Time for champagne, fondue, and crab! Bringing the new year on in my polka dot p.j's!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to everyone throughout the world!

May 2010 bring you happiness, health and wealth!

Winter Fruit - Pomegranate's, Delicious and Nutritious.

Pomegranates used to be my favorite fruit as a child. I still do enjoy eating them very much. My aunt says to peel them underwater it is less messy that way. Recently I read that the seeds of pomegranates have great nutritional value.

Essential Website for Travel during the winter in Northern California!
http://ping.fm/6vR2I

Merry Christmas to all my Family and Friends

My favorite activity to do at Christmas time is to make sugar cookies and decorate them. Thanks M. for all your help with the cookies the past few years!

The Santa my Mom painted. It reminded me of an ornament we used to have when I was a little girl.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Covered Peaunut Butter Balls

Ahhh Christmas time! There are three things that I love to make, chocolate turtles, decorated sugar cookies and peanut butter balls. My mother made turtles and sugar cookies since I can remember, and my grandmother made the peanut butter balls. All are very unhealthy, if you receive some of these over the holidays please be warned: Must exercise when consuming these products.

Here are the photos I took while they were sitting.

Merry Merry!

People when driving being late or in a hurry, does not give you the right away in traffic.

Made sugar cookies and now making Rocky Road!

Making Scampi tonight with fresh Meyer's lemons. Thanks Grandma.

"The best yuletide gift you can give anyone is a smile!" - Local church sign.

Chicken Piccata is on!

ATT Support in India - Cannot divulge their location?

This morning the computers were offline for some reason. I did a few things, then thought I would call and make sure there was not outage in the area.

Has ATT relocated their customer call centers?? I do not recall calling India for customer support with ATT wireless, internet, or landlines.

A very polite woman answered the call to support, from her accent, I knew she was in India. Here is part of our conversation.

Me: Where am I calling? (I have worked in support, and when calling I like to know where I am calling, it helps me to relate to the person better)

Her "I am not allowed to give out that information, for security reasons."

Me: "Not even the country?"

Her: "I am in a global support center."

Oh brother, this answer has cause me some distress! :-)

Then, she proceed to ask who she is speaking to on the account. I tell who I am, and she asks for my first and last name, and address. Nice. I told her for security reasons I could not give out my address and that if there were any other information I could give her. Usually the 3 digit number after your phone number gives them more information. She say's she doesn't have access to that information.

As we are trying to figure out what the "connection mishap" is she blurts out,

Her: You are calling India.

Me: I know.

She apologized many times, actually probably too many . The overall customer service was just weird and left a bad taste in my mouth. She kept apologizing for things completely out of her control. I could understand her and she was polite, but almost too polite, oozing with politeness, and apologies. It was as if every sentence began with I am sorry, or I am deeply sorry.

The whole disturbed me. First, off the secrecy of their location. Obviously, it is a sensitive topic and they have even been trained on how to handle that question. But the fact, that at first it was security reasons, she could not tell me, but then, a few minutes later, she blurts what country she is in. That is not consistent or right.

The whole situation saddens me somewhat. To hear so many people her unemployed, and ATT has got to be one the biggest companies in the U.S. I wonder how many jobs are lost.

Does this frustrate anyone one else?

P.S. Nothing against anyone in India or any other country. Usually with computer support you do get transferred to India but usually they are honest and say where they are.

Facebook Ads - Scholarship for Mom's

This is the picture that I copied from Facebook. It was in an advertisement for a link for
Scholarships for Mom's.

Is it just me or does something seem wrong?

Quote - Honore de Balzac

What is art? Nature concentrated.

Honore de Balzac