Verizon sucks too!

We got a phone bill yesterday for $138.00! What the freak!? After a lot of not so nice emails on my part, we figured out what happened. The accidentally gave as a hundred dollar credit in Janurary to erase the set up fee, but they found out about it a few days ago and took the credit away. Granted, I guess we owe the money, but it ticked me off that they could just take the money away like that with no explanation. So I wrote the following letter back...I hope it wasn't too harsh:

I received a response to my inquiry regarding a charge of 104.81. The way it was explained to me, a "credit" that was not mine was giving to me on my January bill, and then taken away on my current bill. While I understand what is being told to me, I am somewhat concerned by the statements in your company's response: "The credit for $104.81 on your first bill was not yours, therefore, we had to take it back."

Quite honestly, this seems like your problem, not mine. If your company makes the mistake of giving credit to people who do not deserve them, this is a cost most ethical companies simply absorb instead of passing their incompetence on their customers. I am pretty sure, that if I decided to fight this, I would win. I doubt there is anywhere in my contract that states you have the right to take away credit that has been given to me, although I may be wrong.

With that said, if you can show me where you have the right to take away credit that has been given me, I will glady pay the charge. If not, then unfortunately I will not be able to. In the future, I would ask that your company take more care to avoid putting unnecessary finanical burderns on their customers like you have with me. If I have a problem like this again, I will have to take steps to protect myself.

Thank you for your time.
Bill McIntosh

Memoirs of a 26 year old, oh yeah, and The Cheesecake Factory sucks!

I had my 26th birthday on Sunday. Sunday birthdays are always a little different because usually the whole "party thing" is a little difficult to do with church and all that jazz....fortunately, my family doesn't feel the same way and by 7 o'clock there were literally 25 people in our cramp little apartment. We had quite a blast.

The "real" birthday celebration was suppose to be Saturday night when we went to eat out with all our family, about 18 people in total. I really wanted to eat at the Cheesecake factory, so we decided to head out to Rancho Mirage really early because (and this should have been our first clue) they do not accept reservations. We get out there 2 and half hours before everyone shows up, and we ask how long the wait will be for a party of 15-20. The wait was 30 minutes at the time, so they tell us to come back and put our in our names in about 45 minutes so that the approximate wait will be about when our group was arriving. Easy enough. We come back 45 minutes later, and surprise surprise, the wait has increased to 3 freaking hours! Either the person lied to us or is a complete idiot. Well, with no other options, we put our names in and hoped for the best.

After about 45 minutes, we went back to the Cheesecake Cake Factory to see what our status was. Good news they told us, a lot of the parties were canceling, so we would get in within the hour. This was indeed good news...or so we thought.

The hour passed, and nothing happened. We go in to see what the hold up was, and the person rudely says, “Well we told you the wait was going to be 4 hours!” Two problems, first we were originally told it was going to be 3 hours, and secondly, they then told us we were going to get in within the hour. They didn’t care.

Well, a 4 hour wait would have put us in the restaurant around 10 pm, so we looked for other options. Fortunately, very fortunately, my mom thought ahead of time and put our names in at another restaurant call the Yardhouse. Right when the Cheesecake Factory was looking hopeless, our buzzer for this new place went off and two tables were waiting for us inside. Amazing service, and wonderful food. I have to say that the Yardhouse is one of my new favorite restaurants and I will certainly go there again.

Our One Year Anniversary!!!....kinda...

We started dating one year ago today. I still remember, we planned on going to Disneyland together with several other people to get season passes. As it turns out, all of them pooped out on us, so we went alone. Let me tell you, they don't call it the "Magic Kingdom" for nothing. We were on the Haunted House when SHE reached over and held my hand. Now, she might try to convince you otherwise by saying I was the one who made the first move, but don't let her fool you. I was too big a chicken to make the first move.

True confessions of a dumb wife!

Ok, so I do stupid things! Well the stunt I pulled on Friday takes the cake! It was by far the stupidest, cruelest, lamest thing I've ever done! Let me tell you the story:
So I haven't been feeling like myself, so I thought I would go to Target during my lunch and grab a pregnacy test. Target has a big selection and I chose the First Response, because that I what kind my friend at work used and trusted. So I see that you could choose from a pack of 1,3 or 7 tests. I knew that I wanted to take more than one test and a pack of 7 was $3.00 more than the 3 pack. So I make my purchase and head back to work. When I arrive I sneak into the bathroom, pee on a stick and wait....
Well it didn't take long before two lines pop up. And my heart stopped! Holy crap! That meant I was pregnant! So I go grab another one and take it also, two lines again. Well, I decided I better call Billy and tell him the news. I asked him if he was sitting down, and then told him the news. His reaction was definitely not what I was expecting, he was royally peeved! Oh man, he says he wasn't mad, but that's not the feeling I got on the other end of the phone! So I decide that I want to go to the doctor and make sure this is for real. So I head over to the doctors office. And as I am sitting at a stoplight I start putting all my "stuff" into a bag so I can show it to the doctor. And do you know what I discovered, in little yellow letters towards the bottom of the box it says that is an ovulation test! I was not pregnant! But if I wanted to get pregnant that afternoon could! But I still went to the doctor and let them do a blood test, which I hated!
So being the Mormon I am, I now have a nice stash of ovulation and pregnacy tests in my food storage closet. Isn't that special!?!

