high-maintenance

I remember watching When Harry Met Sally and being horrified at one scene. Absolutely horrified.

No, not that scene. This one.



I decided that I was not going to be high-maintenance. Ever.

Or at least not on a regular basis.

But now I am! And I hate it.

This is the way I have to order at our favorite Mexican restaurant: "I would like the Juarez Combo but I want the chicken taco to be in a soft corn tortilla, I want the cheese enchilada to be a chicken enchilada with no sauce, I want the tostada to not have any meat sauce or cheese and the beans to have no cheese on them."

The only thing on my plate that is not changed is the rice.

Needless to say, we are pretty memorable to the waitstaff which is why we try to get our usual waiter (honestly, if our usual waiter isn't there, I get fajitas because the only thing to change then is the tortillas).

Lest you think I only inconvenience others, I have to confess that I also have had to go shampoo free.

No, I do wash my hair but it is with either castille soap or homemade shampoo (made with castille soap). I would much rather that my hair smell of vanilla or flowers but I get tea tree oil or peppermint. sigh.

For the past several years (10 or more) I have had to use dandruff shampoo in the winter because my scalp would get dry and itchy. In the summer I could use whichever one I liked without a problem, but each winter it was back to dandruff shampoos.

A little over a year ago, my scalp problems got much worse. Last winter I tried every medicated shampoo I could find and I still had raw spots on my scalp.

Raw spots from scratching.

I have colored my hair since I was 13 (only about 2 years total since that I have been my "natural" color). Coloring my hair was horribly painful but it did seem to help my scalp be less itchy.

Seriously, the horrible chemicals in hair color solution would improve my scalp.

Last January, I realized that part of it is gluten-related. I am not sure if going to Burger King and having a burger and onion rings would cause my scalp to break out - mostly because I don't want to deal with all the other side effects to just test it out. Each time I spend about a week eating out of kitchens that are not gluten-free, my scalp breaks out. It did seem to heal faster with the castille soap, so I kept using it.

Even though it stinks.

To add to the fun, I learned that with hard water, castille soap can cause a build up that makes the hair look oily.

The same day it is washed.

The treatment for that is simple, just a vinegar rinse.

So tea-tree oil castille soap (which stinks) followed by vinegar (which also stinks).

My wet hair does not smell lovely. Or floral. Or appealing.

While I do use apple cider vinegar, which does smell better than distilled white vinegar, it still stinks.

This week I decided to see if I could use normal shampoo (because I wanted to see if I might could do pretty smelling hair.

The first time went well, no problems. My hair felt wonderful.

So I tried it again. Everything seemed fine until about 3 hours after washing my hair when I realized my scalp felt somewhat painful. I couldn't figure out why but it just kept getting more and more painful as I thought about it. Then I remembered the shampoo. By the time I got to the shower, I couldn't wait for the water to get hot.

Luckily, washing off the remaining shampoo seemed to mostly do the job.

Mostly.

It is still a little tender.

So now I can make Sally Albright look low-maintenance.

Great.

I am so furious

Ok, I am going to be honest - being gluten-free is an absolute pain. Life was so much easier when we didn't have to be careful of ingredients. Our culture almost revolves around food, especially in the holiday season.

So I was so excited that the 4-H Food Challenge entry form had a spot where they asked about allergies. Finally something that my daughter could participate in without fear.

The food challenge is inspired (I think) by Iron Chef - or very loosely at least. Teams of 3-5 kids are given a recipe card with ingredients but no directions and they are supposed to figure out what to make with it. For a practice challenge the ingredients were 1 can chicken, 2 hard boiled eggs, 1/4 cup grapes, 1/2 cup mayo, 12 crackers (I am guessing on the amounts, I didn't see the cards). The kids figured out that it was chicken salad and so they made it and then were supposed to tell the nutritional benefits (the chicken has protein and that helps build muscles) and a cost per serving analysis. I am not sure quite what the response would have been if the kids guessed it was chicken soup and tried to make it soupy.

The dishes the kids make could be a salad, a dip, a salsa, a wrap or a (cold)soup. Mainly there are no electrical tools (the contest actually calls for a hot plate but the venue is afraid the kids will burn the building down) and blenders turned out to not be an incredible safe option.

