Major Recognition to...

So JRoosh is a good financial planner and friend of mine. It was through a conversation that I had with him over coffee about blogs that he decided to start his own.

Well, JRoosh just got a MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR award today. :-) City Pages mentioned his site as the MN Blog of the day.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Jroosh is a financial advisor blogging about the myth of global warming, the perfect snow thrower, and caring for a daughter with Type 1 diabetes at Roosh Five.

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/

Stop by JRoosh's blog via the City Pages link or by clicking the link in the Right column of this page.

...patiently waiting for my awards for this blog to arrive :-)

One Little Travel Perk...

Just realized it's been a week since I posted. I've been laying low for a week since I had a "minor" surgery (if there is such a thing). I'll spare you all the details and updates (or ANY for that matter), but let's just say all has not gone as peachy as I'd like

Last week, I had the pleasure to visit the thriving metropolis of Des Moines for work. I'll write my thoughts on that fine city another day, but I did get a nice little bonus when I got to my room. I got this:

That's a 40" HD TV (a first in all my hotel stays) - Unfortunately, none of the channels were in HD though. There is also a 5 piece leather set with sofa, chairs, and 2 ottomans. There's was also a bar (not stocked :-( a dining room table, a desk, and a 2 person jacuzzi tub. (It's a Hilton Garden Inn, a chain I use frequently, but they typically don't have rooms this nice)

I called Nikki to see if she could come and enjoy it with me, but alas - it was for naught. Nicer hotel rooms don't help much when you miss those you love at home.

Believe It or Not: Comcast Experience STILL Gets Worse

So I contacted AT&T to switch my service back to them from Comcast. There's yet another problem with Comcast that is related to "porting" (ie. moving an existing phone number to another company for service) from Comcast to AT&T. The short version is that Comcast has a contract to port numbers from AT&T, but AT&T does not have a contract to port numbers over from Comcast.

So they give me bad service - AND still manage to make it as difficult as possible to switch to another company.

So now I have to seek out another phone company. Currently, I'm looking into Packet8, Lingo, and VoicePulse. All seem to have similar features, service, and quality to AT&T - but since they're all smaller companies, I worry how long they will stay in business.

Comcast: You'd Think it Couldn't Get Worse...

I've had it with this company. My dislike for Comcast (specifically their VOIP phone service) has been well documented on previous posts here on my blog, so use the filter for "Comcast" on the right to sort them out if you're new to this blog.

Amidst all the problems that I've documented, I was under the impression that my service was FINALLY working properly. This one's a doozy

I set up my Comcast service to send me an email to let me know when I have a new voicemail. So today I get a couple notificiations, and I when I log in to my web page to see view them, I see that I have over a dozen voicemails - some from a week ago - that I didn't know about. All were business related and a few were what I would deem "critical". Some of these were time critical and have caused personal and business-related consequences that are highly consequencial. Furthermore, I had set up my phone line to forward all calls to my cell phone since I travel a lot, and THAT didn't happen either.

I have had it with this company. I've already begun to switch my service back to AT&T - a service that I KNOW will work.

It's worth noting that I'm fairly happy with the high speed internet service from Comcast. However, I decided to cancel this as well since the service is on the same bill. Iwas on the phone with Qwest to set up a DSL service from them. Unfortunately, Qwest only has 1.5MB service in my area, and I"m getting 8MB from Comcast - big difference when you're on the internet and 1-2 phone lines all at the same time.

A Place I Strongly and Vehemently Dislike Spending Time

So I have to travel more than a fair amount for work. And since travel keeps me from my family, it's obvious that anything that keeps me from my family is NOT a good thing.

Case in point: Chicago's O'Hare Airport

I don't recall a time where I've had a pleasant experience at this airport. From the frequent flight delays (both coming in and leaving) along with an amazing shortage of electrical outlets to recharge my laptop and cell phone (and the absence of any good coffee other than Starbucks - Minneapolis has Caribou, Dunn Bros, and Starbhucks). Even the restaurants aren't much to write home about.

So I'm trying to get home from St. Louis this past Friday, and I'm delayed 5 HOURS in St. Louis because of O'Hare delays. (Ironically, while I'm delayed in St. Louis, some of the United flight crew are chatting, and most of them had requested to be based out of airports beside O'Hare since flights are always delayed.) I arrive at O'Hare with another 3 hour delay on top of the 5 hour delay. So I crap a Chicago hot dog, eat eat my supper at my gate. At 15 minutes before boarding, I go to use the restroom, and happened to walk past the flight board - only to notice that my flight is now cancelled.

I go to the United counter and stand at the end of the line that will take at least 30 minutes. Providentially, a United agent walks up to me and asks to see my boarding pass. She takes it, walks off, and comes back 10 minutes later saying that I'm on standby for the 11:15 PM flight (the last flight to Minneapolis of the day), and then hands me my boarding pass in case the flight is full: the flight would leave at 5 PM the NEXT DAY. A quick call to my folks in Chicago to make sure they stay up in case I need a place to sleep overnight is made.

I get to the gate, and it's not good. There are at least 30 people on standby, maybe more. Long story short, I get on. I arrive in Minneapolis at 1 AM, and make it home to my barely awake wife at 2 AM.

Ongoing Series: Basement Progress

So cousin Chad helped out again for a couple hours on Saturday, as did brother-in-law Dan. I swear that 2 hours of Chad is the equivalent of 10 hours with Dan and I.

So we got a couple more walls framed, and just have 1 more to go, and long with installing a pocket door. We also removed the old door to the garage, and roughed in the new firedoor. The next 3 weeks will be (re)doing all the electrical in our house. After that, and finishing the last couple walls, we start sheet rocking.

Oh the joys of progress...

It Could Have Been Worse...

Teagan (20 months) has a habit of getting into EVERYTHING around our house. And when she gets into something, she doesn't go halfway into it. Here's a wonderful picture to demonstrate this: powdered sugar. Nikki made some special baked pancakes, and thought she had Teagan-proofed the table. Obviously not.

You would think that since we now have FOUR children that we would have learned you should NEVER turn your back on your kids for more than 0.000000000000001 seconds, but - oh never mind.