It is snowing. Sigh.
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It is snowing. Sigh.
:0!Quote:
Originally Posted by puglogic
(It will happen here soon enough.)
oy oy oy. Our excellent rice cooker of a dozen years gave up the ghost and I had to shop for a new one. While I don't really mind how much I pay, I'd like to NOT pay for digital crap that I won't use. I wanted a pan that comes out and I wanted the unit to have some heft and solidity. Got the first ting but not really the second thing.
Went to Target and bought one, but not without some angst on my part in trying to match up sample machines with items in boxes with shelf tags. I thought that the unit we picked out was $59 but the cash register said $36 so ummm. I don't feel like I got a bargain, I wanted to see what the $56 unit was like.
We've had 3 rice cookers in our married life and this one that just went bad was by far the longest lasting one. And, it was FAST and it also seems to sense white rice from semi-brown to brown/black rice. I will miss it.
Just had to scan 21 pages from our 2013 federal and state tax returns -- two-thirds of which have absolutely nothing to do with my personal income -- to send them to the lender refinancing my rental property. This despite signing and sending forms allowing them to request those very same tax forms electronically from TIIC. >:( And sending them, clear-text, in batches lest Yahoo think I'm spamming the world 1.5 Megabytes at a time.
I wouldn't have minded so much if I could have filtered the unnecessary pages. Or if I'd never filled out the permission form in the first place. But that's bureaucracy for ya. As a time-waster, this is right up there with entering dozen-digit account numbers on the phone keypad only to be asked by the representative as soon as you get to speak with them, "Can I have your account number, please?"
One of my most time-honored quotes is, "I waste the most time on anything we're discussng for the third time" (Steve Murphy, President & CEO of Rodale Inc.). If we weren't talking real money here ... but I'm still going to complain about the insecurity of this mechanism.
Woke up sick on my birthday with a whopper of a head cold. After I dragged myself out to dinner with my mom, I feel like ca-ca and am finally admitting that I am sick, not just being lazy. At least I took tomorrow off too, but laying around sick is not what I had in mind for my 52nd birthday.
Happy Birthday!!!!
Excessively-scripted call takers
I was supposed to get a call back this morning from "Jennifer" at T-Mobile re: the interminable saga of getting my phone unlocked. At least that's what I have in my notes from last Monday. The appointed call time came and went. Jennifer wisely has never provided her phone number, so I called T-Mobile.
"My name is [unintelligible]. And who [sic] do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?" The rep recited the T-Mobile's Approved Procedure For How To Unlock A Phone script from the beginning. I broke in to tell her the regular mechanism has not worked, which is how I ended up speaking to Jennifer -- with whom I want to speak again, per our agreement. "We're terribly sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patience."
The call-taker claimed she could not contact "Jennifer". I've worked in Telecom around enough call centers to know that's a pile of [redacted]. There always are ways to escalate a call. When I pushed, the agent magically was able to contact "Jennifer" and promised me that she would call me back "in a few minutes".
After 45 minutes of no phone ringing, I called T-Mobile again. "My name is [unintelligible]. And who [sic-squared] do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?" I asked what happened. "We're terribly sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patience." The agent "contacted" Jennifer's workgroup and told me that my trouble ticket said she'd call me on Monday. I remember distinctly agreeing to Friday to speed this up a little. Strange Thing #1: There's a date for Monday's call in the ticket, but no time of day. Like I have nothing else to do. Strange Thing #2: If this was in the trouble ticket history (which I know typically cannot be altered after the fact), why was I promised during the first call today a call-back that wasn't going to happen?
That this mess gets pushed another couple of days means little after weeks of working on it. What really bothers me is the genuinely insincere concern expressed while agents recite their scripts and whatever else pops into their heads. The trouble ticket is there to document the problem. For all the verification one has to do before getting to any agent, the least they could do on a call-back is to take a minute to read the freeping history. I'm sure T-Mo wants to "excite" its customers with customer service -- but not this way. >:(
Jennifer/T-Mobile almost pulled this mess out of the fire by allowing me to get a replacement phone which could be unlocked. We've been with them for 12 years, which is generations long in the mobile business. But we can be treated like this for a whole lot less money every month. If what T-Mo has to sell is their customer service, they dropped the ball and then went after it with a spike. If I had a shred of wanting to stay with T-Mobile before, it's really gone now.
