Today’s blog is my take on technology, along with a personal rant. First of all, let me say that I’m so NOT a ranter — I hate conflict and prefer peace and calm. But something happened recently that got me a bit steamed. 
Last month when I was attending the San Francisco RWA conference, on the day that I was heading back home (Sunday), somewhere between the hotel and the airport I lost my cellphone. I know I had it in my purse when I left the hotel, but when I went in search of the phone at the airport to give my husband a call to update him on my flight schedule, it was GONE. I couldn’t even tell you when or where it disappeared — or how. :scratch3: Needless to say, I felt like my right arm had just been cut off. I had to dig through my purse for change to use the public pay phone — Ewwww!!!!! :yikes: I haven’t used a public pay phone in probably a good five years, and I did not relish the thought of holding that germ-infested handset anywhere near my ear and mouth. But I had to get ahold of Don and let him know that the flight would be arriving late, and without a cellphone, it was my only option.
So, since I only had a quarter in change, I had to make the call COLLECT. Wow, I can’t remember the last time I made a collect phone call! Now normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but we’d just recently gotten our new home phone number in Oregon, and I hadn’t memorized it completely since, well, it was in my cellphone and I didn’t HAVE to memorize it! Well, this was definitely a disadvantage when I was trying to call my husband at home — collect, no less. The operator dialed three different numbers that I thought could be our new home phone number, and asked three strangers if they’d accept a collect phone call from a Janelle Denison. Uhh, no, they didn’t, and I don’t blame them! I was so embarrassed, and I finally resorted to Plan B. 
I called my mother in California — again, collect. And I could hear the panic in her voice as she told the operator “YES, I’ll take the call”. The first thing out of my mouth was “Mom, I’m okay. Don’t panic!”. Considering we all have cellphones and can call whoever we’d like on a whim, to get a collect phone call from your child no doubt made you think the absolute worst had happened! As soon as she calmed down, I explained my situation — and asked her to give me my new home phone number so I could call Don with the update. So, finally, with my HOME PHONE NUMBER scribbled on a gum wrapper I called Don collect (panic, again!), and told him what had happened with my phone, and when my plane would be landing in Portland.
While I was in flight and on my way home, Don called the hotel to ask them if they could check the room I’d been staying in for my cellphone. They did, and found nothing. I really didn’t think it was there, anyway, but it was worth checking. As soon as I got home (one in the afternoon), I sent my cell phone a text message (from my husband’s cell phone) asking that if anyone found the phone if they’d please give me a call (and gave them my home phone number) so I could get it back. And I wanted my phone back really, really bad. I’ve had it for over two years, I LOVE IT, and it has the phone numbers of family, all my friends, doctors, places I frequent, etc. This phone is my life-line, and a lot of time I even use it at home because it has all the phone numbers I need programmed right into it. I felt so lost without it!
Well, by noon the next day, Monday, when I hadn’t gotten a call from a good citizen telling me they’d found my phone, I figured that the phone was well and truly lost somewhere that no one had been able to find it. 
So, I headed down to Verizon, picked out my new phone, completely deactivated my old phone (and made it so no one else could ever reactivate it — I didn’t want someone having all my personal information, phone numbers, texts, pictures, etc!), and left the store with a phone that had absolutely NO information in it at all. I had to recreate everything — and I know I lost a lot of phone numbers that I hadn’t written down anywhere. :sosad:
So, fast forward a few weeks when I receive a text notice from Verizon that my monthly bill is ready to be paid. Normally, this isn’t a cause for concern — I have a package price that doesn’t waver much in terms of what I pay on a monthly basis. But this bill was a good $150.00 more than normal, and it was a big 
moment. My first thought was that my girls had done something outside of the norm — made phone calls they shouldn’t have, texted people they shouldn’t have — I mean, they’re teenagers and just don’t always think about what something might cost, until it’s too late. :doh:
I immediately go to Verizon’s website and log into my account to see where that extra expense is coming from. It’s downloads. Lots and lots of downloads. I don’t allow the girls to download ANYTHING to their phones (the cost is outrageous, obviously), and I confront both Danielle and Kellie to find out who the culprit is. Both of them deny that they download anything, so I look at my bill a bit closer and realize the downloads had come from MY phone! On the Monday after I lost my phone. :cursing: The downloads are Call of Duty 4, The Dark Knight, Soccer 08, Alien vs. Predator, Guitar Hero III, Dance Dance Revolution, and a whole slew of others — at nearly $10.00 a download!!! I look even closer and realize that whoever found my phone (a teenager, judging by the type of downloads!), started downloading on Monday. I’d gotten to Verizon to disconnect my phone around 2:00 in the afternoon on Monday, and the downloads were finally cut off at 1:46 PM — just minutes before I disconnected!!! Geez, this kid obviously thought he’d hit a download goldmine and didn’t intend to stop downloading stuff anytime soon! Un-freakin’-believable. 
