I've been responsible for two doozies in the last couple of years. Both times I was trying to call my neighbor. I suppose it would help if I said "hello" and made small talk before I started saying things, but I'm more of a "stream of consciousness" conversationalist. The first of these was a couple summers ago at the height of Japanese Beetle season. I'd been out handpicking the buggers and drowning them in soapy water. I tried to rope the neighbor kids into helping me a la Tom Sawyer, and when that failed, I tried to make a game of it, "Let's have a contest to see who can drown the most Japanese Beetles! The rules are that I can only catch them in my garden, but you can catch them in your mom's garden and in mine!" The monkeys (my neighbor's pet name for her kids) didn't bite at that either, so I just went about my business with the beetles. The next day, I was pleasantly surprised to see a pile of dead beetles on my back patio. I assumed it was the kids next door, so I called to thank them. When their mom answered I said "Your monkeys have been busy!" "Pardon me?" "Your monkeys! They went on a killing spree over here! I have a whole stack of corpses on my back patio! I'm thrilled!" "Excuse me?" (long pause...) "I dialed 849-XXXX instead of 850-XXXX, didn't I!" (Our village (yes, we live in one too) only has two prefixes.) "Yes." "I'm so sorry! Nevermind what I said about the bodies!" When I hung up, it took me ten minutes to stop laughing enough to call my neighbor and tell her what I'd done. Recently I called her on inauguration day. She had worked on the campaign and I knew she'd be very emotional about it... but she'd have to keep it on the down-low because she was at her parents' house, and they are staunch Republicans. In an effort to give her an opportunity to let off a little happy steam, I decided to call her on her husband's cell phone. She answered and I said "So are you crying tears of joy?" and she said "Yes I am! It's been a great day! Who is this?" "It's Michelle." "Michelle who?" "Oh crap! Apparently, it's Michelle-the-total-stranger-who-can't-dial-numbers-correctly. I'm just calling to check in on your emotional well-being. I'm happy to hear you're having a great day!" When I finally hung up the phone, I realized I'd managed to chat for over three minutes with a total stranger. Neither of us mentioned why she was happy, which sort of made it even better, because for all I know, she had just received a promotion, or found out she was pregnant (or not!) or any of the millions of other things that can make a person beam with joy. It was a funny conversation that tickled me. And it tickled my neighbor too when I finally managed to dial her number correctly.

The menu does not list caller ID, but only caller IQ, which is not the caller ID, but wacky ring tones and such which are for sale from that website. However, I still can't find the way to check the caller ID, and it may be that my phone company has not connected me yet, after all. I wish this phone had a button clearly marked caller ID, instead of this confusing caller IQ, and so I will probably return the phone, althought otherwise it works fine.

Interesting that this happens to other people, apparently fairly often, too! I know it was "Bobby's" mom because I also have caller ID. I answered her call from a phone that doesn't display caller ID, but after I spoke to her, I went to another phone to see who the heck was being so rude to me! It was definitely "Bobby's" mom. She would not have recognized my name on her called ID because my last name is different from my son's. As for her saying that I "just" called her, I assume she read the display wrong or something. My caller ID displays the name, phone number, date and time of the call. I assume that hers does too and she made a mistake about the time of the call. Also, my display stores up to 100 numbers. So I can easily scroll "back in time" and see who called me last week if I wanted to (and had nothing better to do)! I did have an opportunity to meet this mom shortly after the phone episode. We were introduced by first names only. She was very nice and went on and on about how much she just loved my son. I didn't bother to tell her that we had already met via telephone. I thought it best not to antagonize her ;) because I know how volatile she can be! That is what has given me pause. Let me tell you -- she wasn't very nice when she thought she was talking to a stranger. I know that wrong numbers happen all the time but she seemed to really overreact to it. There is something that I left out of my original post. I don't know if this matters, but she is not from this country and does have a problem expressing herself in English. At this point, I donÂt think I will tell her that I was the person on the phone that day because it would probably only embarrass her. Maybe she has figured it out by now anyway. But because of her overblown reaction, I think I would prefer that the boys spend time over here and not there. If youÂve ever been around someone who blows up at the drop of a hat, then you will understand. Thanks for all the feedback. I mostly wanted to vent a little because this situation served as a reminder to me. You can never truly know a person. When I met her in person, she was putting her best foot forward. But I think that day on the phone showed her TRUE colors.

I dial my phone number and a recording says; You have dialed a party on your own line, please hang up and wait for the other party to answer. So I hang up. The phine - It rings so I answer it. The recorded operator type message said to please hold, that I had an incoming call. So I held and held for a long time and suddenly realized, Surprisingly it's was me calling.