Right now, it’s 95° with a relative humidity level of 56%…for a temperature that feels like 111°. I dare you to top that!
Category Archives: Rants & Gripes
This was SO not a good morning.
Yes, I cheated on my diet for three days, but it was a vacation weekend you know? But how the $%*@ did I gain 14# in one week? That is insane. I know my weight fluctuates anyway, but there is no way in hell I gained 14#. I have never ever gained 14# in one week IN MY LIFE.
And Tom? He took Maggie in for a vet appointment at 7:15 this morning. Except that, oh, they meant 7:15 *PM* and never once #%$&@# mentioned that fact. How the hell were we supposed to know they were open this one day until 8pm? That’s not their normal schedule, ever, and 7:15am made a lot more sense than 7:15pm. So Tom waited, in the parking lot, from 7am-8am until they got there, only to have their attitude be “Oh.” No apology or anything.
GRRRRRRRRR!
CRAP! I wasn’t hungry before leaving the house so I made an egg salad sandwich to take to work to eat whenever I did get hungry. So I also packed my lunch and a snack and…I get to work to put the stuff in the refrigerator and…I FORGOT THE SANDWICH.
CRAP!
So not only am I going to have to eat almonds and swiss cheese (my snack) for breakfast, I have a perfectly good egg salad sandwich (the best batch I’ve ever made, too!) sitting at home on the counter—which of course I’ll have to throw away when I get home tonight.
This is what I get for not eating before I leave the house.
What is wrong with people?
I am so tired of people calling the office and whoever they want is busy or on the other line, so I ask them if they would like to hold or go to voicemail and they say no to voicemail but then expect me to take a message. Um, hello, THAT’S WHY WE HAVE VOICEMAIL.
The Evil of Maggie
This is what she does to all her toys—completely chews out the eyes and nose. We have to watch closely, because she will chew up the little pieces and end up swallowing them…plus, once she chews off the plastic bits, she will start pulling at the stuffing. This is the third dead monkey in six months.
This is what she did when we left her on her own all day—before we crated her full time. We would push her crate up against the guest bathroom so she could piddle or poo in there (and not in her crate). Well, she LOVES being in the tub, so over the course of a few days, she ruined everything in there. Of course, we didn’t notice it all at once because she hid things (her brush) and the curtain was closed.
You will notice:
- Her toenail scrub brush. It’s made of wood and was originally about 4″ long. Now it’s 2″ long and it looks like a beaver got it (note the pointy end).
- The cap to her special $12 oatmeal shampoo. Of course, about 90% of the bottle went down the drain.
- Her detachable shower head. She plain chewed it right in half.
Stupid drivers make me want to SCREAM!
I know there are always stupid drivers around doing insanely stupid or irritating thigns, but tonight, there just seemed to be an overabundance during our short trip to town. Here are the offenders, in order.
- We were on our way to town when we hit a traffic backup. On this road, pretty much the only thing it can be is an accident. Well, it was an accident, but boy was it AN ACCIDENT. Before we even got to scene, we could see the telephone pole at about a 45 degree angle! We knew then it was pretty serious. Still, imagine the surprise at seeing a car FLIPPED UPSIDE DOWN in front of the pole. We cannot even begin to fathom how that happened. This road is 45mph, with most people doing 55mph or so. But to flip a car? And we only saw one car, so it wasn’t a two-car accident (which would seem the more likely action to cause a full flip). So, stupid driver #1.
- So a little farther up the road, a car screams out and cuts across two lanes, fully cutting two cars off and causing them to slam on their brakes. Then said car speeds way up (maybe 65mph) and then slows way down. I don’t get people.
- Now we’re waiting at a stoplight and we’re the first in line. We’re just watching the traffic pass in front of us when this idiot—coming towards us in the right turn lane—speeds up to swerve around a car (who was in the correct lane) to cut back into traffic. Had our nose been out any farther, we probably would have gotten clipped by this idiot.
- Then we end up behind an S-10 [small truck] with five—count ’em, FIVE!—small children in it (two in the front seat and three on the back seat)—all of whom should have been in car seats! We also thought we saw the driver on the phone, but we can’t be 100% sure about that.
- Later, heading home, and it’s now dark. We’re in the right-turn-only lane and this guy exiting the gas station has his nose poked WAY out into traffic (onbviously blocking traffic) so someone stops to let him out, assuming he would be turning into the flow of traffic. But no, instead of turning right and going with traffic, he guns it (tires squealing), into the oncoming traffic lane (yes, going against traffic the wrong way in the wrong lane), and proceeds to cut across two more lanes to go the opposite direction. He cut it SO close and came SO close to us that I think Tom could have reached out and touched his car. (Now, this is someone who deserves to be in a serious accident.)
