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Category Archives: Rants & Gripes

Texas Roadhouse Insanity

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Dear Texas Roadhouse:

We were looking forward to dining with you tonight because 1) it was Tuesday which means free kids meal, 2) we had a free appetizer coupon for my birthday, and 3) we lucked out in getting there before 6 to take advantage of your early dinner specials. Unfortunately, however, we couldn’t take advantage of all three of those at the same time, which I find very disappointing.

At first we were told we couldn’t use both the free app coupon and the free kids meal—I guess because it falls under the coupon policy of “not good with any other deal” but I think that’s crazy—your in-store all-the-time deal of kids eat free shouldn’t be counted as a deal or special. But, fine, whatever.

Then we got our bill and noticed that only one of our before-6-special-price meals rang up correctly. Come to find out, we were told NEITHER should have rung up with the special price…due to the free app coupon being used. Wait, what? Again, ridiculous in my opinion. We did talk to a manager who took the bill back and after 10 minutes finagled it with two separate $1 line item credits to make my dinner the correct price and she did give us a coupon for a free appetizer for the trouble… but honestly, I’m not sure I’ll even bother using it. We always eat with our son on Tuesdays and we usually take advantage of the early dinner meal deal, so heaven forbid I try to use a free app coupon again and face the same insanity.

We love your restaurant and go at least twice a month (partially because we love the food but partially because of the great deals you offer), and I find it hard to believe that you have such strict rules on using coupons with in-house offers. I can see not allowing two free app coupons on the same ticket (or even at the same table), but not allowing ANY other specials because you used a coupon? I’d like you to reconsider your process of handling this issue. I felt ridiculous complaining about a small amount of money, but it was more the principle of the thing.

Sincerely,
A Regular Customer for Many Years,

I wonder if I will hear anything back from them…

Do parents not teach school fundraising etiquette?

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I hate school fundraisers because it’s always overpriced crap…but if a kid comes to my door, is polite, introduces themselves [and tells me if they’re a neighbor/on my street if they don’t already know me], tells me what they’re selling and what the money goes toward, I WILL buy something.

But these kids who ring the bell and just say “I’m selling stuff for school. Do you want anything?” and then just stand there waiting? Or see me sitting on the porch and yell from the road “Wanna buy some cookie dough?” Sorry, not gonna happen.

Do parents not coach their kids at all on this stuff?

I certainly hope by the time Owen is school-age, they will just take a monetary donation so we can skip the selling nightmares. But if they don’t, you can be damn sure he’ll be polite and knowledgeable about what he’s selling.

Tricare Tribulations

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Seriously, I could just scream or bust out crying from dealing with this. I hate bureaucracy and I hate inane rules, and Tricare has it all right now.

As with most insurance companies (I’m guessing) you need to select a Primary Care Manager, or PCM. When we last lived here, there was a Tricare clinic less than five minutes from my office, so that’s where I chose my PCM. I did it all online and it was easy peasy. In Michigan, we had a different form of Tricare (called Prime Remote) which basically allowed us to pick “civilian” providers since we weren’t near a Military Treatment Facility (MTF). Again, easy peasy and no issues.

So fast forward to moving back here and needing to pick PCMs again. I should have done it as soon as we got here, but things happen and you know how things slip your mind if you don’t NEED to go to a doctor. But Owen was past due for his 30-month wellness appointment and then I threw my back out, so I figured I had to get it done.

And that’s when the nightmare started.

Actually, it wasn’t a nightmare at first. We wanted to be seen in town (by a Tricare provider) so I searched and yes, the clinic I had gone to was still listed and the pediatrician (that had been recommended to me by a friend) was listed, but I couldn’t seem to access the necessary website to make my selection. Turns out, we had been automatically assigned a PCM so needed a waiver from the Tricare office to change providers/be seen in town, but I was assured (from a friend) that it wouldn’t be an issue and her waiver was granted basically without a second glance. Cool.

So Tom was busy at work (of course) and it took a week or so for him to visit that office to get the form and bring it home for me. I did a website search again to make sure the docs I wanted were still listed, filled out the form along with the reason for my request (base is too far away—30+ minutes usually, and the docs we wanted were 15) and sent it in with Tom.

Aaaaaand, this is where the nightmare actually begins.

I mistakenly put we’re 5 miles from the base (instead of 15—I forgot the 1—maybe I was thinking of the docs we WANTED to go to which are 5 miles away) but when the lady noticed and made a comment about that not being far away, Tom explained that we’re actually 15 miles/30+ minutes away. She agreed we should be going to a doc in town—and was actually stunned that we had been assigned to the base because they’re full. Fine. We’re good to go.

Or so we thought.

Tom got the denial email today saying we’re too close to base (the Naval Hospital is our MTF). What? SERIOUSLY? So Tom called and explained (and rehashed the explanatory conversation he had with the rep when he turned in the form) and oh, THEIR system says we’re 28 minutes from base, and the cutoff is 30, and they don’t count traffic—which of course can add another 20-30 MINUTES if you’re trying to get through the front gate during morning rush hour.

