OMG!!!!!!

OMG!!!!!! NO FRIGGIN' WAY!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!

For the VERY FIRST TIME IN MY ADULT LIFE, I have found a pair of blue jeans that fit!!!

BLUE CULT 28 X 33

#1. I'm 5'6", but I guess I'm out of proportion to other women my height since my legs are two inches too long for average length pants and two inches too short for talls. I have spent my ENTIRE LIFE fighting this; I hated back-to-school shopping because I had to try on a hundred pairs of pants, none of which ever fit, and mom or Mema ultimately had to hem for me.





#2. While I like jeans with a low-to-medium rise (I can't stand jeans/pants that come up to my belly button and squeeze me to death when I sit). Fortunately low-to-medium rises are "in" right now. However, I absolutely HATE the "in" styles of jeans that have been available for the last several years. I absolutely do not like flare-legged jeans and I don't even like bootcut jeans (which is the most commonly available style of jean which is stupid considering boots are NOT the most commonly worn women's shoes!).



#3. While I am thin enough to pull off the skinny/cigarette-legged jeans that are the rage this season, those are just not my style.



So... by complete fluke, I ordered size 28 and 30 Blue Cult jeans from Overstock.com (they were out of 29s). I had no idea what size was going to fit and I can return whichever (or both) doesn't fit.



I simply cannot believe the 28s fit--and actually, they have just enough give that a 27 would have fit without me having to hitch them up ever so often.

StuidoG $1 stamps!

Everytime I'm in Michael's or Joann's I like to dig through their bargin bins and see what kind of cute StudioG stamps they have. The other day, I started talking to a woman at Joann's while we were pawing through the box of of $1 stamps. She told me CraftWarehouse also has them. I wasn't going to go until that lady pounced on a set of spider stamps I HAD to have (and of course, that was the last one Joann's had).


So... WOW! CraftWarehouse has MORE stamps than Joann's and Michael's combined--not just in sheer number, but also in the number of designs!!! I picked up several of the Halloween acrylic and wood-black sets (including the spider set that lady at Joann's beat me to!).

I posted a comment on a forum about liking these stamps sets--because the designs are cute and the fact that they're cheap! OF COURSE... someone had to offer a negative opinion about the quality and what a waste of money they are and, get this, "they turn yellow after you use them." What the hell? Who cares what color the turn? Can you ink 'em up and stamp with 'em? You bet.

Oh, yeah... and this is my favorite: "Stampin' Up! stamps are made from the highest-quality rubber with deeply etched images. They are an investment that will last forever." Huh? Is that a joke? An INVESTMENT?????


Here's the deal: I have spent a small fortune on SU! stamps (I have two rolling carts FULL of them). I'm not sure what the average cost of a set of stamps is? $30? Anyway, the majority of what I've bought is still sitting, uncut, in their pretty little plastic boxes. And those that I HAVE cut apart and stamped with, I've only used a handful of times. So, when it comes down to it, I'd rather spend $1 on a set of stamps that, ewwwww... turn yellow after I use them a couple of times, and if I NEVER use them, then I'm only out a buck!


All that said, I found an online stamp store that's going out of business. I bought the entire "Bohemian" collection for $12! Pretty much the designs all look the same, but this is a collection that's been out since August, and nobody around here has them.

Northridge Media subscription complaint saga continues...

Okay... In a nutshell: my credit card was incorrectly charged THREE times by Northridge Media. (See my previous post for all of the details).

On 09/21/09, I called and asked to speak with a manager because I had a customer complaint. I was forwarded to Nik Bruce who listened to my problem, told me they had a computer "glitch" that caused the problem, and that he would credit my account on Thursday 09/24/09 for the $44.95 charge from May 11, and the $39.95 charge from September 12.

Well... on FRIDAY 09/25/09, the $39.95 charge was credited (NOT the day he said, but at least it got done). Still haven't heard a word about the $44.95 charge from May.

So... I called back again today, and asked for Nik Bruce... again... And once again... he didn't even apologize for what was going on.

