Long time, No see...

Wow, it's been a ridiculous long time since I was in here.

Let's see, what have I been up to...

I've been busy at my Live Space, doing stuff in my own mother tongue for a change. I've wound up on Facebook and have discovered that it's really not that scary there. We're doing multi-skill at work, which means I know answer questions on all products. That included a pay rise, so I'm not complaining. besides, we have all these sweet guys there ready, willing and able to help when a particularly tricky problem rears its ugly head.

Kiri has not been seen in months... I miss her terribly and hope she gets back into the swing of things soon. This must be killing her, not going to work. It's nice enough to be at home for a few days, but then you start to miss being useful. At least that's how it was for me when I was out on sick leaves.

The Empress has grown even more. Georgia would probably be dwarfed by her if they were ever to meet.

It's Easter Holidays here, so I have five days off from work. Well, including the weekend which I always have off anyways... I have canceled my ADSL and upgraded my cable Internet to the max, which is about 20 MB, have I noticed a difference? Oh yes! All for the better!

I've been visiting ShadowRider's blog a few times, she does write a lot about horses, which is all good, I love horses, even if I haven't ridden in years.

I find myself spending more time on Facebook than anywhere else, these days. Some fun games to be played there, and most of the people I work with are there. But someone is missing... Yeah, Kiri!

So, Kiri, my sweet and wonderful partner in crime, if you happen by... Know that I miss you... Loads!!!

Missing my Kirishaped Friend!

Wow! That's all I can say, and sorry! Sorry is meant exclusively for Raina i.e.: my Kirishaped friend!

I'm heading full speed into the last weekend of my three week vacation, and I realize that I've been lax about updating here.

Three weeks flew by too fast for my liking, my only consolation is that I have two more weeks to do with as I please before the year is up!

Poor Kiri have seemed so swamped lately, that I have chosen not to initiate conversation in fear of getting her into trouble or distracting her. Figuring that I'll let her initiate if she has the time. Obviously, she's not had any of that for weeks. The result is a two way deal;

1. I miss her, terribly! But feel proud that I'm not bugging her when she's busy...

2. I feel like a bad friend for being quiet!

First week of my vacation saw me and my sister, Catwalk, heading to Sweden for a shopping trip on Friday. We didn't really pay attention to the time, so when we got to my place afterwards, we couldn't believe how late it was, it was well past 9 PM - we had left around 2 PM...

Someplace around 11 PM, I drove her back out to her boyfriend's place for the night. I was home well past midnight...

Saturday saw Catwalk showing up at my place again. In desperate need of a shower, as her boyfriend lives in a modified barn, and therefore lacks said convenience. I had offered her the use of my shower, so it's not like she wasn't expected!

She's as slow getting into gear as I am, so it did take some coffee, playing with The Empress and yet more coffee before she finally headed for showergels and hot water. We'd already decided that due to her boyfriend being even harder to get into gear, we wouldn't be able to visit our Grandmother at the nursing home like we had planned. That sucked big time, as Catwalk had been looking forward to that, not having seen her in a long time now.

My second week of vacation was spent being lazy and recuperating from the marathon weekend with Catwalk. The Empress has been getting a lot of attention, and loves every second of it, and I've been watching a lot of movies!

Only thing I did last week, not designed for laziness, was visiting my Grandmother with my mom, and then taking my mom out grocery shopping, as it's difficult for her to get everything she needs when she has to drag it to the bus, for then to drag it from the bus and home.

This week saw me getting all the bills paid and consequently getting broke before I'd even gotten to enjoy having money in my bank account! Wasn't a lot left when I was done!

Yesterday, it was off to visit my Grandmother with my mom again, and getting some of her shopping done again. I got a sudden inspiration late last night, and wound up scrubbing the kitchen counters and the stove. Today, I have big plans for cleaning the rest of the apartment.

My original plan for hosing down the bathroom fell through. It's been rainy and miserable, so I haven't been able to clear everything out in order to get the scrubbing I planned done.

