Monday – 23 November 2009

Yesterday, the Comcast service tech came to look at – and hopefully fix – our service outage. When I scheduled the appointment, I was told: “…the earliest thing that we have available is 8 AM tomorrow (Sunday).” I agreed to that and set my alarms accordingly. Bright and early at 0800, I got out of my warm and toasty bed and traipsed out to the living room. After verifying that our service was still out, I curled up on the couch to wait for technician. A few minutes later, SaraRules came out to wait with me; after nearly an hour of trying to nap, she headed back to the bedroom – the new sofa doesn’t sleep two terribly comfortably. (Good to know…)

I called Comcast to verify that I hadn’t misunderstood the service call time/date. The IVR noted that my service window was “…between 8 and 12.” Wait. What?! If I was in a “service window,” why didn’t the CSR just say that Saturday morning, rather than “at 8AM.”

*grblsnrkx*

Wynn, the technician, showed up a little after 1000. I explained – and showed – the problem to him. He went back outside and checked the box. He came in, asked if anything had changed. Nope. He went back out and came in a couple of minutes later. Lo and behold, signal! I asked what had happened; he told me: Apparently, there was a service call in the next building, for Apartment #11… which is our apartment number. The tech for that call undid our line instead of the appropriate line.

::: braincramp :::

This wouldn’t have been so bad… had this not been the third time that we’ve had this exact same thing happen. Wynn looked a bit bemused, but understanding. He said that he would label the lines – “in a couple of places” – so that it wouldn’t happen again. Amen.

<< Rewind <<
Saturday, after coffee with the guys, Chris and I headed up to Dr. Volt’s. Our reason was two-fold:

  1. We wanted to see what new plastic crack was in store and
  2. We wanted to talk with Dave about running ‘Clix tournaments.

We bought a few singles – and a couple of boxes – and both wound up with some of the pieces we were looking for. Dave also said that he was up for hosting tournaments – as long as he knew “when,” he could make space available. So… with that in mind: Chris and I are running a tournament in just under two weeks! Hopefully, we’ll get some decent interest and will be able to run more tourneys in the future.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing some cleaning, a little errand-running and just hanging out with SaraRules. We also started watching Seven Samurai, which she had seen, but I hadn’t. It’s an excellent bit of film.We got about halfway through it (it’s a three-hour long fare) before calling it a night.

Sunday brought football. (Details below) After the early games, Logan came over – the three of us were going to see The Blind Side. The showing we wanted was sold out. So… we went back home and checked out SaraRules’ Netflix fare: The Strangers. Meh. Could have been (a lot) better:

We had dinner with the in-laws and – as it had started to snow – went home a little early. The late game was lax so, we finished watching Seven Samurai.

Instant Replay: Football
:

Indianapolis Colts at Baltimore Ravens
17 –15
The… sorry, The “Indianapolis Professional Football Club”… returned to Baltimore to take on the Ravens.

Peyton Manning and company held the Ravens to field goals, but were only able to put up a pair of TDs and a field goal themselves.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that Steve Hauschka had been released last week. As I told Julie and Minion #2 this morning: “[He] wasn’t working out.” New Ravens K, Billy Cundiff, kicked six FGs, missing one, for all fifteen of the Ravens’ points.

I was expecting the “IPFC” to come in and completely wreck shop, but the Ravens were able to keep the game close, despite only scoring field goals. It was a loss, but respectable gameplay by the Ravens kept it from hurting… too much.

.

Cincinnati Bengals at Oakland Raiders
17 – 20
We didn’t get to see all of this game – just the last few minutes were broadcast here, but… the Raiders WON. Not only that, but they beat the team to whom the Ravens have already lost twice this season.

Congrats, SaraRules!
Sorry, and .

.

Cleveland Browns at Detroit Lions
37 – 38
The Lions? Really..? Wow.
Sorry, .

.

Seattle Seahawks at Minnesota Vikings
9 – 35
I didn’t see this one, but I’m not surprised.
Congrats, .

Stray Toasters

Quote of the Day: Unintentional Porn Overheard at Work
This morning, a couple of people noted something that smelled like “burning electronics.” If you’ve ever smelled something that’s had a component blow out, you know what I’m talking about. I didn’t smell it, because I’m “slightly” congested, but loonybin88 and Minion #2 also noted that they smelled something. They finally tracked it down to one of Julie’s computers – the fan on the power supply had gone out and the components were overheating.

After they swapped out the PSU – and made sure that things were working properly – they gave Julie her machine back. Shortly after that, she got a call (I assume from someone who had asked about the smell earlier); she responded with the following:

Jason said he smelled something. It was my box.

I was (barely) able to contain any outward expression… until I got into the Build Lab, where I related the story to Minion #2. We both cracked up.

Namaste.