Get Another Name

I just realized that our onions came from "Bland Farms"... Really? They produce edible items and couldn't come up with a better name for the farm besides BLAND Farms? 

I understand this is probably a family name, but still... there's no excuse for that.

  

I Do Know Better

After the traumatizing experience of a cracked screen and a chunk of change later, I have gotten my act together and purchased a cover. After hours of research, I finally figured out that the Otterbox was the one for me. So I sat down, got on Amazon to buy and and guess what: THERE ARE TWO MODELS! 

So then  my research had to continue. After a few more hours, I purchased the Commuter case and here you have it! My brand new (looking) phone:

I Should Know Better

Yes. That is my brand new HTC DNA that slipped off my hands. No, I never got around to buying a protecting cover for it. No, I wasn't doing weird things when I dropped it - as a matter of fact, I had already managed to remove my jacket AND scarf while on the phone with Pablo. Yes, I shouldn't be surprised that I dropped my phone... but HTC had the best reviews in regards to falling resistance...

And finally, no, of course I don't have insurance. However, it is repairable and for a minimal (relatively speaking... it's "minimal" compared to the price of a new phone) I should have a new screen by this time next week.

In the meantime, I can't use the "back" button because the little glass pieces in that area - the corner - are starting to fall out.....................

Record Keeping

One of these days, the neighbor's cats - which are left to roam as they please because they are outdoor cats (notice the "s"... they have about 6) and the neighbor doesn't have a fence - are going to fall into my backyard - because the roaming cats like to walk on top of the fence, my fence.

One day, the cats might fall off the fence and into my backyard. If this day ever comes, may the Lord have mercy over that cat, because Pellet and Cali sure ain't.

I just want to make sure we have this piece of information in writing, because if this day comes, and the neighbor tries to blame us for our dogs eating his cats, I will have some sort of written historical documentation when we end up on Judge Judy.

One More Driver

Today, this little boy:

Got his drivers license! 

WHAT?!?! How can that be??? Exactly....

Today, I also say a special prayer to his Guardian Angel to always keep him safe behind the wheel.

Happy Heart

My brother has been gone for over a week. He is traveling on pilgrimage with other priests and brothers through Central America. He sends emails whenever he has access to computer. For a while they were "traveling with armed guards"...

As when anyone travels, you don't expect them to call home. If you don't hear from them, then that means they are doing just fine. Well, this evening my cell phone rang and the incoming call was from an odd area code. Who is calling me from 914 area code? North Carolina? no.... I'll let it go to voice mail and I'll check it  after 9:00pm (once I get free minutes).... no... maybe I should just answer it.

So I answer and it was my brother! Calling from some magic jack - with a telephone hooked up to the computer. We only got to speak for like 10 minutes but it was great! He had so much to tell me I had so much to ask him.

We hung up and my heart was so happy! The things we take for granted... the ability to grab the phone and and speak with whoever you want, on demand.

Shipping Shennanigans

Pay close attention because this story is about to get complicated. Fast.

About 10 days before Christmas, Norm shipped his brother's and his mom's presents to the brother's house. in North Carolina. They were all going to be together for Christmas. As usual, Norm brought the receipts of the transactions home, so I entered them in Quicken.

There were two transactions on the receipt that showed payment, one was $11 and some change and the other one was $14 and some change. Along with the payment receipt were two separate pieces of paper that had the details of the shipment. So naturally, I look at those.

The $11 was for a shipment to his mom's name to North Carolina. The $14 charge was for a shipment to some random lady in New Jersey.

Norm came home that night and conversation went like this:
F: Love, I think we paid to send somebody else's box
N: yeah?
F: yeah, no big deal, it was only $14, so it's like paying it forward, Merry Christmas to them!
N: how do you figure?

[I show him the detailed shipping sheets]

N: uhhmmm... this is not right. Tripp's box was sent to this lady in New Jersey

[I figured that the box that went to his mom's name included ALL presents, but that was not the case. There were physically 2 boxes]

F: weird.... that's okay. When that lady gets the box, she won't recognize the sender and send it back to us
N: well, the problem is that we do not show as the sender. Our name is nowhere on this paper.

.................................

The brother's box had somehow been linked to this other account in the computer and it had been shipped to the New Jersey lady with some other random person in our city as the sender.

What do we do. What do we do. Let's think think think think. Crap! Let's think think think.

So we decided to send these people letters. We sent a letter to New Jersey lady with a detailed description of the box asking her to reject the shipment and "send it back to sender". We also sent a letter to the sender giving him our phone number and asking him to call us when he received the box back.

Fearful that these people might think this was a scam, we included both letters to each person. We figured the guy from Georgia must know the lady from New Jersey because he's sending her Christmas presents!

We waited and waited and finally the lady from New Jersey called to say she received our letter. The box wasn't there yet, but that she'll return to sender as soon as she received it.

Then the guy from around here called with his story.

He didn't know the lady from New Jersey, he had actually sold her some items on eBay. So he went to the Office Depot to ship his box. Did all his data entry (in the computer) and when it was time to ship it, Office Depot rejected the box because it was too large. He was going to have to take it to the actual Post Office. So he left Office Depot.

It must have been shortly after that when Norm arrived to ship his boxes. The man's shipping details must have still been active on the computer and somehow, the clerk must have carelessly associated that information to Norm's first box.

Christmas came and went and we finally got another call from the local guy, our box had finally arrived! So on New Year's day we went and picked it up from him.

Now, Norm's brother's birthday is January 8, so we went ahead and bought a Birthday present, birthday card and included it in the Christmas box that finally was shipped today before Norm went to work

Norm is not back from work with the shipping orders yet...

Lesson to be learned: ALWAYS CHECK ALL INFORMATION. From Christmas presents shipping addresses to to-go orders.