Day three, and I'm still sick :( I just had to call in and miss another day of work tomorrow (we're not allowed to work around food when you have a fever, obviously). It's been going up all day, even after taking Ibuprofin a few times.
On the bright side, my awesome ex-MIL left me my annual birthday check, so I am not going to worry about two days of lost wages and I'm not going to use up some of my accrued time off either (I'm saving that for next year's road trip).
How easy would it have been, US Bank, to see that I submitted two humongous payments online within seconds of each other, and instead of telling me to "check with my bank" about why the payment was returned, say to yourself, wow, look at that, a mistake must have happened and I'll offer to refund this customer's "returned payment" fee? Because, um, duh, you KNOW why the payment was returned!! Because it was submitted to you twice!! And now there is no balance on her account except for your fee sitting there! No, let's make her have to push and ask for that. Absolutely ridiculous.
So sick, abscessed tooth, haven't eaten for two days, taking Doxycycline. Getting the tooth out at soon as infection is gone. Ouch ouch ouch.
Hope you are finally feeling better, Gardenarian.
How come some businesses make it so dang hard to find their phone numbers!! I had an appt. this morning to donate platelets at the Red Cross. Got almost there and the road was blocked off. One of those barricades & orange cones things with the sign that said road closed local traffic only. But then there was no way for "local traffic only" to get through. Not enough space to get between the barricades & cones. I guess that makes this 2 rants for the price of 1 lol The Red Cross is between 2 one way only roads. I could not figure out how to get there.
So I called information. The first time they gave me 2 numbers. I tried to have them texted to my cell phone but it wouldn't go through. So I called back and the first thing they said was push 1 to have the previous call texted to your phone. Tried again. Nope. Called again. Got a different number. Got the "the red cross is closed today, if you want to donate, blah, blah" message. Called again. Got a different number. Same recording though. Tried again asked if there was a number for the apheresis center. Nope.
So I came home. If the person who called to make or confirm the appt. had mentioned this issue to me I would have been prepared. But nope she didn't. Waste of time & gas money. Lots of frustration.
The Gardening Diva who is organizing our community garden's fall harvest potluck keeps peppering us all with emails about "whatcha going to bring?"
Hey Diva, I don't know what I will bring. When I decide what to cook, I will cook it and bring it. Then you will find out what that is.
Why does it matter to her? What's she going to do, tell me not to bring something?
One of the complicating factors with the Red Cross is that blood appointments are made on the phone on a national office I think. We've gone back and forth trying to get a phone number for the local place where DH donates.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
They've finally got so that that are able to call in the evening. They used to call during the day, he was never home, I would take a message, he wouldn't call them back, repeat cycle.
Now they call at night when he's home and he makes the appointment. It was very tiresome there for a while.
When you can, report your problem. They need to know this stuff.
That is aggravating Iris Lilies. The only thing I can say is that sometimes when you have potlucks you often end up lots of deserts and not enough main dishes. that kind of thing.
But I'm with you, I often don't know what I will be bringing until a day or 2 before an event.
Oh, I know, but it's one meal in our lives, if we don't eat well, so be it. The average American can afford to drop a meal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
I remember once aboaut 20 years ago I hosted a nieghborhood potluck and one of the neighbors asked me "aren't you going to coordinate food? What if everyone brings pasta salad?" Having the same philosophy then as now, I did not. Guess what, everyone brought pasta salad, haha. But that was fine, it was only one meal in a lifetime of meal (and potlucks.)
And they never troubled you again to "coordinate" another potluck! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
LOL Steve
oh, you! I thought of it as "the pasta salad tasting" where one could identify the best pasta salad recipes out there.Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
Here I am with another peeve.
Went shopping for t-shirts for DH. Hate shopping.
