Some thoughts on travel

I have been lucky enough to have traveled a lot, lucky because I enjoy it and because much of my travel, at least within the US, was for work, so cost me nothing. My international travel is entirely personal, costs quite a lot but is so worth it.

For at least 15 years after moving the the US from Ireland, I returned to visit at least twice year, at first visiting both Ireland and France in the same trip, then alternating. My sons lived in Ireland and my daughter lived in France. In the last few years my visits have reduced to just once a year, partly due to the cost, but also because I can't stand another winter visit to Europe. I have become too spoiled by the constantly heated homes in the US, in Europe the cost of home heating is so high that no matter what form of heating you have, it is only run for short periods of time, such as early morning and late evening. If you live like that all the time, you do grow used to it. I am no longer used to it.

When I was traveling for work, naturally I had to use the cheapest, or the company recommended carriers. As a result I have had the misfortune to have experienced just about every US domestic carrier. I have spent long hours hanging around airports, and occasionally unexpected overnights due to missed connections and canceled flights. When I have a choice, I fly Delta. I chose Delta originally because they fly directly into Dublin from Atlanta, and flying from Austin to Atlanta is an easy trip, and if you have to spend any time waiting in an airport, Atlanta is a good place to do it. I continued to fly Delta because I started to amass a considerable amount of frequent flier miles, but also because I have had a better experience with them than with any other carrier, and taking in to account the fact that I have flow way more times, and way more miles with Delta, that is a fairly good recommendation.

I used to have a yearly membership to the Delta Sky Club - as much as I was traveling, it was worth it. But now that my travel is reduced, I will just buy a day pass if I am going to have a long lay over, that is if it is 3 hours or more, which it frequently is with International Travel. The comfort and facilities in the Sky Club make it well worth the cost.

I stress - not just about travel, I stress about everything. However, with travel it is very easy to find things to stress about, missed flights, lost luggage, luggage overweight - the list goes on, things I do to reduce the stress of travel:

• I always book flights with lengthy lay over times, I prefer to hang around the Sky Club than make a mad dash for a tight connection, or worse, risk missing a connection altogether.
• Pack all my liquids in my check in bags - no plastic bags to worry about at security
• If I am traveling with carry on only, I do so without liquids - I have actually been known to mail the minimum makeup needs to my daughter, ahead of my travel, so that all I need is there when I arrive. Every woman has bottles, tubes or jars of makeup with just a little in the end, these are what I send ahead and leave behind. My granddaughter has great fun with them after I am gone.
• I carefully weight my packed check in to ensure it is not over weight, just a couple of extra pounds can cost $100. If I have to check more than the allowed weight, two smaller bags, each within the allowed weight, is cheaper than one large, overweight bag.
• I take a photo of my packed bags - I know, this sounds really OCD but if you have ever lost your luggage and, after an 8 hour flight and 1 hour search for bags in a very large baggage claim area, then had to describe in detail the lost bags - you would also start doing this.
• I always bring my Kindle, with an extended battery pack, loaded with a number of books and a couple of movies and my favorite music.
• My carry on consists of a backpack which contains my laptop, kindle and one change of clothes - in the event my check in luggage does go astray, or I get stranded overnight, at least I do have one change of clothes and generally lost luggage is rounded up within 24 hours
• I also purchase comfort seating, early boarding reduces stress for no apparent reason because I do know the flight will not go without me so long as I have checked in and I am at the gate on time, and I do know I have a seat and will get on eventually, but comfort seating is also .. comfortable, not that I really need the extra space, but early boarding and early deplaning is definitely less stressful
• And finally, I have my Global Entry TSA Pre Clearance (see below).
• When ever possible, my European port of departure when returning to the US is Dublin, Ireland. There you clear both US Customs and US Immigration before boarding your flight. So arrival in the US is as easy as domestic travel within the US. This is particularly useful when making a connection once you land - tired, jet lagged and disorientated, just get off that plane and head for your connection.

I have to say, I have no issues with TSA, if they are doing their job right, they are keeping me safe, who can argue with that? But Global Entry Pre Clearance is a real luxury.

This allows me to by pass most of the queues at security and I don't have to remove my shoes nor unpack my laptop.


Anyone else got any good tips?

Osmiroids

Osmiroid nibs

When I was at school, which was a long time ago, and not for very long. Chapter 4 of my book describes that short episode in my life, and my Peeling The Onion Facebook page illustrates it. As I was saying, when I was at school, one of the items on our school list was an Osmiroid fountain pen, with an italic nib. These pens came in an assortment of colors, so although everyone had exactly the same pen, they were not all identical. The nibs were, or they were supposed to be.

Because this was in the 1950s and cartridges had not yet been invented for fountain pens, we all had to carry bottles of ink in our school bags in order to refill the pen. Most of us had ink stains in the bottom of our school bags, and across many of our books, from leaking bottles of ink. And we always had ink stains on our hands - not just from the messy job of filling the pens, but because they frequently leaked while in use.

This is how we were expected to write, and most did.

This is my butcher boy hand writing

We had handwriting classes, and we were all expected to write in exactly the same italic script. I guess I just had a different drum beat in my head, because while all the other girls were practicing writing in exactly the same way, I didn't see the point.


I really don't think that I was a rebel, because I wasn't trying to stand out, nor was I trying to be difficult, I just didn't see the point in changing my writing, and writing the same as everyone else, so I didn't. At one point I remember a very frustrated Scottish nun look at my exercise book with absolute disdain, she told me with disgust that I wrote like a butcher boy. Apparently part of what disgusted her about my handwriting was the presence of loops.

To be honest, I really didn't care. I hated school, and it wasn't long before I figured out the system and avoided going altogether.

Naturally I regretted it later and (read my book) I did manage to do some catch up, but looking back, I think I probably ended up with a better education that most of my peers from that era, even if it took me a lot longer and my handwriting is not as good.

I still wonder from time to time, how Mother George knew what a butcher boy's writing looked like, and did she believe they too were all forced to write in exactly the same way?

I found this blog about Osmiroid Pens, apparently they have quite a cult following, and not just nuns.

