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Thursday, 17 December 2009

A Happy Post (I promise)

Wow, so much negativity on my blog lately. Sorry for dumping on you guys...hope you're still reading!
I'm happy to say that James has been talking a lot more lately! Right now his favourite word is "hello" (actually, "hewoh"), but he also says "train," "more juice," "please," "car," "cookie," "no no Ana!" (go figure), "hey!" and a host of others. I'm still a bit worried, but significantly less than I was before.
I've been knitting a lot lately, and have gotten myself into more projects than I can possibly finish before Christmas. It's been fun, though, and I'm getting visibly better.
Photography, my other pursuit, is going okay...it's been tough, though, getting used to Manual mode. I've been getting good photos less frequently (I didn't realize until I took this course just how dependant I've been on the camera's automatic functions), but I think that when I do get a good photo it's better than my good Automatic photos. If any of my photographer friends read this, please chime in and tell me if that's normal. I know I said this'd be a positive entry, but I must admit that I've been a bit discouraged by my lack of skill. *sigh* Oh well, practice makes perfect, right? If nothing else, I know I'm good at the editing side of photography, so I guess if I don't get better at taking the photos I could look at making a career out of editing someone else's.
Heh, now that's some fortuosity...or something. When I finished typing that last paragraph, my son came over to me with the remote. I switched the TV on to the Bearenstein Bears, and it just happened to be the one where Brother learns that learning a skill takes patience and lots of practice. Look at me, learning from a kids' show. Well, I guess sometimes we grownups (is that what I am now? when did that happen? ;) ) need reminders like that too.
Anyway, time to get the kids' lunch ready.

Thursday, 10 December 2009

Dumb winter drivers. Rant Warning

Why is it that every single year people are surprised and alarmed at the winter driving conditions here? Seriously, it's ALWAYS been this way, why are you so upset? Moreover, why do you STILL not know how to drive in this??
Yesterday I was on my way to class (last one) and Crowchild was STUPID. People were going 30km/hr or less. Which, you know, would be fine I guess, except for the reason for it: they were all wasting their time spinning their tires on the parts of the road that were already polished to the sheen of black ice by the other drivers. Really?! You couldn't drive eight inches to the right and use the bits that are still shallow, grippy snow? Trust me, shallow snow like that is much less scary than ice. Then there were the ones that DID know that trick and felt it made them bulletproof, so they'd go shooting ahead only to have to slam their brakes and fishtail to a stop when they came to the next set of tire-spinners. Really people, this is not hard: take your time, keep your distance, avoid the icy parts. If you can't manage to do those things, get off the road.
Blargh. I'm a bit pissy today. Sorry about that. I'll post a more positive entry later to make up for it. Right now I need to get out of my pyjamas and put my contacts in. That usually makes me feel better.

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

A sampling from the e-mail I wrote Sears yesterday....

I am sending the e-mail to this address because I keep getting an error message from the website form. I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I am certain it is a problem with the website and not my computer. I want to be sure this issue is heard.
I have now contacted Sears THREE TIMES by phone and once by e-mail (two other e-mails I tried to send from the sears.ca website form returned an error message) and have not received an acceptable reply. On October 16th I ordered $160 worth of giftcards (one for $10, one for $50 and one for $100). They were due to arrive at the Three Hills, AB dropoff location by October 23rd. It is now Nov. 9th and they still have not arrived. Thinking perhaps I simply missed a phonecall or an e-mail telling me my package arrived, I called the Three Hills location and they said my package definitely HAS NOT arrived. I even double-checked my e-mail settings to be sure sears.ca is on my safe list, and sure enough, it is (obviously I received my confirmation e-mails). Every time I have called the Sears Customer Service call centre I have been told to wait for an arbitrary amount of time (24hrs at the first call, three days at the second, and 48hrs at the third). I feel I have been patient enough.
My package is now SEVENTEEN days late AND COUNTING. In seven days it will have been a month since I ordered it. When are we going to do something besides WAIT?? Also, if Sears is unable to deliver my package on the date specified, don't you think I am at least due an e-mail telling me that it's going to be late, so that I'm not sitting here FREAKING OUT because the $160 I sent to my friends seems to have simply vanished off the face of the earth??
....

Well, friends, what would you do in this situation?

Monday, 09 November 2009

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

I don't get out with the kids much these days...I feel kinda guiltly, on one hand, because I know it's good for them to practice being good at the mall and in the grocery store. On the other hand, I feel like it's just added stress for all of us. Maybe they'll get enough experience later, when they have more self-control and can play word games with eachother (Drew and I used to do that all the time...we'd pick a word and figure out all the possible ways to mis-pronounce it) to keep eachother entertained.
Anyway, I have been making an extra effort over the past couple weeks to make sure we get out for a walk to the park at least every couple of days, so hopefully I'm not boring them to death here.
Crap. That break was short-lived. I'd better go see what James is upset about (he's probably trying to make a toy do something it's not meant to do).
I just wanted to say, though, that I won't be online much in the next few weeks because my Photography Level 1 course will be starting. I've also taken up knitting and I have a fairly major project I want to get done in the next few weeks, so it's eating up all my spare time!

Tuesday, 03 November 2009

Okay. I'd really like our netbook back now.
The screen blanked out on one side after just a few weeks of use. Best Buy sent it to HP for servicing almost FIVE weeks ago and it's still not back. Every time we call Best Buy they're like "oh, it's still with HP, there's nothing we can do." Every time I've e-mailed HP they've been like "we need more information." I sent them the full description of the netbook and everything I found on the box that could be important and now they're like "we need the service number on the receipt you got at Best Buy." The receipt is in the Jeep. Which is with Gil at work.

I'm so frickin' tired of this. And seriously, if the information I've given you isn't enough, maybe you should just accept that you lost the damn thing and that it needs to be replaced. Like, yesterday.
I was really hoping I'd have it before my photography course starts. Not looking too good now.