and by the way

Remember a certain nuisance of a neighbor who couldn't park his car? Apparently his last 2 rent checks bounced and he skipped out of town.

continuing headaches and more ranting

Comcast is by far the worst company that I have ever dealt with. Now I'm having billing issues.

Here's the scenario. I received a bill on April 9th. Payed it online in full on April 12. Today I wake up and my Internet is out once again, and the TV is working just fine. I call and get immediately bounced to a message saying my service is past due. ?!?!?!?!?!?

My next bill comes out on May 9th. So if I payed the complete balance that was on the last bill that I received, I should be up to date. Correct? Not according to Comcast. They say that I have a past due balance that equals 2 months of service. I asked the lady how that could be if I payed the full amount and she says that I actually payed a past due amount from January and February. ?!?!?!?!? I looked at my old copies of my bills and they indicate that up to the bill that was posted on March 9th, my account was up to date. So if I payed the full amount on the April bill, and the May bill comes out on the 9th, then how can I still owe for 2 months? The lady said that she couldn't answer that questions because she just works in the payment department and that I would have to call the billing department. So I call the number that she gave me, and it bounces me back into the same loop telling my that I am past due and takes me directly to the payment department.

First, I have Internet connectivity issues for at least a good 2-3 months, and now they are trying to double charge me. I get bounced around the stupid automated phone system over and over just to reach people who can't answer my questions. And on top of that, I never got the discount that was promised to me for 2 days where I had no TV or internet service at all.

I got a quote from Direct TV today. For high speed internet and 120 channels it will cost me $15.00 more a month? Is it worth it? Any input from Direct TV users? How's the satellite internet service there?

Boys are cute

The other day Daniel told me that he was going to go grocery shopping. I just happened to see his little shopping list laying next to his wallet. Here's what it said:

Ice cream
Beer
Lunch Meat
Cereal
Chips & Dip


I'm glad to see we got all the bases covered :)

On the flip side, last night he told me that he wants to start getting in better shape again. So we declared the following rules:

• No more ice cream (more his vice than mine)
  
• No more beer at home, just when we go out 
  
• We'd keep going out to a minimum. Me with my girls on Thurs. and he and Nelson will keep their weekly Man-Date on Thurs. 
  
• Chicken wings only once a week - that would be on Saturday for our weekly Hooters excursion...  Yes, we go to Hooters on a weekly basis. 
  
• No more sugary cereal (again, more of his vice than mine)
  
• We're going to get fruit to eat for snacks
• No more pizza, except once in a while is ok....  Thank God, I was getting sick of pizza
• No more eating out for lunch, we're going to pack sandwiches and fruit instead.  
• And we are going to exercise.  Instead of our weekly ritual of "Tuesdays with Maury (Povich that is), we are going to get up early and jog on A1A by the beach.  Or in my case probably crawl.  And I was also going to actually use my gym membership.  

Hahaha.. wish us luck

Ironically....

...they were not.

And we're back... again...

Yet another service appointment exactly one week after the last one. After three days of no internet or cable, I'm back in business. Both services were completely off, like they were totally disconnected. This time no explanation was given and the technician was here about a total of 5 minutes.

This is getting ridiculous. At least the guy that I talked to on the phone said he would credit my account for 3 days. So I figure I'll only have to pay about $60 for these services this month. It's Comcastic!

And we're back!

Yesterday I finally got my internet service issues sorted out. For the past couple of months, I have had connection issues, which wouldn't allow me to be on the computer and have the TV on at the same time. Not too big of a deal, but the real pain in the patootie was the fact that I constantly had to switch the cable from my modem to the TV. That was pretty ridiculous, let me tell you.

Why did it take me so long to get my internet problems resolved? It was Comcast's fabulous customer service. When I had originally called with the problem a while back, I dealt with some lovely women who did not practice the South Florida value of Sunsational Service. Nope, they were not Sunsational at all...

So I was looking into other options of ISPs when Daniel talked me into trying just one more time. Not only have my issues been resolved, but my faith in Comcast's customer service has been renewed. For the lovely lady named Angel who took my phone call to the two technicians who came and fixed the problem... Gold stars by your names. To the other meanies I talked to... :P To the lady who told me that Comcast doesn't support Macs and I would have to call Apple to resolve my connection issues... ???

Really?

I was out with some of the girls last night and we found this sign in the window of a Jamaican store.



Thanks, Torii! :)

Seriously... is it that difficult?

My jerk-wad neighbor apparently has a difficult time figuring out how to park a car. The other day he parked literally about 6 inches from my car. I had to climb in through the passenger door. One I did that I had to inch out carefully, almost taking out my rear view mirror. I was late to work due to the extra hassles I mentioned above, as well as the time it took me to write an angry letter to tape on his door.



I guess he must have gotten the message about not parking too close to other cars, because now he's double parked, taking up enough space for two cars.

And just think, this idiot is an airline pilot.

Behold the major award

I forgot to post about this for a couple of weeks, but it's just too cool to pass up.

