Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

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F’d-up Friday

November 4, 2011 by kathi

I’m having a tough time getting back into the rhythm of daily writing. As I’ve mentioned before, November is not the best time for me to start any kind of involved personal project.

Today was a particularly aggravating day with no chance to enjoy the unseasonably mild weather. All week, AT&T repair trucks have been working in the alley behind the house, mostly blocking our garage. It has been a real inconvenience, plus I hate to open the garage when strangers of any variety are around. The work day started early and ended late. In between, we were missing several people due to illness or minor emergencies. When I finally got home, it was to the news that one of our neighbors had his home broken into.

I know I have complained about the jagoffs in my neighborhood quite often. The neighbor whose home was broken into is not one of them. He is a very nice older gentleman who certainly did not deserve the headache. Thankfully he was not home at the time, and the only saving grace is that the scumbag criminals did not hurt his dog. Not physically, anyway. I hope she was not too traumatized by the invasion.

I put part of the blame on another neighbor who is definitely one of the jagoffs. His constant yard sales (so many as to be in violation of city ordinances, but of course since it’s not a “real” crime nothing has been done) bring around unknowns and undesirables as well as legitimate neighborhood bargain seekers. I would not be surprised if some of the unknowns were also casing out the area for easy marks.

I’ve always bought into the conventional wisdom that having a dog is a deterrent to break-ins. Now I’m not so sure. I do know that when the Rottweilers bark and growl at unknowns or unfriendlies, I won’t be making an effort to stop them any longer. This is one time that I plan to use the stereotype of killer Rottweilers for good — our good. I truly hate that I feel I have to do that.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 4 of 30)

Filed Under: Chicago, Rants or Raves, Rottweilers Tagged With: annoyances, jagoffs, NaBloPoMo

Un-doggy Saturday

April 3, 2010 by kathi

Saturday is usually all about Freya, with either a class or a competition to attend. Today, I considered taking her to a fun match or a rally obedience drop-in class, both held at locations we will be trialing at in May. But today was my best chance to catch up on a number of different non-doggy errands that have been put off for too long.

I closed the last of my accounts at a bank I have been with since my first job downtown. I’m not a very sentimental person in general, and I’m thinking it would be really hard for even a gushy emotional type to be sentimental about a bank these days. I’m mostly just angry and annoyed that changes they’ve made over the years, particularly in the last two years, have finally gotten to the point where I felt forced to seek a bank that is more friendly to the very small investor.

I dropped off my pretty red VAIO laptop at the Sony Style store for a warranty fan replacement. It will take about a week from the time the laptop actually gets to the service department on Monday or Tuesday. Since I also have an iBook G4, I don’t have to go laptopless. But computer years are like dog years, so this five-year-old laptop is showing its age. You see where it is a G4 and thus still a PowerPC, so I can’t run the latest and greatest versions of a growing number of applications. It’s old enough that a built-in webcam still wasn’t standard (although the SuperDrive was, thankfully).

I shouldn’t complain, I know. It’s like whining about a rather unexciting meal when there are people starving in other parts of the world or for that matter, in other parts of this city. My most-needed documents are cross-platform and saved to my giant-ass 1.5TB network drive. I have Mac versions of my most-needed applications (some provided by and for work, and others purchased by me… yes, being cross-platform comes at a price). So I’m not exactly suffering.

I know today is iPad release day, and since the Sony Style store is in the same mall as an Apple Store, I suppose I should have gone to check it out. I did walk by, and it was very crowded. Apple fanbois and fangirlz make me want to kill on a good day, and this probably would not have been a good day. So I kept walking.

Really, I just can’t get that excited over the iPad. Yeah, it’s cool, but it just doesn’t seem like something I need. But if a nice new 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro fell out of the sky to replace my trusty iBook… now that would be exciting!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 3 of 30)

Filed Under: Computers and Technology, Rants or Raves Tagged With: annoyances, iBook, NaBloPoMo

Small mystery possibly solved

March 31, 2010 by kathi

A couple of weeks ago, there was apparently a leak of some kind from my van. There was an oily spot near the passenger front tire in the garage. It was due for an oil change anyway, so I took it in and mentioned the location of the leak and that I didn’t think it was an oil leak. They checked a number of likely suspects, but didn’t find anything. It wasn’t oil, brake fluid, tranmission fluid, or engine coolant.

I think I now know what it is. The one thing they probably did not check, since spring had not yet sprung at that time and temperatures were in the 40s, was the air conditioning. Today, spring sprang with a vengeance and temperatures rose well into the 70s. The interior of the van was pretty hot at the end of the work day. I turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year and I got… nothing.

Mystery possibly solved, though!

And now, March 2010 NaBloPoMo is done.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 31 of 31 and done)

Filed Under: Rants or Raves Tagged With: annoyances, NaBloPoMo

Thought it was easier to do it right the first time?

