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Today was “take care of it” day. Rescheduled the LEEP procedure that I canceled last week because we were on our evacuation vacation. Called Samsung…AGAIN…about our TV. Finally called the manufacturer of my computer about the Blue Screen Of Death I get when I try to sign on to AOL. I hate it when my technology is screwed up.

I have gotten very comfortable with Firefox these days since I have just not wanted to deal with calling the computer manufacturer about the BSOD. I’m glad I finally did call even though they basically said “It’s not our fault, it’s AOL’s”. So I just “chatted” with an AOL LiveHelp person and he told me what I could do to fix it. I’m not holding my breath. I hate to be pessimistic but I tried uninstalling and reinstalling AOL today and it just screwed things up worse. But, I’ll give it a try. Or not. Maybe I’ll save $10 a month and just keep my free email addy. I’ll have to see how lazy, I mean, how I feel about AOL in the morning.

Apparently Samsung is magic. I called them today and tried to talk with someone in Executive Customer Relations because the last time I talked with them on the 16th, the guy said he would call me no matter what the outcome of the conversation he had with the Regional Service Engineer. Uh, he didn’t call. Surprise! I made it pretty darned clear that I refused to sit on hold for 45 minutes to get with ECR because the last time I called them, the process took 1 hour and 15 minutes. They regular customer service guy told me that there was nothing he could do for me in terms of getting me to an Executive Customer Relations person faster but did say that his notes mentioned that the part that was indefinitely back ordered is now available. Magic! So I hung up and called my TV repair guy. Wonder of all wonders, he actually answered the flippin’ phone! He was as incredulous as I and said that he’d call them to ask why he doesn’t yet have the part since he ordered it eons ago. I can’t even begin to get my hopes up that I might actually have my TV back by the holidays. I know that I would just have those hopes dashed on the rocks that are Samsung Customer Service. I have never been so frustrated with a company in my life. And I will say it again: DO NOT BUY A SAMSUNG TV EVER. I mean it. Just say “no” to Samsung. Oh crap! I forgot to talk to Executive Customer Relations about them covering all of the cost, not just the parts. Oh well…I have time. Who knows when the part will actually get to my repair guy. A battle for another day.

And then there’s the LEEP procedure. I am NOT looking forward to that. I wasn’t looking forward to it when my female GYN suggested it as a possibility far in the future after several abnormal test results. I wasn’t looking forward to it when my new female GYN that took the place of my old GYN who was on maternity leave recommended it after my last biopsy. And I’m really, really not looking forward to it now that it has been rescheduled with yet another GYN who is male because my new/old female GYN is now going on maternity leave as well. Yes, maybe I’m being a bit weird about it but I just don’t like having a male gynecologist. It’s uncomfortable enough hangin’ out with your feet in stirrups when a woman is staring at your “girl parts” and snipping stuff out of there. I’ve heard of sedation dentistry…do you think they have “sedation gynecology”? Probably not. Am I being prudish?

I’m on a roll. And not a good one. I’m back on the sugar and it’s bad this time. Add to it that I’m not going outside to go for walks or runs since the air quality is not good and you’ve got a Rapidly Expanding Mommy. Not good, especially since the holidays are right around the corner. Who can resist the holiday goodies? The sad thing is, I can’t really remember the last time I had a good, honest-to-goodness, sweat-drenching workout. It’s been about three weeks since I’ve been to Pilates because of illness and cancellation due to fires but that class doesn’t make me sweat that much. It challenges my muscles, for sure, but sweat? Not so much. Aaaaaaargh! I need to run!

*Heavy Sigh* Tomorrow starts my sugar detox.

Either that, or I really need to go surfing. Evidence: while watching “Surf’s Up” (animated penguin surf movie), I welled up when he got a barrel at the end.

It is The Daddy’s Birthday Weekend, however, so I am putting off my desire to surf until next weekend to let him relax and do what he wants…

We’re home. It’s nice to be home. It’s nice to have a home to come home to. When I see/hear the number of people who lost their homes due to the fires in our county, I am astounded. I am grateful to see a patio to clean ash off of rather than the lack of a back yard that I saw before. I am grateful to see a ginormous master bedroom rather than the astronomical homeowner’s association dues that I saw before. Okay, that one still gets to me a little bit but you get the idea. I have my home and I am still surrounded by my stuff. Some people lost all of their stuff.

