My first response was to ask if they were out of the grilled chicken to which the KFC employee said no they were not. Then why can’t we have our free meal? It is not my fault that KFC got overwhelmed due to the fact that Oprah mentioned the offer on her show. What did they expect?

KFC made the following statement on their site:

We are so sorry, but due to the overwhelming response to our FREE Kentucky Grilled Chicken™ meal coupon, we can no longer redeem the free coupon at this time. But we will honor our commitment to giving you a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal.

Please visit a participating KFC restaurant for a rain check form. Complete the form, attach your original coupon , and give it to the KFC restaurant manager or postmark per the form’s instructions, by May 19, 2009, and we’ll send you a rain check for your free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal at a later date, plus a free Pepsi with our compliments. Your participating KFC restaurant will provide you with the form you need.

Please note that the redemption periods of the rain checks will vary. All other terms and conditions of the original free Kentucky Grilled Chicken coupon will apply.

Thank you for your understanding,
Roger Eaton
KFC® President

What a load of BS. I could understand if there were lines out the door and KFC simply couldn’t handle the volume on the day of our visit. That wasn’t the case however as there was nobody in line and maybe a few people in the restaurant who had already been served.

I suppose that many who are turned down go ahead and order something anyway. Why not? They are already there and obviously hungry.

Not this guy! My wife filled out the forms and we left. And to tell you the truth, I don’t care if I get the rain check or not. I think it is completely bogus of KFC not to honor the coupon and make me request a rain check. By doing so, they probably lost a couple of customers for life.

I’m not bitter. I just don’t like being lied to and will choose to get my bucket of chicken elsewhere. I can hear Churches and Popeye’s calling my name.

I leave you with KFC President, Roger Eaton’s apology as posted on YouTube.

Well, Roger, apology accepted but KFC still sucks!

What changed in my thinking? Unlike the pool of my youth, this one was self-cleaning and self chlorinating. In other words, it is virtually maintenance free… well almost.

The first year was great. The only maintenance the pool required was occasional skimming of leaves that had gathered on the surface as well as cleaning the skimmer and leaf trapper baskets once a week. The filters are a bit of a chore to clean but that only has to be done twice a year. I can honestly say that in the first year, all my worries about maintaining a pool from my youthful experiences was wiped away.

That changed the second and third years. Year number two brought on problems with high phosphate levels which would not allow the salt chlorinating system to produce enough chlorine to keep the pool’s water in good shape. I would regularly have to add small amounts of shock to the pool just to keep chlorine levels to where they should be. The third year I had problems with algae. This required more chemical treatments and lots of brushing. All the horrid pool memories of my childhood were coming back to haunt me.

At some point, the tile on the spillway for the Jacuzzi began to come off. I started a thread on a local Anthem forum looking for someone who was experienced with pool time. Sam McCraken of Blue Palm Pools answered my post and for about $120, he did a beautiful job repairing the tile. We got to talking about what I did for a living of which I told him that I was a search marketer. This interested him as he had a web site but was not getting any traffic. I explained how my company could help him improve his search visibility which would also help him to attract local traffic.

After some negotiating, we decided to barter. I would provide search marketing services for his site and he would maintain my pool on a weekly basis. I ended up having to completely redesign his site as it was in a crappy GoDaddy content management system, so not only did Sam now have a search marketer looking out for his online marketing efforts, he had a much better looking site that was a whole lot easier to update.

To date, both of us have been very happy about the arrangement. Sam has more business than he can handle right now, which is always a good problem to have. I no longer worry about my pool. In fact I have never enjoyed it so much because I don’t do anything to it anymore except swim in it. I don’t clean skimmer or leaf trap baskets. I don’t brush it. I rarely skim the surface. Most of all, I don’t worry about the chemical balance of the pool. Sam takes care of all those things and does it all very well.

So, if you live in the North Phoenix area and are looking for an awesome Phoenix pool service company, I highly recommend Blue Palm Pools.