He questioned the decision, and they basically had the attitude of tough shit, it’s mandatory that you’re seen on base, you get what you get, and don’t bother calling again because we’re not going to change it. End of story. She did say that the docs we listed aren’t even in their system—which, WHAT?—I just looked them up three days before! So I told Tom that I’d print out the damn docs off the website and send them in with him as proof—but guess what? The entire site has been redesigned and the stuff I found last week is no longer there. OF COURSE. Searching for providers in our area brings up NOTHING because it’s apparently now MANDATORY that we are seen on base. >:XX

So I call the main Tricare people (Health Net Federal Services), and long story short, she tells me since we’re right on the cusp (28 minutes vs. 30 minutes) they really should give us the waiver, but it IS up to the individual office…and that we need to call that office and ask how to file an appeal. Yeah, it sounds good, but with the severe attitude Tom got when he called, I don’t see an appeal going over well. And he wasn’t exactly in an agreeable mood.

Yes, I know I should be happy that we even have insurance—and I get that. But it really should be easier than this.

So THEN I figured well, Owen needs his appointment and I will need more meds soon (for my back) so I guess I’ll just suck it up and make an appointment for both of us while we figure out if we can appeal the waiver. I know you can make appointments online, but I couldn’t login—and had no idea why.

Which started an avalanche of frustration about all the >:XX Tricare and Tricare-related websites. I know for a fact I’ve registered on these sites, but my logins aren’t working and you can’t just request your password be sent or even reset—since it’s medical stuff with extreme privacy laws, you have to request a reset and expect a security code in the mail within 10 days. Oh, and all three of us can’t be on the same account on one site—everyone over 18 has to have their own account. So Owen is under Tom’s, and I have my own—WHICH I KNOW I >:XX SET UP but they seem to think all my information is invalid and can’t find me…but if I try to register again, it tells me I already have an account. And another site, in order to get a login, I either need a DOD access card or a MyPay account (which I used to have Tom’s login until their changed their requirements and now it’s some unintelligible and random string of gibberish that I can apparently never type in correctly) or I can request my own login, but in order to request that login, you need one of the aforementioned types of logins…that I can’t get because I don’t have the login?!?!?

>:XX :crazy: :## :down:

So yes I can actually make a phone call to get an appointment, but by the time I had dealt with all that >:XX nonsense, I was done. D. O. N. E. DONE.

I can deal with a lot of stuff rationally (believe it or not), but this shit just drives me >:XX bonkers.

The Balsamic Incident

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That was a new unopened bottle of balsamic vinegar. I couldn’t bend fast enough to catch it (I tried, which of course made my back worse). I had no idea how to even BEGIN cleaning it up—I was right in the middle of making Owen’s breakfast and he was already in his high chair—and with my back, I could barely move.

Ugh.

I stepped out carefully, put shoes on, put shoes on Owen, threw some towels down to start sopping up the mess, and made Owen’s PB&J.

And let me just say that while the smell of a little bit of balsamic is nice, the smell of an entire bottle all over your kitchen floor is completely gag-inducing.

Ugh.

I popped a pain pill and got to work. Down on my hands and knees picking up glass pieces, sopping up the mess with towels and paper towels, using a squeegee to try and move the pools towards the towels and corral the teeny shards of glass that were all over (the grout was the worst, because the squeegee didn’t work on that and the glass liked to hide there). I hung the floor mats on the deck. I Swiffered the floor three times then realized I still needed to sop up more with paper towels. And then I realized the balsamic was also IN the pantry, so then I was on my hands and knees INSIDE the tiny pantry trying to clean. And trying to shove paper towels against the floorboards because it was behind there, too.

Ugh.

It took me a good 25 minutes to clean it all up, during which Owen finished his breakfast and just played with some toys that were on the table. I swear, he can be a rock star when he wants to be.

Credit card fraud, YAY.

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Mint.com sent me a notice of a large transaction, otherwise I wouldn’t have discovered it until I checked my monthly bill weeks from now.

Apparently someone booked a trip and hotel to San Diego via getaroom.com with my Discover card using our old Michigan address and a cell number one digit off from Tom’s. Starting on our anniversary of all things.

I immediately thought it’s somehow the current tenants at the Michigan rental, but did we somehow leave a credit card behind? That got lost in a crack or a drawer somewhere? I just can’t imagine that. And all mail was forwarded (plus I get online statements only) so they couldn’t get an account number that way. And to have a number really close to Tom’s cell (123-456-2000 vs 123-456-2001) just makes it even stranger.

Ugh.

Discover is taking care of it, but it’s still a pain in the butt.

I love Amazon but I also hate them.

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I know I’ve bitched about this before, but Amazon is on crack when they figure your Amazon Seller shipping credit. I should only sell media because the media mail prices are pretty close—but anything else you get screwed on.

I sold a toilet seat this week. If I just shipped the box AS IS, exact size, no extra packaging, straight from the USPS site it gives me a price of $15.03 (so once I add packaging and insurance since it’s going to Alaska and I figure it has a higher chance of being destroyed), I’m at $17 and change.

Their credit to me? $8.49. Less than HALF of what it actually cost me.

PATHETIC. :down:

As they say:

Amazon collects a per-item shipping fee from the buyer and passes it on to help cover your shipping costs.

Help cover. Yeah, I guess you could say that.

