What follows is a bit of a rant. Proceed with caution, or come back tomorrow. It’s probably not of much interest to most, I’m just tired of apathetic shoddy service – for paid and free services.

I got a few emails earlier about the site being down, so I went to check it out, and sure enough – DNS errors. OK, stuff happens, figured I would wait it out and see if they can fix the issue. This is what I do, I know these things happen, and waiting in queue to rant at the level one agent who has no ability to either fix the problem or speed the process along doesn’t help anything (I’m sorry, are my years of call center life showing?)

So I went about my business and ate some dinner. Started a load of laundry, uploaded my 16th Plurkcraft365 picture to Flickr, you know, filler stuff. After about 2 hours, I tried again, and the site was still down.

My 1st response was to check the website. Surely if the service is down this long, there will be some sort of message on the site, right? Hrmmm, nothing posted. OK, lets try live chat…

While waiting in queue for live chat, with no indication where I was in line, or what my expected wait time was, I dialed the tech support number. While it made no mention of any known issues, it at least advised me I was FIFTY NINE in queue. Ahem.

I waited in both queues until a chat agent entered my window, advising me right up front there was a known DNS issue and they were working on it, with no ETA. I said thank you, but wondered in type why they couldn’t have posted something on the web page, or on the phone?

No reply. At all. Nothing – just crickets chirping. I let the window sit open to see if I would get any answer while I was waiting to speak to a rep. Almost 30 minutes later (it’s OK, I was catching up on Plurk, and filtering thru my spam folder. I would have been knitting but the phone knitting was in the other room) Tom answers the phone – cold but scripted greeting. I say hi to Tom and since he didn’t offer it up front, I ask if there is any known issues occurring that would prevent me from accessing my site. (Please keep in mind I KNOW it’s a DNS issue and that the useless chat person has confirmed at least that much). His reply? “Yea, I guess so”. OK Tom, I say, are there any plans to put an up-front message on the phones so people don’t have to wait, or possibly something on your website support page that reflects the problem? His response was to inform me his managers had decided not to do that, followed by a heavily sarcastic “have a nice day” and a click.

The hung up on me.

Now I admit, when you get me going, I can be a call center reps worst nightmare. Tonight though, I really wasn’t. I’m still a little stuffy and my throat is a little raspy, but I’m in a good mood and being particularly mild mannered considering my site is down and I’m waiting in queue for a bit of time. I thought about calling back and complaining, but with such high volume, why waste my time. I’ll do what I should have done quite some time ago – move this domain to where I host everything else. Where I refer all my friends and people I do website work for. Where I have been happily hosted on my other domains for years. The registration renewal and hosting package here for Yea I Knit was a good deal so I gave it a shot but after the display or customer service tonight, they don’t want my business any more than I want to give them my money.

Eventually the site comes back up, and the 1st thing I notice? The feed aggregator I use is down, again, as evidenced by my broken sidebar links. Eventually I will get around to changing them over manually to a list instead of what it is now – reading my Del.icio.us bookmarks for those categories and pulling them into a sidebar listing. Even when it has been working lately, it isn’t working 100% – only displaying 25 feeds, when many of those categories have well more the 25. I Hop on over to their forums and the tech support area has been ignore for weeks on end. These guys bought the service from an AMAZING developer who was active int he forums, took feedback from his users, offered free and fee based services – really he did a tremendous job. These clowns however seem content to run this great offering into the ground. I’ve been looking for a replacement and coming up empty so it looks like a hard coded sidebar it is. When I get time to change it that is. In the meantime, my sidebar will likely be on again off again working.

What happened to customer service? I know many people will point to outsourcing, but even here in the states, providing a customer, paying or otherwise, with a good experience seems to be a thing of the past. I know customers aren’t always right, and I know people can be real jerks, but somewhere along the way many companies just stopped caring about how clients feel about their interactions with them.

I’ve had more bad customer service experiences in the past 6 months than I’ve had in years. It’s not limited to webhosting – telecommunications, furniture, utilities, even a certain popular nameless online yarn/notions/book/etc seller treated me pretty poorly (and not just once, or twice. Three times! I called corporate, I wrote 2 letters – all ignored.)