So Daniel and I went to Quarterdeck off of 17th street to watch the Superbowl. We had a great time. The food was excellent, the beer was icy cold, and we had a table full of Patriot fans sitting right next to us. They were nice and we joked and taunted each other, so it made watching the game a lot more fun. At least they were nice to us until Daniel got up and danced in the isle after the Giants made their winning score.

Anyway, that was all beside the point. The absolute highlight of the night would be during half time. The wait staff and bartenders were going around the restaurant giving everyone prizes. They stopped at our table and behold... we were honored with the major award. Did we get a T-shirt, baseball cap, visor, or anything else useful like the rest? No sir, we were honored with the tacky novelty treasure. There was only one of these in the whole place, and we got it.

Behold.... The fake glass of beer that lights up!



And now be prepared to be totally jealous! Here is the fake glass of beer in all it's glory!

Is that a....

The other day Daniel was sitting on the edge of my bed while I was folding and putting away my laundry. We were talking and laughing when he suddenly became quiet and stared down toward the floor. He looked at me with his eyebrows all crinkled up and slowly said, "Rebecca.... Is that (points to the the floor)... a penis cozy?"




No silly, it's a little sock! But I do see his point :)

I'm still giggling about it.

Attack bunneez

They may look cute and fluffy, but don't be fooled. These are dangerous creatures. The bunneez that live in my yard are getting terribly bold. They attacked PG (a small, elderly chihuahua mix), and I have good reason to believe that they come up to my front door and windows to taunt Milo.

The once timid creatures will now come right up to you. Today when I went to leave all three of them were on the sidewalk right in front of my apartment. I stopped to take a picture and I think they thought I was offering food. One of them hopped right up to me and started inching his way to my feet. Having on sandals I was a little concerned about my exposed toes. I started backing away. The bunnee kept following me and soon his friends joined him. Next thing I know, I had three bunneez chasing me and cornering me on my patio. Everytime I tried to leave, those little turds would chase me back. I felt like an idiot running from fluffy little bunneez, but I swear they had malice in their little pink eyes. No one ever suspects the bunneez...

New TV shows

Recently I've gotten into a couple new TV shows. They are actually a little on the morbid side, but what can I say?

The First 48 - Basically, the show is about homicide detectives solving murder cases. The show is entirely real and filmed as the case unfolds, although I'm sure the dramatic music is dubbed in during editing. The title refers to the fact that homicide investigators have a 48 hour window in order to solve a murder case. Once the 48 hours are up, the probability of ever solving the case is drastically reduced. I don't know why I like this show so much, but it is pretty cool to see how these people work.

Lockup Raw - This is about prison life. There's not much more to the show than that. It's like a bad car accident. You really can't stop watching it. Why do I like this show? I have no clue.

Avatar : The Last Airbender - Yes, this is a cartoon, and yes it is in anime style. I totally blame Daniel for this one.

I wonder what the end of the writer's strike will mean for TV? Now that they have writers again, I wonder if A&E will be filling up 3 entire evenings with The First 48 back to back to back.

Drat

Well, I guess the new bins I purchased were not intended for baby storage. I wonder if the same applies to cats.

Gas station fun

I don't know if anyone else will find this as funny as I did. This is a little sign taped to the pump at a gas station.

New favorite blog

I found this blog after seeing a picture of a unique dragon tattoo that StDebb found. This guy is funny, I could spend hours looking through his blog.

http://horribletattoos.blogspot.com/

And just a little warning.... some of the photos are a bit explicit.

Ice cream Fort Lauderdale style

Daniel and I were sitting outside eating pizza at Primanti Brothers when the sounds of tourists on the beach were drown out by loud music. It wasn't the muffled or distorted sounds of bass coming from a car, but the crystal clear sound of amplified music. I looked up and saw the most kick ass ice cream truck ever.



I know this picture doesn't do the coolness of this truck any justice, but I had to include it anyway.


This guy had huge speakers mounted in the dash of the truck, and I'm sure there was some pretty solid subwoofer action going on there. It sounded like a dance club rolling down the street. The guy driving was totally jamming out, even busting some dance moves behind the wheel. They were having a blast, although I think they were driving a little too fast if they ever hoped to sell some ice cream.

Not to brag or anything....

I've been making a point of going for walks during my lunch or dinner break at work. The other day was a particularly nice day, so I took a few pictures. Here are some shots of the route that I like to walk every day.



Here is a picture of a nice park across the river. Too bad I work on the other side.



This is a nice shot of the bridge. There was a really cool boat docked on the other side.


Here is a picture of the really cool boat.


Oh yeah... and for all your northern folk.... Just so you know, it's been in the mid 70s to lower 80s every day. Just so you know :)

I'm a delicate flower

Or so that's what my neighbor's girlfriend told me the other day. She saw me sweeping off my porch and she told me I was being very dainty. Then she called me a delicate flower.

Boy, she doesn't know me very well.

I don't think I've stopped laughing yet.

another bad kitty video

I just saw this video and I couldn't resist. Anyone who has ever had a kitten knows exactly what this guy is talking about:)

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve I will spend the day working, then I will head over to Sarasota to ring in the new year by partying downtown and watching some balls drop.

I hope everyone has a nice and New Year's Eve!