I know I didn’t have to sell it via Amazon, and I still made money, but it just pisses me off.

FAIL! x 3

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Fail #1

We had made plans to go visit friends overnight in Raleigh on Wednesday. So we got up early this morning, packed up the car, and set off. Five minutes down the road I remembered we forgot Owen’s bed. In the driveway it hit me that it was Tuesday. Ugh. Tom had even asked last night “Are we going tomorrow?” And I said yes, because I thought it was Tuesday at the time. And I even had the dog sitter neighbors set up a day early because I thought the days were off (well, I had them set to come on the right days, but I gave them the keys a day early since my days were off). It wasn’t a big deal (and I’m really glad we were only five minutes down the road) but it was frustrating. :meh:

Fail #2

Since Owen was excited about the car ride we’d told him about…and since we were already all dressed and breakfasted and in the car…we decided to take him to the local elementary school playground, thinking it would be a big treat since we no longer have a park down the street. Yay, right? Nope. He hated it. It was all sand and I guess maybe that freaked him out to start with, but even with Tom carrying him over it and setting him ON the structure, he wanted nothing to do with it. :**:

Fail #3

Once we were back home 10 minutes later, I thought we’d play outside in his water table since we haven’t done it for awhile and the temps were still cool…and he threw a tantrum. |-|

All this by 8am.

Crappy packing tactics.

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All our TVs and electronics were handled pretty badly. Nothing was ruined (thankfully) but everything should have been packed MUCH, MUCH better. The worst offender of the bunch was the quite-heavy receiver which was set on its side, with the buttons and knobs facing out, with barely any padding around it. :##

Earlier today we discovered a bunch of broken plastic baskets and containers—which really isn’t a huge deal since the items are cheap—but none have ever been broken during past moves, which points to crappy packing skills this time around.

And they apparently thought it would be a good idea to jam two lamp shades together that are the identical size (i.e. no bottom flare so that they nest appropriately). I had to use force to pull them apart. They got a little damaged but not too bad, I guess, considering. :##

The topper for me was today when I pulled a barely-wrapped [somewhat] expensive Thomas Kinkade canvas print out of the same box as—are you ready??—three heavy lamp bases. Who taught these morons to pack?! On ALL previous moves, ALL artwork was specially wrapped AND THEN specially boxed…so we didn’t pay attention to them this time while they did it nor did we ask for special treatment of any pieces. Don’t get me wrong—I’m glad the canvas didn’t get damaged—but I almost wish there was damage so we could report it and they’d have to be accountable for their shoddy work.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

It’s cool again.

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It was a pretty warm night sleeping—it was actually cooler outside than in, so we had the windows open (something I’d never have believed had you told me it would happen)—but it was still WARM. Thankfully the A/C people were able to get out in the afternoon (by which time it was 88 upstairs), and the first thing the guy said was “Man, what did I do yesterday?”

Come to find out, the capacitor blew up. Tom said it looked like it was shot with a .22 with guts hanging out all over and everything. The A/C guy said he’d NEVER seen one that bad before.

They waived the service call fee since they had just been out (yay!), so it was only a $125 repair. Only. And had it blown one day earlier or we had waited to have them out, we could have saved $75.

:**:

Three for three today, plus more.

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My day started at 3am when I woke up in a deflated [sleep number] bed. I had no idea what was wrong and I somehow knew pumping it up wouldn’t help, so I just tried to power through and didn’t get much sleep (and what little I did get wasn’t comfortable) and I was even more sore than when I went to bed. :##

The, we had three things scheduled for today—and none of them happened.

First, the cable company (that’s you, Time Warner) screwed up and sent a subcontractor who isn’t allowed to carry cable cards (which we SPECIFICALLY told them we needed when we called to set everything up). Tom called to bitch and they at least sent the guy back to install internet and do the cable drops to prepare for when we get the cable card…NEXT WEEK. :##

Second, the A/C guy didn’t show because (as I found out when I called at 4pm to see where he was) they were behind about three hours due to the rain…and apparently no one was going to let me know!?! :## At least he should be here tomorrow.

Third, the UPS freight delivery of a new desk got canceled because it wasn’t on the truck and they didn’t know where it was. :## At least they called me AND apologized. But now it won’t get here until Monday.

And then I messed up ordering dinner and ended up spending $40 when it could have been $25.

And we apparently have a wasp problem because we’ve killed three in the house today.

And we also have a cockroach problem because we’ve killed a handful of those since we’ve been here.

:meh:

Are we having fun yet?

Household delivery delay

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We just found out that the movers are going to be a day late getting here with our stuff. REALLY? Ugh.

Yeah, it could be worse, but it’s just something else that got screwed up and it pisses me off.

But we decided to use the extra day to our advantage and repaint the downstairs living room (from blue to the same gray that’s on the rest of the first floor).

The A/C works, but…

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You won’t believe this.

After all the bitching about the A/C that didn’t work in our Michigan rental…our A/C in NC is wonky, too—albeit in the opposite direction. I have it set on 78 and it’s COLD. Too cold.

So now we get to call the heating and air people to come take a look and recalibrate the thermostat. Not a tenant’s fault, but more unexpected spending.

