I. Cingular is a company run by bastards.
A. I have been a customer for 6+ years and already knew
this.
B. They do not allow you to go from a monthly plan to a
pre-paid plan and keep your phone number.
C. They are idiots and have lost my buisness.
II. The folks over at Comp USA are semi-incompetent
A. They were competent enough to check to make sure I
could move my number over to T-mobile pre-paid.
B. They were not competent enough to get my new phone
up and running and...actually move the number over.
III. I do not do well trying to figure out what departments I need
when I call large corporations.
A. I ran around on the T-mobile menu system for a half hour
before figuring out how to get to the department I needed.
B. It wasn't totally my fault since every operator I talked
to just gave me the phone number that I just called.
Monthly Archive for August, 2005
Get those last documents translated[Thanks 'les]- Apply for the damed visa already.
- Take Xena to my parent’s place.
- Buy film.
- Buy general supplies that I’d like to arrive with so that I don’t need to negotiate French supermarkets on my first night in Paris.
Figure out what the deal is with getting keys to the apartment.- Sell the CDs & clothes I have bagged and ready to go.
Figure out my cell phone situation. [I need to go to the Cingular store, but I think I know exactly want I want and how to make it happen]- Take everything else I own and put it into the storage place. Including but not limited to: My paperwork, my photos, my sewing machine, various crafty odds and ends that I can’t pack (although is someone wants scrap fabric & yarn bits, let me know and they are yours), any books that I can’t take with me, and the clothes that I can’t pack.
- Figure out what to do with my bike
Order my ATM card and checks.Pick up dry cleaning- Get old green suitcase form parents so ‘les has something to pack her speakers in.
Finish up putting together birthday gifts for folks.[Now I have another idea of something to make. Yay! Sewing!]Take Lil D to dinner as thankyou for helping me move.- Put together a going away party.
- Apply for the damed visa already.
- Take Xena to my parent’s place.
Buy EurRail passes.[I decided on buying 10 days , covering France and Spain. Which might have been extremely stupid, but I went with what I knew.]- Buy film.
- Buy general supplies that I’d like to arrive with so that I don’t need to negotiate French supermarkets on my first night in Paris.
- Figure out what the deal is with getting keys to the apartment.
Send Itchy M. my damned calling card pdf already.- Sell the CDs & clothes I have bagged and ready to go.
Figure out my cell phone situation.[I need to go to the Cingular store, but I think I know exactly want I want and how to make it happen]Figure out how much I can actually fit into a suitcase.[I did some pre-packing and now I have an idea of exactly how much room I have and what I'm taking.- Take everything else I own and put it into the storage place. Including but not limited to: My paperwork, my photos, my sewing machine, various crafty odds and ends that I can’t pack (although is someone wants scrap fabric & yarn bits, let me know and they are yours), any books that I can’t take with me, and the clothes that I can’t pack.
- Figure out waht to do with my bike
- Put together a going away party.
I’ve posted previously about picking out a sweater pattern. I’m really excited about it and looking forward to beginning the sweater has got me into finishing up all my abandoned projects. I hadn’t completed anything of note since May, I think. The moving and the job stuff got took up a lot of my time. And really, I didn’t have anything that I was actually excited about to work on. But now I have this thing I want to start and I won’t until I’m done with my other things. It’s all about anticipation.
Anyhow, to add to my looking forward to beginning something new, I decided to go ahead and buy the yarn I will need. The pattern calls for Rowan’s Biggy Print yarn. 12 skeins of it no less. I really love this yarn. It’s huge and irregularly wide so it makes an interesting fabric. The problem is that it’s also fifteen dollars a ball on average. The lowest price I found was just under fourteen. Which is expensive yet do-able when I’m employed and just making a scarf. The price gets unreasonable when you’re talking about making a project that requires a lot of yarn.
I did some math (incorrectly, as it turns out) and decided to just bite the bullet and go ahead and buy the yarn. Mostly because Biggy Print happens to be the largest guage yarn that I can find in any of the yarn stores I’ve checked. So on Wednesday, I went to Imagiknit and picked out my favorite color.
The store was compeltely empty, thank God. Because when I got to the counter, the clerk had to go into the back and fish out more yarn for me. Then she rang me up and the total was far over what I had originally assumed it would be.
And then I sorta freaked out.
