E-mail Survey Conclusion

80% said that that e-mail addresses don’t influence their opinion of a business.

The other two responses each received 10% of the votes:

Yes. Addresses that end in ATT, Verizon, Cox, Comcast, etc. (Service Provider Accounts) don't sound professional to me.

Yes. Addresses that end in Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail (Free Accounts) don't sound professional to me.

Oh well. Either way, I wasn’t planning on changing my e-mail address, lol. I was just wondering what everyone else thought about it. Personally, I think ISP email addresses and free accounts sound less professional, however, I think Gmail is more acceptable than Hotmail or Yahoo. But, I’m biased. I love Gmail and I use it for three different business accounts of mine. I don’t use ISP email EVER because we move so much and it doesn’t make sense for me to use them. I’d be changing my email address every three years or more which isn’t good for business.

Music Sooths the Savage Beast

Last night, I made a run with the hubs to get gas. He came home from his training last night but had to be up at 4:30 this morning to make it back in time which means he can’t get gas on his way. AnyWHO, I was sitting in his car while he pumped the gas and decided to look in his console to stuff some wires back inside of it. (He had his iPod cord and phone charger hanging out of it.) While in there, I noticed some CD cases and decided to see what they were. They were:  Blink 182’s Greatest Hits, a CDR copy of  Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams, Angels & Airwaves’ We Don’t Need to Whisper and Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace. There were also five CD’s in the CD player so I took them out to see what they were: The Jack Johnson CD, a recoded CDR that didn’t have writing on it, Gorillaz’s Demon Days, and LL Cool J’s Todd Smith. What the freaking heck is my point? None of the cases matched up with the CDs that were in the car except for Angels and Airwaves.

It’s been so long since I’ve bought or listened to an actual CD that I couldn’t even begin to guess where the missing CDs and cases are located. Probably in a box in my garage would be my best guess. Since having an iPod, I honestly don’t see the point of buying CDs anymore. I rarely download an entire CD on iTunes but when I do, it’s cheaper than buying an actual CD. I much prefer to listen to previews of tracks and download and pay for the ones that I want instead of buying an entire CD where I might like 2 or 3 tracks on it at best. People that know me best know to buy me iTunes gift cards for my birthday rather than CDs too. Heheh. Did I mention that I got four for my birthday last month?

Now, I’m going to take my long lost CDs and copy the songs that I like on them onto my computer so that I can have them on my iPod. Welcome to the highlight of my day. ;)

Curiosity Killed the Cat

My latest project sparked my curiosity so I created a survey on Survey Monkey to gather some opinions.

When you are dealing with professionals and/or businesses, does their E-mail address affect your opinion of them? What I mean is if a business person’s email is professional@gmail.com versus professional@professionalwebsite.com , does one sound more professional than the other?

I asked this question on Twitter and one response that I got was that Gmail is more acceptable than Hotmail or Yahoo. Seeing as how that’s what I use for my business contacts, I liked that answer, lol.

Anyway, if you could take the time to assuage my curiosity, I’d appreciate it.

Click Here to take survey

Random Meme

I haven’t done one of these in a while and it seemed time. I still have more pet posts, but I have to dig out old snapshots for those.

1. What color is your toothbrush? White

2. Name one person who made you smile today? The youngest

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Watching TV in bed.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Eating lunch.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? Snickers

6. What did you do last night? Played Mario Kart on the DS with the kids, watched some TV, talked on the phone with the Mister.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? “You guys have to leave in 15 minutes.”

8. What is your favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Sierra Mist

10. Do you like your wallet? Sure.

11. What was the last thing you ate? Lunch

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Nope.

13. The last sporting event you watched? Baseball game on TV last night.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?  Butter.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? The Mister.

16. Ever go camping? Not for many years.

17. Do you take vitamins daily?  No.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Nope.

19. Do you have a tan? A little one.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?  Depends on my mood, but yes, sometimes.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? Fountain soda, yes. Canned or bottled, no.

22. What did your last text message say?  Ok.

23. What are you doing tomorrow?  Dunno. The Mister will be coming home for the weekend but we don’t have Friday plans.

24. Have you ever eaten a bug? I’m sure at some point I have.

25. Look to your left, what do you see?  The Mister’s desk.

26. What color is your watch?   Silver and gold.

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia?   Koala bears.

28. What are you wearing right now?   Tank top and shorts.

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?   Drive thru.

30. What is your favorite number?   6.

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?   The Mister.

32. Any plans today?   I gotta get the kids to a thing then I’m vegging until they get home. Then I’m going to make dinner and bake something.

