I must be having my Man-PMS or something.....even the littlest things have been annoying me the last few days! IT started on Thursday when "Conchetta" REALLY got on my nerves by talking to me like I'm a child. She just does not know when to shut the hell up!

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     Next up was the car insurance deal. By the way, I got a response to the email I sent them the other night. It said, "thank you for the opportunity to attempt to win you as a customer. We're sorry you found no benefit (as millions of others have) in insuring your vehicle with us. Your quote has been cancelled." Found no benefit? Oh good grief! I wish that I could fly up to wherever they are and just bitch slap these people!

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     And then this morning happened. I made the mistake of getting onto the scales and discovered that I've gained seven pounds!! Yes, I know I know.....I shouldn't let it freak me out, but when you go through what I went through just to lose weight, it BECOMES something to freak out about!! So I went to the local Wally World and bought a weight set. That combined with my sit ups should get me out of the woods pretty quick!

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     Speaking of gaining weight.....I decided to make a pizza for dinner and it was a complete disaster! Keep in mind that pizza making used to be my livelihood, so it's a RARE thing for me to screw one up. I bought something that I've never used before (and never will again!)......that "roll out" dough in the can that looks like what biscuits come in. Thankfully I had the foresight to buy two just in case I one wasn't large enough. Well, sure enough, one wasn't large enough, so I had to combine the two. THAT was a task in itself. This crap would NOT spread out.....I was PISSED. So two cookie sheets later, I finally end up having to use a smaller pan---even THEN it was a challenge to get this evil dough to work right!! Here's the kicker....when the pizza was "done", I took a bite and realized the crust was not done!! BLECH!! So I put it in for a few more minutes....and then another few....and then ANOTHER few. No luck. Had I not wanted pizza REALLY REALLY bad, I would have thrown the damn thing out the door!!

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     *sigh
      Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

POP QUIZ: What happens when BryM becomes a disgruntled customer?   Anyone who's read anything I've written here the last 2 years knows the answer to that one-----I give the offending service provider ample opportunity to correct their mistake and then I go off on them like a bottle rocket....after which, I find another service provider and say good riddance to bad rubbish.

I've spoken about my experiences with Embarq & Charter Cable lately....the phone company had screwed me over on my internet service, so I was going to make the switch to cable---that in itself turned into a circus that sent me into many a tyrade. Well, long story short, the internet service has gone back to about as normal as can be expected and I've forbidden Charter to even THINK about contacting me. So all is well in the land of BryM right?

Wrong.

I started shopping around for a new car insurance provider recently. I already gave my long speech on how it is that they arrive at their already outrageous rates by blatantly discrimintating against people who have less than a 750 FICO score (by the way, for my Canadian friends, a FICO is just another term for credit rating). Now in MY case, my rates have always been SOMEWHAT reasonable, although higher than what they SHOULD be because of the fact that my FICO is lower than 750---even though my driving record is SPOTLESS since I got my driver's license 21 years ago. I've learned to live with that over the years, though only because auto insurance is required in North Carolina---unless of course you're Mexican. But that's another story for later. Anyway, my carrier (the one with the cavemen and a lizard peddling their products) recently informed me that they expect a double payment to ensure the "equity" is in my account. Yeah, it was a load of bullshit, but whatever. So tonight I go onto AIG's website to get a quote. Before I share with you the figure that AIG gave me, let me give you a break down of what I pay now for my 1987 Nissan Pickup....it's a king cab by the way:

$232/6 mos.
This is for FULL COVERAGE and includes a $3 monthly junk fee assessed because I pay monthly. The other companies that I've gotten quotes from are a few dollars in each direction (more/less). So you can imagine my surprise when I open my email and see the following from AIG:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for considering AIG for your auto insurance needs. We are pleased to offer you a six month policy for $1,206.82.

You can review the details of your automobile quotation and start coverage as early as tomorrow by clicking here http://autoquote.aig.com! Your Quotation Number is: XXXXXXXX

We want to help you make the right choice regarding your auto insurance. If you have any questions about your auto quote or the application process, please call us at 1-877-310-5687 or email us at aigauto@mailnj.custhelp.com  <mailto:aigauto@mailnj.custhelp.com>. Please be sure to have your quotation number handy when calling or emailing a customer service representative!

Thank you for your interest in AIG Auto. We look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,

The AIG Auto Insurance Team



Would anyone be interested in reading my response to their email?
I thought you would!

Can I scream now?
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!


Ok now I feel better. Sort of.

Yes, it's been one of THOSE days! Of course it's Monday, so I shouldn't have been shocked! Anything that could go wrong DID:

>>I was confronted in the lobby once again by a huge spider. I stomped on him and said, "Die you evil arachnid! DIE!!!" And then I looked up to see a group of people who were visiting our office from out of town----staring right at me.

>>I went to McDipshits for lunch and ordered a GRILLED chicken sandwich, fries, and medium iced tea. I got a FRIED chicken sandwich, cold hard fries, and Diet Dr Pepper. All served with a scowl by a girl with green hair and sores on her face.

>>On the way back to the office at lunch time, I almost got T-boned by a dump truck. Thankfully I'd already used the facilities before I left work or I would have had QUITE a mess to contend with!

