My Friend Sandy

So I was talking with my friend Sandy this morning. Sandy is a very dapper gentleman in his 80's, with a voice like Bing Crosby.

We pass the time sharing stories --- mostly Sandy's, because his are more interesting and he has more to tell. Sandy has pretty much been everywhere, seen everything, and met everyone. He's done more in his lifetime than just about anyone I've ever met or heard tell of, and he has a fantastic attitude.

And he's not one to rest on his laurels; he's still on the road every day selling, even learning a new product line to keep his competitive edge.

Well, this morning he gets up before dawn to walk his dog, and his wife tells him, you know, be safe, take your raincoat and watch out for schoolbuses.

He says, "Watch out for schoolbuses?? What am I, twelve??"

That just cracks me up.

Avoid PayPal Plus Credit Card

Just had a "delightful" experience with my PayPal Plus credit card. Despite the fact that I pay early every month, and my last payment was $1000, the collections department of my PayPal Plus credit card saw fit to call me this morning for a "past due" payment of $41.

I had just looked at my account last night to update my address from our most recent move and noticed at that time that a payment of $41 was due on 9/11/07. So why did I receive a collections call? I have absolutely no idea, and the woman calling me was so intent to bust me for my "late payment" that she never took the time to sort it out for me, either. She kept insisting that I had been receiving electronic statements for the past several months. Well, I checked my email and haven't received ANYTHING from them since May. This struck her as being, clearly, an outright lie, and she made it plain that this outrageous "over due" balance of $41 would NOT be tolerated.

I then asked her if I could just receive paper statements to avoid any confusion in future. She replied, as if I were a child, that she could do it "just this once", lecturing me on my responsibility to read my statement and make my payments on time (!).

At this point I asked to speak with a supervisor, but she said that SHE was empowered to do whatever needed done at this point and refused to comply with my request. After repeated requests to speak with a supervisor, I finally gave up and hung up, calling back on the 800 line and immediately requesting a supervisor, who was frankly little better than their so called "customer service".

Needless to say, I have closed this account.

I would strongly advise anyone who falls into customer service, particularly telephone support, to leave your ego at home. This job is not about you and your power trips; it's about retaining customers.

Companies, please do a little better to hire the people who should actually be in the field of customer service, and pay the good ones to stay. A good CSR will make you money hand over fist; a bad one will cost you.

And consumers? My advice to you is to stay away from PayPal Plus.

Real Life Animals That Look Like Muppets

klipspringer antelopes, aye-ayes, jumping spiders, Hal Sparks, and, of course, Chihuahuas..

All The Reasons I Love Alan Cumming

He is a charming combination of ego and self-dreprecating humor.
He played the best part in Cabaret.
He has an eponymous fragrance.
Prettier eyes than most girls.
He is, indeed, clever.
Great website.
One word: kilt.

Electronic Ephemera

I've been traipsing around the interwebs while Scott's asleep (has to rest up for his next 12 hour day; attorneys and hippies really should not cohabit), looking at profiles of other Bloggers who like some of the same stuff as I do.

So many funny, interesting people out there; I'm in love with most of them, just reading their brief, extemporaneous shouts to the wind. Sadly, hardly any of them blog more than a half dozen times before disappearing into the aether.

I wonder if they think about their little words, set adrift in the world with nothing to support them. I wonder if they consider that someone --- me --- came across their post and was charmed, was curious about them, was disappointed to see that their lovely little note to the world was last updated over a year ago.

I could make a career of finding all the lost blogs and posting encouraging comments. Of course, this assumes that bloggers stop blogging because they feel unread and unappreciated, and that a note from a complete stranger would have any impact on their desire to write whatsoever. Lots of people, myself included, don't post because they don't have time or they simply don't have anything clever to say. (Strangely, this exact circumstance stops some bloggers not at all.) Sometimes it's just too much work to log on, think of any topic at all, and then string a bunch of words together coherently. Right?

This is probably just me in one of my moods, the one that make me avoid the market when the senior citizens are apt to be out; the one that make me obsess on all the dogs in the world that need good homes until I have a panic attack. The one that makes me worry and fret about the happiness of complete strangers.

But, if you're out there and you stumble upon this and you think to yourself, 'I used to have a blog!', I might have read it in the middle of the night, and found you to be darling and funny and wise. I might have thoroughly enjoyed it and wished you had written more.

My Peculiar Aristrocratic Title, Which is Weirdly Appropriate

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Imperial Majesty Quinn the Lackadaisical of Grasshopper in the Hole Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

HSUS MySpace Page | Stop Puppy Mills Website

Ugh.

