A few random things...

1. I did send that thank you letter to Dr. Daniel last week. I hope it finds him well.
2. Tomorrow I get paid and I'm opening up an account with the credit union, paying off the bank, and closing that account, if I can. Or at least get it positive and start changing over the automatic debits I have monthly to the new account.
3. I'm kind of tired, but I've had an okay sort of day. Emotionally I feel better, and my throat feels better, probably due to the oral medicine, because I totally forgot to bring the 'swish and swallow' stuff with me today. I'm going to start it tonight and put the stuff in my backpack. It's 5 ml/1 teaspoon at a time, which isn't that bad, surely (she said, hopefully).
4. A is sick and I took YKWIA to get food and medicine for him. He sounds awful. Everyone I know has been sick this season, I think, except maybe not YKWIA, which is unusual.
5. I just made some scrambled eggs with cheese (although I almost managed an omelet) and feel better. I'd gotten pretty hungry while we were running around. It was that or 1) soak and cook basmati rice and pair it with a kidney-bean curry that's premade, or 2) cook some pasta with sauce. Neither of those seemed appealing. My appetite's actually been pretty good, but not at night, especially as the throat hurts worse then. Eggs are soft. They'll do.

I guess that's really all. I'm going to try to read a little before bed, although I'm not sure which book yet. It's a goal to read 30 minutes a day (or listen to an audiobook) on my Habitica to-do list. I'm not sure I'm up to reading--I have an audiobook or two I can try, perhaps. Okay, have a good night.

I was in the bedroom

and thought I heard the doorbell. I had put up a modified note (neglecting to say that I have a broken ankle, but to ring the doorbell and wait a few moments, that I was home). I struggled out there as quickly as I could, got to the door, and nothing, but when I checked my mailbox, there was my package. So the good thing is they delivered it without needing a signature, after all. And it was just a box of cheques, so while extra precautions that it not get lost were important, it fit in my little lock box. Yay, a package that didn't get sent back! I checked the tracking and it now has updated that it's in Lexington, having gone to the sorting area, but not showing it as delivered. Ah, Christmastime, the craziest time at the post office.

This is the first time I have had cheques from my bank since they took over my old one. My old ones have been mapping to the new account. I write them so rarely, mainly to the bank itself to withdraw money, that my old ones lasted years. So it's kind of nice to have a blank register, and deposit slips, and not have to look my account up on a little card that I've been carrying all this time. These have antique maps on them; not quite as cool as the Whelan's Dragons (from the Dragonriders of Pern) I had at the credit union, but still. It is slightly annoying that my cheques are free if I get single ones but because I got duplicates, with the shipping it was $34. These will probably last me the next five years, but at least now I have the right account printed and can shop around next time.

Those purple boots are causing me problems

Okay. Here's the scoop:

At the end of November, I ordered a pair of purple boots from Amerimark. My account was charged when they were shipped, I received them, everything was fine, but they were too small. So I sent them back for an exchange of a size up. No other difference. Friday they received the boots and issued me a refund. But...a refund takes 3-5 business days to process. Then today they shipped the new ones and charged my account for the price of the shoes. The refund hasn't gone through yet, of course.

I have almost $15 in my account. I have one transaction for $13 out, for Kroger, plus this new charge for $26, leaving my account at a minus in pending. So I called both Amerimark and the bank and so here's what may or may not happen:

1) Amerimark charge stays in pending long enough for refund to be issued, no overdraught.
2) Kroger goes through first, then the Amerimark charge, and one overdraught fee. If that happens, the bank is willing to refund the fee since I haven't had any fee refunds on my account this year.
3) Amerimark charge goes through at same time or first, in which case there will be two overdraught fees. The bank is willing to refund one fee. I can apply to Amerimark to pay for the other but it is unlikely to happen so I'll likely just be out an amount of money greater than the amount of the shoes cost, just because Amerimark mucked with my account for a different size of the same item, at the same price and due to no fault of my own. Which just sucks.

Granted, this would have not been the case if I had used a credit rather than a debit card, but I don't have a credit card.

