C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 167

the phones-by-mail zoo……….

We got our new Go-phones yesterday. Decided to put them together this morning.

Well, we have two boxes: in each a phone, a plugin for charging, a back, and what may be the battery. We have a huge double fistful of instructions.

We were told to dial 611 and an ATT person would answer and fix us all up. The word 'fix' is at issue, but the f- is ok.

So last night I'd assembled one phone and plugged it in to be powered up. It was.

This morning—when turned on—it says "chip did not register."

Lovely.

I contact 611 on the landline. All I get is Comcast, natch: that gets you the service of THAT phone, not the one you need fixed. So I go to the computer. I get the info that our cell numbers we've had for a decade failed to port. Wah! I have a chat button automatic with that info, I punch it, and I get a nice person on chat, who goes through several inquiries. Me: "They promised me these numbers would 'port.'" She checks, finds that the person who took my order didn't make two accounts. Go-phones can only have 1 person per account. La! so we try to get one phone going. We involve Bruce, the finance guy, who immediately wants numbers from the chip. Now we're busy disassembling the phones, which we're trying to charge; and then after we've got the phone serial #, they want the chip serial number; instructions say the chip has a gold sticker; well, so does the battery. It should be down. Well it's UP with the phone's back facing me, but, hey, who's to say. But no. The chip isn't under the gold sticker. We finally, with both Melissa and Bruce on the line, discover the chip was installed at the factory, and we don't know whose is which. But—we then find all the info we've been searching for under micro devices my vision won't see as more than a grey blur—is on honking great stickers on the back of the package. So finally Melissa can get the Verizon account killed and the numbers ported.

Thrilled. But we have the numbers. Then we discover that we need to establish a 'fund' so we can have the numbers activated with ATT. So we come up with the credit card and Bruce charges us 100.00 for one phone before telling us it won't be an autocharge, but Bruce can't undo the way he did the card charge: he can only charge things. So then, all right, let's establish an autocharge for phone #2, so we can work with it. We do. But then Bruce tells us the CC company has put the autocharge on hold. We then, still with Melissa and Bruce both on the line, go through gymnastics in the theory the hold is with the CC company to tell the CC company the second charge is legit, in case they had doubts.

But the CC company, reached through half a dozen different menus, says the hold is actually with ATT. So we are back to Bruce to tell him that. He can't undo that, either. And the second phone won't touch the money now lodged behind the first phone. So we still have to wait an hour.

We then discovered that we got billed for the welcome message from ATT, and for the little accidental button push that contacted the web, which is billed at a very high rate, so we won't push that button again.

We still haven't gotten them with ringtones yet, and still haven't gotten our phonebook installed, but we're gaining on it. ATT could have saved 2 employee-hours of work by e-mailing me 3 days ago that we needed a second account and by having CLEAR diagrams, or having the info: "The serial numbers may be on the address sticker"—and they might have enabled me to sign up for autopay online, so all this could have been done smoothly, but thus far, we sort of have phones…

The ringtones suck pondwater, but hopefully we won't be using them or hearing them often. Jane now has Chococat stuck on her phone and I have a Halloween cat on mine. But we got our phone numbers ported, and we are almost running. These phones were 10.00 each, and have a camera, yet, and texting, and web-access. You may imagine the buttons are not the best. We have no idea about battery life. But at a few dollars a month, we can live with this—and the 100.00 will roll over, come year end, so that will be all good.

What a morning, already!

Frost on the roofs in Spokane. Freeze this coming Sunday.

Breakfast on the patio was nippy this morning. The pond is frothing up islands of white foam—lest you think picaresque, it's dead bacteria, dying off from the chill, as the summer bacteria give up. The koi were all resting deep this morning, not interested in food. I didn't test the temperature: I doubt it's 60, but it's headed there. The koi will be out to eat once the high sun warms their bodies: they'll swim near the surface for solar heating of their non-self-heating bodies, and then they'll be hungry for a few hours. This is why we give them only wheat germ, which digests very rapidly. Should they be caught by night with food in their tummies, they'd be very unhappy koi.

Jane got her big bee-friendly Rudolph plant in: it's brand name is Rudolph, but we don't know it's genus and species: green flowers, and the size of a wash tub, ie, a yard across. The begonias are coming in to dry and die for replanting next year. The Kalinchoe is coming in. The rest are on their own. It's about times to start feeding the birds.

When the water temperature falls below 60, I'll be adding winter bacteria, for the health of the pond during winter months. We're still debating whether to pull the pump for the winter: I'm thinking yes, because that pump is not easy to replace, and the seals and gaskets are rubber.

We still haven't gotten back to our ice skating—there's just more to do here than any two people can manage, since we were so crazy as to pull the lawn in front. On the other hand—next year will be easier, because all we have to do is move plants and build some earthen ridges, lay some rock, and build a retaining wall: that is such a small list compared to where we started, with a scruffy lawn and weeds.

Today I'm going to take the wheelbarrow about the front and back garden paths just gathering stuff either to be stored or thrown out. The garden fairy (Toscano) comes in before her wings crack. And the Great Wall comes in. It may be resin, but we're not taking chances.

