Freak Magnet Dave

I decided to check my on-line banking today and discovered something a bit odd. There were three transactions listed for July 24 at the grocery store I frequent. The first was around $18.00, the second around $120.00 and the third around $110.00.

This made no sense to me. I recognized the $110.00 as my grocery outing from Sunday the 23rd. The one around $18.00 might have been for my prescriptions from their pharmacy, but I wasn't positive. I don't recall if I used my bank card for the pharmacy or if I paid cash. I don't even recall the amount I paid there, but it seemed to be about right for my prescription. The $120.00 was a mystery. Could it be fraud? Seems like a pretty pointless exercise taking someone for a whopping $120.00 (yes, that's sarcasm).

I called my bank's help line and was greeted by a friendly young lady who told me she could help me out. Since the transactions took place on the weekend, they were all listed for the 24th. The first two transactions were from the 22nd, the third from the 23rd (that would be the groceries I was aware of). Was I even there on the Saturday? What the hell did I buy for over $120.00 considering I bought our groceries for the whole week the next day? Then the lightbulb went on. Yes, the $18.00 was the pharmacy, and the $120.00...I bought some brownies and squares to take to my brother's pig roast...but that couldn't have been more than $20.00. The bulb got brighter. OH. MY. GOD. I suddenly remembered getting $100.00 cash back from my debit card. You know, a little pocket money to carry around.

"Well, I bet you get that a thousand times a day!" I said to the young lady.
"Not quite that many, but you are my second one today. The other one was a lady who wasn't sure about a charge but it was for much, much less than yours. I assured her that bank fraud doesn't usually happen for such small amounts," she replied.

Not sure if it made me feel any better knowing that the only other call she received along this line was from some asshat freaking out over ten bucks. So I've decided to take my licks. I'm a knob, and I can freely admit that.

This has been a full weekend! After working on Saturday, The Squeez and I picked up baby Brynn at Weezie's place and took her to a family function in Hooterville. My brother and sister-in-law were hosting the whole famn damily for a pig roast in celebration of my cousin who was visiting from Germany, and my mother's 75th birthday (even though it was about a month ago and we all took her out for dinner then, but what the hell).

Well nothing is a bigger hit than a baby at a party. I think I had Brynn in my arms a grand total of five minutes the whole night. Between my aunts, cousins, nieces, and my mother (who hates to let her go), she spent the entire evening in someone's arms, and she couldn't have been happier. Again, she slept the whole time and people just marvelled at what a good baby she is. Oh, how smug I felt, considering my niece's three-month-old son was constantly fussing and crying. At one point I was in the kitchen getting Brynn's bottle ready and I heard some crying in the livingroom. I thought it was Brynn awaiting her bottle so I popped into the room to take a look and discovered it was Jacob crying. Brynn was still asleep in my Aunt Terri's arms.

"Oh...I thought it was Brynn. What was I thinking?! hehehe..." I said.

My sister just chuckled while trying to comfort her grandson. I handed to bottle to Terri and she gave her the bottle and burped her and even stepped right in to change her overflowing diaper. Not that I had a real issue with that! :o)

It turned out to be a bit of an impromptu shower. I can't count how many little outfits Brynn received from my family that night. Not to mention the photo albums, toys, and a really nice crocheted blanket that my (follow me now) sister's husband's sister made. (That wasn't so bad.)

