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We have a tiny monster. He is way cute, is way little (5.5 pounds) and is IMPOSSIBLE to pill. And he's sick. The medicine he needs doesn't come in tuna flavor, so what's a person to do? Call Rachele...
We have a tiny monster. He is way cute, is way little (5.5 pounds) and is IMPOSSIBLE to pill. And he's sick. The medicine he needs doesn't come in tuna flavor, so what's a person to do? Call Rachele Berger! (North Seattle, Edmonds...that area). For a reasonable fee, she comes twice daily until the pills run out and gives Quizzer his medicine. If I try to pill the kitty I get scratches and he's mad at me for hours. Rachel is a professional vet tech, so I really don't mind if Quizzer is mad at her and it breaks my heart if he is mad at me, so in pops Rachele to the rescue! She can also come in and just play, clean the litter box and feed if you are gone, give insulin injections, subcutaneous fluids and all types of oral medication. Rachele also does dog duty: walking and training. She's compassionate and dependable. Thank you Rachele!
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Rebecca Ross is magic to work with! We hired her to consult with us on our home office design, and she gave us fantastic, workable advice that we put directly into use and ever since following her...
Rebecca Ross is magic to work with! We hired her to consult with us on our home office design, and she gave us fantastic, workable advice that we put directly into use and ever since following her simple recommendations, our office has never looked better, functioned as well or been as inviting and as livable after her intuitive, humane touch. After being traumatized by another designer (Elleire Cain) Rebecca came in and offered us simple, smart easy-to-follow instructions we could carry out and now our home office is a dream to work in. After our beloved cat, Cooper recently died, she came and lovingly cleared out his energy and helped me to regain the balance I had lost after his death. He was the office mascot, so it was important that he be honored and then ushered into the next place he needed to go after 17 loyal years.
But I digress. Rebecca also helped me with stacks of bills and receipts I had from a motor vehicle accident where PIP was beating me over the head with paperwork. Rebecca came and helped me arrange the piles of papers into simple easy to understand piles and labeled each pile: take action, put away, send to PIP, etc. She is gentle, humorous, kind and easy to communicate with. And there are no nasty surprises when the bill came. She openly discusses her fees up front and keeps her agreements. She shows up on time and follows though. She is direct, honest and after we were practically terrorized by another interior designer, she was a breath of spring air after a long, cold winter....
Thank you, Rebecca. If you ever get the chance to work with her, take it. She's fantastic.
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We hired Ellerie Cain for a consultation~~very specifically~~just on our home office. She proceeded to bulldoze her way though our entire house, not honoring any design decisions we had previously...
We hired Ellerie Cain for a consultation~~very specifically~~just on our home office. She proceeded to bulldoze her way though our entire house, not honoring any design decisions we had previously made and was already in place ("What's with the color blue in this room? Are you fully committed to it?" "Yes, as you can see, all of our furnishings go great in here". But, obviously, you haven't thought it all the way through". "Um, Ellerie, can we get back to the office we called you about?" "No, not until we have discussed this blue. May I have a cup of tea? Peach-Peppermint, if you have it, Oolong if not"). We made it VERY clear to her that we were only hiring her to look at our office, but 4 hous and $440 later (we had scheduled her for 1 hour at $110, and then she refused to leave and kept gamely sidetracking us to other rooms that were completely finished) she had torn apart our home, destroyed a couple of walls (with a wayward pencil and hammer)...she laughed it off~~"consider it art at no extra charge!!! ha ha!!" and then we received this outrageous bill because she simply would not leave. She is crazy. None of her design options were workable because the would have left us with no closets in any of our rooms in order to maximize our office space ("don't worry, just buy lots of armoires!!!" and I'm thinking a vacuum goes in an armoire? And her reply was just to "go with it and don't worry about the future") which would have greatly de-valued our home (in case you didn't know, a bedroom must have a closet in order to be considered a bedroom) When she finally left, we were completely wrung out, we had headaches, even our cats were traumatized ("have you considered going with an Exotic, maybe a Burmese or a Ragdoll...something more suitable for your decor") walls had been destroyed and I was contemplating suicide for a moment. And then we heard from acquaintances that we referred her to that she had some work done at her own home and because she is so incredibly special when the workers needed to add an additional $13 to her bill because she threw in a bunch of extra work she fired them on the spot! To say that she is extravagant and not worth the money is putting it mildly. She needs to be on medication
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Spex
Category:
Eyeglasses
605 Stewart St
Seattle, Washington 98101
(206) 682-9515
In the lovely area of 6th and Stewart lies a phenomenal place to get glasses. I had been needing a new pair of glasses for a year or so (getting older, ya know) and I went to Spex. I'm 46 and wear...
