Domestic Geek

Since I was accepted to Ravelry, I've been finding out about some new (to me) LYSs in the area and have been checking out about one new one a week. I'm seeing a definite trend that would hinder me coming back to some of these shops: too much merchandise in too little of a space and no price tags.

I know there is all sorts of reasons for this. Marking merchandise takes time that a shop owner would probably rather spend doing something else (like knitting samples or something). Honestly, though, if I come into your shop to browse and nothing is priced, I'm not buying. I don't have time to seek out the owner or an employee every time something I see strikes my fancy. I'm also on a pretty tight budget, so I need to know right away if the shop is too pricey for me.

As far as the tight, cramped conditions, I realize that retail space is expensive and that they're trying to offer as much as possible to their customers. I am, however, a big woman and if I'm browsing an "aisle" and I'm knocking down yarn behind me as I'm two inches from the stuff in front of me, it's too cramped. I'm also claustrophobic, so I probably won't take time to browse the store when that desire to escape overcomes me. Some of these shops also want people to come hang out and knit, but where?

Oh, and one final thing. Being ignored. I battled a snowstorm to go into one shop on my way home from work only to be ignored the whole half hour I was in there. Even if you're busy with another customer, take a moment to greet me and let me know you'll be available to help me as soon as you are able. If you can't do at least that, I guess you don't want my business after all.

All that being said, I've gone into some shops where I have nothing but good things to say. I'll share some of these good experiences later because I want to highlight some of these shops so that my few readers can check them out, too. I was warmly welcomed, merchandise is marked, well-defined areas for knitters to gather and work, etc. One shop owner even took the time to write out a quick scarf pattern for me to use with her yarn. See, that's the kind of stuff that will keep me coming back.

Sorry that I’ve been MIA lately. I’ve done got myself addicted to The Sims™ 2 again. Later this month, the expansion pack “FreeTime” is coming out. Man, I wish I could get that one — I’m all about the hobbies! I’m actually a couple of EPs behind still. I was hoping to pick up a couple cheap during CompUsa’s closing, but software was the first to go and it didn’t even go cheap. People are such suckers. Even at “Liquidation Prices,” I could still get those games cheaper on Amazon or eBay. Just wasn’t meant to be yet.

I got a “Save the Date” email from my high school’s reunion committee yesterday. Our 25th reunion has been scheduled for mid-July 2009. How in the heck did I get old enough to be coming up on a 25 year high school reunion? I was looking through some pictures from past reunions on the Gateway High School Class of ‘84 page that they have set up (I’ve yet to attend one) and it’s weird seeing people that kind of resemble people I kind of knew back then. I know I’ve written about it on here somewhere before, but I feel really detached from my past. I know I went through those experiences, but for some reason, I don’t have any “feelings” associated with them. It’s really hard to explain, but even now I feel oddly disconnected from my life.

Anyway, I decided I will probably go to this one if the funds are available. The people I would really like to see probably won’t be there (most of them haven’t been to any reunions either), but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. It’s pretty cliche, but I definitely need to get myself in better shape before I attend. I don’t want to be the one that every points at and says, “Gee, look at how fat she got!” If they even remember me, that is.

In other news, I’m still sick. Argh! Positive health vibes coming my way from anybody that reads this would be greatly appreciated. I’ve got crud in my upper chest that just won’t let loose. I’m so tired of coughing. It was really bad today because the pollution levels are pretty high. Other than that, I’m feeling pretty good.

I have a profile on Ravelry (you’ll only be able to see it if you’re a member). If you haven’t heard, it’s an online community for knitters and crocheters. I’ve been chatting with a woman that runs the Parker Stitch N’ Bitch group and I’m thinking I’ll head down one of these days and join in.

OK, that’s about it for now. Being sick, Sims and work is about all that’s going on right now. Oh, the days are getting longer and that makes me happy.

I'm really trying hard to be grateful for the good things that happen to me. I've spent so much of my life focusing on what I don't have or the bad things that happen that I don't take time to really enjoy the good.

I am happy that my sickness lessened to a point where I could go to work today and not use any of my vacation time.

Today I am grateful that the girl I sit next to went home sick so I could spend the day focusing and working in total peace. I'm also grateful that I work in the same place as Marcus so that he could come look over my Applescript I was editing and see where I had a syntax error.

I'm thankful I made it home safely in the snowstorm.

I am proud of myself for resisting the urge to buy craft supplies when I stopped into Hobby Lobby to take a break from the drive. I'm also proud of myself for putting back the cake mix and frosting before I checked out when I was grocery shopping.

