Amazon Delivery: Prime Service? Just Not on Sunday or Monday

I ordered some electronics through Amazon.com on a Thursday in the early evening. Since I was leaving the city on Tuesday, I paid an extra $8.99 to have the package delivered with "Two Day Shipping - get it Saturday, Jan. 28."

The next day I received a confirmation email that the package "has shipped. Arriving Saturday, January 28."

Checking with tracking, the original expected delivery time was Saturday at 5:00 pm. This was revised to Saturday before 8:00 pm, so I waited up until that time. It did not come.

When I complained to Amazon, I was told to contact FedEx for an estimated delivery time.

Well, surprise.

I was just told that "FedEx Home Delivery" does not open on Sundays or Mondays. In other words, the earliest I can receive my package is... Tuesday. The day I am leaving the city.

Dear Amazon: 

I am asking you to clearly state that your delivery service does not operate on Sundays or Mondays. So really, the two day service is clearly a TWO OR FIVE day service if your delivery service happens to fall on a Saturday. In other words, if delivery is late, it will not be late by one day, it will be late by three days. 

Your customers can then make informed decisions. Better yet, dump FedEx and find a company that works on Mondays. 

Yours truly,
The Obsessive Researching Mommy

How the BC Liberals are Privatizing Education

Lizanne Foster wrote a post in Facebook. I am posting it here because it needs to be read more widely. She made the following observations:

Despite all the cautionary tales about them from the U.S, we will soon see Charter schools in East Vancouver. They'll be attended by students who have won lotteries. They will be run by those corporations who have long been tantalized by $5 Trillion spent on the "education sector" worldwide. We'll be told that they provide parents with "choice".

The pathway to this inevitability is clear to see.There is no conspiracy.

1995 Milton Friedman, a neoliberal economist, suggests that schools should be privatized.

1998 The Fraser Institute begins its ranking of schools

2002 BC Liberals begin removing $336 million from education funding each year

2003 Minister of Education, Christy Clark, cancels class size and composition agreements. She also amends the School Act to remove government commitments to school buses. She cancels rules around catchment areas. (This is when the exodus from East Vancouver to West Vancouver schools began, fuelled by Fraser Institute School Rankings)

2003 BC Liberals pass legislation that makes it possible for school districts to be run like a business. Districts are encouraged to "sell" BC curriculum in China, Japan, Taiwan. A few still run schools there.

2005 - 2014 Teachers' strikes draw the public's attention to the defunding of schools, the learning conditions of students, especially those with special needs. The defunding continues.

2015 With all school districts in desperate need of funds despite having cut all "low hanging fruit", the BC Liberal government demands an extra $54Million from school districts.

2016 Government announces that they only really wanted $29million after all. Schools get to keep $25million.

Funding-by-photo-op fiscal policy results in a tiny fraction of school district needs being met.

School districts announce multiple school closures.

2017 Increase in the spin about the merits of High Tech High.

2020 High Tech High arrives in East Vancouver

The same pattern will unfold in other areas of the province. Charter schools are more likely to pop up in traditional NDP territory, with publicly-funded private schools will continue to exist in traditional BC Liberal areas.

Yesterday the Vancouver School Board (VSB) announced a list of schools in Vancouver that are on the chopping block. The closure of some 200 schools across BC since 2005 is due mostly to the declining education budget. The VSB will see the loss of elementary Band and Strings as well as many valuable programs. Education as a percentage of the provincial budget has dropped from 23% to 13% from 2002 to 2015.

This makes no sense as the Clark government has reported a surplus of $400 million. Why does the BC Liberal government continue to make cuts to public education with a surplus, while simultaneously increasing funding to private schools? This year alone the BC Liberals increased funding to private schools by $30 million from the previous $311 million, which is nearly a 10% increase. It was certainly not due to enrollment, which only increased by 1.3% last year. Public schools are reporting an increase in enrollment for the first time in 20 years. Why would the BC Liberals be hell bent on stripping even more funding from public schools?

What can you do about chronic underfunding of public schools? The non-partisan grassroots group of concerned parents Families Against Cuts to Education has created an email tool which will send a letter to Premier Clark, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Finance, your MLA, and the Opposition. Let the BC Liberals know that public education needs sustainable, adequate, and predictable funding.

