A Best Buy Customer Service Story

Tweeting and Freaking Out about Best Buy

After almost 6 years of hard work, my HP laptop was old, outdated and becoming increasingly more useless, so after the holidays, with my husband’s prodding, we bit the bullet and took advantage of the post holiday sales and purchased a new CPU for myself. We stayed with HP as they have been “our brand” for years and we have that loyalty thing going on and for $449 I got what I needed and was very happy. Purchased on 12/27/08, I do wish I recall what the pre-sale price was exactly, but I recall it was a good sale and the unity would have been about $600 without the sale.

Best Buy’s Brand New Computer; Not so Swell

For about 5 months it served me well and then something started getting weird. The darn computer would decide to shut off and no matter what happened, when the power switch was hit again, NOTHING would happen. At first it was just sometimes, but then soon, it was more often than not. Sometimes it would take 20 minutes to power up, but mostly the monitor ( also new from Best Buy) would get no signal and the computer wouldn’t even sound like it was on. Now my husband is a pretty competent IT geek. We have another IT geek staying with us and I work with an office of major geeks; so we have a good working knowledge of what computers do when they are ill. I can tell you that the problem with my computer was NOT: • The motherboard having issues • The hard drive failing • The power supply failing • The fan not working, being dusty and causing the unit to overheat.

Require a Good Dependable Computer

Now I went and spent the cash because, for my job, I require a dependable machine. I frequently am online 18 hours a day between my position at DragonSearch and then my personal interactions and my writing on other blogs. The whole idea was to buy a new machine that would remove the daily frustrations I was facing with my laptop. So I was not thrilled when it became apparent that my less than 6 month old computer was having a major issue. After work on July 31st we brought my not yet 6 month old computer in to Best Buy for , what I hoped, would be a quick replacement. After all, if I knew it was inherently flawed, then these Geeks would too, right? Wrong. Because It has to go back to HP for repair as it is covered under their manufacture’s warrantee. They will not even try to see that it is a major system failure and a bigger problem than a not yet 6 month old computer should have. I am out of my most needed tool for at least two weeks.

Nope, I am not happy with Best Buy at all.

So we wait. To make a long story short, it went away, came back, was not fixed though Rye rode to the store to pick it up after we were told it was fixed, it got sent out again, and then from 8/24 on.. we just waited for quite some time. From about 9/1/09 on, we were calling the store every day and checking in. It seemed like a basic wrongdoing was happening becasue it was plain to see the computer was very broken and they should just give me a new one!.

I realized that Best Buy had my Computer for the WHOLE month of August!

Since HP had not update the Geeks Squad, they had “escalated” the case and were now awaiting a reply via Email from HP on the status. By 9/11, I essentially said to my handy Geek Guy:

“Ok, this is gone on long enough; what do you suggest I do next to make this happen.?”

He was very helpful and suggested that I call either the corporate offices for either BestBuy or the Geek Squad. I choose Best Buy and THAT conversation was good. The very nice fellow who’s name began with T and who was about to go on vacation, opened up a ticket and wahla!! By 9./12, they had deemed, in all their inherent wisdom, exactly what I had said 6 weeks earlier; my computer was dead and they wished to give me a new one. What they didn’t do was tell me this, though I was promised phone calls, until I thought to check into my email status and saw that they wanted new information from me. It was then that I called the store and got the good news. Friday, September 18, we went to make the exchange and the Best Buy customer computers were down, so I could not get the copy of the original receipt that I needed, though I had the Geek Squad official Death Certificate for my old/not old CPU.

We left Best Buy Without the Problem Solved

A very busy week later, we went back to Best Buy. This time I had hunted down my original receipt so I wouldn’t have to deal with the same issue. Again. After saying hello to last week’s Geek and Clerk, the new clerk was told what I needed and she began the paper processes. Now, I specifically asked if I would have to have the same model CPU, because I didn’t really want it again. I still wanted a HP machine and we had decided that we would use this opportunity to spend more money and upgrade me a bit. The told me I could get whatever I wanted after they finished the return/exchange paper work. It was at that point that a worker from the CPU department was called over to the machine that they WOULD give me for a straight exchange should I have wanted that. He returns with an E Machine. Oh No no no. It gets better. Not only did they think that anyone would accept an E machine in exchange for an HP no matter how equally comparable the stats were on it, they wanted to give me the credit for the PRICE of the Machine. I spent over $449.00 when I bought my computer.