Customer Service

See here for more info on this

I am always delighted when I receive good customer service, and, when you stop to think about it, anything else just doesn't make sense for a company that wants to succeed. Yet, amazingly, there are so many companies where absolutely no effort is put into ensuring customers concerns are taken care of with the least amount of delay and that the customer is not left with a bad taste in their mouth.



I know that I will not only become a loyal repeat customer when I receive good customer service, I will also be free advertising, in person and on social media, and here on my blog, for that company. Of course, the corollary is true. I will make as much noise, if not more, when I receive bad customer service, and I will never return to that company again.  Repeat business is, or should be, very important to any company.

Definition:

A situation that arises when a customer returns again and again to purchase a good or service from a business. Offering repeat business is the hallmark of a steady customer that is usually highly valued by businesses that they patronize since they typically require minimal additional marketing efforts to retain.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/repeat-business.html#ixzz3SlK1YJ2m

And this excerpt sums it up:

According to our analysis, 25% to 40% of the total revenues of the most stable businesses in the SumAll network come from returning customers. Even better, steady customers help businesses weather lean economic times; businesses with 40% repeat customers generated nearly 50% more revenue than similar businesses with only a 10% repeat customers. 

Read more: http://blog.sumall.com/journal/the-importance-of-repeat-customers-2.html#ixzz3SlL3IUV7

And one of the driving forces that is improving customer service across the board is Social Media, more specifically Facebook. Whenever anyone feels they have not received the service they believe they should, it only takes a second to find that company's Facebook page and express your disappointment - believe me, that brings a very speedy response. I would suggest that everyone does try to go back and update the page with any positive feedback should it exist.  Using the Pavlova's dog theory perhaps we can all be instrumental in encouraging improvement in this area.

The companies where good service has confirmed me as a repeat customer include Michael's (see my blog here), Amazon, Zappos and Philips - that is Philips Appliances.  To illustrate my point, my experience with Philips was almost a lifetime ago in Ireland - in the mid 1970's. A time and a place where customer service had not yet been invented. Philips replaced a fridge freezer without question, when ice started to form on the back of the unit - on the outside. This in itself was unusual (both the ice and the replacement) but the appliance was just outside it's warranty period and so, replacing it - free of charge - was unheard of!

Everyone knows about the legendary customer service both Amazon and Zappos are so rightfully proud of.  Check on this article about Zappos customer service.

Guess no one in AT&T or Suddenlink read those reports.

I have had some bad customer experiences, but AT&T has got to have been the very worst, after 18 years I still won't entertain ever using any of their services again, and have no hesitation in advising family and friends to avoid them.

What on earth did they do to me to deserve that? Well, a few things, but I guess the crunch was having a customer service representative hang up on me. Now, if you knew me, you would know that I am a very mild mannered person, I am certainly not aggressive nor prone to being abusive, so I assure you I did not deserve that! Actually no customer does, even if they are abusive.

It started with a $500 phone bill.  I had cell phone, two land lines (one for a modem) and my Internet service from AT&T - I am sure I would have had UVerse too if it had been available 1995.  My phone plan was optimized for international calling as that was pretty much all I did back then and my monthly bill was always around $130. I was horrified to get a $500 bill and when I called customer service I was told I had changed my plan.  No I didn't! why would I? The representative I was unfortunate enough to get was rude from the start - and it took about 20 minutes of hold time to get him. He was very unhelpful, so I asked to speak to a supervisor - that was when he hung up on me.

See here for the full story

I called back and another 30 minutes of hold time I got another representative and asked to speak to a supervisor immediately. I was told the only way to do that was call an automated system, leave my number and request a call back from a supervisor. I did this, and the message I left was that if I did not receive a call back within 30 minutes I was canceling all my services and moving to MCI - the immediate competitor at that time - 30 minutes later, with no hold time, I was speaking to MCI and within 10 minutes had moved all my services to them. It was another 20 minutes before the AT&T callback. I told them it was too late I had moved to MCI - the supervisor confirmed for me that it was the correct move, as she very rudely told me I should have waited for my callback.

And most recently, Suddenlink amazed me by showing that they really didn't care what their customers thought. They are our Internet and TV provider, and they also supplied our home security system which is wireless, and up to recently we were very happy with them - the technical support has always been first class and the service has been reliable.  However, a couple of months ago our alarm system started to cause problems, we had issues with the backup battery system, and eventually they told us that the 4 year old phone system needed to be upgraded. They also insisted that the existing system had to be replaced with a new one as it was not possible to upgrade the unit we currently had.

How many customers fell for that one? Fortunately my husband has worked in technology for years, and not only is he very smart, he is also very frugal - he loves nothing better than to scour the Internet for days finding a better deal, and he had already sourced another supplier that was cheaper than Suddenlink and had good reviews. When we told Suddenlink's representative that we knew it could be upgraded and if they wouldn't do it we would switch to a company who would they didn't care. He called Smith Thompson and they confirmed that the system we had could certainly be upgraded and yes, they would be happy to upgrade it for us. So, for very little cost we got a better system, and reduced our monthly bill.

Suddenlink had already dropped a number of channels from their TV package and increased the cost, and for that they appear to have lost a number of their TV customers as there are alternatives and it is not difficult to find the rumblings of unhappy customers on the Internet.

Here is a very interesting site, though I question the results because it think it is a known fact that the majority of people only voice their opinion when that opinion is bad.

Tax Preparation

This year, like every other year since I came to the US, I started preparing my taxes the first week of February, using Turbo Tax DeLuxe (TT), and for the last 4 years I have used the same program to help my mother in law to prepare her taxes. TT is easy to use and efiling is a wonderful invention. However this year, due to some serious mistakes by Intuit and the designers of TT, some functionality was excluded from the installed DeLuxe version, and, in order to get these extras users were required to pay more. H&R Block (HRB) used this as an opportunity to expand their customer base. They offered their tax software free to anyone who had purchased Turbo Tax DeLuxe.


I had no reason to be dissatisfied with TT - I didn't need the extra funtionality, but I also saw no reason to not try out HRB, especially as it was going for free. So, I followed the instructions and sent off an email. Within two days I had the software installed on my computer alongside the already installed Turbo Tax.