Frayed, Broken MacBook Pro Magsafe 60W Adapter Blues

Thinking of buying a MacBook Pro? Is it worth it? Well, it's sort of like buying a luxury car, with the exorbitant bills to fix it if something goes wrong.

And something did indeed go wrong with mine.

I bought my MacBook Pro in January 2013. My adapter cable casing broke and frayed at the end close to the square transformer. I figured this out while I was charging my Macbook Pro and I smelled something burning. The break point was not subject to unusual strain. I've only taken the Macbook on the road a handful of times.

Selling adapters that have a tendency to fray and break at a cost ranging from $69 to $99 is robbery. Apple knows that these cables break frequently (with any given "genius" witnessing five of these breakages a day), and yet when the customer returns with a cable for out of warranty service, the charge for the replacement cable makes a tidy profit for Apple.

Someone has even capitalized on the inherent tendency to fray with creating a special protective overlay!!! The "frayfix." WHY, I ask, why is that necessary? Why doesn't Apple build that kind of strength into the cable in the first place?! Where is the stress relief? It's not like I haven't already paid a 100% premium to buy this computing power in the Apple version vs. PC, that they had insufficient money to build some quality into the adapter cable.

For previous versions of this type of cable there was a successful class action lawsuit in the U.S.

The "genius" insisted that I surrender my frayed adapter for "recycling" when selling me a new adapter for $69. He said that I would have to pay the full price of $99 for the adapter plus cord if I did not surrender my frayed adapter. So this image is all I have left. As far as I know, $69 is more than a fair price for just the adapter and not even the cord connecting to the electrical outlet. You can buy clone adapter+cords on eBay or Amazon starting at $17 for the adapter PLUS the cord.

I wanted to keep my old adapter and cord to fix it and use at home. Now I can't. Apple can re-use the parts in refurbished computers, generating further profit. I, on the other hand, paid an inflated price for an adapter that certainly results in yet more profit for Apple. This reeks of profiteering on Apple's own faulty products!

And... there is only a 90 day warranty on the new cable. That sure shows confidence in your product, Apple.

Knowing the next cable is likely to fray, you can wrap a pen spring around the base of the cable.

So, keep in mind that if you buy an Apple product, you agree to pay another $100 down the road to keep using it if you plan to have it more than two years.

Update: October 29, 2017.

This week by cable broke again, despite my winding a pen spring around the base of the cable. It broke in precisely the same spot. If I hold it in a certain position, it can still charge.

After putting electrical tape on the joint, I put a bubble tea straw over the joint and used scotch tape to keep it in place.

Underfunding Public Education in B.C.: MYTH OR FACT?

I am excited to announce that this will be the laziest post that has ever been published on the Obsessive Researching Mommy Blog to date!

This is my humorous way of saying that I would like to thank Kim Hancock for the following facts and sources to cite when someone, like a Minister of Education, says to you something outrageous such as “there’s nothing to be gained by perpetuating a myth that our public education system is underfunded and broken."

I did not do this research. I wanted to file it away on this page so I can retrieve it later, and because I love you, dear reader, I am making it available to you too.

I was SO lazy that I even borrowed the picture and the contents for the caption from a tumblr blog called Fix BC Ed which you should all go and visit after you are done getting outraged from reading the statistics below.