3 employees standing around in JC Penney's quacking on, one saying in a whiney voice "I ask for more hours but..." and I interrupted her because I had to ask where the men's underwear section is. She walked me halfway there, no problem, I could see the display.
DH wears crew neck size Large. Do ya think they had any crew neck size large t-shirts? Do you know how many packages of t shirts there were? I would estimate nearly 100, but none Large, none crew neck. I can't see how this can be true in this day and age of computerized stock control. This is not a weird style or an odd size.
So back I go to find a sales associate. This time two of them are standing around jawing. I interrupt, not shy am I, and I am the customer. So one pleasant young man walked back with me to the t-shirt display to help me look. He pulls off a Large, crew neck package and he said "here, it's just in a different package than the others." I look closely at it and it says "slim fit." This is for hipsters, not for DH who will not like a different kind of fit. I point out the "slim fit" description, the guy shrugs. I say my spiel about being surprised they are out of a standard size and style, he shrugs.
Me--gone.
Hate shopping.
Actually, I'm not a big fan of coordinating potlucks, either. That's why they're called "potlucks" and not "arranged communal meals". I think it would be fun try lots of variations of an ingredient (though generally I'm not much on pasta salads). We've done somewhat similar themed meals with chili, spaghetti sauces, and local apples.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
DW got her car back from a recall visit to the dealership. Along with a note that she may receive a call from Kia asking about her visit. In bold letters, highlighted, it reads "Please note: '10' is my ONLY passing grade!"
Well, then, why bother with 10 points? Why not just two? Why not just "Pass" and "Fail", since that is what this is reduced to? VW was no better, except that they worked on a "five-point" scale, but anything less than 5 was "failure". I get that they want customers to be happy and to address issues at the lowest possible point (in this case, the service desk). But this binary rating system enforces the highest marks for anything but the very worst service and implies that nothing about the visit could have been improved. Well, it can always be improved. Hours could be more convenient; they could have swept in like a Wood Brothers pit stop when my wife drove in; and, if we paid for the visit, the bill could be lower.
Meanwhile, at the end of the quarter, upper management gets a context-less PowerPoint slide that indicates 95% of Kia customers think nothing about their service visit could be better and bonuses are issued all around. Hmmph....
Seizures suck. ER visits suck. Spending 7 1/2 hours in the ER really sucks. I have spent too much time with teenage boys & am too tired to be use more creative language lol Last night was not a good night. However we did not get bad news at the end, so there is that redeeming factor.
DD's hand/wrist suddenly started curling up. Decided to take her to ER to find out what was going on. First we thought, seizure issue. Then stroke then we noticed a bump on her hand and thought broken bones. On the way to the ER DD had a big grand mal seizure. Spent 7 1/2 hours in the ER, x-rays, ct scan, blood work. Waiting. Lots of waiting. DD had another seizure. 3 times we had to say no to either/or iv's and being admitted. The ER looked at me like I was a fool when I said that for DD her seizures are under good control but finally stopped pressing the issue. I wonder what he may have written on her chart.
X-ray clear. YAY! CT scan clear. YAY! Finally a diagnosis - radial nerve palsy. She somehow damaged the radial nerve but we will never know how. Could have slept on it wrong. Could have damaged it during a seizure. There is no treatment. God willing it will clear up over the next week though if the damage is bad enough it may not. I think it is improving a bit already so I have high hopes.
DD was so ready to leave. She kept trying to escape in her wheelchair, even using her damaged hand to push lol Poor thing we kept rolling her back to the room.
But she had another seizure on the way home. Today she is sleeping it off. I WISH they could get her seizures under better control.
I'm on vacation this week (had to take a week or lose it). My coworkers seem to be unable to follow the simple, explicit directions I left on what needed to be done. I'm getting emails and texts at home. I'm actually having to check my work email.
Ick, Azure. Sorry for DD, hope she is feeling better.
Tradd, don't answer! You can be "out of town" even when you're in town. Your vacay.
