It’s a step too far to say, “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” but there are definitely some Christmas-y things in effect here at the G & G household. We don’t do decorations or a tree or anything like that, because, well, for one thing, I’m one of the adults in the family, and I don’t really do anything like that, but mainly because we won’t be here – we’re leaving for S’s parents’ place at the end of next week. They might get a little tree to decorate. They did last year, even though they’re Hindu. The kids like it. It’s cool when you are young to see the presents pile up under the tree, wondering what’s inside, anticipating the big day.
Lil’ S1 should have no idea what he’s getting, because he asked for so much, there’s no way he can even remember it all. He got a toy catalog and started circling everything he wanted, and he literally circled everything in it other than the “girl toys.” If it wasn’t pink, it was circled. He even circled a drone -- like an actually remote control flying vehicle. I thought it best to quash his hopes immediately on that one before they got too high. I showed him the suggested age ranges, so then he just went through and double circled all the things that were 6+. He was hesitant to go any lower than that, lest he accidentally pick a “baby toy.” But he got around this technicality by using a different color and saying it was for his brother.
I thought about getting him a video game system, because he’s really into the Wii, even though we only have the one sports game that comes with it (somebody gave us their Wii for free, which is the only reason we even have the system at all), but I think I’ll wait on that until his birthday or next Christmas. I’ve been told the Nintendo Switch is the way to go, so I’ll probably get that one. Video games are something I loved as a kid that I’m just not into anymore, but maybe if Lil’ S1 gets really into them – and he’s trending in that direction – I’ll pick them back up. I’d rather we bond over an actual sport like baseball or wrestling, but he’s shown little interest in those things thus far. And one thing I definitely don’t want to do is push him into activities I like just because I like them. The kids who seemed the most miserable growing up were the ones doing things just to satisfy their parents.
Lil’ S2 is a different story. He’s not as taken by the iPad and the Wii and stuff like that as his brother was at his age. He likes those things – pretty much all kids do – but he seems to get bored with them too. Sometimes he’ll just turn off the iPad on his own (something his brother has never done), and he can only make it through like 20 minutes of a movie before he starts getting antsy. His favorite thing to do right now is to wrestle me, which I love. His brother likes it too, but again it’s a matter of degree. Lil’ S2 just seems to be the more physical of the two. Sometimes they’ll wrestle on their own, and ultimately big brother wins through sheer weight differential, but little brother puts up a surprisingly good fight. He go as hard as he can, until he gets pinned down and then he'll say to his brother, "Can you please get off of me?" It's pretty cute, actually.
Also, he told me that he likes watching football (much to S’s chagrin), while his brother has declared many times he hates football (much to S’s delight) – he did watch it with me last night for a bit, and he seemed interested in it, but I’m pretty sure he was just humoring me because I was letting him stay up a few minutes later than usual.
It’s too early to know for sure what they are going to be interested in, but I'm intrigued to see how it all plays out. I just hope they are into something. After all, it’s like Del the Funky Homosapien says: Life is a blast when you know what you're doin', best to know what you're doin' 'fore your life get ruined.
In other news, we are having some garbage disposal woes here at the G & G household. Our disposal is leaking underneath the sink – nothing awful, it’s pretty easy to contain with a mixing bowl – but still something that needs to be fixed. So, we called our home warranty company, American Home Shield, and not to bury the lede: American Home Shield is not going to be our home warranty company too much longer. The plumber came out, took a look at it – literally nothing more than a look – and then said he’d put in a request to have it replaced. That was three weeks ago, and we haven’t seen him since -- certainly not due to lack of effort on our part. S has placed probably ten phone calls total to AHS and to the plumbing company directly, and she can never get straight answers from anybody. The main problem seems to be the plumbing company. They are either totally incompetent, totally apathetic about customer service, or some combination thereof. They don’t respond to email; they messed up the time of the original appointment; and they just totally ghosted on their appointment yesterday. So, I think they are the root of the issue. But they are the preferred contractors for AHS, so it’s on AHS too. If their contractors are flaking on their customers, then they need to get different contractors. S even suggested this, and she was shot down. But at least she got to talk somebody. Most of the time you call their 800 number and you can’t even get through to a human being without being put on hold for an eon or two.
So, we’re out. We don’t need a home warranty company anyway. I think they just carried over from the woman who lived here previously after we bought the house – I don’t know; S deals with that stuff – but whatever we’re paying them, it’s too much, even it’s $0.00 per year. It’s not worth the headache. I hope we aren’t locked into some sort of contract with them. Even if we are, I’m tempted to cancel payment on our credit card and let them send us to collections. That’s probably a bad idea, but that’s my mood right now. I'll keep you posted as I'm sure you're on pins and needles now.
I'm gonna call them now.
Until next time...
