The backpack, I love it. It’s mah baybay. But somehow one of the straps is ripped at the seam. One of the zipper pulls comes off, too, because the zipper can’t hold on to it, but that’s been a non-issue. So I asked Amazon about warranty and they said send it back for a refund. This one is going to cost me a few dollars, though, because the price has gone up a bit for the same one and I’m paying for 1 day shipping (prime). But it’s worth it to me and I get to ship the old one back free and I’ll put it in the box the new one ships in.

Another replacement from within the last few months has been my laptop. My old one was acting really funny and getting so hot it almost burned me. Of course, after I ordered a new one, it started behaving! I’ve redone it for a friend now and it’s waiting to go live with her. This replacement is, of course, costing me, however, I saved about $350 by buying Dell certified refurbished, as compared to a brand new one with the same specs. Oh well, I really did need more power, the way I run this ship around here.

Had to get the Jeep’s tires replaced… Twice. This cost more than the laptop and it was only 3 tires! I had to go in a second time because the first time they screwed up and put the wrong ones on!!

Finally… I have replaced cavities in my teeth with fillings. This has been the least fun! But costs less than the laptop, haha. I think I’m actually coming out pretty good after insurance and my additional 20% family discount, as my sister-in-law is a hygenist there. I’m a baby, though, which is part of the reason I had… Drum roll, please… 10 of these done. Yes, that’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, TEN. I sound bad, but I have been to the dentist, until now, only once in the last 11 years. That is what happens when you are afraid and don’t have insurance for a long time. I knew in 2008 that I had 4, but had that miscarriage 2 days before getting them done, so I canceled it and never went back because of how things went after that. I do have to say though, that from a cleaning standpoint, my sis said my teeth were not nearly as bad as she’d expected. Nine of the cavities were between teeth, in the back. Because I’m a big scaredy cat, they gave me Xanax and did them all at once. He said I should have no pain at all… Ha!!!

I was sore right away, but 2 days later, me and both kids were diagnosed with ear infections and were started on antibiotics. I was having horrible pain. I thought it was my ears, then I thought teeth, ears, teeth, ears, teeth… I’ve been taking way too much ibuprofen. Finally, evidence that the antibiotics weren’t duds… Today I went back to the dentist, 9 days after having them done and he saw the problem right away. He said I had a high spot on one, I don’t pretend to really understand it, but apparently that causes lots of problems. He drilled or shaved or whatevered it off there… Not. Fun. But it was quick so I survived. Felt like I had a big hole there for a while though. He says he’ll be very surprised if this doesn’t solve it and gave me Vicodin for the meantime. But he didn’t want to give me the steroids for the nerve while I’m on antibiotics. So, if in 2 weeks from Friday, it still hurts, I’m to call for those. I felt so much better this afternoon. Not sure if that’s just the Vicodin talking or what, but I hope this is the end. It’s been a miserable 9 days so far!!

Looking at DHL’s webpage, by their own description of their services, I should have had my camera in my hands Thursday the 22nd, Friday at latest.

So what I want to know is why did the tracking say for Saturday through Thursday that the camera was sitting in a sorting facility in Fresno, CA? Friday morning, the tracking finally changed to say it was in Wilmington, OH, another sorting facility. So… my camera went from Nevada to California where it sat for several days before overshooting me by over 400 miles and sitting in Ohio for a couple of days?

Today is Saturday the 24th. According to tracking info, my camera is still in Ohio.

My memory card, on the other hand, was not shipped until the 19th, Monday and it arrived Thursday the 22nd; the same as my 115.7 lbs of candle supplies that came from Pennsylvania, the memory card came from New York. They were both shipped via UPS. UPS has really good tracking, I always know when exactly I’m going to get my packages from them.

So this does not make sense to me why my camera is taking so long with DHL. I got the shipping that told me three to five business days. Well, that was Friday at the latest. I got that shipping instead of the tree shipping for a reason, I wanted the camera soooooooner. I’m quite disappointed as I was really wanting to have the camera before my special outing tomorrow (Sunday).

So I emailed Amazon and complained. I told them I understand that DHL’s stupidity is not their fault, but I paid for three to five day shipping. I didn’t say much, just expressed my unhappiness. Amazon did not reply, but when I went to check on the order this morning, they had issued me a refund for shipping charges. That’s great, but I’m still unhappy with DHL.

I have emailed DHL twice. Once was Monday or Tuesday. I was having problems with the tracking number I’d been issued and it kept returning errors. So I emailed for help. They still have not answered. Turns out, however, that I was trying to track it on their global site, dhl.com when I should have been using dhl-usa.com, because I found out yesterday that it works there. How nice of their global website to inform me that they had a USA website and that I should be looking there. I don’t even remember how I found it. So then yesterday when I emailed Amazon, I emailed DHL’s USA offices complaining about shipping times and asking why my package was still in Ohio. No response.

Well, they’ve lost all my respect. Of course it’s not like I used them a lot anyway. I think I’ve only gotten another shipment or two, I know my iPod came that way. Well, either way, I will not be using their services in the future. And should my camera not arrive on Monday… they’ll be getting a phone call from me. Of course, you all will know as soon as I get the camera… :)

ADDENDUM: I had completely forgotten about this, but DHL is also the carrier that lost (thankfully temporarily) loads of personal information of customers of our mortgage company: spoken-for.org/archives/2005/12/21/1342/.

I shouldn’t have because somewhere the money has dwindled in between us being us and paying bills. So I really don’t have all my Christmas money anymore. Plus I am too impatient to wait for two weeks to find out if S was approved for the Amazon credit card to save another $30. So I just went with it.

I got this one: Fujifilm A340 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom & Finepix CP-FXA10 Cradle.

I’ve never bought anything that large from Amazon before, only two books on two separate orders. But I bought it from there for a few reasons:
1. It was marked down from $249.95 to $176.45
2. I don’t have to pay shipping
3. I get a free 32 MB storage card
4. I used my Amazon Associate’s link, so I will in turn get a cut back. Not sure how much that would be, though.

I went with this camera even though it was more expensive than the others I was looking at because it is on the higher range, still has a pretty good rating, and comes with the cradle for transferring to the pc and charging batteries. I figure rechargeable batteries will save me a lot in the long run. And hopefully the digital camera period will save me a lot on film and developing. Now I will probably only use the 35mm for special occassions, the girls’ school photos, and anything else where I know that people are going to want lots of prints.

Yeah so in the long run I am really just adding to the credit card bill, but this is my Christmas present from Steve and my parents. He won’t be too happy when he finds out I spent more than we were talking about though. ;-)

Hopefully I’ll start selling some more candles though now that all the relatives have found out about them and then maybe I can bring some of this bill down. K for one, still owes me for 10 candles, that would be $50 if I were charging her full price… but I’m not, so it will be more like $20 probably – or whatever she says. I have transferred most of the balance from my card to one that we have together that we haven’t used in a long time, but it’s got a lower APR. And it’s got an introductory on on the transfer I did. There is still some left that I have to transfer that I wasn’t aware of when I did the first one.

Okay anyway… I am excited that I am finally getting a decent digital camera!!! :cheer: