Cam I Am

In the past week, I have purchased a Macbook Pro.  I’ve managed to set up a wireless network so that I could transfer photos, music and other files from my PC running Vista.  Setting up wireless printing from my Mac, through the PC has been a challenge.

I was doing alright at first.  After looking over countless webpages, I found out how to add the printer to the Mac.  I had it that it would queue up on the PC.  After that, everything fizzled out.  I could not get anything to printer from the Mac.  In the process of double checking everything, I am not able to get the Mac to see the printer on the PC.

Any suggestions?

In a few days, I’ll be going back to Ontario to visit my family and friends. It’s been over nine years since I’ve been back to Oshawa, and I’ve heard that it’s changed a lot… Some for the better, some for the worse.

I’m looking forward to seeing my brothers and parents. I last saw my youngest brother, Andrew, about 18 months ago. But I haven’t seen my other brother and mother for over 5 years, and my father since 2001.

There are a couple of friends I’m looking forward to catching up with too. Also, it’ll be nice to do a little geocaching on my trip.

I’m ready for a short break from work, the kids, and life… Even for only a few days. Hopefully, I’ll feel a little refreshed and able to focus on my goals for 2010…

Happy New Year, everyone…

Okay… So it’s all still green outside. But it is getting close to Christmas! We’ve got our decorations up, plans made, and I believe that we are done shopping.. (although I’m sure that we will have forgotten something at this point).

I would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas!

I was at a call this morning when I had to go to this person’s garage to hook them up. Under the cable box, this us what I found… I also found some ribs and a very bloody butcher table.

Recently, my wife and I have been going on dates with each other once a week. Usually, this involves going out for dinner, movie, coffee or even a walk. But this weekend, I decided to do something different.

After some research online, I came across this place called Fraser River Fishing Lodge and Resort (http://www.fraserriverlodge.com/). They have a variety of packages available, including one called the Romance package. This was the package that I selected, with an upgrade to a honeymoon suite that included a jacuzzi tub.

Overall, we were very happy with our experience. The dinner was good, and because it was family style seating, we met some very interesting people. The room was cozy (the fireplace helped!) and it was quiet too. We were about an hour away from home, but a world away.

I highly recommend this place for a getaway!

Last week, I was a dumbass and locked my keys in my van when I stopped for a quick bite to eat for lunch.

After calling a tow truck to open up my van, I waited by the vehicle. Right behind me was this guy panhandling. At first, he was quiet, but then he started to talk to me.. Here was his opening statement..

“I wish I had a parrot. That way I could train it to ask for spare change for me. Yup! I definately need a parrot. I think they live for a long time though. And I think they are expensive. And if I need to take him to the vet, that would be hundreds of dollars.. Hmmm… Maybe a parrot isn’t a good idea. What do you think?”

Well, I agreed with him that it probably would be expensive. I’m staring through my passenger window, eying my keys, considering breaking my own window to get away from this guys verbal diarhrea. Because it didn’t stop there.. And I was now running late for work

Eventually, the tow truck showed up and I was on my way. Before I left, I wished the panhandler good luck with his parrot idea. While he had some crazy ideas, he did seem nice enough…

Recently, we went to The Keg in Maple Ridge and Milestones in Langley and had two completely different customer service experiences.

At The Keg, my wife and I ordered our dinners both with mashed potatoes. When we got our dinner, the first thing I noticed is that the potatoes looked like someone had put fake vomit on our plates. We tried them and the tasted like glue. We told the server and he said he would replace them. A few minutes later, he returned with a new serving of potatoes, but they must have been from the same batch. They were awful. Once again, we told our server who offered something else. I said that I’d take a baked potato and my wife declined anything else.

We’ve been there countless times, so we know exactly what to expect.. Usually the food is very good, but not time. The Keg offered no apology or compensated in any other way. I even told the manager on the way out that we weren’t very happy, and they said that they’d check into it, shrugged their shoulders, and left it at that. Overall, we weren’t impressed with how it was handled.

About a week later, we went to Milestone’s. We ordered our food, and when it arrived, everything looked great. My wife ordered her favourite dish from there and was looking forward to having it. She tried it and thought that it tasted different, like there had been a change in the recipe. We told the server who immediately offered to get a new plate of food. The server was very quick with a new plate and my wife tried again. Still the same. The manager came over to check in things and we told him that it still tasted funny. He told us that they had recently changed suppliers, but the recipe should still be the same. Then he took care of part of the bill for us.. We left there satisfied with the service.

