Toll "Booth" Charge

Okay, so I got a "bill" the other day in the mail from the Texas Tollway, I freaked. I'm trying to think to myself "where did I miss a toll booth?" I don't have one of those lovely toll tags as I don't use the toll road that often. I'm trying to think when I used one to have even received the bill.

I know that the new stretch of 121 is toll but I've never seen a toll booth anywhere so figured it started further down the road somewhere. I realized what they're doing on 121 is they have cameras up over the highway and snap your picture as you go under and then send you a bill.

Like I said I don't use toll roads that often. I went through this toll twice and received a bill for $1.20! How crazy is that? And there is no way to pay this bill online, so that means I have to write a freaking check for $1.20 and use a stamp to send it FCM. How ridiculous. PLUS it was when I was getting Mr. M. from the airport during one of his business trips, which means I COULD have been reimbursed. But of course that expense report was already turned in.

So I wrote them a nice letter letter (not as rude as the one Target got, but I just wanted to let them know how ridiculous it was).

To Whom it May Concern,

I just wanted to write and let you know how displeased I am of the bill I recently received. Not that I don't mind paying a toll, its just that I don't like the way it's done.

When I received the bill I thought 2 things. 1st - that I had missed a toll booth somewhere. 2nd - that someone was using my old car, again, and I was getting the bill, again.

My "bill" was only $1.20! I'd rather have paid that in a booth than having to write a check, send it via FCM and use a stamp to send it. I think it would highly recommend a way to pay online.

Additionally, these two trips that I was charged for were in conjunction with my husband's business trip. If I had gone through a booth I could have asked for a receipt to get a refund from his job. Granted it was only $1.20, but it's the concept that matters.

thanks,
WolfLover Girl

Wrong Blinds - Saga Continues

Today is January 29th, I called Target on the 20th to advise they sent the wrong blinds. I was advised on that day that I would receive them in 3-4 business days.... I was wrong... no wait, they were wrong!!

Evidently my blinds are out of stock and the *ss who I talked to on the 20th knew it at that time but he was such a chicken he couldn't tell me. He had to lie and tell me my new stuff would be sent. I've now been advised that I'll get them by MARCH 3RD!!!!! Can you believe it?

So I got this lovely email from Target saying "we noticed you called, was everything met?" So I replied... If you're so interested the following is what they received.

I ordered 2 vertical blinds in 34.5W X 58L". I received 2 bars at 42 7/8 X 58 and 2 blinds at 14 X 56 1/2. I can imagine accidentally shipping the incorrect thing, but to not even have the items that you ship not even match each other is beyond me.

I called on January 20th about 5pm and talked to Harmon and explained that I received the wrong items. First let me just say that he did not seem enthused to assist. He advised that the correct items would be sent and I would receive them in 3-4 business days.

Today is January 29 and I have yet to receive my blinds. I called about 5:30pm and was not able to catch the guys name as his accent was a tad bit thick. He advised that my item is out of stock AND it was out of stock when I originally called on the 20th!!!!! Obviously Harmon really didn’t want to work that day. I’ve been advised that I will now receive my order by MARCH 3RD!

When I asked for some sort of compensation I was advised I could have a 10% discount on my next order, for online only. I don’t like to order online. The only reason I ordered the blinds online is because they’re not available in the store. When I asked if anything additional might be given he said there might be when I actually get the order but he couldn’t guarantee it because in the event my item is no longer carried you’ll have to cancel my order completely and then I’ll be refunded.

So I get to wait two months to see if I will in fact get my originally ordered item and IF I get some sort of compensation for your error. Nice.

We would love to just cancel the order but unfortunately we need these blinds and it's not like they'll give us cash back they'll put it back on the Target gift card we had. So we're stuck like chuck!!

Weird Dream

I had the craziest dream last night. Let me first start by saying I'm deathly afraid of snakes...

I don't know where I'm at in this dream but I know that my sister is there (and I know I haven't given her an alias yet so we'll call her Susan for now) and I can tell there is a guy and I'm assuming it's Mr. M. I'm holding what seems to be a Lunchable with two "sections". On the left side is normal human food. On the right side is a snake and some other nasty animal. (obvioulsy I can't remember what it is cause I just focused on the snake).

