July 22, 2009

No sleep, sleep, and OCD.

I couldn't sleep on Monday night, and I didn't even get a nap in on Tuesday afternoon because Verizon was here installing the Fios internet.
The guy was here for about 3 hours or so, he had to run some new lines into my house because the lines that were there on the outside of the house, had all been cut by someone.
That's really weird, who would cut the lines every so many feet?

Anyway, by the time he left, I had a massive migraine and was dead exhausted, but I still had to make dinner for the teens before I could get some sleep.
So I made dinner and tried wicked hard to stay awake, but the tiredness was totally winning out.
I went and laid on the couch and set the alarm to wake me up in 2 hours, I just needed to take a quick nap so that I could get back up and do the rest of what I needed to do.

So I slept for 2 hours starting at 7:30pm, woke up at 9:30pm, and then I went and did all of the dishes that I needed to do from dinner, and I picked up the rest of the mess that got made by the Fios guy.
I had to put my coffee table back where it's supposed to be, I had to fix my monitor again, he moved it, ugh, he moved it from it's perfect spot and position, and it took me nearly 20 minutes to set it right again.
OCD is a terrible thing man, it's just very disruptive to my peace and well being to have my things moved around and things got dropped on the floor under my desk, and so yeah, it was kind of hard for me to have him here for 3 hours touching my stuff, moving things, dropping things.

Once I got everything picked up and back in place, finished the dishes, I was ok again, I could relax for the rest of the night.
I went to bed around 2am, which is actually very early for me, I usually don't go to sleep until 5 or 6am, and I slept until around 11am, which is very late for me, I actually got some sleep for a change which was nice.

The teens went to the store and picked up subs for dinner, some eggs so I can finally make the cake that Sebastian has been asking me to make for like a week now, and I talked on the phone to a friend who is dealing with the same stuff I have been dealing with.
Chronic pain, depression, medication and being accused of being a drug addict.
She has been dealing with it for 20 years, her family won't even speak to her, and when they do, it's negative, it's not understanding, it's misinformed about chronic pain and medication to treat that pain.
It was very helpful to talk to her because it helped me see that I am not the only one dealing with this kind of thing, and that no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it hurts to have people think that, that we know the truth, our doctors know the truth, and someday, or maybe even never, other people will learn the truth, they will get educated on chronic pain and medication. They will learn that the meds don't get us "high" or "stoned", that it's impossible for us to get messed up on them due to tolerance after years and years of being on the medication, that we sign contracts with our pain management doctors and if we break those contracts by doing any illegal drugs, that we will be kicked out of their office and blacklisted to all other pain doctors in the state that we live in.
Those contracts will be broken if we do any illegal drugs, and they will know if we do any illegal drugs because they urine test us every single month when we go in for our regular every 30 day appointment.
Our doctors can even call us up for random drug testing if they want to.
They can call us and tell us that we need to be at their office at a certain time that day, and we have to take a urine drug test, and if we test positive for any drugs other than what they prescribe us, that's it, the contract is broken, we get kicked out and blacklisted.
I have passed every single drug test, regular monthly testing and random call-up testing, for as long as I have been seeing pain management doctors, which is now 5+ years.
Someday, I hope, the people who think that I'm doing illegal drugs, will realize that I'm not, that they will get educated about chronic pain and the medication.
Until that day comes though, there is nothing that I can do except to cut the negativity out of my life, keep doing what my doctors tell me to do, and to keep trying to live my life the best way that I can for me and my sons.

Later days.

---

July 16, 2009

Faster internet coming right up!

Back on July 3rd, I posted about the deal I got with Verizon for their Fios internet because of the 2 and a half years of being told that it wasn't available in my area, yet there was a Fios box attached to the back of my side of the duplex.
Well, Mel called me back again today to tell me that the installation tech will be here on Tuesday the 21st between noon and 2pm, to install the Fios internet for just $24.99 per month for an entire year.
I asked Mel like 3 times to make sure that the price was correct, that a supervisor's initials were on the order, and that it would be part of the contract.
I just really wanted to make sure that they weren't going to pull a fast one on me and tell me on the phone that I was going to get it for that price, and then when the 1st bill gets here, it says something totally different.
He reassured me that it does indeed say that I get it at that price, and he said it even says why in the computer that I get it at that price, and he even read it back to me.

"Customer was told for 2.5 years that Fios was not available in her area. Fios is and has been available. The neighborhood was mapped incorrectly as single family homes. The house at xxxx south Lockwood Ridge Road is 2 apartments, not a single family home. Customer will receive discount on Fios internet for the term of 1 year at the price of $24.99 per month beginning from the date of installation 7/21/2009 and ending on 7/21/2010."

Saweeet!
It's only $5 more per month than what I'm paying for DSL right now, and once things get totally calmed down around here and I can start focusing more on doing my work instead of all that has been going on and cluttering up my brain, the money situation will improve greatly, but an extra $5 per month is totally do-able right now, I can handle that right now no problem.
But while Mel had me on the phone, he of course had to try and talk me into the whole package, the Fios internet, phone, and tv package, for like $119 per month, and he even told me all about the amazing laptop deals that they are throwing in absolutely free if you sign up for the total package.
It's a mini notebook or something, but you don't actually get it until after you have been a paid in full customer for a full 3 months, and then you, of course, have to pay shipping and handling on it, but you still get it for free.
I tried to stop him from wasting his breath, but he kept going, they must get a commission on Fios sales or something, but once he stopped talking about it all, I told him thanks but no thanks.
We haven't had cable in this house for like 8+ years, we've gotten quite used to it, and now that the digital conversion has happened, we actually get quite a few channels, they all come in crystal clear and we use Netflix for our movies, which allows us to get 2 at-a-time unlimited at home rentals per month, and unlimited movie watching on my computer and the teens xbox every month for no extra charge, so we really don't need the Fios tv.

It would be super nice to have, I agree, all those channels, HBO so I could watch True Blood, but we really don't need it, and definitely cannot afford it.
So just to make him stop trying to push the sale that he wasn't going to get, I told him that right now, due to the economy, there is no way that I can afford that much every month, but once the economy picks up and I can start working more, I'll more than likely call them back and order it.
That seemed to make him happy, so he stopped talking about it and we got back to talking about the installation on Tuesday.
The tech will be here on Tuesday the 21st between noon and 2pm, he will install the new 4port/wireless router, he'll hook up my pc, the teens pc, and he'll even set up the teens xbox360 for wireless because the setting we currently are using on the xbox, will no longer work after they set us up with Fios, the settings and the connect code thingy, won't work, so he'll have to set up an all new DHCP setting for it.

The teens are wicked excited about it, they cannot wait to have faster internet so that when they play WoW, they won't get as much lag during heavy play times, and for xbox live, it will go a heck of a lot faster when they are fragging in GoW, or rocking out on GH3 Metallica.

I can't wait too, faster internet for me is going to be so awesome!
The teens and I all have our little things that make us happy, they with their video games and photoshop stuff that Sebastian does, and me and my The Sims 3 and all of the stuff I do on the net like chatting with friends, working, and movie watching.
A lot of people say that the teens spend too much time playing video games, but I still think it's ok because I know where they are all of the time, they aren't out there with the local thug teens getting into any trouble.
I know that when I was their ages, 16 & 17, I was out there getting into trouble, drinking, staying out to all hours, and getting into all kinds of trouble.
I'd rather have them here and playing games than out there probably doing what I used to do at their age.

---

July 3, 2009

Amazingly, a lot got accomplished!

I had finally started to feel better on Wednesday night, really late at night, but I still couldn't sleep, so while the teens were sleeping, I figured I should try and catch up on some of the household chores that I couldn't do while I was down for the count.
So I headed for the laundry basket and found it totally empty.
I opened the washer, nothing in it.
I opened the dryer, nothing in there either.
On top of the dryer, I found all of my clothes as neatly folded as 2 teenage boys can fold a woman's clothes, the dish and hand towels, and I found all of the bath towels hung up where they belong too.
Hrm.
I headed for the kitchen, I had to put the clean dish towels away anyway, and I found the dish strainer full of clean dishes, and not a single dirty dish in either side of the sink.
Double hrm.
I started looking around the house, everything was neat and tidy, things were picked up and put away, and the coffee table was dusted off, so was the tv and stand, all of the pictures, the wooden blinds, everything was just clean and I didn't do it.
While I was down and out of it, the teens did all of the housework.
They said they felt totally helpless to help me, so they decided to help me the only way that they could, to clean everything up.
That was wicked awesome of them to do.
Mark even went so far as to go around and wash all of the doors, door handles, door jams, and light switches.
I still thought this was kind of suspicious behavior though and asked what was wrong with their gaming systems, were they broke, was the internet down, what was the problem.
They insisted that nothing was wrong, they just really wanted to do something nice for me to help me out so that when I did get feeling better, I wouldn't have to do all of that stuff.
Way cool.
The only thing that I really have to take care of before trash day on Monday night is to get out my box cutter and cut down some shipping boxes that I stacked up in the other room from some packages I've received over the last few months, and then take them out to the bins.

Oh, I finally got Verizon to admit that they totally screwed up when they mapped this duplex for Fios.
Like 2 and a half years, maybe 3 years ago, verizon came through and mapped the street for Fios, when they did, they mapped this duplex as a single family home, not a duplex, so when my old neighbors wanted to get Fios, no problem, that side of the duplex is the address number that the Verizon mapper put down as the single family house number, so they were able to get Fios.

I went over many times and checked it out, i loved how fast the internet was, I didn't care about the tv or phone, but man that internet really was super fast, so I called and requested Fios.
I would give my phone number, thanks, then I would give my address, and the would tell me, "I'm very sorry, but Verizon Fios is not available in your area yet."
I would explain to them, it's a duplex, my neighbors in the other half have it, look up their address, they would, and they would tell me that it was a single family home, not a duplex, there was nothing they could do, they cannot change the map.

So just for fun every couple of months for the last few years every time I saw a Fios commercial, i would call them up and request Fios, they customer service rep would get all excited because they were gonna make a sale, and then they'd get to the address question and realize the map was bad and they couldn't sell me Fios.
Bing!
No Fios sales commission for you today!

Today, Mark and I were sitting here and the newest Fios commercial came on, the one where the Fios guy installs it in the whole building and Ted betrays the red-headed cable guy, and we were laughing about how Verizon is taking over the world, they have bought out Alltel, Chad is gonna be out of a job soon, and the poor red-headed cable guy is gonna end up going postal on the Fios guy one of these days, when just or the fun of it, i decided to call Verizon again, it's been at least 5 months since my last call, so why not.

I called and got connected to a rep named Mel who was really happy and helpful until we got to the good old what's your address question, and he said the whole "I'm sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" speech, and I told him nope, sorry Mel, it is, and not only is it, but the frigging box is actually attached to MY side of the duplex, it's on my side of the property, if you all don't believe me, I can go outside, cut all the wires, stuff the box in a box, and mail it to you.
Mel asked me for both of the addresses on the duplex, the one with Fios and mine again, he found that the other side is hooked up for it, they did have it for a year and a half before they moved, and that yup, the mapper placed this duplex down as a single family home with only one address number, not two.
So I asked Mel what could be done, can it be re-mapped?
I already knew it could be, a friend of mine actually lays the Fios line in the Tampa area, he is a mapper, he knows how easy it is to map and re-map if necessary, and he said it's as simple as typing the correct address into the computer system, waiting about 2 minutes for the system to acknowledge it, and bammo! it's re-mapped.

Mel told me that yes it could be re-mapped, it would take about a week and a half in total for them to re-map and then send a tech out here to run the lines into my house and hook up the router and computers etc, and did I want it.
So I said to Mel, "Mel, for 2 and a half years I have been calling and asking for Fios and been told repeatedly that I couldn't have it because it wasn't available in my area yet when it was actually hooked up right outside my bedroom window to my duplex neighbors because the mapper couldn't tell the difference between a duplex with 2 mailboxes, 2 address numbers painted on the house, and a single family home with 1 mailbox and 1 address number painted on the house. I have called approximately every 3 months for all of that time, been told the same thing every single time, and including that no, it can't be re-mapped, and yet I kept calling, so Mel, do you think I want Fios?"

He said,Well it sounds like you do, but it also sounds like you're kind of upset.
I said "Uh, yeah, I am upset. 2 and a half years of being lied to Mel, when I could see the box out my own window, when I knew how easy it was to re-map it, and no one at Verizon would actually check the addresses until you decided to do it today. So tell me Mel, what kind of deal can I get on the price of just Fios internet every month? I don't want the phone and tv, just the internet. The website says that just internet is $44.95 every month, but come on, you guys have been jerking me around for 2 and a half years, I think I deserve a price break, don't you Mel?"
He asked me to hold for just 1 minute.

When Mel came back on the line, he said that his supervisor agreed that due to all of the mess and confusion, all that I have been told for the last 2 and a half years, and that re-mapping this address was nowhere near as complicated as previous customer support persons had claimed and told me it was, that yes, I did indeed deserve a break on the price.
So for the entire first year, I will have Fios for exactly $5 more than what I pay for my DSL right now.
I am currently only paying $19.99 a month for DSL because Verizon had screwed up my DSL account so bad for like 8+ years, even they couldn't access it on the website, they could never figure out why I couldn't make debit or credit payments online through my bank or with my paypal debit card, and because of the whole "Sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" fiasco.
So for $24.99 a month for an entire year, I'll have lightening fast speeds, after that, it will go up to it's regular price of $44.95 per month, or I can just go back to DSL again.
I decided to take the offer for the price because come on, after playing the calling game every 3 months for 2 and a half years, there had to be a pay off ya know?
I would have been totally stupid to say no to that price, plus it will be fun to have really fast internet for a year, I know the teens will love it for the gaming.
The tech will be here in about a week and a half, he'll install a 4-port/wireless router, I can set everything up exactly the way I currently have it, or the tech can set it up for optimum speeds, whatever.
I'll let him hook it up his way, and if I don't like it, I'll just hook it up my way later on.

So that was my day Thursday.
A lot got accomplished, sure most of it the teens did, but things got done and that's all that matters.
Now for today, I am going to tackle cleaning out the microwave, cutting down those boxes, and I'll do the rugs if i am still feeling up to it.
I do feel better, but i don't want to push myself too hard or else I may just fall back down again.
I know that my strength is definitely not back up to where it needs to be at yet.
I need to eat more, get more fluids in me, and attempt to get some rest too.

---

June 22, 2009

No diploma, but we have pictures.

After my MRI, we (Mindy wasn't feeling well, so her husband Chris and her son Jeff brought me. Thanks guys!) went to the satellite office for the school to pick up the diplomas like the school said to do.
They said that diplomas could be picked up between 10am and 2pm Monday through Friday.
So we get there and we find out that diplomas can now only be picked up on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7am to 11am.
Do you know much fun that's going to be?
The parents of some 900 students all trying to pick up diplomas on just 2 days in just 4 hours.
Ha ha ha! Oh man, that's going to be so much fun!
Not!
If they knew that the school was going to be closed due to construction, they should have set up the satellite office hours for more time.
4 hours is simply not enough time to do all of those students in just 2 days.
People have to work, they have schedules to keep, so standing in a long line is going to piss a lot of people off.
Good going RHS!
_________________________

I had posted about the graduation photography companies and the trouble I had not getting notified on time when they said, or being able to look at his pictures on their site because I didn't have the password they were supposed to email, and that they did not answer emails either, and Tim, one of the customer service guys, had Googled the company looking for public perception of the company, and found my blog.
He left a comment which turned into a series of emails between he and myself, and Tim really went above and beyond to rectify the situation and make me happy with their service.

Tim sent me a package of pictures, several different sizes, the different quality papers they use, and some of the nice picture folder frames they have too.
The pictures came by UPS while I was out this morning.
The pictures are really great quality even though it's the picture of him not looking at the camera.
There were 2 shots, 1 of him being handed his diploma and not looking, and the other of him by himself holding his diploma and looking.
I could have sworn I told Tim to send that one, but then again, their site was having issues the day I sent him the email responding to his offer of pictures, so maybe I sent him the wrong link to the picture that I wanted.
Not a big deal, I will order some of the correct pictures next month when I have more money, especially now that I know they are really good quality images.
Also, Bob Knight Photo and Grad Images, are now just 1 company, not 2, so parents in the future will only need to pre-register at 1 of the sites for their images.
Tim said that this graduation season was very chaotic, they had several Sarasota high school's graduations on the same day, over 3,000 students between the schools, and things ended up not going according to plan otherwise they would have definitely emailed within 24-48 hours like they said.
So even though things got really screwed up initially, Tim went above and beyond to make sure that their customers are happy with the pictures.
So thanks Tim, it's much appreciated.

---

June 17, 2009

Purex 3-in-1 and Kiva.

I'm a huge fan of the new Purex 3-in-1 laundry detergent/fabric softener/anti-static laundry sheets, they make doing laundry so super easy, and they smell incredible.
They work just as well as the liquid detergents in my opinion, and I like them so much, I picked up 2 of the refill packages when I went shopping last night.
I like that I can just grab a laundry sheet, toss it in the washer with the clothes, and then just toss the clothes and the sheet into the dryer.
I don't have to add any liquid fabric softener to the dispenser in the washing machine, I don't have to throw any fabric softener sheets into the dryer either, just 1 easy step for clean and great smelling clothes.

Now Purex 3-in-1 laundry detergent has teamed up with Kiva to create the Purex Changes Lives Program.
It is so simple to help change someone's life!
Kiva, Purex 3-in-1, and YOU, will help moms around the world who are struggling to provide for their families.
When you submit the bar code from the back of your 20-count starter kit or 24-count refill pack of Purex Complete 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets, Purex will contribute $1 to the mom entrepreneur of your choice, allowing you to make a difference in the developing world and help empower a mom to lift her family out of poverty.
See?
Easy!
I bought the two 24 count refill kits yesterday, so that's $2 that will be contributed to the mom of my choice.

When you go to the site, you can choose how you want to help by sector, that means to see the moms by what they need to raise their family out of poverty.
The sectors are things like agriculture, clothing, food, retail, arts, housing, construction, and more.
After choosing a sector, you then click on the dots and read the mom's description of what she needs the loan for.
For example, they may need the supplies and cookware to make food items to sell, which will then be turned around to continue buying the ingredients to keep making food to sell, and enough money to support her family.
Or the mom may need the loan to buy fabric and a sewing machine to make sarongs to sell, which turns around and buys more fabric, thread, and other supplies, and supports her family.
Each dot represents a mom, her loan need, and the amount she needs to borrow.
I saw loans as small as $75, and loans as high as $525, but I didn't look at every single loan in every single category yet.

Right now, I have 2 refill packages, so that's $2 to loan to a mom, so I need to spend some time going through the loan requests, find one that just feels right to me, and then enter the bar codes from my packages, and the $2 will go to her loan request pool.
Once the mom receives the full amount of her loan request, Kiva helps fulfill her loan needs so that she can begin her business and support her family.

Purex is also offering coupons to help you help a mom.
If you go to the site now, even if you don't have a bar code right now but you found a mom you want to help, you can click on the "Haven't bought the product yet?" text link, fill out the form, and Purex will send you a coupon so that you can go buy Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, and then go back to the site to enter your bar code to help that mom.
Just remember her sector and name, jot it down somewhere, and also spread the word so that more moms can get the loans they need to support their families.

I really love it when companies give back in a way that can make us all feel good, it's just a nice feeling to know that a few simple clicks after purchasing a product I use anyway, with a coupon they sent me, will help a struggling mom take control and support herself and her family to get out of poverty.
As soon as the Purex Insiders sent me the email, I got a huge smile on my face, I immediately felt good, this is something that I can easily do to help someone else.

---

June 9, 2009

My Sims 3 are here!!

I have been awake all night, still haven't slept, not even a wee little nap, and I posted at almost 4am how I was hoping that Fedex wouldn't take my Sims 3 to my local post office, that they would just deliver it straight me.
Well they didn't deliver it straight to me.
But!
They somehow got it from Orlando to my local post office, and my mailman knocked on my door at about 12:15pm, and handed me my mail and a box with my Sims 3 inside!!

It's here!
My Sims 3 are here!
And I LOVE the usb plumbob key chain that came with it!
I haven't looked at the special content that is on it yet, but the key chain itself is really pretty cool looking, I dig it.

I made a promise to Sebastian like 3 days ago, man I am a total sucker haha.
I told him that on the day came, that I would install the game on my computer, I would get all of my special downloads, the sports car, the extra town of Riverview, I'd register at the the Sims 3 site so I could get the $10 in store money to spend, and then I would very quickly watch the game opening, take a quick look at the town map, and then I would exit the game and then go install it on his computer and let him have the 1st play.

Go ahead, tell me that I am the worlds biggest sucker, I deserve it. hahaha
I have been waiting for this game since the day they announced it, I pre-ordered it way back in December, I have been counting down the days, stalking the Amazon, Fedex, and the USPS websites and going back and forth with Amazon's customer service about why my game wasn't shipped on game day, and here I am letting him have the 1st play.
I am the stupid that's what I am. hahaha

---

June 7, 2009

Reading quite a bit of negative reviews.

Seeing as how I don't have my copy of the Sims 3 yet thanks to Amazon totally screwing up the shipping by using Fedex Smart Post, I am just reading what other people think of the game.
If you go to Amazon, there's a lot of people not liking the game at all.
They are complaining about how when you go in a building like the grocery store, you can't actually go in, but are given a menu to purchase food items.
Do they not realize what an absolute resource hog it would be to have every single building be open world available?
It would bog down your computer in 20 minutes if they did that!
Some people are complaining about how the Sims are all fat looking.
Well, go into CAS and edit them because I've been on the official Sims forums, and looking at people's avatars and the pictures that people are uploading, and obviously other people are taking some serious time to edit their Sims because not all of them are fat and cartoon-y looking at all.

One of the biggest issues that I've noticed is that a lot of people bought this game and their computers did not meet the minimum requirements to play it.
I checked and double checked on 2 different sites to see if my computer could play it, and my computer exceeds the requirements so I shouldn't have any of the problems with cycle redundancy and the crashing that others are experiencing.
It's amazing to me just how many people bought this game and then realized that their computers couldn't handle it, and then had to go out and buy all new graphics cards and memory cards, and some people even had to buy an all new power supply because their computers did not have enough wattage.
That tells you how old some of these computers were.
I've put the results of 1 of my tests in the extended entry so anyone interested can see how much the game requires.

But I really cannot wait to get the game and create a single Sim, a house, and then go exploring the open world.
I'm going to get my Sim a bike and take them everywhere, on every road, every path, as far as they can possibly go.
Because I bought the collector's edition, I get the world map, so I can see the entire world, and I'm going to go as far as I can into the mountains, to the ocean, to the far outer banks, to the hills, to the inner cities, to wherever I can, explore every single road and path and nook and cranny of the open Sim world, and then I'll sit down and play the game.
I'll create a family, a story line, I'll think of a story and play it out, fulfill their lifetime wants and needs and all of that stuff.

Amazon sent me another email this afternoon saying that they are looking into where exactly my game is and how sorry they are for the inconvenience, and they hope to have an answer within 48 hours.
Well within 48 hours, I am supposed to have the game according to their original shipment date.
It still says on my Amazon order page that I am supposed to have it on Tuesday the 9th, but according to the Fedex smart post page, the package has not even been picked up from the seller yet, shipping has only been initiated, and then Fedex is supposed to deliver it to my local post office.
Amazon said that this is supposed to be faster delivery service. (???)
How is it faster to have it shipped through 2 different delivery companies and neither of them even have it yet?

Continue Reading �

---

June 7, 2009

A very lazy Saturday.

The Cooper clan didn't do anything at all on Saturday.
Not a damn thing.
I laid on the couch the entire day watching movies while the teens slept in late and then alternated between playing video games and watching movies with me.
I was so tired today, I don't know what was wrong with me, maybe I was still working off the effects of the medicine mix-up from the other day, but I could barely keep my eyes open.
I tried though, especially when Moulin Rouge! was on the CW.
That movie is just so bizarre that I love it.
All the weird imagery and the music, it's fabulous.
I can only imagine how good it would look on a HD LCD tv like this SyntaxBrillian that is on
sale at Buy.com this week for 54% off with free shipping.

That's a wicked good deal.
Eh, someday when things are better.
I have way, way too much going on right now to even think about buying a new tv set, but someday I will catch up with the times and get an HD LCD tv and start looking at tv the way the rest of you do. hahaha

What else did we watch?
Oh, we watched Gladiator, Red Dawn and The Road to El Dorado.

Mark went and spent the night at his friend Jeff's house, and so it was just Sebastian and I here at home all night.
We spent a lot of time talking about the Sims 3 which we still don't have because the shipping got screwed up even though I pre-ordered and paid for it way back in December.
Yeah, I am NOT happy about that at all.
Sebastian and I have been looking forward to this game for a very long time, it is one of the things that he and I do together, that we talk about and play together, and so not having it yet has really upset us both.
I wanted to have enough time to get it installed and learn how to play it, teach him how to play it before I have to go have my surgery so that nothing goes wrong with the game or the computer while I am away in the hospital.
They decided to ship it to FedEx, and then FedEx will ship it to my local USPS, but so far, the only thing that has been done is the shipping process has been initiated.
The game was released on June 2nd, and here it is, June 7th.
I am so not pleased with how they decided to ship this out, but because it's in the shipping process, I can't cancel it.
There's basically nothing I can do but wait.
I sent them an email asking about it, and they sent one back explaining how they shipped it and then said that if I don't have it by 6pm on June 16th, to email them.
Wow.
If that happens, I am going to be absolutely furious. .
And no, it is not Buy.com that I bought it from.
I have never had a bad shopping experience from Buy.com.
Ever.

---

June 2, 2009

Not impressed with the photography companies at all.

There were 2 photography companies at the graduation, Bob Knight Photo, and Grad Images.
Both companies had parents pre-register, and had the students pre-register at the dress rehearsal as well.
Both companies said that they would email everyone within 24-48 hours immediately after the graduation.

Neither Mark or myself, have received any emails from either company.
I have now emailed both companies 2 times, and tried to call both companies today, and I have not gotten any communication back from either at all.
I was placed on hold for over 15 minutes, and then told that all customer service reps were busy, and to try and call back at a later time.
Not even an automatic email confirmation saying that they got my emails.

I am seriously not impressed with either photography company at all.

---

May 19, 2009

Rubbermaid giveaway!

I'm having another giveaway here on my blog, and while it's not a piece of Wilmington NC real estate, it is something with 20 pieces!

Back in January, I won a 20 piece set of Rubbermaid's Easy Find Lids storage containers, and when I got them, I posted about them here on my blog.
It was a 20 piece set, 18 regular pieces, and 2 Produce Savers containers.
They are so great!
They are all stack-able, and because the lids all fit together, you can't ever lose a lid, the big lids fit all of the big containers, the small lids fit all of the small containers.
The lids all snap together, and then the lids snap to the bottom of the containers, I haven't lost or misplaced a single container or lid yet because of this, it's an awesome set!

I use the Produce Savers to store fresh fruit and veggies so they don't go bad.
The design of the Produce Savers does a fantastic job keeping everything nice and fresh.
I use all of the various sizes of the Easy Find Lids containers for snacks like potato chips, candies, salsa and other dips, because let's face it, the packages most of those foods come in, are not really made to keep the food fresh once you've opened them up.

I also use them for any leftovers that we may have, (Ha! With 2 teen boys, leftovers are only a dream! They may get leftover and placed in a storage container for about 2 hours before 1 of the teens polishes it off!) and they are microwavable and dishwasher safe, (I don't have a dishwasher, but it says they are dishwasher safe) and they are pretty stain resistant.
So far, not a single container has a stain in it.
I love my set so much, I use them for everything all of the time, and when Rubbermaid contacted me about another set and hosting a giveaway, I said heck yeah!

