sarahmichelef

Has anyone had any success getting their cell provider to block specific numbers from sending text messages?  M gets frequent txtspam, always from the same 5-digit number.   He has activated all possible blocking options and Verizon (shockingly) told him that they cannot block 5-digit numbers.  Their solution was for him to text the people back and request that they stop spamming him.

Yeah, like that's gonna work. He did it so that when the spammers strike again he can go to Verizon and say, "Really, that plan worked a treat, great idea boys. Now fix it."

I haven't been to spinning class in AGES.  I was going to be able to go tomorrow, yay!   But, astute readers, I'm sure you noticed that I used the past tense there.  Why?

Because when we got to the park-n-ride this afternoon, we discovered that we had a flat tire (driver's side rear).  We had just aired the tires up a couple of weeks ago, so we doubt it was a leak.  Other evidence that it wasn't just a leak: the car parked facing us also had a flat.  So now the question is, did we just happen to drive over the same thing that punctured our tires, or were they slashed?

We shall know more tomorrow.  I flagged down a transit police car while I was waiting for AAA (because the factory puts the tires on way too tight) and filed a police report - if there is evidence that it was vandalism (and I'm pretty convinced that it was - M is less so) then our insurance will cover the repair with no deductible.

I am so so so tired.  I had a hard time falling asleep last night (I think it was 1 before I really got to sleep) and was awakened by hail on the roof at 5:20 or so this morning and didn't really ever go BACK to sleep.  I deliberately have not had any caffeine since first thing this morning in hopes of not having a repeat performance tonight.  I almost fell asleep during How I Met Your Mother, which would have been criminal because missing the end... would have made me very sad.  Robin Sparkles and all that.  (I will not spoil because I know erinwrites  at least won't be watching it until tomorrow - or have you guys jumped ship to DirecTV or FIOS yet?)

And Thursday I get the fun of driving a random rental car, because we need two - M's gotta travel to a meeting for the day.  His reimbursement for mileage will come out to JUST ABOUT the cost of having a rental car from 6 pm Wednesday night 'til 7:30 Friday morning, so that's good.  (Why can't he just rent the car?  Because he's going to Canadia and most car rental agreements don't include crossing the border.)

I am spending too much time on the WW boards, or the people are just getting dumber.

A while back we got a recall notice for our snowblower.  Something about gas and the carburator and it could all go BOOM at any moment (fun, huh?).  We said, "we'll have to call about that" and tossed it on a pile.

Which I found yesterday and called.  The nice lady at the Sears Recall Line was really actually very nice and chatty and punched various numbers into the system and figured out that yes, our machine was affected.  The protocol is apparently that they order the necessary parts, have them shipped to our house, and then we call the recall line back and schedule an appointment to have them come out and fix the thing.  This strikes me as a bit odd, but OK, I'll play along.  She tells me that it will be a couple of weeks, at which point I kick myself for throwing the stupid thing on the pile

This morning Sears called M to tell him that they'll be coming between 3 and 5 today.  They CLAIMED that they left a message on the primary number's voicemail, but that should have been me and I got no such message.  I wonder if they didn't actually delete our land line number from the system and we are some poor sap's new "Dawn Marie Marshall" (the chick who we got CONSTANT phone calls for)?  Could it be that it was actually the heater repair guys who are supposed to be coming TOMORROW to service the furnace (sometime in the "early afternoon) - they are supposed to call and tell me when, maybe I will call them and try to ascertain if they are the ones who talked to M.  (I did... they weren't.)

Ah well, thankfully M can pick TRex up and they'll come home on the train  and this way we will be sure that someone will be home when childsplay7 and T arrive around 5!

That is all.  It's Friday, which means... absolutely nothing.  Gotta prep a conference presentation and a workshop presentation this weekend.  Just found out that the Amtrak "trains" I booked myself on from Seattle to Vancouver don't run on rails, oh no.  They run on wheels on the highway.  Bastards.  Now I have to call and find out if they even LEAVE from the train station, because heaven knows the Amtrak website isn't helpful in that regard.  *rage*  The process for applying for travel funds from UMass is labyrinthine at best (and includes non-editable Acrobat forms that have to be turned in via e-mail).

*thud*

A while back I ordered a review copy of a little workbook and video thing for intro sociology classes, thinking I might show some of the videos in class.  It was in my mailbox at work this morning.  Yay.  I opened it up, flipped through the table of contents, and then turned to the back cover.  The CD was in one of those little sleeves with the perforated slit for taking it out.  On the sleeve was a statement to the effect of "if you open this, you agree to the license agreement."

Guess where the license agreement is?

You got it.  Sealed in the sleeve with the CD.

M tells me that there's a lawsuit pending about this very practice.

Part of the shielding on my power adapter got melted, and getting power through is an iffy operation at best.  There seem to be certain positions in which it works and certain ones that it doesn't.  So I'm off to the Galleria to get a new power adapter this afternoon.

OTOH, I'll get to play with the iPhones.  (Did I bounce about the fact that I got to TOUCH AN iPHONE at Pennsic?  I GOT TO TOUCH AN IPHONE AT PENNSIC!!!)

Hrm... Maybe it's going to behave itself now.  It seems to get cranky if I change locations.  Maybe I'll try some electrical tape over the affected area and see if that helps for a bit.

The minute you have on a fencing mask, or are in the middle of a manicure, or have your hands covered in raw meat, some part of your anatomy will itch.  Most likely  your head.

As soon as you turn off the pilot light, a cold front will come through and it will be 60 degrees in your house.  It's the middle of MAY, people!  I should not need to have the heat on in MAY!  (In other news, I did refrain from going all psycho-environmentalist on the friend who told me last week that she was running her air conditioner during the day and the heater at night.)

When TRex and I left toddler gym today, the car wouldn't reverse.  As in, reverse behaved just like neutral.  We've known that the transmission in my car was getting flaky and this is just the sort of thing I wanted to avoid.  Anyway, some of the maintenance folks helped push it out and it went forward mostly fine (with one weird non-catchy moment) all the way home.  When we got home & had it in the garage, I tried backing up again.  That time, it worked.  :^/

If the tranny's gone, the tranny's gone and we're ditching the car.  It's 19 years old and has a blue book value of like $200.

TRex was rather amused by the whole process.

My hard drive decided to run out of space, completely randomly.  I WATCHED the available space tick down from 2 GB until there was none left.  I have no idea why this happened.  I installed Quicksilver this morning but have seen no evidence that it was a part of the problem.  I have cleared a bunch of stuff off of the HD (applications that I don't use) such that I now have 5.25 gigs of space, but I really need to clear out my iMovie folder - I have one project that has all of the things we've recorded, and it's 16 gigs big.  And the "Done" movies (all in QT format at various levels of compression) are another 300 megs.

And of course panic over this led to not going to the gym.  Bah.  I'm going to go make the beds and then work out at home for as long as I have before I have to go get TRex.