You Are a White Flower

A white flower tends to represent purity, simple beauty, and modesty. At times, you are dignified like a magnolia. And at other times, you represent great ecstasy, like a white orchid. And more than you wish, you're a little boastful, like a white hydrangea.

What Color Flower Are You?

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways. You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order. You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Short post tonight, going to go get ready for bed. Had MORE rain today, when will it stop?? (I know, I know...it'll stop when the snow comes.)

My trip to Hawaii is all settled. I leave on January 5th and return on the 13th. OMG, I can't wait! My sister and aunt are splitting the cost of seven hundred some dollars roundtrip, that is my Christmas present from the two of them. Keeping my fingers that I lost another pound or two when I weigh myself on Saturday. It would be great to be more lightweight when I go over there.

Have a great Friday!

Finally a day without rain! Of course, it's freaking COLD! And we're supposed to get more rain on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, lol. I'm hardwired, and I got my money back from Best Buy for the wireless router, USB adapter and 50 foot network cable. That was nice seeing a credit go back to my account for 170.00. Then I went to pay my first cable bill, which came in the mail at 257.20. I had complained about the installation charges and part of that had been credited to my account. So I was thinking about 220.00 would still be due. I went to pay online, and it said 257.20 was more than what I owed. Since I hadn't made a payment yet, I was kind of confused. I tried again for a payment of 200.00, again it said it was more than what I owed. Now, it does give you the option of going ahead with the payment, but I couldn't understand how I didn't owe all this money all of a sudden. I tried a new amount, 140.47...the amount just for the cable service from 9/29 to 11/10. Again, it said it was too much, but I didn't want to take any chances so I finished the payment for that amount. Will be interesting to see my next bill and find out why they said I didn't owe anything.

I went out to spend my normal Sunday afternoon with my aunt. She has had a taste for turkey with all the trimmings for about a month now, but never felt up for fixing it. She finally did, so we had a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner today. I didn't do too bad; I didn't over-stuff myself, I stopped when I got full. And I brought some turkey home for lunch tomorrow. After lunch we were supposed to go see The Prestige, with Hugh Jackman. But my aunt was not feeling well at all, so we felt it was best if we didn't go see the movie this weekend. Instead her sister and I drove to a small town west of there called Malta, where there's a farm that also grows apples. They have this little shop where you can purchase all different kinds of apples, you can buy fudge, a donut, apple pies, caramel apples...omg it was so tempting. The only thing I got while I was there was some Amaretto fudge. (winks at StygianMuse)

Last night we played NTT at www.thewolven.com. Kerry hosted and I kept score. Lainie missed another chance to get in my box...sigh! Voodooman won a close game. Most of the artists are ones you would recognize when you hear them, but not the song. And Kerry's hubby even came in and played! I had fun and I hope those who played also had fun.

Going to try to rip a couple cd's before The Amazing Race starts. Not sure if Kerry will pull her nose out of the book in time to watch it with me. Will wait and see.

If your apartment fills with smoke, what do you do?

Trivia question for you. Do you...

A. Open all the windows

B. Open the door to the hallway

C. Both


Under NO circumstance, if there's no fire, do you open the door to the hallway. All that will do is fill the hallway up with smoke, the fire alarm will be triggered, the building will be evacuated in the middle of ER, two firetrucks will arrive, firemen will bring in fans to blow the smoke out of the hallway, and you'll get the honor of standing outside in the cold for 20 minutes.

I thought this song would be appropriate since it rained AGAIN today!


Who'll Stop the Rain by Credence Clearwater Revival

Long as I remember the rain been comin down.
Clouds of mystry pourin confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, tryin to find the sun;
And I wonder, still I wonder, wholl stop the rain.

I went down virginia, seekin shelter from the storm.
Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.
Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains.
And I wonder, still I wonder wholl stop the rain.

Heard the singers playin, how we cheered for more.
The crowd had rushed together, tryin to keep warm.
Still the rain kept pourin, fallin on my ears.
And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain.

Your 1920's Name is:

Blossom Esperanza

What's" Your 1920's Name?

I thought I'd post the letter written by the Management of my complex, to be given to the technician on Thursday.

Dear Comcast and Affiliates:

This letter is to allow Comcast Technicians and or any of its affiliates to run cable from a room through the common adjoining wall, which shall feed through bushings installed on both sides to make the additional outlets in the adjoining room.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the management office.

