I don’t know why this surprised me, but it turns out my sister in law is as much of a racist asshole as her late husband. Yesterday she said she likes where she lives in Texas because there aren’t many blacks or Mexicans. Funny, just the day before that, she was hugging my black son-in-law and my mixed-race grandkids.
I used to think just her mannerisms were annoying and quirky. Now, frankly, I hope I never see her or hear from her again. Such a lovely good, Christian woman… 
I walked into work this morning to find a client had a meltdown just prior to my arrival over the fact we wouldn’t accept her check. We haven’t accepted checks since ~2018 and every phone conversation includes “we accept cash or credit cards. No billing. No checks”. She did not like this and so screamed and pounded the desktop. The receptionist eventually ordered her to leave or she’d call the cops.
Then I arrived and got to hear the story. A few hours later the woman called, demanding to speak with “the manager”. I explained that we did not accept checks. Period. She argued a bit, but then wanted to reschedule. I explained that the receptionist she had screamed at and bullied did not want to ever interact with her again, so we were declining to do business with her.
For reasons it was important for her to do business with me. I held fast. I was told I’d be hearing from her attorney! (This never really happens)
This is one reason I will never do business with Capital One again. I had one of their cards for several years, low interest rate and I tried to keep it paid off as best I could, then (without my asking) they upgraded me to a platinum card that had an annual fee. I don’t remember how much it was, but it was more than zero, and I didn’t ask for it, so I immediately cancelled my account.
(Every time I hear their “what’s in your wallet?” tagline, my first thought is “Your grubby fingers!”)
I hope you called her “Karen” when you spoke with her! 
That must have been very satisfying! Not a rant, though – I’d classify that as “a fun thing I did today”. 
Might have shared this before but…one summer during Uni when I was selling tickets to the Ottawa River/Rideau Canal boat cruises, there was a marathon through downtown one Sunday. This one woman parked herself right near me and for the entire length of time that runners passed by our spot (to paraphrase Dave Barry, you may remember that afternon, as it was the longest one we ever had), she cheered, in a thick accent that trilled her Rs to the point where they’d cut class, “BRRRA-vo! BRRRA-vo! BRRRA-vo!” (repeat infinite times) Move it along, ma’am.
We’re doing an “outing” today with an assorted group of other inmatesoopsresidents later today. Dinner at a fancy steak house that the wife has been bugging me to go to for the past year. It’s one of those places where you can pay up to $135 for a chunk of beef, and which has an ala carte menu like Ruth’s Chris, so that price includes nothing else on the plate. If you want that steak au poivre, it’s another $8; sauteed mushrooms? $14. To add insult to things, they also whack you an additional 5% on the tab for the welfare of their employees, and state “This is not a gratuity.” Wanna bet? Guess who’s NOT getting 20% added.
Get to her place late the other night & am informed that my (four-legged) baby gurl can’t go upstairs to bed as she was sick & it’s better to keep her downstairs on the floor rather than in the carpeted bedroom so I dragged her bed next to the sofa & she slept on the floor next to me, & it was a good thing I slept with her as I got up three times overnight to let her out. The next night I slept on the sofa again. She needed to go out at 2am; I let her out, she does her nasty thing (remember, she’s sick), we come back in & she proceeds to puke in the corner. I clean it up, lie down & she pukes again, except this time, there’s not enough paper towels left to clean it up so I put on shoes, sweatshirt & jacket, find keys & trudge out to the detached garage where there’s plenty more. By the time I can finally lay back down it’s ½ hour since I first got up. I then hear her walking around at 6am so outs we go again. Needless to say, I was a walking zombie.
Being very concerned about dehydration, I talk the kid into taking her to the vet, where she gets an x-ray & some meds. Awhile after they get home, the vet calls, the radiologist looked at the x-ray & is concerned & wants her to go to the emergency vet for a sonogram. That reveals that she does have a blockage in her digestive tract & does in fact need surgery. However, they won’t do such until someone comes who can sign the financial responsibility forms.
.