So anyway, I was excited for Daisy that she would have a contest that she could completely participate in without fear.

Until today.

The local 4-H extension agent called to ask how severe her allergy was - could she touch it and not get sick? Well, yes. Since she didn't have a contact allergy then it wasn't going to be a problem.

So after the call ended, I felt a little stunned. No, a lot stunned. In a contest where they asked about food allergies, it didn't matter that I put something down. I pictured her once again making something and not being able to eat it.

It isn't often that my inner Mama bear wakes up but it did today.

I called back and left a voicemail saying how upset I was that after asking about allergies, they were going to ignore the information. She misses participating fully in things because of this and once again she is going to be left out.

Their response? The kids aren't "supposed" to eat their dishes so any allergy that requires ingesting isn't a big deal.

Ok, the food at the Food and Nutrition contest isn't supposed to be eaten either but everybody snacks on that - including the extension agents. And seriously do you never sneak a taste while cooking? It is a habit with me - I taste to see if I need more seasoning or if it needs something to perk it up or whatever.

Oh, and the allergy thing was only for the district level. Of course this is a district contest but so what.

And again, they aren't supposed to eat it.

Upset, I sent an email to the person in charge of the whole state food challenge asking why the question was included if the allergy would be ignored. I also called our club manager and since she is also gluten intolerant and suspects Celiac she is not happy either.

Then tonight I a reading the info that Daisy is supposed to learn for this and getting aggravated all over again.

It had information that was out of date Doctors recommend a lot fat diet for health (not anymore) or just plain wrong the only health problems strongly linked to sugar is cavities (honestly I am not even going to provide a link for this one because I don't think you live under a rock).

If you have done any gluten free baking, here are some funny ones: corn flour can substitute cup for cup with all purpose flour. Or you can use 1/2 rye flour plus 1/2 of potato flour (not potato starch) to make a cup of flour. I don't know that I have ever had anything with rye (other than a rye bread which only has some rye) but I have worked with potato flour and there is no way I would use that much potato flour with anything else. This is for a "wheat allergy" in all fairness, not a gluten intolerance.

Sadly, this was revised in 2008.

Ironically enough, the article is supposed to teach kids how to do substitutions for better health yet very little is said about allergies. In fact the only mention of allergies was a chart showing non-wheat flour substitutions for a wheat allergy. I guess that explains the reluctance on our extension agents part to allow for a food allergy.

EWWWWWWW

There is something that really bothers me on facebook. Have you seen it? The "my celebrity lover for the day" where the celebrity is pictured with his shirt off.

I noticed it because I have a cousin who is just barely 13 who plays it almost every day.

I also noticed it because one of Daisy's friends plays it. And she is 11. Which is not even old enough for a facebook account according to their rules.

What is the hurry? Why are they wanting to grow up so very fast?

At their age I had celebrity crushes, I had plans to marry Kurt Cameron but I didn't plan on him being my lover for the night and then on to the next one. I just fear that it will erode some of their value of purity. And these are both good girls.

It just really bothers me. Am I alone on this?

Oops

I love being a mom, I love my kids, I hate the responsibility sometimes. If I forget something for me (doctor appointment, due date of something), I look like an idiot. If I forget something for my children, the repercussions can be worse.

I mentioned here that my daughter won first place in the county food and nutrition contest and that she was going to get to go to district. When she did that 2 years ago, all we had to do was sign a permission form while we were at the county food show. That's all we had to do to sign her up for the next level.

This year things changed. This year she had to register for the contest online and we had to go by the extension office and sign the form. I got the email that mentioned it but to be honest, the sheer repetition . . . .

Maybe it is a personal flaw but when someone repeats them self over and over, I tend to fade out and start daydreaming because I know I will hear it again at some point. I know it's awful but it happens. The way we have got our 4-H email, there are 3 people sending emails and there are 2 of them who will send them twice (once to an email address and again to the yahoo group created specially for our club).

Anyway, so I put off signing her up online because when I first heard about it, the sign up thing wasn't open yet. And then I kept procrastinating. And then I got a phone call saying that I needed to go to the extension office and sign that form.

So I went to the extension office, signed the form and congratulated myself that I was done.

Yep.

I forgot a step.

So Wednesday, I get a call and find out what I have done. And it is too late to fix it. Oh crap.

Daisy is being a very, very good sport about it. Luckily she has years more she can compete. Her mother has also started carrying a calendar around to write dates on (I don't do great with the electronic).

We still have the youth fair which I did manage to get them both signed up for.
And we can start planning for next year.

I feel a bit like a manic depressive

This stupid diet is going to drive me crazy. I start thinking it won't be to bad, we can easily substitute in recipes, we will get it figured out and then I get slapped back into reality.

We went looking for popcorn, Hubby prefers the microwave kind because it's easy and less mess to clean up. Out of the multitude of types and brands and low butter, butter lover, and all the other stuff there was one type of popcorn with no milk products. One. And it was kettle corn. And my kids don't like sweet popcorn.

Junior wanted a treat as we checked out. Well chocolate is a no-no because it has milk. I don't let my kids have nutrasweet and so gum is out. I thought a Rice Krispy Treat was safe because it is Rice Krispys and marshmallows. Nope, it has milk in it too.

It made me want a beer. But beer contains wheat and so it has gluten and so it is a no-no.

I found myself wishing that someone in the families of the bigwigs in major manufacturing would be struck by allergies and so they would realize how important an inexpensive alternative would be.

But then I start getting hopeful again. I am a pretty good cook and it has GOT to get easier. And we should start feeling better.

And so go the mood swings.

My first time

Well, I filed my first complaint ever with the Better Business Bureau.

I don't like doing that. I am not that kind of a person. I am the kind of person who gets mad, complains to family and then carries out a one person boycott.

I didn't complain about the dr who possibly caused my pregnancies to be high risk.

I didn't complain about the anesthesiologist that bullied me into using the type of local that he wanted to use for my surgery (spinal vs epidural). I didn't even complain after the spinal didn't go well.

But I did complain about the dental office that tortured my child and then called me a bad mother.

Oh! And now they are saying that they don't restrain children because they don't want it to be a bad experience. So I should be glad that they didn't make it more traumatic than it was. Hmmm, maybe I should have slapped the office manager and then said "Well, at least I didn't hit you as many times as I could have."

And they are now saying that the wait a year plan is something they would never do because of course insurance wouldn't pay.

And that possibly some of the money owed is because insurance only paid half of what they promised to pay for Junior's work. So I am not sure if they really know what the amount owed is for.

In any case, I have now sent a complaint to the BBB and will hopefully hear something sooner rather than later. I am also going to send a complaint to the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners and I think there is one other place I can complain to. As of right now, I don't want to post a negative review on every dental and local review site.

Really I just want this whole thing to go away and to never have to deal with that office again - on the other hand, the idea of paying them anymore money is repugnant.

Either way, the ball is about to be back in their court.

I just love it when someone tells me I am a bad mother

Today I had to go argue with the dentist office; you know, the one that made my child terrified of the dentist. Two years later and I am still upset about it.

A year after what they did to Junior, they sent a bill for over $250 for work they had done on my husband before Junior's torture treatment. I called about it, holding back the rage I felt and was told that they hadn't sent the bill to the insurance company and that bill was automatically generated when they billed the insurance company.

Seriously?

Well someone else was doing the billing during that time. Don't worry, insurance will cover it.

So a month ago (a year after the previous bill and 2 years after treatment), we get another bill. I see red again and call only to find out that they want me to speak with the insurance company to beg them to pay.

Yes, the dental office that I get enraged about wants me to do a favor for them. So I mention it to Hubby so that he can tell the human resources person (or whoever it is that deals with insurance problems).

We got another bill.

So I went up there to calmly explain why I couldn't plead with the insurance company. And why we no longer go there.

They feel completely justified in the way my son was treated and actually blame me! If I had chosen to explain that it might hurt, it would better have prepared him. So I am a bad mother for not scaring the crap out of my child before taking him to the dentist.

I don't know how the missed cavity is my fault but I am sure it is. Some how.

