Just thought I would post some "action shots" of me in my new Consumerist Shirt I got at the Consumer Reports Annual Meeting. Sorry for their horrible quality. Click the picts for larger versions.

@GitEmSteveDave_IsStrongInTheSnark: These pics are much better blown up.. I could barely see the actual shirt on Mr. Touchie.

I hope they will be selling these (or donation required, whatever) in a Kimaroo size.

@GitEmSteveDave_IsStrongInTheSnark: U R teh winnarrrrr!!!1!11!one!!!

I love the pictures!

Wheeeeee it's Friiiiiidayyyyyyyy! Not much excitement, although my best friend is actually gonna be in the state this weekend (she went to school in VA, got engaged, and never back back to CT), with her fiance, and they may be staying at my place tonight. Then I think I have a Frisky Dingo-watching fest tomorrow night. Yippee!

Okay, I have a question I have to propose to all of you. I think that the cleaning people have been watering down the liquid soap and the dish soap in the office kitchen. I used the liquid hand soap today and it was the consistency of water, not of the gel that most liquid soap comes as. The bottle of dish soap is the same way. I understand if it's a way around replacing the bottle all the time, but does this make the soap less effective in cleaning?

Also, I think it's weird that the dish soap bottle says "grapefruit scent" when the liquid is blue, so I'm wondering whether they just keep replacing the soap in the bottle instead of putting out a new bottle.

Theories?

@GitEmSteveDave_IsStrongInTheSnark: You ruined the entire page! I hope you're happy!!!

@TinkishDelight: Sorry! I was going to shave a Monster Logo on Dummy, but while he'll let me hold him like that, he runs when the clipper start up.

@pecan 3.14159265: Many cleaners deactivate upon contact with organic material, so I can see how it *might* be less effective...then again, being less viscous could enable it to cover a greater surface area that might otherwise not be reached. My bet is that it's slightly less effective at killing germs but this is a call for office science experiments if there ever was one!

Theory on blue grapefruits: they probably buy the liquid in bulk, so it's cheaper than buying it by the bottle and they just refill.

@katstermonster: And - you're here at OT. Yay for this Friday!

@subtlefrog: Yay indeeeeed! It was horrible, sitting there, watching the comments pile up, and being unable to login. Gah. But it's all better now. :)

@pecan 3.14159265: lucky you, i buy the dishsoap for my office myself. and actually, i buy it by the half gallon at sams and refill the little bottle at work.
it shouldn't be that much less effective. i guess the main thing is how much watered down is it and does it work as well as before?

@pecan 3.14159265: We bought in bulk and just refilled when I worked in an office, but I was the only one bothered enough by the label not matching the contents to peel it off.

Why, no, that's not neurotic at all. Really.

HAPPY MOLE DAY, CONSUMERISTS!
[www.moleday.org]
Yes, we celebrated at the office. Mmmm mole-asses cookies.

So it turns out I have acute bronchitis. I'm currently saddened that my $.67 of Bactrim is preventing me from sticking to my normal beer drinking schedule. I did inadvertently discover that it feels really, really nice when the alcohol in your Nyquil interacts with your antibiotics though. Whoops. Now Kris won't stop laughing about my robotripping.

I'm up for a promotion at work that I'm really nervous about. There's no reason for me to *not* get it, and I've been given encouraging words from my boss and my boss' boss...but still. I don't want to get too confident and jinx myself. At least I'll be off the Bactrim by the time I find out so I can drink out of happiness/sadness, whatever's most fitting.

I got my KitchenAid Mixer (as some of you know). Here's what amazes me.

A couple months ago, I bought ~$20 worth of semi-perishable food, shipped with cold packs, and got second-day ship, UPS. Company does NOT require shipping. UPS refused to leave it without signature, and then proceeded to leave the signature thing in a different place every day, so my food rotted, over a weekend. Company took care, but UPS, grand suckage.

This week, I buy a $250 mixer, and FedEx leaves it on my doorstep. No signature, nothing. Just a gentle knock on my door. It wasn't even repackaged, so it was clear what it was.

Two different companies, I know, but wow, some different priorities.

WOOOOOOO!!!

First of all.. Even though I love kitties, I have to admit that puppy is cute, with it's giant eyes.

Also, I am VERY annoyed/agitated/anxious without being able to recieve my Consumerist comment response emails. Bunedoggle seems to be broken, and it's driving me nuts.

I have no real plans this weekend so far. I'm thinkin I will be spending time redoing my website, but I don't know if I will actually do it or not. I like to procrastinate, but 4 years seems like a bit much. I also would like to get Windows 7, but I'll have to see if my .edu has been set up yet. 30 dollars is entirely resonable.