Having to evacuate does give me a different eye with which to look at my “stuff”, however. For all the “decluttering” I do, I still tend to hold on to things “just in case”. Would it be so bad if I had to buy some more the next time I needed it? Just because it could come in handy doesn’t mean that I should keep it. I think one reason that I struggle with that is because going from two good incomes to one good one for me to stay home with The Tater Tot has been a bit of an adjustment. I often feel like I shouldn’t give something away and then buy more when I need it in order to save money. Of course I’m not talking about essential stuff we use regularly. I’m talking about those sewing/crafting/scrapbooking/office/misc supplies that tend to hog up all the closet space in the homes of us creative/organizationally-interested-but-often-challenged types. Or the books that suck up every available book-related surface (and some non-book-related spaces as well). Or the clothes that I wasn’t quite ruthless enough about getting rid of during my last closet purge. I know that de-cluttering my home is an ongoing process and will never be “finished” by definition because everybody periodically gets new stuff. And I feel like I’m getting better about letting go. But I’ve still got a ways to go.

That’s why, when Harper-Collins sent me the list of available books to review, I jumped on “Downsizing Your Home With Style”. Already, just having read a part of the introduction, I have hope. She hopes to tackle the emotional part of downsizing your home as well as the practical and style-related part. I am all over that! Although it’s written for people going from a larger home to a smaller (sometimes much smaller) home, I am looking at it as an aid to downsizing in my current home. Making it a place that is easier to maintain. What Mommy wouldn’t like that?! Hopefully I’ll get through this one faster than “The Bilingual Edge” that I finished a couple of weeks ago. I’ll let you guys know what I thought of that one in the next couple of days (preview: very reader-friendly!)

Off again we go to Gammaw and Gampaw’s house! This time as a part of advisory evacuations due to the wild fires in San Diego county, unfortunately. We got a precautionary evacuation phone call about 5:30 am Monday because of a small fire that had broken out just east of us and decided to watch and wait. The Daddy sent us off about 11 am because of poor air quality and to avoid the inevitable traffic if there were mandatory evacuations. So we packed up our stuff and headed on up the road to better air quality. The Daddy was going to stay behind to see what happened because we didn’t know how bad it would turn out and whether schools would be open the next day. It turns out that he followed us a couple of hours later. The schools closed for the week and our area remained a voluntary evacuation area for a couple of days. So we have had a nice couple of days with Gammaw and Gampaw. No hardship here! I’m grateful that we had a place to go. I see all of the families that ended up at Qualcomm stadium and think how stressful it must be for them. We have a bed to sleep in and 24 hour connection to multiple news outlets. I can’t imagine sitting there waiting for news and wondering whether our house was okay. Not to mention the logistics of keeping track of multiple little ones in a place that big! And how do you sleep in a situation like that? My heart goes out to everyone there. It’s overwhelming to think about how many people are displaced right now, not only in San Diego county but in all of Southern California.

I have to say that I was so grateful for that automated phone call Monday morning. As nervewracking as it was to get that call, it gave us time to think through all of the stuff that we might need to take with us. Things that I forgot about, The Daddy remembered. As I looked around, I realized that, as much of a pain as it would be to replace the “stuff”, it was almost all replaceable. Anything that I really wanted to save would fit in my car or The Daddy’s truck with room to spare. I can’t imagine, though, getting that “reverse 911″ phone call that says “Get out now!” with little or no warning. I know that I wouldn’t be able to think straight.

I know that the implications of this much destruction are beyond me right now. I know that I have absolutely no comprehension of what it will take to recover from this. I am just grateful that the weather and conditions have improved so that they could contain the fires that are left. I am grateful that it looks like things are on the downhill slide and that much of the county is out of danger.

We’re probably going to head back today which means I have to get creative about ways to tire The Tot out for nap time and bed time again since it’s not great for The Tot to be out in the smoky air… Indoor obstacle course anyone?

