Thankfullness in Pictures 2009

It is that time of year to be Thankful. I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I will let the pictures do the talking.....

Family

Mail from Nephews

20 year friendships

Annual Red Sox games

Being Prideful

BFF's

Great Travel Companions

Sharing in friend's happiness

Healthy and in shape enough to run a couple of 5Ks

And Finishing

Violent Femmes Football

Especially the Soiree

Learning to Snowboard

Missed Friends in Western Ma

Being able to travel in Europe

Especially with this Lady

Having another year with the other old lady

These two cuties

Even though one of them can be a stinker

And having this in my life...She is pretty great

It has been a good year. I am pretty lucky. To everyone who is a part of it. Thanks!!!

A Handsome Man

Again, I had another blog post ready to go but other events in my life just keep getting in the way. Typical that I have not blogged in a while then all of a sudden I become a blogging fool. Perfect for a rainy Saturday.

I have have had my fair share of celebrity sightings in Boston.....

John Malkovich asked me for directions in Harvard Square as I was crossing the street once. He was very nice.

I was in line for Ice Cream on Newbury street with Melissa Etheridge and her wife Tammy and their kids. I literally was in front of Tammy in line and we exchanged a few words about Boston real estate. On my way out of the ice cream store, I almost tripped over one of their kids and literally ran into Melissa Etheridge.

I walked by Debra Winger talking to her kid about where he wanted to go to lunch. I recognized her solely by her voice.

Peter Jennings said hello and asked me how I was doing when I walked by him on the stairs at work some years ago.

The list goes on...Phil Donahue, Julia Child, Christina Ricci. BUT...

Last night was a dozy. Mel and I were at The Intermission Tavern in the theatre district sitting at a table by the door. We were there with Mel's friend Charlie from W. Virginia and some of his City Year friends who were all very nice. We ended up staying after Charlie left and hung out with a couple of them for a bit. One of the guy's wife plays for another flag football team in my league. Anyway each time the door opened it was freezing so you could not help look up and glare. So at around 10pm or so the door opens and I look up and in walks a tall guy with a 5 o'clock shadow in a scully cap. He was with about 4 people. My eyes opened as wide as saucers and Mel was like "What is wrong with you?". I managed to croak out, "John Hamm just walked into the bar."Holy Crap!!! I whip out my iphone and post and immediate tweet. Then I went into mini freak out mode. His group walked to the back of the bar, Mr. Hamm took off his cap and whoa even Mel was like yup that is him. The two other people at our table were equally as excited. Only two of us watch the show Mad Men so we ended up waxing poetic about how great it was. So after about 15 minutes a table opened up and Mr. Hamm's group sat down. No one approached or bothered him, not sure if it was out of respect or the other patrons did not realize it was him. I headed to the bathroom and said to the woman in line. "Do you watch Mad Men?" she was like "No". I explained that the star of the show was in the bar, and she was like "That is cool". Of course I sat back down and looked down the bar and that same woman was sitting at the table right next to him. SON OF A BITCH, what a waste. A woman in their party got up to leave, he got up and kissed her on the cheek, as she walked by we all remarked that she looked familiar but could not place her, so I am guessing she is an actress who might be in the movie he is filming. After an hour of glancing down the end of the bar in disbelief I got up to use the bathroom again and there he was standing in the doorway. I looked directly at him said "Excuse me" and brushed by him touching his arm. All I have to say is he is a handsome man. I really wanted to sneak a pic but I would never walk up to a celebrity and bother them. I am of the mind they just want to be left alone when they are out, and I think that is OK. If he happened to sit near us I might have said how much I enjoy his show but that would be it. Either way, it was an exciting end to a fun night of meeting new people and discovering a new bar. I would definitely go back.

This is more what he looked like last night....

Futher adventures in Comcast

So my adventures with Comcast continues.... Here is the time line.

