Again With The TV

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but this horse is starting to stink. The DVR receiver went out on the TV AGAIN! I did all the requisite calling and trouble shooting over the phone. Dish wanted to send me a new receiver. I say "really? What are the odds that two receivers are bad?" My friend in India didn't understand the American terminology about odds, so I had to rephrase. He says: "We could send a technician out." "YES, PLEASE!" How exciting, a real person was coming to hopefully take care of the problem.

Orlando showed up at my door as scheduled. I explained the problem as efficiently as possible since all of the details are mind boggling. He replaced the receiver again (this is #3 in case you lost count). He surmised the problem was due to the fact that the initial installer hooked the satelite line through the surge protector which apparently is a no no. While he did a few more repairs and we waited for things to download, we had a nice chat. We discussed the bull shit that you have to go through to get to Dish customer service and the fact that the operators are located in India and/or the Phillipines. He said the operators have a standard script they read from. That's why when you ask a question their response usually doesn't fit the question. They can't deviate off script because in all reality they don't know shit.

Orlando and I became buddies. He left me the local phone number for any future repairs as well as his own cell number. He also showed me how to use some of the cool features. Then the best of all.....he spotted my old rabbit ears antenna and says: "You want me to show you something cool that I can do with them?" My first thought was that I hoped it didn't require him to use any of his body parts or mine.
When I was confident he was talking about doing something with them on the TV, I said: "sure!" He hooked up the antenna to the receiver and programed in the local digital channels. They now show up on the guide and the cool thing is that when the satelite goes out because of weather I can switch to the digital local channels and still get a picture. Orlando is my new TV guardian angel.

Everything is working at this moment in time. Whether it stays that way is up to the TV gods.

PS: If anyone has to call Dish Network for service, tell Raymond in India I said "Hi!" Tell him I won't be talking to him anymore because I got a new guy.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Laura, I hope you have a great birthday. I missed seeing you over Labor Day, but hopefully I'll see you in May!

Crochet Wars

I have not heard from the crochet Nazi, so I am assuming she realized she was wrong and an ass to boot. However, I have heard from another one of the crochet Nazi's commarades. Another totally random person sent me an email about using one of her patterns in a dress I made. "Really people do you have nothing better to do than harrass me about items I have for sale that I will probably never sell." People fucking suck! (I'm only being so vulgar because I've had a few glasses of wine and it's coming really easy). So I get this email; at least it's a little more sugar coated. This person just wanted me to mention that the dress was her design. She wasn't asking me to remove it. The funny thing is; that same person sent me another email that said: "Never mind, aparently the crochet magazine that I sold the pattern to now owns it, so you have no obligation to me." No shit Sherlock! Get over yourself you crochet idiots. Your patterns aren't complicated. You're not the Vera Wang of the crochet world. I ended up putting a disclaimer on my Etsy site so maybe people will leave me alone.

I put the two items in question at the top of my page as "features". It is definitely an in your face, kiss my ass kind of statement. It makes me feel better.

Technology

It's about 1:30am. I should be in bed, but I'm trying to wind down after setting up my new DVR. I should have let it go till tomorrow, but at around 10:30 I thought I would just set it up real quick and go to bed. I should have known better. I upgraded our Dish to HD with a DVR. It was great for about 24 hours and the DVR died. Not fixable, so Dish sent me another DVR to replace it. I got it all hooked up and went through all of the steps to get it up and running, then I had to call to have it activated. About 2 hours later I was finally done. I did however have a nice chat with Raymond from India. My satellite got activated from India, where according to Raymond it has been raining for the last 3 days straight. I also learned that he works the graveyard shift 1am - 10am. I was his last call of the day and then he was going home to bed. He's never seen snow before either, except in pictures. He complimented my voice. He told me I had the voice of a 20 year old. What a charmer. We had a lot of time for discussion while we waited for everything to download. Technology is so obscenely crazy good and so incredibly frustrating at the same time. After talking with my new friend Raymond for awhile, he transferred me to another department because I had some other bull shit to take care of. After I had explained what I needed from them and was put on hold for 5 minutes, they promptly disconnected me. Great! That's just great! I guess I'll call back again tomorrow after I've had a few hours sleep.

I have more crochet war information to share, but it will have to wait till tomorrow too.

ZUMBA

Zumba is a Latin inspired aerobic exercise style. It's been around for a long time. I actually have a VHS tape from back in the day. It's just recently becoming hot here in the Hoosier state. We always get the "in" things about 5 years later than most areas of the country. A new dance studio opened up on my side of town that offers classes. A few of my friends and Amanda have taken the class and said it is a lot of fun. I figured what the hell. I've done it before so I thought I knew what to expect. This was like no other Zumba class I have ever taken. It was a little Latin, a little Belly Dancing, and Hip Hop all rolled into one.

The instructor had more energy than a hip hop rabbit on crack. The music was loud and fast. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder. 40+ people in a 30' x 20' area. The room was hot and humid. She started quick and before I knew it bodies and bootys were shaking all over the place. I was next to Queen Latifah. She sauntered in a little late, ran into Amanda and then positioned herself at my side. Perfect! I was keeping up pretty well but I had to take a break about half way through. It was either step out for a moment or hurl and pass out in front of everyone. There was probably a 20 degree temperature difference between that room and the lobby. I took a few deep breaths of fresh air and headed back in. At least Queen L kept my spot open. I really wouldn't have wanted to tangle with her. She was a little bossy too. At one point both Amanda and I were going the wrong way and she yells; "left, right, left, right." WHATEVER! As if we were making her look bad. Her pants up her ass crack were already doing that. The class was an hour long. It felt like a week. I couldn't even keep track of the time because at one point the instructor's energetic dancing knocked the clock right off of the wall. I kept looking at it lying there on the floor. It seemed like time stood still. Wait....it did. The battery had fallen out of the clock. Phew! I thought I was in a time warp or something.

Standing next to Queen L and attempting these hip hop moves, I never felt so white. But I showed her. When it came time for the cool down and the stretching, my yoga experience payed off. I was a stellar stretcher! IN YUR FACE HIP HOP QUEEN!

The studio is having a special right now. If you pay for one month, you get one month free. Before class Amanda and I talked about doing that. After class Amanda asked if I was ready to sign up. I told her I'd have to get back to her on that.

Crochet Wars

The battlefield has been silent for a few days. I'm ahead at this point because I got corroboration from the Editor of the crochet magazine. Little Miss Crochet Nazi doesn't have a hook to stand on. Still waiting to hear from Etsy. Maybe she gave up and didn't report me after all. Maybe she was bluffing. To be continued.......

Love Letters

Time for another love letter. This is the actual letter. It's lyrics from a song from 1941 by Ella Fitzgerald. How romantic!
Listen to the song.....
Ella Fitzgerald

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Robbie and Shane! Hey Robbie, you're older than me! Just thought I'd remind you. I hope you both have a wonderful Birthday. If you have cheesecake, please send me a piece. Love you guys!