Pet Peeves

I’m Not Afraid of the Dark, But…

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Money Talks, Pet Peeves /

I really hate it when TW gets into “money saving via conserving electricity” mode. It happens a couple of times a year and it makes me nuts.

I’ll leave the room for one minute and come back to find the lights off.

It’s 7pm and she’s turned all of the lights in the house off, except for those in our bedroom — and dammit, I can turn them back on again when I head back to my computer for a spam run or to the cold room to take the dogs out or the laundry room to do the laundry or the kitchen to clean the Ninja that was too hot to clean when I did the rest of the dishes. But I DON’T WANT TO.

It’s annoying. I’m always holding a book and often holding a coffee cup as I pass through the dark rooms. There are dogs underfoot. There are dog toys on the darn floor. Even ONE light left on would be useful. Just one, then I could safely navigate half of the way through the house and hit any other light I needed to hit as I go.

Haven’t we switched to CFLs? Which means it’s cheaper to leave the lights on since odds are high someone’s going to need them within 15 minutes… and the off and on shortens the life of the CFL… Oh shoot. I just looked up. The office lights are not CFL. If I switch them, would she stop turning this light off? Or should I just ride this storm of money saving madness til the end. It probably won’t last long… and I won’t trip over a dog and kill myself in the dark before she gives up on the idea… right?

I’m Not Afraid of the Dark, But… Read More »

People Are Unreasonable

9 Comments / Community Chest, Daily Dose, Money Talks, Pet Peeves /

We went to Target this morning, just to grab some of the Christmas clearance stuff — and found ourselves with an overflowing cart. This is why we don’t go to Target very often and why we never go with a vague list of what we are looking for.

But that’s not what this post is about.

This post is about the woman checking out in front of us. She had a ton of 90% off Christmas clearance stuff and she really flustered the cashier — when something didn’t ring up 90% off, she SWORE it was in the Christmas clearance area and so he kept having to over-ride the price. A couple of times I was tempted to say — no, it was in the area that they are beginning to stock NEXT to the clearance area… but I kept quiet.

She also kept taking things off of the belt saying she’d gotten more than she needed. Sometimes after he’d already scanned some, so she kept asking him to make sure that he’d scanned only the number of items that she really wanted. She was a mess. Really.

At the end, he totaled her up and she insisted he had rung up the wrong price for one item or maybe he had rung an extra one up… he tried to get back to the list of items rung up and… lost the entire thing. Poof. Empty.

The cashier called for help… but no, there was nothing that could be done. The woman was livid. She didn’t have time for this… the floor person (where’s Michelle to tell me what these people are called) offered to ring it all up and have her come back later and just pick it up and pay for it at her convenience. No, she lives a half hour away and did not want to come back.

She decided they should just ring up one item at whatever she believed her total was… $74 and change, though the last total I saw was $89.67 but whatever… the guy said, no I don’t think we can do that. We need a record of exactly what you bought… she asked to speak to the manager.

The dude called the manager, explained what happened, asked if they could just ring up one item… while they waited for the manager to find out if there was a way to retrieve the entire order, the guy said we can offer you a percentage off of this order if we have to ring it all over again.

The woman said fine. I want something for this inconvenience!

The manager came back and said no, we have to ring it all up because we have to know exactly what was sold — and I was saying, “DUH”…

The woman said WELL I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS AND I WANT SOMETHING FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE! and she started to pull items out of the cart back onto the belt.

At which point I said, is it possible for you to re-ring this at customer service since you’ve already held this line for a half hour? The guy said, yes — of course, you’re right, we’ll move to an empty aisle at which point the woman yelled, “FINE BUT I WANT SOMETHING FOR THIS!” as she walked away fuming.

Who would ever believe that you could just ring up some random item for some random amount of money and let someone walk out of the store with hundreds of things. They have an inventory to deal with, ya know? And if she hadn’t been such a butt about her order in the first place, the cashier probably wouldn’t have gotten flustered and hit the wrong darn key and she’d have been out of there in a decent amount of time rather than adding 20 minutes for ranting on top of re-ringing her entire order.

They do not pay those poor Target employees enough to deal with asshole customers — don’t be an asshole at checkout, ‘k?

People Are Unreasonable Read More »

Come On Skeeter! Come on Lola!

Daily Dose, Pet Peeves, Pets /

As I’ve mentioned before, Lola sleeps in her crate in the kitchen – most nights, sort of.

She usually goes right in, all by herself, a good hour before we’re ready to lock her in for the night. Once she’s had her evening cookie and is locked in, six nights out of seven she’ll stay there for exactly four hours and then she’ll bark to be let out.