The Husband's Rebutal: If there is ever a time where it is a good idea to read the label, a pregnancy test is certainly up there on the top of the list. People read the label on cans of soup, or bottles of shampoo, you'd think that would be the case with a pregnancy test too. I mean, you can't just tell a guy is whole life is going to change and then say ooops, I meant no, i mean yes, i mean no....oh crap, i dunno. Not a good for an already balding husband with a history of heart disease in his family.

And, finally, to set the record straight: I was NOT mad. Stunned, yes. Overwhelmed, yes. But I was not upset or mad. I'm positive that after a day or two, I would have been fine and welcomed the wee-little infant into our family.

The Hotel from Hell!!!

We decided we needed a break, so we headed down to Anaheim for the weekend so we could relax and use our season passes before they expire in a couple days. We really did have a fun and relaxing time, but I have to tell you that the Super 8 hotel we stayed in was like a room out of some movie where every other room has chalk outlines of deap corpses.

First of all, they put us in a handicapped room for some reason. While the bathroom was HUGE and enabled 5 wheelchaired individuals to do wheelies simultaneously in their chairs, this came at the cost of the rest of the hotel room which was barely big enough to fit a queen-sized bed and nightstand in.

Problem #2 - The walls were at best 3 inches thick. Our first morning there we both woke up to what sounded like people sreaming and laughing in our room. It took us a minute to realize that it was actually the people next door, but the walls were so cheap that they might has well been having the conversation in our very room. Side note: It is amazing what people will do and say when they think no one else is around to hear (we won't even go into what we overheard with "John" and his "enthusiastic" girlfriend on the other side of us).

Problem #3 - We were suppose to get the LA Times delivered to our room. We got it without a problem the first morning. On the second morning, we both heard the guy plop the newspaper down outside our door. I went over to the window to look out, and sure enough it was there. I decided to get ready for the day first, so I went into the bathroom, took a shower, and got ready. I go back over, open the door, and it is gone. What the heck?!? I shut the door and go back inside. About 5 minutes later, I hear the guy plop something else down outside the door. Looking outside, it was my newspaper. Well, I was in the middle of cleaning the hotel room, so I decided to finish that first. 3 minutes later, I go over and open the door and it is gone again!!!! Neither one of us had any idea what happened to it, but it was a fitting end to a horrible hotel.

Anyway, despite the Hotel from Hell, we really did have a good time. We can't wait for Space Mountain to finally re-open. We will be getting our new Season Passes next time we go, so if any of you are interested, let us know and we will get them together.

"I Do Not Speaka English"

About 3 months ago, I got this group of 4 girls in my class. They were causing havoc in their other class, so they were sent to mine because I am known as somewhat of a disciplinarian. After a month or so they realized that they weren't going to way with anything in my class, so they whined and complained. The Administration, not being able to withstand the whining of 7th graders, gave in and moved all but one of them from my class. The one that is left is the biggest brat on earth. She is upset that her friends got to leave but she didn't, so all she does everyday for the past few months is plop down in her seat, fold her arms, and pout. She will not talk, make I contact, or do any work. Whenever I ask her a question, she'll look at the person next to her and ask "Que dijo?" which is translated to be "What did he say?" Obviously, I thought, not only is this girl a brat, but she doesn't speak a word of English. That was until I talked with one of her other teachers.

I was visiting with her Social Studies teacher one day and somehow we got on the topic of this girl, and I mentioned the fact that she didn't speak any English. The Social Studies teacher looked at me like I was joking, and then asked if I was serious. I said that I was and she started laughing. Not only did this girl speak English, but she was the most fluent girl in her class. Needless to say, I was certainly taken back, but I didn't quite know what to do with the new information.

Fast forward to yesterday: I was especially annoyed with this girl, and finally I snapped. I asked her, "Why do you sit there a pout? Why do you even bother coming to class?" Predicatably, she turned to the student next to her and asked, "Que dijo?" I knew I had her where I wanted her. "Melissa, cut the crap! I know you speak English. Not only do you speak English, but your History teacher informs me that you speak the best English of anyone in class. So would you like to drop the phoney baloney story now, or would you like me to do it for you?" I have never literally seen the blood drain out of someones face before. It was great, and I must admit that I have never been so proud of myself before in my life. Of course I would have been prouder if I had figured out her little plan sooner, but those 7th graders are tricky I tell you.