This is a different 20 piece set than the 1 I won in January.

This is exactly what is in the set that I am giving away!
The winner will get 2 Produce Savers in various sizes, 3 of the Easy Find Lids containers in various sizes, 3 Lock-Its in various sizes, and 2 of their Premier containers.

This is the exact set that 1 lucky winner will receive!

The prize:
Rubbermaid has offered up 1 of these awesome 20 piece sets to 1 lucky winner!

Rules:
The giveaway is only open to United States bloggers, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is only open to people who have blogs, this is a blogger only giveaway.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
No entering on behalf of others, using extra identities or others identities, no automated program entries, etc.
I can check and verify IP addresses and email addresses. *wink*
If you are caught cheating, you will be banned from this giveaway and any future giveaways on my blogs.
This giveaway is only open to those ages 18+ only.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday May 31st 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Monday June 1st, and email the winner and they will have 48 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner using random.org again.

How to enter:
The required entry:
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what you use your storage containers for the most often.
Do you use them for food only?
Or the kids crayons?
Or arts and crafts supplies?
Tell me how and what you use storage containers for the most!

For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be disqualified and deleted.

1.
Blog about this on your blog and leave a comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest.

2.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can Twitter the following if you want to;
Kat is giving away a Rubbermaid 20piece set! Go enter for a chance to win! http://bit.ly/XkVO4

3.
Follow me on Twitter.

4.
Follow Rubbermaid on Twitter.

5.
Follow RubbermaidTwo on Twitter.

So there ya go, that is the prize, and it is an awesome prize, and what you need to do to enter, and what you can do for extra entries.
Please follow the rules, and good luck!!

---

May 13, 2009

Free chocolate Fridays!

Every Friday from now through September 25th, the Mars candy company, is giving away 500,000 coupons for a free candy bar!
All you have to do is go to the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act every Friday at 9am, enter your birth date, then email address, and then complete the registration form within 5 minutes, and they will snail mail you a coupon for a free candy bar within the standard 4-6 weeks.

The legal notice:

Offer valid from 9:00:00 AM ET to 11:59:59 PM ET on the Friday only of each week beginning 5/8/09 and ending 9/25/09 ("Offer Period"). Offer fulfilled as a coupon ("Coupon") redeemable for consumer's choice of one (1) single-sized package of any M&M'S® Brand, MILKY WAY® Brand, SNICKERS® Brand, 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand, TWIX® Brand and DOVE® Brand product (together, "Participating Products"). Offer good while supplies last. In order to claim your Coupon, you must submit your complete and correct name, address and email address ("Registration Information") within five (5) minutes of receiving the on-screen message requesting your Registration Information. Failure to submit your Registration Information within five (5) minutes will result in your Coupon being forfeited. Limit: 250,000 Coupons per Friday during the Offer Period. (They raised the limit from 250,000 to 5000,000 after the 1st Friday resulted in the site being bogged down by millions of visitors) Allow approximately 6 weeks for delivery of Coupon, which will be sent by US mail to the address provided as part of the Registration Information. Limit: one (1) Coupon per email address per Friday and four (4) Coupons per household during the Offer Period.

I absolutely love this idea!
A free candy bar?
Free chocolate?!
Yay!

It really is easy too, I got through last Friday, and all you have to do is go to the site at 9am on Fridays, enter your birth date, and then email address, and then fill out the registration form with your mailing address, and then they will send you a confirmation email letting you know that you got in, and they will be snail mailing you a coupon within 4-6 weeks.
Yum!
I love chocolate!

---

April 21, 2009

Eventually, both will happen.

Eventually, I WILL get some sort of life insurance to help pay for my "final expenses", and if there's anything left, for my sons to have.
Yes, I know, a very morbid thought and post.
But it does have to be done eventually.
I am not going to live forever, none of us are, and I have even come close to death a couple of times during my spine fusion surgeries, so this is a "thing" I have to think about and find a way to take care of.

What I need is a really good life insurance lead for a company that has super low rates, and takes on high risk customers.
I'm asking for the impossible I think.
I don't want to pay a lot in premiums every month, preferably way less than $20, but for good coverage.
My health is not great, it's not even good, and I dare to say it couldn't even be classified as "fair."
I am in very poor health, I admit it, and it took me a wicked long time to come to grips with the facts of my health situation.

I have been a smoker since I was 17, so for 22 years, I am stone deaf in my left ear, I have bad eyesight and wear corrective lenses, my entire spine is fused from C1 to S1, (the tip top vertebrae to the very end of the spine at the sacrum. You can view a labeled spine chart here: View Chart) my next surgery will be extremely invasive and totally life changing.
Right now, I have very limited movement of my head.
I can turn left and right, but only a very tiny amount, and I can put my head down, but not up at all, and it is currently stuck in the down position.
My next surgery will be removing the titanium rods that are attached from C1 to T3, they will leave all of the pedicle screws in place because they will be using those again, and then they will attach a metal plate to my occipital bone, which is the skull itself, they will use some sort of screws to attach it, and then they will re-attach the titanium rods to my spine, tighten the pedicle screws, stitch me back up, and then attach a halo brace to my skull.

I suffer from random but debilitating migraines, I have had most of my toes broken, my nose was broken twice, I've fractured my left ankle twice, fractured 3 fingers on my right hand and 2 on my left.
I've had a Pneumothorax, (collapsed lung), a second degree sunburn that left scars on my legs, a vaginal/anal fistula from pushing too hard during labor and delivery of my oldest son Mark, I've had about a half dozen ovarian cysts, my heart has stopped twice and was restarted, I have high blood pressure and take medication for it, and I have the white cell count of a person dying from Leukemia, yet I don't have Leukemia or any other disease or ailment, so the high white cell count is of unknown origin.
I have rheumatoid arthritis, and have been on varying dosages and strengths of pain medications for the last 10+ years.

I've actually thought about either donating or selling my body to science or to something like the bodies exhibit, because of all of the things wrong with me.
This post would have probably been better suited to KatScan, but because I have no life insurance, my final expenses would fall on my son's shoulders and lives, it fits here as well.

---

April 21, 2009

How would you say....

something like you need immigration lawyers, or ask for directions in Spanish?

I keep seeing commercials, on CW44 mostly, for that computer program that teaches you different languages, and I've been thinking that maybe I'd like to get a copy of the Rosetta Stone program to learn how to speak Spanish.
I don't know about the rest of the country, my friend Shell has told me that there are a lot of Hispanics moving to and living in Maine now, but here in Florida and where I live in Sarasota, it is heavily populated with Hispanics, and they work in almost every type of place you get customer service.

Most of the places I go, like Publix, make sure that all of their employees speak clearly and in English, but sometimes it is still very hard for me to understand them if they have a heavy accent.
And sometimes I hear a couple of Hispanic employees speaking to each other while stocking the shelves, and I wonder what they are saying.
Yeah, I'm nosy like that.
And there were the times that a Hispanic employee, a woman, was working in the deli at Publix, and she was making the subs on 1 of the days we went there.
I usually let the teens get subs when we go and do the big grocery shopping for helping me get everything, bring it in, and help me put it all away, as like a treat, a thank you for all of the help.

Back-up.

On several of my shopping trips, she would be working in the deli cutting meats, doing customer service, and I would order like a pound of the Publix brand Sweet Ham, or Publix brand roast beef, whatever, and she would talk back to me in Spanish.
I guess she was asking me what I wanted, like she didn't understand me or something, so I would repeat it, "1 pound of Publix brand Sweet Ham, sliced sandwich cut please."
Again, she would say something in Spanish, raise her hands up, and sorta shake her head like she was confused and didn't understand me.
I would keep repeating myself, and she would keep doing the didn't understand me thing until another deli employee would move into the slicing area.
The teens would be over ordering their subs, probably about 5-7 feet from where I was, and they would be sorta giggling at me and whispering to me to not make a scene at the same time.
But like I said, as soon as another employee would get close, she would suddenly understand what I wanted, and she'd cut the meats I ordered.
This happened a whole bunch of times, on almost every single trip to the store, and when I would buy meat from the deli, for about 1 and a half months.
I go to Publix approximately 3 times per week, and buy lunch meats 2 out of the 3 trips.

Then 1 day, I had already gotten the meats I wanted, the deli manager had waited on me that day, and then I went over and ordered all of us subs for dinner.
The deli manager was now waiting on other customers, and the Hispanic woman must have just clocked in, and she came over to the sub station to wait on us.
Again, she acted like she didn't know what I was asking for, 3 whole subs, white rolls, Publix brand sweet ham, white American cheese, mayo, tomatoes, onions, pickles, salt, pepper, and sub sauce on all.
All 3 of the subs were going to be exactly the same, we've ordered the subs like this a gazillion times over the last 12 years that we've lived here, and this woman is standing there shaking her head at me, hands up, making a confused look on her face, and saying "No comprenda."

I had had enough of this game, it happened every time she was working the deli, and it appeared to only be with me, and she would immediately "get it" when another employee or the deli manager would get close enough to hear us and me repeating myself over and over.
The Hispanic woman walked off to go to the walk-in meat cooler, and I ran over to the deli manager and asked her if the woman speaks English, she told me that she did, and I quickly explained what had been happening
The deli manager got as close to the sub station as she could, but not so close that it would look obvious that she was trying to hear us.
The Hispanic woman came back with a tub of sliced tomatoes, a tub of sliced pickles, and a new jar of mayo, so it's obvious that she did understand me because those are some of the things asked for.
Then she just stood there looking at me, and so I repeated the order again, 3 whole subs, white rolls, Publix brand sweet ham, white American cheese, mayo, tomatoes, onions, pickles, salt, pepper, and sub sauce on all, and once again, she raised her hands up, shook her head side to side, and said "No comprenda."
So I repeated it, and again, she shook her head at me and said "no comprenda."

The manager came over, yelled the woman's name, and asked her what the hell she was doing.
The woman suddenly spoke perfect English, crystal clear, "I'm waiting on this customer, making her 3 subs, all the same."

The manager said "No, what are you doing speaking to her in Spanish and pretending that you don't understand her. No comprenda means that you don't understand what she's asking for, why are you doing that?!"

The woman stood there, turning red in the face, giggled and said, "I'm just having some fun."

The manager said, "Fun? You think pretending that you don't speak English, that you don't understand what the customer is saying, making her repeat herself over and over, is fun? You think that's fun?! Do you know what I think is fun?! Watching people stand in line at the unemployment office. You're fired!"

The woman asked if she was joking, the manager said no, get out of here, you're fired, leave, now, and the woman almost started crying, said she was just joking, turned to me and apologized, said she was just joking, and she didn't mean to upset me.
She must have said sorry to me a dozen times, and the manager just kept telling her she was fired, to leave now or she'd call security to get her out.

As the woman walked off crying, I felt sorta bad, but not really.
This had been happening every time I went there, and it was really frustrating, I felt like I should have been able to speak to her in Spanish, that it was my fault that she didn't understand what I needed.
I know it wasn't my fault, Publix has rules for employees about speaking in English and clearly, but I still felt like maybe I should have tried to speak her native language.

That was about 3 years ago, and since then, Publix has hired even more Hispanic employees, some of them have very thick accents, it's very difficult for me to understand some of them, and it's like this almost everywhere that I go and have to use a customer service employee.
Grocery stores, 7-Eleven, Wal-mart, Target, Subway, and almost every single fast food place like McDonald's and Taco Bell.
Even just walking up and down the aisles at the grocery store, sometimes a Hispanic person will ask me something, in Spanish, I have no idea what they want, and I say as nicely as I can that I don't speak Spanish, and they look frustrated and upset, they try to say whatever it is in English, but they can't seem to figure out the words needed.

I'm one of those people that believes wholeheartedly that if you move to a new country, that you need to learn the language of the country that you chose to live in, to not expect the people who live there, have lived there all of their lives, to learn your language.
Like, if I decided to move to France, or Germany, India, China, wherever, I would start studying the language of the country that I had made the decision to move to, and I would learn it as best as I could before moving there, and then keep on studying it and learning it until I became fluent in it, had an excellent grasp on the language, so that I could properly communicate with the people of that country, buy my groceries or items for my home, or a sandwich from a store or vendor.
I would never expect those people to learn mine, to make my life easier in their country, the place that I chose to live in.

But it is becoming harder and harder to communicate with employees almost everywhere I shop now, or have to call for customer service help, and the language most widely being spoken is Spanish.
I am really feeling the pressure to learn it just so that I can get customer service at a place I have shopped at for years.

---

April 16, 2009

Meds, food, and trying new things.

The plan for today was to get up early and go to CVS, get Sebastian's migraine meds, and then go grocery shopping at Sweetbay because it's right there, I didn't want to go all the way in one direction to get his meds, and then turn around and go all the way to Publix which is in the other direction, which would have wasted a lot of time today.

I let Mark stay home from school today to be my shopping helper, but he got up at the usual time, walked Sebastian all the way to the street the school is on*, and then he came home and we were gonna go.
Well when he got back, I was still wicked way tired, so I told him to go back to sleep for a few more hours and then we'd go.
I woke up at 10:30, and started making my list, woke Mark back up, and then I was going to start getting dressed to go.
Good thing I decided on getting a late start because the school called about Sebastian.
He ended up getting a wicked bad migraine and needed to come home, the nurse said he was completely pale and near tears sitting in the nurses office, so I told her to definitely send him home.

I waited for him to get home before I went shopping, and decided to have him go with me instead of Mark.
When he got here, I gave him the last pill in the bottle, and 2 Tylenol, and one of my diet sodas so he could get the caffeine to help with the migraine.
Then he and I headed out to CVS to get his meds and then shopping.
One of the things I like about CVS over Walgreen's is that they are super fast getting prescriptions ready, they said it would take 15-20 minutes, but they had it ready in 7 minutes.
I barley had time to go around and find the things I wanted to buy while there.

They had the Venus Embrace razors on sale for $7.99, I had a coupon for $2.00 off, (thanks Mom!) and buying them earned me $4.00 in CVS extra care bucks, which I am still learning how to use and what they are all about, but seeing as I have to get Sebastian's meds at CVS** every month, I figure I might as well learn all about the ECBs and start taking advantage of their program.
So the razors were on sale for $7.99, you earn the $4.00 in ECBs making them $3.99, and I had $2.00 off, so I really only paid $1.99 for them.
That's a really great deal, I think, I'm still really not sure how this whole ECB thing works, but I'll figure it out.
I also wanted to try the Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew eye roller thingy because I always have really big dark circles under my eyes, and they had it on sale for $12 with the card, and I had a $5.00 off coupon, so I only paid $7.00 for it.
I also bought a big package of Excedrin Migraine, they had it for $10.99, I had a $4.00 off coupon, and I want Sebastian to give these another try.
The Tylenol does work, but it can take up to an hour to an hour and a half for them to kick in, that's far too long when he's battling a big one, so I want to see if these will work better for him.
So after we picked up his meds and bought the stuff, I gave him one of his pills and 2 of the Excedrin right away, and by the time we were done shopping, his migraine was gone, so I think they do work a bit better than the Tylenol even though he was complaining last month that the Excedrin didn't really help.

After CVS, we went and did the shopping at Sweetbay.
I got almost everything on my list, they just don't have as much selection as Publix in my opinion, so probably this weekend I'll have to go to Publix to get the rest of the stuff I couldn't get there.
And while I was gone shopping, Mark snapped the handle off of the cold side of the bathroom faucet.
It's not his fault even though he doesn't know his own strength, this is an old house, and I swear these fixtures are the exact same ones that have been in here since the day this duplex was built in 1976.

So for now, it's duct taped until I can go buy and have someone help me install some new bathroom faucets.
*sigh*

Looks great huh? *LoL*
If it isn't one thing breaking and needing to be fixed or replaced, it's another.
That's just the kind of luck I have.
I was just telling someone this morning in an email, that if I believed in all that past lives and reincarnation stuff, I was probably a really horrible person in a past life and this life is my payback or punishment for it, because if something can go wrong in my life, it most certainly does.
I like hardly ever get a break from the chaos.
Oh well.

Continue Reading �

---

April 14, 2009

Good home cooking.

Oh, the other awesome thing that happened today, was that the UPS guy showed up and brought me this box that weighed 10lbs!
I was not expecting that weight at all.
As he was walking to the door, he was carrying it with 1 hand, the box didn't look big at all, it actually wasn't big at all, but when he handed it to me, I was all whoah!
I have a weight lifting limit, still, because of my spine surgeries.
I am not allowed to lift anything heavier than 5lbs, basically I was told by my surgeon, if it weighs more than a gallon of milk, ask someone else to carry it, and I haven't lifted more than 5lbs since September, so when he handed it to me, it was quite a shock.
I am not sure who sent it either.
Well, I mean, I know it was a book publisher, I get a lot of books from publishers, but this is one that I have not dealt with before, so it was kind of a surprise, but a very nice surprise!

Anyway, the books (yes I said books, it was 2 of the exact same book) I received were The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1,000 Classic American Recipes.*
These are HUGE hardcover books just chocked full of tons of home-style family recipes!
There's everything in here according to the table of contents;
breakfasts
lunches
appetizers
salads
soups
fish and shellfish
poultry
meat
grilling
pasta and rice
veggies
breads and toppings
pies, cakes, and cookies
other deserts and sweets
drinks

I browsed through it a few times, and there are just so many recipes, all "grandma style", real old-fashioned cooking.
There's not too many people out there that still do everything from scratch, companies make things so much easier for us now, (ready made pie crusts, cake mixes in a box add eggs, water and oil) but if you're looking to learn to cook and bake from scratch, this is THE cookbook to have to learn how.
For example, say that you wanted to learn how to make biscuits from scratch, not from the pop-open refrigerated can from the doughboy, the recipe and full directions are there.
(** recipe below cut)
There are just so many recipes for so many great foods, cooking charts for meats, fish, poultry, veggies, you name a recipe grandma used to make, I'm gonna bet it's in there!
I can't wait to go through this whole book and actually make some of these.
I miss my grandma's and my mother's homemade food so much, they did everything from scratch, my mom still does, but us younger generations, companies just make everything for us, so all we have to do is add water and an egg or 2, and voila! dinner and desert in 30 minutes!
_________________________________

I am seriously going to need to find Mark a new bed very soon, or at the very least, go shopping for twin sized bed frames.
He has grown so much from the small 6 year old boy when we moved here in 1997, and he and Sebastian looked so tiny on their solid pine bunk beds.
My sister got the bunk beds at a yard sale, bought new mattresses, and that's what they've been sleeping on for the last 12 years.
Well, Mark is over 6 feet tall, he weighs about 170, and so that bed is just not the right size for him anymore.
The frame has started to crack under the weight, and his feet hang off from his height.
It's definitely time to get him a new bed or bed frame, and while I'm at it, I should probably just get 2 of them.
Sebastian is not far behind in the height and weight department.

Continue Reading �

---

April 10, 2009

Stolen credit card numbers and people really suck.

I've been watching my Amscot credit/debit card account like a hawk for a few months now, I kept seeing all these "test" charges showing up, $1 here, $1 there, for things like iTunes, Napster, and today, Snapfish.
I don't have an iTunes account, I don't have a Napster account either.
I do have a Snapfish account, but I haven't logged into it in over 8 months, until today that is, after I saw the above 2 charges.
I wanted to see if they had like a service charge for having the account that would explain those 2 charges, but no, they don't, AND I have never used my Amscot card at their site.

I called Amscot a few minutes ago to have this card canceled and get a new one, I was prepared to have to pay the $25 fee for closing this card and getting a new one, but the customer service agent told me that I didn't have to pay the fee because they were switching things up, and all I need to do is go in to my local branch to have it all taken care of.
When I go in, they will take this card, give me a new temporary card, transfer my balance over, and in about a week, I'll get my new card in the mail.
I will need to contact SSDI and switch over my direct deposit information because it's not just the card being swapped out, it's the whole account, they are changing everyone's accounts to the new system.
He said the new system will be a lot better, it will stop all these fraudulent charges right away, it will have text capability to check balances, less fees for transactions, a whole bunch of new features he said, so I need to get up there and take care of this.
I have a check from the Airborne class action suit to deposit anyway, so yeah, I need to try and get up there as soon as I can.

---

April 10, 2009

16lbs of candy and some yummy soap is here!

The FedEx guy pulled up today and brought us that huge box of Tootsie Roll brand candies that I won from Lisa Reviews, and he asked if we ordered it.
Sebastian said "No, my mom won it!"
The guy told him he was a lucky kid and to not eat it all at once.
Sebastian couldn't wait for me to open the box so he could see everything inside of it, and of course, dig in...LoL
This is what was in the box;

Two Tootsie Roll banks, lots of Tootsie Pops, Andes Candies, Junior Mints, (which are in the freezer) Fluffy Stuff cotton candy, Frooties, several different kinds of Dubble Bubble, and a TON of all different kinds of the candy that Tootsie makes.
Sebastian was totally excited, and when Mark finally woke up, he was like "Wow, that's all ours?!"
So he was a bit excited to have a ton of candy too. hahaha

The mailman also brought the soaps I ordered last week (after paying off all of my bills from my income tax return) from my friend Lara's homemade soap and candle shop, The Sage Grove.
Lara had made a very specific scent of soap I had told her about, and so when I had the extra money, I bought 3 of the 4 remaining bars she had for sale on her site.
I thought it would have been really mean to buy all 4 bars and not leave at least 1 for someone else.
It is so wonderful!!!
I took a shower with it just a few minutes ago so I could cool off and also wash off the days nasty sweat, and OMGosh! It's amazing!
I love jasmine and pink grapefruit soap!
I used to buy it from another blogging friend who made it, but she hasn't made any in a long time for personal reasons, and so when I was telling Lara about it, she said she'd give it a try.
After she made it, she told me that it smelled "divine!"
Yes it does!
I absolutely love the smell of this soap, taking a shower with it today was awesome, it lathered up really nice, it smells so incredible, and the scent lingers on your skin for hours after showering with it, you don't need to wear any perfume or anything else, the scent is simply scrumptious on it's own.
I still would love a perfume or body lotion made from it some time, I think that would become like my 'signature scent' if I could get it in a perfume.
Lara also packed in the box for me, a bar of Vanilla Sugar soap, a bar of Oakmoss soap, and a bar of Citrus Sherbet soap.
ALL of them smell so so good!
If you love great smelling and homemade soaps, please go check out her shop, her soaps are just awesome, I'll have to try her candles some time when I get some money again some time.

Ok, I guess that's all for now, I need to go eat something for dinner now that it's a bit cooler.
I can't eat when it's so hot out, it makes me feel sick to my stomach, blech.

---

April 1, 2009

iTunes has crappy custome service.

See that?
That is a $1 authorization charge on my credit card for Apple's iTunes. (scroll down to the $1 charge FAQ)
I DON'T HAVE AN iTUNES ACCOUNT!
I have never had an iTunes account, the teens don't have an iTunes account, they also use a totally different computer, no access to my credit cards, and no access to my computer's saved information, this is a fraudulent charge.

So, I try and contact Apple from the 866 number you see on the charge.
It's a recorded message that tells you to go to this support page for Apple iTunes.
As you can see, that page says support/itunes/store/creditcard/.
They don't have a live person you can contact for support, you have to use their chat window, and talk to people who type slower than molasses on a cold winter day.
It took 10 minutes for "Tremain" to finally type out the number to speak to someone in Apple's fraud department.

I called that number and got a recorded message saying that it could take several business days for someone to call me back regarding the fraudulent charge on my card.
Actually, not someone, just 1 someone, a man named Robert.
1 guy handles ALL of the fraud issues for credit cards and Apple iTunes.
1 guy.

So I called my credit/debit card holder, Amscot.
I asked what I should do, I explained everything, and the woman I spoke to said the only thing that we can do is to cancel that card.
I can't cancel it right now, my SSDI gets direct deposited to it at midnight tomorrow night, I have all of my rent and bills to pay, plus my doctor co-pays and prescriptions.
Then I asked how long it would take to get a new card sent to me after this card gets canceled.
7-10 business days.
I asked if they had like a rush delivery service, to get it overnight or much faster, she said yes, but it will cost me $26.00 to get a new card in 4 days.
The number on the card will change, but my checking account and routing number will not change, which is good, because I have money that gets direct deposited to it every other week and once a month.

A few months ago, this same thing happened but with some other online company, I think it was Best Buy and some promo they were doing, but a ton of credit card numbers had been stolen from compromised data from a grocery store.
I think that's what happened with this one too.
And guess which store I shopped at within the last month?
Sweetbay.
Sweetbay is the same store that my PayPal debit card got compromised at, I don't shop there all of the time, but about 1 month ago, I went and did some light shopping there because I was at the CVS picking up Sebastian's medicine for his migraines, and didn't feel like going all the way back to my Publix.

So now I have to get an all new card.
I'm tired of having to do this, and if I find out that it is because of Sweetbay not protecting their data again, or some Sweetbay employee stealing credit and debit card numbers, I'm going to be pissed.

---

March 31, 2009

Redesigned badly.

I went to check on my child support payments, nothing so far this week, and then I wanted to check the balance on the State of Florida child support card that I never wanted to begin with anyway, and found that they redesigned the site.
Badly.
It doesn't work in FireFox, only IE, and it's just done really stupid.
Type in your username and hit submit.
Taken to a page where you have to enter your password, type out your own security question and answer, pick a picture, name the picture whatever you want, type out the security code captcha, and hit submit.
Except when I hit submit, nothing at all happens.
Nothing, it just sits there, the task bar says done, yet nothing happens.
But go over to IE, and it works, takes you to your account so you can check on deposits and balances.
Like I said, it doesn't work in FireFox, only IE, which I hate using, but entering all that stuff every single time you use it?
I have to type out a security question and answer every single time, pick a picture and name the picture anything I want, every single time, and then the security captcha every single time too.
I can see having to answer the security question, and then entering what I named the picture, and the security captcha, but doing it all every single time?
What the hell was the designer of that system thinking?!
I could write a different question and answer every time, I could choose a different picture and name it something different every single time.
I just don't understand how they think that's secure.
Idiots.

---

March 26, 2009

1 of 4 called me back, plus food.

Early this morning, I posted that I needed to call our families 4 doctors and set up appointments.

Call my cardiac doctor and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call my primary care physician and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call Sebastian's neuro and ask if he can call something in for breakthrough hellish migraine pain.
Call the teen's doctor and set up an appointment for Mark, because he's getting wicked back pains again.

I called my cardiac doctor, spoke to a nurse, she said that Jenn the appointment setter would call me back.
She did.
I called my primary care physician, left a message with the girl who answered, for the appointment setter to call me back.
No one did.
I called Sebastian's neuro, had to leave a message on his voice mail because it went straight to it, no rings.
He did not call back.
I called the teen's doctor, left a message with the girl who answered.
They did not call back either.

So out of the 4 calls I made, only my cardiac doctor called back, I have an appointment on April 6th at 10:30am for a cardiac stress test and surgical clearance, as well as see if I have any type of blockage or something because of my feet swelling.
My surgeon saw that my feet were swollen on Wednesday, they weren't even that bad really, he asked if that happened a lot, i said no, but when it does they get pretty bad.
So he said he wanted the cardiac doc to run some sort of dye test that would determine if there's any blockages in blood flow, and if not, then it's a water issue, and my dose of high blood pressure meds may have to be upped.

After waiting as long as I could, I decided to go do the shopping that we needed to do.
I left Mark in charge of taking the phone messages, gave him a notepad and a good pen, told him to take the first date and time they offered if they called back, and I'll work out transportation to those appointments later.
When we got back, no one had called back.
Gah.
Now I have to call them back in the morning again. *bangs head on keyboard*

When we went to Publix, it was a nightmare!
It was like every old, mostly dead, blue-haired, snowbird was in there shopping, and they were all in a wicked bad mood, maybe in need of a deep and thorough enema, because yowza, they were all just really snappy, grabby, pushy, and yelling at everyone they came in contact with.
They didn't take a number at the very busy deli, but demanded to be waited on, they stopped to chat with other old, mostly dead, blue-haired, snowbirds, right in the middle of the aisles totally blocking shopping traffic, they knocked things off of shelves and didn't pick them back up, they made the poor woman in the bakery cut a loaf of bread 3 times because the "thickness wasn't exact", and they kept trying to cut in the checkout lanes.