• BC falls behind in K-12 funding as a % of GDP
• Total expenditures in public elementary and secondary schools as a percentage of the GDP BC as a percentage of GDP 3.3% Canadian average 3.6%
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• BC falls further behind Canada in per student funding (operating expenditures per FTE student)
• 2010-2011 ($988.00 below the national average)
• Source: Statistics Canada (2013)
• Most provinces hired more teachers
• BC lost 3.7% lowest in Canada – PEI hired the most 14.7%
• Source: Statistics Canada (2013)
• BC has the worst student–educator ratio in Canada
• BC average in 2011 16.8 students per teacher
• Canadian average 13.8 students per teacher 
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• If our BC funding met the national average we would have: 
• - 6,600 more teachers in our classrooms this year
• - On average four more teachers per school 
• - $568 million more in the education budget
• Since the contract strips of Christy Clark when she was Education Minister
• Loss of
• 286 librarians
• 120 counselors
• 770 special education teachers
• 342 English Language Learner Teachers
• 11 Aboriginal Education teachers
• Source: BC Ministry of Education Staff by Year and Program Code 2002, 2012
• Increase in classes with four or more designated student with special needs
• 2007 9,559
• 2012 12,651
• Source: BC Ministry of Education Overview of Class Size and Composition in BC Schools
• BC is last or next to last in Canada in the following key measures
• Operating expenditures 12th
• Operating expenditures per student 13th
• Total expenditures 12th
• Total expenditures per student 12th
• Total expenditures per capita 12th
• Source: Statistics Canada (2013)
• BC spends much less that the national average on our public school children:
• Between 2008 and 2012 Board Operating Expenditures on public schools increased by 13.8% in Canada and only 3.4% in BC – if funding in BC had been at the Canadian average there would be an additional $493 Million in education funding this year
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• BC far behind expenditures of other Western Provinces
• Board operating Expenditures for public schools – increased 24.7% in Alberta, 22.1% in Saskatchewan, 15.7% in Manitoba and 3.4% in BC
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• Education funding not keeping up with inflation 
• According to the Conference Board of Canada BC caps education (K-12 and post secondary) spending increases to 0.6% per year between now and 2017 estimates BC needs to increase education spending by 2.7 % per year or 1.6 billion over three years to maintain inflation adjusted funding per student
• Source: Vancouver Sun August 7, 2014
• Downloaded costs are increasing what School Districts need to pay
• General inflation on supplies and services
• Increased Medical Services Premiums
• Increased BC Hydro Rates
• Unfunded salary increments for employees moving up on grid
• Increases to employer contributions for payroll benefits, health / dental benefits and employee pension plans
• 3.5% salary increase for support staff (2013-2014)
• Totalling 192.7 million in cost pressures in 2014-2015 (source: BC Association of School Business Officials)
• Source: Ministry of Education Estimates 2014-2015
• The public is saying to spend more on K-12 and post secondary and if necessary raise taxes to do so:
• What did the public say about increased funding to public education
• 71% chose to increase revenue through taxes
• 72% selected K-12 and post secondary education as a first priority
• Source: Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services

Is Homemade Raw Food for Cats Cheaper Than Canned?

One of my two Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue cats in her favourite sleeping place, my lap. Adopt a black cat today. They are the best.

I've been making my own cat food because it is healthier and has less packaging.  Eating raw meat in chunks also cuts down on the need for cleaning my cats' teeth as well.

For your reference, here are some quick calculations on whether I'm saving any money.

The main ingredient is bone-in chicken thighs, which is around $6/kg ($2.70/lb) at either Safeway or Costco.  The recipe requires you to discard 25% of the bone and 50% of the skin.

Other ingredients include egg yolks, chicken livers ($3/lb), chicken gizzards ($3/lb), and chicken hearts ($3/lb).

This worked out to $25.07 per 9.3 pounds of finished food, or in detail:

• $17.87: 5.56 pounds of chicken thighs and one pound of gizzards
• $2.19: 4 egg yolks
• $2.12: fish oil, psyllium husk powder, Vit B-50, Vit E-400, taurine powder
• $2.89: chicken hearts
• $1.64: chicken liver

This includes two cups of water in the final product weight.  

Cost is $2.88 per pound, or $0.18 per ounce.

The cost for commercial food?  Previously I'd written about how First Mate dog food has the same composition as its cat food.  First Mate dog food (canned chicken) is $3 for 12.5 oz or $3.84 per pound.

So, cost savings of about 33%.  It takes 1.5 hours for me to make the food, including cleanup and putting the food in jars.

What I am *not* including is the cost of the Tasin 108 meat grinder.  It should be factored in. If you'd like to make your own cat food, there are detailed instructions here.

Silence of the Doors: Fixing a Squeaky Door

What can these things possibly have in common?

When I first moved in six years ago, I used WD-40 to lubricate door hinges.  It was quick and easy but it stank.

Googling a solution to squeaky doors comes up with many different options.

Popular Mechanics suggests that squirting in oil is only a temporary solution.  The long term solution is to remove the pin in the hinge, clean it, and grease it up.

