Fools Ride Motorbikes

What do you do with inconsiderate nincompoops who jeopardize the safety of everyone in the community by riding their stupid motorbikes on the sidewalks? For the last several days I've been calling the cops every chance I get to report these morons. I've seen at least 3 different bikes go through my community on the sidewalk. They don't have a license plate so I can't report the tag. All I can do is give a description of the bike and the idiots riding it to the police when I call. My neighbors are also calling but so far the cops have not managed to catch these jerks. Today, my next door neighbor was out with his dogs when one of the imbeciles went by and he yelled to him "hey, you know you're not supposed to ride on the sidewalks, right?" and the lowlife just yelled back "so, I don't care". Yesterday I called the cops because the scumbag had a small child on the back of the motor bike. The kid couldn't have been much older than 6 and he looked about ready to fall off. The worst part of the whole thing was that the child wasn't even wearing a helmet! I was irate that someone could put a child in danger that way! I'm sure the cops are sick and tired of hearing from us but until they get these dirt bags to stop riding on the sidewalks where there are kids playing I'm going to keep calling every time I see it happen. It is so frustrating to keep calling and calling and by the time the cops arrive, the schmucks are long gone because they've got motorized transportation. There is a group of us that has sort of made it our mission to get rid of these cretins We've thought about tackling them as they drive by. We've thought about making a make shift strip of nails to puncture their tires but that would be dangerous for everyone else. One of my neighbors even got a picture of one of the nitwits and gave it to the cops but even that didn't help. So really, we haven't come up with anything better than calling the cops which, while its logging lots of complaints, isn't getting us any closer to getting rid of these bums. Any ideas about how to rid the community of dirty rotten scoundrels? I'll take practical ideas and those that are completely impractical but fun to imagine. I'm also about out of adjectives to describe these jackasses so if you've got any particularly creative ones let me know.

Social Commentary

A couple of days ago New York got a new governor because the old one enjoyed high priced hookers. He takes office and one of the first things he does is admit that he and his wife both had affairs. On the one hand I applaud him for putting it out there right away so that it doesn't become some kind of scandal. I also applaud him and his wife for working through whatever was wrong in their marriage. On the other hand I find it very sad that as New York gets rid of one governor who was unfaithful, they're swearing in another one with the same issue, albeit on a totally different, much less offensive, scale. Why are so many of our politicians involved in these kinds of scandals? Most aren't as bad as Elliott Spitzer with his high priced hookers, but how many politicians have admitted to affairs? Does it occur more with people in power because they have the money and opportunity and people are willing to do anything to get what they want from them or is it really this prevalent in society and we just hear about it more because politicians are public figures? The people I feel the worst for are the families of those politicians. It must be hard enough to find out that your spouse or parent has been unfaithful but to have to go through it under the microscope of the media and the public is more than anyone should have to take. The only one who won in that situation was the hooker. She's got more fame that she can probably handle and her song has been downloaded more than a million times. It went from 33 cents a download to 99 cents so I guess she's now a legit millionaire. Maybe she's still facing some legal trouble but it seems like she really hit the jackpot in the end.

Circuit City Sucks Part II

I received a response to the email I sent circuit city detailing my experience and, surprise, surprise, it is less than satisfactory. Basically it says, sorry you're unhappy but we really don't care. I copied the body of the letter:

Thank you for contacting circuitcity.com. I apologize for any concerns you may have
regarding your shopping experience with Circuit City.
We value our
customers’ feedback and appreciate your comments. Our goal is to provide
the best customer service possible, and we regret that in this case, we fell
short of your expectations. We work with our management to ensure that any
shortcomings are addressed.
Thank you for your interest in Circuit City

Really, this is the best that they can do when I've told them that they suck and
I'll never shop there again? No attempt to get me back whatsoever.
Circuit City, I hope you search the Internet for postings about your crappy
company and read this because YOU SUCK and I won't be shopping with you again,
except to spend my $25 gift card.

Circuit City SUCKS!!!!!

