The sea holds many deep secrets for young Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, an all new, full-length movie which was released on DVD on August 26, 2008. Available for a limited time only, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning takes audiences back to the story’s beginnings with favorite characters from the original film as well as a wonderfully wicked new villainess. With a score that continues The Little Mermaid’s legacy of memorable, life-affirming songs, the latest animated adventure from DisneyToon Studios will capture the hearts of all ages.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning takes place one year before Ariel meets Prince Eric. Young Ariel and her sisters share a love for music with their mother, Queen Athena. But when the Queen is captured by pirates, King Triton is heartbroken and bans music from Atlantica…FOREVER. Featuring Jodi Benson as the Voice of Ariel, Tara Strong as the Voice of Adella and Andrina, and Samuel E. Wright as the Voice of Sebastian, you’ll want to add this great DVD to your collection!

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I haven’t talked about it a lot here, although I’ve brought it up on Twitter a few times, but I started a diet last Monday. Let me clarify that, I changed the way I eat last Monday. “Starting” insinuates that I’m going to “stop”, which I’m not. I’m following my doctor’s recommendations, and I lost 2.2 pounds last week.

It turns out that the hardest thing so far hasn’t been giving up the chips and candy bars and donuts, it’s how not having all that fat and sugar in my system has affected my sleep. I was okay last week until Sunday, and then I crashed hard. I slept until 8:30, went back to bed at 10:30, slept until noon, went back to bed at 4:30, slept until 6:00, then went to bed at 11:00. When I am sleeping, I’m having extremely vivid dreams, too.

So this morning, I have this vague memory of having said a bunch of stuff to Chris when his alarm went off, but I had to IM him and ask him about it. Turns out I was sleeping facing away from him and he tried to get me to roll over so he could snuggle me for a minute and I snapped at him, and mumbled something about how every time I try to sleep, someone wakes me up. Nice, huh?

The boys went Up North today, with my friend Kellie’s son Forrest, they are all staying with her parents in Oscoda, and tomorrow they are going to Mackinac Island! I wish I could go too! It’s just me and Kaitlyn during the day this whole week. I’m so mean, I made her turn off “Max and Ruby” so I could watch some new DVDs. I needed a good laugh, so I watched “Best of Comedy Central Presents II“. It’s got clips from routines by Patton Oswalt, Dave Attell, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Swardson, some are funnier than others of course, and it’s long at 176 minutes. But since it’s broken up into segments, it’s easy to turn it on, watch for a while, then stop and pick it up again another time. It’s not rated, but I would probably not let younger kids watch.

So tell me in your comment please, what’s your favorite movie to watch when you’ve been fighting with your spouse and/or just need a good laugh?

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I’ve worked in customer service, I know it’s not an easy job. But I also know how to speak up and take a stand and do whatever I have to do to not let a customer service rep walk all over me. I know they are following a script and are probably instructed to do whatever they have to do so that the company never looks bad, but sometimes, someone messes up big time, and customer service has to admit it.

“Slamming”–adding unauthorized services to a customer’s cell phone plan without permission.

Sprint paid the state of Florida $2.4 Million dollars to settle slamming charges in 2004. Unwanted LONG DISTANCE charges, to be specific.

I have a Sprint PCS phone, I paid for 450 “Anytime” minutes and 300 minutes of texting. Imagine my shock when I got a bill today that showed a balance of $125.00. I looked more closely, and what did I see? The Sprint PRO Pack Data plan, $30 a month. The Mobile Location Service (??), $15 a month. Sprint Family Locator (??) $9.99 a month, the MEXICO CROSS BORDER INTERNATIONAL PLAN, $5.00 a month, the International Long Distance Plan, $4.00 a month, and Roadside Rescue, $4.00 a month.

I got on the phone with Sprint Customer Service. I told the woman on the phone that the charges were unauthorized. She began removing them. It took THIRTY FOUR MINUTES. Then she gets back on the line and tells me that the charges won’t come off the bill until next month, and that my balance due is $125.00. I said to her um, NO. NO NO NO. I did NOT authorize any charges, and I am NOT paying for them, and that I’ve had nothing but problems with Sprint since I switched from AT&T, and that she needed to transfer me to someone who could remove the charges, immediately.

I was on hold for another five minutes. While I was holding, Chris and I were talking about how I had called and made a payment on my account on August 18th, and how interestingly, that was the same day that all these extra charges were added to my plan. Chris said that’s called slamming, having unauthorized charges added to your account. Quite the coincidence, huh?

When the next woman came on the line, I took a deep breath and explained the whole story. I used the word “slamming”. And this woman, Lorraine, said to me “Ma’am, I am so sorry that this happened to you. We have the ID number of the customer service agent who added the charges to your account. It is grounds for termination from our company. She will be taken care of. All of the fraudulent charges will be removed from your account immediately.”

WELL THEN.

I didn’t intend to get anyone fired, but I wasn’t going to just give in, either. Life is too short not to stand up for what you know is right.

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Angela from Unexpected Art gave me this award, which I really appreciate!

Thanks so much! These are the rules for this award:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

These are the 7 blogs I’m passing this award to:

1. An Island Life
2. Musings of a Housewife
3. Sarcastic Mom
4. Moosh in Indy
5. This Full House
6. Busy Mom
7. Stir The Cauldron (and not just because she gave me a Tarot reading that changed my life)

The seven of you should please grab the badge and pass it on to blogs you love!

Awesome!

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I remember the summer after I graduated from high school, when my Mom and I spent many an afternoon with my college dorm suggestion list in hand, picking up extra-long sheets and a plastic caddy for holding my shampoo and toothbrush when I walked down the hall to the communal bathroom. And I still remember going to Sears to buy an IBM Selectric Typewriter! I remember being so excited because it had auto-correct ribbon, you pressed an extra key and the white ribbon came up and ka-Chunk!, your typo was much less visible. Sigh. Dang, I’m old.

Well, today’s incoming freshmen are required to bring a computer to many colleges, which means many parents are shopping for the best deal on Laptops. Super Warehouse.com carries what looks like every brand on the planet of desktops, laptops, notebooks, plus MP3 players, cameras, and peripherals. Shipping is free on orders over $299, and every bit helps.

I’m a PC gal myself, but if you are looking for Apple Laptops, they have ‘em. I confess, I snuck a peek at someone’s Macbook Air when I was in Cincinnati, and they are pretty slick. Super Warehouse has a wide selection, with features like Bluetooth, built in Webcam, plus there’s bundles that come with a Canon printer, too. What about a digital camera?

I don’t even think I had a camera when I was in college, cameras were expensive and film was both expensive and a pain to develop, so I don’t remember anyone just carrying one around. Cameras were brought out for special occasions. Of course now, cameras are small and thin enough to fit just about anywhere, and chances are your student is going to want one to document all the wild partying important nature walks they will be taking. Super Warehouse has Digital Cameras, too! The great thing about a shopping website is that you can take your time, compare different brands and features, and there’s no salesman standing right over you waiting for you to decide. Check the site out whether your looking to buy for a student or for yourself!

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