- So we just barely recover from that asshat and are talking about how much we hate hate HATE stupid drivers when some asshole in front of us decides to turn left—across two lanes—at the last minute and cuts us off. Thank goodness for antilock brakes or we would have rear-ended him (without a doubt). He got a good solid minute of horn blasting at him. Do people not ever look at the traffic surrounding them?
- About 1/4 mile down the road, still fuming at the asshole who almost caused us an accident…someone behind us realizes—again, at the last minute—that the lane he’s in is an exit, so he swerves back over into our lane and almost rear-ends us (god forbid he step on his brakes).
- Taking the highway home, we ran across not one but two trailers on the highway that had NO lights on them and were so big you could not even see the truck pulling them. It’s never safe to pull a trailer without lights, but even more so when it’s dark. I swear, where are the cops when you need them?
It’s the principle.
So gas here has been $2.75 for quite some time. Yesterday I finally decide to fill up, since 1) my light came on and 2) I assumed gas would go up for the holiday weekend. And of course today it’s $2.72.
I know it’s only a matter of 45¢ for my fill-up, but it’s the principle.
Whoa! That’s expensive bread!
So Tom and I went out for lunch to Duck’s, a great restaurant/bar that has the BEST crab dip appetizer. Except that you never get enough toasted garlic bread to eat all the dip (unless you pile it high on each piece—which wouldn’t be a bad thing—but you can make it last longer with more bread). It comes with five SMALL pieces (think french bread loaf, cut in about 1/2″ slices). So, in the past, we’ve asked for more bread and they bring us out more (to be honest, I can’t remember how many slices, but we were thinking another five).
So today, we ask for more bread and the waitress says “It will be 50¢, is that okay?” Well, no, it’s really not okay to charge me for a few more pieces of stinkin’ bread, but I guess it’s only 50¢ so no big deal, whatever. So she brings us the bread…and it’s THREE stupid pieces.
Three pieces.
For 50¢.
:crazy:
Raising Temperatures
Short Version
We fight over the temperature at the office. All the time.
Long Version
I think 72-74 is perfectly acceptable, but honestly, most times 72 seems too cold and I’m sitting there shivering because I’m so cold—and I can’t type because my fingers are too cold. But I swear, John would keep it at 68 if we’d let him. What gets me is that he and Sue are often out of the office for HOURS at a time, so why should we keep the office freezing the whole time they’re gone? So I usually end up turning it up a few degrees. And then John comes back and about 10-15 minutes later, he yells out “Why is it so damn hot in here?” Of course, the rest of us are comfortable.
So today, he left about 9:30 and about 10 or so, I bumped the thermostat up to 74. And it was still a little chilly, but tolerable. And the three of us in the office (the only ones all day!) were actually comfortable for one. I warned them to watch—when John got back into the office, he’d pitch a fit about it being soooooo hot.
Fast forward to him returning to the office about 4:00. By 4:15, he was yelling from the office: “What happened? Why is it hotter than blazes in here?” Hotter than blazes? Really? Maybe if it was 90+ outside and we had no A/C at all… So then he stomps out to the thermostat, sees it on 76 and totally blows his lid:
THIS THERMOSTAT SHOULD NEVER GO ABOVE 72. ESPECIALLY WHEN WE HAVE CLIENTS IN THE OFFICE. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!
Okay, calm down. You haven’t been in the office ALL day and the three of us who WERE here were freezing…so we turned it up. And there were no clients (we’d turn it back down if there were). We tell him this, and he “just can’t believe it.” Whatever. Like we’re lying about being freezing cold? (Sometimes it’s just chilly, but most times it’s really cold.)
So he and I went around and around and around with this—like we do each and every time he leaves and we’re freezing and we turn the thermostat up a few degrees and he comes back and it’s not an artic blast when he walks in the door.
It’s frustrating to say the least.
Edited a few weeks later to add: We now set the thermostat to 72 consistently. Why? We all have heaters at our desks. 😐
SPECIAL: Frog Legs Basil
We decided to eat Thai tonight, and I was really looking forward to one of my two favorite dishes—Basil Fried Rice (do you really think I can remember the Thai name?) or Pad Thai. Except that the special was Frog Legs Basil.
FROG LEGS BASIL.
I haven’t had frog legs in, oh, probably 20 years (I vaguely recall having them one night at Trombley’s when I was quite young, but I can’t remember the exact circumstances), and I LOVE basil, so I thought “Hell, why not?”
NEVER AGAIN.
It was good, but it was such a pain in the ass to eat! There were probably 10 frog legs (amidst the basil, onions, and peppers), and the meat just fell off the bones—but then again, the bones were so small they totally fell apart and I was constantly picking frog bones out of my mouth. Not exactly appealing. Or easy to eat. Or edible with a fork. And it didn’t taste any different than chicken.
