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Tuesday, June 8th, 2004
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7:34 pm
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| Wednesday, May 29th, 2002
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5:56 pm
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The post office called today to tell me that my tree is in and would I like to come pick it up because she was not sure if the carrier could deliver it tomorrow. Tree? We got all our trees in the ground a month ago and the only thing I'm still expecting to be delivered it my asparagus. I'm guessing it's not a 5-foot-tall asparagus, so I drive up to the PO to pick it up. Sure enough, it's the exact same order we already received a month ago from Gurneys.
So I sit down at the computer and go back through all my receipts to see if we've been charged twice before I call them. If they don't charge me twice, we may as well keep the trees and not tell them they screwed up. Well, found two amazing things. First, we haven't even been charged once. Second, apparently our asparagus and two fern-leaf bleeding hearts were shipped back in April, but I never got it. I checked the tracking number and was told no such number exists. I thought that might be because it was so old, but I checked the package that was shipped back in March and that tracking number is still active in the system. And the weird thing is that except for this latest invoice (today's), all the other invoices list the asparagus and bleeding hearts as being back ordered.
I tried logging into their site to check the status of my order, and they cannot find my email in the system. Wtf? I placed the order online! So I sent them an email. Their customer service # is long distance and I don't want to call them to tell them they screwed up and mail our trees twice, unless they charge us twice. But so far they haven't charged us for the trees they shipped in April. So I think we might be safe to put these in the ground. Lord knows where though. I wasn't expecting four more trees. Sheesh, when it rains it pours (or some more applicable saying) :P
current mood:  confused
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(9 songs | sing a song)
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| Monday, May 27th, 2002
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1:38 pm
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Just got an email from a friend I had a falling out with last fall. He's in the navy! and is doing well. And he's really sorry for what happened. He didn't say he still wants to be friends, but why else would he have emailed me. Somehow this makes me feel better, even though I know I'll probably never be able to see him in person or have much contact with him again. That would be too painful for both of us. But I'm glad to know he's doing well and that he's not mad at me any more.
current mood:  hopeful
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(sing a song)
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| Monday, May 20th, 2002
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4:03 pm - Update
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Dave just called from work to say that he has to go back to Pennys to pick out something different for my birthday. They called to say they could not order whatever he had picked in the white gold because that item is no longer made. Apparently that's why he got such a good deal on it. So he's going there over his lunch hour to pick out something else.
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(sing a song)
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10:13 am
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Whatever Dave ordered for me for my birthday cost $106.49 from JCPenny :) I know it's jewelry, that's what he always gets me. He orders it well in advance (my birthday's not till July) because he always gets white gold. And I think it's a ring because he asked what happened to the piece of paper I wrote all my ring sizes on :) I also know it's not my diamond that he promised me forever ago, because it had better not be only a hundred dollar diamond.
current mood:  amused
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(sing a song)
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| Wednesday, May 15th, 2002
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1:00 pm
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The chickens have been picking on each other and I think it's because they are too crowded. I'm feeling guilty about that. Two have been picked bloody and I have them separated for now. I'm working on cleaning out their larger enclosure today and making it draft-free, since I didn't think we'd be putting them in there for another two weeks. Live and learn. It's hot, sweaty work.
In most excellent news, we have a pair of kestrels nesting out by the garden. I've heard them the last few evenings when we were up there but couldn't tell what they were. Yesterday I saw them going in and out of the nest box, then brought up my binoculars and made a positive id. I even got to see one bring the other one a mouse. I know there are tons of mice in the field up at the garden, so I'm really glad they are staying :)
current mood:  busy
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(2 songs | sing a song)
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| Monday, May 13th, 2002
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12:47 pm
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Apparently I have a very high pain tolerance ;) At least according to my new massage therapist. I went in for a deep tissue massage since I have been having a muscle spasm/cramp/charlie horse in my neck since Thursday. That in itself is very painful and I've been dosing with tylenol quite often. The massage felt wonderful (I will be going back) except for the parts that were quite uncomfortable. But it didn't make my cry, which I was afraid it would since the muscles are so tight. The therapist kept saying "wow" which I guess is bad ;P
current mood:  sore
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(sing a song)
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| Saturday, May 11th, 2002
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4:35 pm - Severe muscle spasm
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So, I had to get up Wednesday morning at 4:30 am to go with Dave down to the cities for his continuing education. His parents came up the night before and we had dinner together, they stayed the night and stayed to dog and chicken-sit on Wednesday while we were gone. It was a lot of driving, but Dave did most of it and we had a good time. Got home exhausted, then the Weight Watchers team leader called to ask if I could work Thursday morning. I said sure. So I had to get up at 6 am on Thursday.
