Most of my future posts will be public posts. To leave a comment here, you can either comment anon, which will be screened until I read the comment, use the openid feature, or you can create a livejournal user name. If you wish to read the occasional locked post, you will need a lj username and friend my journal. Eventually, my archive will be mostly public again and properly tagged.

Also, governmental SNAFU also resolved this morning after I *finally* got through to a person. Everything is right with our world today!

HE GOT THE JOB!!!!

Internet connection at motel has a mind of it's own, I cannot connect right now. Illsmileforyou has contact info.

Homer's big freaking deal interview went awesome! He was recommended for the top level interview on Friday morning. If it goes well, he's hired. If it doesn't go well, he will be scheduled for other interviews in different departments!

Juliet's new school went well today. There were six new students in her class and the rest of the class were just starting their school year with this teacher today. So no one felt like the new kid which was rather cool.

Juliet's school has a uniform policy, which we didn't have to deal with at her previous school. She really hates that the policy is to tuck in shirts. The school district gave us a voucher to buy uniform pieces for Juliet, and now she has three white polo shirts, a skirt, a pair of shorts and a pair of pants.

We went over to Downtown Disney this afternoon and sat outside of the pool area at the Disneyland Hotel. In this one spot, the characters come out of Goofy's Kitchen for their break area. We can wait and wave at a character or two when we sit there. Today we got real lucky though. Mulan was at Goofy's Kitchen and we waited a while for her to attend each table and finally leave for her break. I don't know if I mentioned or not, but Mulan is Serafina's absolute favorite and we spent I don't know how much of a wild goose chase attempting to hunt Mulan down last February. She typically hangs out on Princess Skid Row, and there isn't an exact time to guess when she will be there, it's one of those if you are lucky type things.

Mulan was fabulous and kind to the girls, letting us prattle on about she is Sera's favorite. Serafina was the happy dance girl for the rest of the evening!

It took a lot of work and effort, but we managed to get our belongings into storage. Major furniture that was broken and needing to be replaced was given the proper furniture funeral.

On the 31st, we were finishing removing our belongings and hit the road. The funny thing is when I was packing clothes for this move, not all of them fit into suitcases or a box. My pants in particular were the items I was really concerned with not making it into the van. "This stack has to go in the van." "Don't forget my pants." "I won't have anything but undies to wear if you forget MY PANTS."

As the van was packed up tight with stuff, one box didn't make the trip and went into storage. The following morning as we were getting dressed for the day, Homer asks where *his* pants were. Um... well... let me look. Eeep. Sorry Homer, your pants were in that box you didn't want to take in the van. You have nothing but undies and suit pants to wear. HAHA! I was such a harpy about my pants.

The nice part of this move is the general mood of our family has changed for the better. While each thing we are doing down here would have been done up there, each step is sort of energy and emotionally draining. If we were still up there, I'm sure our rebound back into action each day would be much more difficult. Here our funk lasts maybe an hour or two and then we are back to enjoying the move and different scenary.

Homer is invited to interview at his preferred location to work, and is going to go attempt to do that today. Cross your fingers!

I took the weekend off from the moving drama and just enjoyed time with family. Saturday, I spent with my Dad at the Japanese Bazaar eating some good food and playing games with the girls. Sunday was Serafina's fourth birthday and she is happily a four year old, no more three. We also went back to the bazaar for more food, and Homer was excited because he won a bottle of Sake from the food wheel for a quarter.

I think it's easy to get mucked down in the drama llama of moving, but I think our time of being happy here is done. The homeowner association, the foreclosure people taking pictures of our home when they think no one is looking is uncomfortable and exposing. I don't know how celebrities do it when it comes to paparazzi; just the few photos I've caught people taking feels so unnerving.

Anyway my point is, is that for too long we have been white knuckling our circumstances attempting to hold on to what we have here hoping for some change in circumstances to bring it all under control. But what if we pack everything up, stick it in storage and look at where we want to be. I'd rather be moving on our own actions towards the place we want to be, instead of holding on hoping we get there eventually but no real actions towards that place.