I was surprised there were so many options for the lubricant and not one popular standout, so I've listed the top 10 Google hits, in order of my personal preference for a solution along with comments from the sources:

• Tri-Flow Chain Lube: Ask.com (If you're a cyclist you have this, and it's long lasting)
• Silicone Spray:  Home Repair Central (Must be used more often than grease but is less messy and easier to use), Ask.com ("best option--long lasting, effective, not messy, easy to use)
• White Lithium Grease:  Popular Mechanics, Home Repair Central, ask.com (next best option to silicone spray)
• Paraffin Candles:  Apartment Therapy (leaves little residue compared to soap, oil or lubricant), Ask.com (or bees wax, an antiquated solution, but messy)
• Soap:  Apartment Therapy, Wikihow
• Petroleum Jelly: Family Handyman, Apartment Therapy, Ask.com (not recommended since it will accumulate dust and dirt)
• Coconut Oil:  Pistachio Project
• Three in One Oil and Machine Oil:  Home Repair Central
• Butter:  Huffington Post (ew, suggested as a temporary fix, but ew)
• Graphite Powder:  Ask.com, but dismissed as too messy especially over carpet by some
• WD-40:  Wikihow

You can pick one of these solutions based on being:

1. long lasting
2. convenient to buy
3. environmentally friendly
4. less messy
5. less dirt attracting
6. easier to apply

I can't make the decision for you because I don't know what's most important to you, as some of these factors are at odds with one another, such as long lasting vs. environmentally friendly.

You can do it handyperson!

Priceline Roulette

Priceline's map of Seattle, Area 14 demarcating "Downtown-Pike Place."

Dearest Google Researcher,

Here's one of my bad experiences that you can learn from.

Priceline is a hotel discounter.  But not just a simple discounter--you have to bid blindly on a hotel of a certain quality in a defined geographical area.  You do not know the name of the hotel until after you have paid for it (non-refundable).

Summary of my rant: Do NOT bid for a 4* hotel in Downtown - Pike Place Seattle on Priceline.  Do not trust Priceline.

This is my sad story.  Of how I played Priceline Roulette and lost.  I say "sad" because that sounds better than "angry" which is a more accurate description of my state of mind.

I have been using Priceline to buy hotels since 2009, loving the savings and gaining some white hairs in the process.  The first time I used Priceline I was a nervous wreck, sweaty armpits, shaking... and this only being a slight exaggeration of the state I was in.  I mean, there are no refunds!  You don't know which hotel you're getting!  I do use Bidding for Travel, the Bidding Traveler, and Better Bidding to know how to operate the system and to guess what hotel I might be granted.

There have been very good and very bad experiences among my 14 Priceline hotel purchases.

In a few cases I've ended up at a hotel that is currently undergoing renovations.  So they must have resorted to Priceline to continue to move room inventory while the restaurant was being rebuilt, or the entire first floor being renovated.

And once I ended up in the wrong city!  In 2010, I found myself in at Hotel La Jolla by the Shores, 45 minutes away from where I intended to be, near Legoland in Carlsbad.  This was because the La Jolla hotel was in the "North County Coastal" area when I wanted "North San Diego" for the San Diego area.  When I was bidding, I must have been tired and only saw the opening word "North" when selecting the area.  This double name confusion has since been corrected by Priceline as I notice today that the North San Diego area no longer exists.

The other con to using Priceline is that hotels use Priceline as a way of selling off some of their less desirable rooms.  You know, the ones with a view of the parking lot, or facing the loading zones with the trucks going beep beep, or beside the freeway.  You, dear customer, are paying 30% less, so we'll give you a 30% less nice room.

Now for today's rant.

I bid on a 4* hotel in Seattle in the "Downtown - Pike Place" district.  Bam, I got the Silver Cloud Stadium, located at the very southern perimeter of the area "14" shaded above in the photograph.  Technically, it is considered "Downtown" as part of Pioneer Square, but really since it is a 25 minute walk from the centre of the action, I don't know how you can consider this downtown.  When you pay a premium to buy a downtown hotel, you expect to be within walking distance of something.  Shopping.  Restaurants.  Not to be in the middle of an industrial area surrounded by vast tracts of lands in stadiums.  For the Silver Cloud Stadium, you need to take the hotel shuttle to get to the real downtown.  If I wanted to take transportation to go downtown, I would have saved my money and stayed in Bellevue, which is a mere 15 minute drive across the water.