When it was warm and she barked to be let out, I thought she wanted to go OUTSIDE so I’d get up and take her out. Now that it’s cold, she doesn’t want anything to do with going outside — she wants to go in our room, so I let her in and she lays down on a dog bed and goes to sleep.

Until sunrise. Within two minutes of official sunrise, she’s on the bed licking my face. So — I get up. When it was warm, she got up with me. Now that it’s cold, as soon as I get out of bed, she jumps into my spot and stays there til TW gets up (which can be up to two hours later!)

So yea, Lola sleeps in her crate except when she doesn’t and she forces me out of bed long before I’m ready to get out of bed — most days.

Last night, Lola did not bark to be let out of her crate. I woke up at sunrise myself and realizes there was no Lola. So I rolled over and was just going back to sleep when what do I hear?

Come on Skeeter! Come on Lola!

TW was calling the dogs IN HER SLEEP.

And then what happened? Lola barked to be let out of her damn crate.

So I let her out of her damn crate and what happened?

She jumped on the bed and licked my face so I would get up and she could have MY spot. AGAIN.

I might have pictured someone (or several someones) dead… and thought that on the moon, this would never happen… silly, Merricat. Hmph.

Come On Skeeter! Come on Lola! Read More »

Rearranged

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Personality, Pet Peeves /

TW has been threatening to rearrange furniture and she finally did it.

It made me and Skeeter very nervous.

Neither of us are fans of the furniture moving.

We are both creatures of habit and we like our spaces to stay OUR spaces.

Skeeter will probably go pee on the floor or chew something up.

I’ll just bump into things for awhile. Maybe have a few weird dreams or nightmares.

Gah.

Rearranged Read More »

Airing Another Dirty Little Secret

2 Comments / Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Daily Dose, Personality, Pet Peeves /

Yesterday I confessed to hating Little Golden Books. (I know. I know.) Today, I have a bigger confession. This one makes me really nervous.

Until last year, I hated The Monster at the End of This Book.

I know. I KNOW.

Here’s the problem… while I loved (and still love) Sesame Street, I did not love Little Golden Books. I did not own many Little Golden Books. I did not buy many Little Golden Books for my kids.

The Monster at the End of This Book was published in 1971, (I was 8 and my brother was 4), as a Little Golden Book.

Pshaw.

For most of my life I’ve heard adults rave about how awesome The Monster At the End of This Book is. I’ve seen people I otherwise loved and respected put The Monster at the End of This Book on their favorite books of all times list.

I’ve always rolled my eyes at those people.

ALWAYS.

And then, Starbucks was doing that free song or app of the week thing, (They still do it, but this was back when it was still new and I was excited by those little cards every Tuesday), and The Monster At the End of This Book app was the free app. I shrugged and said what the hell. It’s free. I’ll look at it. I’ll delete it.

Except I did not delete it. I held on to it because the app is cute. And.

Gasp.

The book is cute.

When JMP was born I was very excited because I could play with the app with him some day… and we did that when he was here in January. It was a little dissatisfying for both of us, he was a little young — he’d be better at it now. The app is still on my phone. It’s on my iPad, too. We’ll play with it again someday.

And, I really like The Monster At The End of This Book.

I particularly like that I can buy it in formats other than Little Golden…

Airing Another Dirty Little Secret Read More »

Digital Scrapbooks and Photo Books Can Suckit

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Pet Peeves /

Hmph. Hmph. Hmph.

I love the idea of digital scrapbooks and photo books but I’m really bad at making them. Bad at taking the time to make them AND bad at the actual making of them when I do make time for them.

I made JMP a little tag book type photo book for Christmas. It turned out pretty OK but it was a royal pain in the butt. And not because the site I used had bad tools, they don’t. They have good tools.

I tried making a Blurb book a couple of months ago and cursed them before I made it past the first step. I blamed them but really, it was probably me and my impatient self.

I’ve tried Shutterfly a half dozen times and always given up after about a half hour of frustration.

Yea, it’s me, alright.

I want to just click the pictures and have them all appear neatly organized with no cutesy bubbles around them or headers or funky text boxes. I don’t have time for those funky text boxes and clip arty things.

I did finally finish a book on Shutterfly today made from my 2012 Instagram photos. It was hell. Pure hell. But it was free (except for shipping) and I’m pretty sure when the book arrives, I’m going to love it.

But I don’t think I’m going to do it again, unless I have another free coupon code. I think I’m going to just go over to printstagram and print out the photos I want to use and then drop the suckers into an old fashioned photo album. I just can’t handle the frustration of trying to create a pretty album with all of those pretty templates.

Sheesh.

