Stuff

My butt's sore from sittin on it, that and getting a shot in it today. I tried for 2 weeks to do the OTC route and told the doctor as much. His advice about OTC drugs (I think he's in cahoots with the pharmaceutical dudes) was, "why didn't you just take a hammer and bop yourself in the head with it for all the good that stuff did you?"
Anyhow, I figured after 2 weeks and being up to 3 naps a day already, I'd best go on and go see the man and nip the sinus thing in the bud. (although the numerous naps sure did no harm).

I've been in another world in that I didn't remember the date until yesterday and so I missed calling Jordan to wish her a Happy Birthday on Saturday. She turned 9 without hearing her Nanaw sing birthday greetings that sound like a howling dog in pain so it could be that she's happy about missing that part.

JORDAN!

Our Jillian is sickly again with an infection in her eyes. Poor baby is trying to hang on for Spring so she can maybe get over all these bad bugs that keep dealing her so much misery.

Funnel Cloud

Saturday


This looks similiar to what I saw.

The wind had been blowing hard all morning and the weatherman kept interrupting programs to announce tornado watches and warnings throughout the day. About 20 minutes before they'd announced a possible tornado in Dumas, Arkansas headed in our direction.

James went to the door to see if that storm had gone around us. He stood there a couple of seconds and then said in a quiet voice, "Come here, look at this." I looked out across the field in front of our house and there it was, pale grey, spinning and drifting, only a couple hundred feet above the ground and heading our way. As I watched, heart in my throat, it drifted up into the grey, swirling clouds, and then the hard rains came along with stronger winds.

I didn't even think to grab my camera but I doubt I'd have gotten a shot in those few seconds. I'm glad it didn't reach the ground. It made me about as nervous as I've ever been.

Who'll be first?

James Brown died on Christmas day, Anna Nicole Smith died on February 8th, and neither have been placed in a final resting place. For grief's sake, can't these money hungry vultures find something else to fight over?

I blame our delightful justice system in both cases (who in my opinion think they are auditioning for a Judge Judy spot on TV) because surely there's a legal means to determine, before decomposition, who has the full and legal right to decide where the deceased will be put to rest if no will was left giving instructions.

Whatever happened to having respect for the dead?

And don't even get me started on the "who my baby's daddy" thing. Holy Shit but I'm tired of it all. It's taking up precious news time which should be spent on the circus act going on in Memphis as to who's stealing what and what went with it. (We folks over here in Arkansas enjoy seeing what our neighbors have been up to).

What I Did on My First Full Day Off, Alone

James walked in around 8ish last night after a hard day of field work and asked me, "What did you do constructive today?" I had to think for a minute or two but I finally came up with a list.



I turned off the water that someone left on outside, who knows for how long?



Started work on a tax return.



Cleaned the 2 inches of dust off the ceiling fan in my bedroom.



Vacuumed the master bathroom.



Washed the dishes that seem to magically appear in the sink here.



Washed a load of laundry.



Took a bath and washed my hair.



Took a nap.



I'm still not sure if any of that was constructive, but he asked.



Today I am going to get a hair cut and I have a list of things to do while I'm in town.



I hope I don't forget the list.

This is my Blog and I'll Rant if I want to, cry too if the mood hits me

Since the nearest book store is an hour and a half drive from my neighborhood, I joined the DoubleDay Book Club several years ago so that I could have reading material when I wanted it (when I remembered to order it). For the most part this has worked out well because I'd make sure I had an order coming before I finished reading my last book.

Late last week I received a statement in the mail from DoubleDay stating that I had a balance of $33.32 due for my deferred order placed in November, shipped in December, due on March 1. I knew I had received a book order in late December, did not know the payment was of the deferred sort, (not that it mattered) and wrote them a check on Jan. 25th for the order when I paid the other household bills.

So I sent customer service an email yesterday.


Subject :Payment: What is the status of my Payment?

Customer Service:
Message Text :
I received a notice from DoubleDay late last week dated 2/08/07 showing I had an account balance due. I don't, I paid this invoice during the last week in January when I paid all my other bills. I've checked my bank account and it shows that my payment to you cleared the bank on 2/1/07. This needs to be resolved immediately as I want to order more books but I won't now, or in the future, if this sort of thing will occur.
Brenda Mallard

This was their reply.


Dear Member,

Thank you for contacting us.We received your $67.27 payment. Please be assured it was applied to your account on 1/3/2007. This is the last payment we received on your account.The remaining amount due is $33.32, which is for your deferred order listed below, which is not due until March 1, 2007:

Lisey's Story Gift Edition shipped 12/14 $25.65
Designer Scrapbooks The Red Hat Society shipped 12/7 $7.67
Please feel free to contact us again, if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,

Customer Service Representative
Susan 129


So, I dug out the check, again, and sent another email to them, along with the copy of the canceled check:


Dear Customer Service,,, Again,

As I stated in my first email, you are incorrect in billing me for the $33.32, again, because it has been paid (deferred or NOT). I'm sitting here with the cancelled check for $33.32 in front of me and it cleared my bank on Feb. 1, 2007. ( I believe I told you this in my first email as well so I'm confused as to why you did not do some serious research into this matter when you received my first email).