33. How many states have you lived in?   5.

34. Biggest annoyance right now?   The headache I’ve had for 11 days straight.

35. Last song listened to?   Hmm. Something in the car. I don’t remember.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Dunno

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?   I wish.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?   Any of my sandals.

39. Are you jealous of anyone?   No

40. Is anyone jealous of you?   Most likely not.

41. Do you love anyone?   Sure

42. Do any of your friends have children? Most if not all of them do.

43. What do you usually do during the day?   Now that it’s summer, I hang with the kids, watch TV, shove some work in when I can, play games, hang out in the backyard.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? Surprisingly, I’d say “hate” is too strong of a word at the moment.

45. Do you use the word “hello”?   Whenever I answer the phone.

46. What color is your car? Silver.

47. Do you like cats?    Sure do.

48. Are you thinking about someone right now?    No one specific.

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?    Nope. Cedar Point and Kings Island though.

50. How did you get your worst scar?   I had my appendix removed.

Past Pets Hall of Fame Part Four

The next stop through our Hall of Fame takes us to Murray and Patch.

Murray was a Holland Lop and I’m not sure what Patch was. We got Murray at a pet store and we found Patch hopping around the parking lot of our base housing. After asking everyone I could find if they were missing a rabbit, we decided to adopt Patch and socialize him with Murray.

It was a rough go in the beginning with biting and fur flying, but they eventually grew to be good buddies. They were fun rabbits to have and I’m pretty sure we gave them a good home.

Here are a few pictures of them bonding on our back patio. These snapshots were taken in April of 2001.

Enjoying their greens. The black and white bunny on the left is Patch and Murray is on the right.

Patch grooming Murray.

Bunny nuzzling.

Quick Update

After my yelling episode the other night, the kids involved all got into trouble with their parents, mine included. Apparently, I yelled loud enough to be heard across the street, lmao. Oh well. Anyway, the boy who was trying to tug the youngest out of the house wrote her a very sweet note of apology. Whatever his motivation behind the note (whether he took the initiative himself or was told to write it by his parents.) I don’t care. It made the youngest feel really good and made me feel better about the state of parenting in my neighborhood.

I’ll be back later today with some pets! I just have to scan some old photos. Yay!

The Longest Week

I know that I said that I would be back to my Pets Hall of Fame series yesterday. At least I think that’s what I said. But I’ve had a hellacious week and I haven’t gotten back to it yet. I will. Probably tomorrow. I swear to try my best.

I wasn’t even going to say anything until I read Jennifer’s post about her experience at the movies. But now I feel inspired and you all get to listen.

I’m not sleeping. Again. And I’ve had a headache since Monday. Yesterday, I was awake at 3 am and got up out of bed at 4 because I was irritated with trying to get back to sleep. Or maybe I was awake at 2 and up at 3. Who freaking knows at that time of the morning. I get to sleep fine, I just can’t stay asleep. It’s irritating. Blah blah.

Anyway, Tuesday night, both the girls were invited to different friends’ houses for a sleep over. No big deal. I didn’t even have to drive them anywhere which was cool for me. The oldest was told to be home by 5:30 on Wednesday and the youngest was next door so I knew she would be home early. She gives me a call around 9:30 and asks if she and T can come over to our house to play. Sure. Whatever. So they troop over to the house with T’s younger sister, A in tow. Nobody mentioned A coming over too, but what the hell. One more makes little difference in my busy day. So, I tell them to occupy themselves while I was trying to work upstairs in my office. Little did I realize that I was babysitting A and T while their parents went to Jacksonville. Hello!! How do you leave your kids at someone else’s house for a period of time without touching base with them first?? They didn’t roll back into town until 6 last night. By this time, I had fed their kids lunch and dinner and had to deal with constant interruptions to my day while I was trying to freaking work.

THEN!! The girls were outside with some different neighborhood kids playing. The Mister and I were watching TV in our bedroom when we hear the youngest child come into the house yelling, “Leave me alone!!” and crying hysterically. I call her into our room to see what the hell when she told me the other girl, she’s 13 or 14, was tossing her around and the boy, also 10 like the youngest, was trying to pull her out our front door when she was trying to get away. Wtf?!? First of all, you should know that she doesn’t like rough play like that from anybody. Not even her mom and dad. She has a sensory perception thing that makes her overly sensitive to what would be a “normal” situation to other people. But whatever. So I go outside to see what the heck is going on and proceed to yell at the top of my lungs. They really picked a bad day to start a ruckus on my front yard. I yelled at the oldest child to get her butt inside and then yelled at the other kids to take their butts on home. Then I slammed the door hard enough to knock a picture askew. Boy. It was just a bad day. It’s times like those when I have to wonder why I’m the only parent paying attention to yelling and screaming outside. And I would never in a million trillion years drop my kids off at someone else’s house and then leave town for the day without talking to the parents first. What is freaking wrong with people? And lastly, there is a difference between the noises of the terrified and the noises of someone having fun. It shouldn’t be that hard to distinguish.

