September 16, 2008, 11:21
Last November we took advantage of a balance transfer offer from one of Erica’s credit cards. It gave us 2.99% until the balance was paid off, so it made great sense. We wrote a check for several thousand dollars and took it to our credit union with my paycheck and a check from Erica’s mom paying her for letting out her dogs while her mom was at work. A few days later, the balance transfer check and the check from Erica’s mom were returned and marked “Refer to maker.” I talked with the credit union to see if I could get any more info and they didn’t know what had happened. We ended up doing the balance transfer another way, so that worked out ok, but Erica’s mom was really concerned about why her check came back. She contacted her bank and they said it had never tried to clear her account.
Well, 10 months later, with some surprise help from the bookkeeper here at Fibernet, we’ve put together the puzzle. All the checks I deposited that day showed up at Fibernet’s bank. My paycheck was debited normally from Fibernet’s account, but the other two checks were somehow recorded as deposits made by Erica. The mistake was later corrected and the checks were sent back to our Credit Union marked “Refer to Maker.” All I can guess is that the teller who took our checks clipped them all together with my paycheck on top and they all went to Fibernet’s bank instead of going to the banks they were actually drawn from. That “Refer to Maker” stamp was the real issue, of course. If it had been “Incorrectly Routed for Payment” or something else a little more descriptive, then the mistake would have been obvious!
September 10, 2008, 10:46
We discovered Tattles Bar & Grill in Preston, ID by sheer chance. A couple of years ago when we took the kids to Jackson, WY we decided to drive through Preston on the way to see which Napoleon Dynamite filming locations we might be able to check out. We stopped for gas when we first arrived and I asked the cashier if there was anywhere we could get a good sitdown breakfast. She said, “Well, I dunno. I guess there’s Tattles.” Huh? She told me where to find it and that it was just about the only cafe in town, so we figured we’d give it a shot. We drove about a 1/2 mile west of the main drag and found Tattles Bar & Grill situated in an old house surrounded by a gravel parking lot across the street from a farm implement supplier. We were a bit skeptical. Erica ordered pancakes and I was pleased to see their menu featured a “Garbage Omelet,” which is a tradition in my family and consists of just about every vegetable and meat you can think of tossed in an omelet. I ordered that and a scone. Erica asked the waitress if she could get a scone too, and the waitress gave her a weird look and said “I think one will be enough.” She was sure right about that. They brough Erica a stack of three pancakes the size of dinner plates, and my scone was about 9 inches long, almost 6 inches wide and about and inch and a half thick. One was enough. We’ve been back to Tattles three times now. We even went so far as to plan a day trip to the Cache Valley of northern Utah just so we’d be within spitting distance of Tattles for breakfast.
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Tattles Bar and Grill, Preston, ID
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The Kids Love Tattles, Too.
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Giant Pancakes, Check!
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Giant Scone, Check!
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Tattles from Space
Tattles on Google Maps:
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September 7, 2008, 13:22
We took the kids to the Spanish Fork Kite Festival on Friday afternoon. We couldn’t get our kites to fly cause there wasn’t quite enough wind, but it was fun to see all the other kites and the new wind farm they’ve recently finished constructing out there.
The highlight of the event, though, was getting Erica to try a segway.
She was a bit reluctant at first, but after she saw me ride it around a bit she decided to give it a shot. Now she says she wants one. We’ve recently been watching Arrested Development, so even if we had the disposable funds it’d be awfully hard to overcome the G.O.B. segway stigma.
