Me - 1/2, AT&T - 1/2

I had a little fracas with AT&T to day and I can't say I won, exactly. But I didn't feel like I lost, either.

Rachel's phone has been acting up. It now longer vibrates when a call comes in and it seems to drop calls a lot. The sound quality is also really stinky but that's nothing new. I have the same model and I think the sound is crappy on mine too.

So we were down in Fredricksburg this weekend and decided to try to get an upgrade for her phone. I knew I might have to pay a little more but so be it. So we go in and I explain the situation to the young woman there and she says, "Well, you'll have to pay because the contract isn't up yet. But look around and see what you like." So we looked at a bunch and I saw one that looked as though it was going to be about $70. We go back to the desk and the young woman says, "Oh, no, that's the price for new subscribers. For you that phone is $250." (in fact, the phone -- for new subscribers -- was $70 but was also "buy one, get one free.") I allowed as how there was no way that I was going to pay $250 for a phone and she said, "Well, you can do a warranty exchange on the old phone...just call this 800 number and talk to them and they can arrange to have a new phone sent to your daughter...it'll be the same model, and probably refurbished but it'll work."

We walked out and as I walked to the car I got more and more steamed. I mean, we've been loyal customers of AT&T, Cingular, AT&T for more than two years...and yet some schmo can walk in off the street and sign up and get a phone for less than a third of the price they're going to give to us! I mean, I know it's the standard business practice nowadays but it sucks. And I wanted to let someone know I thought it sucked.

I called the 800 number for the warranty return and was told we needed to talk to customer service and that we'd be transferred. There was a very long wait during the transfer so the first person was probably warning the second person that they were about to get an earful. Anyway, this guy comes on and listens to me and says he "understands my unhappiness" but that they have to use the term of the contract to recover the cost of the phone (which is crap...I think I've read that the initial cost of cell phones is pretty cheap)...so I offered to re-up my contract for an additional two years. No, that wasn't possible because I had just re-upped 6 months ago. I told the guy that perhaps there was nothing I could do now but that I would certainly be thinking very hard about whether I wanted to re-up with AT&T when the time came. Then he told us that, by the way, Rachel's phone wasn't eligible for the warranty exchange because it was more than a year old.

"Let me get this straight," I said, "we have a crappy, semi-broken cell phone, we can't get a straight-forward replacement, and we can only buy a new phone from you at full price?"

Yes, that was right. Whereupon I went off on the guy a little, though Mr. Pointy Sticks said I remained polite.

Finally, this guy said there was one option...I could pay $40 and they would send Rachel a basic replacement phone overnight. Which is not perfect...but at least they did something. Though I sort of think that this guy just went off to see what old phones they had sitting around that they could get rid off.

And as soon as I have time, I'm calling Working Assets to see about having them buy out my contract.

Grrr....

But I do have stuff to photograph and get up on the blog tomorrow.

Yay! It's Friday! Well, A Thursday-Friday...

I love three day weekends. This one is weird to me because usually Federal holidays are on Monday. And the Fourth of July is on whatever day of the week the fourth falls on. (Except if it falls on the weekend in which case we get the Friday or the Monday......anyway......) But this year the 4th is on Friday so that's what we get. (I hate it when the 4th is in the middle of the week and we just have the one lame day off in the middle of a week of work.) Anyway, I'm ready for a three-day weekend, boy howdy!

And I got a nice (weekly) package from Loopy. I actually tried photographing this in the sunshine, because it just seems that the colors of these yarns, that are so intense and beautiful in person, seeming to glow sometimes, just don't look that special on the monitor. So, look at this!


This is Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in Poppies. It looks almost radioactive here, but it gives you some idea of the warmth and glow it has.


And this is Claudia Hand Painted in a colorway called Terracotta Dusk. I love this one.

Oddly enough, the two skeins that are dyed in cooler colors look better, I think, on the porch in the shade. Here they are:


At the top, Spirit Trails Scottish Thistle and on the bottom Sugar Bunny Boulevard's Kelly. (The pictures of these in the sun looked washed out....go figure.)

And one more day lily...


Off to start the weekend. I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th.

More Lilies!

Pink!



Yellow!

More orange!

I love my lilies.

(Sorry...boring boring post. Another long day at work, though not as long as previous days this week. The cumulative effect is starting to show up, though.)

Well, I'm Racking Up The Comp Time

Another late day. If you had told me that I'd be working until quarter to six...and not minding it!...I would have said you were crazy. Mind you, I wouldn't want it to be like this constantly...but right now we are preparing for a hearing, so things are crazy. As it is, I was shooed out by my boss and co-worker because they knew Mr. Pointy Sticks was waiting for me, so I felt a bit guilty about leaving.

So we got home late, to a couple of cranky, hungry cats, but I did have time this evening to take some pictures.

Here's some yarn I got from Supercrafty's sale.


The colors are a little more garish in this picture than they are in real life. The front two, in particular, are greyer in tone.

And it's day lily season finally! I love our day lilies. Here are some:



There will be some gorgeous yellow ones coming along soon. I really want to buy some others...I'd love some white ones.

Blue Sheep

My brother came through with the lyrics...he offered to sing it to me this weekend, but I'd rather wait until it can have some guitar accompaniment...

Went for a ride in the country, just havin' a ball
Went for a ride in the country, just havin' a ball
Saw some sheeps out there, didn't have no hair at all

My sister's a knitter, always knittin' up socks
Yeah, my sister's a knitter, knittin' up them socks
She can't buy wool by the bag, always has to buy it by the box

Sheeps in the country, well they ain't got no hair
Yeah, sheeps in the country, they ain't got no hair
When Winter comes in, sheeps sure don't wanta be there

My sister beat a scarf out, yeah, in a minute or two
Oh, my sister knock a scarf out in just a minute or two
That's why the sheeps, oh yeah, they just so blue.

I think I need to start calling my brother Blind Lemon or Deaf Kiwi or something bluesy like that.