what the Christ, Santander Consumer USA, Inc! I needed a copy of the Martian Bible sent to my fax?

ffs!

Actually, it reads "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over and over!

Cool! That's the owner's manual for the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator!

by Acme!

Fax them back a bill for the paper and toner PLUS a "pain in the ass" fee.

I JUST made a pot of coffee in my nice stainless steel press pot. Then I dumped it all over the counter and floor and down the front of all my kitchen drawers. Hot coffee and fine grounds are everywhere.

My kitchen smells WONDERFUL!!!

Sounds like you scorched your groove and your counter at the same time. :D

Why does a wonderfully smelling kitchen scorch your groove?

Maybe he's hard of smelling? ;)

Jim - are you saying you had a thousand blank pages already set up to feed through your fax machine? That's kind of crazy.

The office manager

It prolly has internal memory - keeps all the info until the paper is refilled, then spits out more.

Still no announcement on a second season of Camelot.

The quieter Starz is and the longer the silence reigns, the more it feels like this will not get picked up for a second season.

I really liked it!

I take a couple days off work and wake up with the beginnings of a cold. I often get sick after my one day a week on the front line, after touching too many IDs and exchanging too much paperwork with too many people who may or may not have any number of maladies but it shouldn't happen on my vacation. Bah. Well, i'll get some rest whether I like it or not.

@ Dana - I began watching Camelot after getting hooked on GOT... I like(d) it also.

mold allergy headache.

Och. 'Tis bad, it 'tis.

People who seek you out then ignore you right to your face. You're welcome very much.

scorching my back...


I got sunburned. And I was fastidious with my sunblock. Which I ain't always.

I'm pissed

and scorched

So.
Yesterday - ON MY BIRTHDAY! - I had a strip torn off me by a member of the office staff.

As agreed with my teacher, I came in at 10.00 yesterday.
I rarely reclaim hours, but it was my birthday and was discussed in advance.
It was only an hour after all - I would have been justified in asking for a lot more. The truth is I enjoy working there and clock-watching is the last thing on my mind.

When I got in, after arranging my cakes in the staffroom, I was sent out onto the field. There was a sponsored bounce taking place on a bouncy castle.
I knew about that, in fact posted about that here.

Once I got onto the field, I was wished happy birthday by some of the other TAs and when I asked who to report to I was told A. That's okay, A is already heading towards me. To wish me happy birthday no doubt?

Oh no no no no no.
Where had I been? No-one knew where I was. The Office (her emphasis) had no paperwork to say I would be late. Mr H (Headmaster) had no idea I would be off. I'm-sorry-but-I-have-to-ask-you-why-you-were-not-in-on-time.

What did I do?
Smiled affably as if this was a normal reaction. Replied helpfully and cheerfully. Apologised that I did not know the procedure, but would make sure she knew if it ever happened again. Took the wind out of her sails.

She dressed me down in front of all the other TAs (they were all on the field) and three classes of children - not that they were listening, they were focused on the bouncy castle. No-one has ever been told the hours I work EXCEPT Mrs P - we agreed them between us when I started work. Mr H TOLD me to do that. I have always had a flexible timetable due to the changing times of Speech Therapy meetings. I accept any changes and agree them with Mrs P and she really appreciates my flexibility (all the other TAs have children and genuinely can't switch their hours about as easily).

In hindsight? I should have laid into her in return. She wouldn't fuck with me again. Citalopram keeps my moods stable but I still have a temper.

I was told I wasn't actually needed on the field.
Bitch even suggested I went to work with Mrs LB as she had no TA (as opposed to Mrs P who managed to retain one)
Excuse me? I work with a named child. MYOFB, I will go where my contract says I will go.

I happened to mention to Mrs P what Bitch had said.
She was open-mouthed with shock.
"I discussed changing your hours with CAM! [Deputy Head]. She had no right to say that! I'm going to bring this up with CAM!"

Then it was break, and I was sat in the staffroom all alone :(
Happy Birthday to me....
Except Mrs LB came in and said brightly, "Having a happy birthday Cherry?!
"Well," and I told her the story. So what, I'm an evil witch when I want to be... Sneaky-Cherry comes out to play more quickly than Confrontational Cherry.
She was shocked and horrified (the school does tend to run on the goodwill of the TAs who work HOURS more than we are paid).
She said I should tell CAM.
I demurred, but who walked into the staffroom then?
Oh - CAM herself.