The Empress has been hard at work, hunting down whatever comes in through the open veranda door, keeping the number of flies and such to a bare minimum. Good girl! She's at it, even now...

In addition to bad weather, I have new neighbors above me and to the side. They've been drilling in the walls, hammering and generally making as much noise as possible throughout my vacation. Not to mention that the roadwork on the old bridge is going nearly day and night, making sure I don't get to sleep in in the mornings. Fun!

So, there you go. My vacation so far, and seeing as it's over as of this coming Sunday, there you have it!

Kiri, my sweet, if you do get the time, let me know there is life on your end would you? I really do miss you!

Example of brilliant customer care

My sister, she of the legs that goes on forever (one thing we have in common), does a lot of shopping online for pants and jeans. Some of her shopping is done at a web store called Baby Phat.

Now, the process of becoming a customer there is a little more that just a tiny bit complicated. She gave me a run-down of a long list of things they demanded of her, including faxing a copy of her drivers license to them.

Her Internet provider got bought up by a larger company, a few months back. One of the changes is a new email addy. My sister, dutifully, shot of an email to Baby Phat's customer care informing them of this turn of events, and asked if they could please see fit to change her contact information to include this new addy. Their response? She has to call them, as per their routines, they can't do this just from an email being sent (which is usually how everyone else does it), she has to call them, in the US on a 1-800 number in order to make that particular change.

Firstly, she's in Norway! A minimum of 6 timezones away, depending on what coast they're located on, she could be a few more timezones away than that! Secondly, 1-800 numbers are not free to call from Norway. My sister only has a cellphone, and dialing the US from a cellphone, is anything but cheap!

My poor sister is now frustrated beyond belief, and at her wit's end. She has commandeered me to help her compose an email that she can paste into whatever replies she gets from them, because - and this is a doozy that is strictly forbidden at most customer care departments - they delete the entire mail history when they reply. Everything she's put into the mail, is gone when the reply arrives. Result? She has to rewrite her entire request and their responses in order for the next person at Baby Phat to understand what the request is all about in the first place.

If anyone at my work (which is customer care) had deleted email history, they'd be in trouble. That's a huge no-no. If not a written warning, then at the very least a verbal one would be the result of such stupidity. At Baby Phat, it seems to be par for the course and 'as per their routines'...

Kiri sits in VA, shaking her head over this, and had this observation on the faxing of the drivers license; 'That can't be legal.' and as for the rule about changing an email addy over the phone, only;'That's stupid!' and 'But then again the chick behind Baby Phat is a moron so I believe it.' And she rounded it all off with this; 'Love stupid American companies.' Also she said, and I quote; 'You need to blog that example of brilliance.'

So, here it is. In all it's blogged brilliance, for everyone to see...

Holy crap I'm lazy...

Isn't it amazing, just how lazy one can get when it's hot and sunny? And when it's raining so much you get depressed? Doesn't matter, really. When you're lazy, you're lazy, and there are a multitude of excuses. 'It's too hot, I can't be bothered doing that...' 'It's raining so much, it's depressive, I don't wanna do it now...' I openly admit to being lazy, of late. Too lazy, even. So today, I've made an effort to get some shit done.

I've laundered two machines worth of clothes. They're swaying, oh so, gently in the mild breeze, almost dry, already. I've updated both my Live Spaces with new posts. And I have a clear plan to get the vacuum out. Today, I plan to be efficient, without stressing too much, I don't want a relapse of yesterday's migraine.

The Empress has been knocked on her ass by the hot weather, today. She's passed out on her platform. She went for a 'daredevil' run on the veranda yesterday, in the shower we got. Huge raindrops, heavy enough to knock her silly. She left it at that one run, thankfully, as she sprayed everything shaking the rain out of her fur.