Community pool–yay(s) and boo(s).

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I really appreciate the fact that we live close to the country club pool (yay!) but I really don’t appreciate that they wouldn’t prorate the cost (boo!) so I had to pay $375 to use the pool through Labor Day.

But they do have a kiddie pool (yay!) but the water in both that pool and the main pool is too warm (boo!).

And it’s cool that they have adult only hours (yay!) but overall the hours kinda suck (boo!)—11a-6p Tuesday through Saturday, 1p-6p Sunday, and 6p-8p adults only those days. There is no lifeguard and no locks on the fence that I can see…so I’m not quite sure why they have those limited hours.

Birdie Disaster

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Everywhere we turn, there’s more damage to the house—both major and minor. We’re wondering just how a property manager completely misses major gouges in walls? Or HOLES in doors? Or really badly patched holes in doors?

The lawn was never taken care of so we’ll probably have to start from scratch—and even the sodded front yard is abysmal. All our trees and bushes are dead and you can’t even see the gorgeous landscaping (that we did brand new right before we left) through all the weeds and overgrown grass. :'( >:XX

And what things the property manager did find and tell us about? Fixed shoddily. For example, the holes dug in the lawn by dogs? Filled with wood chips. WOOD CHIPS! And not really even filled since we can still see the holes! And the molding eaten by the dogs? Oh, it was replaced, but they used the wrong nails, left hammer marks, and didn’t paint it. A wall was repainted back to the color we had, but you can see the old color through it.

More tiles were cracked.

The carpet had runs.

Pretty much every room needs to be spackled to fill random holes/gouges and repainted.

They broke a refrigerator door shelf and fixed it with duct tape. Really? A new shelf is $25, which should have come out of a deposit. But the property manager missed it.

And I had to clean up meat juice from three layers of the fridge. WHO DOESN’T CLEAN UP A SPILL LIKE THAT?! (Granted, that was likely from the last short-term tenants and not the last long-term tenants, but still.)

The guest bath wall looks like they literally spewed water on the walls and it dripped down, completely staining the paint.

This cabinet (and the floor) was pristine when we left. Then tenants worked on cars in the garage and spray painted on the garage floor. REALLY? Now it’s a disgusting mess. And that’s not even considering the state of the walls. >:XX

The carpet is more trashed (dirty) in the two months our last tenants were here than the three years we were here. But seeing as how the property manger apparently didn’t do shit, we’re thinking maybe the carpet didn’t get cleaned like she claimed it did, either.

They also left a huge self-built wooden bar in the storage area upstairs that should have been removed—but it was left there for us to take care of. And it wasn’t just “oh move it out of the room”—it was built IN the room so it was too big to just move, so it had to be dismantled. If you looked in the storage area you couldn’t miss it. Ridiculous.

Now, to be fair, we don’t know for 100% sure that ALL the damage was done by the long-term tenants, but it’s most likely. For example, neighbors told us they saw them working on cars in the driveway (completely against the neighborhood rules) and there’s grease all over the garage and workbench—so it sounds like they took the illegal activity inside and that mess is theirs. And some of the other problems we were told about were from them (and were fixed badly). So overall, they were really crappy tenants who didn’t have a good reputation with treating the house well so I’m really sure most (if not all) of the issues were from them. And with the other people only being here 2.5 months, it’s not likely they did much of anything (though I do know it’s possible).

It just makes us sick because 1) it’s a decent chunk of money to fix everything that should have been taken out of their deposits, 2) we were obviously getting shitty service, and 3) we never would have rented to them in the first place had we not been so desperate (eminent bankruptcy having to pay for two mortgages) because they are the ones that “forgot” they had a third dog until after we had negotiated all pet terms and they were in the office signing the lease. So they were shady from the start.

Thirteen hours. THIRTEEN.

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Yeah, these packers/movers were NOT up to par. :down:

Part of the problem was there was only three of them.
Part of the problem was they hadn’t finished packing the first day.
Part of the problem was one was a young/inexperienced kid.
Part of the problem was they were running WAY behind.
Part of the problem was they were in over their heads.

They packed things we specifically told them not to pack and left things we wanted them to pack.

I just felt completely discombobulated and it didn’t feel like it was running smoothly AT ALL.

And it was taking forever. FOR. EVER.

When they got here in the morning, they thought they’d be done by 5.

Ha.

Haha.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

They were here 13 hours. THIRTEEN HOURS. ONE THREE. THIRTEEN!! 😮 They arrived at 8:30a and pulled out at 9:30p. >:XX

I had to keep postponing the carpet cleaners so they weren’t all tripping over one another but eventually had to get the guy in there so Owen could go to bed before it got too late. As it was, we got him to bed at 9:30 (an hour late) and the poor little guy was so tired that he asked for “more nap.” 🙁

The worst part is that we thought they’d be out of here by 4 or 5 and we’d have all night to finish packing our stuff and get organized and do typical moving out stuff…which obviously didn’t happen.

So far, NOT the stellar move that we’re used to.

Craigslist…AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!

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I had a brand new item listed (complete with all the info Amazon has on it plus pictures) and some women emailed me about it, and scheduled her husband to pick it up today. There was no price negotiation at all, so I was thrilled. THRILLED!

