I can't decide if this is really as weird as it seems.

posted by paula 9:50 PM

Blame it on the dog.
We’re getting a lot of rain here in Minnesota. And besides the frustrations of living in this ‘well sought after apartment complex’ whose windowsills and floors leak every time it rains, I have another problem to deal with.
This morning we awoke to find my favorite plant -- a small tropical purple passion plant, with shimmery purple leaves -- demolished. Demolished isn’t even the word. Disseminated or obliterated is more like it. I wasn’t the first to get up, so I didn’t get a chance to examine the crime scene before it was contaminated. And Ryan removed the majority of the evidence before I had a chance to look it over, but circumstance states that the plant was in tact and well-growing condition when we went to bed eight hours earlier.

Naturally, the perpetrator that would get blamed is the dog. They always get the blame. But dogs are like children (at least ours is) and when they know right from wrong (as ours does) they generally show their guilt on their face and go into hiding after an incident like this. This morning, Friday did neither. He just sat there and watched us stare at the soil all over the carpet. Granted, the plant sat on a sill which was well within his reach, but he’s not in the habit of eating plants and he’s had plenty of opportunity to attack one of them prior to this day. I also seem to think that there would be a trail of paw prints to his bed with the looks of how much soil was on the ground.

So we’ll blame the leaky windowsill and be call it case closed.

posted by paula 9:04 AM

When exactly has a practical joke gone too far? A few weeks ago Ryan found this practical joke on PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Apparently they had plans to split off one of their divisions and call themselves Monday. Yep. Just Monday. Someone in the UK snatched up the domain name before they could get to it. Good thing that after the buyout by IBM, the name change won’t go through.

And Mr. or Mrs. Rowan isn’t happy with the services that Qwest is providing them. They’ve registered retard.net and redirected it to one of Qwest’s websites.

posted by paula 11:07 PM

Update: For some strange reason, after numerous failed attempts with several different credit cards (both online and on the phone) our account status is 'ok' and the website is up again. We'll see if they don't change their minds a day or so from now and 'issue a refund.'

posted by paula 10:25 PM

We’re on probation.
So you probably got this email saying that you could find us here sometime on Friday afternoon. You probably went to the website and it was down. This is why:
I originally registered the domain through a hosting company, hoping that I could kill two birds with one stone. They supposedly registered it with Verisign. A week later, the website still hadn’t propagated so I called my hosting company to see why. My order was lost and so they ‘re-registered’ the website. That was Tuesday. My credit card was charged on Thursday and Friday the website went down. Thinking it was a server problem, I waited. Sunday rolls around and I email my hosting company to see what problem was. Their basic answer was ‘we noticed that you made your account changes on the 18th. Sometimes these things take time and while we know you’re anxious to get to your website, please be advised that it may take from two to four days for the website to propagate.” Two to four days!?!?! I registered the thing last Tuesday! So I wrote them back to tell them that. They suggested that it wasn’t their problem and that I contact Verisign. So this morning I call Verisign and they say that the charge went through on my credit card, but a credit to the credit card was requested on Friday, so they show my account standing as ‘no payment’ so naturally, they shut down the website.
Just wait, it gets better.
So I asked if I could make a payment with a credit card over the phone. He said that I could and I gave him the info. Three credit cards later, none of them were going through even though they were credit and debit cards. “Without placing blame” (his words, not mine) he advised that he could put my account in probationary status for 15 days while I mailed in a check. I grumbled and complied.
Panicked I called my credit card company who had no record of any attempted transactions this morning or any failed or denied transactions ever. Content that this is obviously Verisign’s issue with their credit card services (which is ironic, considering the nature of their business) I called my hosting company (long distance, out in Denver or CA) to see who actually requested the credit on my card. After thirty minutes on hold they said that it obviously wasn’t them and that I should take the issue up with my credit card company. I informed them that I just got off the phone with my credit card company and that they informed me that they aren’t in the practice of doing such things. Then I hear “Just a minute…” (insert flurry of typing here) “There. I’ve added your name to a database and your website, waitingonfriday.com should be active within two to six hours.” Fed up with the run around I said, “Great. Thanks. That’s wonderful” and completed the call. Although I don’t think that’ll solve the problem, it’s noon and sunny out so I’m not going to spend my day trying to get it straightened out.
Although you can’t see this now, you’ll probably see it someday. Hopefully. Someday. Ironically, I guess I could say that we’re waiting on waitingonfriday.com.

posted by paula 11:59 AM