Worse yet, in July 2012, this was a 3.5* hotel.  The last time I checked, this was not a 4* hotel.  I was not expecting to get it.

Just so you know it's not me who is angry to get a non-downtown non-4* hotel for a downtown 4* price, here is a selection of rants by others just in the last few weeks, all on the Priceline site itself, so you know that Priceline knows that people are pissed at this misrepresentation:

October 26, 2013: "Yes. I did not sleep because of the noise in the room the first night due to trains in the area. Location it's horrible.
I am completely shocked that you rate this hotel with 4 stars. The room quality, location regarding noise and I can't believe you called this a downtown hotel. I've used priceline for a long time and due to this experience I will probably not use you again."

October 18, 2013: "Hotel room was NOT of 4 star quality. The grout in the bathroom was disgusting - not clean at all. No upgraded amenities like other 4 stars that I stay at (JW Marriott, Ritz, Kimpton, Starwoods, Hyatt). Satellite TV kept going out. Wifi worked only intermittently. Rooms were small On the plus side - the lobby was clean."

October 18, 2013: "Location was misrepresented by Priceline. I selected Seattle- Pike Street. Seattle Stadium was definitely not Pike Street."

November 1, 2013: "Not up to the Priceline standard for hotels in the 4-star category. Very sketchy part of town surrounds the hotel. Not really a part of the downtown core as represented."

October 26, 2013: "The accommodations were not 4 star quality. Room finishing was old and the space, even in a suite, was very confining. The location may not fit into other categories, but this was not "downtown" - a fairly important misrepresentation from the site."

October 17, 2013: "Rooms seem dated, furnishings seemed old, and it just didn't feel like a 4 star hotel compared to the other 4 stars on the list. Also, unless you're attending an event at Safeco or Century Link it's not a great location for downtown.
Very nice staff, rooms are adequate, but feel dated. Location is not where you expect to end up when selecting a downtown option with Priceline."

October 16, 2013: "I do not consider this the downtown area of Seattle."

October 15, 2013: "This hotel is 3-3.5 stars at best. It is in a poor location, except for the sporting stadiums, rooms are small, lobby and lounge area very mediocre. Probably would not stay at this hotel for this price."

October 15, 2013: "I did not like that Priceline has included the Seattle Stadium area in the "Downtown" selection. It is not in the downtown shopping area.
The hotel was fine. Clean and nice staff. Just not downtown Seattle. Will no longer recommend Priceline to my friends as I have done for several years. "

October 10, 2013: "They charged for parking. $25/night.
Hotel in SODO district. Not downtown. A bit misleading as Priceline needs a SODO location in addition to downtown."

October 10, 2013: "It was supposedly "downtown", Pike Street area. It was NOT, no matter how you try to spin it. For this reason, I won't be using the Priceline service in the future. It can't be trusted."

October 3, 2013: "The location said it was pike place. It was not but that would be error on priceline I guess not the hotel. They did have free shuttle to make up for that mistake."
September 30, 2013: "High parking costs, just did not feel like a 4 star hotel.
It was clean and nice but not a 4 star hotel. More like a 3 star. Parking was unreasonably high priced at $25 a day."

September 30, 2013: "This is NOT a 4 Star Hotel. It was 3-3.5. I travel quite a bit and have stayed at 4 star hotels recently in Seattle (Grand Hyatt) and there is no comparison. Nice Hotel, just not 4 star."

September 29, 2013: "Beware when booking! Priceline identifies the hotel as Downtown but it is NOT. At least a mile walk to anything worth seeing. The hotel is disappointing for four stars. Loud refrigerator, loud Mechanical units. Free shuttle has limited usefulness.
The location is terrible unless you are going to a sports events, and is of poor quality for a 4-star hotel."

Priceline executives: are you listening? Do something about this.

As for myself, I am going to avoid using Priceline.  People are frightened enough that they don't want to use Priceline.  This kind of unwanted surprise isn't helping things any.

You know, I warned you Priceline that if you were not going to listen to me that I would write in my blog about it. This has been going on for more than a year and you have heard from many of us. Stop cheating us.