Monday, December 29, 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Wow, this has been a crazy month. I don't know if it was the 30 posts/30 days thing last month or just all the Christmas planning, but I haven't had a chance to blog in a while.

So some updates:

No iPhone yet. Still need to wait to get Deb her Christmas present

I helped with the 'holiday breakfast' for Courtney's school. Pretty fun, but I wouldn't want to be her teacher after all those kids ate all that chocolate, sugar and caffeinated drinks.

Christmas Eve Mass went pretty well with the little guy. We arrived an hour and a half early and found an empty parking lot. This is strange since most years there are already a lot of people in the church by then. Another sign that our church is no longer as active as before. We didn't even try to go to the church, instead going to the 'hall' where they had a second mass at the same time. Christopher had to explore everything, including the bleachers in the gym where Mass was said.

By the time Mass was ready to start he was a little fussy, but not bad. I held/fought with him the whole Mass. I was setting on the right aisle, left most seat so I could see the priest and he could see me. I swear he saw Christopher stick the Curious George sticker on my nose. When we went to communion he gave me a strange smile, so I guess he did.

Did I mention the battery on the van had died before we went into Mass? So between keeping Christopher occupied I was looking around for anyone I knew to give me a jump after mass. I forgot this was Christmas, so most of the people were there for their once a year visit. We went out to the car and held our breaths as it turned over and started. I think what happened was we were waiting in the car before mass and drained the battery with the DVD player. It has been fine since.

We ended the night with our traditional Chinese food dinner (no Jason we aren't Jewish, but this is the South so nothing else was open!)

Christmas day was nice and some-what relaxing. Christopher received two dozen Thomas engines, 100 yards of track and lots of other Thomas-themed toys. So we've been doing trains since.

I'll get some pictures up in the next day or so, but the kids (and Deb except for the iPhone mess) all were happy with their presents. I received a couple of cool things, but my favorite was a t-shirt Deb found from Cherry Bomb. On the back it says 'Disturbing the Peace since 1968'. (They make high performance mufflers.) Since I was born in 1968 it was fitting.

We are currently trying to figure out what to do for New Year's Eve.

Not much else new around here.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Nice service AT&T so much for customer loyalty

So Deb wants an iphone for Christmas. Shouldn't be a big deal right? We've been with Bellsouth/AT&T for 15 years. So I went to the store today to see what my options are.

Turns out, we aren't eligible for upgrades until 1/1. Yes 2 weeks from today. And they won't budge on the upgrade date. So a new iphone is $399 or $499 today. I wait 2 weeks and it is $199 or $299.

So $200 for 2 weeks. I get putting limits on when you can upgrade, but being within 2 weeks and not giving me a break, especially before Christmas?

I need to go do the math, but I think it is cheaper for the next two years to break the contract and go with Verizon and get her one of the new blackberries.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008