So for that I'm rather grateful for the recent drama llama scare.

I left off with my drama llama with Tiger Direct. They ended up canceling the order through google cart, and it took almost a week for the credit card hold to release the funds to reorder. I did reorder the part, but not through the google cart option. Three days later the part arrived and our beloved desktop computer has new life! Basically everyone in the house is battling it out over who gets a turn at the "monitor" which Juliet has nicknamed this computer.

In other news, I have been super quiet because we have had some serious stress with our living arrangements. It turned very ugly, and thankfully we have been shown some mercy so we have until the end of the month to move.

This weekend is the Japanese Bazaar, which our family loves to go to.

Sunday is Serafina's fourth birthday. Our desktop computer has a photo slideshow screensaver, and pictures of Juliet at the same age are so close in look that Serafina is getting confused.

Athena is a walking machine now! She also has some serious shopping tendencies, demanding to be put down to try on shoes whenever she sees that section. Homer fears for his wallet in the future.

Read this link about how crappy Google Checkout was when she ordered a pan.
http://plainjanemom.com/2007/04/06/why-google-checkout-really-really-sucks-heed-my-warning-learn-from-my-bad-experience/

I ordered a video card from Tigerdirect.com on Sunday approximately at noon, using their google checkout cart. Immediately after submitting payment, google checkout issued an email stating that the order had been placed and that tigerdirect had been contacted with the order; it was pending shipment. My visa gift card had that amount taken off the available balance.

Today I attempted to check the status of the order through tigerdirect's website and none of the options made sense. I had a google order number, but not one from tigerdirect. Tigerdirect also had no record of my email address. So I called them, and that's when I find out they have no record of my order. No record of it being declined. No record of it at all. I was told that I had to contact google.

I followed up with tigerdirect by using the contact seller email link through google checkout's status page, attempting to see if that record could trigger something on tigerdirect's end of seeing that it was an actual transaction.
*************
Hello TigerDirect.com,

Laurel E. has sent you the following message:

Status request for order #noneofyourbusiness:
Where is this order for part number Z700-5202
***************
I call tigerdirect back up to see if they received the email and was informed it was a different department that takes up to 78 hours to reply. They also didn't see how this could be of any help, continuing to blame google.

If you go to google's help pages it makes it clear that all of the transaction processes lay squarely on the fault of the seller. The seller can cancel it, the seller can access it. So I asked, why they couldn't log into their google account and search for this transaction number. The guy for tiger direct tried to tell me they have no such feature and no such account, that I'm the only one with a google account. I asked if other purchases by other customers using google checkout have been processed lately or has it dropped off. The guy said he didn't see how that was relevant. =oP Again I was told to contact google so they could cancel the transaction.

I contact google checkout using their one and only contact form which requests mediation.
********************
to google checkout mediation form:

Tiger Direct claims that this order never was processed through their system and they have no record of this order. They claim they cannot look it up to see if it exists, despite the fact that it exists on my end. They claim I need to cancel the transaction through the portal despite the fact that I am not allowed such actions.

I want my part that I ordered, and I do not wish to continue with such nonsense.
**************************

I also contacted tigerdirect through the google checkout contact form again:
****************
Hello TigerDirect.com,

Laurel E has sent you the following message:

Question regarding order #noneofyourbusiness:
I have just gotten off the phone with your company. I do not understand how there is no possible way for you to check on your end through google checkout what transactions and orders have processed through. I understand that stuff happens and notification to you as a vendor doesn't happen, but there has to be some sort of list like I have on this end of transactions and order history for you as a vendor.
*****************

Tigerdirect replies to the first email:
Thank you for contacting us concerning your order.

However, at this time we have no record of the order you placed through Google's CheckOut portal. We do recommend logging into your Google account and canceling the order, and re-ordering the items once again.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
***********************

THERE IS NO CANCEL THIS ORDER FEATURE.

