A Mikelist
1. Why is it I can no longer reply to comments from Gmail? I've had to reply at LJ now for almost a week. Also it seems that every journal I reply in, including my own, is in read-only mode on the first several attempts. Bah.
2. Since I don't travel so often, I've kept a local calling plan for my cell. I can dial nationwide, but cannot travel far out of state without roaming charges. When I must make a trip, I just call and switch my plan for the month to national roaming. I did that before my New York trips, but when I tried to switch back to my local plan again, AT&T informed me the plan no longer exists. Moreover, switching to another plan means I have to go over to Cingular. But wait! There's more! To convert to Cingular, I need a new cell phone. Fortunately, you can get a new cell free if you make the switch at the website. Unfortunately, after you spend hours answering all of their questions, you learn their website is wanked out and you must call anyway. I called Cingular and got this fellow who asked all the same questions I'd just answered on the website. Any time I selected a feature or declined a pitch he made, he would reply, "There you go." I must have heard that a hundred times before I finished.
Cingular dude: What's your name?
Me: Mike.
Cingular dude: There you go!
Cingular dude: What's your address?
Me: Blah blah blah.
Cingular dude: There you go!
Cingular dude: Would you like to transfer your original numbers?
Me: Yes.
Cingular dude: There you go!
And so it went, for an hour and a half. They want your driver's license number, social security number, identifying birthmarks, and weekly wanking habits. When I was finished, Tony, who sits outside my office, asked if I was buying a house. No, much more significant than that, obviously.
I ended up getting a national family plan for my wife and me at the same price we were paying with AT&T. Better yet, both of us can travel anywhere in the country and call anywhere in the country without roaming or long distance. No more upgrading plans or $112.00 cell phone bills. I picked up the cells at the FedEx depot tonight (since they tried to deliver today when nobody was home) and they're charging now. New free camera phones. Oh yeah, and rollover. Woof.
3. Monday I'm supposed to get the new laptop Graeme has been promising me for months now. We'll actually, it's a new refurbished laptop, I've learned. A Dell Inspiron 8600. After some prodding, he admitted it came from Dell Outlet. At first I was bummed. But then I felt guilty for it. The guy doesn't have to do this, and he is doing out of recognition for my efforts since he bought the place. I mean, how many company owners take the time to personally order a computer for an individual employee and pay for it out of pocket? This place can't afford to buy toilet paper right now, and I'm feeling bummed because I'm not getting a brand spanking new computer!
So I did some checking. It seems the computers are completely rebuilt at Dell, are covered by the same new product warranty, and are pretty much new. People I talked to who have bought from Dell Outlet tell me that the machines they've gotten are trouble-free and appear brand new when the get them. I'm not sure if they rebuild new computers that failed testing, or if they're actually trade-ins. More checking tells me the 8600 was a current production model up until the end of 2004, so it is kinda newish. At any rate, it will be twice the machine I have now. I should be thankful, not a shithead.
4. Speaking of brand spanking new laptops, I got my wife an Inspiron 700m for our anniversary. It arrived Monday. Since we have a desktop in the den, I got a wireless router so she could connect from anywhere in the house. After setting up the router in our office a few years back, I was expecting a battle to get things working. That was not at all the case. I turned the laptop on and, snap! It was connected. The only glitch I had was when I decided it was a good idea to set the encryption for the router remotely from the laptop and knocked myself off my own network. Just to make sure everyone knew it was my network, I even named it after me. I went back downstairs to the den to find my daughter had just spilled soda on the keyboard of the desktop pooter, rearranging the key sequence. I managed to work around that to get the laptop back on the network and my daughter bought a new keyboard the next day.
My wife seems to love her new laptop. Go me!
5. Speaking of networks, ours here in the office seems to have the hiccups. I get kicked off the internet for about three out of every five minutes. The only thing is, I don't see it from here. The only reason I know this is when I'm on AOL or AIM, other people keep asking why I keep signing on and off. If a hiccup happens while I am uploading or downloading, it gets stuck and I have to cancel and start again. Acquiring web pages is much the same. I get a blank page, it says "Done", and I have to reload. Arrgh! We've never had so many network problems since the IT guys took over.
6.Speaking of anniversary, my wife's family held a bit of a party for us her last night. I had an archery club meeting to attend, so I only caught the tail end of the festivities at home. They all pitched in and got her a nice comforter set. The boys made cards for us, and even our self-centered daughter got us a card. Huh.
I did get several tee-shirts, a coffee mug, and a pair of sweatpants out of the deal.
7. And in more anniversary news... My sister-in-law is a florist, so I call her every year to get flowers for my wife. Nancy (my SIL), wasn't able to deliver on Tuesday (the big day), so she brought them last night. And did she bring them! When I walked into the living room, there were flowers everywhere! I mean everywhere! Man, did she hook me up. I guess I owe her now.
8. There is talk of Clarissa coming back to work here. JB is all hot to trot over it. I have to admit I've missed her more than I ever anticipated. It would be nice to have her back. I also have to admit I'm a bit shocked that she'd consider coming back here. She was emotionally drained when she left, and I never thought she'd want to experience this environment again. I haven't spoken to her, so I'm guessing the grass not only isn't greener where she went, it must be brown.
9. Since the Thong Incident, Sarah has been asking to see my underwear on a daily basis. Quite flattering, I suppose, after the initial blush.
10. Speaking of thongs (and to make ten), I've come to like them much. My wife has been taking great care to keep them concealed in the house, especially from our daughter. Still, the other night, daughter unexpectedly ran to the basement and took a fistful of them from the washer. They were the only things in there, and my wife had forgotten about them after washing earlier. My daughter thought they were mum's! Ha! Now that cracked me up. She obviously didn't look close enough to notice the toolpouch. Ha! And now she thinks my wife has been secretly wearing thongs after denouncing them for years! Ha!
