Comcast. AGAIN

So the guy from the Executive Customer Care division called us on halloween. Guess what? November 1 we are without internet for almost the entire day. I called him and left a message. Never heard back, although I did say it was a "heads up" message.

Today, only 5 days later, we were once again without internet. First the CSR got disconnected/hung up one me, but she did call back so it is possible we really did get disconnected? Then she says the modem is entirely offline and someone needs to come check it out. Then we're back online (???)  The end result is someone will come tomorrow, she said it could be the line is bad so the internet isn't even coming into the house properly. Zoltan will have to go to preschool late but at least someone will check it out. Three reported problems in less than two weeks is completely unconscionable.

Giving props when due

Nobody likes Comcast. Normally, we don't like Comcast. But I am forced to admit that actually have the capability to do the right thing.

A week or so ago, I had an awful day exacerbated by the inability to use my telephone or get online due to non functioning internet. I blogged about it. As you can see, a Comcast rep found me and left a comment inviting me to contact him and go over what went wrong. Within the day of me sending the information he requested we got a call. (being a little picky, I will say that the choice of 7pm on Halloween wasn't inspired)

And ... the end result is we were compensated for the inconvenience and even given a rep's direct number for the next time we encounter a problem.  We have also noticed that our service has been much better since then.

I have a feeling if all problems were resolved like this, everyone would switch to Comcast voluntarily.

[Edited to add: the very next day we were without internet for the entire day. I even called  the guy who had called and left a message that was never returned. Ugh. Possibly back to hating Comcast.]

Public Service Message

When the home inspector sent us his report, prior to our purchase of the house, one of the items he noted was that the railing was just the right width for a child to get its head stuck. When we went into the house for the first time, we noticed it was the original railing - meaning, at least one family had already raised children here. We put it out of our minds.

Today Zoltan was having a snack and I went to the bathroom. I heard him trying to talk to me and called out he can wait, because of course there's not much one can do from the bathroom.

When I came out ... his head was stuck in the railing. I tried gently easing it back out and couldn't find a way that moved his head through without it hurting him. He was starting to panic so I calmed him down, told him to just hang on (luckily the position wasn't too uncomfortable) and asked my good friend Mr. Google what to do.

This lovely blogger had the solution:
http://chicmommy.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-safely-remove-child-stuck-in.html

So, for anyone out there who needs to know: at least through age almost-4, the head is still the largest part of the body. I managed to help him ease his arms through, then the torso, then I picked him up and the legs easily came around the bend from the other side of the railing. And he's learned his lesson - no more sticking his head through the railing!! 

we are idiots. IDIOTS

Wednesday should have taken up 3 days, at least, for all that has happened.

It started just fine... movers said they would arrive between 8-10am and I was at the house promptly at 8:10am.  Terry sort of forgot one step of the directions when he took Garmin from me, so I had to pull out the map and figure how to get to the house from the hotel, or I would have been more timely. I kept busy until the movers arrived. They were bringing the stuff from ELSO storage, so it was a teeny weeny 850lb.

Unpacking and putting things away took til lunch. Then we did some yardwork and Terry started getting the sandbox together that my mom bought as a housewarming present for the kids. It had a roof/cover that cranks up and down, pretty cool, hopefully Terry will deign to edit the photos of it soon so I can post it.

When he ran off to Home Depot for various necessities, the crew from Home Depot arrived to install our new washer and dryer. I do love them (w/d, not Home Depot or the crew although both impressed me today), but note that they were delivered only TODAY. It figures into the story later.

Then the waiting began. The movers with the big load - almost 4000lb from 7 years ago storage, weren't to arrive until between 3-5pm. At 4:30pm I called the person at the shipping company assigned to us. She didn't answer the phone so I left a message. Then she replied by calling Terry instead of me. Can you tell she's my new best friend? The movers arrived just barely shy of 5pm so I was pretty freaked out about how late we'd be working on unpacking. Shouldn't have bothered to worry, these guys were fast.

First off the bad news: Our dining room table is broken as well as the table Terry's dad built for our table saw. I guess it could have been worse, but having to buy a new dining room table will suck. It looks like it may be fix-able so keep your fingers crossed! Oh, and 3-4 items were missing and between the warehouse and the moving company everyone is playing a game of "not it" so I don't think they will ever be recovered
:-(

But on to the story. The moving crew was like lightening. Of course, there were few boxes of stuff, and the stuff was 90% tools, gardening supplies, and home renovation supplies (we were almost done with our 2 year renovation project of our Philly home when Terry got The Call). What did make up 3000lb and more was the furniture....

and ...

the washer and dryer that we put into storage. That we were sure we had left in the house when we sold it. That had we been just a tiny bit less stupid, we would have checked our inventory in preparation for the delivery and noted that we already owned a washer and dryer.  Here's the thing: not only did we already own a set, but we didn't have Home Depot carry away the set that was here because we planned to bring them to the cabin some day soon, as I am getting tired of the laundromat and hoarding quarters as laundry tokens when we go up there.

So now we have THREE washing machines, and THREE dryers, in our very too small home.

On a similar and much less dramatic vein, we had pretty much the same experience with a vacuum cleaner. We remembered bringing our vacuum to the cabin when we left. In fact, at the cabin we frequently use the old vacuum. Apparently, though, we brought the vacuum to the cabin some time before we left, and it was enough of a gap in time that we decided to buy a new vacuum cleaner. So now we have 2 perfectly new cleaners in our very small house.

But no coffee mugs or drinking glasses. We rock.

Because that couldn't be the end of the story

I approached tonight's dinner a bit hesitantly. I made sure everyone was awake and on the potty and all essentials were in my bag before turning the burner on low to melt the butter and begin the risotto. Sigh. A few minutes into the warming, the burner starts smoking. Of course I turn it off and call the hotel, which sends up an engineer. She and I seem to have a major miscommunication as she's all focused on the disconnected burner from yesterday's debacle and ignores the more recently smoking burner. At one point when she's testing things and something starts to smoke gently, Zoltan proactively puts his hands over his ears. Poor guy.

In the end, she cleans the burners and it's all fine but too late to make risotto as that takes an hour. So, tonight's adventure was the Afghan Kabob house where we tried to entice the kids to eat by repeating over and over that "it's just like shashlik."  Worked on Zoltan, the budding carnivore. Alex ate bread and rice.

An exciting day

Following the amazing list of recommendations of things to do with the kids while in NoVA, today we took advantage of the cloud cover and headed to Clemyjantri Park in McLean. It was everything everyone promised it would be and more, we will definitely be back.

As a testament of the morning, the kids took lovely 3 hour naps. After Alex woke, I decided to start on dinner, so I got the pan warming on setting 5-6 as I took out the chicken and other ingredients. When it seemed warm enough I poured some olive oil into the pan. It started smoking immediately, which was unusual, and then ...

the pan caught on fire.

Cue up Zoltan being awakened by the sound of the fire alarm and handling it much better than I would have predicted; my attempt to contain the fire by turning the pan over on the stove (which did contain it but I guess I peeked too soon as it flared back up when I lifted it to check); and the front desk reacting not quite as fast as I would have thought, although it certainly may have been no more than 1-2 minutes. Oh yeah and I had a horribly delayed out-in-the-heat headache.

So I guess we're going out to eat tonight.

* Edited to add: We did go out for dinner, and serendipitously wandered into the Nepalese Momo Restaurant in the strip mall across the street from the hotel. Today was its very first day of business! Their official opening is Friday and we may very well be be back it.