Next time? Basil Fried Rice or Pad Thai, thankyouverymuch.
I need to learn how to cut my own bangs.
So I went to my stylist today to get my bangs professionally cut… I can attempt a hack job myself, but it’s just that—a hack job. It gets them shorter, but it doesn’t necessarily look the best. And since we’re heading to a wedding this weekend, I figured I needed them looking better than if I tried cutting them.
But what a freakin’ racket!
For approximately 45 seconds worth of work (maybe two minutes if you count her walking to the back to get a cape, putting the cape on, cutting, taking the cape off, walking me to the front, writing up the bill, and saying thank you and goodbye) it cost me…are you ready???
$10!!
It used to be $5, which is why I didn’t really have a problem with it. I mean, an entire haircut and style with her is $25…but cutting my bangs in under a minute is $10?
Grrrrrrrrr.
Garage Sales, Part 1 & 2
Garage Sale, Part 1 – April 29, 2006
We had gotten a mailer regarding a community garage sale about two months beforehand, and we were thrilled to take part. We knew our community had a big sale every year, so we wanted to get in on it. Yes, I hate garage sales. If you remember some of the stories from our last garage sale (the best? the woman who wanted a set of towels, but only offered me $1 because they didn’t match her bathroom) you will know that I do not like to haggle. That said, I priced to get rid of stuff—and to haggle. The sale didn’t officially start until 7, but of course, people were out at 6. Things we expected to sell immediately never sold and crap we thought we’d be stuck with sold right away, proving you just never know what people will want.
So people are coming and going and someone says “So, did you know the official community sale is next weekend? It’s always the first Saturday in May.”
What?
Yes, folks. Someone else decided they wanted to have another garage sale, so they got in cahoots with a realtor (who paid for all the advertising, postcards, etc.) to set it up. And it happened to be the weekend before the official sale! We were ticked. I mean, we didn’t want to do this twice! Not that we’d HAVE to do it the following weekend, but from what we heard, it was a BIG sale with HUNDREDS of people attending.
Lovely.
Well, we did pretty well selling stuff (almost $300) but there were some things we didn’t sell that we really wanted to—plus we had forgotten to put out a few things—so we decided to put out a few things the following weekend…or, today.
Garage Sale, Part 2 – May 6, 2006
This time the sale didn’t officially start until 8am, but Tom had duty, so if I wanted him to help me set up, I had to be done by 7…so I was out there at 7. And let’s just say that it was a total waste of time—I never did see the HUNDREDS of people that we were told would be there. I did hear talk of how crowded the front of the subdivision was (the main street) but there didn’t seem to be too much interest on our street. Go figure. Anyway, I made a whopping $9 in the five hours I was out there. Three people came by and were interested in the couch we had for sale—and one guy even said “I have to have it—I just need to go get the cash and I will be right back!” but he never came back and we never sold it.
So come noontime, I had to haul all the crap back into the garage (minus the three small things I sold). And in doing so, I busted the corner off the big mirror we were trying to sell (now Tom has to make a frame for it, and we’ll probably hang it somewhere). And I was cranky, since it was hotter than blazes sitting out there in the sun, plus I’d been up since 5:30 with Tom. PLUS, my ankle started hurting badly, as I tripped coming down the stairs this morning (carrying that huge mirror) and I twisted my ankle. It was okay for awhile but it KILLS now.
Once again this year I say “This will be our last garage sale—ever.” But you and I both know that come next year, we’ll be doing this again.
Stay tuned.
Workplace Pros & Cons
So if you’ve been reading along, you know that my boss finally went out on her own. It was a move that really needed to be made—and for the most part, it’s been good for me, as well. But there have been some trade offs…some of which I am none too happy about.
PROS
- The office atmosphere is much better. (We are away from the annoying/loud chatter of agents and the drama of a 25-person office.)
- I got a nice raise (although I still don’t get paid nearly what I’m worth for what I do around here!).
- I have a window.
CONS
- I am now the receptionist. (They told me we would be hiring someone for the job, then it turned into we would be hiring a property management person who would sit up front, and now I’ve been told I will be the receptionist until further notice. Unless something major changes, I also anticipate that this means I will have to do property management tasks like accepting rent, because I am the only one at the front where people walk in.)
- I lost my desk. (At the old office, I had recently gotten a new desk that I picked out. Over here, it didn’t fit at the front desk so it’s at the back—where I was going to move as soon as we got a receptionist. Except now it’s going to be the new girl’s desk. So I have a desk that I hate and is not very user-friendly.)