Kudos to Verizon for issuing a credit back to my account for all those downloads. 
I didn’t have to pay for them, but I can’t tell you how peeved I was at whoever had found my phone and decided to use it for their own personal use. :wallbash: They obviously knew their way around using a cellphone and had read my text asking that someone PLEASE call my home phone if they found the cell. I really would have liked to have gotten my original phone back, along with all my personal information. But that didn’t, and won’t, happen.
My rant today is about dishonest people. Growing up, I was taught to be a good person, someone who would absolutely return a cellphone if they’d found one. It’s not like I lost an unmarked hundred dollar bill, a piece of jewelry, or something that couldn’t be traced! I’ve instilled those same qualities in my girls, and I know in my heart if they’d ever found someone’s cell phone, they’d do their best to find the owner, or give me the cell to see what I could do to get it returned to the person. And If I ever found out that they didn’t, they wouldn’t like the consequences that they suffered as a result of being dishonest.
So, how about you? Have you ever lost something important that could have been returned to you, but wasn’t? Have you ever lost a cellphone and had a similar experience to mine, or did your cellphone find its way back to you?
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Warm wishes for a Happy Birthday go out to Plotmonkey Pal, Tammy Keener, today! We hope you have a fabulous, fun-filled day!
Janelle Denison finds it hard to believe that it’s been nearly 20 years since she first started writing romance novels. At first, it was a way to pass idle time while her husband worked swing shift, but before long it became an obsession to get published. Luckily, she kept at it (it took her over 5 years to get that first book published!) and is now a Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and USA Today Bestselling author! Now, after selling over 40 plus novels, she finds that her Plotmonkey pals help to keep her stories fresh and unique, and she can’t imagine writing a story without their input. Janelle lives in Oregon with her husband, Don, along with two teenage daughters that keep life interesting.
3 Seductions and a Wedding
Hot Number
Play With Me
Wild For Him
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Happy birthday Tammy!
Oh Janelle, I just want to give you a big ole hug! I know what you mean about the whole honesty thing. How awful that someone found your phone and didn’t bother to return it to you! I woud feel horrible if I found something so important and didn’t care enough to make sure it got back to the owner. The carelessness and lack of concern really bothers me.
There seems to be this sense of entitlement with a lot of people who feel that “oh well, too bad so sad that someone lost their phone, but hey it’s mine now! ha ha ha” Not for one moment did that person think about what it meant to you to lose that phone. I get disgusted just thinking about it.
Anyway, I’m sorry you lost your phone and that it turned out to be an unpleasant situation for you. {{{hugs}}}
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I”m so sorry about your cell phone Janelle. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I guess I still want to think there are nice people out there that would return a phone if found…especially after receiving a text on how to get in touch with the owner.
I lost a ring many years ago. It was my Mom’s mothers ring and it still kills me today that I could never find it. I think it fell off my finger in a restaurant, but I looked all over and could never find it. My brother was living in the same town at the time(for college) and would go check the pawn shops every couple of weeks, but we never got it back. My dad found almost the exact ring last year and had all the stones replaced in the correct order and bought it for me. I have it with me all the time, even if it is just in my purse.
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While daddy was alive, anything I lost, he would always find. He was like a bloodhound. Now I just loose stuff and pray it shows up.
I was brought up the same way- to be honest. I don’t know how many times he would find someone’s wallet and call them and return it intact- money and all. We were poor and I think most people were amazed that their money would still be there. Sometimes they gave him a reward and other times not, but he never took a cent that wasn’t his, no matter how much we could have used it.
As for the lost numbers- Verizon has a program on their site that allows you to download your phone list to it and it will update it automatically. After killing numerous phones, I finally found out about it and it has saved my life. Call them and ask about it. NOW!!!
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Happy Birthday, Tammy!!!!
I have to admit I laughed, really laughed, through the first part. I know it wasn’t funny to you at the time, probably still isn’t, but to see a grown woman in an airport trying to remember her own home phone number just struck me as…well….really, really funny!
But I think the bigger issue here is just plain good ‘ole honesty and ethics. I was at a friend’s funeral last week and his best friend got up to speak about him. They’d been friends for 50 years (they’re 61 now) and they’d been coaching baseball since they were 18.