Let’s play a game, it’s called guess how much the estimate for surgery was
No cheating, post your guess first - $8800-$11,000 - & that’s on top of the $2000 spent earlier on the vet visits & x-ray/sonogram
& they want payment right then & there. Can you pay that much with what you have on your right now? She couldn’t. She had a checkbook…at home, & add’l credit cards…at home. Luckily (dripping sarcasm) the allow you to apply for a Care Credit, which is at least interest free for one year. I could see a lot of people not being able to afford it - “Bye, bye, Rover” or not having sufficient credit score to be approved - “So long, Fido”
Yes, she has pet insurance, but unless they pay a lot back she’s dropping it as it’s been a money loser with routine visits so far, reimbursing far less than premiums paid.
At least my furry little sweetheart is at home recovering, playing the part of a drunk party animal with a lamp shade on her head. Oh yeah, that’s too big because all they had was XL, which they charged us full price for even though it’s too big. We have to take it off of her when she goes outside to go because it catches the dirt when she puts her head down to sniff. Of course she hates it when she comes back in & has to have it put back on again.
Trim it.
Or even better, roll up an appropriate size towel and wrap it around her neck under her collar. The purpose of the lampshade is to keep the dog from licking the surgery site. Any alternative that accomplishes that is good.
It’s pretty thick plastic, we thought of trimming it but were afraid if we didn’t cut it cleanly then she might nick her paw on the edge.
This reminded me today to cancel a JC Penney (Synchrony MC) credit card, which I got a couple months ago to get a 30% discount on a large purchase, knowing I’d pay it off immediately and cancel in a couple months. When I canceled today, the agent tried to convince me to keep it, pointing out the APR as a lure. 31.24% APR!
My god. Is she at least going to be okay? What happened to her?
I had to look up, “au poiver” as I will never be able to afford such a place. Am I correct that they are charging you 8 bucks for extra pepper? Truly the other half live an alien life style.
In other non-ranty news. Hubster is coming home tomorrow. He looks, and sounds better than he has in a couple of years. We learned some stuff no one else ever bothered to tell us. We are actually talking about going to a very large and slow golf course this summer to try and golf. Weeee!
Pluto the field spaniel, Destroyer of Beds, has not been trusted with one ever since the time in early adulthood he almost immediately ripped up a costly “indestructible” bed (which luckily had a no-questions-asked guarantee). Since that time he’s only had a canvas cot to lie on.
We just presented him with an Xmas present, an inexpensive but nice foam rubber bed with washable low fleece covering. After a minute of investigative sniffing he climbed onto it and is dozing. At 5 he may at last have matured.
The question now is do we trust him with it overnight? It’d be discouraging to come downstairs in the morning to find shreds of foam rubber and fleece everywhere.
She ate something she shouldn’t have, we think it was part of a carpet runner that got stuck, which is why she had diarrhea & vomiting; that was her body trying to get rid of it any way it could. However, it was stuck, her intestine was starting to bunch up & it would have been fatal. The weird thing is she’s not a chewer; she walks around gently cradling her stuffed toys in her mouth, she doesn’t chew them to shreds.
She’s on the mend from this, but it means the ACL surgery that she needs is now on hold, both until she’s fully healed from this & until the wallet recovers, as well. Poor baby, we both love when I take her for long walks & I just won’t do it now because of her leg; it’ll be at least close to summer until she’s 100% back from both surgeries,
Poor doggie.
It’s awful when they’re not well.
See if you can find any Park Golf courses in your area. It’s pretty fun.
( The “guy who wants to get laid” prayer )
“Star Light
Star Bright
I Wish I May
I Wish I Might
Not Be Such
An Asshole Tonight”
Not quite. Sauce au poivre https://chefcuisto.com/files/2016/01/sauce-aux-poivres.jpg is a delicious sauce, not just some ground pepper.
I’ve had that sauce at a French steakhouse in Vegas. Damn it’s good when made properly. You could eat a napkin with that sauce on it, and it would be enjoyable.
Well, I fell for it as I love a good au poivre sauce. But this was a poor imitation. The sauce was on the side, like a gravy, and there were probably a grand total of four peppercorns in it. I also prefer my au poivre to be ala creme, which this wasn’t. We split one appetizer, the wife had a glass of wine and I had a martini, she had a small Denver cut (5oz), I had a large (10oz), and we both had a side. No dessert. The bill came to $356, which, because of the size of our group, included a 20% tip. The steaks were perfectly done, I must say, and the service was impeccable, especially considering a group our size. A Christmas present to ourselves is what I’m telling myself. I really wanted to steal the steak knives, as they looked like Gurkha knives.