So fast forward about five days to today, an hour before he’s supposed to pick it up, and he emails me and asks for more info, how much it sells for new, is the item new, what are the specs, etc.

Um, what?

Haven’t you already looked at the listing? And how is it MY responsibility to tell you how much the item sells for new? So I sent him the link and said I really didn’t have any more info, and was he still coming to pick it up?

His next email was asking if I’d take half what I was asking.

>:XX

NO.

NO NO NO.

Not 30 minutes before you’re supposed to pick the damn thing up and NO because you could have negotiated a week before and NO because apparently you’re an idiot and couldn’t even read the >:XX listing.

Ironically, had he/she/they negotiated the price at the beginning, I would have been fine with it. And it IS Craigslist so I should just expect morons as a matter of course, but I just. cannot. stand. shit like that.

So then he emails back “Well if you change your mind, email my wife.” Yeah, no. I told him we’re moving in three days so I’ll just sell it on the other end.

Yeah, I could have taken the money and been done with it, but I refuse to deal with morons if I can help it.

Seriously?

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Our landlords.

Ugh.

We gave them two times/days that we could do the checkout, saying that we were planning on leaving the state on [Day 3]. Of course, it took them a week to get back to us…and of course, they can’t do it either of those two days, but said they can do it Day 3 at 6pm (the day we wanted to leave) or Day 4 (TWO days after we planned to leave).

SERIOUSLY? :##

So we scheduled it for Day 3 and are keeping our fingers crossed that it goes well, because we cannot postpone it any farther.

I need to stay out of the kitchen.

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I should stay out of the kitchen for awhile. Within the past few days, I have:

  • grated my thumb (while grating cheese for mac and cheese).
  • stabbed myself in the palm (by simply holding and walking with a knife).
  • accidentally dumped a cup of syrup on my pancakes.
  • grabbed a just-out-of-the-oven pan bare-handed (after I had successfully taken it out of the oven with potholders).

Scheduling nightmares.

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The moving company that’s been assigned to us? Ugh.

Tom went in to set up the move a few weeks ago, and came home with packing dates of June 20-21, a loading date of June 22, and delivery on July 6. The packing and loading dates corresponded with when my mom could come down to help, but I was surprised that the delivery date was so far out (we normally get our stuff a few days later)—so I was under the impression that’s when they could first do it. (Come to find out later, Tom has a function at his job that he can’t miss…on the 28th!…which he never told me about…which is why he scheduled delivery for when he did. I wasn’t happy about having to live at the house with no stuff for a week, but whatever, we’d make it work.)

Fast forward a week or so, when I get a call from the moving company out of the blue. This surprised me because Tom was the one dealing with it all. So I had to deal with her questions about the house, which was fine. And then talked to her about dates, because she mentioned that they could deliver earlier than July 6. (At this point, I still didn’t know about Tom’s function on the 28th.) So we had a conversation about possibly changing dates to whatever we needed to TO AVOID WAREHOUSING because we wanted to avoid that at all costs (warehousing means they come load the truck, unload the truck at a warehouse while we get where we’re going, then they RE-load the truck and deliver it). That just leads to more opportunity for loss and damage, so I told her we’d schedule something so we didn’t have to do that. She said she had to check the driver’s schedule and said she’d get back with us the next day. Two days later and nothing. Then Tom forgot to call until this afternoon.

Now, keep in mind no one has talked to us since that lady called me a week ago when dates were still up in the air…so Tom called and about had a heart attack when they said our delivery was scheduled for 6/23. HUH? What? JUNE 23? We never authorized that!! And apparently they didn’t think it was necessary to let us know?!?

We told them in no uncertain terms that June 23 was NOT possible since Tom would still be working…though we could alter our dates somewhat. Come to find out, they assigned us that delivery date because their driver has a pickup IN Jacksonville on the 24th. Sorry, not our problem. We discussed potential dates and they said they’d have to get back to us.

Ugh. We have never had this many issues with scheduling a move…EVER.

If we get what we want, we will have packing on June 23-24, loading on June 27, and delivery on July 1. My mom won’t likely be able to be here to assist (dang jury duty!), but it’s not as critical as I thought it would be since Tom will be able to be here for everything (unlike all past times when I had to do most of it by myself).

But I just don’t have a good feeling about this. I have a pit in my stomach thinking I will end up having to drive to NC in a rush (to meet our stuff), by myself, with Owen and the animals, while Tom stays behind to finish up at work and check out of the rental.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us on this one.

OUCH! GRRRRR!!!!

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>:XX

Coming home from the zoo, pulling out into traffic, a GMC truck/trailer hauling asphalt changed lanes (merged) and smashed into our right front bumper tearing it off.

Everyone was fine, though my back was sore almost immediately.

But my poor car. This was her first accident ever at almost 10 years old…and with one fell swoop she lost her $10k resale value. It was drivable to get home, but not again until it gets fixed.

And the topper? Our fault. Failure to yield, since we were the ones at the stop sign. The cop said he didn’t want to write Tom the ticket but he had to. It was just a matter of bad timing—the guy merged over right after Tom looked and saw that it was clear.