So I reply to tigerdirect:
Hello TigerDirect.com,

Laurel E has sent you the following message:

Cancellation request for order #noneofyourbusiness:
Unfortunately because you don't have my order to cancel it, it cannot be canceled. This google checkout order has become a nightmare. There is no option from my end to cancel this order and google checkout help suggests that this is something that only you can do.
***********************

Tigerdirect replies to the email before suggesting that there should be a way to look up through google checkout on their end:

Thank you for your e-mail.

We appreciate you making us aware of this issue. Your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate department for review.

We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
*************************

Tigerdirect replies to the cancellation request:

We apologize for the inconvenience.

This order does not exist in our system. It may have been rejected in our system due to a glitch that may have caused it not to generate in our database. Please feel free to replace the order or call 1-800-800-8300 for further assistance.
****************************

I reply to tigerdirect about replacing the order:

Laurel E has sent you the following message:

Question regarding order #noneofyourbusiness:
All I wanted to do was replace the video card for our non-working desktop computer so that my husband could resume job hunting properly. I bought a pre-paid visa card for the amount needed, and google has charged that amount to the card. IF I could just simply reorder the part, I would. But now because of your suggestions of having to cancel the order, or to have google refund the money to the card, what should have taken a week or two tops to receive this part is now going to take what seems like forever. Who knows when google is going to review the request I placed for clarification and mediation? And even if they do cancel the request and put the money back, that takes time too. What looks like a simple 40 dollar order was supposed to be a miracle for our computer status in this household. I am so disappointed, you all have no idea. Calling your phone number didn't help the last three attempts, why would it help now?
***********************************

This is when I googled to see if anyone else has suffered a similar glitch and found the above blog. All I could do was wait and see what google was going to reply. If you clicked the link above, I presume you remember the automated response google gave?

Google checkout mediation replies to my cry for help:

Hello Laurel,

Thank you for your email. Your inquiry about Google Order #noneofyourbusiness
has been escalated to us for mediation. I've verified your order details
and can see that your order was sent to seller for processing on July 19.
Please note that seller is the one who charges, processes and ships the
order.

We have contacted Tigerdirect.com on your behalf to request that they
respond to your inquiry. You should hear from Tigerdirect.com or from us
within five business days.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate
your patience while we work with the seller. As you may know, you can
check the status of your order any time at
https://checkout.google.com/view/receipt?t=noneofyourbusiness

Sincerely,

Taylor
The Google Checkout Team
******************************

I'm becoming the lady ordering the pan!!! ACK!

Tigerdirect just replied to my last email concerning reordering the part:

Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for contacting us.

We do apologize for the inconvenience, but we did not fully understand your concern. Moreover, we have no record of the order you placed through Google's CheckOut portal. We do recommend logging into your Google account and canceling the order. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

We at TigerDirect appreciate your business. If you have further inquiries and reply to this email, please make sure to include your entire message, so we can address it appropriately.
*********************************

Seriously? "Dear Valued Customer?" when the email you are replying to plainly states my name and what I've tried to order? WTFBBQ!

Also, tiger direct attempted to suggest that if I wait long enough the hold charge would be lifted or expire and I could just reorder then. But oh no, I've learned enough from that blog post above, the likelyhood of that is nil.

edit to add
http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/merchant-discussion-shopping-advice/135307-warning-shoping-online-tigerdirect-com.html

********************

Edit to add again:

I contacted TigerDirect's corporate office and asked to speak with whomever deals with correcting orders that have gone terribly terribly wrong. That person took my information and placed me on hold. When she came back on the line, she informed me she was contacting their person who is responsible for the google application on their site, and would contact me again once she receives an answer of what could be done. I know feel like I have been acknowledged by tiger direct.

but they can all suck my nose at this point. =oP

I attempted yesterday to order a replacement video card for our desktop computer in attempt to resurrect it back to life. The website had google as a payment option, and I did it and received a receipt of the order. Google even authorized the card for the amount of the charge.

And the company who is supposed to ship the card has no record from google of the transaction. The order number that google gives for this purpose is useless to this company. Their suggestion is to cancel the order, except I have no option to do so.

