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After seeing how much I was being charged for having a home phone that we hardly ever use, I decided to shop around for other options. We have a Verizon land line and Verizon DSL. I also have a Verizon cell phone, but even though everything is on one bill, I was told a few years ago by the Verizon DSL customer service that the cell phone didn’t help prove that I was a dedicated Verizon customer.

I inquired about other options on Facebook, and I looked at some websites (geez, Comcast– I could not easily find out how to get the simplest cheapest cable internet on your website). I finally called Verizon to see if I was obligated to remain on their DSL for any set period of time– I’ve had it since 2002, but to get lower prices, you have to sign up for x amount of years.   I shouldn’t admit this, but my bill records are a bit sloppy, and I wasn’t sure. However, when the customer service rep told me that I signed up for “Price for Life” on September 1, 2009 (which obligated me to two more years at $29.99 (September 2011!) and then after that I would ALWAYS have that rate– a “PRICE FOR LIFE”) I was confused. That’s only a few months ago, and I didn’t recall signing up for it then– but I did remember signing up for a Price for Life a while ago. She said they have only had the “Price for Life” a few months, so that wasn’t possible. After dropping a bunch of things on my land line (which reduces my phone bill by more than $15 a month), I hung up and wondered about this “Price for Life” business. If I signed up for it in 2007, then maybe I had fulfilled my obligation on September 1, 2009. I called back and spoke to a DSL rep, and found out that this was the case– I signed up 9/1/07 and as of 9/1/09, am no longer obligated to Verizon, but will have $29.99/ month DSL for life. A PRICE FOR LIFE. Even with Clear Internet or Dry Loop DSL options, I decided that sticking with our land line and the $29.99/month DSL was a decent deal.

And then yesterday, a manager from Verizon called me to explain that PRICE FOR LIFE does not mean FOR LIFE. It means “until Verizon decides to raise the price.” I didn’t realize “Price for Life” had an asterisk behind it.

HUH???

I asked for this in writing. She said she had no way of mailing or emailing me anything. The manager understood how ridiculous calling something “Price for Life” when it is not for LIFE is… she said every customer she explains this too has the same disbelief.

If they do raise the price, I will supposedly get an email to my verizon email, that I do not use. I requested it be sent to the account I do use, but she couldn’t guarantee that it would be delivered there. I will have to keep an eye on it.

I let her know that I had researched other options. I do not need a land line. I have other options. I am not obligated to Verizon in any way. And that if they raise the price, I will leave. I am not the one that called it “Price for Life”. Verizon did. And if they can’t stand behind it, I will leave. And I’m free to leave even if they don’t raise the price. So, if you have any recommendations for Internet service, let me know!

I found it slightly ironic that she called on the day I decided to be my Computer-Free day. I think I need to spend one day a week not looking at the computer at all. I did that yesterday, and hope to do one next week too. And I hope to decrease my overall time spent on the computer. So, it’s time to sign off now.

We finally saw Food, Inc.
I already knew a lot of the facts in it, having read one chapter of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (I only read one chapter because it was recalled from the library before I could get through it), and having seen The Corporation. But it was very powerful, and makes me want to make even more changes. We already don’t eat much meat. We rarely cook anything other than chicken or turkey at home. I get the chicken and turkey from Trader Joe’s, and I think it doesn’t have antibiotics and hormones, but I’m sure it’s produced in large factory farms. And I’m not careful about the kind of meat I do eat, because my policy is not to be picky about what people serve me… but if I’m at a picnic, and eat a hamburger, I’m probably eating the kind of hamburger that has parts from hundreds of cows. So, maybe I should be more picky. I get cravings for meat when I don’t have it from time to time, so I don’t see myself become a vegetarian. Lilia used to love bacon, but at some point, I decided to tell her it was made out of pigs. She stopped eating it immediately, and hasn’t eaten it in a year or more. She says she will eat cows, but doesn’t often.
We joined a CSA this year, and had local vegetables for 26 weeks. We have signed up for it again next year. Joe already has a small garden out front– tomatoes, greens, garlic, peppers, and herbs.

