iPhone

Ha! If you look at my previous blog post, I mentioned going to the Apple Store to complain about my new phone and all the issues people in general are having with it. When I did this, the people at the Apple Store looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and said they were unaware of anyone having issues with the phone. Well, look what was posted on CNN today.

Leak shows Apple's spin on iPhone 4 flaws - CNN.com

(Mashable) -- According to documents leaked to Boy Genius Report today, AppleCare representatives are being given a strong company line to deliver to unhappy iPhone 4 owners who complain about reception issues.

Employees are told to say that the device's reception performance "is the best we have ever shipped" and that its critical antenna flawsare "a fact of life in the wireless world." They are told not to perform service on iPhones with these problems and instead to give customers a PR-driven recitative instead.

In a nutshell, Apple knows the phone has problems but will insist that users are simply "holding it wrong."

These statements are dead ringers for CEO Steve Jobs' own assertions that the iPhone 4 antenna and reception issues do not, in fact, exist. "There is no reception issue," he told one user. But the very fact that this document exists suggests that Apple execs know there is indeed a widespread hardware flaw, even if they're unwilling to address it publicly at this time.

Outside the reality distortion field, on the other hand, we and many others have been able to duplicate the issue being discussed: When held by its sides, which are composed of a metal antenna band, the phone's reception quality drops dramatically. iPhone owners in our newsroom have seen reception decrease from five to two bars simply from holding the phone with two points of contact between the owner's hand and the antenna band.

One law firm is even preparing for a class-action lawsuit against Apple and is soliciting iPhone 4 customers to contact them about reception issues.

Also, while some folks have reported that using a bumper case prevents contact with the antenna band and preserves reception quality, AppleCare reps are being told to not give bumper cases to disgruntled users.

Here's the full text of the document as reported:

1. Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy -- your tone when delivering this information is important.

a. The iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4's overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.

b. Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.

c. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.

d. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.

e. The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

2. Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

3. Don't forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

4. ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers -- DON'T promise a free bumper to customers.

Post #798

I can't believe it's Monday already.  Where the hell did my weekend go?  It seriously felt like one of the quickest ones on record.  I didn't get nearly enough done around the house.  It felt like I was on the go the entire weekend.

Friday night was leisurely enough.  I worked just a little late to compensate for being out on Thursday.  When I got home, Ken was just finishing putting the furniture in place.  The painters had finally finished and had left a short time before I got home.  I have to tell you the house looks fantastic.  It's actually weird to have furniture set up where it's supposed to be.  I've really grown used to having everything in disarray.  Even today when I got home from work it spooked me a little when I walked into the family room to find it all set up the way it's supposed to look.  I'll post pictures soon.  Anyway, we headed out for some dinner.  We did a little driving around to see what restaurants were nearby that we hadn't noticed before.  Usually if we're going to go eat, we head into Albany.  This time we drove the other way.  We found a place called the Mid Way Cafe.  It's basically a dirty diner.  I've got to tell you that the clientèle and the diner were fucking scary as shit.  SCARY.  It made Deliverance seem like a chi chi place.  But my burger was so damn good.   I'd definitely go back.

Saturday morning I woke up early (unintentional), so I headed out for a walk.  I did 7.34 miles and it felt good.  I got home, showered and then wrangled Lucy.  She had a spa date.  Or, I needed to bring her to the vet to get her nails clipped.  She won't let us anywhere near them, so we've got to bring her out to have it done.  We live about 1 mile from a vet now so it's easy to have this done on a regular basis now.  I got her home and situated and Ken and I went out to run some errands.  

One of the errands I wanted to do was go talk to the Geniuses at the Apple Store.  My new iPhone is really sucking balls.  Between Thursday night when I got it and Saturday afternoon when I went to Apple, my reception was HORRIBLE.  I spent more time off the 3G network than on it.  I think I spent more time offline than anything.  So I went in to talk to them and they looked at it and told me to watch it for the next week or so.  Thanks, Apple.  So helpful.  

