An Answering What?

So how is it that the people who make calls for BellSouth, the telephone company, don't understand the concept of "answering machine" or "voicemail"???

Every so often I come home to this message (or one very much like it) on my answering machine:

"Hello? Helloo? Joniphor X[my last name]?" [[and HOW do you manage to prounounce "Jennifer" so badly, I'd like to know!]] "Hello? Hellooo? Hello? I'd like to speak with Joniphor X? Hello? Hello? Hello? [pause] Thank you for being a BellSouth customer."

I mean come on already! My work uses an autocall system, and even it can tell the difference between a live answer and a machine. Sheesh!

Now That's More Like It!

Thank goodness! The temperature around here is getting back to normal Florida weather.
It's 55 degrees right now (around 6am), and the afternoons the rest of this week should be in the 70's. This is ever so much better than the freezing temps we had last week!
This is why I live in Florida! :-)

Drive Me Crazy

No, this post isn't about anything fun that the title might be suggesting to you. ;-p

This is a complaint post, so if you don't want to read my rant of the day, stop here.

I would like to know what possesses people to drive in the center of the freaking road! There are two lanes on a residential street for a reason, people! The fact that someone drives a big honkin' Armored Personnel Carrier or whatnot that should have stayed with the military, does not give them ownership of the entire damned road. If I'm turning onto the road that you're about to turn off of, I of course have to wait for the oncoming traffic to clear, but why should I then also have to wait for your selfish ass to leave the road before I can get onto it (the road that is, not the ass!)?
Or my other option is to turn anyway, squeezing my car onto the road & hoping your mirror doesn't take out my roof... WTF? Drive on your own side of the road!

The second half of my complaint, and it's probably mostly the same people doing this, is the ones who drive around a speedbump instead of just slowing down & going over it, like they're supposed to, which is the whole point of the damned speedbump being there in the first place!
We have a 25-mile per hour, local traffic only road near my house, where speedbumps were added after a child was killed by a driver doing 60 on that road. They're pretty mild speedbumps, so even at 25 mph, I think they wouldn't damage a car, but you're supposed to slow down to about 10. Yet apparently that's too much effort for some people, so they drive around it, even with someone on the other side of the road. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

And don't even get me started on people who don't stop at stop signs...

Watch The Birdie!

He's IN!!!

Turns out the ultimate enticement to get into his new cage was tortilla chips...
He doesn't normally eat "people snacks", but those, he loves.

Marley in his new house (below):

Later, when he's had time to get used to the new cage, I'll post a picture of the convertible play top opened out. I didn't want to freak him out by opening it up just yet.

and here's Bandit in (well, ON) her house (below):

and so they don't feel left out, and you can see them, Sophie the (male!) lovebird, on the right (okay, they're little birds, so look hard and you'll see them), and Roxie & Zulie the parakeets on the left. Roxie is the yellow/green one, named Xerox, because he was found, & came home in a Xerox box, and Zulie's real name is Azul (blue). She's the blue one, obviously. :-) (below):

So that's the birdie crew. They keep us entertained! :-)