Best Buy tried to give me credit for only $350.00!

I was very forthcoming and very clear and very factual when I told them that THAT was NOT acceptable AT ALL, and they WOULD be CREDITIGN me for the AMOUNT OF CASH I SPENT. End of story. They said they had to get the Best Buy store manager. So I said, “Good. Go get him.” And then I told him what he WOULD BE doing to make me happy. It took three employees about 15 minutes to figure it out while I waited.. then they told me to go ahead and pick out a new machine since I would have the full credit. There really was only one other machine that was close and an HP though I did have my eye on the next one up. That one cost over $800 and Rye said no, so I got the one for $550. All and all we spent an additional $108 on my computer alone and then we dropped almost 500 more on a whole Wii system for Tristan’s Birthday. I am very unhappy with a store and I still give them over Six Hundred Dollars. So the next morning, Rye goes to set the whole thing up and I hear a moan. The “new and better” CPU does not have wireless internet installed as my older one did.

I Immediately Call Best Buy's Customer Care

I start this all over again since I know THEY are the ones who get results and the store people were not going to do it for me. While I would have been most happy if given the $800 plus HP CPU that I had my eye on, I accepted that I would bring it back and they would put in a new wireless card for me. I do feel kind of sad that once that conclusion was reached they stopped promising me gift cards. Personally, I still feel rather screwed and put out and in great need of a gift card. In fact, looking back, I feel like I deserve it.

$557 spent all told on a new CPU
6 months of files and programs: lost
6 trips to the physical store trying to buy it, fix it, return it, make it work
Countless hours re-programming the new machine
2 lengthy phone calls to Best Buy Customer Care and quite a few with the store itself.
Multitudes of checking emails for updates
Endless frustration.

And for the record, we spent, for us HUGE amounts of cash at BestBuy. As in I do not allow Rye to go there alone since he goes nuts there.

We buy ALL our electronics from Best Buy and have for years:

• 1 Hp laptop:$1,500 • Two HP Printers: $600 • 3 Flat screen monitors: about $1,200 all together • 1 Flat screen TV: $400 and 1 huge flat screen bracket $200 • Three HP CPUS ( could be four!) aprox $2,300 • Full Wii set up: $500 • Plus Two Digital Cameras, DVD payers, wireless hook up things, power cords, countless video games ( Xbox, PS2, PS3, Wii, etc), ink cartridges, mouses, wireless keyboards, extra ram, movies, CDs, and a few air conditioners too! I mean, I would not hesitate to say that over the years Best Buy has be given around 10 thousand dollars of mine. They should do something for me..really. Heck, I am even giving Best Buy professional advice on how to correctly use Twitter. And so, I say:

Best Buy: You Owe Me!

Hair Flashback or Never Safe from Adoption

Recently, I added some Really Bright Red Highlights to my Hair

Now if you have ever been a phony red head like me, then you might be able to relate to what I am about to say, if not, then you'll have to take my word on it:

Being a Red Head is like having Anorexia of the Hair.

Now, I don't mean that in a way to mock people who really suffer from such an issue, but I have found that I have a similar issue with my hair. You know when a anorexic person looks in the mirror they see themselves as fat when every one sees skin and bones? Well, I look in the mirror and I see brown hair. It's almost never red enough. I can't seem to find the right shade. It fades out. I admit, I have an issue. SO, I was having a hair crisis of that sort and hit up the reds big time. Right now, I feel very content. Alas, bit bright and insane, but I like it.

So this past Saturday, we had a wedding to go to and, in planning for that wedding, I decided that I wanted to crimp my hair. I could get away with crazy red crimped hair for the wedding since it was a punk rock wedding and besides, I have so had a hankering for a crimper. I don't know when my last crimper dies, but it's been quite a while and I since the age of 16, I have had a thing for the crimped hair ala Robert Smith and Siouxie Sioux. So, I go on Friday with the kids to Columbia Beauty Supply which is like THE best hair dye and Halloween store in the universe and total mecca for me. I mean, wigs, hair pieces, dye, skulls, costumes, masks and everything all in one place! Claud Paradise! I have to ask the poor girl behind the counter where the crimping irons are and she has no clue what I am talking about. She's too young to know a crimper if it.. crimped her butt! But she knows the word iron and among the millions of flat irons is the same dern brand of crimper that Lauralei and I rode our bicycles like 15 miles to get when we were 15 and the dern thing is still only 20 bucks! I'm thrilled! So I do up my hair the way I have forever now.. (OMG over 25 years!) ..lots of Super Extra Hold Aqua Net. It's so NOT 2009 hair.. not smooth and shiny, but big and crimped oh so lovely. Stinking like hair spray and looking fine. And go to the wedding. And the next day I go and do my thing sporting the crimps.. because here's a secret.. crimped hair works better a few days out of washing..and looks better the more you wear it. And so today (I did bathe, just not my hair!) I have to go to work and I go to take this massive amount of sprayed crimped hair and put it in a French Twist thing so I don't look like a total mad woman..and I take a handful of my bright red crimped hair.. and FLASHBACK!