Ok, this turned into a rant and I didn't intend it to be that way, but I'll be glad when season is over.
Hurry up Easter!
They all go back up north after Easter...LoL

---

March 26, 2009

Answer me if I ask.

I don't like it when people try to pull the wool over my eyes intentionally, or claiming ignorance, that they didn't mean to beat around the bush, so to speak.
The economy is in the crapper, we all know it, it shows signs of wanting to get better, the DOW has been slowing climbing, but millions of people are still out of work, many more are still losing their jobs, homes, cars, etc.
I mean, what kind of crazy is it that a car company is advertising a "deal" that if you lease a car from them and lose your job in any time during the lentgh of the lease, that they will let you out of the lease, no questions asked, no money owed on the contract?
Yeah, it's kinda crazy, scary economic times.

So yeah, I don't like it when people try to get me with stuff.
I received an email in the wee hours of the morning, I was still awake, (still am too) and it was a very brief email offering me nothing at all in the way of information other than an opportunity for me and my blog readers, and other single moms, we'd all be helping each other.
I'm always on the lookout for my fellow single moms, and the email was very brief, the person wanted to set up a time to speak with me by phone, so my skeptic alarms are going off already ya know?
Any time someone says something like opportunity and speak by phone in the same sentence, you can pretty much bet on it that money will be involved, either them wanting to sell you something, or get you to sell something.
So I emailed back a very detailed list of questions that I wanted answered before I agreed to any kind of phone call about this way to help my single mom readers.

The reply I got back was just as short as the first, and just as I had suspected, it was an opportunity for "affordable life coaching for women".
You can either be the person needing the coaching for a monthly fee which goes from $19 per month, $39 per month, and $59 per month, I almost needed some adult diapers when I read those fees for it, or you can be the one selling these monthly life coaching packages to other women on commission.

I had asked about 10 very specific questions, none of them were answered in the reply, not a single one.
That upset me greatly, it was a waste of my time to even write out those questions even though the first email they sent said that if I had any questions, to ask.
I don't like having the wool pulled, and I don't like having my time wasted.
But the person did include in the second email, a link to their site, and from there, I found a link to the site for the life coaching.
I had to click around to find the information that this person should have told me.
If they were looking to make money, they should have at least answered my questions.
I know they probably do their best work verbally, and that's why they wanted to pitch to me by phone, but I never give out my phone number to anyone I don't know, first of all, and second, until I know why I'm giving out my number, I need to know why my time is about to be spent on the phone.

After getting the second useless email, having to go searching for the information myself, I was kind of irritated.
I really felt that my time was wasted by someone who is obviously wanting to make money either by selling these coaching packages, or by getting a commission for getting new sellers to sign up, yet they offered me absolutely nothing in the way of information about this supposed grand thing that they wanted me to post about here on my blog for my readers, and really push it to my single mom readers.

I wrote back after that second email and having to spend time to learn what it was all about, how irritated I was, and what a crappy job they had done trying to sell this to me, probably wanting to sell me a life coach package, and also getting me to post about it on my site for free for them, and even after my semi-scathing email, they still had the nerve to ask me to post a link to their main website.

That pretty much appalled me, and I'm so steamed at this point, that I have not even replied to that email.
I can't.
If I do, every word I type will be every not-so-nice word that I know of.
It would be a very ugly email, and even Great-Gram who has said some pretty vile words in her days, would probably fall over dead reading the words I want to say to this woman.
She wasted my time.
She didn't answer a single question I asked, yet wanted to sell me, and get me to sell, her product for her.
And then she had the nerve to ask for another free link to her site.
Yeah, not a happy Kat right at the moment.

---

March 26, 2009

Stop the ride, I want to get off.

There's gotta be an exit sign around here somewhere, I want to get off of this ride like right now!

I had my surgeon appointment this afternoon, er, on Wednesday afternoon, you can read all about that over at KatScan.

I had a rough start to my Wednesday though, because I had to go to Walgreen's first thing in the morning and get my pain meds refilled, because on Monday when the new pain doc wrote out the scripts, it was 2 days too early for my insurance to cover them, and there was no way in hell I could afford them without the insurance.
Without insurance, just 1 of the pain meds is $595.95, my part D drug coverage insurance costs me $20.00 per month, and then my script co-pays run between $2.40-$5.80 depending on what the medication is, so yeah, I totally waited till this morning to go have it filled.
I cannot imagine being without insurance the way pharmaceutical companies price medications, it's really no wonder some people have to choose between food and their meds.
Crazy!
But I digress.
I had called Walgreen's on Tuesday night to verify they had the generic in stock because my insurance only covers the generic, they said they had it in stock.
So Mark and I walked down there this morning only to find out that whoever had told me that Tuesday night, was wrong, they didn't have it.
So the pharmacist called a ton of other branches, most of them didn't have it either, but the 1 that did in the entire city, was clear on the other side of town.
I called a cab, spent $18.00 to get there, stand in line with like 90-gazillion blue-hairs who were trying to cut me in line, being pushy with their shopping carts, and here I was in a major time crunch.
It was now 10am, I had to get my med and get back home to take a shower, and be ready to leave for my surgeon appointment at noon when my sister would be here to pick me up, because it's (the surgeon's office) on the north side of Tampa, in Safety Harbor up near Mease Countryside Hospital where I had my first surgery, and where I'll be having this next one.
The pharmacist said it was going to take 30-45 minutes to fill it, (ack!) so Mark and I decided to run next door to Publix and pick up the much needed cat food, the even more needed toilet paper, a sympathy card, and some food and sodas for the teens to eat and drink while sis and I were gone, because I knew we wouldn't get back home until around 6pm because my appointment was at 2pm, and we would be dealing with rush hour traffic in Tampa on the drive home, snowbird traffic on the interstate, and even worse snowbird traffic once we got back here to Sarasota.

But before we went into Publix, I sat down on the little brick wall and called my friend Dustin, to beg him to come pick us up because I simply couldn't afford another $18.00 to get us back home, because I had a doctor's co-pay to pay for when the appointment was over.
I was worried about that big time, but really shouldn't have been, because the co-pay ended up being only $9.00.
Why?
I have absolutely no idea, but biggie W00ts! for small favors!

He said no problem mama, (his nickname for me) he was on his way, he'd actually meet us at the Walgreen's because that's where we had to go back to, and Mark and I ran around Publix getting everything we needed, paid, and ran across the parking lot with the grocery cart, Mark waited outside with the cart and food, and I ran back into blue-hair, snowbird hell to hope they had my script ready.
It was now 10:47am.
ACK!!!
They had it ready, I ran back outside, Dustin was there, he and Mark had put the groceries in his car, and he drove us home.
He and I sat and talked for about 10 minutes, (11:15am) he left, I tried to hurry and add just $10.00 to my pre-paid Virgin mobile cell phone because I was running way low and the teens needed to be able to reach me in case of emergency and vice-versa, (I only had $4.65 left) their site wasn't working for just my kind of luck, so I had to call them and add the money, then I ran into the shower and took THE fastest shampoo, shave, condition, soapy clean of my life, ran out, got dressed, and just as I was starting to brush my hair, my sister called to say she was 5 minutes away, she had picked up lunch for all of us at McDonald's, I brushed my hair, pulled it into a pony, slid on my sandals, went outside to put stuff in the mailbox, walked back to the front door, and proceeded to barf on my front lawn.
I hadn't slept at all on Tuesday night, I hadn't eaten anything more than 2 yogurts all the sleepless night, I was wicked way stressed out from all of the running around, with no sleep or sustenance, my body decided to show me who was boss just 2 minutes before sis pulled into the driveway.
She showed up at exactly 12 noon.

The appointment went well as you can read at KatScan, I came home and just tried to rest before I started calling family and friends to let them know how it went.
After I called everyone, I finally sat down and ate a meal slowly, really being able to eat it and taste it, we watched a movie, Mask, Sebastian had added it to the Netflix, and then I began attempting to catch up with things online.
I didn't get very far as you can see because this post which should have been posted on Wednesday, is now posted at almost 5am on Thursday morning.

***

What do I have to do today, Thursday?!
I have to:

Call my cardiac doctor and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call my primary care physician and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call Sebastian's neuro and ask if he can call something in for breakthrough hellish migraine pain.
Call the teen's doctor and set up an appointment for Mark, because he's getting wicked back pains again.

All of the stuff that is wrong with me is genetic, so I am worried about him.
He's 17 and has wicked bad back pains every 6 months or so.
I don't think he has scoliosis because I don't see any curve of his spine, nor do I see any rib hump, I don't see uneven shoulders, no uneven shoulder blades or hips, and no preference for leaning to any one side.
But he may have 1 or more of my other genetic screw ups like stenosis, disc damage, and/or a multitude of other neuro-muscular abnormalities that I may have given him through our genes, or maybe he has some nerve impingement going on, but all I know is that when he and I went for a walk to the corner store, he couldn't even stand up straight, he was leaning forward, said his back hurt wicked way bad, and trying to stand and walk upright, was really painful.
Because of my medical history, because doctors now know that scoliosis is indeed genetic and hereditary, it concerns me a great deal when he has bad back pain.
With his dream of becoming a police officer, if he does have scoliosis, we need to get him treated now.
They have come so far in treating this disease, far more advanced than when I was diagnosed in 1982 at the age of 12, and if caught early enough and at a younger age, he would never, ever, have to go through any of what I've been going through for all of these years.
Children, teens, and people under the age of 25, recover from the surgeries faster than adults do, usually within just 6 months, whereas adults, age 30 and up, can take anywhere from 1 year all of the way up to 5 years, to fully recover from spine fusion surgery.
He could have it now while he's young, it wouldn't interfere with his career choices, and he wouldn't spend his middle years in horrific pain and multiple surgeries like I've had to do.
Making those phone calls as soon as doctor's offices open at 8 or 9am this morning, is my #1 priority today.

Continue Reading �

---

March 1, 2009

It's my birthday! Jenn's the winner!

There was a total of 515 entries including all of the bonus entries, in my celebrate my birthday contest, and Random.org chose comment number 144, which was Jenn!
Congrats Jenn!

I have already emailed Jenn, she has 48 hours to respond or I'll have to draw another winner.
Katy and Gem Affair will mail out the necklace to Jenn as soon as we get her address.

Thanks to everyone who entered, it was by far the biggest amount of entries in one of my contests ever, a great turnout.

---

February 11, 2009

Working on my taxes.

I'm working on getting my tax stuff all sorted out.
I've finally separated the 2009 receipts from the 2008 receipts, and now I just need to get all of my prescription receipts printed out.
Most of the receipts in my 2008 taxes box, are for prescriptions and doctors appointments.
All of that medical stuff can be written off, so I need to get everything printed to make it as easy as possible to get my taxes done.

Walgreen's allows you to print your payment receipts for prescriptions from home over the internet from their site, so I printed those out, but I've also used a few different branches of Walgreen's, and for some reason, they are not included in the ones I printed out last night.
And then there's the other pharmacies I've used, so I need to physically go to each of them and ask them to use their receipt printer to print out all of my 2008 prescription receipts.

Hey, all of that stuff is a tax write off, and considering how many meds I take and how much they cost, you can bet your butts that I'll be printing them all out and writing them off to get a decent tax return.

---

February 9, 2009

Celebrate my birthday contest!!

**EDIT**
Too many people are NOT following the rules.
As of right now. 10:20pm EST Monday February 16th, I will not be counting anymore of the entries which do not follow the very simple first rule of this contest.
This is the rule, follow it or your comment entry will NOT be counted.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
Go to GemAffair and pick 1 thing that you'd like to have, come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is.
If this is not done, your comment entry will NOT count.
_____________________

My birthday is coming up on March 1st, and I want to celebrate and share my birthday fun with my readers.
So, I'm having a contest to give 1 lucky reader a present from me and Gem Affair, to help celebrate the big 39.
Yup, I'm going to be 39 this year, I'm seriously thinking this will be the last birthday I acknowledge, at least publicly.
I'm not growing old as gracefully as I had hoped, and just thinking about my body getting worse with old age, makes me cringe.

So anyway, I want to celebrate it up big and I want to share my special day with you.
Katy and Gem affair have so awesomely agreed to be my contest sponsor.
The winner will be selected randomly using random.org, and this is what 1 lucky reader will win.
It's a diamond two-piece oval pendant with an 18-inch chain.

It comes packaged beautifully in a gift box, and will be shipped directly to you from Gem Affair, it will be gift wrapped and include a note.**

I won 1 of the Twitter contests that Gem Affair had, and I absolutely LOVE the diamond journey pendant that I won.
It is sooo beautiful, and it fits me perfectly both in actual fit and style.

So now that you know what the prize of my celebrate my birthday contest is, here's what you need to do to win!
For each 1 of these that you do, you NEED to leave a SEPARATE comment for each.
Each 1 of these equals 1 entry, but the first one is a must do.
The more you do, the more chances of winning you have!

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. Please give me your username so I can verify.
4. Follow me on Twitter. Please give me your username so I can verify.
5. Follow Gem Affair on Twitter. Please give me your username so I can verify.

EDITED**
For 5 additional entries for each, do one or both of the following, and leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do, I will add your +5 entries to your entries.

1. Blog about this on your blog linking back to me and 1 link to Gem Affair.com. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Subscribe to this blog using my RSS feed.

The winner will be drawn from all of the entries on Sunday March 1st, my birthday.
So come celebrate with me and you could win this beautiful diamond pendant!
The contest is open to both US and Canadian residents only.
______________________________________

So that I don't run into a snafu with my winner, and don't like being called a liar, thief, and criminal, here's the skinny:

Giveaway is open until midnight, February 28th, 2009.
Winner will be chosen at random and announced on March 1st, 2009.
Winner will be contacted by email and/or Twitter and will have 48 hours to respond.
Please use your real first name and a valid email address when entering.
I am not responsible for incorrect contact information.
You must respond from the email you used to enter in order to be eligible to win!
If I contact you through the email you used to enter, and it bounces back as invalid, I will choose a different winner, so please make sure that your information is correct.

Too many people are NOT following the rules.
As of right now. 10:20pm Monday February 16th, I will not be counting anymore of the entries which do not follow the very simple first rule of this contest.
This is the rule, follow it or your comment entry will NOT be counted.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
Go to GemAffair and pick 1 thing that you'd like to have, come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is.
If this is not done, your comment entry will NOT count.

Continue Reading �

---

February 9, 2009

Trade in old cds and get cash or new gadgets in return!

I used to take my old and used cds and DVDs and trade them in at a local music and video store.
Boogie Woogie which was in the same shopping plaza as Publix, used to take used CDs and DVDs, and either give you cash for them or let you trade them in for other items that you wanted, but due to the failing economy, they had to close down all of their locations.
That was back in May 2008, quite awhile before any of the news of the Wall Street fiasco started to make the news, but local establishments were already beginning to feel the heat of the failing economy.
I haven't been able to find any other place to sell my used CDs and DVDs since, other than online auction sites, but you're lucky if you get a buck a piece on some of those sites.

I have now found an awesome place that will take your old CDs and DVDs and books, and give you cash or let you trade them in on other stuff you may want.
Abundatrade.com is the place to go to unload your used stuff and get cash or gadgets in return.

You can do it 1 of 2 ways.
You can go to their site and either enter in the 12-digit UPC code or the 10-13-digit ISBN number, and they will calculate the trade in or cash value for you.
To test it out, I entered in the ASIN number of the nearest to me DVD, which was The Nightmare Before Christmas 2-disc collectors edition which retails for $20.99 on Amazon, and they calculated it's trade in value at $7.67. (I am NOT trading it in, I love this movie, just testing the system out)

The other way you can do it is to just box up all of the items you want to trade in, they give you the shipping materials to send them in, and when they get them and calculate the value of everything in your box, they let you know how much it's all worth.
If you submit a tracking number when you ship it to them, they will give you a FREE used CD just for helping them track your package.

The value of your items is based on the current online market value for each item you are looking to trade in.
All items must be in good physical shape, and if you have all of the items that go with it, like the jewel case, the booklets and manuals, the more it's worth.
You should read the FAQs to learn more about how they calculate the value and the shipping methods etc.
The current market value has nothing to do with the popularity of the band, movie or book, it is based soley upon current online market values.
Oooh, the FAQs say they even take video games.
Awesome!
I know we have a ton of video games that we've beat and don't play anymore, and I could unload all of the old PS2 games that we haven't played since the teens got the xbox360 2+ years ago.
Saweeet!

If you box up and ship a lot of items, and for some reason they decline some of them, they will send those items back to you, or you can choose to leave them with Abundatrade to recycle.
Nice.
The online market value calculator is only an estimate, they will inspect all of the items you send in for damage or to see if it has all of the booklets and original jewel case, and that may either increase or decrease the current market value.

The items you send in can be used to purchase brand new items, gadgets like iPods or cameras, tvs, computers and gaming equipment.
You can basically trade in all of your old and used CDs, DVDs, books and video games, and get new items in return.
This seems like a great way to get your kids that stuff they have already listed as wanting for Christmas without having to save every penny for the next 10 months, you can just send in all your old stuff and get some new stuff.
It's like finding money you didn't know you had!

I have so many books, video games, CDs, and DVDs, this is going to be my new place to trade stuff in.
Check it out!

---

February 6, 2009

I'm a kitchen geek.

Remember how I told you I won an 18-piece food storage container set from Rubbermaid and the Graco Baby Blog?

Well anyway, Lindsay Lebresco emailed and said she was sending them out, that it would here on Friday, today, and man, she's good!
They showed up this morning, FedEx delivered them right on perfect timing like Nixon watches keep perfect time.
I love it when companies keep their word and do things so perfectly and you get the things you ordered or won in this case, exactly when they say you will.

It also wasn't an 18-piece set, it turned out to be a 20-piece set.
18 regular pieces and 2 fruit and veggie crisper containers.

The fruit and veggie crisper containers come with a special vented lid and a special insert to help keep the food from turning brown and going bad.
There's 1 large and 1 medium lid and insert, and they fit into any of the large and medium containers.

All of the lids do snap together so you don't lose them, and the lids also snap to the bottom of the containers, making it super easy to store and stack them so none of them get misplaced.

It's a really great set, I love this kind of stuff, I know, I'm a total kitchen geek, so when it got here, I went in my cupboard where I keep all my storage containers, and tossed out all of the old, stained, lost lidded containers, and the lids with no containers, and put all of these in there.
They are all in the perfect graduated different sizes, but they all stick and stack together, so it's wicked easy to keep them in the cupboard above the stove.

So thanks again Newell Rubbermaid and Lindsay for holding the contest!

---

February 4, 2009

What to buy?!

Due to a mix-up and a misunderstanding on a purchase I made at an online retailer back in December, Buy.com's customer service department has been in touch with me regarding that purchase and the snafu.
It's a major long story, but Buy.com wanted to make sure that I was happy with my purchase and their company, which I am, I've been shopping with them since 2004.
So anyway, their customer service department sent me a gift certificate today for $30.00 to buy anything I want.
Yay!
So now the question is, what do I want to buy?!

I've been going through all of their weekly deals and sale items, and they have so many awesome items on sale, and at first I didn't think they had anything this week that I wanted, but then my friend Holly pointed out what she was getting from her husband for valentine's day, and now I'm all oooohhh, I want those too!

They are some Altec Lansing MUZX MHP 206 Stereo Earphones, some pretty little sparkly earbuds that I can use with my mp3 player.
Aren't they pretty?

They are normally $59.99, but Buy.com has them for just $17.99, so that's a savings of $41.96!
Yeuss!

They have precision-cut crystalized Swarovski elements in the jeweled flowers on the earbuds, and on the butterfly on the on the choker.
The "Snug fit" design provides passive noise reduction, which makes it so that you don't have to turn the volume up so high to get great sound quality.
They come with 3 different sized ear tips, small, medium, and large, so I'm sure to find 1 of the 3 that will fit my ears perfectly so they don't slip out when I'm moving around and going for walks like my current ear buds sometimes do.
And they got some great reviews too, so it looks like I'm making a good purchase, a good deal on the price, and they are not only beautiful, but have good sound quality as well.

Now I'm going to look around and find one more item to go with them so I can spend as close to the gift certificate amount as possible, and then I'm going to buy them.
When I get them, I'll be sure to let you know how they are and write my own review!

---

February 2, 2009

Do guys know how to shop for jewelry?

With Valentine's day quickly approaching, there's sure to be a lot of guys out there looking at rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, but do they know what to look for beyond that?

At Bella True, there's a whole section just for guys, to help them make a good decision when they go to buy jewelry.
There's a section that tells them what to give and when.
A section on the "Big 4", a section on engagement rings, rings for the "big day", a section to help them say I'm sorry when saying it isn't really enough, and special days, anniversaries, and shopping for gemstones.

A gift of jewelry does send a message, so guys need to make sure they're sending the right message.
You don't want to buy a ring that closely resembles an engagement ring if you're not thinking of getting married to her, or at least not married to her yet.

Guys also really need to know the woman they're with.
Is she the type that would love to rock a HUGE rock?
A recent conversation among some girls I know, produced the following statements about big engagement rings;
"I could wear a big ring for sure", and "I am all about a big ring, not gonna lie."
Some other girls said they would be totally happy with a small ring, or whatever their man chose for them as long as he picked it out himself.
A man who picks out the engagement ring himself, and truly knows his girl, will win her heart simply for the fact that he really knows her, her style, her likes, her finger size, her favorite colors and shapes, her favorite material like gold, sterling silver, platinum, white gold, and some girls are really liking the new titanium rings that some jewelry designers are producing.

Yes, guys, engagement ring center diamonds, can come in several different shapes.
There's round, princess, emerald, asscher, marquise, oval, radiant, pear, heart, and cushion.
So yeah, know her style, check out her rings that she wears all of the time, when you see a diamond or jewelry commercial come on the tv, find a way to ask her what shape she would love to have if she could have any diamond in any size, shape, and color she wants.
She more than likely has been thinking about it for a long time, so her answer will be easy to tell you.
Make a mental note if you think she's the one for you, and then when you get that feeling to 'pop the question', start digging out those mental notes to help you pick the perfect ring for her.

Jewelry can be for just about any occasion, but it usually does send the message that you are serious about this relationship, so be careful what you buy unless you're really looking to commit to her and your future.

I myself am the kind of woman who loves jewelry, but not into huge rings at all unless it's cheap costume jewelry.
I could never wear a huge diamond engagement ring on my hand for the rest of my life, I actually do things with my hands.
I'm not the 'dainty-get my nails done-wash dishes in the dishwasher-hire a maid for everything' type of woman, I actually enjoy working with my hands, so a big rock would simply get in my way, and it would be on my dresser or in a jewelry box most of the time.
A total waste if a man spent a lot of money on it.
I also prefer sterling silver jewelry far above gold.
Every time I see a gold necklace or gold ring, all I can think of is some big flashy gold digger type, a Guido, big fake boobs, a hairy chested, speedo wearing, fat Guido, so yeah, no gold jewelry for me, ever.

If I really had a choice in my ideal engagement ring, it wouldn't be a diamond at all.
I love the color of my birthstone, and would want that as my center stone.
This is beautiful, this would be perfect, very close to my ideal ring, unless of course I see a different aquamarine ring that I like better sometime, but this is really damn near perfection for me.
Totally my style, something I'd happily and proudly wear every single day, and even though it's not sterling silver, white gold is close enough.

It's far cheaper than a diamond engagement ring too, none of that two months salary thing needed to make me happy, if I was given this ring and asked, I'd be all "Dude, you totally get me! Of course!"

Overall, I think Bella True's Tips for Guys section is done really well.
The navigation is easy, the subjects are well thought out and thorough, and everything is explained in very simple terms so it makes shopping for jewelry by guys a whole lot easier.
The pricing they have is comparable to other online retailers of fine jewelry as well.
So if there's any guys out there looking for jewelry for this coming Valentine's day or that special day soon, check out Bella True, read the tips for guys section, and make a well informed choice for your purchase.

---

February 1, 2009

All hooked up, still no signal.

My sister Jo and her husband Dean, came over late yesterday afternoon and hooked up the digital antenna on the outside of the house for me.
There's still NO signal for WWSB ABC7, even though they said that today, February 1st, they would begin broadcasting it.

I've been ready for this switch to digital since January 1st of last year.
As soon as I learned about the switch, I kept track of it, I made sure that on January 1st 2008, that I went to the converter box coupon website and signed up to get mine.
2 days after getting the coupon, I headed to Wal*Mart and picked up the last one they had on the shelves.
I paid $60 for a brand new digital antenna, a Philips MANT950 Indoor/Outdoor Amplified UHF/VHF/HDTV Antenna, and we hooked it to the wall inside the house, hoping it would work.
Some channels would come in, but not all.

Now that it's hooked up outside, almost every channel is coming in pretty clear.
I still get some pretty spotty pixelation on some channels, but the full switch isn't until February 17th, so maybe they will work better then.
But no, WWSB ABC 7, still is NOT coming in.
When I click on 40.1, 40.2, or even 52.1, I can at least now see the stations call letters, but then it reverts right back to the message, "NO SIGNAL".
This means that they are not broadcasting a strong enough signal, but maybe they will be by the 17th, but it still pisses me off they they know they are broadcasting a weak signal, yet completely turned off the analog.

Other stations like channel NBC 8, are broadcasting in both analog and digital because they know most people still are not ready, they left their analog signal on, and will be leaving it on until they have to by law, shut it off on February 17th.
Channels 8, 13, 36, 38, 44, and 46, are still broadcasting their analog signals until they have to shut them off, they all know not everybody is ready.
Yes, we've all had a year, but there are people who cannot afford the boxes, live on limited incomes, whatever the case may be, so it doesn't really matter that people have had all that time, some people cannot afford the switch regardless of having plenty of time in your book, Alex.

Yes people may not be ready, but they have had over a year to get ready. Plenty of time in my book.

Even though we've had plenty of time, even though we've gotten the converter boxes and spent even more money on indoor/outdoor antennas, it's still a totally crappy thing to shut down the analog signal many, many days before the real switch is supposed to take place.

In my book, WWSB ABC 7, had over a year to get ready, over a year to finish the construction on the transmitter antennas, and they didn't complete it, yet still chose to shut down their analog signal, and broadcast in a really weak signal that even cable companies can't receive.

So Alex, why don't you take a chill pill, I've been well prepared for the switch for over a year, ABC 7 had the same amount of time and screwed it up.

---

January 31, 2009

WWSB ABC 7 turned off their analog signal days earlier than claiming.

This is the message that all local Sarasota residents have been seeing on channel 40, WWSB ABC 7 since 5pm today.
WWSB ABC 7 claims that they will be shutting off their analog signal on Sunday February 1st, because they need time to finish construction at the transmitter sites, yet they actually shut it off today, January 30th 2009 at 5pm.

They claim that their digital signal IS broadcasting, but it's a very weak signal due to the same transmitter site construction, but it's not.
They also are claiming that Brighthouse cable is not picking up their signal relay, and blaming Brighthouse for that error.
But when I called WWSB ABC 7 at 11:05pm tonight and spoke with some guy who answered the phone, he fully admitted that they are not broadcasting a full signal at all, but will be on February 17th.

Between February 1st and February 17th, the digital signal for them will not be very strong at all, but they keep saying that it is working on both 40.1 and 52.1, and Titantv.com does indeed say that they are supposed to be transmitting on 52.1, but no, they are not.

