R.I.P. Customer Service

Customer service has died. I miss it. It seems like nowadays nothing works and nobody cares to do anything about it.

Husband is on his 3rd cell phone in 6 months. AT&T refuses to give him a different phone, they don't offer us any time w/o service credit nor would they waive the $15 express shipping fee so we had one cell phone for 3 days.

We are *always* having problems with our home phone line. (which is once again, AT&T) They've had to rerun the line once and they are always "having a problem in your area, it should be fixed in the next 36 hours"... If we weren't paying only $10 a month (we get a really discounted package) for our phone I would cancel the service. So f-ing unreliable.

My love affair with Barnes and Noble is starting to wear thin. You would think after all the books I've purchased with my membership that they would actually have personalized recommendations for me to browse. Amazon does and I've barely purchased from them. You would also think I'd be able to personalize the type of e-mails I want from them, but again it's the most limited service I've ever seen. Their website doesn't work half the time... You call their customer service line and that's a whole different nightmare.

We all know Yahoo is sinking... I've had to switch my entire e-mail service because their spam guards are out of control. They let 360 die. And even though I don't have to pay for my Flickr account I'm kinda mad at them too (since they are now part of Yahoo/AT&T they get to be included in this rant) I hate their organizing system. I deleted all my sets because I wanted to reorganize my files but with over 1,000 files this seems almost impossible given what tools they have available. I have half a mind to delete all my files and start from scratch but I'm not motivated enough. For now my account sits neglected and unorganized.

Best Buy sucks. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Their employees just don't care. I nicely asked a guy to help me find a game and he starts sighing and grumbling repeatedly asking me what the name was and eventually passed me off onto another guy. I get so angry everytime I go in there. You can never find anyone when you need them but if you're just browsing they are like vultures. I am more knowledgeable then their Geek Squad employees.

I don't enjoy eating out anymore. I can't remember the last time I went out and had really good service.

Maybe it's just me but I've always taken pride in my work (when I've been employeed anyway). I never liked to do anything half-assed. I always tried to be polite and helpful when dealing with the public even when they got nasty with me. But maybe my parents just raised me right.

Case of the Mondays...

Is anyone else having issues with Firefox crashing all the time? Good grief. I updated to the newest version and at first it just kept thinking it crashed when I shut it down but today it's actually crashing. What a pain. I'm also upset that Netflix doesn't support Firefox. I don't like using IE.

Which brings me to the fact that Husband and I now have a Netflix account. We were piggy-backing on his youngest brother's account but then he had to go and decide he couldn't afford it anymore. But I figure if it keeps us from buying new releases every week then we're saving money in the long run. Besides I refuse to own a copy of Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanoma Bay. (Have I mentioned Husband has questionable taste in movies?) Now if we could just agree on what to rate movies life would be perfect.

My birthday is exactly 2 weeks from today. I fail to be excited.

I had an interview today. It wasn't anything exciting. I don't feel great about it but I don't feel bad about it either. I just don't like the idea of a 20+ minute commute if I was to get the position. Maybe I'll know something in a few days.

We got Guitar Hero Aerosmith on Sunday. Now let me preface this with the fact that I *love*adore* Aerosmith. I would kill to see them in concert. That being said I do not like this game, at all. I hate the way they set it up. And the way they animated Steven Tyler... ew. I'm disappointed. The only highlight is when they actually get to a good song I can sing along.

The Starbucks ban is still going strong. As is the book buying ban. I've gotten through a couple of my half-read books which is nice.

The migraines are coming back though which is unfortunate. I'm not entirely sure what is causing it. I know that several times when I've gotten them I'll look in the mirror and notice a popped blood vessel in my eye. I think my eyes are out to get me.

I'm also ridiculously excited for the new X-Files movie. I also have all 9 seasons of it in our Netflix queue.

I suppose that's all for now.

Going, Going...almost Gone.

Husband's 1979 2nd Gen RX7 will finally be leaving my backyard tomorrow. Hip Hip Horray! Husband blew the engine on it shortly before we got married... 4 years ago. It hasn't moved the entire time. He has finally given up hope that he will actually ever fix it. One of his co-workers agreed to take it off our hands.
Yippie!

