Friday Fragments (Pictures, help, banking, frozen, books)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. I have a few this week:

Hi dad!

Abby With Santa

Abby visits her vet (the one that saved her life after being attacked) almost every day on her walk and they all enjoy petting her, giving her treats, teaching her new tricks and even photographing her. This week, one of the receptionists took her picture by their CHRISTMAS tree and emailed them to us.

Please give me the treat now.

This is the one I am using as my screen saver at work.  She is very still here because she is waiting for the treat she is expecting to get soon.  They are so nice to us there and they all love Abby! 

Banking

I went to the bank this week to deposit my bonus check. I fill out the deposit slips, a small portion into my checking, with the rest cast back which I put into my savings. I look at my checking balance which said I had a negative $1.46 available in checking (due to the hold placed on the check).  Good thing I noticed! This is so crazy, to make a deposit and not have anything available in checking because it was a big check? Good thing I went at lunch instead of on my break because the teller went to lunch and I had to get that hold switched to my savings instead.

Frozen

It got so cold that our garbage can lid was frozen closed! There was a layer of ice all around the lid so I finally went out and used the handle of one of our small summer clippers to chip it off.

Help!

Work got crazy this week with the pressure of sending out company "holiday" cards. (I hate that term, but that's what they were--no mention of Christmas anywhere!) Fortunately, when I put out a call for help because I could see there was not way I could get them out on time, five other secretaries came to help me out. What a relief I felt when I saw how fast it was going with their assistance. Look around, is there anyone you could help with something?

Books

Dark Justice by Brandilyn Collins (a Christian fiction suspense novelist) was one we both liked about mothers and daughters who accidentally come across a flash drive that makes them a target for terrorists. See our review.

And, for the "holidays" I read a thought provoking book about the war for Christmas by Sarah Palin called Good Tidings and Great Joy--Protecting the Heart of Christmas that I can't get out of my head.



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What! A $10 Fee?

Just when I give a big shout out to Dollar Bank for their $1,000 giveaway, I received a statement for my extra checking account which said it has been inactive for a year so they are charging me a $10 fee which brought the balance to zero. It would have been nice if they could send a little warning like an email to let me know.

I use this checking account for my PayPal funding. I do not want to put my main checking or savings account numbers on there so I opened a special checking account to use specifically just for that and keep a very small amount in it. I didn't realize I hadn't put any money in or taken any out all year. The last time I transferred money to my PayPal account was December of 2009. Oops. I forgot I have to do something with it to avoid this fee.

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7 Things I Learned This Week-#60

I've had quite a week!

My Gym Membership

I had frozen my gym membership at Fitness 19 and then learned that it is now unfrozen when I saw the charge on my credit card. It would have been nice if they had sent me a reminder notification that it would be active again in January. Now it's another 30 days before I can cancel it for good. I'll be charged again this month and again in March! I am canceling because I just don't go enough to get my money's worth and when I do go, I find myself thinking I'd rather be doing something else. Ho hum, how did I know I was going to want to cancel completely back when I froze it? I hate throwing my money away like this!

The Bachelor

According to US WEEKLY (March 2010), Ali will be the next Bachelorette. Apparently, her new employer has approved her to have the time off. It said Facebook was the employer that told her to get back to work or she'd lose her job.

Banking

I learned that if I change my e-savings account to a different account, I can earn a higher interest. How did I learn this? I asked. You would think banks could just have a set rate for all savings accounts and make it simple, but no, everything has to be a hassle. I asked why they didn't tell me about this sooner and was told it's just new and there will be some commercials about it. I would think they could have put a simple message to me through my on-line banking about this. Don't they know people would like to get as high an interest as possible on their savings??? You may want to check out other options at your bank.

American Heart Month

At John's post on EZGreatLife: "Getting To The Heart Of The Problem", I learned that February is American Heart Month. It's quite a good post he wrote about his scary experience with heart attack symptoms worth a trip over there.

Firefox Browser

Thanks to Rebecca at Freaky Frugalite, I finally was able to get my Firefox Browser open and working again. Boy, did I miss that! She left me a detailed step-by-step comment on my I Even Multi-task When I Relax post.

I Was Hacked On Twitter

Yes, Monday I learned someone hacked my Twitter account--very upsetting! For more details read Yikes, I Didn't Send That!

Tourette Syndrome

When watching "Front of the Class" on the Hallmark Channel I learned about Tourette Syndrome which is an incurable condition that causes people to make strange noises and movements at random times which they can't control. This movie was very good because it showed a boy with this condition who wanted to be a teacher and pursued his dream and became one of the best! Gerard also read the book and you can read his review at Zemek's Updates.

