I'm impressed

Alibris: I owe you an apology. I received an email this morning from a named customer service rep, telling me that I didn't need to return the book they wrongly sent me. She suggested that if I didn't want it, I should pass it on to a friend or donate it to a library. Fast, efficient, thoughtful service -- outstanding!

A dilemma

I receive two packages from Alibris. One contains the book I ordered. The other contains an art book that someone in Australia ordered but that Alibris decided to ship to me instead.

Being a good global citizen, I head over to the Web site to check out what I should do. Hmm. It's easy enough to return books that YOU ordered and that YOU don't want; it's less obvious how you print out a return slip for a book that you didn't order and don't want.

Let's see, Contact Us -- that should do it. The only phone number is a US one -- not that they tell you that, of course. Right, an automated email form. They want an order number -- let's use the one from the Australian order. And off it goes, into the ether.

I am somewhat skeptical that I will ever receive a (helpful) response. Oh well, looks like I'll be able to learn to read Chinese paintings, should the mood take me.

We hear voices in the allotment

"Can we go home now please, Dad?"

There is no reply. The rain continues to pour down.

Does my Shin look fat in this?

No, no she doesn't.* And you know why? Because she's lost more than half a kilo in weight! We took the girls to the vet this morning for their checkup and vaccination booster, and she had come down from 4.3 kg in February to 3.7 now. This is great news, although it means we won't qualify for Sky's highly educational "Fat Pets, Fat Owners" show. Damn.


*Well, maybe a little.

My blog post worked!

It's raining! It's pouring! We were woken from our sleep by the torrential deluge outside! The water butts are full, the gutters overflowing, the street outside is a river of mud, and the cats are soggy. Hurrah!






Now, about the lottery tomorrow night ...

Three reasons why hot weather is hateful

1. You have to water your garden every evening or watch your newly grassed patches of lawn and dianthus go brown and die.

2. The twice-weekly runs become even harder and sweatier.

3. Your neighbours start having meat-laden BBQs -- and the chicken wings and sausages smell SO good!

Will these blue skies and this oppressive sunshine never end?

(I have a feeling I wrote a post about hating hot weather before, but with 950 posts to go through, I couldn't be bothered searching for it. Apologies if anyone feels like they've been ripped off.)

It is a truth universally acknowledged ...

That if a blogger isn't writing posts, she's probably doing something more interesting with her life. Such as reading "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", picked up on a recent visit to Forbidden Planet. Elizabeth Bennet is a Shaolin-trained master of the dark arts, battling the zombie hordes that surround Meryton. Can she find true happiness with Mr Darcy, who's been instructed in the finest dojos of Kyoto or will she succumb to one of Lady Catherine de Burgh's crack squad of ninjas during her practice at Rosings Park? It's gripping stuff, and certainly brings out an ultraviolent subtext that I wasn't aware of in Jane Austen's first (and better-known) draft.

Fine holiday reading fun!