CafeChatNoir

Cause when I dropped off the check from the credit union last night and then wrote a check for the balance of the downpayment, I wrote the check out for the wrong amount. D’oh!

Had my first client go nuts and hang up on me today!

Note to folks calling any kind of support line: If the person says something that doesn’t make sense, or is confusing, or maybe contradicts something else you heard - calmly say so, or state what you don’t understand. It is much easier for the support person to clarify the issue at hand that way. If you just go beserk then you have a support person who is left sitting there scratching their head wondering what is wrong with you, and who will really have no idea as to what the problem really is, or what part of the explanation may not have been clear. (Oh, and you’ll be marked as a problem client and you’ll probably have a very hard time getting anything beyond the most basic of help in the future.)

Or at least that is what it felt like. But as of last Thuesday, 98% of the papers were signed - despite having a notary and no documentation at one point, by Friday it was 100% and as of today, the funds were wired out all over the place.

I’m glad that’s done!! (It went so much smoother last time!)

There is nothing weird or creepy about two people who are dating who have the same car. Especially when they are completely different colors and trim lines. It just means they both have excellent taste in automobiles.

Now, having gotten that out of the way, I am now the VERY happy owner of a Black 2003 Jeep Liberty.

I’d been planning/looking for a while now, had pretty much decided on the Honda CRV - then the big guy called Friday night after test driving the Jeep and telling me how awesome it was.

Went out Saturday morning. He tested the manual, then the automatic (halfway through which I told him he had to pull over and let me drive for a while.) First impression was what a really solid feel it has to it. After driving it, I realized this was exactly the car I was looking for!

Now, he will give you some nonsense about how I bought the car he was looking at - but he was looking at every single one they had. A couple hours later and several signatures, I had my Jeep. He’d been talking up the USAA buying service to the sales guys, and between the fact that it’s end of the month and end of the model year, I ended up getting a price pretty darn close (if not possibly better) to what I would have gotten through USAA anyway. (Hey, it’s a sale now or who knows when…)

Now, at this point, the big guy had his heart set on a khaki one w/ a light rack (which actually is pretty darn cool), but they had let someone take it for an overnight test drive and he hadn’t brought it back yet, but they also knew that particular model wasn’t in test drive guy’s price range. They gave the big guy a price on it (and a really good one for him, too) and that pretty much settled it. Having a family dinner engagement, and waving about MY keys, (see? we’re serious about the cars!) we asked that if the guy brought it back and didn’t buy it, to please hold it until Sunday. They said as soon as test drive guy brought it back, they would take it out of inventory and put it aside.

Sunday morning we cleaned up the Honourmobile and took her in for a well-earned retirement, and the big guy now has his new Jeep, too.

Things that boggle my mind about the car buying process:

- I had a general idea of what the price would be through USAA, expected not to get that - no problem, because with the end of model year “we have to get these off the lot” incentives, it was still a very reasonable price that I thought I would be getting. Then somewhere between talking to the sales guy outside (at the reasonable price) and sitting down in his office, he knocked another $1000 off - I didn’t haggle for it, so I’m not sure why he did it. But, OK!
Edit: Have since double checked - managed to come in under invoice. Sweet.

- Though I have been planning/researching for a new car, I had not planned on doing it that day. Like most people, I don’t have car down payment money just sitting in my checking account, nor did I have financing lined up. Heck, no problem!!
— They couldn’t meet the credit unions interest rate - just said to go ahead and go through the credit union and bring back the paperwork…
— The funds for the down payment won’t be in a check-writing-available account until tomorrow at the earliest… Again - just leave a check and they won’t deposit it until I give them the go ahead.
From talking to other people, this is apparently standard practive. Strange, but standard. I had the financing approved through the credit union online on Saturday night, and I’ll have their check via FedEx tomorrow, my downpayment money should be wired into my checking account tomorrow as well, so I should be able to go give them money tomorrow night. Still odd that they would just let me take the car anyway. But again, OK!

I love my new Jeep. Not a single second thought, pang of regret, nothing - it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.

Exhausting weekend. Film at 11.

