You know all the tricks, so if anyone can do it successfully, you can. I would plan on a two month introduction period off the bat, though, rather than the usual two weeks.
No rant here…I’m just miffed. After 11 months, a cousin and her husband decided that they had given the baby the wrong name, and went to the courthouse yesterday to change it. The name is now in keeping with the “theme” chosen for the other children. Ok.
About 2 hrs ago I left a voicemail of myself literally screaming & dropping the f-bomb for the Billing Department of an walk-in clinic I use. I saw them back in November for what turned out to be impacted earwax. I paid my $40 copay with my credit card and have been getting billing statements from them trying to charge me for said copay since December. After the last statement I sent them a written complaint letter, copy of my insurance EOB, and copy my credit card statement (I redacted all but the last 4 numbers of my credit card #). Then when I got from work today I had another bill from then, dated April 1st in my mail. :mad: I completely lost control when I called them (their call center is closed, which is why I got voicemail), and now I feel like complete shit.
Having worked in call centres for (& for health insurers) for several years I know exactly what it’s like to be on the other side of those calls and also exactly what it’s like to be the person having to call out to follow up on something like an after-hours voicemail or letter. 
I like that clinic; the staff are great*, the resolved my issue and since it’s part of the same health system as my PCP they can access of my medical records (& vice versa) so everyone’s on the same page. And to make this even more ironic my health insurance policy (& I have great insurance) is from the same company that runs the health system. Which of course means if they don’t get their shit together I get to file a formal complaint with my insurance company against a health care provider they literally own. 
All for $40.
*Yes I actually included how satisfied I was with my medical care in the letter, before I made politely worded threats to pursue the matter with the insurance company and the PA Health Dept.
Venting complete; time to start enjoying my 3 day weekend. 
I would hit the delete button the second I heard yelling. So if you’re lucky so will they. If you’re not so lucky, someone will record it and put it on the internet.
I know how HIPAA works; if someone puts it on the internet things would get a lot more fun for me. 
I recently went on a trip to Disney World with the rest of the fine arts idiots from my school.
Listen, you knew you would be walking and waiting in lines for hours at a time, just like any other popular amusement park. You could’ve easily gone with a less eager group and you chose the ones who were absolute adrenaline junkies and said so at the start of the day when we sorting ourselves into groups. You also knew it was going to rain, most of us read the packing list and brought ponchos or hoodies, so stop the theatrics and the complaining.
Haha, know how we spot the college kids from out of town, who moved here and will be here for a few years? They’re the ones with little jackets on in the winter with no gloves, scarf or hat.
They also stand huddled under the heat lamps waiting for a train whining about how cold it is. When it’s 50.
This should really go to Cafe Society but there’s no thread yet.
I loved the first season of Sleepy Hollow–batshit fun, leads with insane chemistry & some good supporting actors. Season 2 sucked, thanks to a new showrunner–the Demon Showrunner From Hell. Season 3 has been spotty but somewhat better.
Missed the finale, last night–hey, I have Hulu. First, I checked out AVclub & a few other sources…
Not wishing to spoil anybody, let me join the rest of the fans in wishing (praying!) for cancellation. And for sending the last showrunners to jobs with North Korean TV.
I don’t mind the crunching sound of people eating chips in public, but what I don’t like is when people eat chips on the bus or subway and then touch the bus/subway poles with their greasy salty hands. Of course, a few of them lick their fingers first too.
I read an article about that Sleepy Hollow development - and it had a bloody Arrow spoiler for a similar issue - grr
Thanks to everyone for the support and positive kitty thoughts!