We were at the bottom arrow at a U-turn/turn-around stop sign needing to turn directly onto the 696 on-ramp.

There are three lanes of traffic at that point, and the guy that hit us was NOT in the closest merging lane—but moved over at the last minute, after we had started to pull out (he said his blinker was on). I saw the truck go by, heard the screeching of the brakes, and just as I thought HOLY SHIT HE JUST MISSED US—his huge work trailer (filled with asphalt) slammed into the front right bumper and tore the whole thing off. Luckily it was just the bumper and it doesn’t seem to be anything more internal.

And what actually hit us (and had no damage, of course):

>:XX

The guys in the truck were really nice and were only worried about Owen, who was just fine and didn’t even realize anything had happened (though when he saw the front of the car, he said “broken”). And he did notice the police car there. 🙂 The cop was going to let him come sit in the car, but he got a call right as we were headed over so we didn’t get to do that. 🙁

More rental fun. Ugh.

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Our landlords have lost their ever-loving minds. They came over for a showing, except the people were early, so I showed them around and answered questions—something I totally didn’t have to do, but I wanted to make everything sound great and get this place rented. Fine, right?

Well, we get done with the tour and the landlords are in the driveway, saying they’ve been waiting there. Whatever. They were maybe there for five minutes. They gave me a half stink-eye for not waiting for them. Whatever, don’t care, my part is done. They said they’d be back in to talk to me about the disposal. WHY? It’s broken? Ugh. (We had called to let them know it was broken and that Tom had attempted to fix it to no avail.) So they come in and check the disposal and it actually just needed to be reset, which Tom had looked for but didn’t find so thought maybe it didn’t have one. So that was fixed, they made a joke about “That will be $75!” and all was good.

Then they brought up the A/C. We said this morning when it was cool in the house, the air coming out of the vent was room temperature, or 74. The wife couldn’t wrap her head around it, because 74 was cooler than the current air temp [because the unit was off]. I said I’d turned the air off because it didn’t do anything to run and run and run. She said, “But if you turn it on the 74 will feel cool.” Yes, maybe for a minute. I told her we had it on all day recently and it was still 82 in the house, which implies it’s not working. I said maybe it just needs a refresher of freon every year since it’s an older unit. She says “But we just had someone out.” Yes, LAST YEAR. Yes, I know you don’t want to spend any money, but seriously. They ended up saying they will send someone. *And all this was AFTER we already called them about it TWO WEEKS AGO, and they gave us a song and dance that the A/C company said [something to the effect of] “Let’s wait until it gets warmer to check it out.” HUH? :??: Normally you’d be glad to check it out before everyone and their brother is calling during the first heat wave of the summer. ANYWAY.

Then.

THEN.

Then they wanted to give us some “feedback” on the house showings. Um, why? We don’t care. So basically, they want us to clean out the house. 🙄 :)) :crazy: Yeah, they said people are saying they can’t really see what the house looks like with all our stuff. Yes, that would be because WE’RE STILL LIVING HERE. They said they know we just had the garage sale, etc., but if we could make it look better… Um, just what the hell are we supposed to do? I said “If we move that [pointing at some random item], it just has to go somewhere else, which doesn’t really help.” We said we tried to get rid of some stuff but the garage sale was a bust. And then? They suggested an estate sale. Seriously. I felt my blood pressure rising and I was become less and less calm…ready to fight almost. I’m sorry, but there’s just not much we can do. And other than not enjoying people traipsing through our house twice a day, we don’t care if this place gets rented or not. Really. I know they’re concerned…but at this point, it’s not our problem and if they weren’t such douchebags about other stuff (like the A/C issue), maybe we would care more.

Then they said people didn’t like that the fireplace was covered. Tom said we could uncover that. But then they said something else kinda bitchy and I kinda snapped a bit and said something to the effect of “Well, we’ve been telling people it was for toddler-proofing and haven’t mentioned ONCE that that’s where all the cold air comes in in the winter.” They didn’t have a response to that.

And then they complained about the lawn, saying we need to take care of the weeds. Lord. They’ve never once cared until now, of course, because they’re trying to rent it. And honestly, yes, we are responsible for lawn care, but we never thought about weeds and at this point, we’re really not caring much about taking care of the damn weeds. So I need to pull the lease and see what exactly it says regarding lawn care. Again, if they weren’t such asshats about this other stuff, we’d be more than willing to be amenable about things like this.

So, overall, they just made their lives worse. We are NOT moving furniture around, we are NOT going to make it look like no one lives here, and we are NOT putting everything away. And from now on I am going to be brutally honest when they ask me what the landlords are like and how it is to live in the house. And I’m contemplating not being available a time or two when they need to show the house (since we’ve been EXTREMELY generous in not requiring 24-hour notice for showings).

I really don’t want to leave Michigan (or even this neighborhood) but I cannot wait to be rid of these landlords.

Our last ever garage sale!

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Today we officially had our last ever garage sale. Seriously.

The neighborhood we live in has a “community garage sale” every year. We figured it out the second year we were here, and our neighbor let us know which weekend it was, so we could be prepared for the third year—which worked out perfectly date-wise since we are moving in a month.