So, the closing agent calls today - I have an eight hour window tomorrow in which to close on the refinance and still make the rate lock.
The good news is that they are coming to my office at noon tomorrow and it will be done! (Tomorrow night I actually will have a life after work, so they gotta come during the day…)

Oh, and thank you crapass appraisal bitch - your delays are what have pushed me so far to the deadline. I have a copy of your appraisal here. First and foremost - there is no reason whatsoever that this should have taken you so long to get it done - I can see how much information you had to provide. On the comps - you say there hasn’t been a sale in the neighborhood since February - jeez you dumbass -I have better info than you do.

Well, my day started off with someone calling who doesn’t use the software anymore. Only she didn’t mention that until after I’d spent 45 minutes explaining how to fix the problem in the software that she’s not allowed to make entries to anymore…

The day kinda went downhill from there…all crackheads all the time. I wish I could get the memo showing that it’s my day for the loonies… However, I have to say, it can be some of the best entertainment. There were a few occasions where I almost snorted my coffee out my nose.

Then I got to the grocery store on the way home and discovered that I’d left my wallet at the office. Much swearing, and home to get the change jar. Haven’t had to do that since college - $46 cashed in, I now have food for the cats so they don’t kill me in my sleep and a 6 pack of Yuengling. (Fortunately, they didn’t ask for ID since I only have an expired driver’s license - the real one is safely in my wallet. At work.)

The appraisal finally landed at the lender, everything is good to go, I have been spending the evening reviewing closing documents and have only found three errors/discrepancies. And I think at least one of those is just timing - they don’t have the latest mortgage balance for me. So, this should be over and done with soon.

Of that truck that ran my sorry ass over today?

Didn’t sleep particularly well this morning, and I arrived to an office that was 91 degrees. Not kidding. A/C busted over the weekend at some point. They got it working fairly quickly, but it takes a loooong time to get a building like that cooled back down again.

The people that are set up for telecommuting got to go home and work there… Guess who isn’t set up for that? Natch…

Ugh, not much worse than waking up and feeling like you haven’t slept at all. It’s going to be a looooooooooooong day…

OK, so yeah, that $150 a week thing sounds like a good idea. In the spirit of misery loves company, or well - something that sounds more positive than that - I’m in.

Thing is, I don’t have 100+ items on my Amazon Wish List like *some* people I know, so I’m gonna have to come up with some other way to treat myself when I underspend. :)

Fourteen-year-old female polar bear, named ‘Pelusa’ stands in her cage in the Mendoza Zoo, 1100 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires, July 18, 2003. Normally white, Pelusa turned violet after veterinarians administered a medicine to treat her for a skin condition. Her veterinarians said her coat should turn normal again within a month. REUTERS/Str
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030718/170/4q3pg.html

I have two black eyed susans planted in my front yard - here’s hoping they don’t decide to heave out of the ground! Pruned the azalea and the japonicas & got the mulch put down - probably could have gone with three bags after all.

Thinking I may start hitting the nursery once a week or so and getting a new perennial - would slowly fill up the yard and not have a huge one time expense and I wouldn’t have to replant every year. Of course, this is assuming that I don’t kill them!

So, got the appt with the cleaning lady done - I like her a lot, they sound like they know what they’re doing and it’s pretty much a done deal. Just need to fax back over the paperwork to her today sometime.

Yardwork for a bit this morning - two bags of mulch to get under the bushes in the front yard, and two black eyed susans to put in the ground somewhere… (Don’t quite know where yet - probably should make a decision on that.)

Other than that, just continue with puttering around the house to have things a little more put away for the cleaning crew when the time comes.

So, the cleaning lady should be here in about an hour for the estimate - hopefully she’ll beleive me when I say, “Yes, all the crap will be picked up when you come to actually do the cleaning!” LOL!

This should be a good idea - it will force me to keep things picked up and someone else can worry about the grout staying white…

OK, so I just stumbled on a Barenaked Ladies song I hadn’t heard before…and don’t care to ever hear again I think…

“She’s on time”

and not for the movies…

We don’t have what I guess you’d consider a “typical” relationship… It’s hard to describe, but we’ve had something along the lines of a tenuous truce over the years - she doesn’t slam me & my generation and I don’t snap at her for it. And when she does, I’ve gotten to the point where I can just hold my tongue…

But we do have some things in common. Our looks. Our effed up personalities (mine a bit softened from hers - maternal genes kicking in I suppose, but not a whole lot.) And her friend, Hertha, that passed on this week.

I called to see how she was doing. I can’t say I know what prompted it, but I did it. And it was the nicest conversation we’ve had in a while. No jabs, no sniping, just a really nice conversation. Why does it take something so extreme to bring us back to just a plain old nice relationship? Who knows.

