Art & Life of SwarDrawS

I just checked the speed and where it was always in the 300s before it is now averaging 1200k. I just did the youtube test and sure enough, I can now watch those videos in real time. All that for $10 less a month. I guess I really should stay on top of of the phone companies to see what gets updated. Remember the cell phone problem from last year that the deal updated and I now got 200 extra minutes for less money there too. That was after I went over my measly 500 minutes (or that would be RAW) and had to pay up the nose that I realized I could of been paying less for 700

Posted by swardraws at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was a good day regardless of the $189 iTunes charge.

I got up early for a Saturday (before 9) I had a little time to myself before Hollace woke up. Then I got productive cleaning out under Hollace's bed. I want to make a cozy cool spot under there. I put these little Ikea lamps in there. While I was trying to consolidate boxes to put some of Hollace's Barbie stuff in there, I finally found my Dick Van Dyke 2nd season DVD box set (that has been bugging me for awhile).

Me and Hollace went to Artworks for awhile. I sat down and worked out my idea for this years Christmas card. While doing that and talking to Diana, Sherry calls. While talking to her my idea pops in my head.

Then Ann calls, it is time to go to her house to photograph Maddie who now refreshed from her nap.

What a gorgeous, adorable 15 month old. I took 150 photos.

After we get home, Sherry calls again. I don't know about her. She was calling me while she was driving back and forth to check out this vacaion timeshare. She was going for the promised free vacation. Of course in the second call she said she bought into it (and signed her soul to the devil no doubt). I don't know how she can keep bleed money out of a stone.

Tomorrow we plan on going out to see Happy Feet and I got to get out to Target for groceries.

Posted by swardraws at 01:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I mentioned that Ditty Bops album I discovered was out. In my excitement I apparently clicked "Buy All" instead of "Buy Album" while in my shopping cart that was full of music that I for the most part didn't want anymore but never cleaned out.

I just purchased $189 worth of music!

Last night at the time I noticed that it said I had 209 downloads. I freaked knowing what that meant so I found the download manager and got them to stop and then deleted them. I get the Ditty Bops and 6 Jamiroquai songs downloaded before I realized the problem. Phew, that could be bad.

This morning I put on the Ditty Bops on the iPod and the third song has a glich and stops after 30 seconds. I go to iTunes to check into getting it fixed when I start those darn downloads again.

Just stopping and deleting them from the downloads isn't enough, damage was done and complete the moment I hit Buy All, it was just a matter on when I was going to download them. Oh shit, $189 on iTunes!

At that moment of realization, Hollace just woke up and came into the room. Sorry honey, I can't talk right now. I got to find the contact info to get this charge taken off. I don't want those songs!

I finally find something and explain the situation. A few hours later I get an email saying that they will credit my account for the one song (99 cents). I immediately right back with this:

No, no, no! Not one song, $189 worth of songs! All I was trying to
buy was the Ditty Bops album and I accidentally hit buy all instead
of buy album. I know I should of cleaned out my shopping cart and not
had them in there if I didn't intend to buy them but I didn't.
Please, don't make me spend $189 for music I didn't want (and didn't
download yet)

It was bumming my evening out thinking that I might have to eat $189.

I then get this email:

I'd be happy to help refund you for this purchase. I understand these things can happen, so I have reversed the charge for the accidental purchase. You will see a credit of the remaining $188.25 in three to five business days. Please note that the iTunes Store Terms of Sale state that all sales are final, so this is a one-time exception.

I hope this helps. Thanks for being an iTunes customer. I hope you have a very wonderful weekend!

Phew! My only qustion is now that they are going to credit my credit card, does that mean those songs are still waiting for me to download anyway? I am afraid to go and check it out. Actually my question is why 188.25. If everything ends in 99 cents, how do you get 25 cents?

Posted by swardraws at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight was the first meeting of the 2nd grade Brownies for our school. When I was signing Hollace up at open house in September there was a woman signing her 2nd grader up too. When we were told that there is no leader for 2nd grade, the other woman said she would do it. Well she did. We had the meeting with the parents to fill out paperwork tonight at the co-leader's house. I think Hollace was overwhelmed with the rowdy loud girls (leader and co-leader's girls). None of the girls that showed up tonight were not in Hollace's class so she didn't know anyone.

All us moms sat at the kitchen table and filled out paper work. The leader and co-leader were as chatty as their girls. You would of thought they had been friends for years but only met each other 3 weeks ago. I am still trying to figure out what the co-leader was saying when she said her dad lived in a room on one end of the house and her father-in-law on the other and the two never talk. What was weirder then that was I swore she said one was 50 and the other 53. I had to ask her again and again, huh. RAW is 50. What is the matter with these guys. I seen them, they seemed old. I must be mistaken about their age.

There was this other woman there who seemed very serious and to the point and hardly smiled. I found out later that she is a working photographer for the local paper, both of us has the Canon 20d, is the same age as me, her husband works where I do and she gave birth to her third kid in the ambulance (I almost did). She seemed so much more friendlier once we realized all of this. Everyone was nice. At one point during the evening they were trying to convince me to have another kid LOL.