Wankage.

The movie Up! was fabulous. Doug the dog is our Yoda, well except Yoda isn't trained very well and has the energy of a constant tornado. But everything else about the dog is our dog. The girls now want a talking collar for Yoda.

The bird was inspired by a bird from our local zoo. It was cool seeing the little mention of the Sacramento Zoo in the credits.

Also, my mom will be pleased to know that as much fun of her as I made when I when I was Juliet's age about her crying like a sap at movies or television, I've now become that lady. I think that the lovely moments are even more heart jerking than Jessie getting left in Toy Story 2.

I'd love to go back and watch it in 3D, but I probably won't get the opportunity. (Serafina was freaked out by the idea of glasses, and the movie started way later past bedtime.)

In a completely unrelated subject, Juliet wants to know why Dora the Explorer is oblivious to the fact that she shouldn't be so nosy looking in other people's Christmas presents. In fact, the more Juliet thinks back to the other episodes, she thinks Dora sort of tramples over her friends and expects to be loved as awesome and that's just rude.

My pink eye is mostly gone, but the feverish, wiped out, chills followed by hot sweats that Serafina had is now invaded me. She didn't need to share!

Health status of the family since Saturday:

Homer - has an infected tooth, is on penicillin and vicodin now

MagicPointeShoe - pink eye

Juliet - healthy but suffering from a severe case of stir crazy from boredom

Serafina - has had a blocked sinus cavity since late Friday night, but it finally cleared today. watching her face swell up on one side, plus puking, plus a constant fever was overwhelming considering the above.

Athena - healthy

In non health related news, we have been blessed by kind friends with some new to us furniture. Homer's friend delivered to us a nice dining room table with four chairs. Combined with our two thrift store dining room chairs, we actually have a dining set to have dinner around. Our dining room is also finally free of moving boxes!

Also, Homer's mom's friend's friend was getting rid of her leatherette couch and chair. So in our family room we now have a more comfy arrangement. I especially like the chair for nursing the baby in.

And in non-health related news and non-furniture related news, our baby is almost ONE YEARS OLD! Egads, when did that happen?

Freedom! Homer is stuck under two sleeping little sisters while I Walk in peace and quiet to go get Juliet.

Last night, it was pretty much understood that the amount of time discussing the bill would be practically bare basics and each side would only have two speakers who would be given 2 minutes a piece. So I didn't prepare myself as well as I had originally planned with what my main statement would be if given the chance to speak.

I arrived at just before noon and joined the CalOpen people in waiting for the hearing to begin. Much silliness and lollery was to be had as we waited with no real notification that the hearing had been postponed. Once underway almost two hours late, they still didn't have enough members to form a quarum, by the time this bill was presented we were still two members short. The bill was presented and there was a good number of CARE members in attendance to give their approval, a good handful allowed to have their say, and a good handful only asked to state their name and approval. When the opposing voices got our time, our two designated speakers got to have their say, and the rest of us stood on the side prepared to follow the same "state your name and disapproval" but instead a good portion of us got to have our say. I went first out of the group of us standing on the side. I stated how I was a birthmother and that my son was 13 years old now. He knew he was adopted but nothing really of the family of where he comes from. His original birth certificate was open for anyone to obtain for 16 months after he was born. The 180 days required to finalize the adoption plus an additional 10 months for the amended certificate and sealing to happen. Anyone could have gotten the birth certificate during that time, and his family has that birth certificate in a box that he doesn't know exists. He will have to beg for his original birth certificate. It's his, not mine.

Or at least that is what I remember saying. By the end of speaking I was -->this<-- close to tears. I did my best.

After the statements, the committee asked some questions to Assemblywoman Ma, asking about clarification of dead birthparents and contacting efforts. I do not know if it passed or not.

I got to speak and have my say!

I've read the analysis for the amendment a few times now, and I'm convinced by the wording that either a staff member of the author or someone championing the bill wrote the analysis for the judiciary committee.