The behaviorist was great- she stayed longer than she’d originally quoted, had both the kitties playing within eyesight of one another without murderdeathkill happening, and overall was very positive about an eventual positive outcome. She did say that she saw a lot of fear response in the ginger kitty toward the older kitty, which is very interesting. One of the things she brought up- that I had actually dismissed as a possibility many months ago- was the potential for redirected aggression. Well, we do have a large male cat that belongs to a neighbor who wanders through the yard, and he does bear a resemblance to the older kitty, so maybe? just maybe there was an incident with the outside cat when we were letting the kitties have smell-o-vision through the screen doors, and ginger kitty turned on older kitty as a result. I’m not dismissing anything at this point. We have a plan, we have special toys arriving tomorrow morning from Amazon, and we’re renewed.
And then we got to spend the morning at a new vet (we usually take them to the military vet, but they’re only for non-emergencies) because older kitty peed a little bit of blood. Diagnosis: bladder stone. Set for surgery Tuesday, new food purchased (that she promptly faceplanted into- she’s definitely a fan!), and antibiotics for ten days.
Expensive two days in kitty-land, but at least we’ve still got two kitties! 
Hooray for bobkitty’s kitties! And hooray (?) for me - I didn’t go camping, thanks to my migraine and allergies and Tony’s back pain. For the second day in a row, my eyes are so swollen that I can actually see my eyelids and under-eye puffiness while looking straight ahead. Ugh. (And I just got a message that all of the campers are coming home - the wind is blowing too hard to put boats on the lake, and tents won’t stay up, and it’s gonna be cold tonight, so I’m glad we waved off.)
It’s not helping my allergies, but I’m happy that I spent my time gardening instead. Only 6 more azaleas to plant, and a few vegetables and melons. My yard is starting to look like a proper southern lady lives here! (Azalea, hydrangea, gardenias, beauty berry, and a kitchen garden. Plus a few sago palms and a couple of palmetto in the dry part of the yard, and some privet started along the fence. Missing a few things, but I have plans to go raid my late grandmother’s yard next week for cuttings - camellias and susanqua, crape myrtle, etc. And I have a couple of dogwood and magnolia saplings marked for autumn transplant from the woods to the yard.)
It snowed here last night. And stuck. Right now it’s 26F.
I will take 30mph wind and allergies.
This thread is getting to be the mini unrants thread. Good news on the bobkitty kitty front (except for the money of course) and good news on the Matata uncamping front as well (except for the allergies). We’re getting positively cheerful around here. I don’t suppose it will last but it’s fun for the moment.
Yay for the kitties!
And speaking of hydrangeas, the one I had given up for dead last year has new growth poking out of it. 
Lest the underlined sentence be thought an exaggeration: while March 2016 was the only March with more than six 40+° days, about half of Aprils have 8 or more such days; April 1992, 2004, 2010 all had Eighteen or more 40+° days. (Even though 30 days only hath April.)
What about the present April? Today was the eighth 40+° day in a row; the seven-day forecast is for all 40+° days. We may be on track to have at least 21 such days, beating the record set in 1992. (The average high for the 30 days in April 1992 was 40.5° — will we beat that record also?)
Hot!
I was thinking “Fahrenheit” instead of “Centigrade” and I was wondering just how far North you lived. Even in sunny New England, we get more than six 40+ degree days in March 
Last year, my son gave me a hydrangea for Mother’s Day, and then pruned it with the lawn mower at the end of the summer. I’m babying her, but she’s coming back from her extreme haircut. (And I’m still not sure how The Boy ran her over with the push mower. A 30-inch hydrangea that he bought and helped plant. But the poor little shorn twigs have put on about 2 dozen leaves, and I have added a cement block barrier to avoid such shenanigans this summer! )
Hurray for bobkitty’s kitties. I sure hope that all continues to go well.
We new neighbors who moved in about a month ago. They have a little barky dog. They let their barky dog out in their front yard. Their UNFENCED front yard. That untrained beast wants to own the entire street and has nipped at the hounds and me several times. Complaints to the dog owner resulted in dog owner refusing to believe that her precious puppy would ever act that way.
Today, I filled a squirt gun with water and ammonia and sprayed the dog in the face when it came after us. Now I feel very badly about hurting the dog. It’s untrained and doesn’t know that what it did was wrong.