JoyfulC

I just saw this: http://www.jesuiselle.com/art-de-vivre/album-photo-des-celebrites-au-naturel/2014/05/18 I guess we're not, by far, the only ones to focus on our best features.

The coverage issue. That's been a big problem in the past for us. We signed a contract with them, some years back, that included a Palm Treo. That thing never worked out here in the sticks! Half the time we didn't get calls at all. And when we did, half the time again, they were dropped. It wasn't until we went to the first iPhone, and were shopping around for a different service provider, that someone at Telus mentioned to us that we'd get much better service out here with the iPhone. ?? So if they knew we would have problems with the Treo out here, why didn't they mention that to us when they sold us the contract. Response: because most people who live out here travel into areas of better coverage for work. Great. We don't. You'd think they would have at least mentioned that. We essentially paid for three years of useless coverage. And their attitude, far from being one of wanting to help their customers, is Buyer Beware. We have been with Telus since way back in the 90s. And I hate to change. And I know that other services are just as bad. But really, if Bell puts a new tower in our area, I can see us changing.

Thanks. We're having the problem on two phones, actually, so I don't think it's that. But it could be a coverage issue. Funny. They don't advise you of this when selling you the service.

I have only recently started truly relying on SMS for doing business, as I switched from a cloud service to an actual cell phone earlier this year. I must say, I'm not impressed. I found out last week that I wasn't receiving text messages, nor were people receiving mine for... who knows how long before it came to my attention? And then I found out by looking at my usage that I was dinged 80¢ for two text messages to my daughter in the US, which she never received. First, how in the hell can they justify charging that much for a text message to the US? And then it wasn't even received?? Seems like the only thing my service (Telus) does well is billing. Then yesterday, my husband was just coming in around 2 AM when he received two text messages from one of his valued regular customers, timestamped around 9 PM. Obviously, he missed the business! And possibly left a good customer wondering if he was blown off. We're going to call Telus again on Tuesday and see if we can get to the bottom of this. Anyone have any been-there advice?

Good luck with your move, Carrie! I guess I never really thought of it as your going away. You'll still be around, eh? And as always, our door is always open. Kisses!

I recently watched Fair Game with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It's a true story of how people in the Bush administration outed a CIA covert operations officer (Valerie Plame) because they weren't happy that her husband had found evidence that some of the administration's charges against Saddam Hussein were fraudulent. Along the same lines, I also watched Green Zone, with Matt Damon. This was a fictionalized story based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," which I read some time back. I never used to be a huge Matt Damon fan, but he is really maturing to the point where I'm starting to like him now. It's only just now, more than ten years on from the run-up to the Iraq War, that I am even able to stomach such things. Dark moments in history!

After saying a cruel goodbye to hundreds of physical books in my library on Saturday, I jumped out of bed Sunday, buckled down, and figured out how to recover hundreds more ebooks that I'd lost because they were DRM protected and in PDB format (for Palm OS). I've got them all back now, and I can email them to my iPhone to read in my Kindle app any time I like. Yippee!!

Saturday, I finally dealt with hundreds of books that I tried, but couldn't get rid of any other way. I tore the covers off them and readied them for recycling. I was okay for a few hours, but then started shaking, and that turned into crying. Luckily someone held me down and poured enough moonshine into me to get me calmed down. See highlights of the day for how this worked out.

Uh. Actually, yes. I have a whole stack of them, back in the corner between the dressers in the massage room. We had been using them with boards to make some shelves, but when we replaced it with another shelving unit, they never quite found their way downstairs. I am really making some progress here!! I can see the place emptying out! Yay!! (BTW, Bewlay Brothers? Way cool!! LERV Bowie.)

Better yet with photos!

It's a good idea, but it's not for everyone. We did the yard sale thing once, a few years back, and if I ever get to thinking of doing it again, I'm going to take the short cut, find a brick, and just smack myself in the face repeatedly with it until the urge passes. Same thing.

Ironically, as I'm sorting through stuff to be put up for sale, stuff to be freecycled, stuff to go to the community yard sale for charity, and stuff to go to the dump this week, I'm still frantically searching for the original video files for some of my favourite videos in my members' area. I'd converted them to swf years ago, when I was assured that flash was the way of the future, and now I can't for the life of me get them to convert back into anything decent. And I cannot find those original files. Only my favourites. Of course. Of course!

Apparently my SMS was down for goodness knows how long. I think it's resolved now. But in the process, I found out that Telus is dinging me 40¢ a piece for SMS to my daughter in the US. 40 CENTS!!! How in the hell can that be right? As I understand the technology, SMS pretty much just goes along for the ride, and doesn't require any additional infrastructure or resources. Someone down at the CRTC is a perfect little industry lapdog! And, last but not least... May 8. 09hr41. The furnace just kicked in.

Oh, I agree, RG! One of the hardest things to get rid of is books. You see all these people online pontificating about how they prefer the feel of *real* books to ebooks. Where are these people when it comes time to adopt some??? Many of my books are from the 70s, 80s, 90s -- politics, economy, reference, predictions of future trends (that mostly ended up being wrong!) -- but stuff that's definitely no longer relevant. So I'm having to recycle them. Tear the covers off and put them out with paper recycling. I never, in a million years, envisioned myself having to do that. But some of my books are still valuable, IMHO, even if my library doesn't accept anything older than a year. Someone online had a great suggestion, to donate books to the library that you think they should accept that their policies don't accept, just sneak them into the return slot after dark. Bwahahaha! I love it! Then it's their problem. ;) And yes, Jafo, I have learned my lesson. Once downsized, I will take your excellent advice and never, ever, ever let things get so out of hand again. I will get in a regular habit.

