Unemployment

Well...Got Laid Off yesterday. American Woodmark. Who would figure that the largest cabinet manufacturer in the USA would be laying off. I actually accepted the position because of the stability of the company and the lack or evidence that I would be laid off.

The told me and one other person that we were to be let go and it would be effective immediately. We were escorted from the premises like criminals. No Goodbyes. No severance. No insurance after 14 days. What Bullshit.

The first think I did was go to the Unemployment office, and they were about 5 minutes away from an orientation and I was in and out in less than an hour. Of course they still had me in the system from the last time that I filed for unemployment when I was laid off less than 2 years ago. And the time before that and the time before that.

This industry sucks.

Just tell me what to Buy

As much as I don't like people telling me what to do, I need someone to just tell me what to do. All this crap about what is in this product, and avoid this because of this chemical, and avoid this because of this plastic that releases this, and look for these things in these types of products, but look out for this etc...

Can someone just say "This brand is safe." Use this "___" on your kid. Buy "___" kind of milk - it's safe. Use "___" kind of makeup.

I have found a few sites that do tell me some good information like: http://www.thegreenguide.com (they have pdf's and shoppers guides) and http://www.backtopure.com/2007/08/bisphenol-free-and-phthalate-free.htm and http://www.bisphenolafree.org/ and http://www.realmama.org/archives-winter-2005/chemicals-in-plastics.php.

It's a lot of research and a lot of work if you just want to buy your kid a sippy cup to put juice in so he won't spill it on the floor.

Why are we using all this crap that we know is bad? We know it's harmful, yet in order to NOT have it in your system, you have to research a product for an hour or more or even call someone to find out if it's going to hurt you or even leave something in your blood for 30 years or even forever!!

I'm going to make an effort to go more Green around the house. I am going to try cleaning products first. Seventh Generation seems the most reasonable. We'll see how easy this will be....

Collection Strong Arm Lawyers

We got served this AM with paperwork stating intent to sue me in court for oweing Capitol One on a credit card debt. While yes, I do owe them on an old balance, at the time that I closed the account, the balance was $233 (or close). When they did not close the account, I was charged a finance charge for that month where I cancelled, then I moved, and then the fees came in. Yearly fee, monthly late fee and over limit after quite a while.

When I received bills at my new address, there was a $400 bill. While I have argued this for a long time, the balance went up to $1300 and well, here we are now.

I have told every collection company that if they will acknowledge the balance originally, that I will pay them.

This new collection company is aparantly a real prize. THey are Frederick J. Hanna (Associates) Attorney....look at: http://www.budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/hanna_frederick_j_assoc_cmts.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=COMPLAINTS%2C+Fredrick+J.+Hanna+&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGIH
http://atlanta.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=39&bbb=0443&firm=4232

or just google him. He's on the prick list.

When I received the original collection letter, I mailed him a letter asking for their info. Nothing. Another letter about a month later...Nothing in response. He only sent me one piece of paper from his offices before presenting me with court papers. I'm sure that's against the Fair Debt Collection act or something like that.

I am calling Clark Howard on Monday to see if I can do anything about this creet other than what I usually do to bastards like this with the BBB, secretaary of state, and the other consumer complaint sites.

Bumbo Recalled

They recalled the bumbo seat yesterday. Awesome chair for babies.

Why the recall? Because stupid parents stick their kids in it and leave them for who knows how long so they can take a nap themselves and the kid wriggles loose, falls, and cracks their head open.

Per Current TV, BUMBO RECALL, this was the number 2 Googled phrase last night.

We used the bumbo A LOT! We loved it. Yes, a kid could wriggle out. In our house, someone was always in arms length to hold a leg down when my son started to do his little back flip and try to get out. We knew this. It's not the companies fault. They now have to make new labels. The old ones clearly spelled out the rules. We just all broke them a little. We knew it. I would be embarrased to take my kid into the hospital and tell them that I was negligent. It's not bumbos fault.

If we recalled everything for consumer egligence , we would recall more than this. My son fell out of the boppy (from couch to floor - bad Mom!!) so should they recall this too?

Check out the safety recall bumbo site: http://www.bumbosafety.com/

I still hate my job

I hate my job

I try to be positive; most of the time. Lately - I find I can't.

I used to LOVE coming to work, and I used to LOVE what I do. I had fun at work, and I learned something new every day. I used to design Cabinets for a Custom Manufacturing Shop. Our customers were high end builders who needed nice custom cabinetry. That was my last 2 jobs.

I changed jobs about 5 months ago. I now design and estimate cabinets for prodution builders, and I have HATED every day since. I have turned into a nasty person and this morning when someone asked how I was - I said "Pretty Shitty, how are you" At 7am. This sucks.

I have been in my industry for 13 years. I know what I am doing. There's been a change in our market, and I have changed my focus customer to be high volume rather than a single customer. I have been designing as cheap as I can, and still it's not cheap enough. I cannot get used to builders who don't give a damn, purchasing agents who don't care what they buy and only see a number, co workers who also only see a number, and co workers who change my work to get said shit number, and management who take said co workers word as THE WORD. I can't stand to have my work redone. If I've made a mistake - LET ME FIX IT!!!@!@#$@%$^%*&*

I have never worked in a place where no one gave a shit about the product they put out. We've been told that because of the market that we need to be aware of all that we do and not to waste time etc. It wastes plenty of time if I spend 30 ours to price a neighborhood, then it's checked for 4 hours, met with the customer for 3 hours, changed by me for 12 hours and then the ENTIRE thing is changed by the F'd co worker for about 15 hours. Wasteful!!!!!

So - there you have it. I hate my job.

Plumbing

We just found out today from the water company that we are wasting somewhere around 1/10th of a gallon a minute. We didn't know until I saw the bill this month charging us for 19,000 gallons of water. This month - historically - we use about 11,000.