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

[alkira6]

Dried beans that refuse to get soft. This batch of black beans was in the crockpot for 10 hours, then simmering on the stove for another 1.5 hours and they're still crunchy in the middle.

This happens to me all the time.  You either have hard water or old beans.  Adding baking soda to the cooking water helps or check the "best by" date on the beans.

Or you could do what I've finally done and  go     and buy low sodium canned beans, give them a light rinse, and use them.

[mbbored]

Dried beans that refuse to get soft. This batch of black beans was in the crockpot for 10 hours, then simmering on the stove for another 1.5 hours and they're still crunchy in the middle.

This happens to me all the time.  You either have hard water or old beans.  Adding baking soda to the cooking water helps or check the "best by" date on the beans.

Or you could do what I've finally done and  go     and buy low sodium canned beans, give them a light rinse, and use them.

I think it's a mixture of both. Baking soda is a good tip: I'll try it next time.

[siamesecat2965]

Grrr. Again, people in my complex who fill the washers with stinky detergent. happened again last night. Had to rewash one load, but it still stinks. I'm not happy. Since the last time i've been putting baking soda in with my detergent, and so far, so good. but i guess if the stench is overwhelming, nothing helps. next load will get put through with just vinegar and hopeufly that will work. I dont have time for all this extra washing!

[Shoo]

Grrr. Again, people in my complex who fill the washers with stinky detergent. happened again last night. Had to rewash one load, but it still stinks. I'm not happy. Since the last time i've been putting baking soda in with my detergent, and so far, so good. but i guess if the stench is overwhelming, nothing helps. next load will get put through with just vinegar and hopeufly that will work. I dont have time for all this extra washing!

I would guess that most people do use laundry detergent. 

[Acadianna]

Dried beans that refuse to get soft. This batch of black beans was in the crockpot for 10 hours, then simmering on the stove for another 1.5 hours and they're still crunchy in the middle.

This happens to me all the time.  You either have hard water or old beans.  Adding baking soda to the cooking water helps or check the "best by" date on the beans.

Or you could do what I've finally done and  go     and buy low sodium canned beans, give them a light rinse, and use them.

I think it's a mixture of both. Baking soda is a good tip: I'll try it next time.

I usually soak my dried beans overnight in room-temperature water to cover.  I'm not sure how that would affect crock pot cooking times though.  (Make sure to put extra water in the bowl, as the beans absorb a lot of it.)

[lilfox]

More frustrating because there's nothing I can really do about it:

I was recently featured within our company for our team's research, and my name (but not title) was used.  As a result, a summer business intern at the company emailed me to ask about setting up an interview with me to talk about the research.

Heere's the petty thing that bugs me.  The intern addressed the email to Mrs. Fox.  There are two things technically wrong with that (though the intern should only be aware of one).

First, my professional name is Fox but my married name is Smith (no way the intern would know that, I go by Fox exclusively at work).  At the risk of sounding pedantic, Mrs. Fox is my mom.

Second, and I know there's still debate about this, but IME the preference for business communications addressed to women is to use Ms. if a different professional title like Dr. is not known.  Dr. is my title but we don't often use those here (our corporate culture is such that we use first names for up to three levels above us, and sometimese even for VPs).  so I also wouldn't have expected the intern to use that, though since they had to look me up on the company directory to get my email address, that info is available.  What is not in the directory is whether I'm married, so that was a big assumption.

Petty, I know.   . And I certainly won't say anything because I prefer to go by first name at work anyway.

[kherbert05]

Grrr. Again, people in my complex who fill the washers with stinky detergent. happened again last night. Had to rewash one load, but it still stinks. I'm not happy. Since the last time i've been putting baking soda in with my detergent, and so far, so good. but i guess if the stench is overwhelming, nothing helps. next load will get put through with just vinegar and hopeufly that will work. I dont have time for all this extra washing!

I would guess that most people do use laundry detergent. 

siamesecat means those awful scented detergents. I'm allergic. I used to get up early on Saturday, so I could run an empty load with vinegar to clean the washer before doing my own load. There was a grandmother - who was doing the same thing because her grandson was allergic. A third woman reported us for wasting water - and the grandmother and I had to go three rounds with the management company to explain we were cleaning their equipment not just pouring water down the drain. They checked their records and that laundry room had fewer breakdowns than the other 4 in the complex. They told third woman to back off.

[TeamBhakta]

I went to a restaurant with my parents. The owner randomly said "You work at XYZ Store, right ?" I thought "Huh, how did you know that ? I've never mentioned it to you before." Then he said "My wife and I see you there working, but you never say hi to us. We figure you're busy working and we don't want to bother you." Which is untrue. He and his wife have never approached me at work. They're very distinctive looking people and I'd notice if they were standing in front of me. Plus I'd never ignore someone saying "hi", whether I know them or not  I don't appreciate him trying to give my parents a poor impression of me

[Snooks]

Shops moving and not updating their address on their website.  I wasted a good half an hour wandering up and down a road, trying to get the internet on my phone to check I hadn't got it wrong, and it was raining.

[Pen^2]

FedEx 

I've ordered a few things on Amazon in the past which have happened to come via FedEx. From what I can gather, what has happened to me is pretty much their standard mode of operation outside North America. For the record, this has happened to me several times in three different countries and two continents, so I don't think it's just one dodgy local delivery guy or anything. Maybe they just hate these three countries specifically. I'm sure they're great in the USA. But not here or anywhere else I've been unfortunate enough to live.

They'll come to drop off the package (usually a book in my case) during work hours, which means of course that I'm not home. They ring the doorbell, wait for a few seconds, then leave with my package. No note left (the local post always leaves a "you weren't hope to pick up your delivery but you can come to <address> to pick it up" thing) or indication they've been. This is despite the fact that they have both my email and phone number with the order. Nothing is left in the mailbox even though it is easily big enough to put the book into. They then take the package and promptly ship it back to it's country of origin to wait there until the end of time. At no point do they ever tell me about this--if it weren't for the "track package" feature on Amazon, I'd never know what happened the first time this occurred.

It was shipped all the way back to the USA less than five hours after the guy knocked on the door. Which stupid idiot came up with this idea? And yes, they do have a local storage place for packages, but they told me on the phone that company policy dictates that they now have to send things back to wait in the storage facility in the country of origin instead. And they never ever contact the person waiting for the package, who thus has no indication that it is illogically sitting in another country and won't move until they make several dozen phone calls and grow just as many grey hairs.

We have a motion-sensitive camera outside our door, so we got to watch this today. The guy rang the doorbell and stood there for less than five seconds before walking off. The neighbour's door is right next to ours (a whole 2cm away). If it weren't for this or Amazon, we'd have no idea that my book had arrived and then been shipped back to the USA. They never tell us. It takes so freaking long to get it back again and even then there's a chance that the whole thing will just happen all over again. 

[kherbert05]

FedEx 

I've ordered a few things on Amazon in the past which have happened to come via FedEx. From what I can gather, what has happened to me is pretty much their standard mode of operation outside North America. For the record, this has happened to me several times in three different countries and two continents, so I don't think it's just one dodgy local delivery guy or anything. Maybe they just hate these three countries specifically. I'm sure they're great in the USA. But not here or anywhere else I've been unfortunate enough to live.

I pay for a box in a mail/delivery center to avoid this problem.
They'll come to drop off the package (usually a book in my case) during work hours, which means of course that I'm not home. They ring the doorbell, wait for a few seconds, then leave with my package. No note left (the local post always leaves a "you weren't hope to pick up your delivery but you can come to <address> to pick it up" thing) or indication they've been. This is despite the fact that they have both my email and phone number with the order. Nothing is left in the mailbox even though it is easily big enough to put the book into. They then take the package and promptly ship it back to it's country of origin to wait there until the end of time. At no point do they ever tell me about this--if it weren't for the "track package" feature on Amazon, I'd never know what happened the first time this occurred.

It was shipped all the way back to the USA less than five hours after the guy knocked on the door. Which stupid idiot came up with this idea? And yes, they do have a local storage place for packages, but they told me on the phone that company policy dictates that they now have to send things back to wait in the storage facility in the country of origin instead. And they never ever contact the person waiting for the package, who thus has no indication that it is illogically sitting in another country and won't move until they make several dozen phone calls and grow just as many grey hairs.

We have a motion-sensitive camera outside our door, so we got to watch this today. The guy rang the doorbell and stood there for less than five seconds before walking off. The neighbour's door is right next to ours (a whole 2cm away). If it weren't for this or Amazon, we'd have no idea that my book had arrived and then been shipped back to the USA. They never tell us. It takes so freaking long to get it back again and even then there's a chance that the whole thing will just happen all over again. 

No that is pretty much every delivery service in the US - unless it is a high value items then they leave it at the door. I once had fed ex leave my laptop at the door and ship the case back to dell - never got the case never got a refund either.

[Pen^2]

FedEx 

<snipped>

No that is pretty much every delivery service in the US - unless it is a high value items then they leave it at the door. I once had fed ex leave my laptop at the door and ship the case back to dell - never got the case never got a refund either.

Wait, they leave very expensive goods out in the open where people can nab them, but ship the cheaper ones back? Why is this company in business again?

[Julian]

Shops moving and not updating their address on their website.  I wasted a good half an hour wandering up and down a road, trying to get the internet on my phone to check I hadn't got it wrong, and it was raining.

Or in my case, nearly the opposite. 

My vet practice was moving to a new custom built facility.  It was well publicised on radio, so I knew it was happening, just not actually when.  I had to book one of the furries in for a routine visit, so I looked up the phone number on the white pages website, which had the new address showing.  When I called, I asked if they'd moved yet.  No, they hadn't, they're still at the old place.  So I let the receptionist know that the white pages had already updated their address, in advance, so they could avoid any confusion with other clients.  Yes, they didn't know their address had been changed.

(Probably the only case ever of our major telco actually being efficient and pro-active!)

[Snooks]

I have now discovered that every clothes manufacturer in the UK got together and decided that women's jeans must have elastane in them.  I hate elastane in jeans, they never fit me properly and I'd far rather have a few uncomfy days to get some nicely broken in jeans than jeans I'm constantly tugging at.  To add insult to injury no-one sells what I would call "denim blue" jeans any more.  I'm seriously considering trying some men's jeans.

[siamesecat2965]

Grrr. Again, people in my complex who fill the washers with stinky detergent. happened again last night. Had to rewash one load, but it still stinks. I'm not happy. Since the last time i've been putting baking soda in with my detergent, and so far, so good. but i guess if the stench is overwhelming, nothing helps. next load will get put through with just vinegar and hopeufly that will work. I dont have time for all this extra washing!

I would guess that most people do use laundry detergent. 

siamesecat means those awful scented detergents. I'm allergic. I used to get up early on Saturday, so I could run an empty load with vinegar to clean the washer before doing my own load. There was a grandmother - who was doing the same thing because her grandson was allergic. A third woman reported us for wasting water - and the grandmother and I had to go three rounds with the management company to explain we were cleaning their equipment not just pouring water down the drain. They checked their records and that laundry room had fewer breakdowns than the other 4 in the complex. They told third woman to back off.

Yup. Stinky detergent and/or fabric softener. there's one reservoir for all three, and many times there's leftover which then goes into the next load (s). I guess some people don't follow the "less is more" and use a lot more than necessary. 

I put very little detergent in, since you don't need nearly as much as the bottle says, and some baking soda along with it. Might have to switch to vinegar with the soap, if the stinkiness keeps up.

Did you have to pay to do your wash? we do, so I can't even imagine someone complaining about wasting water. that's another reason it irks me to ahve to re-do my stuff; it costs enough to do my normal loads, without having to add in the cost of the extra ones.