Simple fixes

The weather here has been delicious. We have been waking up in a timely manner which allows us to walk Mia up to school in the mornings, which is a much missed tradition. I usually only sport our garage door opener to make for easy access in and out of the house. This morning was no different. When I finally made it home after my hour + long conversation with some friends, I pushed my easy access button and went inside. Later, when the siren songs of beautiful weather pulled me to the park, I was shocked to find a non functioning garage door opener.

I can't tell you how grateful I was to have the garage door opener fail us post shower and post fed and napped kids. I resolved to get a new battery at the store after fun park playing and call it a day. Only problem, the new battery did jack squat. Fernando fiddled with it and amazing made our fancy built in the van car opener somewhat work, but strangely the openers are still a bit finicky.

While this was going on in the garage, I decided to get some laundry done. After loading some very stinky clothes, I push the on button. BUZZ! My washer wanted nothing to do with starting up. I fiddled and reset and did all the searching for solutions on line. I even reset the outside breaker. Nothing. My last resort was to see if something was catching things up on the inside. I moved the clothes around and found nothing out of the ordinary. Upon shutting the door, I pushed the on button one more time. BINGO! I guess my front loading washer has no problem starting just so long as you shut the door all the way. If only our garage door could be solved so simply.

Seaworld for the New Year

One of my favorite purchases of my life is SeaWorld Passes. We have more than gotten our bang for our buck. With fantastic weather and no school, SeaWorld became our home away from home. This day, we enjoyed the other side of SeaWorld with the Dolphin pool and Sharks. The kids loved to stick their hands in the water and hope for a possible encounter. Strike that, Talia dreamed of touching the water, but with her short arms and tummy on the platform rule it was out of the question. That wasn't really great for her. Luckily, there were some posters with the majestic "fish" as Talia called them. Then in the Shark exhibit, the kids were mesmerized. Talia kept singing Drummer Boy. what a good use of the day.

Eureka! Part III

When we first moved to Texas, we were in desperate need of a new vacuum. Our old vacuum was left for a friend in MD and well, even before I would get pots and pans, I wanted to have the more essential house item: a Sucky Vacuum. My eyes were set on a Dyson, but after many a consumer report no nos, I opted for another more highly rated wonder. For about the same price I could have bought the Dyson, I was stuck with a suckless wonder. (well, it only was good for about 6 months and then went down hill from there).

This Christmas, with our needle dropping tree, I decided the Dyson wanna-be had to go. A few days before Christmas I picked up the Eureka Smartboss as per my sister's recommendation. Fernando was a bit devistated. I guess the vacuum idea was his big gift to me. Oops!

He wrapped it up anyway and Mia made an adorable book to go with it. Hopefully I can figure out our new printer so you can see the pictures but here are some of the words at least:

Once there was this osm (awesome) robot
He would clean everything
The was only one problem though: His smile was attached to his nose
So nobody bought him.

In the end, the awesome robot found its way into my arms. And as much as I love my new sucky vacuum, the book was the best part of the present.

Eureka! Part II

Since you were all wondering. . .ok, you weren't but I thought I should Clear Clear's name. I guess it was Belkin's weak sauce router that was making internet and phone and life difficult. Solution, TIME CAPSULE. What is a Time Capsule? Well, it's from Apple which meant an enjoyable trip to the beautiful La Cantera Shopping Center (to classy to be called a mall) and to the trendy Apple store. Fernando did his best to only buy the Time Capsule and nothing else. Good for him. Now after rearranging my front room and office for the umpteenth time, we have power and connectivity and more green glowing lights then one should ever have. Eureka!!

Eureka! Part 1

Have you ever wondered how Eureka ever became a positive expression? To me, it sounds more like a proper expletive. No matter, it serves such a purpose for my thoughts on technology these days.

VOIP is a fantastic phone service that utilizes the internet to give you cheap local and long distance service. The only catch is that your internet must work. We haven't really run into any problems until these last few weeks. Some how lights are blinking on all the many devices but no one is talking. Something about the router and modem and cables and static and well. . .no phone. After a few calls to AT&T and "solving" the problem many times, we finally ran head long into the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

All that prevented us between reconnection and the outside world was a password. Well not really a password, but the key answer to a secret question. Question, "What is your favorite restaurant?" I guess we don't really have a favorite because after guessing over 20 different restaurants we still didn't come up with the right one. The guy kept reminding me that divulging my secret answer would jeopardize his career. Fair. It's not his fault that my life doesn't revolve around one place to eat out. (or 20 others for that matter). I did remind him that these random password secret questions are much like the super expensive car keys that new cars all seem to need. To replace one of those bad boys, you are looking at about $200. But, I ask, how many times has you car been broken into and stolen vs how many times you lose your car keys? Who are we trying to keep out of our cars and likewise our accounts?

In the end, we decided to leave AT&T (rash I know, but really we were a bit underwhelmed and still internet-less) We signed up with Clear. A new and only real affordable option for internet in our area. I keep waiting for Verizon Fios to find us again, but I am not holding my breath. They have a 4G network and a reasonable price tag for super fast internet. Unfortunately, the tower, which is less then a mile from our house, doesn't have enough guts to support a wireless router which is essential for our phone. When I do use the phone, I sound more like a Robot or popcorn then a person.

After calling CLEAR and speaking with a very strange service representative, didn't find their company so CLEAR. She even suggested that we ditch the home phone option and go straight to cell phones exclusively. Tempting, but again, the loss cell phone vs lost home phone option is risky. And, if I ever get a babysitting someday, what would they use when we are out? No way I am leaving my iPhone with a teenager to have unlimited text and internet capacity.

Now our choice is to stick it out with the new guys "CLEAR" or crawl back to AT&T if we want any internet. These choices definitely Eureka!

Hay! Merry Christmas

From our Family to yours, Merry Christmas! PS Mia is the cute little Elf on the reindeer's back. Nice ears, don't you think?

Crocs and their many should be non-uses

Crocs have to be the ugliest form of footwear invented, but they are so wonderful. I love throwing them one to quickly run to the store or take out the garbage or pick up me from the bus stop. Unfortunately, I sometime forget that they really aren't outside of the house shoes and just add to my disheveled look I try to pull off everyday.

It was bound to happen that I would forget my shoe choice at a most inconvenient time. Such as racing to Zumba only to realize my crocs were still on. In my mind, I tried to figure out if it was worth it to race to some store to buy a pair of shoes. No, because 1: I would be even more late if not miss the whole class. B: I am way too cheap to throw away money on new shoes just because I wasn't thinking.

So with just about enough dignity that a Zumba fan could muster, I began shaking my stuff whilst trying to keep huge crocs on my feet.