But the scariest and saddest story in Food, Inc. was about the woman who became a food safety advocate after her two year old son died from e. coli in a hamburger. There have been a lot of stories about unsafe food– bagged spinach, peanut butter, hamburgers, tomatoes– and I was always thankful that we hadn’t bought anything involved in a recall. But one of those news stories did effect us, back in May 2007.

I was looking at my journal, and found these entries:
Thursday, May 24, 2007:
…Lilia ate chicken & noodles from my soup, some meatball, and some spring roll. And all of her Veggie Booty (her favorite snack). She was eating non-stop, it was adorable.
Sunday, May 27, 2007:
Lilia will be 15 months tomorrow! And she has her first tummy bug ever. It hit yesterday– she was super lethargic. And then she woke up in the middle of the night BURNING UP. Her fever (underarm) was only 101.7, so not too bad. I don’t have any pain relievers/fever reducers– they expired last year– so I just nursed her, gave her water, and crossed my fingers. Then she started with the Big D, which so far has not been TOO bad. She’s been mopey and clingy (to me), but is currently making her dad read ALL of her favorite books to her. So I’m hopeful this won’t last too long. Although Dr. Sears explains that intestines are slow-healing, so it could linger. Oh, this morning her temperature was 100.5. Much more reasonable.
Monday, May 28, 2007:
Saturday, it was hot, and we didn’t go out until late afternoon. We went for a little hike in Fairmount Park, and Lilia did not seem to be having any fun. I chalked it up to tiredness and the heat. We had to stop at 2 CVSes and the grocery store, and she was very tired looking– Joe said, She seems sick. Well, of course, she WAS sick.

Today, Lilia seemed better in the morning, and our pal M came over to hang out. Unfortunately, Lilia is not all better. I hope we don’t all catch it.
Aww, she just woke up with a cry, but is drifting back to sleep. Her eyes are purple from being tired and sick. I’m so glad we are still nursing, or she’d be starving!

Thursday, May 31, 2007:

Lilia is getting better. Still clingy and not quite eating a ton, but she’s definitely improving. She’s been waking up in the night crying though. That is not fun. Especially because nothing helps

June 28, 2007:
Robert’s Veggie Booty is recalled

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
–

So… it dawned on me… Lilia’s favorite snack food was recalled for salmonella. Lilia ate it before she got sick (not just the one day I posted about– she ate it constantly). I had been worried that we all would catch it, but we never did. It was never confirmed that she had salmonella, but her symptoms, combined with the fact that we never got sick, seem to indicate that she did have it.

She had an allergy to dairy when she was little, so I couldn’t give her goldfish or anything with milk in it. I didn’t feel bad giving Veggie Booty to her. I know it was just a snack food, but it had green stuff in it– veggies- and a little bit of calcium. I personally didn’t really like it, so I didn’t eat it. I couldn’t buy it at Trader Joe’s– they sold Pirate’s Booty, but not Veggie Booty, and I didn’t realize why until later– the green veggie powder has stuff from China, and TJ’s has a policy not to sell items from China. And that green veggie powder from China was the source of the salmonella!

If Lilia had any sort of compromised immune system, she could have been much sicker. I don’t even see Veggie Booty listed on Robert’s Gourmet’s website anymore, so maybe they don’t make it? I wasn’t sure if I should contact anyone about Lilia’s case. In August, 2007, I did email Robert’s to let them know they might want to add another case to their list.
They emailed back and told me to fill out a claim form for medical costs reimbursement. We didn’t have any medical costs– just an increased cost of diapers for a few days, and a few days of a holiday weekend spent tending to our sick girl–so I did not fill out the form. I found an article, about a family suing– there little boy had to be hospitalized.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me feel helpless. I know that I can never ever buy something from Robert’s Gourmet again… but how can I make sure that it isn’t going to happen with another snack we get? With the peanut butter scare, we know that it just isn’t China’s fault, so avoiding all things from China won’t solve the problem.

Our car’s passenger side headlight is always going out, and it is very hard to change. It blew out on our recent roadtrip, and Joe put a new one in, but it was misaligned. Once we got home, the replacement had gone out too– after only a few days, but I figured it was from bumping around loose.

Last Friday, I stopped by Pep Boys to buy another headlight, and decided to ask about their installation service– advertised as $9.95– so we wouldn’t have to worry about the loose light. I inquired about this service one other time last year, but was told the wait time was 2 hours (for a lightbulb!), and was happy to hear the wait time was only going to be 15-20 minutes.

