catching up

Still no internet.
Daily calls to various brain damaged AT&T service drones has hopefully made me such an pain in the ass they'll hook me up just to spare themselves the static.

The highlight thus far- the service guy (the replacement for the one that never showed up) finally arrived and spent 40 minutes poking around and calling various numbers, which were not obviously more potent than the ones I've been using. You think they'd give their own people the Bat Phone, but no.

He wound his way through a labyrinth of wire, physical and bureaucratic, eventually discovering the secret at the heart of the maze- AT&T had never actually turned on my service.

You think it would be obvious to any of the 5000 people I've complained to over the past few weeks, but no! Sherlock Tech must be dispatched from the home office to discover these enigmatic, buried truths.

They claim that NOW they've turned it on, but I still have to wait a few days until they "wire it", whatever that means.

In the meantime, Halloween!
There are some pics of the Fuss in his holiday regalia I'll be posting shortly.
The Fiend went as the Sugar Plum Fairy and was an otherworldly vision, down to the purple pumpkin that matched her outfit to a T.
Keith and Terri's daughter Vera broke gender ranks by going as a hockey player, complete with personalized jersey and tiny hockey stick.

Our party is tonight, and there have been drastic revisions in my look.
Out with the unqualified teen mother, in with Edwardian big game hunter!
Which would make my ubiquitous gin and tonic a prop, not a drink!

The wife is working with a disgruntled cafeteria worker in Soviet Russia concept.

Two late inspirations that we've filed for future consideration are Giant Ghandi, where I shave my head, get a spray tan and wrap my loins in linen, and a Diane Arbus family theme (the fuss could be the dwarf gigolo, I like the True Patriot, or maybe the Jewish giant, the wife as one of her eerie portraits of retarded people.)

Babies take a lot of energy, moving and settling in takes a lot of energy, probating estates takes a lot of energy, battling AT&T takes a lot of energy...all of this has undermined my usual enthusiasm for the only holiday that matters.


On the house front, the bedroom is done. The kitchen is done. The office is done, except for the ongoing debacle with AT&T's posse of drooling clowns. Up next is the bathroom, which needs painting and shelves.

The wife's cousin is heading down next weekend to repair the anarchy of the Turd Tsunami, installing a new floor and patching up the holes in the walls. We have a tenant lined up.

Everything is coming together, if more slowly and disjointedly than I'd like.