TW2: The Empire Strikes Back

You saw that I am saving a bunch of money on my cable now.
When I added the DVR I asked if I needed a new box, they said if I have the HDTV box that will be my DVR. Joke was on me the next night when I tried to tape (do you say that w/ a DVR?) Grey's Anatomy for Rachel and my HDTV box kept looking at me like an idiot. If it could talk it would have said "are you kidding me do I look like a DVR." Then it taunted me a little bit by replacing the clock with "REC" after I hit the record button. Needless to say Rachel was left to try and catch the Friday night repeat.
You may have won this round Time Warner...

TW3: Return of the Jedi (but not the 'extra' cable box)
So I called Time Warner to see if they were laughing at me from a hidden camera like the fake water bed trick (showing here):



It turns out the problem is Time Warner was sure that I had 2 HDTV boxes in my apartment before I moved to the house. This was not true but apparently I have been charged for 2 box rentals (and 2 remotes). So not only will they mail me a DVR but I may get back credit for up to 4 years of a box rental @ ~$5-$7/month.

At least my cable is costing me less...

Mark this down - Show Me The Money - Worst TV show of the year.
I have no idea why they keep saying this wed is the premiere, I have already seen the show.
Maybe they were just testing it on CNBC. I have no clue how this ever got past the bullshit test in any boardroom. If you haven't seen I won't even try to explain a minute of it, you'll just have to watch for yourself.
I do enjoy Deal or No Deal and it took me awhile to get used to Howie Mandel. It is very simple so it is fun to see people's risk reward tolerance. I always route for them up to a point but once they keep going beyond a rational point they are on their own.

Most useful site of the week - whattorent.com

There is a reason the show is funny.

I guess I am a blogger.beta user which makes it impossible to try and log in!

My group at work is relatively small, about 40 of us in two hallways. Every year we have a thanksgiving pot luck day where everyone brings in food and we eat all day. I always find my way onto the soda/drinks list to save everyone from my lack of cooking skills. Normally we sign out the only conference room in our hallway to store all the food, and during the day people come and go to sample the goods.
This year was a little different. In the past year they converted that conference room into offices by turning it into 4 cubicles inside the old large conference room. This would seem to be a big problem for us except somehow we ended up using one of the empty cubicles. So all day 40 people are walking by someones desk chatting away to stuff themselves with food. The poor guys working here are not in our group so they were not involved in this potluck. They had to try to go about their normal work while inhaling a wide range of smells from Dunkin' Donuts coffee to venison chili (at least this year they labeled it).
On a side note I was put on Pepsi soda duty even though I am a Coke drinker. On my way to work I swung by Kroger and picked up 4 2-liter bottles. Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Cherry 7-up. After swiping my Kroger card the total came to $3.52! I couldn't believe it since they were all marked $1.39. Now if only they brought back their $1 off Jones orange and cream soda...

Who's Next?

My office is at the end of the hallway. There are 4 young guys down this end of the hallway in the last 4 offices (maybe they did some kind of study).
At least once a week we wheel our chairs out into the doorway and complain about our cable/Internet/and phone bills. No matter what we try we end up in the $130/mo range if you want HDTV w/ Internet.
Here is what happened today. Rachel and I have ADT Security (w/ motion sensors so don't even try) and today they sent us a letter saying "sorry you are no longer an ADT member, reactivate and get 2 months free." I was confused since this is one of the ONLY bills I allow to be drawn out of my bank acount directly. I called them up and they said it was a mistake. Actually it sounds like a marketing ploy to increase subscribers. I said "oh, well then do I still get the 2 months free, and they said yes!" Now, I've got the bug so I call up Time Warner and tell them someone offered me Internet access for $20 /mo and asked how much I would save off my bundle if I cut out their Internet service. They transferred me to their retention department. I had heard from one of the guys at work to try this and it is surprisingly easy (which makes it scary that it has to come to this).
At the retention department I told a really nice guy my line and he said "we'll take care of that." He said I was paying $42.50/mo for Internet (which surprised me since I thought I got in at $35 plus the P&G discount which is roughly $0) he said he could knock it down to $29.95 for 6 months (and then call back after six months). Also, unprompted he said he could work a deal on my digital cable plus HD package (I don't know what it was).
I told him I was interested in adding a DVR and saw their add for free DVR service for 12 mos if you add Digital phone. I told him (and this is actually true) that I could not add digital phone because my alarm system was on my regular phone. He said "no problem we'll work it out".
Here are my results:

Prior Bill: ~$125/mo
Digital Cable
HD Tier Channels
Road Runner Internet
a second TV

New Bill: $107/mo
Digital Cable
HD Tier Channels
Road Runner Internet
a second TV
and now a DVR

Savings: ~15% plus a DVR (which may save me from buying the Office Season 3 on DVD next year)

I wonder if this will work on the IRS...

