medley

Most of the baby/toddler toys that play music tend to play the same set of common nursery rhymes: Row Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, A Bicycle Built for Two, London Bridge is Falling Down, etc. So you tend to get used to hearing them over and over in that weird electronic tone.

Imagine my surprise, then, the other day when one of Isaac's toys suddenly burst into Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries." LOL!

plus ca change

(I actually wrote the previous post about an hour and a half ago, so this one seems closer than it is.)

I am currently engaged in battle with RCN, my former cable/internet/phone company, over their claim that I owe them $11.12. You may think that for a measly eleven bucks one should just suck it up and pay, but so deep is my hatred for RCN that I can't let this go. Especially given the fact that the numbers on my various bills don't add up correctly. They claim there was a bill in between the ones I have, of which they promised to send me a copy. But even still, if there was such a thing, it still doesn't make the numbers make sense.

I talked to two different people, the latter of whom got quite snippy when I insinuated that she didn't know how to read a bill (an assertion behind which I shall stand), and in the end, finding herself unable to explain to me why a particular group of numbers didn't add up to what she was claiming they did, she finally said that she'd have their "billing resolution" department call me. Well, maybe they will and maybe they won't, but I'm not going to let this go until they admit that I don't owe them anything.

While I was talking to them, I could hear other RCN cust-supp people in the background. One of them was saying "OK, well there's no need to raise your voice." Another was saying, "no, hold on, it'll all be okay, I promise. I'm sorry this is happening to you." LOL. I guess I'm not the only one having issues with RCN.

The really irritating thing is that I keep getting solicitations in the mail at my new place from RCN begging me to switch to them. The general tone of their marketing materials is, "We're better than Comcast because they're a big monopoly and we're just a friendly little mom-n-pop company!" Which is actually why I first switched to RCN like four years ago, and it may have been true then, but it sure ain't true any more. I've half a mind to call them and insist that they stop spamming my snailmail box, because there's no way in hell that I'm going back.

My lj-mood for this post is irritated, which I am, but I'm also wallowing in a bit of smug evil satisfaction at having defeated Snippy RCN Chick. Ha! Take that! Your snippy attitude is no match for my death-defying command of the ability to add and subtract!

other stuff

DNC Traffic Report: My commute was not at all affected by the DNC, although I feared it would be. My mom, who takes the bus into Boston every day for work, also reports that the traffic was fine. It really seems like a lot of people just bowed out -- either went away, or took the week off work, or telecommuted. The feared bottlenecks never really manifested. Of course, there's still a lot of animosity in the city toward the mayor for all the inconveniences, but whatever, it's over now....

Finance Report: My bonus did indeed show up on today's paycheck. Yay!!! Uncle Sam took 40% of it, but it's still $900 more than I expected to make this month so it's all good. Even after deducting the cost of my new tattoo, it's still more than two weeks' worth of daycare. ;P I'm a happy camper about the bonus (not so much happy about how much daycare costs, but it's not like that's news).

Medical Report: Yesterday I went to get my blood drawn to test my thyroid levels again. I've been taking the thyroid meds for about two months now and they wanted to test again to see whether the dosage is right. It was absolutely the easiest blood draw I've ever had. I'm a pretty easy draw anyway -- my veins are easy to find, and I don't flinch or freak out or anything. But this one was particularly fast. I was pleased. Of course, afterwards, I realized that I hadn't given them my new phone number, so I called all panicky thinking that they might have tried to call me with the results and gotten a disconnect message. But it turns out that my nurse-practitioner is out till Monday anyway so it's okay.

Isaac Medical Report: Gotta take him to get his blood drawn too, to re-test for anemia now that he's been on his iron supplement for a couple of months. I want to have him tested for lead again too now that we're living in the new house. I strongly doubt that his blood draw is going to be as easy as mine was. :(

Weekend Pre-Report: We're going to the cottage all weekend. It'll be our make-up Fourth of July celebration since my mom was away on the actual 4th. We'll do all our traditional things: have our friends B and M out, grill food over the fire, play cards, eat strawberry shortcake. Maybe we'll even set off some fireworks just for the heck of it. Whee! :)