!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary to us!
23 years??
We have now officially been married longer than we were single.

To celebrate, we're going to Katherine and Alan's for a family cookout. It'll be interesting to see if they realized that two couples attending today have anniversaries (the other one is Tuesday); maybe she ordered a cake.

More likely, pigs will fly.
I am SUCH a bitch...

Why I won't be watching Slumdog Millionnaire in this lifetime

First of all, I hate the title, and the premise. I could probably have worked around both, however, in light of all the positive reactions I've heard about it.

Then we found out that 20th Century Fox Searchlight released the DVD without the correct Extras stuff. [two links among many others] OK, so we called the toll free number that Amazon provided--note that Fox never contacted us, and neither did Amazon, so woe betide you if you don't read the news or have friends who do! In any case, there is a note on the Amazon page which I will quote verbatim because it's an indication of what I would call Good Customer Service:

DVD Alert: Fox apologizes that the special features are missing from a portion of the Slumdog Millionaire DVDs ordered before April 2, 2009. Fox has set up a hotline telephone number (1-888-223-4369) for those consumers who may have been affected. Upon calling the hotline, these consumers will be able to have their disc replaced for one containing special features. This issue does not occur on the Blu-ray version. Fox regrets any inconvenience this may have caused and is making every effort to expedite the replacement discs as quickly as possible.

Clear, concise information, courteously worded. Great.

So I called the number on or about April 8. Other libraries I'd talked to had gotten their discs replaced as quickly as overnight. Wow! GREAT service, eh? The dozens of patrons waiting to view one of our library's copies won't even notice that there was a switcheroo.

Not so fast. On April 14, when our new discs had not arrived, I called back and asked for help. Got disconnected. About 10 minutes later, I received a call that was ostensibly a rep calling from a list she had been working on before I called. And...ah...now I was told that because we purchased more than one of the movies, I need to find the invoice and fax a copy to Fox to prove that we really had bought three. And that will take another few days. So, I complained a little and said it would have been nice to know that LAST week. The voice at the other end said that the call desk wasn't told about multiple copies. They clearly weren't told to ASK about multiple copies, either, or we could have started this whole faxing thing then! So I was...ahem...disgruntled. I found the invoice, a miracle in itself since it was bills week and usually would have been outside the building being paid. I faxed the invoice to the number I was given. It went through, and I put it aside to wait for the @$&*ing discs to arrive.

They have not arrived today. I called and the operator eventually came back and said he'd have to 'research' this and he would call me back. I just got off the phone with his supervisor--the same woman with whom I spoke last week. Their story has changed yet again! They insist that the procedure has only changed once, but since this is the third and different thing I've been told, to me it feels like every time I call I get new directions. NOW, the rule is that they have to seen me mailing labels and I have to mail BACK the incorrect discs FIRST instead of after we receive the correct ones.

Frankly, this should have been the way it was handled from the beginning, for everyone regardless of how many copies were purchased. Even better : send out addressed return envelopes, but I can't complain about that since we are usually drowning in media mail envelopes. However, the issue here is that they had no record of my fax. They had no record of me calling. The whole angsty conversation last week apparently never happened.

And then...

...sigh...

...there was the clear insinuation that I had not actually faxed anything to start with. There have been several claims that we are the ONLY customer who has had trouble with this procedure, and absolutely no Customer Service. Just "here's what to do" and when I questioned why, was stonewalled and told "corporate told us to" handle it this way (last week and this week). The best part is that in the process of emailing me (another story in giving her my email address: said it, spelled it, said it--she'd screwed it up when she read it back) three mailing labels, and claiming to send 'two' ("Why two?" "Because I already sent one, so now I'm sending two more." "When did you send one?" "Just now." Really? Cuz there's nothing in my email...) which was confusing--and I'm an idiot for thinking so--I ended up talking to her supervisor. I said I'd gotten two emails and two labels and asked if I should just copy one; "NO! YOU HAVE TO HAVE THREE DIFFERENT ONES!"

All righty then. I only got two. So she says she'll have the other woman send me another and I said, "Right. I'll wait on hold while you do that." Big sigh from the other end, but when she came back she immediately said, "You have it now." Uh, no...see, email = not-instantaneous. Believe it or not.

Can I possibly be the only person who got tangled up in this nightmare? And what proof, really, do I have that I have mailed these discs back when I call next week because we STILL haven't gotten the damn things?

I did say several times that really, treating me with contempt and discourtesy wasn't really Customer Service, when actually it was YOU GUYS at Fox who screwed up. An apology, a real one without nasty eye rolling sounds, would have been nice. Really, one of these people thought I was blaming her personally for everything. omfg--'you' is a plural pronoun, you (singular, I hope to God) cloth-eared bint!