11:00 PM, 35 min
Fri 01/30/2009
WWSBDT 52.1 (40)

They are not transmitting a signal strong enough for the digital signal or a signal strong enough for even cable customers to receive.

It pisses me off that WWSB ABC 7 has decided to shut off their analog signal completely before February 17th.
There are so many people in Sarasota who do not have cable, cannot afford it, may not even have a digital converter box yet, and rely on the local channel for news and more importantly, weather for our immediate area, and now we cannot see it at all.
They claim they shut off the analog signal after the 6:30pm broadcast, but I have been seeing that above message since 5pm.
They were also talking all week long, about a report that was supposed to air on tonight's 11pm news broadcast, all about the digital switch, and how they were going to have some tech person on to explain it all.
Well a lot of good that did telling us about the special report, NO ONE COULD WATCH IT!!!!!!

There are several local stations who I am having trouble picking up with the digital converter box and the digital antenna that I bought, and I am desperately trying to get someone to come install the antenna on the outside of the house for me, I cannot do it, the teens cannot do it, because time is running out for me, the switch is happening whether I'm ready for it or not, and other stations may decide to shut off before the 17th as well, which really is NOT fair at all.

Hell, the government was discussing delaying the switch until June, because there are still about 6.5 million American households that rely on analog televisions, and are not ready for the switch, but the delay didn't pass the house.
Not everyone can afford to get cable, not everyone can afford the digital converter boxes, and those coupons expire, a lot of stores that were supposed to stock them didn't even have them in stock at all, and so those coupons expired and people cannot get any more at all.
As of Wednesday, more than 47 million coupons had been sent out, but only 21.8 million had been redeemed. While 14.3 million had expired, 11 million were still active.

This whole switch to digital has been a huge pain in my ass.
Stations stopped broadcasting in analog, like channel 28, ABC Action News, a few weeks ago, and now WWSB ABC 7.

I can't afford cable, even if I could I wouldn't get it because it's far too much excess crappy channels.
I can't afford Fios either, because even though Verizon says it's only $99.99 a month, my old neighbors bought into that supposed deal, but never had a bill less than $200 the whole time they had it living next door.

I should be able to plug in the converter box, plug it into the digital antenna, and it should all work beautifully, but it doesn't because I live in a concrete block house, so it needs to be installed on the outside of the house, on the roof, and I can't do it.
You have no idea how frustrating this all is to me.
I am so used to being able to do all this technical stuff, I fix everything in this house myself, well, I used to.
All I wanna do is unhook the digital antenna from the wall where we attached it thinking it would work, take it outside, attach it to the roof, run the cable line through the air conditioner area, and plug it in.
But I can't.
I can't raise my head up to undo the screws holding it to the wall, I am not allowed to get on a ladder and climb it to attach it to the roof, I'm not alowed to do freaking anything and it sucks so freaking much.
I hate relying on other people, I hate it!
And I hate that tv stations lied to people tonight, they are running a message that says the switch is taking place Sunday, and yet, they shut down their signal today, and are not broadcasting a signal strong enough to even be picked up by a local cable company.
Screw you WWSB ABC 7!
Fuck you!

---

January 16, 2009

Headaches and buy-outs.

I took Sebastian to the docs so he could be looked at for his headaches, he asked Sebastian all kinds of questions about what triggers the headaches.
When do they usually start, do lights and sounds bother him, what makes it go away, does Tylenol work, darkness, cold etc etc.
Sebastian answered all of his questions, and the doc said it does sound like he has been dealing with migraines, so he gave him a medicine to take when they come on.
I don't know what it is yet because I have to go to a different pharmacy to get it.

We left the docs and went straight to Walgreen's where I was told that they no longer take Sebastian's insurance membership card, because CVS bought the rights to anyone who uses that particular insurance.
So now I have to get up to a CVS and get his medicine.
Ugh.

But after we left Walgreen's, the friend who drove me needed to do some grocery shopping, so we all went and did that, I picked up some more stuff that I didn't get last night, and then we came home.
When we were getting the groceries out of her car, Sebastian accidentally brought the van trunk door down on my head fairly hard.
I was stunned, shocked, in pain, I dropped the bag of food and grabbed my head, spinning around out onto the grass.
I was dizzy, my head spinning and throbbing.
I am ok though, it didn't hurt my neck, just my head, I have a pretty decent sized egg on it now, but I'm ok.

Poor kid felt absolutely awful, he was crying, he thought he really hurt my neck, he ran in the house and threw himself down on his bed and cried, he really thought he hurt me badly, but I swore to him that I am A-o-k, fine, just an egg, it's ok.
I'm wicked tired though, I barely got any sleep again last night, so I'm gonna go lay down and watch my soaps and chill.
Later days.

---

January 10, 2009

Press 1 for English....

Press 10 if you want to kill us for making you push all those numbers.

I had to call a company this morning about an old bill that I am trying to pay off, and so I dialed the toll free number on the statement, and then proceeded to listen to and press the numbers to try and find the right person to speak to.
It took me through 11 different menus and sub-menus to finally get to the right department, and when I did, the person I needed to speak to about making a payment arrangement wasn't in today, and so I tried to leave a voice mail message after hanging up, going through 4 more menus and numbers, to try to speak to someone else, but I was told by the secretary that I had to leave a voice mail message for that person, but their mail box was full.
Arrrggghhhh!
That is so frustrating!

If you have a job and you know that you won't be in the next day, and your job is usually pretty busy, please clean out your voice mail box so that people can leave you a freaking message!
Now I have to try and call the lady back on Monday morning, and I swear, if I can't reach her and end up with a full voice mail box again, I'm gonna explode!

---

December 27, 2008

One of these days, they're gonna kick me out.

Mark and I went and did the grocery shopping tonight, Sebastian wanted to stay home and play WoW because by the time I was ready to go, he was knee deep in some sort of quest, mission, whatever, thing.

Anyway, I had a lot to get, more cat litter, cat food, toilet paper, soda, a lot of food and stuff, so the cart was pretty well loaded up, but everything fit in the cart in a neat and orderly fashion.
I'm checking out and one of the managers was doing the bagging for us, and I told him to please put all of the heavy items, the soda 12 packs, the 4 bags of cat litter and cat food, on the bottom where I had them, and to please not put any of the many cleaning supplies I bought in with any of the food.
I absolutely hate it when a bagger puts the box of fabric softener in with the loaf of bread, and by the time you get home, your bread not only smells like fabric softener, it tastes like it too.

What did he do?
He put all of the sodas, cat litter, and cat food, in the top part, and started putting cleaning chemicals in with food items.
I told him no, move the heavy stuff to the bottom and keep food with food, cleaning supplies with cleaning supplies please.
He shot me a wicked dirty look and then moved the items, but I bought a lot, so he just started throwing bags into the cart, smashing bread and chips, throwing stuff on top of my purse, he dropped a 5lb whole chicken onto the box of donuts Mark picked out, and I lost it.

I started yelling at him, I couldn't help myself, he was an asshole, he knew what he was doing, and knew he shouldn't be doing it, yet he did it anyway.
I started moving all of the bags around, properly putting them in good places so as not to crush other food, and then the cashier handed me my receipt, asked if I wanted help out, I yelled NO, and started to walk away.
That's when a bag with a huge package of paper plates that he stuck on the bottom, rolled off, and as I was picking it up I started yelling again.
"Asshole! Douchebag! Moron! A fucking manager should know better than to bag things like this, the 14 year olds who bag groceries, know you don't bag things like this! What kind of fucking asshat bags groceries like this and thinks it's ok!?!?!?"

Another manager came over to me, asked me to keep my voice down or they'd have to ask me to leave, I said "I was leaving anyway, the food is bought and paid for, crushed, thanks to that asshat manager, but I own it and I AM leaving right now!"
She was trying to apologize, she called the other manager over to apologize, and I told him to stay away from me, and the woman manager asked me why I was so upset so I showed her the package of donuts he crushed with a 5lb chicken.
I told her that my son picked those out from the bakery, and this idiot dropped a 5lb chicken on top of the box, he did it on purpose, he was looking right at the donuts when he did it, he didn't try to stop, he didn't even blink when he did it, and he also put chemicals with foods, and did not listen to me about the rest of the items being placed in the cart the right way.

She said she was sorry, she'd get us more donuts, I said I don't want any, I just want to leave now, I need to go home, my neck and back are hurting, I have been in here for over an hour buying over $200 worth of food and other products, and I would like to leave.
She kept trying to say she was sorry, I said I'm going NOW, and I walked out.
We went outside and waited for the cab, and she came out and handed me a gift certificate for $25 because of what happened, and that's when I realized that I didn't use the gift card I brought with me because I was so busy trying to make sure my food didn't get destroyed, that I forgot to use it.

Most of the time, like 99% of the time, Publix is a really great store with really great employees, but there are times and employees that make that 1% of bad times really, really bad.

---

December 18, 2008

Must be both interesting and frustrating.

I've always wondered how someone goes about getting PR type admin careers, like doing PR for a company, contacting bloggers like us, and coming up with creative ways to market a new product, website or idea.

I imagine it's both fun and frustrating though, everybody is different, has different styles, ways of thinking and doing things, and you don't always get the results you want.
I get contacted quite often about doing book and product reviews, and I absolutely love doing them, it's so much fun to test out a new product, really give it a good go, and then be able to write up your opinions on it.
There have been a couple of times that the PR person wasn't so pleased though.
They wanted my honest opinion as long as it was honestly positive apparently.
I always tell the person when they contact me, that I will give my honest opinion of the product, it doesn't matter if they let me keep it forever or even pay me for the review, I am going to review it honestly, yet the few times a product just really didn't quite live up to the hype, I was honest about it and they were not happy.
I know this has happened to other bloggers as well, and it's just as frustrating on our end to be told to be honest, but when we do and our review is less than stellar, they get upset.

But I made a promise to myself and my readers, to always be honest about anything I get to review, I could never let myself live it down if I lied about a product just to make an advert happy.
Sure, I may lose that advert, but it's better to be totally honest.

---

December 17, 2008

Free Shipping Day Thursday December 18th 2008!

Tomorrow, Thursday December 18th, is Free Shipping Day for a whole bunch of online retailers.
You can find the list of retailers participating at that link, and most of them guarantee not only that you will get free shipping, but that you will get your orders in time for Christmas.

*Minimum order requirements may apply. Location restrictions may apply. Please visit the participating websites for complete requirements and restrictions.*

Some of the participating retailers are:
American Eagle Outfitters
Apple Store
Apple Store Canada
Bloomingdales
Brookstone
CaseLogic
Coldwater Creek
Dell
Disney Store
EB Games
GameStop
Kohls
Kmart
Macys
Nordstrom
Office Depot
Office Max
Overstock.com
Sephora
Target
Toys R' Us
Zappos.com

And many, many more!

So if you're a last minute shopper and want to save money, (shipping costs can raise your total by up to $100 or more depending on what you purchase) take advantage of Free Shipping Day and all of the awesome retailers who are taking part in it!

Also!
Today is the LAST day for super saver shipping at Amazon.com
* Wednesday, December 17th is the last day for Super Saver Free Shipping on orders over $25.
* Thursday, December 18th is the last day for Standard Shipping.
* Sunday, December 21st is the last full day for 2-Day Free Shipping Delivery with Amazon Prime.
* Tuesday, December 23rd is the last day for one-day shipping. Cut off is 3pm PST.

---

December 15, 2008

She's gonna hate me by the end of the year.

I survived my trip to the post office this morning.
*phew*
When I got there, the line wasn't too bad, only snaked around once, but I swear they had the freaking heat turned on in there!
Everyone was sweating, even the postal workers, people looked pissed off, but at least the lines were moving rather quickly and they had every customer service lane open.

I got the money order my parents sent for the boys xmas presents cashed, and then had to sign like a gazillion pieces of paper to get the certified letter(s) from the school board.
The letters had nothing at all to do with the lunch room, but instead the principal, yes, the very same principal we've been having trouble with, sent me 2 certified letters letting me know that the boys had missed an entire week of school in November, and were not excused.

The principal is not going to want to hear me today.

Just as I posted when they were sick that week, the secretary didn't sound surprised, a lot of kids were out that whole week.
When they did go back, I sent a note anyway, even wrote in the note that I wasn't able to get them to the doctor until January, he had no openings for just colds so students could have notes.
They didn't excuse them for that entire week because the note was from me, not a doctor, so the principal sent me 2 certified letters to let me know the boys missed all of that time.

I hate this woman.

---

December 10, 2008

Calling calling, frogs traveling north.

Things went really well at my surgeon's office today, I am going to chill, relax, and have an awesome good Christmas because of the news today.
Yay!

Mindy drove me there this morning, and when I got out of the car all the way up in Safety Harbor, I noticed a wicked tiny tree frog had come along for the ride on the inside of the car.
I should have taken a picture of him sitting there right next to the seat handle, I had my camera with me, but I felt bad that he was now a super long way from his home in Sarasota.
I scooped him out onto my hand, and placed him on a tree at my doc's office, at least he would have grass and trees, bugs to eat, in his new far from home, home.
I thought about leaving him in the car, taking him back to Sarasota, but I figured by the time we got back here, he would have hidden himself down inside the car somewhere, and we would have never found him.
His colors blended in perfectly with the interior of her car except for a few small black spots on his back.

Now for the calling calling part of this post.

Continue Reading �

---

November 17, 2008

Awesome customer service at Publix.

The teens have been doing like 99% of our grocery shopping since my surgery on September 8th, and they do a really good job most of the time.
I needed them to go to Publix tonight to get us some dinner and some more Nyquil because a) we ran out, and b) we still need it to help all 3 of us get some sleep tonight.
The both of them are still coughing and sniffling, still feeling a bit like crap.

They went to the store and got everything we needed, and they paid for all of the groceries at one register, and went to the service desk to pay for the Nyquil because I left them a note before I went in for surgery.
I specifically went to a manager before surgery so that there would be no issues with the teens doing the shopping while I recover.
They photocopied my ID, wrote down all my CC numbers, the teens names and ages, and specifically wrote down that the teens can buy anything we need including over the counter medications like Tylenol and cough medicine.
That manager assured me there would not be any problems at all.
Wrong.

Whoever the manager was that was at the service desk tonight, would not let them buy the Nyquil, refused to go look for the note, and refused to call me too.

I hemmed and hawed and stewed about it for a few hours while I calmed down, and also got as much info about the manager as I could so when I called to complain, I could be really specific with the details.
I called a little before they close at 9pm, and spoke directly to the general store manager.
I explained everything to him, how I had surgery, how I had gone to the trouble of making sure that all the managers knew or could at least go look for the note, and the boys knew to go to the desk and tell them about the note.

The manager was really nice about it, I even explained that I know that people under the age of 18 cannot legally buy OTC meds like Tylenol and Nyquil, but that's why I had them write the note.
Just in case I couldn't do the shopping, like tonight.
After I told the manager all of this, he said he would look for the note himself and also speak to the managers who were there tonight, and then he asked me if we still needed the Nyquil.
I said yes but explained that I have no car, and even if I did, I can't drive it, so he asked for my address and said he'd bring it.
I gave him my address and about 10 minutes later, he was pulling into my driveway.
I tried to pay for it, but he said no, apologized for the problem earlier, I thanked him about a half dozen times, and then he left.
That was wicked nice of him to do that, he didn't have to, but he said that they really try to accommodate their customers special needs, even more so when the customer has left them with all the information explaining why they need certain help with their shopping.

I really think that things like this are why I continue to shop at Publix instead of Sweetbay, no matter the prices.
Sweetbay and Publix are exactly the same distance from our house, we could easily go there instead, but the customer service at my particular Publix cannot be beat by any other store I've shopped at.

So now tonight we will all get the sleep we need so we can beat this cold hopefully for good.
It really sucks so much that the boys were totally bummed when they got back from the store tonight because they couldn't get it.
When the manager brought it to us, they were so happy.
They must have thanked him a half dozen times too.

---

November 13, 2008

Poo and pizza.

As I said earlier, both the teens are sick, they've been laying around most of the day coughing and feeling miserable, and I am super tired just from taking care of them and doing various things around the house.
One of them took a dump earlier and clogged the toilet, they couldn't unclog it with the plunger, so I had to, and now I'm just worn out.
I hate plunging the toilet, it's one of those tasks that just really suck to have to do.
I need like a super easy plunger thingy, so I sat here thinking of what might a super duper plunger be called if anyone has invented one so I could look it up and try and find one the next time I'm out shopping, or have to order it online if that was the only way.
I was thinking of one that had like a spring in it, so your one push of the plunger would cause it to spring back up and down again on it's own, so you didn't have to.
So I typed into Google, "spring plungers".
Nope, no toilet spring plungers, it seems those are car parts or something, I really have no idea.
I know there's some sort of super plunger out there, I've seen commercials for them, but I can't think of the name right now.
What I really want though is for the teens to finally learn to not use so much toilet paper.
Then we wouldn't have to get a super plunger to make it all go down.

So anyway, I'm too tired to make dinner so I decided to order out.
I decided to order from Pizza Hut tonight, got some of their Tuscani pasta, the chicken alfredo, because the last time we ordered it, it was really good, and some wings.
That should be good enough for everyone for dinner tonight.
I'll make the spaghetti I was planning on making tonight, tomorrow night.
I'm just too tired and sore to do it, so I'll let Pizza Hut do it for me.

---

November 13, 2008

Sick of sickness.

Both the teens are home today, both sick with a nasty cold.
It hit them last night around 10 or so.
They were coughing, sneezing, both had fevers, both just wanted to go to bed, not play video games, so I knew they were really sick.
I ended up having to go to 7-eleven, which I hate because they charge super crazy prices for stuff, and buy some Nyquil just so they could sleep without hacking their lungs up.
Maybe I should be feeding them some Orovo super foods or supplements or something.
They catch everything, and then I catch it from them.
I'm so tired of being sick, I need to do something to stop it.

My low immune system plus their being at school around tons of sick kids because of the school's absent/sick policies, is what does this.
Students can only be absent for 2 days without a doctor's note, if absent 3 days in a row, they need to have a doctor's note.
Have any of you tried to get an appointment at your child's doctor in a hurry just for a note?
See, if it's not an emergency like bleeding from all orifices, you can't get an appointment right away, you might be lucky if they have an available appointment next month, but usually, you are given an appointment 3 months from now.
And you certainly can't go to the ER for a cold, they look at you and laugh, and if you tell them you came there because you can't get an appointment at the pediatrician, and you need a note because your kid was so sick they needed 3 or 4 days off from school and you really need a note, they lecture you on what an ER really is for as they begrudgingly write a note that says your child has upper chest congestion and a cough, plus a fever, and need to stay home and rest.
Then, your kid takes the note to school, and the school still marks them as an unexcused absence for at least 2 of the 4 days they needed off.
Sometimes, they refuse the note all together, and your kid now has unexcused absences on their school record, which affects their right to get their drivers license.
So tons of parents who can't get a note from their kid's doctor, send their kids to school sick, and then your kid catches it and brings it home to make you sick too.

All summer long, neither the teens or I are sick at all, but as soon as school starts back up again, we all get sick and battle the sickies all school year because of the schools absentee note rule.
I'm sick of being sick and I'm sick of the school making me sick because of that jackass policy.

---

October 29, 2008

Ever think about the history of something?

Have you ever thought about the history of a product?
Like for example, band-aids.
Ever think about how those came to be?
Johnson & Johnson has been at the head of
healthcare innovation since the 1800's.
It was in 1920 that one of their employees thought up and developed the first ready-made adhesive bandage that people could apply themselves.
Before that, people had to make their own from cut cloth and tie them on.
The very first band-aid went on the market in 1921, and people have been using them since.

In 1887, they came up with the very first sterile surgical sutures.
When you think about that, you have to wonder what doctors had been using to stitch people up back then, and how many infections people got and died because of it.
But because J&J came up with sterile stitches and dressings, (bandages) the survival rates increased and many more lives were saved.

In 1893, they developed baby powder.
In 1898, the came up with dental floss, and it was made from leftover suture silks.
In 1897, they developed sanitary napkins. An invention that literally changed how women handled their feminine hygiene needs forever.
They created Listerine mouthwash in 1879. Another invention that changed personal hygiene needs for people, keeping their teeth and gums healthy, and also bad breath.
The first-ever first aid kit was sold and marketed in 1891 under the famous Red Cross logo and trademark.
In 1955, they made Tylenol elixir without aspirin for children, it was available only by prescription for 5 years, and then it was available over the counter, and has become the #1 pain reliever recommended by pediatricians.

Johnson & Johnson have been the innovators for so many products that we use every single day.
They are the ones who made disposable contact lenses which I use and love, birth control in 1931, and RhoGAM for babies of mothers who are Rh-negative like I was, they made the first hip and knee replacement implants, and they made the first test to detect the spread of breast cancer into the lymph nodes which got their test named GeneSearch, named as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2007.

Johnson & Johnson has been at the forefront of medical and personal hygiene breakthroughs for over 120 years, that's a long time, and they are the most trusted company and brand for millions of people.
They care about the human community and the environment by not only complying with regulations, but reducing their environmental impact in the communities in which they work.

I needed to go get a band-aid for Sebastian, he had a blister and it hurt, so while I was getting one out of the first-aid kit and bandaging him up, when he asked how they made band-aids.
I honestly and no clue, so I decided to look it up.
I had never really thought about it before, like most of us do with stuff we use every day, so when I looked it up and learned about how long they have been in business, all of the things they invented, and what they do every day to help people have better health, I was impressed.
I mean, something as simple as a band-aid was brought about by the need to prevent people from getting infections and dying, and now we use them all of them time.
Imagine if they had never been invented?

---

October 25, 2008

Sebastian is an awesome kid.

Yup, I'm bragging about my youngest son, because he is truly awesome.
I decided that I would try my hand at doing the grocery shopping today, him and I like we used to, but we had to cab it there and back as I can't walk that far yet.
But I did it with his help.
I can't lift stuff, or see the high shelves to get food items and stuff, so he helped me the whole way through the entire store, and didn't complain not even once.
I ended up very tired when I got home, it took a lot out of me to just get what little bit we did get, but it felt really good to be able to do the shopping again.
I have been getting a little depressed here and there over my neck stuff, so doing something as boring as the food shopping is a big accomplishment for me, and lifted my spirits up quite a bit today.

I accidentally ended up leaving Publix with 2 of their logo promotional pens because I had to sign the credit slip at the register, and then I had to sign another paper at the service desk giving the teens the right to shop with all of my debit/credit cards if I can't do the shopping myself all of the time.
The manager photocopied all of my cards, wrote down my full name as it appears on the cards, the teens names and ages, and my state ID number, and so I had to sign that for them or they wouldn't let the teens shop with my cards.
Sometime last week when they went, one cashier refused to let them pay for the groceries with my card, she thought they had stolen it and were just buying stuff they wanted, and it probably did look that way.
I told them to go to the store and get dinner for themselves, whatever they wanted, and get me some tomato soup, pudding, and more yogurts to eat, and they bought subs, hot wings, chips and dip, some beef jerky, a 12 pack of coke, and some candy, so I can sorta see how she thought the may have stolen it, and she was a new cashier.
So the teens had to go to the service desk, talk to the manager on duty, and give her my phone number to call me and verify "their story".
The manager on duty knows all of us, but she had to follow protocol, and speak with me.
I explained my health issues to her, read my card number back to her, (I'm like the Rain Man, I have all of my debit/credit card numbers and security codes memorized) and told her that yes, the teens had the right to do the shopping and buy all the food they did, and when I could come in, I would show them who I am and set this stuff up again.
I had set it up before going into surgery, but I guess they lost it.

But enough of that stuff, wanna see some pictures?
Sure you do!
We found this little guy in the driveway tonight, he's alive, no one and no animal hurt him, well not my animals anyway.
He was just taking his sweet time sliding around on the smooth concrete, going who knows where.

This is so cute in my opinion, Kali and Shahiro have taken over the end of my bed ever since I put my really thin "winter" blanket on it now.
Every time I go in my room, there they are, sound asleep curled up with each other.

I have some other pictures I have taken over the last few weeks too, but I'll post them later.
I really should start using my photoblog again eh?
I have gobs of pictures on my pc that I haven't uploaded to that blog in like 3 years now, it's just sitting there wasting away.

---

October 24, 2008

Half of U.S. doctors often prescribe placebos.

That's one of the headlines for a news article out just last night.
And it's a very disturbing headline.

About half of American doctors in a new survey say they regularly give patients placebo treatments -- usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition.
And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found.
That contradicts advice from the American Medical Association, which recommends doctors use treatments with the full knowledge of their patients.

People go to their doctors because they need medical help, they are sick or in pain, or have some other condition that actually needs medication, and some doctors, about HALF of U.S. doctors, are prescribing their patients placebos, pills or other formed medication, that either has no effect what so ever, or is a medication used to treat some other condition entirely, and then lying about it to their patients.
They are not telling their patients that it's a placebo or drug that is not for their medical condition, and that is lying, plain and simple lying.

Half the doctors reported using placebos several times a month, nearly 70 percent of those described the treatment to their patients as "a potentially beneficial medicine not typically used for your condition." Only 5 percent of doctors explicitly called it a placebo treatment.

The placebo effect is widely and well known, but I believe if a doctor is giving you a placebo or other drug that is not used to treat that patients condition, that they need to tell the patients the truth about the medication that they are being given.
If they don't, it seriously undermines the trust that patients have placed in their doctors.

Can you imagine going to your doctor's appointment for whatever, and you have total trust in your doctor to listen to you, evaluate you, run some tests, and then if need be, prescribe you the right medication to treat your medical ailment, and after going to the pharmacy and paying the very high prices for the medicine, you find out later on that it was a placebo pill or a different medicine that would not actually work with your problem?

I would be livid!
I trust all of my current doctors except for the new primary care doc I got right before surgery and will be looking for a new one, but all of the rest of my docs I totally trust to take good care of me, to treat me correctly for my health conditions, and prescribe me the REAL and CORRECT medication for my needs.
My doctors prescribe me my pain meds for my spine and joint issues, antibiotics because my immune system is shot, high blood pressure medication because it's very high, and some weight loss diet supplements to help me lose weight because I have physical difficulties with traditional weight loss methods, and muscle relaxers for my skeletal muscular stiffness.
If I found out that any of my meds were fake or the wrong kind of medication to treat my actual medical diagnosis, I would probably file a complaint with the Florida Board of Medicine, and have to find a new doctor to build up the whole patient/doctor trust and relationship with, all over again.

My parents have been going to the same primary care doctor for like over 25 years now, I wish he could transporter beam back and forth between Maine and Florida, because he treated me almost my entire life before I moved down here, and I've never been able to find another primary care doc that I trust completely.
Because of everything I have wrong with me, doctors get all research-y and start trying to diagnose me with all kinds of genetic diseases and abnormalities, like if they find some really rare condition in me, they can write it up for the Journal of Medicine.
They get that look in their eye when reading my records, and I immediately know that they are going to order a huge battery of tests, and start prescribing all kinds of different meds, take me off current meds, and do 1-month tests of all kinds of medications to see if any of my conditions improve.
That's part of the reason I don't trust my current/new primary doc, she got that twinkle in her eye, almost destroyed my neck surgery, and just wasn't very personable.
But if I found out she had prescribed me a placebo or the wrong meds, I'd go postal on her.
No lie.

I think it's absolutely disgusting that doctors are lying to their patients about their medications, and patients are paying outrageously high prices for those medications, and probably don't even know.
I look up every single new medication that I am prescribed, and you all should too if you have to take even one prescription.
I do two things when I get a new med and even refills.
I go to Drugs.com, and type in the name of the medicine, generic and brand name if both are on the label, and I read up all of the side effects, what it's made of, it's chemical name and concentration, everything about it to educate myself about what's going in my body.
And then I click on the Pill Identifier button, and use the pill identification wizard to add all the looks of my pill in to the system, and see if the pill I have in my hand, comes up and looks the same as the one on their site.
That way I can see for myself if what the bottle says, what I was told my doctor prescribed me, and what my pills look like, all match up.
Some medications are made by several different pharmaceuticals, so if your bottle label says who it was made by, Drugs.com will be able to show you all of the different companies versions of those pills too.

