Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[bilgistic]

10 minutes ago, stewedsquash said:

They also had Poker. It smelled of green velvet, men's cologne and something else manly but I can't figure out what it is.

Balls?

[Guest]

I've been ruminating and I'm peeved at the real estate industry.  Yes, the entire real estate industry and their minions, home decorators.  I think we've been indoctrinated with a kind of mind control and they are to blame :P

I do not need to make every single decision regarding home upgrades considering a future sale that I have no immediate plans for.  I do not need to make everything neutral so some future hypothetical buyer can envision their stuff in my home.

Sure, the big expensive stuff like a kitchen remodel think about resale value (and I'm not sure that isn't the mind control talking).  But stuff like paint doesn't need to be neutral.  I painted that accent wall orange; and you know what, I can paint it neutral if I ever decide to sell.  My stuff looks better with that orange wall.

And I resent that show Fixer Upper for naming that house the 'technicolor dream house' in a snarky way and making me feel like I've done something horrifying using more than one five paint colors in my house.  All my rooms coordinate.  All my rooms are interesting. All my rooms were fun little projects to decorate.  They have a TV show and decorate every single house in the same style.

I can paint if I ever sell.  Heck, if there were ever the perfectly neutral, move in ready house the potential buyer would still find something to ask for in escrow.  I gift them my walls.  I enjoyed them and recognize you have to have exactly my stuff to make them work.

I just resent the initial angst I go through every time I start a decorating project before I say f#@& it and follow my very not neutral instincts.

This post brought to you following an internal struggle after realizing I fell in love with a light fixture.  A light fixture that definitely means I need to buy a second boring one to stick on a shelf and have it installed if I ever want to sell my house (because again goes with my stuff and not neutral).  Then I realized that I liked it so much that I would probably decide to take it with me if I ever moved anyway.  So not quite the waste of money that I originally thought.

[topanga]

On 9/23/2016 at 4:14 PM, lordonia said:

This is a tiny mosquito pet, but a peeve nonetheless: when TV and movies try to pass off completely dissimilar looking actors as siblings from the same parents. Yes, yes, it happens in real life but just seems like casting laziness to me on screen.

This. Or when the child and adult version of the actor look nothing like. I especially hate this with black actors (or any POC, I suppose). The child will be light brown and the adult with have medium- or dark-brown skin. Or vice-versa. I'm always like, "doesn't anyone notice this????"

[zxy556575]

1 hour ago, topanga said:

I especially hate this with black actors (or any POC, I suppose). The child will be light brown and the adult with have medium- or dark-brown skin. Or vice-versa. I'm always like, "doesn't anyone notice this????"

Heh. Did you perhaps see these brothers on Notorious?

Edited September 25, 2016 by lordonia

[backformore]

lordonia - I saw that show, and twice, they mentioned they were brothers.   And I was trying to figure out if we'd ever get the adoption or step-brother  back-story to explain, because, though I know not all siblings look alike, THOSE two are NOT brothers.

[backformore]

My pet peeve tonight is that on this site, I keep getting an ad on the bottom of the page for treatment for toenail fungus.  The picture freaks me out just a bit. 

[zxy556575]

This is churlish of me, but I don't like it when people ask me to call them by descriptive, overly familiar nicknames. "Everyone calls me Smiley!" "Just call me Papa Joe!" I've also met women who go by Happy and Delight.

I can make up my own nicknames for people I'm fond of, thank you very much.

[DeLurker]

10 hours ago, backformore said:

lordonia - I saw that show, and twice, they mentioned they were brothers.   And I was trying to figure out if we'd ever get the adoption or step-brother  back-story to explain, because, though I know not all siblings look alike, THOSE two are NOT brothers.

I used to work with a woman from Jamaica and she told me one of the benefits of having so much variety in the bloodlines, that no matter what your baby looked like someone could always say "Oh, he's got Great Uncle's skintone/eyes/features".  So if two siblings didn't look alike, it was always graciously attributed to some old gene making a reappearance.

