Grandma's Bangle bracelet

Listed on eBay today.

Pepper party

From my bucket garden:

1) Ancho peppers












2) Thai chilis













3) Bell peppers (Capsicums)











4) Unidentified hot peppers

Garden update

Not much going on in the garden at the moment. The two month long drought was taken its toll on many of my blooming plants. Here's what's blooming or bearing fruit.

1) Marigold, grown from seed
2) another surprise poppy - this one a double

















3) Phlox, transplanted from my grass-loving neighbor's last year



4) Canna "the President". This is the third of fourth year of this plant, having been wintered inside, and some red harlequin type streaking is showing up more and more. These plants are doing so well (about the only things which are), here's two photos.































5) Trumpet vine and morning glory leaves





6)Morning glory bud, with jet contrail (Chicago to Minneapolis) above

















7) orange Daylily









8) hollyhock (Alba)







9) another daylily - the coloring has diverged a lot from it's orange brothers (above) over the last 10 years






10) Wave petunia - these are really not preforming as advertised this year. I think next year I will purchase cheapo petunias.

One More Dish Network Complaint, while I'm at it

We have also been receiving frequent telemarketing calls from Dish, or rather, from a third party affiliated with them. They folks are clearly calling from India, and they try to get us to sign up for packages, refer our friends, and so on.

Since they're calling from India, obviously, the federal and state "Do Not Call" lists do not apply. Dish takes no responsibility for these calls. Some of the callers speak in Hindi only, thinking this is a strictly desi household, and so I can't even tell them anything since my Hindi knowledge is limited to a few words only. I hate to be rude to these poor people, since I know it's a terrible job, but they keep calling no matter what - and so that is the only thing that works. I have tried asking them to take us off their list, asking to speak with their supervisor, and such things, but these callers are as dumb as a box of rocks and I eventually end up hanging up on them mid-spiel.

At least now that our dish (wasp nest and all) was dismantled and returned, hopefully these particular Indian telemarketing calls should stop. If not, more anti-Dish rants will be posted.

"white" screen on X2Gen monitor

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Originally uploaded by lindabhat

Here is our lovely monitor showing off its white screen.

Two rants - Dish Network and X2Gen stink!

I have some rants to post, for the sake of airing some bad p.r. for two companies with terrible customer service and/or shoddy products. Nothing else seems to be helping.

1) X2Gen

We purchased a 17" LCD X2Gen monitor from eCost, for our kitchen PC, on May 7. It was $120 with a $40 rebate. Within 10 days of purchase, we noticed that the screen tended to flicker and shudder, turn yellowish (on pages which should be white), and occasionally bluish.

I sent an email inquiry to X2Gen, and they helpfully sent a return shipping label, since the product was within 30 days of purchase. I packaged it up, complete with cables, manual, and stand, and sent to to Wheeling, IL to be repaired.

X2Gen sent the monitor back, saying that they had fixed it and everything was all fine and dandy. We plugged it back in, and lo and behold, it did the same thing.

Now it was past 30 days, but when I inquired to X2Gen regarding the continual problems, they helpfully sent another return label for sending it in again. They kept it for about a week and sent it back saying that there was nothing wrong with it.

We tried it again; the problem was still occurring. When I sent another email inquiry, they did agree to send one more shipping label for return. They did not say that they would replace the product. Since they keep saying that there is nothing wrong with the item, I sent them a link to photo posts on Flickr with the monitor in the act of misbehaving. Perhaps that will help. I bet they will send it back to us again saying that it worked perfectly for them, after testing it for 5 minutes.

Pros:
Sent return shipping labels without any hassle. Rebate did come through.
Cons:
Did not fix the problem or offer a replacement. Product should have been tested before it was sold in the first place.

2) Dish Network

I know this will probably come as a surprise to nobody, since the telecommunications companies are all at the top of the FTC customer service dissatisfaction list.

Due to continual rate increases, we decided to cut our satellite subscription to the bone and get the lowest priced package. Since that package actually contained nothing either one of us wanted to watch, and still cost $1/day, we discontinued our service on May 27 and began a subscription to Netflix, instead, for $10 a month. Our satellite reception stops immediately.

One June 26, we receive another monthly bill for service on our Discover Card. I check the Dish Network website and there is not only a charge for June, there is another charge building up for July. Avinash calls to complain. They have record of him calling to cancel in May, but they did not complete the process at that time and send us to a "cancellation specialist".

The "cancellation specialist" says that the charge was an error and that it will be reversed. He then tries to get him to change his mind by offering movie packages, free cricket, free months, etc. Avinash adamantly tells them that he does not want the service even more now that they have screwed up the cancellation process and two more months of bills.

The cancellation guy says that the bills will be fixed and that they will send us a box because they want their receiver back. Avinash says "fine", but naively does not get this guy's badge number or anything in writing from them. He says that he did ask them twice, just to make sure they agreed.

July 10 - we receive a box for return of the receiver, as well as a request that we reinstate our subscription, in the mail. All three pages of instructions in the return package are in Spanish. From what I can tell, they not only want the receiver, they want the remote control and several pieces of the satellite dish (on the roof).

Fortunately, I am in the process of painting the house and have an assortment of ladders at hand. I prop a ladder on the side of the (fortunately not too steep and not too high) TV room roof, and try to take the dish apart. Mr. Radio Shack Guy, who installed the dish, has stripped the screws while putting it on. I climb up and down the ladder with various cordless screwdrivers, vice-grips, scissors, manual screwdrivers, etc. I finally get the shroud off the satellite and dismantle several parts which look important. There is a wasps nest on one of them.

I package the parts up, complete with wasps nest and some plastic parts since I do not understand their Spanish instructions, for shipment back to Dish by UPS. I use my own shipping tape to seal the box.

I check the credit card bill for the credit due to us. There is nothing.

Avinash calls dish network and holds for about half an hour. When he finally talks to someone, they say that they never said anything about issuing a credit, and that we will have to pay $45 for service we never received. Avinash tells them that that is garbage and he won't pay it.

Avinash calls Discover Card to dispute the charge. They will go to bat for us. I will also issue a complaint with the FCC.

Pros:
None
Cons:
Terrible, terrible, terrible service. We will never use this company again. Yay DirecTV, for being better than this!

July Flowers in the garden