Know what you are taking and putting into your bodies people.
Just because you trust your doctor doesn't mean he's being totally honest with you according to that new article.
HALF of all U.S. doctors are lying and giving their patients placebos or a totally different medication that may or may not have any effect on your medical condition.

---

October 13, 2008

ICDSoft.com is truly the most kick ass hosts ever!

As I said in my post below, ICDSoft.com sent out emails because MySQL4 was being discontinued, there would be no more support, so we needed to update our databases to MySQL5.
I have never set up a database before, have no clue how to, and even using their tool, it was like trying to learn a whole new foreign language.
I sent in a support ticket to them, they always answer like within 10 minutes, I've never waited longer than 20 minutes in the 5 years I've been with them now.
I now have two accounts with them, a business account and a personal.
But their customer service is seriously the most awesome ever, they go like way above and beyond for their clients.
As usual, they answered my totally pathetic support ticket within minutes,

Subject: mysql5 help?
Oct 13 2008 16:32
Q: kat cooper
Hi,
I got the email about switching over to mysql5, the problem is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing in there, even with your tool.
I'm not the one who set up the databases, so I really don't understand this, and I'm terrified I'm going to screw it up and break my whole site.
Is there anyone who can do this for me, or do I need to find someone who can?
Ack! I don't want to break my site. hahaha (see? Pa-thet-ic!)
_____________

Help?
Oct 13 2008 17:50
A: Support2 Hello,
We completed the migration to MySQL5 and updated your MT configuration script. Please check if everything is working properly.

Best Regards,
Support
____________

Oct 13 2008 18:08
Q: kat cooper Thank you so much!
Everything is working fine so far, thank you.
You guys really are the best hosting company, you're awesome.

Thanks again, and you can close this. :)
_______________

Oct 13 2008 18:11
A: Support2 Thank you for your high appraisals! You are always welcome!

Best Regards,
Support
____________

They did not need to do it for me, they could have told me to go hire someone to do it, but they completed the migration to MySQL5 for me, updated everything in there, and even updated my Movable Type configuration scripts so everything would work right.
They could have told me to do that last part myself too, but no, they did it for me.

This is how they are all of the time, if you need help and don't know how, you ask them and they do it.
They go above and beyond.
Beyond.
They've upgraded their hosting plans a couple of times without upping the prices on their customers.
And last year, they upgraded me to the business plan for 1 whole year, absolutely free.

There's never any downtime unless it's something stupid that I've done, and they always found my mistakes and fixed them for me within minutes.
All of my attempts at trying to do stuff in my control panel, and screwing something up, they've always found it and fixed it, and they've never made me feel stupid for screwing it up.
They've always explained what happened, and how to fix it if it ever happens again, and they are always just so nice and helpful, I can't say enough good things about ICDSoft.com, they really are the best hosting company I've ever been with since I started hosting my own blogs back in 2000.
If you are looking for a new host, or need to switch, or are just starting out with your first blog, go look at their plans and packages, and give them a try, you will not be disappointed at all, they rock!

---

October 13, 2008

MySQL5 and World of Warcraft.

First, the site stuff.
My hosting company, which is totally awesome by the way, ICDSoft.com, sent out an email saying that MySQL4 is no longer being supported and we need to change to MySQL5.
I know NOTHING about how to do any of that stuff, even if they do provide a little help tool.

We urge you to migrate your MySQL4 databases to MySQL5 as soon as possible, using the automated tool we have provided in the Control Panel (MySQL section)

MT users!!!
Do I need to change anything in my MT templates to say MySQL5?
I can use the tool, I think, but if there's a template in my MT templates I need to change, please someone tell me, I'm scared to use that tool until I know.

Now for the World of Warcraft stuff.
I have to go in and clean out the boys pc, scandisk, defrag, all that stuff, to get it ready for the installs of the WoW games.
The teens and my sister, my own sister, conspired together to get me to agree to letting them have WoW.
And no, not wait for the game discs to get here, but to download the free 10 day trial today.
So I need to get my butt in there and start the cleaning.
The boys gave up 2 other game subscriptions so that I could afford to pay for the WoW subscription.
They will be as addicted to it as my sister is.
But some pretty serious rules have been laid down for them to have it, there will be no getting around that stuff either.

---

October 12, 2008

Sorry, that's not covered.

My surgeon sent me a new pain script, so I needed to go get it filled.
I went on line to the site for my drug coverage insurance to make sure it was covered, and it wasn't on the list, so I called the 800-number.
It is the same pain med I take now, but a higher strength. Same name, just a higher dose.
They do not cover it at all, they said nope, but my doc said to switch to this one so I had to go get it, and that meant paying out of pocket.

I've paid out of pocket for this med before, the lower dose, and it really wasn't bad at all.
It was like $60 something for 90 pills, so I was thinking the higher dose, less pills, 60 of them, it would be about the same price.
Oh how wrong I was.

Mindy took me down to the Publix that has a pharmacy, and I put in my script for it and we went shopping.
I came back to get it, and the cashier said $239.80.
My jaw nearly fell, but I paid it, I had to get it, so I paid it.

On Monday, I'm going to call my insurance and ask them why they won't cover it, why I have to go to different pharmacies, because Walgreen's that has my insurance on file, the employees will tell me over and over again that it's not covered, and they won't let me pay cash for it, so I have to go to Publix and pay cash.
It sucks.
I mean, why the hell won't they cover the higher dose!?
What is it!?
A class 30 drug?
A schedule 5?
A CAT5e to the finite narcotic?!
It's only 5mg stronger than the old pain med, same name, only 5mgs stronger, I do not understand why they won't cover it.
Paying that much is simply not right.
I'm going to have to talk to my surgeon about it because I cannot pay that amount every single month.
No way.

Continue Reading �

---

October 5, 2008

Tribes and weighty stuff.

I read a lot of blogs, married people blogs, political blogs, funny people, depressed people, and a ton of single mom/parent blogs.
One thing has been talked about briefly on some of the single mom blogs, but almost all of the single mom blogs talk about it.
What is that thing?
Tribes.

What?
What is a tribe?
Why do single moms need tribes?
Why are all these single moms part of tribes?
Is tribe just another word for group of friends?
Seriously, the way it's used when they talk about it, it makes it sound like, to me, that a tribe is just another way of saying friends.
But if I'm wrong, please enlighten me.
Tell me what a tribe is and why I should have one, or be a part of one, or is this some new thing that single moms are doing to make themselves feel not so alone.

I'm 38, I have 2 teenage sons.
Mark is 17, Sebastian is 15, and I've been a single mom, doing it alone, for the last 15 years now.
Since 1997, I've been online blogging, writing it all out, connecting with other people, sharing my life with whoever stops by here and reads it all, and I've found that the "alone" feeling so many single moms feel, isn't there for me.
I am never alone really, I have so many friends here on the internet that I share with, connect with, talk to, that I do not feel alone like so many other single moms feel, and that's the reason they have these things called tribes.
I think.
Look above, I may be wrong, probably am wrong, on the whole definition of a tribe.
So if one of you single moms who is part of a tribe or knows what a tribe is would like to tell me what it is, that would be awesome.
Thanks.

I've blogged a lot about my need/desire to lose weight and my inability to exercise normally due to my spine fusion surgeries, and I was contacted by a company that makes weight loss supplements and diet pills, and asked if I would be interested in trying out a new system for losing weight.
Considering that my body is no longer normal, no longer moves the way pretty much everyone else moves, I said sure, why not.
I had to stop taking the weight loss product I was using and having good results with, before my surgery so that I'd not have any problems during the surgery, and even though I lost weight while in the hospital and since the surgery, I'm still interested in losing weight.
I still have excess weight on me, pounds that need to come off, and this product is said to be unlike any other, so yeah, I'm game.
They are going to send me a 6 month supply, 2 month supply at a time, for free, as long as I post my results good, bad, or whatever, on my blog.
I'll do it on KatScan because that is where I'm doing all of my health and personal stuff, and trying to keep this one for just mommy/kid/home stuff.
So when it gets here, I'll post starting weight, goal weight, and all about this new product on KatScan, and if you want to follow that progress, I'll occasionally link it from here.

Almost 1 month out from surgery and my insomnia has returned.
I was dead dog tired the first 2-3 weeks, and now I'm right back being wide awake at almost 2am again.
What the hell is wrong with my body clock?

---

October 4, 2008

I want an Aldi store!

Do any of you shop at or know about Aldi stores?
The closest store to me is going to be in St. Petersburg, which is far too far to go to save money on groceries.
The cost of gas would eat up the grocery savings, but they (St. Pete) will be having a grand opening on October 27th.
I checked the list, and so far Sarasota is NOT on the grand opening list for stores in Florida.
I want one here! You hear me Aldi! Come to Sarasota!

I am going to keep my eye on that site and watch for Sarasota to make the list, and when it does, I'll be up, showered, and heading on over like mover NYC style to save myself some major money on groceries.
Fast and ready to hustle.

If you haven't heard about Aldi stores, check out the site, read up on this.
It's kind of like a Sam's Club, all of the shelves are loaded with the actual boxes the products are delivered in, just cut open so you can get an item out, they have their own Aldi select brands which are cheaper than the major name national brand grocery products.
Most of their select brands cost up to 50% less than the national name brand products.
Why?
Because all the fruits and vegetables are locally grown, the dairy products all come from local dairy farmers, same with eggs, and pretty much every other fresh product like meat and poultry.
All of their canned and boxed food items are all private label, and they only carry the top 1,300 most frequently bought grocery items which is just one of the ways they help the consumer save money.

Another way they help save you money is by not having baggers or bags.
You can bring your own bags or take empty boxes from the shelves, and bag your own groceries.
But they do have bags for you if you didn't bring any.
They have environmentally friendly paper bags for .5 cents, environmentally friendly plastic bags for .10cents, and insulated bags for frozen food for .99cents.
By not having baggers, their employee payroll costs stay low, and so that's another savings passed onto the consumer.

They take cash, debit cards, and EBT cards.
They do not accept checks or credit cards.
If they aren't getting bad checks, they don't have to pass those costs on to the shopper.
By not having credit cards, there's no slow down while people sign slips, and no processing fees from the credit card companies.
And because they have their own brands, there's no coupons for the cashiers to have to scan in and then bag up, and then cash out at the end of the night.
No time consuming-payroll- hours-wasting steps to do.

They also have a cart rental fee of .25cents.
This is so the employees don't have to fetch the carts from the lot.
You put a quarter in the cart's special coin box, that releases the cart for you to use, and when you're done, you simply take the cart back to the cart corral, attach the chain, and you get your quarter back.
They are also open for more limited hours.
9am to 7 or 8pm Monday through Saturday, and 12 to 5 on Sundays.
Being open during non-peak shopping hours adds to the employee labor costs, which then gets added to the cost of your grocery items.

I seriously want one of these Aldi stores in Sarasota.
I would shop there all of the time if it saved me more money on food than I am now.
Maybe when the one in St. Pete opens up, I'll find a way up there to check it out, and if it seriously rocks, I'll start a petition or something to get them to build one here.
I know that Sarasota is a pretty well-to-do community, but we do have a lot of poor sections of town, and a lot of middle class people too.
I'm sure that if an Aldi store opened up here, it would be busy all the time once word got out about how much money people were saving on groceries, especially now in our economic disaster time that Wall Street and banks created.

If you have ever shopped at an Aldi, is it as great as it sounds?
How are their select brands compared to the national name brands?

---

July 23, 2008

On the edge of 17.

Mark will be turning 17 on August 15th.
It's so hard for me to believe because I remember like it was yesterday bringing him home from the hospital after giving birth, how small he was, I remember every little detail of him over the last 17 years.
My baby boy is almost a man, well, he's already man-sized, standing at 6foot 2inches tall, broad shoulders, a deep and booming voice that confuses people when he answers the phone. *laughs*
He's a great kid young man, despite the fighting with his brother, despite the rolling eyes he gives me, he's just an awesome human being.
Smart, caring, compassionate, a free-thinker.
He's way cool in my most humble mom opinion.

Anyway, (stop recalling his kid cuteness before I make myself cry) his birthday is coming up and all he wants is money.
That's typical of most teenagers, they want cash so they can go and buy their own things, so he doesn't have to politely say thank you for that sweater that a great aunt spent 2 months knitting for him, so he doesn't have to hurry up and make a list of things he might want, and also so that not one single person has to pay the full price of a video game he wants.
He said if everyone gives him like $20 bucks, then he can add it all up and get a couple of games, or just one game and put some money away for something else he wants, or to go to the movies or whatever.
I'm cool with him just wanting cash, it works for me so that I don't have to go hunting for that game he wants at busy back-to-school shopping time with hundreds of frantic mothers and screaming kids yelling they don't want to try that on, or hoping that it gets shipped in time for his actual birthday.
Cash works, cash is good.

But I do know that we'll be going to the movies that day.
It's on a Friday, and it's also opening day for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the first ever animated Star Wars film from LucasFilm. (click that link to watch the trailer)
He doesn't read my blog too often, so I think I can safely say what I'm planning to do.
I'm going to go to Buy.Com and and see if they have one of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Visual Guide books as part of their 10% off the price of Amazon books promotion they are running, and if they do, I'm going to order it within the next two weeks, and give that to him on the morning of his birthday.
Sort of a hint kind of gift. *wink*

I'll give him a card with cash in it too, just like he asked for, and then I'll go hop in the shower, get dressed, and then tell both of the teens to take showers too, tell 'em we will be going out for dinner like we always do on their birthdays, so they need to be cleaned up and ready to go when Aunt Jo gets here after work.

Then I'll have to make up a reason to leave the house at a little before noon, tell the cabbie over the phone to take us to the mall but not say anything when he actually picks us up, and then take both of them to the theater for a matinée showing of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
I know he wants to see it, he's a huge Star Wars fan, and he's been talking about this new animated movie for several months now.
He has a good-sized collection of Star Wars action figures, and even though he no longer plays with them like he used to do when he was younger, he still keeps them in really great shape, all tucked away in a box nice and neat, and he has never opened that collector's edition Boba Fett I got him about 4-5 years ago for another one of his birthdays.

I kinda want to see it too, I have always liked the Star Wars films myself, and I'm really curious as to why the MPAA gave it a PG-13 rating for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking.
When did they start giving movie ratings based on smoking!?
Over the last few years, I've really taken issue with a few of the MPAA's ratings of some films.
I just don't agree with some of them, and what good do they really do anyway if you go to see a really dark, really violent, rated 'R' movie late at night, and there are parents who bring really small children, like kids under the age of 7, and babies(!), and these kids are scared, crying, and throwing a fit because what they are seeing is terrifying them, and the parents, instead of getting their kids and leaving, tells the kids to shut up because they are watching the movie?!
Babysitters people, babysitters.
And if you can't afford a sitter, then don't go to the movies until you can afford one.
Not only is it cruel to subject your children to images and sounds that will give them nightmares for the next 2 months, but it's not fair to every other person in that theater who specifically waited for a late showing so they could avoid screaming and crying children who are totally ruining their movie going experience that they paid a lot of money to go see.

---

July 23, 2008

No Tax-free holiday in Florida this year.

Source

State lawmakers decided against the tax break, saying the state couldn't afford it.

Finding clothes you like is the easy part, but paying for them is getting a little tougher. The week-long sales tax holiday won't be giving shoppers a break this year.

"The state of Florida gets almost all of its money from sales taxes. Sales tax revenues are down, down, down. As a consequence, we can't afford to pay our bills. And so this little holiday amounts to a significant amount of money, and this year frankly, the state of Florida just couldn't afford it," says Representative Keith Fitzgerald.

Well neither can most parents.

The sales tax holiday simply suspended paying state sales tax on any back to school items like clothes, shoes, backpacks, and all school supplies, under $50 each, to make back-to-school shopping a little easier on Sunshine State parents.
The state has decided to suspend the sales tax holiday this year because the state needs the money.
Well if the state didn't spend our tax revenue dollars on stupid crap, they wouldn't have to do this to parents who struggle to get their kids ready to go back to school.

This news is definitely sucky.
I have two teenagers who go back to school in about a month, and I have a lot of clothes, shoes, and a ton of supplies to buy for each of them.
It was always hard doing the back to school shopping anyway, it costs a lot to get kids ready to go back, and now it's going to hurt Florida parents even more.
Right smack in our wallets.
Ouch.

I know I'll be doing some major price comparisons before going to any stores.
I'll be going through sales flyers looking for the best and lowest prices, checking out all of the sales and comparing each store against one another for the best possible prices.
Two kids in high school with huge lists of expensive items, not to mention the new shoes and clothes they both need as they have both grown a lot over the summer, is going to be very hard.
I'll probably be going store to store, buying items at each store that has the best prices.

Hang in there Florida parents, let's hope the teachers won't ask for any big-time expensive items this year.

---

July 22, 2008

Renuzit Tri-Scents.

I was contacted by a rep from Renuzit, to receive a free Renuzit Tri-Scents home air freshener, and give my thoughts on it.
I received it through the mail on Saturday, and when I opened the box up, all of this crinkly little streamer stuff came flying out of the box, and landed all over my kitchen counter and carpet.
I managed to scoop it all up and put most of it back in the box.
It had come flying out like one of those fake peanut cans with the spring snake in it. *laughs*

It also came packaged with an insert that tells you how to set it up, the available scents, and some money saving coupons on other Renuzit products.

It came with the Seaside Breezes set of fragrances, and was very easy to put together.
The 3 little containers of scent oil come stuck together so you're not trying to snap each one in by itself, and they just snap right into the electric scent warmer.
It has a slider on the side so you can decide the strength of fragrance that comes out, I have mine set on the lowest one and find that it's just the right amount coming out.
I have it plugged in in my room because the cat's litter boxes are in my bathroom, and even though they are cleaned daily, with 3 cats, there is always a bit of au-naturale kitty fragrance in my room. (hint-kitty pee or poop)
The Tri-Scent does a really nice job of helping to make the scent of cat much less noticeable.

I really like this product, the scents are not overwhelming unless you turn it way up, which I made the mistake of doing the first time I plugged it in.
I didn't realize it was set on high, and when I went back to my room an hour later, I was bowled over by how strong it was.
Other people may find the highest setting is just perfect in a very large open room where the scent needs to try and fill up a large space.

The way the Tr-Scents work is to change through the 3 different fragrances it comes with, Relaxing Waves, Beach Breezes, and Ocean Oasis, every 45 minutes.
So every 45 minutes the scent that comes out is uniquely different, but matches the other two scents, and gives you a nice change in how your room smells.
I find this changing of scent really nice while I'm sleeping at night.

I would buy this product again, and will probably buy the refill kits for it.
I will only use it in my bedroom and will have to unplug it when my sister comes over because she is allergic to very strong perfume type scents.
Air fresheners really bother her allergies, and give her like an instant migraine when she walks into a house with any type of air freshener in them.
I had a few air fresheners plugged in 2 years ago when I went in for my surgery, and when I came home they were gone completely from my house.
My sister had unplugged them and threw them away. *laughs*
I should have unplugged them before leaving, I knew they bothered her, but it slipped my mind with everything I had going on.
Now I know to unplug and turn off any air fresheners before she comes over.
It's part of the reason I ask her to give me a warning phone call.
I don't want to bother her allergies.

---

July 13, 2008

Magic Jack is not quite so magic.

I'm sure you've all seen the commercial for the new Magic Jack internet phone jack that gives you free calls right?
Don't be so quick to jump on it as a the bargain you've been looking for.

BoingBoing has pointed out a very interesting EULA agreement for the Magic Jack you might want to read very carefully before you buy this product.
It's actually a very evil agreement, and if any of you have already purchased this or were thinking about it, you need to get rid of it ASAP.

"You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the magicJack device to work ... Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads."
...
"Any claims, legal proceeding or litigation arising in connection with the magicJack device or Software will be resolved by binding arbitration.... in Palm Beach, Florida."

These targeted ads will snoop in on your phone numbers and calls, to serve you the ads that they claim are needed to make magicJack work.
And by agreeing to use it, you sign away all of your legal rights to sue should your computer get screwed up or they defraud you.

I know the economy sucks, and everyone is looking for ways to save money on bills and all the other household items, but magicJack is NOT the way to go.
There should be some way that the telecommunications people can force scam companies like this to make it so that when consumers get to the point of sale on stuff like this, that it should have to go through some kind of authorize.net procedure so that the EULA pops up and the consumer has to read it all the way through and agree to the terms before they can enter their credit card.
The magicJack site doesn't make it easy for people to see the ToS or the Eula, you have to Google to find out where on the site it even is.

---

June 25, 2008

It's an in-office issue.

I have no idea what that means, but the radiology place called me about 10 minutes ago, just as I was heading in to take a shower, and said they needed to reschedule my appointment for today due to an "in-office" issue.
I don't know if that means a pipe burst, a tech didn't show up today, or they are having a mechanical problem, but if it's a mechanical problem, um yeah, reschedule me.
They said they had to call all of today's patients and reschedule them for Thursday and Friday.
All of today's morning patients will be seen tomorrow, and this afternoon's patients will be seen on Friday morning.
I'm totally ok with this, I mean, if it's a mechanical problem, I'd rather not be inside either of those machines until they figure it out ya know?
Ha!

But I am happy that they called me as early as they could, I was getting myself ready to go.
Sis couldn't give me a ride, so she dropped off a loan of cab money early this morning, at like 8:30am.
I was all sleepy-eyed and groggy when I opened the door, but greatful.
It's just too hot out to take the bus there.
I can deal with the bus back.
It's one thing to be all sweaty on the way home from a doctor's appointment, than it is to get all sweaty on the way there.
"Please remove all your clothes and jewelry, and put on this lovely opened back gown, and have a seat on this cold plastic chair for a minute."
Sure.
Plop my sweaty fat ass on an ice cold chair in an ice cold MRI room, hair completely frizzed out from the humidity and sweat, and looking as though I need another shower.
It's rather gross weather we're having this week.
You step one foot outside, and you immediately need to take another shower.
It's sticky and gross out.
So yeah, it's ok with me they rescheduled.
This gives me today to do a bunch of stuff around here I didn't do over the weekend.
Later days!

---

June 24, 2008

Save some, spend some.

I wish I had had some extra cash on me tonight, because Publix had this huge shelf section filled with all sorts of clearance items.
They had so much stuff on it like some really nice place mats, their cute little matching salt and pepper shakers, table cloths, candles, soaps, laundry detergent, baby items, and holiday items.
All of it marked way, way down.
I always look at the clearance section, and if there are any good deals on food items like canned foods or pastas, I snag those right up because I like to keep my cupboards stocked with the basics.
I did grab a couple different spices they had on the shelves, and I asked the manager who was stocking even more items on it, why these were all so cheap now.
He said they had decided to no longer carry that particular brand of spices and herbs any more, so they had to make room on the regular shelves for the other brands and a new brand they now carry.
I bought 4 bottles, cinnamon, oregano, basil, and garlic salt.
All 4 bottles were normally priced at $2.99 each.
I got all 4 of them for exactly $2.00
Bargain-o-rama baby!

I picked up some more lunch meats, ham and Genoa salami, more bread, a pound of burger so I could make spaghetti later in the week, and some subs for dinner tonight.
Summer is sub and lunch meat season at our house.
It's amazing how much teenagers can eat.
I just went shopping on Thursday when I got paid, and had bought ham, salami, and roast beef, a pound each, and when I came home from the doctors today, all of it was gone.
It lasted about 5 days, that's not too bad I guess, with all 3 of us eating it I suppose.

Oh!
While I was waiting in line and ordering the lunch meats, Sebastian was waiting to order the subs.
The guy who was working the sub counter completely ignored him, and waited on 3 other customers who came to the counter after we did.
I got done getting the meats and walked over there, and Sebastian was like "Mom, let's just go, he keeps ignoring me, let's get something else, he won't wait on me."
The guy heard him, and I looked right at him and said, "I've been standing over there getting what I need and watching my son. You did ignore him, you took people who were in line after him, why? We are in here all the time, you know him, he buys subs all the time."
He tried to say he didn't see him, and I said "You didn't see this 6 foot tall young man standing here?"
He stuttered an apology, and a lady who always works in the deli and usually waits on the teens, came over and pushed the guy out of the way and took Sebastian's order.
There was a manager standing there, she heard the whole thing, and she pulled the guy aside and spoke to him. Then the guy took off his apron and walked into the back room.
Maybe she sent him on a break or fired him, I don't know, but I do know that this isn't the first time he's ignored the teens when they order subs or deli meats.
Mark can't stand the guy, he says he does it to them all the time, and Mark has had to raise his voice to get service.
It's not like the teens are really young kids with no money, they always pay for everything the buy, and the amount of times we are in there buying subs and other lunch meats from Publix, you'd think they would treat them a little better.
Maybe that guy just hates teenagers, and I know some teens can be real idiots and troublemakers, but my boys are always respectful and polite.

I've like totally rambled on, sorry about that, but bad customer service just irritates me.

---

June 23, 2008

Tie it up with a bow.

I've been doing a lot of thinking and planning about my jewelry business.
I want to get back to it so so bad. I miss it like crazy.
I have all these beads and gemstones that I bought when I was out and just purchased in the hopes I can get back to making jewelry again soon.
But when I do get the all clear, I also want to pick up some custom boxes to ship them to my customers in.
I've seen some really cute boxes from other people on line, and I want them.
They hand stamp them with their business logo, or just a fun little print, and people really like them.
It makes the whole thing come together in a very neat look, a finished look.
I will get back to it soon I hope.
Just need to get this pinched nerve stuff taken care of, and then I'm going to get busy on some of my plans.
I miss doing it so much, it was calming and soothing, and when I'd complete one and my customers let me know how much they liked it, it was such a good feeling.

---

June 11, 2008

I finally got them to take the money!

I was finally able to get Verizon to take my money!
I had to call their executive customer service department, and I got that number from Lisa of Wild Rose rpgraphics, so thank you sooo much Lisa!

Today is the 11th, I basically had until tomorrow to get them to take the money, and they still hadn't, so I called the number Lisa gave me and explained it all, years and years worth of frustration of just trying to pay my bill every month.
I had given them checking account numbers, savings accounts, credit cards, debit cards, I was literally begging them to take my money every month so I could have internet service, and for some reason, it was just never going through.
Sometimes if I called, the payment would go through right away.
Other times, it would only charge me $1, but most of the time, it just wasn't billing me at all, and so every month for the last 2 years, I've had to call and beg them to take my money.

So I spoke to an executive customer service rep, explained it all, and I said to her, "You have absolutely no idea how frustrating it is to have to call Verizon every month and beg them to take my money. How many customers actually beg you to take their money? But that's what I've been doing, begging, and I shouldn't have to beg you to take the money."

She laughed and said, "No, usually people call and beg for more time to pay their bill, you're the only person I know of who calls and begs us to take their money."
And not only did she take my money, she gave me a direct number to call every month if this happens again, and they have the authorization to charge the card right then and there.
Now why, in all the years that I've been calling and begging, did none of those other reps, give me this direct number?
I don't understand, they knew I wasn't able to pay my bill by the automated biller, so why didn't they just give me that number?
Anyway, I'm glad it's paid and now I have a number I can just call once, no more 3-4 times a month having to call and beg to pay my bill.