A lot of people actually don't have credit cards and rely on debit cards to do business. I wish that companies would consider this when putting together their refund/exchange policies. I realise that they did this to help keep their inventory straight, but there has to be another way than this. It was the same item, the same price--the only difference was the size. There was no need to do anything with the card--they already had the correct amount of money. I even paid for shipping the items back. And as a result, if this goes sour, I very much doubt I will use this company again and double check any exchanges I ever do in the future. I've gotten replacement items with Amazon without them bothering my card, but that was for the same book. I don't know, this may just have to be chalked up to a learning experience. But with any luck, scenario #1 or #2 will work out and I'll get paid on Thursday without any extra fees.

I hate it when I get screwed financially and it's not my fault. I know it usually is, but not this time. I just want a pair of boots I can wear in the snow, and not at over double the price. :(

I feely very blah and achy

and although I do need to go return that graphics card (I have no money until I do, having just paid rent), it looks iffy dealing with the buses before work, even if I leave by 9:30 (I work at 2). Richmond Road only runs once an hour on Saturday, which I knew, but also the Nicholasville Road bus only goes by Southpark once an hour. I'd be let off at Lexington Green at 10:30, then I'd have to get over to Best Buy and complete my transaction and try to get to the bus stop by 10:48. If I can't, I'll have to wait until 11:48. That would put me getting home about 1:00, and then by 1:40 I'd have to walk over to work. It's doable, but I'm not sure it's a good idea before work.

Monday I need to go to a meeting with our district manager at 3. That'll probably take till 3:30. At 4 I could take the bus out and get to Best Buy by 5, catch the bus back at 5:20 or 5:50, and then continue on that same bus to be at a friend's by 6:40 so we can watch 'Heroes' at 9, plus have the money to take a cab home.

I suppose I'm committed to that course of action as I've now blogged to the point where I can't catch the 9:40 bus. In the meantime, I'm going to live off Indian pre-packaged food, a few dollars, and Diet Sunkist. :) But hey, I've had a lot less to survive on, and at least my balance is positive.

Incidentally, when I checked my balance I came across a slew of information from my bank on transferring to the bank in mid-February that bought it. I'm getting a new debit card, for example, and the account numbers will change for my accounts, but direct deposit, etc., shouldn't be effected. Wish me luck! I just ordered cheques and they'll have the original bank's numbers rather than the new ones. I'm supposed to be able to use those until they run out. Heh, heh. It took me three and a half years to go through the last box, as I very, very rarely use a cheque, mostly to withdraw funds at the bank itself. :) I may set a record for longest use of the old ones.

Okay, I'm going back to bed for a little while and see if these aches will go away. If not, I'll take an honest-to-goodness bath later. Maybe I'll read a little of Blood Rites, too. It's so nice not doing the notes at the last minute. I could get used to it. :) And although I really should have gone out this morning, it's a relief not to deal with hours of bussing when you have a headache and don't feel so well.

Argh!

On Thursday I went Chanukah shopping, and I went among other things to a gaming store where I know most of the people pretty well (the wife of the owner waited on me and she had gamed with me for years). I did two charges that day, one for a little over $30 (picking up something for a friend where he'll reimburse me) and one nearly $70 (for presents and a second book he wanted). When I went to pay that charge, the machine apparently timed out and she had to run it again.

Unfortunately, the machine didn't really time out, and when I checked my online bank account last night, there were two charges for $67.62 there in the pending column. I called the bank first thing this morning (as did every other panicked account holder, apparently, as I was on hold for awhile) and was told that the merchant can call and give some information to them and they can take the hold off. If that doesn't happen, then it will have to post and then we can dispute it. I have another debit going out sometime today or tomorrow that would overdraft my account if that money isn't made available. (Yes, I'm balancing my chequebook well, but having an additional spurious charge throws everything off). At least the double charge shouldn't post till midnight.

So I have to call the store today and have them call my bank, and hope that they will and can explain what the bank needs. Fortunately I know the people who run it, but still....

What I've been up to

Over the last three days I:

• Worked five hours on the notes Saturday night to get them finished in time for the game.
  
• Found out Sunday that there would be no game, because B's sheep got out and she had to mend fences, and M had some sort of family thing going on.
  
• Did do my normal Sunday chores and then read a couple of chapters of Lumley's Vamphiri! before heading back home before the buses stopped running.
  
• Got up early today to go to the pharmacy and get as many of my meds as possible before the flexible spending card goes on it's three-week blackout. Only really important one I couldn't get was Lamictal (too soon to refill), which is at least generic now, although I think it's in Tier 2, meaning a $25 co-pay. But I saved nearly $100 by getting what I could today. And at least I can get reimbursed for that $25 when it comes time to get it).
  
