My ongoing war with Verizon (which you may or may not know about) has now reached a new low.

See, four months ago, my HOA notified the residents that they were taking over our FiOS payments, since we're supposed to have free internet in our neighborhood.  I went through the hoops, giving Mark Johnston my account information and, a month later, letting him know that Verizon was still billing me.  He responded the first time, acknowledging he recieved my account information.  He never responded to my update that Verizon was still billing me, and never returned my calls.

Verizon, on the other hand... the first time I called, they took my information, made queries, and said they were making notes on my account to follow up because there was some special procedure involved and that they would call me back.  (They didn't.)  I called again a couple of weeks later.  They had no notes on my account about the previous call, but said they'd take care of it and call me back with information.  They never did.  I just called today for the third time.  I got a busy signal after ten minutes of voice menu fuckery, and then hung up on.

The damage so far, financially, is $191.98 in monthly payments my HOA should have made (including $47.99 of an automatic payment that cleared today AFTER I very clearly told the agent I spoke to that I wanted the auto-payments disabled, and she confirmed that she had done it), plus another $84 in overdraft fees related to mysterious clearing of $47.99 payments that I didn't have in my budget.

I am so, so not happy right now.

Yep. It wasn't a dream. ^_^ She was there, and you're late!

My cough is getting worse, and my mind is getting hazy. It's hot. I'm so hungry, but nothing looks good. I hope it's just a chest cold; my allergies have been FIERCE this season. Not just for me, either. I bet the makers of Benedryl are rolling in greenbacks. No Benedryl here, though. Or Sudafed. Found some Tylenol, which took the edge off of the headache. It feels like evil trolls are mining my skull.

*sigh*

If I don't post tomorrow... well, hopefully I didn't get a chance to enjoy a last meal, y'know?

<3

The horses are acting funny, and we haven't seen the cats in a while. We should put them down, but nobody here has the stomach for it. Yet. The dogs are inside with us.

The cellphones are down. Don't know how much longer the phones will be up, and when those are gone, so is the 'net.

I love you guys. Get through this, K?

... Damn, I wish someone here smoked.

Subaru Impreza wagons are GREAT for running over zombies and keepin' on keepin' on. I guess the AWD not only helps keep traction, but keeping all the wheels spinning over "rough terrain" means that you can do some mighty damage while you're getting from point A to point B.

I never made it to class. So, hopefully the entire administration gets undeadified before the grades are processed, or I can kiss my GPA goodbye.

Also, finding safe ground was harder than I thought. The cemetary on Skyline is rapidly emptying, and they're making their way through the neighborhoods faster than I had given them credit for. My apartment is ground level, so I can't go back there. (God be with my kitties.) My mom's neighborhood, which is off of Bethany near the 26, is also getting a lot of activity.

Dammit. It's getting harder and harder to keep up this facade of cheerfulness. We barely got away from my mom's house; need to remember to thank my brother for leaving his Altima with my mom so we had two getaway cars. My Subie is not going to make it through another outing. For all that I was joking above, trying to get down 185th took a lot out of it. We're hiding out in St. Helens right now. Less people around, and the place we're at is fairly remote.

...Glad I'm not in New Orleans, actually.

I thought it was a little odd this morning that the morning traffic was lighter than usual, but chalked it up to either being finals week (and most of my fellow students are normally either drunk off their asses and thankfully not driving, or bleary and incoherent from lack of sleep) or just one of those things.

Seems like Salt Lake City, London, and wherever the hell spicedrum lives are having the same case of finalsitis.

Coffee for me, then! I need to be alert, even if my math final is as easy as I think it will be. XD

ETA: Oh, geez, I thought it was a JOKE. Still taking my finals, though. Just in case.

I just introduced my brother to The David. His response:

"TURN THIS OFF. IT MAKES ME WANT TO PUNCH A BABY."

Bono! And Alicia Keys! On Oprah!

Yay!

I already miss my kids. LESS THAN TWO HOURS, YO. I am NOT going to enjoy this part of the school/work combo, at least for a while. WAH.

Random aside: I have decided to get an LG VX8300 when I upgrade my phone. 'Tis shweet. <3 I first noticed fadingembers's swank cell, and decided I wanted one, too. I almost decided on the Chocolate instead, but... I just honestly wouldn't use the MP3 functionality THAT much, and I noticed that the LG takes better photos. ^_^

I managed to get the kittens to the vet yesterday. I had called the couple I got the kittyboys from about the boys being sick, and they offered to help pay for the vet and meds. Yay! I'm so lucky I got the boys from such a caring couple.

Anyway, here's what's going on with the boys.

Both of them have coccidia, and there's the possibility that they still have roundworm (wasn't detected in the samples, but they're having me medicate the boys anyway just in case, since Gordon has some symptoms). They both weigh 2 lbs 11 oz, are feisty as heck, have good clear eyes and ears, etc. etc.