IRL, when siblings didn't share much resemblance we always just said "they must have got a new mailman".  Since none of my siblings or I resemble Dad DeLurker but we do resemble each other, we just claim that the mailman must have moved a LOT since our births were mostly in different states

[auntlada]

My son started pre-K in the public school this year. The PTA and teachers and others keep talking about all these programs they have (the latest was Box Tops) and don't really explain what they are or how they work or what we're supposed to do. Some of us don't have older children and are new to the school. I wish they'd explain things. When I can, I ask questions, but a lot of times, there's not a moment to ask any questions. I guess they think we'll remember some of this stuff from when we were in school, but when you wait until you are in your 40s to have a kid, school was a long time ago -- and everything was way different then.

[auntlada]

His teacher communicates by email and is pretty good about responding, but I'm trying not to be that parent who pesters her about stuff.

I did find the Box Tops website and got a list of stuff that's eligible. Except for a couple of products, we don't buy those brands. I'm not going to go out of my way to buy them because the school only gets 10 cents for each box top. They'd do better if I just gave money directly to the school. I am glad to find out what exactly I'm supposed to turn in for the box tops, @stewedsquash. I wasn't sure. We just bought Ziploc bags, so that will be our donation. That's one of the only products we buy in the right brand.

They had one fundraiser already this year. The kids have a field day on which they go outside and play games the PTA and university students set up for them. The fundraiser part is they are supposed to just ask people for money. They don't sell anything, and the donors aren't sponsoring them to do anything on field day. They are just donating money. You're supposed to raise at least $25. My son is too young to understand about raising money unless I tell him to ask people for money, and I'm not willing to do that or to post a notice at my office. I just wrote a check myself. I think the spring fundraiser is a carnival, which is better because people who go are expecting to spend money.

I keep wanting to right notes to the teacher and sign them "Epstein's Mother." She should be old enough to understand because she's only a couple of years younger than me, but I don't know if she watched "Welcome Back, Kotter." (I know how old she is because it turns out that she grew up in my hometown until she was in eighth grade and was friends with some of my friends' little sisters.)

[zxy556575]

7 hours ago, stewedsquash said:

I avoided the Momsters.

This is a third-hand peeve, which I am not above.

I recently read a free Kindle book called "People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots, and Other Suburban Scourges." It's a collection of satirical essays from a blogger about having kids and moving to the suburbs. I am not a parent, aunt, or godmother, but still managed to be peeved on the author's behalf for most of the book. I assume some of the neighborhood "momster" stuff she described was exaggerated for comedic effect, but still. Super annoying.

Edited September 26, 2016 by lordonia

[Mountainair]

Speaking of kids and school.... I have a 6 year old, 4 year old and 6 month old. We are about 3 weeks into the school year and already my oldest has come down with a tummy bug. Today my 4 year old caught it and threw up on daddy. I hate knowing you are going to get sick but not knowing when and in what order it's going to hit your house. Sometimes you're lucky and don't get the bug but that's never been the case in my house. Is my husband going to get it next or am I? Are we going to get it at the same time? Is the baby going to get it? 

I like to be in control and when rogue tummy bugs run through your house I lose all sense of control!

[BookWoman56]

This is a very specific peeve: Those IRS phone scammers need to fuck off and die. In the past two weeks I have gotten probably 20 phone calls from them, and even when I've picked up the call, there is simply a recorded message coming in. The message is the same exact thing every time: blah blah blah 4 serious issues with your IRS account; must call them back to resolve within 24 hours or the cops will show up to arrest me; etc. I've even tried to call back immediately and still got nothing except an "away from my desk temporarily" message. So if you are never there to respond to my return call, how the hell are you supposed to try to convince me to put thousands of dollars onto a prepaid debit card and send the money to you? And has it not occurred to you that the threat of dire consequences occurring within 24 hours kind of loses its credibility when I keep missing the 24-hour deadline repeatedly over two weeks, and yet amazingly enough, the cops have not shown up to arrest me? These people are not only fraudsters, they are embarrassingly stupid fraudsters.

[Maharincess]

53 minutes ago, BookWoman56 said:

This is a very specific peeve: Those IRS phone scammers need to fuck off and die. In the past two weeks I have gotten probably 20 phone calls from them, and even when I've picked up the call, there is simply a recorded message coming in. The message is the same exact thing every time: blah blah blah 4 serious issues with your IRS account; must call them back to resolve within 24 hours or the cops will show up to arrest me; etc. I've even tried to call back immediately and still got nothing except an "away from my desk temporarily" message. So if you are never there to respond to my return call, how the hell are you supposed to try to convince me to put thousands of dollars onto a prepaid debit card and send the money to you? And has it not occurred to you that the threat of dire consequences occurring within 24 hours kind of loses its credibility when I keep missing the 24-hour deadline repeatedly over two weeks, and yet amazingly enough, the cops have not shown up to arrest me? These people are not only fraudsters, they are embarrassingly stupid fraudsters.

