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Iowa Farms, California Tables

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OMG, The Best Chili Ever!

BLACK BEAN & LEFT-OVER BEEF CHILI

Recipe from the kitchen of me, Lori Aronsohn

1 - 15 oz can Trader Joe’s Cuban style black beans

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

7 oz. can chipotles in adobo sauce

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 T. olive oil

4 slice bacon, cut up

1.5 T. chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1.5 to 2 lbs left-over beef pot roast, shredded.

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

2 - 15 oz cans black beans

Empty can of Trader Joe’s Cuban style black beans, can of diced tomatoes and their juices, one medium chipotle and all the adobo sauce into food processor. (Reserve remaining chipotle for mean-spirited garnish). Process until smooth and set aside.

Heat oil in large heavy-duty pot over medium-high heat until shimmering hot. Add onion and cook for two minutes. Add diced bacon, cook until onion is translucent and starts to brown and bacon approaches limp doneness. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in chili powder and cumin. Stir in beef. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring repeatedly, until warm.

Add pureed bean mixture. Add 2 cans of black beans. Cook and stir till simmering.

Cover and simmer for at least an hour.

Serve with sour cream and grated cheese and cornbread.

Oh, and the remaining chipotles.

Enjoy!

Pardon our scattered appearance as we undergo extensive renovations.

Lori's Rant, September 8, 2010:

June 2010, I decided that I was paying too much to watch TV via DirecTV. With competitors such as Dish Network and Time Warner Cable offering introductory packages less expensive than what I, DirecTV's so-called "loyal customer" was required to pay, not to mention the availability of free, High Definition TV off antenna that provides even better HD quality than what I receive from satellite, AND with so many of my favorite programs available free online, I approached DirecTV with a proposal to either lower my bill, or see me leave.

I spoke to a salesperson who offered to help me. I was willing to work this out with him and was helpful, mind you. I suggested possible promotions that I might be eligible for. I work in the entertainment industry? I’m a member of Costco? His first offer was for me to change my package, which would mean losing several of the few channels I watch. Taking into account all the ‘promotions’ going on, he proclaimed this new rate was the best he could offer. I turned down that offer. I made it clear that I didn’t like his packages. I couldn’t care less about sports channels, or game channels or foreign language channels or most of the movie channels. I have Netflix! If he couldn’t work with me to provide me with reasonable programming at a reasonable price, I was willing to bundle up DirecTV's receivers and satellite dish and send them back to their mysterious makers. The rep then had some kind of 'epiphany', and came up with a more attractive offer, which I eventually agreed to. One of the terms of the agreement was that I would sign on for ‘direct bill pay’.

I wasn’t born yesterday, so I took copious notes during this conversation, skeptical that the deal we agreed to would come out as promised. I made a record of all that was included in the offer, down to how many receivers, what channels, etc. I gave him my credit card number for direct payment. After hanging up, I congratulated myself for standing up for myself and not continuing to be ripped off by the big, sequestered corporation.

A month and a half later I received my credit card statement in the mail. I noted my first DirecTV 'direct payment' -- it was $9 more than promised. I immediately went online and found that the next monthly payment was $17 more than promised. My monthly payment was growing!!! Monthly! Now, mind you, I read back this 'deal' to the representative over the phone on that day in June and established without a doubt that the understanding was that I would be paying exactly $85 plus tax of approximately 49 cents each month for a year.

Furious, I phoned customer service and over the course of a few days was referred from one representative to the representative’s manager to a specialist for “special handling” via telephone and Internet. Stoically putting one foot in front of the other, thinking that I was getting somewhere with emails and phone messages providing me with new phone numbers to call, using special, limited-time codes to make the call go through, I soon realized that I'd been dealing with the same department all along. DirecTV had taken the concept of giving customers the run around to new heights. No representative who can be reached by a customer has any power to do anything for me.

In the end, the only path to a possible resolution was for me to send a letter in the mail to the Office of the President at DirecTV via a P. O. Box in Greenwood Village, Colorado. And to then cross my fingers and wait. Which is what I did on August 26, 2010. I'm still waiting. There is no way to reach this office by telephone or by email. I have complete email transactions of what has taken place thus far and would just love it if this could be resolved in a public way to point out to the world what crooks they are at DirecTV. Any thoughts people?

i hope i get to eat them before the rodents do

baby tomatoes

use your head lady...

does it look like i want to take a nap?!

AT&T Tech Support Hell

AT&T click to chat

System

Welcome Mr. Lori Aronsohn.

System

Connecting to server. Please wait...

System

Connection with server established.

You

Technical Support Topic: DSL High Speed Internet

System

AYELEN has joined this session!

System

Connected with AYELEN

AYELEN

Thank you for choosing AT&T Internet Services. My name is Ayelen. How can I make you a very satisfied customer today?

You

Hi, my internet service has been on and off for three days now. Is this a local problem, or isolated to me?

AYELEN

Mr. Lori Aronsohn please confirm if the following phone number that you entered, 818xxxxxxx is your Billing Telephone to your DIAL/DSL account?