If that wasn't annoying enough, I went looking for new sneakers.  My current pair, which I use for walking, just aren't fitting right.  The nail on one of my big toes is black from bruising.  I've got a blood blister on the tip of another toe.  So I went to find new shoes.  I tried on a bunch of shoes and none felt like they fit.  I wear a size 13, and they're hard enough to find.  I don't know if shoes are shrinking in size or what, because I've never had an issue like this before.  I gave up and walked away defeated (no pun intended.).  And we ran some more errands.

Saturday evening I hung more shelves for action figures in my office.  And I ran out of room again.  I still need to hang a few more.  Only I'm running out of places for shelves to go.  My current office is probably four times the size of my last one and even though I had homes for most of my toys in my old one, I'm running out of space in this new one.  I don't know how I managed to fit everything in the old place seeing how things are turning out here.  It's kind of funny.

Sunday started at the crack of dawn.  I got up and out of the house before 7.  I pushed myself and did a 2+ hour walk.  I clocked just over 10 miles.  It's a record!!  Yeah me!  I did grocery shopping and then got home in time to get ready to head out.  My friend Carol had an open house on this $750k house and she wanted us to swing by.  Only it's an hour away.  But we were both anxious to check it out.  Honestly, the house is horrible for what they're asking.  It's gonna be a hard sell.  

When we got home, I ran down to my office to check Genius status at the Apple Store.  I wasn't going to "watch it" any longer.  I spent almost the entire afternoon with no connection.  So I found there was an opening at 4:10, so I took it.  Again, I sat down with a Genius and this time she saw there was a problem.  When she hooked it up to the store's wifi, which is boosted, it kept dropping the connection.  They swapped out the phone and so far it seems to be working, though the connection still isn't as good as my old phone.  What's funny is both times I was at the Genius Bar, I mentioned all the issues with the new phones and both times they Geniuses looked at me and said they hadn't heard of there being any issues with the new phone.  Obviously the corporate level has decided no one is to acknowledge that the new phone is a piece of crap.  Whatever.

I headed home after and immediately started preparing dinner.  I think I wrote here before that I want to teach myself to cook at a higher level than a 9 year old boy.  I saw a recipe in Amy Sedaris' book I LIKE YOU (which I received for my birthday) that looked easy and delicious enough to tackle.  I made spanakopita.  I'd never tried making it before and I've never actually eaten it before.  I have to say that for someone who has no clue what he's doing in the kitchen, it came out pretty damn good.  I had a little trouble with the phyllo dough on top, but phyllo is supposed to be pretty hard to work with.  I had some leftovers for dinner tonight and I think it was even better tonight than it was last night.  Ken was inspired enough to volunteer to come up with something to make next weekend.  We'll see how long this goes for, alternating weekends to experiment with food.

I went to bed a little while later and this morning the alarm had the nastiest, meanest, most hateful things to say first thing this morning.  Bastard.

Almost

The painters didn't finish up today, but they promise they'll be done tomorrow.  Leaving me in charge of watching them this week has caused a whole lot of stress and tension.  Ken and I have differing opinions on the work they're doing and even though he isn't, it feels like he's taking some of it out on me.  I hate confrontation more than anything in the world, so it's put me in a funk.  Today I was in an awful mood all day long.  I was even contemplating skipping picking up my new iPhone tonight, that's the kind of foul mood I was in.  But ultimately I decided I needed to get the hell out of Dodge and went and got it anyway.  I haven't really played with it yet.  I won't until tomorrow.  Right now I'm syncing it with iTunes, moving over everything from the old phone.  

Ken's staying home tomorrow with the painters and that's a huge load off my shoulders.  I'm sure he's going to be annoyed by something, but at least he can be annoyed first hand.

I'm going to bed.

Joy And Pain

I had a whole post planned in my head yesterday, but didn't do anything about it.  And again this morning.  Now that I've got time to sit down and jot something down, I don't know if my head is in it.  I hate that.  

The general frustration with trying to get things done around the house seems to have turned the corner.  It's not been a complete 180, but it seems to be getting there.  Baby steps.

JOY - We finally have painters.  They've showed up every day this week to get this house into shape.  It's looking really, really good.  It doesn't even look like the same place anymore.  I'm absolutely thrilled.  It took two sets of painters and seven weeks, but we're finally making progress.