Right now, I wish she lived here. I could at least have visted in person to see how she was doing, rather than trying to check in over the phone.

I didn’t find out about Hertha’s passing until yesterday. Visitation was Wednesday, and the burial was yesterday. I feel bad - because dammit, one of the women from my family should have been there. It sounds odd, I realize - but when another of her friends here passed several years back, my father was able to go to the services, but my mother couldn’t. So, I went - because I wanted to make sure that the women of the family were there. I can’t explain it, but there you go. As much as I am an independent liberated chicky-chick, there are some things the womenfolk need to be present for.

So, now I’m kicking myself for not inquiring as to Hertha’s well being after that damned dream - because she was the first person I thought of after it.

Like I said, it’s an odd relationship we’ve got. I’m fiercely protective of her (I am the one that gave her explicit instructions on using her cane as a weapon when she finally got one, and lord help anyone in my way when it’s time to get her at the airport…) and yet she drives me up one wall and down the next…

But damn, it’s gotta hurt to lose a friend you’ve known for 40+ years…

Scroll down to Friday, September 5th… - Black 47 at the Birchmere!!”

Thing is - it’s not on the Birchnere’s site yet, nor is it up on Ticketbastard… Will continue to keep an eye out. Don’t want to miss this, especially at the B and on a Friday night!

Of Japanese Bobtail cats now that I am thinking about them (not that it’s on the hot list of things to know anyway…), they’re Japanse (hm, obvious) kitty cats that have bobbed curly tails. My sweetie Patches was a JB. The funny part about it was that she was a stray, sent to the pound on base when we lived overseas and we rescued her - then I found a book that listed the breed - turns out her markings and such were pure show quality. As were most of the stray JB’s that ran around the base!

Most pics you see of JB’s are mainly white with a few color spots - but the “ideal” is (or at least was) for them to be calico and look as though you had picked them up under the middle of their stomach and then dipped them in white paint - white legs and most of the underbody white. Here’s a *good* examples of a JB:

Patches’ tail was a touch longer, but with a good curl at the end. Her face was a little rounder (of course, she had her ‘chunky’ years, lol), and her colors on her face weren’t symmetrical like this one.

They’re very vocal but not screechy like a siamese might be. Very affectionate, and seem to have a sense of humor and pretty smart.

If you ever are looking for a cat and find one of these through rescue or happen upon one at a shelter - don’t hesistate. They’re great cats.

Satchel and Bucky have often reminded me of animals I knew…but couldn’t place. Satchel would be our wonderful standard schnauzer mix we had - dumb as a post with a heart of gold, and Patches, our calico Japanese Bobtail that was just too cool for school - IF she thought you were looking…

I am SO glad it’s Friday. The week definitely had it’s ups and downs.

Work was good but hard - especially Wednesday - I managed to close 19 calls, but as busy as we were, you could have been in a coma and still made quota. Yesterday my brain was still completely fried. Ave & I (partners in training crimes) were sitting at my desk trying to test something when the director of support came over and said, “Well, this just can’t be good” (seems we look like we’re always about to do something that will get us into trouble!). I explained that because Wednesday had been so rough, we were reduced to having to share a brain. She asked if by today would we need four people in the cube? I suppose that is always a possibilty - but I told her that we hoped we’d reached a plateau of information leakage from our brains… Today was really good - answered some billing questions with no help - you can mess up SO many things in that module without even trying, it’s scary. But it also showed that my strategy of reading all the previous days’ closed calls is helping - there was at least a few that I remembered from other closed calls.

At some point, I need to ask about the whole “2 entries per week to the support database” thing. Everyone is supposed to put in two answers to the database we use. It shouldn’t be terribly hard - there are lots of questions that we get that don’t have a db entry yet, but you just ‘know’ the answer. I just need to find out when we’re supposed to start doing that. Thinking I can just go through my closed calls and use that as a starting point.

Exceptionally bummed over the passing of my grandmother’s friend. But I have to say - that dream Monday night had me thinking about her all week, and I couldn’t say I was surprised when I got the news.

Been driving the honourmobile this week - had a carpet cleaner I had to get dropped off at the appliance fix it shop and it just doesn’t quite fit in the trunk of my car. The big guy has had the del sol, enjoying tooling about with the top down, and the weather is so perfect for it - I just couldn’t ask to trade cars back. It’s ok tho - the civic is a dang good car, especially considering it’s got 164K miles on it!