Located in Galena Illinois, Chestnut Mountain has become a premier Midwest skiing destination with its nineteen trails that span 220 rolling acres with a total vertical drop of 475 feet.

The resort boasts state-of-the-art snow grooming and the largest snowmaking system in the Midwest. Chestnut’s hard working crew makes sure that the trails stay looking and feeling like fresh snow all the time. Thanks to two quads, four triple chair lifts, and three surface lifts, lines are virtually non-existent during the ski season.

Skiing is not the only activity Chestnut Mountain offers. Midwest snowboarding, Mississippi River cruises, mini golf, bike rentals and even a 2,050 ft Alpine slide are just some of many activities a traveler will find at this resort.

Not a skier but still looking for a special retreat? Chestnut Mountain offers some very exclusive Galena lodging options and amenities. How about an indoor pool, sauna, and jacuzzi, a game room, spa services, casual dining and free wireless Internet (very important for the tech-savvy traveler). Their rustic lodge includes one hundred twenty comfortable rooms, making this full service resort the perfect choice for everything from group and family trips to romantic getaways.

Be sure to check their events calendar for a list of things to do in Galena Il where you can even sign up to receive text messages on special promotions as well as ski conditions. They also offer news via email as well.

Chestnut Mountain is also happy to cater to conference, banquet and even weeding events with their 5,400 square feet of meeting and function space.

To check availability, visit their online reservations system or for more information, be sure to download their full-color brochure (PDF file).

Originally constructed in 1923 as the lodge for the San Francisco Elks Club, Kensington Park is one of seven boutique hotels owned by Personality Hotels. The organization moved into the building in 1984 and occupy the main lobby and floors five through 12. The Elks Lodge and the Post Street Theatre occupy the remaining floors.

We have stayed there twice now, the first time in August of 2007 and more recently in February of 2009. Both times we stayed in a king sized “Royal Court” room. These rooms are a little larger than the others and feature the following ammentities:

• Monogrammed Waffle/Cotton Robes
• In-room Coffee Makers
• CD/Radio Alarm Clocks
• Designer Duvet Covers, Feather Beds & Down Pillows
• Daily Newspaper
• Slippers

A couple of additional special touches in the room include a beautiful ornate ceiling fan, a rarity for hotel rooms, and a comfy fur throw on the bed, my wife’s favorite amenity. The hotel also provides complimentary coffee and tea in the mornings and tea and sherry from 4pm – 6pm.

Kensington Park Hotel King Bed Room

The king sized is extremely comfortable and makes getting out of bed each morning a difficult task. I also enjoyed the fact that there was a good sized flat screen television and free wireless Internet. You also can’t beat the 12th floor view overlooking Nob Hill (pictured below).

Our view of Nob Hill from Kensington Park Hotel

I’d also like to add that the guestrooms themselvesunderwent a $1.5 million restoration in Spring 2008.

Over the years, we’ve had good and bad lodging experience while visiting San Francisco. That is why Kensington Park Hotel is a safe choice for us each time we visit now and in the future. It’s clean, has all the amenities we enjoy, the staff are fabulous, it is conveniently located to all the areas we love to visit and best of all, it is very affordable for a San Francisco hotel ($127 per night).

So the next time you visit San Francisco, if you are looking for a clean and elegant boutique hotel experience near Union Square, check out Kensington Park Hotel. You’ll be glad you did.

It is one of those small quaint restaurants where the kitchen is adjacent to the dining room. I always enjoy peering into the kitchen as cooks create their delicacies. The aromas of garlic, basil, red sauce, and grilled meats add to the experience.

We visited during the lunch hour, beginning our dining experience with a bottle of 2004 Chianti Valle Antica and Tomatoes Caprese. Fresh and tasty house bread was also supplied. All were pleasing to the palette.

For our entrees, my wife ordered the Fettuccine Leonardo with cream sauce, fresh tomatoes and chicken and myself, wanting to satisfy a craving for great Italian sausage and red sauce, ordered the Spaghetti Salsiccia. The pastas, sauces and meats were all extremely satisfying. Portions were very generous, so much so that we decided to skip the opportunity to sample their deserts.