So the bottom line was I got a 3 minute blast of hot air.
But at least 20 minutes of sympathy and lots of ego-stroking about how valuable I am, how I have always gone above and beyond my contract and how marvellous I am. And Bitch got (or will get) a reminder of how to talk to valuable staff members.

She wished me a Happy Birthday when I left.
I was sweetness and light to her in return of course.
So maybe I did take the right approach - I hate conflict, especially in the workplace.

Still, there is a lottle part of me that thinks I should have channelled Monster and made the Bitch scared of me.

Oh no no, you did exactly the right thing, including politely tattling on the Bitch. It's far better to perfect your sweetest "eat shit and die" grin, and let the ones in charge hand out the bitchslapping. She'll be even more scared of you now that she knows she's being watched.

Wise Clod is right, as evah!

This was scorching my groove earlier...

Frankly, I'd've done the same thing -you catch a lot more flies with honey

:thepain::thepain::thepain::thepain::thepain::thepain:

Fucking $122 water bill because my dang stepkids have never been taught basic life skills like what to do with a running toilet. "We just thought it was broken." And what do you do with broken things? Apparently you just let them sit. Really? Yes, really--one of the toilets in their mom's family's house has been unusable for over a year now ("when you flush it, it overflows, so we just don't use it anymore.") Further discussion revealed that they didn't even know the word plumber. They are 13 and 9, for Christ's sake!

Popping a couple kids out does not make you a mother. :greenface

Damn Clod - sorry to hear that.

Damn. I give you permission to smack mr. fobble for knocking that gal up.

Twice. Knocking her up twice. Dude was a dumbass, he doesn't dispute it.

Srsly. Even if she had a magic pussy, you get to smack him once for each occurrence and once more for being a dumbass. Then he has either take you out to dinner (as in he watches the kids while you go out) or make you something for dinner that is pretty damn delicious.

BTW I like how you can use "fucking" as an adjective but you choose "dang" over "damn" or "damned" you are a classy broad and don't let any one tell you otherwise. ;)

Well, "dang" was in reference to the kids, and I try not to directly swear about any of them. Kind of a weird line to draw, I guess, but it's not their fault their mom's a fucking moron. ;)

Moving the goalposts
 

yesterday, i sucked it up and payed the deposit and USA registration fees for the boys' hockey and Hebe's Pay-to-Play fee for high school swimming. I shelled out $670 non-refundable. Last night I learned from the local news that the Board of Ed was righting and planning to increase the pay to play by at least $100 despite the season already being underway and people being financially committed...... And this morning I learn that apparently when the hockey board says

They must consider a 30% increase as "near" because that is the figure being circulated.

My groove is truly scorched and some people are going to get singed from the fall-out......

Man, that sucks big time, Monster.

I think that if they're going to increase the costs significantly, they should offer refunds.

Ok, so I emailed the hockey board and got confirmation that there is no big increase coming......

and then I heard today that that still wasn't the impression of most of the board.... and they are horrified the word "got out".....

and my "source" found the "there might be increases for some age groups as we increase ice time......" get-out clause.

the plot thinkens and the politics are getting nasty, i hear....

Let me just say this about that
 

The car needs a new timing belt AND new plugs and wires and snow tires as winter will be here pretty soon. To change the plugs, the engine needs to be pulled, because of that, Platinum spark plugs are installed with the attending cost associated with platinum.
The car is also suffering form an intermittent won't start problem that rectifies itself after 2-24 hours. Not always convenient when you are out and about, tolerable when you are in your own driveway. No one has any idea what causes this.

Figure it's going to be about $1,000 to do all the work.

No heat or hot water this morning. Go downstairs to reset the boiler switch and see a fairly respectable pool of water and a drip coming from the boiler. Nice. It needs a cleaning anyway, $150. but this leak looks like a big part needs to be replaced. Could be $500 or more.

Just took delivery of a 1/3 of a tank of oil. $356.

I realized we haven't paid the garage for the last repair they did, $336.

Goddamn kid lost his $50 climbing harness TWO HOURS after we bought it.

total in checking and savings: $96.

It's gonna be a fun week.

But look on the bright side - someone has topped up the tip mug and it's only the 24th.

(Thanks, generous tippers.)

oh dear lord feetz, you must've been bad in a former life. Two hours? Is there any chance you can find it?

WTF?

The only cars I've heard of where you need to pull the engine out to service it are a few varieties of Ferrari. I guess similar super-performance-damn-the-expense cars might be the same, but a guy with $96 in the bank probably doesn't have a Ferrari.