Oh, and the billing problem is not their fault either. Now they are saying it is the insurance's fault. They did bill insurance immediately, insurance said to submit the claim again in a year (does this make any sense? because it doesn't to me). Then after the year they resubmitted the claim and insurance is denying it (DUH! Any idiot could have told them that would happen). So it is all the evil insurance companies fault.

I would love to live in a world where nothing is my fault - except I guess I can't since I am a mother.

Thing is, I took the high road. I just wanted to never think about that dentist and his office again. I haven't complained about them by name except for to a few friends. I didn't file a complaint with the ADA only because the dentist I grew up using is my cousin and I called him. He explained that some dentists do feel that the anesthetic is worse than the drilling.

I didn't complain to large groups of people, like the local homeschool email group I am on with well over 150 members. I haven't complained about him by name anywhere. I haven't filed a complaint with the BBB (although I am seriously thinking about that one).

I keep hoping it will work out somehow. My son has gotten better with his terror of dentists. I keep thinking that we can put that dentist office behind us and never deal with it again. At this point, that is all I really want from them.

Maybe not only am I a bad mother, but also a stupid one to think that I will get what I want from someone who has already made (overpriced) large amounts of money off my family.

Pick your side now!

I have been seeing a disturbing trend - I wish it was a new thing but I think it has been around for decades - of women attacking other women for their parenting choices. I am not talking about appalling choices like selling your daughter into prostitution - no, choices like stay-at-home vs work-outside-the-home, public school vs homeschool, pro-Obama speech against anti-Obama speech (which then denigrates into the school choice debate).

Seriously?!?

Admittedly there are some crappy parents out there. Some parents do send their child to public school because they are too cheap/lazy/whatever to think about the choices and they don't care. There are also some parents that shouldn't be homeschooling their child. There are parents who don't deserve to be parents because they don't want to take the time to be parents and there are parents who have made such a mess of their life that they shouldn't have the responsibility of another life.

My husband and I chose to homeschool our children because that is the best choice for us as a family. I see so many benefits of homeschooling. While I would love to share a list, that really doesn't do anything except put some non-homeschoolers on the defensive. It is very difficult to praise the one without condemning the other.

I know there are many who chose public school (or private school) that believe just as firmly that they are doing the right thing for their family.

How arrogant to judge them as being wrong! ! I don't know them or their family as well as they do - or you and your family as well as you. Just as you don't know my family as well as I do.

Can't we just agree to disagree without getting so emotional? My choices are not condemning your choices, and your choices really don't affect my choices.

There is enough mother-guilt without us adding to our burden.

I heart our new dentist

And so does Junior.

He has had a bit of an absolute terror of them ever since he was tortured when he was 4. His first trip to the dentist they found 5 cavities and so we needed to go back and have them filled. Now the dentist office is a kind-of scary place anyway without Mom telling you it will hurt. So mom didn't mention possible probable pain discomfort. Mom certainly didn't mention numbing stuff or to tell the dentist if it hurts because duh that's a big clue that it will hurt. That dentist (and many others) have a rule about not letting mom go back with the kids because sometimes mom causes more problems than she helps.

So an oblivious 4 year old went back to be tortured get his teeth worked on.

Ok I need to let you know that there are 2 schools of thought when it comes to children's dentistry. One is that you don't ever numb the kid unless it is an incredibly deep cavity because the numbing shot hurts. The other is that you always numb the poor kid because sometimes the drilling hurts even when it shouldn't.

I grew up with a dentist who follows the always-numb policy and so I never knew there was any other way. Yes, the shot hurt but I always thought it was so cool because it just felt weird afterward.

So back to Junior's traumatic visit, the torturer dentist did the 4 teeth and then got partway through the 5th and had to stop because Junior was fighting him. He recommended a pediatric dentist because Junior was being a difficult case.

I took one look at my white-faced tear-streaked little boy and knew this had been an awful visit.

We left and I told Junior we would do whatever he wanted, we could go by Sonic, go to the zoo, or just go home. He decided that Sonic and the zoo sounded pretty good so we did that and he perked up.

Later I got to thinking about it and I realized he hadn't played with his face at all. You know how after you have been numbed it feels strange to poke your cheek - he hadn't done that.

