What are you up to today? This week?

[heidiiiii]

I am here! I am here!

Just very tired from all the work of the flooded basement. And I woke up with a head cold. So I am just not in the mood for conversation of any kind..LOL

I started the Orchid but then the flood kinda put a hold on that. I will get back to it when it is not so damp in the house. A couple more days of sunshine should fix it.

So I have not fallen off the planet..just onto my couch with a pillow and blanket.

[Lynette Smith]

Well I'm glad that I got back Sunday night. Monday night there was a storm which dumped 6-10" in the mountains. It was bad enough with the 40 mile stretch with blinding snow which didn't stick to the road.

Aileene found the baby sling and I checked online to see how to wear it. Alex prefers to be held and can be quite vocal about it. Luckily William is okay with the swing most of the time.

[Sherry]

Got out of school early today, went by and picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner so I could play. I'm making backsplash tiles for my kitchen, and doing a bit of cleaning in the RL kitchen. The wind is blowing again today, so I need to get out and dampen the spots where GS1 planted his seeds so they don't blow away!

[Wolfie]

Just stopping by to say hello! HELLO!!!!! What have I been doing? Not much!

[Muriel]

Hello Wolfie, we're all thinking of you and sending lots of love!

[AuntDee]

WOLFIE!!!! (Shouted out with glee and happiness). Runs over!! Squeezing you and giving you a big hug ( No mini ones). So glad to hear from you. Still keeping you and Doug in my prayers. Take care. Rita

[Sherry]

Hi, Wolfie! I hope things are getting better for both of you, prayers continue!

[lmgervais]

I'm finally back, too.

My laptop crashed during March Break and it took them three weeks to fix it - at least it was still under warranty! Just got it back yesterday afternoon. However, they wiped out the hard drive (had a back-up of all data files on a portable hard-drive made first, just in case). I've been slowly starting to re-install the programs I use and figure out where everything is/goes. I really hope that I never have to go through this again!

Slowly catching up on the news in the forum.

[Muriel]

Welcome back Liza!

I've been looking at wedding flower ideas. We've got smaller versions of this in ivory painted ceramic pots to go on the tables. Was thinking it might be nice to have bay trees either sides of the entrances to tie it in and quite like the idea of that shape for my wedding bouquet (but in a bright colour) (though do like the ivory too :yes: )

Bed time now though, busy long day today, and busy day tomorrow, though only half day, which is great!

[Muriel]

One of those double post things :yes:

[Sherry]

Babysitting this morning, so will just try to get a little housework done if possible. Two year olds have a way of undoing the housework as fast as you can do it.

[Muriel]

Goodness me! I just tasted the foulest thing! There was an offer of 3 for £3 or something like that with mexican stuff. So got some tortillas, some fahita mix and then wondered about the third thing. Chris doesn't eat tomato, so the sauces weren't really useful, but thought I'd try the guacamole. Now it was in a sqeezy bottle, so didn't have high hopes for it, but gave it a chance. Squirting it out of the bottle produced an amusing doggy doodoo shaped mound. Wish I'd left it at that and not tried it, disgusting taste!!

My colleague came today to see her house Bullwinkle terrace. She did really like it and and is very excited. She brought two of her grandkids along, I think probably 9 and 11 years old or so. They were very interested in it and in my other two houses I had displayed to show off :yes: The girl said she wanted a house and wanted the sweet tin I made for her birthday. The boy was very interested in the house but then the grandma said something about surely he doesn't want a dollhouse does he??? So I very quickly pointed out it didn't have to be a dollhouse, it could be a fire engine station, or a car garage (where they fix cars) or fishing lodge.

After their visit I had a quick lunch and then went to pick up Chris from his warhammer gaming afternoon. Helped him pack up all his stuff and then went to the garden centre to see what lollipop style trees they had. They're rather expensive, so seeing what we can manage. Considered hiring some artifical ones, but they're not cheap or easy to get hold of either. Did see reasonably priced some lavender ones which I really liked, but Chris wanted to think about it for a bit first (well I'd already been thinking about it for half a week so was ready to buy!) So he'll have a think and look around on the internet and then we'll probably get them anyway :o Then dinner and home again in time for new Dr Who. And watching the Golf now.