Now, from past experience, I hate garage sales. Yeah, I like the money, but they’re a lot of work and I hate haggling. Our stuff isn’t CRAP (like tchotchkes from the 70s or broken stuff)—a lot of the stuff was new (still in boxes or plastic), next to new, or in really good condition. So I priced it fairly—with some of the things marked a bit higher that I would be willing to haggle on. But long story short, we hadn’t had a garage sale in almost five years, so I was kinda ready…or at least had a positive attitude.

So we busted ass and cleaned out a ton of stuff—finally making the decision to just GET RID OF STUFF (some of which has been making the move with us since we got married). I had even posted on Craigslist that our community was having a garage sale, and listed what would be at ours. We had an entire driveway full by the time all was said and done, and we fully expected to make about $500-600 (thinking about past garage sales and how much stuff we had and what we made at those).

Ha.

HA HA.

>:XX

First of all, the “sale” was technically Friday and Saturday—which we didn’t realize until Thursday night when talking to our neighbor again. A garage sale on Friday? REALLY? :??: I had never experienced that in my entire life of having garage sales…so needless to say we totally weren’t ready. :down: But we figured that Saturday would be the big day anyway so weren’t really worried about it.

Second, the community association was supposed to advertise the sale with signs out front a week prior—except that the day before, there were no signs (they finally went up late Thursday night). :down:

Third, I saw NO listing for the garage sale on Craigslist—so I put one on there advertising OUR moving sale. I mean, in this day and age, you post on Craigslist, and it’s free and easy, so there’s NO reason to NOT advertise there. Stupid community association. :down: I also put up my OWN garage sale sign.

So Saturday morning rolls around and we’re up at 6 getting everything set up in the driveway (well, we were up at 4:30 but didn’t start working until 6). I had such visions of it being a gangbuster sale that I was bringing out anything that I thought might sell. The more stuff we got rid of, the better, right? And more money, right?

Well, in our Craigslist moving sale post, I said that although the community sale technically started at 8, we’d be out getting set up at 7, so early birds were welcome at 7:30. Well, someone showed up at 7:15 which was fine, but they didn’t take anything. Okay, no biggie, it was still early. But then no one else came until like 7:45. Really? Where were all the people beating down our doors at 6am or lining up on the street…or doing drive-bys the night before like we had in North Carolina?

Then people just started driving by. One car after another. Huh? We had about eight cars slow down and look—but not stop. Now, I fully realize that some might be looking for one particular item that could be seen from the road…but EVERYONE?? REALLY?? What are they expecting to find?

At the end of two hours, we had a whopping FOUR customers, two of which were neighbors…and we had made $68 ($60 of which was a fish tank). And had maybe 15 drive-bys.

BIG >:XX DEAL.

Then we’d get one person. Fifteen minutes later another. Then a drive-by. At the busiest time, I think we had three people there. Ugh. And of course 95% of them wanted to haggle. Now, I can handle haggling on stuff that’s $5 or $10, but seriously, if I’ve marked it $1, it’s $1. Don’t ask if I’ll take 50¢. And then pick out nickels and pennies when I agree. Seriously. (One lady had 49¢ and Tom just stood there with his hand out, waiting. I mean really, people.) Alternatively, if I have something marked $25, don’t offer me $10. I kept reminding myself that the point was to get rid of stuff, but honestly I would rather donate things for free than take $5 for a $20 item. My blood pressure certainly spiked through the roof at least a handful of times due to hagglers.

So come 4pm we started cleaning up—and it really didn’t even look like we sold anything. Every table was still out and full (when normally about two hours in, we’re consolidating stuff and getting rid of tables). The free thing we had sitting out didn’t even get taken!

So, in the end, we made about $300 for about 18-20 hours of work (prep, sale, clean up) which just sooooo doesn’t seem worth it. I mean, it’s better than working that long for nothing…but had we sold another $200 worth I’d be more amenable to having another garage sale sometime during my lifetime. To put it in better perspective how much work it was and how few people we had and how little stuff we actually sold…almost TWO-THIRDS (!!!) of our take came from just three big ticket items (a $100 table saw that Tom sold to a co-worker before the sale even started, a $60 fish tank we sold at 8am to a neighbor, and $30 for a new-in-box Lego set [that was actually worth $90, but I digress]).

The whole thing was just bad and frustrating—I have never experienced such a lackluster garage sale EVER. I don’t know whether it was due to the lack of advertising, people just not being into garage sales, or what… but what it did was certify that I will never again have a garage sale and I will just donate stuff.

Speaking of which—the Vietnam Veterans of America will be here Tuesday to pick up three bags of clothes and shoes, and about six huge boxes of stuff. :up:

Our house is for rent!

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It’s official. Our rental house has been put back on the market. We knew it would happen eventually, but it still sucks. We never really keep a super clean and organized house, but it needs to be somewhat presentable for showings.

That said, we had the first two showings today. The first lady didn’t seem that interested (she flew through the house in about five minutes) so she either knew exactly what she was looking for or she hated it.

After she left, I decided to look up the listing and guess what? The property is listed as being fenced. Um, no. WE put up TEMPORARY fencing because YOUR CHEAP ASS didn’t want to split the cost of a real fence. So now we have to tell every interested person that the fence isn’t included, but we’ll make them a deal on it if they want to keep it.