Remember that episode of Mad About You, where Paul makes Jamie some tea right before bedtime, but it's Red Zinger and she's up all night??

That's exactly what happened to me tonite. Scott wanted to try out my new French press, which I got specifically so I could enjoy a mug of my fancy flavoured decaf while he downed a pot of the mud he drinks.

So I'm drinking a cup of fairly tasty coffee when I ask, just to be sure, 'is this decaf?'.

Needless to say, it was not.

Ugh.

My Visual DNA Personality Profile

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

WTF?? I Feel....GREAT!

Ok, this is a little random, but I wanted to share with you all what's been going on with me lately. Just one week ago I went to a Doctor of Functional Medicine here in the Cleveland area. I was feeling so fatigued I literally could barely drag myself out of bed in the mornings; on the weekends I didn't even bother, usually sleeping fitfully until two or three in the afternoon and still feeling so tired I just wanted to go straight back to bed as soon as I got up. I had a continuous headache and neckache, and all my joints ached. My ankles felt so stiff when I first got up it was difficult even to walk to the bathroom! No matter what I ate and how I tried to exercise --- which was kind of a joke, b/c I was really just too tired to even try most of the time --- I never lost a pound. Needless to say, that just made me feel depressed and unmotivated to continue with any weightloss program.

So, in desperation, I made an appointment with this doctor, based on the recommendation of people from my morning job. She took a very complete medical history from me, taking note of even the smallest throw away comments --- the initial visit lasted almost three hours (try getting THAT from your average MD!). After talking with me, the doctor recommended a ton of labwork, then advised me to stick with whole, unprocessed proteins, vegetables and fruits, and high quality unprocessed carbs like starchy vegetables. Diet soda, sugar, wheat/gluten were forbidden, and she put me on a prescription level omega 3 capsule, to address inflammation throughout my system.

Well, it hasn't been easy, I assure you, particularly with Valentines Day right the first week! But....

OMG, the changes I see/feel ALREADY! It is truly incredible. My joints don't hurt! After my caffeine withdrawal (I was drinking 4-6 diet sodas per day, plus tea and/or coffee --- now I'm drinking pretty much just water) I haven't had a headache! I feel so alert all the time, and no mid-afternoon slump! And I think I'm even losing some weight; according to my POS scale, I've lost almost 8 lbs already. And since I'm eating real food, I'm not constantly hungry. In fact, I'm eating a little less than I should, as I usually don't need to eat the recommended 2-3 snacks per day.

If anyone is interested, the program she's got me on is similar to the one recommended by Dr. Schwarzbein in her book The Schwarzbein Principle. I will say, you do have to be very motivated to stick with it b/c there are no easy outs with the diet --- you have to be prepared to cook real meals, every meal. But if *I* can do it --- I'm actually learning to cook for myself, can you believe it?! --- anyone can. Just to be able to get up in the morning and not feel like I'm 80 is worth more to me than the comfort of any candybar, junk food, or soda could ever be!

My Favourite CafePress Stores!

http://www.cafepress.com/worldpeaceworld

Super cool Law of Attraction based designs, which will help you remember to breathe and believe in your highest good throughout your stressful day. The "Trust" baby onesie would make the BEST gift for the Yummy Mummy in your life.

http://www.cafepress.com/LeaZukas

Exceptional designs based on the artwork of Lea Zukas, a collage artist from Dallas TX. Coincidentally, she also runs the above storefront. She's going to take over the world, so be sure to buy one of her shirts or other fine items so you will be recognized by other members of the regime when they start lining everyone up against the wall.

http://www.cafepress.com/dogsdeserve

Ok, this has a very dear place in my heart, as chained/penned dogs is my pet cause. (No pun intended!) I didn't even know a group existed to address this extremely heartbreaking and important issue until I ran across their storefront. Items purchased support their work to bring attention to the plight of chained and forgotten dogs, and to get the word out to introduce legistlation limiting the number of hours dogs may be chained/penned per 24 hour period.

Lest you think this is just bleeding heart liberalism on behalf of animals, alarming statistics show that attacks on humans by dogs are usually made by chained and penned dogs, who become highly territorial when confined to such limited spaces. In addition, children make up the majority of victims, because they are generally attracted to animals and unable to discern aggressive warning behaviours. So, for the sake of dogs AND people, please check out DDB's storefront and website; you'll be glad you did!

I Had That Dream Again....

....That one where I'm at the most awesome mall EVER, and I'm looking for rollerskates, then I start talking to this super-cool girl with multi coloured ponytails, and they have the skates I want in stock....

It's the best!