---

June 7, 2008

Dear Valued Verizon Online Customer,

"Thank you for choosing Verizon Online. Unfortunately, we are unable to bill your Verizon Online service charges to the credit card you provided. To avoid disruption of your broadband service, full payment is required immediately. If your bill is not paid within 10 days of the date of this notice, we will have to disconnect your broadband service. Please pay immediately to avoid interruption of your service."

Once again, Verizon has failed to charge my card.
The money has been sitting there for weeks now, they were supposed to take the payment on May 28th.
They did not.
On June 2nd, they sent the above notice.
Due to how I was feeling, I did not call them until June 4th, I told them the money is there, confirmed my card numbers, told them to take the frigging money, and give me a confirmation number for this call to verify that I am trying to pay my bill.
They said, "We are very sorry that this is happening again, but we promise you that your service will not be disconnected."
I told them don't promise me that, because the same shit happened last month, and last month, you shut me off again.
They swore the charges would go through that day, June 2.

I waited 2 days and checked my online account again, and again, they did not take the money.
So I called them again yesterday, June 6.
I told them to please take the frigging money, if I get disconnected again because their automated biller can't charge the card, I'm going to be fucking pissed.
Yes, I was very nasty with them because come on, this has been happening to me for well over 2 years. It doesn't matter which card I use for the auto billing, I've used 4 different cards over the years with them, my account is screwed up, no one can tell me why, and they don't charge me, my service gets shut off.
I begged the guy to take the payment right now, I said "I'm begging you people to take the money. I shouldn't have to work this hard to pay my bill every fucking month for over 2 years."
And once again, they promised me the card would be charged that day, June 6.
I said don't make me anymore fucking promises. You do this every month, you promise I won't get disconnected, you promise you'll take the money, you don't, and my DSL gets shut off.
I work from home, I need my service on all the time. I pay for it to be on all the time, at least I fucking try to.
I actually beg them to take the money.
That's how pitiful this situation has become.
Me, begging Verizon, to let me pay my bill.

The gave me another confirmation number, promised the card would be charged yesterday, and wouldn't you know it?
It's still not been charged.
I swear, if my service gets shut off, I'm going to fucking kill somebody.
I technically have until June 12th to get this resolved, but I don't trust that.
Last month, they shut me off within 6 days of the notice, not the 10 days like they said in the email.

I'm going to have to call them every freaking day until they take the money.
Don't they want the fucking money?!
They do, or otherwise they wouldn't be sending me shut off notices and disconnecting me all the fucking time!
I fucking hate Verizon!
I really wish I had other choices for phone and internet besides Verizon and the even more evil Comcast in this area, but I don't.
Comcast charges way too much, and Verizon's service and customer service, is just fucking shitty.
When my DSL is on, it's great, but if they don't charge for the service, it's an actual battle to try and pay my bill.
I shouldn't have to beg and plead with them to take the money every month.
This is fucking ridiculous.
I've blogged this situation every time it has happened.
I went through my site's archives for the last 4 years, and there are a ton of posts about Verizon not taking their money, the shitty service, the accidental shut-offs, and the non-stop pleading with them to fix my account.
I'm so fucking fed up with them!

---

June 6, 2008

Delivered to the wrong house again.

I'm pretty sure my street has a new mailman, I never see the regular guy anymore at all, heck, I never even see the mail truck anymore.
But whoever is delivering the mail now, keeps giving me my neighbors mail.
Not my next door neighbor, but a neighbor 10 houses up.
Our house addresses are exactly 1 number dfferent.
I'm 5328, and they are 5428.
I don't know how they can make that mistake repeatedly, there's a big difference in the appearance of the numbers 3 and 4.

But anyway, once again, I got their mail which includes the husband's guitar magazine, and the wife's furniture catalog.
From reading the address info on the back of it, I think she's an interior designer.
I have to confess something.
I flip through their magazines before I send Sebastian up the street to stick them in their mailbox.
Is that a crime?
I know you can't tamper with other people's mail, like open envelopes and stuff, but these are magazines with no seal keeping them closed, no plastic wrap, just wide open and ready to be read magazines.
Am I breaking the law by flipping through them?

The guitar magazine is very cool, there are some beautiful ones in there, custom designed and painted ones, and an order form to get a custom painted one if you want one.
They are way expensive though.
And her furniture mags, oh man, I love looking through them.
The pieces are just so gorgeous, and the beds and sofas look incredibly comfy, and there's all these paintings and throw pillows and stuff that you can buy to make the whole room come together.

But I get done flipping through them, get done oohing and ahhing over the stuff, and then I send Sebastian up the street to plop them in their mailbox.
What's funny about this mail mix-up is that they never get any of my mail, I've asked, and nope, they don't.
I need to stake out my mailbox one of these days and drive home to the mail person that 3 and 4 are not the same number, and he needs to pay closer attention to what he's cramming in my mail box.

---

May 27, 2008

That was a great idea!

The state of Florida just keeps screwing up.
You know that stupid child support debit card they made us all get?
Well, someone has hacked their website.
It doesn't look hacked, but it is.
They, the hackers, have taken over the website and are attempting to gain control of card numbers and pin numbers.
A child support deposit was made, and I attempted to go check my balance, but it kept saying my password had expired, so I tried to create a new one like it was asking me to, but then it went to an internal 500 error.
So I called the card people, and they said the website had been hacked, do not use it at all, instead use the 877 number on the back of the card to check balances etc.
I asked them how long the site would be screwed, and they said they don't know, they are attempting to get into the database and server and take back control, but everything they have done is not working.
I asked them how long it has been hacked, and the lady said about a month now.
That's just great.
So basically, if you live in Florida and have a child support debit card, don't use the website under any circumstances.

I had my doc follow up appointment this morning, and he upped the dose amount on those Opanas.
The 15mgs didn't work the whole 12 hours like they were supposed to, so we're trying a higher dose.
If it doesn't work the full 12 like it should, and I'm still getting breakthrough pain, then he'll give me something for that.
I'm just really tired now.
I had to walk home from CVS, they were the only drug store close to home that carries the Opanas.
It was either that, or go all the way over to the Bee Ridge pharmacy again, and I didn't have anyone who could drive me there today.
I need a nap, a long one.

---

May 23, 2008

Total saved = ?

Total before coupons and deals - $148.36

Store flier coupons - $3.75
Vendor coupons - $18.99
Advertised special savings - $17.65
Advantage buy savings - $7.58
In-store special savings - $2.50

Total savings = $50.47
Total spent = $97.89

I did ok today.
I bought quite a few buy 1 get 1's, and I got two bottles of Kraft salad dressing for free because they had them on buy 1 get 1, and in my Kraft Food & Family magazine, was a coupon for a free bottle.
They normally cost $3.69 each, so the one with the coupon was "paid", and the other was my get 1 free deal.
Heh.
I get a little giddy when I can sneak in a deal like that.

Now, onto what Publix has done.
Grr.
They closed early on Tuesday night and rearranged the entire store.
All of the aisles are totally swapped around, I have no clue where anything is.
In the 10 years I have been shopping there, it's always been exactly the same.
My OCD was in hell this afternoon.

Health and beauty products are no longer to the right side of the entrance, the wine and Hallmark cards are there now.
Health and beauty is now 7 aisles over, and some of the stuff is missing.
Razor blades for instance, are no longer with the shaving cream, they are now on the end cap displays at the registers.
uh, er, yeah, that makes total sense! *rolls eyes*
Baby products, jar foods, diapers, wipes etc, are now in the aisle with the cookies and candy, which used to be in the same aisle as the diet products like slim fast and rice cakes.
Diet products are now opposite the health and beauty products in aisle 7.

The entire store is now totally swapped around.
After all my years in retail management and working at grocery stores, I know exactly why they did this.
See, if you know where every thing is, you go in with your list and can get out quickly.
If everything gets moved around and the placement of products doesn't make sense, (hello? razor blades should be with the shaving cream!) it will take customers twice as long to do their shopping, and because you will now go up and down every single aisle in search of your items, you will end up making impulse purchases.

A manager was standing at the doorway handing out maps, a list of products alphabetized, and what aisle number those products are now in.
I needed to pick up some girly things for when Aunt Flo comes to visit, and I figured they'd be in with health and beauty, where they were before.
Where they belong.
No!
They were over with the bar soaps and toilet paper in aisle 9.
Yes! that makes total sense doesn't it?!
Tampons and pads should always be with the toilet paper!
The marketing guy geniuses who figured out that feminine hygiene products should be with toilet paper, should get a big 'ol pat on the back or a quick kick to the nut sack.
I don't know why they would do that.
Maybe because when a wife asks her husband to pick up her girly things for her on his way home from work, men automatically think if it goes "down there" then it's probably like ass wiping paper, and that's where men would look first.
They certainly were not thinking about where women find all of their products like hair dye, shampoo, conditioner, shave cream and deodorant, would be the logical place to put all women's products.

Anyway, it's probably going to take me and my OCD about 2-3 months to figure out the new placements of everything, and then they'll decided to switch it up again.
But I got them.
I didn't impulse buy a single solitary item.
Neener fucking neener.

---

May 17, 2008

What do ya know? I'm blog of the day!

See that? You can click it for bigger, but it says that I am blog of the day for the triple P paid to blog company.
Funny thing though, I haven't worked for them since October 2007, and I left on very bad terms having a back and forth with their "customer love" department about all my issues with their company, and asking them to completely remove all traces of me from their system.
I did not want to be linked to from any part of their site, and I was assured they had removed every single link they had to me from every part of their site.
Promised actually.

But there I am, blog of the day.
How the hell am I blog of the day?
I have not taken a single post for them since the end of September and got my last payment from them in October.
It's gotta be a random selection because it's most certainly not based on me taking any posts, I haven't.
I am not the top earner, middle earner, or even low man on the totem pole, because I don't work for them.

I don't have the ability to even login to their sites anymore, so how did I find out I was blog of the day?
Several people emailed me screenshots of it.
Some of them were like "I hate to be the bearer of bad news because they promised you they removed you from the system, but obviously they lied."
Someone else said "Holy shit Kat! Don't get too pissed!"
And another simply said "LMAO! Idiots!"

Exactly my thoughts.
Idiots.

So if you're coming here from the blog of the day link on the triple P site, no I don't work for them, haven't in a very long time now, and they are clearly not people of their word.
They do not remove anyone from the system or site even if they promise you they do.
They keep every single blogger in there so their numbers of users is as big as it is to impress adverts with.
They can say they have over 100,000 bloggers, but how many of them are like me?
No longer working for them and asked to be removed from their site?
I'm guessing a lot.

I'm not mad I'm still in the system, I'm just very disappointed they lied to me about removing me.

---

May 14, 2008

Loans on inheritance? Say what?!

I had never ever heard of heir loans before in my life until tonight.
I'm rather kind of bored, so I started surfing around the net and saw this ad on someone's blog for inheritance loans.
I clicked it and was all huh?
You can take out a loan on the money you're going to inherit?
Explain please!

So I read the home page then clicked on the FAQs.
How can you get an heir loan?
Well it's pretty simple really, if you are inheriting at least $17,000 from a probate estate which is open or being opened.
The cost of taking out the loan is determined by the size of the loan you want and the complexity of the probate estate.
To get the loan now, you sign or assign, the right for the loan people to get a fixed amount of money out of the heir's share of the probate.

I could totally see something like this being useful if you've inherited a sum of money, because sometimes probate can take years to finalize.
I thought it was pretty cool too that they make sure the person taking out the loan has no judgments or child support proceedings against them.
It would of course, interfere with the payment to the loaners, but they make sure that you don't owe anyone else the money first.
Ya know, like your kids.

---

May 14, 2008

Opana.

My appointment was at 9:40am, and lasted roughly 40 minutes.
We talked about the shoulder issues, my concerns with it being a pressure sore, the weird bruising spots, and how bad it feels when I wake up everyday, as well as when I lean back in a chair or anything touches it.
He said he doesn't think it's a pressure sore, and then gave me a really big super duper injection of the nerve blocker mixed with cortisone, for the pain.
He injected it into two spots on my shoulder, one above the blade, and one dead center of the pain.
He hopes that mixing the nerve blocker with the cortisone will help reduce the inflammation and pain I'm dealing with.
He said, "It still looks as bad today as it did a month ago. What are you doing?"
I told him, nothing, but I sleep on my back nightly, no moving around that I know of, I wake up flat on my back just as how I fell asleep, and that is why I was concerned it may be a pressure sore.
I told him I looked that stuff up, and the pictures scared the crap outta me, if this is a pressure sore, fix me now before it turns into a freaking crater.
He said he really doesn't believe it is, but gave me a referral to a dermatologist to get the area and the weird eraser sized bruising looked at by someone who may know better.
He said if nothing is showing up on the xrays or the CT scans, then it may possibly be a skin issue which is out of his realm of expertise.

We set up 2 massage therapy appointments with a female masseuse this time, not that I know if that will make any difference in how I feel about being mostly naked on a table being touched, but I'll give the girl a try.

Then he switched my pain medicine completely.
I was taking 10/325mgs of Lortab (hydrocodone), 4-6 times daily as needed, but due to the increased pain I was dealing with, he said it appears as though my body has gotten used to them, built a tolerance up, and so let's try a new one.
Opana ER.

Opana is in a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers. It is similar to morphine. Opana is used to treat moderate to severe pain. The extended-release form of this medication is for around-the-clock treatment of pain.

I did tell him I was allergic to morphine, but he says it's similar, but not morphine. Well let's hope not because on morphine, I clawed myself, ripped out my own hair, and was in a drug induced la-la land for the entire first week of my hospital stay.

They are extended release tablets, 15mg, and I'll be taking 2 per day to start.
As my body builds a tolerance, my doc will either up how many of these I take, or increase them from the 15mg to a 20 or 30mg dose pill.
You can read all about this drug in the links I provided, but so far, so good, and I did find these side effects a little interesting.
Not worrisome, but interesting.
In clinical trials, some, but not all patients had some of the following side effects. Emphasis mine.

General disorders and administration site conditions: dry mouth, appetite decreased, fatigue, lethargy, weakness, pyrexia, dehydration, weight decreased, edema.
Nervous system disorders: insomnia.

So great, more insomnia is possible, but I could be really fatigued. Love those kinds of side effects.
You're dead tired, but nope! No sleep for you!
And the loss of appetite and weight decreasing won't be such a bad thing to me, I need to lose some weight anyway. (LOL)

So anyway, it will probably take me a few days to get used to these, they are much stronger than what I've been taking over the last few years.
They are like morphine, behave like oxycontin, and yes, may be habit forming.
I have a follow up appointment in 2 weeks so he can see how I'm doing on them.

Now for the fun part.
Walgreen's, CVS, nor Eckerds, carry this drug.
Walgreen's said they can order it, but there is no guarantee on when it would come in.
1-3 weeks possible delivery time.
CVS and Eckerds, said they do not carry nor would they order them.
I was like what??
You won't order this if it's a prescription?
Pffft.
I spent 2 hours sitting at Walgreen's while the gal called every single Walgreen's store in Sarasota to see if they had them, and the answer was no.
I called CVS and Eckerds, learned that stuff about them, and then called my doc.
I'm all dude, nobody freaking carries this pill!
They said we'll call you right back, they did, and told me the name of a single pharmacy on the other end of town who carries it, and away I went.
They said they always have it, but it's a fairly new drug, and some stores will not carry it because of how strong it is.
If my doc puts me on this full time, Walgreen's will get an ultimatum.
Carry this for me all the time or I move all my scripts to the one pharmacy who does stock it all the time.
I don't want to hear oh we won't order that for you, seeing as how I've been using the same pharmacy for 10 years now.
They have my business, if they want to keep it, they will stock this.
But my appointment was at 9:40am, I was at Walgreen's by 10:20am, and I didn't get back home until almost 2pm because of how long it took to find a store that had these in stock.
That's crazy.
I shouldn't have had to call so many places to find a prescription my doc wrote me.

---

May 12, 2008

Hoppy birfday to woo.

Christine made a post about kid friendly restaurants and birthday parties for kids, and entitlement jerks.
Basically the dad was mad because the restaurant didn't offer his 3 year old son no free gift or cake at his birthday when they dined out.

I worked in many different restaurants when I was working outside the home, and I can tell you that not a single one ever gave anyone, kid or otherwise, a free gift or free cake, on their birthdays.
The cake was added to the bill, and it was usually just a slice of cake from our dessert menu unless someone called in advance to arrange for a whole cake for the entire group to have.
We would sing if asked, but most people didn't because it is publicly humiliating for both the birthday person and the restaurant staff who are forced to sing it.

That dad is a butthead.
He complained about the crappy meal, the bad drinks, the bad service, and yet he expected the restaurant to shower his 3 year old with a gift and free cake, as well as sing the damn happy song.
______________

But we did do this once, to Sebastian on his birthday, at our fave Chinese buffet here in town.
He was about 10 or 11, and my sis and I felt like embarrassing him.
We pre-arranged with the manager to bring a cake over at the end of our meal, a small Pepperidge Farm one we brought ourselves, and also to sing to him.
The entire staff who work there are Chinese with very heavy accents.

We finished our meal and Sebastian thinks that's it, when the whole wait staff comes over with his cake and like 100 candles on it.
It was like on fire, I thought for sure the smoke alarms in the place were going to go off.
We never asked for the candles, the staff did that on their own, but it made it even more funny to sis and I.
They get to the table, Sebastian is already mortified because of the flaming cake o' death, and they start singing.
"Hoppy birfday to woo, hoppy birfday to woo", all really thick Chinese accents, so thick you could barely understand any of the words to the classic birthday song.
Every patron of the restaurant is staring at our table, people are standing up to see, and how could you not see?
There were 20 wait staff all dressed in matching black pants and white shirts, singing very loudly, and a tiny cake with flames shooting off the candles.
People were laughing, some were singing along, and Mark is nearly pissing himself with laughter.
My sister and I have tears rolling down our cheeks because all we wanted was the cake brought over, and maybe like 2 waiters to sing, NOT the entire staff, and it was just so loud and so bright, we were losing it with laughter.
Sebastian's face was bright red, he was so embarrassed, but it was just awesomely funny.

We've never done that again, but we threaten it every time one of the teens have a birthday.
We always take them out on their day to where ever they want to go, and when we get there, we joke about how we tipped the waitress etc to bring a cake and sing.
Both teens usually get immediately red in the face, and ask like 100 times through the meal if we're kidding or not.
We usually hold out on the joke till the very end, when we finally tell them we were kidding, but watching them get nervous every time a waiter passes by our table is priceless.

---

May 5, 2008

UPS, why must you suck so much?

I had my box cutter all ready to go, to open up the new monitor that the teen's Aunt Heather bought for them.
The monitor that was supposed to be delivered on April 30th, but once again, UPS couldn't find the address.
The address Heather used when she bought it, is correct, but what happens at UPS every single time now, is that when they enter it into their tracking system, they reverse the numbers to my house.
Instead of 5328, they enter it in as 5238, or 5823, or some other combination which is wrong, and then they just don't even bother to try looking up the correct address.

I've now lived here for 10 years, and I've never had a single package delivered when it was supposed to be.
They always mess it up, make me call them, or is the case right now, Heather is once again on the phone with them.
When it didn't get delivered by Saturday, she called them and asked why.
They told her about the address, they corrected it, promised her it would be delivered today, and now it's not.

When I called them a little while ago and gave them the tracking information and asked where it was, and also explained the promise, they said that "whoever told the gift sender it would be delivered today, lied."
When Heather called me about 20 minutes ago and I told her what they told me, she was furious.
"What do you mean they told you the rep I spoke to lied?! Are they calling their own employees liars now?!"

I said yes, that's what the lady said, that you were lied to.
To say Heather is unhappy is an understatement.
She's calling them now to chew them out some more.
To add to the chewing I did.
I mean come on!
10 years at the same exact address, and they still mess up my address and can't find my house?!
I swear, if I had other shipping options with the places I do business with, or could ask my shippers too please use Fedex or DHL, two companies who have never had a problem and as a matter of fact, always deliver a day early in most cases, believe me, I would.
I'm sick and tired of any package I order never making it to me on time, and having UPS come up with all kinds of excuses why.
They always apologize, but saying sorry isn't good enough any more, not after 10 years of hearing it.

---

May 5, 2008

Oh UPS, when will you get it right?

I'm not doing much today, just hanging out waiting on a delivery of a monitor for the teens pc that was supposed to be delivered on the 30th.
Why wasn't it?
Because once again, UPS screwed up my address when they entered it electronically into their computers and scanners.
A call was made, they supposedly fixed it, and it's supposed to be here today.
We'll see.

I also wanted to remind everyone about the two give-aways that are going on here.
2 copies of the Hot Latin Diet book, and a Mad Money DVD.
Entering to win is really easy, and anyone can enter!

---

April 20, 2008

Trying to wake up and move it.

I slept like total crap.
That trigger point injection has NOT kicked in yet people.
It should have kicked in by now and it hasn't.
Every movement with my left arm is like being stabbed.
Argh!

Anyway, I'm up this early because my friend called about going shopping.
We're going to go do it this morning after we stop and pay her car insurance.
The payment she made online the other day didn't go through for some reason, so they called and told her that, and when she checked her bank balance, sure enough, it didn't go through.
Their office is open this morning at 9am, so we're going to run there and pay really quick, then hit up the store.
I love that most businesses are open on Sundays here.
Missed paying the cable bill?
No worries, just drive all the way the hell out to the end of Fruitville road and the intersection of I-75, and pay it.
You may even get to watch a funeral at the cemetery across the street while you're at it.

I totally miss how easy it was to pay bills in Maine.
You just walked into whatever grocery store was your fave, go to the customer service desk, and you could pay your phone, cable, water, get money orders, stamps, mail packages, rent movies, all kinds of stuff.
They don't do that down here and man, was that a shock when I got here.
I actually went to the CS desk at Publix that first month I was in my own apartment, and asked to pay my phone bill.
They looked at me like I was crazy.
When I explained how it works up north, they said if they did that here, they'd never do anything else at the desk. They said it was bad now with having to just sell money orders and sell and give Western Union payments, never mind do actual bill payments.
Um, they barely do that.
They will sell money orders, but they don't cash them.
They will cash paychecks, but it has to be from a company in their "book".
It's weird.
It makes me very happy that I get paid through Paypal for everything I do because when I was working outside the home, getting my checks cashed without having a bank account was a nightmare.
If the place I worked wasn't in the book, they would refuse to cash it, and if I persisted, they would call my place of employment to make sure it existed.
Um, who hasn't heard of Pier 1 Imports or Ruby Tuesday's?
Then not one, but two store managers, would have to approve the check and add it to the book.

But whatever, I'm rambling now when I should be getting my ass in gear.
I tend to ramble upon waking.
Gotta run, time is slipping away faster than I think my body can move to get ready.
Ack!

---

April 17, 2008

Paradise by any light.

I was fortunate enough to receive some pearl earrings from a site that specializes in nothing but the finest freshwater pearls, exotic natural pearls, saltwater Akoya, and my favorite, south sea and Tahitian.

I received a stunning pair of black Tahitain pearl stud earrings.
They are black with that beautiful "peacock" over tone which gives them sort of a greenish hue, but they change in different lighting, looking very dark or very bright, almost silver-ish.
They are just so beautiful, I love them!
Just look at these!

I got them from Pearl Paradise, and I couldn't be more pleased with them, and you all know how much I love jewelry, so getting these was like wow.
All of the pearl jewelry they have is very affordable, the only problem you'd have is selecting what you want.
They own their own pearl farm, so they are able to control the quality and the pricing of the world's finest pearls, and believe me, these are some quality pearl earrings.
I am so lucky and greatful to have gotten them, and I can't thank Pearl Paradise enough.
But I tried.
I made this silly little video, yes, this is where I show off my uber dorkness, but I just wanted to show them and everyone else how much I love my new earrings.

Thank you Pearl Paradise!

---

April 16, 2008

Verizon sucks so freaking much!

If you do a search on my site for Verizon, you'll see how many times I've had issues with their service.
It ain't pretty.

Ok, once again, Verizon requires a CC to auto-bill for DSL every month, and every month without fail, their auto-billing thing does not work. It has never worked in all the years I have had DSL with them.
So every month, I have to call them and update the CC numbers, they bill, no problem.
But it just doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
They tell me I can go to their site and update it myself or make a one time payment.
No, I can't.
See, my account with them has been screwed since day 1 of service and no one knows why.
When I go to the site, no matter what I click on, it says "This tool is unavailable on your account."
Not just unavailable, but strictly unavailable to my account.

So anyway, I had already made 2 calls to them so far this month, they didn't bill like they were supposed to, again, so I called the first time, called again just to make sure it had been billed, and I was assured it had been.
But no, it hadn't been.
So I get this email from them that said the CC validation didn't work, call us or be shut off in 10 days.
That was on the 10th.
I called them as soon as I got the email, updated the CC info again, and again, they assured me it had been billed.

But it either hasn't been billed, or someone got a little over zealous and suspended my service on Monday the 14th at 7:40pm.
I called, they see they made a mistake and suspended wrongly, so they un-suspended my account, and assured me I'd be back on in 2 hours.
Nope, didn't happen.
I ended up being stuck behind a "walled garden", Verizon's suspended message when you try to go on the net.
My modem was on, I could connect, but they were blocking every single website with their silly little garden.

So I called and called and called.
They handed me bullshit line after line about how the problem was on my end with my phone line, and the local phone repair kept saying it wasn't.
DSL kept saying it was.
Finally, I spoke to a guy named John who (amazingly, I didn't end up with an outsourced employee this time) said that when they suspended my service wrongly, someone at the central office screwed up the wires to my account, and it was going to take a repair tech at least 24 hours to figure it out and fix it.
I told him not to bullshit me, I had already been lied to by 7 different non-English speaking tech support people, and if I got lied to one more fucking time, I was going to call 8 on your side and they could get to the bottom of this bullshit, because honestly, after 8 fucking years of having to call every single month because their auto-bill feature doesn't fucking work, I'm going to fucking kill someone for a problem that is clearly not my fault.

He said he could see looking at my records that I call every month, and the history of problems with my account, and he was so so sorry.
Sorry doesn't cut it, fix it, I said.
He said he'd personally over see it, he was a level 3 tech.
What that means I don't know, but from now on, I'm going to call, when I have to which will be every month knowing my Verizon history, and just demand to speak to a level 3 tech.
Fuck that outsourced bullshit with shutting my modem down, turn it on, clear my cache, and oops, we're sorry, looks like it's on our end.

I actually don't know if my bill is paid or not, but I updated my CC info again for the 4th time now, and my net is back on.
I'm happy it's back, I have a lot of work to do, but god damn, I'm so fucking sick of Verizon's bullshit.
If I had any other choice for phone and net besides Comcast cable and Verizon where I live, I would have left Verizon years ago.
Brighthouse is not available here, there is no other option for me, so I'm stuck, have been stuck, with shitty fucking service for like 8 years.
It's fucking bullshit, I'm over it.

---

April 13, 2008

Mini-fridge no more.

It was just as I had thought, the landman was out of town for the weekend with his family, his voice mail box was full, but as soon as he got back he called me to see what I needed.
I told him about the death of the fridge for the second time in 2 weeks, and he said ok, I'll call you right back.
He then called and said clean out the old broken 1, he was on his way over.
Ta-da!
New fridge!

Sebastian got straight to placing all our magnets back on it, and had some fun with their placement.
Silly teenage boy.
It's cooling slowly, it had been tipped on it's side to bring it in the house, so all the compressor stuff has to settle down again in order to truly start being cold, but it's getting there.

The landman and his family had been up at his parents house in the northern part of the state, and his son was with him when he brought the new fridge over.
He hadn't even unpacked all his luggage and stuff yet, so when placing the old fridge in his van, he kept telling his son to move his clubs.
Now either the boy just didn't hear him, or wasn't paying attention, but he started getting pissed as he was holding the end of the fridge up and trying to slide it in and his Callaway irons were still in the way.
Finally he just yelled, "Move the damn clubs now!"
That kid practically jumped and hauled the bag over the seat as fast as he could.
His eyes were huge, he let out this little squeak of a sorry, and the fridge finally went in.
The landman then turns to me and says, "I swear, kids don't hear anything unless you yell at them or are trying to give them money or video games."
I nodded in agreement, teens, they suck sometimes.