Weezie was in Hooterville that evening for dinner with some friends, so she came by to pick up the baby and take her home once she finally wrestled her from my mother's arms. She was getting dangerously close to another feeding and needed to get her home and sure enough, she cried all the way home (about 45 minutes) until she got her bottle. Poor Weezie...and poor Brynn. :o(

Sunday The Squeeze had to work for a few hours and I got a chance to clean my aquariums and scour the bathroom and head out for the groceries. When I got back home we had a quick bite and we were off to join the family in Niagara Falls to see Cirque Niagara's Avaia. It was quite a nice show. Some of the acrobatic work was amazing. One group of four young guys did these moves where two guys supported one on their shoulders while the fourth guy balanced on that guy's head with his hand. Lots of spinning in the air and landing on the other guys hands...stuff like that. Pretty cool. We were in the second row and it seemed like some of the horses that were running in the circle were going to run right into us. A bit unsettling, but very cool. The show was a gift for our parents for their birthdays. I think they enjoyed it. My father is usually a pretty hard sell on stuff like that. He's happy at home with his scratch & win tickets. That's his kind of birthday. But he'll get over it.

It's pretty uncommon to have two family gatherings in one weekend. It's uncommon for two in a month. Hell, one a month is a bit more than usual.

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. It rained non-stop, and the idiots on the highway were a pain though. Why is it so beyond people to realize what the PASSING LANE is for??? I was travelling much faster in the slow lane. There's always some asshat at the front of the pack, oblivious to the fact that they have a string of about 30 cars behind them wanting to get by and they're just barely doing the speed limit in the FREAKING PASSING LANE. They just treat it like it's their own private lane and they can go as slow or fast as they please. I told The Squeeze that I think people should be required to re-write the driving test every five years or so. Even if it's just one question: "What is the passing lane for?"

The Squeeze said it should be two questions: "What is the passing lane for?" and "Why aren't you doing it?".

The roads will be much more tolerable when I get that rocket launcher installed on my car.

The Squeeze and I were sitting in the living room watching Wheel Of Fortune recently.
They were doing some sort of soap opera stars week and behind each of the actors was the name of the show on which they appear. One of the actors was an older...um.....handsome woman who acts on The Bold And The Beautiful.

In a dry, matter-of-fact manner, The Squeeze said "She must be bold."

I just about shot my mouthful of pop out through my nose. We shared quite an extended laugh over that one.

Kind of reminds me of this site which I rather enjoy.

Monday morning I was at home waiting for a couple of moving companies to come over to give a quote on moving our stuff to the new place. The first guy showed up about half an hour early just as I was getting out of the shower. I hate when that happens. When I schedule an appointment, I generally arrive at that time. Maybe that's just me.

So I got my quotes from both companies and I set about calling the cable company to transfer the cable tv and internet service to the new place. I've decided to plunk down a good sum of money on digital cable with a few channel packages and the purchase of a digital video recorder. Essentially, it's the same thing as Tivo, but we can't buy Tivo here in Canada. WTF is that all about anyway?

Anyway...to preface what took place...once upon a time, The Squeeze's brother, The Slug, lived in the house with their mother before she passed away. After that, The Squeeze moved in and the two of them were there for a couple of months before The Squeeze asked me to move in with him. After we all lived there for what I'm told was about a year (but felt like 20) we asked The Slug to go. This was due to a number of reasons that I won't get into here. At any rate, we went on to stay in the house for another 9 or so years until now when we are getting ready for the big move.

So I called the cable company to inform them of the change, and lo and behold, I'm not able to cancel the cable tv because it's in The Slug's name. The Squeeze has been paying the bill all these years. I guess he opted to do this rather than pay for a disconnect and reconnect fee way back when.

"Thank you for calling Bend Over And Take It Dry Cable Company, how can I help you?"
"I'm moving and would like to transfer my tv and internet service."
"OK, I can do that. May I have your name?"
"Sure, it's Freak Magnet Dave."
"And your phone number?"
"1-800-NO-FREAK"
"I have the internet registered to you, but the tv service is registered to a Mr. Slug."
"Well, he actually is no longer at this address and hasn't been for a number of years."
"I'm sorry, he's the only one authorized to cancel it."
"And what if we're not able to find him to have him cancel it?"
"Then it will go to collections."
"You mean to tell me that you would continue to provide cable to a house we're no longer living in, knowing that the bill will not be paid by us, and you will try to send a collection agency after the person it is registered to, without a forwarding or known address rather than cancel the account?"
"Yes."
"Even though you will most likely never see that money?"
"Yes."
"Does that make any sense at all?"
"I'm sorry sir, The Slug is the only person who can cancel the account."