So someone tells me that I have to feed the human food to the other animal so then the snake can eat this other animal and then I can eat the snake (or something like that). I'm having trouble speaking but I know I'm freaking about the snake. Well I drop this lunchable thing and some how this snake gets out. I'm really freaking now and I'm trying to tell people that this snake is out but I'm having trouble talking. Oh did I mention that it's a rattlesnake?

Okay so it's slithering away into this corner past the guy in my dream and my sister goes to pick it up. And I'm trying to yell at her "no, it's a rattlesnake!" but again nothing is coming out. I'm trying to yell her name to get her attention and then finally my voice comes back and I yell, "SUSAN!!!" and interestingly I actually yelled it for real that it actually woke me up. Lucky for Mr. M he's out of town so I didn't wake him. ;-)

Of course I had to make myself think of something else to get back to sleep because all I could really think of was that d*mn rattlesnake!

My Girls Together

We have two cats as I've mentioned before, but they don't really get along either. As a matter of fact when Poo gets a bit fiesty she likes to go after CGirl. Sigh!

But tonight for the first time they were kind of together. They like to sit, lay, sleep on back top of the love seat. And well Poo sheds alot so I have this "home made" seat protector. Basically it's just a peice of black cloth that I laid up there so the cat hair doesn't get all over the couch. And when company comes I can just take it off real quick.

Well CGirl was up there and Poo jumped up there like "this is my spot". CGirl just growled at her like "I ain't moving". So Poo just lays down next to her. Of course I had to get a couple of shots!!

Wrong Blinds

Update as of January 24:
I gave them a call to let them know they sent me the wrong stuff. The very enthusiastic guy on the line was very accommodating (I'm being sarcastic by the way). He said they would send the replacements and actually I should be receiving them tomorrow or so. We'll see.

Now how to return the original stuff they sent? I can go online a print a mail label so I don't have to pay for it. But you know what? I'm not repackaging that stuff. I think I'll just take it in to the nearest Target and let them deal with it. As I was mentioning to one of my co-workers, how would they even know if I sent it anyway? :-) But I won't do that, I can't.

And I don't normally order items online either, I can't stand it. But we had a gift card for Target and you can't buy this stuff in the store, so we had to!
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Okay so I ordered some blinds off of Target's website a week or so ago using a gift card we received for Christmas. We have to replace the 2 front blinds because M&M tore them up. So I ordered vertical blinds that way if any of the animals want to look outside they can just move the blind over and see. They won't pull down the horizontal blind and tear it up.

So they were delivered to our house yesterday and Mr. M. got them out to start putting them up.
Okay now I ordered two 34 1/2 W X 58 L.
We received two 42 7/8 X 58 bars to hang the blinds.
And two 14 X 56 1/2 blinds.

Now how did they do that????? The stuff they sent us doesn't even match each other. What dips!!! So I'll be calling them to let them now how well they screwed up and I'm not shipping this crap back. I'll be more than happy to take it to the local Target and they can ship it on their own dime!!!! I'll let you know what I find out. Idiots!

Doggie Training - Day 1 - Postponed

Update as of January 24
Well we didn't get to go to doggie school this past weekend. Mr. M was very sick over the weekend and I don't think it would be smart to start a dog training class if we both can't be there. So it looks like February will be the first date we can get rescheduled.

I'm a little bummed but I don't want to come home and have to tell Mr. M what all was taught during class cause I'm sure I won't remember everything that she'll say.

I'll keep you posted.

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So tomorrow is the newly scheduled day 1 to train M&M. Man I can't wait to get started.

She's not been co-operating with me to get all that shedding hair off. I have to wrestle her to the ground and pin her down to get it. Although just a while ago I was able to get one side of her and she actually kind of just laid there. Maybe she realizes I'm not hurting her.