[pdlnpeabody]

I spent the day at car stealerships today. We are flying my in-laws to Florida from Manila next month and we didn't have enough room for them in our old car. We had a PT Cruiser, which is nice for college students and ravers, but not big enough for a family of 4. Especially if both kids are in car seats. My wife has been wanting a minivan for over a year and pointed out that renting a minivan for most of a month would cost us about $1,100, which is practically a down payment on a used car. Renting also required multiple pick-up and drop-off locations/times during their visit. We went to a dealership on Friday after work, but my wife had to start her night shift, so after driving a few cars and settling on a Kia, they gave her the keys to it and she drove it to work. The kids and I got a ride home from the salesman, but I knew we would be returning it the next morning. First they honored their advertisement of "up to 20% over blue book value of your trade-in" but wanted to add $4,000 on top of the sticker price on the Kia. I protested, so they brought back a new offer- original price advertised for the Kia, but $2,000 less than our current car's value, so they were replacing "6" with a "half-dozen." :yes: What's more, everytime they handed me off to another "associate" the price on the buyer's order increased by $1,000 or more! By the time they presented a contract to sign, the used car had appreciated to $23,900! And to top it all off, the car had scratches and dents! This morning my wife and I went to the credit union before returning the car. We already owed more than our car was worth because we payed way too much for it in the first place, but we didn't have a car or the credit at the time to argue. I wasn't going to let that happen again. After explaining what the dealer was trying to do and asking them to deny the loan, they assisted us in finding the maximum value of the model of car we wanted, then approved us for that amount (just over $17,000). We went to the dealer and I told them we weren't paying more than $16,000 for it. They made us wait for 20 minutes (I don't know what for) so in the middle of the busy showroom I said in a loud voice, "we're not paying over the new car price for a used, scratch and dent. If you don't produce the keys and registration for my car in the next 5 minutes, I'm calling the cops." We got our keys and went across the street. We got the same car (white instead of red) with a few extra miles on it for $16,400!

It was a long day, but my wife is happy and we didn't get ripped off. :o

[KathieB]

Nice work, Jeremy!

I needed to do a reverse phone number lookup the other day. I found a site on line that said they could give me the information but it would cost $1. Okay. I registered. Turned out they couldn't give me the information right then, but said to wait 3 hours and try back, as they were searching their humongous database for me. (Huh? They have it on 3x5 index cards?)

So I wait the three hours and get a message that says sorry, sometimes we just can't get the information. So now they have my $1 and I have a membership that will begin to cost me so much per month after the 30 day "free" introductory membership.

I went to their website and logged onto a live chat line.

I told the rep I wanted to cancel because they had not been able to provide me the information I needed.

Rep: Although our experts have spent several hours investigating your request in as much detail as possible, so far there are not conclusive results. Please allow our experts an additional 72 hours to search out all possibilities for you. Our database consists of over 100 million data entries. Searching a database of this size will take some time. It typically takes 72 hours. (Oh, it's not on 3x5 cards. Must be on clay tablets.)

After the usual attempt to convince me not to cancel, the rep told me that she didn't have the authority to cancel a membership but she had notified her manager of my request.

Rep: You must log into your account after 48 hours and confirm your cancellation by following the instructions that will appear in a RED OUTLINED BOX at the top of the page. Your account will not be cancelled until you take this final step.

Me: It takes 48 hours to cancel a membership? Please cancel it NOW

Rep: I do not have the authority to cancel your account. I apologize for this delay, but this procedure is in place to ensure no cancellation is ever missed.

Me: I see. You are unable to fulfill a promise to provide the information I need so you con me into taking a membership and make ME responsible for cancelling it with your electronic gymnastics. Do I have that right?

Rep: Just a moment please.

Rep (20 seconds later): Ok, I have cancelled your membership effective immediately. Your cancellation number is XXXXX.

Don't you just hate a run-around?

[pin1056]

Helping my mam move house....its torture :o the official move is tuesday and i cant wait!!!

She's 79...stubborn..has far too many 'treasures' and the townhouse she's going into is tiny...great size for her but not all that 'stuff'

Ahh just wait till i'm that age...i'm sure not letting go of my treasures either :yes:

[Muriel]

Today we're having a yummy -not-so-good-for-us- cooked breakfast with reduced fat polish style sausage, bacon, eggs and toast. This afternoon I'm going to meet Mummy, sister and niece at a mall. Mummy's looking for a mother of the bride out fit, sister looking for suitable underwear for the bridesmaid dress, I'll look after niece and hopefully take her to the hobby shop, and hopefully we'll all be successful!