Oh, and the second showing? As per the deal, we were notified by the agent…but were really surprised when the landlords showed up with the people. Yeah, THAT would have been nice to know. Not really because we would have done anything differently…it would have just been a nice heads up. I just hate having the owners walking through the house. Yes, they own it, but it still feels like an invasion of privacy. Ugh.

Stupid baby product companies.

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I swear, some baby companies have it in for parents. For the very popular brand of straw cup we have, you can only buy replacement pieces online, where of course shipping/handing is outrageous for something that could be shipped for 75c in an envelope. Hell, I’d even pay $4.95 for my whole order.

Instead, I just bought four new cups (on sale at Kroger, of all places) for less than the S/H would have been for replacement pieces.

At least the old cups can be recycled, but it still bugs the crap out of me. What a waste.

Babies ‘R Us frustrates the hell out of me.

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So there’s a toddler slide we want and it’s cheaper there than Amazon, plus I have a gift certificate, plus there’s a current B1G1 sale on toys of that brand.

Except NO local stores have it in stock so I try to buy online, where—bonus—shipping is free over $100 (up to $20 credit). Okay, fine.

So, they’re not on any rewards sites (like ebates) which is a bummer, but still nothing to kill the deal.

So, even though the B1G1 is limited to “products up to $50” you’d think if I bought something for $90, I could get the $50 (or less) item free, right? No.

Okay, so I think I’ll just buy the two items—totaling $110—to get the free shipping. Except somehow shipping is $42, which I assume is due to the large slide, except the slide page shows NO info regarding “additional shipping costs” that I can see—and in fact even has the “ships free with $100” logo on it. So free shipping really still costs me $20. Um, NO.

Screw it. This is why I buy from Amazon and pay a bit of a premium.

SERIOUSLY?!

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It looks like I’ll be without my laptop AGAIN for ANOTHER two weeks because the >:XX webcam is out of place. Yeah, who knew I hadn’t used the webcam since I bought this laptop in October. I was trying to Skype tonight (for the first time) and I was like “Hey, why is there this black moon cutting off the view?” I finally figured out that the camera has slid down (or has always been out of place?) so that the laptop case/cover is blocking it. >:XX

Half Moon Webcam

More Wells Fargo frustrations.

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So our NC house is vacant and has been vacant since late December. Since we are now moving back, we don’t have time for even 6-month tenants, so, it will be vacant until we get there…but the vacancy means our normal insurance is being canceled.

My current insurance agent is great, but she can really do no more for me. She did tell me that our mortgage company would write a vacant policy to protect their investment. So I called.

Ugh.

I told the operator that I needed an insurance policy for a vacant property. She transferred me to the insurance department, whereupon the guy basically laughed at me when I told him what I needed, saying they don’t write policies for vacant houses. Oooo-kay. He said she just gave me to the wrong department and tells me I need a “Lender Provided Policy” (or something like that).

So I call again, get the same operator who doesn’t seem to remember me calling five minute before (even with my somewhat memorable name), and tell her what I need. She transfers me to Chris, who I tell what I need, and he apparently can’t help me (so why did I get transferred to him?) so transfers me to Janine, a manager in the Hazard Insurance Department…who after hearing what I need, says she can’t write me a policy and I need to talk to the insurance select department. :??:

I asked her if that was the same as the general insurance division and yes, it was (the phone numbers matched). She seemed surprised that I’d already talked to them and they couldn’t help me. Then she told me I really should be contacting the Fair Plan [something or other] in my state because they were the ones that should be able to help me. She then told me about her personal experience with vacant policies…because she couldn’t write one herself….and that it would likely be about $400/mo with the annual payment due up front.

WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

“So, let me get this clear? I called to get a vacant insurance policy from Wells Fargo, they transferred me to the insurance department who laughed at me, I called back and was transferred twice to you, someone who cannot write a policy for me?”

Bingo.

So I called my agent back just to see if she had any other advice, and to ask about the Fair Plan thing. She said THAT is who is canceling me. Lovely. She said that Wells Fargo would surely get off their ass when they got the insurance cancellation notice.

Great.

So now we’re in a mad rush to find a friend or someone who will go move in to the house rent-free for three months, just to avoid this crap.

Regardless, I am ready to pull my >:XX hair out over this stupid house.

AmEx is both bad and good.

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So I get all of my credit card statements via email, and when I do, I pay them. Simple, right? Happens every month like clockwork and I always pay every bill on time.

Well, apparently, if American Express mails you a hard copy—like they do for the month you get your Costco rebate check—they SKIP sending you the email. Why on earth they can’t continue to send an email that month is beyond me.

You can see where this is going, can’t you? >:-(

Yeah, I got charged a $15 late fee and I’m sure there will be interest. Ugh. And yeah, I’m so used to receiving emailed statements that it DID NOT EVEN OCCUR TO ME that the mailed statement was a real statement. A sign of the digital times, I guess?

That said, I paid the full balance (plus some extra) immediately, then emailed them and complained about their process. To their credit, they did waive the fee, but I still think it’s asinine they can’t send an email when they also send a hard copy. I mean, how hard can it be? Why WOULDN’T you send one?