What a day

I've been meaning to blog about our work meeting last week where our job relocation to Florida was announced to us, but I've been too busy (or maybe annoyed) to discuss it. So I will save that until I'm at work this week. Afterall... what's the point of working if they're letting me go anyway?

Today was an event all on its own. It started with Comcast ringing my doorbell at 9.50am. I had an appointment with them for today to set up my telephone service, and I'm so glad they actually showed up this time!! The last time they didn't, the time before that they couldn't fix it, and the time before that I had forgotten to bring my modem. So this was progress!! It was two guys, as one was apparently in training. They started working on the setup, and assured me that in a few minutes they would be gone and I could go back to bed (which I actually had no intention of doing, but it was still nice to hear). 4 (!!!) hours later they were still there! By now we were all sitting on my couch, drinking water, chatting about everything and nothing, and watching the Cubs Game. (Because there were problems with the setup, and not because we hit it off so well they didn't want to leave...) It was at times actually quite challenging to keep the conversation going. But that's never really been a problem for me, and in preperation for a potential future career in couseling I decided to practice my asking and listening skills. It turns out, one of the guys works at Comcast full time and does construction work part time. He doesn't have a single day off, but that's ok with him. His motto is that no job gets left undone, which is why he's doing well with the construction business, and that's also why my Comcast job wasn't abondoned. On a sadder note, he just had to foreclose on a house, because he wasn't able to find a tenant for it fast enough. Not even the bank would take the property back! But still, business is doing well and money is coming in. In fact, he was just offered a job managing 50 apartment buildings for 50k/yr. But he turned it down because it seemed like too much responsibility. The second guy and I go way back already... he set up my original connection when I first moved in a month ago (What are the odds of having the same Comcast guy come to your house twice??). I'd like to say if he had done it right the first time, he wouldn't have had to be back (and two others in the meantime), but I didn't want to be rude. After all, I wanted to get this done now! This guy wasn't quite as chatty, and all I found out is that he's a Sox fan, and he thinks the TV ad that claims you can get money for your old cellphone is bogus. He's probably right about that.

What exactly the problem with my Comcast service was... I have no clue. Seemed to be a wiring issue. What matters is that they fixed it and now my TV, Internet, and Phone are up and running. Yay! Unfortunately my wireless router did not work when the guys finally left, so I was forced to call linksys. I once spend 2 hours on hold with linksys, and just the thought of calling them really annoyed me. But I did anyway and was only on hold for maybe 10 minutes :) The problem was fixed within a few minutes and I was able to get online with no wires too.

After that I spent 3 hours working through Accounting problems. I had been doing that all week and couldn't really make sense of it. I emailed my team and professor for help, neither of which were able to. The professor didn't even bother answering. But I'm proud to say, I did figure out how to calculate the Net Present Value, thanks for my friends at Wikipedia.

Then I decided to cook.... god help us! Cooking for me usually involves pasta, and so it did again today. As I was excitedly cooking away with my new pots, I realized it was getting a bit smokey. And about a second later the fire alarm started beeping as loud as it possibly could. I quickly opened all the windows and doors, and the alarm shut off. Whew! As I was quietly saying to myself that I really don't belong in the kitchen, I realized the smoke was coming out of the oven, which I had turned on to bake some Texas Cheese Toast (Yum!). But the toast wasn't actually in yet. What the hell was the smoke from?? I opened the oven, and immediately the alarm went off again. I must have dropped one of my oven mits into the oven when I opened it to make sure nothing was inside. And of course the mit was not quite on fire, but totally scorched. I grabed it with the other mit, and tossed it out the back door onto the back porch. Ahhh! The back porch is wood, and the think now had a small little flame on it! I managed to grab it again, bring it back inside and throw it in the sink before serious damage could have been done. Disaster avoided.

Just had my lovely dinner with Texas Toast, and must say it was all worth it. I may cook again sometime...



And as if this post wasn't already long enough, I need to share that I signed up for the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon today, and a whole bunch of other little 5K runs.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't seen one... I was out in the country (aka suburbs) yesterday and saw my first cicada. They're super loud, and look a little too much like Cockroaches for my taste. But it was cool to see and hear them. Who knows where I'll be in another 17 years. Here's a picture of one:

Have a great night everyone!!