2. Since I don't travel so often, I've kept a local calling plan for my cell. I can dial nationwide, but cannot travel far out of state without roaming charges. When I must make a trip, I just call and switch my plan for the month to national roaming. I did that before my New York trips, but when I tried to switch back to my local plan again, AT&T informed me the plan no longer exists. Moreover, switching to another plan means I have to go over to Cingular. But wait! There's more! To convert to Cingular, I need a new cell phone. Fortunately, you can get a new cell free if you make the switch at the website. Unfortunately, after you spend hours answering all of their questions, you learn their website is wanked out and you must call anyway. I called Cingular and got this fellow who asked all the same questions I'd just answered on the website. Any time I selected a feature or declined a pitch he made, he would reply, "There you go." I must have heard that a hundred times before I finished.
Cingular dude: What's your name?
Me: Mike.
Cingular dude: There you go!
Cingular dude: What's your address?
Me: Blah blah blah.
Cingular dude: There you go!
Cingular dude: Would you like to transfer your original numbers?
Me: Yes.
Cingular dude: There you go!
And so it went, for an hour and a half. They want your driver's license number, social security number, identifying birthmarks, and weekly wanking habits. When I was finished, Tony, who sits outside my office, asked if I was buying a house. No, much more significant than that, obviously.
I ended up getting a national family plan for my wife and me at the same price we were paying with AT&T. Better yet, both of us can travel anywhere in the country and call anywhere in the country without roaming or long distance. No more upgrading plans or $112.00 cell phone bills. I picked up the cells at the FedEx depot tonight (since they tried to deliver today when nobody was home) and they're charging now. New free camera phones. Oh yeah, and rollover. Woof.
3. Monday I'm supposed to get the new laptop Graeme has been promising me for months now. We'll actually, it's a new refurbished laptop, I've learned. A Dell Inspiron 8600. After some prodding, he admitted it came from Dell Outlet. At first I was bummed. But then I felt guilty for it. The guy doesn't have to do this, and he is doing out of recognition for my efforts since he bought the place. I mean, how many company owners take the time to personally order a computer for an individual employee and pay for it out of pocket? This place can't afford to buy toilet paper right now, and I'm feeling bummed because I'm not getting a brand spanking new computer!
So I did some checking. It seems the computers are completely rebuilt at Dell, are covered by the same new product warranty, and are pretty much new. People I talked to who have bought from Dell Outlet tell me that the machines they've gotten are trouble-free and appear brand new when the get them. I'm not sure if they rebuild new computers that failed testing, or if they're actually trade-ins. More checking tells me the 8600 was a current production model up until the end of 2004, so it is kinda newish. At any rate, it will be twice the machine I have now. I should be thankful, not a shithead.
4. Speaking of brand spanking new laptops, I got my wife an Inspiron 700m for our anniversary. It arrived Monday. Since we have a desktop in the den, I got a wireless router so she could connect from anywhere in the house. After setting up the router in our office a few years back, I was expecting a battle to get things working. That was not at all the case. I turned the laptop on and, snap! It was connected. The only glitch I had was when I decided it was a good idea to set the encryption for the router remotely from the laptop and knocked myself off my own network. Just to make sure everyone knew it was my network, I even named it after me. I went back downstairs to the den to find my daughter had just spilled soda on the keyboard of the desktop pooter, rearranging the key sequence. I managed to work around that to get the laptop back on the network and my daughter bought a new keyboard the next day.
My wife seems to love her new laptop. Go me!
5. Speaking of networks, ours here in the office seems to have the hiccups. I get kicked off the internet for about three out of every five minutes. The only thing is, I don't see it from here. The only reason I know this is when I'm on AOL or AIM, other people keep asking why I keep signing on and off. If a hiccup happens while I am uploading or downloading, it gets stuck and I have to cancel and start again. Acquiring web pages is much the same. I get a blank page, it says "Done", and I have to reload. Arrgh! We've never had so many network problems since the IT guys took over.
6.Speaking of anniversary, my wife's family held a bit of a party for us her last night. I had an archery club meeting to attend, so I only caught the tail end of the festivities at home. They all pitched in and got her a nice comforter set. The boys made cards for us, and even our self-centered daughter got us a card. Huh.
I did get several tee-shirts, a coffee mug, and a pair of sweatpants out of the deal.
7. And in more anniversary news... My sister-in-law is a florist, so I call her every year to get flowers for my wife. Nancy (my SIL), wasn't able to deliver on Tuesday (the big day), so she brought them last night. And did she bring them! When I walked into the living room, there were flowers everywhere! I mean everywhere! Man, did she hook me up. I guess I owe her now.
8. There is talk of Clarissa coming back to work here. JB is all hot to trot over it. I have to admit I've missed her more than I ever anticipated. It would be nice to have her back. I also have to admit I'm a bit shocked that she'd consider coming back here. She was emotionally drained when she left, and I never thought she'd want to experience this environment again. I haven't spoken to her, so I'm guessing the grass not only isn't greener where she went, it must be brown.
9. Since the Thong Incident, Sarah has been asking to see my underwear on a daily basis. Quite flattering, I suppose, after the initial blush.
10. Speaking of thongs (and to make ten), I've come to like them much. My wife has been taking great care to keep them concealed in the house, especially from our daughter. Still, the other night, daughter unexpectedly ran to the basement and took a fistful of them from the washer. They were the only things in there, and my wife had forgotten about them after washing earlier. My daughter thought they were mum's! Ha! Now that cracked me up. She obviously didn't look close enough to notice the toolpouch. Ha! And now she thinks my wife has been secretly wearing thongs after denouncing them for years! Ha!