we just might have connection!

I just recieved a call from my kind of last ditch effort company to get a broadband connection from.  It is a wireless provider, but none of the cabled providers are even thinking of running anything out in our area for a long time.

They tell me that from our house we can hit one of their towers that is close to Ada, but not in Ada, I believe it is in Fitzhugh.  Supposedly they will have to run the receiver up 15', so with our roof being like it is, I am hoping that it won't require much additional height.  But they are supposed to bring their testing tool, named Fred, out Thursday morning to do a final test to ensure signal strength.  They said that if that goes good, they should be able to do our install either Thursday afternoon or Friday.  And then NO MORE DIALUP!! Yea!

firefox vids

A friend of mine at work turned me onto this page that has funny clips for the Firefox browser.  There are some really, really funny ones on there, so you will have to take a break and check them out.  The two that he sent me were really good, so I thought I should probably just put them out for all my readers.  Enjoy!

The Firefox videos link is: http://www.firefoxflicks.com.  Go there and click on the View Flicks link at the top of the page.

This one is for those of you that know the inside scoop on what IT professionals are really like.


This one is, well, I can't really explain it, other than to say this is by far my most favorite video I have seen. I guess it is the kid in me. haha....

the best station ever

We used to have Dish Network years ago, when we lived out in Byng.  All they had then, music-wise, was their CD music channel.

Now, several years later, we are back on Dish Network, and I would just like to say that there is nothing better than the Serius channels!!  My favorite, that I can't seem to switch off of, is their Big 80's channel!  It is like the movie The Wedding Singer but on crack!

I mean, you get all the cheesy pop tunes, but then you get Ah-Ha, ACDC, Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Cinderella, Duran Duran, and the list goes on!  It is the best man!

here is a good one

Have you ever had something that happened in your life where you really just had to stop and think about it?  Well, this is one for us down here in Latta.

The kids attend the Latta day care center just down the street from us.  Well, all the day care centers in Ada have been jacking their costs up over the past few months. But for some reason, Latta never did.  So we just kind of thought we were lucky.  That is, until Randi picked up the kids the other night and was handed a parent letter the day care fixed up.  Here is one for the record books of "dumb way to do things".

Here is just a snippet for you:

"At this time, we have decided NOT to increase our daily rate for care.  We understand that each of your budgets are stretched just as tightly as ours, and fortunately, we have been able to participate in various grants as well as renew our existing contracts, resulting in tuition staying the same at this time."

"We will be making one adjustment for private pay parents, as well as parents receiving Tribal assistance.  Effective immediatly, we WILL charge for holidays and days that the center is closed.  Normally, this will results in 10-12 days per year, depending on the winter weather.  We are adding Good Friday as a holiday as well."

So, if you have to pay out of your own pocket, well, you are going to give us more money.  That is "make Jonathan mad" #1.  But then to tell me that we are going to pay for a service that isn't even being rendered?!?!  Um yea, bring me your care to fix...  I will charge you $200 and you can pick it up as-is tomorrow.  This is just the dumbest thing I have read in a long time!

Now how should this have been worded kids?  Well, how about, take the "10-12" days pay they would receive from us, break it down over a year, and raise my day care rate $2-$3 per week.  Everybody else in Ada has jacked theirs up like $25 or more.  If you tell me you are raising my rates from $100 to $105 a week, I would be cool with that.  Tell me I am going to pay for you to go to the lake and get drunk, well, that's just stupid.

I guess this is what my old boss used to mean when she kept telling me to re-read any report I write up and try to read it from an outsider's perspective!!

dylan's new career

That is right.  Apparently Dylan has decided that clown school is his true calling.  Just look at that face painting job!  That's my boy!

we are still alive

Yes, it is true.  We are still alive here in Ada.  We survived the move, well, actually we are still in the middle of the move sort of.  We have everything moved and the house setup and living there, but the garage is still pretty full! haha..  So we are kind of working through that mess as we can.

But we love the new house, and so do the kids.  We finally got some rain yesterday which the lawn was glad to see.  There were huge dead looking spots in the back yard, and the front was a nice shade of yellow. haha...  But with the nice thunderstorms we got, things are greening up.  May even get to the mow the lawn this week.

We are also back online, as you can see by this message. lol..   But on dial up.  Not my favorite thing in the world, but hey, a connection is a connection.  We are kind of looking at some type of the satellite internet options, but they are kind of high and come with a  pretty pricey setup fee.  But we will just see.

The best part though, is that I didn't think it would be possible, but I have managed to share out my big ol' dial up account via my wireless router! haha... So I can sit in my living room with my Mac and use the dial up even though I don't have a modem in my Mac.  So that is at least something!