My first rant: nobody had created this thread yet, so I had to come up with a title. 
My second rant: I am buying a property for the first time. People seriously need to stop casually saying, “Oh, another thing that needs happen is X”, and then come back to me a couple days later and saying “Is X done yet? It needs to be done like now or you’re fucked.”
We all know that we’re on a short schedule here, you need to fucking communicate the goddamn deadlines to me before I’m right on top of them.
Some months ago my husband messed with one of the Windows scammers, and the result was that this scammer called us 100 times a day using various numbers, until we blocked them all (one by one as they came in). Very tedious.
Well. Today a similar scammer is calling us. It’s a little different, it’s “You have paid for this service, the company has gone out of business, press 1 for your refund.” Sure pal. Right. Microsoft is out of business. All righty then.
But: the call is coming FROM OUR OWN PHONE NUMBER, with my husband’s name on it or else with another name but the same number. OUR NUMBER.
The scam is coming from inside the house!
20 calls by 10:30 this morning. Now fixed after several phone calls to phone provider.
Fixed for now.
Why the hell can’t somebody catch these guys and put them in jail?
They’re probably in a country where nobody gives a crap about stopping it. That’s generally the case.
March came in like a Lion. Here in S. Arkansas. I was sure hoping for a few dry days to start spring yard clean up. Have to wait awhile, yet.
BBC Stories has article about a female Bhutanese archer trying to break down sexism. Does it talk about how she got into the sport? No. Does it elaborate what sexism is faced other than women being denied participation on the traditional Bhutanese archery? No.
But helpfully, in an article on sexism, our introduction to her is all about her appearance.
They seem to still be grappling with the old “unattractive women turn to feminism to cope with not being able to get a man” trope from the Sixties. So this chick from Bhutan being pretty AND athletic AND a feminist is what makes her newsworthy. :dubious: :barfingsmiley:
on preview: HEY! Who broke the barfing smiley? :mad:
Okay, technology, we really need to get IMs or text messages on board with basic functions to organize different communications.
Imagine if your work email had no filters, folders, no mail rules, nothing. Just an inbox, as mssgs come in, with zero ability to sort. Argh!
I’m inundated with personal stuff from friends like “call me! Let’s chat!” plus my side business “can I come over tomorrow at X time” or worse, “imma coming over!” and endless needs for followup info, and some of it needs to be prioritized and some can back burner.
I’m overwhelmed today.
This is getting awkward and/or embarrassing: The same odd coincidence has happened 4 or 5 times in the past coupla’ months, and just happened yesterday evening.
Seems when I go to open or close the bathroom window, and raise or lower the blinds, the next door neighbor is just getting in to, or out of their cars, and my window overlooks their driveway, some 20 feet away. I feel like they might feel like I’m spying or whatever.
Maybe I’m not visible or as noticeable in the day time, but at night, with me silhouetted against a lit room, they have to notice. I chat with them here and there if I’m out doing yardwork or whatever, so it’s not as though I’m some reclusive voyeur, but I still skeeve when it happens.
Your neighbor is probably thinking “Jeez it seems every time BrickBat is in the bathroom I’m getting in my car. I bet BrickBat thinks I’m trying to spy on her while she’s showering.”
In other words, don’t sweat it.
This is probably not the best place for a new dog post, but Jackmannii already has one in MPSIMS, and besides, I really am somewhat annoyed.
Meet Hank, the newest member of our family. A catahoula, maybe? About a year old. He was a stray in our neighborhood, recently captured and being fostered by another neighbor, who is also our vet. Unfortunately, our vet knows that we are suckers, so he is having us take Hank “on a trial basis”, yadda yadda, we all know how that turns out.
The annoying part is that Hank gets along fine with other dogs, cats, etc. but he’s terrified of people. We’ve been trying for a few days to help him settle in, but yesterday he slipped his leash and we haven’t been able to recapture him. He’s not going anywhere because our property is fenced, and actually he’s mostly stayed on our front porch, but he is far too smart to let us get him again. Late last night we had a torrential downpour with plenty of thunder and lightning, and I got up and tried again to coax him indoors, but no soap.
Dammit, dog! Get your ass in here right now and let me love you! :mad: 
Faaaack I am COLD. The outside temp was hovering near 0 degrees Fahrenheit this morning and our 20 year old heat pump can’t keep up. Neither can my 14 year old van. Today’s my regular day off work and our middle son had a doctor’s appointment so I went from a not quite warm house to REALLY FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE to a van that was only slightly less freezing than outside to the doctor’s office and back. I’ve been home for almost an hour and a half and I’m still not comfortably warm. I got the big space heater out of the garage and am wrapped in two blankets eating oatmeal. Hopefully heating from the inside will help.
Bah. Three feet of snow this weekend. I’m used to it having lived in the mountains for 26 years, but it does get tiring. I’m running out of room to put it. It’s piled 7 feet high in places. The driveway and parking areas are gonna start getting pretty tight.
Do you live near Hot Springs? I lived there for about 3 years during the 70’s.
My child is being evaluated for special education services. She will be 5 in a few weeks and I am glad we are seeking (slightly) early intervention. I’ve talked about it here before and, while I’ve let go of a lot of my guilt, the stress levels are still high.
All her evaluations happened last month and the reports have been trickling in as expected. Her IEP meeting is tomorrow and I have been waiting for one last report, from the school psychologist. I was assured I would get it today. She called me to let me know she was going to send it and to verify my email. During that call, she started going over the report, but as I had not seen it yet myself and was still at work, I told her to just send it to me. So she emailed me to ask if it was OK to email it. I responded immediately that, yes, its freakin ok to email it! (Maybe in not so many words). And, nothing. She didn’t email it. All I know is that my daughter mumbled a lot and got frustrated when she couldn’t communicate answers. Also that she would basically just not do the things she didn’t want to do.
I’m trying really hard not to panic, not to fill the unknown with the worst case scenario. But I’m failing. Could this lady just send it please?
Everything is close in Arkansas (small state), but not really. I’m in the far S. Western part of the state. My Daddy retired to Hot Spring village which is an annex to Hot Springs proper. Spent many nice hours there with him. We went to the Races all through the season. Ate at all the joints. Shopped and generally had fun. It’s a great place to retire to. Not sure what all the very young do there.
Well, getting the report didn’t help with my anxiety. Especially since it ended with this sentence:
So, that’s happening.
WTF??? Single digit temps in March??? Here?
Fuck this
Less than two weeks to the closing, and my lawyer is saying things like “preposterous” and “tell them to piss off”. This is going to be a wild ride, isn’t it?
It’s warmer than it was yesterday, at least.
Sneak into the races. 