So Tater Tot and I were at the “liba-leeby” yesterday and had not realized that it was Story Time at that particular time. What a scene! Lots and lots of kids and Mommas running around. It was interesting. We didn’t go to the story time, however, because The Tot had coughed a couple of times and I didn’t want the Evil Eye from other Mommies. So we stayed out of the kids section once it started to get crowded. It’s all the same to The Tot. She’d just as well run all over between the stacks. On our travels through the stacks and back again, I noticed a Mommy in particular wearing, of all things, super-high heels. She was attractive and not dressed like a hoochie but the heels just struck me as, well, weird. And not particularly practical day-to-day wear for the Mommy of a toddler. But, hey, if it makes her feel better, more power to her! I know I couldn’t pull it off…

On a totally unrelated note, I decided to call my TV repair guy again since I hadn’t talked to them in about a month. Yeah, it’s like that. I still don’t have my TV back. And are you surprised that he didn’t call me back? Of course you aren’t. I wasn’t. So I decided to call Samsung customer service, too, just for kicks! They were supposed to call me about whether or not they would reimburse part of the repair. I spoke to yet another very polite customer service agent. And, guess what? They have changed their answer to the part is backordered indefinitely. Yup, you read that right. They don’t know when the part that will repair my TV will be able to be shipped. THE TV IS ONLY A YEAR AND A HALF OLD! I will reiterate this Mommy Tip: DO NOT BUY A SAMSUNG TV. EVER. He was able to tell me that they approved the reimbursement of the repair parts. And I told him “Great! I’ll take it. But, honestly, I want more. My TV has been held hostage for 3 months and now you’re telling me that you don’t know when the part that will repair it will be available. I am an extremely unsatisfied customer.”

So where does that leave me? The customer service agent (and I remembered to get his name this time) has a call in to their Regional Service Engineer or some such person about an alternate part (I don’t think there is one…the part that is indefinitely backordered is an “alternate part”) or a possible exchange. Okay, now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. GIVE ME A NEW TV. Not that I want another Samsung but, hey, at this point I’ll take it because they owe me. This has been the single most ridiculous customer service/product situation that I have ever dealt with. Worse than the Lowe’s Flooring Fiasco of 2006. But I won’t get into that in this post…it’s just too painful. So, sucker that I am, I believe that he will call me back when he hears from this Regional Person. If he doesn’t, you can bet your booty that I’ll be calling again…

The Tot and I are getting better. Still a few “blechy bloogies” hanging around but we’re both feeling better. And by that I mean that I’m feeling better. Tater Tot is never slowed down by illness. I swear the kid is the Energizer Bunny! Anyway, I’ve got a bit of fatigue but no more congestion so we’re getting back to normal. Unfortunately that’s about all that I have the energy to write today. But I’ll be back at it soon…

The Tater Tot and I have “blechy bloogies” right now. Technically, it’s “blechy boogies” but The Tot gets a little hung up and puts an extra “l” in there. No matter. It still means that we’re sick as dogs.

We’ve been on a whirlwind playdate tour the past two weeks, at least for us, so it was bound to happen sooner or later. Seriously, we’ve been on more playdates the past two weeks than we had been the past three months. And we’ve had fun. But now we’re resting. Or at least The Mommy is trying to rest. Tell that to The Tot. She is largely unaffected by her illness. The Mommy, however, is another story alltogether. I haven’t been sick since before I was pregnant with The Tot. I don’t like it. Luckily it’s the weekend and The Daddy will be home from surfing soon and ready to take over. Thank God for that man.

Get quality Halloween costumes at a discount on Kazootoys.com with code: COS5.

If you’re still not sure what your Tot is going to be for Halloween like This Mommy, go check out the link above to Kazoo Toys to see their selection of Halloween and dress up costumes! As for me and The Tot, we’re back to the drawing board. So far we’ve gone through the ladybug costume and a fairy costume with no luck. Her exact response to the fairy costume was “OFF!”. Hmmm….okay, maybe she’ll be a toddler for Halloween.

During a Diaper Dance at our house today:

Tater Tot: Sockies OFF!

The Mommy: Okay, sockies are OFF!

Tater Tot: Feeties OFF!

Mommy: You can’t take your feeties off can you? Hmmmm…Let’s try! Nope! Can’t take the feeties off.

Tater Tot: Leggies OFF!

The Mommy: Well, let’s see. Can we take your leggies off? (Pull, pull, pull). Nope, can’t take the leggies off either.

Tater Tot: Mommy OFF!

The Mommy: Hey, you can’t take The Mommy off. You’re stuck with me, Kiddo!

Tater Tot: Mommy mouf OFF!

The Mommy: Wait a minute!

Smart aleck kid. I wonder where she gets that from…