I got one of those calls a couple of days ago. They said they were the IRS and since I didn't respond to their letters they were going to take action against me.  Mine was an actual person with an Indian accent. I knew it was a scam and I asked what address they sent the letters to and what name.  They stammered and said they could get me that information if I gave them my social security number, uh yeah OK.  After me asking them 20 more questions they hung up on me and I haven't heard from them since. 

My grandson started TK this year and both he and my granddaughter have been sick already. I'm so happy I don't have to deal with that anymore. They know if they're sniffling and coughing they aren't going to grandma's house. 

Edited September 26, 2016 by Maharincess

[BookWoman56]

3 minutes ago, Maharincess said:

I got one of those calls a couple of days ago. They said they were the IRS and since I didn't respond to their letters they were going to take action against me.  Mine was an actual person with an Indian accent. I knew it was a scam and I asked what address they sent the letters to and what name.  They stammered and said they could get me that information if I gave them my social security number, uh yeah OK.  After me asking them 20 more questions they hung up on me and I haven't heard from them since. 

Maharincess, I went through that group of scammers last year, with the same results as you. Once I started asking questions, they hung up and then wouldn't answer the phone when I tried calling them back. This current group, though, probably screens their return calls to see if you sound desperate enough before they will actually pick up the  phone to talk to you. There is a lot of good info available on the IRS website about these scams, but as a general caution to anybody who gets a call from someone claiming to be the IRS: the IRS sends letters instead of making phone calls, and they do not threaten to send the cops to arrest you if you don't pay up within 24 hours.

[bilgistic]

The only calls I get on my phone are scam calls, and half of them are those fake IRS calls. Boiling hot hate!

[backformore]

7 hours ago, auntlada said:

My son started pre-K in the public school this year. The PTA and teachers and others keep talking about all these programs they have (the latest was Box Tops) and don't really explain what they are or how they work or what we're supposed to do. Some of us don't have older children and are new to the school. I wish they'd explain things. When I can, I ask questions, but a lot of times, there's not a moment to ask any questions. I guess they think we'll remember some of this stuff from when we were in school, but when you wait until you are in your 40s to have a kid, school was a long time ago -- and everything was way different then.

Yeah, I encountered similar problems when my kids were in school -  school, scouts, sports -  people running it seemed to expect everyone to know what the heck they were talking about.   They never took the time to explain things, even when asking for volunteers.   Like, if you want me to volunteer for something you call a "spring fling", or to be a "room mother"  you better explain what that is, and what you need volunteers to DO, or I'm not signing up.   Those terms are not universal OR self-explanatory.

[NutMeg]

Pet peeve (and maybe someone here knows what to do?)

Since the last upgrade on my MacBok, the option "zoom in text only" has disappeared. Which means my choice is either squint at small characters, or view only part of text. Very frustrating, and Apple help is lousy.

It's especially taxing on Previously TV, because the character size I usually go for (one tick above the norm) works well with other sites but here means I can't read a full line. Grrrrr...

[JTMacc99]

Whenever the topic of scammers comes up, I try to tell as many people as possible the two things I know for sure (not including there is no such thing as a Nigerian Prince who needs our help.)

1. The IRS NEVER calls you on the phone. The real IRS sends very businesslike letters informing you of what you will pay them.

2. Facebook is an EXCELLENT source of information about you should a scammer want to do something like get to your family. For example, if you have your high school, your college, your place of work all there in the public search, a scammer can probably find your parents in the phone book and craft a pretty good story about how they are an attorney representing you because you got into some trouble and need bail money.

[Qoass]

My pet peeve is that consumer experts and law enforcement will tell you that if you get unwanted sales or scam calls, the best thing to do is to hang up.  Will that stop them from calling again?  No.  Tell me what to do so that the calls stop and the scammers get the book thrown at them.

[topanga]

6 hours ago, NutMeg said:

Pet peeve (and maybe someone here knows what to do?)

