Rants

Categories Apollo, Dog, Rants

I called animal control on my neighbors

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These folks moved in across the street over the summer.  Nice enough family, 4 kids (2 of each), and a dog.  Then shortly after they got a puppy.  Not exactly breaking news I know, especially here, except their method of letting the dos out for potty and exercise was to open the door, let out the dogs, and close the door.  No fence, no tie out, no supervision.  Now maybe at their last place the dog really did stay in their yard.  I doubt it personally, but, benefit of the doubt and all that.  

A couple months after they moved in Apollo started having his “OMG there’s a DOG in MY yard!!!” snits later at night ( previously he’d occasionally have a fit over a dog that was walked by but that was it), normally he loves other dogs, but not if they’re uninvited in his yard.  Took me a while to actually catch a look at the dog in question, and sure enough, the older dog from across the street.  Sigh, no sign of the puppy, but when I get across the street she’s sitting on the porch.  So I ask them to please keep their dogs out of my yard cause Apollo goes ballistic.  They say they will.

Yup, no such luck.  We keep seeing both dogs in the yard.  And I’m starting to get annoyed at picking up strange dog poo, cause I don’t really know these dogs and all sorts of diseases are passed along that way, but I’m trying to be patient to give them time to retrain.  But finally, end of January, I chase the dogs back across the street and say something to them again.

This past Monday I finally got frustrated and called animal comtrol and she said she’d be out there that day.  Didn’t actually see her, but MOST times I’ve seen the dogs since out someone’s been out with them.  Not that having someone out stops them from heading across the street if said person isn’t watching……And tonight their older dog was in my yard again, much to Apollo’s frustration….never mind the rest of the issues I have with their practice (and there are lots) our street has no street lights, and no posted speed limit, which means that even at night people SPEED down past my house to stand on their brakes so they can make the 90degree turn.  Neither dog is white or even really light colored.  I’m not going to be happy when someone knocks on my door to tell me that a dog ran out of my yard into the street and they hit it….

Categories Rants

The joys of homeownership

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Didn’t someone recently do a post on the fun of plumbing in old houses?  Mine’s not even that old (barely 20yrs), and we’ve now had fun with the plumbing twice (in the year and a half we’ve lived here).

Last year about this time the hot water line from the water heater sprung a pinhole leak.  Turned out whoever plumbed it in hadn’t used “pipe”, instead they’d used grey electrical conduit from the heater itself to just before where the pipe goes into the floor.  Don’t ask me why, I have no idea.  Lots and lots of warm water spraying UP at a high velocity.

This afternoon after I got home from work I set a bag of chicken breasts into the sink to thaw.  Ran the sink full of cool water and left the cold tap just barely running on it.

Came back, about an hour ago, and discovered water on the floor leaking out between the cabinets and the stove.  WTF?  There’s no water line there……at least not IN the house, god I hope something UNDER the house isn’t spraying water everywhere…..Grab a couple towels to sop up the mess and start trying to figure out where the water was coming from.  First thought was that the sink overflowed.  It shouldn’t, its a double sink, overflow from one just goes into the other to drain, and sure enough there’s no water trail on the counter.  Sigh.  Start opening cabinet doors, the one closest to the water: no wet inside, the next one: no wet, the two directly under the sink: soaked.  F*ck.

I know, doesn’t look all that bad in the picture right?  Well, that “wood” is cheap pressboard, the water soaked in, it bowed, and promptly funneled it down the hole the pipes come up, where the natural slope of the floor carried it under the cabinets over to the stove, where it promptly seeped out to the middle of the room.

Turns out where the cold water line meets the sink its leaking.  Its not the HUGEST leak ever, I had a hard time finding it actually, which makes me think its been doing that for a few days at least.  F*ck.  Mold.  Ewwww.

Cold water line is shut off with one of those handy little shutoffs you see there (which were MISSING on the water heater I might add).  My father-in-law will be over in the morning to take a look and see what needs replacing.  Not sure how he’s going to fit under there, we might have to figure out if those shelves come out (they don’t look like it), but I think we were going to have to figure that out anyway considering how soaked they are.

Oh, and all of this was done while defending my towels from a giant gold fluffy puppy who thought they made THE BEST toys to take and barrel around the house with EVER, and a little brown puppy who thought they were the BEST tug toys ever…..oh, and that nasty colored water seeping from under the cabinet is YUMMY!!!!!

Why can’t we come into the kitchen anymore???!!!!!
Categories Rants

New Peeve

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If when you go to a site where you purchased the product, and, in order to purchase the product you had to choose a specific thing about the product from a drop down list (size, power rating, etc), and you are there to REVIEW the item you purchased……it would be a good thing for those reading your review at a later date if you put the (size, power rating, etc) in your review so they know which did what you said it did.

Really.  Especially when there’s like 5 options to choose from…..

Categories Rants

I have got to get switched off of Blogger

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The good news is I found instructions on how to switch back to the old Blogger interface, for any one else who needs those instructions go here? It was pretty easy after all once I knew where to look, oh well.

The bad news is that in the NEW interface you cannot turn off or on the Word Verification for comments.  WTF???  So at whatever point they force the switch you’re stuck with whatever settings you happen to have set for that.  Makes me wonder what ELSE they’re taking away the settings for…..

