Dispatch letter

Here's the letter that I just submitted to the Columbus Dispatch.  They frustrate me so much!!!

Dear Columbus Dispatch,

I prepaid for a one year subscription to the paper and read it daily.  I received subscription renewal notices, as it read on the outside of the envelope.  I didn't plan to renew, so I ignored the solicitations.  A couple of weeks later I received an unintelligible phone call from someone claiming to be following up for the person who came to my house on the money that I owed.  Since I didn't think I owed any money for my pre-paid subscription and the caller was so unprofessional, I was sure it was a scam.  So, I called the Columbus Dispatch to find out if it was legitimate and warn the paper if it wasn't.  The circulation staffer I spoke with said that they did not call me and they did not send someone to my house.  I reported that I was concerned about fraud on their behalf.  The staffer seemed thoroughly unconcerned and didn't indicate that he would even pass the word along to supervisors.  I received a second phone call, that my husband answered.  He had a similar experience and also said it sounded like a fraud.  Again, I didn't plan to renew my newspaper subscription and the Dispatch wasn't worried about it, so I ignored it.  Who isn't inundated by solicitations for services?

Then I got a call from the Dispatch that I was sure was legitimate.  They were attempting to collect the $50 that I owed them.  I was a little less surprised this time, but still had no idea what they were talking about.  Then the staffer explained that the Dispatch had mailed me notices stating that they would continue my subscription until I called to cancel.  Apparently those solicitation letters with "subscriber invoice enclosed" detailed the fact.  I asked if I could have the fee waived since I never asked for the service. They said no.  I asked if I could be credited if I were to resubscribe.  Again, I was told no.  To this I responded that I would file a claim with the BBB and the AG since this seemed unethical to me.

A couple of days later I received a call from a collection agency.  I explained my concern and they said that this is how every newspaper in the country operates.  No wonder newspapers are losing subscribers!  Look how they treat their customers!  I bought something and as a result I am being charged for future services.  Crazy!  I paid the invoice rather than be sent to collections, so I caved to the threat.

Given that I need to keep up with the paper for work, and I bumped into a nice sales guy selling subscriptions, I reluctantly resubscribed.  Since it was a few days after I received the collections call I decided to follow up with the Dispatch to ensure my account was in good standing.  The nice woman in the subscriptions department informed me that as soon as they receive payment from the collection agency they will restart my subscription.  So, I objected multiple times to multiple staff, was sent to collections for nonpayment of a subscription, and they are going to restart my subscription without my consent? 

It's completely unethical.  The Dispatch needs to change its policies or risk alienating too many customers.  Lucky for you I'm stuck reading the paper for work.

Sincerely,
Jodi Segal

Latest updates

It's been a couple of months since my last update, so I figure that we must have something to report by now. Actually Violet has been doing a lot of changing recently. She's gone from babyhood firmly into toddlerhood.

Her vocabulary is amazing. I don't know how other kids develop language and I'm not reading any books, so I have no idea if she's Einstein (probably) or way behind... She has about a dozen words that she understands and uses spontaneously (not just repeating back to us). It's hart to understand them, but they are consistent and we understand what they mean. Violet can say - moo, dog (duh), milk (muh), uh-oh, no, mama, daddy (daiy), chicken (kiku), diaper (bopper), cat (cuh), and woof (wuh). She repeats sounds we make and is adding new words every few days - diaper and chicken both appeared this week.

Violet is also walking pretty well. She took her first steps the week after her birthday, 3 months ago, and has been slow to progress on the walking. Finally, this week, she seems to have transitioned into walking about 2/3 of the time and crawling the rest of the time.

She's totally weaned off the bottle, but we are still nursing twice a day. I plan to continue until she is 2, if I can stand dealing with the infection that she gave me in January that I can't kick. Besides that, we both still like it and I'm evangelical about the health benefits to both of us.

Finally for Violet, she has started throwing temper tantrums. We're trying to figure out how to cut them off at the pass. We err on the side of ignoring them to keep from reinforcing bad behavior, but I'm still trying to figure out if there are techniques to be supportive and help her through them.

For me & Jim - we planned to go to Texas this month but I chickened out on the flight. I get new health insurance later this summer which will qualify me for a program that should help. We did travel to North Carolina for a wedding and had a blast. We have another wedding this weekend. 2 friends had babies in the last month and 2 more are due in about 6 weeks.

I've joined the Advisory Board of the Gateway Film Center, which is a movie theater that is reinventing itself to be an entertainment/live events venue. Work keeps me overly busy and Jim's business continues to grow. He hired his first employee a few months ago and hopes to have a second in a year or so.

