Congratulations, b3, you’ve lasted another year!
(Don’t worry, everyone, this is the last birthday for December.)
Congratulations, b3, you’ve lasted another year!
(Don’t worry, everyone, this is the last birthday for December.)
I’m distributing my Christmas newsletter via blog! Never heard of a Christmas newsletter? It’s a long-standing tradition in my family to deluge the world with a ‘Christmas newsletter’ with all the year’s happenings. Instead of mailing it out in print, I’ve decided to use electronic media. That way, my 5 readers who might care can get the scoop, and the 32 other people I sent Christmas cards won’t have to be all, “as if I care,” as they toss it in the trash.
So here’s the wrap-up for 2007!
The cats and I rang in the year with the assembly of my Lego Batmobile. The turtle … burrowed under her newspapers and ate a lima bean. And the husband … did something exciting, I’m sure, on his computer in the basement.
The husband got a promotion to timesheet-approver of 5 hapless souls. My boss decided that I don’t completely suck, and has allowed me to keep working and drawing a paycheck.
We dropped directv, and moved to cable.
I built a rock garden, tore up a rock garden, got approved to build a rock garden, joined the HOA ARB, and got kicked off till I get my act together and clean up my disgrace of a fenced-in backyard. A fenced in backyard that nobody can see except for the people and critters who live in my house, and, apparently, members of the HOA Board who like to hang out in random people’s backyards.
We got sunburns on our sunburns in San Diego.
The cats shoved 14 toys under the refrigerator and range. Oh, let me be honest: Forge shoved 13 toys under the refrigerator and range. Havok managed to get one lodged under the range, but he didn’t intend to. Because, well, he sorta understands that you can’t play with a toy that you can’t reach.
Our AC went out during the hottest part of the summer. Ah, that was good times.
WE GOT CLEANING LADIES. If you have it in your budget, I highly recommend it for the cleaning averse. I HATE HATE HATE cleaning bathrooms, they gross me out – plus, it’s not a quick task when you put it off for as long as possible. I never have to do it anymore. Also, I rarely have to vacuum or sweep or mop anymore. And, there’s nothing like that feeling on the first or third Tuesday evening of the month, that I’m not gonna wipe off my counters cuz there are people coming tomorrow who will do it for me. Juvenile, maybe, but it’s a nice feeling.
We moved from cable to FIOS.
Forge found a new hiding place, in the rafters of the utility room. It keeps him safe from visitors, except, well, the heating/AC folks and the cleaning ladies. And the FIOS installer, he REALLY gave her a start when she noticed him hovering a few feet above her head.
I made it to level 70 with my wow character. And then I proceeded to stop playing wow. Ah, well, the husband is getting some use of my level 70 hunter.
We attended The husband’s 10 year reunion. The husband is still not popular.
Tortellini ate 20 yellow squashes, 4 zucchini squashes, and over 2000 lima beans. She is really doing her part to make sure children in the area will be spared the awful fate of “vegetable eating.”
The husband and his work buddy launched strahotski.com, which is now bringing in actual money! Not enough to quit the day jobs kind of money, but perhaps almost enough to make it pay for itself.
The husband’s friends left 37 comments on my blog. His family, 10. My friends? 8. My family, 4. Clearly, I need to recruit some more friends and family. Or maybe, find some friends who like to read and comment on silly blogs …
The husband mowed the lawn on 5 occasions, and weed-eated 4 times. Still not enough to make the HOA happy, but, well, what are you going to do? Get blacklisted from joining the ARB?
akaemi.com did not make me famous. In fact, it did not bring in a single penny. It had 290 visitors, 280 of whom have only visited once. Guess maybe I should find a purty girl to base my site on …
We put up Christmas lights for the first time ever! They aren’t quite as pretty as the Amy-house, but, well, there’s always next year.
We joined linked in and facebook. The husband is immensely more popular than myself. Most of my friends are really his friends.
We watched 27 movies.
And yes – we had no babies.