And to top things off, the Mister checked in for his training yesterday so he’ll be gone for the majority of the summer. It’s not nearly as bad as a deployment but it still sucks royal. It’s 12:30 and I could use a freaking nap.

Drama-Filled Weekend

(Past Pets Hall of Fame will be back tomorrow!!)

We had one heck of a weekend. Where to begin…

Well, Friday night the Mister had a mess night to attend. A mess night is a Marine only event that’s pretty basically an excuse for them to get together and get drunk. They punctuate the evening with ceremony and tradition, but drinking takes the main stage. I’m rolling my eyes as I type this just so ya know.

So, the girls and I decided to have a girls night of our own. We started off by buying junk food to snack on at the grocery store. Then we ordered a pizza for dinner. The oldest child and I played some Phase 10 while the youngest played on her DS. Next we decided to go for a cruise around town with the windows down, the sun roof open, and the music blaring. It was fun, lol. We returned home, played another game of Phase 10, and then sat outside for about an hour and a half watching lightening from storms that were in the area. It was awesome. I had never seen lightening like that. It was virtually nonstop for several hours. Anyway, by this time, it was about 11:30 so I sent the girls to bed and then sat on Facebook waiting for midnight when I could grab my vanity URL, lol. I’m such a nerd. I’m www.facebook.com/trishaj in case you wanted to friend me up.

Saturday, I had to drive the Mister to pick up his car at the restaurant where the mess night was. Yeah. Then we grabbed the girls to go to Jacksonville for some shopping. On the way, we went to the library to return some way overdue books. The road to the library is under construction. They’re widening it or something. Anyway, it’s a mess, narrow, and you can only go about 20-25 mph. The Mister hit a nasty bump in the road that wasn’t even marked. It was a doozy abut nothing seemed wrong so we continued on to Jax. We got home after a couple hours. We got some books at the Barnes and Noble and we got the girls new bathing suits because we planned on making our first trip to the beach this season on Sunday.

Later that evening, we decided to go to Lowes to get some gardening stuff for my tomato, broccoli, and cabbage plants. They’re being attacked by bugs. Anyway, we go to start the car and the lights flashed, then nothing. Crap. The Mister tried turning it over and nothing. The freaking battery is dead. Mind you, the Rav is only three years old so the battery should still be good. We borrowed some jumper cables from the neighbor, charged up the battery and ran it for a bit. Then, the lights started flickering again. The Mister turned it off, tried to restart it, and nothing. We’re figuring we broke the alternator hitting that bump in the road. It’s all very bad timing besides just being damned inconvenient. The Mister has to leave Wednesday for some training in Jacksonville for the summer. He needs a car and I can’t go without one for weeks at a time.

I called the warranty people this morning and if it is, in fact, the alternator, it’ll be covered under the warranty. So, I made arrangements with the Toyota dealer, called for a tow, and it’s now at the dealership getting diagnostic tests run. Our warranty is freaking awesome. It’s going to cover the repairs the towing, and a rental car if we need one.

:(

:(

Having the car broke kinda ruined Sunday so we didn’t do anything other than go to the commissary and tend to my plants.

Past Pets Hall of Fame Part Three

Next stop in the hall of fame takes us to Faline. Faline was our very first rabbit. We got her at a pet store (I know! The shame!) and they claimed she was a Netherland Dwarf. Being unfamiliar with rabbits, I took them at their word. Clearly though, she was a Dutch. We also found out later that she was a he, lol. When we moved to California, I had to give her/him to my aunt who absolutely loves rabbits so I knew that she/he went to a good home. She/he actually lived with us both in Ohio and in Florida but since I flew to California, Faline wasn’t able to come with us.

So, here’s a picture of Faline, the oldest child when she was only two, and myself at our apartment in Pensacola. This was taken in 1998.

Past Pets Hall of Fame Part Two

Next I want to tell you about Cal. Cal was the cat that we got from the Humane Society in Vermont. We originally wanted a cat because we needed a mouser. Before Vermont, we had never had mice before and we tried things like traps and poison to get rid of them but living in the country next to open fields, that stuff did absolutely no good. Plus, the ding dong mice sat on top of the traps and ate the peanut butter out of them. So, we figured a good mouser could be the solution to our mice problems.