Wednesday
7pm
I notice I have no Wifi, turn on TV and am not getting a signal either.
7:15
I call Comcast they tell me there is an outage in my area that I will have service within 24hours. Sucks to be me but oh well.
8pm
Pick up Mel from Back Bay Train Station, we get in fight over something stupid. Not good after not seeing each other for three days.
9pm
Pipes start clanking, obviously landlord did not fix the problem when he was here on Monday.
(two things above non-relevant to Comcast, just saying)
9:30
In bed frustrated.

Thursday
7:15 am
Go to walk Ramona and run in to two neighbors, both informed me they had cable all night. Intersting.
7:30am
Call Comcast on way to work, they tell me there was no outage and that I have to be home to troubleshoot and I should call back later. So this could have been taken care of the night before?
6pm- 6:45pm
Call Comcast and get a person right away. After I give him all my info he transfers me to someone in the internet dept because they might be able to help even though both my cable and internet are out. I wait on hold for 15 minutes before getting a person. After repeating all my information the rep determines that my modem is broken and schedules a service call. The call is scheduled for Friday 11/13 from 12-4pm. She then transfers me back to the cable dept., I have to repeat all of my information again. The rep tries a couple of things and makes a note on my service call that both my cable and internet are out. I re-confirm my service call is Friday 11/13 from 12-4. I also tell them I do not have doorbell to please call. They say they call before they arrive.
7:45pm
I get an email from Comcast saying I have service call scheduled for MONDAY 11/16 from 8-11. WHAT?!?!?
7:55pm
I call Comcast and get a message saying I have a service call from 12-4 on Friday 11/13. I cannot even deal. I leave to drop HC off at Mel's, I pick up a 6 pack.
8:05-11pm
Watch TV at Mel's, we make up from our stupid fight and drink some beer. Life is good.

Friday
7:30am
I call Comcast to confirm my service call that day. The nice rep confirms it is from 12-4pm and laughs after I tell her about the email.
12pm
I get home and wait for me service call.
1pm
Jen calls to chat and confirm weekend plans.
1:30pm
The Globe calls to try to sell me more days of delivery. No dice.
2:15 pm
Jen calls again about bringing the dogs to run in the park. I say I can come up because Comcast is supposed to call me before they arrive.
3pm
I get an email saying Comcast canceled my service call for the day. HELLO? Good thing I have an iPhone because my internet is out I would not have received this email via computer.
3pm-3:15
I call Comcast and am told the service guy tried to call me at 2:30 and I did not answer. After explaining I have been here all day and received other calls there is no way they tried to call. She says she can only tell me what she sees on her screen. They do not attempt to come to the door if someone does not answer the phone. Also, they do not even leave VM. She can get someone out between 4-7. So again I am being held hostage for 7 hours in my apt. waiting for Comcast. There is much frustrated yelling on my part since this is not the first time this has happened. I always feel bad after but I am literally helpless.
3:15
I tweet my frustrations.
3:20
I meet Jen in the park frustrated and angry and she has to listen to me bitch for a good 1/2 hour
3:25
I post a huge complaint status on Facebook and @comcastbonnie wants to know what she can do. We tweet back and forth.
4pm
I hunker down ready to wait for another 3 hours for Comcast to arrive.
4:05
I hear a knock on the door, and it is Comcast. The guy remembers me from when I had 5 Comcast guys in my apt trying to troubleshoot my TiVo and cable card. He is super nice and love Ramona even though she is barking at him. I ask him if he tried to call, he says NO. Interesting.
4:15
Everything is fixed, the connector by the house was corroded. He replaces it and lo and behold my cable and internet are back. I guess my modem was not broken after all.
He asks me if I want 3 months of free HBO and tells me it will just go away after 3 months. Why yes I do. Thanks sir.
He tells me to have a nice night.

So that folks has been my further adventures with Comcast. It is such a mixed experience each time. The service guys are always nice, and I get better response from Twitter then when I call. I wish they would just make the process for service calls better. Call at least twice. If you cannot get through can't you have someone from the office try? If the internet is out then do not send emails, people without internet will not get them. It was not the end of the world not having cable or internet for two days but it would be great if I could get some reliable information so it gets fixed.