In the lovely area of 6th and Stewart lies a phenomenal place to get glasses. I had been needing a new pair of glasses for a year or so (getting older, ya know) and I went to Spex. I'm 46 and wear contacts about half the time and glasses the other half. A couple of years ago, tipsy from a party I crashed into a wall and broke my all-time favorite pair of glasses. I have been wearing peepers since 3rd grade, so I have had a LOT of glasses in my life. I put up with old, outdated glasses for 2 years and kept seeing cool glasses on everybody I saw. I was tired of my red pair, plus my vision changed for the worse, so it was high time. I did some sleuthing and came across Spex. When I went into the stylish store I was warmly greeted by Brandi, and she took me by the hand and started pulling glasses off the racks. It felt like "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match...find me a find ...catch me a catch..." Brandi made me feel ever-so-at home, offered me coffee and we were off and running. I probably tried on about 50 pair of glasses, and I knew for sure one pair I wanted (or kind of what I wanted...framelesss like Stephen Colbert so I could take them off and look really cool and serious the way he does) and I was wide open on what I wanted the other pair to look like. Funny how the very first pair of framed glasses were the ones I ended up with, but then we tricked them out with lenses that darken in the light (can't remember what they are called) and the Brandi thought of some other adjustments that I hadn't thought of (like polishing the frameless ones) and I was so excited to get my new glasses! A week went by and Brandi called to say that the glasses were ready and they just completely blew me awya. Both pairs are perfect, funky and, best of all, I can see again! So, OK....I dropped $1800 on 2 pair of glasses, but the frameless ones will never go out of style, and the other ones I will have for at least 10 years so I was really psyched. They gave me a bunch of freebies: fantastic cases, special wipes, lens cleaner AND a coupon for a free haircut! I am very devoted to my hair stylus, but my hair is pretty straight-forward, so that will save me $50 the next time I need a trim. They also carry a line of hair care stuff that I hadn't heard of before, so I had to get some, and I am looking forward to my free cut. I guess the science behind having a hair salon/eye glass place is so they can do the "total" look, and I think that's a cool concept
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If you are looking for someone to help you do some gardening, don't give a guy named Jim Workman a chance. He overcharges, he works by the hour and moves at a snails pace and he doesn't think to do...
If you are looking for someone to help you do some gardening, don't give a guy named Jim Workman a chance. He overcharges, he works by the hour and moves at a snails pace and he doesn't think to do simple things like amend the soil when it comes to plantings.
I hired him last year for several projects, one of them being putting a Dwarf Star Magnolia in a bed I created the year before. The soil was in perfect shape. Since I don't know a lot about flowering trees, I let him choose the tree. He came back with a Dwarf Star Magnolia (that came with a $100 price tag, and he never showed me the original invoice...did he really have to buy the most expensive tree he could find? I live in a very modest home) and it died. He was on my property quite a bit last year doing other projects (I always got sticker shock when the bill for the day's work came) and he could have checked the tree while he was standing around charging me $45 an hour to "think", and "Imagine what would be the best planting for the area we were working on".
I just called Sky Nursery in Shoreline (where he bought the tree) and this year the Star Magnolia trees are going for $49.99. I asked the gentleman at Sky if the Star Magnolia's were more expensive last year, and he said, "No, if anything, they would have been less as the price of gas has affected the price of so many other things".
So Jim Workman marks his trees up 100%!!!!!! Probably another reason not to hire him.
I called him again after about a week of not hearing back from him from my initial phone message. He said, "Oh Melinda, I was just going to call you" (yeah, right). I asked him to replace the tree since he had been back multiple times doing other jobs last year and I also took very good care of the tree, especially in the long, dry months of August.