- We are next door to Curves—which means all day long we hear the THUMP THUMP THUMP of their exercise music. (I try not to let it bother me, because if I let it, I would be insane every day…but sometimes it DOES get to you.)
- I can no longer go to lunch with the bosses—we cannot close/lock the doors for any reason and someone always has to be here to answer the phone. (While I understand it from a business perspective, it’s not like we have a steady stream of traffic through here. If someone has to drop something off, there’s a drop box. If someone has to get in touch with you, they can call your cell like they always do. If someone calls, they can leave a message. If someone stops by, I am sure they will be understanding that you are taking an hour lunch break. And it’s not like we went out all the time—but it was a nice treat to lunch together every so often.)
- If you’ve been reading along, you will also know that I rarely get to take an actual lunch break. (Since there is no one to officially cover me, I end up eating at my desk and generally end up taking phone calls and/or working.)
And once again…
So it’s 12:45 and I’m eating lunch at my desk because no one is here. They were gone from probably 10:30-12:00, popped in for 45 minutes to eat lunch and quick do a few things, then left again. Of course, I was busy the entire time doing stuff for them since they were only here a short time. So, seriously, how do they expect me to take a “real” lunch if no one is here????
Yet another work annoyance.
Long story short, I am going to be stuck as receptionist until further notice. Bah humbug.
All along they’ve said “We’re going to hire a front desk person!!” And then it turned into “We’re going to hire a property management person who will also be the front desk person!!” But today I found out it has turned into “Well, the property management person isn’t going to be in the office all the time, and we still can’t afford to hire a front-desk-only person…” So I’m stuck here. As a receptionist PLUS all my other duties.
Logically I can understand, but emotionally I’m pissed off. They knew I didn’t want to be a receptionist, they told me I wouldn’t have to be the receptionist, and now they’re changing their minds and I have to continue to be a receptionist.
GRRRRRRRRRRR.
Why I rarely get to take an official lunch break.
So, long story short, I have been told that I don’t need to eat lunch at my desk (not that I can’t, but I don’t need to) and that I should feel free to go to the break room (or whatever) and take my half hour and they will answer the phones (so I don’t have to). Okay, fine. Oh, they’ve also told me that it should be no problem to take my lunch when others are in the office (so they can answer the phones, etc.).
Okay, it sounds logical. But the very FIRST day they told me this, everyone was out of the office from 10:30 to 3:30. So, apparently I need to eat lunch at 10 or 4. (I don’t think so.) And honestly, about half the time, they’re out of the office during normal lunch hours, so I sit and eat at my desk.
So the first day I actually try to take my lunch, I am not back there for more than a minute when the phone rings. It was answered, but guess what? It’s for me, so they yell to me to take Line 1. As I’m walking up to get the phone I say “This is why I eat at my desk!” John says “I can put it in your voicemail. Do you want me to do that?” Well, what’s the point, considering I’m already up here?
So the next day we were really VERY busy so I was eating and working at my desk. And they knew that. So the phone rings and… no one answers the phone because they’re apparently waiting for me to answer it because I’m sitting here. Grrrr.
So today I leave my desk and am eating lunch in the break room. The phone rings, someone answers it, and… yep, it’s for me. So I have to go up to my desk to answer it and deal with it. WHAT HAPPENED TO ME TAKING A REAL LUNCH BREAK?
I think they might get an earful if I hear one more word about not eating at my desk…
I hate buying airline tickets!
So Tom and I just tried to buy plane tickets to a friend’s wedding in Louisville for next month. (We had thought about driving, but it would have been like 11 hours one way and we just didn’t feel like attempting 22 hours in a short weekend.)
So we go to trusty old Orbitz and there are two flights (out of Raleigh) for $160 each (the only two cheap flights). We attempt to purchase the best one (time-wise) and… “Sorry, there is a problem with one of the flights you selected.” So meanwhile, Tom is on his computer at Travelocity and he sees more flights so we try one of those and…after filling in all the information…nope, sorry, that flight isn’t available!! So back to my computer and Orbitz, where I am finally able to get a flight. It’s not the times we wanted, but at least it was still the cheapest flight. (Just an FYI, to leave from Jacksonville, tickets were about $500 each.)
So it took us over an hour to book two stupid flights. And it should have taken five minutes.
GRRRRR.
So guess where we have a layover? Detroit. DETROIT! To fly 700 as-the-crow-flies-West miles, we have to fly about 700 crow miles to Detroit and then another 700 crow miles to Louisville. It’s such a pain living in a city with no real airport.
I hate our neighbor’s dogs!
Not our next-door neighbor’s dog, but the people who moved in across our back yard.