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What a Nice Bank Teller! (Writer's Workshop)

It's so easy to make a mistake in my checkbook. I do online banking now and both our checks are automatically deposited so I do not go to the bank every week like I used to. When I got a nice cash Christmas/Birthday gift from one of my bosses, I went to the bank to deposit it in my checking.

First off, I gave the teller my deposit slip but forgot to give her my money . . . oops. She was very nice and simply asked if I had the money. I quickly pulled it out of my coat pocket and gave it to her, thanking her for being so nice and not saying, "Give me the money you dumb woman." Then she mentioned that I had two overdrafts on my account. I was shocked! She was very nice, again not calling me stupid or anything and told me which checks were overdrawn, both I had written. She said she'd waive the fees which were $35 each for a total of $70!

Good thing I had some cash to deposit so I had to go to the bank. (I got a bank notice about it which didn't come in the mail until the next week or so.)

I couldn't get back to the office fast enough to reconcile my checkbook. It was longer than I thought that I had done this (time goes so fast) and I found not one, but two numbers that I simply copied down wrong. One was the balance when I carried it forward to the next page which was a $100 error and the other was an incorrect amount for my phone bill which resulted in a $32 error.

I was so grateful to her for waiving the fees and took her a little gift the next day to show my appreciation-an autographed book of "My Funny Dad, Harry," a decorative Christmas boot with some chocolate covered pretzels and a little card with my PNN blog URL letting her know where she could read about what a nice teller she is.

Although I made stupid mistakes, which happen, because of them, I received a blessing and in turn can be a blessing to someone else. Little acts of kindness can really make someone's day. How about this for a New Year's Resolution: Be kind to someone each day and try not to do so many stupid things!

This was revised from an earlier post on another blog in response to the Mama Kat's Workshop prompt to tell about a time when a stranger helped you out. Go visit her to participate or see other posts.

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7 Things I Learned in Week 10 of 2009

Sayings

Anyone hear of the saying, "Perception is reality"? I just learned this one from Gerard last week when he was walking me home from the bus stop on a warmer day than we've been having. He said he thought it was 70 degrees but in fact, according to our outdoor thermometer, it was only in the upper 50s. He also said it felt warmer outside than in the house which we have at 65 degrees. This is when he said "perception is reality" and I said, "I never heard that before, I think you made it up." I guess what we perceive to be true is for us. I'm going to try to perceive it's 80 degrees today!

Sports

The Cleveland Browns traded Kellen Winslow which I am happy about but also Joe Jerovicous which I am not pleased about. He was one on the team who could actually catch the ball!

Our hockey team, the Lake Erie Monsters, is desperately trying to increase their attendance with some special nights. Now they are even inviting dogs to come! On March 22, people are invited to bring their dogs along. Tickets for the dogs are $5, people are $15. Now if they let the dogs on the ice, that would be fun to watch!!

New Blogs I Discovered

I found a really great blog this week called The Kay Way. It's a personal blog about Kay's life, life lessons she learned, and some ranting. The blog is very easy to navigate and looks great! It is not filled with a lot of advertising and she is looking towards becoming a Life Coach. I added it to my favorites and my blog roll. I think if you visit, you will find a lot of interesting things there.

Another blog I found very interesting because of having been my dad's primary caregiver in his old age is Caregiving Daughter written by a woman who invited her mother to move in with her family about a year and a half ago. Her mother has the beginnings of Alzheimer's and the blog is a place for her daughter to vent a little and write about some of her frustrations.

My favorite PLAIN DEALER columnist, Regina Brett is going to start a blog!

Banking

The PLAIN DEALER had an article today rating the stability of banks in Cleveland and I was happy and relieved to see that Dollar Bank, the one we use, was one of the two that got 5 stars! The other one was Third Federal.

Thankful Thursday--Yea For Dollar Bank!

When I first signed up for on-line banking and got debit cards, I wondered why the numbers on them were different from our account number, but boy am I glad they are! Today I called our bank about the threatening phone call Gerard got about us owing for some supposed magazine package. I was transferred to the Banking Machine Service and Security Department and told them may story of what I think was a fraudulent call. They agreed and said since it hasn't been put through to our account as yet, they will just cancel my husband's debit card and issue a new one. If they do try to put it through now, it will simply be denied.

I initially thought we'd have to close our checking account and open a new one which would have been a bit of a hassle since we have our paychecks directly deposited. By the amount not being put through yet, it just seems to confirm that this really isn't a legitimate call.

Just to let everyone know, the bank told me never to give our credit card number or bank card number to anyone unless we initiate the call ourselves. She also mentioned that there are communication laws in place that prohibit callers to coerce payment without documentation or by threatening legal action. Oh, she also said that if we get any more calls like this, we should just tell them we'll be calling the police to report it.

Another live and learn experience!