I am 18 and working in His office and after a long night of clubbing, I have to play receptionist and pull back my hair.

It was the actual physical sensation or the hair that just jolted me.. in my bathroom safe at home... back to another time and place before adoption came into my life. It was very powerful.

And I remembered the last time I had hair my hair this bright was when I was with Max's father.

It was that winter that we were together that I tried to bleach out the been-dying-it-black-for-years hair to a lighter color to get it to be blue.. and it didn't work. So after my crying in the girls bathroom of FIT because the 100 volume wig peroxide was burning my scalp, we could only put in a red over all the reddish shades of color I had or the blue would like like seaweed green. I think Lauralei had a Manic Panic Pillarbox Red (or was it Poppy Red??) around and we dumped that on my poor burnt head and it turned out I loved it. See here we are circa 1987 ish..doing something silly at a party, but my hair is lovely!

It was red when, newly pregnant, I went down to Florida for Spring Break with Lauraliei and Ashmi. It was red when I ran in the rain to make it to the opera on time to meet Max's dad. It was red.. it was red.. it was red..full of Super Extra Hold Aqua Net and Crimped with a 20 dollar Solid Gold Crimper from a Beauty Supply store..just like this AM. Except.. then I was 18 and 19 and had not yet made the "decision" to let adoption into my life. Oh, I was on the way.. the dominoes were falling into place, but I had hope then.. it wasn't a lost cause.. I was just totally stuck in denial (probably worrying about my hair) pretending that I wasn't pregnant..but it wasn't set in stone yet.. the dye was not cast... And just for that moment this morning, I felt a brief fluttering of that girl as I gripped my hair....and I held on to her.. before my current reality grabbed me and pulled me back into the present and she slipped away again into the past.

Fitting Adoption into my Weekend

It's going to be a challenge this weekend, but I have to do it. I just can't believe these "days off" are so jam packed...

We have a wedding today/tonight, which I had thought was on Sunday! Thankfully, it worked out and the kids went to Grandma's, but I think we will have to miss the actual wedding part and only hit the reception. Unfortunately, Rye MUST answer phones all day that the real estate office and we doubt he will be done for us to get up to Woodstock in time for two. We can, thankfully, be down the block for the reception at 6!
I just got back from the Woodstock area myself as my dog, Lilly, was filming a movie today! How crazy is that! Through one of our neighbors, she got recommended and cast as "Charlie" who is the dog of the main character. She doesn't have to do anything spectacular, but act like a dog.. and I guess she is doing well. They all said so and she is getting lots of attention and the royalty treatment, so she seems to like it. So for these weekend, I am a dog handler! It's crazy and sometimes, I have no idea how we end up in these situations, but why not! She has 7 days on the schedule.. and, well, she makes over a grand. We were there this AM for less than two hours, so technically.. she now gets more per hour than anyone else in the house! I have to buy her more bones today as chewy toys are the key to keeping her in place when filming.. who knew! Tomorrow we do it again... at 8:30 am.. after a wedding, so no hang over on the schedule for me please!
On top of that I was suppose to be meeting with Garin's girlfriend's mother and his dad to discuss our teens, but I had to bow out, due to the wedding schedule snafu. Of course, there is father/son teen angst and drama this weekend too. Fun!
And then somewhere in the midst of all this I have to get together an outline of two adoption education courses that it looks like I will be teaching at the local community college this spring! On a whim after receiving the continuing ed booklet, I sent an email asking if they might be interested in some course ideas.. and well they are! So, I have to come up with like four hours of me talking about:

