Rebecca Claire Photography

Current mood:  accomplished

So, I’ve been cleaning this week.  Well, more moving giant boxes around and digging through them to find things I haven’t seen in a year.  It’s satisfying and exhausting all at the same time.  Take yesterday for example.  I spent the morning finishing up all the piles of junk in the middle of the floor in the master bedroom/temp office then went for a delightful hour and a half meeting with my accountant.  I got home, and did some dishes and then Nate and I started going throught the ridiculous pile of tools in the middle of the diningroom floor (I left them there that morning after sifting through and organizing all of the non-tool items in that room).  

We sorted tools from around 6 to around 11:30.  We even went through the “magic closet.”  (The magic closet will eventually be a tiny little linen closet but is currently where we have stashed our tools upstairs.  It is magic because you put things in there and they disappear.  You search the closet and then the rest of the house for them.  Sometimes you go buy a new one before you find that the original has reappeared–in the closet–but sometimes you will take one last look and find the hammer sitting there on the shelf where you looked 3 times already.  It’s seriously like the gateway to Narnia and talking beavers are borrowing our tools.)  Going through the closet was like a magical trip through fairyland (assuming the faires are all lost tools you swore you had but had begun to question your memory because it isn’t always trustworthy anyway)

Today is actual cleaning day.  I have a ton of laundry to do plus some dishes.  Then I need to clean the bathrooms.  This afternoon I’m picking up paint from Sherwin Williams so we can paint some stuff tonight.  We’re finally getting some work done on the house and it’s awesome!  I’m so excited.  Perhaps we will reach our goal of finishing the house by the end of the year.

Current mood:  annoyed

I know myspace is free so I should quit bitching, but sometimes it seems glitchier than either facebook or friendster.  Take last night.  I had just finished a clever little blog about the dangers of marriage (ie, I have completely taken over Nate’s desk and new monitor since he moved his office downtown).  It took me more time than it should have, and I should have copied and pasted it someplace before hitting the post button, but I didn’t.  And now where is that cute little blog?  I don’t know.  But it certainly isn’t posted.

Of course, I’m still a little touchy about myspace due to the whole Rebecca Claire can’t send outgoing messages.  I’ve been ignored or e-mailed stupid instructions on how to send messages if your page isn’t broken, but mine is broken, so do something.  Bleh.  Not the best way to start the day, I suppose.  I’m sore from moving stuff around yesterday.  The room I’m currently using as an office looks much much better.  So that’s nice.  Next we need to go fix the kitchen sink.  Yay homeownership.  ;P

What did you do this weekend?

Yep, that’s me with agent Tearglide (he battles dry eye).  I was photographing him and Sean Connery (the kind of Sean Connery with no accent who attended a party with Marilyn Monroe last month) and printing 5x7s on site all day Saturday.  The best part was, I came prepared to print double their estimate and after about 2 hours realized we were running out of paper (not ink, though.  My printers are extremely ink efficient.  I love them).  I lucked out and caught Adam (my brother) 2 minutes before he was headed out to the gym.  He ran to Best Buy and delivered 100 more sheets to the Georgia World Congress Center in about 45 minutes.  Of course, just before he arrived, we realized that extra 100 still wasn’t enough.  My darling brother went to Office Depot and bought us 100 more sheets which he again delivered to us, this time in about 15-20 minutes.

Now, another thing I must point out is that every exhibit hall at the GWCC was occupied (and this is a big place), there were events at Philips Arena, and the CNN center, I believe.  There was probably something going on at the Omni Hotel.  They closed the street to get to the actual GWCC, so Adam had to wait on the street for Nate to come pick up the paper.  It was a madhouse!  I paid $30 to park down the street (I somehow ended up out of the line for the parking garage, but it was probably just as well since I doubt I would have found a spot, at least not in any sort of timely manner).  I heard some places were charging $40!

Anyway, this is the second year we’ve done this, and we did a much better job than last year, but we learned a few more things so if they call us again, we do an even better job.  Plus, we’ll bring such a ridiculous over load of paper that there is no way we’ll run out.  I think we printed at least as many in 1 day as we did over the course of 2-3 days last year.  Sean Connery was extremely popular.  Of course, we charged both by hour and by print, so I didn’t care how many prints they wanted.  The more the merrier, I say.  And I let them know we were way over the estimate, and the boss guy just said “keep printing.”

