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Home > Archive: March, 2007

Archive for March, 2007

Treasure Trooper's, Cars, Pet Food recall

March 24th, 2007 at 02:52 am

I received my second check from Treasure Trooper's today for $42.00. I guess they're not on my bad list anymore, but I don't think I'll be trying to earn anymore with them. It's way too annoying to have to clear my cookies after doing each offer, as well as keep up on all the offers I have done. Between that check and the last one it will pay for my renter's insurance through April.

Had a dentist appointment today for a cleaning. Ugh. Cleanings are almost as bad as a filling. The sound of the scraping of the teeth - worse than nails on a chalkboard.

A coworker of mine has been asking me about the best ways to go about getting a used car. Her daughter recently turned 16 and has her license. So, the plan is to give her daughter the mom's paid for car, and get a different car for the mom. Then in a few years when the son is 16, mom's car passes to daughter, daughter's car passes to son - mom gets a new car. I've made several suggestions (ebay, Rental Car companies, newspaper, putting word out amoung friends/family members, yahoo groups, etc.) Her husband doesn't like the idea of a rental car because he thinks they'd be too abused. She looked at a yahoo group I mentioned, but gave up because it felt like too much work to get signed on to it.

So, they're talking about buying a new car - mainly because they can't seem to find anything in their $5 $8k range used. They also just recently put a $6,000 instrument for their daughter on their credit card. (She is very talented on this instrument, is a sophmore, but very likely could get a good college scholarship.)

She's worried about the money and is willing to listen to my ideas, but is very good at finding reasons why it won't work for her family.

What can I say? All I can do is try to offer what I have learned through experience and through much reading. If it's taken, it's taken, if not, then it's not.

This pet food recall is a very scary thing. It's scary to think that a company that makes pet food would be willing to scrimp on ingredients irregardless of the effect it would have on its customers - people's pets. I actually have 3 cans of Special Kitty in my cupboard that I bought 3 or 4 months ago - one of the items on the recall list. Thankfully I only fed my cat a couple tablespoonfuls from one can.

I just can't imagine the grief and heartache that the owner's of affected pets are going through right now. If something were to happen to my Monkey, I just don't know what I would do.

I was reading a story today about a woman who has lost TWO of her cats this past week to renal kidney failure - both tested positive for the rat poison. She has a 6 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. Now, just HOW do you explain that? Two perfectly healthy cats, dead.

Of Courthouses and Time Off

March 12th, 2007 at 10:11 pm

This morning I had to be out the door of my apartment by 5:30 a.m. so I could make it downtown by 6:00 a.m. Why? Because if you remember, on Valentine's Day I was pulled over by a cop for making an illegal left turn (warning) and got a ticket for not having proof of current insurance with me.

I thought I had sent the correct paperwork in a few weeks ago, and had it all taken care of. But Thursday night when I checked my mail I had a letter from the County Clerk telling me I had NOT sent in the correct paperwork. So Friday morning I call and manage to get in touch with a human being who essentially tells me that the only way for me to take care of this now is by coming in to the courthouse and seeing the judge.

Gulp.

They only take the first 90 people who are there at 7 a.m. Which is why I decided to get there by 6 a.m. - hoping to be amoungst the first 10. I ended up arriving there about 10 after due to a few wrong turns, and found about 20 people ahead of me.

Courthouse doors finally open at 7:10. As we are going in I realize that I had not taken the pocketknife off of my keychain. I asked the officer if there was a basket or something I could leave it in to retrieve later. He essentially said throw it away or take it back to your car. With at least 50 people behind in line, I threw it away. Frown

Once inside I followed the crowd and managed to find the place where we were all put into a corded off area. Well, at least the first 50 of us were. The others all had to come back at 12:45. The line moved slower than grass growing, but finally at 9:30 I was called to one of the clerks spots. She quickly looked over my proof of insurance, and then handed me my papers and directed me towards the correct courtroom.

A few minutes later I arrived in the courtroom and stood in yet another line to give the bailiff my papers. He was dealing with someone with a lot of questions, so a kindly lady called me over and did my paperwork. I was so grateful to just be able to sit down. I was even more grateful when she told me that my case would be dismissed and I would not have to pay the $410 fine.

My relief was short lived however, because as I walked to my car I realized that the 2 hour time limit was long gone. Thankfully though, there was no parking ticket on my windshield. So yet another sigh of relief.

It was almost 10:30 by the time I arrived back home. I was exhausted due to not having slept hardly at all last night, plus getting up at a much earlier hour than normal. So I decided to take care of a few phone calls that needed to be made, and then take an hour nap before heading to work.

I made four phone calls. Three of them were to cancel trial offers (Mypoints and Treasure Trooper stuff). The 4th was to Trowe price. I am finally moving forward on figuring out what to do with my two rogue retirement accounts that are losing money for me rather than earning. Yay!

After my nap I wasn't feeling that much better, so decided to just take the entire day off. Not the most fun filled way to use up a vacation day, but I did get quite a few things taken care of that needed to be accomplished.

All in all, I have truly learned my lesson, because I do not ever want to have to stand for 3 + hours in a courthouse again. I will be super vigilant about making sure I have my current insurance card IN my glove box!!!