Now kindly tell me which dunce messed up by not posting my payment to my account and how you intend to fix it because tax season has slowed down and I intend to do some serious reading soon, either from doubleday or somewhere else.

Sincerely aggravated at this point,

Brenda Mallard

I sure hope they figure out who's account they posted my payment to soon because I want to order some new books. I'm about half way through Lisey's Story and I get cranky when I don't have something to read.

Basketball and Princess dress-up Tea Party

It's been a busy weekend so far. Two peewee basketball games, one last night and another this morning. This afternoon we went to Alexis's Princess Dress-Up Tea Party that Jerri gave her to celebrate her birthday. If you click next over on the right side there on my webshots page you can see some of the other pictures I took at the party.

Jerri made all of the decorations and she did a fantastic job. I wish I had even a smidgen of her imagination!

Trish and the girls were there and Jami and her girls too, but Jami had to leave early with Abby because she was sick.

This is Nanaw, over and out.

Not Peculiar, Just Southern

We have a few peculiarities down here in my South, especially we country folks. For instance, we rarely ever lock our doors. Most everyone owns a gun, or 2, or 6, and they know where the bullets are, so that alone pretty much keeps the pilfering and meanness down around our place. There's also the fact that some of your relatives and neighbors might need something that you have and how on earth would they get it if it were all locked up? And although I lock my truck up when I get out of it in town, I don't do it when I park it in the driveway. I do take the keys out but I just lay them on the dash so I can find them when I'm ready to leave the next time. I figure if someone strange comes to our area, and is up to some meanness, they might look in the truck and find the keys and drive off instead. It'll save having to shoot them for trying to come into my house uninvited.

Doesn't that make a little bit of sense?

Earlier this week, about 30 some odd miles north of us, there was a shooting. Three people were murdered by this fella and he shot and wounded another guy and a deputy. This is BIG news down here and folks start scrambling right off to find out more facts see if they knew any of those involved.

Now if this had happened in a big city like Memphis, or some much more urban area like New York, 30 miles might be a long way, but in our rural area it's not much more than a skip and a jump and that makes it news. In New York someone can live right on the other side of your living room wall and there's a big chance that you don't even know their name. Down here, you not only know their name, but you also know their family tree pert neart back at least to the time of the Civil war. After much debate you might even find out that they're your 3rd cousin's, second cousin by marriage. Or something to that effect.

Also, in New York, your neighbor across the wall might be murdered and you wouldn't even know about it unless the sound of the gun going off was louder than than the noise of the television. Down here, you know about it soon after the dispatcher has notified the authorities cause he/she's gonna call everyone she knows and relay all the information. Word of mouth is faster than greased lightening around these parts.

Anyway, they caught the fella who did the shooting down near Laredo, Texas and a friend of James', who's with the State Police, was headed down there today to bring him home. The officer also has a job on the side selling chemicals to the farmers (policing doesn't pay so well in Arkansas, I hear) so he'll probably stop by sometime in the next few weeks to tell hubby all about it.

After tomorrow the tax work will ease up and I'll be back to working from home. I'll really be counting down the hours tomorrow too cause I'm more than just a little tired of the hassle this year. It gets harder and harder to get loosened up every morning when I climb out of my bed and actually having to put something on other than my sleep pants and tees is a pain in the patootie, especially that early of a morning.

I'll get back to takin myself a nap if the urge hits me.

And be able to do a better job at monitoring what Ya-Ya watches on TV all day long.

Ya'll have a good un!

Happy Valentine Day!

WAL MART, AGAIN

James and I had to go to Wal mart yesterday for stuff to cook on the new grill he finished building a few weeks ago and while we were there I added reason number 1,556 for my adamant distaste for that place.

Buggy loaded to the gills, we had to go to the north 40, way over in the garden section, to find charcoal so, it being totally empty over there save for a couple of check-out persons, we decided to check out there. Everything was going along quite well until the man scanned the 4 pack of tomatoes that I'd picked up because the sign said they were $2.94. They scanned in at $7.79! I said, "Whoa,,,back up there,,,I'm not buying gold buddy,,, it's 4 tomatoes and the sign said $2.94. If you can really get that much for 4 tomatoes, I'll be back around July 1st and sell you some." The man and the lady who was standing there agreed that it way too much for tomatoes so they scanned them again, $7.96, (holy shit, they're gaining weight on the scales), then again, $7.96.

By this time, my grocery total includes $23.71 for those 4 tomatoes that I now, really, had no intention of buying. I finally said, "enough, please, enough. Take em off!", so the man picked up the little pager phone to page a supervisor to come remove the charges. 10 minutes later the man paged again. This paging thing went on for 20 minutes. By this time we'd been trying to check out for 30 minutes total and I was getting a tad aggravated but finally the photo developing supervisor lady came strolling back there and took the tomatoes off so all was nearly well until I looked on the ticket and found yet another charge of$7.96 for those 4 danged tomatoes.

