@home

I got a letter from Cox Cable alerting me that my bundle discount is about to end.  I was a bit surprised because I didn't think we were in any kind of contract or timed discount plan that was subject to expiration.

Oh well, one more thing I didn't read too well last year.

So I set about to call them and discuss my options for this year.

After two phone calls over about an hour and a half I had this page of notes in front of me:

What the hell, man?  I wound up cancelling my sports and news tier (bye-bye, NFL Network) and only incurred a $3 increase for the next six months.  Let me repeat that last bit.  I REMOVED some my current services and the bill INCREASED by $3.  The best part is yet to come - after the promotional six months is up, my cable bill will go up to $195.77 a month.

That's crazy.

Needless to say, we spent the weekend discussing cord cutting strategies.

The funniest part of this situation is that had we not received a notice that our discount were about to end, we would have continued to pay our monthly bill and never said a word.  But because Cox was kind enough to notify us that they were increasing our cost but not our service, we just might be cancelling a whole lot more.

@work

Occupy Cleveland showed up to protest our foreclosure sales. 

@work

Today I had kool-aid and chicken noodle soup for lunch.

The nine year old me is happy.

@Work

Leaving work today I was presented with this...

So I had to spend 15 minutes hunting down one of the garage guys to move the offending truck so I could go home.

Late leaving work?  Check.
Late getting home?  Check.
Sick of garages today?  Check.  Big time.

@Our Garage

Yesterday, as Ashley and I were leaving for our third driving lesson, we get to the garage and see Joe and Megan trying to open our garage door.  Apparently, the spring had broken on the automatic garage door opener.

Joe said he had called his garage guy to come fix it and he was supposed to be there within the hour.  Cool.  Ashley and I left for our driving lesson and her interview at Subway.

When we got back, the garage door was still open.  The garage guy must not have been here yet.

So we get out of the car and go about our day.  (Unfortunately, like I always do because we have a garage with an automatic opener, I left my door unlocked.)

Fast forward to this morning.  I arrive at the garage and enter the code to open the door.  It's very quiet!  Oh yeah - the garage guy was here yesterday!  Hmmm... he did a nice job.  Everything works well.

I open the trunk and dump all of my work crap into the car.  I get in the drivers seat and notice this:

What the hell is this?  My iPod mount is broken and the iPod is in the cup holder?

My first thought is:  "the god-damned garage guy tried to steal my iPod."

My next thought is: "he broke the mount getting it off the dashboard, so why didn't he steal it?"

My last thought was: "a ha!  I put rockbox on the iPod.  I'll bet he turned it on saw the apple logo disappear and saw the Rockbox logo with a lot of writing and thought 'this isn't an iPod.  This is complicated.  I'm too dumb to steal this'"  (Well, it's my version of what happened.)

I called Carrie to let her know and have her tell her Dad that his garage guy is dirty.  She was outraged as expected and promised to tell him.

The whole drive to work (while listening to my iPod) I started taking a mental inventory of what was in the car yesterday that might not be in the car now.  Bluetooth headset?  Still here.  Cheap sunglasses? Still here.  My grey stocking cap?  Still here.  (Hey... there's not a lot of valuable things in the car.)

Once I pulled into the garage at work I gave the car another once-over and found things to be in order.  Hmmm...   what a weird way to start the day.  I guess I'm back to taking the iPod with me everywhere and locking my door, even in my once secure garage.

P.S. UPDATE: Carrie talked to Joe.  Joe denied that it could be 'his guy'.  No way.  The garage was open most of the afternoon yesterday (true) and our place is inhabited by redneck, welfare-getting, dope-smoking dryer-pissers, so anything is possible.
Maybe it wasn't the garage guy?

P.S. UPDATE: Joe just called Carrie.  His GPS is missing.  The mystery continues...

@Giant Eagle

Out shopping, Carrie and I split up for a few minutes. When I found her she was *in* the freezer.
Standing on the inside edge, whole body in the freezer. Trying to fetch some delicious vittles.

She's so industrious.

@work

I threw away my plastic soup bowl. I can't get it clean anymore. I'm sick of all my soup having a dish soap aftertaste.  Plus, ingesting even small amounts of dish soap is giving me the trots.

Luckily, there are others here at work that have brought most of their homes into work with them and I was able to borrow a soup bowl for today's lunch.

I need my own bowl.