Since the last upgrade on my MacBok, the option "zoom in text only" has disappeared. Which means my choice is either squint at small characters, or view only part of text. Very frustrating, and Apple help is lousy.

It's especially taxing on Previously TV, because the character size I usually go for (one tick above the norm) works well with other sites but here means I can't read a full line. Grrrrr...

I wish I could help. I'm always having issues with font size on my lap top. If I can't figure it out myself (or one of my kids isn't around to help me), I'll Google "How do you XYZ on a Toshiba laptop?" I almost always find the answer that way. 

18 hours ago, auntlada said:

They had one fundraiser already this year. The kids have a field day on which they go outside and play games the PTA and university students set up for them. The fundraiser part is they are supposed to just ask people for money. They don't sell anything, and the donors aren't sponsoring them to do anything on field day. They are just donating money. You're supposed to raise at least $25. My son is too young to understand about raising money unless I tell him to ask people for money, and I'm not willing to do that or to post a notice at my office. I just wrote a check myself. I think the spring fundraiser is a carnival, which is better because people who go are expecting to spend money.

I keep wanting to right notes to the teacher and sign them "Epstein's Mother." She should be old enough to understand because she's only a couple of years younger than me, but I don't know if she watched "Welcome Back, Kotter." (I know how old she is because it turns out that she grew up in my hometown until she was in eighth grade and was friends with some of my friends' little sisters.)

Yes, I agree. Don't make kids beg people for money. That's slightly worse than the annoying catalog fundraisers I've been participating in every year since my kids have been in school. This year, I absolutely refuse to sell another candle, pizza, cookie, mum, or roll of wrapping paper to my relatives or co-workers. My son was a little disappointed, but when I explained to him that a) the school only gets a small percentage of everything we sell  b) the 8th grade trip to Six Flags really isn't that expensive, so I don't mind paying the full cost, and c) the same people have been buying things from him and his brother for 14 years. I think everyone is tired (and broke) from all of these fundraisers.  

 

I love the "Epstein's mother" joke!

[backformore]

I'm so glad to be past all those fundraisers!!

Boy scout popcorn for $15,  rolls of wrapping paper at $12 a roll. My boys sold Christmas wreaths for $30 that were identical to the $10 wreaths you could buy at Walmart.  

And yes, if you do the research, it's a huge ripoff.  the school, sports team, scout troop, makes a small fraction compared to the companies who put out the overpriced merchandise.  

My biggest beef, though, was family members and neighbors who hounded me to buy the $6 per box girl scout cookies when they didn't buy stuff from my kids.  If you want me to buy overpriced cookies, you better cough up the money for overpriced popcorn and Christmas wreaths!

[janestclair]

I've gotten a few of those IRS calls too.  And one other one, that I think wasn't the IRS but it said there was a warrant for someone's arrest in the magistrate court.  Super heavy Indian accent, so those are the words I caught.  Yeah, ok.  This is the US - we do not have magistrate court.  Morons.  The good thing is my dad, while very gullible, can't hear for shit, and rarely answers the phone, and my mom worked for the IRS, so at least knows that one is a scam despite her short term memory issues.  That's who they're hoping to get - elderly, gullible people.  If I actually pick up the phone, I play along for awhile and waste their time. It's fun, and it's less time they can scam some other person.  What makes it extra annoying is they spoof the number so it looks like it's a local call.

Girl Scout cookies are $6 now?! Holy crap.  Thin Mints are tasty, but not $6 worth of tasty.  I always hated having to do the fundraisers as a kid, too.  Asking random people to buy crap was not my idea of fun.  Now my students ask me to buy stuff, and I use the nut allergy excuse, since it's mostly food items.  If it's a T-shirt, I can't buy those either because they do not come in petite XS.  Sorry kids.  

[DeLurker]

43 minutes ago, topanga said:

Yes, I agree. Don't make kids beg people for money. That's slightly worse than the annoying catalog fundraisers I've been participating in every year since my kids have been in school. This year, I absolutely refuse to sell another candle, pizza, cookie, mum, or roll of wrapping paper to my relatives or co-workers. My son was a little disappointed, but when I explained to him that a) the school only gets a small percentage of everything we sell  b) the 8th grade trip to Six Flags really isn't that expensive, so I don't mind paying the full cost, and c) the same people have been buying things from him and his brother for 14 years. I think everyone is tired (and broke) from all of these fundraisers. 