Happy Holidays, from
akaemi, the husband, tortellini the grouchy, havok the OCD, and forge the sink-pooper
I knew it was high time to do the dishes this morning when I went to make myself a bowl of kix. We were down to the last bowl, which isn’t too unusual – but we were also out of spoons. Well, out of normal spoons – there was a goodly stack of extra-big spoons, so I made do.
It’s always a little embarrassing when we run out of spoons, because, well, we have 16 of them. We only intended to have 8, but didn’t read the fine print on the silverware we registered for – each set was service for 4, but with 8 teaspoons. We missed the 8 teaspoon part, and registered for two sets. Because, well, we didn’t want to run out of spoons.
And yet, even with 16 teaspoons, from time to time, we manage to dirty them all. There’s just the two of us (well, unless the cats or turtle have evolved to spoon-usage), so we generally have ample warning when all the spoons are about to be dirty. With normal spoon-usage at 2 per day, and maximum spoon-usage at 4 per day, it is easy to predict – and avoid – a spoon shortage. And yet they still manage to happen.
The difficult part of washing 16 spoons in the dishwasher, is that you have to make sure that they don’t get nested together. With only 8 silverware buckets, it isn’t an easy task. It’s not possible to separate all the spoons by placing a fork or knife between them – especially if you don’t have enough dirty other pieces of silverware. (What can I say, we love our spoons.) And the silverware will fall and settle where it may, with nary a care as to where you so lovingly placed it.
The dishwasher is now running and cleaning all the spoons – and then we will be set for another week.
To my mom. 🙂 I know she doesn’t read my blog, but hopefully one of the 4 people in her house who do, will pass the sentiment along.
To my favorite sister! 17 is a big year, it’s the year you, uh, dream about all the freedom you’ll have NEXT year! In a nutshell, here’s all the GREAT things you have to look forward to this year:
The realization that you are probably within an inch of your final height. I did manage to grow half an inch in college, rounding me out at an even 5’6″. But, well, since I was already telling everybody that I was 5’6″, it was an empty victory.
SATs. ACTs. Blech, can you believe they make you pay MONEY for the honor of taking a TEST that is 3 hours TOO LONG? And then, a few weeks after you’re done, they send you your results that sum you up into a percentile with all the other high school students in the nation. And, depending on your results, you may end up signing up for another 4-hour Saturday morning of torture.
College applications, complete with essays. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the check. Don’t worry, they are just getting you into the habit of handing over money for your education.
Scholarship applications, complete with even more essays. Be sure to keep track of all the various deadlines, you don’t want to miss an opportunity to get someone else to foot your bills. I realize you don’t know what it’s like to foot your own bills – but trust me, it’s not any fun.
Ok, so maybe not all that stuff sounds like the highlights of your next year. Surely, you’ll have more fun hanging out with your friends, going to dances, dating, cruising around town, and being up to no good. 🙂
Hope your birthday is a good one!
Woohoo! If you google ‘tiny sony speakers’, guess what the first hit is? You guessed it, akaemi.com!
A few weeks ago, ‘tiny sony speakers’ showed up on my google analytics as search terms that somebody used to get to my site. I laughed, as I realized they must be getting to my post about the Tysons Corner Mall. What a disappointment that must have been – someone was looking for, well, tiny sony speakers, and instead found an ode to my favorite shopping establishment.
Well, those search terms have risen to the top of my search terms list, with 4 whole people. That’s right, there are 4 people who were sadly disappointed with my mall raves instead of a tech review or perhaps an online merchant. Looking further down the list, there are 3 people who discovered how much I love my ‘cowgirl pants,’ and one person who has discovered my love for the ‘choco cherry love blizzard dairy queen.’
I can’t imagine that anybody who has found my site through googling has really, truly, found what they were looking for. (Well, except maybe the 3 people who googled ‘akaemi.’) But, hey, I don’t care – I’ll take visitors any way I can get them. 🙂
Whew, not yet. I still have one more year, but the reunion rumblings have already started. I just got word from one of my new facebook buddies (and old high school friend) that it is scheduled for next August. Kudos to the class of 98 class presidency, they are seriously on top of things!