I then set out to complete our taxes for 2014 in both programs to see if there was much difference between them. Both came up with identical results, however I had one small complication, a slight overpayment into my 401K which HRB resolved for me without any fuss, whereas TT advised that I needed to request a payment from my 401K and the associated 1099-R and some other form I would need to complete. HRB handled the overpayment as income, a solution I found much easier. And while I suspect somewhere in the future that small overpayment may be double taxed when the time comes to take distributions from my 401K, it is still a better solution for me.

I found a Consumer Reports comparison of these two tax programs online, see it here. Overall I agree with them, however I felt that TT interface was somewhat slicker, but HRB offers free In-Person Audit Support, whereas you do have to pay TT for this. The other big difference appeared when I was assisting my mother in law with her taxes. TT showed her owing over $500 in taxes, HRB on the other hand came up with a figure of less than $30 owed. I input the data three times in each program, same result each time. So, I printed out the two 1040s and compared them. The error in TT was immediately obvious.

I did one last complete run through on both returns and filed through HRB and I am afraid that TT has lost another customer, as I am sure I am not the only one who took HRB's offer and discovered the software to be as good, if not better, and cheaper overall. Too late Intuit back peddled and announced that they will roll back their greedy changes. HRB got some extremely inexpensive and very effective advertising handed to them on a plate by Intuit.

For many years I have been an advocate for TT - now I will be lauding HRB to anyone who cares to listen, while at the same time wondering if there were other years where errors in the software had caused differences in the final results. I will never know, because one thing is for sure, I am not revisiting my tax preparation for previous years, once is difficult enough! I absolutely hate doing tax returns, which is why I tackle them at the earliest possible moment.

So glad that is over for another year!

What about our elderly?

While helping my mother in law to do her taxes, I was horrified at how little income she had, or more correctly, how little she would have had if he late husband had not been a very hard working and frugal man. He spent much of his life working three jobs and carefully saving all he could towards their old age.

My mother in law has lived with us for 4 years now, ever since my father in law went into a nursing home for Alzheimer's. But, were she not living with us, she would be living in poverty without their savings, with those savings she would be fast eating away at her capital just to survive. She would have had mortgage payments and/or property taxes or rent, insurance, utilities, medical expenses and food and certainly her tiny pension would never cover that no matter how carefully she managed it.

What most amazes me is the fact that on this paltry income, she is still expected to pay taxes. Her social security is equivalent to minimum wage, the required distribution she gets from the money they so carefully saved is less than half of that - and is taxed and the small pension she gets paid from her late husband's contributory pension plan is also taxable. When we completed her taxes she still owed the IRS over $500! I don't understand how it is that people who are filthy rich pay less taxes than everyone else while so many of our elderly live in poverty? How can that possibly be equitable!? If we can't increase the minimum wage in Texas, currently $7.25 per hour, at least don't tax it! Currently a single person earning $15,600 per year (and tell me how can anyone live on that?) will pay 10% tax on the first $9,075 and 15% on the balance. Lucky married couple with only one working, will pay 10% on the lot - leaving them $14,000 approximately for two people to live on - again I ask how do they do it?

For the elderly on Social Security (pension) so long as you are getting less than $12,000 per year, you do not get taxed, however if you were wise enough to save for your retirement, you will pay taxes on income from those savings - and over a certain age (currently 70.5 years old) you are forced to take a minimum distribution, if this brings your total income over $15,000 per year, you will be taxed at 10% - that is so long as it remains below $19,050 - after that princely sum, your tax bracket is 15% rising to 25% if you managed to make more than $35,243.

According to these facts, and I could be wrong, if you manage to save for retirement, but don't save a huge sum of money, you will actually be worse off than with no savings - because a small amount will push you into the taxable income bracket without being enough to cover taxes and still have sufficient to live comfortably.

Something is seriously wrong when there are a small percentage of people with so much money, paying so little in taxes, while so many elderly people are living and dying in poverty - and so many children starving in this country, a country that prides itself on being the leaders of the free world and used to be known as the land of opportunity.

 

My mother in law is one of the lucky ones, she does not have to pay out for property taxes, mortgage, rent, utilities or even food. But it made me think of all of those elderly people who do not have family to care for them, and who never had the opportunity to save for retirement. What sort of a life do they have. It horrifies me.

According to research, US poverty rates are highest for people 65 and older, with 10.5% living in poverty, a large number of these are single or widowed women.

There are also sharp racial differences in the data: the rates are at least 3 times higher for Hispanics and African-Americans ages 65+ than for whites 65+.

I came to this country 20 years ago, following a divorce and the financial devastation that causes, and while I have been saving diligently ever since, I know that there is no way I can ever consider retiring. I must work for as long as someone is prepared to employ me, because the alternative is to quickly reduce to living in poverty. 20 years is not long enough to accrue sufficient finds to retire on. And on that note, I might add that I am horrified when I hear of young people who are not putting money into 401K or other retirement accounts.

Hang on, I am also elderly come to think of it - however I am lucky that I am still gainfully employed with the prospect of being so for the foreseeable future.

And now I have to go look for a definition for that ridiculous statement. Foreseeable future? that is very much a subjective thing I am sure.

Here is what Macmillan Dictionary describes it as:

• at a future time that is not very distant, and that can be at least partly guessed from present conditions
• for as far in the future as can be determined, based on what is known now

1099-MISC

Quite a significant event occurred today. I received a 1099-MISC from Amazon Digital Services - for royalties paid to me during the past tax year on sales of my book - I am guessing this is for the Kindle sales, and no doubt I will receive a second one for the royalties paid on sales of the paperback version. There is absolutely no risk that either of these forms will in any way complicate my income tax returns this year, but nonetheless I couldn't be more excited.

I didn't write the book to be a best seller nor in the hopes it would be made into a movie, actually I didn't really intend it to be a book - a fact that will become obvious if you read it, it really is more a series of essays. I wrote it because I couldn't stop myself. It had to come out - and it was most definitely a very therapeutic exercise.

None of the milestones since I published it, gave me greater satisfaction than actually putting those words on paper. Of course I was excited when I received the first package of paperback books with my name on the cover I had designed. I was extremely excited when a few people actually purchased the book. Very grateful for the reviews some people went to the trouble of writing on Amazon, and taken aback by the nice things they said about the book. I was more amused than excited when I received my first royalty payment. But none of this can compare to the emotional benefits I received from putting those words on paper. Just as physically emptying a stomach of poison makes a body feel better, emptying the mind of all the unpleasant and traumatic memories allows it to heal. And to actually receive a few dollars (because I promise you, it is just a few) is most gratifying.