We'll see how tomorrow goes, I'll report back. :-)

Husky Shedding

So I did some research to see if M&M's shedding was normal... it is! Evidently Huskies shed their coat twice a year. This is what I found in my research:

Twice a year, Siberians "blow" their undercoats. They will shed their undercoats completely. It is a very intense shedding period that can last three weeks from start to finish. The good news is it only happens twice a year! The remainder of the time, Siberians are relatively shed free. Some people feel that this problem is easier to cope with than the constant shedding and removal of many smooth-coated breeds. The hair usually comes out in large and small clumps. The two brushes that no one should live without if they own a husky, is a slicker and a grooming comb. During the intense shedding period, if you brush the dog every day, to help get out the undercoat, it should shorten the shedding period. Other than during the shedding season, the Siberian needs very little grooming. No trimming or shaving of the hair is required. Just occasional brushing and to remove dead hair and keep the coat fresh and shiny.

So the good news is that our dog doesn't really shed the rest of the year. The bad news is that she has clumps of hair coming out now and by the article can last up to 3 weeks! And of course she doesn't like the brush so I can't help it out quicker with it. I have to wait till she's laying down and then just sit there an pull clumps of hair out. It's kind of like when someone has a sunburn and their skin is peeling and you're pulling their skin off? LOL, come on you know you do it don't tell me that's gross. Anywho, that's what its like.

New Wolf Picture

I've decided to change my wolf picture! I went out on the web and found tons of course so I've copied a few and put into "storage" for the future. I figure I'll change the picture once a month or so.

I liked this one because it seems like it's playing peek a boo, maybe stalking it's dinner! :-) And it's in the snow since it's technically still winter.

Doggie Training

M&M is scheduled for doggie class!!! I'm so excited! Her first day was today but unfortunately they cancelled due to the pending bad weather. So it's been moved to next Sunday.

I can't wait though. I'd love to take her on more walks but I just can't control her. She's a husky and she likes to run so she wants to take off. And man can she pull on that leash. Plus we purchased this "gentle leader" (pictured on left, picture of course not our dog!) that's supposed to help control your dog while they are walking. I can't even get M&M to sit still to put it on. When she sees the leash she knows she's going for a walk and just wants to go then. Poor girl, I was changing out the collar she had on today and she thought it was the leash and was so hyper.


AND she's starting to shed like hell. Of course I can't get her to sit still for a brushing. She hates it! I brushed her the other day and I had to clean out the brush 3 times there was so much hair. Today I noticed that tuffs of hair by her back leg was coming out. I got the brush to help it out so she wouldn't be dropping hair all over the house. I'm hoping that this is normal because tons of hair just came out leaving a small patch of missing hair. It wasn't bare underneath, there was other hair there so maybe its just old hair and new hair is coming in.

Animal Beds

This is my first attempt to adding pictures to my blog with text and I’m struggling a little bit. This is my third attempt at writing this post, we’ll see if it’s successful. (I guess third time is a charm!)

We noticed that the spot where M&M sleeps was getting a bit dirty, probably from the oil on her skin and everything. So we decided to get her a doggie bed. Well we found one for $10 at Walgreens, so much better than the $50-$100 you can pay at one of those pet stores. She really seemed to like it.

Then we noticed that CGirl was getting in it. You’d walk by and see this calico cat all curled up in a tight ball just sleeping away. (sorry no picture) and surprisingly M&M didn’t seem to care, at least not while we were at home. She would just walk by and sniff her and then move on. So we decided we had to get the cats a bed too. We went back to Walgreens to get a couple like we did the dog but they were out. But we did find some smaller ones that had sides on them like a box. You can also take out the bottom which Mr. M. said we should just use. I told him that we shouldn’t because you know how a cat is, they love boxes so this is gonna work out just great!

And it did. This is CGirl above. She got in and did that kneading thing that cats do then laid down to clean herself for bed. She’s always in her bed. I finally had to bring hers into the study and put it on a small part of my desk because she always has to be were I am. And it keeps her out of Mr. M’s chair which he really appreciates. She of course is curled up there now, snoring! J

Poo also liked hers. That first night we had it in the living room on the love seat. I came back in a little later and she was all asleep on her back with her legs in the air (picture on bottom). Which of course you just want to put her hand in that belly and rub it, which I did!