Once upon a time, I would get all worked up and demand managers and write letters. Now? I’ve learned to step back and access the situation better. I count to 10, remind myself their misery is not my own, and decide if I really want to pursue it further. That decision is based on a few factors, mainly if my issue has been resolved, if it will do me any good to push further, how much I have invested in the business relationship, etc… Most times, I will simply walk away and take my business elsewhere. Sometimes though, I will fight up the company chain, and make sure my voice is heard.

Bored to tears? Well, if you’ve read this far, thanks. Your reward? My Plurkcraft365 pic of the day! A poorly lit partial shot of my desk at work today. It’s dark because we hate the overhead lights, and because I took it with my iPhone. Sorry!

Is there anything else I can help you with? No? OK then, thank you for visiting Yea, I Knit and have a great day!

I was never very good at charades, which is too bad. I could use the skills today, since I have no voice. When I fell asleep last night, I had hopes of waking up this morning and feeling much better. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way.

I know from experience this can go one of two ways, so I’m laying low today and hoping for the better outcome. A day or two of rest and tea and Halls stuff, and with a little luck, it’ll pass quick. If Monday rolls around and my glands are still doing golf call impersonations though, I will be making a trip to the Dr. to avoid the long drawn out full on sick this could turn in to.

Luckily for me, I have plenty to keep me entertained during this self imposed chill out time.

I’m snuggled under my old UFOlympics winner, laptop close by, Halls Breezers to soothe the throat and my choice of Definitely Dead, the One Row Scarf, or of course, Hemlock. I knwo I said last night the Noro was going to become the Silk Delight Scarf, but I just wasn’t feeling the love. I rooted around on Ravelry and came up with this one, and it feels like a better fit. I only knit some last night, and haven’t touched it today – although I may knit a row or three between rounds on Hemlock. Or maybe after increase rounds on Hemlock… of which I only have two left!

I’m also catching up on the new episodes of (a guilty little angsty teen drama pleasure) The Secret Life of the American Teenager since I’m actually all caught up on Podcasts.

If I didn’t feel so crappy, this would be a pretty awesome day. Actually, even in spite of feeling so crappy, it’s still a pretty decent day.

Back to knitting (and maybe some more tea with honey). Happy Saturday.

The year. The blog break(s). Lots of things seem to be whoshing by – but it’s New Years Eve, and somehow, I wouldn’t feel right without at least posting something to close the year out and get ready to start anew.

There won’t be any resolutions here – I don’t do them. Go ahead, check my previous NYE posts! (2007, 2006, and 2005) You’ll see, I just don’t do ‘em.

I spent a little time earlier getting my planner in order. Yes, I’m a techy girl and yes I heart my iPhone dearly, but there is something about the paper and pen (or pencil, depending on my mood) that I can’t completely forsake. There’s something about the neat clean lines, all the possibilities of what those pages can hold. I make no apologies – my Dad did this to me. Stationary stores are a playground to me and I have a closet full of empty notebooks to prove it. There are filled pages there too, mind you, along with many years of prior planner pages, should I ever need to go back and check something. Like tax records, I only keep 7 years prior – there’s only so much room!

Anyway, as I was putting the 2009 pages in place, I realized how long it’s been since I planned my “me” time. It was something I used to do back when I 1st learned to use the planner system, and it was really good for me to have separate time every day to do something for me – even if it was only 10 minutes at a clip, I had blocked out time for nothing but a little ME time. The rule was I could do anything I wanted, but nothing i HAD to do. Sometimes, I would bank the time if the day got away from me and I missed it, but I made it a point to not let it roll more than 3 days. I’ll be adding that recurring appointment back to my routine.

I also have been thinking all day about an email thread between J, G and I earlier today (or was it yesterday – we have group discussions about everything and nothing just about every day. Seriously, those guys rule!) about what 2009 was going to be about for us. G said something about taking the 1st few months of the year taking care of him – he has spent a large amount of time taking care of everyone around him and not focusing on himself, and he plans to be better about that. I understood his point, and I think I feel at least in part kind of the same way, but we’re just planning to attack things a little differently. Largely due to his reference to doing what matters when you still can, I’ve been making some minor adjustments to the road map in my head, and also have set aside some time tomorrow to get the plan out of my head and into the physical realm.