Drivers

As I watched a car drive across three lanes of traffic on the freeway, onto the exit ramp and out of sight, doing approximately 20 miles per hour above the speed limit and without displaying any signal I mused on the different styles of driving I had observed in various parts of the US.

Of course, it is hard to generalize as so many Americans move from state to state, but I think many quickly adapt to the local driving style, and I believe that there is a local driving style.

For instance, when I first moved from Dublin to Austin Texas, I was charmed by what I thought was good manners and patience, for I never heard a horn honk no matter what the traffic situation. Then I was told that no sensible person in Texas honks their horn for fear of being shot!

My opinion is that Texans all drive like they believe they are in a NASCAR race. In fact probably more like those drivers who were the originators of NASCAR - bootleggers. Driving fast, showing no lights and lightening changes of direction with minimum indication of intention, and no consideration for other drivers. In fact, I have long believed that the drivers in Texas take the attitude that if you ignore it, then it is not there. They do this with other drivers, snow, ice, rain, you name it, they ignore it. Except of course, for slower drivers in front of them, then they herd them out of the way like the cowboys they are, getting as close as they can without actually pushing the slower vehicle off the road, though I have no doubt that is what they would like to do.






New York drivers and Dublin drivers are very similar - I guess in part because Dublin traffic and New York traffic problems are similar, but also perhaps, because there are so many Irish in New York? Lots of honking, yelling and hand gestures but very little movement.




In the San Francisco Bay Area, where drivers are subjected to long lines of slow crawling traffic, a gap wide enough to change lanes is very rare, they appear to have developed the uncontrollable need to change lanes if that gab does appear, I swear they do it because they can, irrespective of whether or not they need to be in that lane. Perhaps they think that a gap in the traffic means movement and any movement is better than none, even if the are only moving sideways and not necessarily in the direction they want to go.

I used to ride a motorbike in the Bay Area, where it is legal for motorbikes to drive between the lanes of traffic, and useful because these lanes are usually stationary. More specifically, I rode my bike across the San Mateo Bridge, which is usually at a standstill during rush hours. However I did learn very early on to be aware of this sidewards movement. As I drove, I watched for gaps and slowed down because it was inevitable some driver would dart sideways into the space.



In Seattle everyone is so incredibly polite! Drivers stop for pedestrians of all sorts, from hurrying commuters, old ladies, homeless people pushing carts, mothers pushing buggies, dogs, cats, squirrels, the WA drivers stop, smile, wave and wait patiently. No one has to wait very long to move into traffic or change lanes, they all signal their intention, and everyone stops and waves, most of the time taken to maneuver in traffic is the time it takes to demonstrate gratitude.

Next time I am traveling I must make a note of driving styles.

Restless Leg Syndrome

I thought I suffered from Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) before it was discovered, but actually research shows it was discovered way back in the 1600s. But I did suffer from it before the medical profession paid any real attention to it - or maybe that is before the pharmaceutical companies realized there was money to be made from it? Definitely I only started hearing about it when various magical cures were being advertised on TV in the '90s. It was kind of a relief to discover that it was not my imagination and the condition actually has a name.

As a teenager, if I got really tired, my legs started feeling awful - it was like an itch deep in the bone almost. Back then I was OK once I went to sleep. But as I got older it got worse. By the time I was in my late 40s it started to invade my sleep. Once I woke up with my legs twitching, I usually had to get up and walk around to stop it, then of course, I was awake and sometimes it took me over an hour to get back to sleep. Occasionally if it is not too bad, just sticking my legs outside the covers so they get cold will work. Later I started waking intermittently during the night despite the fact that my lets were quiet. It wasn't a big problem as I was able to fall back to sleep almost immediately.

Then I was put on medication to help prevent bone loss - a drug called Evista - I wasn't aware of the fact that RLS was a known side effect, in fact the only way I found out was my RLS got much worse and I was getting only 5 hours of broken sleep every night, frequently having to get up and walk it off more than once every night. Then, on a trip home to Dublin, when I was sleeping for 8 hours, if still somewhat broken sleep I was not suffering from RLS at all, I got to thinking about it, apart from being in Ireland, the main difference was that I had forgotten my medication and didn't take any Evista the entire trip. I stopped taking that medication and started sleeping better.

I was still having the occasional bout of RLS but not nearly as frequently as before, and of course I was still waking 4 or 5 time during the night - and still do.

It was only when I started reading up on RLS for this blog that I think I figured it out. RLS is just one symptom of a disease that interferes with sleep.

According to Healthline.com RLS was initially documented in the early 1600s by Thomas Willis :

...Willis’ description of RLS: “Leaping and contractions of the tendons and so great a restlessness and tossing of the members ensure that the diseased are no more able to sleep than if they were in the place of the greatest torture.” Ironically, Willis thought the cure for RLS was bloodletting, which was used for everything from rashes to cancer in those times. However, today we know that low iron levels contribute to RLS and bloodletting was the worst possible treatment...

A study in 1996 showed that after patients sought medical help, diagnosis took 10 years or more. An international study in 2004 found that only 8 percent of patients were diagnosed properly. This article also confirmed something I had already figured out for myself, any medication that eases the symptoms only does so for a limited time especially if taken regularly. I found an over the counter drug called Legatrin which did help for little while, but soon it stopped working. I now only take it once a week, generally Friday or Saturday night, when I know that I don't have to get up in the morning. I don't sleep in, I haven't done so for as long as I can remember, but I live in hope and I do get at least one good night's sleep most weeks.

The fact that RLS is a symptom fascinated me. This report from Johns Hopkins was the one that I found most fascinating as it pinpoints higher levels of glutamate in the brains of people who suffer from RLS - glutamate, the report explains, is a neurotransmitter involved in arousal - that is not referring to sexual arousal, it refers to arousal from sleep - to be awake. Suffers of RLS get less sleep, suffer from broken sleep and tend to not be overly tired during the day despite that.

Now.. I have read a number of articles that tie lack of sleep to difficulty losing weight, or even to weight gain.