Unfortunately that next afternoon M&M got a hold of the bed but she didn’t tear it up too badly. She just tore some of the stuffing out of it which I just put back in and kind of sewed it up. I tried moving the bed to other locations that would be out of the way of the dog but Poo just won’t get back in. Finally I just put it back on the love seat and any time we’re watching tv CGirl is curled up in it. Like I said she LOVES the beds.

Happy 2007!

Wow!! Can you believe it? It's already 2007!

I hope that you made through all right and that everyone celebrated responsibly.

Mr. M and I had dinner with a few friends and then back to our place to play "Scene It", man that's a hard game. About 30 minutes to "the time" we had the tv on to one of the many New Year's Eve celebrations. Evidenlty we chose the wrong channel because they did not reshow the dropping of the ball in Times Square (we're in CST). So I quickly changed it to another channel to find we had missed it. To say the least I was a bit pissed. We did our champagne toast and kisses all around. Then a tradition that Queen P and I started a few years ago, I had everyone sign the champagne bottle as a keepsake.

New Year's Resolution you ask? Nope, don't believe in them, but I do have my well wishes...

1. I wish that everyone could just get along. Yeah, world peace would be the ultimate, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. But I think friends and family should just love one another...

2. I wish that those who are looking for a new job finds one, and finds a good one that they will be happy to get up in the morning and go to.

3. For those who are starting a new job... same thing applies, hope that it's a good one and you'll enjoy it. Make new friends and good luck with your new adventure.

4. I wish all financial problems to go away - yeah, I'm wishing big on this one aren't I? :-D

Anywho, Happy 2007 to everyone. Make it a great year.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Truth or Fiction?

Ah! I love it when friends and family send me emails of all these "did you see this?" "look at what this celebrity is doing..." blah blah blah. And just because it came in an email they think it's true.

For example I got this one about Robin Williams and something about the war. I've received it many times. Now it's one of my rules that I don't talk about politics or religion when I'm with family or friends. I just think they are bad subjects and too much debate that I think not everyone knows the whole truth on. And I'm not saying I know anymore than anyone else, so that's why I don't speak I just sit there. Which brings me to the emails. I'll do either do 1 of 2 things.

1. Just don't reply to them. I glance at the email. Laugh. And delete while shaking my head.

2. I'll look it up on this great website, truthorfiction.com, to see if it's real or not. And if it's not I might reply back to you with the link to that particular story. Now sometimes I've done the "reply all" so everyone you sent that message to will see that it's false, but I don't always want to piss everyone off so I might just "reply to sender".

So before you forward that message on saying that Denzel Washington gave millions of dollars to some hospital to build a building for families of soldiers, (which by the way is half true, go to the website and do a search for Denzel Washington if you're interested), go to truthorfiction.com, save it to your favorites, check out the story and then decided accordingly how you'll forward or respond to your message.

~ Wolf Lover Girl.

Cell Phones in the Restroom

Not sure what happens in the men's room.... And to all the ladies that I might have done this to I apologize - actually no I don't! :-)

Like I've mentioned I work in a call center so the agents are allowed 2 15-minute breaks and 1 30-minute lunch. And I guess they have to make the best of the time they're allowed. Well I don't think that means that you should go into the restroom doing your business and be on the phone at the same time. I don't want to hear your conversation. I also think it would be disgusting if I was on the other end of that call hearing the unmistakable echo that you hear and the flushing noises (and any other noises that might happen - yeck)

So this is what happens if I'm in the restroom with you. The toilet has this uncanny problem of flushing all the time. I keep hitting that darn trash can that is provided to ladies for thier personal needs. I all of sudden have the worst runny nose and the coughs.

I don't know if anyone gets the hint when I do this, but I do hope that it's annoying as hell. :-)

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Smokers Hack

Mr M and I went to a restraunt recently and they were a bit busy so of course they ask our smoking preference. Well we're non-smokers, but we'll take whatever we can get so not to stand around so much. Of course we got a seat in the smoking section.

Funny thing I witnessed while there. At a table close to us there were about 4 people sitting at and they of course were lighting up. This one chick just starts hacking and coughing horribly. I'm sitting here thinking... well if you'd stop that nasty smoking you'd probably be able to breath!!

~ Wolf Lover Girl