Monday, May 30, 2005

E-Baying at the Moon

Fielded questions from E-Bay all week. People love it or hate it. Many who hate it write. Call us bad names. Tell us we are irresponsible. Write extremely polite responses back, knowing that will infuriate the snotty ones even more ~snicker~ At last the wild ride is finally over! After 24 bids, hundreds of questions, comments and hate mails, the Two Thousand Dollar French Fry Auction closed. The buyer was someone in the Kansas City area that wishes to maintain their privacy. The closing price was $51.00, which will go into the same fund Andrew's paychecks go into, to save for the repairs. All in all, it was quite an experience!I never dreamed how much anger something like this would incite. However, there was an outpouring of support, and letters from people who found the whole thing clever and amusing (as it was intended). And I got to really piss off some don't-know-how-to-take-a-joke jerks ~snort~ The-tired-little-auction-er Marti

Monday, May 23, 2005

We Got Interviewed on TV!

Middle Son wants to raise money to repair his mother's car sooner than he can save up the money for it, because it leaks when it rains, so he has put his French fry on auction at E-Bay. Tess Koppelman, Fox 4 TV News Posted:5/23/2005 9:35:02 PM Two Thousand Dollar French Fry For Sale Blue Springs, MO - So it's not really worth two-thousand dollars, but the Lawrence family calls it "The two-thousand dollar French fry," because that's exactly what it's worth to them. A couple of weeks ago, 19 year-old Andrew had to work late at McDonalds, and he got an order of fries for the drive home. "The fry fell on the floor," Andrew explained, "so I picked it up and didn't see the stop sign there and smack right into the car." It was his mother's car and it was just a couple of days after Mothers Day. "It was the worst call, 'mom, I wrecked your car,'" he said. Mom's reaction? "Oh Andrew!," Marti Lawrence said laughing. She rushed to the accident scene and saw no one was hurt. The bad news, though, the insurance would only cover the other drivers damage. The bills for the towing, the repairs to get the car drivable again, and the final cost to fix the damage all came to two-thousand dollars. So his mother made the plaque for Andrew, featuring the two-thousand dollar French fry. "I made the plaque for him as a reminder to never take his eyes off the road," she said. Then a friend gave them an idea. "Maybe we could sell it on E-bay." So it's there now, up for bids. "Right now it's not going for much," Andrew said. Marti says her son isn't trying to skirt his responsibility, he's going to pay for the damage. But maybe some kind soul out there knows what it's like to be a teenager, and make a mistake. After all, he's learned his lesson, "don't drive through stop signs and watch where you're going on the road, that's generally a good idea," he says chuckling. And next time, hold the fries. To check out Andrew's auction, click on the link: (Note - the auction is now closed, but I saved the page as it appeared) Tess Koppelman, Fox 4 News The-didn't-raise-no-dummies-only-bad-drivers Marti

Thursday, May 12, 2005

The Two Thousand Dollar French Fry

Got up at 4 AM to take Husband in to work, terrible storms raging. The body shop guy called and said he had my car ready early. Middle Son and I went down there together in Husband's car to pick up MY car. Husband's air conditioner needed to be fixed, so I called the mechanic (a different guy than the auto body guy) and asked if he could fix the A/C. Middle Son followed me with my car, and we dropped Husband's car off at the mechanic. I start to drive my car back home, and when we turn a corner it makes this awful clunk noise. So back to body shop guy we go. He gets out his hi-tech tools - a chain, a hammer and big jack-like device, and starts pounding and pulling and jacking some more on my smashed fender, to get it far enough away from the tire and wheel to stop the noise. He goes for a short test drive and it is still doing it, so he repeats the procedure. It was finally to the point where we could drive it and most of the time it didn't make the noises. Hadn't heard from the mechanic, so I called and they said his old A/C still ran on Freon, the now-outlawed coolant, and all of the fittings would have to be replaced before they could even test it! Dollar signs were dancing in my head! Daughter and I drove out to the Sprint office to pick up Husband (it finally stopped raining, thank God) and he came out, found us at the back of the parking lot, took one look at my smashed up car (he hadn't seen it) and said, "Damn that's ugly!" Like duh. We went by the mechanic and they had fixed his A/C, which cost a little over a hundred dollars, but he was afraid they were going to have to replace his compressor or something and it would be a lot higher, so that wasn't too bad. When we got home, there was a message that a DVD Daughter wanted for her birthday, but wasn't in stock, had come in from when we ordered it, so she and I went to pick up Middle Son at the end of his shift at McD, then the three of us went on up to the mall and got the DVD. Finally got story out of Middle Son on why he failed to stop. Says he was eating French fries, and dropped one, leaned down to pick it up. I glued a French Fry to a small wooden plaque with a label, "The Two Thousand Dollar French Fry" to serve a reminder of why he should always keep his eyes on the road. Fall asleep at midnight with some of my fingers glued together. The-sticky-and-exhausted-Marti

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

May Day, May Day, Son Has Wrecked Car

Middle Son asked if he could drive himself in to his job at McDonalds yesterday, because on Monday he had to work an hour overtime due to high volume, which also prevented him from being able to call and tell us, so we sat in the parking lot for an hour, waiting for him to get out. He left McDonalds at 7 PM last evening and headed home. He didn't make it. He is not injured (want to get that out there right away, to ease everyone's minds). He got T-boned at an intersection and the driver side of the car (MY car) is caved in from right behind the driver door (thank you God) to the rear wheel, which was shoved in so it was at a 45 degree angle when they pulled the vehicles apart. His first accident, let's put that in the scrapbook. The good news is that he is alive and unharmed.The bad news is I want to kill him. The accident was his fault. He had a stop sign, they did not. Both the driver and the passenger of the car that plowed into him said he didn't come to a complete stop. He was issued a ticket for failure to stop and has to go to court next month. (Aww, another first.) My car had to be towed and I now have to contact the insurance companies to find out what this is all going to cost him. I have to drive husband in to work and go pick him up, plus driving son to McDonalds and contacting mechanic, insurance agents, etc. Yes it IS the same car, the same side, as the door that was just repaired, previously held together with bungee cords. The dented-in area is just behind the door though, so it appears to be unaffected. When I called the auto shop guy to request an estimate he got a chuckle out of the coincidence. The makes-all-her-friends-feel-lucky Marti

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Daughter Turns 16 - Poem

OK, I want to know who slipped this teenager into the little bed I left a toddler in. I mean, she can NOT be 16 already! Wasn't she just in kindergarten? She is my BABY! Ain't gonna be no more babies, mama done turned the factory into a playground! ~snort~ Anyway, I wrote her an incredibly sappy poem - Happy birthday baby girl: Today my daughter turns sixteen Much of her day, will be routine She'll go to school, she'll see her friends It's only me this time transcends I see my baby, almost grown With lipstick now, and sweet cologne From infant into womanhood Doing the things, I knew she could Through all of time, we mothers watch As time carves yet another notch We laugh, we cry, we know it's true That she'll see things we never do The cycle turns, the days slip by Passing, like blinking of an eye I do not weep, I do not mourn The aging of this child, last born I smile at her, she smiles at me I know this is how things should be To future bright, I send this dove Forever feathered with my love The-way-too-sappy-mom Marti