I'm so inured to crap service that I literally get a shock when it's good to great and always try to tell someone in charge about it.

At our last house, we had an awful time with the phone company -- huge screwup, there had been a dozen lines in the apartment at one time, blah blah -- and finally they had to send someone out.

It was pouring rain out, and the service guy had to go outside at least a dozen times. Then he not only got the phone working, he fixed every jack in every room, including an ancient hard-wired jack (not the one with the plug-in -- he made it a plug-in for me). After a few minutes, I panicked, thinking, This is going to cost a fortune, since it wasn't part of the service agreement. But when he left, after making sure everything was working and goo-gooing at the baby, he never handed me a work order. Which meant he did it all out of the goodness of his heart. I wanted to call Verizon and tell them what a great guy he was, and how wonderful the service was, but as Stephen pointed out, it would probably have gotten him in trouble.

OK, Martha Stewart is on TV, making recipes she came up with in prison, I shit you not.

Have voted. Must shower.

The new Martha show got panned somewhere, I was reading over someone's shoulder on the train.

hey Jesse, who'd you vote for. I voted for the guy, then the lady, then the other guy (but we are different districts, so that won't be the same).

Is Martha demonstrating how to make shanks?

Okay, not a reliable source (Bob Novak) but this could lead to a nasty fight in the senate.

With Senate confirmation of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice virtually assured, the struggle for the Supreme Court returns to replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The belief in legal and political circles is that President Bush will name a conservative woman, and the front-runner is federal Appellate Judge Priscilla Owen (5th Circuit, Austin, Texas).

[link]

You would think that I wouldn't have to tell a coworker in my office that I am not in Chicago, therefore I have no access to the server in Chicago, and that jumping all over my shit trying to get files from the server in Chicago only succeeds in making me very angry, so maybe she ought to call one of our people in Chicago to expedite the fucking process, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

Our long national nightmare is over.

We have a new remote.

On our way back we went by the cutest thing ever: a lemonade stand trying to raise money for Katrina assistance. I took a picture with my cell. [link] Wish I could have gotten a better shot of those kids' faces-- they were straight out of central casting! And there was this little homemade sign!

Bob got the name and extension of our Time Warner cust service lady last night b/c she was so helpful-- I should try to find a way for him to tell TW about her.

Is Martha demonstrating how to make shanks?

Man, I wish.

a lemonade stand trying to raise money for Katrina assistance. I took a picture with my cell

I just read about them on lj! Cute.

I only had two votes to cast. I voted for the one guy and the other guy. Even though Virginia Fields's ads are the best.

The SO tries to do that -- tell people when their service is good. We're apt to complain when it's bad, so we try to be equitable.

Our phone company is miserable. Uniformly, any person you call will be rude and off-putting and generally unhelpful. But then any actual person who comes out to the house will be polite and professional and apt. In fact, they once told me that I needn't ever buy the phone company's "We'll pay for repairs in your house" plan, because the old-style box I have means that the company is responsible for all the wiring anyway. The phone people always try to sell it to me, but I just decline. And it's been true.

Oh, the lemonade kids are teh cute!