Tag Archives: Travel

Photo-A-Day

Colorful Reflections

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Colorful Reflections
Photo-A-Day #1291

I drove to Oswego, New York today. That was after I had two doctor appointments. 1st was my usual 3 month check on my diabetes progress. I have to lose weight and exercise more. I think that with my new work schedule I can get to the gym in the morning and still have time with the family at night. The other appointment was an EMG to test the nerves in my legs and feet. I’ve had one of these before when I had my ulnar nerve moved in my left arm. I still have a wicked scar from that operation (18 staples around my elbow). Having the nerve conduction test that time was so painful that one shock at the end made me cry. The shock went from my neck to my pinky and was very, very painful. The shocks today were more and anticipation of pain than actual pain. The problem was I had had the tests before and I felt like a lab rat trying to avoid pain but who could not. There is a little beep before each shock and I was getting all tense before each beep. Not that fun.

And I got a Flu Shot too. Right now I feel like someone punched me in my left arm, repeatedly.

After that I drove from home to Oswego, New York. The drive was beautiful across Western, MA up through Albany and then up through Syracuse. There were many things to see but as it was it took me over 7 hours to make the drive so I didn’t get out and stop to take photos. When I got to my hotel I looked across the river (The hotel is right on the river) and saw the lights from a bar across the way making great reflections on the water so I played around with my manual settings, set the camera around my neck and then on to the railing and started shooting and adjusting my settings. I think it came out pretty good overall.

Don’t forget to get your Ultimate Fry Sauce Recipes in, I’ve got 7 entries so far and there is still time, you’ve got 10 days to get them in.

Photo-A-Day

A Peaceful Spot

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A Peaceful Spot
Photo-A-Day #1289

I drive by this peaceful spot each morning that I go to the Framingham building. I always look over at it and want to stop and take a picture. Tonight Allison had me come and pick her up at her parent’s friends house. Their house is also something I pass each day on my way to work. Instead of picking them up we stayed for dinner so I am glad I stopped and got today’s photo when I did.

Preparations were in full swing today for Eva’s birthday party tomorrow. I went with our friend Mike to BJs and pick up the cake, some more soda, and very special ice cream for the party. I also made a change to the pizza order and checked on the cost of that set it for delivery instead of pick up and will have them deliver later so that people can arrive.

I got my letter for the credit card company written and hopefully in plain English they can see that being charged twice for the same meal, one month apart is grounds for a legitimate dispute. That was such a weird situation and I knew, I just knew that things would go afoul because of it.

This happened July 29 when I was in London. I went to lunch with a co-worker to a place called Baker Street Food Station that is across the street from Madam Tussads. We went through the line and got to the register and the credit card machine was not working. They were working on getting it fixed with the credit card company. We already had our trays filled with food and so we sat down and ate and waited to see of the credit card machine would be fixed. By the time we were done it was not fixed so I left them with my credit card information so they could bill me when the meal was over. Stupid, I know, but there was nothing else I could have done at this point.

I didn’t even know how much they were charging me either. Later that night we went to dinner near the restaurant so I ran over to get my receipt. It was on the middle of the roll so they couldn’t give it to me but the manager showed it to me. He even commented on how honest I was for coming back and checking on everything. I took a photo of the receipt with my camera.

Receipt

I wasn’t billed for this until my September statement. That’s fine I was billed the proper amount. Then I get my October statement and see that I was billed again. That was when I went to the credit card company. I explained everything above and disputed the charge. The other day I get a letter from the credit card company plus a letter from the Baker Street Food Station that the Baker Street Food station is strongly rejecting my chargeback. They explained exactly what happened that day and even put a P.S. to remind me of which restaurant they were. So therefore I needed to write my side of the story that they charged me twice. I can’t understand why the credit card company left out that detail. Sheesh.

You might also notice that I changed my comments so that they are no longer outsourced by coComment. The comments are integrated with coComment and I still like the service and recommend it to anyone who wants to track all of their conversations across the web. I also recommend signing up with retaggr (It integrates with coComment and is on my left hand sidebar.) I noticed a marked decrease in comments and I think it was because of the disappearance of commentluv and the comment e-mail responder and the ability to leave your name, e-mail and blog address. Well, it is back up and running that way so please comment away. Any credit card horror stories to share?

Also don’t forget that the Ultimate Fry Sauce Recipe Contest is in full swing. I have a bunch of great recipes already and want more.

I worked on each blog today including not one but two top secret ones. I know, I’m stretching myself thin again. The two secret ones are completely under construction and one will go online the 1st of the year. That one will be a year long experiment. The other will be revealed soon. I also put a favicon back up for the blogs. It had been missing ever since favatar disappeared.

Check out Read To Me, Dad for a cute little Eva video and some money saving tips.