It’s almost 10:30, and I’m moving this rockin’ party (ha!) to the living room, where I will snuggle up on the couch, knit on Hemlock (more on that soon) and see in the New Year with my honey.

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Years Eve, and that the days ahead bring you love and compassion, peace and understanding, and no opportunities for regret.

I’d like to preface this post by saying that this may very well come across as a spoiled brat type of posting. I can accept that, I suppose, but I will challenge it by asking this – since I have only been exposed to mail delivery in one way for many many years, does it really qualify as spoiled to be disappointed in the new (less efficient!) way? I will also say now there will be a picture of my March Rockin’ Socks Club March colorway, so if you don’t want to see it, run away now.

I guess I should explain myself. I grew up on Long Island, in NY. My mail was always delivered to the mailbox that was at the front door – attached to our house. If something didn’t fit in the mailbox, it was left between the screen door and the front door, or a note was left that the package was left with a neighbor, or could be picked up at the post office. (I’m not even discussing the speed at which said mail is delivered – that’s a completely different rant.) When we moved here about 18 months ago, I had my eyes opened to another version of mail delivery – the kind where no matter what size the mail is, it will be shoved by any means necessary into a finite sized box at my curbside. This means if the item is too large and the mailbox doesn’t stay closed, and it’s raining, oh well, looks like everything is getting wet! It also means if you have items that are sent in a hard cardboard protective folder to prevent bending, but the item is jammed into a box with eleventy hundred other things, your “please don’t bend” items are getting bent. I understand the mail carriers here don’t get out of the trucks to deliver the mail, and that is why the mail is curbside. I can’t understand why they think it is ok to cram things in! I can’t tell you how many magazines are destroyed because pages are shred apart. How many of my RSC patterns/pictures have been creased and mutilated – not because the BMFA folks packaged it poorly, but because my mail person(s) have no qualms about bending something that is obviously resisting said bending.

Anyway, in spite of my mail persons best efforts, I received some goodies in the mail yesterday! Once again, my RSC pattern was bent and creased, but my March yarn survived.

I’m not sold so much on the colors (although i think they are prettier in person then shown here, click to see bigger) for me, but I do know someone who would probably love them… The pattern this month is gorgeous though and even if it isn’t in this colorway, I will be knitting up a pair (at least). You’ll have to forgive the lack of image for the pattern, I’m sure you can find it on Ravelry since mine is all crinkly.

I also got some other stuff in the mail that faired better than the pattern did. Thanks to Sheepishone (ravelry link here) I scored some sKnitches Syncopation Self-Striping in the “Serioulsy?” colorway (say that 3 times fast!). I love the description of this yarn – click to see bigger and you’ll see how accurate it is!

blue scrubs, lab coat, Meredith’s grey, anatomy red

It was my 1st purchase from sKNITches, and it was fast, friendly, and won’t be my last! I have NO Idea what pattern I will work this up in, but they will become my Thursday night Grey’s socks no doubt.

Speaking of socks, it seems like forever ago I took a class with Cristi on toe up socks. I learned a lot, but never actually made a grown up pair. (I made a practice pair of baby sized toe ups right after the class to embed what I had learned). I had started a toe in some pretty Trekking, and somehow lost track of it until a few days ago.

I picked them up, knit away on the foot for a bit, and I am almost ready to think about what I might want to do on the leg.

Those increases look pretty severe, but the sock fits so nicely on my foot – weird since my foot shape is nothing like that, but I’m not worrying about it. I just hope I can remember what I did on sock one when the time comes to work on sock two – a problem I wouldn’t have had I used a 2 at a time method. Maybe the next pair…

I’m also still slowly but surely plugging away on Hypotenuse. 2 full repeats down, 14 to go (as of this posting, not as of that picture – it was still shy a few rows of a repeat there)! It’s great TV knitting, and I love the way the alpaca silk feels.

Pi is still in progress, but I have a boo boo to fix (yes, another one. I was cocky and was knitting on it at the Charlotte Purls meeting on Saturday, sitting outside int he gorgeous sunny day chatting with Aimee and Monica (blogless), and I was humbled. I will fix it, just not yet.

