Well, Verizon finally got off their asses and processed my order … at least according to the online order status website. And the dude I talked to when I called at lunch said it had been shipped. That was just before noon. However, I don’t have a tracking number yet. I tried to call their “Support Team” again, but office hours are 8am to 6pm … and apparently that’s Eastern time. Would have been nice if they had mentioned that in the email. Well, if that’s the case, then I’ll be calling them before work to get my damn tracking number.

I’m impatient … I wanna know when I’ll get my phone. I want my new toy!!

Mood: hungry   30 Minute Meals

I was hoping to check the status of my order today and see that it was shipped. But NOOOO. Verizon hasn’t even frickin’ processed my order yet. Yeah … I placed it on the weekend. But shouldn’t that mean that they’d process it on Monday?

I called customer service, hoping that they just hadn’t updated the web yet. No chance. They guy I talked to seemed completely clueless. Even after I gave him my order number, he was like … do you have “this” kind of number? I think he said a location number? Hello … all I have is an order number.

I was really hoping that I’d get my phone before Thanksgiving. Now it looks like I won’t get it ’til Tuesday of next week … that is if they process my order and ship it tomorrow. If they had had an option for faster shipping, I probably would have selected it … I mean the phone was free. But I didn’t even have a choice for shipping.

Talk about crappy customer service. Thanks Verizon. I’m only sticking with you because I’m halfway satisfied with the coverage around here. And I hate change too … LOL.

Mood: annoyed   Heroes

Today’s NBC broadcast of the final Nextel Cup Series race of the season really really pissed me off. And that’s putting it mildly. All they could talk about was Jimmie Johnson this and Jimmie Johnson that. I understand that the guy all but had the championship locked up before the race even started. But there are 42 other drivers out there on that track.

Martin Truex Jr made an awesome run during the green-white-checkers to end the race. He finished 2nd. And he lead laps earlier in the race. But could NBC be bothered to even talk to him? Hell no. The MRN broadcast interviewed him. Isn’t it customarily done that you interview at least the top 2 or 3 finishers. I guess someone should tell NBC that.

I was even so pissed, that I sent an email to NBC sports. I’m sure no one will even read it, but I felt the need to state my mind. And since I’m sure no one at NBC will care, I’m putting it up here (’cuz I can … it’s my blog … )

Subject: Comments on NASCAR coverage
To: nbcsports@nbcuni.com

To whom it may concern:

I just have to say how extremely upset I have been with the NASCAR coverage on NBC and TNT this season. I am extremely extremely upset about the Nextel Cup race coverage of the race on November 19, 2006 on NBC as well as the coverage of the Busch race on November 18, 2006.

Paul Menard finished 3rd in that race … he was the highest finishing NON-CUP driver in the race. Not only that, he finished 6th in points … again, the highest finishing NON-CUP driver. But TNT couldn’t even be bothered to interview him after the race. The MRN broadcast managed to interview him. Why couldn’t TNT.

And the same thing happened during the Nextel Cup race coverage. Martin Truex Jr finished 2nd after running strong all day long. But NBC couldn’t even be bothered to interview him. I understand that he wasn’t in the “Chase for the Championship”, but he did FINISH 2ND in the race. Again, MRN managed to interview him. NBC interviewed Jeff Gordon who wasn’t even a factor in the race and he didn’t even have a chance to win the Cup.

I guess I’m not surprised. The coverage by NBC and TNT the entire second half of the season has been extremely sub-par … and that’s putting it mildly. Unless you’re one of the limited number of drivers, you don’t bother talking about them. And you wonder why interest in the sport is waning. It’s because of the very poor coverage.

I’m sure this email either won’t be read or will fall on deaf ears. But I had to say my piece.

A VERY disappointed fan,
Becky XXXXXX
Fargo, ND

I’m watching NASCAR Victory Lane on the Speed Channel right now HOPING that they’ll have an interview with Martin. But I’m not holding my breath.

I’ll get down off my soapbox now. It doesn’t do any good to get all worked up over this anyways.

Mood: bitchy   NASCAR Victory Lane

Lisa mentioned to me when I was home that this site causes IE to lock up. I never use (or rarely ever use) IE anymore at home. I do use it when working on my sites to make sure everything looks okay. But when I did the redesign, I just didn’t really care about IE.

I encounter the same issue on my computer when I try to view this site in IE. And I have no idea why. I took out various pieces of the sidebars that I thought were causing the problem. Didn’t help. I took out the sidebars completely. Still didn’t help. I don’t know if it’s a plugin that’s cauing the problem or something else. When I first put everything up, the site verified both HTML and CSS.

