Thursday, January 11, 2007

Thursday Thoughts

Oh, me and my clever alliterations. Get used to it. I have thought of something for each day of the week.

PayPal Should Perish:

Anyway, everyone who has signed up has been asking me about Paypal and how the heck they are supposed to give me their money. Well, Paypal is evil incarnate. Let me explain.

I actually signed up way back in 2004 for Paypal and have, of course, forgotten by log-in. Because I used my checking account number for that Paypal account, I can no longer use it for another account. On Monday, I tried to close my old account, and miraculously was able to (Paypal even sent a nice note saying it was closed) but I'm still not able to use it because apparently deactivating the old account still means it's being used. Whatever. Yesterday (that would be Wednesday), I went to my bank to find out what my savings account number is. Found that out and attempted to sign up again. Success! Or so I thought. Apparently, Paypal isn't able to verify the account the easy way and is instead making me walk 40 miles through the desert with no food or water. Essentially, they have to send me money to confirm that I can indeed receive money.

So in 2-3 business days, you all will be able to send me money via Paypal. Luckily, I only have to do this once and next year I won't have to deal with this madness.

New People:

Welcome, Manny, Catherine and Shannon to the team! Woohoo! Manny is going to be on the A1C Team, Catherine and Shannon are on the Weight Loss Team.

Shannon, along with Julia, are actually just parents (be nice, it's not their fault they don't have diabetes), but because their group is so small, the parents are going to lumped in with everyone us. So much for reverse discrimination. If we get enough parents, I'll make it their own group, but I'm not handing Shannon and Julia essentially 11 prizes when the rest of you may not even get one. That defeats the entire purpose of the drawings and really it just isn't fair.

Thanks to Diabetes Self-Management for writing a nice little post about us!

End Notes:

1) The 5 pounds/175 mg/dl 14-day average are just the MINIMUM requirements. If you can lose more weight in a month, go for it! You don't have to stop at 5 pounds. You also don't have to send me a photo when you reach 5 pounds. Send in whatever you are on Feb. 4. Please don't send me any more downloads or photos than I ask for. I can't handle the information overload and it really doesn't do me or you any good because it's not like I'm going to do anything with them.

2) Unless donated, prizes are expensive. Some very generous people donated prizes but so far, I only have enough for 6 months. If you have a cool company or excessive funds and would like to donate to the monthly drawing prizes, please let me know. I'm hoping to pick up some more throughout the year at various conferences, but donations are always appreciated.

3) Throughout the year, if you have a particular issue or concern about fitness or nutrition, please email me and let me know. I know lots of people and I can probably track down someone who can answer your question.

5 comments:

George said...

Getting set up on Paypal is a PIA but after that, it works pretty good.

I am so happy more people are signed up! SWEET!!

I might be able to get my hand on a prize but I don't know if it will fit the theme. I am gonna work on it! :)

Allison said...

George,

It doesn't have to have a diabetes-theme, in fact, it will be nice to have some variety, and I might even pair some things up together if I have enough prizes to do that. Let me know what you have in mind.

Shannon said...

Aw nuts, I can't get 11 prizes? OK, I guess what's fair is fair ;)

Sarah said...

I won't be at that five lb mark by February! My goal is only ten lbs for the year, I don't think I'll lose five in one month! But, I bought a scale today, so once I get the 9V battery that I need so it will actually work, I'll have a weight to start with!

Allison said...

A lot of the weight people lose right away is water weight, so it's surprising how much you can lose in one month. But it definitely slows down and I know that. It won't be 5 pounds every month, just this month.