I asked him how he planted the tree, and he said "I dug a hole and I put the tree in it". Now, I'm no expert, but I do know that you are supposed to dig a hole twice as large as the tree going into it, soften the roots that may be bound in the bottom of the bucket and that you amend the soil by putting compost, root start, and I have a huge worm bin on my property.
I hired Jim, an expert, to do a job that I am not an expert in. I asked him replace the tree, but he refused. He offered me a paltry $30 refund. He charged me an hour's time to go and pick out the tree. And then he had the nerve to say that he won't be working for me again~~right, like I would hire him to work in my yard again. So for a dead tree that cost me about $200 to have installed, I am getting a $50 refund (I negotiated him up to a whopping $50). Jim knows, just by looking at my yard that I am an above average gardener as I have a lovely yard with lost of unusual and lovely plantings....I just sometimes need help with the big stuff.
I don't believe that he has an office and that he is just a one-man-show. But, don't hire him. He takes terrible instruction and doesn't stand behind his work, and even if you give him specific instructions he does it his own way anyway...and that's not acceptable. So by being penny-wise and pound foolish, he lost a good client, because I used his services a lot last year, even though they were expensive.
Anyone out there know any good gardeners who charge reasonable rates? I need one.
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OK, I admit I am a tanning geek. But when I went into the Midnight Sun on 80th/15th/Lake City Way today for my first no-sun tan in 4-5 years, I was shown around by a lovely woman with a cute tea-cup...
OK, I admit I am a tanning geek. But when I went into the Midnight Sun on 80th/15th/Lake City Way today for my first no-sun tan in 4-5 years, I was shown around by a lovely woman with a cute tea-cup Chihuahua (who just got her rabies vaccine was wasn't feeling too good) who showed me the different options and educated me on the different beds. Of course, being a white Seatte~ite, I am not used to intense sun rays. But she convinced me that a $20 ~twenty-four minute bed was the ultimate way to go, and tonight I sit at my computer too burned to go to sleep. My skin throbs. I have splotches in pink all over my skin~~especially on my face and HELL it burns! She promised me that if I bought the "ultimate tan for 24 minutes" with a prompt to turn half way thru my session (I never got the signal to turn... Beatles cranked up too loud I guess, but prompts to turn when 1/2 baked should be LOUD) I turned over when I thought I was burning on my front half...I was throughout roasted...and twenty bucks in the hole with a throbbing burn that is probably going to keep me up tonight...the girl wished me well on my way out and promised that "I would be addicted" no...I don't think so. I just wish I had been more conservative and went for the less intense bed....but she PROMISED I wouldn't burn. And I am burned. I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow. But right now the throb is keeping me up way past my bedtime. OUCH
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I was so greatly disappointed when Jitterbug Cafe changed hands. The new place is called "Ebb and Flow" and I think a better name would have been Flow, but that doesn't change the part about the...
I was so greatly disappointed when Jitterbug Cafe changed hands. The new place is called "Ebb and Flow" and I think a better name would have been Flow, but that doesn't change the part about the food being sub-standard. I have eaten there 4 times since it changed ownership and twice since they changed the name. I won't be going back. They have a fantastic location...right across the street from the Guild 45th Theaters, so they are going to get a lot of people just coming out of or just going into a movie. But they can't deliver on the food. The first time I ate there after the new ownership I had a hamburger, which was really good and they weren't terrified when I asked for it to be cooked rare. And the fries were fantastic...they baked them before frying them so they had deep flavor more common to fries I have had in France. But the last time I got a burger there they had changed to just using frozen potato sticks (like everybody else) and potatoes simply do not hold up well to freezing under any circumstance. So that part was gone. Then, the last time I went there, I just wanted a bowl of soup which was served with cheap, white bread and although the broth was steaming, the veggies were cold and it tasted like they just put in a can of tomato soup and then chopped up some chicken, carrots and put in a few pieces of pasta. Terribly under-inspired...tasted bad and took forever to come. I miss the sass of the Jitterbug. I did write in an earlier review last winter to give them a chance, to see what they could do... But after giving them 4 more chances, it just isn't working. The chef/owner is a good guy...he works hard and he's nice. But he hasn't hit his stride and I fear for his success. Maybe he can figure out what his patrons want and give it to 'em. I hope so, because it's such an iconic location....22 years ago, we would wait an hour for a table. But everything changes, and ebbs and flows... Good luck to the new owner. I think you can pull it off with a little more effort.