The only other thing of concern is that Ramsay has a heart murmur. Chances are it will go away by the time he is 6 months old, but if it doesn't... well, I guess I'll cross that rather expensive bridge if we come to it.

They've been here one week, and already they're insanely patient with Lilah and Trey poking and "petting" them. Amazing.

Anyway. My son is stealing my underwear out of the drawer again, and it's time to start getting the place picked up and get ready for church.

Aaah. Nothing says "church day" like Koda Kumi. XD

I was going to put away some of my money into savings, but the kittyboys' stools are getting worse and bloodier (and oh my god the MUCUS), which means it's an actual infection and not just stress or food adjustment.

Sigh. It was fun having money while it lasted...

HOUSE CAMERON AWESOME OMG CHASE'S FAAAACE

Cameron! Ratties! Shoulder-rub!

To borrow a bit from juleskicks... &flail;

Also, I rather like Cuddy's haircut. ^_^

Thought:

It's like self-help books. Each idea presents itself as the best way to make a change, and that each change is for the best, but the truth is that whatever method is presented will only work for *some* people. Same with political ideals; they only work for some people. There is no all-purpose solution. The best we can hope for is that as each group has its chance at power, a portion of the population that matches that group's method of helping and making things better will have a window of opportunity to better themselves. Then it's another group's chance. Ideally, each group will analyse what happened during their term in control, and figure out what worked and what would work better.

I don't think this really happens all that much, though. All the groups have become about preserving their positions of power on top, while figuring out what the public wants to hear in order to make sure they stay in power.

Not that I'm cynical or anything.

So. I'm merrily surfing around, checking my email, when I see "Why Mommy is a Democrat - littledemocrats.net - If you don't tell your children why you're a Democrat, then who will?" in the Sponsored Links section. Now, maybe I'm just *looking* for a reason to be pissy, but...

I AM NOT A FUCKING DEMOCRAT. NOR AM I A FUCKING REPUBLICAN*. I AM AN AMERICAN, AND I AM TIRED OF THIS SEPERATIST BULLSHIT! It's mindsets like THAT which have led to this extreme polarization! Why do I not see things like "If you don't tell your children why you're an American, then they'll never see any point in making it a better place"? "If you don't tell your children why you're an American, why would they see any point in voting?" This isn't the United States of Republicans/Democrats. We are a country built on consensus, and that means that yes, sometimes we're going to think the current people in charge suck dick. (Or Dick.) This is America, and this is a democracy. If we don't respect differing viewpoints (and respect means not villifying) in favor of trumpeting one way as The Only Right Way To Do Things, we might as well give up and form an ACTUAL secular theocracy, instead of the limited one some claim we already have.

OK. So I agree with the idea of teaching our kids why we have the values we do, but I totally disagree with smearing the other side as evil and wrong. The only real evil and wrong today is what happens when people take it upon themselves to prevent other people from having a real choice in how to live their lives, whether or not the intention is good. While the link I saw may not be that extremist, a lot of attitudes these days *are*, and that is what has me so bent out of shape.

Now for coffee! After all, I can't be bitchy all day. ^_^

* Actually, I am a moderate Republican**. I am also a Christian. If this means you figure I'm so full of holy shit that my opinion is automatically invalid, then... well, I hate to say I'm getting used to that treatment, too. *sigh* Is it any wonder I hate politics?

** Actually actually, I am an Orginized Politics Is All Crapitarian, but we don't get much representation. Probably because we'd start thinking *we're* full of shit, too, and then we'd have to kill ourselves in an emo nihilist political massacre. So, I've settled on the "closest to the traditional sets of ideas and positions" descriptions than the "what they're actually doing" descripions. So, yeah, I kind of vote across party lines. XD CTHULU 2008!

PS. Q. How do pirates buy their sails?
A. By the YAAAAAAAAARRRRRRd.

I now have two additional children: Ramsey and Gordon. They're about eight weeks old and cute as HELL. Sadly, I do not have any manner of card reader here, so pics of the two will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

LOL. Ramsey just did this thing where he reared up and hopped on his back legs at his brother. XD I had forgotten how cute kittens could be.

I haven't forgotten *some* things, though. That is why G&R are staying in the bathroom at night until I am certain they are using their litterbox and not my floor/bathmats/whatever. At some point I do want to toilet train them, but I have to figure out how to get around the fact that Lilah and I use that toilet, too. hmmmmmm.

I think I'll update tomorrow. I'm tired. In a nutshell, though:

finished a website

had a lovely time with fadingembers (Lilah was asking for you today!)

um

I need sleep. >_<

stupid internets keeping me freakin' awake

I have a fadingembers in my house and YOU DON'T.

HA HA I WIN.

Write post about article in Ames's journal.

Lordy lordy.

Even if Japanese music isn't your thing, you have to check out this song: "D.D.D." by Koda Kumi featuring Soulhead. This song ROCKS. YouTube has the video here. They are talented and hot, and this song *totally* will make you wanna dance.