Ethical Adoptions: What to look for in an agency, warning signs, red flags, research preparation and pitfalls for prospective adoptive parents. I'm a little scared of that one since well... it's confronting stereotypes head on! And well, I have to teach it the way I have to teach it.. but don't want to really freak people out.. so I have to find that fine line between getting the information out there and not getting labeled myself! Preparing for an Adoption Search and Reunion: Much easier I think for me to be myself in this one. Between the two major aspects.. emotional and mental preparation and then the actual physical searches.. most of it will be showing people where to go to read, discussing the issues, breaking down the expectations and then offering other support sites and search methods. Of course both classes will include OBC access and all the corruption issues! :) The crazy thing is I will actually get paid for this as well, which I kinda have a moral dilemma with as I have NEVER gotten paid for anything I have done related to adoption with the exception of the $25 dollars that The Montel Williams Show paid me! Still, though.. money is always helpful and I do value my time, but I adore the chance to get the word out in a new forum.. so I'll take it, but it does feel weird! It's almost dirty feeling and like I am making money off of it.. which I hate and is exploitative.. so I feel like a hypocrite in a way?? Bleh.. Anyway, I am very open to any suggestions as far as what you think would be important to cover and then resources to link up to.. or even for hand outs. If this weekend continues to be smooth, or as I work through the classes, I think I shall get them up here for critic and recommendations.. so if you have the desire, get your thinking caps on! Warning: I shall be using all our words to represent the real truths.. so I might quote you! But for now, I am happy that my morning commitment as a dog handler is done. I have time to do my hair and nails for the wedding and have fun tonight! Life is crazy, unexpected and good!

READ THIS: Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Was Adopted

Friday night, the kids are all gone.. Rye is toturing me with rap music and I am making my way through the GIMH Adoption Blog Carnival.. As a birthmother, I do not, will not, speak for adoptess, but I do not have to. This list must be shared: 73adoptee - adoption search, reunion and reform: Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Was Adopted

29 Things I Wish I Knew Before Adoption Entered my Life

This Grown in My Heart Adoption Carnival Topic was supposed to be "10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Was Touched By Adoption", but I can't use the feel good wording of "touched". I was not touched by adoption, it's more like torched, trampled, traumatized, terrorized, tortured and torn apart by adoption.

Overall, I feel like I allowed the destructive force of adoption into my life.

Adoption was almost more like a crack that happened in my soul. A crack that that I thought and was encouraged to believe that would be temporary or always below the surface. Over time, the rest of life worked it's way in, like water in cement and caused the very foundation of myself to crumble. So that gives me number one on my list; the rest is really really easy and I can, also quite easily go on and on, but this carnival only called for the ten things we wish we could have known.. I think I just have to go over.