PAIN - Ken's not completely thrilled with the job they're doing.  Since I'm the one home while they're painting and he's a work, he's had a lot of questions for me that I don't have answers for and it's frustrating.  He's a micro manager to the extreme and I couldn't be more different.  I've been letting them do their job without getting in the way.  Today I sat out on the front porch and read.  He's given me an entire list of things to address with the guys tomorrow.  They were hoping to be done today and with Ken's list, I think they might be here straight through until Friday.  

JOY - Driveway has been successfully sealed. 

PAIN - Like the painters, it took weeks and two different companies before we could get the job done.  With company number one, most of the issues we had were weather related.  If it rains, they can't work.  Our first four appointments with them were cancelled because the weather didn't cooperate.  Appointment number five was a complete failure.  They never showed up on Saturday.  On Monday they called to reschedule again.  We found out they did show up, saw a car in the driveway and just went on to their next job instead of RINGING THE FUCKING DOORBELL.  We were home and waiting for them.  Monday Ken called a different company our neighbor uses.  They came out that day, gave an estimate and showed up the next morning to do the job.  We'll be using them from here on out.

JOY - Ken scheduled the sprinkler company to come out and make sure our sprinkler system was in good working order.  One of the cool things about this new house is the in ground sprinkler system the previous owners had installed.  No more dragging out the hose and sprinkler to water the grass when needed.

PAIN - They had to come back today to replace two of the sprinkler heads.  They checked to make sure the system itself was working, but not the actual sprinkler heads.  One was leaking and left a big puddle after being on for just a couple minutes.  The other one didn't rotate.

JOY - We got a new washer and dryer on Monday.  The washer we purchased a few weeks ago just wasn't cutting it.  It's not the machine we walked in the store to buy, but rather one that we were kind of talked into.  It didn't work out, but luckily there was a 90 days, no questions asked return policy on it.  The set we intended on buying was the one we went back in for.  Although it's very similar to what we initially bought, I'm liking it much better.

PAIN - The delivery guys were supposed to hook up the washer and dryer upon delivery.  They did with the washer, but never did the dryer.  And that's where the pain started.  After four calls to Sears to try to get the issue resolved, all we got was a heaping helping of attitude and no help whatsoever.  The best we were offered was for someone to hopefully come out a few days later.  That's just crap, if you ask me.  They didn't do their job in the first place and now we had to suffer for it.  The following day Ken called back only to find out that there was no record of any of his calls the night before.  And now the best they were willing to do was send someone out maybe next week.  He got really pissed, left work and headed to the store.  I, on the other hand, took to the internet.  I found Sears had a Facebook page and I aired my issues there.  I was shocked to find an email back from Sears about fifteen minutes after my post.  And then I got a phone call from their corporate office later in the afternoon.  I now had an appointment scheduled for today.  Not only that, but I got a follow up phone call this evening where I reported how the visit went and I was promised another follow up phone call on Monday.  I'm stunned.  Now it's not going to change the fact that I'm never using Sears again for any type of major purchase, but I'm thrilled that I got someone to listen to me.  The customer service at Sears does not exist in any way, shape or form, and it sucks that it took this for me to figure it out, but at least I know it now.

Overall, I'm pretty damn happy with the change in the way things have been going.  I feel like we're starting to make progress again in getting this house in the shape we both want it.  It feels like we've been living out of boxes since we moved in (we haven't, but it feels that way) and now that chapter can start coming to an end.  Furniture can be placed, artwork can be hung.....  We're almost there.  I've been living in one sort of chaos or another for a year now and I can't take it much longer.  Between getting the old house in shape to sell and getting this one in shape to live, it's been very trying.  Knowing there's a light at the end of this tunnel is very exciting.

Comics In My Future

One of my favorite things every month is when the big publishers announce their next batch of comics.  Last Monday DC Comics came out with the listing of books coming in September.  Here's some of the stuff I plan on getting.

