Mortaine’s Blog

For the first time in over a year, I was able to take off my wedding ring without using soap or pain!!!

And last night John and I got tipsy and put up the Christmas tree. No piccies from this year, but past years can be seen at http://www.mortaine.com/MyPhotos/ We use blue and white ornaments; the tree is very pretty and soothing.

Monday, Part Deux.

I slept poorly last night. Like, really poorly. I had a TMI moment in the bathroom that you don’t need to read about, but which was gross and made me want to go sleep all day.

I went out for bagels and coffee with John. That went well, actually. Except I realized when I got to work this morning that I’d left my purse in the bagel cafe.

My purse has my PDA, which stores all of my passwords. Including the one for work. Which I changed yesterday and haven’t re-memorized.

I spent the time while I waited, writing a short-short for a contest. It’s cute, in an O Henry kind of way.

So I called our IT department and asked them to re-set my password, and called John to get him to call the bagel shop and get my purse back. Fortunately, they had it and he picked it up for me.

He picked it up before IT got back to me, so I had him give me the passwords I needed. Since my password program was already signed in, and my PayPal password showing, I had him give me that one so I could change it today, just in case.

OK, so I logged onto our system. Nothing happened. Like, no desktop icons showed up. I hard-rebooted (CTRL-Alt-DEL didn’t work). Nothing happened again. My wallpaper showed up, but nothing else. Someone walking by my cube told me there were network startup problems, and it could take 20 minutes to restart.

I got myself some tea. And fussed around a bit.

Came back– the computer was in the middle of its restart script, but I had desktop icons. So I opened Outlook (no work mail), then Mozilla and checked my personal email.

Where I found an email from Network Solutions claiming they couldn’t renew my domain again.

I can’t get into the problems here, but I’ve tried to transfer my domain three times in the last month– they keep claiming (incorrectly– they just lie) that I didn’t confirm. They lie. They want their fucking $35 a year. I’m seriously thinking of taking them to small claims court over this, since they’re such fucktards. I hate them. They won’t accept my transfer, but then they rejected my renewal (on the last possible day) because they claimed it was in the process of being transferred. Fuckers. Fuck fuck fuckityfuck.

I let them know how extremely dissatisfied I am, and told them that I don’t know how I can confirm the transfer if they just won’t acknowledge that it was confirmed– they’re holding my domain hostage, as I told them in the email I sent the other day.

Anyway, I realized just as I was about to say “Fine, you fucktards– renew my fucking account” when I realized… I don’t have my credit cards with me (thank god I brought lunch from home today).

I called John and got the credit card info (I’m going to have to eat this particular piece of paper later), called Network Solutions back and waited on hold for another 15 minutes until I could speak with some perky bitch who wanted me to renew for nine years. I told her that there was no way in hell I was renewing for nine years, and that if they had the option, I’d renew for a matter of days, given all the crap they were putting me through.

I renewed my domain with them. I really hate this. I hate giving in to assholes who extort money.

Then I went to change my PayPal password. Ever try to do this? Well, you pretty much need to be holding my purse in order to do it, cause they want you current password (reasonable) as well as your credit card number.

Yes– that would be the credit card I don’t have with me– and of course the household card that John gave me the # for isn’t on the PayPal account. So… another call to the great Purse-Holder to get that number.

Anyway, the upshot is, by 11:30, I still haven’t done any work.

Oh, and my test machine (the one I run the software on that I’m documenting) doesn’t work on the network right now.

Really, my day is just SUPER.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I started dreaming about a really vile smell. Woke up. Smell still there. Thought it might be a gas leak, and imagined myself getting up to investigate, turning on a light, and turning the house into a fireball.

John was awake. He said it was a skunk. Skunk? Skunk smell doesn’t linger unless it’s sprayed on something. Get up. Smell the dog (yes, I was sniffing my dog’s butt at about 2 this morning).

Went back to sleep. Dreamed about skunks and bears and cats and all manner of animals invading my backyard. Dreamed about being at the campground and various bizarre things happening (usually involving skunks, by the way– rabid ones). Dreamed Hammer had tangled with one. Was grateful he’s current on his rabies shot.

“Woke up” this morning (not a fair designation, since we slept poorly anyway) and the smell was still there. Got up, investigated. Interestingly, when either of us got up and moved around, we stopped noticing the scent (individually), but it came back soon after.

Sigh. I need coffee. Pronto.

I forgot to add my father to my holiday list.

I am sure you will all know what that means better than I do.

I guess I’m not as completely done with my shopping as I’d thought I was.