Our camera broke, but is being repaired, so look for more pictures in a couple of weeks. I keep stockpiling them and will eventually post them on our Picassa account.

Big girl!

In the past few weeks Miss Violet has celebrated her first birthday, started walking, become a kisser, and expanded her vocabulary from "mama" and "dada" to add "no," "uh oh," and maybe "book."  I'll be so proud if her 5th word is "book."  It will overshadow her learning "no" so early.  We hardly ever use that word, trying to encourage her curiosity and confidence by phrasing things positively.  So, instead of "don't hit the dog" we'll say "pet Maddy gently."  Several months ago she seemed to say "muh" for milk and "duh" for dog, but we can't be so sure.

Violet took her first steps just a week after her birthday.  It took her another 3 weeks before she attempted it again, exploding with a dozen little toddles yesterday.  So cute!

She has also shifted to more interactive play.  Violet can sit attentively and play with someone else - feeding other people, petting the dog or attempting to pet our unwilling cat, and imitating nearly everything we do with uncanny detail.

So much fun!

I can't cook, but I'm really good at ordering

I'm thinking about writing a cookbook. No, I'm not going to learn how to cook. Rather, I'm going to convince my spunky neighbor to lend me the personality and recipes for a website and cookbook. I think I'll start the introduction with "I can't cook, but I'm really good at ordering."

Marie lives a block away from us and she loves Violet. We stop in to visit when I see that she is at home. When it's time to leave, she's always pushing amazingly tasty desert on us. So, I got to thinking that she should write a cookbook. I haven't exactly broached the subject with her yet, but I'm sure that she'll "bite." Oooh, the puns are just beginning.

In addition to publishing Marie's recipes, I suspect that she'll endorse a few submissions. So, start working on your favorite, and maybe, just maybe, you'll be good enough to be be published.

I'm getting dizzy

I'm having a problem with the USPS. We use prepaid envelopes that are piling up in an USPS office because they are short staffed. Everyone has been very nice and is trying to help, but we need to get them staffed to process our mail.

A friend suggested I call the Ombuds for the USPS. This is someone who represents customers but works for the company. Here's what happened.

I called the 800 #. They didn't understand what I was talking about. My friend then suggested that I call the main Columbus location. I called them. They said all complaints need to be filed with their 800 # so that it’s documented. I called back to the 800 #. The customer service rep said that she can’t help me because the concern has to be addressed on the local level. She gave me the same customer service # in Columbus that told me to call the 800 #. And their computer system is down so they can’t file a complaint anyway.

Yum!

I love Violet's daycare. She eats better than we do! Check out the January menu. Who gets scones, edamame, and couscous as daycare?!?!

Thank you!

Thank you so much for helping me beat my fundraising goal! I really appreciate everyone who donated, helping me raise $555 to date from family and friends to save the planet. There's still time to donate, so don't feel bad if you haven't gotten around to it yet. 2010 is a great time to start helping the environment! www.firstgiving.com/jodisegal

And... our OEC tote bags are on sale at Whole Foods in Dublin for $7.99!

Movie Blog

In the spirit of Julie & Julia, I'm going to be more thorough and consistent in my movie reviews. I'm going to throw in TV reviews (I watch a few fun things on hulu). I may even go crazy and throw in a book review or album review.

Make my day and comment on the movie blog!

9 months

Violet had her 9 month checkup. She continues to be long and lean - 50 percentile for weight, 90 for height, and 95 for head. The doctor described her as developing preciously since he said that the average baby crawls around 10-11 months and she crawled at 6. I kind of don't believe him, though, since I see the other kids at daycare doing the same thing. My baby development book has her tracking right on target, with some things a little early. Of course, I think she's brilliant.

Violet only uses her pacifier while sleeping. Today she woke up and took it out of her mouth. It's a tiny thing, but something she hasn't done before. It's so cool to get to witness her learn new associations and more complex behaviors. She wants to keep the binky, but she knows that the next thing that is going to happen is I'm going to dramatically drop it in the bed.

And, she loooooves black beans. Yuck!

Everyday changes

9 months old on Friday! I'm amazed by how much Violet grows and changes every day. She is starting to develop a vocabulary. We know she can say momma, and think she has daddy (sounds like da-ee) and no. She's good at communicating her need non-verbally, but hasn't picked up on any of the sign language we've been doing for the past 4 months. Since she seems to be good verbally, I'm guessing that she'll skip signing and go straight to talking.