At any rate the Word Verification for commenting should be turned OFF.  If its NOT off please let me know.  The new one SUCKS to try to read, I’ve gotten it wrong so many times trying to comment places.  So off it goes, and I’ll just have to deal with spam as it happens I guess.

I will be paying for hosting sometime in the next month so I can set up my own blog without this sort of interference.  It’ll probly be some time after that before I actually switch, I will at that point attempt to make sure that everyone who has me on their blogroll is alerted to the change as well as leaving a link here in the last post.

Categories Rants

To various “news” sites

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including at least one listed on the GunBlogBlackList.

If, when I first load your page, the screen is taken over by an ad of some kind, I am NOT going to continue onto your page.  I don’t care if if the “ad” is a survey cause you want to know how to improve.  It DOES NOT MATTER.  Not only am I NOT going to read anything further on your page today, there is a better than average likely hood that I won’t do so later for a very long time.

Oh, and ads that suddenly scroll across my screen while I’m reading annoy me almost as much.  Doesn’t matter what the ad is for, or why.

Edited to add:  To the companies who think the above mentioned ad type is a good way to get your product/name out, I have been known to use those ads as a good way to populate my “do not buy” list.  Just sayin……

Categories Rants

This is an example of why

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My family has mostly gotten over the fact that I don’t go to church, and that when asked about my beliefs I generally respond “none of the above”. But occasionally I get asked by someone “why?”

A lady I went to high school with (a strictly Christian school) posted the following line on her Facebook today: God would rather us in the belly of a whale than living in disobedience..

Now I don’t if God want’s that or not, if there is such a creature, but I know alot of church leaders who do.

Before someone tries to educate me, I know what bible story she’s referring to, and I’m sure I know what she THINKS she’s saying, but that is rather not the same as actually saying it.

Categories Rants

To whomever runs the TransSiberian Orchestra’s Facebook page

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You people are the only music group I have followed for any length of time on Facebook. Everyone else I tried to follow annoyed me quickly with constant spamming updates. But you guys are different, updates are once a month or so, its awesome!

Or, prehaps I should change all that present tense to past tense. You WERE the only music group I followed…..see, today whoever runs your Facebook page decided it wasn’t enough to remind everyone of the upcoming concert tour. Nope. Instead of a post reminding people that ‘hey, we’re on tour check our schedule!!!!’. You posted a bajillion individual posts, one for each stop on the tour stating “we’re going to be in THIS city, who’s coming?!?!”. You know what? Not only did you make sure that you got blocked from my Facebook feed, I now WILL NOT be buying tickets when you’re going to be near me. I’m sure you won’t miss my ticket money, I can just hope enough other folks got annoyed by your Facebook spam that you learned something from it.

Categories Rants

If you don’t know how….

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….to tell the difference between a tripped breaker and an untripped breaker then you should not be the person trying to find the tripped breaker. Cause, you know, its REALLY REALLY ANNOYING to have to restart my computer 3 times the space of 10 minutes. It also proves how stupid you are.

Categories Apollo, Dog, Rants

AKC customer service fail

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This post is actually unrelated to the previous post on the Tibetan Mastiff breed standard changes.  Other than the fact that it involves Apollo anyway.

Back when we got Apollo, and then his paperwork, included in the paperwork from the AKC was paperwork to set him up with the AKC Companion Animal Rescue.  Basically its supposed to be a backup to microchips or tags.  We almost didn’t bother since he IS microchipped and tagged, but it was only $20, and no renewal fee, so might as well.  Got the paperwork back stating he’d been enrolled with the CAR, and in the envelope was a tag to add to his collar.  There was something in the letter about setting up online access so you can make changes if you need to, but right then I didn’t feel like it so the letter got tossed in the “we might need it later so at some point I need to sort this and file it” box.

Yesterday I was sorting the paperwork in that box in preparation of filing it, so that if we needed any of it for taxes it would be accessible, and ran across the letter from the CAR.  Was reminded of the online access thing, and sat down to set it up before I forgot again.  Oops, there’s supposed to be a code in the letter for setting up the access, and gee, no code.  Sigh.  By this time its 10pm EST, so I emailed the email listed on the letter rather than tried to call:

I am attempting to set up online access for my dog, but the letter I recieved did not contain an enrollment key.

Apollo, Tibetan Mastiff, owned by Ruth *****
id# XXXXXX

Got an email back today:

Thank you for contacting AKC Companion Animal Recovery.

We received your email to update your pet’s record; however, your pet is not enrolled in our recovery service. You can enroll your pet with our service at www.akccar.org.

Note: AKC CAR is proud to offer access to Pet Poison Helpline. For a one-time fee you can gain access to immediate treatment advice from animal experts around the clock. For more information, call AKC CAR at 1-800-252-7894 or visit http://www.akccar.org.

Please be sure to include this email if a response is necessary.

Thank You,
AKC Companion Animal Recovery

So…..yah, I emailed back:

So I sent you paperwork, and a check, which you cashed.  You sent me a letter stating he was enrolled, and a tag to add to his collar.  And yet you didn’t really enroll him in the program??  You ARE sending me a refund….RIGHT?

Mildly pissed…. 

Ok, really pissed, and I’m actually kinda serious about the refund, do I really want these people “helping” rescue my dog??