Hallelujah!
Mood:  celebratory
I finally found Fluff in a local store! The local Food Lion down the street a bit carries Fluff. I was in email contact with Durkee Mower recently and they told me that I should be able to find Fluff at Food Lion and Wal-Mart. I called Food Lion customer service, since I have never seen Fluff in their store. I also contacted the local Wal-Mart store.

The local Food Lion store called me and verified that they now carry Fluff. It is on aisle six, as I recall. We went by there today to get some and do a little shopping. We did indeed find tubs of Fluff. The shelf space was never there before and a new shelf tag was evident in front of the Fluff stock, so it is obviously a newly stocked product there. Whooo hooooo!!!!!!!!!

Sad news that I read yesterday
A good friend of mine told me briefly in an email about something that happened to his ex-wife. She died on May 14th of this year. I know the cause of death, but not many details. I didn't know Lori Conti well, but Tony, her ex-husband is a good friend of mine. I don't get to see Tony much because of our busy schedules. I emailed him recently about starting an investment club, as we had talked about years ago. In a real quick note, he told me that Lori had died. I looked up her obituary on the net. Perhaps I will get to see her again.
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Lori Magers Conti, 46, died Saturday, May 14, 2005.

She was born on April 28, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana; she was the daughter of the late Charles F. Magers, II and Marilyn Jo Hopper Magers.

Lori is survived by the love of her life, her son, Alexander Donato Conti, 8; by her five siblings and their families: JoEllen Magers Golberg and husband, John and their sons, Charles (Lori's Godson) and James Flaherty and Norris and Eric Golberg, of Wakefield, RI, Amy Lynn Fortescue and husband, James and their daughters, Meredith Dixon and husband, Stanley and Margaret Jo, of Washington, NC, Mary Catherine Feeley and husband, Michael and their son, Kevin (Lori's Godson), of Raleigh, Charles Magers, III of California; and Jay Magers and wife, Nicole and their daughters, Ansleigh and Elyse, of Raleigh.

Lori attended Calvert High School in Tiffin, Ohio and briefly attended Ohio State University. She received her B.S. degree from Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, NC. She lived in Wilson for many years, where she was a noted community volunteer. Lori was especially proud of her role in the fund-raising drive for the creation of the Wilson Arts Center.

Lori was a beautiful woman and a loving, generous person, who gave of herself unselfishly to all she knew. She was known for her infectious sense of humor, smile and always found a way to make those around her laugh. Lori was musically talented, possessed a beautiful singing voice, played the piano, and also was very involved in community theatre and drama throughout her life. She loved to act, sing and instilled that love of singing in her son and in her nieces and nephews.

Lori often volunteered in her son's school and one of her joys was to watch Alexander play sports.

Lori lived her life with faith in Jesus Christ, and a true believer in life eternal. She now rests with God, and with our parents. Good Bye for now Sissy, we love you and we will miss you, but we know we will see you again on that great day when all tears shall be wiped away.

Family will receive friends on Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Mitchell Funeral Home (7209 Glenwood Ave.)

A funeral mass will be said on Friday, May 20th at 10 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church,11401 Leesville Road.

In lieu of flowers, a trust fund has been established for Lori's son: Alexander D. Conti,c/o Joseph G. Magers, 109 Ivy Tree Place, Cary, NC 27519.

Posted by troylaplante at 7:10 AM EDT

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A couple of things
There is an amusing development in my candidacy for town council here in Selma. I posted some on my other blog. It is worth the read.

It is amazing that liars will continue to lie. The woman who lied about her book she purchased from us, complained, and shipped back lied again. We had an email exchange in which she accused me of various things such as needing the last word, being nasty to her, falsely representing my product, and being spiteful was exactly that to me. I just didn't let her get away with it and she got upset. When she started throwing around accusations, I simply put things in their truthful perspective but that was "nasty", according to her. She was condescending and rude after I sent her a professional email that was actually rather helpful and offered a refund. Anyway, she left us negative feedback. Well, that is what feedback is for, so I left her truthful feedback. Sure enough, she left a lying comment on her own account (Amazon lets people do that) and basically tried to dismiss my comment. I wouldn't mind, except that SHE LIED! Oh, well.