Seeing as how my lone package of burger was frozen in the mini-fridges itty bitty freezer, and because of the broken fridge, there was nothing to cook for dinner, so with the money sis brought over for the teens, they ordered us a bunch of $4 pizzas and wings from Dominos.
The teens had ordered 20 hot wings and 20 BBQ wings, but after the driver had left and we started to dig in, we noticed that they were ALL hot wings.
I can't eat hot wings unless I feel like being ill all night, so I called them back, explained, and they brought us the 20 BBQ wings.
I offered to give them back the other 20 hot, but they didn't want them, so all in all, we ended up with 60 wings and 3 pizzas for $40.
Not bad.
Off to catch up now before I go and put all the food in the new fridge, and i have laundry to dry still.
Later days!

---

April 9, 2008

Grossest chicken ever. Popeyes Chicken.

I had never eaten at Popeye's Chicken before, but everyone kept telling me how awesome it is, so today after doing a little shopping, we stopped and picked some up.

I honestly don't think I've ever tasted worse chicken in my entire life.
It was greasy, and had a nasty flavor to it that I can't even describe.
And the mashed potatoes and gravy.
Barf.
What the hell did they put in the gravy?
It was so gross.
I know they pride themselves on Cajun flavor, but I've had Cajun chicken before, and this stuff is just disgusting.

I do have to say though that their customer service was excellent.
They were quick, they didn't make any mistakes with our order, the staff was pleasant and courteous, and even offered us large cups of ice cold water because it was so hot out.

So the food sucks but the service was great.
Can't win 'em all.

---

March 29, 2008

It should be called open season on snowbirds.

Oh my, my my my, I have had a helluva day.
I went grocery shopping this afternoon, and I swear, every single senior asshole snowbird, was in Publix today.
The snowbirds suck, all of them, but the seniors are by far the worst.
I know I've bitched about this plenty of times, but today, I wanted to physically kill one of them.

Publix was overly crowded with snowbirds, the majority of them were of the senior variety.
The most obnoxious species to behold.
If you see one, or a small crowd of them, stay out of their way.
They have absolutely no manners and believe that the world revolves around them.

Publix had the hair-brained idea, that having every stock clerk on the floor and stocking shelves from noon to 4pm, was just the best thing ever.
But no, it's not.
Saturdays are busy shopping days, it's the one day of the week most people have off of work and can go get food.
Having 20 stock clerks clogging the aisles is just bad.

I went in the cereal aisle, or I should say, attempted to go in the cereal aisle, when I was immediately blocked in by a stock clerk to my left refilling the pop-tarts, the granola bars, and fruit snacks, and 2 shoppers in front of me going my direction, and 3 trying to go the opposite.
An old woman, approximately 65-75 years of age, came in behind me and proceeded to bang her cart into my ass.
I turned to her and said; "Ma'am, I can't go anywhere. There are people in front of me, and no room to go around because he's stocking the shelves".
She made a face that I assumed wrongly, to be of understanding.
Just a mere 30 seconds later, I thought I had been hit by a car.
Well it was a cart and not a car, and it was this same ladies cart, and it wasn't just a small hit, oh no, it was a full on slam directly into my tail bone.
I turned around and snapped; "What the fuck is your problem lady?! I told you, I can't go anywhere! If you want to go up this aisle so badly, why don't you ask the stock clerk to move, or better yet, why don't you say excuse me?!?!"

She stared at me, the stock clerk and the other customers in the aisle turned around to see, and she yelled out; "Move!"
I repeated that I couldn't move anywhere due to the amount of people in the aisle, and that if she rammed me with her cart again, she'd be very fucking sorry.
She clutched the handle of the cart and moved it back like she was getting ready to take aim at me again, and I turned around to fully face her, and said; "Don't. Even. Think. About. It."
Sebastian who always goes shopping with me and had seen her hit me, grabbed my arm and said; "Mom, is your back ok?"
I told him that no, it wasn't. She hit my tail bone. I felt the cart slam into my rods and screws, I felt it all the way up into my neck, but if this woman dares to try and hit me again, I'll ignore the pain I'm in just long enough to take her cart and shove it up her wrinkly ass.

Sebastian let go of me and backed up.
The old lady now had this look of horror on her face, and the stock clerk was trying to get his stuff out of the way to get out of the aisle.
The other customers started to back up and move out of the way as far as they could so I could pass through.
When there was enough room for me to move forward, I slowly turned back to face my own cart and then moved up the aisle.
The other customers just all stood staring at me and the old lady, waiting to see what was going to happen.

She came up the aisle, this look of superiority on her face, and as she passed me, she turned her cart into mine and pushed it, then kept moving up the entire aisle, not getting a single thing from the shelves at all.
She went up the entire aisle and turned to go down another.
She didn't even need anything in that aisle.
What the fuck?

I hate these people.
I hate these old, rotten, rude, assholish snowbirds who don't live here, but make the local people's lives a living hell from November to the end of April.
I cannot fucking wait till they all go back to wherever the fuck they came from, and the roads, the parking lots, and the stores, will once again be safe to be in or on.
They drive like they own the roads, no blinkers, they take up 3 parking spaces, they treat everyone they come in contact with like they are lower forms of life.

Hate.
Them.

I spent the rest of the time in the store in absolute agony.
That was only aisle 5, I had 15 more to go, a lot of groceries and other necessities to get before I could come home.
It took me over 10 minutes to check out, every register that was open, had huge long lines, they kept calling over the speakers for clerks to come bag and retrieve carts from the lot.
Normally, I can get in and out of the store in about an hour, today it took me nearly 2 hours to get everything I needed and get checked out.
I couldn't wait to get home.

I've been home since about 3pm, and my tail bone and lower back is on fire.
I've taken 3 pain pills and slapped on a lidocaine patch, and I am still in horrific pain.
When Mark was helping me put the patch on, he told me it was black and blue.
I turned to look at it in the mirror, and there was noticeable color change.
It hurts so freaking bad.
I swear, if she had hit my body again, I would have lost it on her.
I would have taken her cart and slammed it into her, and I don't know if I would have stopped.
It would have been self defense maybe.
Maybe temporary insanity, but she would have deserved it.
I am so sick of these people doing this shit.
I am so over them behaving like assholes in the store, taking things right out of people's hands, hitting people with the carts, being rude, never saying excuse me or thank you when someone does move out of their way.
I cannot wait till they all go home.
The end of April can't get here fast enough.

---

March 27, 2008

Yay for DHL!

DHL just got here with my new paypal card, the one that got canceled due to the Sweetbay fiasco, and it's activated and ready to go.
Now I have to go and fix the bills that had that debit card number, and switch them over to the new number.
I also cut up the old card into itty bitty pieces.

---

March 26, 2008

Things I need to do.

Tomorrow after DHL gets here with my new paypal debit card, I have to activate it, then when I get paid, I need to call and pay my medicare part d bill, and the water bill.

I have some work I need to do, but I will get it all done, but before I can do any of that, I need to fix me.
I just had one of those days ya know?
And if you don't know, read the post below.
I am tired, semi-depressed, bored, uptight, and in serious need of a shower.
I think if I can get a shower, I'll feel a helluva lot better about myself.
I just feel out of sorts right now, my hair is a mess, and I need to take care of me.
I'm always telling others to take care themselves, and I blow right past my own needs.
So yes, I need to take care of me.
Shower, do my hair, that stuff.
I got a gift cert from a friend last week to Amazon, so I got the boys a new game they wanted, and then bought myself some flat iron hair stuff.
Protector and smoothing stuff.
I want to go play with it, and I will as soon as I'm done posting this.
I need some me time.

---

March 21, 2008

Sweetbay Supermarket fiasco.

For those of you who don't know yet, this is what happened.

"Dear Customer: Sweetbay Supermarket has contained a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card numbers. No personal information, such as names or addresses, was accessed. Sweetbay Supermarket doesn't collect, know or keep any personally identifiable customer information from transactions. We sincerely regret this intrusion into our systems, which we believe, is among the strongest in the industry. The stolen data was limited to credit and debit card numbers and expiration dates, and was illegally accessed from our computer systems during transmission of card authorization. The intrusion affected Sweetbay stores in Florida, Hannaford stores in the Northeast, US and certain independently owned retail locations in the Northeast that carry Hannaford products."

I haven't even shopped at Sweetbay in like a year, and 2 of my Mastercard debit cards have been canceled.
That's right, 2.
See, Mastercard feels that if an intrusion like this happened once, they believe it might have happened before this, so they are just shutting down the CC/debit cads of people who have shopped at a Sweetbay or a Hannaford in the last year.

This sucks.
I have absolutely no way to access any of my money until new cards are issued.
My paypal debit card, canceled, I might receive a new one by Wednesday.
My other card is a CS card that I didn't even want, and I might get that replacement card by Friday of next week.
I transferred my entire balance from my paypal account to my Amscot card, but that takes 2-4 business days to complete.
That's just great huh?

So anyway, I called Sweetbay customer service to thank them for their outstanding care of their customers information. /sarcasm
I was polite, I was nice, until the smart-mouthed customer service rep on the line said the following to me;
"Well it's not just you who has been inconvenienced. I have a car payment due, and a student loan payment, and bills of my own to make, and there's nothing I can do about it.You're not the only one."

Excuse me? Did she really just say that to me?!
I've worked in customer service for 18 years, you are in no way ever, supposed to get personal or rude, with any customer who calls in with any kind of complaint.
And so yes, after she said that, I went off.
I told her, "People have bills to pay, they have things to do, and because of the very serious breach in security at Sweetbay, Mastercard is taking drastic measures.
It's not just an inconvenience, it's a disaster.
New cards are being issued, money is tied up in limbo until transfers to other accounts can finish in business days or new cards are received by mail.
This isn't a laughing matter, it's a serious problem, and as someone who has worked in customer service for many years, I can tell you that speaking to customers this way, is not acceptable at all. You are never to get personal with a customer, you are never to get rude, you are never to say anything that will make the customer any angrier than they already are. Your job is to calm them down, apologize for the problem, confirm for them that your company is doing everything they can to make sure this never happens again.
I hope this phone call has been recorded so your supervisors can fire you when they hear how you just spoke to a customer. I didn't call this number to ask you about your financial problems, I called to tell you what your companies security breach has done to mine, and to inform you that because of this, I will never shop at another Sweetbay ever again. And because of how you just spoke to me, I can guarantee that I will never spend another freaking dime at any of your stores ever ever again."

She sputtered a few worthless apologies, but I hung up.
I was fuming mad at this point.

But here's the deal folks, if you have used your paypal debit or credit card at any Sweetbay in Florida or Hannaford in the Northeast, or any Mastercard for that matter, you might want to call your card issuer and find out if your card has been canceled.
I had no idea, I had not received any emails from paypal about my card being canceled, nor from my CS card issuers, but they are indeed canceled, and now I have to wait for new ones.
You might want to check yours.

---

March 20, 2008

Attempting to get moving.

I need to get my body un-stiff, and get off to the store.
I have to pick up a few things I forgot, and a few things the bagger at Publix forgot to put in my bags.
I hate that.
I don't buy groceries so the bagger can forget to put them in the bag.
2 packages of shredded cheddar, and a 4 pack of tuna.
They are on my receipt, but not in my fridge and cupboards.
I wish I had noticed it on Saturday when I actually went shopping, but I didn't notice till last night when I had the enchiladas already rolled and in the pan, and went to grab the cheese.
Oh well.

Mark is a funny kid. He's always bringing pens home for me that he finds at school. He knows I like a really nice pen to write with, the heavier the better.
But yesterday he came home with a bunch of marketing pens from a local retailer.
How many is a bunch?
15.
They aren't bad pens, they write good, but just not heavy enough for my hand.
And how he got them all, I have no idea.
I like the pen he brought home the other day though.
It's this wicked heavy silver pen, octagon shape, and it has a heavy ink.
It's way nice.
Me likey.

I got Rick rolled this morning.
You know what Rick rolling is?
It's this really stupid internet fad where someone posts a link, and says it's one thing, but it's usually the youtube video for Rick Astley's never gonna give you up.
So anyway, they posted a link, said it was a list, and it was the Rick Astley video, but the browser window, was flying all over the place. You couldn't close it down.
I had to ctrl + alt + dlete, to end it.
I have never found the funny with the whole Rick rolling thing at all.
It's really stupid actually.

---

March 12, 2008

It's a pretty picture when it comes in.

I went and got the converter box at the evil Walmart, and I'm quite glad I only had to pay $9.87 + tax.
I'll explain that, but first let me tell you about the fabulous customer service at Walmart. /sarcasm
Again.

I run in, find it in the electronics department where nobody is working, or if they were, they were not where any customer could possibly find them.
I make my way to the register, I have exactly 2 items, the converter box and a soda.
The cashier scans the box and the soda, and I hand her the coupon card, it's not a paper coupon, it looks like a credit or debit card, so of course, the cashier is absolutely baffled as to how to apply it.

She turns on her register light for a manager.
This register that I'm at is right next to the service desk and the manager podium.
The manager is at the podium, it's about 5 feet away from this register.
He looks up at her, down at his employee schedule for the day, and asks her if she wants her break.
She says no, so then he says, "Turn your light back on then."
Uh...
I said to him, "She needs help applying the converter box coupon please".
He looks up again, she shows him the card, he says "I don't know how to use that", and looks back down at his papers.
Uh.....
So I said, "Sir, it's the converter box coupon program, but it's not a paper coupon with a code, it has a scan bar, like a credit card. If you don't know how to apply it, can you please find someone who does know?"
He stares at me, and just then another manager walks up to the podium, and he mumbles converter box coupon, help, apply, and she comes over, looks at it, and says, "I have no idea".
Uh....
So I said,"It is like a debit card, so maybe she should hit debit, swipe it, and hit enter?"
This lady who just got done saying she doesn't know, says "Ma'am, it says right on it coupon, so we have to apply it as a coupon. Mary, just hit coupon, enter the amount $40.00, and hit enter, maybe that will work".
So Mary does that, and the register asks for a code, they don't have one, so they stand there staring at the card, decide to read the back of it, and then the manager lady just plops in her manager key, and hits enter, over ride, and her manager number code.
It deducts the $40, but that is so not the way to do it obviously.
And obviously, no one at Walmart has a clue how to use this coupon card, so Mary's till is probably going to be all screwed up at the end of the day, short by $40, or some other problem.
But whatever, not my problem, just finish my stuff so I can leave.
I swipe my debit card, wait for my receipt and run the hell outta there.
I hate that place.

Now, onto the converter box itself.
It works, it works quite nicely when the signal is strong, but just like an antenna, if the wind blows, buh-bye pretty picture.
And some local channels will not tune in at all.
WWSB, and WFLA, which both brag about broadcasting in HD digital, do not tune in at all.
Nada, zip, zero, zilch.
I've been home for over 2 and a half hours, had this thing hooked up in seconds, and have been attempting to tune in all the channels since.
I get a lot of channels now, there's like 6 different PBS stations, a few ION stations, some more Spanish channels, Qubo, which is for kids, and all of the channels I previously picked up with the antenna, are coming in really nice, until the wind blows.
But both the above channels, are local news stations, I watch them both for local news, and the fact that they won't come in, is well, irritating.
I'll keep messing with it, I may need to buy a stronger antenna, something called an Ang, I think, it's supposed to be better at picking up digital signals, even though I have an antenna that does that, I just may need one with more power.
*muwhahahah! I need! More! Powwwwer!*

So that's how my day is so far, how's yours going?

---

March 11, 2008

Lady, are you sure?!

I ordered Pizza Hut for dinner tonight, didn't feel like cooking, and the guy on the phone said delivery would be over an hour.

I was prepared for that, some nights are just busy, it was cool.
But the delivery guy got here in less than that, in about 35 minutes.
I ordered 3 Pizza Mia pizzas, they are $5 each, then a 2 liter of Pepsi for the boys, and 2 20 oz. Diet Pepsi's for me.
It wasn't much, came to about $25, and because he got here a lot faster than they said, and he had everything I ordered, I tipped him $10.

He asked me if I was sure, I said yes.
He asked again, I said yes again, and then asked him why he was surprised.
He said, "People don't ever tip more than $5, and lately, people have been tipping about $1-$2. Are you really sure?"
I said "Yes I'm sure, and people are cheap, and the economy is in the crapper. But the way I see it is this, if you order for delivery, then you should be prepared to give a decent tip. The cost of gas is rising, the delivery people use their own vehicles, and they barely make minimum wage. They rely on tips, that's how they make their money."

He said thanks 3 more times before running back to his car, and he had this huge smile on his face.

That was my good deed for the day.
I made sure the kid could get some gas in his car tonight.

When you order for delivery, how much do you tip?

---

March 7, 2008

Things to do with my tax return.

If I ever get around to filing it that is.
That's right, I still have not gone to get them done.
There's been a few issues come up over some things, not big issues, but I want to make sure before I go and do them, that the answer I was given is the correct one.

Then I need to decide on where to go.
Jackson Hewitt, who has always done my taxes, but didn't get back the right amount last year, or Amscot, who I have done all my money stuff through for the last 2 years?
I'll probably go with Amscot.
I know a few people who have done their taxes through them this year, and are very pleased.

So after I get them done, I need to get Kali to the vet, that's first and foremost, and then I'm going to go discount furniture shopping for a new sofa, and if I can't find something I like and cheap, I'll just do a slipcover.
Then it's time for new contacts again, and then it's time for me to get some new clothes.
New jeans, new shirts, new shoes.
I'm sure I'll go with as cheap as I possibly can, I always do, that mom guilt is a killer, so Target will get some business for my clothing needs.
And after the needs are met, the rest of the money will stay in my account for emergency bills, or other emergencies.

---

March 5, 2008

Clean from the inside out.

I'm so excited!
Any day now, I'll be getting a full size sample bottle of a new (well new to me) antioxidant to try out.

I love testing products, and I love testing them more when they are for health reasons.
I take a vitamin every day, a cal/mag/zinc supplement 3 times a day, as well as a fiber supplement 3 times a day.
The antioxidant excites me because of it's cleaning abilities.
It removes free radical intermediates, and oxidation reactions, by being oxidized themselves.
Oxidative stress may be an important part of many human diseases, and so having something to fight off those free radicals which may cause illnesses, is a good thing.

I cannot wait to try this one out, as it boasts an energy producer as well.
I'll be sure to let you know how it works and if I like it or not.
I'm rather impatient, and can't wait for it to get here.

---

February 26, 2008

Major power outages in Florida.

Link to local story

Obviously not at my house, but this is a widespread issue.
It's a major story on CNN, something is up with the power grids.

About 4.4 million customers across South Florida were affected, Florida Power and Light officials said.
The outage struck shortly after 1 p.m., as scattered thunderstorms passed through the region. But the cause of the outage was not immediately known.
In Washington, officials at the Department of Homeland Security said there was no immediate concern that terrorism was behind the outage.

The power outages are affecting all the major power companies across the state, but not all the affected areas have had thunderstorms.
I know we haven't had one all day, but parts of Sarasota are powerless right now.
Very odd.

---

February 15, 2008

It was so not my phone!

I've had a most icky day, I don't want to whine about it, but let's just say I probably could have used one of these posture correction things last night and today.
My back and whole body has just been a mess, but I think that one pill is finally wearing off.
Zanaflex + Kat = way bad interaction.

But anyway, I got up this morning after barely getting 2 hours of sleep due to that rotten pill, and found my phone to be sending the whole dead air deal.
My net was on and off all day, just a big mess.
I called Verizon.
Gah, that right there should tell you how fun of a day I had with them.
They tell me there's noise on my line, but most likely coming from my equipment.
I no longer have an answering machine cuz that got fried 3 weeks ago when the transformer blew, so the only things connected to the line were my phone and DSL line.

I went outback and tested the NID box, (Network Interface Device) got the same dead air back there.
Verizon calls me back and insists it's my phone.
I tell them I tested my phone at my neighbors house and it worked just fine.
They insist it's still my phone, but they'll send a tech out to take a look.

The repair guy gets here and sets about testing the lines.
He can hear the noise on the line, and goes about trying to find the faulty wire.
He comes back nearly an hour later, and tells me it's definitely not my phone.
There's a line on the next pole over from the one that had the transformer blow, and it was almost blown apart.
All the wires inside the line were exposed to the elements.
He wrapped a temporary line cover on it so my phone and net would work again, and tells me that a repair crew will have to come out and replace that whole line.

We plug my phone back in, and yup, I now have a signal again instead of air.
I'm so so glad it was not my phone, I feel vindicated.
Why?
Because if it had been my phone or the wires inside my home, they would have charged me $80 bucks per hour to repair it.
But seeing as it IS there line outside, I don't have to pay a dime.
But once again, Verizon DSL has not charged my CC for the bill that was supposed to be paid on the 28th.
I had to call them again today and ask them to charge my card.
I swear, they just keep screwing up my billing month after month after month.

He leaves and I go back to my couch, just to chill and try to relax.
My legs were still doing the herky jerky spasm crap from that one rotten pill I took.
It's supposed to be an anti-spasmodic, they give that muscle relaxer to MS patients, but it can have very bad side effects.
I only took one Zanaflex, it should have worn off within 3-6 hours, but I was at the over 24 hour mark, still having bad side effects.
I was nauseous, vomiting, my heart was racing, and instead of calming my muscles down, it made them do a little freak out.
My legs and lower back muscles twitched all night last night and all day today, with a pounding racing heart.
My mouth was dry, I had the runs wicked bad, and I wasn't eating or drinking anything at all.
I was tired and dizzy, but couldn't sleep.
At one point, I got so scared that my heart was beating so fast, that I thought about going to the ER.
My chest hurt, I was actually scared I was having some sort of adverse reaction that was going to cause me to have a heart attack.
I just tried to lay down and rest as much as possible all day and night.
I think it's finally worn off, and thank goodness for that. I was really scared for awhile there.

I sent to the boys to the store to buy subs for dinner, and we chilled out and watched a movie tonight.
Gone Baby Gone is an awesome movie.
I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but you need to see it if you haven't already.
Great cast too. I really liked it, and it had one of those endings that you just don't know which side you should have been on.

---

February 7, 2008

Crusty crotch pants from Old Navy.

Colleen bought two pairs of pants at Old Navy, she tried one pair on, bought another pair in the same style but different color.
On the day she wanted to wear the second pair, she noticed some other woman's vaginal discharge in the crotch.
Please go to Digg, read her story, digg it to the top.
It's awesome what's she doing with the pants now because ON treated her badly when she went to return them.

But I laughed, and I know you'll be laughing, but see, I know how this happened.
I used to work at Old Navy, I know their return policies, and where the products come from.

I worked mostly in the stock room bringing in shipments off the truck.
It was my job to unpack it, hang it on the hangers, place it on the floor.
I also covered the fitting rooms and helped put returned items back out.

First, ALL of Old Navy's items are made over seas. This should be a major hint to wash anything you buy from them.
Why?
Many times I would open a box and spiders would be in the clothes, or fleas.
Sometimes, I'd get done hanging over 200 pieces, and my arms would be itchy. I'd look down to find a major rash going on, on my arms.
From whatever was in the box.

In the fitting rooms, there was a sign up that said you must keep your underwear on while trying on clothes, but uh, sometimes the female customers wouldn't be wearing any.
That's the first way the crusty stain could have happened.
Yes, we could tell them they couldn't try on any more clothes after we saw nakedness, but that might cause a scene, and getting our manager involved in it was something the manager didn't like to do.
Heck, they didn't even like to get involved in blatant shoplifting exchanges.
The second way, is when items are returned.
All the Old Navy employees are required to do, is ask why you are returning it, and give the item a once over for outside damage to the outside of the garment.
We never were told to check pockets or look inside the crotch of the pants.
Simply look for outside stains or tears.
That's it.
That's the second way the stain could have happened, but she said the pants were new, so I'm betting on the fitting room scenario.

What did we do with returned items?
We hung them on hangers and placed them back on the sales floor of course!
Same with items from the fitting rooms that the customers didn't want.
In there, we never even inspected the items after they tried them on.
They were "new" after all.
We placed them back on the hangers, and on to the sales floor they went.

I've worked in retail and customer service for years.
The customer is always right even when they are wrong.
By thoroughly inspecting items and finding a stain like that, could cause the customer to start screaming that they didn't do it, that we must have sold it to them that way, they demand their money back, all at full on screech decibel, which causes other customers to leave the store.
It's best policy, and it was Old Navy's policy, to just inspect the outside of the garments and return their money, no other questions asked, then place the item back on the sales floor with no further inspections.

Old Navy hated to lose money.
Their items were cheap as it was, having to mark off an item, meant the store lost money, and I know for a fact at my store, that items that smelled like smoke, alcohol, coffee stains, baby throw-up, and other assorted problems, were placed back on the sales floor all the time.
The only items we ever marked off, we ones right off the truck, and usually only if they were broken.
But we'd even sell them, after writing it off as a loss.
We'd mark it down 20% and stick it in the clearance bin as is.

Colleen's story is funny and gross, but nothing new to people who worked in retail.
It doesn't matter what you buy and where, always wash it, spray that new purse down with Lysol, take a Clorox wipe to new toys.
You'd be surprised and sickened by what those of us in the retail field know about the clothes you just bought.
Wash them.
In hot soapy water with a bleach alternative if you can.
Some of the critters we came across, gave us the itchies and a rash that needed a doctor to treat.

---

February 6, 2008

A morning massage. Ahhhh.

I have a doc appointment this morning, for a massage.
That's right, one part of my new PT involves getting a massage twice a week.

I'm not super big on massages, I tend to get nervous and tense up, which defeats the whole purpose of getting a massage.
But I will go and try it at least.
I honestly don't know how this is going to go because of the sensitivity issues in my back.
I still have very little touch sensation on the top layer of skin, but if any type of pressure, even just placing a single finger and pressing lightly, I get massive sensations shooting through my whole back.
The nerves have not fully regrown since surgery, and it's quite a unique feeling.
I can't even really describe it well.
A single finger, pressing just barely, feels like thousands of needles being poked simultaneously into my entire back.
It doesn't matter where the press takes place, the entire back feels that way.
A massage could potentially send me into fits of agony on the massage table.
If that happens, I'll just have to cancel the rest of them due to hypersensitivity, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed I'll be able to tolerate it, because those lower back muscles are so tight all the time, they need to be worked on.

Then I'll come home, work out on the elliptical, finish the house stuff I need to, and hope that the forms and other papers I've been expecting, finally show up.
The mail is still screwed up.
Nothing again yesterday, not even the usual Tuesday junk mail fliers.

---

February 5, 2008

Update on the Buzzfuse post.

I wanted to update you all on what I've learned since making my post about the new service Buzzfuse, the other day.

It was a paid post for another company, and some of my blogging friends are obviously hard up for $5, so they did what they had to do to get paid.
The opp required them to sign up and submit an article, but before you can do that, you have to enter in the email addresses of 10 of your friends.
Not cool at all.

I posted about the situation on a forum, and learned exactly how I got spammed by Buzzfuse.
To show you how this went down, here's a bit of how it works from other bloggers who almost took this low paying piece of shit opp.

"I had actually taken it (the opp) and was going through the process of signing up and submitting something I wanted to promote, when it put up an alert box saying that I could not continue until I entered 10 email addresses of people to "invite" them to the thing. (I had chosen to skip that step in signup)."

"According to the info, in order to use their service, you must submit a video, picture, article, post or whatever you want promoted. So I started to do that. But you cannot even get to the submitting part without entering all ten email addresses."