Welcome to Greensburg...

I've been watching the new Planet Green fairly often since it's premiere. Some of their programming is great (Renovation Nation, Wasted, Living with Ed...) and some are questionable (Hollywood Green, Supper Club, etc...) and then there's Greensburg. I was sobbing the entire first 18ish minutes of the premiere episode. If you don't know the backstory of what happened in Greensburg, Kansas let me insert a little Wikipedia knowledge here for you:

"At 9:45 p.m. on May 4^th 2007, Greensburg was hit by an EF5 tornado. The tornado was estimated to be 1.7 miles in width and traveled for nearly 22 miles. Ninety-five percent of the city was confirmed to be destroyed, with the other five percent being severely damaged. The National Weather Service estimated winds of the tornado to reach 205 mph. This was the first tornado to ever be rated EF5 since the update of the Fujita scale.

After the tornado, the city council passed a resolution stating that all city building would be built to LEED - platinum standards, making it the first city in the nation to do so. Greensburg is rebuilding as a "green" town, with the help of the non-profit organization created to help the residents learn about and implement the green living initiative."

I realize I've been lucky in my life. I've lived in "Tornado Alley" my entire life and *knock on wood* have yet to live through a direct tornado hit. I can only hope I'll stay that lucky.

I'm fascinated by this show. To see how hope and innovation can come from despair. It'll be interesting to see how it all works out in the end.

Bad Habit version 1.2

I've happily over a week now sans Starbucks. Yay me! It's been much easier to make my Chai fix at home rather than drive all the way there and shell out more money that I should be logically comfortable paying. So this has given the confidence to try and nip another bad-habit in the butt...

I'm putting myself on a book buying freeze. I realized today that I have *a lot* of books that I've bought and then promptly forgotten about and consequently not read. Therefore I'm not allowing myself to buy another book (with the small exception of Breaking Dawn which comes out in August) until I get my pile of unreads under control. I pulled all the unread/partial read books from our main bookcase and moved them onto a smaller shelf that way my attention might be a little more focused. Here's hoping for the best!

Now I really should getting onto finishing those Artemis Fowl series books I bought last summer... (The reviews lied... it isn't *that* interesting)

My name is Karen...

And I have a Sharpie addiction...

Going Cold Turkey...

Two nights ago while having a discussion with Husband I said the worst thing possible: "I could totally give up Starbucks if I had to." Obviously I didn't know the depths of my addiction. But if giving up my grande chai latte with whip fix means that we could be better off financially I'll willing to make the sacrifice.

Last night we had dinner with our friends K&N at this really snazzy authentic mexican restaurant. As we were leaving I was surprised at how overwhelming the desire to scream, "Let's go get Starbucks!!!" was. I didn't though. At least I have *some* self-control.

Today I went to the grocery store with my b.i.l. for some supplies for dinner tonight (Husband is driving my car until he can get his vehicle situation straightened out which means I'm stranded at home). While we were there I decided to go down the tea/coffee isle and just see what they had to offer in the way of surpressing my intense Starbucks craving. I picked up a carton of Tazo's organic chai latte mix and some milk. (They were out of my brand of milk thanks to the poweroutages from Monday's storm, but I'm not bitter) Anywho long story short I made a nice cup when I got home and... I'm actually happier with what I made then what I usually get from Starbucks. Surprise!

Nutritionally I'm also better off because my version has a *lot* less sugar then the Starbucks version. Plus I have to limit myself to a smaller portion because frankly I don't have coffee mugs that's big. So maybe, just maybe this might be easier then I had planned.

Tales of a terrible stay-at-home-wife

I'm probably the worst stay-at-home-wife on the planet. Don't believe me?
Example #1

-Husband asked me to go to the store and get some food for dinner. I asked what he wanted, he didn't care... I come home with some chicken (parmasean crusted chicken breast), dry fettucini noodles, alfredo mix, and french bread.
The following conversation takes place:
Him: "Why'd you get this type of chicken?"
Me: "Because it's pretty."
(how was I supposed to know you can't really grill that type of chicken?)

This is why you don't send someone who is practically a vegetarian to the store alone.