Luckily the clerk was super nice and creative, because she took the time to figure out a cheaper yarn solution with me. They didn’t have another yarn of that gauge at all so we figured out how to combine two different yarns to get a similar size. I ended up choosing two different kinds of Brown Sheep yarn. I’ll be knitting with two strands at once, which will hopefully give me a similar look to the thin/think thing that the Biggy Print has going on. I also chose two different colors which will also hopefully look nice together. I ended up with Lamb’s Pride in Charcoal Heather and Burly Spun in Blue Flannel. The total for purchasing that yarn was less than half the price of using the called-for yarn.
I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it works out. Both yarns are really great, so I figure that if I get half-way through the sweater and realize that it’s horribly ugly, I’ll be able to re-use the yarn for something else. Or I’ll just wear the thing around the house. We’ll see. Wish me luck.
I just finished sewing the third of three knitting needle cases I decided to make two weeks ago.
I ended up just using a scrap fabric that I had around the house. I had a couple of pieces of heavy cotton fabric (some of which I had been using to make a slip cover for my ottoman) and some light cotton pieces that I had purchased years ago to make patches on jeans when they got holes in the knees. Each one took me a couple of hours to put together and I’m pretty happy with the results.
I’ve never been much of a sewer. In fact, I have to say that I can’t really sew at all. I can barely sew in a straight line and I read a pattern very well. I’ve had my mom attempt to teach me to do things several times but it always ended in tears. Her old Singer would always end up eating all my fabric, or the thread would snap in the middle of a seam over and over again. She’d end up taking over projects and having no trouble at all. So sewing has always meant hours of frustration with little to show for it.
Until last week. I finally got around to using the Viking that my mom got me for Christmas last year. I have been feeling guilty about not having used it at all in the last year. When I got it, I took it out of the box, did a test run on a piece of scrap fabric, and put it away, never to use it again. But then last week I took it out and tried using it for real like. And amazingly, the damn thing actually worked properly. I was able to wind bobbins! I could sew seams and not have the thread break on me for no reason! It didn’t eat my fabric!
My sewing is still horrible, but at least I know that I can actually do it. I can get better. It wasn’t me. It was that damned machine.
After months of thinking it over, I finally got around to buying a new camera a few weeks ago. I wanted a K-mount body so that I could exchange lenses with my old camera. I also wanted it to be film. I’m behind the times, I know. My old technology preferences are being slowly phased out and soon I won’t be able to use a film camera with ease. However, film will go the way of parchment paper at a slower rate than a digital camera will become obsolete due to low-pixel count so I think I’m coming out ahead.
Anyhow, I finally settled on a Pentax PZ1p, mostly because that’s what Gasser’s happened to have in stock. It’s a lot more camera that I really need at the moment, but I’m hoping to grow into it. I figure that it’s better to have too many features than too few.
The lens I bought with the camera is sorta huge. I get asked if I’m a photographer when I take it out and I never know how to answer this since I’m more of a hobbyist than a artist and I’m certainly not a professional. I’ve taken one photo class and haven’t been in a darkroom in six years (yikes!). Come to think of it, I get asked that when I take my wee little fully-manual SLR out as well. Maybe it’s something about carrying a film camera?
Anyhow, I got back the first two rolls of film taken with my new one. Several of them ended up being blurry because I’m not sued to the manual focus function. Nor am I used to the zoom lens that came with it. I have to be several feet form my subjects before they come into focus and I’m not used to having to be that far away.
I have, of course, edited the examples.
Ok. So that list I just posted about what I need for a visa included travel insurance. I mentioned that the proof of policy is only in English. I called the company and they only have this form in English and Spanish. So ‘les decided to just translate the damn thing into French herself. Any editing help is much appreciated.
English
Policy #: XXX
Below is important information regarding your upcoming trip. We recommend that you contact your travel source when making arrangements for your next trip, and of course, purchase TRAVEL GAURD to protect your travel investment. Thank you for your business. If you have any questions, please contact our customer service center at 1800-454-7170. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you. Again, thank you for your purchase and have a safe and enjoyable trip!
Primary Insured Trip Cost Up To Other Insured Trip Cost Up To Nicole
Home Phone: XXX$0.00 Les $0.00 Selling Company
Travel Gaurd InternationalProduct: 007915 MEDEVAC PER TRIP & ANNUAL PROGRAMS – P4 3/2005
Departure 7/26/2005 Return 7/25/2006 Effective 7/26/2005 Length 365 Total Premium $$
Coverages Maximum Benefits per Person Accident and sickness medical expenses $25000.00 Per Family Concierge services – Per Family Emergency Assistance and Repatriation Trip Cost Per Family Event Ticketing – Per Family Flower Ordering – Per Family LifeTravel Services – Per Family Restaurant referrals – Per Family Tee Time reservations – Per Family Travel Gaurd Assistance – Per Family
French
Nombre de politique: XXX
L’information importante concernant votre voyage prochain est au-dessous. Nous recommandons que vous contactez votre source de voyage en prenant des arrangements pour votre prochain voyage, et naturellement, le TRAVEL GAURD d’achat pour protéger votre investissement de voyage. Merci de vos affaires. Si vous avez n’importe quelles questions, contactez notre centre de service à la clientèle à 1800-454-7170. Nous sommes disponibles toujours pour vous aider. Encore, merci de votre achat et ayez un voyage sûr et agréable!