I wish I knew that relinquishing my child to adoption was not a one time event that I would recover from by the most major life altering "decision" that would alter the very course of my existence for the rest of my life.
I wish I knew that adoption would not be a decision made entirely by me and affect only me, but would have life altering implications across the entire berth of my family. I thought nothing of how if would affect my mother, my brother, and of course my children, both the one that I relinquished and the children I had later on.
I wish I had known what I really was giving up when I relinquished my Max. I understood the concept of a baby, but I had no clue what it really meant to be a mother. I could decide to give up something that I never had to begin with.. or something that I never let myself have a chance to really experience.
I wish I had known that public assistance, social services, paternity, child support and all manners of help in general was nothing to be ashamed of, to be afraid of asking for or receiving or something that made me less of a person. I still think about my adoption counselor explaining to me rather briefly how I "could" keep my baby and go on welfare and how very horrified I was of that thought and I never even attempted to consider it.
I wish I had known how it would feel to know for the rest of my life that I had assisted in denying a man the right to have a relationship with his only child. Had I thought through the ethically complications and moral obligation to the truth and this man's rights, then I would not have to live with the knowledge of how I horribly and inexcusable wronged another human being.
I wish I had known that I was strong and capable and worthy of being the mother that I was meant to be. The normal self doubts of a young person basically untried by life were not bolstered in the face of adversity, but rather exasperated and exploited.
I wish I had known that it was not my job, nor obligation to make another couples' "dreams of a family" come true. I wish I had known that I should not have taken pride nor comfort or some sick sense of self satisfaction by allowing other people's needs to go before my own, not that I have an issue about giving of one's self. I donate my knowledge, I give my time, I volunteer; but a child is not giving of oneself, a adoption is giving of another.. a child. I had no right to do that.
I wish I had known that my son's parents would not be quite as grateful and thankful to me as I had expected, hoped or been lead to believe. I wish I was not quite as disappointed that they just won't speak to me and I have the distinct feeling that they really would just like me to go back away. I wish that didn't hurt.
I wish I had known that children really aren't interchangeable. Just because one party wants something and another party isn't so sure, doesn't mean that we can switch things about and pretend we are God and it will work out OK.
I wish I had known that my son had basic rights to his family, his truth, his heritage, his father, his siblings, and me; more than I ever gave us credit for. To think that I could have thought so little of myself, my family and all the individual traits and histories that make us unique and THAT could have been replace with a one paragraph bio and a few pictures is so insulting to every ancestor that breathed before me.
I wish I had known that you cannot re-write life as it comes to you. That we can't cheat it and pretend that things happened differently than we would have liked. And sometimes, most times, given time time what seemed to be a disaster is actually part of making things work out exactly as they should, but we just don;t know it yet. I wish I had learned to just accept things as they come and live the hand that was dealt to me even if it meant being a mother at 19.. because I was a mother at 19!
I wish I had known that it was very possible to love most fiercely and deeply someone that you haven't ever really met. I wish I had known that I would know my son with out before I got to met him again. That I would know his face and it would be so familiar to me. That I would know his smell and I would need it to breath. That I would know and understand how he felt, thought and would react just because I knew...way before I ever knew.
I wish I had known how much it would suck to hear my other kids say things like" I forget what Max looks like", or "I don't feel like I have another brother," or "If we got real poor would you have to give us away, too?"
I wish I had known that adoption, which was supposed to preserve my teenage way of life, turned out to be something that completely changed my entire life and here I am, over 20 years later and adoption is still a major factor in my daily existence, my thoughts, my dreams and , even worse, is also a factor in my whole family's lives as well.
I wish I had known that genetics really play a huge portion of who we are and that things like our mutual love of pirates, combat boots, Mohawksand died hair, alternative music, god in the woods, being buried in plain pine boxes, Dr. Pepper, Boston cream donuts, thunderstorms, reading, and writing with these dern dots.... was all part of who he was before he was born. I wish I knew that my genes had carried more than the color of his skin and the familiar look of our feet and it was something that irreplaceable.
I wish I had known that not every adoptee thinks that being placed for adoption was the best thing since sliced bread, are not grateful, are not happier to have a bigger house, and sometimes, can be quite adversely affected by the whole experience. It was really hard to accept that the thing that I thought was "best" could have actually been much worse.
I wish I had known that there is no real "ready" to become a mother and that the mythology of motherhood as our society has crafted is a vicious losing situation. I wish I had known how easy it is for us to turn on each other and judge our fellow sisters because we are all so concerned about getting it wrong and not being the best super mom on the block.
I wish I had known that it was going be crazy hard this way, being a birthmother, and that all the pain and sacrafices and sleepless would be coming to me anyway, but without the joys and pleasures of being with my child. I wish I had known that I would have wanted to make it work, that it would have been worth it to give up the fun.
I wish I had known that Fear is never a good basis to make a decision on.
I wish I would have known that the "scandal" was all in my head and that with in six months no one would have cared much less remembered. I wish I had realized that my family would not have thought that I was a piece of poop for ver but would have loved and adored my baby as I would have.
I wish I had known that having a baby at 19 would not have "ruined my life", that being a mother at 19 would not have "ruined my life" and that adoption, well it pretty much runied my life .. or at least got closer to ruining my life s anything else ever did.
I wish I had known that school could have been put off a few years, but my mother hood was happeneing now.
I wish I had known that I was being exploited and enabled and I walked right into it.
I wish I had known that adoption was not glamorous or romantic, but that life being a birthmother pretty much sucks.
I wish I had known that the adoption agency really didn't have my best interest at heart and they weren't my best friends and I shouldn't have worried about making them proud by being the "best dern birthmother" and following all the rules.
I wish I had known that putting everyone elses' wants and needs before mine for almost 20 years did not make me better, nor stronger, nor noble, nor brave and didn't get me a key to heaven.
I wish I had known that a piece of paper wold not make me an un-mother.
I wish I had known how much it would really really hurt and how, really, even after reunion , there is no normal and it is never over.

And then one final wish that I still have now; of all the things in my life and all the mistakes and bad decision I have made, with all the missteps and situations that came to me, whether by my own hand or been done by wrong by someone else; I wish there was a way to change the past and make just this one thing all go away.

I wish I had never let adoption into my life.

