Accepted

Today I found out that the paper I've been working on for what feels like a very long time has been accepted for publication.

I'm happy about that.

I'll Wrestle You!

Have you seen this? It cracks me up!

The Lost Blanket: UPDATE

No, it hasn't been found. It is still lost.

I admit. I was pretty irritated at how many unanswered messages I left with the lost and found office of the hotel. So I sent a complaint email to Guest Relations. In my email I outlined my experience emphasizing my multiple attempts to reach someone about it and my multiple unreturned messages. And I even pointed out that while I'm upset at the loss of my "personal item," I'm more upset about their unresponsiveness.

Last week I got an email response. I'll paraphrase what it says: Sorry you left your stuff. Not our fault. Thanks and have a nice day.

No acknowledgement whatsoever of their shoddy customer service and my many, many attempts to find out if it had been found. I ruminated for awhile and debated with myself whether I should send another email saying "Hey, I left the blanket. My bad. But your service still wasn't good."

Yesterday my colleague told me a little story of hers that pushed me over the edge. About a month ago she took a trip and stayed in a hotel. Within the past week she realized she left a jacket hanging in the closet of her hotel room. She called and left a message. With in 24 hours she received a message from a hotel employee to try to match the description of what she was looking for with what they had found. A day later, because she hadn't returned the call yet, she received another call from the hotel. And she stayed there a month ago! I made my first call on the very day that I checked out. By the way, this colleague of mine told me her story because she was so pleased with the service--I didn't tell her my story until after I heard hers.

So I sent another email thanking Guest Relations for their condolences about my lost blanket, but pointing out that my complaint was about their customer service. I'm interested to see what response I get this time--if any.

I'm a nerd

Need proof? I know my library card number. By heart. 14 digits. 2204602187**** (For security purposes I'm not going to post my whole number here for the whole world to see...afterall, I don't want you running off with library books in my name!)

See. Told you I'm a nerd.

Who knew?

The other night I was doing laundry and I washed a pillowcase that once upon a time had been a victim of a bloody nose. Well, the other night I decided that it was time for the quarter-sized blood-stain to come out or for the pillowcase to go. I actually had very little hope for the pillowcase. It's been washed and dried. I've tried spray and wash-type products on it, and I've tried oxyclean on it. But that stain was set in and wasn't budging.

But the other night I decided to see what the internet could suggest for set in, old blood-stains. There were a number of sites that suggested ammonia and hydrogen peroxide methodologies. And I didn't really think it would work, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Now, I didn't have any ammonia around, but I remembered that After Bite's active ingredient is ammonia. So I dabbed on a little After Bite and then poured on the hydrogen peroxide (yes, I completely disregarded all of those warnings about dilutions and checking for color-fastness, etc that each site with similar techniques had). Lo and behold! The blood stain started bubbling. And that stain? Began fading. I rinsed and repeated. And now there is no stain. (and it turns out the material was color-fast too).

Like magic. Cool, huh?