Sincerely,
Country Lakes Management


I decided to call the office and speak to Gwen, who I have been dealing with since Saturday. I wanted to make sure they were aware that I was wanting the 2nd bedroom wired, not the first bedroom. To give those of you that have not seen my apartment an idea of what's involved, let me describe my apartment to you. When you enter the door, in front of you is the living room. There is a bedroom to the right and a bedroom to the left. Straight ahead on the opposite wall is the sliding glass door leading out to the balcony. Right next to that, on the left, is the fireplace, which is at an angle (not perpendicular to the sliding glass door.) That wall that the fireplace is part of, is the wall that separates the living room from bedroom number two. The cable coming into my apartment from outside is on that same wall as the sliding glass door. The wall separating the livingroom from bedroom number one is where the tv is, due to the necessity of being close to the cable outlet. Bedroom number two is where the computer is, and therefore the cable would have to be split off (probably outside), run across the balcony and drilled through the bricks outside and into the second bedroom.

Obviously it would be much simpler if I were having the cable going into bedroom number one, they could split the cable off inside, go through the wall, put the outlet there, and it's done. NO, I have to be difficult and want cable in the opposite bedroom from where the cable comes into the apartment, lol. Gwen assured me that it was still no problem, and they should know what to do when wiring the bedroom. If they have any questions about what to do or how to do it, she told me I could call and ask them to page the Service Manager. Apparently, there's some Town Hall meeting they all have to go to, so the leasing office will be closed at 1pm. Just in time for my appointment from Comcast, lol.

Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology - John Tudor

More computer issues! Grrrrrr!! I have been on this wireless cable internet for two weeks. I have streamed three times, not without problems, but I've streamed. Friday night, I go into chat, listen to Kerry stream, get all set up, reboot, come back in, connect to producer, 30 seconds later I get disconnected. I try again...same thing. I go in another room and talk to the owner, stream leader, and tech guy. They have me turn off a bunch of stuff that they feel is blocking me from connecting to the stream server. I try again...disconnected after 30 seconds. The tech guy has me set up to allow ports within a certain range to be accessed from my computer, I try again, doesn't work. I was on the phone TWICE with the stream leader. Nothing is working. After two hours, I give up for the night.

My only options are to see if I can get this room wired for direct connection to the cable and ditch the wireless, or go back to my dsl. Saturday I set the alarm for 9am, call my leasing office, and find out I CAN get this room wired for cable tv/internet. They state all I will probably need is a written letter from them to give to Comcast for permission to drill the holes for the cables. I call Comcast, and now have any appointment for Thursday afternoon between 1pm and 5pm CDT to have this bedroom wired. Saturday night before NTT I advised the stream leader and the site owner of what I'm doing and they both agree that will solve my problem.

So once I have the cable hooked up to my computer, and I am off the router, I should be able to stream again. Man, did I miss streaming Friday night! I hope Best Buy will let me return the router, adapter, and network cable. Although I don't have the original packaging for the cable, it was in that plastic crap that I had to tear to pieces to get the cable out. I would really like to get the $170 back I spent on everything.

So in a few days, I should be good to go, keeping my fingers, legs, toes, eyes...all crossed!

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary.If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not a lot to talk about this weekend. I hosted NTT last night (where was lainie?), with Kerry keeping score. We had a lot of fun, even with all the funny names that came in. A chat name was misspelled, instead of pilem, someone typed it as oilem, and it grew from there. Oilem became Oinkem, which became Boinkem, then of course, pokem, strokem, and chokem all had to come in. It was quite funny as I was running down the list of names in every mic spot, trying to kill time while Kerry was finishing up all the guesses and points. It seemed like everytime I opened the mic, another name came in and got me giggling again, lol. We finally asked all the names to leave, because it just got too confusing trying to keep score. One of the culprits for the names forgot which window she was in and accidentally sent her guess to Kerry using that name instead of her real name. NTT is Saturday nights at www.thewolven.com from 9pm-11pm EDT.

Some good football games were played this weekend, too. My favorite college team, the Iowa Hawkeyes beat up on the Purdue Boilermakers Saturday, 47-10. Today Da Bears beat Buffalo 40-7. Wish I'd been able to see that game. Maybe it will be re-aired again later tonight on cable. Then my boys, Dallas, well they got beat pretty good in a tough divisional game against Philadelphia. It was a close game when I was watching in the first half, but apparently things sort of fell apart in the second half. Oh well! Better luck next week!