According to the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal, a study conducted by the University of Chicago Sleep Research Laboratory concluded:

Sleep curtailment decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55% (1.4 vs. 0.6 kg with 8.5 vs. 5.5 hours of sleep opportunity, respectively; P = 0.043) and increased the loss of fat-free body mass by 60% (1.5 vs. 2.4 kg; P = 0.002). This was accompanied by markers of enhanced neuroendocrine adaptation to caloric restriction, increased hunger, and a shift in relative substrate utilization toward oxidation of less fat.

The amount of human sleep contributes to the maintenance of fat-free body mass at times of decreased energy intake. Lack of sufficient sleep may compromise the efficacy of typical dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction.

I am overweight despite my efforts to diet and exercise, I have RLS and I sleep very little, and I sleep badly as I said, waking frequently throughout the night, because I higher levels of glutamate!

Fascinating, but I am still fat, my legs still twitch and I still don't get enough sleep, however, somehow I feel a little bit better about it all.

Michael's

I suppose it is human to complain when service is bad, but forget to praise when it is good. Had our experience with Michael's turned sour I know I would have related the story here, so now I am going to tell you how it did pan out.

As I start this I don't actually know all the details, I will have to wait till Christmas Day to complete the story.

What I do know is that my husband decided to spend an exorbitant amount on my Christmas present this year. I know that because we share everything, all our expenditure is from a joint account. I also know (for the same reason) that what ever he bought required framing. We went to Michael's because their framing department has never let us down before. I browsed through the craft shelves while he did his business at the framing department. The final bill almost doubled the cost of my gift .. apparently.

Two weeks later he went back to pick up the finished items, only one was ready, the second one was waiting for wood to be delivered and would be ready the following week. Next week, another trip to Michael's, I never mind a chance to see what I might pick up for my embroidery and various associated projects. This time it was a short visit. Turns out the wood came in, but the 'item' had gone missing. By now I had already figured out it was a print of some sort, but because it went missing and they offered to replace it, I discovered that it was not just a print, it was a limited edition, vintage print.

I have to mention at this point, that I was a bit worried. Larry and I have very different tastes in decor. He once had an antique shop. Now, what a Texan calls an antique shop and what someone from Europe calls an antique shop are very different beasts. The majority of antique shops in Texas would be classified as junk shops in Dublin. But either way, I don't much like antiques, nor junk. But I do like old prints, particularly I like old photos of Dublin, or Austin, taken at the turn of the century, and most of all I love old western prints and ever more than that I love anything to do with John Wayne. So I was keeping my fingers crossed that if it was vintage (and now I knew it was) - that it would be something to do with the Alamo, or John Wayne.

Back to the missing print. We left Michael's with them promising to search and get back in touch the following day. The following day they called and said they couldn't find the print and they would make compensation if we brought in the receipt, furthermore we would not have to pay for the frames and we could keep the second frame.

The final agreement was - we got one vintage print framed for free, one frame free and $300 to compensate for the lost print. We went back the next weekend with the receipt and brought the empty frame home with us. I planned to create a collage of photos of my children and grandchildren to till it. Two days later we got another call from Lori, the framing department Manager. They had found the missing print and could we bring the frame back and they would put it in for us. Still no charge, but naturally, the $300 compensation was no longer on the table.

Christmas Morning:

The final result is that we will return to Michael's for all our craft and framing needs, we will tell everyone we know about the wonderful service we received and I received two amazing, limited edition, original vintage movie posters, yes, John Wayne movie posters,beautifully framed, at a total cost of approximately $60. And one was The Alamo!

Thank you Larry, and thanks to Lori and Michael's Framing Department!

Pedantic

I do like that word, it sounds exactly like its definition.

---

pe·dan·tic
pəˈdan(t)ik/
adjective
of or like a pedant.
synonyms:
over scrupulous, scrupulous, precise, exact, perfectionist, punctilious,meticulous, fussy, fastidious, finicky;

---

I have freely admitted to being somewhat anal, slightly OCD and maybe just a little bit neurotic. All of these 'qualities' are required for my profession - well, perhaps not required, but are definitely assets. Perhaps the world of Quality Assurance is the only place where such otherwise debilitating afflictions are actually valued. But there is a very fine line between being what we QA engineers prefer to call 'detail oriented' and the over the edge version 'pedantic'.

One of the very important qualities a Quality Assurance Engineer needs to have is the ability to be able to call a halt and realize when paying too much attention to detail is actually wasting time and not serving quality. Because, after all, quality, at least in software development, which is the field I am talking about, is getting software to market on time and at the highest possible quality. The object of the exercise is always improving the customer experience. Therefore splitting hairs and wasting time on minor points which do not make a bit of difference to the customer experience is something we have to be able to recognize and let go. Not easy for anyone who is detail oriented, OCD, anal or neurotic, and impossible for those who are pedantic.

So, when considering applicants for a position testing software, how do you establish that they are within that percentage of people who are definitely suffering from neurosis but that does not spill into the pedantic percentile.

I believe there are a number of criteria you can consider.

1. Attitude towards developers, and ourselves as QA. They are not Gods, they are one of us, we are not superior, we are one of them. So, a question  'how would you deal with this scenario' and the scenario being some breakdown in communication between QA and Development,  should establish the candidates inner feelings. Here the developer hero worshipper will be exposed and we should get some insight into how the candidate interacts with development.

It is important that we are peers, all working towards the same end, quality software, quality customer experience, minimum time to deployment. Maximum quality.

2. Simple example of test code that may not be optimal, but is efficient and gets the job done in the least amount of time and effort. Review this code. Here is where the pedantic soul will come to light. They will come up with the most convoluted methods to 'improve' the code. Possibly making it difficult to implement, difficult to maintain and even more difficult to follow, plus taking too much time, something most QA engineers never have enough of.

One of the big differences between developers and test engineers is the fact that while test engineers need to be able to write code to test the software, their code doesn't necessarily have to be highly efficient so long as it achieves the end result and it has to make debugging test failures fast and easy. Developers on the other hand, need to maximize efficiency as well as achieving the correct functionality.

Customers do not have to interact nor depend on test code, just benefit from the results. Developers code is what the customer is ultimately going to skid to the finishing post on, or fall off the mountain as a result of.

A good QA Engineer will attempt to maintain a fine balance between being OCD and overly pedantic, and will always be detail oriented.

Another update on my foot

Two years and nine months ago I had the first surgery on my foot. The main symptom that sent me to the doctor was severe knee pain when climbing stairs and running. The running was the main issue. I need to workout, I have osteoporosis and I need to keep my bones as healthy as possible, but I dislike working out. I dislike it intensely. I get bored. I also dislike taking any form of medication.

I discovered that running is the activity I dislike the least, probably because I can get it over with fast, in fact the faster I run the quicker it is done. I also find it challenging and therefore exhilarating. But the pain in my right knee eventually forced me to give up running. The knee surgeon looked at the x-ray and told me there was nothing wrong with my knee. However, he then caught sight of my right foot and immediately referred me to his colleague - a foot specialist.

it was my right foot - 
looks good now though you can still see the scars

The foot specialist agreed that I needed surgery for a bunion and a hammer toe. Now, I do admit that the hammer toe caused me some pain, in fact even in soft sneakers it hurt most of the time. That surgery took the best part of a year to recover from fully. Oh, I was able to walk and drive without difficulty after about 4 months, but it was a full year before the swelling went down sufficiently to fit into most of my shoes. Before the swelling had completely subsided, I noticed another toe was getting hammered, so I took myself back to my foot surgeon. (see here for photos before and after surgery).

That was November and he agreed it needed to be done but could wait until I was ready - I decided to leave it until after the new year.

In February, 11 months after the first surgery, I went back to him to schedule the surgery but also to get his opinion on yet another toe on the same foot, that was looking a bit hammered. Sure enough he agreed to take care of both toes - actually, the little toe was also heading in the same direction but my little toes are so incredibly small, and set low on the side of my foot, that neither of us considered it to be an issue worth surgery.

March was becoming my annual foot surgery month, however two hammer toes is not nearly as serious an operation as a bunionectomy, so I was back on my feet almost immediately and full recovery took 3 months. I was not impressed to discover that my knee was still as sore as ever. So I paid some attention to my balance and realized that I was putting little or no weight on the inside of the ball of my foot, I assume this was something I had subconsciously done to avoid putting stress on the bunion, and avoid jamming the hammered toe up into the shoe.

For the next 5 months I practiced rolling off the ball of my foot and making sure that my big toes took all of the stress while walking. I did frequent exercises to strengthen the muscles in my legs, and increase the flexibility of my feet. I got a balance ball - and spent a lot of time attempting to balance on one leg on that thing. It was not easy, but it worked wonders, so much so that I still use it regularly.


This week, two years and nine months after the first surgery I am delighted, if somewhat disbelieving, to report that I have finally started running again, well, I say running, what I really mean is jogging. Gentle jogging just for 2 minutes at a time, then 5 minutes walking to verify that the knee is doing OK. Repeat for 30 minutes.  I am really hoping that I will soon be back to my 40 minute run 4 days a week. The other days I plan to work on strengthening my core and improving my balance and stability.

It is never too late!

I have an Apple Mac headache

You know you are getting old when introduction to new technology gives you a headache, actually towards the end of my first day working on an Apple Mac I was feeling almost nauseous.





Don't get me wrong, I am not an applephobe. But I have worked in a Windows world exclusively for the best part of 18 years. Prior to that I did work in UNIX and .. dare I say it without giving away my age entirely, I actually worked with a Wang word processor - (I was very young then) and if you ever worked with a Wang, a MAC would actually appear quite easy, but not after 18 years of Windows.



I never realized how many of the shortcut key strokes I relied on, until I entered the MAC world and then it was just like when I tried to change trains in Paris - without a word of French. (See my book for that unfortunate escapade).


I got my MAC on Wednesday, continued working on my Windows 7 machine through to the weekend, mainly because it was one of those mad dashes to get it done, and mad dashes and a new MAC didn't seem to be compatible. Monday morning I knew it was now or never - no matter what urgency arose, I had to bite the proverbial bullet and make friends with my MAC.

Thank God for Google! And for my office mates, two young developers who both work on MACs and were so patient responding to my cries for help.

It all started when my boss decided that to be more productive I really did need a MAC, for reasons that are not really relevant to this story, but trust me, they were sound. For further (also unnecessary to the story) reasons, I had to travel to Dallas to get my MAC set up - along with one of our developers who was also moving to MAC - incidentally he didn't get a headache - he was already well versed in the ways of the Apple and happy to be moving.

MegaBus pickup point

In the interests of frugality, and not wishing to actually drive myself to Dallas and back in a day, I took advice and booked a bus, MegaBus to be exact up from Austin to Dallas in the morning - unfortunately the MegaBus schedule returning didn't work for us, so it was Greyhound back - however, if you know me, you will know that was very exciting. I had already driven a U-Haul, what was more symbolic of Americana than a Greyhound Bus! So, one way ticks on Megabus up, leaving from the UT campus area at 7.20 with a checkin time of 7.05 required a taxi from the office at 6.30. Return bus was 5.30 p.m. from downtown Dallas, arriving back in Austin at 8.35.

I reserved a yellow cab to pick us up from the office at 6.30 a.m (see my phobia about time here) and when he had not arrived at 6.35 I called. Guess what? they had no record of a reservation but would send a cab immediately. I was silently distraught (at least I think I was silent) until the taxi turned up at 6.55 a.m but you probably won't be surprised if you know my history, to discover we got to the bus exactly on time. The pickup point turned out to be a run down parking lot at the back of a shopping mall, checkin was not an option because all there was there was one security guard and a bunch of assorted people with suitcases and backpacks waiting for the bus. Somehow I imagined a shiny glass booth with an automated checkin, and my traveling companion actually expected a security check.

We arrived in Dallas at 10.30 as advertised, picked up a cab almost immediately and we were at the office by 11 a.m. It took the best part of 30 minutes to get us checked through security but our meeting with IT was for 12 noon, so all was good. One hour later we were in the huge Dallas style mall searching for food. Then back to the office to wait for a cab to bring us to the Greyhound terminal.