There was one other thing besides the bills and a ruined magazine in my mail box yesterday – a set of Pattern Tamers! I’ve been wanting a set of these for awhile, and when Scout got them back in stock, I knew I found the perfect way to spend the balance on my gift certificate – I ordered a set in the rulers ribbon, and I love them! (as an aside, if you click the pic for the full size, you can see the taco salad recipe we use. We substitute ground turkey for the beef, and I use a lot of salsa as a condiment with it, but otherwise, it really is THAT easy.)

My mini vacation days are whooshing by, mainly because I’ve been trying to get some much done (I have to run out in a few to do some more too). Tomorrow we go to the accountant for taxes (joy. We usually do our own thankyouturbotax, but with closing on the house in October and all, we want to make sure we are covering our butts.) and I have one of two plans for dinner (still trying to confirm one so I can either postpone the other or confirm that, if that makes any sense at all) and then Friday – I AM DOING NOTHING. NOTHING!! No really, I am going no where, I am seeing no one. I am sleeping late (for me, 7 is late, but I will take it) No laundry, no errands, no responsibilities AT ALL (except letting the tile guys in to fix the grout that cracked some as the house is settling). I plan to shower only to put new PJs on, and really just be a lump, knitting and catching up on the shows I planned to catch up on already by now.

Because I was reminded I hadn’t posted an update lately on my girl, I thought I would share this pic snapped yesterday morning – complete with evidence of her Carolina clay stained feet. She was following the sun around the house, napping in it most of the day.

She is still having her issues walking, sitting and standing for any real length of time, but she is still as happy and loving as always. We give her Omega supplements, and I bought an entire closeout of her favorite treats (click on agile for details) for hip and joint health (ask Aimee – she was with me when I bought all 18 bags! REALLY. Trinity loves them, they are good for her, and they were being discontinued at the store I bought them from – what would you have done?)

I have to get out and drop off my paperwork to the new job, and a few other errands, and if this headache goes away, I will head down to BAM for knitting tonight (could be my last Wednesday night for a bit so I am going to do my best to be there). Happy Wednesday!

I’m not usually one to gamble, but I am willing to bet how this one is going to pan out. It’s just my luck – the way things go sometimes. But I should probably back up some and explain myself so you can make an educated wager…

I have a friend who has an adorable 4 year old daughter. I’ve been asking for awhile for her size as I have wanted to knit her something, and finally last week, I was given the info. YAY! I perused my pattern books, but nothing was quite hitting me – and then I remembered Wendy’s (of Knit and Tonic) adorable School Spirit Sweater (which truthfully was what made me ask for the young lady’s size to begin with), and the choice was clear. A brief discussion over color, and I am on the hunt for a suitable fiber. While I wanted nice, I didn’t want something that would be a pain to take care of, or that wouldn’t see much wear for fear of damage. When I found something around the right gauge, either the fiber content was wrong (um, pure cashmere for a 4 year old?) or the color choices were WAY off. And then, I remembered [name omited until I know what's what. Let's leave it at they aren't small, and I would say everyone has at least heard of them]. The color was right, the gauge was right and the price was right. So I headed over to the site, and signed in to my account. I realized I hadn’t ordered from them since we moved, and 1st thing I did was change my shipping and billing address. Then, I placed the appropriate yardage into my cart, and I ordered. I even opted for speedier shipping since I wanted to get started soon.

The next day (Monday 1/1/07) I got an email saying my order had been confirmed. OK, they said an hour for confirmation, but no big deal. I sign onto my account to see the order, but it gives me an error, “no such order”. Hrmmmm…. so I wait until Tuesday and called. And they tell me yes, my order is there, and everything is fine. So I wait.

And then today, I get home from work, expecting a delivery. But there’s nothing (except a really cool charm bracelet I will show you tomorrow). So I log on to my account again, and see the order has shipped – click the link for track order, and (you know where this is going, right?) see the words DELIVERED. 1st thought was that a neighbor had the package, but then I scroll and see it had been delivered to my OLD ADDRESS in NY! YESTERDAY! With no signature confirmation. *sigh*

I was going to email them but there is NO Customer Service email links on their site that I could find, and they weren’t open. Guess who I will be calling tomorrow when they open?

