Kzinti’s Neighborhood

So the big ex messaged me.

...to Sister.

Sister, you truly are as glamorous and fabulous as the lovely Miss Madonna in this video.

I heard the cat out in the kitchen furiously lapping something up.  When I ran out there to see what it was, I saw her face buried in 12-hour-old raw egg that had been used to coat pork chops last night.  As soon as I approached, she shook her head about, flinging raw pork-infected egg all around the kitchen and even into her fur. 

Usually I dump my egg dish and rinse the bowl immediately but she's never expressed interest in eggs so I didn't think it would be an issue if it waited until Mr. Val got around to dishes (which would be sometime this morning). 

Now I'm just waiting for the vomit that is sure to follow this binging event.  Oh lovely, she's sitting on my lap and the very moment I finished that sentence her stomach began to gurgle.  Wee.

Yesterday we had 2 Dollar stores with fires. Each about two hours apart. Now, thinking the obvious....does someone have it out for the Dollar stores? Hmm, I'm wondering what they're beef is. Could it be the prices are too high? Do they think it should be the 50 cent store? Seriously, I question this series of events. The second store was Four Alarms and as I sit here writing this the news is on and they say that the fire crews are still there. Police too, and they've blocked off access to the area. A Dollar store, under siege. Who's next the Swat Team?

Now my mind starts to go to inventory. Are they gonna have a fire sale? Everything 25 cents? My local morning reporter says that all Dollar stores in the city and surrounding areas were on High Alert. Really? I mean, I'm sorry I can't help but be baffled. The Dollar Stores on "High Alert"? Seriously what has this country come to?

Not to take away from the severity of the situation for who ever is in charge, but I just can't wrap my mind around this. Jeff Foxworthy could have a fielday with this material. I wish I knew how to send him this story, 'cause I'd love to hear him put it in a routine. Even I have no shortage of one liners with this one.

In a former life I used to be an electrician. And like in any tradies home, odd jobs requiring trade skills seem to get left until last, or forever. I have a 90cm/36in ceiling fan in the computer/junk/ grog store room. Quite a few years ago a thing called a capacitor blew up, and the fan no longer worked. So, I needed to buy another capacitor and replace the dud one. Somehow, I never did get around to replacing that capacitor. Until a couple of weeks ago. I removed a capacitor from a fluorescent light and replaced dud one with it. I won't go into the technical details of this, but I'd be grateful if you didn't tell the electricity supply company about this. Ta.

Having replaced said capacitor, and congratulating myself on my cleverness, I switched on the fan and....nothing happened. So, instead of checking further, I assumed the fan motor had suffered damage, and that I would have to replace the fan with a new one. So, I bought said new fan last week. Yes, you know where this is heading, don't you.

After much procrastinating, I finally decided to replace fan today. But first, I thought I should disconnect live wire at switch so that I didn't get fried. There's enough CO2 in the atmosphere now, I'm told. So, I removed the cover....and discovered that wire had already been disconnected. I must have done it all those years ago to stop anyone from accidentally turning on the fan which could have damaged it. Two minutes later, wire was reconnected, and fan was running merrily. And I was cursing myself for my laziness, stupidity or whatever. To say nothing of the embarrassment of explaining all this to Mrs Snowy.

I wish it was Friday night.
 

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Urm when ive been paid

It centers me...

Center

I could never give up my pilates...

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster (http://m-w.com):

intransitive verb : to compare views or take counsel : consulttransitive verb 1 : to bestow from or as if from a position of superiority <conferred an honorary degree on her> <knowing how to read was a gift conferred with manhood — Murray Kempton>
2 : to give (as a property or characteristic) to someone or something <a reputation for power will confer power — John Spanier>

Today was the C's First Grade Parent-Teacher conference. In attendance were X, his fabulous wife and mother, his fabulous ex-wife and ex-mother (myself), the First Grade Teacher, the Special Advocate, and the Principal. Because that's how we roll in Sammamish.

We went over our scheduled 20 minutes by a factor of 50% (that's thirty minutes to those of us math challenged, which, apart from an unfortunate tendency to write 3's and 5's backwards and make 4's more of a process than they need to be, the C is not). There just wasn't enough time to cover weird grading (ok, so he gets a "At Standard" for Reading Comprehension but an "Approaching Standard" for Reading... how is that possible?).

I found out, post-conference, that the Other House had been lobbying for a 2nd conference (separate, in other words) because, as they put it, we are two households and the conference is ostensibly to give the teacher insight to how things are at home. C has two homes, so two conferences: it makes sense.

What I didn't know was that, quite apart from a single email I saw to the Principal (necessitating me changing my conference time), they sent emails to her, her boss, and her boss' boss (all we have left, it appears, is Dr. Chip Kimball, who is the head of the LWSD). They (The School, et. al.) would not budge on the prospect of providing a second conference, even though it is required (I hear this from X and the Wife, I have no independent verification but it sounds right) to provide a parent reasonable extra conferencing.