First, they put up a huge fence around their whole yard to house their two dogs. And when I say “house their dogs” I mean 24/7. Those poor dogs are always out there—they never seem to be let in the house and we never see anyone out playing with them or giving them any attention. We’re TOTALLY not that type of person—we just cannot understand why someone would want dogs if they’re never going to be with them.
Anyway, second, they bark. A lot. All the time, but especially in the mornings. It’s really annoying when I’m trying to get the last few possible minutes of sleep but they’re barking and barking and barking and barking. HELLO? People? Do you not hear your dogs barking? Do something about it! (Yes, they’re home—we can see their cars.)
Third, whenever we take Maggie out to do her business and she hears them barking, she loses all train of thought and wants to get as close as possible to them. So we end up wandering around the yard while she sniffs and listens…and she totally forgets about peeing or pooping.
Grrrrrrrrrr.
Infectious Tonsillitis
Well, after a (re)visit to the doc this morning because I still didn’t feel ANY better, they told me it wasn’t strep after all, but was infectious tonsillitis! I got an antibiotic shot to help boost my immune system against the infection (or something like that), additional pills (prednisone) to hopefully alleviate the swelling…plus they did bloodwork to test for mono (just in case) and scheduled a checkup in a week.
I haven’t been sick in years…and now I’ve been super sick twice in three months. This is SO not fun.
Damn Orange Barrels
This morning I decided to go to work a half hour early, so imagine my irritation when traffic was backed up quite badly. I thought maybe that’s just what the traffic was like at that time (since I usually go through there 20 minutes later) but no, there was supposedly construction going on. I say supposedly because there were tons of orange barrels (orange barrels, orange barrels, everywhere I see, orange barrels, orange barrels, looking back at me) and no workers! Not one truck! Not one person! They just had two left-turn lanes moved down to one—and at this intersection, that’s a BAAAAAAAAAD thing. If there had been actual construction going on I would have no problem—but not having any actual construction gets me steamed.
Are they serious?
Some names from the Camp LeJeune Naval Hospital Birth Announcements that scare me:
Izaak Maximus (not too bad, but I’m starting slow)
Zowie Alxandria
Skylar Saleen
Azalynn Elaine
Triniti J’Nae
Ja’Cari Maleek
Que’Anna Claryce
And saving the best for last…..
Chyler Luisa-Fuifui (last tame Teo)
Compromising Situation
I hate it when you get an email from a company saying “We’re sorry, but your credit card information may have been compromised.” I know it happens, but we’ve both been pretty lucky so far—if having only two occurrences of fraudulent charges is lucky (one on my account and one on Tom’s). This time it was CooksIllustrated.com—long story short, they can’t guarantee our information was taken, but it might have been copied (or something like that). So I called to place a fraud alert on my credit report and cancelled the credit card. North Carolina apparently offers a security freeze for such situations, except you have to either file a police report (to get the freeze for free) or pay $10 per bureau. I’ll decide on that after I sleep on it. I can’t imagine I’d really NEED it for one compromised credit card—but I guess it’s nice to know the option is there.
I’ve been banned!
So, I’ve been temporarily banned from one of the online forums I visit regularly. Why? What could I have possibly done to get me banned for two weeks? Apparently, my only real faults were A) not being able to read the atmosphere of the board and the minds of the moderators and B) not clearly thinking through my choice of words. Translation? I posted what I thought was an innocent question, asking other people what they thought of hard news posts being posted as frequently as they were. Discussion ensued. The moderators thought I was picking on the forum member who posts these news stories. They called my post a “thinly veiled threat” against him. Huh? A thinly veiled threat? I still don’t get how it was a threat to him, but you never know with moderators. (And don’t even think about questioning a moderator because chances are that will get you banned right on the spot.) So I was banned for three days.
But the rub to all this is I also post on another board and apparently there are spies over there who like to tattle on people. So a lighthearted comment that I made over there was tattled back to the moderator of the first board, who then used what I said (or, rather, what was tattled) to determine my fate on the original board. Pure BS, but it gets worse (if you can imagine): I told Tom how I had been banned and he wanted to see the post that caused it. Well, him logging in on the same IP [as the one I was banned under] immediately got him banned for two days. Grrrr. So at the end of our time, I checked his account by logging in and his account was fine. I logged out as him and logged in as me and….I had 13 days!! What? Oh, they said I was once again “trying to get around the ban” and using my husband’s account. Um, no I wasn’t. But they don’t care to hear the story (well, they listened, but disagreed with me).
So, I was unfairly sentenced to begin with which led to further sentencing that was also unfair. In the mix, Tom has been permanently banned for life and I am on strike two.