****

There are more posts on this topic and you are all invited to write your own as well. To see the full GIMH Carnival list, follow the linkies.. and if you write your own, then please share by listing your blogs URL on Mr. Linky. His name is silly, but it's easy to do!

Broke Arm Recovery

This is the week that I have decided that I should be ready to get all caught up on my personal ( re: adoption) stuff, so here I am!

This whole recovery from surgery thing took a bit more out of me than I expected.

Is it any surprise that it makes me feel lame? To be completely truthful, it was not as bad as I had expected, but that is because, I believe, I firmly expected to suck royally. I made it just about as bad as it could be in my head, so anything was an improvement. I knew it had to be a trial by fire, and heck, if I could "make" myself give up my child, then I suppose getting a much needed surgical procedure wouldn't be quite as bad. It certainly wasn't. Adoption still wins hands down!

Don't I look lovely? Anyway, the pain and discomfort was actually not too bad. I insisted that they kept all manners of morphine out of me (claimed allergy.. I just HATE the stuff) and I am convinced that it kept me feeling better. IV Demerol was just lovely. After a long night in the hospital I went home the next day in a sling with 30 staples in me; nine in my hip where they took the bone graft and another 21 in my arm where they gave me metal. I had instructions to resume normal activities and no heavy lifting.

See the happy post surgical look.. I still had NOT had any coffee..and OMG my mouth just tasted like rubber tubing! "Normal Activities" for the next week consisted of laying in bed and watching TV, walking to the kitchen to get food, plopping on the chaise for a bit and then sitting on the porch, and occasional checking into facebook. I found even sitting at the computer exhausting. There was much napping, assisted by the Demerol pills and lots of Law and Order reruns. I was seriously bruised in places I did not think possible and I turned a lovely shade of yellow on almost half my body. Apparently for bone work, they do allot of yanking on a persona and they just thrust those muscles out of their way I tried to convince myself that I could return to work on Monday. Then, I insisted on making myself stay home and rest. While it was really annoying to do NOTHING.. and I felt guilty for doing NOTHING.. and was mentally able to do SOMETHING, everything was really really exhausting. That's' what got me the most.. just how crazy freaking TIRED I was from doing NOTHING.

I forced myself to remember that I just had had major surgery

I went to work on day 13 and left early to get my stables removed. The doctor promptly gave me an arm brace that clearly was designed by the same fashion consultant who made the Storm troopers uniforms. I blame Rye for it as he told the doctor about my installing the blue stone patio with a broken arm. I suppose the fact that I showed the doctor how high I could now raise my arm also got him nervous. I hate the brace. That week I force myself to walk to work every morning, but had to make Rye come and pick me up to get home. The walk is five blocks, but the hip area was really really annoying and there was a nerve thing happening. That, thank goodness, has abided. For a while the not being able to walk more than 2 blocks with crying was a real hindrance.

Basically right now.. I think I am on par with my condition before the surgery, BUT now with the hope of actual recovery as opposed to broke arm limbo. The discomfort and annoyance is about equal. New things.. like the itchy scar, but that's no biggie.. though the scar.. That's freaking huge! My mobility is about the same as well. I am back to driving, can walk the mall and to work, have gone back to washing dishes and folding laundry (yeah). The improvements are that: a) My arm is straight. b) It now SWINGS when I walk.. hasn't done that for almost two years, so I am excited! c) I can actually lift my arm over my head.. with one arm.. as in I don't have to move my left arm with my right! That still hurts ( shush.. I don't think I am supposed to be doing that? Something about worrying about my screws coming loose...lol. as IF that hasn't happened already!) d) They did NOT cut into my tattoo. e) I have a great excuse to get another tattoo to cover the scar! I am uber crazy thankful for our dear house guest now neighbors Pine and Jordon who took a HUGE portion of child care and household duties away from us allowing me to be a patient and Rye to tend to me. Also dear neighbors and friends who brought over dinner, gifts and flowers. My co-workers who not only took up my work slack, but also sent well wishes and brought chocolate. And, of course, without a doubt.. everyone online Friend who cared, followed, commented, watched and sent good vibes. I think they paid off. Thank you.. really.. thank you. And now you all have to put up with me some more. Expect adoption rants to begin again on Friday with the Big Grown in My Heart Adoption Carnival! Of course, if you find me on Facebook you get all adoption all the time! I still can't type worth a hill of beans though. Oh well. Can we still blame that on the busted arm? And.. for the record.. come October first I WILL be getting out the Halloween decorations and going at it again. Don't even try to stop me.