Because I wasn't doing anything, I thought I'd blog

So this week I have to sit in a waiting room and twitch for 90 minutes while my kid gets her braces off. Yaaaay! But I have 1,000 other things to do, people!

We are having a big family party and I need to make an amazing cake so I am pulling Suzy into the effort to help ensure it will be A+. I need to make some flowers and things today (in between making two batches of cupcakes for the school concert, and oh, we have to GO to the school concert, which kills an evening...) and she is going to help me make a "50" plaque tomorrow. Hopefully.

The state wants me to come see them so we can chat about my job search. Yeah. That. Hasn't started yet. Yikes. It's a fairly routine thing but still.

My son was bored and decided to start a business. This required my help to make a flyer, help him make himself a calendar with all of his upcoming baseball games and family events, and so on. He is only allowed to work for neighbors/immdiate family for now, doing things like raking, weeding, car washing, and helping with spring cleaning major tasks; he is NOT mowing a lawn because he's too young in my opinion. But the neighbors all seemed impressed that he was willing to work (and they said yeah, too young for mowing).

I am scanning old photos (holy out of date hairdos!!) for the party and in the meantime I am loading music to iTunes from my brother in law... standards.... to make a mix for the party. My iTunes is used to a steady diet of country and Tween so it is basically going What The F..... ?

Throw in some extra singing at church (icky Dick won't shake anyone's hand because of Swine Flu even though we have NO CASES reported in our area...) and it means Carly is going to be very happy when Mother's Day comes and I can sit and RELAX!!!

Why I am a Grinch

I bought my son a cell phone for Christmas. I'm glad I went before the holiday rush because I spent about 45 minutes in the store and all but 5 minutes of that time, the clerk was working on adding this new phone to my account. And she did it wrong.

I said that I wanted to buy him a ringtone and a game or two, and then tell him not to use the "pay per use" internet on the phone because it's crazy expensive and he doesn't have a job yet. He's not old enough for me to be willing to pay for a monthly block of service.

She told me about a program called Smart Limits that lets you restrict what your kid can do. I agreed to give that service a try. Then she screwed up our account. She blocked internet access on HIS phone and put the Smart Limits on MY line.

So I couldn't buy him any ringtones or games, which I wanted to do before I wrapped it, and I tried to set up smart limits and noticed MY phone number was the one I was about to block. Also, the service doesn't even prevent internet use! I will keep it because it puts limits on what he can download, times he can use the phone, and who he can call/receive calls from. But I'm still exasperated. I spent 20 minutes of my lunch time trying to explain to a customer service rep (english speaking, THANK YOU) what was wrong.

It's fixed now, but I should not need an hour to add my kid. Fifteen minutes, tops. I've never had a good customer service experience with adding a phone to our line. We added one for my father in law, and that was a headache. After we added my daughter's line none of us could text, half my blackberry features weren't working because the network didn't know it was a blackberry... I could go on and on. I am a prisoner of my cell phone company.

Oh! and the rebate. I accepted that ATT doesn't give cash rebates, they give you a loaded debit card. Fine. But I left the phone box at Suzy's house, and now I actually need the serial number piece in order to send in my rebate form. I also need to un-hide the phone (I just buried it 10 minutes ago in a place he won't find it) in order to take out the battery to look at some other stupid number that needs to go on the stupid form for the stupid rebate card.

Only 36 days until Christmas.