I think my chick lit habit has effected my son.

Yoga Bear

So, I've discovered yoga about 10 years after everybody else in America. I had a BAD WEEK (TM) a couple of months ago. Rich was out of town. The kids were cranky. The weather was god awful. Eric would not nap, but it temps were at Arctic levels so I didn't want to go out. All my playdates stood me up. It was a BAD WEEK (TM). I was exhausted and stressed. I called a friend and vented and she said, I'm taking you to yoga.

I was skeptical. I went to a yoga class once in New York where 112 lb women held themselves in a plank position two inches above the ground for extended periods of time. It was frustrating and humiliating and not in the least bit comfortable or relaxing. But that was pre knee surgery. More than a year after my horrific knee surgery experience, my knees work. I can kneel, squat, climb stairs and go for long walks without any problems. This is like a miracle. I hadn't been able to do any of that since college. So, since I no longer had those limitations, I thought I'd give it a try.

I picked up my friend, my teeth still chattering from stress and we went to her husband's Dojo where the yoga class was taking place. I was still bitching about my week when we got to the door, and she gently said. "She likes us to enter calmly." And I we opened the door to a quiet, child-free happy land. The room was softly lit with fairy lights that hung around the ceiling. There was a miniature water garden bubbling away in one corner and there was a candle burning next to a buddha statue in another. The atmosphere was surprisingly spa like for a converted warehouse. The instructor was kind and friendly. She explained each position clearly and calmly. But the most amazing thing was that I could do the class and that it felt REALLY good. This was not the crazy-assed body sculpting yoga I had experienced in New York. This was like giving myself a massage.

I really wish that I had gotten into yoga when I was single and still had a horse. It would have been such a great compliment to my riding. But I have it now and someday, I will have a horse again. And if I keep doing the yoga, it will be a lot easier.

The folks at Babyage.com keep getting ruder. I think I'll have to send a snail mail letter to their CEO. I've never had such terrible customer service. They have a policy that says that I am responsible for return shipping. However, I feel there were extenuating circumstances that merit a return at their expense.

I sent the following e-mail to them after their tepid response to my FIRMLY WORDED E-MAIL!

I don't understand. Why did your customer service person tell me that you would try to make an exception when I called the morning after the order was submitted? Are they instructed to lie so that people won't refuse delivery?

If you have no mechanism to cancel an order within the stated window, how can you have such a draconian return policy? Your voice mail system was broken or unavailable. The order can not be canceled on line.

To which a different person responded:
Thank you for your email. Actually, the agent may have saved you money. Since the order was entered online, you are responsible for the shipping to return items ordered in error or in case where the order shipped prior to receipt of your cancellation request.

If you had refused the order, you would have add to pay actual cost (both ways) and a $10.00 refusal fee, which totals $38.18.

So it appears, either way you are out over $30.00

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My credit company now tells me that I should have refused delivery and they could have taken care of it. But they can't do anything about the charges as long as I keep the merchandise.

I haven't posted a firm, strongly-worded letter in a while. So here's one I wrote to Babyage.com after they pissed me off.

Dear Customer Service,

I am writing about a very bad experience I had with your company.

I placed this order a couple of weeks ago. I placed a car seat in my cart, and then found a high chair and placed it in my cart. I checked the cart, the high chair was there, but the car seat was not, so I hit the back button and found the car seat and added it again, figuring I hadn't done it properly the first time.

I clicked through the payment fields and confirmed the order. Once I got the confirmation e-mail I realized immediately that I had two car seats and no high chair.

As per your policy, I called within the hour to cancel the order. However, there was nobody there to take the call. I hit 1 for sales, your phone system went through a series of clicks and hung up on me. It did this about 4 times.

So, I sent an e-mail to try to cancel the order. I called at 9:01 the next morning as soon as you opened and I was told the car seats had already shipped. However, since I had tried to cancel the order within the alloted time, and your voice mail system was not working, you would try to make an exception and pay to ship it back.

Because of this I did NOT refuse delivery on the car seats when they arrived. Then I called customer service and was told that if I were to return the car seat, shipping was my problem. However, it would cost me over $30 to ship this back UPS, as I am not entitled to any bulk discounts.

I think that given the fact that you have no mechanism for canceling an order outside of business hours that you should pay to ship this back. I was also told by one of your customer service representatives that this would likely be the case.

Thanks in advance,

Margaret Sanford

Here is their pathetic response:

I do apologize as this order was entered by the customer and the order was placed for two car seats. We are unable to pick up the cost of the reshipment back to our warehouse. I do apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you
BabyAge.com

Did you know you could grow a nipple on your foot? It's true!

A Perfect Storm: When the family gets sick at the same time

Both kids had a fever by Sunday morning. Eric was up in the night asking for drinks and complaining about his nightlight. I took in my spiffy new temporal thermometer and sure enough he had a fever of about 101. So I gave him some Ibuprofen and he went back to bed. In the morning Kaylee had a fever and by Sunday night it was up over 103.

I was really sick with a fever last Sunday, and I still don't feel good. So when Kaylee woke up and cried every 45 minutes or so I relapsed a bit. I went to bed at 9 last night, but it still wasn't enough. I'm still sick and exhausted.

I'm a little despondent at the moment. No matter how much sleep I get at night it never seems to be enough so that I'm not a zombie the next day. I think it's just this virus lingering. But damn, I feel bad.