It is sufficient to say, I have been there and done that, and I might just travel by Greyhound again if the need arises, but it was definitely not as comfortable as Megabus - and to be fair, Megabus was mega .. it was a double decker bus complete with free wifi and you could reserve seating - for $5 each I reserved seats 1 & 2 on the upper deck at the front of the bus.

What still amazes me is that the taxi cab rides, to and from the office in Austin, and between the bus and the office in Dallas were each more expensive that the bus rides. The entire trip for two including lunch cost slightly over $200.  $60 of that covered both bus fares for both people.

I sure hope that my subconscious forgets the Windows shortcuts quickly. I would really like to enjoy this new MAC experience. And I need to gather some speed to get this work done.

Christmas tree at the Mall in Dallas. Huge Dallas Style!!!

Now I know why their interest rate is so high!

American Express - one of the first credit cards I got when I arrived in the US. It was essential for me to get a credit card in order to start building my credit history. The AmEx Green card was easy to get because I was working and while it claims to have no spending limit, it was also required that you clear the balance at the end of each monthly billing cycle. Therefore their exposure was only for one month, and as I discovered, until you build up a history with them, they don't honor that 'no credit limit'.

I got my card just before I moved to California from Texas. I was going to be reimbursed for the cost of my relocation once I started work and submitted my claim, but meanwhile my new AmEx Green card took the hit. Sadly, the 4th day of my first week at work my mother passed away, I booked a flight to Dublin due to leave SFO two hours later, and headed to the airport. At the ticket desk I presented my AmEx card only to have it refused based on the amount charged in the first month of the card's life. I spoke with the AmEx agent on the ticket desk's phone and eventually was approved (full story is in my book ).

After that I had no problem with American Express as I paid off my monthly balance for years, eventually gaining Gold and then Platinum level - however the annual fee jumped,, plus they started extending the limit to pay over time for major purchases, such as travel and appliances. They also offered me a Blue card at a much lower rate, and lower annual fee, with a very healthy credit limit.

At that time I was still working on establishing my home in Texas, and recovering from an expensive two years in California (again I refer you to my book for full details) and sadly was trapped in the typical American credit card spiral.



However, the point of this blog is to explain how I discovered why AmEx has such high interest rates - because they do. I am happy to say I finally did get out from under the credit card debt and we now only use our credit cards for major purchases when we know that we can clear the balance immediately. We have a very low interest card from our Credit Union and decided that was all we needed, and we certainly didn't need to be paying annual fees to AmEx for cards we rarely used. So, last month I called and cancelled both my AmEx cards. They explained to me that as long as there was a balance on the card I would receive paper statements (I have been on electronic statements since they were available). Well, fine - I didn't have a balance on either card so that was that.. I thought.

Then I received two letters from AmEx, one for each card, confirming what they had told me on the phone, next day I received two statements, each showing a credit balance - the annual fee refund for what was left of their financial year. Then the following day I received two more letters pointing out that I had a credit balance and would therefore continue to receive statements despite the cards being closed.


I wrote to them and requested a refund check be issued. I received two letters, one for each card, confirming receipt of one letter and advising me that they would issue refund checks. A couple of weeks later I received two letters containing the checks. Finally, last week I received a statement for one of the cards, showing a zero balance on a card that had been cancelled for over a month. I am waiting for the statement on the other zero balance and I sincerely hope that will be the last communication I ever have from AmEx. I can't begin to imagine how much it cost them to generate all that mail, paper, postage, person hours - all for nothing! Why could they not just issue a check once the cards were cancelled and be done with it? Then maybe they could reduce that high annual fee and the high annual interest rate.

I looked on their web site - they now offer no less than 21 different credit cards, mostly in partnership with other businesses, some with various rewards attached, all with very high interest rates, and most with an annual fee. They even have one prepaid 'credit' card, which has no credit check required! Well, why on earth would you expect a credit check if you have to load the card before you can use it. But what most intrigued me about that prepaid card was the $1 monthly fee!

I might be neurotic, or maybe it is OCD - perhaps both?

I freely admit that I am obsessed with time. Not just being on time. In fact I am almost always early for everything, and if it looks like I might not be early I get very stressed. But I have a real need to know what time it is, all the time.  I have a clock (thanks to my husband) that projects the time on the bedroom ceiling in large red digits, so that when I wake during the night I can instantly know what time it is. We have at least one clock in every room in the house. I feel very uncomfortable if I don't know what the time is, even if I have nothing to do and nowhere to go. So, I do know that I am a little obsessed with time and, after all, that is what the 'O' in OCD stands for (Obsessed not Time).

Then there is the germaphobia I don't believe I have, but I think I almost do (see this blog entry). As I looked back over blog entries I noticed I have alluded to similar topics before, as in this one here. Perhaps I am just a bit obsessed with the possibility of being neurotic?

Today I had to consider that perhaps I am also almost neurotic. What, I hear you ask, made me think that? And naturally I will tell you, as there would be no point in mentioning it here if I was not prepared to expand.

I went to get my nails done today, manicure and pedicure and an eyebrow waxing. The full treatment. No, I don't consider that neurotic behavior, but as Kim (at Millennium Nails in Cedar Park) started on my nails, a married couple came in and asked if they could both have a manicure and pedicure and how long would it take. When they were told it would take about an hour, they said great, because our daughter has a performance in an hour and a half. They sat side by side on the plush pedicure chairs, enjoying the massaging action and reading magazines or accessing email or similar on their phones. The were totally relaxed. I, on the other hand, was quite stressed. An hour and a half 'till their daughter's performance! There wasn't enough time to be sitting there relaxing!

I didn't know where the performance was and didn't care what it was, I just knew they would be late. I kept checking my watch, and the clock on the wall and the progress of their pedicure, mentally trying to figure out if they could possible be ready in time. The wife was done with her pedicure first, smaller feet I suppose, and she moved without any sign of stress to the table for her nails. She didn't even glance at the clock. Finally the husband's feet were done and his manicure began. I consoled myself that he would not be getting his nails painted so it would be faster. But still I kept looking at my watch, then at the clock on the wall, and I so wanted to warn them they would be late, and tell everyone to hurry up! Of course I didn't but I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was when they finally sauntered out of there, exactly an hour after they had arrived.