So … I’m gonna try one of the other themes and see if it still locks up in IE. If it does, then I have no idea. If it doesn’t, then I guess I need to work on my theme to figure out what the problem is.

Stupid IE. People … use FireFox. It’s better …

UPDATE (9:44am):
Well … I just tried 2 other themes, one of which was the default WP theme. The site still locked up in IE. It must be a plugin. Gues I’ll have to deactivate them one by one to see what is causing the problem.

UPDATE (9:54am):
I found the problem. It’s the Lightbox plugin that I’m using. Dangit. I like that plugin. For now, I have it deactivated until I can figure out what the problem is. Hey Lisa … leave me a comment to let me know if you can view this in IE now.

UPDATE (11:02am):
I tried a different Lightbox plugin. Everything appears to be working now … even in IE. The only problem is that the archive dropdowns show up on top of the pop-up image in IE. But I’m not gonna worry about that.

Mood: bitchy   Froggy 99.9FM

I just got a phone call. It wasn’t a number I recognized, but because of my job search, I answered it … just in case.

It was a recording from Verizon. I guess there’s a new calling plan for my area. Why don’t they just send a letter instead of calling … with a RECORDING … that is using up my minutes?

Mood: irritated   Charmed rerun

I’m gonna warn you right off the bat … I’m ranting in this post (it’s my blog and I can rant if I want to … )
Read the rest of this entry »

Mood: bitchy

Dammit. I knew I shoulda stopped for gas this morning on my way to work. From this morning to this afternoon, gas went up 10¢ a gallon … from $2.89 to $2.99 a gallon. But I guess I shouldn’t complain. At the gas station across the street from the one I go to, gas is $3.04 a gallon.

Mood: hungry

Do you ever have one of those days where you just wanna go off on a co-worker? Just tell ‘em to “Fuck Off”? Or even smack ‘em?

OMG … did I ever feel like that this afternoon. He thought it was SO hilarious. I wasted I don’t know how much time trying to figure out why my preview wasn’t working properly. It turned out that I was missing a fucking spacer image. I thought he was going to start rolling around on the floor laughing. How the hell am I supposed to know that you fucker? The images aren’t in CVS. I wanted to tell him to “kiss my fucking rosey red ass” … but of course, I didn’t. But it sure fucked up the rest of my day.

I feel like I could do one of those Valley Fair “let your scream out” commercials right now. I could so scream.

Now I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to eat for supper. I had a crappy salad for dinner that didn’t even come close to filling me up. My stomach was starting to hurt by the time I got home from work. I’m eating Pringles now to tide myself over ’til I figure out what I’m going to eat. And I supposed I should go to CashWise tonite and get some bread and deli meat so I have something for dinner tomorrow at work.

Then I think I’ll come home and crack open one or two of those beers Lisa left for me from the 12-pack she bought on Saturday.

Mood: cranky

I don’t know what is going on with me today. I’m having one of those “Calgon, take me away!” days (weeks, month, years … LOL). I’m just not sure what the deal is. It started as soon as I got to work and read an email from the client. Of course, I take things personally, whether they’re meant that way or not. Ever since then, I’ve just felt really upset. I had to come home on lunch. I just needed to get out of there. Hopefully I can calm down before I get back to work.

I really hope the rest of the day goes by quickly (and without incident). Then tonite, I can help Robin again at her new house … if she needs help that is. She’s got this week off from work so she can work on the new house, so she might be getting stuff done during the day. I’m excited for her …. but jealous too. I want my own house. I’m sick of living in an apartment. But I’ll be in one for quite some time to come. I need to get a second job so I can save up and maybe get a house before I die … LOL.

Ugh … I need to head back to work in about 10 minutes. I wish I lived closer to work … so it wouldn’t take so long to get there. Oh well. At least I have a job.

Mood: empty

I took my change to the bank this morning to get it converted to cash. I counted it before I left … putting it in piles of $1. I counted exactly $8.50.

However, when I took it to the bank, when she came back from the counting machine thingy, she said there was only $6.39. Ummm … ’scuse me. NO! I counted $8.50 not more than 15 minutes ago!! I told her that I had counted it before coming to the bank and that I had counted $8.50. That’s what I got too. I think she was having issues with the machine or something. I know she called one of the other workers over to it with her. Otherwise, I don’t think she would have given me the $8.50.

It just pisses me off that they tried to screw me over. I counted accurately. That’s why I put things in piles of $1. So I could recount it easily. I put the pennies in piles of 25¢. I had 5 piles of all dimes, 1 pile of dimes and nickels, 1 pile of all nickels, 6 piles of pennies, and another pile of 20 pennies and 1 nickel. At least I got what was due to me.

Mood: blah