BRIGHTEST DAY #9-10

Written by GEOFF JOHNS & PETER J. TOMASI

Art by IVAN REIS, PATRICK GLEASON, ARDIAN SYAF, SCOTT CLARK & JOE PRADO

Covers by DAVID FINCH

The resurrected have discovered their purpose for being back, but where will the knowledge lead them? Who is the new Aqualad? And what strange event is taking place around the White Power Battery in New Mexico?

GREEN LANTERN #58

Written by GEOFF JOHNS

Art and cover by DOUG MAHNKE & CHRISTIAN ALAMY

BRIGHTEST DAY continues as Adara, the Hope Entity, finds a host in a young girl who may be destined to be a great savior. Can this young student hope to contain such a powerful force – and what will drive Hal Jordan on a spiritual journey unlike any he’s ever taken?

    Plus, the Spectre sets his sights on the Rage Entity!

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #9-10

Written by JUDD WINICK

Breakdowns by KEITH GIFFEN

Issue #9 art by FERNANDO DAGNINO

Issue #10 art by JOE BENNETT

Covers by CLIFF CHIANG

DC’s biweekly JUSTICE LEAGUE event continues! Fire has been keeping a dangerous secret from the team, and her past literally comes back to haunt her when she’s forced to confront the darkest of demons!

    Meanwhile, still hot on the trail of Max Lord, the former members of the Justice League International pick themselves up after their disastrous battle at Checkmate headquarters. But can they locate Max while The Dark Knight himself is hot on their trail?

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #49

Written by JAMES ROBINSON

Art by POW RODRIX

Cover by MARK BAGLEY & ROB HUNTER

The BRIGHTEST DAY shines a spotlight on Jade as she adjusts to the repercussions of the JLA/JSA crossover. She and Donna Troy head to the San Francisco Bay area to make themselves a new home but are confronted with old and new threats – including the New Teen Titans!

BIRDS OF PREY #5

Written by GAIL SIMONE

Art by ALVIN LEE

Cover by ALINA URUSOV

Join writer Gail Simone and guest artist Alvin Lee as two Birds track down a missing team member in Thailand...where someone is hunting them to make sure they never return! Plus, the shocking events of BRIGHTEST DAY continue to rock Hawk and Dove, the newest recruits to Oracle’s organization!

NEW TEEN TITANS: GAMES HC

Written by MARV WOLFMAN & GEORGE P...REZ 

Art by GEORGE P...REZ, MIKE PERKINS and AL VEY 

Wraparound cover by GEORGE P...REZ

Twenty years in the making, TEEN TITANS: GAMES is a can’t-miss for fans new and old. Harking back to the era when NEW TEEN TITANS was the best-selling monthly comic series comes this lost tale from legendary creators Marv Wolfman (CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS) and George Perez (FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS) starring their fan-favorite characters just in time for the NEW TEEN TITANS’ 30th anniversary!

    Set in the 1980s during the height of the New Teen Titans popularity, this stand–alone hardcover features a mysterious villain playing a deadly game with New York City as the game board–and the Teen Titans as the pieces! Like something out of a time capsule, this never-before-seen epic is the New Teen Titans story from their original creators that has never been told...until now!

ACTION COMICS #893

Written by PAUL CORNELL

Co-feature written by NICK SPENCER

Art by PETE WOODS

Co-feature art by R.B. SILVA

Cover by DAVID FINCH & RICHARD FRIEND

Lex Luthor is a pro at breaking man's laws, but when he leads a raid on one of Gorilla Grodd's bases and breaks The Law of the Jungle - "Don't Mess with Grodd" - can he make it out alive? Or will he become Grodd's latest meal?

Plus, this issue kicks off an exciting new co-feature starring Jimmy Olsen by up-and-comers Nick Spencer (Existence 3.0, Morning Glories) and R.B. Silva (SECRET SIX)! Get ready for an entirely different look at Metropolis - courtesy of Superman's pal!

FREEDOM FIGHTERS #1

Written by JIMMY PALMIOTTI & JUSTIN GRAY

Art by TRAVIS MOORE & TREVOR SCOTT

Cover by DAVE JOHNSON

A new call to arms begins as Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters return in an all-new action packed ongoing series helmed by the writing team of Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Travis Moore and Trevor Scott!