I woke up with a kink in my neck. Not too unusual, but this had kind of a knot in the muscle that feels like a lump through the skin where my skull attaches to my neck. I figured it was just stress and lack of sleep.
Yesterday I took it easy, got to bed early, slept in. Woke up with this knot on my head. Not only the small bump, but a real knot above it on the muscles attached to my skull. Again, I figured stress and maybe it would go away on its own. I applied heat and took Tylenol, and moving around some and stretching it seemed to help. Last night I went to bed and laid on the heating pad, only to discover it had stopped heating. Bad timing!
Woke up this morning with the knot worse than ever. I probably should have gone to my chiropractor yesterday, but I figured it would resolve itself. I felt a little silly going to a doctor about it, figuring there's not much anyone can do. But I called and talked to a nurse and she seemed to feel it was worth having checked out.
So I went to see a doctor, not my usual doc since he's not there on Saturdays. Turns out the hard round lump I can feel is actually a lymph node. The muscles that attach to my skull are in spasm and they are deep under the skin, with this node lying on top of them. Normally you cannot feel this node, but the underlying muscles have shoved it to the surface. All the muscles in that side of my neck are in spasm. Ugh! She recommended ibuprofen, moist heat, and deep tissue massage. I've been doing the first two and have an appointment for the third on Monday morning.
Luckily this isn't really causing headaches, but my neck is stiff and sore and it hurts to move it in certain ways. But in a way it is a relief to know it isn't anything serious. I wish I knew what had caused it in the first place though.
current mood: sore
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(2 songs | sing a song)
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| Sunday, May 5th, 2002
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4:12 pm - Chickens & morels!
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Picked up all the stuff for the chickens and geese on Thursday. $125 for feed, litter, feeding trough, waterer, heat lamp, thermometer, and a stock tank. And a few other things not chicken related (plus some chicken wire, which I won't need till later). Then Friday we went and got the actual birds. We ended up with a baker's dozen — 13 for the price of 12, and two geese. I think one goose is a White Embden and the other is probably a Toulouse or a Buff. They were in the "assorted goslings" bin. And the chickens are all Cornish meat birds. So far taking care of them has been a snap, although I wonder if they will ever get used to me and not freak out when I reach my hands in their pen. I hope so because eventually I will be letting them outside during the day and putting them back in at night and they will need to be used to people.
Thursday Dave and his dad cut wood in the morning then went looking for a trout stream in the afternoon. They never did find the stream, but they found a huge patch of morel mushrooms! They picked a bunch as it was getting dark, then Dave and I went out Friday morning and picked a ton more. And Dave went back out last night and picked even more after the rain yesterday. I think we got about a gallon total. So far we've had steak with sauteed mushrooms on Friday, and pheasant & mushroom cream sauce over pasta last night. Just the thought it making me hungry. We'll probably clean the rest of them up and dehydrate some of them tonite.
We have been working in the garden all weekend. Dave got a bunch of it turned over and some of it hoed, and I raked. It's hard because it's been raining off and on. Yesterday we planted two blueberry bushes, and today we planted two apricot trees and one pear tree. I had my seedling onions, shallots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and kohlrabi outside hardening off when it started to rain, and then hail. It might have been freezing rain, it was like small hail. So I had to run put those back inside. But we got a lot done, so that feels good.
What else? Oh, we had great sex last night, then got into a huge fight right afterward. It was so stupid. I mentioned to Dave that instead of taking Monday off I would take Tuesday off instead so I could clean the house on Monday. He freaked out because he thought I should be planting the garden instead of either cleaning the house or taking a day off. And I got pissed because he said I shouldn't take a day off until everything was done. How ridiculous is that? It is impossible to have everything done. So, we had a huge fight. Then he went and picked morels while I cleaned the house last night, then he apologized when he got back and admitted that he was being unreasonable and of course I should be able to take a day off every week whether everything was done or not.
I just hope this summer doesn't turn into a repeat of last summer where it seemed that he was pissed off all the time. I am really trying very hard to treat staying home full time like a full time job. I know I didn't last summer, but I'm making an effort here. And I'm off all my medication now, so that doesn't make things any easier. Yesterday I felt like I had lead weights on all my limbs. Today is better, and I'm sure every day will get better as my body gets used to not being on the Wellbutrin any more.
current mood:  accomplished
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(2 songs | sing a song)
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| Sunday, April 28th, 2002
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12:11 pm - Procrastination
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Lately I've been so good at not getting a damn thing done. And I've had a headache for a freaking week. I just cannot take this any more. Nothing works (ibuprofen, tylenol, aleve, combinations, multiple doses). I went to the chiropractor on Monday and it's actually been worse since then. So I'm reluctant to go back, but thinking I must.