On Thanksgiving I ordered 3 2.0gig SD chips for my camera from circuitcity.com because they were on sale for $19.99 and offering a $13 rebate on them for a final price of $6.99. They shipped the very next day and I was very happy. Unfortunately, they did not arrive as expected. They made it to Columbia and got lost somewhere. I waited about a week after they were due to arrive thinking that the sheer amount of packages that fedex and the post office were dealing with could have slowed things down some and then I called Circuit City. They did try to help the first time around, even going so far as to call the post office to see what happened to my package. Since they couldn't locate it, they offered to either re-ship it or refund my money. I asked to reship my item and was there anyway they could expedite shipping since I had been waiting quite a while. I was told that a supervisor would have to make that decision and someone would call me in 3 business days. A week went by and I never heard from anyone and the website did not show that my package had reshipped so I called again. They were less helpful this time around. I was told that supervisors do not call people back and it takes 10-14 days to reship an item. I tried to ask why I was told that someone would call but they couldn't give me any answers. I waited my 10 days and when the website still didn't say my package had been reshipped I called yet again. This time I was told my money had been refunded! I did my very best to stay calm but I was beyond furious. I told the woman that I had not authorized a refund and that my package was supposed to be reshipped. She had the audacity to ask me if anyone had ever called me to which I responded that they hadn't and the last time I called back I was told that they don't call. She was doing NOTHING to assuage my anger. I insisted that I didn't want a refund and asked to speak to a supervisor. She actually refused. She said "My supervisor will tell you exactly what I just told you". I told her I didn't care, I wanted to hear it from her supervisor. We went round and round for a while. I kept asking for a supervisor and she kept telling me no so I finally said I would post my experience on the Internet, call the better business bureau and the attorney general and anyone else I could think of to tell them how bad the customer service was and she still refused to get me a supervisor so I hung up on her. I then called back and asked immediately to be connected to a supervisor. The person tried to get me to let her help me but I refused. I politely told her that I had tried speaking to a customer service rep and gotten absolutely no where and I wanted a supervisor. She reluctantly connected me to the supervisor line where I waited on hold forever. When I finally spoke to someone, Nicole was very nice. I explained what had happened and she was sympathetic but told me that since the refund had already been issued there wasn't anything she could do besides send me a $25 gift card to Circuit City for my trouble. Since there wasn't anything else I could do I said OK. The cards are still on sale for $19.99 but I don't get to use the $13 rebate. I'll get one of them for free at least. I am also sending a letter to Circuit City to let them know that their customer service was completely unacceptable. In this day and age there is no reason to refuse to let someone speak to a supervisor. I wish I had been paying more attention when the woman gave me her name because I would have filed a complaint because she was so rude and nasty. Shopping in the store may be fine but I will NEVER, EVER shop at circuitcity.com again and if I can avoid the store and shop somewhere else I will.

Taxes and Other Such Crap

Thanks to our crappy governor the sales tax in Maryland will go up to 6% tomorrow so yesterday I took the boys shopping so I could screw the state out of one measly penny on every dollar I spent. We went to Babies 'R Us because I needed hangers for the kids clothes and I didn't want to pay $1.50 for 5 at target when I could get 10 for just slightly more than that at Babies 'R Us. I also wanted the valence that went with Nick's crib set that I should have bought 6 months ago and never got around to it (Who wants to take bets on how long it will take us to hang said valence?) While I was there I found some really cute wall decals that will match the decor in his room so I picked those up too. And I managed to buy Collin's birthday present at target because it was on sale and I didn't want to pay the tax in May. If you haven't noticed, I'm just a little irritated about the whole thing. The only thing they did right was doubling the cigarette tax, but I would feel differently if I smoked. Anyway, as we were walking down the aisle where they keep all the bedding Collin looked around and then at me and said "Look at all this freakin' crap". Uh Oh. Just to be sure what I heard I asked him to repeat himself. He said it a little slower and a little louder (kind of like people do when they're talking to someone they think is dumb) "Look at all this freakin' crap Mom!". I didn't really know how to respond so I just ignored it. Hopefully if I don't reward the words with a reaction he won't continue to use them. Any suggestions for what to do when your child uses words you'd prefer they didn't know?

