What irritates you?

Good point. Thanks for the info.

I just installed my furnace at my cabin (the toad farm) and thought it was a little overkill to have the furnace pipe as high as they recomended. Last weekend I went and looked and I only had about 2 more inches and it would have been covered. And I actually have it about 6 inches higher than they said. Snow was waist deep there.

(in case anyone is wondering... they are probably talking about direct vented furnaces that run PVC pipe out the side of your house. Although I suppose there could be some chimneys blocked with as much snow as we had.)

If you have side venting, more likely is that you won't have heat at all if its covered because the furnace wont start. You'll probably freeze before being poisioned with carbon monoxide.

If your old furnace burns house air and only vents out the chimney you could get carbon monoxide if the chimney is blocked.

The fact that my boss rarely gets the schedule posted for the new month more than a week before the new month starts and she posted the schedule today and I had planned to put in my vacation request tonight for Jan 28-Feb3.....Now I'm screwed. I'm only off on the 29th. Yah me!

Somebody's got to do the internet research, LA mommy...

Enjoy: Not having one iota of one clue of what Mikey's talking about, but happily knowing that he knows what he's doing, in case it becomes relevant in my life some day and I need it explained to me very slowly.

Well I talked with my boss and I didn't get the whole time off but she's working with me ( it's a freaking mircle cuz she's normally nothing more than a B!#ch in human clothing). I'll most likely end up with the 29th-2nd off probably I have to talk wiht one of my co workers first. So I'll miss out on just the 28th but I can handle that just don't find the darn thing early ok guys give me a day or two out there with ya!?! I'll be around all night long during the week to do research for anyone though since I'll be sitting at work with nothin' to do :sillygrin:

Irritate - Santa at southdale mall..

my mom found a coupon on groupon.com for 3 free photos with santa, good at southdale, or northtown.... we opted for southdale, but almost didnt make it....

we got there late (due to mis-direction from a mall information worker), and were informed that the line had been cut like 2 people infront of us, because "santa wants to go home, and he's done at 8:00", says the line checker worker lady....

there was us, and 2 other couples behind us... and we were informed this, AFTER we had been standing there for 30 minutes....

the guy ended up deciding to do the remaining kids pictures because there werent that many of us left... but still an irritate...

dude....

you're portraying f**king SANTA!

your job is only in season for like a month out of the year, and all you gotta do is sit in a chair, talk to kids, and take pictures..... and you're bitching about how you want to f'n go home!?!?!?

wtf!?!?

next year we're going to MOA.... would have done that anyways, but I cant step foot on their property for 6 months or so....

next year we're going to MOA.... would have done that anyways, but I cant step foot on their property for 6 months or so....

Uhoh?

Yeah, there's not a lot of really good santas out there.

My favorite was one I heard on the news. Some teenage kid dressed up as santa and handed out a hundred dollars worth of 1 dollar bills to kids out at the MOA that he got from his grandfather for Christmas.

The BEST Santa take it from ME! we have to get our photo with him EVERY YEAR since my oldest brother was born! the one at Rosedale Knew Santa Dave and is A real Santa he rembers us every year and is really a great guy!

hahahhahhahhaa omg I'm coughing from laughing out loud.

hey, on a serious note -fyi: you can make an appt with the MOA santa online. Make it early in the season even if you want to see him closer to Christmas Day. I couldnt get Whitney in even 2 weeks before Christmas. He was booked.

Yup.. That is what it was! It was the bug!

thought I was approved for vaca starting wed of the hunt week and going till the 7th. Only approved by my 1st boss and denied higher up because I had to borrow some vaca. Now I only have 38 hours to use. Looks like friday thru thursday is in order now. Better than nothin I guess. Gonna miss that 1st week.

you've still got when you're not working' but ya I hear you. I though I was only going to have 22,23 and 29 during the hunt but feel so much better now that I'll have 29-2 off. But now someone is going to find it on the 28th just to spit me...I will have to look for a last mininute vacation if that happens lol go someplace warm.

So I was calling around to moving companies today because my mom is planning on moving down the to cities permanently and with her physical limitations and my wacky schedule she asked me to check into moving companies who will pack up your stuff and move it for you. So I call a company up who I found on the web (their services included packing your stuff up). I'm telling the lady what I'm looking for and want a quote on what the cost would be. Then as she is working on it she's trying to tell me that it would be much cheaper if I were to pack up her stuff into boxes and they would move it. I'm like but thats the point lady I don't want to pack it and she can't be moving heavy boxes around. The lady was acting like I was nuts for wanting someone to pack it up for us. Why would they advertise services they don't really want to do? I didn't think I was asking for world peace here just some hired help to pack stuff up.

Moving companies all seem a bit on the 'shady' side.