You know, I've worked in retail, and I DON'T agree that the "customer is always right." However I DO believe in great customer service, and THEY (Northridge Media) TOTALLY SUCK! This is THEIR problem, and I have every right to be totally pissed off that they basically STOLE money from me, and I'm having to beg to get it back. In this case, the customer (me!) IS right. With that said, though, I very calmly told him I was pissed off, but I didn't yell and scream at him like I felt.

So... I tell this Nik Bruce guy that I'm STILL waiting for the $44.95 refund from May. And his response? "I didn't know we were supposed to credit your account for that charge." Which is a load of crap; he was fully aware of it when we spoke a couple of weeks ago.

He goes through this whole rigamarole of checking my account, and he lets me know the $44.95 charge in May was for a renewal charge for Simply Handmade. I'm not sure why he didn't tell me that when I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, and that does explain why the charges are different. And I DID have a 6-month subscription for Simply Handmade, but it expired with the June/July issue (and I know that because that's the issue my baby bib was published in). So why would they charge me in May to renew a subscription that didn't end until July? And, if they charged me because of some oversight and have never bothered to credit my account as they should have then why haven't I been receiving "Simply Handmade" since they charged me for it???

Because. They. Are. Full. Of. Crap.

And, here's the real kicker. He asked me if I just wanted a credit to the same credit card I used to place the order. What an ass. He told me when I spoke with him in September that he was going to "personally make sure" that my credit card number was removed entirely from their database so that I would no longer be enrolled in their Platinum Subscriber Program. Obviously, that didn't happen, but the card expires at the end of the year so they can't use it anyway.

Shesh! Just had to get that off my chest, too!

Cards Magazine Complaint!

Sorry... This is a really long rant... Gotta get it off my chest!

Left me first say this: Except for the price, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my subscription to Cards magazine (or idea book or whatever you want to call it).

There was a subscription special when I first subscribed to it last year. If I subscribed to 12 months of Cards, I could get 6 months of another one of their publications for free. I think the name of the one I chose was called Paper Trends (I received four issues and then they changed the name to Simply Handmade).

About a month before my subscription ran out, I got a message from Nik Bruce that said my subscription was about to expire, but not to worry because I was enrolled in their Platinum Renewal Plan which means my credit card will automatically be charged for another year. I DID NOT agree to be enrolled in their Platinum Subscriber Program. They did NOT bury any information about it in fine print that I failed to read. I called and placed my order on the stinkin' phone, and the woman who took my subscription information (whom I now know is Janice) didn't say a word about their stupid Subscriber Program!!!

Anyway... I called Northridge Media and spoke with Nik Bruce (the guy who'd sent the renewal e-mail). I told him it was time to renew my subscription, but I saw online that they were offering the same deal as when I first subscribed--6 months free with a paid 12-month subscription, and I'd like to get that same deal with my renewal. He said that was definitely do-able. He told me about each of their other publications, and I chose Scrapbook Trends for my free subscription. Before we hung up, I specifically asked him if I still needed to respond to the e-mail he'd sent, and he told me no that it was all taken care of on his end.

So... My April credit card statement comes in, and guess what? There were TWO $84.95 charges for the Cards subscription (one on the 9th and one on the 10th).

So... I called them the next day. Like an idiot, I didn't write down the girl's name I spoke with. She told me that it "takes awhile" to get a refund, and could she offer me six additional months for free. I told her no, I really wasn't interested in that; that I'd really like my money back. So, she ups the ante: what about twelve extra months? Of course, I had to say yes. I also asked that my name be removed from their auto-renewal program because I didn't want something like this to happen again. The note on my credit card statement says "free 3rd year instead of refund--2012."

Then, imagine my surprise when my May credit card statement comes in and there is a charge on 05/11/09 for $44.95 for Scrapbook Trends! WHHHHAAAAATTT???

So... I called them again. This time, I spoke with Janice, and I told her that I'd been charged for a 6-month subscription that was supposed to be free. She took down all of my information and told me they would take care of it.

Fast foward a couple of months... On August 24, I was busily reconciling our credit card statements in QuickBooks when I suddenly realized I'd never seen the credit for Scrapbook Trends come through. I dug out my May statement and called them back. Spoke with Janice again this time. She said something about that being a gift subscription I'd purchased. Uh... NO IT WASN'T! Anyway, she dug around for awhile, and then found my name on some kind of refund list they have, but she assured me it would be taken care of.