Maryland is the Arm Pit of the US

I am absolutely furious with our stupid Governor and our representatives in the House and Senate. Instead of cutting all the stupid crap that they spend our hard earned money on every year, they have decided to up our sales tax to 6% and tax computer services. So now not only has this state allowed our BGE bill to double in the last year, they're upping our sales tax too. We won't even mention that it costs me $45-50 to fill up the van at least once a week. Before I had 2 kids in daycare, we spent more on gas each month than on daycare! Where do they expect us to come up with this money? A few years ago, this might not have been such a problem. Sure it would have been irritating because nobody likes a tax hike but everything is going down the tubes now. The housing market is tanking and fuel and energy prices are skyrocketing. Its like the perfect storm for a recession. So all this extra money they're counting on from the sales tax isn't going to happen because all the money we'd have been spending on consumables is now being spent so that we can get to work and pay to heat our houses. They're going to let the people decide on slots. That's about the only thing they did right. If they had approved the slots plan a couple years ago when Governor Ehrlich wanted it, maybe we wouldn't be in the financial trouble we're in now. I can promise you right now Governor O'Malley, I didn't vote for you in the last election and I sure won't vote for you in the next one. Instead of raising the sales tax, why don't you try reforming some of the programs that people milk to no end like welfare? (In all honesty, I don't know all that much about welfare but this is the way I see it) Why not put a time limit on how long you can receive welfare? Give people 7 years to go through school, get some training and a job. Give them a hand up not a hand out. Right now there is no incentive to go off welfare except pride. Also, make it mandatory to practice birth control while on welfare. If you aren't currently pregnant when you apply for welfare benefits, any further children you have will not be covered. I know this isn't fair to the child, but why do we allow women to keep having babies when they can't even begin to care for the ones they already have? They have them for the sole purpose of getting more money from the system. I know, this is generalizing. I'm all for having lots of children, I love them and wish I could have a whole bunch more. My reality is that we don't make enough to afford 3 children in daycare but the government sure isn't going to give me any help with that. I work and make a decent honest living. If I was a crack momma, I could have as many kids as I want and they'd all have health care and food stamps. I just find the whole thing really frustrating. Why should we work so hard so that our kids can have every advantage we can give them when other people just get benefits handed to them? I don't want a hand out, I want the money I'm required to give the government spent better! I'm tired of all the pork barrel spending. Its time for the government to take a look at how they spend our money and start doing it efficiently.

While I'm on the topic of money and handouts I need to vent about work. Every year the office finds a "needy" family and collects money, which the doctors match, and then buys them presents. Last year I think they had $800 to spend on the family. These kids were asking for ridiculous stuff like ipods, video games and Ugg boots. I'm sorry but $800 is more than I spend on Christmas for my entire family and if you're so poor that you need to put you name on an angel tree, you need to be asking for clothing and shoes and educational stuff, not stuff you're going to hock for drugs. (OK, that was mean and unfair) I realize that some of the people in the family were really little and that was what they wanted from Santa and that's OK. Most of the family members were old enough to know better. This year, we made the suggestion of donating the money to the Maryland Food Bank. They could feed a huge number of people with $800! That suggestions was shot down because "the girls really like going shopping" Are you kidding me??? A few years ago, I was told that giving money for this cause was not exactly voluntary which is probably why I'm still so angry about the whole thing. We received a nasty memo in October letting us know that this was coming up and basically stating that we've been given time to save up to contribute. I can't decide if I'm going to or not just on principle. If we were giving money to a food bank I wouldn't have a problem. Even if it was presented in a nicer manner, I wouldn't really have a problem with it. I think its really nice to give to others when you have so much to be thankful for yourself, and I certainly have an abundance of things to be thankful for. I just object to the way its done and quite frankly I think the money can be better spent. I know I'm in no position to lecture anyone on how they spend money. I just wish people would quit asking me for money when they are going to waste it. I've got lots of things I could be wasting it on myself. I guess that makes me selfish but I worked hard for that money, why shouldn't I be the one to waste it if that's what's going to happen to it anyway.