Cal was one of the neatest cats that I had ever seen. We visited him a couple times at the shelter before finally deciding he was the cat for us.  He was already a few years old when we got him, but still playful and personable. While still very cat-like, he also liked being around us and he was fun to have.

Unfortunately, he stopped using his litter box and started using our coats, the closets, and laundry baskets to do his business in. His timing was really bad because we were getting ready to move and I, in good conscience, couldn’t move an unpredictable cat into a rental house. Had we had more time, maybe I could have figured out a way to get him to use his litter box again but that wasn’t in the cards. So, Cal went back to the Humane Society. I still feel guilty about it almost three years later so no lectures please.

I would love to have another cat someday but the Mister is pretty against it. I love cats though. They’re gorgeous and graceful and I would really love to have one. Maybe I’ll wait until the Mister  is out of the country on a deployment or something, heheheh. Just kidding.

Anyway, here’s a couple pictures of Cal the cat.

Wasn’t he just gorgeous? Oh. And Cal was an excellent mouser. He completely got rid of our mice problem.

Past Pets Hall of Fame

The Mister e-mailed me this morning asking me if I had a picture of my pet rat, Snickers. He said that a guy he works with doesn’t believe that rats can be nice. The stigma attached to rats and the stereotypes that people attach to them really annoys me. It’s definitely one of my pet (no pun intended) peeves. Rats are highly intelligent, smarter than most dogs, they have a personality, and they are good companions. I got my first rat when the Mister was in Japan. He kept me great company at night when the girls were in bed. When I lost my eyesight in my right eye for a few weeks, it was like he knew. He would sit on my shoulder and lick my right temple all the time. It was so sweet. So, I wanted to share the picture of him that I found for the Mister.

That was Snickers. Wasn’t he pretty? I really miss him. I’ve had several rats since Snickers but none of them were as great as he was. Maybe it was beginners luck, lol.

Things You Can Never Have Too Much Of

First up, we have material things. Everyone needs the everyday stuff in life. Here are the things that I think you can never have too much of:

1. Paper towels
2. Toilet paper
3. Trash bags
4. Laundry detergent
5. Towels
6. Sheets and blankets
7. Books
8. Pens
9. Nail files
10. Scratch pads
11. Tape. Scotch, duct, whatever floats your boat and sticks.
12. Dish soap and/or dishwasher detergent.
13. Chocolate
14. MP3s
15. Nail polish
16. Candles
17. Sandals

Next, we’ll take the more insubstantial things that you can’t necessarily physically touch but stuff you can’t have too much of  nonetheless:

1. Good, honest, true friends.
2. Sunshine and warm weather punctuated with a good, booming thunderstorm every once in a while.
3. Security whether it be financial or otherwise.
4. The love of a good dog and/or cat or any pet for that matter.
5. Love in general.
6. Beauty in music, art, and nature.
7. Music that moves you.
8. Hugs and kisses.
9. Good karma.
10. Good memories.
11. Having your hand held by someone that loves you.
12. Cuddles.

Wanna add to my lists? Feel free to leave a comment or start your own post. It’s Monday. Find the positives in life, lol. ;)

Day Trip to Wilmington

Saturday, we took a drive down to Wilmington, NC. It’s about a two hour drive from our house which is perfect for a Saturday outing. It’s also one of the things on our “to do” list before we move. I’ve been to Wilmington several times over the years and the Mister has been a couple times but the girls had never been.

Our first stop was a tour of the Battleship North Carolina. Both of the girls thought it was neat but Morgan was especially impressed. She enjoyed seeing how the sailors lived their daily lives on the ship. She and the Mister toured the entire ship, top to bottom while the youngest was too afraid to go below deck. I don’t know why. I explained to her that they don’t tie you up and torture you down there, but she refused to go. So, she and I toured the upper deck and enjoyed the views of the Cape Fear River. At one point, I asked her if she thought that alligators lived down there. She figured no but as we were walking around, we saw a placard that said there were indeed two alligators that live in the river near the ship. I never figured we’d actually see either of them, but as the Mister and I leaning over the railing looking in the river, I spotted what I thought was just driftwood but it moved closer toward us and then we could tell that it was an actual alligator!!! I was so excited, lol. It reminded me of the time that we saw two moose alongside the road in New Hampshire. You know they’re out there but you never expect to see one. Seeing the alligator was definitely the highlight of the day.

After that, we drove to Wilmington’s historic river front and walked along the river and did some window shopping. It was pretty muggy that day so we also did a lot of sitting and drinking water. Still, we had a fantastic time and now I can say that I’ve seen an alligator in the wild. Woot!

