I heard a crashing sound outside a few minutes ago. There was a VERY nasty accident on the street right outside our house. There are cop cars and fire engines and stuff all over the place…good thing we stayed home today, or else we’d not be able to get back into our parking space.

There are a couple of cops outside with brooms sweeping broken glass and such off the street. Yes, this looks like a bad one. I wonder if it will be on the news tonight. I hope not, but if it is, I’ll post a link to it.

If only people would quit making like Mario Andretti on this street, we’d not have these things happen. It’s a busy street, yes, but the speed limit is 25 MPH. And I’m REALLY fucking sick of Massholes honking at ME for driving *too slow* on this street.

I’m just glad that the dumbass didn’t crash into this house.

I hate this place.

Mike came home from work early today…his boss actually sent him home. He wasn’t feeling well yesterday, he has a sore throat. But the boss noticed today that Mike didn’t look very good, so he told him to take a sick day. Probably, he doesn’t want to risk catching whatever it is himself.

Yanno, I wish more bosses were like this. If you’re sick, stay home, so that other people won’t catch it. Unfortunately, most bosses are assholes, and expect you to come to work even if you are on your deathbed.

My last job was at a small cafe in downtown Boston. We served coffee, muffins, pastries, and such in the morning, and for lunch we had soups, salads and sandwiches. All of the food prep area was open, the customers could see us making the sandwiches, etc.

So, one winter day, I managed to catch a cold..by the end of the day, I was coughing and sneezing like crazy. Did the boss tell me to stay at home the next day? Hell, NO. I made the decision to call in sick the next day, and I actually got yelled at for this. He SAW how I was coughing and sneezing the day before, and I was still coughing and sneezing into the phone when I called him the next day. Did this assclown really think that it was a good idea to have me come to work, and handle food that other people will be eating?

I mean, if you walked into this place, and saw that the person making your sandwich was coughing up a lung and dripping snot all over the place, you’d probably turn around and eat someplace else. Now that’s really good for business, isn’t it?

Anyway, I hope I don’t catch whatever it is Mike has. I’ve had enough of being sick, thank you very much!

The last time I checked, a mail slot is the same as a mailbox, at least in the eyes of the United States Postal Service. That means that it is illegal to use it for anything that is not mail delivered via the Postal Service, right?

Anyway, this asswipe just stuffed a flyer for some restaurant called Wing-It into my mail slot. This is annoying enough as it is…a major peeve of mine is when people advertise in this way, either by stuffing things (illegally) into the mail slot, or littering the porch with their flyers. I make it a practice NEVER to patronize any business that does this, nor do I vote for any of the local politicians who do it.

But the asswipe was also smoking a nasty-smelling cigarette, on my porch, while he was stuffing the crap into the slot. Now, my living room and front hallway reek of the smoke. If I can’t get the stink out of here by the time Mike comes home, he’s gonna throw a fit. I already had to rip up the flyer into little pieces and flush it down the toilet, a little at a time so as not to clog things up…just to get rid of it…it stunk to high heaven, as well. He is severely allergic to cigarette smoke; we don’t go anyplace where smoking is allowed if we can avoid it, and we don’t allow smoking in our home or even on the front porch…because the smell gets in, like it just did.

I went to the Wing-It website and sent an email to complain about this, and reminded them that this sort of advertising is illegal. And I said something about the cigarette smoke, as well. I doubt they will respond, but I felt better after I let them know how much this pissed me off.

I think I need to make a few more door signs. About a year ago, I used one of my die-cut alphabet sets to make a NO SOLICITING sign. Believe it or not, it has actually worked. I have NOT received a visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses or any other annoying door-to-door people since I put that sign up. Before, I used to get quite a few. Last year, we had a gubernatorial election, and freakin’ Deval Patrick’s people were beating the shit out of my door every damned day. I was very sick at the time, and it was driving me batshit insane. I never got up to answer the door, but maybe I should have. Maybe the sight and smell of me at the time would have scared them away for good.

But I did haul my carcass to my crafts desk and made the NO SOLICITING sign, and the knocking ended. They were still littering my porch with their shit, though.

I wasn’t gonna vote for the asshole, anyway, and I didn’t. And from what I hear, a lot of people who did vote for him want their votes back. Can you say, “one term governor”? But that’s a whole ‘nother rant.

I am going to make a NO SMOKING sign and a NO TRESPASSING sign. The door has a window which I have a curtain over so that assholes can look in, and I can put the signs inside the glass, so no one can steal them.

At the very least, the NO SMOKING sign might stop the landladies’ lame-assed workmen from smoking on the porch. I don’t care if people smoke around the back door, there is more of a buffer zone there between our unit and outside. But right on the front porch, the smell comes right in.

It needs to stop.

Anybody else wanna do something to piss me off today? We’re going for a record here!

..if that Hugh Jass van that is currently parked in our space is still there when he gets home tonight.

The landladies are not home…their car is not out there. The hammering guy is no longer hammering, so I don’t know if he is still up in their unit or not, and if the van belongs to him. And I seriously doubt that they’d tell Hammer Guy that it is okay to park in our space. Not unless they were POSITIVE that he’d be gone before Mike comes home. He usually gets home around 7PM, they’ve probably already figured this out. But still…what if he came home early one day, for some reason?

Chances are, it’s yet another entitlement asshole stealing our space. Just because our car is not in it at the moment, doesn’t mean that it’s fair game for anyone to park in. WTF part of PRIVATE PROPERTY do these people not understand?

Whoever it is had better freakin’ be GONE before Mike gets home.

…I have been tonight.

I can’t live like this. I’m going to sign off and go to bed now, and if it is NOT as fast as it normally is tomorrow, heads are gonna roll.

HOW can people live with dial-up? I did, but once I got DSL, there was no turning back.