Digital Scrapbooks and Photo Books Can Suckit Read More »

Goodbye Posterous

1 Comment / Community Chest, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Pet Peeves /

I guess it’s a good thing that I decided to recommit to blogging since Posterous is closing. I’m not quite as annoyed as I would have been if I hadn’t blogged here almost every day for the last three+ months. Still, I loved Posterous.

It kept me going when I just couldn’t manage to write anywhere else.

It made sharing photos from JMP’s birth, with all of you, so much easier.

It made sharing just about anything, with all of you, so much easier.

I’m trying not to blame Twitter for killing Posterous but it’s hard. Very hard. They could have done so much with it…

Darn it.

Goodbye Posterous Read More »

This is Important?

3 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Pet Peeves /

TW: I have to tell you something about Rick Springfield.

Me: I do not want to hear anything about Rick Springfield.

TW: But, it’s important!

Me: I do not want to hear anything about Rick Springfield — go tell the internet.

TW: ….

Me: Fine. Tell me something about Rick Springfield.

TW: You know Rick Springfield?

Me: Yea, I know Rick Springfield. I also know that YOU did not listen to me when I told you to TURN IT OFF this morning.

TW: I heard you!

Me: Yea, but you didn’t turn it OFF.

TW: I don’t really know how to turn the TV off.

Me: CLICK THE POWER BUTTON, ANY POWER BUTTON!

TW: So, you know Rick Springfield? And that guy married to Angelina Jolie?

Me: Brad Pitt.

TW: Yea, him. And that other guy — the one all of the kids like and I sort of hate?

Me: umm, no?

TW: The Pirates of the Caribbean guy?

Me: Johnny Depp

TW: Yea, him. Well they all three must use the same stylist.

Me: ….

That’s what TW calls important. You’re jealous you don’t live with her, right?

This is Important? Read More »

I’m Trying Not to Complain — But Failing

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Pet Peeves /

We might not have snow on the ground, or have had any real snow on the ground, but it’s still freaking cold. I’m trying not to complain because it could be worse but it’s still freaking cold.

And I hate it.

I really hate it.

I also hate it when I’m reading Facebook or Twitter or a blog and someone is complaining because it’s too warm and it doesn’t feel like December. That really, really annoys me and it makes it harder for me NOT to complain about how darn cold it is here. Even though, relatively speaking, it’s not that cold.

Which is what I try to hang onto when I’m freezing my ass off. It’s not that cold. It could be worse. It has been worse. It will be worse.

I’m sitting here shivering at my desk, people, and I’m trying not to complain but… It’s cold.

I’m Trying Not to Complain — But Failing Read More »

I Love Wells Fargo, Even When They Piss Me The Hell Off

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Money Talks, Pet Peeves /

There I was, standing in the shoppette at Great Lakes Naval Station, thinking about all of the things I needed to get done and trying to plan every detail down to the last second so I could get – it – DONE when the clerk asked me to run my debit card through the machine thingy again.

No surprise, this happens a lot at the shoppette, the NEX, and the commissary.

I ran it again.

Declined.

He tried it manually.

Declined.

WTF? I just used it at the gas pump outside, with no problem.

Whatever. It happens. The machine breaks. Wells Fargo breaks. No big deal. I pulled out another card, paid, and grumbled my way to the car.

I pulled out my phone, checked my balance — it was exactly what it should have been, so why the heck was Wells Fargo declining my debit card. Who has time for this on Black Friday, for goodness sakes?

Luckily, I wasn’t planning on doing much shopping — less than $50 at the commissary and I had cash for our Robeks/McDonald’s run. No big deal.

As I was standing in Robeks a half hour later, my phone buzzed — an 800 number, I didn’t pick up. They didn’t leave a voicemail. I called it back and oh hell — Wells Fargo Fraud Prevention or Protection or whatever they call that department.

Figures. They decided to question my charges on Black Friday? How inconvenient could that have been if I was a different person or in a different financial situation?

Their nice little recording thingy had me verify my last five charges:

1) Evanston Maid Pro (a cleaning service in Evanston, Il) for $XX. The recording actually says these things.
2) Clarks Shoes (a shoe store in Somewhere, MA) for $XXX.
3) Toms Shoes (a shoe store in Somewhere, CA) for $XX.
4) A denied charge (at the Great Lakes< ILL NEX shoppette) for $XX 5) Amazon.com (a bookstore in Washington) for $XXX (I chuckled at Amazon still being called a bookstore, lol) I verified that all of those charges were MINE (for godsakes) and they agreed to let me use my debit card to buy more of the things, which was nice of them since it's my darn debit card and I have a lot of kids, a puppy, and a grandson to shop for. I do love my bank but damn that was annoying.

I Love Wells Fargo, Even When They Piss Me The Hell Off Read More »