Because we'd already checked out and paid, I had to go, with the checker, to the customer service desk to receive cash for those solid gold tomatoes that I didn't buy. There were two service desk folks there and one was helping another customer and just as we walked up the second one grabbed her purse and started to leave. I said, "Oh no, no, no! I've just spent 30 minutes back there being robbed for 4 danged tomatoes and still got charged for them and I want my money back and you can get this checker guy to buy your supper for your time or WHATEVER, but you are not leaving until I can leave!"

They really need to find someone to work at that customer service desk who doesn't look so positively sour and vengeful when it comes to actually having to help a customer cause this woman frowned up like a kid who'd had their sucker swiped and grabbed my receipt out of my hand, counted the number of times (like the checker and I didn't know this already) I'd been charged for the tomatoes I didn't buy, and counted the number of times they'd been voided, and decided, "Well yeah, I guess you did get charged for them anyway."

Well Duh, why else would I STILL BE IN THIS HELLISH PLACE????

Anyway, we finally got out of there, drove home, and discovered, after we drove into the drive, that we'd left a 20 lb bag of Purina Puppy Chow under the cart. Waves of dread engulfed me but I called them in hopes that someone had found it and turned it in. They had, and after I rattled off the numbers from my receipt, was told that "Yes, they'd put my name on it, and Yes, I could pick it up at the customer service desk if I stopped by the next day (which was today)". Call me surprised.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?

Not on your life, NOT in this ESTABLISHMENT from HELL.

I stop in today after I get off work to get a few things I really didn't need and to pick up the 20lbs of Puppy Chow that's supposedly being kept for me at the customer service desk, and guess what? It wasn't there. I had to go all the way back to the critter food isle to get another bag of puppy food, one of only 2 bags on the shelf I might add, and lug it back up to the customer service desk so I could leave with it.

I am now having vengeful thoughts about finding a band of terrorist to go to that place and hold everyone who works there HOSTAGE until they learn how to SMILE!

I knew I should have stayed out of Wal mart.

Alexis is 4 Today! Happy Birthday Chick!

Hazards of Being a Nanaw

You forget for a few seconds as you're hanging 5 on the back of a 4-wheeled, brightly colored, turtle who's made for little butts to scoot on, while using curse words stout enough to make the most rogueous sailor blush, the wonderful feeling of two little arms circling your neck for a hug and the sweet, unforgettable, smell of Johnson's baby shampoo. I wonder if I can train one of the little darlins to rub my aching knee?

I'm quite sure Martha Stewart would gasp in horror at the decor around here but I know I have something that she doesn't and likely never will, a style that says I'm a Nanaw and that toy telephone that you'll be digging out of your butt before you can lean back on the couch proves it!

Daisy

She's the littlest pup and since James said we'd keep one of the females, she's our pick. I've been waiting for a suitable name to come to mind that was just right for her. I think she'll be Daisy. What do you think?

Newest Colts Fan

Miz Cindra over at Red and Purple Haze sent Zach this way too cool Colts t-shirt. He's not really pouting here, he's doing his clown routine again. It's not easy to catch him when he's not acting like a little clown.

As for other news,,,work and that's about it.

I'm Sorry

I can't help it, This is just wrong. This year's Super Bowl had some of the Super stupidest commercials of all time!!

Watching the Snow

It was quick and sweet and made the kids happy for a few hours. Amazingly last week and the coming week will be our coldest of winter but this is Arkansas, after that, it could be as warm as 80.

New Family Members

James brought the pups in for a few minutes so I could get a photo of them. It's too hard to try to get a photo when they're with their momma cause she's got them all cuddled up. We lost one of them yesterday, and sure hope we don't lose any more of them. We think there are 3 girls and 3 boys in our pile of pups.

I didn't want to

As much as I know folks dislike the word verification for comments, I've had to add it due to having as many 20 spammers a day at times. Forgive me please.

No School!

Can't hardly drag em out of bed on a school day but let it snow just a little,,,,

It's decided to be Winter around here.

No snow yet for us although it's spittin and gittin all around us. There's a chance of snow mixed with sleet tonight, but I'll believe it when I see it. The kids were all excited yesterday about the possibilty of some snow and woke up this morning with no white in sight, there were plenty of sad faces.

There was a thin glaze of ice on my front porch this morning so I treaded carefully across to the steps, took hold of the rail, stepped onto the first step and my foot slid off and slid down the next two leaving my other foot still on the first. I sure didn't know I could still do the splits! The insides of my thighs have been screaming protests off and on all day,,mostly when I moved.

Sweet T waited until near 'bout the coldest day of the year to have her puppies, on Tuesday she had 7 little black and white uns. Nairy a one looks like Willie so we're not sure what's going on with that hussy. They all look like her and the first doggy fella she bred with. I think James and Leonard got their dates mixed up, maybe.

Anyway, as soon as I'm at home during daylight hours I'll take some photos so I can show ya'll the little darlins. James says that T is being a great Momma and is taking really good care of them (I was a little worried about that cause she's a very hyper).