So I asked him if the dentist had given him anything that made his mouth feel weird.

Nope.

So that dentist had the nerve to act like my child was being a brat for objecting to being hurt!?!

Needless to say, we haven't been back to that dentist. Junior went to a pediatric dentist to get that tooth finished - and they found another cavity the first had missed. But he still gets a panicked look on his face when we talk about him going to the dentist.

So today he went to the dentist that the rest of us have been going to since we quit going to the torturer the other dentist. He was scared but I was allowed to go back with him. As the visit went on, he got more comfortable and talkative. He even looked at me at one point and said "I'm not scared anymore. You can go to where you wait."

He even giggled while the hygienist was polishing his teeth.

He left the dentist with a smile on his face, a goody bag in his hand, and thrilled to have no cavities.

I heart our new dentist.

Ok, here's the thing,

I try to be cheerful and positive and all that stuff but sometimes you just really want to smack someone.

On our way to Tae Kwon Do, we have to cross over this little creek - it would probably be more accurately called a crick as small as it is - and there is a little bridge going over it. So we are going over it and notice this little dog on it, near the side. Since there usually isn't a dog on that little bridge both Hubby and I looked at it fairly closely as we went by.

Hubby said "that poor dog is tangled up!" So he stopped and turned around so that he and I could walk over to free the dog. Luckily, he was a sweet chihuahua, he didn't growl or anything.

The thing that infuriates me is that some &%^#&$*% jerk chained him to the bridge. He could have fallen off the edge and choked to death or been injured by a car or slowly died of thirst.

While in general, I think people who take dogs out into the country and drop them off are . . . jerks - at least there is a slight chance for survival. This poor dog had no chance unless someone stopped and rescued him.

So we quickly took him home where he got a not so warm reception from our dogs (didn't see any fighting but they were less than delighted). When we got home from Tae Kwan Do, there was no sign of him.

He may have walked home or something.

One thing that will slow his owners down from doing it again . . .

We still have the chain.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

That is the sound of my head banging against the wall.

Thud.

I hate calling tech support.

Thud.

We have had Directv for about 8 or 9 years. In general we like Directv.

Except for the fact that they refuse to give us local channels, giving us semi-local channels (about 120 miles from us).

But now we have the wonderful new DVR which is reducing our brand new 32 inch tv into a 26 inch.

Unless you are watching something like Curious George. Then it is a 19 inch.

Thud.

Thud.

After spending over 2 headache inducing hours on talking with various tech support, some of whom obviously think I am not smart enough to breathe Is the tv turned on? Do you have the DVR connected to the TV with cables. I finally found someone who knew what I was talking about.

Thud.

Thud.

It is a problem with this model of DVR that they may or may not bother to fix.

Just to be clear, we paid extra money to reduce the screen size. And to save you the headache, it is a R22-100.

8 years.

Who do you worship?

In church we are studying the book of Daniel which is one of my favorite books in the Bible. This is the book where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the furnace lit 7 times hotter than normal. This is also the book where Daniel was thrown in the lions den. This is the book where a disembodied hand writes on the wall pronouncing judgment over a king.

Even though it is my favorite book, I am still learning from it - I love how God can do that! You know, show you something new each time.

To set this up, I need to give you a very, very condensed version of one of the stories.

So in Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzer has a dream that he wants interpreted because he can't sleep, but he doesn't want to tell what the dream is. Daniel and his friends pray and God tells Daniel about the dream and what it means. Daniel then tells the king what his dream is and what it means. The king is mighty impressed and makes Daniel a VIP.

Here is something I never noticed, Daniel 2:46 "Then King Nebuchadnezzer threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him." Daniel had given all the credit to God but Nebuchadnezzer worshiped Daniel.

So we were discussing this in our class and someone mentioned how stupid Nebuchadnezzer was to worship the wrong one. Instead of worshiping the Most High God, he worships the messenger. But he wasn't the only one who did this.

It is human nature! We want someone with skin or something we can see to worship. For example, when Moses died, he was buried by God (or the angels) so that no one could worship him. You might think that is a bit extreme but if you consider all the "holy relics" of the middle ages - splinters off the cross, etc - you might realize that it probably would have happened.