>>Yet ANOTHER hospital administrator asks me, "what does the MRI look like?" when I tried to set up an appointment for service.

>>I ordered a part for a guy who lives in Arizona & is driving three hours to a service appointment in California tomorrow morning. Instead of sending the part to California, it's now on its way to North Dakota. I realized this when I was halfway home this evening.

Yes, Monday saw me coming and gave me the finger. Once again.

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The GOOD news is that my rosebushes that I just planted a few weeks ago are starting to bloom! I'm so excited!

Oh God. I've become so domesticated. Someone shoot me!

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That's it for now....I've got some blog reading to catch up on!!

It has shaped up to be an.....interesting.....weekend:

The adventure began Friday evening with some pretty wild weather around here. It'd rained all day and then the fireworks started in the evening. I think Mother Nature waits until after dark to send the bad thunderstorms....so that people can get the shit scared out of them! Anyway, I was up until the wee hours of the morning hoping that the lightning didn't fry my house!

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Having survived the psunamis of Friday, I got up Saturday morning (after only 5 hours of sleep!) and tried in vain to go BACK to sleep---knowing I'd need all my energy for babysitting my nephew Eli! It suddenly dawned on me that I needed to go to Wally World first though....I'd not gotten Eli's birthday present....back in January! Once I got into the toy department, I was reminded of WHY it was that I'd neglected to go back in January....there were children EVERYWHERE!! Unsupervised of course! I finally decided on a Tonka tow truck, a book about The Three Little Pigs, and some Matchbox cars! Of course the truck has LOTS of lights & noisy things...payback for all the things my sister ever did to me when I was little! hehehehehe

The babysitting itself wasn't too bad....my nephew was quite helpful when I couldn't figure out how to get into the wipe warmer thingie when I was changing his diaper. Apparently he got tired of my attempts to get into it the WRONG way, and he showed me how to open it. I'm SOOO glad that my sister is going to start his poddy training this week!! Then my diaper woes will be over the next time I sit with him!

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After I left my sister's house, I decided to go through Wendy's for a bite to eat....so I get to the drive thru, order my food, and wait in line for the pick up window....well there's this BUTTHEAD in a huge van that decides he forgot the all important sauce for whatever, and after I start to pull forward, he slams into reverse and starts coming back....had I not gotten in gear when I did, this ass would have ran over the top of my truck! The ONLY reason he stopped was because I laid on the horn and yelled out the window at him. Of course, I almost hit the car behind me when I had to back up.....which was filled with overly dramatic teenage girls who were screaming at the top of their lungs! So the guy in the van just looks at me like he's clueless as to what happened.....I've said before that I just HATE stupid people. When he finally does pull off, he's out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell, and the lady at the window tells me he's drunk or something.

NATURALLY, being the concerned citizen that I am (and REALLY pissed because he almost hit my truck!), I get my food and pull off to the side of the parking lot to call my brother in law. Did I mention my brother in law is a cop?

Tip for the week, folks: Don't drink and drive & then make an ass out of yourself at the drive-thru because you NEVER KNOW who the person behind you is related to!

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That's about it for now-----I have pizza duty today----the roomie's mother is "cooking" and wants me to pick it up....she's definitely a modern woman when it comes to Sunday dinner, huh?


PS--> Here's the nephew with his FAVORITE new truck:

Here's something to ponder---

Most folks get their driver's permit when they reach 15 years old. They drive for a year with a licensed driver, and then at age 16 get their official card that says they can drive alone. What happens after that is usually about a 50/50 proposition---half the kids out there have some sort of accident, while the other half don't. Half of those kids will get a speeding ticket, while half won't. And half will get some sort of DUI before they reach 30, while the other half won't.

Now, the half that stack up the traffic tickets for whatever reason(s) are usually penalized pretty heavily when it comes to the cost of auto insurance. The reason why is pretty obvious. If you accumulate a certain number of moving violations over the course of time, you're more at risk for an insurance company to have to pay out multiple times. Pretty much a no-brainer, right?

So what about the OTHER half of those folks? The ones who either by sheer luck, fear of car crashes, or just because they've got some good sense go through their lives without accumulating ANY violations? They reap the rewards of lower cost insurance right?

Sort of.

"Huh? Sort of? What do you mean?"

I'm glad you asked. You see, just because you can go, oh say 10, 20, ....even 30 years with NO "points" against your driving record, that does NOT mean that you are a safe driver entitled to lower insurance rates.

UNLESS-------

You have a FICO score of 750 or higher.

"HUH? What does my FICO score have to do with my ability to safely operate a motor vehicle?"

Again...I'm glad you asked!

According to "studies" by ....well, it's unclear WHO did these "studies"....but these studies show that people with lower FICO scores are more likely to have an accident than those with higher scores.

"But if my driving record clearly shows that I'm a safe driver and have been for decades, but my credit score is below 750, how does that prove I'm more likely to have an accident?"

It just does.

"And if someone with a FICO of 850 has a lot of violations?"

They pay more because they're not considered a safe driver.

"But their credit score is 850."

They pay more because they're a higher risk.

"But I have proven for over 20 years that I'm a safe driver--if the higher credit score person pays more because they're UNsafe, why do I pay more if I have a perfect driving record?"

Because you just do.

Don't believe me? Call your insurance company and ask them how they come up with your premium.