I am SO mad. If they think I am paying for the order a second time, or to have it shipped to my correct address, they are crazy. I’ve only ordered from them twice before, and never had to deal with their customer service so I am hoping they do the right thing and make this good, and it doesn’t come down to me having to call Amex and file a dispute. Anyone wanna take a shot at guessing how this will turn out? Maybe I’m just being a pessimist, I just don’t have a good feeling about this at all…

Anyway, I’m up and out early tomorrow for a hair cut and color (both needed DESPERATELY) so all that’s up for tonight is dinner dishes (we just finished eating. I know it’s late. I got home late though) and the remaining rows of my Jan KAL. I’m so looking forward to the downtime, physically and mentally. It’s been a short week day-wise, but a long week regardless. I’m looking forward to a laid back weekend (knitting, and reading! Everything else is optional!)

TGIF!

I have a few items left to complete and all the baby stuff I wanted to finish will be finished.

See? the 2nd set of socks is now complete! And lest anyone think I am recycling old Opal baby sock pictures…

Tada! 2 Opal hats, and 2 pair of Opal socks, (Yes, one set is intentionally bigger… one mommy-to-be is carrying BIG!!!)

I also finished the 1st of 2 bibs from Mason Dixon Knitting in Sugar and Cream

I’m planning one more of those, and 2 of the burp cloths, and the packages will be ready for the mail (and I can think about knitting what I want to knit!)

Scout’s wonderful Think Pink yarn arrived yesterday. I wish I could tell you I had a ton of pictures, but the grey rainy weather is not making for good natural light pictures. The ones I posted the other day
are pretty close, but I did take this close up shot which may help you see how gorgeous this stuff really is (but it still wont convey how SOFT it is!!)

Just 3 days left to donate and enter the contest to win this yummy stuff, or a skein of Sunshine Yarns, or a skein from my stash…. and please consider telling someone else about the contest? With a chance to win some great yarn starting at as little as a dollar, I think it’s your duty as a fiber friend to share the info :winky:

And the Sprint/Nextel nightmare continues… they refused to cancel the order when I called yesterday morning, so I called Fed Ex – several times! Once the package finally showed up in the system (10pm last night!) I had them mark it refused by recipient, so technically, it shouldn’t land here. We’ll see. Either way, the phone will be back at Nextel by Thursday, and on Friday, I will be calling to confirm the contract has been removed and no charges applied. IF (and that’s a mighty big if!!) all goes well, I will be porting my number over the weekend to a new carrier. I see no reason to stay with a company that has given me so much grief! I think I have decided on a phone and a plan with T-Mobile, after hearing some really great things about their customer service and coverage from a few local friends who use them (and have, for at least a year). Still doing some research, but so far, their plan fits my needs, and the phone selection is pretty cool.

Need some tea and it’s (past!) time to get some work done. At least it isn’t raining….

I have two very special angels to tell you about… 1 of them I can name, and the other? If I could, I would, but I don’t know who she (he?) is myself!

1st, we have Dani (yes, THAT Dani) My wonderful friend Dani has donated a skein of her hand dyed goodness in a colorway she is calling “The Cure” to be used as another prize in the contest. Pictures will be posted as soon as I have them, but knowing Dani, it’s going to be another stunning work of art!

My next Angel is a mystery. After my Knitters Tea Swap pal bailed out on me (no judgements, I know stuff happens – I just wish they would have said something rather than disappearing… ) Suzie hooked me up with the most perfect Angel!

Saturday was a very grey day – see?

