the whole family can dine, and a separate bar area which is a great place for watching your favorite Boston sporting events.

So, if you think you can’t afford to go out to eat, think again!

…WHEN exactly are you gonna let people re-up their Charlie Cards online?  As it says on your website…

Card users pay only the standard T fare while ticket users often pay a surcharge. In 2008, card users will be to access Charlie Online to add value, sign-up for “No-Worries Protection” to insure the card from theft or loss and auto-reload the card.

Newsflash!  2008 is half over now!  Will this happen sometime this year, or not?

I am frustrated because I have a plastic Charlie Card, and I have no idea how much money is on it.  I don’t ride the T that much, so it’s not like I have a commute and walk past Charlie machines every day.  Nope…I am sitting here, in my house, with no way to put money on the card so that I can walk across the street and get on the bus.  And if I don’t have enough money on the card, and have to pay cash, I’ll get hit with the surcharged fare.

You know how, on the commuter rail, you can buy tickets on board the train?  But if you are buying a ticket on board, when you got on the train at a place that has ticket booths, such as North Station, they hit you with a surcharge.  This, I see as reasonable.  But if a passenger gets on the train at one of the smaller stations that does not have a ticket window, the surcharge is waived.    They don’t make people drive to a further away station just to buy a ticket at a window.

But the way the Charlie thing is now set up, I DO have to make a special trip to a T station so that I can find out how much is on my card, and put money on it.  My feeling is that the T waive the cash surcharges, on buses only, until the online account management stuff is up and running.  Then they can put the surcharges back, to get people to use either the machines or the online account management system.

I don’t think they should waive it on the trains, because you are at the train station, where they have Charlie machines.  The last time I looked out the window, there was NOT a Charlie machine at the bus stop across the street.  Probably a good thing when I think about it, in this neighborhood, it would probably get vandalized anyway.

I kind of feel that the infrequent T rider is being penalized by the bus surcharge thing.  I have a doctor’s appointment in Medford on Wednesday, to which I must take the bus.  Why call my husband out of work to take me, when it’s easy enough to get there on the bus?

So I guess I’ll have to pay the inflated cash fare, and when I get to the Malden Station, if I have enough time between bus connections, I can re-up my card.  The only other thing I can do is wait until Mike comes home, and make a special trip to a station fill the card ahead of time, so I’m not fumbling with coins and all on the bus.  But that uses gas.  Okay, not much gas, but still.

If I could do it online, I could have taken care of this in far less than the time it took me to write this post.  Get with the program already, MBTA!