Then... GET A LOAD OF THIS!!! August 28, I got an e-mail from Nik Bruce that my Scrapbook Trends subscription was expiring--but not to worry because I was enrolled in their Platinum Subscriber Program! Is this a JOKE???

This time, I thought "you know, last time I called, the wires got crossed somehow, and that's why they charged me twice; so this time, I'll respond to the e-mail and that will fix everything."

My immediate response (also on August 28): ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT RENEW!!!

Whew! That's taken care of. Right?

My September 13th American Express bill comes in... You have GOT to be kidding me!!! There was a $39.95 charge on 09/12/09 for Scrapbook Trends.

Anyway... I called again this morning and talked with Nik Bruce (renewals manager). I went through the big long spiel above. He found my account and told me there are "glitches" of some sort where cancelations to their automatic renewals program don't get flagged in their database (or something like that). Anyway, he said he would take care of the refunds, but they couldn't do it until Thursday because there were so many people in front of me they needed to take care of!!! What the crap? How long's the friggin' line??? I've been waiting on a refund since MAY!!!

WOW!!! I can't believe I haven't written in such a long time!

Where did August go...???!!! Well... for that matter, where did OVER HALF OF THIS DING-DANG YEAR go???!!!

I'm still in the SewConnected quilting group on Flickr. I have been a good little girl and gotten all of my monthly required blocks finished and sent back to their homes within the first week or two of the month. Well... not August... Part of it is because I've felt time-challenged (though I don't really know what I've done???), part of it is because I've been lazy and the other part of it is because the fabrics didn't even arrive until August 8th.

The blocks for August are very, very simple blocks-in-blocks blocks, but I just couldn't get up the gumption to work on them until today. I drew out the squares in CorelDraw then had to sit down and calculate how wide each strip needed to be to make up the size squares I'd drawn out. I AM NOT good a calculating anything!!!

Anyway, I was going to do 12.5" squares, but she didn't send fabric long enough for me to work with that size. Instead, I'm doing 9.5" and 6.5" ones.

AND... I've already received my September fabric: a fat quarter of white Kona cotton. We're supposed to use our own scraps of fabric to make tiny houses in the center of a 15.5" block. The houses can't be smaller than 3x3.5" or larger than 4x4.5. Dangit! Another something I'm going to have to calculate!!!

Truman Update

Poor Truman continues to have seizures about every 7-10 days despite being on the highest therapeutic level of Phenobarbital he can be on without it being toxic to him. We'd delayed putting him on KBr because #1. twice we've screwed up and not given him his afternoon pills, and he's had a seizure the next day (we wanted to try for a month to see if he'd still have seizures if we didn't screw up) and #2. KBr is about $40/month and I'm sure potential adopters (the very few who are kind enough to overlook his age and the fact that he has seizures) will be turned off that they'll have to spend that much money to take care of him. Anyway, his seizures keep happening even though we've been giving him his pills consistently. So, yesterday, I asked the vet to go ahead and prescribe the KBr.

Anyway... Truman's teeth are truly rotten, and should have been taken care of when we first got him in May, but the vet didn't want to do the dental until we got his seizures more under control--which doesn't seem to be happening--but she decided his teeth were bad enough that he needed to go ahead and have them taken care of.

I took him yesterday. Turns out, he was missing eight teeth already, and she had to remove 9 more rotten ones. He does have a couple with stitches, but most of those teeth pretty much just fell out on their own; she doesn't know how they were hanging on.

While he was there, I asked her to check out his right eye. Twice, at the dog park, he's bumped into other dogs. We thought it was funny first, however, after I got to thinking about it, I started to wonder if he was having problems seeing. The vet his other foster mom took him to had noted "eye is clear and responsive, but right pupil is larger than left." Well, his right pupil no longer responds to light and after she got him to sleep so she could examine his eye better, she found out he doesn't even have a retina anymore.

Oh, Truman... you break my heart...

Oh Mema... I will always love you.

09/26/1913 to 07/31/2009