Last night I laid on an ice pack for about an hour, then got up to go to the bathroom and couldn't walk in a straight line. I literally almost walked into the door frame instead of through the door, had to stop and realign myself, then almost walked into the bathroom door frame. My trajectory was about 15 degrees off. Really weird. I didn't feel dizzy though. I suppose it was from freezing half of my neck. Must have numbed the nerves or something. Didn't really help the headache though.
Yesterday was my last dose of Wellbutrin. I'm officially off it now. Having my period right at this point is not helping. I feel like a lump.
But at least I took a long walk in the rain with the dog yesterday, and that felt good. Dave thinks I haven't had as much energy because I've stopped walking. That could be so. It got so muddy. But I've found a new way to go that's not too wet, even though it's longer and I have to turn around and go back the same way instead of a circle. But I can't walk through the swamp any more cause it's not frozen. We put up three grouse and four wood ducks yesterday :) There've been a lot of ducks, and one lone canada goose hanging out here and eating corn out of the back yard.
And, I painted my toenails "pure chrome" yesterday. So now they are shiny and silver.
Must shower, dress, do laundry, plant tomato and eggplant seeds, and dig stakes out of the garage, before Dave gets home. And I should run the vacuum over the floors real quick, and change the cat box.
current mood:  exhausted
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(sing a song)
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| Saturday, April 20th, 2002
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4:30 pm
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I had that time between eating something and being full, where you still feel hungry even though you just ate.
I'm procrastinating going into town and picking up a carpet shampooing machine. I better get my ass in gear if I want to get this done today. It will be a total surprise for Dave because he doesn't know I was planning on doing this myself. He just doesn't have any time to help me with it, and since he was going to be gone this weekend I thought I might as well do it myself. I think I can shove the big sofa out of the way myself and get most of the living room and the bedroom, where the carpets are worst.
I already vacuumed and mopped. Just had a sandwich and now it's time to go...
Oh, and this album really kicks ass. I think I have so many cds that I got just for one song and that's really the only song on the whole album that I like. Then there are a few, like this one, that I got just for one song, and the whole album is just awesome.
current mood: ambitious
current music: Nickelback - Where Do I Hide
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(sing a song)
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| Monday, April 15th, 2002
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2:39 pm - Had such a great time yesterday
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I did get most of the house cleaned, but not the bathroom and I didn't mop. So I suppose I should do that today. We stayed up late last night, so I let myself sleep until 12:30 today. Probably not a good idea as then I woke up with a headache and now I have no motivation to do a damn thing today. But it's so nice out, I'm sure if I head out I will feel like doing something.
Headed over to our friends' house at 4, and actually were the first ones there, although someone pulled in right after we did. C had said there would be four or five couples, but there were more like 20 people there. But it was great because everyone had similar interests to us and we didn't feel like we stuck out like sore thumbs, like we usually do. There was a good mix of people with kids and people without, so I didn't feel left out because we don't. There were a lot of medical professionals there, but not much shop talk, and Dave didn't feel intimidated. Almost everyone gardened or raised animals or was outdoorsy in some way, without being ultra-vegetarian or anything. Lots of hunters and such.
We had so much fun. We met a couple of people who were good friends with the people we bought our house from. Two of which had actually stopped over and left stuff for us at one time or another. The gal who had left a pumpkin for us was really glad to hear that we are using the huge garden and that we ate the pumpkin :)
I think I got to talk to almost everyone who was there. And I think I got almost everyone's names. I figured I'd give C a call today or tomorrow to thank her for inviting us and ask her on the names I'm not sure of. We'd definitely like to get to know some of these people better. Dave was even talking about maybe having a pig roast this summer and inviting the same crowd! And he doesn't like crowds. But we were both so relaxed, and I didn't feel shy at all. We didn't even spend much time together.
It was a pot luck, so I made a loaf of fresh French bread and Dave made his homemade baked beans. There were some beans left, but not much, and the bread was entirely gone. And there were lots of really nummy dishes there. No one doubled up at all, and no one brought potato salad, so I could have done that after all. But now isn't the best time of year for that anyway. Once the garden is up and going it will be much easier to do this kind of thing.
C and T have their chickens now, and they are getting their puppy next week :) We're going to wait to get our chickens until May 1st, mostly because we don't have a nifty chicken coop like they do. I have a little bit of house envy. Their house has a freestanding fireplace, and a lofted great room, and sky lights. But it's also pretty small, and they only have 5 acres. They have a barn though, and a chicken coop. Dave has been talking about turning our pole shed into a chicken coop. If he does, more power to him. Personally, I doubt it. He hasn't managed to hang a coat rack in the mud room, and we've lived here for a year and a half.