• Was very happy that National City would cash a FSA reimbursement cheque for $10 even though I had 24 cents in the bank. Yay, I can eat the breakfast-for-lunch menu at the cafeteria tomorrow.
  
• Ate very little early in the day (pre-$10) but had pizza for a meeting at the store, which I then continued with later for dinner, since it got left. Pizza Hut cheese pan pizza is pretty greasy, but it was good, and I'd been craving pizza.
  
• Accepted an invitation to be friends on Facebook from Bill, then superpoked him with congrats for the birth of his daughter. Read a funny exchage between him and his ex-wife regarding speed bumps, babies, and cat bells.
  
• Figured out how to tweet from Facebook. Now up to three friends. Always open to connecting to more. I thought MLA's group would be on my profile, but it's not. Maybe I never made it all the way into it. Hmmm...
  
• Got a unidentified phone call that is most likely from Insight. Fortunately I can pay my bill Wednesday. Let's hope they don't restrict the service before then.
  

Tomorrow I'll go into work (hospital) early so I can leave early to make it back over by St Joe's East and walk over to Bluegrass Orthopaedics for my doctor's appointment. It's about couple of blocks' worth of walking--not too bad. Then it's over to YKWIA's to read more Lumley.

I keep putting off my laundry. I could have done some during notes tonight but just didn't feel up to it. I'm all achy from work. Tomorrow night I really do need to do some, though.

38,593

That's how many points I have through the rewards programme with my bank. I get points for every dollar I spend using my debit card or cheques. And at 40,000 I can get a $100 Amazon.com card. Whoopee! That's 1,407 points away (or about $70). Yay!

PS I just read the fine print and I'd get points quicker if I stopped using a PIN with my debit card and treated it like a credit card instead. Hmmm...

I didn't post on Sunday

because I spent all day helping someone prepare for a major renovation project, mostly involving moving things like furniture, a refrigerator, and lots of other stuff. I also saw my mom briefly when she came to crash at my place after working all night so she could drive the 45-minute to an hour drive fresh. Because of the moving stuff, there was no game that day.

I think I have solved the problem of how to play adequately in the game and still get things down for the notes, namely via the Olympus WS-300M 256 MB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player.

A quick view of the specs:

Compact, high-quality digital voice recorder with 256 MB internal flash memory; records up to 68 hours of WMA audio; built-in music player stores up to 66 WMA or MP3 files; USB Direct design plugs directly into PC USB port; 4 recording modes (HQ, LP, SP, and HQ Stereo); 5 separate file folders with 199 files each; voice activation mode enables hands-free recording; runs for roughly 15 hours on 1 AAA battery; 1.5 x 3.73 x 0.43 inches (W x H x D); 1-year warranty

I do not have an .mp3 player, so that is a nice bonus feature. But I'm more interested in capturing the audio and then transcribing from that. It's very small and also doubles as a memory stick for storing files. Current price from Amazon.com is $79.99, down from a suggested retail price of $129.99. I think I can swing it next month, so it'll be my holiday present to myself. I wish I would be able to go ahead and get that $100 gift card through the points rewards programme with my bank; I'm about $400 and 8,000 points short. But I'll eventually get it. Although today I got to drive a teller nuts by depositing $3.41, all but a dollar in change. He made me roll the change, but 41 cents wouldn't roll, and apparently they don't have a nifty change counting machine and he had to count the rest of the pennies by hand. Which, given his attitude about the change, the sighing, and general put-upon reaction, I was happy to have him do. Hey, it's legal tender. It was at the Euclid branch of National City, not my normal Richmond Road one.

Tomorrow I have a teleconference on public access of scholarly research over at UK that runs from 2-4, later than I'm regularly at work, so I'm going in from 11 to 1, which is good, considering it is almost 4 in the morning. I've been doing lots of work at the two jobs, notes, and 'swampa' (indentured servitude--it's a long story) activities and really not getting much sleep. I also need to call around to see if there's a snowball's chance in hell that I can get an appointment for an oil appointment on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. :) I'm at about 5,000 miles since the last one and will be going to Danville on Thursday, so that would be really, really good.

Tonight I had to work, so I wasn't able to watch Heroes. I'm hoping someone or perhaps several someones update the Wikipedia guide for the episode. I've garnered a few other bits from other Heroes' entries. Last week's episode is already up on the official site, so maybe this week's will be up in a few days.

Well, that's what I've been up to. Goodnight.

I'm home earlier than normal

I didn't have to pick my friend up from work tonight because he's off. I did have to go to Kroger to pick up some things, including Cerys' food, something that I forgot earlier.

I never did get to start Harry Potter. I intend to get through the first chapter tonight. Then tomorrow I'm going to bring it along because the woman I normally eat lunch with is on maternity leave (she was induced Friday; I don't know yet what she had, and they never found out ahead of time--I hope and presume all went well). The others have been eating outside, and I've been trying to stay out of the sun because I burn easily anyway and the Lasix increases that risk. So instead I'll have a trusty book with me. Then I have an appointment that afternoon, so it's always good to have something to read while waiting.

Anything I haven't mentioned from this week already? Oh, the other night I went by the ATM and it said 'do you need more time?'. I said no and it spit out someone's debit card and receipt. I couldn't really slip it under the front doors of the bank, so I held onto it until the next morning, locking it in my glove compartment. It felt strange to have someone else's card. I took it in the next day to a teller. I hope the guy got it back alright.

Today we played the game (it was excellent). Dee wasn't there, she had family obligations, but we soldiered on. Brenda killed two Byakhee in a total magical darkness, which was quite impressive. Of course, then the cultists started shooting, and that's difficult to handle when your main weapons are swords.

By the way Byakhee is also a free program for generating standard Call of Cthulhu character sheets. Check it out. It allows you to automatically roll a character and fills out your sheet, generate random character names, roll complex dice combinations, import images for the investigator, calculate income, roll checks off, and allows you to export to a web page. It is, unfortunately, not so useful for us because we have such specialised stats, but fun nonetheless, and did I mention free? They also have on the website sheets for NPCs (Non-Player Characters), newspaper handout templates, calendar sheets, a resistance roller, a back sheet for the standard sheet, one for Delta Green, and additional rule packs (skills, occupations, weapons, spellbooks, etc.) for Walker in the Wastes, 1930's Antarctic Explorer (from Beyond The Mountains of Madness), Delta Green, 1920s Investigator Companion, and Dreamlands. There's even a thought for today. The one I just got was 'Famous last words: "I think it's intelligent. Let's see if I can communicate with it."' That would be Dee's character Autumn, I'm sure. :)

Well, that's all for now. I want to get that chapter in!

As you can probably tell, I'm playing catch-up

I didn't manage to cover all the things I have on my list, but did get to quite a few.

Some random things--

Tuesday morning I overslept even though I'd had a chance to recover some of the sleep I'd lost on Saturday night. My blood sugar was pretty high, so I think that was a factor. I never heard my alarm, and according to my clock, I never tried resetting it or anything. It's a little disturbing--I've had one other time when I was supposed to go get someone late at night and slept right through the meeting. My friends tried calling me to no avail, so one of them called another set of friends who had a car and sent them over to check on me. The doorbell never woke me up. Finally, they knocked on my window and set Cerys barking. I finally woke up, groggy, feeling practically drunk. Blood sugar ups and downs are touchy, scary things.

Fortunately the errands I was to run Tuesday afternoon were postponed, so I was able to go home on a nice sunny, warm spring-like day, prop the window open, and I slept for three-and-a-half hours. Then I did laundry, but still got to bed early that night, so today I felt refreshed and woke up early. I'm up a little late tonight, but I'm going to bed soon. I just wanted to update a little.

Hope your week is going well. I'm happy we're over the hump. Tomorrow I get paid (yay!) at the hospital and maybe the gas station, which is good, as I have 44 cents in my checking account as of right now. 44 cents! Agh! I'm looking forward to lunch, which is breakfast; I may use my anniversary card (free meal ticket) for it. We'll see. Or I may save it for when I'm truly destitute.

I'm also trying to decide what to do with the points that I earn in my checking account. Every time I use my debit card or write a cheque I accrue points. I'm over 20,000 now. I could get a $50 Macy's card, among other rewards. Or, I could save up another 20,000 and get a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. I'm trying to make up my mind. I think I'll wait for now and see how quickly they're accruing. I think it took 6 months to get the 20,000. I've got four years before they expire. I think I'll let them build up.