It’s all so juvenile (the tattling) and heavy-handed (everyone is automatically guilty) it’s amazing. And it really ticks me off and gets my blood boiling…because there’s nothing worse than being innocent and no one believes you (or refuses to believe you) no matter what you say.
(Of course, there’s more to the story, but that’s the gist of it all.)
Pink grout, anyone?
So tonight Tom goes downstairs to get something and I hear “SONOFABITCH!” Then a moment later: “I’m going to need some help down here…” I can’t for the life of me imagine what it might be…and then I rounded the corner and saw it.
OH.
MY.
GOD.
Red nail polish (actually, OPI’s “I’m Not Really A Waitress” if you must know) and broken glass splattered ALL over the kitchen tile floor! Damn giblets had apparently been up on the island and knocked it off. Yes, I know it was my fault for leaving it there, but damn if it hasn’t been there for a week beforehand with no issues. I hope they were all scared shitless when it happened! That said, thankfully no one had traipsed through it, so we didn’t have to worry about cleaning kitty feet (the dog was with us), the rest of the kitchen, or the carpet.
Anyway, I know nail polish remover probably wasn’t the best thing for the finish on the tiles, but what else can you do when you’re in a major hurry to get it cleaned up (it was already half dry)? I also had to call a neighbor to borrow some because I only had a half bottle. So we started scrubbing and of course the polish came off the tiles beautifully, but the grout is forever stained.
I’m guessing we have to bleach the grout, but we’re going to have to research exactly the best way to do this. If it was just a little spot, I would try using a Clorox bleach pen, but there’s probably (conservatively) ten full inches of 1/4″ grout that needs bleaching. (Dad? Help!)
Of course, we had recently been talking about bleaching the grout anyway (because it should have been sealed by the builder, but of course it wasn’t) as there had been some miscellaneous kitchen spills we wanted to take care of. Then we were going to use Rejuvenate (seen on QVC and infomercials) to protect the floor. So, the timeline for this project has just moved up a little…
I know, I know…the animals are slowly but surely preparing us for the joys of parenthood. 🙂
Computer Tragedies
So, about a month ago, Tom’s hard drive went kaput. No reason, just suddenly there was no information on it. So he lost almost 200GB of stuff. We bought a new hard drive and off he goes.
About a week ago, his computer flat out dies. He managed to resurrect it, only to discover that he has a bad motherboard (or videocard or something like that) and for now, it can run, but only in safe mode. We have added a new hard drive.
But get ready for the absolute WORST. My computer.
Last week, after dealing with his information loss, we decided to buy an external 300GB one-touch backup system for my computer. So the drive arrives and Tom installs the software. And my computer pretty much DIED.
Basically, the computer was not responding—you’d click on something to open it (i.e. Start) and nothing would happen…and a few minutes later, it would open. Hmmm. We tried uninstalling and it didn’t help. We tried reinstalling to uninstall and it didn’t help (and each of these attempts takes upward of a half hour, since everything is so sluggish). Safe Mode didn’t even help.
Maxtor support informed us that their software has conflicts installing on XP systems with the .NET framework. DO YOU THINK THEY MIGHT HAVE MADE A NOTE OF THIS SOMEWHERE???
Long story short, somwhow during the installation, the Maxtor program RENAMED my document directory (a separate hard drive) from D: My Files to D: Local Disk. When we tried to access the drive (to change the name back) …surprise! No data! A totally empty drive! Ready to be formatted!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
- I have lost every digital picture I have taken over the past five years (minus what few I have made into a DVD slideshow).
- I have lost tons of TV shows and movies.
- I have lost probably 100GB of music.
- I have lost the remaining Christmas gift calendars (feel lucky if you already got yours).
- I have lost my annual Christmas letter (which was to be printed and mailed out this weekend). I am NOT in the mood to recreate it, so I don’t think there will be one this year.
- I have lost who knows what else—as you know, my LIFE was on this computer.
Ironic, isn’t it, that in trying to install a backup system I erased everything I wanted to back up?
We downloaded some data recovery software last night and are in the process of trying to recoup anything. Of course, the process isn’t going smoothly—the first part should have been done by the time we got up, but it had stuck at 2%…Not Responding. GRRRR. The best case solution would have us extract the drive and hook it up to Tom’s working system in order to do the data recovery…but oh yes, remember his computer is on the fritz?!?
And to top it all off, Tom called Maxtor to see what they had to say/if they could do anything… and they had the #%^$ GALL to tell us that their software didn’t cause the data to be erased…reinstalling Windows did. Um, sorry, but I have to call bullshit on that one—the data was LONG GONE before we tried reinstalling Windows (which they apparently didn’t remember they TOLD us to do because their software failed).
At this point, I think I am still numb.
Wells Fargo….UGH!