@pecan 3.14159265: There apparently is a blue grapefruit dish soap:

But to be fair, that's grapefruit and mint.

More likely, though, it was at one time grapefruit scented, but now they just buy soap in bulk and refill the bottle.

@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Not that you will know I responded, but I'm annoyed at this too.

And yeah - puppeh is adorable.

@katstermonster: I love Frisky Dingo. The last three episodes of the first season are some of my favorites.

@subtlefrog: Eww! That sucks, both on the food rotting and your mixer being left out in the cold. If that mixer had disappeared I would have come out to help seek vengeance.

@h3llc4t has a slow work day: I really want this t-shirt from mental floss:

This week's photo is to accommodate the puppy fans in our audience. Including me.

@pecan 3.14159265: Ugh.. I hate it when people water down the soap. It usually squirts me instead of my hands and gets my shirt wet and slightly soapy.

I would imagine it would take more "watered down soap" to clean something to make up for being less soap in the mix.

I wouldn't be worried about watery soap, but I would be very annoyed by it.

I finally put a picture up on my profile, and of course saw that someone else was using the same one. Haven't been able to get it to let me change it now, guess that's the way the day's going to continue to go!

Yay Friday! Going to a haunted house with my sister and son tonight, even though it's started to rain (sigh) should still be fun!

@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Yeah, I can't stop looking at that puppy's giant eyes.

@subtlefrog: Congrats on getting it. I really wish I had the money to spend on one, but I'll leave the mixer envy in last week's thread.

@h3llc4t has a slow work day: I hope you feel better soon. I love Nyquil..

And good luck with that promotion!

@pecan 3.14159265: I think watering down the soap is okay - most of the germ killing happens through scrubbing, soap just helps loosen the dirt and grime. What I really hate are the soap dispensers that pump out soap "pre-foamed". It feels like I don't even get any soap on my hands.

@subtlefrog: Congrats on the mixer! You'll LOVE it. It's a pain to clean though. Do you have a pasta attachment? I want to get one of those so I can make my own pasta for ravioli.

I think the mixer problem could be blamed on the shipper, not UPS. Yes, they were sucky for leaving it on your door, not knocking hard enough or anything...but it wouldn't have been nearly as problematic if the shipper had put the mixer box in another box to conceal its contents.

Apple's computers all ship in their own branded boxes that are then placed inside plain, brown, unlabeled boxes. You wouldn't even know where it came from unless you read the label.

@subtlefrog: You never know when they are going to try to hunt you down for a signature and when they aren't. I can't predict it myself.

I'm glad you got your mixer! Did you mix anything yet? I have the sneeky suspicion (Maybe not so sneeky, really) that you are a vegan, so I can't suggest things like "Make whipped cream! It's amazing!" or "Try beating some egg whites, you'll think it's really cool!"

Good thing that you were home to get it though. And I'm guessing that since he ran away you didn't get a pic of the Fedex guy.

@katstermonster: Did you practice your "OMG Your ring!" reactions?

GWAR last week was amazing. They played all of my faves off of their new album ([www.amazon.com]) and they played my favorite song of theirs (Immortal Corruptor). I'm contemplating going to the Fort Wayne, IN show since that's the closest they'll be again before their tour is over. They plan on having at least another album out within the next six months, plus a 25th anniversary edition set of some kind. I'm totally geeked.

This weekend I'm just going to be catching up on games since I just finished beating Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 on Legendary. Need to start Halo: OTSD and pick up Brütal Legend at some point. I'm also going to a sandhill crane sanctuary tomorrow with the family; it's their migration time so we should see tons of them.

yay for emergency root canal earlier in the week [and painkillers,] now just waiting for the temporary crown on wednesday coming up.

my sister just realized that she invited all my friends to her hallowe'en party but forgot to send the me evite, hehe.

got a delightful message at work about how next year the company wants to offer us more opportunities for cost sharing on our medical/dental/vision [i just BET they do!]
but hey, i'm still insured and employed so i'm not going to argue.

BCBS has admitted that they should have paid for the sensors for my continuous glucose monitor in june but won't way whether they are going to fix this little problem now - the pharmacy has been fighting to be able to order them so i can use the benefit the [incorrect] way BCBS wrote the policy and the manufacturer won't let them order the sensors!
so now it's on to a specialty SPECIALTY pharmacy [i already use a specialty pharmacy, apparently this is one is even more special] who may be able to order it, then ship it to my pharmacy, who then ships it to me....

yeah, the cost to BCBS goes up each time it goes through a middleman and my copay doesn't change. BCBS not rewriting the medical policy correctly is going to probably cost them about $300 a month, if not more

no word from the lawn bully since i put up a no trespassing sign! thanks for the words of support and suggestions last week

and the little black and white kitten has a permanent home, although he doubled in size the last couple of weeks.
and the cat mentioned in the open thread last week got adopted within 48 hours of that mention [abby] so now i am going to mention more rescue kities who need a home and hope that my cat adoption luck will hold

cider and rascal would like to be adopted together:

@katia802: i tried to change mine 2 days ago, from the consumerist site.
it updated on all other gawker blogs, but not consumerist.
ben mentioned something about email address deadline being last sunday (iirc), so i'm thinking that consumer's union has (intentionally?) broken some connection with gawker.

