Good News

Ladies!

I have a job! After a long year of disappointed I landed a job in a shoe store today. Not the same store I have worked in the past. This one is privately owned and nicer. Its a part time job that may lead to full time.

An average day on the job!

My life at 3 a.m.

Mr. Borealis is sick again. For any of you who remember, it's what he had in high school that put him in the hospital for 10 days. He has ulcerative colitis, a condition where his body starts attacking his digestive system, and it causes severe digestive issues and complications (...and I will caveat here that this is not to be spread around, because Mr. B doesn't like people knowing, so pretend you don't know if you see him). I'm freaking out because it's the same time of year, same symptoms, same everything--he's been sick since Christmas now, progressively getting worse. What I should say is that he's been unable to hide his symptoms since December, and when the Librarian and I asked him, he said he's been having trouble since Thanksgiving, when he got a minor flu. When I pressed him and asked if this was what was up in early September, when he wouldn't tell me why he was suddenly disinterested in any form of physical affection (this happened in high school too, which is what sparked the question), he said he "may have been having issues since that point." So, my husband's digestive system has been in slow shutdown for four and a half months, and the only reason I found out was that he started getting up for the bathroom (both ends) three or more times a night and his bloodwork from his physical came back showing he was "under nourished." The doctor has him on a pretty drastic medicine regimen now, and said if he doesn't improve in the next week it could be "really bad."

I don't mind mentioning here, I am afraid. I am really afraid. My husband is 6'2", and the last time this happened, his digestive system shut down completely and he dropped down to around 100 pounds.

School has got me being a really crappy wife. How could I have missed this...aside from the fact that every time I asked my husband lied throw his damn teeth saying nothing was wrong? I knew something was going on. I thought he was stressed out at work, because we were both stressed out. I dropped a class this semester and now I'm taking 8 graduate credits and working 30 hours a week.

I'm trying to distract myself with writing, which kind of works. I keep waking up in the middle of the night and worrying about stuff I didn't get done around the house because I am always running between work and school. Last night I had the realization that we were down to one roll of toilet paper, so shopping just got bumped up the totem pole. I also have to buy food because Mr. B is now on the famous BRAT diet--bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast--until his system recovers enough to deal with real food.

I talked with my boss about my future last Wednesday, and the probability of staying on at work after I finish my M.A. and M.L.S. He said if I can get into a PhD program, he does believe he could keep me on as a student employee (the doubt in the situation has to do with department funding). So I've been shopping, and my top programs so far are looking like Illinois (program in Library and Information Science), NOVA Southeastern in Florida (Computer Science and Information Systems), and CU Denver (Computer Science and Information Science).

I'm a mess.

Alula.

Balsamic Chicken

I am contributing my first recipe. Chicken with whole grain penne pasta, glazed with a delightfully tangy Balsamic Vinegar sauce.

6 chicken breasts

Cube the chicken and cook in a skillet with a little olive oil, and pepper.

1 box of hole grain penne pasta

Cook the pasta! lol

Balsamic Vinegar sauce:

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup of light olive oil

3 cloves of crushed garlic

1/4 cup of Dijon mustard (Please pass the Gray Poupon?)

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan, whisk together, and warm. If you like you can add mushrooms to the sauce. Its tasty tasty!

Recipes

OK folks I have another idea! Lets put together a book of recipes. I think it would be fun! Make the recipes original as you can and I'll put them together into one place. And when you and if you make the items take a picture a couple different views I have a bunch i can put in and then I'll show everyone the finished product. I want everything from desserts to main dishes to snacks. Anything and everything, and you can make a recipe original by adding a little more salt to adding a whole extra ingredient. I think it will be fun plus I'm running out of new recipes. Add a story to the recipes like what happened when you made it what was you did in the kitchen to make it easier to make. For instance i made chicken with 20 cloves of garlic tonight and it was very good i made it easier and faster by buying pre-peeled garlic. Well if anyone wants to add to this let me know.

Organization????

Organization who am I kidding?? When it came to anything outside of work I am the most unorganized person I know! My house is generally clean, just the piles of stuff everywhere has Mr Man in a tizzy. I can't keep anything organized not even my kitchen I just put stuff where it fits. And the basement is a disaster mostly the million and a half toys that I have down there courtesy of my mother. but if it has anything to do with work I know where it is in that pile on the desk. are you actually supposed to be able to see the top of a desk because I sure can't. So if anyone has any ideas on how to help me let me know because I am at a complete loss. perhaps I should apply at one of those organization shows.

Oh and Alula don't feel bad about being disowned I've been disowned by my great grandmother half a dozen times and after the third time it kinda looses its threatening potential.

I also now have an 8 month old white lab, she is beautiful we have her for the next 3-4 months. Her owners older dog a 2 year old white lab male tore a tendon in his knee a dog equivalent of an ACL in a human. Well the older dog had to have surgery on the knee and is banned from running, horse play or anything so the veterinarian told the owners that they couldn't have the 8 month old lab around shes a little on the wild side. So I know have a lab for a bit and little man will be getting his very own white lab when he turns 4 and they breed this pair.

Last note I will be starting to load products on the online store in the next few weeks. So if anyone wants to puts stuff up I need a picture and weight of the product so that the shipping is right. I will be contacting the craft sale people we talked to last year when I have something to show them.

Fuzzy

Relatives: Epic Fail

Today I got an email from my mother-in-law stating that we had neglected to cash a check given to us for Christmas by her mother (Mr. B's maternal grandmother), and I am in deep $^%&.