RV told the story of Tommy coaching a championship game. Tommy realized the opposing team was getting ready to let their starting pitcher pitch the 4th inning. That put him over his limit for innings pitched for the week and the opposing team would have had to forfeit.
Tommy said he couldn’t win a game like that. It wasn’t right and he stopped the boy from pitching himself, so that the game was played fair and square. The other coaches on his team were mad at him!!! They didn’t care how they won, they just wanted to win. But the lesson he taught to all the boys, on both teams, about winning the right way, honesty and ethics was more valuable than any game they could have won. In fact, RV said, “It didn’t matter who won after that.”
Those kinds of lessons aren’t taught like they used to be. Obviously, who ever got your cell phone hadn’t ever been taught honesty. I’m really sorry you lost your phone and all that information. But I”m glad Verizon didn’t stick you with the downloads!! Kudos to them!!
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Happy Birthday Tammy. Hope your day is great.
Poor Janelle. I don’t know what I would do if I lost my cell. Like you, I can’t remember anyone’s numbers and have to get my cell to look it up.
I did have a laptop that crashed and I couldn’t retrieve any of my documents. Luckily, I had my my manuscript backed up so I didn’t lose it, but my critique partners work wasn’t so lucky and since I didn’t remember anyone’s email, I had to wait for her to email me so that I could let her know. :wallbash:
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Gah! I hate dishonest people. And while it’s easy to blame the kid, I want to know what his/her parent(s) taught that teen. Poor Janelle. You get to rant. I’ve always managed to find my phone and I don’t have many numbers in it anyway. Technology is NOT my friend. I crashed a couple of hard drives so I started backing up things up on disks. But then I discovered that a disk’s “shelf life” sucks and lost work that way. Now I work off the hard drive with periodic backups to CDs, though my computer nerd tells me they aren’t stable for the long haul either. He sent me a thumb drive and told me to back up everything to it. Uhm…How do I do that?
Yeah. I am that technologically challenged. 
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Happy Birthday Tammy K.!
I agree that the person knew exactly what they were doing.
Do you know with other cellphone companies they could have reused your
phone as well. Verizon is the only company that will eliminate the charges
and have phones without sim cards so other can’t reuse your phone after
they find/steal it. Sorry for your ordeal it sure can be frustrating.
I am off for this years last extended trip to Maine as I will be returning to
work mid October. I sure hope we get some folliage changes while we are
there.
Zoey was groomed and got all her shots yesterday and
put those other whiney big huge guard dogs to shame with her bravery.
HAve a great day everyone. :wub:
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Happy Birthday Tammy!!
Oh, Janelle here’s a big for you, sweetie. :hug2: I’m so sorry that happened. Personally, I hate to lose or accidentally leave anything anywhere. I’m one of those people that likes her things. Even things like cell phones which I know can be replaced.
A long time ago before my husband and I got married I had gone to the bank and on the way out, I saw a *huge* wad of cash on the sidewalk outside the bank. I picked it up and took it in to one of the tellers. Obviously someone had made a withdrawl then accidentally dropped the money. Yes it would have been easy to just pocket the cash but I wasn’t raised that way. I’m if nothing else, brutally honest.
Then years later I was going to the bank to make a deposit. It was a very windy day and unbeknownst to me the wind blew the check with the deposit slip attached out of my car. Well, I looked everywhere, the car, the garage my purse, the house to no avail. Later that afternoon I got a call from the bank saying that some kind soul had found the check and deposit slip and taken it to the bank. I couldn’t believe it. It restored my faith in human nature.
Then there was the roommate who stole from me in multiple ways. But I won’t relate the gory details here.
It’s awful when these kinds of things happen. It makes you feel like Ewwww!
Have a terrific day all,
Cher
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Happy Birthday Tammy!
I agree with the thoughts on dishonesty. I too was raised to be honest, kind, etc….
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Oh, Janelle, What an unhappy experience for you. It’s hard to believe in the honesty of today’s youth (as a general rule), but, even more scary, are parents of students caught cheating who blame the TEACHER for disciplining the students, when caught. I can’t imagine what kind of world this will be if this practice continues. Good luck with your new phone. That Verizon service ev mentioned sounds like a good plan.
Patricia
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Sending you lots of hugs, Janelle…I totally understand and can empathize (I would be LOST without my personal directory, I don’t want to go there), but then to have all of the downloads, augh….