Yesterday, I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things I wanted and are only available at that particular store. One such item was Marshmallow Fluff. I don't mean the horrid Marshmallow Kreme by Kraft or any such thing. I mean Fluff. I mean the stuff made in Lynn, Massachusetts by Durkee Mower, Inc. Some of the tastiest stuff on earth. The stuff I grew up with as a staple of life.

For years, I couldn't find Fluff anywhere. I had to import it. Whenever I went to New England on vacation, I would buy some. When my mom came to visit, she brought some. I would have some shipped from time to time. It made a great gift here in the South for a New Englander pining for Fluff.

Finally, Hannaford's opened stores here in North Carolina and started to carry brands from up North. I loved finding haddock in the fish market. The deli had provolone cheese. The meats were better and there was a selection. AND they had Fluff. Then, Hannaford's pulled out of North Carolina.

Lowe's Foods started carrying Fluff for a while. Lowe's in Benson closed down...one less Fluff outlet. The Lowe's in Clayton that I visited yesterday (and the only other one in the county, I think) no longer carries Fluff!!! Oh, the horror!!!

I knew that I could order online, but it is a bit expensive and I could get it in small quantities at Lowe's until now. I just ordered 12 tubs of Fluff. Hopefully, it will have the shelf life of Twinkies, some 20 years or so, but the FAQ on their web site said a year. Hopefully, we will be well stocked for a while and can give the joy of Fluff to others.

Click on the Fluff containers to hear the jingle for one of my favorite sandwiches and the namesake of my cat, "Fluffernutter". You will need the Quicktime plug-in in order to hear it. Or to hear another Fluff jingle in mp3 format, click here

I hate liars
Mood:  on fire
If there is one thing I can't stand, it is people lying to me. I have had a few people lie to me through email lately. That is a pet peave of mine. We sell our books on Amazon.com, and have for a while. We have achieved one of the best customer satisfaction ratings that you can get on Amazon. People with hundreds of times more sales than us that statistically have a better chance at getting more positive feedback don't get higher ratings than we do.

We ship books quickly and take care to list their descriptions accurately. Every once in a while, we get a whiner who did not read the book description carefully or just blows the age or wear on a book way out of proportion. There have been a few times where we literally said "book in poor condition" and people did complain that the book was just as we said it was. The funny thing is on the one I am thinking about, we were the only copy available for a reason: all the good copies were already sold.

Just earlier this week, we had a customer get their book within two days but complained about the description of the book. I informed her that the book was not in the described condition when it left our office. That was absolutely true. She wanted a refund, shipped the book back to us, and we got it today. She absolutely exaggerated about the bad condition of the book. I looked at it carefully and it was nowhere near as bad as she complained.

When I refunded her money (including shipping, which I didn't have to do), I let her know that we got the book back and she had grossly exaggerated the condition of the book. She sent me nasty, obnoxious, complaining emails and threatened me with harassment charges if I answered her back. Unbelievable. She lied, I caught her in a lie, and she all but cussed me out, and left me horrible feedback. Wow.

The funny thing is that she accused me of needing to have the last word in acknowledging her refund and exaggeration. She then zinged me a nastygram. That was funny, seeing the hypocrisy. So I decided that if I was going to be accused of needing the last word, I would oblige. My last email to her was "yawn".

This person was just plain a trouble maker looking for a fight. I don't mind working with a reasonable person who may not be the most happy customer in the world, but this woman (I can't use the term lady) was just plain mean, vicious, and nasty.

I have been lied to for a year by my HVAC contractor. This week, he should be getting a letter from my lawyer.

Election filing period ends today
I have been keeping a separate blog for the Selma Town Council election and happenings. For those who want to keep up to date, communicate with me, or just check me out, I figured that it would be something new and different. Here is one of the entries I put up today.

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Today is the last day to be able to file for election to office for the municipal election in November. To date, only two candidates have filed for Town Council. Jackie Lacy and Harry Blackley have filed for re-election to the council and for mayor, respectively. There are only two council positions open, and it looks like Jackie Lacy and myself will be in those two slots.

I was wanting to attend the next council meeting, which is this coming Tuesday night. However, the Johnston County Republican Party Executive Committe meeting is the same night. I was advised by the Chairman of the local Republican Party to attend, so I will most likely do so. There are still a few council meetings before the election, so I can get a much better feel of how things are handled here in town.