And what about today? We aren't really any better. A popular pastor says something that is contrary to God's word and we would prefer to believe the pastor. Or almost as bad, we never look to see if he is correct.

Is that not a form of worship? The only infallible human to have ever walked the earth was Jesus, the rest of us - pastors and priests included - mess up daily.

Please read the Bible for yourself, double check what you are being taught.

I am very blessed to have a pastor that is very open to correction. If you can show him in the Bible where he is wrong, he admits it. He says he is only right 80-90% of the time, and that it is our job to figure out where he is wrong.

Some are not like that, they want to be who you trust. They remind me of the abusive spouse/boyfriend, the first thing they do is isolate you from what can tell you the truth.

If you are told that you are too stupid to read and understand God's word, you have been lied to.

If you have been told to blindly trust your preacher because they know God's word better, you are being told to worship a man.

Unfortunately, it is much easier to worship a man, especially when he is saying what you want to hear.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4 New International Version)

Who do you worship? The one true living God who made the heavens and the earth or someone who is a fallible human.

Standing up for what is right

I don't get involved in politics very much, or protests, or political activisim.

But I can't stay silent about this.

This is wrong and if we do nothing a tragedy will happen.

A good man will be sent to his death.

This is a friend of ours, not just some article in the newspaper to us. We have seen his precious boys, and met his lovely wife.

The short story is, the US immigration department has tried to deport him and will probably continue trying until he is given asylum. He was witness to the murder of an Albanian parliament member and so is a threat. If he returns to Albania, he will be murdered.

The longer version can be read here at ICE Age USA: The Retraumatization of Rrustem Neza.

This is a kind, big-hearted, generous family.

I have a petition that I am going to post; if you want to print it out and sign it, please let me know in the comments and I will send you the address of the petition, as well as where to send it.

Please pray for this family.

We need some Shirley Temple -- my only economy post

Have you ever watched any of the old Shirley Temple movies?

I used to love them as a child, I watched Heidi over and over.

Then as a teen, I thought they were silly.

Then as an adult, I liked them except found them a bit cloyingly sweet and cheerful, especially considering the time they were made in (Great Depression). With stories such as Bright Eyes where her dad dies but all is ok after a few songs and dances, it makes Pollyanna seem like a grump.

However I think things have gone a bit too far the other way.

If we have a depression or the market worsens, I lay most of the blame on the media. A portion does belong to congress if they don't change the CPSIA law, check out the "Save Handmade" link to the right for more information.

Everytime I turn on the news, it is yammering about how the economy is going to get worse. Even sitcoms are talking about the economy.

While complete oblivion is bad, this hyperfocus is only making things worse.


While I am on the subject, please consider writing to your congressmen about the CPSIA law. While protecting our children from lead is vitally important, this law goes too far. Small cottage businesses will be forced to close, which even I know is bad for the economy. We won't be able to purchase anything for our children that is not mass-produced.

What happened to customer service?

Once upon a time, when you had a problem or a question you could call and talk to a person and get your question answered. It's true! It really did happen!

Now you have to call at least 2 different companies 2 or 3 different times.

Our medical insurance is one of those with a checking account (CDHCP not Flex which means what we don't spend, we get to keep in the account.) I went to go fill 2 prescriptions on the 30th because this year we actually met our deductible and so wanted to get all the refills we could before we went back to paying full price.

Not a big deal, right?

Well, the only problem is that Hubby's employer decided to switch which bank the account was with.

Again, not a big deal.

Except, it occured to me the check I wrote on the 30th couldn't possibly go through before the 31st when the account closed. And when a check goes through and the account has been closed, it gets returned. And then people start getting cranky and charging fees etc.

So I called human resources at Hub's employer, the first person I talked to said she didn't know but surely there was something in place but I needed to call this number.

Called that number (we'll call it #2) and talked to a guy couldn't answer the question. He kept saying I need to call the bank but as long as it went through before April, insurance would cover it (that's not my question).

Called the chain pharmacy because that was something else person #1 recommended. They had no record of a bounced check, but I could wait 2 weeks and find out for sure.

Called the new bank, they said they had no record of this transaction so they had no ideas.