I love the "Epstein's mother" joke!

And your co-workers and relatives all appreciate that posture.  I'm with you - I'd rather pay for something than sell a boatload of crap.

I buy Girl Scout cookies and Boy Scout popcorn every year from the kids who set up outside the grocery store.  It is overpriced, but the cookies make my kids happy and I find the popcorn outstanding.

Second the Epstein's mother joke. 

[Popples]

12 minutes ago, janestclair said:

 

I've gotten a few of those IRS calls too.  And one other one, that I think wasn't the IRS but it said there was a warrant for someone's arrest in the magistrate court.  Super heavy Indian accent, so those are the words I caught.  Yeah, ok.  This is the US - we do not have magistrate court.  Morons.  The good thing is my dad, while very gullible, can't hear for shit, and rarely answers the phone, and my mom worked for the IRS, so at least knows that one is a scam despite her short term memory issues.  That's who they're hoping to get - elderly, gullible people.  If I actually pick up the phone, I play along for awhile and waste their time. It's fun, and it's less time they can scam some other person.  What makes it extra annoying is they spoof the number so it looks like it's a local call.

 

Hate this so very much. My mother was so close to sending money to a fake charity; had me go get a money order for her, and decided against it when I looked up the charity and saw it was a total scam. When I asked her why she even answered her phone (she hates to be bothered), she said because it was so close to her number.

[zxy556575]

This is a dual peeve: Mother Nature and all the news shows that love to scare us about germs.

I had some Crystal Light in a plastic pitcher that had been sitting in the fridge for a while. When I pulled it out from the back of the shelf today, it had several mold spots on the sides, along with maybe 200 small black flecks floating around.

I washed the pitcher, put a bleach solution inside to soak, and heated it in the microwave. It looks and smells like new but I'm still kind of afraid to use it any more.

Secondly, what the hell kind of bacteria is it that can grow in a refrigerated solution of Crystal Light, a collection of chemicals completely devoid of any organic material? My only conclusion is that the bacteria was something in the water, which ugh, just kill me now. I already have a whole-house water filter and use a filtered pitcher for drinking water.

[janestclair]

lordonia, 

If you bleached it, it should be fine bacteria-wise.  Bleach kills anything that can make you sick.  I'd just wash it a few more times just to make sure there was no actual bleach left on the pitcher.  If it was a plastic pitcher, you'd be surprised what sorts of bacteria and fungi can hang out and multiply in all the microscopic nicks. It could've been from the faucet, or even mold spores in the air.  Over the summer I had a large flask of something that was sealed and left over one weekend in my classroom for a lab , and it was full of mold on Monday. Only took 2 days.  I still have bleach sitting in it.  You just reminded me I should probably clean that out.  

You do not want to know what sort of microorganisms are on your cell phone.  In reality though, you are covered with critters, most of them harmless and protecting you from the ones that are actually pathogenic.  We are actually 90 percent bacteria and only 10 percent human, cell-wise. There's your useless fact of the day. 

Edited September 26, 2016 by janestclair

[JTMacc99]

You all reminded me, I don't really worry much about germs. I just use common sense and assume I will be fine. 

However, I can't watch even one minute of Monsters Inside Me without getting completely skeeved out. ::shudder::

Edited September 26, 2016 by JTMacc99

[zxy556575]

9 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

However, I can't watch even one minute of Monsters Inside Me without getting completely skeeved out. ::shudder::

I love the guy who explains the diseases. He's soothingly calm but implacable as he explains how I'm going to die.

The trick to that show is to listen without watching (although they use far too many squelching sound effects). But it's the graphics and closeups of brain-eating organisms that will really do you in.

[3pwood]

3 hours ago, topanga said:

...  This year, I absolutely refuse to sell another candle, pizza, cookie, mum, or roll of wrapping paper to my relatives or co-workers. ...

On the other hand, one of my all-time favorite rolls of wrapping paper was very heavy & printed with stunning pictures of brilliantly colored bugs -- I bought it from a disgusting co-worker whose extremely nasty son was selling it on behalf of his snobby private parochial school.  There was nothing positive about any aspect of the experience & I would never have spent $8 for these people had I not been seduced by those big beautiful bugs!  I recently used the last of that roll & really miss it.  