It might be because of liabilitly issues... the less they handle personal property, lessens the likelihood of being accused of breaking/losing/stealing something. Maybe the profit margin lowers with the packing because it's impossible to correctly determine how long it will take. I don't know how old your mom is or if she is a pack rat or not, but I'm sure they've had tons of problems of old people hiring them and then getting in their way while obsessing over all their "treasures".

A co-worker of mine was being transferred to a different facility in IA and our work not only pays for moving but packing as well. So when the comp called her to set up the plans they asked her TONS of questions about her belongings... she got the feeling they were trying to determine whether or not she was a hoarder so they knew how many people and supplies they would needed. She opted to pack her own stuff.

When I was relocated, the movers sent a person out to inspect the premises first. There were a lot of thing (mostly liquids, firearms, and ammunition) that they wouldn't move. Company paid for all the packing, since we were living out of state at the time of the actual move.

My brain not letting my body get any sleep.

Great news - bad timing.

So I got a different job (same employer different position) but I have to start training on it right away (training is 3 different phases) I'm excited and overjoyed but my mind and extra time is going to be consumed with the hunt for the next 2 weeks, The lady in charge says she's somewhat flexible on scheduling the training....I told her about my treasure hunt hobby... and I got a long silent pause. :neutral: Anyway I have to figure out a way to focus on my training and stall it for at least until the hunt is over because the final phases they send me to Oklahoma for 2 weeks... :ooh:

Well all in all Tatergirl, your profession should trump your hobby, especially considering even if you get the max prize for the medallion, it's a small drop in the bucket compared to what your salary is... at least I'd certainly hope it does :smile:

Hopefully you can get your schedule figured out and have time to hunt though. Congrats on the new job :smile:

I'm still waiting on tptb at HP to decide to get a job requisition out so I can apply. Something tells me if they're dragging their feet this much, it might be a long wait for the next position to open up. And while I can be very patient, sometimes there are just opportunities I'd like to not miss out on.

(auto) insurance companies

I'm having to pay more because of two incidences that have NOTHING to do with my driving. The first, my van was parked around the corner from my house after our local block party, and was hit and run overnight. The second was when my daughter was riding her bicycle last spring and was hit by a vehicle. Wonderful no-fault meant that was paid out of my insurance co's $ -- but I still feel it's terribly unfair.

Anyone else have a less than perfect record and affordable insurance??

Thanks... I have to keep reminding myself this job is more important than the hunt- it's just that I look forward to this all year and now I have to let some air out of the balloon-so to speak. But I do have to focus because if I don't pass the training (50% don't) then I don't get the job.

So right now I'm trying to decide on the scheduling.. I do phase 1 tomorrow...that part is easy. I still have to schedule phase 2 - if I schedule it for early next week- while I won't be a too into the hunt at that point (usually not a consensus of what park yet) I run the risk that they send me to OK before the hunt is over. If I drag out scheduling until the following week - my mind is usually more entreched in the hunt and I fear that the distraction might affect my test taking skills.

Oh well I'll stop lamenting... I know I'm "blessed with work". Not complaining mind you... just hate the timing of it.

We have USAA... love them. But it's only available to armed service members and the families (my father in law and bro in law were both in army reserves) USAA always gets high ratings by Consumer Reports and other consumer groups.

Let's see-- both me and husband have gotten a speeding ticket within the last 5 yrs and our rates never changed. Last August we got into an accident (we had right of way) and t-boned another car. They waived our deductible and our rates still haven't changed. We use them for our house insurance too.

Thanks, but I just dumped State Farm after about the same time, maybe a little more actually - we moved back in 93, and I don't even remember if it was state farm or some other company in San Diego.

They hadn't been a *horrible* company to deal with, but access to customer service was lacking and they were, I thought high rates. We were with them for homeowners as well. Did some shopping through the company/broker that had been handling my mom's stuff -- and THOUGHT I would save $300-$400 over six months. I was up front with them about my history (Dad does have 2 chargeable accidents too), and when I got the quote, figured it was a good deal.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and I receive the "official" cards to carry with you and the policy is for nearly $1000 more than I was figuring on! So I read through, and I see the one incident of mine with the van listed as "at fault" -- SO, I figure that's the reason the $$ went up....just an error, since that one was hardly my fault.

Give the insurance company a call (the agency was not open on a Friday afternoon), and the guy assures me that if I can get some documentation detailing the claim all should be good.

Called the agency the following Monday to give them a heads up, and the guy there is super helpful too -- says he'll take care of everything. I get a letter from State Farm stating my claim was not at fault, fax that to the guy, he forwards to the insurance company...

THEN he calls a couple of days ago to tell me it really won't make much of a difference (like $25), because of the TWO not at fault things I will be rated higher risk for 3 years.