The meeting was from 6-7. We finally left at 8:15

Onto a quick change of topic. Somehow I discovered that the Ditty Bops had a new album come out in May. The one I had is one of my favorite albums and was even thinking the other day when they should put something else out. I guess it has been nearly 2 years since I got the other one. It didn't occur to me then that they should have something out. I accidentally found out they did put something out and didn't hesitate to download it from iTunes. In my haste however I clicked buy everything in my shopping cart as opposed to just that album. $182 worth of music I never intended to buy but almost did at one time. Thank god for iTunes latest softare because I was able to stop and delete all of it before it was too late. I did incur $4 worth of Jamiroqua music. Because of that stunt, my cart is now cleaned out so I won't be doing that again soon. And btw, I am loving the Ditty Bops new album

Posted by swardraws at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That phone call to AT&T lasted 45 minutes and now it is time to leave for lunch (btw, today was my 14th anniversary at work and I am so productive to celebrate, ha)

I stop at Target on the way to school to pick up 2 personal pan pizzas for lunch. But before that I try to hit the ATM since it was payday and I had $3 in my wallet. No such luck, the ATM, the one that doesn't charge me (I won't go to one that will charge me) doesn't work. I pay for the pizzas with my debit card and rush off to school.

I get there for recess. It is cold and windy. I see Hollace running around with a girl and a boy. She doesn't see me. Eventually she runs by me and gives me a hug. Her friend is a cat and the boy that is running with them is trying to get the cat. Hollace is trying to protect the cat. While I stand there (a couple other parents are hanging around too) one boy comes up to me to ask why Hollace never wears jeans. Ok, interesting question. She doesn't like them. Then another boy comes up to tell me that Hollace is obsessed with kiwis. I say "yep, you think so?"

We finally get to come in. Hollace's best friend the cat, sits on the end then Hollace then me. Across from us are 4 boys. One boy tells me that he had a heart murmur, another tells me when he was in his mommy's tummy he had the cord wrapped around his neck. And that he remembers it. A third boy tells me that his brother died when he was a baby. Ok, nice guys. Another boy seems shocked that Hollace doesn't appear to eat her crust on the her pizza. I tell him hold one she saves it for last. All in all it was a fun lunch but now it is time to get back to class and me back to work where I get productive after all on the day 14 years later I start.

Posted by swardraws at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was suppose to be the day RAW was going in for his colonoscopy but the doctor had to reschedule cause he was sick. I was disappointed, I was getting the day off as a family sick day. After I would of got RAW home I was planning on getting to Hollace's school for recess and lunch. But since the colonoscopy was rescheduled it messed up the lunch plans cause I had no reason to be home. I debated on whether or not I should take a half day off but I was only talking about lunch here.

I told the boss the situation with lunch and ask him if I could either take a long lunch or work the afternoon from home. He said the long lunch would be fine. Dang, I was of course hoping to avoid all the driving back and forth.

Before I left for lunch I decided to try and call AT&T to fix the long distance service plan I never ordered and get refunded for the 3 months they have been sucking money out of my account.

I call the first lady, she told me she could cancel the plan but I had to call someone else for the refund which would only be for the last month not all 3. Then call the auto payment department and get that canceled. Then finally call the department that cancels long distance service.

She goes ahead and transfers me to the refund department. I am on hold for a long time then a guy who didn't know anything comes on. He asks if I want all 3 months refunded. Ah, of course. Then he looks it up and said he can only take off October (btw, we are talking about $5.96 a month, no major money but still...). He then asks if I want to talk to his supervisor to see if he can get it all taken care of. Sure put him on. I wait on hold again then John the supervisor comes on. Nope, he can't do anything about it. Oh so helpful that was. I decide to take the $6 for October and drop it.

On to the next call, the auto payment cancelation department. First after I go around in a circle with their push 4 for this, push 3 for that, I finally am able to hit zero to get a live person. This lady is nice and she cancels the auto bill pay stuff. She can't however tell me how long it takes before it goes into effect. Could be 4-6 weeks like it is for business customers. She then transfers me to my last call, service disconnection.

That lady explains that I don't really want to disconnect long distance because any long distance carrier can grab my call if I accidentally try to call LD and charge me anything. Instead she tells me of a plan that cost $1 a month and it is 7 cents per minute. Right now I am paying 16 cents a minute (and apparently $6 a month which is why I am calling). Ok, sign me up for that, whatever.

She then tells me that I can get my DSL upgraded to double speed at $10 less a month then I am already paying. Hold the phone! Lately with all the video youtube stuff I have been complaining to no one in particcular that my DSL is too slow. Actually last night I was complaining to Paula about it. I have been trying to figure out how I can get it boosted and maybe even pay more to do it but I thought I was stuck at this slow speed based on what they told me 3 years ago when I got it.

All the AT&T phone hell has been worth it if indeed my DSL doubles in speed. At the very least it will be $10 a month cheaper which is a much better deal then really getting hung up on getting them to refund me the remaining $12 they owe me for long distance I never signed up for.