Here are some pictures. For those of you that are my Facebook friends, these are repeats. If you’re not my Facebook friend, you should be!!

Champagne Tastes

If you’ve ever gone shopping with me, you know that I’m not very much fun. Well, unless I’m shopping for sandals, makeup, books, sunglasses, and/or electronics. Basically, I’m no fun when it comes to shoes, purses, and clothes. There are a couple reasons behind why I suck at shopping.

I hate shopping for clothes for myself because I’m unhappy with my options. If I keep losing weight, I’ll love shopping for clothes again. Once upon a time, the Mister and I used to blow entire paychecks at the mall on clothes. This was before we were married and when we were both still thin. Nowadays, I LOVE buying clothes for my girls because they are both skinny minnies and it' is so fun dressing them in clothes that I wish I could wear.

Shoes, I hate shoes. I think all athletic shoes are ugly. Ugly. That’s it. I have no other word for it. Dress or casual shoes, I have a hard time figuring out what goes with what. I have one pair of healed slides that I love with jeans, my running shoes, and then tons of sandals. That’s it. Well, I  have one pair of black pumps that I wear to funerals. They look like old lady shoes and I hate them. Plus, they remind me of dead people so they don’t come out of my closet. Sandals I can do, other shoes I can’t. Why should it be fun for me to shop for shoes? It isn’t and I don’t recommend you go with me when I do unless you’re willing to pick them out for me. I totally wouldn’t mind that.

Purses. Shopping with me for purses is a painful experience. I know it and I admit it but surprisingly, I love, love, LOVE, purses. Why don’t I like to shop for them? Because I can’t afford what I’d really like to have:  Fendi, Prada, Gucci, D&G. You get the idea. I currently sport a Tommy Hilfiger purse and it’s the closest I’ve come to a designer label. I really like my purse and am happy with it. Still, it’s not a Louis Vuitton. When it comes to purses, I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. Even if I could afford thousand dollar plus bags, I don’t know if I would buy them. I love to drool and fawn over them though. Yup. Drool and fawn. Not on the purses of course. You shouldn’t actually drool on designer label purses. ;)

I’ve decided to indulge just a bit and I got myself a Burberry purse. After buying it, I had immediate buyer’s remorse because I’ve never spent that much money on a purse,but you only live once, right? I also got myself a membership to Bag, Borrow, or Steal. I have some Gucci sunglasses on the way. Yay! I’m very excited. I hope I don’t become one of those addicted impulse shoppers, lol. Even with a membership, it’s still a bit on the pricey side to rent from the website. It would be very easy to overindulge. I promise to try and control myself, heheh.

 

What I’m Watching

It’s been a while since I’ve done a television post so I think now would be a great time with the regular season ending and the summer one starting in a less than two weeks.

First of all, I said a sad farewell to several shows this year. I watched ER from beginning to end. I thought the finale was fabulous. Prison Break is another show I stuck with to the end. This one was tough too. It stopped being fresh after the first season and became very repetitive. Still, I needed to know how it was going to end. Much in the same way that I’ll read a book to the finish no matter how boring it is. Battlestar Galactica ended too. :( Very sad about that. I loved it beginning to end. I have all the seasons except for the last on DVD which I will be buying as soon as it comes out. I’m planning a marathon, lol.

I have a ton of shows that I’m looking forward to watching next season.

• Grey’s Anatomy
• Private Practice (What a cliffhanger!!)
• Chuck
• Bones
• The Big Bang Theory which is the funniest show since Friends and if you know me at all, you know that this is high praise.
• Two and a Half Men
• The Tudors

Summer season shows that I am really excited about are:

• The Closer
• Raising the Bar
• Gene Simmons Family Jewels (heheh)
• Psych

There are other shows that I watch that I’m not sure when they are due back on but I’m waiting on pins and needles.

• Weeds
• Dexter
• Mad Men
• Big Love
• Flipping Out
• Californication
• The United States of Tara
• My Boys (It hasn’t ended yet but I will be sad when it does and I’ll be looking forward to its next season.)

I hope that Medium does okay on CBS since NBC dropped them. Aside from some grizzly murder scenes and pictures, there really isn’t too much about this show that I would consider too risqué for my kids to watch. It doesn’t have bad language and very little sexual situations. Why can’t people get on board with shows that don’t have half dressed people in it?

There are a few other shows that I watch that are my “fillers” which means that I’ll watch them if I remember that they’re or I’ll catch them in reruns.