Background: Last year she sent a check for my birthday. I cashed that check pronto but her bank said it never cleared, so I got an earful about how she waited a year for that check to clear. She's a miserly older woman who watches every penny--generally I find this to be a very admirable quality.

After the birthday check fiasco, she said she wasn't sending us checks anymore because she didn't trust us. Fine with me.

Apparently she's still sending checks, and we had spaced that she gave us an envelope over Thanksgiving until we got yelled at.

The contents of said envelope (I found it almost immediately when we remembered it)?

$100, and we are officially out of the Will.

Alula

Return of the Evil Pharmacist

Since I'm in a ranting mood tonight, I also wanted to post an update on the Evil Pharmacist (read initial post here).

I resolved my issues by contacting corporate, who contacted the store, who were not able to confirm or deny that anything looked fishy with the computer records given that everyone has different insurance. They "handled the issue with the pharmacist at the store level" and apologized for her rudeness, and sent me store vouchers to use.

I still transferred my prescriptions to a different branch (same store, because we get gas discount points on those pricey meds).

Last week I went to pick up my prescriptions. Surprise--guess who had transferred stores, and now works at my new location. And guess who could not get the insurance to work for my inhaler, but encouraged me to get a coupon from online and "keep my receipt".

EVIL PHARMACIST IS STALKING ME.

You know how you have those moments in life, where you could swear someone is scripting it, because this kind of bull only happens on television?

Alula

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.: The nightmare that keeps on giving

Well hello again my lady friends!

This post serves to voice that Mr. B and I are now officially boycotting J.P. Morgan Chase. Mr. B just got off the phone with customer service there after thirty minutes. Was the problem resolved? We have no idea. Then why did he get off the phone? --Because the office was closing, so the MANAGER there was sorry, but they could not resolve the $800 dollars they had wrongfully removed from our account, which was closed last month (read about that here).

The story begins many months ago, when we begin to get pestering phone calls about the "great deals" Chase wants to offer us for our cards. They want to offer me an amazing deal, because they know I'm a student--they will extend me credit to pay for tuition and books. The problem here is the interest on this deal is higher than we're already paying, with no increase on the credit limit, and they want to charge us an extra monthly fee for the program. No thanks, you scheming dirtbags. However, saying 'no' is not enough, as I receive the same pitch 3 more times until I tell them to stop calling or we're canceling.

Then one month we noticed almost a thousand dollars gone from Mr. B's Fidelity account. After some research, we discover the reason for this is that Chase accidentally double paid our mortgage. One hour getting bounced around the various customer service departments at Chase, and we have it straightened out, and a promise to high heaven that "that sort of thing never happens" and "it would never happen again." The $800 dollars was refunded to our account more than a week later, with checks bouncing left and right because we had counted on having the money in there when we wrote them. Chase assumes no responsibility for the bounced check fees they caused.

Phone calls resume. More sales pitches. Told them not to call again. Then they start nicking us with lame service charges--Mr. B wants to cancel the credit cards, but I tell him these suck-tastic practices are industry standard, and to just pay the mob. So we do.

Up to last November. In mid-late November, Mr. B cuts it too close paying the credit card bill, and they tack on a late fee (again, read about that here). Now, I had initially blamed this on Mr. B, because when dealing with loan sharks, you never cut it close. He paid the bill the day it was due, and the bank showed the payment had cleared in time, but Chase said they did not receive it on time. So apparently the money spent some time in the ether between the time the bank said the money had been withdrawn, and the time Chase said they got it two days later. Whatever. We're upstanding card owners who always (even if barely) pay on time and always in full, so Mr. B calls and politely asks that the fees be removed. The rep says 'no', and he had finally had it, so he told the rep to close the account--we were done dealing with the crap. Account closed.

The very next week we closed on the refinance (through a different financial institution), effectively severing ties with Chase for good and swearing to never go back. We were done with Chase, but apparently Chase was not done with us.

With all of our accounts with Chase closed and our mortgage well moved on to other grounds, you can imagine Mr. B's surprise and extreme anger when he logged into his Fidelity account tonight to see that $800 dollars had been withdrawn to pay our mortgage by--guess who!--Chase. It's in the evening so he calls immediately, because our HOA of $200 comes out of the same account, and that check will bounce with another $800 gone. So he gets on the phone and goes straight to the automated system. When he finally gets a person, that person is with the Web department or whatever, so he gets transferred--to another automated system. He finally gets a person on that end who manages accounts, but he doesn't have an account, so it must be a web error--back to the web team. And so on and so forth. He finally demanded that these people do a 3-way call, and he eventually had to get a manager to lead the circus. When the clowns finally figure out that he has no accounts with them and they have effectively stolen $800, they tell him they have canceled the automatic payment to nowhere. Then we try to figure out how to get the money back--but WHOOPS!--the office is closed now.

Please check back tomorrow for your $800. We wish you the best of luck with that check we're going to bounce for you by stealing your $800 without cause for a mortgage we no longer own on an account you canceled more than 30 days ago.

There is a special place in Hell, Chase, but I'm sure you already know of it (you probably run that institution as well).

Alula

Technology is AMAZING

This is a post directly from my fancy new phone. I'm so happy we've
moved into the 21st century. Let us be thankful as a group we are
blessed with these wonderful devices we call cell phones. =)

~Munchkin

Happy New Year!

Ladies,

I have updated the blog to take down our annual holiday decor and updated the resolutions as requested.

That thou canst never once reflect, on Old long syne,

Alula