In any case, I have lost ANY inclination to watch this stupid movie, and I will be boycotting all 20th Century Fox products herewith (not such a big deal since I rarely see movies). Shit, if people can boycott WalMart for lousy customer service--someone with whom I work--I can boycott everything with "FOX" in it for being subhuman fucktards.

Small things

How lame am I? I am so lame that I'm twitchy with excitement over the discovery that instead of having the little house icon in the IE toolbar open one window, it can open ALL of my favorite tabs: Facebook, Bloglines, Blogger, Gmail, etc., etc.

If you go into "Tools" under the general tab and read the directions for the top box--one URL per line--it's right there. Why didn't I notice this before? The TIME I could have saved clicking on tabs and typing in URLs....

My life = so terribly geekalicious.


Also, it snew last night, after raining for a couple of hours. Yuck. Snow over ice. My fave.

Symptom of the problem

Beast is out of town this week. That's not a big deal for me. Not really.

Between dialysis and diabetes--among other medical issues--his dad has continuing testing and evaluating going on, and one of my charges yesterday was to deliver some stuff to the hospital lab for them to work on. As far as I was concerned, I was going to the facility where he lives, picking the stuff up from the floor nurse while he was at dialysis, taking it to the lab, and leaving. Beast thought he had everything set up.

The first hurdle went up at the front 'reception' desk of the hospital where the volunteers demanded the name of the patient and then couldn't find him in the computer. Well, he's not a patient, so duh. I went on to the outpatient area and they couldn't find any record of this test. Turns out, we were supposed to pre-register the drop off. WTF?

So, I called Beast, who called his dad for the insurance info needed to register him, Beast called the registration desk, and that situation was resolved.

I went back in the lab and the tech informed me that she couldn't complete the orders from the doctor unless FIL was there because she needed a blood draw and his height/weight.

Huh? We were told--by this lab, where Beast picked up the equipment--that all we had to do was return the equipment and results. Nothing was mentioned about brining in FIL, nothing about a blood draw, nothing about pre-registering.

Of course, I couldn't go get FIL just then because he was still hooked up to the dialysis stuff for another 45 minutes or so half an hour away . Plus we would need to cancel his ride back to his apartment. Also, I needed to pick Sparky up from school at the same time a half an hour the other direction and get him home long enough to change clothes and eat before his band concert last night.

I was pissed, needless to say. The lab tech I was working with was not the one Beast had talked to--though she came out to 'apologize' (consisting of "I'm not sure who put my business card in the bag, because I wouldn't have said that"--some apology!). The one I worked with called the nephrologist several times to clarify what was going on, but he didn't return calls for the hour I was there. I told them several times that I would be happy to go get FIL after dialysis and bring him in, but I was annoyed (ahem) that we hadn't been told about this, and it was completely balling up the rest of my schedule.

Finally, in a stroke of genius, Beast called me and said, "Wait a second: if they need a blood draw to compare the results with...it won't work for you to bring him this afternoon. He's had dialysis. His blood won't resemble ANYthing from yesterday because it's been CLEANED! Duh."

Now. Explain to me why we, laypersons who don't 'do' medicine for a living, figured this out when the lab staff, who do 'do' this for a living, did NOT.

Really? No...REALLY??

The upshot--we'll do it all over again this coming weekend, and bring FIL into the hospital for the blood draw before he goes to dialysis next Monday.

So, 90 minutes after I walked in the building for a 10-minute (AT MOST) errand, I finally left with nothing to show for it except high blood pressure and 30 minutes of burned up cell phone usage. Beast probably burned through another 20 minutes on top of that.

The kicker? When Beast was registering FIL over the phone, the registrar basically said, "I don't see anything on this order from the doctor for a blood draw." He didn't tell me that until last night, fearing I might go apeshit on the tech.

I hope to hell I never get taken to this hospital as a patient. Every time we've dealt with them (ER for Beast, admission for FIL a couple of years ago, etc.) they have fucked up something. I know that mistakes happen, but that kind of track record in medical services is not something that makes me real confident.

I'm gonna be glad to get to work today where the insanity is, at least, not life-threatening.

VOTE!

Niiiiice*!!!

---

*OMG--I am quoting Borat! Desperate times = desperate measures.....

This is...just...incredible

Just found this in an email from a coworker which she sent to several of us; she is a reference librarian:
I assume Hurricane Ike is named after the former president? Think what would have happened if it would have been named after the current one!While I tend to agree that the idea of naming anything after Bush is farcical and probably will end up as a disaster, she apparently doesn't realize that "Ike" is a first name (hello, Ike Turner?) nor that the storms are not named for individuals.

Do y'all see why there are days when I want to put my face through a wall?