Do you have 'interesting houses' in your neighborhood? We sure do.

One, surrounded by weeds and brush, about 3 blocks from us, is a real doozie. It started out with nightly arrests for drunkenness, theft, and vandalism. Sometimes 4 incidents every 24 hours. Now it has graduated to 'domestic violence' and theft, 'suspicious person' and 'vehicle theft', with just about as many calls, and the mowing and clearing of some of the mess.

The other, a nice house, in what ought to be a nice neighborhood, but on the turn near a churchyard on one hand and a wilderness area on the other, has nightly 'burglary', 'theft', 'assault', and then 'suicide'. More 'theft', 'theft', 'drugs,' nightly, 'fight,' 'assault,' and latest, 'attempted suicide.' Sheesh!

Then the avenue, which has no houses: 'dui,' 'auto theft', 'malicious mischief', 'fight,' 'fight,' 'robbery,' 'fight', and 'stolen goods', and then a wild wreck that jumped a guard rail, went through a fence, landed on 2 cars, and sent one wheel half a block down the street—not ours, thank goodness. The speed limit is 35.

Want to find out what's going on in your neighborhood? http://spotcrime.com/account.php is a signup for the police actions in your area.

Want to know a good one? Some geniuses in education…

…are suggesting that cursive writing be dropped from the curriculum.

a) it's the foundation of the ability to sketch and manipulate graphics and styli, a damned interesting choice in the computer age.

b) it enables us to sign our names distinctively.

c) printing is a timeconsuming bitch

e) and if you don't learn these skills as a gradeschooler, you will not learn them as well as an adult. It's about the sequence of development of motor skills.

A slow rainy Sunday.

It's usually nippy by this time of year, but it's holding on warm. We're getting down to 33 Tuesday night next, but then it'll warm up to 44 at night. So it's coming, but none of the trees have turned.

I'm spending my evenings working on Chernevog's rework, as I spend my days with Bren—oh, is Cajeiri up to his ears in hot water….and I'm beginning to feel I need some relaxation.

The Wave outpost over on Facebook is doing well, with nearly 500 persons 'liking' it. That's good.

We had a friendly hail from Michael Bishop, who is having his own issues. And that's the news I know. The weight loss is slowed, which is a good thing—too fast is not good. But it is continuing, which is weird, eating until we actually don't WANT any more and then still losing. My mandolin should arrive tomorrow. With the protective glove. I took the Cuisinart (unopened) back to Lowe's today. Silly people, not to give every machine a range of blades and accessories. And outside of that, we are watching Saiyuki in the evenings and we just keep swimming….just keep swimming….

Cheap American phones. Really.

We're not great cellphone users. We use ours for echo-location in huge stores, at the state fair, or when otherwise lost from each other. We occasionally use it for a call when traveling.

For this, we've been billed 80.00 a month for the pair of us.

Lynn Abbey put us onto an unadvertised feature of AT&T, namely the Go-phone. When you go to the AT&T site, you won't see them mentioned. You'll have to search. If you accept 'chat' the agent can find it, and can find the plans associated with them, including simply buying phone cards at your grocery. Here's ours: 1. two phones @ 9.95 each, plus shipping. That's 21.95 for the pair of us. 2. access at 10 cents a minute, paid by a credit card on file. If we call each other, yep, it's 20c, but hey, "Where are you?" and "Right by the broccoli", or "Would you pick up some milk while you're out?" doesn't take more than 20c and saves a lot of hiking and frustration. 3. access to AT&T coverage, which is broad, and good.

No more 80.00 a month phone bill. More like 10.00 a month, given our normal usage. If you have your phone only for emergencies, consider how much you could save.

flying with the experts—peregrine falcon and goshawk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_RHRAzUHM&feature=email

This from Lynn. Excuse the commercial: it's beautiful. You can only wonder how fast they'd be without lugging the camera and the wind resistance.

We just had a member get randomly selected by Paypal for a 'verification'…

…which caused a bundle of screwups. If this should happen to you, there are several things to note: a) Paypal's advisory page sounds as if it was written by someone not a native English speaker—and if this happens and you need your download asap, write to us! This is one more reason to be a member of WWAS (Wave)—since we know the people who correspond with us on this site, and we'll be happy to get you your download ASAP, and trust you to send us a check via the PO box you can find up in the top set of bars on this page, under CONTACT INFO. We have never gotten burned trusting our readers.

Each down a pound…

…surprising, since we're eating an amazing lot. The best deal is that veggie salad that goes with dinner (a light slightly spicy cold crunch—the balsamic vinegar sort of does an instant-mild-pickle number on the cucumber, so it has a very nice flavor)–half the plate is that salad, heaped high. The other half tends to be another veggie, or the cauliflower disguised as potato number, and broiled zucchini (I sub that for eggplant, since Jane tastes bitter very very strongly) or salty stuffed mushrooms, plus a few ounces of grilled meat. Then an hour later we get a pretty filling little dessert, and we are just not tempted to cheat. I handled having a little coffee well: I just don't cheat on diets, and don't really have cravings—which coffee is supposed to provoke. Doesn't do it for me: all I have a craving for is coffee. I drink it black, no sugar, no cream, unless a latte, and I am not having lattes right now.

