What is it with...

* little boys and their 'aim' in the bathroom?

I went into the toilet after Chickie used it and nearly slipped over in the large puddle of wee next to the toilet. I was not amused. Moral of the story here - always turn the light on when entering.

* shops stocking up on the next 'holiday item' so early?

Seriously, I saw hot cross buns in the supermarket on December 27th! Easter is what? March, April? Now the shelves are stocked with easter eggs and I'm going to have to live with the gooey deliciousness, that is the Cadbury creme egg, calling my name for months!

* my lack of motivation to look after myself?

I have type 2 diabetes that is controlled by diet and exercise. I haven't exercised properly in two months and while I try to watch the diet, the last two months has also seen a lot of icecream being eaten. I keep saying that I need to exercise but I can't seem to actually drag myself onto my bike. My next HbA1c is going to be awful I think (and the point above won't help...)

* grumpy customers who can't seem to accept that sometimes you do need to take some responsibility too!

Honestly some customers drive me mad sometimes. You get so many customers that just don't believe you when you suggest that the problem may be something on their end - even when you can prove to them that they don't have the problem when they unplug that phone or stop using the 70 gazillion metre phone cable. We had one customer who went ballistic at one of our reps, even after her brother (who is a telephone line technician by trade and had checked the wiring inside her house) told her the wiring was the cause of the problem. Considering this brother works for the opposition, I'm inclined to believe him.

The one that blows my mind is the lady I spoke to a few months back. She had a new service that hadn't worked from the start. She was furious when I spoke to her and was demanding we refund her full monthly fee. The problem? Well, she'd plugged the filter in backwards. Now I can understand that some people get confused about how the DSL service is supposed to be set up. That's why we include a pamphlet with pictures showing how to plug it in (this customer told me she hadn't bothered to look at that). We also include a little animation on the setup CD showing exactly how to set it up (she told me she skipped that part of the setup CD). Finally our service also provides free 24 hour phone support if there are problems or you want help setting things up. This customer waited over a week to call us, and when she did she yelled at the rep she spoke to and basically wouldn't let them troubleshoot. It was passed onto me and fixed in 10 minutes. She didn't get to use it for a week and wanted the whole monthly fee back. I didn't give it to her. If she'd been nice about the whole thing though, I would have been happy to give her a credit for the week she wasn't able to use - even though it was a problem she'd caused.

Thank goodness there are plenty of nice customers out there though.

* Chickie's teeth!

I'm amazed at how quickly straight teeth can shift once the adult tooth decides it's not waiting for the baby teeth to be lost first.

In the last few weeks of school last year, Chickie's teacher took photos of all the kids so they could make a frame as a Christmas present for their parents. Chickie's photo is very cute and his teeth are quite straight. Then by Christmas day, two of Chickie's front teeth have been pushed aside so far he was able to fit a straw in the gap (one of the big front teeth and the smaller one to the left). The big front one was overlapping the other big front one, while the smaller one next to it was almost sticking out at right angles! Neither of these two were loose, by the way, and I was about to make an appointment at the dentist to have him check things. Then on my birthday he came home with the big front tooth in a paper towel. It had finally been pushed out far enough. He's funny sometimes though, he told the vacation care supervisor that she could have his tooth as a present. She kindly declined, suggesting he might want to see if the tooth fairy came (she did).

You can now see the adult tooth and it's huge. It's basically taking up the whole gap where previously there were two baby teeth. I'm worried the poor kid's not going to have room in his jaw for all these huge teeth that he seems to be getting (this is his 4th adult tooth and he has two more wobbly teeth! Not counting the one that is still sticking out at the front).

Can anyone reassure me that he'll grow into his teeth? Or should I be starting a braces/dental fund now?