I am looking at moving this summer. This time, I am DETERMINED to pare down and get rid of all this stuff I seem to have collected somehow over the years. How did that even happen, anyway??? This past week, I've been making hard decisions, going through stuff in storage (which, if it's in storage, it probably could go, right? how come it doesn't seem that way when I get it out and look at it???). I never really considered myself a very materialistic person, and so I'm a bit shocked that I have hung on to so much stuff. Anyone else here been through it? Any advice? Any cautions? Is gasoline and matches my best bet?? TIA.

A man who knows how to pay special attention to my feet or belly will have me eating out of his hand. But that said, I must admit that I'm often disappointed by those who approach me and announce that they have a foot fetish. When they do follow through (which is rare), they usually expect to get off super cheap (if not free). They often start off with a demand for a pic of my feet. Unfortunately, it rarely works out with guys who tell me they have a foot fetish, but that's certainly not because I'm not responsive to sensual attention to my feet!

Tonight will be Comfort Food: cheesy baked cauliflower stuffed crêpes topped with Frank's Red Hot Sauce and sour cream. Digging around getting organized to move has brought me into contact with something that's making my allergies go berserk. It's gonna be all comfort food, all week for me!

I had the worst dream this morning! I dreamed I was supposed to meet another SP at someone's home. But when I got there, he said she'd decided not to come. I wasn't sure if I should leave or what. He suggested that we play around a little, but something made me stop and think. I asked him if he meant just "play around" or was this a play-for-pay situation. His response was rather non-committal, and so I asked again. It took a couple times, but he finally agreed, yes, he would pay me. (This would never EVER be an issue in real life. ) Anyway, I didn't get the money up front, and mid-way through, we heard a door slam. His wife and teen children had come home. He pushed me into a closet with some, but not all, of my clothing and things. A little while later, the wife slid open the door to the closet. I don't know why, but I had the feeling that the husband had told her I was there. Maybe even planned the whole thing. The wife was not happy, but not really mad at me. I came out and began getting dressed. But of course, I needed to see him and get paid before I left. He was evasive. But I told him I would not leave until I got my pay. He said we didn't finish. I pointed out, that was not my fault. He went away and came back with what he said were Mexican pesos. I didn't want to accept his word on the exchange rate (and besides, I wouldn't know a Mexican peso if it bit me). We argued back and forth a little more, and finally, I saw that I wasn't going to get anything out of him. As a last ditch attempt, I told him that if he didn't pay me that day, I would start collections on him, and that if he didn't pay me within the month, I would send his account to a collections agency and ruin his credit. I told him I was charging him $100 bad date fee, plus $100 collections fee, for a total of $500. I continued getting dressed, but I couldn't find one of the items I was wearing when I came in. At some point, he and his wife left. (For church, believe it or not!) I finally went out, and they were still out front, so I started taking pics of his house and his car and license plate. He didn't like this, and tried to take my phone, and it fell and broke. They drove off. Then I realized I didn't have my key to my car, and not only that, I didn't see my car where I'd left it. Turns out, his kids took it! Ugh! At the end of the dream, I was telling the one little brat that she had every right to be mad at her father, but I was just there doing my job, making my living. What a dismal awakening for this morning. Bleh!! I'm not sure why I'd have such a dream. That is, from the start, just totally not how I go about my business. I have heard of other SPs going through similarly hellish scenarios though.

"Her age is always 22 laughing eyes a hazel hue spends my money like water falls loves me like I want her to" --Loretta, Townes Van Zandt

After making it through the winter like a champ, my loyal old baby boy beagle is having a rough couple days. I told him, him and me, we're going to be together forever.

How come people stick their fingers in their partner's ears during foreplay?

I have been in this business a very long time, and I am sure that the overwhelming majority of my customers are married. Some perhaps not happily, and some divorced during the time that I knew them. And some perhaps had problems at home, beyond a disparity in interest in sex. But I think most love their wives, and even more, respect and admire them. I believe that many would be just as happy to be home having sex with their wives, if it were possible. I'm also married myself, for a long time, and I know how hard it is to keep sexual passion alive in a relationship. I guess some think either it happens or it doesn't, but I'm not so sure. To me, it seems like something you always have to have on the to-do list. Especially once you pass certain benchmarks: like when your biological clock is no longer ticking, and once you're sure that the marriage will survive, no matter what. I think the men who come to us are those who found that the door to sex slammed shut (or maybe slowly creaked shut) in their marriages, before they were ready to stop having a personal sex life. This leads me to wonder: in some marriages, do both partners simply watch passively as their sex life rides off into the sunset, with neither being too upset to see it go? It's hard to imagine, but that must be the case. And what happens if, in a marriage, the female partner is the one who still values her marriage, but no longer finds it to be a source for her sexual satisfaction? I guess I sort of know. I've seen enough of that with my husband's job, and it seems to me far more toxic than using professional services. It would be a very good thing for us as a society if women had the same access to professional services as men do.

I'm cursed. I get some really awful stuff stuck in my head. Last week, for several days, it was a jingle for one of the advertisers on the old TV 70s sitcom, "WKRP." Red wigglers! The Cadillac of worms. Just shoot me!

http://digg.com/video/a-man-walks-into-a-bar-is-worth-watching-until-the-end?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

I can tell you what I'm not doing: the dishes or any one of a number of things on my lengthy to-do list.