Update: Called AHS; canceled contract. I was put on hold for over a half-hour, but once I finally got through to somebody, it was surprisingly easy to cancel -- no fees or contract issues or anything like that. The woman I talked to tried to patch me through to the retention department, and I actually wanted to talk to somebody there. I wanted somebody to try to get me to stay, so that I could bitch about how shitty their product is for a few minutes, but, alas, nobody in the retention department picked up (figures). So, the woman just canceled everything for me. Good riddance.
Lil’ S1 should have no idea what he’s getting, because he asked for so much, there’s no way he can even remember it all. He got a toy catalog and started circling everything he wanted, and he literally circled everything in it other than the “girl toys.” If it wasn’t pink, it was circled. He even circled a drone -- like an actually remote control flying vehicle. I thought it best to quash his hopes immediately on that one before they got too high. I showed him the suggested age ranges, so then he just went through and double circled all the things that were 6+. He was hesitant to go any lower than that, lest he accidentally pick a “baby toy.” But he got around this technicality by using a different color and saying it was for his brother.
I thought about getting him a video game system, because he’s really into the Wii, even though we only have the one sports game that comes with it (somebody gave us their Wii for free, which is the only reason we even have the system at all), but I think I’ll wait on that until his birthday or next Christmas. I’ve been told the Nintendo Switch is the way to go, so I’ll probably get that one. Video games are something I loved as a kid that I’m just not into anymore, but maybe if Lil’ S1 gets really into them – and he’s trending in that direction – I’ll pick them back up. I’d rather we bond over an actual sport like baseball or wrestling, but he’s shown little interest in those things thus far. And one thing I definitely don’t want to do is push him into activities I like just because I like them. The kids who seemed the most miserable growing up were the ones doing things just to satisfy their parents.
Lil’ S2 is a different story. He’s not as taken by the iPad and the Wii and stuff like that as his brother was at his age. He likes those things – pretty much all kids do – but he seems to get bored with them too. Sometimes he’ll just turn off the iPad on his own (something his brother has never done), and he can only make it through like 20 minutes of a movie before he starts getting antsy. His favorite thing to do right now is to wrestle me, which I love. His brother likes it too, but again it’s a matter of degree. Lil’ S2 just seems to be the more physical of the two. Sometimes they’ll wrestle on their own, and ultimately big brother wins through sheer weight differential, but little brother puts up a surprisingly good fight. He go as hard as he can, until he gets pinned down and then he'll say to his brother, "Can you please get off of me?" It's pretty cute, actually.
Also, he told me that he likes watching football (much to S’s chagrin), while his brother has declared many times he hates football (much to S’s delight) – he did watch it with me last night for a bit, and he seemed interested in it, but I’m pretty sure he was just humoring me because I was letting him stay up a few minutes later than usual.
It’s too early to know for sure what they are going to be interested in, but I'm intrigued to see how it all plays out. I just hope they are into something. After all, it’s like Del the Funky Homosapien says: Life is a blast when you know what you're doin', best to know what you're doin' 'fore your life get ruined.
In other news, we are having some garbage disposal woes here at the G & G household. Our disposal is leaking underneath the sink – nothing awful, it’s pretty easy to contain with a mixing bowl – but still something that needs to be fixed. So, we called our home warranty company, American Home Shield, and not to bury the lede: American Home Shield is not going to be our home warranty company too much longer. The plumber came out, took a look at it – literally nothing more than a look – and then said he’d put in a request to have it replaced. That was three weeks ago, and we haven’t seen him since -- certainly not due to lack of effort on our part. S has placed probably ten phone calls total to AHS and to the plumbing company directly, and she can never get straight answers from anybody. The main problem seems to be the plumbing company. They are either totally incompetent, totally apathetic about customer service, or some combination thereof. They don’t respond to email; they messed up the time of the original appointment; and they just totally ghosted on their appointment yesterday. So, I think they are the root of the issue. But they are the preferred contractors for AHS, so it’s on AHS too. If their contractors are flaking on their customers, then they need to get different contractors. S even suggested this, and she was shot down. But at least she got to talk somebody. Most of the time you call their 800 number and you can’t even get through to a human being without being put on hold for an eon or two.
So, we’re out. We don’t need a home warranty company anyway. I think they just carried over from the woman who lived here previously after we bought the house – I don’t know; S deals with that stuff – but whatever we’re paying them, it’s too much, even it’s $0.00 per year. It’s not worth the headache. I hope we aren’t locked into some sort of contract with them. Even if we are, I’m tempted to cancel payment on our credit card and let them send us to collections. That’s probably a bad idea, but that’s my mood right now. I'll keep you posted as I'm sure you're on pins and needles now.
I'm gonna call them now.
Until next time...
Update: Called AHS; canceled contract. I was put on hold for over a half-hour, but once I finally got through to somebody, it was surprisingly easy to cancel -- no fees or contract issues or anything like that. The woman I talked to tried to patch me through to the retention department, and I actually wanted to talk to somebody there. I wanted somebody to try to get me to stay, so that I could bitch about how shitty their product is for a few minutes, but, alas, nobody in the retention department picked up (figures). So, the woman just canceled everything for me. Good riddance.
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