Thursday 25 October 2012

KITTIES

There is an awful lot of this going on, while the weather is cool.

Keeping warm

Frankly, it's a miracle that I get anything done, with the Charlie and Hermione ongoing lovefest being so darn cute. :-)

A couple of nights ago. Chloe started chattering and meowing and making me run to see what was the matter.

Chloe tracks a spider

Chloe tracks a spider

2012-10-22chloe02

In case you haven't figured it out - she was following a spider, in the upper left corner of two of the photos. I got sick of her chattering, got the broom out, and swept the spider towards her.

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Meanwhile in Calgary

Meanwhile in Calgary by angelamermaid
Meanwhile in Calgary, a photo by angelamermaid on Flickr.

I'm waiting for a chinook to melt this so I can move stuff inside.

Vegas baby - Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Outside the hotel was a wildlife habitat. Of course there were flamingos!

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Mary-Anne's favourite colour is purple.

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat


Vegas baby - The Flamingo Hotel

My sister and I stayed at the Flamingo Hotel as part of a package. A little worn around the edges, but a nice hotel, and centrally located. This is Barbie's our bathroom from the Go Room.
  Our bathroom

Hotel room

The first night, we wandered around the casino and found a '50's style diner. Complete with jukeboxes that played songs for a nickel. I thought they were just for show but Mary-Anne proved me wrong.

Working jukebox

We also found some shops. Featuring this unbelievable sweater. No, I didn't buy one.

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Didn't buy any of these.

Hello Kitty wine

Totally got a pink flamingo Christmas ornament. I ended up buying many ornaments, guess I'm putting a tree up this year!

Pink tree

This is more of what I expected to see. I was taking a picture of the legs, and a passing dude said, "You want your picture taken with those, right?" Sure!

flamingo09legs

Our hallway.

flamingo04hallway

The view from our room.

flamingo03room

The adults only pool. Because of the liquor being served. To our surprise, it closed at 6 at night. So Thursday and Friday, we got out of bed early in order to get our swim on. There were also hot tubs. I loved swimming in that pool, and going under the waterfalls.

flamingo05pool

If we'd had a free night, we would have totally seen this show.

flamingo12osmonds

In fact, our first night in the lobby, someone tried to give us free tickets to the show. She had passes for a variety of shows. Because I was single, she focused on me, wanted to know my salary range (I lied). We kept waiting to see what the catch was, to get free tickets. Mary-Anne caught on faster - I'd have to go to a "presentation" at another hotel about time shares. We passed on the free tickets, despite the salesperson's attempts to guilt us. We didn't have enough time to be browbeat about something neither of us had any intention of buying.


Monday 22 October 2012

Oh Hell No

The hole in my ceiling

This is the hole blasted in my upstairs bathroom ceiling when I tried to fix a toilet.

I picked a plumbing company off of the Better Business Bureau website. I declined to book after-hours, as that came with a $199 fee just to show up. I have a working toilet in the half-bath, and I can still shower and bathe.

Having been in customer service, I have become very accommodating on the phone. I've dealt with many jackholes always trying to get the best deal, get the most money, ask for credit for the tiniest issues. I pride myself on not being an asshole.

I booked the appointment for today, for when I'd be back from Vegas. For 2-4.

First they called to say their tech was running late, because of emergency calls.

Then they called to say he was still running late.

Then the general manager called at 4 to say that the tech was still running late. I asked if I had time to run out to the store and he said "yes", and confirmed they had my cell # in case things looked up.

I went out - and discovered that the new Wal-Mart in the area is finally open. Yay! I was home quickly.

Then another woman called. The tech was on his way!

Then she called back. Because the tech was going to arrive after 6, there would be a $199 after hours fee. Was I okay with that?

I told her that after being delayed four hours, I was not okay with that fee, and I would be going with another plumbing company if they were going to charge me that. She said she'd get back to me.

When she called back, she couldn't do anything about the fee but she could reschedule me for Thursday morning. So we rescheduled.

I'm tired of having to go downstairs to pee in the night. Having watched many an episode of Hoarders, peeing in the bathtub is not an option. And I doubt that I can get another plumber in before Thursday, without an emergency fee. This is not an emergency. It's an inconvenience.

Then I tweeted about it. Ace Plumbing in Calgary.

Whatever happens, this is going on their BBB feedback. And if they also whiff the appointment on Thursday morning, I will try to find another. It's hard finding a reputable company without word of mouth - I'm automatically excluding anyone whose address is a private residence.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Seven Things About Me

I was tagged on LiveJournal, and am reporting here.

I got tagged: Choose seven random things about yourself, then tag five other people.

  1. I was tricked into auditioning for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in university. I knew I was tone deaf, so when a person encouraged me to try out, I asked her if there were non-speaking parts, and she said "yes" in order to get me to come to the audition. The truth is, there are about two spoken sentences and everything else is sung.
  2. Obviously I wasn't prepared to sing at the audition. The director told the auditioners that "O Canada" was a good audition song. So I sang "O Canada" in French, because I'd memorized it in French class the previous year and it would make me different than the other people who sang it in English. I had a great time being in the chorus.
  3. The next year, when auditioning for Godspell, I sang "Nothing" from A Chorus Line. It took chutzpah and a certain naiveness for me to do that. I had a great time being in the chorus.
  4. I still haven't painted any rooms in my house. I realized that I'm still in the renter's mindset of not making drastic changes, so I'll paint a bathroom when I get back from Vegas.
  5. I've submitted three photos to http://cat-shaming.tumblr.com. I love that blog!
  6. This weird guy struck up a conversation with me at a C-train station last week. He mentioned that he works with special needs kids as some sort of inappropriate pick-up tactic. It didn't work.
  7. I'm not going to tag anyone. I don't mind being tagged, but I get shy about tagging others. Besides, I have far more than five interesting people on my flist, how can I ever choose? :-)