• American Chopper
• Deadliest Catch
• Myth Busters
• Ghost Hunters
• Little People, Big World
• J&K + 8 (You know what this one is, right? I used to be a big fan but due to recent events, it’s like watching a train wreck. I don’t know how much I’ll be watching of this season.)

If you have any shows that are not on my lists that you would like to recommend that I watch, DON”T!! I watch too much TV as it is, lol. It’s really no wonder why two DVR’s aren’t enough. 

eBay Woes

I’ve never been a big eBay person. I sold a car stereo and speakers on there once a looong time ago but I have never purchased anything before. I don’t know why. I don’t have anything against it, but it’s never really appealed to me either. Probably for the same reasons why I hate garage sales. I don’t consider people’s trash to be my treasure. Anyway, the Mister was trolling eBay for a thing for his motorcycle. He found exactly what he wanted, brand new, and for about $100 less than retail. “Wow!!”, I thought. “Maybe I have underestimated eBay all these years.” Off I went to peruse all the many eBay items. I found a delectable little item that was again, about half price retail and I went for the “Buy Out” option. As soon as I clicked accept, or whatever the final thing is, I notice that my address was wrong. It had my old address instead of my current one. I don’t remember registering for eBay but apparently I had done so at our old house. CRAP!! So I immediately sent a message to the seller asking her to ship my item to my current address and apologized for the confusion. She replied, thanking me for my prompt payment (I did the fast pay with PayPal), and said she would ship it to my current address.

Then, I get another e-mail from her saying that when she was printing my shipping label, she noticed that I have zero feedback (Um yeah. That would be because this is my first eBay purchase) and with my address change request, she didn’t feel safe mailing me my item. So she refunded my payment and asked me to resubmit with the correct address. I’m an eBay noob here, I have no idea how to re-purchase an item on eBay once the auction has already been closed. I explain this to her and tell her that I would be willing just to send her the payment through PayPal using the “goods” option which would totally switch the trust thing since doing it that way would make it easy for her to renege on the transaction. She replied saying that she has over 13,000 positive feedback and that she would never go back on an agreement and that I should correct my address, cancel the refund, and then she would ship my item. Don’t you think that changing my address would be the first thing that I did after my mistake?

I explained to her that I had, in fact, changed my address on eBay but that it had always been correct on PayPal because I use my PayPal account for business purposes and have had a PayPal account since 2000. I also replied and said that there isn’t an option to cancel the refund as far as I can tell and asked her how to do it since she is such an expert on this stuff. I didn’t say the last part but I was thinking it.

She replied and said that she can send the item to whatever address I have on either eBay or PayPal but I had told her they weren’t correct. Didn’t I already explain that they now match??? Didn’t I tell her that the eBay address was incorrect but that I had changed it so that it wouldn’t be?? ARGH!!! And she also said just to send her the money via PayPal. Didn’t I offer to do that like a thousand e-mails ago?!?!?!? 

I am so frustrated at this point that I don’t even want the damn thing anymore but I can’t go back on this because I already agreed to purchase the item. SO, I am going to send her the money using my PayPal account and hope that she sends me my item. Is eBay always like this? I realize that the original problem was my fault but she had my money because she had to freaking REFUND it to me so how was I not going to pay?!?!?! I should have just gone to a ding dang store and paid full price for what I wanted, had it in hand the moment I paid for it, and been happy with it with no worries that the store wouldn’t give it to me after they already had my ding dang money!!!

I won’t say that I will never eBay again. It surely can’t  be as bad as all this or it wouldn’t be as popular as it is. But, I will think long and consider hard before I do. This level of paranoia is hard to handle.

The Ups and Downs of the Week

As I said earlier, the Mister took some leave this week for what it was worth. He ended up having to go into work both Monday and Tuesday. Not all day, but it was still a pretty crappy arrangement and he was still charged those two days of leave even though he worked both days.

Wednesday we had to get up bright and early for an appointment for the youngest child and then on Thursday, they got out of school early.