Ghost writes a blog

OK, a little late for trick or treating but...
On a date night, Rachel and I were killing some time at Borders before a movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Rachel went to look up what our birthdays meant for our relationship and I was walking around aimlessly after realizing I had read 1/2 of the business books.
They had a Halloween display stand that had my new favorite book in it. It is a children's book called "Ghost Eats it All." It stars a Pac-Man looking Ghost named..."Ghost" and a Charlie Brown does Frankenstein looking Monster named..."Monster."
The writing is very descript, it starts with "Ghost eats an egg" and aptly enough the picture shows Ghost eating an egg while Monster looks on. The drama continues as "Ghost eats cake" and "Ghost eats candy", each time with Monster getting increasingly upset about Ghost eating everything. I won't ruin the ending but Monster works in an unexpected twist.
I'm not blogging this to tell you about Oprah Book Club's next best seller. See, I have found this story to be very useful and have incorporated some of the lessons into my daily life. Rachel and I are currently in an Oreo phase (Double Stuff) and one day she walked in and said "what happened to the cookies?" Now with an innocent shrug I just say "Ghost eats cookies." I have learned this could also backfire, you may think sending your fiance a text message during lunch would be a sweet thing to do, but apparently if it contains "Ghost eats Chipotle" it may not be taken as well if you don't bring home a burrito.

Profile: Lucy

Lucy is our dog. She came with the fiance, but I couldn't have asked for a better dog. I met Lucy on my first date w/ Rachel but didn't know I would soon be sharing my bed with her and taking her to the 24 hr animal clinic at 5am. Rachel often takes off her engagement ring and offers it to Lucy because she says I love the dog more than her. I keep saying "that is crazy, there is no way Lucy is a size 4.5."
Lucy has had a tough adjustment to living in the house with Rachel and I. She lived with her sister Missy at Rachel's mom's house. There, the dogs live well in the kitchen but have rules and aren't allowed upstairs or on the carpet. In 6 months since moving in with us, Lucy is now a thread count snob.
Taking Lucy away from her sister was tough, she wasn't familiar with the new house and was really nervous to even step on carpet. We had to leave her home alone since we both worked and put her in the laundry room thinking the smaller space would make her feel more secure. For the first few weeks, she would get really nervous and poop on the floor of the laundry room. Since Rachel worked up in Dayton at the time, I would be the lucky one to come home to clean up. 45 mins and two rolls of paper towels later and we were friends again. I even gave her extra treats once she got to 2 weeks without pooping in the house.
My biggest fear is that I will forget that I let her outside. All summer I was able to go outside with her but now that it is getting colder I watch her from the window. Why so much attention to her outside? See my later blogs.
Lucy has a few talents. She will not eat her food in her dog bowl. She has to knock the bowl over with her nose, then eat the spilled food. When she gets nervous she makes piles of food around the house. After we got back from Alaska and brought her back from Rachel's mom's house she left at least 7 piles around the house (just incase). There was a pile in the dinning room, on the stairs, at the top of the stairs etc. They usually stay for a bit until she feels better and then she will slowly eat them all. When my family came in for Tom's wedding she started making piles again. My brother Mike picked one up and I think it made Lucy mad.
Her latest trick is she now spills her food, piles it up, then flips her empty bowl back on top. I assume instead of taking the time to make emergency piles all over the house, she is cutting to the chase by making her food "disappear" so we will refill the bowl. Don't believe me?

There's a new blog in town

I finally caved and started a blog. Mostly to claim copyright trademarks on my title since I had disclosed it several times before. I have been slow starting a blog to see how well others keep up with their blogs. I can't promise a top 25 Blog that gets linked to from Karen's blog but we'll see...