I just can't seem to get well. Maybe by spring I'll finally lick this crap that just lingers and keeps getting passed around at work. I really have stuff and I want/need/have to do and right now I'm absolutely freezing and get a little dizzy when I stand up. So not cool.

I'm using the time today to catch up on a little Internet reading and found a cute little quiz thingy at my friend Julie's blog -->:

Pft, I'm only an 8. Stupid 1 point letters.

In other news, I'm almost done with the design for my template here, so I expect to have Domesticgeek.com live by the end of the month. I'm also doing some work on my other sites (since I had to move them all from Dreamhost), so eventually I'll link them up, too.

That reminds me that I never wrote about why I had to get all of my stuff off of Dreamhost's servers. Oh, back on Jan. 15th, I got this neat little email from Dreamhost saying they had autobilled my debit card $119.40. Um, my hosting wasn't set to renew until March and I didn't have that much money in my checking account. I immediately sent a response off to support that they were in error. See, I had no intention of renewing for another year. They've sucked. Many times I've gone to work on templates or to make posts only to have their servers lagging or down. I fretted all day long about that charge and finally got an email from someone later that day:

Hi LaDonna!

Ack. Through a COMPLETE bumbling on our part, we've accidentally attempted to charge you for the ENTIRE year of 2008 (and probably 2009!) ALREADY (it was all due to a fat finger)!

I'm really really realllly embarassed about this, but you have nothing to worry about. Please ignore any confusing billing messages you may have received recently; I've already removed all those bum future charges on your account (#292017) and already refunded the $119.4 charge on your credit card.

You should get the money back on almost immediately, within a day or two max, and there's no need to contact your credit card company or bank for the refund.

Again, I feel terrible about this whole thing.. there will be a blog post soon at blog.dreamhost.com fully explaining how this bug was even allowed to happen..

Thank you very very much for your patience with this.. we PROMISE this won't happen again. There's no need to reply to this message unless of course you have any other questions at all!

Sorry again,
Josh!

So, everything is cool, I think. I go home and read the promised post on the blog: Um, Whoops. I was a little miffed at the tone of the post, but I was willing to let it slip because mistakes happen and the guy was probably dealing with his stupidity the only way he knew how.

I kept checking both their blog and my bank (to see if a charge ever posted) and since I saw nothing, I figured all was good. Well, after I get home from dinner Friday night, I see a friend of mine from a message board complaining on Twitter that she actually got charged by Dreamhost. I go and check, and damned if I didn't get charged also. The resulting charge also got me two overdraft charges. I was soooooo pissed.

Turns out they only "thought" they had refunded the money. They really hadn't and the original charges went through. Well, this was MLK weekend and the banks were going to be closed on Monday. Maybe you'll see a refund by Tuesday, they said. Well, it was late in the day Tuesday before they finally posted a refund. In the mean time, the comments on their blog got downright ugly and the Dreamhost team all but disappeared. I never did get any emails back from support in response to my inquiry as to what they were going to do about my overdrafts. To make matters worse for them in my eyes, a bunch of their servers went down on the 23rd. Time to leave now.

Another thing about this whole thing that ticked me off was my bank. I called them on Monday (it was a holiday, but they promise 24-hour telephone banking) and the woman I spoke to said it would be no problem for them to reverse the overdrafts when Dreamhost sent the refund through. When I called back Wednesday, that woman tried telling me it wasn't the bank's problem and they shouldn't have to reverse them. I was ticked and she eventually did reverse them. This is not the first time I have gotten the runaround from them. I'm seriously going to try to find a better bank.

Anywho, once I got my cash back, I transfered the one domain I had registered through them to my normal registrar, moved all my data to my home server and closed my account. Marcus found me a free DNS at a place called EveryDNS.net. It seems to be working pretty well. I'm going to have to send those guys a donation.

I've got one more story about the frustrating experience I had with the IRS, but this post is getting a bit long, so perhaps that one will wait for another day.

I'm off to knit for a bit.

If you read here at all, you know of the poor demise of my stand mixer. I really miss having one but have decided to hold out for a really good one.

Well, here's a chance to get an really cool one! You or I can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer, but hurry because the contest ends today!

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

The Prize: The winner will receive a brand new Hamilton Beach 4.5-qt. Eclectrics Stand Mixer, Pineapple Yellow!!



It's yellow — can you believe it? PINEAPPLE YELLOW! I LOVE IT! You can head over to her site to read more about the mixer and the contest.