    A national mystery unfolds when the government learns of the existence of a Confederate super weapon intended to insure the South won the Civil War. Who built it and why wasn’t it used? Find out when Uncle Sam leads the team on a quest through the hidden history of the United States!  With new challenges and old threats returning to plague them, the stakes are higher than ever.  Can even these stalwart heroes stand by their duty when their country calls?

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #5

Written by PAUL LEVITZ

Art and cover by YILDIRAY CINAR & WAYNE FAUCHER

The final fate of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad's twin children is revealed here! Tensions between the team and Earth-Man come to a boil, and an all-new Green Lantern is revealed. Will it be Earth-Man - or someone else entirely?

DC UNIVERSE LEGACIES #5

Written by LEN WEIN

Art by GEORGE PEREZ & SCOTT KOBLISH and WALTER SIMONSON with SCOTT KOLINS

Cover by GEORGE PEREZ & SCOTT KOBLISH

Red Skies hang over the entire DC Universe as each and every hero on Earth gathers for what will be the first in a series of universe-spanning Crises!

Meanwhile, Walter Simonson helps us shift the focus from Earth to the heroes of outer space - and beyond!

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

ZATANNA #5

Written by PAUL DINI

Art by CHAD HARDIN & WAYNE FAUCHER

Cover by STEPHANE ROUX

Zatanna and her cousin Zachary might have their differences – okay, they drive each other crazy – but if they don’t stick together, they’ll be taken to the cleaners by one of Hell’s most powerful demons! He’s betting it all on a chance to claim Zatanna’s soul, and in Vegas, the house always wins!

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS: SONGS OF THE SIRENS HC

Written by PAUL DINI, GUILLEM MARCH and MARC ANDREYKO

Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH

Collecting issues #8-14 of the hit series! Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are tired of playing by other people’s rules, regardless of which side of the law they’re on. As their dangerous alliance with The Riddler continues, the Sirens will do anything to learn which mysterious villain is targeting them all for death.

JONAH HEX: COUNTING CORPSES TP

Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI

Art by DARWYN COOKE, DICK GIORDANO, JORDI BERNET, PAUL GULACY and BILLY TUCCI

Cover by DARWYN COOKE

The latest HEX collection, featuring stories from issues #43 and 50-54, includes a look at Hex’s tragic relationship with the scarred gunfighter Tallulah Black, a startling tale of theft and revenge, and more.

JSA ALL-STARS: CONSTELLATIONS TP

Written by MATTHEW STURGES

Art and cover by FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS III

The All-Stars survive their first major battle against an army of super-foes in this first JSA ALL-STARS volume collecting issues #1-6, but in the aftermath, one team member is missing. The mysterious Strike Force has taken that member captive – and there’s someone else who wants the missing hero even more.

POWER GIRL: ALIENS AND APES TP

Written by JUSTIN GRAY & JIMMY PALMIOTTI

Art and cover by AMANDA CONNER

In this new PG title, Power Girl must contend with Satanna and her animal menagerie, who have returned to avenge her fallen lover, Ultra-Humanite. If that weren’t enough, the alien Vartox has called upon Power Girl to help repopulate his planet! Collecting POWER GIRL #7-12!

SECRET SIX: DANSE MACABRE TP

Written by GAIL SIMONE and JOHN OSTRANDER

Art by JIM CALAFIORE, PETER NGUYEN

and DOUG HAZLEWOOD

Cover by DANIEL LUVISI

Amanda Waller and her Suicide Squad have captured Deadshot to force him back in their ranks in this volume collecting SECRET SIX #15-18 and SUICIDE SQUAD #67. But his teammates in the Secret Six don’t see that happening any time soon. Features a BLACKEST NIGHT tie-in!

WONDER WOMAN: CONTAGION TP

Written by GAIL SIMONE

Art by AARON LOPRESTI, NICOLA SCOTT, MATT RYAN and DOUG HAZLEWOOD

Cover by NICOLA SCOTT

Five mysterious young men with a dark and terrible secret have arrived on Paradise Island with one mission: to kill Wonder Woman! Plus, Wonder Woman battles Power Girl and more in these stories from issues #40-44!