Since late Friday night, the thunderstorms have been booming and the rain has been pouring down off and on. (Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but when I took this shot, the backyard was starting to flood a little bit.) We had some errands to run, and imagine how nice it was to come home to this:

That’s 2 skeins of Cascade Sassy Stripes in 2 yummy blues (hellllooo Project Spectrum!!), a ball of Fortisima in a colorway that coudln’t have been more perfect if I had picked it myself, 2 kinds of tea (the Strawberry Snapple one was great! I had a cup yesterday right after I took the pictures, and sometime this afternoon I plan to try one from the variety box) Pepperidge Farm Chessman butter cookies, adorable ME page marker stickers, a tin of Knitting Girl apple candies (love these, and they have been so hard to find by me!) and a tiny bear Angel. I love everything in my package, but that little bear? Oh my – I dont think my Tea Angel could possibly have know just how much I would love the Bear Angel, or just how much he would mean to me… but he does. As I explained in my note (sent thru Suzie, since I don’t know who Angel is!) this little bear is very symbolic to me, and will forever hold a very special place in my heart. So thank you again Tea Swap Angel from the bottom of my heart.

And because I’m all about the yarn pr0n, here’s 2 closer shots :winky:

If it weren’t so disgusting outside, and therefore greyish inside, I would have better shots – sorry! You’ll just have to trust me, they are awesome!

Before I forget, in case anyone other than me wants one of those puck window things, they can be found here

And now for the rant portion of this post – feel free to leave now if you don’t wanna read the ranting. I won’t be offended.

Sprint/NEXTEL pissed me off in ways I havent been pissed off in a long long time. I’ve been with Nextel for at least 4 years, and with all the mergers and pricing wars – that’s a long time! My phone is in need of upgrading. It’s not awful but it is starting to show signs of giving up, so I figured before it drops completely, let me get a new phone.

So, I figured out which phone I wanted, figured out which plan I wanted, and we stopped into a Sprint store to buy the phone. Apathetic kid who was so obviously hung over and not at all interested in helping us said he couldn’t sell us the phone because we were on the corporate plan (PARTLY true – our account is several years old, from back when we were both working for a large company that got us a discounted deal. We have NEVER been told we had to go thru the call center before though) Anyway we leave and I call when we get home. I spoke to a very nice rep, & I tell her what phone I want, and which plan I want to change to (our old contract expired last December, and I have been month by month, since the plans available weren’t as good as what I had, and of course my plan was no longer being offered.)

I agree to a ONE YEAR CONTRACT (which I didnt really want to do, but the money off the phone I was buying plus the reduced contract rate on the new plan I wanted made it worth while). She sells me the phone at the 1 year contract rate, not the 2 year contract rate, and says she has to pass me to customer service to change my plan. OK, fine.

NOT fine. I get to customer service, and the 1st words out of the reps mouth were “You do realize you now have a contract that won’t expire until 2008, right?” Uh. no! That is not what I agreed to, and not what the phone discount that was just applied reflects. According to her, ANY change in plans warrant a 2 year contract extension. NO WHERE on the page of plans I was looking at did it say that, and no one mentioned it before now, so I tell her that isn’t acceptable, and I want to cancel the phone I just bought. So what does she do? HANGS UP ON ME!

I called back and went thru the phone loop from hell, and finally get a person who tells me she can;t cancel the order, I have to call Monday morning and if the phone hasnt shipped yet, they will cancel it. NO WAY am I paying to ship it back to them when this is all because THEY didn;t tell me the truth, so I insist on a manager. The manager is worthless and tells me there is nothing he can do, either about cancelling the order or fixing the problem. This is by far one of the WORST customer service exeriences I have EVER had (and it hasnt even been completed yet!). He then has the nerve to tell me the waiver about the 2 years of manditory extension would have been visable if I had signed up online, and I would have had to click to agree to it. So I ask why the rep never told me about it when selling me the phone, and why she had no problem selling me a phone at the one year discount and not the 2 year discount – and he has no answer. I tell him I don’t want apologies, I want him to make it right, and he tells me there is “nothing he is allowed to do”.

I hung up, and immediately called my credit card company and advised them to decline ANY charges from Nextel Sprint to my card unless they hear otherwise from me. I can’t wait to call “Corporate” tomorrow! The whole thing annoys me because I just dont want to sign another contract! I dont mind paying a bit more for the phone… just don’t be deceptive and get mad at me when I catch you at it! I hate that no one cares about quality of service anymore, or at least the big guys don’t, and the little guys can’t afford to compete!

I’m done ranting, I guess. Not worth staying mad over, I know. I’m hoping to get some knitting in today as yesterday was a wash.

And all I wanted was a nice quiet weekend – silly me!