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Janelle, sorry to hear about your phone. I lost my phone twice in the last 6 months and both times I got it back. The first time it happened was at church. It was my nephews christening and I put my purse down and the phone fell off. I had not noticed that it was gone until the next day when someone called my mothers house and asked if they knew whose phone this was. They met me the next day and gave me my phone back. The last time it happened was at my brothers wedding my nephew borrowed my phone to call his friends and forgot to put it back in my purse. He was playing and it fell from his pants and was given to the dj and he announced if someone had lost a cellphone.
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Hugs, Janelle! What a horrible thing for the person who found it to do–a pox on him/her! How disappointing that there are people like that :cursing:
I haven’t lost my cell yet (*knock wood*)…
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Uggh Janelle, I feel your pain, just a few weeks ago my daughter lost her phone while volunteering at the Children’s Museum in our area. When she got home she realized she couldn’t find her phone so I told her to go out to her car that it probably fell out of her bag, I called her phone to help her find it but to my surprise someone answered her phone
So, I told them it was my phone and could I meet them somewhere to get it back from them and was told, “this is not your phone, it’s mine, I just bought it from someone!” I’m like, Hello can you be that stupid? I’m going to deactivate the phone if you don’t return it, so you just wasted your money. I offered to buy it back, because I was desperate and he hung up on me! :cursing: We called it a few more times but he wouldn’t answer it. So I had no choice but to call At&t and report it stolen. I just don’t understand how people could be so screwed up.
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Hi Janelle sorry to hear about your phone. I’ve been fortunate to not of lost anything of importance, but a few years ago thinking about it more then a few like 9 years ago I lived in Seattle and my family still lives in Scappoose Or west of portland small town 4000 my younger sister had come home from work not feeling well so she went inside to lay down she woke up the next morning to go to work and went outside to her car it was gone
inside her car under the seat was her purse which had her social security card in it the peole started writing checks on her account used her social security to buy 2 new cell phones. it has taken years to get it taken care of even a bout a year ago a bill came to my parents house someone used her info to get braces on their teeth 
I would never have the nerve to something like that of course I’m the person who went to target bought stuff got to the car realized they didn’t charge me for dish washer detergent it was late but the next morning when they opened I went in to pay for it the the guy at customer service looked at me like I grew a second head.
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Just the other day I saw a cell phone in the gutter while I was out for a walk. I thought about picking it up, but I didn’t because I was afraid someone would think I was trying to steal it!
It never occurred to me that a phone could be used to download movies. I don’t own one so I don’t know how that kind of stuff works. Yikes.
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Janelle, that is SO rotten! I would have felt exactly the same way. It sounds strange, but it almost feels like a personal violation when someone steals something like that from you. Giving someone a peek into your personal life, knowing they know your name and your home number and they’re laughing while they steal from you.
That’s how I feel about it, anyway. So big hugs to you, so sorry but GO Verizon to do the right thing!
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Janelle, I don’t know if you remember when I lost my phone in New Orleans. I called the phone and it was picked up by the cab driver who I’d last ridden with…it had slipped out of my purse. She came back about fifteen minutes later, met me at the hotel and returned the phone. I tipped her $20. Wasn’t much, but I think it was all I had on me at the time. There are honest people in the world.
How exactly does one play Dance Dance Revolution on a cell phone? Not to mention Guitar Hero III?
What am I missing?
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Janelle, that’s so terrible. I’m sorry you had to go through that -and I would have been sunk without my phone. I think I’d just sit and cry. I do, however, know my dad and sister’s cellphone numbers… but with my luck and knowing them, if they were asked to take a collect call they’d say “no” thinking it was a joke!
I don’t think I’ve ever lost anything and had a person give it back – I have forgotten somethings at school and a person found it – or I’ve done the same. I have, however, had some friends lose their wallets and have them be returned – with all cash and credit cards in tact. It’s a little sad how surprised we all are when people are decent and things like that happen. I can’t believe that kid. I once had a credit card stolen at a restaurant, and the person went to town with it. Luckily the company I have my card with is excellent and monitors purchases and cut them off rather quickly. (And I didn’t have to pay for what the person did buy. Whew.)
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Hey everybody, I am back…sorry to be away so long, but I needed to get my head on straight…
Janelle, I feel you on the techno thing…I haven’t lost anything that important, but I know people who have lost things…I too was brought up to be a good person…I return wallets and such when I find them…I know people who don’t do that either…I am glad you were able to cut off your phone that Monday or your bill might have been way over the top…It is sad that you lost all those numbers though…
Happy Birthday Tammy…
For all those bdays that I missed, I am sorry and I wish you all a Happy Belated Birthday…
I hope that everyone was doing well…I missed you guys, but I can function now without breaking down…ttyl
Peace and love,
Paula R.