@GitEmSteveDave_IsStrongInTheSnark:Is it safe to assume no animals were hurt in the production of these photo?

@Laura Northrup: puppy!

@katia802: As soon as I can find a bad-ass X, that will be my pic. I thinkin about the X-files one...

@pecan 3.14159265: OOoo.. attachments. I don't have any special attatchments even though I've had my mixer since 2003. I have been trying to be good since I have limited kitchen space.

I usually put everything in the dishwasher after I'm done mixing, so it's easy for me to clean it. Except for that blasted wisk attachment, can't dishwasher that thing, so I clean it as soon as I'm done with it.

What color is YOUR mixer? (My new favorite question)

Aww, look at the cute poochie! Between a passive-agressive pitcherman and a hyperactive pitbull, my weekend will be fun!

@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Hahahaha. Now I really want to beat some egg whites just to see them whip around the bowl.

Subtlefrog could always make bread. That's vegan, right?

@catastrophegirl: Awww look at the pirate baby! I hope you are able to find wonderful homes for them. I wish we weren't already at maximum cat capacity.

@bloggerX: I'll keep an eye out for one for you, maybe i'll get lucky.

@squinko: I hope that you atleast thought about Spinjas once.. for me.

this is a direct repost from my rant against verizon yesterday:

So, we've had Verizon for 5 years now.
We have 5 lines, plus my dad has a business cell on a separate account.

Our neighborhood has horrendous Verizon reception. WE're trying to cut back, and considering ditching the landline, but we can't do this without cell reception at home.
Last week, we called verizon to complain, and they told us they'd send a tech out to our area.
Today, we called them back, and the response was "we didn't have any problems. that area should be covered. nothing we can do." Now, it's not that i live in some small city, i live in Charlotte, North Carolina, a city of close to 700,000 residents.

this is turning a little rant-y, so, let me recap my frustrations...
1. we pay verizon for cell service
2. we do not get cell service at home
3. verizon says that there is a great signal "in your area", and are unwilling to do anything about it.

Anyone had luck getting discounts from verizon due to poor home signal? I'd be willing to stick with them if they either pay for a Femtocell, or give me a monthly discount equal to the cost of a local landline.

[We asked our neighbors what they did, many of them either have verizon and landline, or switched to ATT.]

@catastrophegirl:

Uggggh, root canal! I hate dentists... sorry you have to go through that.

What happened to Cider's eye? For Halloween he/she needs to be a pirate. Someone get that cat an eye patch!

@catastrophegirl: Awwww.. they are pretty.

Sucks about the root canal, but woo painkillers! Lol.

Sounds like you won your lawn wars, so good for you! And also very good that you won against BCBS too, those guys are a major PITA!

@h3llc4t has a slow work day: I'd be down for that.

I'm actually wondering if this would enable bacterial growth. They're introducing air and god knows what else every time you open the bottle to pour in more solution especially if they've already started cleaning elsewhere. The water would separate from the mixture and act as a breeding ground. Even if there was soap still in the separated water, soap only acts as a binding agent. It wouldn't actually kill the germs. I would imagine it would have to go undisturbed for a while, but if it's a typical office the 12+ hours of overnight time could be all it needs.

Regardless, my interest is piqued!

@catastrophegirl: If i didn't already have 3 kittys and a doggie at home, i'd jump on the chance! My kids take up so much of my time, any more in the household would involve all of them not getting the attention and care they deserve :+( I have to keep a good sharp hold on myself, never go to the shelters, or i'd be a pet hoarder for sure! Can't stand to see any animal, specially cats without a loving home.

@katia802: Thanks!

@gStein_has joined the star bandwagon: Okay, first, if you're not getting any cell reception than you're paying for services not rendered. That may help you go a long way in getting your ETFs waived. Also, opinions about AT&T are more or less subjective anyway - if AT&T is what works, and you need those cell phones, what choice do you have? Stay with Verizon that doesn't do what you need?

Also, you don't really have to pay for six new phones if everyone is willing to get a free phone with a new contract. If someone's whining about getting a cheapo dumbphone, they can pay out for the new phone.

The bottom line is that you're not actually getting anything you signed up for, so you're wasting your money. There's no reason to continue with a service that doesn't work.