I just accompanied my husband to his 10 year reunion. In high school, my husband was not popular. He had a few really good friends, but didn’t really hang with the popular crowd. And the people who ignored him 10 years ago … ignored him at the reunion. Now, I realize that communication is a 2 way street; if he wanted to re-connect with all those people, he could have gone up and talked to them. But he found, just as they probably found, that he didn’t really care to re-connect. He spent 4 years of his life co-existing with them, followed by 10 years of not thinking about them. So one more weekend of not interacting with them didn’t really hurt his feelings.
Luckily for my husband, one of his really good high school buddies was there – so we mostly hung out with him and his adorably pregnant wife. He did get a chance to catch up with some other friends, but most of the people he was friendly with in high school didn’t make a showing at the reunion.
I was even less popular in high school than my husband was at his. At the time, there were probably like 10 people who knew I existed, and maybe 3 of them would have considered themselves my friend. 10 years later, there are probably now 3 people who remember my existence – and they are already my facebook friends. And, well, catching up through facebook is much easier than getting a plane ticket, hotel, and car – just to remember all those awkward high school moments that I have spent the last 9 years working to forget.
We take a break from our regularly scheduled programming (the nerdly chronicles) to talk about something much more important: customer service gone bad.
2 weeks ago, my husband and I made the switch from AT&T/Cingular/the new at&t to Sprint. We didn’t have any issues with at&t, we were just intrigued by Sprint’s fastest data network. And with the uber-secret $30 SERO plan, it seemed like a deal that we couldn’t pass up. Add fancy palm phones, and we were sold.
A week and a half ago, Sprint initiated our phone number port. We received a phone call, on our home phone, from Sprint, telling us that the port was complete. They gave us a phone number and asked us to call back in order to activate our phones.
So my husband did exactly that. He called the phone number that the guy from Sprint left on our answering machine. He told the nice lady that our numbers had been ported, and he wanted to activate our phones. After getting our account number, all four phone numbers (2 ported numbers and 2 temporary numbers), and our pin number, she informed him that she had no idea what he was talking about. She had no record of any number port. But would he like to be transferred to someone else who might be able to help? 7 transfers later, nobody was able to help; in fact, he had received 6 different answers from those 7 different people. There was some almost-name-calling, and then the call was over.
For one day, I was unable to receive phone calls at my number. at&t had released it, because Sprint told them to. Not a big deal, that’s the price you pay when you port a number from one carrier to another. As soon as dialing my phone number greeted me with a ‘You have reached the Sprint mail box …’, I called up Sprint to activate my phone with my newly ported number. It involved being transferred to 3 or 4 different people, but they were eventually able to get me up and running.
Once my phone was working, I asked about activating my husband’s phone. The lady who helped me activate my phone got all of my husband’s information from me; after a few minutes, she informed me that she didn’t see his ported number in the system, so she transferred me to the porting department. At the porting department, I gave them all the information again. They informed me that they didn’t see his numbers in their system – which meant that they were in the NEW system, and they would need to transfer me to the NEW system department.
Which brings up the question: why have some numbers in one system, and other numbers in another system – and NOT give your customer service reps access to BOTH SYSTEMS? A customer service rep cannot be of any help if they are completely unable to, say, service your account.
Once I was transferred to the NEW system customer service lady, she was able to tell me that my husband’s number had indeed been ported, but for some reason, it had not been linked to his account. She would escalate this issue to the technical support department – and ‘Would it be ok if this took 5 to 7 days?’ I didn’t even know how to answer that question. I mean, it was apparent that I didn’t have a choice in the matter. ‘Would it be ok?’ No, the world wasn’t going to end if it took 5 to 7 days to resolve the issue. Nobody would die. My husband is not a world-renowned emergency surgeon who can ONLY be contacted on his ported cell phone number that no longer worked. But would I be upset if it really took 5 to 7 days to resolve a seemingly minor issue? Yes! It’s not rocket science. (Problem: un-linked ported number. Solution: link the ported number.) She got a call-back number from me and assured me I would receive a call from the technical service department.