Her dismounts are getting a little more coordinated now that she realizes that she can bend her knees, making it a little easier for her to get from standing to sitting. Today she made her first attempt at cruising - travelling while holding on to furniture. This was accomplished while also mastering the fine art of clothes sorting (aka pulling clothes out of drawers and bins).

Her eating skills have exploded as well. She can now eat with her hands and get about 50% of it in her mouth. She will eat ANYTHING that we give her - eggplant, hummus, zucchini, feta, pita, carrots, pizza, spaghetti, lemons, oranges, onions, celery, lettuce, tomatoes... She's just now cutting her first tooth, so it all has to be pretty mushy. It keeps her quite busy, freeing us up to eat like civilized people. Yay!

On a different note, I have returned my wedding ring. It has spent almost as much time at the jewelers at it did on my finger, so they have agreed to a refund. Let me know if you find any cool rings that I should look at!

Mama

Violet continues to be a very happy and sweet baby. She is becoming more communicative/interactive which means she's better at indicating what she wants and what she doesn't want.

The big challenge seems to be around food. She'll eat baby food/purees great at daycare, but doesn't want to do this at home. We think this is why she tends to be crabbier on the weekends. She's getting good at eating finger foods and loves citrus fruits.

It's a lot of fun to watch her stand and then make her way to sitting again. She slowly lowers herself down using a variety of different methods. She will put her butt down on carpet and do a mish-mash lowering and butt down and splits on wood floors. We keep trying to get it on film, but she gets distracted by the camera.

Violet is also saying "mama" and knows that word is for me! She clearly knows that I'm the smartest, funniest, and most interesting person in the world. Just ask Jim :)

Video of Violet

Though she has been doing it at daycare for a couple weeks this is the first time Jodi and I got to see Violet pull herself up. Now it's on, she has already started to grab things from higher up on shelves.

Baby Pics

Here's a link to the pics from the photo shoot we had a few weeks ago. The event code is our kid's name. (Email me if you don't know her name and I'll send it to you) Jim & I needed some specific head shots or nature shots for work, so there are a few odd ones thrown in there.

Let me know if you would like me to order any for you.

Also, please consider donating to the Ohio Environmental Council! It's such an amazing organization, that they hired me to work there!

Violet's First Halloween

Violet proved to us that she can hang on to something, if she really wants to. She clung to the mini candy bar for about an hour, turning it to mush.

coin scam

My dad told us about how you can get a ton frequent flyer miles for spending $ on a credit card. He bought silver dollars, which we thought was hilarious. Here's a guy that has taken it to the extreme. Scroll down to the entry with all of the pics. It's crazy and impressive all at the same time.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/833911-buy-presidential-dollar-coins-cc-face-value-free-shipping-341.html

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Circleville pumpkin festival

This American Life and Health Care

So anyone that had ever been in a car with Jodi and I knows that we listen to NPR all the time (and yes we do give). Over the years I have had an on again off again relationship with This American Life, an NPR show. Having bought an Iphone last year I started listening to a lot of NPR shows via podcast, including This American Life (I finish about one out of three episodes, some weeks Ira Glass really gets on my nerves).

The last two weeks This American Life tackled the sticky subject of the health care debate. They did a show two weeks ago talking about the three things that make health care expensive: Doctors, Patients and Insurance Companies (Episode 391). Last week they looked at Insurance Companies a little closer (Episode 392). I'm only 15 minutes into last week's episode and they are really interesting. For example they say the evidence shows that the time when health care costs actually decreased and health care improved was when HMO's were in power (remember how much we all hated them?). As usual it's NPR's dispassionate look at things from a truly journalistic perspective.

I know this is a sticky issues for a lot of people, I'm one of them. Coming from the perspective of someone who thinks we are simply delaying the move to a single payer system, these episodes gave a me pause to think otherwise. Though I'm still convinced single payer will win out to be honest.

You can listen to them or download them on their web site

new photos

We're so busy that blogging has seriously fallen by the wayside. We got pics taken at our house and the nearby park on Sunday. Here's a sneak preview of the photos.

http://www.amysuzannephotographic.com/apps/blog/show/1924831-living-life

Some decision are so tough

It was tough for her to decide but we had a long conversation about it and Violet has finally decided where she wants to attend college.



Go Blue!!!

Bananas!

Violet started on solids last weekend. So far she's had apples, rice cereal (who knew that rice was a cereal?), and banana. Here's video of Jim feeding Violet some bananas.