After paying for the bulb and service (over $30… when the light we had bought the week before was under $10), and waiting half an hour, I was told that they put the new headlight in, but it didn’t work. A part was bent, so they wiggled it, got the light to come on, and duct taped it in place… and told me I had to to go to the dealer for a new part. I was kinda annoyed that I had to pay the service and would still need to take it somewhere else to be fixed. But I figured they had opened the car up and done something, right? And sometimes I don’t feel like arguing, so I left.

Joe wasn’t too happy with Pep Boys when I told him what happened. Another thing I noticed was that the little sticker our mechanic put in our window to keep track of the next oil change was missing… I think Pep Boys removed it. Like we would forget who our mechanic is without that little sticker, and be forced to take our car to Pep Boys for all future service?? Who knows. I do know that we took our car to our mechanic this week, and he fixed the light for free. Joe and I discussed going back to Pep Boys to complain and ask for a refund, but I hadn’t had a chance to go back out there yet. But today… they called me.

The conversation went something like this… (Obviously not recorded by me!)

PB: May I speak with Joe D.?

Me: He’s not in, may I take a message?

PB: This is Pep Boys, and we are doing a follow-up on the service you had done.

Me: Oh, well it was actually me who took the car in.

PB: How would you rate the service on a scale of 0-10, and would you recommend us to your friends?

Me: Well, actually, we are very unhappy since they charged us and really didn’t fix the light. We were thinking of coming in to get a refund. I would rate it a zero, and definitely would not recommend the service to my friends.

PB: Thank you for your time. (maybe some other words of good-bye, I don’t remember, but it was pretty abrupt)–
Goodbye.

HUH????? I just told them how awful their service was, and they made no effort to make any amends, or suggest who to talk to or anything!! How weird!! Now what should we do? Should we contact the store? I don’t even know where this person was calling from! Before the phone call, I was thinking of letting the issue drop and make a note to never go to Pep Boys again. But now that they called and gave such a non-response… I guess I should try to follow-up.

Lilia’s crib was just recalled, so we had to return it to Target to get a store credit. I broke it down into small parts, but it still wouldn’t fit in our hatchback trunk. As I looked for a phone number to call and ask if we could just toss it and still get the credit, Joe used all the rope he has accumulated over the years and tied it to our previously unused roof rack– I knew there was a reason we had one of those! We carefully drove over to the Target on City Line and put all the pieces in a cart and brought them in to the return desk, where Lilia proclaimed to the clerks, “My crib is broken”! One time I returned a pair of shoes to this Target on a weekday morning, and a line of people had formed behind me as the clerk struggled through the transaction, so I was a little nervous about doing this on a busy Saturday afternoon, but the two clerks who helped us were super friendly, and we had no trouble at all.

We wanted to pick up a Target Weekly Circular, because Lilia’s second cousin Lillian is featured in the toy section (warning– you might die of the cuteness if you click there!) but because it was the last day of the sale, they were all out. :( (We’ll get to meet Lillian for the first time at Thanksgiving!!)

Now, we need to find a new bed for Lilia. Where is she sleeping now?

Well, I have a confession to make…
Lilia still co-sleeps. It’s just easier, I’ll leave it at that.

But, we have a nice crib mattress, and she did sometimes sleep in her crib (it was a convertible– we had taken one side off last year). I think this Ikea toddler bed is really cute, but it is a foot longer than the crib mattress, so we’d have to invest in one of Ikea’s mattresses. Plus, our house is so small, I don’t think we have the room to get a bigger bed. Plus, she is short… she’ll fit in the crib mattress for quite a long time. I guess we have some research to do.

Ugh, I had an automated phone call from a “final resting place” place. I don’t even know if they were trying to sell me a grave site or insurance or what. Our upstairs phone doesn’t work (but the answering machine on it still does), so I had to go all the way downstairs to get this call.

The positive thing is that this call reminded me to update our number on the Do Not Call list. The site said that our number was still on there (so that means this call was a violation), and I added my cell phone (I haven’t had a problem with my cell phone, since it isn’t listed).