7 days and no call back later, I called Sprint. Due to my husband’s previous experience with dealing with Sprint on the phone, I was the designated Sprint caller.
The first lady I talked to informed me that my husband’s ported number belonged to Virgin Mobile. I had a brief flip-out, (“YOU GAVE THE NUMBER TO VIRGIN MOBILE?????”), and once I regained my composure, she was able to transfer me to the porting department. After a fight with the porting department lady who wanted my at&t account information in order to port my number (YOU ALREADY PORTED THE NUMBER, BUT IT’S NOT LINKED TO THE ACCOUNT, I WAS ON PAPER-FREE BILLING, AT&T CLOSED MY ACCOUNT, I CAN’T LOG IN ANYMORE TO GET MY ACCOUNT NUMBER, BESIDES I ALREADY GAVE YOU THAT INFORMATION, YOU SHOULD HAVE IT ALREADY), she discovered that the number had been ported but not linked to the account. So she transferred me to somebody else.
That guy told me he was going to escalate the issue to technical support. I told him my issue had been escalated to technical support 7 days before. He could tell I was exasperated, so he did something he ‘wasn’t supposed to do.’ He gave me the number to technical support. (877-345-7895. They know what they are doing. They rock as much as the rest of Sprint customer service sucks.)
So I called technical support. I explained my problem. He believed me. He put me on hold for awhile, while he waited on hold for some other department within Sprint. After checking back on me a few times, he informed me that it was going to be awhile, so he got a call-back number for me.
20 minutes later, he called back! And he helped me activate my husband’s phone. That issue that took 5 to 7 days to resolve? Really took one guy 30 minutes.
I have mastered the art of traveling with minimal interaction with other human beings. Other than my husband, of course.
No, I am not talking about a road trip where you drive out to the middle of nowhere, hike 5 miles, and then pitch a tent; I am talking about a trip that involves flying on a plane and renting a car.
This is all possible thanks to the introduction of the new “self-service” industry. I can book a flight online. Then, 24 hours before my flight leaves, I can check in online, pick my seats, and print my boarding passes. When I get to the airport, there is a special line for me – the “people who already have their boarding passes and need to check bags line.” This line is shorter and faster moving than the other lines. When I get to the front, I enter my information into a self-service check in machine, where I confirm the number of bags I am checking, and then it prints my luggage tags. I do have to show my license to a person who then puts the tags on my bags, but that is it. No prolonged conversation about where I am going. Just me getting on my way.
There is mandatory personal interaction to get through security. As long as you don’t get tagged as “suspicious” – which, these days, includes traveling with children who require such suspicious items as “baby formula” or “juice” – this interaction is pretty minimal, though it does involve disrobing.
Upon arriving at my destination, I ride the bus to the car rental place, get in a car, and drive away. You think I forgot the part where I stand in line for 45 minutes to get the keys to the car I reserved, but I didn’t. I rented from Alamo, who allows me to check in online. Before leaving my home, I paid for my car, declined all the silly insurances, and printed out the 10 page rental agreement. This allows me to bypass the torturous car rental counter. (“Do you want to upgrade your car for an additional $10 a day? Do you want uber-insurance, super-uber insurance, or super-duper-uber insurance? Will you be needing any carseats? Do you want a GPS direction-giving-doo-bob? How about a Sirius radio?”)
As I drive my rental car out of the facility, I stop for 26 seconds and hand my rental agreement, credit card, and drivers licence to a man in a little booth. He checks everything over, enters the car I’m taking into the system, and then I am good to go.
I am excited about the future of the self-service industry. When done poorly, it can be for a miserable experience. But when done right – it is truly delightful to not have to deal with, well, people.
akaemi.com ©2024. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by WordPress.
Theme by Phoenix Web Solutions