clean.clothes

We got a new washer today! Our old one broke for the fourth time in less than seven years, and instead of paying another $125 service fee (plus the price of the part) and waiting for two weeks (during which we'd have to pay to use a laundromat) the old one is out, and the new one in. There's a class action suit against maytag (our old washer- the maytag neptune) for the exact same problems as we had- the door latch breaking so the door wouldn't lock and run through cycles (it's a front loader- I guess they didn't want the door to open and have water pouring out everywhere), circuit board failure which caused the machine not to enter the spin cycle, and finally, mold growing on the rubber seal between the door and the tub. And yet maytag says they did nothing wrong. Funny. Even funnier is the fact that my parents had the same washing machine for around 20 years with no problems. When they got it, it was avocado green, and my mom even painted it white since it worked fine and she couldn't justify getting a new one just because the old one was ugly. Our new one is the lg tromm steam washer. It's pretty darn fancy. I sat down there on one of our many piles of dirty laundry and watched the wash cycle do its thing. For a while I didn't believe that it was actually working. It kept making pfft sounds and the clothes spun a bit, but there was no water rushing into the drum. Then I read the instructions (yes- after I'd loaded and started the wash. These things are pretty self explanatory) and learned that even though there's not a lot of water in the drum, there are very strong jets of steam shooting in, doing a very good job of cleaning the clothes, all while using lots less water. Sure enough, after ten minutes, I saw the clothes were looking pretty wet. I can't wait for them to finish.

fancy.event

A lot of my mail still gets sent to my parent's house. Mainly because I'm too lazy to switch my license address and actually contact everyone who sends mail to acton, so I just pick it up when I'm visiting. It sounds like I just moved a few months ago, but really, I haven't lived at home since I was in college. To the point. So I was out there a week or so ago celebrating some birthdays, and threw the interesting looking mail into my bag. Yesterday I found it, and opened some of it. I was very excited to find an invitation to the "annual blood donor recognition event" on november 9th at the seaport hotel. I wasn't invited last year and felt a little slighted. I'd donated 16 of a possible 24, so thought that I just didn't make the base number. Apparently there were a lot of people who weren't invited who should have been. The blood techs said they were going to be in charge this year! So I was excited about the invite. I always assumed it was a little shin-dig in the hospital, but it's apparently much fancier than that. They used to have it in the park plaza castle, and now moved it over to the seaport hotel. It's a nice dinner, and there are about 300 people there, so even though I'm going by myself and don't really know anyone other than the blood techs and a few regular donors, I'm sure I'll find lots of people to chat with!

leaf.peepers

Today was such a nice day. 58 degrees, sunny, perfect for the hike we'd planned a couple weeks ago. I picked *ac* up and we met *nn* at houghton pond in the blue hills and hiked the same trail as *nn* and I tackled a month or two ago. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because there were tons of people along the trails and at the observation tower. We asked this cute little old guy to take our picture once, and the two other times we saw him, he said, "Hi! It's the camera guy!" like we forgot him already. When I was a kid, I remember people talking about how beautiful the fall foliage was in new england. I didn't appreciate it. Sure they were fun to rake together and jump into, or make leaf rubbings of, but I definitely didn't gaze out the window on highway drives and think how nice the sun looked reflecting off the warm reds and yellows. So it's a good thing that I still live in the area and am able to appreciate the leaves. The warmth that's reflected kind of counteracts the shortened days. We got a bunch of great views, apparently just in time since peak leaf season is over in our area. I think we'll still head out on a few more hikes as it gets colder, just more bundled up.

curse.bank.of.america

Today was an exciting day for me. I paid off my bad credit card. This card's been with me since college, when I apparently signed up for it. At that point I wasn't really savvy on the whole interest rate thing, and this guy had what I now know to be a bad one. It stuck with me for years, and I would pay it down, then build it up again. The past couple years I've been paying a little each month, and finally bit the bullet and paid the balance. I'm really excited about canceling it since it's an mbna which recently merged with bank of america. I hate bank of america, and will do whatever I can to avoid dealing with them.* I can't wait until the credit card folks ask me why I'm canceling. I'll tell them two reasons- one, the interest rate sucks- two, I hate bank of america and don't want to do business with them or anyone affiliated with them. I'm giddy with excitement!


*A year ago, I used one of their atm's, and my card got stuck. Not eaten, just stuck. I asked one of the greeters to help get it back for me, and she said they couldn't give it back. What? She asked if I knew why it had been retained, and I explained again that it got stuck when it was being returned. She smiled and apologized and basically said I was out of luck. I went to my bank, and they implied that the b.o.a. folks were crazy. As long as I had a picture id and my card hadn't been reported as stolen, I should have been able to get it back. Because of the stupid bank of america atm and the supremely unhelpful banker, I had to order a new debit card which could have taken 7 days to receive (but the very understanding citizens bank guy put a rush on it and it only took 2 days). I used this card as my main credit/debit card, and had many automatic payments linked to it. So I got to go through all my accounts and change the billing info, and then had to memorize a different card number for logging into my account. All just three days before going to california. Horrible. I hate them. Hate them.