You call that green?

I'm watching the Eagles/Dallas game tonight and in honor of their going green week, CBS has changed their logo to a green peacock and during half-time they turned out all the lights in the studio. They said if everyone watching the game turned out the lights in their homes while they watched they would save enough energy to power 2,000 homes for a year. Great! However, they left the score ticker and the many many TV's in the background running. If they were seriously committed to saving energy they could have left half the lights on and turned off all the other junk.

I'm all in favor of conserving energy if it doesn't cost me extra money and it isn't hard to do. I buy the funky spiral light bulbs and recycle everything we can. Collin even knows which items belong in the recycle bin. The lights and TV's get turned off when we leave a room. Tim even insists on turning the computers off when its not in use (I admit I wasted energy here but it takes them FOREVER to boot up). We also make sure that when its time to buy new appliances we look for the energy star logo. This past summer we replaced all of our windows with energy star windows and all these changes have made a difference. I'm always looking for new, easy ways to save energy and ways to teach the boys the importance of conservation. I'm always on the lookout for good lessons so if you have any fun ideas leave me a comment.

Maybe its Karma?

Survivor: Mommy Style doesn't seem so cute anymore. I guess its Karma, but it just came back to bite me in the butt big time. Things had been going pretty well today. I got up at 5, got both of the boys up, dressed and fed and was out the door by 6:05. Both boys were happy and pleasant and I dropped them off at daycare at 6:30 and was on my way to work without any problems. I even walked into work at 7 on the dot which is pretty good. I had a good day at work. I was able to leave a few minutes early with my desk completely cleaned off. I didn't have any patients to post or charts to write up. All of the patient charts for the next week are in binders so all I have to do is sticker them the day before. My deposit was made and my billing was mailed. I'd spoken with all of the patients for Monday. I'm even caught up on my quality improvement studies that hadn't been done since before Nick was born. I even had time to clean the scuff marks that have been bugging me for the last month on the bathroom door. When I got to daycare to pick the boys up, Nick was sleeping and Collin was FILTHY! He and Aly had been playing in the dirt together and it was everywhere. Their faces were literally black and they had dirt in their hair. I've seen Collin dirty before, but I think this is the dirtiest I've ever seen him. When we got home, Tim was gone. I figured he was seeing the chiropractor so I ordered pizza for dinner and sat down to play with my boys. After I fed Nick, I realized Collin needed a diaper change so I took him upstairs and took care of business. He didn't want to wear his pants and I wasn't planning on going anywhere so we left them off. Back downstairs again, Collin spilled milk on his shirt and asked me to take it off. I distractedly took his shirt off and went back to watching Nick try to roll over (I still haven't seen him do it). I looked up a few minutes later and realized that Collin's back was covered in welts. At first I thought maybe they were bug bites, especially since he'd been playing so hard in the dirt today, but then they began to multiply. Other than the spots, which were a little itchy, he was acting completely normal. I called my mom to find out what hives look like, gave Collin a quick bath because I couldn't take him to the doctor filthy, and then called Nighttime Pediatrics to make an appointment to be seen. They had an appointment at 6:50, which was in less than an hour, but requested I speak with a health care provider to make sure it was OK to wait that long since I suspected an allergic reaction. I called ask-a-nurse and told them that Collin had been on an antibiotic for 7 days and had red welts all over his back and belly. The nurse informed me that its common to get an amoxicillin rash and it doesn't mean he's allergic to the amoxicillin. He can take it again and will probably never get a rash. I only have to worry if the rash lasts longer than 6 days or if its raised like hives. Did she not hear me describe the rash as raised welts? She recommended cancelling the appointment but my mom instincts were telling me that just wasn't right. She blew me off as another hysterical mom who was freaking out about her kids minor rash, but had she taken the time to listen to me, she would have discovered that I was a hysterical mom who was freaking out a little because her kid had hives-not the flat rash she was describing. I was pretty mad by the time I got off the phone with her. I kept the appointment with nighttime peds. Tim printed the directions for me and Collin and I ran out the door. The directions were wrong. I wound up at Cedar Lane Park so I was 10 minutes late because I had to figure out on my own where the right Cedar Lane was. I spent 2 hours in nighttime peds tonight. My mom instincts were right after all. Collin did have an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. The doctor told me to give him benadryl two to three times a day and use cold compresses on the biggest hives. He also gave us a new prescription for Zithromax because one of his ears still isn't cleared up yet. So tomorrow morning, I'll be at the pharmacy because you can't find one open at 9p.m. This is so not how I planned on spending my Friday night...

