Updatey Goodness

News All Around! Let’s start with today.

Today Michael took Atos to the vet. He has an ear infection, but we can use the meds we have for Sasha, and she only charged us for the test on his ear, not the visit itself. He is otherwise healthy and friendly. We both ran down to Lauderdale and picked up Sasha’s Interceptor (the Abandoned Pet Rescue gave us a months supply for 80$ instead of 12 pills for 80$)  and she started that today. The gal in charge there said she should start to look better in a couple of weeks. Yay!

Once we were done in Lauderdale we came back up to Coral Springs and signed the boys up for camp for next year. I never did hear back from Camp Gan Israel, so we signed them up for three days a week at the place they went last summer. I am going to make plans for the other two days a week, so we should have a busy summer! I inquired about VPK for Eshiva for next year, and tomorrow morning we’re going to fill that paperwork out. KIM offers a 50$/week full day of pre-K when coupled with VPK. 7:30 – 3 (VPK runs 9 – 12, so we can drop her off after the boys and I can pick her up after the boys too). She also gets one day a week of swim instruction (not the full day of course, but the instructor comes in once a week) as well as time in the gym and daily school stuff, etc. It’s a great deal, and Olivia waived the registration fee since we’re bringing Eshiva for VPK.

Ah… we also went to Target and went food shopping. Eshiva spent some of her birthday  money and got a Hello Kitty CD/Tape/Radio player. I burned her a couple of CD’s today and she is in heaven. Michael got a full sized acoustic guitar and is going to learn right along with Dorian, who has a kid sized acoustic. He got a video from NetFlix and they are going to do it on Mondays. We went to GameStop and the boys bought some games with their cash. We went back to GameStop and bought a new PS2 because the dog broke ours (total accident). Today was a money kind of day :( At least camp is paid in full and I don’t have to fret about it (ha, fret/guitar) and we saved a little to contribute to the fence fund.

Saturday I saw one of my Aunts & Uncles, and Gram & Zaide. They brought down some studio lights from another Uncle, so I get to tool around with those tomorrow. I need to get Michael to come outside with me and his dremel and fix up my PVC piping so I can get my backdrop stand to, you know, stand. Had a fab visit. I may bitch and moan about my family, but I really miss having more of them live locally, and I should make more effort to visit the ones that are local.

I put all my tattoo equipment in Michael’s car tonight. I haven’t had time to work with it in months. I wont have time for a while yet, and my focus is kind of on my photography at the moment anyway.  I started out with the intention of learning how for the sake of knowing how, and well, I know how, so that’s that. I’m not going to go work in a competing shop, and I wont be hired to work at the shop Michael is at, so I feel like it was getting kind of pointless anyway. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be?

Starting in August I’ll have a full day to myself. I suspect I’ll have a very clean home (I hope so anyway!). I’ll have time to repaint the front room. I’ll have time to find a place for everything. I’ll have time to set up some bad ass photo shoots and put together props to show off how cute my kids are. I’ll have time to finish my digital work during the day so I am not up doing it at midnight. I’m pretty excited about it!

So, that’s the news!

Posts that make you go hmmm

Ever read a post on a forum, or a blog, or even on a news site, and you wonder what on earth made that person write that article?Yah.

I am not claiming my blog entries are all gold. Usually it’s an update on my family or day. My blog is more of a diary for me. I don’t expect a lot of people to read it or have interest in it. I also like to spread links and news stories. Sometimes I comment on them, and sometimes I don’t. I am so there are people who do read me who go “huh?” a lot. That’s ok. I read a lot of stuff that makes me go “huh?”

I just thought I’d mention this bit of “huh” before I get to the meat of my post for today.

We (I) emptied out half the breakfront today, and the half that is empty was removed. We put the piano in it’s place, and the empty piece will go out for trash on Wednesday. Maybe I’ll put it in the garage. I don’t know. I don’t really want to save it and I don’t really have a use for it. I also emptied the corner piece to the bedroom set that was in the front room and it will go out as well. It let me move the weight machine over and opened up the entire front room. Yay!

I am taking an internet hiatus for a bit. It’s about that time. I will be on, because I have work to do, but I am backing away from forums for a bit.

I had some beads I ordered come in the mail today. I ordered two glass spirals and three fabric beads. One of the spirals is too large for my dreads, which is a shame, but the other was perfect! I’ll hang onto the one that’s a bit too large in the hopes that it will fit better once they fatten out a little more.

Boro Borosilicate Bead, Fire-n-Sand LampworkBoro Borosilicate BeadFIBER BEAD

I am wearing the green coil, and I haven’t put the red beads in yet, but everything is fab. I am pleased.

Do not order from Pear Magazine

I have been trying to contact Pear Magazine since 12/27/08 for a refund. I have yet to hear back from the company, even to deny me a refund. This is today’s email:

I am, again, requesting a full refund. The items I ordered were not the items that were delivered. See below. I am ready to write about this as well as contact various raw food groups about your unsatisfactory products, customer service, and communication. I also see your DVD product is available via therawfoodworld.com  – I will also be contacting them to let them know about your business practice.

To recap, this is the package I was ordering, off of this page: http://www.pearmagazine.com/

Our Pear Online Holiday Gift eBasket makes a great Christmas gift that can ship as late as Christmas Eve, as it ships straight to your inbox for you to forward on to the person you are gifting!

The gift basket includes this gorgeous gift basket graphic with links to:

- Pear Magazine Online, Holiday Issue plus a year’s subscription!
- The Raw Vegan Holiday Survival Guide (eBook)
- Raw Vegan 5-course Holiday Feast Video Demonstration
- 365 Ways to Start Taking Care of Yourself Right Now! (eBook)
- Lovely acoustic harp and piano music downloads by Storm and Jinjee
- The 14 Garden Diet raw food eBooks
All for only $59.95 (a $180 value)
To order the Pear Holiday Gift eBasket direct to your inbox, click here

What I received is copied into the email quoted below. It included a request for my address, and a link to a page with links to 12 other web pages (not ebooks as described).

Begin forwarded message:

From: jennifer johnpoll <azxure@azxuredawn.com>
Date: January 7, 2009 8:33:48 AM EST
To: complaint-response@paypal.com
Cc: The Garden Diet <thegardendiet@gmail.com>
Subject: #PP-609-101-306

I last sent this identical email on 1/5 – I received an email this morning asking me to give feedback regarding PayPal’s dispute resolution process. Right now my feedback will be negative, as it has not been resolved. I am out tangible and digital goods. I have a seller who has not contacted me regarding sending said tangible goods or about the gross misrepresentation of the digital goods and I have PayPal, who claims to have a dispute system, but blew me off because of the digital goods, even though I was told “the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods” – so what about my tangible goods that were not shipped at the very least?

I am copying this email to The Garden Diet in the hopes my emails are being read and simply ignored. I am not giving up on a refund on these items from either the source or from PayPal.

My claim was closed [prematurely] and I cannot find any place to leave additional comments. I was told because there were no physical goods involved PayPal will not handle the complaint, however, there were physical, as well as digital, goods involved. Please see email below requesting my mailing address (which should have been provided via PayPal in the first place, now that I think of it) which was never replied to.

This item was also to include DVDs and other physical items. The email I got requesting my mailing address to send them to (see quoted below) was never replied to either. I am not only out digital items, but physical ones as well.

INITIAL AND ONLY EMAIL FROM SELLER:

Thank you for ordering our Pear Magazine Special!

Here is your link to Pear Magazine Online, the 12 raw food ebooks and music downloads:

http://www.thegardendiet.com/XXX (full URL removed as to not distribute their digital goods)

If you have trouble opening the link above try copying and pasting the below into your browser’s address bar:

www.thegardendiet.com/XXX (full URL removed as to not distribute their digital goods)

WE NEED AN ADDRESS TO SEND YOUR ITEMS TO.
PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH ONE.

We hope you enjoy the online magazine and ebooks meanwhile!

All the best of health and happiness,

Jinjee and Storm

http://www.thegardendiet.com

PS: If you have time, we’d love to hear how you found our site!
P.P.S.: Please also help influence children’s snack food choices by joining our “Take A Fruit Break” Campaign at http://www.takeafruitbreak.com

snapfish.com

A couple weeks ago I ordered 4 flip books and 25 prints from snapfish.com. They arrived yesterday or the day before and we looked through them. Disappointed is an understatement. There was one photo in each of the flipbooks that was scratched down the photo – same photo, some spot in each book. The prints were cropped (although the same photos in the books were not cropped).

I sent a note to snapfish yesterday telling them:

I just received my order – many of my photos were cropped, heads cut off, etc.. One of the photos in my photo book has a scratch down the center of the photo (same photo in all four identical books – the scratch is in the photo paper).

I do not want to return them, it’s more hassle than it’s worth, however, I will not be ordering through snapfish again.

I was not expecting to actually hear back, but I did this morning. I’ve been refunded the cost of the books to my snap fish account (so I can reorder the books) and refunded the cost of shipping to my credit card. The prints were negligible – I had 20 free and got five extra. Lesson learned, I guess.

So, I have four 45 page flip books to order. I am not one to pass up free items when given to me. I might order those cards I was talking about making instead.

So much for never ordering from them again?

January Wants

I know, some of you are asking, “Jenn, this is different from your wishlist how?” Easy. My wishlist is stuff I probably would not buy on impulse, or because I have the money for it now and I want it. This stuff is. I almost ordered some of this stuff just last night, to get in an extra “fun for me” before I try not to spend money this month. I controlled myself. Yay me! So, this is my January Wants list, and at the end of the month I plan to re-evaluate the list, see what I can cross off entirely, what I can maybe move to February’s list, and what I can actually purchase. I expect that last list to be quite small.

- some pieces for the juicer – I’d like a new mesh juicing cone and maybe another lid sieve, but I think I can manage OK without those things.

- some pieces for the blender – the vitamix blender pitcher fits on my base, so I am happy to know I can get more parts there. I do have to figure out if it’s the 5200 pitcher or the older models, and I can’t quite tell from looking at them online. One of the pitchers we got with the blender is a vitamix pitcher though.

- I was entertaining the thought of getting a Flip, but my camera does great video, so… glad I did not impulse buy that! I am still keeping it on this list though. I am kicking myself for not getting it when I saw them  marked down to like 20$ or 25$ a few months ago.

- I want to go to http://www.greatballsofyarn.com/ and get some yummy yarn… not that I need it.