Amazon, oh Amazon

Written to Amazon a few minutes ago:

To properly illustrate my suggestion, allow me to tell you a story.

My husband is a Soldier, so we move a lot. In fact, we've moved as a married couple nine times in the past ten years. As our family needs have evolved we've found it increasingly difficult to update our address with every entity with whom we do business. Imagine my chagrin the first time I had an Amazon order, my most treasured Teeccino coffee substitute, fall into the possession of the hapless folks who took up residence in our wake in Fort Meade, Maryland. I changed the billing address but neglected to change the delivery address for my subscription order. That was my mistake. I changed the delivery address for my subscription order after clearing up the mistake and was confident that changing that address had solved my delivery problems.

I then made an order for canvases and an anatomy book, which were also sent to Ft Meade because I had a little too much faith, or perhaps complacency that changing my subscription address had also changed my default shipping address. Alas, this was not so and of course it was my oversight. Your ordering process is so quick and easy that I didn't take the time to carefully peruse my order information. Shame on you. (Yes, I'm playing coy on that one.)

Now, in the latest installment of items sent to Ft Meade by mistake, I find that my most anticipated order of The Lord Of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray (with bonus scenes! and interviews! and Weta documentaries!) is sauntering into the arms of an unknown recipient like a filthy harlot. I had forgotten that something which I pre-ordered might have an old address on it, even after deleting every other address in my Amazon address book as a precaution against such an occurrence.

Dear, wonderful Amazon and the poor CSR who must read my wistful missive, I have a suggestion for you. When someone changes their billing address, please ask if they would also like to change their shipping addresses on various orders at that same time in a popup box, perhaps one that flashes pink and is bordered by animated pythons sipping the tears of a thousand customers whose orders went awry. I understand that many customers ship to many different addresses at the same time, but I find it overtly complicated to have to go in and manually change the shipping address on every single service which you have to offer. Call me flaky (which I know you won't, but you're thinking it by now, I'm sure) but I simply forgot to manage all of my orders in an appropriate manner in the midst of disconnecting, reconnecting, and updating everything from my bank to my cell phones to my doctors to my relatives and ad infinitum.

My adored Amazon, I appreciate your tolerance concerning this terrible tangle. I can only imagine the consternation of the people who live in that old house, wondering why the schizophrenic previous tenants insist that they live where they do not, not to mention why they order such disparate and geeky items.

Now, for hopefully the final time, I would like to request a refund for the movie, if possible, so I can order it again and have to sent to its rightful home. I solemnly promise to look over my shipping and billing addresses three times before every order, throw computer hamsters over my shoulder before confirming the order, and thank the great User every time an order arrives in a safe and timely manner.

Thank you.


(note: every item that was sent to the wrong place has been shipped back to Amazon. My refunds are for returned merchandise)

add in me?

heh. Unofficial, but it would explain a lot.

Week 2

Week 2: total weight loss, 10 pounds. So, we had a bit of a slow down, but that's ok! I check earlier data in the Wii Fit and it said that in March I was 20 pounds heavier than I am now. Groovy.

dare I brag? dare I boast?

There are 15 sections plus a final exam for my first course, medical terminology. I just finished the second section in as many days. The whole course is due by August 29th. I wonder if they'll let me take the final early.


Hey, not a bad way to end my tenth wedding anniversary.  ;)

how do you say integumentary?

Homeschooling taught me a number of things, one of which is the following nugget from which I may never recover:

reading only rarely teaches you how to actually speak.

But, then, neither do sound recordings.

My book says: in-TEG-you-MENT-ah-ree

The guy who does the pronunciation recordings says" in-TEG-you-men-terry

Who do I believe? I just don't know. I guess I'll have to ask a doctor from the Midwest and then just go with it.

week 1

6.6 pounds, according to my Wii fit.

Meh, I'll take it.

South Beach

I'm not feeling too deprived, even after three days. And, dare I say... the Wii Fit says I'm down four pounds already since June 1st.

Man found the biggest artichokes I've ever seen last night, for 80 cents apiece. Tonight, we feast to the tune of (modest amounts of) butter, garlic, and the barest pinch of thyme. Maybe I'll broil them by halves and then roast some parm on them as well. Who says that dieting has to be torture?

Jobs and school and getting by

Things are crazy busy. And yet I managed to find enough time this morning to poke around my Cityville game. It's suitably brainless and if I walk away the only bad thing that happens is crop whither. Ah, Cityville, you forgive me always.

Man is looking at training through a program called LeaderQuest. The VA will pay for the training. He's been to at least three job fairs in the last month and hasn't gotten a single phone call despite the federal resume building classes. He's gone through vocational rehabilitation to try to find a job and nary a nibble. So, when he starts this training we'll be working with his disability check, a stipend from voc-rehab and unemployment benefits. All three of those should get us by, as long as we're pretty careful. The end result of these training courses will be all of the certs he needs to get a job in computers... or, at least that's what they're telling us. Regardless, I have 6-10 months to get my certification with some fairly good job potential. His training is supposed to take about four months, so he'll have two months to look for a job before I start looking. I'm trying not to feel depressed about the whole situation.

Tag is now in scouts, so we're working on that stuff and his Faith in God program. Princess also has Faith in God, but the requirements for both of them are the same. I've got it figured that we can do all of the Faith in God stuff this summer pretty easily, and then we can knock out his whole Bobcat, a good chunk of his Wolf, and at least one arrow of light before Tag heads back to school. In the fall Princess wants to do volleyball and Tag wants to do soccer. He had so much fun with basketball that he may do that after soccer season as well. Between Man's new callings (assistant scout master + young men's second counselor) and mine (assistant Webelos leader), Tag's scouts, Princess' activity girls, and the potential for each of them to have a sport complete with Saturday games, and my school starting next week, I'm feeling a little queasy.

Pebbles is learning to read one baby step at a time. Freida inexplicably has the whole alphabet memorized and can recognize most letters even upside down. We honestly have no idea how that happened or whether it will lend itself to reading.

Oh, and I've started the South Beach Phase 1 yesterday. Day one wasn't too bad. I was feeling a little under-sugared and headachey by dinner, but made it through. I've heard it's the third day that knocks you on your butt, really. I was doing weight watchers before the move but I became somewhat disenchanted with the idea of continuously digitally inputting my food choices for the rest of my natural life, and weekly meetings are right out. So, South Beach it is. I've given up on trying to get Man to quit bringing ice cream and related stuff into the house since it's such a big part of his coping system. As long as I've got broccoli and mushrooms to munch on, I don't feel deprived. Yet.

But I can't really argue with caramelized onions and mushrooms in scrambled eggs for breakfast. It feels like a treat. Yesterday was onions and bell peppers in the eggs, with a big salad with broiled chicken for lunch. Dinner was more chicken with mushrooms, onions, and bean sprouts. I figured I needed to get the first week over with before school started and life really took a turn for the busy.

Who knows? I tried moderate carb last summer and lost 20 pounds... but only with the use of Alli, a fat blocker. So the weight came right back when I quit taking the pills despite continued moderate carb intake. A wee spot of Googling has informed me that insulin resistance, as diagnosed by my dietician, is also known as metabolic syndrome, Syndrome X, or pre-diabetes. Yeah. No strokes or heart attacks for this girl.

Now I need to start putting food storage by that has whole wheat products instead of the normal white. Which is more $$$ but then, strokes and bypass surgery can be pricey as well. And apnea is already expensive, not to mention Lane Bryant clothing and my back hurts. So, that's enough of that.