Friday, the Mister and I took his car in for new tires, an alignment, and an oil change. We dropped it off around 10:30 in the morning and told them we’d be back to pick it up at 5. That should have given them more than enough time I should think. I called at 4:30 to see if they happened to be done early because I figured that it shouldn’t take 6 1/2 hours to do the work and they said they were doing the alignment. I asked how much longer, and they said 30-45 minutes and they would call when it was ready. I was a bit irritated at that answer. 5:30 rolls around and still no call so we decided to go ahead and drive out figuring they’d call on the way. We get there, and the car is still in their garage. Wth?!?! They didn’t get done until about 6:30. 6:30!!!!!!! They had the car for EIGHT hours. I was not a happy customer. But, I didn’t throw a fit and made them recheck my receipt about five times to make sure they didn’t charge me for anything extra which they did because they tried charging us for new valve stems and we don’t need those cuz we have an air pressure monitoring thing. Oh! And I didn’t even tell you the best part, It turns out that we have freaking Lexus tires on our Rav 4. Wanna guess how much those things cost and how hard they were to find? I won’t say how much we paid but I will tell you that Toyota was going to charge us $1200 for them. Of course, a dealership is going to be more expensive than somewhere else so we didn’t pay quite that much but it was still more than we had guessed it was going to be. We have the sport edition Rav so they have high performance tires on them. Go figure. It’s something to keep in mind the next time we’re in the market for a new car.

So, all in all, the Mister had an entirely sucky leave. The only thing that kept it from being a complete loss was that he got his bonus.

Speaking of his bonus, heheh, we did a little shopping during the week too. I already mentioned the new printer and the Wii Fit. Fun stuff. We also went out for just the regular type of shopping. The oldest child and I hit the Ulta store. It’s makeup in case  you’ve never heard of it. I was like a freaking kid in the candy store. It was all so bright, pretty, and colorful. I ended up with some Smashbox lipglosses, some pretty Opi nail polish in bright, summery colors, and some Urban Decay eye shadow.  I think I”m set in the makeup department for a while.

Then we went to Victoria’s Secret for their sale. I needed new bras and it turns out that it’s been so long since I’ve bought new bras, I had forgotten my size. All the ones I got did not fit and so I still do not have any good bras. It was a bit frustrating. The oldest child and I also got some new panties. Fun!

THEN, we went clothes shopping. I think all of us got new clothes except for the Mister. I don’t know why he didn’t get any new clothes. I think it was because he was shopping for tools and a new baseball cap when we were looking at the clothes, lol. That’s a man for ya. He did get a new Padres baseball cap but it makes his head break out in one of his rashes so he can’t wear it very much, heheh. Yes. He’s still getting rashes. Last night was the worst I’ve ever seen them. The entire left side of his back, from his shoulder to his waist, was a crisscross of welts. It was terrible. And I mean terrible. As someone who was prone to eczema as a child, I feel terrible for him.

Anyway, he went back to work yesterday at noon and is now on a 24 hour duty. Yay for him. But, he has Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday so it’s not that bad. The girls and I are going to have a Wii marathon and our traditional “Daddy has Duty Dinner” of turkey tettrazzin. We’ re looking forward to it, lol.

I hope everyone has a great extended weekend. Enjoy the unofficial start to summer. I know I will.

Close Calls

When we lived in California, we did quite a bit of flying to and from Ohio to visit family. One such unforgettable time, we were coming in to land at the airport in Columbus. We were close enough to the ground that we could see cars and stuff below us. Then all of a sudden, the plane pulled up really hard. The engines were as loud as I’ve ever heard them on a  plane and the whole thing shook with the effort. As passengers, we had no idea what was happening. I don’t recall the captain or any of the crew making announcements to explain or being worried. We were all just curious. My dad was there to pick us up and it turns out that he saw the whole thing from the ground. This must’ve been before 9/11 because he wouldn’t have been able to see from baggage claim. Anyway, he told us that they almost landed us on top of another plane. When the plane pulled up at the last second, he said that black smoke poured out of the engines. That’s how fast and how hard we went back up to avoid what could possibly have been a deadly situation. It’s hard to be traumatized by something that I didn’t see or even realize was going on at the time, but that’s probably as close to death as I’ve ever come.

Since living here in North Carolina, the Mister and I have come extremely close to being involved in very bad car accidents. The head on collision with the Mustang that I blogged about a while back (Sorry. I’m too lazy to find and link to the post.) was extremely scary. This weekend, however, was the worst. Once again, we were on route 17 on the way to Greenville. It started raining pretty good just as the forecast had predicted. Suddenly, the car two cars in front of us hit water in the road and completely spun out. Ironically, it was another Mustang. The car spun and hit two other cars, her hood flew off and landed on the opposite side of the road, and she headed straight for us. I will never in a million years forget the sight of that red sports cars spinning so fast that we lost count of how many doughnuts she turned and watching knowing that she was going to hit us and there was nowhere we could go. Then, she hit the ditch and with the rain softening the earth, she finally came to a stop deep in the mud. The driver who was maybe 18 years old, got out of her car shortly after the Mister ran up to her and her passenger to see if they were okay. I was amazed that anyone could get out of that car on their own steam. I had told the girls to stay in the car and not to look because that was how bad the accident seemed. The other cars she hit, one was totalled and the other one had some pretty good front end damage but it had landed in the ditch too and can probably be fixed. Miraculously, everyone involved was not seriously hurt. The girl was eventually taken away by ambulance because her back was sore, and while I haven’t heard anything, I’m pretty sure she’s okay. She was walking around and stuff before she realized that she was in pain. I managed to hold it together enough to tell 911 where we were. That was my first 911 call too, by the way. It rang three times before they answered and it seemed like a lifetime. I felt so bad for that girl. Her car, what was left of it, was a mangled heap and she’s probably going to end up with a few citations. The funny thing, the 911 operator asked me if we were on north or southbound 17. I don’t know directions when I’m not shaking half to death, lol. Also, the lady whose yard we all ended up in, came out of her house in her pajamas and was worried that people would notice, lol. The things people worry about.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my weekend. Well, the oldest is grounded again,but that’s hardly exciting news anymore. She spends more time grounded than ungrounded these days.