March 30, 2010 by kathi

Maybe not. I spent some time today trying to get a number of things changed or corrected, and it must not have been easier to do it right the first time.

Most important one, at least in my warped priority system: Freya’s URO2. I know I have bored or irritated some of you who are not psycho dog people yourselves with my insistence on keeping close tabs on the dogs’ title progress from the day we first start competing for a particular title, until the day the paper certificate is in my hands. So I feel vindicated that I finally have a discrepancy to report. I’m not saying I am pleased, because I am quite far from pleased. But at least now I can point and say, “see, it happens.”

Only two of Freya’s three Level 2 legs were recorded as qualifying and the other was recorded as non-qualifying. I spoke to a very nice and helpful person (Beth) in UKC’s Dog Sports Department, and I am almost 100% sure that a review of the original trial paperwork will get the records corrected. There were only four dogs in our RO2A class so it can’t be that hard to straighten out. At least, I hope that’s the case. We have the qualifying ribbon and even a placement ribbon. Unfortunately, there may or may not be awards photos, and I did not get copies of our score sheets at this trial. You can bet from here on out I will do that without fail, regardless of who I have to inconvenience. Sorry, show secretaries. I don’t want to be a bitch; that’s Freya’s job. But I want to have all the proof I can gather in my own hands in case of anything like this happening again.

ADDED 3/31/10: I just received an email from Beth letting me know that she has heard back from the judge, who is out of town but will check his records upon his return home on Friday. Very pleased to hear that they are very much on top of things!

ADDED 4/7/10: All is well! Thanks, Beth!

Two other annoyances involve credit cards and banking, so are obviously much lower on the priority grid than Freya. I mean, Freya is FREYA!!! and money is only money, right? The credit card one was easy but aggravating. The APR was arbitrarily raised a few months ago for no reason that I could see. This is a credit card that I have had for about 20 (yes, 20) years. There have been a few late payments over the years, none within the last year, and it has never been over limit. I advised them of these facts and they agreed that the APR was inappropriately high, and adjusted it back down. Had I never called, they would have never done a single thing. I almost never carry a balance on that card, and perhaps they raised the rate because of that fact and because I don’t use it often. But really. How screwed up is that?

As for the banking annoyance, I do not think it should take two emails and a phone call to resolve a mistake made on the bank’s end. I won’t say which bank because everything else has been fine so far. New checking accounts of the type I recently opened are supposed to get the initial check order at no charge. When I saw a charge for checks on my statement, I emailed to verify that the free checks were not a limited time offer. The bank’s reply confirmed that, apologized, and said there would be a credit issued that day. It wasn’t. A few days later, I emailed again to inform them of that fact. They apologized again, said the branch had been notified, and that I may want to call them. Ummm, no. I do not want to call anyone. I want it fixed without my having to call anyone. You guessed it. I had to call. I got a long wait on hold, yet another apology, and at least this time, an immediate credit that was visible right away when I checked online. But should I have had to initiate contact this many times for a problem this simple that was their error from the get-go? I think not.

I’m not sure what category my last annoyance fits into. It’s a bit unusual. The company that services our phone system at work doesn’t usually cause much annoyance, so I won’t mention their name. However. Their trouble ticket system has had my name and email listed as primary contact on someone else’s account for some time. So whenever that account has a problem, I get a confirming email from the trouble ticket system. Since those confirmations do not say anything about the email address being unmonitored, and I never got a bounce-back from my emails trying to inform them about the error, I assumed they had received them. Until today, when I got yet another confirmation. This was extremely annoying because their website lists NO way to contact them via regular email. I had to phone them. The person I spoke to did not sound stupid at all, but it took forever to get across to them that not only was I not the right contact for that company, I had no idea who they even were, and that it was pointless to ask me who the contact should be, because I didn’t even know who worked there. I think they finally got it. I am wondering who will get the confirmation email the next time our company has a problem, though!

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 30 of 31)

Filed Under: Rants or Raves, Rottweilers Tagged With: annoyances, Freya, NaBloPoMo

…and if it’s not something, it’s another thing

November 12, 2009 by kathi

Since it would be our last rally obedience-specific class before the trial, of course this would be a day that I don’t get home early enough to make the long-ish drive to class. Figures. Freya is taking it in stride. Easy for her, because when we practice at home, the string cheese and meatballs for practice are nice and firm and not all mushy. Less pocket lint, too.

And to add to my discomfort level, I still don’t know which day we will be trialing (see yesterday’s post).

UPDATE: 11/13/09 3:55pm – There was a voicemail awaiting me that confirmed our entries for Sunday. Yay!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 12 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 257 of 274)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: annoyances, NaBloPoMo