high.school.phone.calls

I don't know about all of you, but I think of the phone as a way to plan stuff- dinners, meeting up for a drink, asking a quick question, etc. I don't tend to have really long phone conversations just to "catch up," except sometimes with my buddy who lives in san diego. Even that happens rarely. So. The other day I get a call from my friend *km* whom I haven't seen in a while, and who had e-mailed saying she'd call to catch up. Regardless, I was waiting for her to ask something specific, and felt silly when I remembered that we had planned this time to chat. It reminded me of being a freshman or sophomore in high school, and having a friend, melissa, who would call daily wanting to talk for over an hour. It drove me crazy. I didn't know how to tell her I thought it was a ridiculous waste of time considering I saw her everyday in school. Eventually I told another friend that I wasn't a fan of the chatty phone calls, and the news got around to melissa. I think she may have been hurt which was unfortunate. I didn't mean to hurt feelings, I just wasn't interested in talking on the phone without having a specific goal to accomplish while doing so. My chat with *km* was nice however, and once I realized that we were catching up like friends are supposed to do, I appreciated the time. It's something I could do every so often, but I'm still more interested in using the phone for a quick question, and saving the catching up for another time.

too.much.to.drink

Alright. It's time for another bachelor update. I watched it at *tm's* house, and we decided that the current bachelor-a prince- isn't even that cute. It must be the prince title that's attracting all the attention. Anyway. One of my favorite girls, kim, got booted. Really it was her fault. They had a group date at the beach, and she had more than a little too much to drink. She fell asleep on a beach chair, and when they woke her up, she was still drunk. She thought that the bachelor was a waiter, and started mumbling about who knows what. It was really unfortunate. She's a small person, and it was a long, hot day at the beach. I think that alcohol just hit her harder than she anticipated. So it goes.

moving.green.line

Today I made the 40 minute drive out to my parent's place in acton, ma to celebrate some birthday's. My mom turned 29 again on friday, and my youngest brother is 20 tomorrow. Happy birthday both of you! We had a great dinner that my dad and aunt made, some delicious apple crumb pie, and I got my butt kicked at pylos by *k* three times. By the time I left to drive back to boston, it was 11:30pm and there was no traffic. As I stopped to turn onto rt 2a, a state police car went by followed by a truck with a "wide load" sign attached. Next came a large flatbed truck with a green line T on it. Yup. That's right. The same T you take to get to boston college, cleveland circle, or riverside. After that was another "wide load" truck and finally another statie. Strange. Stranger still is the fact that this is the second time I've seen the exact same line up. I tried to take a picture, but I didn't have my camera, and my phone isn't advanced enough to take a photo in the pitch black acton night. There must be some sort of T manufacturer or mechanic out in littleton or westford. They go pretty slow, so I've never followed them long enough to figure out where they end up. It's a mystery.

i.need.itunes.help

This is for all you computer savvy people out there. While I know stuff about computers, it's just the bare minimum to get by. This particular question is about importing music into iTunes. Obviously, I have no problem loading a regular cd. After all, it basically does everything by itself- all you have to do is click the import button. However, I have two dvd formatted discs which do not result in an import button when the songs load in iTunes. I've copied the files into iTunes which works for adding the songs onto my iPod, but once I remove the disc, I get the little exclamation mark that tells me the original file cannot be located. This is a problem since I don't want to keep discs floating around forever. One of the discs only has 16 songs, while the other has about 100, plus the two seasons of the office- the original british one, not the annoying american version. Share your brilliance and I'll be forever grateful.

bachelor.review

This girl brit, on the bachelor, is a beer chemist. I'm not sure if this is a fancy title for a factory worker, but still...a beer chemist? *nn* this sounds like the path you should take.

So far I like kim (interior designer), sadie (publicist) and rosella (make-up artist). I don't like erica (a spoiled brat socialite), andrea (a weirdo hotel concierge who sang opera from a balcony) and desiree (a 22 yr old realtor who keeps calling him "baby," a term that I can't stand when you're talking to anyone over the age of 2). I thought I liked lisa (a 25 yr old marketing manager) but then she started talking about how she wanted to be married by 27, with a one year engagement, so she had 10 months to find a guy and get engaged. Oh, and she took the prince out to hug a tree with her.

Next came the roses. He gave the first rose to lisa- the tree hugger. She also made out with a pair of 2 karat diamond earrings. Score! Kim and sadie got roses, but not rosella which was sad since she sold her car to buy the gowns for the show. I really felt bad for her. Of the ones I didn't like, erica and desiree made it, but andrea got shipped back to the us.

Not bad for the first episode. We'll see how things go from here on out.

kickball.games

Yesterday was member appreciation day at the gym. They had free- (healthy) food, chair massages, knee and shoulder evaluation by two physical therapists, and nail polish change at the spa. They had also planned a kickball game, members versus trainers. I decided that I loved kickball even though I probably hadn't played since sixth grade. Apparently I was the only one since no other members showed up for it. I wasn't interested in taking on the undefeated trainers by myself, so they called it off. Next time they're putting up a sign-up sheet so people who sign up will feel like they have to show up. Maybe I'll put together a kickball team to get some practice. Or I'll just join these guys.