Can you believe it? How ridiculous is that policy? I managed to get a call through to The Slug and asked him to cancel the service. He called me back to let me know it was done a few minutes later. I would have tried it myself using his name, but with my luck I'd be busted if they asked me any info like his date of birth or account number. Apparently they didn't ask him anything. He just had to state his name and that was it. How fucked is that!?

Sadly, our new place is serviced by the same company, so unless I want to go with satellite and the crappy so-called "high speed" provided by the alternative, we're stuck with them. Fortunately, when I called back, even though the call took about 30 minutes, the rep I was dealing with was much nicer than the first guy. OK, maybe I shouldn't say that. The guy was only doing his job, and I guess he wasn't being snotty about it, but that whole policy of theirs just chaps my ass.

I think the majority of notices I needed to make for the move are done now. We just need to concentrate on the move itself. Sooooooo close!

Nothing much to say at this point except MAN, SHE'S CUTE! :o)

After all of the relatively painless steps it took to find our new house and sell our existing one, it is somewhat overwhelming to see how quickly we take possession. Just over three weeks away (23 days to be exact) until we get the keys to the new place.

The planning for the move is under way. I ordered and had delivered a pile of boxes and packing material from one of my suppliers, and we've already filled a number of them with things that we know we won't be using before the move.

On Sunday our street had its annual garage sale, so we unloaded a lot of stuff there. We hauled out our dining room table and chairs, a couple of dressers, some book cases and end tables, another set of wood chairs and a slew of books, picture frames, glasses, mugs, cutlery, knick-nacks, garden tools, wheelbarrow, lawnmower, hedge clippers, etc. We were ruthless in our purging.

We were probably the best priced yard-salers (would that be yard-sellers?) on the street. Aside from the dining room set we sold pretty much everything. A woman stopped by early in the afternoon and gave The Squeeze a deposit on the set and she called her husband on her cell to have him come down and meet her to take it home. So we held it. A few other people came by to ask if it was still for sale. "Sorry, it's sold" we told them. A couple of hours later, her husband came by and asked if we were the place with the dining room set. We told him we were. He called his wife on his cell to get her back to our place. When she arrived a few minutes later, he decided he didn't want it, so The Squeeze gave her back the deposit. Meanwhile, the majority of the people were packing up their stuff and the shoppers were becoming few and far between. I was pissed! We could have sold that set to any of the others who asked, but NOOOOO, we held it for these people who decided against it. So we wound up carrying it back into the house. I'm trying to let that go....it's not easy.

The last few remaining pieces we simply gave away. When all was said and done, we were left with a few glasses and mugs and a couple of books that we brought back in, and we were up about $300.00. Not too shabby. As we said, this isn't about the money, it's about getting rid of stuff. The more we sell, the less we move. Then I can feed my shopping addiction and buy new furniture. :o)

We have debated back and forth about using a moving company. We thought it would be the way to go, then I was told what to expect to pay and that made us rethink it. After moving all of this furniture out for the sale and discovering how sore and winded we were, we're back on the moving company idea.

I spent a good part of yesterday contacting utility companies and having things transferred to the new address. The most confusing part is the cable company. Currently we just have basic cable along with some additional channels that we haven't been billed for. Don't ask, don't tell. So of course, in the new place, odds are we won't have all of that. We'll need to pay more for what we're used to, plus pay an extra 9 bucks for each additional outlet (probably 3 in total: living room, rec room, den) and the ideal of going digital so we can have video-on-demand is mighty tempting. Tack on a couple of specialty channels like Biography, add the price of the digital tuner/recorder and we're talking big friggin' bucks! Not to mention the fact that we also need cable boxes for the other two sets too.