Going to stay overnight at my sisters and then pick up my wedding dress tomorrow morning :yes:

Also gotta finish this Bullwinkle Terrace at some point soon. Getting to the point where I want to work on something else, but need to get it done first (otherwise i'll get too distracted and it'll take months, which wouldn't be fair to the buyer!)

[pdlnpeabody]

Kathie,

You will need to contact your bank and arrange to put a "stop payment" on the account for that company. Otherwise they will take out as much as they want, whenever they want. I have a co-worker who made the mistake of calling one of those "if you call now, we'll double your order for half-price" commercials. She didn't get the product she ordered, but they charged her $50 every month using her credit card information!

[Sherry]

Church this morning and then the kids are coming over for lunch. Steaks on the grill, beans, and a new corn casserole I want to try out. We got a bit of yardwork done yesterday and it is all starting to green up, and looks like a yard again after the winter. Rearranged the patio furniture to make room to move more houseplants out for the summer. I did get my bathroom door half made, though!

[Muriel]

Home again with my dress! Fits lovely. Also got mummy's and sister's outfits sorted yesterday. Had a look at some flower options today (they're expensive!) and got some shoe stretching stuff. Quite a productive weekend, but missing my day at home chilling out and don't really want to work tomorrow :o

[heidiiiii]

I am alive still. LOL

This virus is a son of a you know what. My friend has the same thing and she just found out she has pneumonia. I do not have it that badly. (Thank goodness!) I am doing better and getting out in the yard to do some work. But I cannot concentrate much in the realm of reading or watching tv.

My eyes had acted up with this virus (eye dr said I was not his first call). Day before I got sick, I could hardly read anything. I freaked out. I woke up the next day sick as a dog. But my vision was better.

It is much better now but I have to just take it easy so I do not give myself a migraine.

So I am here but not really here..maybe in a few more days.

[Muriel]

Hope you feel better soon Heidi!

[grazhina]

Today I am doing laundry in my new washing machine. Whoever thought one could get a thrill out of doing laundry? Dirty clothes sheets and towels have been piling up and the pile is whittling down rapidly. I couldn't believe how much it cost to do just a few loads at the laundromat last week. If I had to wash what I've just done at the laundromat it would have cost around $12 just to wash, and I'm not done.

Did I ever mention that my Kenmore toaster seems to be doing a fine job? For those who missed my toaster rant, I bought one recently that started burning toast the second time I used it. I replaced it with the Kenmore from Sears.

Since DH got a little financial windfall he never expected from the company he used to work for, I think I may get myself a little vacuum cleaner for the stairs, a Dirt Devil or something. I'm tired of fighting with my big vacuum while doing the stairs. It's heavy, the hose is awkward, and the brush will melt the carpet if it makes continuous contact with it in one spot. I wonder if Dirt Devil still makes a good product?

Another weird thing.....I've spelling things strangely when I type.

For instance, when I typed 'makes', it came out 'cames'. :o ?????

[Syphon79]

Am pulling another late nighter at the office because the rest of the week I'll be up in western MA. BF's maternal grandmother passed away last Saturday due to cancer and other complications so we're meeting up with his family to attend the funeral on Thursday. BF's devastated so I'm the one talking with his parents about what's being done and relaying the necessary info to him. Figured it'd be best if he hears the rest once we are up in MA and in his parents' company. We're driving up early tomorrow morning, and a cousin of BF's will be riding with us (since she's a college student at American University here in Washington DC).

So have been pulling close to 12 hr shifts since yesterday just so I finish what I can, and train my subs to handle the web/IT tasks while I'm out. And keeping my hands away from pulling chunks of my hair off because now, all the departments are slamming me with web related work orders! So relieved I drove to the office -- don't think I can handle the subway commute from MD back to my apartment in VA if I have stay late.

After today's shift at the office, have to rush home, do laundry, pack, and make sure the pet ratties' cages are cleaned and stocked before their sitter (one of BF's friends) comes to watch them and our place during our absence.

So apologies to everyone -- going to miss reading the entries here for the next few days! :o

[Anna]

Visited the dentist today, so no fun but got through it with flyiung colours which felt great. A whole year til next torment... :o Hopefully!

Hugs

[Muriel]

Well done Anna! I hate going to the dentist!!

Had a busy day at the pharmacy where I trained. In any other pharmacy it would have been quite a horrid day, but with my friends it was fine. Now i'm trying to watch Herbie Fully Loaded, but the picture isn't that great, very bitty. Will have to try another way to watch it! I like films like this.

Should get on with Bullwinkle terrace, but might have the night off I think.