Grocery Gripes

I've discovered that 7:00 on Sunday night is a really good time to grocery shop. After dinner, we took the boys to Giant to do the weekly grocery shopping. Usually, I do this with one of the boys and Tim stays home with the other but we made a family outing out of it this week. Anyway, since Nick rides in the basket, Collin gets to walk with Tim. If it were up to me, I'd wear Nick and Collin would ride in the basket, but Tim likes to let him walk and that's why Tim is the one that runs after him. It turns out that Giant is practically empty on Sunday nights and Collin had a blast running up and down the aisles while Tim chased him and I did the shopping. We were so busy chasing Collin that we didn't get nearly as much as we normally do (this is a good thing, it means we picked up only what we really needed most). After Collin had expended a good deal of energy, we went to the checkout and here is my gripe: if Giant is truly committed to having people use canvas bags, why aren't their employees better versed in how to use them? The canvas bags are awesome, by the way. They only cost $0.99 for the regular ones and $1.99 for the insulated ones and you get $0.03 back for each bag you bring to use. Since I've invested in a few bags and tried to use them I've encountered several problems. If I go through the self-checkout, I don't get my 3 cents off for using my bag and invariably, some well meaning employee comes over and bags my stuff for me in a regular plastic bag despite the fact that I have my canvas bags sitting right in my cart where they're now piling the plastic bags. Tonight I used the regular checkout and handed the girl my bags right from the start, she looked confused. I put all my items on the belt so that all of the cold stuff was together at the front. I just assumed common sense would tell her to put the cold groceries in the insulated bag, but it didn't. They went in a regular bag, as did all the rest of the groceries. She didn't use my insulated bag at all, which I guess is better than if she had used it for regular groceries. I suppose I could have told her to put the cold stuff in the insulated bag, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it and the store isn't far from my house so it wasn't going to make a huge difference. I don't think she remembered to take my 6 cents off for using my own 2 bags either. You would think that if Giant really was serious about getting people to use their own bags, their cashiers would check to see if you had bags and make sure that if you did, you got the full benefits of using them. I really do think they're great. They sit flat in my car, hold a ton, and the handles are long enough that I can sling them over my shoulder and carry Nick's car seat at the same time. Plus, they were cheap! I thought it would be a total pain in the butt to bring my own bags, but I prefer the canvas bags after using them. I think if the system were a little more user friendly, lots more people would be willing to give it a try and maybe our landfills would be a little less clogged with those plastic bags no one ever remembers to recycle.

I Need To Vent

Sometimes it just makes you feel better to get all your thoughts down, I'd say on paper but I guess on screen would be more accurate. People who complain but don't offer solutions are really frustrating to me. You're either part of the problem or part of the solution. As far as I'm concerned, if all you do is complain and no solution is good enough for you, you are part of the problem. After my board meeting the other night I was ready to resign my position. I feel better now that a few days have passed and I posted my rant which was probably a little angrier and snottier than I would have normally posted. I can't wait to find a single family house and move. Then again, as the saying goes-the grass is always greener on the other side.