Jane's comment on the diet is that she's thrilled with the abundance of interesting tastes in a given meal—a smidge of this and a smidge of that, and we've got several recipes that we will keep doing after the diet ends…the lime ricotta cream being one, and that veggie salad being another.

The Cuisinart is going back to the store, unopened, and the mandolin is on order—it should ship on the 12th, so I will have it by the end of the month.

I can't remember whether the online version of the diet is 5.00 a week or 5.00 a month, but it's sort of like subscribing to a cookbook, with some services added, like weight tracking and menu composition (that keeps your portion sizes under control, and your diet balanced.) So whichever it turns out to be, it's sure better than 70.00 a DAY that some of these food-delivery diets charge.

My reasoning is: I'm on a budget. Yes, we spend a significant amount on food, but we don't eat 70.00 a day under any circumstance. We were on the somewhat more affordable Nutrisystem, and ended up throwing out things like powdered eggs with onion (we're allergic, and they're gross). So that was a waste.

So, self, say I, sure, cooking takes time. But if they do the meal-planning, provide the recipes, provide you a printable shopping list for every few-day period, and none of the recipes are rocket science, here I am feeding 2 of us at the rate of about 20.00 a day, give or take the small cost of the program, and if the thing works, we don't have to do this forever, and maybe we'll learn something. You can spend 10.00 apiece a day at McDonald's, easy, and anybody can follow the simple instruction to lay salmon on a pan with thus and such spices thrown on and stick it under a broiler. The knife-skills with the veggies—if you just cut every veggie in half so it lies still on the cutting-board, and don't rush the job, you can produce something useful.

Tools absolutely needed: a spatula (the amounts given are quite small, and there's no sense leaving half of it behind in a mixing bowl). A couple of bowls. A measuring cup. A set of measuring spoons. A decent knife. A knife sharpener. And a good teflon or iron saute pan (shallow, for eggs.) Some antistick Pam spray. A broiling pan. And the food. A good scales (useful) can be had on Amazon: choose one that has a bowl and an adjustment for the weight of the bowl. As a replacement for a scales, look at the package weight, and visually divide the contents until you've got a good idea how much of that 8 oz lump of mozzarella is 2 ounces.

Anyway, just a progress report: it works, and we're heading in the right direction. Don't try to start with what's labeled South Beach in the grocery freezer: that'd be fine for phase 3, but not for 1, and often not for 2. Rule 2: (our biggest downfall) just because it's an open package, doesn't mean you're due all of it. Read the serving size, and use ziplocks to keep the remainder for tomorrow. If it's a half-serving left, yes, throw it out. I hate wasting food, too, but there's no sense wearing it around your waist. And if you're trying this along with us, good luck to us all.

I won't bore you with further daily reports, but when/if we reach a major milestone, I'll note it.

This diet's going to require technology…for the safety of my fingers.

The diet was a success yesterday: a LOT of work. But I can see where it'll get less as I get used to the style of cooking. The unexpected success was the salad/cold veggie. That involves a big cucumber and three radishes and a bell pepper, sliced paper thin, tossed and allowed to marinate for 30 minutes in a dressing made of 1 tbs virgin olive oil and 1 TSP balsamic vinegar, with salt and pepper. The thinness of the veggies means they sop up the flavor in the dressing, and they're crunchy and cold, contrasted with the meat dish. Serves 2.

The salty little stuffed mushrooms were a winner, too. Pop the stems out of a couple of mushrooms, and in a small skillet, add the diced stems, a spoonful of olive oil, salt, and a couple of spoonfuls of frozen spinach. Heat same. Put the mushroom caps in, stuff them with the mix, and keep them on Low Heat with a lid for a bit while you fix other things. They make a warm salty bite or two.

And the potato substitute: you won't believe this one:—microwave half a cauliflower, add it and powdered buttermilk, salt, pepper, and a little water to a blender set on 'mash'. It actually tastes mostly like mashed potatoes, and not enough like cauliflower to offend anybody who really hates cauliflower. Quite a transformation.

The dessert: lime ricotta cream is, for one person, half a cup of ricotta cheese, add a packet of Splenda, and half a teaspoon of vanilla, then 1/4-1/2 tsp of the zest (scraped skin) of a lime. Stir, place in cup, set in fridge all day. I put these into the freezer during dinner, and they came out very nice. A little granular, like a snowcone: ricotta is; but the predominant taste is lime and dairy.

Anyway, tonight is salmon baked on a bed of fresh dill, with another veggie salad, and maybe more 'potato'. I haven't checked. But I give the menu so you can see how this works—how it IS work, but gets easier once you know the drill.

The one thing I am treating myself to is a Cuisinart to do fine slicing. I had a nasty accident with a mandolin (sliding slicer) that I don't want to repeat, and while my hand slicing is pretty good for mushrooms, it gets risky with something like a radish that needs to go paper-thin.

So that is on the agenda for today.