Can't mention all this without lamenting about the Leafs losing to the Canadiens. Kerry and I were cheering them on while we tried to host NTT. The Blackhawks also lost Saturday, to Columbus. Chicago actually has a pro hockey team? lmao

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians reading this! Have some turkey and stuffing for me!

They say dreams are the windows of the soul--take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts. Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991

I've had some really strange dreams the last couple of nights. They weren't very involved or long, but they were really really strange. And those of you that know me pretty well are used to my strange dreams.

Monday night I dreamed that I was outside my apartment building, and I noticed going from building to building were a couple of the maintenance guys from my WORK office building. They were carrying these black boxes with handles that were about the size of small shoe box. They would go into one building for a couple minutes, walk back out, then go into the next one for a couple minutes, etc. So I followed the one named Jerry (yes I know his name, no he's not single, lmao) into one of the buildings to see what he was doing. He went up to the second floor, stood in the hallway for a couple minutes, just standing there. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was getting GPS (Global Positioning System) readings for our building so the whole complex could be mapped out.

That was it, that was all of it. Weird huh? The next one is just as strange.

Tuesday night I dreamed I was listening to the local country station, US99, in my bedroom. The morning dj was on, Ray Stevens. Not sure if it was actually morning in my dream, I just know he was on the air at the time. While I'm listening, this guy calls into the station and they put him on the air. He says to Ray, over the air, that he had called up the station for something (not sure what, he didn't say) and he talked to this really nice lady with a pretty voice. Well somehow, without them saying anything, I knew it was my sister. (For those that don't know, I have one full sister who isn't talking to me, and hasn't pretty much for the last 17 years.) You guessed it, it was this sister working at US99. So anyway, Ray Stevens tells this guy that he shouldn't have talked to her, and shouldn't have mentioned her on air, because she works behind the scenes and they weren't supposed to talk about her on the air. They told the guy, whoever he was, that he had to hang up and not call back to her, lmao. And I'm sitting here thinking, in my dream, Wow! I had no idea she worked at US99! LMAO

I will go weeks without remembering any dreams, then all of a sudden I'll have one or two that I remember and make absolutely no sense! Like this week, lmao.

Time to go get ready for bed, and hope for a peaceful nights sleep without any crazy dreams!

I finally reached a live human being tonight after sitting on hold for about 15 minutes. Here's a summary of our conversation:

The $140.47 was for the period 9/29 - 11/10, or 41 days. It's $99 monthly, plus part of a month, resulting in $140.47.

The $99 one time charge was broken down into two pieces. $59.85 and $39.15. I was told it was because two technicians came to do the install. I explained the whole story about the mixup with the times, etc, so she removed the $39.15 off the bill. I wish it had been the $59.85, but beggars can't be choosers. She also explained to me that when the technician installed everything, the workorders that I signed should have had the installation charges listed on them. I told her I didn't remember seeing any charges printed on them, the technician didn't point them out, and of course, I didn't read the workorders that closely. I didn't even think there'd be monetary charges listed there. I was too rushed to get to work so I didn't have to take more than a half a day vacation. She also told me that the amounts I was charged were also reduced amounts. Normally, the charges for installing the internet and voice is $99 EACH, and the tv is $44.95. So I still got a deal even when charged $99 total! Then I asked her, politely of course, why I would be charged an installation fee when THEY bought my cable company and THEY had to come out to hook up their own cable connections. She advised me that Comcast doesn't see us as TVMax customers, only as "new" customers to Comcast. So we're all being charged installation charges for whatever we're being suckered into buying.

Then I asked her about my TVMax bill. I just paid it when the Comcast guy came and switched everything over, and it was for the period of 9/17 to 10/16. I only used 10 days of the 30 days I paid for in advance. Was I going to get a refund for the 20 days I didn't have TVMax service? Apparently, there's a third party that's working on all that, to go through all the TVMax accounts and probably figure out what people are owed for pre-paid service that switched to Comcast in the middle. I have the number, and I might try to call tomorrow.

As it stands now, I still have my Comcast service, and I just need to cancel all my phone services now.