So, we stayed until about 7 or so. Pretty much everyone left about the same time, although we were one of the last ones to leave. Then on the way home we noticed that the neighbor was burning, so we stopped by to say hi. We gave him permission to burn the area right next to our property line, and said it wouldn't be a big deal if it went over the line a bit. I guess the people who used to own this place had called the fire department once on him because the fire went over the line. But it's pretty wet and swampy stuff, so I can't see how it would go too far. He had a couple other neighbors helping, so we stayed and chatted for a while. Then after dark we walked back down there to see how they were doing. Then back here to watch tv, and to bed late. All in all, a very good day that we just did not want to end :)
And to think, it all started with getting up early and having sex. I might have to go for more of this morning sex, even though I'm not much of a morning person ;)
current mood:  happy
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(2 songs | sing a song)
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| Sunday, April 14th, 2002
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12:36 pm - Busy day
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It's just gorgeous out today. I have the whole house open to air out, and I'm going laundry. Of course, I'm also supposed to be cleaning the house, but I'm sitting here at the computer instead ;) I'm disguising the fact that I'm goofing off by eating cottage cheese.
Got up early this morning to spend some time with Dave before he went in to work, since he didn't have to go in till 11. We made love, then took a little walk. The tulips are coming up and one crocus is getting ready to bloom. Maybe tomorrow if the weather is nice I'll plant those lily bulbs and hostas that I bought. Yesterday I picked some pussy willows for a bouquet, just as it started to rain.
Today is laundry and cleaning the house day while Dave's at work. I'm also making a loaf of french bread to bring over to friends this afternoon for a pot luck. I'm looking forward to that. We're going to meet four or five other couples, so that should be fun :)
current mood:  excited
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(sing a song)
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| Thursday, April 11th, 2002
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6:57 pm - Frustration at Walmart
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Fuck. I went to Walmart today to get some red t-shirts for Dave. (Yes, Target does not have truly red t-shirts, although red is the required uniform color.) Since I was there I thought I'd look quickly to see if they had Lenny Kravitz Greatest Hits cd on sale, since I saw it was on sale at KMart, and Walmart usually matches their prices.
Sure enough, a little sign in the cd rack said it was on sale for $9.88. Took it up to the checkout, where it rang in at $14.88. Told the cashier that was wrong, so she walked back to electronics (instead of calling, for some reason) and finally dragged her fat ass back to the lane five minutes later, to tell me it was not on sale. I told her to take it off, paid for my t-shirts, and asked for the cd to take back to electronics and talk to someone there.
Instead of handing it to me, she turned off her lane light and walked back with me. I went straight to the bin and pulled out the sign and showed her how it said "Lenny Kravitz Greatest Hits $9.88." She showed it to the woman in electronics, who said it was $14.88. I asked why there was a sign there saying it was on sale. "It isn't supposed to be there," she says. WTF? Why put out a sale sign for something that isn't on sale.
So I told her that KMart had it on sale and don't they match their competitor's prices. She asked if I had their flyer, to which I replied no. I think she figured out I was going to be a pain in the ass until I got it at the reduced price, cause she says to the cashier (who was still with me) "Go ahead and give it to her this one time."
The cashier asks me "Do you still want it?" and I said yes. We trooped back up front, she rang it up and said "That will be $15.85." And I told her that wasn't right, she was supposed to ring it up at the sale price. She pulls it out of the bag and shows me the sticker that says $14.88 and tells me that's the price. I wanted to scream! I reminded her that the woman in electronics told her to give it to me at the sale price. She said "Oh, I didn't hear that." I thought we were going to have to trudge back there again, but she actually rang it up for $9.88 without any further argument.
It just baffles me how stores deal with things like sale signs and try to argue with you that the sale sign doesn't say what it does or for some reason doesn't apply to the item that's right next to the sign. I could understand if it had an expiration date on it or something, but it didn't.
I had this same experience on Friday when my mom took me to Pennys to buy me some jeans. They were having a "store-wide sale" where you got a candy bar and opened the wrapper to see if you got a 35%, 25% or 20% discount on regular prices, or anything on sale was an extra 10% off. I picked out two pair of levis, only to find out that my 35% off coupon wasn't good on them. Even though the sign was right next to them! They were "value right" items, meaning that it was the everyday low price and exempt from sales. They were $29.99/pair, which isn't a bad price for Levis. But if that's the case, why put the damn sale sign right next to them? Or, better yet, why not put out a sign indicating that they are value right items and exempt from the sale? That way I could decide whether or not I wanted to pay $29.99/pair before I even tried them on.
