Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

This is so damned good. Riffing off a recipe from Houston’s restaurant:

Couscous:
1 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup couscous
1/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped radishes
1/4 cup chopped green onion
couple springs chopped parsley
6 cherry tomatoes, chopped in eighths
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts

Dressing:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic-minced
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
salt to taste

Boil 1 cup chicken broth with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add 3/4 cup couscous and remove from heat, covered. After 5 minutes fluff with a fork. Add carrots, parsley, radish, green onion, peanuts, tomatoes, and golden raisins. Toss with dressing.

Even better the next day when the flavors mingle.

Things that will make me stop eating hummus:

5) When the dog pukes on the couch and I have to clean it up. What remarkably similar substances.

Ordered new recliners yesterday, woo!

Today, when I went to class, I sat down in my seat and pulled out my notebook and put it on the desk in front of me. Looked down. Realized it was a My Little Pony coloring book.

The kids have been in my backpack, apparently.

Hub said I should have offered the explanation, “Graduate work.” There were crayons in there, too.

My neighbors just cut my favorite tree down. It turned the most amazing colors in the fall. It had just started to lose its deep green.

You’d never guess who they hired to do it. Too bad that flyer campaign works.

It’s been a while since we found a recluse in the house. I went to wash out my glass in the kitchen sink and got a rude awakening.

Living with a puppy is a little like living with a low-grade zombie, only instead of wanting to gnaw on your brains, he’s not particular about what body part he chews.

Campfire wins gold and bronze at the Mixx awards

The bronze in Digital Video was for the campaign I worked on – The Battle Over Promicin. You can see the case study here. (I wrote that pro-Promicin ad script, woo!)

Congratulations to Campfire Media for the wins.

Ozarka Water home delivery sucks.

I’d been a customer of theirs for a few years. I would go to PayMyWater.com to pay my balance when I got a new bill via email. Last October, the credit card that I was using to pay online expired. I received no notice from Ozarka. I got no error messages when I attempted to pay online. I thought everything was fine at first. Then I started getting bigger bills, so I tried to pay those online too. Looked fine. Thought it was cool.

Until I got a letter from a collection agency.

I contacted Ozarka and asked them what the hell, man? They said I had a $450 or so balance. Um. Apparently they thought I had defaulted because my payments weren’t going through and charged me for the cooler. I asked them about the credit card information I had on file with them and it was only then that I was informed that it was expired. That was in the spring. I paid my bill with Ozarka via a good credit card sometime around May, updated my information online, and thought all was right with the world.

Until I started getting calls from the collection agency.

Ozarka has apparently never bothered to tell them that 1) there was a foul-up on their end, or 2) the account is paid in full. I’ve been calling Ozarka repeatedly to ask them to clear this up, they keep saying they’ll handle it, and they never do. Now I’ve got this listed on my Experian credit report.

I just talked to Helena over at Ozarka today. Keep in mind that the last 3 times I spoke with Ozarka, they told me they would take care of the problem. Helena doesn’t like to let people talk. Helena has a yen to interrupt. Helena said that they may take care of it and that what I said was untrue. She claimed they sent out letters when credit cards expire, even though none of the other many reps I’ve spoken with there have said any such thing. Helena said that it’s okay for collection agencies to be rude, because they’re collection agencies. She said that if they can’t send me a letter, they will send me a letter. I am confused. Also, Helena claimed that since I cancelled my Ozarka account, they’re not required to deal with me anymore, and that her talking to me was a “courtesy.”

So I will return the courtesy and discuss this situation online.