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Happy Birthday, Tammy…sorry I forgot that earlier….
My A/C is restored (I am sorry, that is so shallow of me, but my little 6 year old woke up this morning with sweat on him and it was supposed to be in the mid-90s today and tomorrow) and my water heater is fixed (and my internet…now, i have to work on the garage door).
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OMG Janelle how terrible and I am with Julie how the heck to you do Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero on a cell phone :scratch3:
Last year I had my back license plate stolen so of course had to call the Police and make a report and then wait for the police report to be be done so I cld take it to DMV with me because then I wouldn’t have had to pay for new plates, but because we know don’t have those registration stickers on our plates anymore they go inside windshield so I had to pay either $10 or $20 for new plates
because some 
stole my plates
fast forward a couple of months and I get a notice from another town saying I owed parking tickets again
so next day I call and explain the plate was stolen so the lady said I had to send the police report and that would take care of it well I had to do it twice.
What bothers me is when the Police gave the car who had my plate why didn’t they call it in and see the plate didn’t match the car
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Janelle, I’m sorry you lost your phone and had such a bad experience with it not being returned to you. Some people these days just don’t seem to understand that it is not all about them! Honesty is a long standing trait in my family. Thank heavens that has been passed down through the years. I can’t imagine someone finding a phone without making an attempt to find the owner. Sometimes our world is just a crazy place. It does make me wonder why people think they are entitled.
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Ev – I will definitely check into the Verizon download program for my phone numbers!
Jodie — I can laugh about it now, but it was so frustrating at the time because I just couldn’t remember my own phone number! I love the story about the coach – those are the kinds of lessons we all should be teaching our kids!
Silver — Losing ANYTHING off your hard drive is just as devastating as losing a cell phone!
Cher — regarding the cash/bank thing, it’s called putting out GOOD KARMA! And you obviously do that very well!
Kate — You almost need a tracking device for your phone, LOL!
Tina — I can’t believe that happened to you. Well, yes I can, but still, for someone to be do dishonest . . . I don’t even want to go there again, LOL!
Michele – Identity theft is such a scary thing!!!
Julie – I have no idea how those games are played on a cellphone! Good question!
Paula – Welcome back!!!
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As for the stolen credit card numbers- I had made hotel reservations back home and had to cancel. Someone there took my number and used it. Thankfully we also have a credit card company that is always on the ball (
USAA!!) and they called me and asked if we had ordered $2500 of flooring from a place in Miami. Uh, no. They immediately cancelled the card and hadn’t approved the sale either. Wonder if they ever got the person who did it?
I had a college roommate who stole my charm bracelet that I had had since I was a baby and had many, many charms on it. Wanted to kill her. :darth:
Paula and Katie- hope things are going better for you!!
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I’ve never owned a cell phone, so have never lost one. I have, however, lost my wallet numerous times in the past, and not once has it ever been returned to me. Bummer.
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Janelle I am so sorry to hear about your phone it is terrible there are bad people out there and they think they don’t need to do the right thing. My daughter that is 21 was out at the mall and went to one of those young adult stores trying on cloths well she must have had to many in her hands because she dropped her phone in the store and didn’t realize it for a few minutes and when she did she asked the store clerk to help her look and she said she couldn’t so I my daugther said to all the people in the store has anyone seen a cell phone (the chocolate) and nobody said anything but one girl too off running so she probably picked it up when my dauther dropped it. It is shame there are so many dishonest people out there. She had only had the phone a week but she had a ton of downloads on it, she was in her last year of college so there was no money for another phone but had to have one. Oh she was mad and she is still mad about it and at the store not helping her either.
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Janelle, that is a horrible ordeal. I’ve never completely lost my cell phone, though I did momentarily misplace it while visiting a park in Nashville last summer.
On the opposite end, though, my brother and I did find a lost cell phone on Mother’s Day last year. Not really knowing what to do with it because we didn’t see anyone looking for one, we decided to have my brother call someone in the phone. He ended up calling ‘Dad’ and got ahold of the girl’s dad to find out they were still in the vicinity and that they’d drive to a certain corner to meet up with us so we could return the phone. The girl was so relieved to get her phone back. I can’t imagine not having returned it – it’s just the right thing to do. I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost my phone and didn’t get it returned.
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Thanks for the birthday love everyone sorry I didnt say it earlier but I live in columbus ohio and we had a mini hurricane believe it or not remnants from ike mixed with a cold front so we havent had power since sunday !!!! thank goodness for cell phones !!! But again thank you all it really cheered me up :)