Called the old bank, knowing they wouldn't really speak to me because . . . it's pre-tax money and I am not allowed to talk to the bank about his pretax money -- some federal law thing. (I am also not supposed to write a check but we felt more comfortable with me signing his name to the check than me carrying around a signed check.)

So the old bank tells me, they can't speak of specifics but if there is a check out when the account is closed it goes back to the person who deposited the check marked as "returned- account closed."

So called the pharmacy again and they can't do anything until the check is returned to them. Once it is deposited, it's out of their hands.

Called #2 again and this one sounded kind of puzzled, like she hadn't thought of that. But told me the only people who could answer my question would be the people at the old bank who won't talk to me.

This is when Hubby walked in, saw me crying -- over an hour on the phone, no answers, and a bit of hormones -- and called old bank.

The person he spoke to, listened to what type of account it was/is and told him that the check would be automatically forwarded to the new bank.

No problem.

Why couldn't one of the 8 people I talked to have told me that?

I'm telling you, customer service has gone in the toilet.

Don't even get me started on cell phones.

12 more days that I have to carry a motorola piece of . . . junk.

an Attitude adjustment --NOT a rant

This post was origionally going to be a rant 2 rants in 1 day and none before that? Can we say hormones? I have realized though that God was apparently at work.

My patient husband was called to jury duty in the area we live in. Now being called into the county, state, federal, any of those I could see. But for crying out loud, we don't even have a post office, yet we have a court?!?! Apparently they only do 2-4 cases a year.

So he shows up for duty at 8:45, like they told him, and finds out that only 5 other jurors have shown up. No matter, they only need 3 jurors so they can all stay.

The case is this: Bob and Joe *not their real names* decide to go driving around at 2 am after drinking too much. Bob doesn't drive so well because of the beer and so they get pulled over. Joe had "fallen asleep" in the front seat and when his buddy was arrested for driving drunk, they woke him up. Joe said that he had had a 6 pack, but the officer was going to let him go with a warning if someone would come and pick him up. Joe couldn't get anyone to answer the phone, the officer couldn't leave him on the side of the road. The only thing he could do is give Joe a ticket for public intoxication and left him dry out in the drunk tank.

Joe now claims that he wasn't intoxicated; it was a 6 pack of water that he drank, and he was just tired from lack of sleep. Anyway they never did a urine or breath test so they can't prove he was drunk. Blah, Blah, Blah . . . .

I will spare you my rant about idiots who waste taxpayer's money because they don't want to admit they messed up. Suffice it to say, they found Joe guilty. Jury duty only lasted about 1 hour.

But then Hubby had the rest of the day off . . . so he went to work for a "few hours" at the church.

Our church is doing one of those Christmas light shows that is coordinated to the music this year. Well, they need a fair amount of electrical work in order to get it up and running, so this week hubby has worked about 16 hours on getting the wiring done. He was there today from about 10:00 until about 5:30. If he hadn't have had jury duty, he wouldn't have been able to do as much today and quite possibly the church would have had to hire someone to do some of the electrical.

So with that in mind, I suppose it was a good thing that he had jury duty.

Freecycle

Have you joined Freecycle?

I have. I am a member of 2 groups, one for the town I am in and one for the neighboring town.

Its a great concept, I have something i.e. swingset, baby stuff, etc. that I no longer need and post it on freecycle and someone who wants it, gets it. Or if there is something I am wanting, I might post a request.

Some people don't quite get the idea through.

I have seen requests like "My grandma is in the hospital and I lost her laptop. She is on a fixed income and can't afford to buy a new one. It needs to be one of those with all the capabilities of doing advanced gaming."
Are you serious! You think you are actually going to get something like that!
or My DVD player just broke and I am wanting one of those combination DVD/VCRs, if you happen to have a working one. yes, when I buy electronics, I always buy a few extra.

Not all of them are bad though. I saw one with a request for firewood, since I have a friend whose husband cuts trees and they end up having to have bonfires to burn all the trees he hauls off, I passed the information on to her.

So Freecycle does serve a very useful purpose, its just some people try to take advantage.

Does anyone have a giant screen tv laying around taking up space? I will be happy to take it off your hands.