[Maharincess]

My grandkids are already selling stuff for school. I've always saved the box tops and that kind of thing,  when my granddaughter was in first grade my box tops won her class an ice cream and pizza party.   I ALWAYS buy stuff from them (I'm grandma, that's my job) spending ten dollars on a can of popcorn kills me but I buy it anyway. I love the Xmas stuff they sell because it's stuff you can't buy in stores.    This is my grandson's first time selling something and he's so excited about it. 

[auntlada]

I hated selling stuff when I was a kid, although we didn't have to sell for school back then. It was just overpriced Campfire candy. In high school, we sold candy bars for National Honor Society, but we didn't have to work at it. You just carried the box with you, and kids bought them. They were only 50 cents each, so they were pretty cheap. I don't think kids can do that in school any more.

I think the low rate of return is probably the reason that the most recent fundraiser was just asking for donations. The school gets it all, and since the PTA is doing it, all donations are tax-deductible. And you don't end up with crap you don't want but just bought because some kid asked you to buy.

I used to have a rule at church that I bought from the first kid to ask, and that was it. I usually tried to buy something cheap that I actually wanted. It was usually popcorn or cookie dough. I used to buy popcorn from the son of a guy I work with, but the kid had to come to my house and sell it to me himself. My workplace does not allow kids to sell there (even if you tell the kid to come to your desk) so parents put notices on a web bulletin board, but I don't buy from parents. The only thing I buy now is Girl Scout cookies, and the last time I did, it was from Girl Scouts outside Walmart. I think ours were $5 a box.

4 hours ago, backformore said:

My biggest beef, though, was family members and neighbors who hounded me to buy the $6 per box girl scout cookies when they didn't buy stuff from my kids.  If you want me to buy overpriced cookies, you better cough up the money for overpriced popcorn and Christmas wreaths!

This was my mother's reason for going to baby and wedding showers at church: so people would come to her kids' showers. She always said that if you don't go to other people's showers, they won't come to yours.

[Guest]

I've felt bad for the boy scouts the last several trips to the grocery store.  Its so much harder to sell popcorn than girl scout cookies.  I'm thinking of just bringing some cash for a donation next tie.

[Maharincess]

This reminds me of my favorite story about my dad. His job required him to drive around the county all day.  One day he drove past a house with a little girl sitting in the driveway with a table all set up and she was selling rocks.  Just plain old rocks that she picked up off the ground, she had a sign with prices that were all just scribbles.  My dad said she was probably 3 or 4 and she was just so cute that he stopped and bought five dollars worth of rocks from her.  Her mom was sitting nearby watching and she came out and thanked him, she'd been sitting there all day so upset that nobody wanted her rocks, she told him the girl was saving up to buy a carriage for her new dolly and got the idea to have a rock sale.  He said the girl was so happy that someone finally bought them. 

[auntlada]

OK, maybe it's because it's a story about a dad and mine died five years ago making me susceptible to those stories, but that story is just so sweet it almost makes me cry.

[Maizie131]

19 minutes ago, Maharincess said:

This reminds me of my favorite story about my dad. His job required him to drive around the county all day.  One day he drove past a house with a little girl sitting in the driveway with a table all set up and she was selling rocks.  Just plain old rocks that she picked up off the ground, she had a sign with prices that were all just scribbles.  My dad said she was probably 3 or 4 and she was just so cute that he stopped and bought five dollars worth of rocks from her.  Her mom was sitting nearby watching and she came out and thanked him, she'd been sitting there all day so upset that nobody wanted her rocks, she told him the girl was saving up to buy a carriage for her new dolly and got the idea to have a rock sale.  He said the girl was so happy that someone finally bought them. 

Maharincess - what a great story!  Brought tears to my eyes...  Now, for the mods because this IS "Pet Peeves" forum, but in keeping with rocks, I have a true story, too....