So I get an email tonight saying our mortgage payment was not able to be processed and to call this 800 number. I logon to our online account and it says REJECTED. There is no reason for the payment to have been rejected, as there is plenty of money in the account and this is not the first time I scheduled an online payment (so I know all the routing numbers, etc., are correct).
So I call the 800 number and that’s where the fun begins. I input our loan number and the last four of my social. “I’m sorry, we cannot locate your account…” Okay, so I try again and use Tom’s social. That works. Great. So I go through the security spiel (loan number, social, name, address, phone) and say my payment was rejected—what’s up with that? He says “As far as I can tell, the payment has been made” and he sees no mention of any rejection (even when I give him a reference number). “Oh, you scheduled the payment online? I can’t help you with that, you’ll have to talk to the online support, here’s their number but let me transfer you.” Fine. Transferring…and….”We cannot take your call at this time. Thank you.” *click*
You have GOT to be kidding me.
So I call the 800 number he gave me for online support and pressed whatever number and I go through the whole security spiel again and my whole rejection spiel and…”Oh, you did it online? I don’t have access to that information, let me connect you.” WAIT, I say, I just went through this with another rep and I called the 800 number he gave me—and I got you! She’s sorry, yada yada yada, I have no information, let me transfer you. UGH, fine. Transferring…and…”We cannot take your call at this time. Thank you.” *click*
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!
So I’m steaming mad by this time and go bitch to Tom. I decide to give it another go and come back and try once more. This time I wait until I get an operator (listening through the entire Spanish menu) and he’s what I need. Oh, so apparently I was wrong when I originally pressed one for “If you have a question with your mortgage.” I go through my security spiel and rejection spiel and…???? He said the payment had been applied, but he did see the rejection note but didn’t have any idea why it was there. Lovely. He said I should wait until Thursday, in case it took a few days to actually post (and their system just says accepted because they’re expecting it). But he couldn’t explain why the system was telling me rejected if it was accepted. ARGH!!!!!! So now I have to watch my bank statement like a hawk to see if the payment gets taken out, I have to call the bank to see if they have any notice of a payment being attemped (and if so, why it was rejected), and I have to worry about it for the next two days.
This is not my first beef with Wells Fargo. It’s a nightmare every time I have to call them for something and I’m always talking to the wrong person. I asked the original rep if he could fix it so that I could use MY SS# to access the account via phone and he said “Hmmm, I’m not sure why you can’t…your number is on the account. Maybe it only takes the primary SSN?” YOU ARE A CUSTOMER SERVICE REP AND YOU DON’T KNOW THIS SIMPLE ANSWER? I ask each time I call and no one has a clue.
Oh, and earlier this week we got a letter from them saying they tried to pay our annual taxes but they had already been paid (so they couldn’t pay them) so could we please look into it and get back to them and send them a copy of the paid statement. Okay… long story short, the taxes were paid through closing and you’d THINK the mortgage company would KNOW that, right? Ugh.
This sucks because I just stepped out of a nice hot shower and was all relaxed and ready to go to bed all nice and calm and now I’m all riled up and have a splitting headache.
Dishwasher Finale
Well, the woman finally called and said “Would it be okay if I dropped a check by your office?” Oh boy. I was REALLY tempted to tell her no, it had to be cash or a money order…but didn’t feel up to the fight, so I said fine. She dropped it off and it was a local bank, so I figured I would stop by Friday and cash it, so I knew it was good. Unfortunately the bank wasn’t where I thought it was and by the time I figured it out, I was too far away from where it really was. So…I just deposited it in my own bank and figured if it bounced, I knew where I could find her! The guys she called to come pick it up came this morning and were surprised when they found out they didn’t have to uninstall it! WHAT? you say. Yes, they thought they were going to have to take the dishwasher from our kitchen. It scares me that this woman is a real estate agent—she apparently is QUITE stupid or CANNOT communicate effectively.
But I have $200 and the dishwasher is gone. YAHOO!
Dishwasher Saga
So you know we have our old dishwasher to sell. Since I work in a real estate office, I put a homemade ad up on the bulletin board. So an agent from our office calls me at home one night and asks if the dishwasher is still available. I say yes. She says she is working with someone who needs to replace a dishwasher. (I think, from what I remember, that she is referring to the LISTING agent and not her actual client.) She gives me the person’s phone number.
I call her and she is about clueless—or just has no phone etiquette. I left her a message, so when she called back, the conversation went like this:
ME: This is Jennifer, how can I help you?
HER: This is Betty.
I wait for more helpful information and search my brain for her name. And I wait… Finally, after a good 10 seconds when she still hasn’t said anything, I say:
ME: Oh, you wanted my dishwasher.
