Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Introducing Dotty Owl

I'm a little cranky right now. I think I mentioned before that I had a lady who sold me an item on ebay. The auction listed the shipping price as being $4.00 - I paid the full item amount, and then the $4 for shipping. The item arrived $5.80 postage due. So I contacted the seller last Friday. Didn't hear back from her. Contacted her again yesterday. Didn't hear back from her. Contacted her today via email and sent her a copy of both the post office receipt and a photo of the package, showing the postage that I had to purchase. She finally emailed me back today and said that she will reimburse me for HALF of the $5.80 because the postage is the responsibility of the buyer. I am about 10 seconds from flipping out. I know that it isn't a ton of money, but it is the principal of the matter. Now I am faced with deciding if I want to argue with her and press for the full amount, or take the half amount and be done. Either way, without the full amount, I can't leave the seller positive feedback.

After hashing it out here, I sent the seller the following email: "The auction clearly stated the shipping cost was $4.00, which I paid via paypal on top of the winning bid amount. I am sorry if you underestimated your shipping costs, but clearly stating the shipping cost is the responsibility of the SELLER. The buyer can not possibly know that the seller will underestimate the shipping cost and then be held responsible for that amount. I paid what was asked of me.

If you had sent it in a priority flat rate box, the shipping would have been $4.95, but instead you chose to send it first class. I appreciate the offer for half of the shipping, because that is better than none, however if I don't receive the full $5.80 then I will have to leave negative feedback explaining the shipping issues. Thanks for getting back to me, please let me know what you decide."

Can you guess what will happen? I will keep you posted. I just hope I don't get retaliation feedback. That's the worst. It's illegal, and 99% of the time you can have eBay remove that, but still, it's a threat. Am I insane for thinking that the seller owes me the $5.80?

Well, today was a good day. But I didn't get done as much as I wanted to. Or should I say as much as other people wanted me to. I did get on the phone to Singer after trying three more times to get the Serger to work. They told me that I had "traumatized" the serger in some way and that the timing was off. They categorized "traumatizing" as breaking a needle, or jamming the machine, etc. Well, I probably did enough of that while learning to sew with the damn thing. Of course trauma caused by a person like myself is not covered under warranty. The warranty is only 90 days anyway. Argh. Imagine a 90 day warranty on a $200 item. Of course. That's the way everything is these days. Of course I have a 2 year electronic warranty. So they tell me the nearest "authorized repair" center is in Chicago. (yeah, Bite me. I'm driving 2 hours to have a serger looked at when it could cost half the cost of the machine itself to have the timing reset.) and I informed them that I have a local repair shop who repairs my regular machine. I do however hold my tongue and refrain from telling them that the local repair shop won't sell Singer anymore because they say all the new Singer machines are plastic and junk. Maybe I should have, Ha ha. So anyway, the Serger has been packed up and tomorrow I deliver it to the repairman and he will get me an estimate to see what the costs till be. Cross your fingers. So amidst that, I did get the sewing room setup again after the great thaw, and Ardyn played while I sorted things out.

I got my fabric for the boppy cover washed, and sorted out the pattern. I pre-washed my rabbit skin shirt that I had planned on using to make Ardyn's "Big sister" shirt. I am so pissed because I followed all the instructions to a perfect T. And the "Plaid" Iron on didn't work. That's about $8 down the tube, for the shirt that is now ruined and the iron on that didn't take. I ended up ironing the damn thing for like 5 minutes, because no matter how much I ironed, the letters wouldn't all transfer. It seriously made me angry because I could have easily made my own iron on on the computer and printed it on the paper that I ALREADY HAVE and it would have worked WAY better than that damn iron on. I will have to go give them some feedback. It's not even wearable it's so bad. Argh.
Dotty Owl Pillow
I laid out mamma pads that I need to finish. I sewed the last two holes in Dotty Owl. I made that owl "pillow" for Ardyn MONTHS ago. Like probably 7-8 months ago. And then I had the holes where I inserted the stuffing, that needed sewn shut by hand. I despise sewing shut holes by hand. Hence why I enjoy a serger. So I put it aside to finish later, and later didn't come until today. LOL. Ardyn does seem to love the owl, and giggled and "hooted" at her when she sat at the foot of the toddler bed to watch Ardyn fall asleep tonight. the coolest thing about Dotty was that she was made entirely of things that I already had in the sewing room.... with the exception of a $3 pillow insert. I thought it would be easier and firmer than stuffing her with batting. And it gave me a size to go by when I cut her out.
Dotty Owl Pillow