You

yes

AYELEN

I see I am chatting with Mr. Lori Aronsohn, are you the main account holder?

You

yes

AYELEN

Mr. Lori Aronsohn, may I have a number where you can be reached in case we are disconnected? It may take upto 30 mins to call you back in case the chat get’s disconnected. We will try to reach you within 30 mins.

AYELEN

What is the model of Modem/Router that you are using?

You

818xxxxxxx or 8185xxxxxx

AYELEN

Thank you.

AYELEN

What is the model of Modem/Router that you are using?

AYELEN

Are you connected between the computer and router using wireless or cable?

You

answer this question, is there an outage problem in my area

AYELEN

No, I have checked there is no outage.

You

Please arrange for tech support to come to my house

AYELEN

Yes we can first we need to check all the connectivity settings for internet.

You

I am not a novice. We have already done all the troubleshooting from the house. The problem is outside the house. I don't have time to follow along with your script.

AYELEN

Okay.

AYELEN

Let me run a line test to check if there are any issues with the line, please do not switch anything off for about 2-3 minutes while the test is running.

AYELEN

What is the model of Modem/Router that you are using?

You

why

You

speedstream 4100

AYELEN

Thank you.

AYELEN

Is your phone working fine?

You

No, i am experiencing noise on the line for the same period of time, on and off.

AYELEN

That's is the cause of intermittent internet problem at your place.

AYELEN

Engineers are working on it.

You

What engineers, and how are they working on it?

AYELEN

It is not from internet department, it is related to telephone team.

You

what makes you think that? perhaps it's the other way around.

AYELEN

No I have got the line test results.

You

and...what does it tell you?

AYELEN

everything is in front of me.

You

and what does it say...feel free to cut and paste

AYELEN

It shows that due to outage on telephone line, due to that intermittent internet problem is present.

You

You said there was no outage in the area. Where is the outage?

AYELEN

We are not allowed to cut and paste the results, we need to explain it in our words.

You

Is there a local telephone outage problem? Is my phone line unclear? Do you see the static on my phone? is it caused by the internet

You

in your own words

AYELEN

In the single telephone line you are getting two signals of different frequencies, one for Internet and one for telephone, there is no outage from our side that I have already explained it to you, outage is in telephone side.

AYELEN

Outage from telephone side can be explained by Telco team.

You

your tech support i'm speaking to says differently. they say that the phone line is the same as the internet

You

the telephone side outage -- where is that outage located?

AYELEN

Line is same, frequencies are different, different team are handling specific issues related to it.

You

again, you say there is an outage on the telephone side. is that outage specific to my house or local to my neighborhood, or wide, in my city?

AYELEN

Outage is from telephone side, can be explained by Telco team on 1-800-288-2020.

You

So, in other words, you are just making this up as you go along?

AYELEN

I am from DSL technical help team, help you regarding Internet issues.

You

i am having internet issues -- no internet.

AYELEN

Yes, the problem you are experiencing is due to telephone line outage, not specific internet issue.

You

the problem i am having is with AT&T. As usual

AYELEN

Yes, it is however can be taken care of corresponding teams.

You

that made no grammatical sense

AYELEN

I am sorry for grammatical mistakes.

AYELEN

I just need to inform you that problem is not related to our department, it is due to some outage from telephone team you are experiencing intermittent internet issue.

You

I beg to differ. I have had these problems before and whether or not AT&T has chosen to separate their telephone from their internet from their service from their billing, all are interrelated and cause problems across AT&T's partitions

AYELEN

We have dedicated teams for different issues, as your issue is related to Telco team I cannot help you more on this.
AYELEN

Is there anything else that I may assist you with today?

You

Please forward this chat text to your superiors and let them know that AT&T customers get more pissed off every day.

AYELEN

Please wait I am transferring this chat to my supervisor for help.'

System

You are being transferred to another Agent. Please stand by...

System

AYELEN has left this session!

System

Rowan has joined this session!

System

Connected with Rowan

Rowan

Hi, this is Rowan, supervisor of Ayelen. How can I help you?

You

Fix my internet, fix my phone line

Rowan

Please give me a minute to check the chat details.

Rowan

Thank you for waiting.

You

uh huh

Rowan

I have checked and found that your Internet connection keeps dropping. Is that correct?

You

yes

Rowan

Are you able to hear any noise on their telephone line like static or hum?

You

yes

Rowan

Okay, the issue is not with the Internet services but with the phone services.

You

explain

Rowan

If you have issue with the telephone, it causes trouble with the Internet connection.

Rowan

You need to contact our Telco department to fix the issue with telephone. Once it is fixed I am sure your Internet will work fine without disconnections.

Rowan

The number to contact them is: 1-800-288-2020

You

And, do you know what else? If you have trouble with your internet connection, it can affect the telephone service

Rowan

No, since the services are through telephone line, the Internet is affected, in case if there is issue with the telephone.

Rowan

Mr. Aronsohn, is there anything else that I may help you today?