There are some rather conflicting ideas now that I've had an evening to gather my thoughts. For example, the whole thing hinges on the right of privacy for biological parents. But, that being said, if an adoptee has a health issue that is immediate and urgent to be necessary to have the original birth certificate released, there is no mention of the biological parents being notified that the birth certificate is released. Violation of that supposed privacy is okay because of a noble cause, but not enough to notify those that are affected.

Not that I'm all whoo hoo, notify us if that record is released... because I'm not.

The other thing that really bothers me is that the analysis is twisting existing policies as to be representative of protections in place for me, when in actuality were put into place to protect my son's parents. To say that a mutual consent registry is an implication of privacy is bullhockey. I can tell you this from my own experience and from many that have also walked in the same path I have, the one thing that was told to us in the pre-adoption counseling is how once we relinquish our rights to our child, that's it, the child is not ours. Legally we have no ties to our child. Legally our child has no ties to us. It is severed, and there is nothing that can change that fact. I was reminded that our children are curious and will someday seek us out if they want, while the courts seal the records, many adoptees figure out how to get the information they need. I could save my son that hassle by signing the mutual consent registry, and keeping the address current. But regardless, if he was going to seek me out, there really wasn't much to stop him.

So, I went on my way from that meeting knowing the one thing for absolutely certain, once the papers were signed, I would have no legal rights pertaining to my son's life. And yet, according to this proposed law, suddenly I have a right. A right that no other regular parent has over their child's birth certificate. BIZARRE.

I googled as many different ideas as I could after I was reading the amended assembly bill. In order of those initial thoughts and not by order of any importance:

1. Where is my son's privacy? One of the key components to this "compromise" is that apparently my privacy matters. I would have the opportunity to stop identifying information from being released on the birth certificate, but where his privacy to go get this document without having to involve his relatives either adoptive or biological. What a freaking mind f*ck to everyone involved. I have a couple of thoughts on this, one of which is more related to another point, but one directly involved with this asking permission concept. Could you imagine being in my shoes? Out of nowhere a letter comes stating that my son is asking for this document and thus wondering in some part or another about his biological roots to this world. I would be a deer in the headlights wondering if it was only the piece of paper he wanted or if it would be leading to more contact. The rush of emotion of that idea has currently overwhelmed me and it's with no real practical concept of the mind f*ckery of reunion actually is.

2. Timeline of when the original birth certificate is available. Particularly within infant newborn adoption, the original birth certificate is viewable for a minimum of 180 days after birth, but with an additional admittance by the Department of Public Health, it takes an additional 10 months to process an amended birth certificate and seal the original. That is 16 months approximately that anyone and everyone can obtain that original birth certificate. This amount of time is dismissed in the analysis of the bill on pages 8 and 9.

3. The only birthparents who are promised privacy are those who use that awful safe haven now labeled safely surrendered baby law. Those parents are not listed at all on the original birth certificate, and thus creates a whole other heap of questions for the logistics for this proposed law.

4. The age of 25, which I can only speculate as being some sort of throw back to that adults are now not really adults until after they are no longer claimed as dependent student children by the federal government. On a personal note, I worry that if this legislation moves forward that crappy age will become somehow the standard for the mutual consent registry program that the state also handles which is also being used in the analysis as another supposed promise of privacy.

That's my thoughts for a moment. I'm sure I'll be back with more in a few.

I know I've been away for a while. My internets are back, and I have a new topic going round and round in my head right now. Assemblywoman Ma introduced AB 372 in California, and now that is less than a day from being heard by the Judicial committee, the bill has already been compromised. It suggests that adult adoptees (over the age of 25) can request a copy of their original birth certificate and get it if the birthparents are contacted and don't protest the release. That is the bare basics of what is going on, and in order to get my mind fluent and wrapped properly around what is being proposed and what I shall say in opposition to this bill, I'm going to prattle on a bit in my journal. Agree, disagree or poke me with questions, it's all good. The drama llama is invited to come out for these posts.

The King of Siam works as a waiter in Santa Maria at Denny's. If only he said 'etc... Etc... Etc...'