What are you driving?

mrsfeetz mad?

Dude, are you in some kind of deep mystical relationship with this car? It doesn't sound like she's worth the trouble.

Foot - I feels ya.

I had a similar run of expensive bad luck for a while (lasted from July to just about now)

You ever see that commercial where a big cyborg comes crashing down the street and the guys go, "there goes Dwayne's car....there goes Dwayne's house...there goes Dwayne. Man, that thing does not like Dwayne," - well, I felt like Dwayne.

hang in there, footsie. If it doesn't get worse it might get better.

thanks guys

2004 Hyundai Sonata.
175,000 miles. Problem free until now.

It wouldn't have many miles on it except for that one trip you took to the moon.

SHIT, FOOT.

The trip home really hammered me.

you must know a good short cut!

That is a lot of miles, man. I've got a 2003, and I drive to Houston and back at least two, sometimes three times a month in it (6 hours round trip.) And still, I've only got 150,000. You must belong to the Jim Helm School of Commuting.

If I had bought a brand new car when I started here, and still had it, it would have around 230k on it right now.

That's a lot of miles in 13 months.

You take a left at the time space continuum and just past the Inner Circle of Fault you bear right. Can't miss it.

Talk about yer steel taint.

They'd definitely spec Platinum for his taint

if my taint was platinum, i'd sell it!

if yer taint was platinum i'd be buyin'

From the poster who previously declared that he had a cock of pure gold and farted diamond dust.

This has been a sucky week for me, as well. It started out when I was trying to get to work at the Bates. A huge semi truck had parked in the right lane, directly in front of the entrance to the motel. The semi almost took up the entire right lane, so I was forced to get into the left hand lane, and turn from there into the teensy space the trucker had left to get into the motel parking lot. Quick as I made my turn, a cop materialized out of nowhere and gave me a ticket for an improper turn. "But that truck..." I started to whine. "Tell it to the judge," replied Cortez's guardian of the roads. "You can pay $170 within 20 days and avoid having to go to court, or you can go to court and pay the $170 then." Jerk!

$170 is a lot of money for me. I should have just stayed home from work and come out ahead.

Then yesterday, I lost my purse (maybe it was stolen?). I back tracked everywhere I'd been that day, and the purse was at none of them. I had ALL my ID in there including bank cards and Qwest card. Plus, about $20 that was going to go toward kitty kibble. Damn, Damn, DAMN!

Since 9/11, the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles has made it almost impossible to replace a lost or stolen driver's license. You can get a special dispensation from the Governor but, lacking that, you are thrown into the paperwork chase from hell. I'll have to send off to Kentucky for a notarized copy of my birth certificate, including a fee of God knows how much and a wait of God knows how long. Then I need a SECOND form of ID, and from the list of documents that Colorado finds acceptable, my divorce papers are about the only thing that I have a chance of getting my hands on.

I lost MY copy of the divorce papers, but my ex still has his, lovingly stored away where he can put his hand on them in 10 seconds. So, I have to track down my ex (hopefully he hasn't moved), and ask him for the exact date of our divorce (I can't even recall the year, never mind the day and month), plus the serial number on the divorce certificate, so that I can then call up the courthouse in my old town, give them the info so they can locate the records, find out what the charge is for a NOTARIZED copy, send them a bunch of money, wait around, and probably about 6 months from now get to go down to DMV for the replacement at last.

The icing on the cake is that my ex has always been paranoid, and the passing of the years has only made him worse. He is a big fish in the small pond of professional fly fishermen and he has gone into deep cover to avoid all the trout groupies that are surely out there, just waiting to pounce on him and ask him to tie a hare's ear or something. Plus, he seems to think that if he just says, "hi" to me, his current wife will divorce him on grounds of infidelity.

Believe me, if I could get my hands on any other document that would make the DMV happy, I would. :thepain:

Sam, loss of your purse is a blessing in disguise.
If the Repub's have their way, you will have to show all of those documents in order to vote in 2012.

I want to start an internet rebellion

When I log into a web site with a commercial that can not be passed by, I want to throw a brick through their window.

Is there any way to do that ?
.

Maybe you need to stay off of those type of sites. You might catch something.

It's not going to be just internet websites...

NY Times
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: November 1, 2011
LG Brings Ad Capability to Internet-Connected TV
How can advertising be added to the mix without annoying audiences ?
Answer: It can't. :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: