What little things drive you completely up the wall....?

[CrochetFanatic]

My brother is in trouble with me.  Only he doesn't know it yet.  There was a box of donuts on the kitchen counter, and when we get this kind there are always two of the kind he and I like.  One each.  That is the agreement, which is now unspoken, but was established years ago.  He ate my bleeping donut. 

[Diane AKA Traska]

Hanging's too good for him!  BURNING'S too good for him!  He should be chopped up into itty bitty pieces and buried alive!

[CrochetFanatic]

Yes.  My coffee is lonely, and I am not amused. 

[Adelaide]

I hate how "snacks" are advertised as such and packaged in 300-400 calorie portions. So I have to rifle through the snack aisle for a good ten minutes, looking like I'm crazy because I keep turning over boxes to check calories. 400 calories is not a snack, that's a meal*. And I'm sick of shelling out tons of cash for stuff that's portioned in 100 calorie packages. Stuff that's being touted as amazing/awesome/what a revelation/will help you lose so much weight because it's MAGIC, DARN IT. No. It's a sensible portion. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that 100 calories<400 calories. That's how you should be eating anyway*.  So I usually resign myself to measuring out my own portions and buying in bulk, even though it takes more time.

*=Applies to me, doesn't necessarily apply to everyone. When I'm exercising more, burning 800+ calories a workout, I will of course eat a higher calorie snack. But not normally, not on a sedentary day.

[lilfox]

Adelaide, you'd hate this:  I treated myself to a packaged piece of coffee cake at work.  Now, it was a generous size but was one piece.  As i finished it off, I idly checked the calorie count:  400... Ouch, but okay, I'll do a harder workout later.  Except, that was per serving and this package contained TWO servings.  D'oh!

(I'm only slowly getting into the habit of checking calorie/sodium etc info before I eat something)

[Adelaide]

Adelaide, you'd hate this:  I treated myself to a packaged piece of coffee cake at work.  Now, it was a generous size but was one piece.  As i finished it off, I idly checked the calorie count:  400... Ouch, but okay, I'll do a harder workout later.  Except, that was per serving and this package contained TWO servings.  D'oh!

(I'm only slowly getting into the habit of checking calorie/sodium etc info before I eat something)

I do that too. Some stuff is so delicious you don't even notice sometimes!

[Snooks]

People who won't leave messages.  I work 9-5 so I am not always available to answer my cell phone.  I have voicemail and my home phone has an answerphone.  My bank wrote me a letter to say they'd tried to reach me by phone, could I please telephone them.  They could have saved themselves the effort of writing and sending me a letter by just leaving a message on one of those handy services I have designed for such an occasion when I don't answer the phone and someone needs to relay information to me.  Gah.

[mmswm]

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere in the last 713 pages, but why do some people feel the need to raise the volume of their voices by at least 40 decibels when they speak on the phone?  I'm sitting here, 3 rooms away from my mother, and I find her volume to be uncomfortably loud, even from this distance.  Have I mentioned before that I have substantially reduced hearing in one ear?  Yup, still way too loud.  I feel sorry for the person on the other end of the phone.

[Amava]

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere in the last 713 pages, but why do some people feel the need to raise the volume of their voices by at least 40 decibels when they speak on the phone?  I'm sitting here, 3 rooms away from my mother, and I find her volume to be uncomfortably loud, even from this distance.  Have I mentioned before that I have substantially reduced hearing in one ear?  Yup, still way too loud.  I feel sorry for the person on the other end of the phone.

Yes. It's like the old joke:
"Why is our boss yelling like that?"
"Oh, he's talking to someone who's in France."
"Then why doesn't he just use the phone?"

[BabylonSister]

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere in the last 713 pages, but why do some people feel the need to raise the volume of their voices by at least 40 decibels when they speak on the phone?  I'm sitting here, 3 rooms away from my mother, and I find her volume to be uncomfortably loud, even from this distance.  Have I mentioned before that I have substantially reduced hearing in one ear?  Yup, still way too loud.  I feel sorry for the person on the other end of the phone.

They don't do it on purpose and I think most people are not even aware they're doing it.  When we hear people on the other side of the phone, the sound doesn't come out as well as if they were in front of us, so we automatically raise our voices. 

[Venus193]

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere in the last 713 pages, but why do some people feel the need to raise the volume of their voices by at least 40 decibels when they speak on the phone?  I'm sitting here, 3 rooms away from my mother, and I find her volume to be uncomfortably loud, even from this distance.  Have I mentioned before that I have substantially reduced hearing in one ear?  Yup, still way too loud.  I feel sorry for the person on the other end of the phone.

I only notice this with cell phones and one of these days it will make me go postal, especially if I'm near the person trying to talk on mine in a normal voice because I know the other person can hear me and because my personal business is my business.

[Julian]

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere in the last 713 pages, but why do some people feel the need to raise the volume of their voices by at least 40 decibels when they speak on the phone?  I'm sitting here, 3 rooms away from my mother, and I find her volume to be uncomfortably loud, even from this distance.  Have I mentioned before that I have substantially reduced hearing in one ear?  Yup, still way too loud.  I feel sorry for the person on the other end of the phone.

Ugh!  Housemate does this, and she not only raises the volume but the tone as well.  Which to me is ear-splitting and mind breaking, all at once.  I have to leave the room...  (or the state, if I have a migraine!)

[mbbored]

I'm sure this has been mentioned somewhere in the last 713 pages, but why do some people feel the need to raise the volume of their voices by at least 40 decibels when they speak on the phone?  I'm sitting here, 3 rooms away from my mother, and I find her volume to be uncomfortably loud, even from this distance.  Have I mentioned before that I have substantially reduced hearing in one ear?  Yup, still way too loud.  I feel sorry for the person on the other end of the phone.

I only notice this with cell phones and one of these days it will make me go postal, especially if I'm near the person trying to talk on mine in a normal voice because I know the other person can hear me and because my personal business is my business.

Apparently regular phones amplify your voice back to you but cell phones don't, so people raise their voices because they can't hear themselves in the same way.

[diesel_darlin]

My brother is in trouble with me.  Only he doesn't know it yet.  There was a box of donuts on the kitchen counter, and when we get this kind there are always two of the kind he and I like.  One each.  That is the agreement, which is now unspoken, but was established years ago.  He ate my bleeping donut.

I'm sorry, but I get the biggest laugh every time I read this post. 

[Bottlecaps]

I am the unwilling tech support for MIL, who is less than nice to me. Biggest problem, I don't have time to drive to her house all the time, especially for a one-day offer she wants to buy. Another issue, she just got her first email account and can't remember the email address or the password.

Ah ha. This is one situation I've been in, except replace MIL with sister. I'm still working on growing my polite spine, but in the mean time, me moving 700 miles away helped quell her cries of needing technical support.  Every once in a while she'll still call with a question, but if it's something that I don't have time to help her figure out (or quite honestly, just don't want to try and help her figure out, as horrible as that sounds), I say, "That's something I would have to see in order to know what's going on." Maybe in your case, you could rephrase it to, "I have to (insert random errand that will take a while to accomplish) so I'm unable to come over, and that's a problem I'd have to see in order to figure out what's going on." Then beandip, if possible. If she's at least somewhat proficient with using Google, it can make a nice tech support agent as well. Suggest she Google the problem.

Or just use call screening. That came in handy a few times when I didn't want to play bench tech for the day, hehe.