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Jessica Moore has been cleaning my house for 3 years, and I love Fridays when she comes to do my place! Being in my own, clean house freshly done by Jessica rocks! It just sets the tone for the...
Jessica Moore has been cleaning my house for 3 years, and I love Fridays when she comes to do my place! Being in my own, clean house freshly done by Jessica rocks! It just sets the tone for the whole weekend.
I run my own business out of my home, so for me, having a housekeeper is a necessity as I simply don't have time since I am always working. And, I am in the cleaning business, so my standards are high. I love that I can just write Jessica a note about skipping something or doing something extra and she works it in. Her rates are totally fair and competitive and she is licensed and bonded. Her card says "Honest, Reliable, Energetic" and she is all of those things and more, like "Trustworthy, Dependable, Creative and Caring". She takes direction beautifully and will use whatever cleaning products I want. I like to go as green as possible, so she's happy to use white vinegar and hot water to clean my hardwoods with.
She doesn't like to go south of downtown, so if you are looking for a fantastic house cleaner with super high standards and great rates (she first does the job by the hour then formulates a bid for future cleanings) and are lucky enough to live north of 45th, you just found yourself a great new housekeeper. Hurry...Now that she's freelancing, her schedule will get filled quickly!
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Happy Nails is a little shop owner by a nice, young couple named Peter and Chi and they give great, inexpensive manicures and pedicures. I really like the fact that their shop is totally clean and...
Happy Nails is a little shop owner by a nice, young couple named Peter and Chi and they give great, inexpensive manicures and pedicures. I really like the fact that their shop is totally clean and they have a great selection of both OPI and China Glaze and they use expensive top coats...nary a crusty old bottle of cheap polish in the whole place. And, one time right after getting a French Manicure I got a chip the next day and Chi fixed it for free. So I really appreciate their willingness to make people happy. I bought my husband a $100 gift certificate so he can go in anytime and get a manicure or a pedicure, and he really loves using it (when it's used up, I'll get him another one) because he feels realy pampered and it's a simple thing that men don't typically do for themselves very much. I don't wear Acrylics but the women I have seen in there getting their nails done that way swear by Peter's gift to do them well. There's lots of parking all around, so if you live near the North City part of Shoreline: GO! :) You'll be happy that you did!
I am reviewing the North City Happy Nails, not the one in Greenwood. I tried to fix the address and the Judy's Book site wouldn't let me: so here is the corrent information:
Happy Nails
17715 15th Ave NE
Shoreline WA 98155
(206) 306-2227
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I had been looking forward to eating at The Cellar Bistro for a while. I liked the cozy location and thought the beef-broth based Minestrone soup was wonderful, and more authentic-tasting than the...
I had been looking forward to eating at The Cellar Bistro for a while. I liked the cozy location and thought the beef-broth based Minestrone soup was wonderful, and more authentic-tasting than the standard tomato-based ones. But my entree (the Prawn Risotto with Asparagus and Mushrooms) had a moldy-tasting prawn in it, and since that was my first bite of the entree, that pretty much spoiled it for me. And, to make matters worse, the waitress didn't come back to check on us until my husband and I were done eating to see if we were happy or not (I wasn't), so the service wasn't very good, either. I mentioned the moldy prawn and she apologized and asked me if I wanted a different entree (I didn't, since more than 20 minutes had gone by) and we did decide to take home a piece of cheesecake (which was wonderful) but she never removed the price of my entree, and we ended up spending over $75 on a dinner (with a $28 bottle of wine~~they have a pretty limited wine list, but it's pretty well put together if you are solely into Italian wines) and so I wasn't dazzled at all by the food, the lack of service or caring from the waitstaff. Over the years, a lot of restaurants have inhabited this little space, so they are going to have to do better if they want to make it. But I'm not going back.
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