I spent so many hours with so many various technicians and customer serve representatives, trying to track down a missing gabarit de perçage (template) for our washing machine. It's meant to have a cupboard door mounted on the front to hide the washing machine (called "encastrable"). They do this a lot over here becuase I guess they don't like seeing kitchen appliances in their kitchens?
Anyway every other encastrable applicance we've bought has always come with a template for where to drill the holes for the hinges and other hardware. This one was supposed to have a template--the installation instructions even refer to it multiple times--but it was not included.
I spent so many hours trying to figure out how I could get this missing template...so many people, none of them knew what to do or kept telling me that the template would be sold with the cupboard door (no--because you can attach any door to this--the template is specific to the appliance!). I got shuttled back and forth between the manufacturer and the store I bought it at.
Hours later I had a product number for buying a new template.
I went onto the manufacturer's website, found the template, and added it to my cart. I hit checkout....and got a message that they were out of stock!
So I called the manufacturer back and explained the whole situation again and that it was not showing up as out of stock. She searched high and low and couldn't find any way to buy it anywhere, not even to download it. "But your company makes it! Why can't you figure out a way to make the template accessible? Otherwise I can't use my washing machine as it was sold to be used!" She agreed that it didn't make sense but that she couldn't do anything else.
I found one third-party company selling the template (for more money, of course) and bought it.
Then I got an email after the puchase was confirmed: "We're sorry; this product is out of stock and may be delayed."
Argh.
Inga has a friend over for a sleepover. They watched I Am Legend (dubbed in French, which was very bizarre, because Will Smith had a voice that didn't fit at all).
Ivy had a friend over after school, and she ended up eating dinner with us. We had to remove many of the food items that she doesn't eat: cheese, tomatoes, olives...For our own kids, they just get whatever we make and that's it. They aren't forced to eat anything--although it's rare they don't--but we also don't offer them anything different.
Eric and I had a consult with an immigration attorney about both our own situation and about Zari, since she has to have her own visa etc as soon as she is 18. It's looking like we will probably have to hire an attorney. In theory, you should be able to do it youself...but in reality, there are so many unwritten rules and processes unknown to the general public that the likelihood of succeeding without legal repreosentation goes down. And that's so frustrating because it means that people with money and privilege have a greater chance within the immigration than people without means. We can find the funds if we need to (especially considering that the long-term costs will equal out due to not having to pay lots of money every year just for renewal fees)...but what about all those who can't? I hate systems that are rigged to favor those with money.
Today was piano moving day from the previous owners to the refinishing place. Eric went along to meet both the moving company and the refinishing person. He said that the piano transfer was an emotional experience for the seller--her mother, who was a pianist, bought it when the seller was a child so it is something that has been part of her life for over half a century. The couple selling the piano want to go out to dinner with us and see the piano once it's refinished and installed in the apartment.
Such a sweet, poignant story and we are glad to be the custodians of something that was so important to the last family.
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