We don’t usually complain about food in restaurants at all.. But these are two cases where something was not right with the food and two very different responses. We definately will return to Milestone’s in Langley again. The service is always outstanding. As for The Keg…. Yeah… We’ll probably go back again…

Today, I decided to set a goal for myself. As you probably can guess from the title, I plan to find 31 geocaches in the next 31 days.

This all starts tomorrow. I figure an average of one a day isn’t that hard. I pass by dozens each day while I’m at work. Some days I won’t have time, and others I’m sure that I can find two or three.

I don’t have a list of all thirty-one, but there are several I intend to find. One of the trickiest ones to get is in plain sight, at a busy intersection in Vancouver… It’s only 3-4 blocks from work. If I manage to get it, I’ll definately be posting about it!

Aside from that, I plan to hide my first cache sometime this weekend as well. It’ll be fairly close to my home so that I can be sure to maintain it, if necessary.

Let the caching begin!

Well, I just got off the phone with Capital One again..

After getting a person on the line, I was transferred to the fraud department relatively quickly and got a guy on the phone who checked into things for me.  I told him what happened, and he took care of things for me.  I should have a new card number in less than 2 weeks. As for the three charges that were put through, they will be reversed.  Apparently, the fraudster also tried charging $185 in Edmonton at Walmart too.  This is probably one of the few times I’m glad that there wasn’t much room on my credit card.

So, it looks like I’m finally getting what I was looking for last night.  However, I expected better service when I phoned in at 11:30pm.  There should be a 24/7 fraud department.

I think that once this is settled, I will start shopping around for a new credit card.  It may be difficult with the whole “global credit” situation, but Capital One has not been my favourite company to deal with, on the whole.  But that is for another post..

I’ll tell you what’s in my wallet..

It’s a Capital One credit card. 

And someone went on a little bit of a spending spree with it over the weekend… in Alberta….  and it wasn’t me.

About half an hour ago, I was going through my account statements online, just to make sure everything was in order.  I was about to head to bed when I thought that I’d quickly check my credit card statement (as I frequently do), to see available credit and make sure that everything was fine.

I logged on, and on the main screen, I saw that my balance was about $100 over limit.  “That’s strange,” I thought to myself, “it’s shouldn’t be over it’s limit.”  So, I looked a little closer at the transactions. 

hmm.. paid for camping site, a couple transactions through iTunes…  and Superstore?  And McDonald’s?   And Shaw Cable?

I racked my brain for answers..  I never use the credit card unless I’ve got nothing in the bank account.  Why use credit when you have cash?  Then I started to look closer..  Shaw?  Why would I have charged $3.00 to Shaw on my card?  As an employee, it comes directly out of my bank account..  I certainly never would use my credit card for that. 

Then it hits me…  Someone has scammed my credit card.  All these transactions happened on the weekend..  I can only assume that more will post to my account in the next couple of days.  I called Capital One right away.

I went through the obligatory menu options, getting a little more stressed as I listen for the option that I want.  Eventually the “speak to a real live person” option comes up.  I mash the “0″ key on the keypad.  Relatively quickly, I get a person on the other end of the phone.  I explain to her that I needed to report fraudulent activity on my card..

Well..  I might as well be speaking to a brick wall.  She told me that I could dispute the charges if I like.  Umm… hellllloooo???  I tell her that I want a freeze put on the card.  “I don’t want ANY activity on the card for now!” 

“Oh…  well, I can transfer you to the fraud department, if you like”, she finally clues in.  I tell her yes, that’s exactly what I want.  I get put on hold for about 30 seconds, when she comes back to tell me “I’m sorry, but that department is closed.  Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Ummm…  YES!  You can put a hold on my card!”, I tell her for the fifth time.  She then goes on to assure me that she’ll make a note on my file, but I’ll have to call back in the morning.  (I guess fraudsters sleep at night too.)

After I try a couple different angles with her, I give up in futility.  I ask her when the fraud department opens, and she said 5am PDT.  So..  you know what I’ll be doing in the morning.

That brings us up until now.  I’m mad and a little stressed.  I should be in bed sleeping.  I shouldn’t have to worry about what else is going to appear on my credit card overnight, especially since it’s $100 over it’s limit.  I shouldn’t have to deal with a script reading CSR that doesn’t seem to listen, but only reguritates what they are told to say.  I wasn’t saying “I don’t think I made these charges”, I said, “Someone has been using my card and I need a freeze put on in immediately”..  Similar, but very different.

Stay tuned…  I’m sure this will only get more frustrating as I try to sort this out.