Assurés Primaires Voyage Coûté Jusqu’à Autre Assurés Voyage Coûté Jusqu’à Nicole
Tél: XXX$0.00 Les $0.00 Vente De la Compagnie:
Travel Guard International
715-345-0505Produit: 007915 MEDEVAC PER TRIP & ANNUAL PROGRAMS – P4 3/2005
Départ: 26/7/2005 Retour: 25/7/2006 Effectif: 26/7/2005 Durée: 365 Prime Totale: $296.00
Assurances: Allocation maximum par personne: Dépenses médicales d’accidents et de maladie $25000.00 par famille Services de Concierge – par famille Aide et rapatriement de secours Voyage Coûté par famille Étiquetage D’Événement – par famille Commande De Fleur – par famille Services de LIFETRAVEL – par famille Références de restaurant – par famille Réservations de golf – par famille Aide de TRAVEL GAURD – par famille
I haven’t applied for a visa since I was 15 and going to Australia. My mom and the exchange student program took care of 99% of the paperwork so I don’t actually remember how complicated the process was. I mention this because I’m putting together a folder for my French Visa application and while I’m doing this I am left wondering how horrible it is trying to get into other countries.
PLEASE SUBMIT THE ORIGINAL PLUS 3 PHOTOCOPIES OF THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS. Original documents will be returned to you.
- 4 application forms filled out completely, and signed by the applicant.
5 recent passport size photographs.- 3 copies of your valid passport (make sure there are enough blank pages to affix the visa).
A letter explaining the purpose of your stay in France, and stating that you will not work during your stay in France.[Thanks for the translation help y'all.]- Any pertinent documents related to your present occupation in the U.S. (paystub, letter from your employer stating that you are on leave of absence, sabbatical, or any other reasons ;
– if you are retired: social security payments;
– if you are self employed: business license).
[Do you think they want my layoff notice? Otherwise I've got nothing.] A letter from your bank stating that you will receive a minimum of $1,800 per month during your stay in France.[*snort* Sure, they day $1,800. But when you show up with that amount, they won't bother to accept your application because you're way too poor to get in....]A letter from your medical insurance company stating that you will be covered during your stay in France.[Although this is only in English. I don't know if I can get away with that.]Proof of lodging in France: a promise of lease, deed, or attestation of lodging from family or friends.[This one is the most annoying thing of all. I don't know if I can stay in the country, but I need to sign a lease assuming that I can. The fuck?]
I’m putting together all the information that I need to give to the French so that they’ll let me in their country for a year. One of the most difficult things for me to acquire has been an apartment. Why they want me to sign a lease before I even know if I can live in France, I do not know.
Anyway, as I was doing this, I realized that I never posted announcing that we managed to find a place. ‘les made the arrangements and then never really seemed excited about it, so I’ve sorta been waiting for things to seem more solid. I dunno, I’ve been worried about jinxing it. Anyway, we signed the lease and sent the deposit cheque so everything should be in order.
The apartment is located at 5, rue Pierre Chausson. The closest metro stop is Jacques Bonsergent, although it’s very close to the Pl. de la Republique.
It has an oven. And a washing machine, I think.
This last week has been rather full. I only had one evening that did not involve some kind of social obligation. I’m not much for leaving the house, so it’s been tiring.
The big event for the week happened yesterday. Namely a wedding of an former coworker. It was just lovely. Really lovely. The bride’s mother owns a house in Santa Cruz and they had the wedding on her property. Her place is just amazing, all little nooks for hanging out, ponds, and huge trees.
The crowd was a really funny mix of people. Old friends, family, acquaintances, most of the folks I loved from my Critical Path days, people that I know from camping trips, people I used to know and have lost touch with. There was a little motley procession of musicians wandering around playing flutes and accordions before the ceremony. I couldn’t take it, it was just too much out of a storybook.
And then there was square dancing. Perfect.