I did get outside today and I watered the bunnies and looked in on all the animals. I've been fortunate that #3 has been doing the barn chores for me while I've been down and out.
Today Luna looked thinner. She's been quite round as of late and her babies have been active in there, so I knew right off that we had to figure out where she'd had them. It didn't take much looking. She delivered them in the same nest box Gypsy used for her kittens eight weeks ago. Gypsy has since moved her brood to the screen porch, though as of today they've figured out how to escape.
Anyway, what a beautiful surprise! Luna had six kittens. There's one solid white female, one white male with a grey smudge (exactly what Luna looked like when we got her), one solid tabby and one tabby with white on the nose, chest, and toes (one's a boy and one's a girl but I don't remember which is which), one orange male, and one calico female. I've already decided we will be keeping the calico if she survives to adulthood. I've always wanted a calico barn cat, and this one is so pretty. She has a black face with orange over one eye and white over the other.
Sometimes when I'm feeling crafty, I scour eBay for penny auctions with free shipping to get odds and ends craft stuff. Thursday I went through and bout up 113 such penny auctions with free shipping - all pendants. The idea being that we could put them all in a bag and draw one out randomly, then have a budget of $5-$10 each to go to the craft store and get the beads we need to make a necklace to fit the pendant. Fun, affordable craft that the kids and I can do together. Right?
Who am I kidding? Nothing is that easy! I paid for 71 of the auctions, but the remaining 42 auctions the sellers (seven sellers for a total of 42 auction listings) went in after the auctions ended and adjusted the invoices to include a shipping charge. Several want $20 or more for postage! On an auction that clearly advertised free shipping and ended for a penny!
So I emailed all seven of the remaining sellers. Maybe it's an accident or a glitch or something, right? So I kindly messaged each one saying I'd like to pay the however-many-cents I owe for the penny auctions, but their invoice is trying to charge postage when the listing was for free shipping. Only one seller got back to me saying it was an eBay glitch and they were working to get it fixed. I waited 24 hours - no updated invoices. I called eBay and got through to a call center in India (I do not have an issue with this, but there was a slight language barrier). I explained the situation, and the lady I first spoke to said she was going to make a note on my account that I wouldn't get dinged if these sellers report me for not paying. Then she transferred me to another customer service rep, this time a man. He seemed confused that this was an issue with seven sellers and not just one, and while he said he'd emailed each seller to tell them to adjust the invoices, once I got off the phone with him and re-checked my eBay messages, I had one in my box that he'd sent that was supposed to go to someone else... But he said to give it a couple days to get responses. As of tonight (two days after auctions ended) still no updated invoices. I am not paying $106+ for 42 penny auctions with free shipping, and I'll be damned if they ding my account for non-paying bidder complaints or try to ding my account by claiming I cancelled the orders. I will be emailing each seller again tomorrow with a link to eBay's own terms stating a seller cannot change the shipping after the auction. If I can't get corrected invoices by Monday I will be forced to call eBay again and get it straightened out. I have never had this issue before - and I've been on eBay for many years. It will be a shame if these seven sellers end up losing their accounts because of this. I did get a message on eBay from another seller with a nearly identical "it's an ebay glitch" message as the one from the other seller, but this time at the end it said "all of our listings charge postage." Maybe they do now - but they didn't when this auction ended.
Que added stress to an already medically confused situation. I did give up and decide to go in to urgent care on Thursday, but I was told they were full up and had no more appointments for the rest of the day... Just my luck, Tony doesn't have a single day off this next week - in fact two days he will be out of state for a work convention. So my only option to make an appointment is next Friday afternoon when he gets off early and can bring me in. They had one space open - so I have to see a male doctor who has no specialty interest in internal medicine or chronic health issues. Wonderful. At least I'm on the calendar now though. That's something.
Today while walking down the driveway (I went to check on the fruit trees), I noticed some interesting flowers in the yard. Does anyone know what these are? They're growing in a partly sunny partly shady area of the yard near some wildflowers and some planted flowers that have gone wild, so they could be wild or they could be something that was planted years ago and just re-seeded itself. I don't have any ideas. They're pretty and purple.
We haven't named him yet. He had a bit of a stand-off with Psyduck when he first came out of the carrier, but Josh (the African gander) broke it up and the new guy quickly followed Quackers and joined her group. Now Quackers and Gracie and the new guy (all white Pekin ducks) and Phyllis (rouen hen) and Raisin (Black Swedish) are a little group. So far no more fighting.