Tuesday, May 08, 2012

8 days into South Beach, desperately craving carbs...

I've done this before, but not like this. South Beach PLUS rigorous daily exercise. Not the smartest plan, really, because that exercise needs carbs to fuel it, but 8 days in I've lost 8 pounds, which is good; I need the jump start, always. But I absolutely can't face the thought of 6 more days of eggs, meat, and V-8 for breakfast. I almost gag thinking about it.

I don't know what I'm going to do about breakfast, because tonight my mind was, of course, on dinner. I was thinking maybe I'd go out someplace and have a nice filet of fish; something I'm not good at preparing myself. But eating out is expensive, and I'm a perfectly good cook myself. Last night I grilled some chicken breasts, so tonight I went out and got whole wheat pitas...I don't really give a damn that they're verboten right now...and tomatoes, avocados, sprouts, thick bacon...I came home and cut a few strips of the bacon into pieces and fried it; then I assembled one of the world's best sandwiches: cut up grilled chicken, topped with sprouts, bacon, avocado, tomato, and a special sauce comprised of half mayo, half taco sauce...HEAVEN! It was so good, that I may have it for breakfast again tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

More reasons to hate T-W cable...


All I wanted to do was pay my bill.

I pay most bills online, including my cable account, which I've been successfully reviewing and paying online for several years. This month, though, when I clicked on the link in the email, I was taken to a page with this message:

MyServices Just Got Better,
to Make Your Life Easier
Now, when you register for MyServices, you can view and
pay your bill online with PayXpress – no extra sign in
needed – and manage your TV, Internet, phone, and more.


I was pretty sure I'd already registered for My Services, so I tried signing in as usual, but that didn't work; I received a message saying I needed to register for MyServices.

So I clicked on the link that said Register Now, which took me to a page that asked for my email address.

I typed it in, clicked SUBMIT, and got this message:

Look for a VERIFICATION EMAIL.
We've sent an email to [my email addy]with a link to complete the registration process. Please add noreply@timewarnercable.com to your address book to prevent our emails from being marked spam.

I went to my gmail account, opened the requisite message, and clicked on the link, which took me to a page that read:

 

Session has expired

Please restart the process by verifying your email address. If you have already completed registration, simply sign in.

So I started all over again, only to end up stuck in some kind of Time-Warner hell, an endless loop of these messages that no doubt has some Time-Warner IT guys doubled over with laughter, because for sure this is T-W’s idea of fun.

Frustrated, I went back to the page where I began, and saw that I had the option of signing in to my T-W account with my PayXpress ID, which I did. I then had to [again] accept the terms of their online billing, which might print out into about 42 pages if I were so inclined, but I’m not; there’s simply no point because you can’t pay online if you don’t accept their terms, so I clicked “I accept” and hit Enter, only to be immediately asked if I wouldn’t please agree to go paperless. This account has been paperless from the beginning, but there were no options to move forward unless I clicked “I accept”, so I did…only to be told that I’m already paperless; would I like to receive paper statements again?

NO! NO! NO!...all I wanted to do was pay my bill, which I could have done easier and faster using a checkbook and snail mail.


*sigh*