On the plus side, in a call to the Department of Revenue, no one is using TheKid’s SSN to work under. But it’s still confusing.
I don’t know, were you calling a combination daycare/veterinarian’s office?
New carpet, but I’ve been there since November so any off-gassing should be done by now. The litter box has a low opening, and I have clippers specially dedicated for cat fur and I’m not afraid to use them!
However, my mom had a baby gate for her cat that she wasn’t using and I’ve borrowed that. So far, so good. Fingers crossed!
Oh, yeah, and I do have enzyme cleaner but I realized it’s a couple of years old. Does that stuff lose potency? It has no expiration date, but still … Off to GQ to start a thread …
Oy vey.
City hall didn’t go too badly - they sent us away and told us to talk to our survey company (we need to get our Real Property Reportapproved since we took ten feet of fence down). I reserve the right to rant about this whole process in the future, however. 
Just a slight warning… If you’re looking for a slightly less highbrow discussion forum and find DCJunkies, just keep on looking. There’s lowbrow, then there’s “literally dumber than 4chan”.
After another annual round of narcissistic “woe is me, my ex-wife was horrible and ruined my life” bout of emotional vomiting onto Facebook by my father in conjunction with what would have been their anniversary, I said fuck it and unfriended him. There was a long-winded conversation beforehand wherein I was put on trial for my mother’s sins (because he didn’t have any), like always.
Feels good. I think. Ask me tomorrow.
I get collection calls about someone named Sparkle’s student loans. It’s been going on over a year now, I wasn’t even in school myself when the calls started. One collection place will call a few times, I finally am able to answer the phone and tell them that there’s no “Sparkle” at this number, they apologize and the calls stop for a while. But then a few weeks later a different company is calling. There’s no Sparkle here, morons!
I do that (well, it’s usually “good morning”), but it’s because answering with my name doesn’t help. Most of my calls are from foreign agents who have serious trouble pronouncing my name and wouldn’t recognize it from my pronunciation. We normally spend a couple of minutes just on “ch like chocolate,” then we have “the z is mute… it’s not pronounced…” and “no it’s not Mahrrrrrrrree-ah, it’s Mahreeah”.
Not that I think it was the case with whomever you were calling, mind you, just my own minirant about “why the heck couldn’t my parents have called me Ana and my dad have been a Sánchez”.
I think his complaint was that if you’re expecting calls from the public, you should probably answer the phone as “Hello, this is (Business Name)” at minimum. Answering just “hello?” makes potential customers think they’ve called a wrong number.
And yeah, I get the name issue. I stick with my first name - unless I’d really like to annoy whoever I’m dealing with. 
(I did once tell an ER doctor “just call me (first name)” when he struggled with my surname, and he responded with a very genuine, “well, call me (his first name) then!”)
I once misdialed a number and got a computer repair shop in Ohio. The guy who answered said, “X Computer Repair, weeeeee looove your business!” Awkward.
One of my cousins took her kids to a store yesterday…she was absolutely shocked when a complete stranger woman told her kids to hush (she says the little snowflakes were just “singing joyfully”). The butthurt on Facebook has been delightful…lots of “if I wasn’t a good Christian woman, I would have done/said something!” from her and her friends. My favorite: “should have told her it’s a good thing there’s a commandment against murder!”
(Disclaimer: As a child, I was never shushed by a stranger, but I did have some old guy tell me to quit poking the grapes in a grocery store. Mom didn’t flip out over it.)
Ugh. I get calls for the County Senior Services. I never answer the home phone so they get the machine and hear “You’ve reached the Kelevra residence. Please leave a message.” And then I hear a message asking for bus service. I have had my phone number for 14 years! Are you looking at a 15 year old phone book?.
Well, I have just been informed (not ASKED, mind you!) that both of my husband’s sisters will be coming for a visit in May. The good news is that both of them are bringing their travel trailers, so I don’t have to figure out sleeping arrangements.
Still feel good? My ex is still bitter over our divorce 22 years later. He constantly runs me down to the kids and the absolute best part is that with my daughter he also tells her all the time how much like me she is (that part is at least true).
She just received her reprinted birth certificate, she started talking about changing her name a year ago and it’s now official. He’s shocked of course.
But where are they going to park said travel trailers? On your lawn?
Yeah but when your name and the name of your business (changed to protect the guilty) is Marisol López de Guevara Ochagavía, answering foreigners with “hello, this is Marisol López de Guevara Ochagavía, how may I help you?” can get either “uhhhhh… can I speak with mah rrree sowl loh PES de we fa rrraaa o ka gay fee AH?” or “I am sorry, I was trying to reach mah rrree sowl loh PES de we fa rrraaa o ka gay fee AH, is he there?”; “I am trying to reach mah rrrrree sowl o ka ga fii AH” is also possible. Similar results are obtained for “this is Marisol López” and for “this is Marisol López de Guevara”.
Saying “good morning!” avoids the second and third options, for some reason I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
I… have no idea why that helps, Nava. That’s so weird.
I used to get collection agencies calling my number and asking me to go get a person who lived in an entirely different apartment in the same building. Not only were we and said neighbor not on speaking terms, but I was not being paid to be an agent for this company. I just said, “No.”
I bet they were - like the little troglodytes across the street from me just “sing joyfully” (at the top of their lungs) in their yard every day in summer.
Well, no insurance for our roof - there isn’t any hail damage - just age damage. Oh well - we knew that was up there.
Darn. Crap. Just tried to order a concert ticket online, and they rejected my debit credit card. Second time it’s happened in the past little while too. I wish I had a real proper credit card that worked. 