Wednesday

Half way through another week already.  I hope the rest of the week continues at the pace the first half has been going.  I'm kind of desperate for the weekend to arrive.  Last weekend went by way too fast and I'm hoping to be able to kick back a little bit this coming weekend.  I know we have a lot to do, but just a couple hours to veg out is all I'm asking.

This week has been interesting.  Not necessarily fun, but definitely interesting.  I've been having a back/neck/headache issue all week and I'm anxious for it all to go away.  A number of years ago, I hurt my right shoulder somehow.  I didn't realize how much I hurt it until recently.  As I started losing weight and as the fat started disappearing from my body, my right shoulder started sinking, for lack of a better word.  The fat was holding everything mostly in place and when the fat was gone, my whole shoulder reshifted.  I've had issues with it since, on and off.  We're on again.  The pain in my shoulder is kind of spreading all the way up my neck and in turn right into my head.  I've had quite the nasty headache all week.  I'm hoping tomorrow will see the end of it.  I need to do some back stretching exercises to hopefully work it out a little.

I spent a good part of yesterday, like everyone else it seems, trying to preorder a new iPhone.  What a fucking mess that turned out to be.  I managed to get my preorder in, and I'm hoping AT&T didn't give out my account information to anyone else.  We'll see.  I read today that the phone's release has been pushed back a week.  I'm a little bummed by that, but I'll live.  I'm excited to get a new toy.

Third time's a charm they say, right?  I don't know what fourth time is or even fifth time.  What I'm talking about, of course, is my driveway getting sealed.  Today was my fourth appointment to get it done.  Naturally, today is the only day this week with any sort of rain in the forecast.  Naturally, it didn't happen again.  I'm rescheduled now for Saturday.  The forecast is hot and sunny.  Since I'm now due to have my driveway done, I'm sure a freak massive storm will come out of nowhere pushing it off AGAIN!  LOL!

I know I had a couple of other bits I wanted to post here, but they're all gone now.  I'm sure they'll come to me later.

25 Years of Oprah Screaming Celebrities Names

Sunday

Well, another appointment has come and gone and we're still waiting to have our driveway sealed.  It looked like this weekend was going to be beautiful, but that didn't come to pass and instead we got rain.  And when it rains, they can't seal the driveway.  Appointment #4 is now scheduled for Wednesday.  With any luck we'll have some nice weather, but at this point, I am not going to hold my breath.  We'll see.

I did manage to get in two decent walks this weekend.  Saturday morning I went out and walked about 6 1/4 miles.  About five minutes from the end of my walk it started raining.  I couldn't have time it better.  This morning I almost didn't go out.  It was overcast, it was clear that it poured last night and it was chilly.  But I had to go grocery shopping anyway, so I got up and left the house.  I grocery shop near my old walking course pre-move, so I headed there first and decided to give it a go.  It was drizzling and didn't get heavier than that the whole time I was out.  I walk 7.11 miles this morning.  I can't remember the last time I did that much in a single walk.  I really needed to walk off a little of last night's damage.  We went over to a neighbor's for dinner.  While the dinner was 98% good for me, I managed to overdo it on the 2%.  I ate more crackers last night than I think I have all year.  But I love crackers.

Yesterday I bought the supplies I need to build some shelves for my office.  I have a space 11'2" that I want to put a shelf up for action figures.  I've been putting it off for no good reason, but no more.  The wood is in the garage right now drying.  I stained the shelves black.  I think they'll probably need one more coat before they go up.  I also wanted to get some wood for smaller shelves in another part of my office, but I held off.  Today at Target I found premade ones and I'm very happy with them.  Now I have to put them up.  Baby steps....

So we're at the end of another weekend.  I'm bummed out.  It really went too quickly.  I have so much more I want/need to get done, but those things will have to wait.  