I AM NOT HAPPY. :frown:

The bike accident *was* actually my 10 year old daughter's "fault". What I learned was that in Minnesota at least, there is NO "age of responsibility". SHE rode across an uncontrolled 4 lane street (Lexington Ave), was not even exactly in the crosswalk. If a 2 year old made the same mistake, the insurance rules would look at it the same.

I can't blame the driver of the vehicle that hit her though, was probably unavoidable...but how it affects MY ability to drive safely, I don't understand.

Who is your current insurance company?

The *new* current insurance (that we switched to from SF thinking we would save lots of $) is Progressive. The phone people have been very nice, but I haven't spoken with anyone since the guy at the agency called to let me know about the higher rating and that they wouldn't budge.

I've been waiting for the new policy to be updated before I call them directly again to beg, plead, and if necessary, cry. :smile:

I had Progressive in the past and I have heard and found after I got them form LOTS of People that they are ONE of the Worst Ins. Co out there then when they dropped me with out any warning at all and I got a ticket and called to let them know they said SO you don't have ins. with us?? They are shady to say the least! they pulled the bait and switch on my to began with also they said oh you will only have to pay this much go to pay the bill and it was 5x's what I was quoted over the phone!

Emily and I have USAA and they are great our Ins. for 3 months is $256 for both of Us we cant beat it! but yes you do have to be Military! to get it

That happened to me once when Neil Diamond tickets went on sale when I was at work....I went to my bosses office and said I had to leave because I couldn't get TicketMaster access at work. DoH!

Good luck

Just got the new documents. Yeah, it's more than they originally said, but it's still less than SF was before we changed. Ironically, after we'd dropped them (but was still in process), the rate with SF would have gone down in Jan. But still, only about $23.

I will shop. It's just not at the top of the list right now -- but if anyone else has good (or horror) stories about other companies, please feel free to let me know!

No military service for either Dad or me....wonder how close of a relative needs to have served? Dad's dad was in the Navy, I think.

I'd tell him that EVERYONE starts out the same at high risk and I'm not high risk any longer because I've been in 2 accidents already that weren't my fault, therefor my odds of it happening again than those who have NOT had an accident- it's someone elses turn...however, in theory I would think EVERYONE starts out the same and a "no fault" accident can happen with the same odds to everyone.

Good luck with them. I will be searching for an insurance company probably in the next 6 months myself.

The thing I worry about when these insurance companies say they can go lower is this:

Are they offering the EXACT same coverage as you already have and want?

I see it as they may say we can go $500 lower a year for yah but in the fine print you get less coverage. I'm leary of sales people, car salesmen, insurance salesmen.

Is dad's dad still with us? if so then I am willing to bet he can get it for you guys! because Emily's Ex is the only Military connection to us! lol and we get it!

I'm leary of sales people, car salesmen, insurance salesmen.

And Jake

If you have AAA they offer a good rate on car insurance. I have them for both car and home which lowers it even more. But I won't mention that I've never had a ticket or needed to file an accident claim because that would be bad luck.

What is Jake selling? This time?

NTFCF Videos

'vintage' Archie comic books

I moved to Progressive very nice rates

only paying $45 a month for full coverage, I did there snapshot program had to plug some tracking device in to my car for 3 months.

We were with Progressive for a number of years but made a switch this last fall to All State. Best rates we found which surprised the bejeebers out of us.

It pays to shop around for car insurance. It was actually our house insurance that started us shopping around when that jumped way up. We got a better deal all around.

Ditto on all accounts. Plus they haven't raised my rates even after getting that speeding ticket on the way to Jake & Sara's wedding.

For years we had group auto insurance through work. When the kids started driving it was still the best rate we could get...until Brenda had an accident and then a speeding ticket. It was then we went to Progressive and considering that daughter's driving record - lead foot! they were good to deal with and though we shopped around a few times, Progressive had the lower rates and All State always had the highest.

Progressive was great to work with when Brenda had her roll-over accident about 10 years ago and totaled her Mazda. That accident was clearly her fault, but the rates didn't skyrocket like we thought they would.

When a tree fell partially on her car and she had a fair amount of repairs needed, Progressive again came through. When Inks had his trucks stolen - not at the same time, but really disgusting as they were damaged enough to total them, our rates didn't go up much.

Then we didn't have the kids on our insurance any longer and Progressive was still cheaper.

But when we shopped again for house insurance, by combining that with the auto insurance at All State, we came out WAY ahead with insuring our cars and both houses.

I hope if we have a claim with All State, they will be as easy to deal with as Progressive was.

Sucks that I only have 1 car now I lose the multi car discount :frown:

Hmm.. trend I'm seeing is stick with an insurance company that doesn't have "Cute" and or "Funny" commercials.

Yup - guess GEICO's out of the running :smile: