Rain Day

Spending the day at home "working" ...

Trying to remain positive about 2009. But, it's becoming increasingly harder. April could be interesting to say the least. I have a feeling this year will be more closely resembling my original business: Gardener for Hire... It'll be less about tropical gardening/containers and more about general gardening and anything remotely related to it.
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Shoveling it in

Laurie in-motion shoveling in her chicken pesto at Za's...
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Recommendation #1

Courier Cafe in downtown Urbana
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"Just Us" Saturday

Yes, Laurie did finally make it to bed last night... I had to wheel her into the hotel room on a dolly from the car (just kidding). And today she's WIDE awake after a good night's rest and a workout in the hotel fitness room.

This afternoon we're hanging out at Barnes & Noble... More basketball later this afternoon and tonight on TV, so no big plans except to be lazy. We'll fit supper in there somewhere, too.
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Too tired to care

The hair is falling, but Laurie is too tired to care... Personally, I liked that little whisp of hair hanging down over her eye as we came out of the elevator at the hotel. But, I'm a guy... What do I know? :-)
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Second Wind

I was getting kind of tired at Courier Cafe, too but once we hit the room my three cups of coffee from supper kicked in and I'm editing a few more photos before calling it a night... Of course I had to rearrange the room a little so I had a clear shot of the TV to watch basketball :-)
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Weekend Get-Away

Here's Laurie sipping on her Green River Phosphate at the Courier Cafe in downtown (or is it uptown?) Urbana. I sent out a "tweet" and followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook responded with restaurant recommendations... Courier Cafe won out :-) We're pleased (Thx Owen!)

We're on a little (and I mean little) get-away for three nights to Champaign/Urbana. We just needed time away from the "norms" of life. We had the kids with us last night, which made for interesting sleeping in our king-sized bed... Needless to say, Laurie and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep.

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3-2-1... BLASTOFF TO SPRING!!!

Multitasking

I quote my son Andrew (8 years old): "I'm not very good at multitasking, but I can brush my teeth and go to the bathroom at the same time."

My kids make me smile a lot... I love being a daddy :-)

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Precious Times

I took time today to go on walks with both kids. I love walking and talking one-on-one with Andrew and Savannah... precious times that I NEVER want to forget...

A Girl's Dream

Laurie sent me a phone pic she took today while out shopping...
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Comcast Issues

Last I knew I lived in Illinois... Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. So, when I go to the Comcast Cable website and sign in and choose to contact customer support via chat I get this message and have for the past 2-3 months:

We apologize that chat for Michigan is not available as a support option. Alternatively, you can telephone us at 800-COMCAST (266-2278) and a Michigan customer care representative will take care of your question or concern. 

If your inquiry is of a less urgent nature you can always email us and well get you a response within 24 hours.

So when I call and FINALLY get a customer service rep, they tell me they're aware of this problem and they're working on it... For 2-3 months??? How hard can this be to correct??? 

Ok, so my REAL issue... for the past few months we've been having a problem with certain shows pixelating on and off. This all started back a few months ago (hmmmm... not too long after Insight changed to Comcast). I ALWAYS watch Frazier on FOX WYZZ 43 at 11 pm Monday-Friday (LOVE that show... kind of like M.A.S.H. use to be for me... I HAVE to watch it). 

Anyway... back a few months ago I noticed that occassionally each night the screen would pixelate and freeze briefly. Then it became worse... then worse. NFL on Sundays would broadcast without a problem, as well as other regular FOX shows. It was generally syndicated shows that we were having the problems.

It's not quite as bad now as it was, but it still does it occassionally. I talked to Comcast about it via 800#, but that got me no where. I went in to our Comcast office here in Normal and that was even worse... they basically made me feel stupid and told me that it's our TV or our DVD recorder causing the problem. 

Last night we had The Weather Channel on (I know, we watch such exciting TV, don't we?) and it pixelate, freeze then go completely black for 5-10 minutes at a time. So, I decided to call the 800# again... I explained what was happening on The Weather Channel at that moment (she saw no problems in our area... surprise surprise) and then I also repeated my whole story about FOX WYZZ 43 and the problems with late night programming and some problems with a couple of shows Laurie had watched this week mid-day (syndicated shows, but on NBC). It was obvious that my information was news to the rep and they hadn't heard of any problems prior to my call (??????????????). 