During that stressful (for me anyway) hour they mentioned that the performance was at the Cedar Park Center - approximately 5 minutes away. But I knew there were at least 4 sets of traffic lights between Millennium Nails and the Center - and traffic was bad on Saturday afternoon, especially as it was raining, and parking was a nightmare at the Center.

My only argument in favor of my claim to sanity is that I was aware that I was being neurotic and I was mildly amused by it. When I got home I searched for tests online - not that I really believe these tests prove anything, but I find them interesting. Let's face it , quizzes are all the rage on social media these days.

I took one test for Neurosis here, and the result was :

My understanding is that the higher the score, the more neurotic you are. I did take the test a second time and it was 70% still too high to be normal.

Then I found a test for OCD here.

I am guessing that was a US test because I got slightly different results (with identical questions) on a UK website here - notice however that the total score was also 12!

Perhaps OCD type behavior is more normal in the UK? I couldn't find a test for the Irish but I am fairly sure if I did, it would prove me to be 100% normal by Irish standards.

Shopping

I absolutely hate shopping. Well, I lie, I hate shops and dealing with sales people. That is why I love shopping online.

Most of all, I hate buying a car. Don't get me wrong, I love cars, I love new cars as is obvious by the number I have owned! But my experience buying them has been varied. Perhaps it is not so much buying the car, as trading in the old one.

I bought three cars in Ireland. all used and in each case I had no trade in. The first I bought from my sister - not an issue. The second was a used Fiat 128 from a dealership, It turned out to be a very reliable car and I drove it to a standstill. It ended it's life as a 'green' house - that is a planter behind our back yard. I grew bell peppers inside and other items out of the trunk of that car and they were amazing. The only other car I bought in Ireland was a used Volvo, who can go wrong with a Volvo? It was a great car. I sold that car to a friend and my only mode of transport for a number of years was a motorbike.

However, when I came to the US and settled in Texas, I discovered that a car was not a luxury, it was absolutely essential if you wanted to work and I did. But I hit that chicken and egg situation. You can't get credit without a credit history, but if you never got credit you don't have a credit history. I was lucky, I had someone who was prepared to go guarantor for me. I picked out a beautiful cherry red Ford Ranger Pickup Truck. I told the salesman that I would be financing it but that I had a guarantor because I had no credit history. He insisted that I should be the second on the loan and my guarantor should be first.  Not only did I not buy his truck, I lost my guarantor who got frightened off by this idea. I do not blame her either.

So I continued to search. I may have mentioned my amazing friend Paul Neumann - I know I have mentioned him in my book Peeling The Onion, well, he introduced me to a Mitsubishi dealership and there I found Debrae. She found me the perfect car, but more important, she bulldozed the finance department in the dealership and secured me the much needed financing - not only did I get my car, I also started building my credit.

I traded that car in, again with Debrae, so I was treated well, and moved up from a program car with 6K miles, to the same model, brand new but had been sitting on the lot for a year, so I got a good deal. It was my first time trading in a car, so I didn't know that I could have negotiated, but I was satisfied with the deal.

Two years later I was ready to move up from a Mitsubishi Mirage to my dream Mustang. Of course I wanted a Cobra, but I was realistic and knew that I would have to delay that dream. I upgraded my Mirage for a Mustang with a very tepid sales experience. Three years later and another Mustang, this time my husband closed the deal. When the time came to trade in for another Mustang, working my way up to the Cobra, the dream dissolved. This purchase was memorable in that it was a nightmare ordeal. Looking back on it I have no idea why I actually bought the car. If it were today, I know I would walk out and go elsewhere. Back then I still had not got a good grasp of how capitalism works, and to this day, I can't haggle - I am not sure why I did this one on my own. I swore that after that my husband would take care of the car purchasing.

I spent what seemed like hours while the salesman ran back and forth between me and some back office, arguing the trade in price. They claimed the car had been repainted due to an accident. I told them not only was it repainted due to a recall on the paint, but their own service department had done the respray job. I did end up buying the car and regret it just because I know I should have walked out. The salesman gave me a bottle of Irish Whisky when the deal closed, but I just felt like hitting him over the head with it. I didn't. But I did learn a valuable lesson. I will never be treated like that again. I will walk out and not go back.

So I will never have my Cobra because I will never go near another Ford Dealership. And now that I have found Joe Ward in the Lexus Dealership in Austin, I no longer care about giving up my dream. I recently purchased my third Lexus from Joe and I have got to tell you it was not just a painless experience, it was fun. There was no pressure, on each occasion I feel we got a very reasonable trade in for the old car and did love my Lexus IS 250s, But this time I got a truly beautiful car, and ES 300 Hybrid! I am so delighted that I finally have a Hybrid - oh and I also got a lovely bottle of Cabernet :) - I like Irish Whisky - but I love red wine! This is going to be the last car I buy, Those words sound sort of familiar - I do believe I said that before, a few times.

Repurposing & renovating

Recently Larry pulled a couple of pairs of jeans out of his closet to be thrown, they were not even worth giving to Goodwill as the seat was worn through. Before he threw them out, I rescued strips of denim from the legs. Ideal for samplers when testing out my embroidery designs.



Currently I am working my way through a pair of sheets, but I needed some fabric of a heavier nature to give me some variation. Denim was perfect for that.

The following week I looked at my potholders and bemoaned the fact that I would have to finally throw them away as they were really getting to look ratty. They had proved to be the perfect pot holders for me, I had tried replacing them but as my hands are not very strong (the result of having suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome before it became fashionable), I need pot holders that are not doubling as resistance training. Larry suggested that I could possibly recover them. !!Light Bulb!! (He comes up with some very clever ideas).

So, using the denim saved from his old jeans, an ideal material to recover the back of the pot holders, the working side is silicon and in great condition still. I played around with a few designs and, because I don't go much for the 'twee' theme, I selected to use cartoon type drawings of a hamburger and a hot dog.





The hardest part of this entire task was stitching the finished backing to the potholders, and I would be the first to admit it isn't perfect by any means - but it works for me and I am now on a quest to make, from scratch, some more of these, perhaps for myself, maybe for gifts.

I am hopeful that making them from scratch will be a lot easier. With that in mind I have ordered some silicon pieces. I will let you know how it goes!