---

Urban Word:

27/4: 27 seconds a day, 4 days a week, i.e. quite rare

Identifying the person who put this in an email will be easier if I note that her ideal work plan is 27/4. She even includes Sundays in that work-week!

Stuff I've been reading

Mood: tahred, but pleasantly so (after a near psychotic break this afternoon--I l-o-a-t-h-e my family-of-origin right now!)
Hair: barrette up in back at this point, but it's been looking particularly good this week
Eyes: tahred
Listening to: NASCAR truck race (no shit: there is a driver named Scott Speed!)

OK, the Vatican is weird. I really have to say that I've never really understood the concept of Decrees on High, but damn. This one is the weirdest I remember in a long while. Who knew there was an official Vatican astronomer? [I've now deleted the beginning of what was about to become a lengthy rant on how better to spend the Vatican City State Budget.]

Since I'm already on a God in Space kick, Beliefnet's blog has compiled a list of the most spiritual sf characters. Personally, I'd move Morpheus up higher, but that's only because I haven't seen many of the others. I remember watching the third Matrix movie on TV a couple of years ago for the first time and having a blinding flash of what the story/ies was/were ABOUT. [Hint: not slowed-down kung-fu.]

Speaker of sf (which of course is now called Speculative Fiction so that we can include Fantasy with it...huh), some enterprising Harry Potter reader (or just someone with a great deal of extra time recently) has discovered a way to build a magic wand that will allow you to ride on the London Underground in spectacularly wizard-like fashion.

OK, since I've now gone completely into Gonzo Land, we women have no idea how complex the men's room is. When I forwarded this to Beast, his reply was a serious discussion urinal etiquette. I was stunned to find out that this is NOT a joke.

Lest we think that civilization is crashing around us, keep in mind that no matter how odious we "grown-ups" find text-talk ("lol", "u" instead of "you", etc.), the Romans started it.

While we're sharing blame, if you've got neighbors from hell, here's a place to complain about them in public. [You can also rave about any good ones.] In all seriousness, registered sex offenders are already posted, and so are foreclosures. But the joy is in the commentary: from the rather unfortunate-in-its-irony named Pleasant Grove, NJ: "Jerk Off." I like this one from Alvin, TX, too: "12 year old MENANCE running wild." It's possible that there are extra points given for poor spelling.

OK, back to the house: here's a bookshelf that doubles as a message center. The trick is training people to check there for messages.

OK, and now I'm going to bed. Happy sleeps, y'all!

---

Urban Word:

attachment disorder : When a person forgets to attach a document to an e-mail after explicitly stating that it is present.

Yesterday was the ultimate stupid technology day; I developed everything from premature window closure syndrome to attachment disorder.

Oh hai

1 Ceiling Cat iz mai sheprd (which is funni if u knowz teh joek about herdin catz LOL.)
He givz me evrithin I need.

2 He taekz me to teh sunni spot
an haz liek nice waterz r ovar thar.

3 He makez mai soul happi
an maeks sure I go teh riet wai for him. Liek thru teh cat flap insted of out teh opin windo LOL.

4 I iz in teh valli of deth, fearin no evilz,
bcz Ceiling Cat iz besied me pokin me wif hiz stix an it maek me so kumfy.

5 He letz me sit at teh taebl evn when peepl who duzint liek me iz watchn.
He givz me a flea baff an so much milk it runz out of mai bowl LOL.

6 Niec things an luck wil chase me evrydai
an I wil liv in teh Ceiling Cats houz forevr.

Psalm 23 LOLcat style

I also like this one:

4 luv is pashient n kind, luv haz no jelusniss or showin offz, luv no is stuck-up5 or r00dz. Luv no insistzes on doin it rite, itz not pisst off alla tiem or rezentfluffle.6 luv izzn all happiez about doin it wrong, but is happiez about teh truthz.7 luv putz up wiht all teh stuffz, beelivez all teh stuffz, hoepz for all teh stuffz. Luv putz up wiht all teh stuffz. i sed that areddy.

from 1 Cor 13

Go.
Look up your favorite (however you define that) verse.
I command thee (because I'm not a LOLcat).

Overheard at work

Person 1: ...so that I thought I was going to just have a heart attack...

[Staff] Person 2: [passing behind the conversation in progress] Oh, no, don't have a heart attack!

Person 1: [startled] ...ok...

[Staff] Person 2: With all the other stuff going on, I'm not sure I can figure out the defibrillator, too!

Person 1: [pause] Right.

[Staff] Person 2: All these new procedures...

Person 1: Hey, no really: don't put yourself out. Just let me die, it's all right.

In my work email...

...was this article:

Library trustees vote to keep badges
By Lindsay Kishter Tribune staff reporter

Library trustees in south suburban Crestwood said they never expected that buying shiny, five-pointed, gold star badges with protective leather cases for themselves would cause such a hullabaloo.