Thursday

I think we finally have hit an upswing with getting things done around the house.  We've been in the place for about six weeks now and as desperately as it needs it, the interior still hasn't been painted.  I don't recall (and I'm too lazy to go look back) if I mentioned we hired painters to do the job a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately, they blew us off on the day they were supposed to start and they lied about it.  That was enough to tell them "thanks, but no thanks."  We've spent the last couple weeks trying to get someone else in here to do that job.  We went to the second name on the list and got in touch.  And waited to hear back.  And waited.  And waited.  We finally did hear back and told them they had the job and then waited.  And waited. And then finally heard back.  Are all painters flighty?  It doesn't seem like it should be that big of a problem.  We have money we want to give you.  Come and paint my house.  Seriously.  But we have a new date nailed down (a week and a half from now) and I'm (cautiously) excited.  I don't feel like we've been able to settle in to the place yet.  This is going to be huge once it's done.  These painters are only painting the first floor of the house (and the two story foyer.)  The original painters' price was great and for the whole house.  Almost too good to be true.  That should have been the first sign.  For basically the same price, we're getting half the work done.  The other half we'll suck up and do ourselves.  I really don't mind painting.  I'm messy, but I don't mind it.  But we needed professionals because there was no way we could do the two story bit.

The next issue we've been having is slightly different, but still annoying. We've been trying to get the driveway sealed for a couple of weeks now.  We hired someone, but the driveway still isn't done.  They were originally scheduled to come last Thursday.  I got home from work to find that the driveway was untouched.  There was a message on the voicemail saying that because of the storm that was moving it's way into the area, they've decided it wasn't a good day to do it and rescheduled us for the following Wednesday.  That's fine and understandable.  What kind of sucks is the storm lasted for all of ten minutes and then cleared up, but you never know.  Well, Wednesday came and went and we had the same situation again.  This time the storm lasted much longer, but I still don't have my driveway sealed.  Third date is this Sunday.  I haven't looked at the weather forecast and I'm kind of scared to do so.  But I'm sure one day very soon, the driveway will be sealed.

This work week has been very draining.  First and foremost, FrankenKlinger has returned from her cray-cray leave.  She's still all hopped up on goofballs (allegedly) and crazed out of her brain.  As a thank you for all the support the office gave her during the whole process of the passing of her husband, she threw a luncheon for everyone in our division.  That's about 250 people. An invitation went out and she mentioned that if anyone was interested in bringing a little something, they could, but it was not necessary.  And then she went desk to desk demanding people bring in stuff.  Luckily enough people are scared of her and did it because all she supplied was a bag of chips, a package of cookies, some rolls and a tray of ziti.  What a great way to say thank you.  By making the office bring in their own lunch.  I did not participate in this fiasco.  I really want nothing to do with her.  She's mentally ill and shouldn't be anywhere near the office.  

On the flip side of this, my work wife had to put her dog to sleep today.  She'd been sick for a little while now and she's gone downhill quickly.  I found that it's brought back up to the surface all the shitty feelings I had when I had to have Puss Patrell put to sleep a few years ago.  I still miss that runty little bitch so much.  I always will.

Rainy

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon and I don't know what to do with myself.  I know what I want to do, and that's go outside and take a walk or enjoy the sunshine and nice temps, but none of that is possible because it's pouring and it's a chilly 65 degrees out.

Over the last week, I've kicked my walking into overdrive.  I've been out at least once a day, every day. And because I'm neurotic, I've been recording each walk with the iMapMyRide app on my phone.  Between last Sunday morning and yesterday morning, I managed to log in 43.48 miles.  I'm sure I've been overdoing it.  I should be taking a day off here and there, but the weather has been so favorable and I've been snacking just a little more than I should that I've really pushed myself.  It's probably a good thing that the weather sucks ass today, forcing me to take a break.

But I could really use a walk right about now.  Yesterday was my friend Carol's birthday party and because I know no self control when confronted with a table full of food, I overate.  And not a single thing I ate contained anything nutritionally good for me. But that's what made it taste so good.

The fun thing about Carol's birthday party was seeing people I haven't seen in a long time.  I didn't realize there were still people I hadn't seen since I dropped 100+ pounds, but I found a few more.  Two people didn't recognize me at all.  One I had to tell who I was and then I saw it click in his head.  I have to tell you that as rare as it is now, I never get tired of that happening.