—Looooooong pause.—
ME (again): I was wondering when you wanted to set up a time to see it or pick it up?
HER: Well it’s not for me.
At this point I realize this is not going to be easy. So, to make this long story short, this dimbulb wanted to know if we could deliver and/or install it. Um, NO. Who do you think you’re buying this from? So she said she’d have to call me back after she found out who was going to pick it up. Okay, fine.
So the next call is even worse. She tells me that ABC company is going to handle the pickup and installation, when are we available? I say after 5 and this weekend. “Oh,” she says, “they don’t work after 5 or on the weekend. Can we pick it up during the day?” Um, hello? I work during the day. And I told her as much. She says—are you ready?—do you have a garage that you could leave it in, and we could just come pick it up? So not only did she want me to take time off work to be home so they could pick up the dishwasher, but now she wants me to leave my garage open instead? I told her that was NOT an option. And she seemed genuinely surprised. So she revisits the idea of picking it up during the day, and I reassure her that is NOT an option—that my husband and I both work. So now she’s got to call back again once she gets more information.
So she calls back and says GOOD NEWS—the company can pick it up on the weekend if that would be better. Okay, fine, Saturday. Then she says “I don’t have to call you again to let you know what time they’ll be there, do I?” Oh, for pete’s sake, I guess not. (I hate to think of the trauma that extra task would have caused her.) So then she’s saying goodbye and starting to hang up and I ask “Is ABC company going to pay for the dishwasher?” WHAT? HUH? You could tell I really surprised her. She said “They are just going to pick it up and install it.” I told her it really had to be paid for. She said “We were just going to pay for it out of the HUD!” Um, NO. I don’t know you, I’m not directly involved with the closing, I know no parties involved…just NO. (I know how HUDS work and I’m sure I would get paid, but not when I’m not involved.) I told her that we weren’t a business—we were just some people selling a dishwasher and we needed payment if someone was going to leave our house with the dishwasher. She was still genuinely taken aback at this thought. She was all stammering about “Well, they were counting on paying for this out of the closing… I guess I can call and see if they have the money…” Um, YES. I told her that would be appreciated.
I can’t wait to see what the next call brings…
Stupid Cashier Story
So we went to Petsmart. We had a coupon for
ONE FREE BAG
(emphasis not added to enhance the stupidity of what happened, but to show how big the words actually were on the coupon—so, yeah, I guess to also enhance the stupidity of the clerk) of Brand X cat food. As I’m sure you’ve seen on these types of coupons, there was an empty box for the actual product value to be hand-written in. There was no limit on the value, but we were limited to a 4# bag.
So we get to the cashier and she rings up our first item then rings up the cat food. I hand her the coupon and she looks at it and scans it. I can see her register screen and it is asking her to enter the amount of the coupon. And she’s looking at it. And looking at it. I’m wondering what the problem is. It appears she is confused—but maybe, I think, she is looking for a max value in the small print so, fine. So what does she do? Cancel the coupon and scan the coupon again. Funny, the same thing pops up again—enter amount. She cancels it again and scans it again. Lather, rinse, repeat x 4. By this point, I am ready to explain what needs to happen, but on the flip side, I want to see just how long it takes her to actually figure it out (there was no one behind us).
So she finally does it one last time and quickly enters .01 (I kid you not), slides the coupon in the drawer, and gives me my total. I say “That coupon was for a free bag of food.” She says “Oh, was it?” OH WAS IT? Well, now she has to call the manager over to open her drawer to get the coupon out to verify, which means he has to cancel the entire transaction (good thing we only had two items). The manager leaves. So she rings us up again and she gets the coupon and scans it and…looks just as confused as the last time. I let her go through the scan and cancel routine three more times before I say “It’s just asking you to enter the cost of the bag of food—$7.99 [which can be clearly seen on the register].” Oh, she says, and punches in $7.99 and completes the transaction.
What the hell? I tried to think of any reason she could be so stupid…first day, young kid, etc. but if it was any of those, you’d think she would at least have said as much to explain the problem. But aside from that, how hard is it to read a screen and follow the directions? And if she was having an issue, why not call someone over? Especially after she screwed it up the first time?!
Builder Frustrations
Our builder is making us insane. Yes, they’ve done okay so far overall (and we love our driveway) but they seem to have no control over anyone. There are still some odds and ends they need to finish up and we were told on a phone call that things would be taken care of. Ha. Tom finished up at the range early today, so he was home by 8am (he was out there at 5am!). The builder’s rep called and said that the workers would be out that afternoon to finish up X, Y, and Z. Come 3:30, no one has showed up and…no one at the builder’s office answers the phones! Tom kept calling until 5pm and no one ever answered—and of course no one ever showed! It’s extremely frustrating.