Free Movies??

I saw this online from Work at Home Mom Revolution. It sounds like a good deal  to me! There’s a  Regal Cinema pretty close to where I live so there’s a good chance there will be one close to your house too. Go to Regal’s Website to read more about the offer and to check your state for a participating movie theater.

REG Free Family Film Festival Beginning June 2009!
When school’s out, kids around the country visit selected Regal theatres for the Free Family Film Festival. It’s a fun-filled nine weeks of movies for kids and parents. Since 1991, Regal has provided this service to the community, and best of all it’s FREE!

Selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer.

Tickets for our 2009 Free Family Film Festival are exclusively available at select theatres’ box office on the day of the show.

Another Random Thought Kinda Day

The Mister goes on leave tomorrow at noon. I’m really looking forward to having him home. Monday, he has an early morning thing so he’s getting up with the kids and getting them off to school. Yay!! I get to sleep in on a Monday. Woot!

Speaking of getting the kids to school…I think I need anger management therapy or I need to learn how to meditate or I just need a vacation. The carpool lane at the oldest’s school is really getting the better of me. Maybe I’ll take a video of it so you all can better understand why one of these days, I’m going to take my car and ram a bunch of other cars with it. I need a bigger car for that though. The Scion wouldn’t stand up to ramming too many cars, heheh. On a totally serious note, I need to figure out someway to keep my cool because I let perfect strangers (yes, they’re idiots, but strangers all the same) get to me way too much. But at least I’m not the only one. I had a lady get out of her car last week and come up to me to ask why people are so rude in the carpool lane. I didn’t have a good answer for her other than that they are assholes (sorry). I didn’t say that, but I was thinking it.

Also speaking of the kids…The oldest had a project she had to do for math class. She had to go on a “scavenger hunt” to find different geometric lines and shapes to see how they’re used and can be found in real life. She also had to document where she found all the different items. She chose to make a book with illustrations, clippings, and pictures of her loot. She did a decent job of it. I asked her what the other kids did and she said most of them used Power Point and turned in CD’s of their projects, lmao. Geez. She also said some of them made websites of their hunt. I guess I’m a bit stuck in the past because it never occurred to me that a digital project would be acceptable. When she told me that, I said she should have made a blog diary of her hunt. She responded by saying that blogging is my thing, not hers!! I had to laugh. She’s pretty, popular, and other than games, not interested in computers. Sometimes I really wonder if she’s my kid at all.

I received 13 work related e-mails this morning all before 8 am!! Talk about the early bird getting the worm. Who goes to work that early in the morning? Well, besides the Mister, heheh. Don’t regular, civilian-type people work 9-5? Or is that just a rumor?

The more I work, the more I love it. I have no regrets about being a stay at home  mom for 12 years. I raised my kids myself and I’m working at something that I actually like. I’m also working because I want to and not because I have to. Not many people can say any of that. I’m also meeting awesome people, most of whom are other work at home moms, Most importantly, I’m appreciated. Some days, work is the only thing that keeps me sane. It’s something positive to focus my energy on.

Oh! And I downloaded Pocket Tanks on my iPod yesterday!! I was pretty excited about finding it, lol. The Mister and I used to play it on our computers back in California but I had forgotten about it. It’s way fun even on the free version that I downloaded and a great time waster. If you want to check it out for yourself, here’s the link to their website:  http://www.blitwise.com/ptanks.html . Super DX Ball is fun too and another shareware game you can download at their website. I’ve also been playing the heck out of Kingdoms and iMobsters on my iPod too. It’s silly, I know.

I think that’s about it. I have to go and attend to those 13 e-mails. No rest for the wicked.