She's posed a little in front of my new webcam, in order to let my sister see her. My sister, in turn goes nuts wagging her finger back and forth in front of her own camera, going 'Kitty, kitty, kitty.' The Empress ignores her every attempt at seduction. 'If you ain't here to pet me, you don't exist!' So, she proceeds to investigate everything on the desk, exept the image window on the screen, showing her aunt trying to get her attention.

Earlier this week, before the new camera was hooked up, I activated the old one in a chat with Kiri. I was planning to scare her, a little, but she was anything but intimidated. She did get a couple of eyefulls of Her Furry Highness, though. So all was good in the land of Kiriness.

For some reason, I keep getting error messages when I try to visit Kiri's blog, here on blogspot. I have no idea why, but it's put a dampener on my mood and willingness to blog, as of late. We'll probably figure it out, eventually. It's not as if this is the first time this has happened.

It's vacation time at work, leaving me swamped. Don't get me wrong, I like being a little busy! It makes the day go faster. But there is busy, and there is too damned busy for words. It's the latter, that's been the fact this week at work. And my own vacation time seems too far away to be any comfort.

I've been back to working full time, again, since May 25. There are days when I feel it more in my hands than others. I prefer the days when it's not quite so painful. Gee, wonder why?

Well, if not for anything else, today has seen me updating three blogs. Not a bad days work, if I do say so myself...

Aaahh... Blogspot!

I kinda feel like I've been neglecting this blog. Been so busy over at Live Spaces and getting into blogging in my own language, this place has seen few updates lately.

Come tomorrow, I'm back to work 100%. About freaking time, is all I'm saying. The arm is far from 100%, but I don't care anymore. 80% has been going good enough that I don't wanna wait anymore.

Kiri has opened up a Space too, but she hasn't done much with it. She ran into some of the same problems my sister did, though she did manage to snag the horoscope service that my sister is still in hot pursuit of. Told my sister, she was aghast that Kiri had managed in one try, what she has been trying to do, but failed at for weeks.

I kinda feel like I've neglected Kiri too, seeing as my blogging at Spaces is in Norwegian, which she doesn't understand. Maybe I should start a second space, in English?

I didn't get to see Def Leppard Friday. The plan that most of the team at work was going dwindled out into nothing, and for some reason, I wasn't informed. They all thought I knew, which I didn't until two weeks before the show. Too late for me to nag anyone else into coming with me, and I really don't like going alone. Too bad too, as the show had raving reviews!

As it turned out, one of the girls was invited to a wedding this weekend, and felt that the wedding had to take priority, which I totally agree with, don't get me wrong. But as she was the one that insisted she'd get all the tickets together, I'd have liked to be informed sooner than I was. I really wanted to go...

After that, one by one fell off the 'wanna go' wagon, and I was the last to be informed. Sucks!

In other news, I've put in an application for another job. This would be a new field for me, but one where knowing customer care can come in very handy. It's at the local consumers office, and there's nothing I like better than solving problems. I really hope they'll consider me, it'd mean better pay and more challenges in my work. I crave challenges, these days. There's really not a whole lot of it where I am now. Occasionally I get a tough case, but they are few and far between, these days. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It's pointless calling them to ensure they got my application, as it was done electronically, and I've already received confirmation they've got it.

Received an envelope from FedEx, Friday. Four packs of Ranch dressing for my enjoyment. Thank you Kiri, I haven't gotten around to mix any up yet, but I plan to! And now my sister is demanding a taste too...

I need to get a care packet ready for Kiri soon. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. I'll think of something. I know she likes my preferred brand of coffee, so there'll have to be a couple of packs of that too.

The Empress is relaxing out on the veranda today. She got no joy yesterday as it was pouring down with rain, but today, the sun is back!

Oh well, time I got my ass moving a little. Things to do, even on a Sunday...

Aah, I so love a Monday off...