Posted by swardraws at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have tomorrow off because Hollace has the day off and RAW wanted to get down to Indiana so I thought it was a great day for girls day.

Well tonight RAW took back that Dyson. For the whole week it sat in the box unopened while we just looked at it. Something was keeping us from opening it and checking it out.

There was.

It was the Kohl's catalog that came with 20% coupon. So we went up there and bought the Dyson for $320 instead, for a savings for $60.

It didn't take us long to open up the Dyson from Kohls and suck up the room. RAW is really impressed and that is what matters ;-)

The new carpet came on Monday and it is nice! Why didn't we do this 10 years ago. Of course if we did that carpet would probably look bad now.

I bought some more Elliott Smith music. I will listen to Roman Candle for awhile and go back and get the last album that I want.

I have been struggling trying to keep up with my magazine reading. For the new year I will not renew most of them and then the stress to read them will go away. The other day I go to the library and check out 4 freaking self help books. Uh, when do I think I will find the time to read them? For some reason when I acccidently hit that area of the library I felt it was some kind of message that I found them so I had to check them out LOL. Check out these titles:
ð Woman Who Think Too Much
ð A Whole New Mind (Moving from the Informational age to the Conceptual Age)
ð How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci
ð Talking with Confidencce for the Painfully Shy

I was really in there looking for books on creativity and books on how to focus which is my issue de jour.

Tonight we had our teacher conference on Hollace. The teacher had no qualms on Hollace's academics. She is too slow on her timed math facts so she rated low on those on her report card. The teacher is concerned about her shutting down and going to tears too easily. And maybe a little concerned about the kiwi obsession. And she apparently had an incident with her pencil where she was frustrated and started stabbing her book with it. It is escaping me right now what else she said. We will set up some time to meet the counselor who by the way is who moved into Haley's old house.

Posted by swardraws at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After living with crappy pink carpeting for 10 years and for flooring influx for 6 months, we finally have new carpeting!

This weekend me and Hollace went up to Sheboygan to see all the family that has relocated up there. Not a good weekend to go since Shelby had his reserve weekend and his mom was in town so we didn't see much of Pam and family.

RAW who was planning on going backed out at the last minute since the 3 days he had to put in the small amount of tiling in before the carpeting came wasn't enough. Also he was turned off by the fact that I was planning on staying the night.

First of all I am thrilled that the trip up there now takes 1:55. Much improved from the 2:45 it took before they moved not to mention the 8 hours to get to Pam's.

As usual, didn't see much of Hollace until it was time to go home. Her and Emma were inseperable. Three year old Mac was a little shy when I got there clinging to Cindy's leg but quickly realized I was the cool technology aunty and wanted me to show him the videos on my computer and to always be taking pictures of him so he could scroll fast through them on the camera. Three year old Josh was his typical "don't look at me" self. Five year old Phil was thrilled that I was able to visit his new place and meet his cat. He talked my head off and showed me everything he owns. The three twelve year olds (Sarah, Will and Shawn) were the same. Sarah is getting tall. She had her nose in a book for the most part of the weekend. Will wanted me to fire up Garage Band on the computer so he could work on the song he started July 4th week. Shawn didn't express interest in Garage Band until the next day and we never got around to it. I felt bad when I realized that. The two fourteen year olds (Jeff and Read) were well 14. They were both getting ready to play in the band for the play. Jeff looked so debonair dressed all in black. Read doesn't interact with me or say anything to me at all.

When we got back from up there I was disappointed to see no tile on the floor yet. I guess he was waiting for the primer to dry. Anyway, the little cheapo on clearance vacuum he bought a year or two ago finally bit the dust, literally, on the eve of the new carpet coming in. Someone on BYB mentioned that some Targets had pink Dysons on clearance for $200. So RAW when and checked on it and came home with a $375 yellow one. Ok

Posted by swardraws at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday at work the creative director, my two co-workers, the boss and I went on a field trip. Of course it was a mystery. We ended up at the Botanical Gardens. It was freakin cold with snow flurring around. We were to just concentrate on texture, color, nature, whatever. What it really was was an photo shoot for me, it is what I do naturally. Everyone had their digital camera.

Everyone else got their pictures all downloaded and presented by the next day except me who downloaded and got blog worthy as I would normally would. I forgot that I need to share with the group too.

It was a nice outing, I hope I got something more than just another photo shoot out of it. I guess we are now having a photo content with our images and to finish the CD's exercise, we need to write a short story. I don't know about that.

Posted by swardraws at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The day before the weather was perfect with the temps in the 60s. There was a dance at the school we went to. Halloween night however, the cold front went through. Hollace was a witch this year. I just didn't feel like going out. Usually both me and RAW take turns going out each hitting half the neighborhood. For candy this year I had what I thought was enough Tootsie Pops. Since I have been buying the big box of them at Sam's regularily and pulling all the grape and cherry ones out, I had lots of other flavors. I ran out so I went to my cherry stash. I finally had to turn the lights off when it came down to the grapes. No one gets me grapes!

Posted by swardraws at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)