I got my first phone call from a concerned citizen today. She was upset about her noisy neighbors and wanted to know if the town has a noice ordinance. She got my answering machine at first, since I was not immediately available. I called her back in short order and had a pleasant call. She was unsure of her polling place for the upcoming election, so I referred her to the Johnston County Board of Elections. If you are not sure of your polling place, voting status, or have not registered to vote, please contact the Board of Elections. The link I just gave should get you contact information. October 14th is the deadline for registering to vote and the election is on November 8th.

Even if my election is a sure thing, I still want to talk to citizens and municipal groups. I would love to sit and talk with the local police and fire officials, public works employees, library workers, and concerned citizens

My thoughts exactly
Mood:  don't ask

This was just plain funny
I saw this t-shirt in a catalog. I thought it was just plain funny.

On the radio today and online
This is from today's WMPM news on their web site. They report regularly on local news in the Johnston County area. The day after I filed for office, the information was carried on the WMPM web site, the "News and Observer", and in the next edition of "The Selma News". It is good to know that the local news outlets are giving us information on local races. Hopefully, the news outlets will also ask candidates for their positions on different issues.

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Contested Races Develop For Benson, Clayton, Pine Level Town Councils - The filing period for this falls elections will end next week on Friday, August 5. In Smithfield, Norman Johnson has filed for mayor. Incumbent Councilmen Daniel Evans, Vic Ogburn and Harold Tharrington have all filed for re-election. In Selma, incumbent Mayor Harry Blackley is seeking two more years in office. Jackie Lacy and Troy Laplante have filed for the town board. In Clayton, six candidates have filed for two council seats: Robert Ahlert, Michael Grannis, Rev. Raymond Pittman, Bob Satterfield, Michael Starks, and Mike Whiting. In Benson, Don Johnson, who has been mayor since 1995, is seeking his sixth term. Incumbent Frederick Nelson has filed for town council along with Assistant Benson Fire Chief Robert Harper, Keith Curtis the son-in-law of Billy Parrish who is not running for re-election, and William Massengill Jr., director of operations for Wake Health Services in Raleigh are seeking three at-large commissioners seats. In Kenly, H.L. “Tootie” Hales has filed for mayor and Mark Smith has filed for council. In Pine Level, seven candidates are running for town council while Jeff Holt is seeking the mayor’s seat.

Anti-abortion
When I was young and stupid, I believed in the right for women to have abortions. Now that I have grown up, I am stongly opposed to purposeful termination of pregnancy. The womb should be a place of safety for a baby.

A friend forwarded on to me several pictures of babies and toddlers in humorous t-shirts. This one illustrates my twisted sense of humor in making my point in the above paragraph.

New kitten
Mood:  cool
My friend, Dave, has been offering us a kitten for a while. There have been a few litters of kittens born at his place in the last few months. Teresa has written about one of the kittens on her blog. Today, we took home one of the litter mates of the one shown on her blog.

Since Samantha died a week ago, I kind of knew that we would end up doing this. I didn't really want another kitten, but I figured we would end up with one. Another friend offered their older cat to us, as well. Dave had a fluffy tabby kitten we thought was adorable.

Since I went to Dave's house today to get my pick up truck, Teresa was hoping to get a kitten. We took the pet carrier and got the fluffy one we have been eyeballing. Teresa gave him a flea bath first thing. We took turns holding him while he was still wrapped in a towel. Finally, after he continued to shiver a bit, I suggested be blow dry him. He fluffed up nicely and slowed the shivering.

He is not an orange tabby, but more of a golden or butterscotch color. I was thinking of naming him Mr. Scott, or "Scotty" for short. Considering that James Doohan, who played Mr. Scott on the original Star Trek died four days ago and that the kitten is a butterscotch color, maybe it will work. We are still discussing the issue.

Teresa wants to give it a middle name of "Anthony", after Anthony Federov, of American Idol fame. I dunno about that one. I have had about all of the neck scarred, foreign little communist cheater I can stand for the moment. OK, OK, so I don't really think that about Anthony, but I know it will ruffle a few feathers of his fans, so I wrote that. Besides, if anyone is Googling his name, they may find this post. I actually like Anthony's singing and saw him in concert just a week ago.