That kind of stuff totally pisses me off.
current mood:  frustrated
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(3 songs | sing a song)
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9:08 am
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My cat is so weird. He begs every time I feed my fish. He loves to eat fish food :P
current mood:  weird
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(1 song | sing a song)
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| Wednesday, April 3rd, 2002
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11:00 am - Yahoo to stop adult groups
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| Tuesday, April 2nd, 2002
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6:07 pm - I just ate an entire box...
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...of sugar-free cook 'n serve jello pudding. Chocolate. Oh well, it's better than killing your husband. Although it still might come to that. We need some serious alone time. At least, he really needs to leave me alone! He has been in a mood ever since we got back from vacation, and he's looking for every excuse to blame it on me.
current mood:  aggravated
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(sing a song)
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12:22 pm
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Lots of vivid dreams last night. Now I can only remember bits and pieces. I wonder if this is because I'm tapering off my Wellbutrin.
Also, I finally figured out that you can do a search on ebay and exclude certain words. Don't know why I never looked before. I've always thought it would be a great feature, and apparently it's been there all along.
current mood: doh
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(sing a song)
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12:01 pm
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I'm becoming a blonde. Oh, I already am blonde. Ok, I'm becoming blonder. Well, I'm blondening my roots ;) Hee hee.
In other news, Dave was home sick from work yesterday and drank an entire bottle of Kaopectate. Poor guy. But he was driving me crazy. Every time I turned around he was asking me what I was going to do next and then five minutes later asking me when I was going to do it. I just don't work that way. I get a lot done in a day, but not in an organized fashion. Grrr. I'm glad he's not coming home until 2 today, I think.
And also, ![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20041122122901im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ana's birthday is coming up on April 18th! I've changed the ![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20041122122901im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) anagift community to be open membership to encourage more members. If you are interested in sending ana a gift for her birthday, or whenever, feel free to join. There is no obligation to send gifts if you join. The whole idea is to have fun. No one will be allowed to rip on ana, and I'm not soliciting for her.
See my latest post here.
current mood: tingly head
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(sing a song)
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| Monday, April 1st, 2002
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11:38 am - I can now receive message with the words "fuck" or "penis" in them
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Here is my email to the company explaining the situation:
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 11:32:44 -0600
To: info@mmi-internet.com
Subject: global fubar, i mean filter, on email
Please forward to someone in charge:
This is [email]. It came to my attention over the weekend that I was not receiving some messages that had been sent to my email account. After some investigation, I discovered it was because those message contained certain words that appeared to trigger a filter that was causing the messages to be immediately moved into a "deleted" folder on your server, instead of into my inbox. Because I use a program to check my email via a pop3 interface (Eudora), and it only checks for new mail in my inbox, it appeared that those messages were not being received, nor were they being bounced back to the sender. Among the not allowed words were "fuck" and "penis."
Upon calling technical support this morning and speaking with Bill, I found out that a global filter had indeed been set up on all MMI email accounts to exclude those words. Bill was unaware of this development. I know that it has been going on since at least February 8, 2002, since that is the date of the first message in my deleted folder. After doing some checking, he found that this filter had been set up due to some complaints, but that it should only have been affecting the duluth.com domain.
As you can see, I use the grandrapidsmn.com domain. Apparently, someone screwed up and applied the filter to everyone who uses MMI for their email.
I strongly suggest that you find out who is responsible for this reprehensible act. I cannot believe that a major ISP such as yourself would stoop to censoring customer email, without the express permission of the customer and the knowledge of your own technical support people.
Once I became aware of the problem and contacted you, it was quickly resolved, and I appreciate that. However, I don't appreciate the fact that my mail had been censored since the beginning of February without my knowledge or consent. If a friend hadn't contacted me to find out why I hadn't responded to her important email, and if I hadn't been persistent in investigating why I wasn't receiving her email, I might never have found out.
I think that you should send out a general notice to everyone who has your service to inform them of this error and APOLOGIZE. I wouldn't be surprised if you lost a lot of customers after this screw up, but in a show of good faith I think you should own up to your own mistakes. Luckily, I have received nothing but excellent service from you, and I am satisfied with the resolution of this issue, so I will remain an MMI Internet customer. But if something like this happens again, I won't hesitate to take my business elsewhere, and inform as many people as possible about this incident.
I am sending this to a "general" email address, so I hope whomever receives it forwards it to the appropriate person(s) for a proper response.
Thank you,
current mood:  angry
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(2 songs | sing a song)
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