Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Annoying, Harrassing Calls

I've been getting annoying calls from a recording that doesn't identify the company the call comes from. That's against federal law. Anyway, last week I filed a complaint with the FCC and the Do Not Call list. Today, I got two of these calls within the span of three hours. So, I decided that was enough. I contacted Sen. Robert Byrd's office and asked him to help me get rid of these calls.

I think Verizon thought they were being clever when they gave me my phone number. Apparently people who used to have my number also had my last name and their first initial is the same as mine. My listing in the phone book is my first initial, last name and the city. Obviously, I would get a lot of wrong numbers. Verizon people should be smarter than that.

I was called in for jury duty this week. Luckily, they didn't pick me to serve on the jury. But I did have to spend a good part of Tuesday at the courthouse, sitting around.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

What's Going On...

It's been a while since the last post. Here's an update:

Winnie and PJ are doing well. They go to their grandparents' house every Sunday. They play and they are now going for walks outside every day. They won't let me cut their nails so I am taking them outside to see if I can wear their nails down. They are in their rebellious phase and will do #2 on the carpet if I leave their sight for any length of time. But the good news is that they have stopped shredding puppy pads. They chew holes in them, but they don't shred them into a million pieces anymore.

Steffi and Fritz are not enjoying this hot, humid weather. Hopefully, it will cool down a bit.

I've been watching the military channel lately. Not really interested in the military but I have to find out how those Navy Seal stories end.

I'm working on my second romance novel. I finished the golf themed one and mailed out a query letter to a publisher. Now I'm working on another one and I thought I had finished it, but it ended up pretty short. So, I'm having to add stuff to it. I didn't think I could add a lot, but I'm rewriting the last chapter and I think it's going to end up being two or three chapters long now. Hopefully, the word count will get better.

I had planned to be done with this book by the end of August and then beginning Sept. 1, I would get back on the treadmill. I had hoped to take one month and lose as much weight as possible (as possible for me - which means I eat.) But, there's an employee appreciation day dinner at work coming up so I thought I should start the workout plan a week early. That means I need to get my book finished by the end of this weekend. That will be a challenge. A lot of typing for me this weekend.

I've been getting these harrassing phone calls from an anonymous recording. I googled the phone number and found out it's a collection agency, but as I don't owe anyone any money, they can't be after me, probably after that Rodney guy I keep getting calls for. Unfortunately, the call is a recording, they don't identify themselves (which is against federal law) and they don't identify the person they are trying to reach. If they were legitimately trying to conduct business, they would do these things. So, they are obviously just trying to harrass people. I filed a complaint with the FCC and the Do Not Call registry about these people. Other people have too. For two days now, I haven't gotten any calls. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure I'll get them again. Besides, I've lived at the same mailing address since 1979, if I owed anyone money, I would be very easy to find with a letter. They don't need harrassing phone calls. It's a good thing I never answer my phone.

Work has been work. Same as usual. Work isn't supposed to be a happy place. That's Disneyland and McDonalds and Chuck E Cheese. Hopefully, this writing thing will take off and work will just become an interruption to the writing, rather than the job.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Been a While

It's been a while since I posted last. What's been going on?

I'm working on my romance novel. The puppies are pretty much the same. They got baths today. They don't like water. We've never had a dog who liked water. I had the puppies out for a walk today too. Their harnesses work much better now that mom has sewn more velcro on them. It's been really, really hot around here. Heat index over 105. yuck. Luckily, it's a little cooler now and will be for the rest of next week.

I finally got the Romantic Times Book Review magazine. I ordered it back in June and it's taken this long to get it. There for a while I thought I'd gotten ripped off. And I have a subscription to National Geographic Traveler magazine. It's got a lot of pictures and information in it.

Steffi found a bunch of catfood in one of my snow boots. I guess a mouse was hoarding it.