Garreth from Buzzfuse replied to my post, I replied to his comment, he tells me this isn't spam for the following reason;
"Well, I understand your frustration. Your friends didn't have to put your name in, but I guess they did because they trusted you to review their work and give them feedback (and of course you have!). The point again is that its not so much about making money from their post as it marketing their ongoing posts or testing our system, and these are personal invites, so they are not spam."

Garreth, it's spam plain and simple.
They took the $5 opp because they needed money, they had to use your service and review it in order to get paid. That meant they had to complete all the steps which included entering 10 of their friends in to be invited.
I didn't ask for 5 invitations, they were sent on behalf of my blogging friends from your site, just so they could get paid.

You can say it's not spam, but sorry Garreth, a spade is a spade is a spade.
They did it to make money, not intentionally piss off 10 of their friends.

The requirement of entering in the email addresses of 10 friends, before you can submit an article to Buzzfuse to promote it, is pure and utter crap.
I would never just willingly enter the email addresses of my friends to promote an article I want to gain publicity.
I'll ask my friends to Stumble it, or Digg it, IF they want to.
I won't invite them to a service without telling them about it first, asking them if it's ok if they receive an email from a company they haven't used.
If they say no, then it's no.
Making it a requirement is just evil.

Stumble this post if you like it.
If not, it's cool.
That's how I promote my posts, by asking, not spamming.
Hint, hint Garreth.

---

February 4, 2008

FedEx needs to get it together.

My friend Holly, sat at home and waited all day, and into the night now, for 2 very large packages to be delivered from FedEx.
She is expecting a memory foam mattress and base, they are in two separate boxes because of the size, and it was all worked out that they be delivered today because it's her only day off this week.
FedEx has not delivered them, and doesn't know when they will be.

The reason FedEx says they could not deliver them today was because according to their computer, the weather in her area was very bad today. Severe weather alerts.
She even told them that wasn't true, it was a beautiful sunny day today, the weather alert is for tomorrow.

She has now emailed back and forth with five (5) different customer service reps, who have all asked her the same questions over and over again.

The website tracking for FedEx, says that one of her packages is on a truck for delivery for today, and the other for tomorrow, but now that the weather alert is for tomorrow, who knows when her bed will actually be delivered.
A supervisor finally admitted that the package that is saying will be delivered tonight, won't be.

Holly has two big problems.
Both she and her husband are working every day the rest of this week, and it is supposed to be raining really badly tomorrow, when FedEx says they will deliver them. If no one is home, they said they will leave them at the door.
Holly has no porch or covered area to protect them from the rain, her bed and bed frame will be absolutely ruined.
But FedEx doesn't really know for sure, if they will be delivered tomorrow, that's just a guess.

I seriously hate bad customer service. hate it.
She worked with the company the bed is coming from to secure delivery for today, it was all scheduled, and as usual, FedEx screwed it up.
I know so many people who hate FedEx for this reason, and others like, not knocking, just leaving the package at the door, or driveway, placed in uncovered areas, or in the case of one of my deliveries of contact lenses a few years ago, the wrong house on the wrong street, and the customer signed my name for them and kept them.
FedEx admitted they took them to the wrong house and they were signed for, so the contact lens company had to resend them at FedEx's cost.

Just last month, Christine ordered a phone from Virgin Mobile, FedEx delivered it to the wrong house, it was signed for, a forged signature, and Virgin had to file a claim and refund her money.

The companies who use Fedex to ship, need to stop shipping with them and use another company for shipping.
FedEx repeatedly loses packages, is late, or delivers them to the wrong address.
It's time for companies to just stop using them.

---

February 4, 2008

I'll report it to his supervisor.

The mail came, and none of it was mine.
My mailbox has HUGE numbers on it, my name is clearly written inside my mailbox, as a matter of fact, it says 'COOPER ONLY' on the inside.

What came in todays mail?
9 pieces of mail for a house 3 doors down.
A name on the envelopes that doesn't even remotely sound, or even spelled close to COOPER.

I called the post office and asked if my route has a new driver.
The guy who answered put me on hold, then came back and said yes, and asked me why.
I explained that I received mail for a house name and number, 3 doors down, and none of my own mail.
He said he'd report it to that drivers supervisor.
I said ok, that's all well and good, but where is MY mail?
I am expecting tax forms and other important documents this week.
We take the mail that isn't ours, and give it to the rightful owners.
Other people don't always do that.
They sometimes throw it out, or write return to sender on it.
If some of these papers I'm expecting get returned to sender, it's going to cause problems for me.
These are time sensitive documents.
I need them.

The guy said he doesn't know where my mail is, but the supervisor will deal with the new driver and tell him about his mistakes.
That doesn't answer my question, all I can do is hope my mail is not lost.

---

January 31, 2008

May I speak with Heydee please?

I have been getting calls non-stop from some credit collection people for my old room-mate Heidi.
It's been weeks of them calling 2-3 times a day, and me hanging up after they ask for Heydee.
I don't know anyone named Heydee.
Hee hee.

But today I snapped.
I hate collection calls, Heidi has not lived here in what now, 3 and a half years?
So instead of hanging up after the message that says "Please hold for a call from something something LLC", I waited to speak to one of the idiots.

Some guy with a thick foreign accent jumps on the line and asks me if he can speak to Heydee.
I say who? Playing dumb, want to hear him screw up the name again.
He repeats, "Heydee".
I say, you mean Heidi?
"Um, H-e-i-d-i, Heydee."
No, that spells Hi-dee. Heidi.
"Oh, sorry about dat ma'am. May I speak with her?"
No, Heidi has not lived here in like 3 and a half years. As far as I know, she's back in Seattle, I haven't seen her or spoken with her since she moved out.
"Are you sure ma'am? She put this telephone number down as a contact number."
If she put this number down as a contact, she lied to you, because she has not lived here in over 3 years now.
"Do you have another number for her ma'am?"
No, did you hear me? I have not seen or spoken to her in over 3 years. I don't know and don't really care, where she is. And take this number out of your system.
"We can't do that ma'am."
Excuse me? What? You can't remove MY number from HER contact information? This is not Heidi's home, phone, or address. It belongs to me, Kat Cooper and my sons only. Remove the number from her contact sheet.
"We can't do that ma'am, it's the only contact information we have for her, she must be using it somehow. Sorry to bother you, we will try again later."
He hung up.

Excuse me?!
They won't remove my number from her contact information? The bitch has not lived here in over 3 years, yet she's still using it as a reference number for stuff?
Man, if I ever see her again, I'm gonna fucking hurt her.
How dare she keep using this number and address for whatever it is that she's doing.
Makes me glad I did get her out of here when I did, who knows what kind of shit she's gotten herself into now.

---

January 30, 2008

Just jot it in the space provided.

I haven't really had a lot to say over the last few days, I'm still shaking off my flu bug, still kinda wankied in the head from that, and been sorta down in the dumpers about stuff.

I've been attempting to get all my tax stuff sorted out, so I can pay what I owe on my self employment earnings, and am attempting to wait patiently for the 1099's to come in the mail.
What I don't like is being asked to re-create my account at an on line company I no longer work for, because when I quit and they deleted my account at my request, they didn't create any back-ups of my tax information which includes my SSN and mailing address.
I refused to re-create that account, and instead sent my information through a secure email connection.
But now I'm slightly, ok, a lot, worried that my 1099 is going to have the wrong information on it.
See, my SSN should have been tied to my earnings in a database some where, but nope, they didn't have my SSN or address, so how are they going to send me a proper 1099?

I received a second email from them after sending them the information they needed, telling me this is the amount you earned, you don't need a 1099 to file your taxes, just jot this amount down in the space provided on the tax form.
Maybe I don't need the 1099, but I prefer to be professional, and have the proper forms should my tax preparer ask for them.
And quite honestly, the fact that my information was not kept in a secure database with my name and SSN tied to my earnings, I have to question if it's even the correct amount.
I don't think it is.
The number they gave me is more than I recall making, even if they added in the $100 for a focus group, it's still about $200 higher than I have written down as my correct earnings.
I kept very detailed records of my earnings, and the number they gave me is more than I have recorded in excel.
It's just another one of those phew, glad I got out when I did, moments for me.
I have zero trust in this company. I lost it quite awhile ago.
I want my actual 1099 in hand, and I want to add up my records again and compare it to this amount. Something is not right and I know it in my gut.

What this means if I am correct about that extra $200, is that I have to pay taxes on that extra amount. I am already going to be paying nearly $1,000 in self employment earnings, and this will just add to it.
I'm freaking broke people, I can't be paying more than I should have to because someone kept shoddy records.
And if the records are indeed wrong for me, how many others will it be wrong for?

---

January 21, 2008

It's finally fixed. I hope.

Verizon came out today and fiddled around for awhile, claimed that my house shorted out when the lightning struck. They never did climb the pole.
I thought for sure, the way things were going on Saturday night, that Shell would be packing her luggage by candle light on Sunday morning at 5:am.

It took FPL about 3.5 hours to fix the damage. They had to remove the blown transformer and install a brand new one.
They were in the back yard yelling all that time.
When the power came back on, certain appliances had completely blown out in some homes.
I lost my answering machine and my router.
Some things did short out, but that does not mean that their wires on that pole are fine, and they refuse to climb the pole and look.
I swear, if I have to go through hat I went through a few years ago, with having on/off service for months again while they tell me it's not their fault, I will seriously kill somebody.
When Verizon finally got around to checking that pole on their map, they found the grid had been blown.
But for months, they told me it was fine, that it was my computer and telephone that were broken and causing the problems.
They ended up giving me 4 months credit on my DSL bill back then, and if they have screwed it up again this time by refusing to climb the pole and look at those wires, they are going to be sorry.
I'll go to the media this time.

Lightning struck that pole. An FPL transformer is attached to it, along with Comcast cable lines, and Verizon phone lines.
They will not climb the pole and look.
I can almost guarantee you that the Verizon phone wires got melted or holes blown in them just like last time, but they won't even go look.
That's ignorant if you ask me.
They know what happened and will not even just go check it.
If I run into those same problems, they are going to have bigger problems.

---

January 20, 2008

So, what happened to fixing it today?

Oh, not coming?
When will a line pole tech be coming then?
Tomorrow, sometime between 8am and noon?
That's just fabulous.
I love not having any phone service at all.
It's really awesome.

---

January 20, 2008

Dear Verizon screw-ups,

The problem is not my equipment inside my house.
For the last time, last night at about 7:30pm, lightning struck the pole in the back yard, blew up the power transformer, we were without power for about 8 hours. FPL came and spent 3 hours repairing and replacing the blown up transformer.
Your phone and internet wires are connected to that pole.
Do you honestly think that your wires were spared the lightning?
If I use the internet, I have no phone. I actually have no phone at all, just dead air.
I really think it's ignorant of you to tell me that my equipment is at fault, when I was using my phone and internet last night, when the explosion that lit up the entire neighborhood happened.
It was so loud and so bright, people ran screaming from their homes thinking the neighborhood had been bombed.
Now, get someone over here to fix this ASAP, quit telling me my line tests fine. The problem is at the pole with your copper wiring.
This happened a few years ago, do you remember?
For 4 solid months you told me it was my fault, then you suddenly discovered that the grid had been blown.
Ooops, your bad huh?
I am a very unhappy customer right now.
Pissed is how I would describe it.
See, people have been trying to call here, and they haven't been able to.
They were worried.
I cannot be without the phone for months again while you tell me it's not your problem.
There's a tech of yours here right now, and he says yes, it is your problem. So uh, how about treating your customers with a bit more respect?
That would be far too easy, I know, it's more fun to make our lives miserable with your shitty service and lack of customer service.

---

January 9, 2008

Why does Verizon suck so much?

So my money gets direct deposited around midnight, it actually came in at about 12:20, so I get started paying the monthly household bills.
I go to FPL, no problem.
I go to the Sarasota County water company, no problem.
I go to Verizon, get an internal error, says try back in a few minutes.
I go to Virgin mobile, add some money to my phone, no problem.
I go back to Verizon, it lets me log in, click on pay bill, gives me another error.
I then go to Amazon, buy 2 more headsets for the Xbox.
I go back to Verizon, it's still not loading. God damn, I just want to pay the freaking phone bill!
I go to a few forums, post in a few threads, go looking for 2 male bloggers to do the field study.
I go back to Verizon, still can't get in.
I browse around the web a bit more.
I go back to Verizon, it finally goes to my account, I click on pay the bill, and it has todays date, 01/09/2008.
I click pay the bill.
It boots me back to the pay bill page, and says I cannot make a payment for a future date.
What?
Today IS the 9th right?
I click back to view my bill, click pay my bill, it's now populated with the date 01/08/2008.
I click pay the bill.
It says I cannot make a payment in the past.
What the hell?!
I click view my bill, pay my bill, it still says 01/08/2008, click pay the bill.
It lets me pay the bill this time.
On 01/08/2008, yesterday, in the past, like it said I couldn't do.
Today is the 9th, right?
It took over 2 hours to pay the Verizon bill, but made me pay it in the past, yesterday, after it told me I couldn't pay it today, the 9th, because it was in the future, and it didn't want to let me pay it in the past, yesterday the 8th, but then it let me pay it in the past, yesterday the 8th.

Click for bigger.

I really hate Verizon.

---

December 22, 2007

Almost done with my shopping.

I know, just 3 days to go, and I'm not totally done yet.
I have one more gift to get, I need to go to EB games today and hope they actually have it.
Yeah, I'm one of those wait till the last minute shoppers for something kinda popular amongst teens.

I see some Verizon trucks outside today.
Good!
Maybe they're finally installing the fiber optic cables needed to bring FIOS to my house.
See, when they were laying the cables this past summer, they thought this duplex was a one unit dwelling, and only laid cables for one line.
My house number was totally skipped over, so every time I called about getting FIOS, they couldn't see my house on the street maps they created. I had to convince them that this was a duplex, a two family unit dwelling, not one.
I've been arguing with them for like 7 months now over this issue.
My neighbors who share this duplex, got FIOS, and when the Verizon guy was here installing it, I went out and talked to him.
He looked at his map, and was like "Wow, sorry ma'am. Your house got skipped on the map. I'll have to go to the planners and have to get them to add it. It could take awhile."
Ugh.
I want FIOS dammit!

Don't forget, you have till a little after 2pm to enter my Walmart sucks gift card give-a-way!
You have a really good shot, there's only 27 people in it so far!

---

December 21, 2007

Walmart sucks gift card give-a-way!

As I said in this post, when the green snowman $20 gift card from Walmart arrived, I would be giving it away.
It has arrived!

If you want this gift card and are a US resident, please leave your name and a valid email address in the comments of this post only.
I will accept comments for 24 hours, so at 2:17pm tomorrow, Saturday December 22nd, I will close the comments, put all the names in a bowl and pick one name out to receive this gift card.
If you win, you will need to give me your mailing address.
I promise in accordance with my privacy policy, to not give away or sell your name, email address, or mailing address, to any other person or party.

I meant what I said.
Walmart will never get another penny from me, not even the ones they give me, so this is your chance to snag this $20 gift card if you shop at Walmart.
I despise Walmart for what they put me through, and the way they ruin pretty much any community they move into.
Mom and pop stores go out of business, the employees are paid minimum wage, treated poorly, and the products are made by people in extremely poor countries for slave wages.
I may have shopped there in the past because I don't have much money and needed cheap items, but enough is enough.
I can't ever justify spending more money on a company that treats it's customer and employees so poorly, and sells products made by slave wage labor.
For facts about Walmart's practices, check out Wake up Walmart.

---

December 20, 2007

Walmart confusion.

*I placed the order on 12/12/07, Wednesday, at 10:30am EST, paid for 1 day shipping, should have arrived on 12/14/07.

*On 12/14/07, it did not arrive.

*Carol the supervisor guaranteed me it would arrive on Monday 12/17/07.

*Carol the supervisor, refunds my $36 shipping charges.

*On 12/17/07, Monday, the computer did not arrive.

*On 12/17/07, Carol the supervisor guarantees me it will arrive by Christmas.

*On 12/18/07, Tuesday, they 'lost' my order, had to investigate. No clue on when I would actually get it.

*12/18/07, Walmart corporate guarantees me that someone from their corporate offices would call me in a few days. No one has called.

*On 12/19/07, Wednesday, at 4am, they said they had none in stock, to call and cancel it.

*I called at 6am CT, and canceled it.

*At 7:18am CT, they sent confirmation of my cancellation.

*At 7:25am CT, they sent confirmation that the green snowman gift card that was on it's way.

*At 4pm EST, the UPS guy delivers the canceled computer.

*At 6:01pm EST, Walmart.com sends a confirmation email stating the now canceled order has shipped. Includes a tracking number. It says it has shipped on 12/19/07, will arrive on 12/20/07.

*On 12/20/07 at 4:16am EST, Walmart.com sends a tracking number for the green snowman gift card (that will be given away on this blog) for UPS that says I will get it today.

*On 12/20/07, they finally take the payment from my CC, in the amount of $390.10. The original CC hold was for $421.10, they refunded $31.00 of the $36.00 1 day expedited shipping charges because it never shipped like I paid for.

*On 12/20/07, the Walmart.com order history page, says the now canceled computer will arrive on 12/20/07.

*The UPS website confirms it was delivered on 12/19/07. It states that it was shipped on 12/18/07, at 8:56pm CT, the day before I canceled it because they said they had none in stock.

If I called and canceled it at 6am CT on 12/19/07, and they confirmed it was canceled at 7:18am CT, why did they send a confirmation at 6:01pm EST, stating it had shipped that day?
If they actually shipped it on 12/18/07, how come when I called at 6am CT on 12/19/07 to cancel it, did they not know it had shipped?
Why did they tell me they had none in stock and were not going to ship, here have a gift card, when they had actually shipped it the day before?

Yes, I am very, very happy I got it, thrilled I actually got it at all after all this crap they put me through, but why tell me they didn't have any, let me cancel the order, when they had already shipped it?
They sent the shipping confirmation 2 hours after UPS dropped it off, and said I would get it today.
I don't understand how they could make so many mistakes with this order.
I don't understand why they let me cancel an order that had shipped the day before.
Why didn't they know it had shipped?

The $20.00 green snowman gift card is supposed to arrive today.
I stand by what I said, that I will never shop at a Walmart store or at Walmart.com again.
When the green snowman gift card arrives, I will take a picture of it and post it on this blog.
Anyone who wants it (US residents only, sorry) can post to the comments of that post with a valid email address. They will have 24 hours to post to those comments, after 24 hours, I will close the comments and put all the names in a bowl and draw 1 winner for the card.

---

December 19, 2007

I don't believe it!

So the order got canceled this morning, right?
They said they canceled the order and to make up for my troubles, they were sending me a $20 gift card.
Right?
Well about 30 minutes ago, the UPS guy walks up to my door and hands us this.

Um.
It was overnighted, next day aired to my house.
But at 4am, they said they did not have the item.
At 8am, they canceled the order and said they did not have any but were expecting more on Monday.
Um.
On my order history page, it is canceled.
I have no freaking clue what the hell Walmart.com is doing.
Is it really canceled?
Is my money being refunded still?
Do I call them again and say what the hell are you people doing?
Or do I just let them wallow in their own mistakes?
I'll wait the 24-28 hours for my CC transaction to update, and if it's been refunded to me, I'll call them.
Or maybe I should wait 3-5 business days to notify them. *evil grin*

But it's here, the teens are happy, I'm happy.
Yup, I got them a new computer because theirs was broken, and Pete did send me a tower, but i was unable to get a windows xp installation to work on it, and so I'll strip it for parts. There's some good working parts in it.

Annnnnd, I won one of the ellipticals!!
W00t!
So even though today started out like total crap, it has ended totally freaking awesome!
Yay!
Whoo hoo!
Later days!

---

December 19, 2007

Twenty bucks.

My time and inconvenience for the Walmart.com sucks situation is worth a $20 gift card.

"It will be a green card with a snowman on it ma'am."
Oh really? I am never shopping at any of your stores ever again, I was lied to, my order was 'lost', I spent 4 and a half hours on the phone trying to work out this order, and I'm not getting my item, and you think a green snowman gift card is going to make this all better?
"Ma'am, I can guarantee you the gift card will arrive on Monday, 12/24/07."
Wait, you can guarantee me that a gift card will get here on Monday that you just typed in, but you can't get a product that was ordered a week ago and you're still selling it on your site even though you don't have any, by the same day, Monday?
"No ma'am. We are trying to get more from our supplier, our hands are tied."
But you are still selling them on the site and offering 1 day shipping.
"Yes ma'am, we expect to have more by Monday."
Whatever, just cancel my damn order, clear my funds immediately, so I can attempt to get this somewhere else and pay through the nose for shipping because I will need it rushed now.
"Yes ma'am. The order is canceled, it could take 24 to 48 hours to update."
You are freaking kidding me?!
"No ma'am, it could take that long. But you will have your $20 gift card on Monday. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"
Hell no. I am never buying anything from walmart ever again. I'll give the damn gift card away because $20 isn't worth what I've been through, and I hate your company now.
"Sorry ma'am, is there anything else I can do for you?"
No. *click*

I hate them.
Hate.
HATE.

---

December 19, 2007

Walmart must die.

My really horrible experience with Walmart.com begins here, then here, and as of yesterday, here.
But here's the cliff notes.

On Wednesday December 12th, at 10:30am, I purchased a very expensive item from Walmart.com.
$359.00
The site said the item was in stock, I could pay $36 for 1 day shipping, and my item would arrive on Friday December 14th.
Total paid = $421.10

Fast forward to Friday morning, they sent an email saying they had just processed my order, obviously I wouldn't be getting it that day.
I call customer service, ask what's up.
A supervisor by the name of Carol deducts the $36 because I'm not getting it on the day promised, she tells me I'll get it Monday the 17th.

Monday the 17th arrives, no package, I call customer service again, they tell me they haven't shipped it yet, they will expedite my order, please wait 48 business hours.
Carol condescendingly assures me I will have this in time for Christmas.

Yesterday the 18th. I receive a call from them telling me they have to "investigate" my order, there is no logical reason why it has not been shipped to me.
I ask, is this item in stock?
They assure me it is but can give no estimate of it's arrival.
They tell me someone will call me in 3-5 business days with an update.

I call Walmart corporate, make a complaint, they tell me in a few business days, someone will call me back to discuss the nature of my complaint.
They take my name, phone number, address, and order number.
They promise me I will get a call from someone at corporate.

I call customer service again, ask if I can cancel my order.
They tell me no because it's in process, it will definitely be shipping to me soon.

At 4am this morning, I received this email.
Dear Kat Cooper,

Unfortunately, we have not been able to ship the item(s) shown below yet
and as a consequence, it may not arrive by the original estimated delivery
date.

Well considering my arrival date was December 14th, obviously it's not been delivered.

We apologize for any inconvenience and are working with our suppliers to fill
your order as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to
provide a revised delivery date.

We will continue to make every effort to ship this order; however, if you wish
to cancel this order, please call Customer Service at 1-800-966-6546 and we
will attempt to cancel it before it ships.
If you don't request that we cancel this order and we cannot fulfill it within
10 days, we will presume that you consent to us canceling the order and we will
cancel it at that time. You will be notified of the cancellation.

What do they mean they are working with the suppliers to get this filled?
They told me it was in stock, the website says this item is in stock, and they are still offering customers 1 day shipping.
The last day a customer can order to get it on December 24th is Thursday the 20th at 11:30pm.
But they are telling me in this email, they are working with the supplier to get it filled?
Does that sound to any of you like this item is in stock?

Yesterday, they would not let me cancel the order, they told me it was processing.
My money has been tied to this purchase for an entire week, and now they tell me I can cancel it?
With only a few days left to try and get this somewhere else?
Their website says it's in stock!
They are still selling this item on the website, yet they don't actually have any!

My credit card has had a hold on this money for a whole week, I have no idea how long it's going to take Walmart to actually cancel this and release my funds, and then how long after that, that my credit card will release the funds back to me.
I may possibly get to spend my money by New Years!
This was a Christmas present for the boys that I was going to give them early because they need it now.
Not in 10 business days if Walmart finally gets the supplier to ship more product.
And of course, they cover their butts and say they may not get any more within 10 days, and will just assume I want to cancel at that point.

I can't even call them to cancel this until 6am central time, it's only 5am here now, I have 1 week to try and get this someplace else, and no local stores have it.
I've called, I've checked online, the only other place that has this is an online store based on the west coast, Pacific coast.
I can't call them to verify they really have this until 5am Pacific time.
And that's if Walmart immediately cancels my order, and if my credit card immediately releases the hold.
It will cost me an additional $65 to get it sent by Fedex, next business day priority from this on line store.
If they even really have it.

You have absolutely no idea how livid I am.
Walmart has wasted an entire week of my time, my money, $421.10 of my money, has been held captive for a week, I have made calls to them every single day, spent over 4 and a half hours total, just sitting on hold during the last week, waiting for a rep to pick up.
Every call I made, they assured me the item was in stock.
Their own website says it's in stock.
And at 4am on December 19th, 5 days after I was originally supposed to receive this, they send me an email telling me they are sorry but I won't be getting it because they need to work with the supplier to get more of this item.
At 4am on December 19th, 7 days after I paid for it, they tell me that I can now cancel this order after being told for the last 2 days, that I could not cancel it because it was processing and would be shipping soon.

I am so furious right now.
You have no idea what kind of rage state I am in.
I've been sitting here typing this for about an hour.
I have been making sure I've gotten every detail of this straight by going over my notes I took during each and every phone call.

I may not be able to get the boys their Christmas present that I tried so hard to get.
I saved as much money as I could, I put my own Christmas present money and my earnings, and the money from Aunt Heather, together to do this, and now I may not be able to do it at all.
I am so upset right now.
I tried so hard to do this.
I was finally able to get them this really great gift for Christmas, and Walmart screwed me the hell over for an entire week!

Do you think Walmart is going to care how much of my time they have wasted?
Do you think they will care that my money has been held hostage by them for a whole week?
I don't think they will care at all.
I don't think they ever did care.
They held onto my money as long as they could because that's all they cared about.
They lied to me repeatedly, told me I would definitely have it by Christmas, it was shipping soon, wouldn't let me cancel it, assured me repeatedly this item was in stock and I would definitely be getting it.

Walmart will NEVER get another penny of my money ever again.
I will NEVER shop at any of their brick and mortar stores again.
I will NEVER shop at Walmart.com ever again.

---

December 18, 2007

Hate Walmart.com. Hate. Kill. Destroy.

Gonna kill somebody.

Walmart.com just called me, and they are "investigating" why my order has not been processed.
There is no hold, the CC has been authorized, there is no reason that they can see why my order is still sitting at pending.
Someone will call me in 3-5 business days with an update.

WTF!?!?!

3-5 business days with an update?!
OMG!
I'm so fucking pissed!

---

December 17, 2007

Fuck Walmart.com

Just thought I'd update you all on the ordering and shipping fiasco from this post I made on Friday.

The supervisor, Carol, told me it had shipped, I would receive it today.
She reversed the $36, 1 day shipping charges because obviously, it didn't ship in 1 day like it was supposed to, but yes ma'am, you will get it on Monday.
I want to show you all something.
Check this shit out. Click for bigger.

I blacked out what I bought because the teens read my blog, but do you see what it says?!
It says I should have received this between Thursday 12/13/07 and Friday 12/14/07, but oh, look over to the right hand side.
What does that say?
It says it's still processing!!!!

So, I called them back again today after checking my CC transactions, which says this is still pending, and spoke to some cranky ass bitch who yelled at me that I would get it in time for Christmas.
Hello?
That's not the point! I paid for it to arrive on a certain day, it wasn't going to, and they promised me it would arrive today, and it's not.
So where the fuck is it?!

So Carol, the supervisor, said that my orde