Still, they stuck to their guns -- figurative, in this case -- when scornful residents criticized the $600 purchase.

In fact, trustees reaffirmed keeping the badges in a vote this week.

Library Board President Clyde Petersen, a former police officer in Crestwood, said plenty of other elected officials have similar credentials, and there are many "trustee" stars available at the badge shop.

But a quick survey of other library boards in the area suggests that Crestwood may be an innovator.

"The badges were completely outside of anyone's experience," said Patty Dwyer Wanninger, director of the Blue Island Public Library.

"I never heard of it," said Ruthann Swanson, director of the Alsip-Merrionette Public Library.

"My trustees? They have business cards that we produce for them," said Rich Wolff, director of the Tinley Park Public Library.

When the badges were issued last year, Crestwood Police Chief Timothy Sulikowski said he was flooded with calls from residents concerned they might be misused.

In the spring, a friend of one of the trustees, who borrowed the badge, was arrested for allegedly impersonating a public official after he flashed the badge to try to get a parking spot in Merrionette Park.

"I don't think anybody except a fireman or a policeman needs a badge," said Trustee Diana Koepp, who opposes them. "It has no purpose. It's just a waste of taxpayer dollars, if you ask me."

Still, the board voted 6-0 to keep the badges but with a new set of rules. The stipulations include not lending them, keeping them in a safe place and filing a police report if a badge is stolen. They also agreed that if members don't want a badge, it will be kept under lock and key by the president and secretary in a drawer at the library.

Koepp abstained from voting. Trustee Loch Miwa said he doesn't like the badges but voted for the new rules as a compromise.

A half-dozen residents criticized the badges at this week's meeting and others had balked at earlier meetings, said Suzanne Bleskin, director of the Crestwood Public Library.

"Any comment we get here in the library -- and we get a lot of them -- is no one likes it," Bleskin said. "I personally have never seen the badges."

Neither has the police chief, who, along with Mayor Chester Stranczek, would like to see the badges go.

It's not clear if residents have gotten a look. But Petersen doubted he'd show anybody now, even if asked.

"I'm trying to put this whole thing to bed," he said. "To keep stirring it up, that would just bring it back to light again."

In March a friend of a board member took a badge out of the trustee's car as the two were outside a Merrionette Park, Petersen said.

They were told they couldn't park at the club, but then the badge appeared in the friend's hand. The man was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a public official.

Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office, said the charges were dropped with the friend agreeing to perform 50 hours of community service.

Petersen, like Stranczek, thinks the trustees and the town should get on with more pressing library issues.

"I agree with him, rather than having all this nonsense," Petersen said.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Disclaimer: I don't know ANY of these people.

But somehow they seem sorta familiar...'scuse me, I seem to be having Rowling flashbacks....

Today was better

Much better. Probably has something to do with this:

TODAY'S PLAYLIST (followed by my rating)
...in reverse order, so the last song is at the top

Twilight Singers - Bonnie Brae 9 I looovvve this song!

Ricardo Montaner - Hoy Tengo Ganas De Ti 6

The Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away 8

Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale 6

Gang Of Four - Natural's Not In It 8

Bruce Springsteen - Downbound Train 6

Lily Allen - Shame For You 9 (awesome song!)

The Bird And The Bee - I'm A Broken Heart 8.5

Billy Idol - Dancing With Myself 9

Fountains Of Wayne - '92 Subaru 8.5

Keane - Bend And Break 9

Elton John - Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC) 8

Meat Loaf - Seize The Night 8

Donavon Frankenreiter - Let It Go 8

Billie Myers - Kiss The Rain 8

Queen - Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy 7

Irving Fields - Rumania, Rumania (weird, unrated cuz undecided)

Benny Carter - Squatty Roo 9

Edge City Outlaws - Women & Wine (Remix) 8

The Black Crowes - She Talks To Angels 6

Melissa Etheridge - I Need To Wake Up 9

Teitur - You're The Ocean 8

Citizen Cope - All Dressed Up b

Michael Franti - I Know I'm Not Alone 8

Beyoncé - Listen (From The Motion Picture Dreamgirls) 9

....and this was only the last 90 minutes or so!

I love Launchcast!

Music recommendation

I rarely do this, but honestly, this is a great song, if you can find it: Chris Cornell's version of "Billie Jean"Yes. That "Billie Jean." The only people who maybe shouldn't listen are those who are really wedded to the original. I know nothing about Cornell, or the reasoning behind his singing the song this way, but this is an excellent reinterpretation of what's become a classic (whether you like it or not--and I'm not a huge fan). VERY different, really awesome.

You can listen to a snip here.