The Squeeze's brother asked if we were interested in buying his cable box since it looks like he's going to be moving away to another province to chase some new woman he met at a convention recently. Perhaps we can trade him for...oh...I don't know...maybe a year or so of rent-free living.

Monday morning I took Weezie and Brynn to her first doctor's appointment. It was Brynn's first car ride (aside from being brought home). All is going well, she's gained a couple of ounces and is the picture of health.

After the appointment, we drove to Hooterville to visit my folks and present their new grand-daughter. Originally I was just going to go with my book of pictures, so this came as a bit of a surprise to them. My mother was loving every minute of it. My father was quite pleased too, but he had to get back to work out in the garage while he had a captive volunteer there to help him out.

My mother didn't want to let her go. She even fed her, and she found it quite entertaining that Brynn didn't even wake up to drink her bottle. She just hung there in her arms sucking and sleeping. I tell you, that little girl is a great sleeper. According to Weezie, that's not quite the case around 3:00 am. I'll take her word for it.

So out of the blue, my mother says to me, "You know, every night I go to bed and pray that you will lose some weight so you won't drop dead of a heart attack."

How exactly does one reply to that? "Thanks"? "That's nice of you"? I settled with a "ya, ya...".

Here's the killer....once she finally handed the baby over, she walked out into the kitchen and came back with a plate of cake and holds it in front of me! Sheesh!

"Are you trying to kill me?"

Mothers.

Today I became a father.

I received the phone call this morning.
"Dave, I'm having the c-section done at 2:00", Weezie said.
Knowing that staying at work and missing this was NOT an option, I called my business partner and he offered to come in to cover for me. Needless to say, I accepted.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my camera back to work with me where it had been for months. I took it home for the long weekend in case the baby was to come during that time. My first stop was to pick up the camera. The next stop was Weezie's mother's place. Weezie tried to call her, but apparently her mother's phone battery was drained, so she had no way to let her mother know that she was delivering in a couple of hours. By the time I got there, Weezie managed to contact another friend of ours who lives about a block away, so he managed to let her mother know the news. I still had to pick up her bags and pillows, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

I made my way to the hospital and found a parking space in the cavernous sub-terrainian parking lot. I managed to find the elevators (why do they make it so difficult??? signs anyone???) and waited for the climb to the desired floor. Sadly, that's about all I knew about this huge hospital. Turns out I had quite a trek ahead of me before reaching my final destination. One employee, seeing the look of utter distress on my face as I stared blankly at a huge map with a little "You Are Here" symbol came up to me and said "I can help you". In my dazed state, I really don't recall thanking him for pointing me in the right direction, but I'm sure I must have.

The man's directions were not too bad. I made it pretty close to where I needed to be. A couple of more re-directs, and I landed in the right spot. I heard Weezie's voice behind a curtain and was told to go in. Weezie was in the room with her best friend Cindy, her (Weezie's) sister and nephew. I joined the group and we waited until the nurse walked her into the delivery room at around 2:45.

Cindy went with her into the delivery room, and I hung out in the waiting room with her sister and nephew, watching Italy and Germany in the semi-finals of World Cup Soccer. I'm not really a big sports fan, but watching the teams run back & forth made the time pass.

At around 4:30, Cindy came out to bring me in to see my little girl. My angel. My miracle. She was perfect. Absolutely beautiful. As I held her in my arms, I felt what I can only describe as unconditional love. This tiny, fragile human being. Utterly helpless and completely dependent on those who hold her and love her. What amazing things have we done to deserve this blessing?

I managed to hold myself together at the hospital, just basking in the beauty of my little angel. I can't say the same thing right now. I'm having silent little crying spells while I write this, just thanking God for this baby. Hoping I can do right by her. Wanting to protect her from every little thing out there that might harm her. Wanting to do everything in my power to show her she is loved. How is it possible to fall in love so fast?

I now present Brynn Kathleen Mary...