I got about 5 loads of laundry done, including diapers. Ardyn is on day 3 of unexplained diarhhea. Poor kid. It started on Monday morning with a screaming wakeup call. When I went back to get her she said "Mommy. Poopy! Owwwwie!" and I knew right away that she had somehow gotten something with dairy. Sure enough, her but was raw raw red and almost bleeding already. The dark tarry poo was the signature dairy side effect. I started immediately coating her with Desitin, which helps the most, and this means disposables also, which I detest, but I am not about to ruin good cloth diapers with a rash cream. Of course instead of just having a day or just one single instance of bad poo, it transitioned into unexpected diarhhea and hasn't gotten much better. I don't know if it's a result of the dairy or if it's something ELSE she picked up at daycare. I am letting it run it's course. She is still eating and drinking well (although on monday she wasn't feeling great and not eating much) and she doesn't seem to be dehydrated at all. But if this keeps up, she won't be able to spend her day at daycare this week because they won't take a kid with diarhhea. Ack. So she's been in a strong rotation of disposables and Desitin since Monday. I can't believe the cost of diapers. It's insane. I hate using them because all I see is money that could be well spent on cloth diapers that don't stink and won't clog up landfills. Oh well.

So tonight I got to wash and stain treat a load of diapers in which about every other one was poopy, and that was no fun. I have started stain treating with Vinegar and water that I keep in a spray bottle. This time I also added vinegar to the cold prewash cycle, just for good measure. It's interesting to me that I can spend a ton of $$ on Bac-Out, and use it full strength on the diapers with no results, but cheap-ass vinegar diluted 50% with water takes the stains right out, and leaves diapers fluffy like a fabric softener. The only downside, is that I HATE the smell of Vinegar. The smell of Vinegar, even diluted about halfway, is way worse than poopy diapers. And I know my poopy diapers. I will be glad when spring comes and I can use the sun to take out stains, and when I can open the window in the laundry room for some ventilation and get the vinegar smell out. I don't like mopping with vinegar either, because it smells terrible until it dries. But vinegar is a cheap, powerful, and green cleaner.... so I will deal with the smell.

Today we also had two of three balanced meals. I was going for three, but we are seriously running out of food. For breakfast I had Rice Chex with Skim Milk and a banana, and 15-grain wheat toast with strawberry jam. Ardyn had a banana and rice milk, and 15-grain toast with jam also. For lunch we had spaghetti and garlic bread, and I had slices of mozarella cheese and skim milk while Ardyn had apple slices and apple juice. For supper we ended up with Ramen Noodles for mom and Roasted Chicken Rice for Ardyn, because there wasn't much else. I did also get the dishwasher unloaded, reloaded, and ran tonight. Now if SOMEONE would just clean the fridge! Where is Kate when you need her?

Speaking of Ardyn, sounds like she just fell out of bed for the first time ever. She didn't cry. Just made a couple of peeps. Now I am wondering if she crawled back in or just kept sleeping on the floor? Wish I had the damn video monitor. Then I would know if I should be putting her back in bed or leaving her the hell alone. In the daytime I can see her through the keyhole, but at night, that's a no go.... Well, I opened the door to peek, and it looks like she just bonked her head on the wall. She's famous for that too. No wonder it was just a peep.

It's interesting to me because at daycare the other day, they said "Ardyn said Puppy and identified him in a picture!" and I wanted to be all excited but I said "yes, she knows all her animals, and their sounds, and she can say their names and identify them in pictures." Strange. It's actually interesting, because she now initiates the animal game herself. She will say an animal, and then the animal's sound, and then she will say "Ummmm..." which is her way of mimicing mommy- who can't remember enough animals at one time to keep her occupied. So I have a habit of saying "Ummmm..." when I am trying to think of the next animal. So now between each animal, she says "Ummmm...." and looks at me and waits. She knows all the basics, Dog, Cat, Cow, Goat, Sheep, Pig, Horse, Pony, Bird, Chicken, Duck, Frog, Monkey, Owl, Snake, Mouse.... and now she can identify and say Alligator, Zebra, Hippo, and Giraffe, although I don't know what sounds to tell her for all those animals!

Last week she surprised me by counting to 8. She surprised all of us. Liz was counting coasters with her (ardyn called them cookies) and When She handed them to Ardyn, Ardyn counted them up to 8, all by herself. My sister said "When did she learn to count to 8!?" and I said "Um, right now?" We always count to ten, but she had only been counting along with me till 3. Well, apparently the little monkey picked up on it but kept it a secret. Evan and I both thought it was pretty cool that she was 16 months olf and counting to 8. Good Girl!

Well, that's enough for now, it's almost 12:30 and today is giong to be busier than yesterday. To the two people I was supposed to call today, I apologize. I didn't remember to call one of you until I was laying down for a nap, and then it was too late, and the other I didn't remember till after 10pm, also too late.

2 comments:

Amanda Towne said...

Love the owl pillow--great job, Meagan!

Isn't it fun when the kids start learning things & being able to tell you things? I was just watching video of my son (now 12) showing me a cow & saying "moo" and fun stuff like that. The time goes by fast!

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on the ebay shipping $....if she said $4, that's what you should have to pay is $4. I believe ebays new rule is that sellers CANT leave negative feedback for a buyer who paid like they were supposed to so if you leave her negative, she can't think you negative..I believe.

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