Category Archives: 725

AT&T Fuckers

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Yes, you should not let those with sensitive ears read this blog.

ratedr.pngOnce again my phone is not working. The DSL’s been sucking for hours – about 5pm on Saturday evening. I finally tried the phone and it’s dead. So, I go outside and unplug the house, and plug an analog phone into the line. It still doesn’t work. The line is totally dead. That the DSL will load a web page in 10-20 minutes is a technological miracle.

Of course, I call them, press a hundred buttons answering a hundred automated questions, before the test the line, leave out the information that “yes our line is fucked up”, and say, i kid you not, “your line will be fixed on Monday, between 8am and 7pm”.

My favorite combo:
“If the reason you’re calling is that you have no dial tone, press 1.”
1
“Are you currently calling from the effected number? If yes, press 1, if no press 2.”
2
“Is this effecting all of your hand sets? If yes, press 1,…”
1

Thank you for assuming I’m a dumb ass AT&T, because I certainly assumed the same of you.

So, no paying my bills this weekend. No doing my taxes this weekend. At least I got in most of the blog updating I was doing today.

This is the third time my phone and/or DSL has gone down in the last two months. Once out four days BECAUSE THEY DISCONNECTED IT!

Homicide is in my heart.

What was that Tupperwared Mass?

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Pushed to the back on one of the lower shelves in the refrigerator was one of my larger tupperware containers. I mean tupperware in a kleenex or vaseline sense, some form of plastic sealing item, likely not Tupperware®.

It had some kind of meat and rice substance I likely made in the crock pot ages ago. But now it’s gone, and I one again have use of the massive container. Whatever shall I make six servings of now? Any I mean six American servings, which breaks down to about 15 servings as measured by the calorie counters.

Cha Ching

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AmeriquestLogo.jpgSo, a few years ago I refinanced my mortgage and Ameriquest gave me a god awful rate (others wouldn’t loan to me). Because of their predatory lending practices (which I’m sure did others in) they settled a large class action suit.

I just got settlement money in the bank. Yay, now I can afford to pay the mortgage on January 1.

Of course, all those bad mortgages are still going to kerplunk the credit market, and aid an economic slowdown if not a mild recession.

Rain, Indonesia, and the Kitchen Sink

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After three marathon weeks of rain, rain, rain, we’ve finally had two days off from precipitation. It looks like the puddle on my sidewalk may dry up completely today, indonesiaand I may be able to walk across the lawn in a few more days – if it continues to hold off.

Started the first day of clear skies mostly indoors. At a tea shop in Montrose. We played a monster of an obscure (but good) board game: Indonesia. Tracey, James, Onion, Tricia, and myself. I think it lasted a good five hours. After ravaging Tricia position, she still won the game. But I managed a close second.

Ended it off with Doneraki and then a few more games at home.

A few days before that I began the project of ripping out the kitchen sink, replacing the fawcet, installing a disposal, and reinstalling all the drains. About a $200 project. One small drip on the drain I still need to fix, but other than that it’s almost done. I need to reinstall the cabinet door, as well.

Mexican Plum tree

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Mexican plum treeRosaceae Prunus mexicana This understory tree is native, though sparse, to the hill country.  This one seems to thrive here in Houston, and the few others i’ve seen do as well.  Though all the others i’ve seen are under 20 years old, while this one is likely 50-80 years old.  It’s actually showing signs of age, losing some limbs a few years ago.  And there is some dead wood on it now.

I’ve got a new one (4-5 years old) growing 20 feet from this one to eventually replace it.  The young trees don’t bloom.

The fruits that the tree produces are about the size of a quarter and get mealy and fall off.  Unripe, they are quite bitter.  I’ve always wanted to make a plum wine/mead with them.  The squirrels and birds definitely enjoy the plums, which are around through the beginning of the hot summer – they provide good moisture for animals through droughts.

When this tree blooms it is amazingly fragrant.  When the sun is out hitting it, the whole driveway is perfumed.  If it’s warm enough, the open windows let the fragrance in.  This year had a long bloom (still out).  If we get heavy winds or rain after it starts to bloom, they are all knocked off.

The rotting-on-the-ground fruit attracts certain types of butterflies in the summer.  The pits these things drop are like petrified skittles, quite painful to the bare foot.  They sprout quite well, with 100s of little treelings a year, but not many of those last a full year.

This past weekend, there was a nice clear day, with blooms open.  Standing under the tree you could see 100s of honey bees and hear the buzz.  As I walked through and squatted in the wood sorrel in the back yard, I was also surrounded by bees.  It’s bee-buzzing time of year.

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