Verizon, PLEASE don’t force me to go over to the Dark Side that is Comcast Cable!

I ordered the thing this past weekend from Sears.com…I have a gift card from there to use. They shipped it via UPS on Monday, the 9th…gave me a tracking number…and it STILL has not been updated.

Meanwhile, yesterday I received a notification that my Sizzix.com order has been shipped. I checked the tracking today, and it has been updated…I should be receiving my package on the 17th.

This is not the first time that tracking has not been updated with Sears.com orders. Many times, I received the package BEFORE tracking info was updated. So, for all I know, Brown could come a-knockin’ today or tomorrow.

I actually need both of these packages for the contest that I will soon be having to kick off christine-murphy dot net. The Sizzix box contains the actual prize, and I need the tripod to make a video to kick off the contest. Although my XShot was fine for the first two videos I made of myself (both of which you can see HERE), I need a regular tripod for this one. I want to do a demo of the item that I am giving away, and I need both hands free for that.

If not for the fact that many people who go to the maul act like obnoxious asshats, I could have just gone to Sears and bought this thing last weekend…if the store actually had any in stock, that is. But I floopin’ HATE mauls, and only go into one when it is absolutely necessary. So I spent extra to order online and have it shipped.

Now, if only they would tell me WHEN.

…the damned local FFA™ (that’s Future FELONS of America, for those not in the know) are outside, shooting off their illegal fireworks. I’m not sure exactly where they are, but they can’t be very far away, judging by the noise. I think there is more than one FFA™ chapter at work here, because the noise has been non-stop for a few hours now, and they sound like they are coming from various distances.

Yes, I said ILLEGAL fireworks. Fireworks are illegal here in Massachusetts, unless you’re a licensed fireworks display company. But it is easy enough to drive up to New Hamster, where they are legal, and bring them back here. They even set up fireworks stands right over the Massachusetts border.

Most of the local FFA™ aren’t old enough to drive, so they either find older friends with cars who can get up to NH, or buy them from someone who is illegally selling them here. There are enough of the latter around…seems like every year on the news, someone is getting busted for selling fireworks.

But what I want to know is this: if it’s illegal to set off fireworks here, how come I often see cop cars driving right past gangs of kids who are doing so?

Oh well. At least the two fighting neighbor idiots finally stopped. Maybe they did kill each other.

Sears Flowers still has not seen fit to respond to my e-mail. I am afraid that I will have to ask Danielle point blank if she got the flowers, which I strongly suspect she did not. Then I am going to have to go back to Sears Flowers, tell them that the flowers were never received, and demand a refund.

I’m serious. Stay away from these people.
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While I’m on a rant, I have yet to get a response from the people at QuicKutz. I e-mailed them two days ago about replacing a missing die from one of my alphabet sets. I wanted to know if they had the replacement in stock, and, if so, how much would it cost, including shipping. No, I don’t want to talk to them on the phone…I hate talking on the phone, especially to businesses that keep putting me on hold for a hundred years. And I don’t like giving out credit card numbers over the phone. I was hoping they’d just tell me that had it, how much, and I could just mail them a check for it. They do have regular online ordering on their site, but something like this has to be a special order.

But they have yet to respond to my e-mail. WHY do they bother to put those e-mail forms on websites, if they don’t answer the floopin’ e-mails.

If you’re going to do business on the internet, answer your damned e-mails from customers!
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In other ranty news, some newbie on that message board that I don’t go to anymore keeps sending me PMs, the notifications to which are sent to my e-mail. It has to be a newbie, because I don’t recognize the handle as that of anyone I know. I am not a part of that board anymore, so I don’t know why I am still getting these things. In fact, I got another one yesterday…from one of the mods. Sheesh…one had to visit the site and log in, in order to read the PMs. I haven’t logged in there in months now. I don’t want to.

My only hope is that my PM box over there will fill up, and I can’t get any more messages. Honestly, I am not much of a fan of PMs on message boards, and in most cases, I wish there was a way to turn them off completely. If someone needs to reach me that badly, figure out how to e-mail me. There is a way to e-mail people from the boards, even though the e-mail addy is not published. Those messages I can actually see without having to log in to the boards.

I just don’t want to log in and have people see my name on the lurker bar. There actually IS a way to turn that off, but I have to log in first, and once someone sees me, it’s all over, they will NEVER leave me alone. I’m trying to stay *out of sight, out of mind* at that place.

The day is young. Let’s see who else can manage to piss me off before it’s over.

…are outside, screaming and yelling, and making all kinds of noise.

I hate that floopin’ bar on the corner. When I first moved here, it was a nice, respectable joint…even I went in there sometimes, to have a few beers and watch a game.

No more. It is now a haven for the skeeviest of the skeevy. You couldn’t pay me to go in there now.

I wish it would get shut down. But sadly, it has, and someone bought it and re-opened it. And it gets skeevier and skeevier with every re-opening.

Gack.

Last week, I sent some flowers to our friend Danielle, who had been in the hospital for knee replacement surgery. She has been home for a week now, so I had the flowers sent to the house.

I am wondering if they ever got delivered…it’s been a week now, and I didn’t get a thank you from her or Dan. That is not like them; one of them would have taken a moment to let us know that the flowers arrived.

I e-mailed Sears Flowers about this on Friday, per the instructions on the site…and I have NOT received a response. All I want to know is if my flowers were delivered or not. How hard is THAT to answer?

I don’t want to come right out and ask Danielle or Dan if the flowers got there or not. Tonight I will make a card and send it, and see if they get that. Then maybe they will say something about the flowers, if they actaully got them.

But how much you wanna bet that even if those flowers never were delivered, the charge will still show up on our credit card bill? Rat bastards. I hate them.