I went ahead and scheduled for a technician to come to our house to make sure it wasn't the line coming into our house, our DVD recorder or our TV. I received the call from the technician late morning today and, in my opinion, he should be president and CEO. I was amazed... someone that actually understands and can explain TV broadcasting. After speaking with him for 10-15 minutes he stopped at the house, tested everything, talked with Laurie, explained a few things to her, made some suggestions... he said our reception is fine. It's not our TV, or DVD recorder but the feed being received and sent by Comcast (which means it's not necessarily Comcast's fault either). He connected the cable directly into the TV and we're watching it that way rather than through the DVD recorder just to make sure it's not the DVD recorder.

So, I'm watching Electric Company on PBS WILL (LOVE what they've done with that show... I use to love it as a child) and noticed the pixelating over and over and over again. Hmmmmm... syndicated show. I called Comcast AGAIN (third time in 18-hours)... reported the pixelating on PBS WILL during the specific show... he didn't really seem to care and didn't know of any problems... blah blah blah. Same thing... so AGAIN I had to repeat the story/history. He asked, "do you want me to have the technician come back out?" DUH... I just told him what the technician said earlier... it's not our cable, our TV or our DVD recorder... it's the feed and we were told to call when it's doing it so Comcast can keep track of the problems.

So... it's come to this... simply... our cable sucks. It's not going to improve. We CANNOT be the only ones having problems and seeing the pixelating, but... are we really the only ones that ever call and complain??? GRRRRR!!!! I don't have hopes of it improving... I'll just learn to put up with Raymond and Frazier breaking up into mozaics every couple of minutes during their shows at 10:30 & 11 each night.

(I didn't plan on this entry being this long... thanks for "listening")

Chivin' Happy!!!

The chives are up!!! The chives are up!!!

Yes, I'm happy :-) That's a good sign of spring :-)

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End of Winter

Took a little break today while working to shoot a few photos at a customer's house... couldn't decide which I liked better, color or black and white so... I put both up for display.

Barnes & Noble Bookfair Info & Voucher

See http://restoretheroomforkoch.blogspot.com/2009/03/bookfair-info-voucher.html for information on the bookfair at Barnes & Nobles on Sunday, March 15 to benefit Mrs. Koch and the 1st grade class at Bent Elementary School.

Please help RESTORE THE ROOM...

TKD Champion

Here's Andrew proudly displaying his first place trophy from "forms" and a third place medal for "sparring."

We had to have a little father/son chat after his sparring loss... He was pretty down on himself for losing. By the time we got home, though, he was doing much better.

We're very proud of Andrew and his accomplishments in taekwondo. He's not the most aggressive kid, but he makes up for it in determination and commitment to the sport.

SO BORED!!!

We're at a taekwondo tournament for Andrew this afternoon and a certain someone is VERY bored right now... Andrew won his division in "forms" and received a trophy :-) This is his second time of winning his division at a tournament. YEAH!!!

He's also competing in "sparring" in a little bit, which isn't his strong point - but, he loves to do it. Problem is he gets hit/kicked a whole lot more than he hits/kicks his opponent. We're watching "breaking" right now... Which is his LEAST favorite discipline. (That would be my favorite)
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AWESOME Example of Giving

Check out this AWESOME example of GIVING by a previous student of Mrs. Koch:

http://restoretheroomforkoch.blogspot.com/2009/03/giving-back.html

Spammin' Wonderful

Since we gave our worship pastor a large quantity of Spam for his 40th birthday tonight, I grabbed one at the store for myself and fried it up for supper tonight. I haven't had Spam in YEARS!!! It was SPAMTASTIC!!! (I borrowed that word from the party tonight) My kids tried it... Savannah loved it, Andrew was so-so about it.

And the BEST way to eat Spam? Fried on white bread with mustard.

Savannah finally asked... What IS Spam? I just smiled... Does it really matter?
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Pantagraph Article

Good story in The Pantagraph today on what we're doing for Mrs. Koch's class: http://tinyurl.com/cjgln7
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