I have no idea why the school did this; it is such not-the-intelligent-move.

Or is it?

You see, the school knows X lives in Auburn. They know I am opposed to the C going to school in Auburn. They know while I am not knee-jerk litigous I do, in fact, have a lawyer for all occasions and (if forced to) will use them. Example: they were hesitating on getting C's IEP process started, if five months can be called hesitating: I brought in council and it was done in six weeks. X wanted to move the C's school district two weeks before school started, I brought in council and it is not going to happen.

I am wondering if they are either subconsciously (or overtly and consciously) "dissing" the X because they think they are operating from strength ("she'll keep him here, we don't have to worry about the father") or if they are doing it in hopes that X will "win" and the C will move to Auburn (and thereby not be "their" problem anymore).

Boy howdy, are those two non-excellent conclusions.

While I may have reservations about this Principal and/or her treatment of my X, the bottom line is that, from an IEP and teacher experience and standardized test perspective, LWSD wins hands down over Auburn -- by a factor of at least two. (Three, in some areas). But just because it requires me to bite my tongue more than one would think healthy when I am around my X, does not mean I will not support him in his quest for his parental rights. The fact of the matter is, this kid DOES have two families and DOES have two households and while we attempt to make the main "rules" the same, you just can't homogenize when the family circumstances are so different. Then again, X didn't bring me in on anything about this beforehand (his privilege) and unless he brings me in on it now (e.g., forwarding the string so we can present a combined front) there isn't much I can do. 

We left the conference today with some answers: apparently, his "Reading Comprehension" was "comprehension" of when something was read to him and then he was tested. He can do well if someone is right there with him. He is good at science and falters at writing. But we left with more questions: how is it he can't read at a certain level at school but can read it at home? More importantly, why weren't we allowed that second conference? There were eight available, open, unscheduled slots this week -- what cost could possibly have been accrued by alotting X and the Wife one? 

We may have conferred -- but more, I think, in the second sense than the first.   

I shop at Target. It's easy to find what I need and it's close to my house. I've never had a problem in stores.

So when the recent Star Trek movie price war broke out among online retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon, I thought I'd take Target up on its deal: $10 for the basic DVD shipped (it's $16 in stores). I ordered the movie last Sunday.  It allegedly shipped on the release day (last Tuesday). 

Target order

The shipping e-mail from Target said to expect 3-5 business days and that it would arrive between November 19 and 23. The e-mail included information on tracking it via Target's website and USPS. Unfortunately, when I logged in to Target to track the shipment on every single occasion for the past six days I have received the following error message.

Target shipment tracking

I copied the tracking number and pasted it into USPS.com's tracking system. It too gave me an error message -- saying the number was either wrong or too new to be in the system (every day).

Something is clearly wrong with this picture.

So, on Saturday, after my mail was delivered, I e-mailed Target customer service. Here's the response I received: 

I'm sorry for the trouble you're having in tracking your order #blah-blah-blah-xxx online. I know how frustrating it can be.

Since you weren't able to track the order online, I've submitted a request to our shipping team to get the updated tracking information for your order.

We want to take care of this for you as soon as we can, but just to make sure, can you verify your address for us? Here's what we have on file:

rogue / 123 rogue st / rogueville [yes, it's bloody correct]

If this is right, your package should show up by the end of November 24, 2009.

If your order doesn’t arrive by the end of November 24, 2009, use the following link to let us know so we can help.

http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/?node=3370571

Thanks for getting in touch with us. I hope your order arrives soon.

OK: 1. I haven't heard back on any updated tracking (I assume I won't). 2. How can I verify my address when this comes from a noreply e-mail address? 3. November 24? So now they're tacking on another day? 4. If it doesn't arrive, then I get to fill out the whole form with all of my info again (name, address, phone, order #, etc., when you know damn well that they have all of my info - instead, I should be able to hit a button on my account page to say "hey - there's a problem with this order" and they'd have all that info already, but no). 5. I HOPE MY ORDER ARRIVES SOON TOO!!!

So, today is November 23, final day of original delivery range, and I just e-mailed them again. I'm really annoyed now. The reality is this is a simple order. One item. One address in a state capital -- there is no reason it should take this long to arrive. I could be the world's greatest online shopper, gearing up for Cyber Monday and Target.com is losing credibility by the nanosecond here... hence the e-mail:

My order, scheduled to be delivered between Nov 19 and 23, has not been delivered. Target's online shipment tracking system has been "unavailable" every time I have tried to use it. The USPS tracking number 42097301910295933453xxx is not recognized by USPS.gov's tracking system. I would like to know where my order is and when I will receive it. Please advise. The lack of information about my order's whereabouts does not instill confidence.

Please, Target.com, restore my faith in you (or at least your brick & mortar siblings) - this experience has been such a turnoff.  Find out where my Star Trek movie is and get it to me pronto (if it arrives tomorrow - great - just get it here asap - at this point, I'm doubtful I'll ever see it).  And fix your shipment tracking system (Santa will not like that)!