A day off is always welcome, especially when it's a paid day off! Today is the second day of Lent. In Norway, that translates into a 'Red Day'. Red days on our calendar means a day off... With pay, as long as it's not a Sunday or a Saturday that went Red for some reason like Christmas Day or some such. If it's a weekday marked red, I get paid to park my ass at home!

My sister and I have been busy over at Windows Live Spaces for the last couple of days, she's building and cussing like a drunken sailor, and I try to help as best I can. It's really not helping matters that their galleries are down for maintenance at all hours, or that the Horoscope service she wants doesn't wanna hang out on her page. I've had it from the get-go, she wants it, we have trouble!

This weekend has been very hot and sunny. Summer temperatures all last week, today it's still sunny, but with a cold wind. I hope it lets off soon, so that I can keep the veranda door open and The Empress on a leash. Not that it isn't more trouble than it's worth, what with her getting herself tangled up in knots all the time!

Just a quick little update today, as my sister is still toiling over at her page with that darn horoscope service that won't!

I'm happily playing around on my space, creating music- and book lists, and blogging in Norwegian for a change. I'll be over there most of today too, I think...

Kiri, you need to get Messenger Live, and a space to play with. It's fun!

Live Spaces

There's a nifty new thing I've discovered, thanks to my sister. Windows Live Space, or Spaces for short.

Found an invite in my mailbox about someone named Pia wanting to 'be my friend' at this place. I suspected my sister, but she's been anti-everything along the lines of MySpace and Facebook. As have I, I'm not on either community. Shot off a mail to my sister, to make sure this was from her, and true enough... It was.

So, in I go and set up shop just to pass some time. It's kinda fun, if you overlook all the frustration my sister went through not finding what she wanted. Easy, this place is not! For some reason, my space wound up with a really cool horoscope service. I didn't select it from the list (because I didn't notice it), but now she wanted it. Then we find out that her version of spaces is in Norwegian, my template is in English. Okaaaay, I'll switch my language to Norwegian and set about guiding her to the place I found the horoscope on my list. No go, she found everything I told her to look for, but no horoscope. darn! Then I hit 'save' to make sure I don't lose anything, and my theme is gone! WTF? I go in search of it, and find that it's not available in the Norwegian version. I loved that theme! Fine, change the templates back to English, I can still post in Norwegian. The only thing a lingo change does is change the language of the menu's and content. Finally, I find my theme again, and all is well. Well... Not so much, my sister is now on a mission, she WANTS(!) that horoscope service and has gone off to the galleries in search of it. She's gonna have to look at 88 pages of content! I head over there to see if the search can be narrowed down. I spot the search bar and enter 'horoscopes' and hit the appropriate button to search the gallery, not the web. I get 19 matches. I tell my sister, she speeds off to make her search, typing exactly what I did, hitting the same button I did... 0 matches! WTF(?) again! She did everything I told her to, down to last detail, and where I get 19 matches, she gets 0? Spaces must not like her for some reason... She tried searching in Norwegian, she switched her lingo to English, no matter what she did, she got the same result... 0 matches! By this time, she was furious! So she headed off to the gym so she could get her workout done before they closed the doors, with a solemn promise to return to the hunt when she got back. I kinda felt sorry for the gym...

My space is set to a certain privacy, meaning I have to approve whomever wants to stop by. As it's kept in Norwegian, I don't see non-Norwegians getting too much out of it... Though, there are photo albums... and one of them is dedicated to The Empress...

As it was my sister who lured me into spaces, I've chosen to keep it in Norwegian, just as I decided to keep this spot in English, as it was Kiri who made me start blogging here, and she's American! Not to say that English speaking visitors can't leave a mark in their own language, of course they can. But they'll sadly not be able to read the blog I'm keeping there... so now I have two... and I still blame Kiri, what's up with that? Oh yeah, she made me start in the first place. At least I beat my sister to blogging. She's a creative woman, and she does have a lot of opinions (sound familiar?) but she's not been able to break this barrier she's had about blogging. She made her first post late last night, I doubt it'll be the last!