How many of you grandparents have taken your grandkids on walks when they were 2 - 3 years old, and they see rocks and pick them up & wanna keep them?!?  haha!  I'll be all of you!  Anyhow, all those rocks get heavy, so as I'm walking the several blocks w/my adorable 3 y.o. Granddaughter, I'm strategically throwing them out when she's not looking, making sure to keep a couple in my pocket.  When we get home she wants to see all her rocks.  OMG! ... I say, "Oh, honey!  I must have a hole in my pocket because a lot of them fell out!  I'm so sorry!"  She looked disappointed, but no big deal.  Next weekend we go for another walk.  Soon as we start out she picks up a rock & hands it to me and says, "Grammy - don't put it in your pocket with the hole!" 

[Maharincess]

Yes!!  Rocks and flowers/weeds.  I have a pocket full of both every time we go outside.  

[Jac]

My present pet peeve is men who take up three seats on the Chicago El, on for each leg and one for their precious, precious junk.

[ratgirlagogo]

Popcorn. Cookies. Candy. Easy-peasey.    I had to go door to door and sell subscriptions to the ARCHDIOCESAN NEWSPAPER.  Christ on a cracker (sorry Jesus, I know you would never have come up with a cruel trick like that)!  Even my parents didn't want it.

Edited September 27, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Maizie131]

1 minute ago, stewedsquash said:

My two and a half year old granddaughter is obsessed with dinosaurs and over the past six months or so she has found several large dinosaur eggs in the fields around here. She lugs them out of the dirt and we carry them to the shop. There are three sitting at the door now waiting to hatch. They will stay there forever and I can't wait until she is old enough to chuckle about her dinosaur eggs being really large rocks.

Hysterical!  My then 3 y.o. Granddaughter is now almost 11 y.o. (sniff sniff...breaks my heart to see her damn near as tall as me), & when I relay that story to her & she laughs & laughs.  Stewedsquash, treasure each moment because before you know it, she'll be in 5th grade & obsessed with her iPhone (which, BTW, she's not allowed to use while we're together). 

[bilgistic]

And back to phone calls...

Walmart pharmacy has called me for years. They leave pre-recorded messages--often completely in Spanish, which I don't speak--telling me my prescription is ready. I do not get my prescriptions filled at Walmart, and never have.

Today, a human from Walmart pharmacy called for Angie somebody to tell her that her prescription is ready. (I have the number auto-rejected, so I listened to the message afterward.) I've had the same number for at least 15 years. It was my home phone that I ported to my cell, probably five years ago. How does Angie not know that Walmart doesn't have her correct number? Almost every time I get a new prescription filled, the pharmacy checks--"What's your phone number, bilgistic, in case we have a question?"

WHAT THE HELL, ANGIE?

Edited September 27, 2016 by bilgistic

[Maharincess]

That's weird Bilgistic, I use Rite Aid and when I call in a refill I have to punch in my phone number every single time. If Walmarts refill line is anything like Rite Aid I don't see how that can keep happening.  How annoying! 

38 minutes ago, Maizie131 said:

Hysterical!  My then 3 y.o. Granddaughter is now almost 11 y.o. (sniff sniff...breaks my heart to see her damn near as tall as me), & when I relay that story to her & she laughs & laughs.  Stewedsquash, treasure each moment because before you know it, she'll be in 5th grade & obsessed with her iPhone (which, BTW, she's not allowed to use while we're together). 

My granddaughter is 8 now and my grandson will be 5 in two weeks.  I cherish every single second because I know how fast it goes. I have them come over for visits and sleepovers whenever I can because I know there will come a day when they will have better things to do than hang out with grandma.  I'm dreading that day. 

I would seriously give up almost anything to be able to go back and raise my kids all over again. It went so damn fast. 

[auntlada]

We used to get calls for a Barbara all the time -- and occasionally still do. She has the same phone number as us, but a different area code in a town not too far away. Once her son called and would not believe he did not call his mother's house. We'd had the number for 10 years by then, and I kept wondering how he didn't know what his mother's area code was. It wasn't even the new area code. It was one the state has had as long as I can remember. And we had the third area code by that point so all long-distance numbers had to have the area code, even if you were in the same area code. (When there were only two, you didn't have to dial the area code unless you were calling outside the area code you were in.) The only way he would not have had to dial an area code would be if he were in the same town and didn't have to dial a 1. But if he were in her town, he'd get her. Since he got us, he'd have had to be in our town. And this was before cell phones were at all common. I finally concluded that Barbara's son was just an idiot.