The atmosphere itself was very pleasant with fine art from the Mona Lisa era displayed everywhere. Not only are there statues in abundance as well as fine art on the walls, a look up at the ceilings will reveal very detailed artwork, much like you might see in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

We will definitely visit again on our next trip.

Located in the heart of North Beach, San Francisco, Mona Lisa serves authentic Italian cuisine. They have an extensive selection of homemade pastas, seafoods, meats and pizza. Each dish is prepared with fresh ingredients, homemade sauces and a touch of Southern Italy.

So the next time you are in North Beach, San Francisco, check out Mona Lisa.

With that I give you my personal top 5 picks.

1. Cocoa Cola Heist

2. Pepsi Refresh Anthem

3. Pepsi Max – I’m Good

4. Bridgestone Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head

5. Pedigree Adoption Drive

And I must not forget one commercial that I found extremely stupid which I vote “the most annoying Superbowl ad” – CareerBuilder.com.

I might ad that YouTube has created a channel featuring what appears to be ALL the Superbowl commercials and are allowing viewers to vot for their favs. The site is located at http://www.youtube.com/adblitz with voting open until February 4th.

So if you are looking to further your education and obtain some kind of college degree, what is the best way to fit that into a busy schedule? The answer is online degrees.

While there are many choices for online degrees and online college courses, one of the best sites I have come across is EarnMyDegree.com. Not only do they have a site that is extremely user friendly and easy to use, they offer a large selection of options to choose from.

Claiming to be the world’s leading free directory of online education, connecting millions of prospective students with online college options, they allow users to search opportunities by subject, by degree level, by school and even by campus location.

Here are just some of the online degree opportunities they offer:

• Bachelors Degrees
• Business Degrees
• Criminal Justice Degrees
• Doctoral Programs
• Masters Degrees
• MBA Degrees
• Nursing Degrees
• Paralegal Degrees
• Psychology Degrees
• Teaching Degrees

Featured schools include AIU Online, Capella University, Kaplan University and University of Phoenix.

They also have a learning center which offers concise information on the benefits of online education, a look at online colleges vs. traditional schools, the growing popularity of online education and so much more.

With all the options available for online learning, EarnMyDegree allows users to easily discover a host of online and distance learning programs in their prospective field of study—from undergraduate to advanced degrees to professional certificates. Thanks to multiple levels of information about each school and its offered programs, you’re able to get an accurate sense of which schools and programs are worth exploring and learning more about.

Last night as I was browsing through the stations there was little to grab my attention, that is until I navigated to Bravo which was airing the movie Heat starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pachino. I’ve seen the film before but why not watch it again as I finish a bottle of vino. I started to watch the movie around 10 pm however I believe it actually started at 9pm. It was scheduled to run till 1 am in the morning. Now the original running time for Heat is about 171 minutes so the extra hour and then some would have to be filled with commercials. I figured I’d watch the movie for a couple of hours and then hit the sack.

I ended up watching the entire movie (at least from my starting point) or should I rather say I watched a ton of commercials with bits and pieces of the movie in between. Really, I felt like I watched three hours of commercials rather than three hours of a movie.

I began to time this at the very end. Bravo would show about 6 minutes of movie and run 5 minutes of commercials. Do the math and one is quick to realize that some of the original movie was cut just to fit in all the commercials.

It is bad enough to sit through a three hour movie and have to watch that many commercials but in Bravo’s case, the majority of the commercials were for their own shows. I watched the same commercials for Top Chef and Real Housewives of Orange County over and over again. It seemed like every 6 minutes of movie and I was forced to watch commercials for these two Bravo shows as well as many other repetitive and internal commercials.

Now I realize why it has been forever since I watched anything on Bravo – they suck! And it will be forever again. In fact I was so frustrated of having the climax of Heat interrupted with the same repetitive commercials Bravo was airing that I vow to never watch the station again.