Got my first bill from Comcast today, was scared to open it. I was right to be scared! $257.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are gonna get a call from me tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a week this has been! Let me recap for those that don't know...

As I mentioned in a previous post, my cable company was bought by Comcast, so they were coming around a couple weeks ago to talk to all the residents about the switch over, trying to get new or additional services signed up. I had already tentatively planned on just keeping what I had, standard cable. When a Comcast rep showed up at my door one evening, I thought about it some more, and realized the "Triple Play" option would save me about $30 a month for the next year, and after that, I would be back to paying about what I'm paying now. Only difference is I would have more cable channels, cable internet (instead of dsl), cable phone, and only one bill instead of three.

So a couple days later this same gentleman calls me on the phone to schedule an appointment. I explain that I work during the day, and with the internet being installed, I'd like to be here to make sure everything works ok. He tells me that he has set me up with an appointment the next evening between 6pm and 8pm. I get all excited cause I'm getting new stuff! I come home from work the next evening, and I wait...and I wait...and I wait. At 10 minutes to 8pm, I call the guy who sold me this deal and gave me the appt. No answer, so I leave him a message! I wait 20 minutes. At 8:10, I call Comcast direct and speak to a representative there. He tells me I never had an appointment for 6-8pm that night, I had one from 2-4 that afternoon. News to me! But then things started making sense. At work that afternoon, I received a call from the leasing office, saying they had a technician there and could he go into my apt to install the cable. I said, "Hold on, they're installing both tv and internet, and I had an appt for 6-8 tonight."

She said she'd explain it all to them, so I "assumed" that I'd still get a technician here between 6 and 8pm. The second thing I realized is that when I got home about 5pm, there was a message on my answering machine that had been cut off. It was from a Comcast technician, there to install my cable. The time? 1:59pm!

So I arranged it with the representative on the phone to have someone come the next morning between 8am and 12pm, and I took a half a vacation day. He showed up at 8:40, and was very polite, and knew what he was doing. But there's a kicker! Something NO ONE told me during all of this signing up for new services...they aren't allowed (yet) to wire into rooms that aren't already wired for cable. So, my second bedroom, where the computer is, that isn't wired for cable, AIN'T GONNA GET DIRECT CABLE HOOKUP. I either have to move my computer into the living room right by the tv (NO WAY IN HELL) or I go wireless! And then! My phone was originally going to be installed on October 4, but he set it up while he was there. BUT! I can only have a portable phone hooked up to the converter box thingy, and it'll be the ONLY phone I have. Regular wall phones won't work no more. Ok, that ain't no big deal, I can handle taking the headset around my apartment with me, it's not like I'm in some huge ass house and have a phone in every room, lmao. But still, it would have been nice to know all this beforehand, cause I might have made a different decision!

So the technician leaves about 11:30am, I put on my work clothes and I head to work. Thank goodness traffic is light then, I made it to work at 12:00pm, and I didn't really need to be there until 12:30pm. After work, I head straight to Best Buy, because I've been told I now have to buy a wireless router, an adapter card, and because I'm not moving my computer, a 50 foot network cable to hook up the router and computer while it's being set up. Once that's done, I don't need the cable again. Someone suggested I then return the network cable, but what if my computer crashes, and I have to re-install the router? I'll need the network cable again, and it will be much easier to have it here, then to run out and spend another $36 for one.

All told I spent $140+ dollars at Best Buy getting all this shit. Fortunately, I brought it home, and it was very easy to set up. I haven't had a problem since I did. I've set up my new email addy, now I just need to tell everyone...OH YEAH! Forgot one other thing! I was originally going to keep my same phone number. HA HA, NOPE! Found that out at the last minute too, they can't do that, only way they could do it is if for a couple weeks until the router was updated or some shit like that, I could receive calls, but I couldn't make any. Now, I don't make a lot of phone calls, but just the thought of not being able to made me say Ok, give me a new number! So now I have not only a new email addy, but a new phone number to give to all my friends, family members, acquaintences, cute strangers on the street, just kidding on that last one.

Tonight I was planning on sitting here at the computer, logged into my old email account, sending emails to everyone advising them of my new addy. Well, that didn't get done, lol. Maybe tomorrow while Kerry's at school I can do it.

Time to start getting ready for bed. Hope you enjoyed my adventure in the world of Comcast Cable! LMAO