[Maharincess]

My husband constantly get calls from bill collectors for somebody named Tyesha.  We've told them a hundred times that they have the wrong number but he still gets calls at least a couple of times a week. 

[zxy556575]

With regard to fundraising, I use Wikipedia a lot, mostly to find episodes of TV series and such. I am happy to donate to their campaigns. HAPPY TO! What irks me is that they then don't stop dinging me every time I go there. Get your cookies or IP traces in order, Wikimedia!

I wonder about the people who sell GS cookies on Ebay at a substantial mark-up. Just who is the extra profit going to? And wouldn't blurbs about being the top seller in the state or city or troop turn people off? To me that smells of "cheater."

1 hour ago, auntlada said:

I finally concluded that Barbara's son was just an idiot.

I once had a wrong number from someone who asked to speak to [my name], saying she was looking for Dave. I told her it was the wrong number but she would not accept it. She kept explaining who she was and that she worked with Dave and we had met at such-and-such. I finally just hung up. Like, honestly? Some people have the same first and last names and yes, even live in the same town.

Edited September 27, 2016 by lordonia

[candall]

Holy crap.  I'm already having a tax issue, am getting the certified letters.  (I went through this same thing a few years ago and it took months of humiliating garnishments and thousands of dollars before I convinced them I really didn't owe them any money.)  I'd be in tears if I thought they were calling me up to dun me, so thanks for the scammer info.

 

By way of thanks, I will mention that Dollar General Store sells a chocolate mint cookie--about 88 cents a box--that's a dead ringer for the Girl Scout Thin Mints.  Much, much closer than Keebler's version.

Note:  I live so far out, no one ever comes door-to-door, so I'm not breathing cookie breath at the hopeful, bright shiny faces of the girl scouts as I turn them away.

[JTMacc99]

1 hour ago, candall said:

 I'm already having a tax issue, am getting the certified letters.  (I went through this same thing a few years ago and it took months of humiliating garnishments and thousands of dollars before I convinced them I really didn't owe them any money.)  I'd be in tears if I thought they were calling me up to dun me, so thanks for the scammer info.

Ugh. You just made my eye twitch with the words "certified letters".  THAT is the way tax departments contact you.  It happened to me once, and I totally did owe them some additional money because I was unaware that my spouse had made a taxable transaction, and when I didn't see the form in the pile of forms I needed to file taxes, I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for it. 

They were very impatient about getting their money. As if they weren't going to be sending me a refund a few months later well in excess of what I owed them from the previous year. 

[magicdog]

11 hours ago, forumfish said:

I replied, "well, if it's my grandmother, then this is really long distance, since she died about 20 years ago."

That reminds me of a call I made when I worked for a medical billing office.  There was an outstanding debt by the patient so I called to try to resolve it.  I asked if "John Doe" was there.  The woman who answered was his widow (I didn't know he'd died, sometimes records don't get updated ).  

She replied:  "I'm sorry but John died last year.  Can I take a message?  I can't guarantee when he'll get it though!"  

For a split second I was stunned;   then I lost it and both of us were laughing hysterically!!  She was a really nice lady too!! 

 

Peeve of the day:  people not picking up after their pets - especially when it's in your homeowner's complex and the resident (often a renter) is too darn lazy to do the right thing.  Bonus points when they let the dog poop near the can set aside of pet waste and figure, "Ehh, close enough!" .

 

It's a mine field whenever I take my dog out - worse at night when I have to navigate in the shadows to make sure I don't step in something.

[Petunia13]

16 hours ago, Jac said:

My present pet peeve is men who take up three seats on the Chicago El, on for each leg and one for their precious, precious junk.

So true and it's usually surly or ...cocky looking/acting tools that manspread on the el or the bus. I strictly used public transportation in Chicago for 7 years and am a big advocate for it because of congestion, the environment, it's time saving, and it's egalitarian. Riding the subway is the most cool and intelligent way to travel in NYC or Chicago. 

Now I'm a SUV driving enthusiast. It all changed when I had a family and multiple jobs lugging dogs and tools around. 

[JTMacc99]

2 hours ago, magicdog said:

She replied:  "I'm sorry but John died last year.  Can I take a message?  I can't guarantee when he'll get it though!"

HA!  I see so many examples of "people suck" every day, which makes it even better when I see an example of somebody being awesome.