In fact, I think the next time I want to watch any movie that I come across on a commercial-driven television station, I’ll just jump on my PC and add the film to my Netflix queue.

Frank Alford, who owns several single-family rental homes, said it’s his way of protesting higher taxes, reported WLKY-TV in Louisville, Ky.

When Mr Alford recently walked into the Floyd County treasurer’s office, a deputy clerk immediately recognized Alford because last year, he paid his taxes with dollar bills.

Alford loaded a garbage can with $21,333 in Susan B. Anthony dollar coins, and he carried a sign that read, “Property taxes gone wild.”

“I’m letting them know I’m a very unhappy taxpayer,” he said.

Alford claims that his property taxes have gone up 48 percent since 2006, and tax relief recently passed by the Indiana Legislature has done nothing for people who own rental property.

And this may not be his last protest.

“If we don’t get some relief, it may be in quarters, dimes or pennies next year,” he said. “I’m angry at them.”

I have to agree that property taxes are way out of line with the current real estate slump. However, knowing that the government is always a couple of years behind in adjusting tax rates, I am not surprised.

Maybe actions such as this will get the government to move quicker in lining up tax rates with current property values. Or maybe they will simply say, “Money is money so long as the tax is paid!”

Original story at wftv.com.

This among other reasons is why I will never buy a Chrysler and GM product again.

My question is, what kind of business can stay behind its competition for years and years making a product that in many ways is inferior, steadily losing market share along the way and then ask the government to bail them out? Obviously ones that are more focused on government lobbying than their customers.

The sad thing is whether you have ever bought a Chrysler or GM product no longer matters. We are all their customers now (at least if you pay your taxes) as the $17.4 billion is non other than taxpayer money. I among many Americans did not approve this action and this is one of many reasons why I am now boycotting Chrysler and General Motors.

While I sympathize with American workers who stand to lose their jobs, at the same time I’d advise them to seek a new career or possibly even look for work at a competing auto maker. I just don’t have confidence that Chrysler and General Motors are going to be able to fix problems that have been piling up for years and years in just a few months. This essentially means they will be back early next year asking for more of taxpayer money.

When questioned as to whether the companies should be left to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy so they can restructure, those against this course of action argue that consumer confidence would not be good when a company is in bankruptcy. In other words, who is going to buy a car from a company in bankruptcy? Is borrowing taxpayer money despite overwhelming disapproval by those taxpayers any better for consumer confidence ? I think not!

As far as the arguement that the bailout is necessary because so many American jobs will be lost to foreign auto makers, do not many of the foreign companies have plants here in the United States?

Honda was the first Japanese automaker to produce automobiles in the United States beginning with an auto plant near Marysville, Ohio, where production of Honda Accords began on Nov. 1 1982. Today, the Marysville Auto Plant manufactures the Accord Sedan and Coupe models, and the Acura TL on two assembly lines using domestic and globally sourced parts.

Toyota has eight plants in the United States with its largest in Georgetown, Kentucky. This plant is Toyota’s 2nd largest facility outside Japan.

Nissan, Hyundai and Kia are additional foreign owned auto makers that have manufacturing plants located in the United States. I’m sure there are others. And who works at these plants – foreigners? No but good ol’ Americans.

While many Americans would lose their jobs if Chrysler and GM were to go out of business, there seems to be plenty of opportunity for employment in the auto industry within the United States.

So I’m through with Chrysler and General Motors. My last vehicle was a Jeep Grand Cherokee which I enjoyed thoroughly until it started to fall apart after 100,000 miles. Now besides my old 1967 Ford Mustang, I’ll most likely stick to Toyota, Honda or Nissan products.

I’m pissed that two failing auto makers got my money without my approval and that does not make me want to do business with them.

I can only hope that others will follow suit, not so American workers can lose their jobs and two iconic auto makers can go down in flames but so that the U.S. Government will learn a powerful lesson not to continue to offer these bailouts which are in all reality bad investments and dangerous to the stability of our economy.