DH just told me he was going to go into work instead of taking the 3 days of vacation he had planned because he knows he would spend the whole time working from home. I appreciate that he recognizes that he can't disconnect. Why waste the vacation days when there is not really a vacation. We are going out of town later in the month and I know he will check email and be available by phone but it will not be as constant as when we do "stay-cations".
Just found out BART is going on strike at midnight. I'm flying in to SF for work tomorrow. I usually take BART from the airport for $8.25. A cab starts at $50 for sitting down. Bad words Bad Words Bad words.
At least the cab drivers will have a good day.
Aaaaaagh!
I just returned to SoCal from the Bay area (sonoma county) and had to listen to 2 weeks of Bart threatening to go on strike. I am actually surprised they did. Can't imagine the traffic conditions - ugh. Last time I was up there they were closing the Bay Bridge so I high-tailed it south the day before that happened. At least that didn't impact commuter traffic as badly.Quote:
Originally Posted by CeciliaW
This is funny: the National Republican party has been calling me regularly 1 -2 times a week for the past 5 weeks, and I am not exaggerating, with the same damn call. One guy who is a breathless metrosexual sounding guy asks for me by name and then the call turns over to the robo voice. I hang up when Robo-voice starts. But today I told DH "I am going to listen to this call and take down the specifics" to contact them to complain, and while I was saying this to Dh the "robo" voice stopped his spiel to say--"what? Mrs. Iris, hey ah, what?"
hahahah. I apologized to Robo-guy for hanging up on his 20 times, but honestly, I thought he was a recorded voice every time he called me. I also told him to stop calling me so often, it is ridiculous how many times they have called.
It's funny, I just noticed we're a "peevish" bunch - coming up on 50,000 peeves!! and yes, I've definitely contributed a few.
But is it bad karma for us that our peeves are so much more numerous than our posts in the gratitude topic??
Not that many peeves. That number is the views. Hope that does not make anyone peevishy.:treadmill: (that is me thinking that I am running for safety...)
Not really a peeve but I just wanted to say that Deja's hand is still not working and I am feeling very sad about it. :(
Oh, sorry to hear that.
Over the last six weeks or so, I've been working on refinancing my rental property. A slipstream refi that would have increased the monthly mortgage maybe 25% but would have cut the term to 20 years at a much lower interest rate than I've been paying. I made it clear to the salesguy that I was not making much income with my business and that I didn't want to bring DW's income into it because of the foreclosure on her record. No problem! says he.
After filling out too much paperwork, it comes down to my not making enough income to refi. WT...??? None of them can recollect what the salescritter said and he apparently is off in greener pastures. They offered to count my rental income (about twice the monthly mortgage cost and below-market at that) and could not find a way to make it work for 20 years -- or even for 30. So I pulled the plug on it and will owe them for the appraisal that was done (which showed the house appreciated about 50% from what I paid for it, so that was at least worthwhile).
I don't get it. Here I am, accidental landlord, bringing in significantly more than goes out, paying the existing mortgage on time every month for five years -- and they can't make it work for me to pay a lower amount over 30 years? I know the days of "liar's loans" and such were too lenient. But not only have they closed the barn door; they've shackled the horses to the building. Ridiculous.
Well, that sucks big time. Really hard to understand how impersonal all of that is. It is not like they just 'met' you.
My peeve for the day is the HUGE hoop-la that was made of Halloween this year! There are even orange and black lights on many many houses!! yard decorations, way too many stupid costumes... did I say I hated Halloween to begin with?! It seems like just an excuse to spend money on junk and act stupid.
It's beginning to look a lot like commercial Christmas....Quote:
Originally Posted by mschrisgo2
Agreed! I don't need an excuse to spend money on junk and act stupid! http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/standart/dance2.gif http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/standart/yahoo.gif '
(Actually, I don't mind Halloween--except for the little beggars at the door. A lot of people enjoy an excuse to dress up and party.)
Tooth extraction + traffic school = not so great weekend :|(
A bit too damn much marriage advice on FB lately. Um, if seven people have already shared the same thing you read, you don't need to share it too. Especially if you're not actually married.