I suppose I should go hunt down some dinner and get a few things done around here so I can enjoy sleeping in tomorrow morning - I could use it.

NOT!!

OK, so tomorrow the cleaning service comes for an estimate, so tonight I’ve got to finish picking up and stuff so as not to scare them off.

After finding out how much it will cost me to have someone else vacuum my stairs****, it’s off to borrow mom’s car and go to the nursery and pick up some mulch and maybe some flowers or something. Definitely need the mulch.

Need to come up with something good & Atkin’s friendly for dinner since seems that all the baristas at the coffee shop are noticing the big guy. Last thing I need is more competition, dammit! LOL!

The appraisal still hasn’t gotten to the lender - oh, there’s a shock. They say Monday now. Played the “oh we’re soooo busy” card. Eff that - if you can’t handle the demand, don’t take on the new work. Once this refi is done and the check has cleared - letters will be written.

In the meantime, I’m just spending a bit of time chilling out this evening with some Chardonnay I got for Christmas. Need the space in the fridge for the other Chardonnay I got at Unicorn Winery on the 4th… So it really is an exercise in organization.

****There was a time when I could get my brother to do it for $20. Damned if those days aren’t long gone…

Can’t go yardsaling Saturday morning….

Cleaning lady is coming for an estimate, had written down that she would be coming in the late afternoon and got a message today that she is coming around 11 AM.

Called her back to ask - she apologized profusely for giving me a time the first time she called - she usually doesn’t do that, but just sets a date and then calls back w/ the time when she has the route set, so she doesn’t end up zig zagging around the county. Fair enough - must have caught her at distracted moment when I talked to her the first time. Better than her showing up in the morning and me not being around.

Courtesy Yahoo…

Go fish : Colorful parrot fish swim in a tank during a fish show in Taipei. (AFP/Sam Yeh)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030717/241/4pja9.html

Japanese cat Komachi (L) meows at American Shorthair Mick as they are held with the mock-up ‘Meowlingual’ device, which is can translate various meows into over 200 human words, at an unveiling in Tokyo, July 17, 2003. Toymaker Takara Co, which last year developed a hit ‘Bowlingual’ communication gadget for dogs, is planning to start sales of the ‘Meowlingual’ in November for 8,800 yen ($75). REUTERS/Eriko Sugita
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030717/170/4pewr.html

Two ring-tailed lemurs at the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science, attempt to settle the dilemma of one ear of corn between them, Wednesday, June 26, 2002. The indri, the largest of Madagascar’s lemurs, is heading for extinction. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)

Riki, the Budapest Zoo’s baby kangaroo, looks out from his mother Rita’s pouch on Thursday, July 17, 2003 in Budapest, Hungary. The male baby kangaroo was born November or December 2002 and came out of the pouch for the first time on Thursday. (AP Photo / Bela Szandelszky)

A three-week-old puppy of a ‘tea cup’ poodle dozes off in a mug cup as a grown up dog of the same breed sits beside it at a Tokyo pet shop Wednesday, July 16, 2003. The newly bred poodles, usually born less than 100 grams (0.24 pounds), became popular in a small pet boom. The puppy is tagged for 650,000 yen ($5509). (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

Monday night, I had a dream that I was at my BF’s house and the phone rang. He answered it and handed it to me. “It’s your grandmother and she sounds really upset. I think someone died.” At which point I woke up.

Today I found out from my mother than one of my grandmother’s lifelong friends, and a dear friend to our whole family, passed away on Monday night.

She was a wonderful person and loved animals. My kinda gal. I’ll miss her a lot.

Today was make your head explode busy. Have no idea how many calls I made and forgot to look at how many I closed before I left the office.

Full moon has passed so not too many crazy people. There was one woman that started into a different subject completely at the end of a call (and it’s unfamiliar territory for me) and as I am trying to fathom what she’s asking, she starts talking to herself and suddenly says, “OK, great! Thanks!” and hangs up…

One that I had been working with, sending emails w/ scripts, playing phone tag - caught up with him… “Oh, we figured it out and it’s all fine now!” Um, could you tell me what you did so *I* can know for future reference??

I closed calls on subjects I knew absolutely nothing about. I have no idea how.

What a day.