Andrea

Um, did you speak to the person dressed as this blue tear?  Because I’d really like to know the level of humiliation s/he was feeling.  Probably somewhere below dressing up in a way where someone could tell whom you were but above sitting alone in your apartment crying over lack of income.  Or maybe not. Posted by Andrea on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 – 9:20 AM

Our flooring arrived
Current mood:  chipper

We now have a ton of flooring in our den.  No, seriously, I think it’s an actual ton.  We unloaded it one box at a time from the truck this morning.  I’m super excited to get this flooring party started!  🙂

Our friend Ruckus and his wife Lane did a really cool music video recently.  My husband, Nate, did some visual effects for it (look for the butterflies).  The artist liked it so much, she entered it into a contest where the winner will get a record deal.  How great would that be.  I really like the video and the song beyond my connection to the people who made it.  Her name is Chantelle Barry and the song is Letting Go.  Go here to view and vote: http://pop.musicnation.com/v8af

Go vote!
Current mood:  excited

Our friend Ruckus (you’ll find him on my friend list) and his wife Lane did a really cool music video recently.  Nate did some visual effects for it (look for the butterflies).  The artist liked it so much, she entered it into a contest where the winner will get a record deal.  How cool would that be.  I really like the video and the song beyond my connection to the people who made it.  Go here to view and vote:http://pop.musicnation.com/v8af

Current mood:  aggravated

So, they called Nate again today and said if we didn’t pay them $75, our home warranty would be cancelled.  I called the warranty people, they put me on a 3-way call with the plumbers.  I spoke with Billy this time (before I had spoken with Matthew, the guy who called Tuesday).  Billy claims we never called Monday and that they never spoke to us on Tuesday.  Sorry, Billy, my cell phone call log says differently.  I can get a print out from Verizon stating the days, times, and durations of each and every call made.  You just got busted lying to the warranty folks.

Anyway, I tried to give him an out.  I said, perhaps his phone service wasn’t working properly.  Perhaps the voice message got lost (it happens).  I did have some trouble during some of the calls hearing the caller and they had trouble occasionally hearing me (those usually ended with a hang up and call back).  I said, perhaps Matthew didn’t pass the message on and he should speak to Matthew about that.  Somehow the call was ended in the middle of me telling him (AGAIN) that I spoke with them and cancelled the service call.  I don’t know if we lost the connection, the warranty folks got tired of it, or he hung up on me.  I called back.

Where we stand now: The complaint has been lodged with their complaint department.  They are supposed to call me back  If I don’t here anything from them by the end of the week, I’ll call again Monday morning.  This is so stupid.  Why would these people make such a fuss over $75?!  They’re ruining their reputation with me and everyone I tell, and I know places to complain officially.  This is stupid and I hope it is now dealt with, but I’m not backing down.  They called me a liar.

Current mood:  confused

For those of you who care about my plumbing saga, we got it all figured out Tuesday (I thought).  I talked to the guy, explained to him that I said no one would be there.  He said I’d told him my husband would.  I said, no, I told him that he might could be there in the late afternoon but I would have to call and then call the plumber back.  After explaining this “miscommunication” three times or so, it seemed to get through.  I had to use progressively smaller words and speak more slowly each time.  As I said, I thought we were done.

Well, at 7:45 this morning (a good 30 minutes before we normally wake up, a good hour-hour and a half before I would ever make a business call for fear of pissing off my clients or prospective clients), we get a call from a different guy from the same company.  He wants to come out this morning (I’m assuming around 8 based on the time of the call.  Why else would you call so damn early).  Why would he want to come to our house?  Why to check on that leak for us, of course.

Now, here’s a recap:
Monday, report the leak and get no response.
Tuesday, the saga begins and ends (so we think) and the call is cancelled.
Wednesday, we return to our regularly scheduled lives.
Thursday, we receive a random phone call from the cancelled plumbers about the cancelled service call.

Honestly, I’m tempted to report these folks to the warrenty company anyway, so they know what kind of people are being referred.  The heating people were awesome.  I recommend O’Dell’s Heating and Cooling very highly.  He was prompt, polite, and professional.  I could speak with him in my normal fashion without having to think of smaller synonyms.  Most importantly, we now have heat.

Anyway, back to the plumbers.  I reminded the guy that we cancelled the call two days ago so there would be no need for him to come out.  He seemed a bit confused, but accepted my answer.  I went back to sleep.  Weirdos.