It's about time!

I have internet!
It's been cold and yet I remain online. Can you believe how long it took?

They had to install a thicker cable. If only they'd figured out the issue back in November, they wouldn't have had to stumble though eight inches of snow to do the job.
Silly men.
LOL

So, how were your holidays?
Mine went quite well. Got to see ALL of my family. My little sis came up with her family from Florida and the cousins had a rousing good time.

I got a couple of nice gifts from Santa DH.
I ate lots and lots and made my very first chocolate fondu! It came out great!
Leftovers makes great sauce over vanilla ice cream too. YUM.

I won an Ebook from Shelly Munro's birthday bash that she held during the entire month of December. I just found out yesterday. Major squeee moment, let me tell you.

OH, and how did I enter if I didn't' have internet? Work. I have internet access during my lunch at work...though never long enough to do anything of great length. Just enough to contact me and tell them I was still alive. *grin*

I submitted a short story (1,000 words) and found out yesterday that it was accepted at LASR. Should be posted in January. Color me EXCITED!

Guess all that downtime from being offline was good for something, eh?

During the holidays we didn't do much. Generally we just enjoyed the downtime. School for my kids has been rather stressfull and tough, so this short reprieve has been much welcomed.

I took LOTS of pictures, but I can't share any because they were mostly of family. I can share our tree though. The kids totally decorated it. I only did the lights. Not bad, eh?
We fit the tree in where we can, in a place that is colder than the rest of the house. Mostly because a wood stove would dry up it up in record time. It always ends up our family mud room. ::shrugs:: It works.





Anyway, Happy New Year!
Oh, and for any who are wondering...No, I did not make any resolutions.
Bah Humbug...like I'd keep them anyway?
LOL

How about you?

I hate my cable company

Well, I do.
I've been having internet troubles for a month now.

I was recently told last week that the signal of 12 on the street drops to a 6 at the subpole. So who knows what I'm actually getting once it reaches my modem.
When it's below freezing, I don't get my internet. When it goes above 32 degrees, it seems I have it. Hence my updating you right now. But the temps are dropping fast. We have another snow storm on the way too.

So, snow is coming, the temps will be dropping and that means I won't have this connection for long.

They told me they don't lay new wires until SPRING!!!!!
But, they will try to do it. However, the other way they can do it will take 7 - 10 business days, add in weather related delays and I'm looking at 2 weeks before, MAYBE THIS WILL FIX IT, before I get my dependable internet back.

The thing is, I no longer trust it, believe in it or feel like I can depend on it.
Is this what it feels like to have a cheating spouse? A double-timing boyfriend?
It ROTS!

So, worse case scnenario, I'm down until the Holidays.
So, Merry Christmas, Joyeoux Noel, Felice Navidad and Happy Holidays to the few wonderful and lovely bloggers who still visit and haven't given up on me.

Oh, and read some good books!
I'm starting to read the Vampire Kama Sutra. That's a title that grabs you!
LOL

Cable Wires and a Book Contest

Hey, Long time no update, yes?

Well, I had the cable tech come by again and Lo! after almost crying in frustration..almost..my eyes got misty but I stayed in the shadows of the stairwell...he exhausted his expertise, he called three other techs for input and I believe he has determined the culprit. The final determination?

THE PROBLEM IS NOT INSIDE MY HOUSE.

He donned his little white hardhat and slogged off into the rain to climb the pole.
Turns out that the readings on the main line are 12 but my house is only getting 6 when it gets to the outside box but when it gets to my modem, it's anyone's guess what I am actually getting.

He said that all the Wires/Cables from the Main pole, the sub-pole and from the subpole to my house need to be replaced but with a THICKER cable.

Wouldn't it be great if that truly fixed all my problems?

He said he was going to paint the other guy red cuz he too went up the pole the last time but never noticed the extreme drop in signal and he should have. Oooooh, the senior tech is going to razz the under tech. Tee Hee.

But seriously. Almost three weeks of having intermittant internet, this last one being 48 hours without is driving me nuts! Thank goodness they did credit my account today. I called and I saved $9.00. It's better than nothing.

By next week, I should have the full 12 signal. I hope, hope, hope that it fixes it!
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On an upbeat note...a good friend, a wonderful author and a very sweet and generous person is having a contest you really need to know about if you are a romance reader.

Her first romance book in print! You can Hold it! You can smell the ink on the pages! You can drool over the hunky guy on the cover!

Available from Samhain Publishing

"One Love For Liv" (available in eBook or in Print)

Olivia "Liv" Leigh, wealthy socialite and spa owner, suspects her fiancé of cheating on her, so she takes drastic steps to discover whether appearances are deceiving. And if those steps require a bit of stalking, a change of appearance, a hippo-sized dog named Spike, and sacrificing her manicure to clean house for a sexy but sloppy man whose neighbor is determined to break several of the strangest Guinness Book of World Records, why should that be a problem?

Mike, a happily single auto mechanic, is more than content sharing his bachelor pad with piles of laundry, dirty dishes, and a sneaky ferret. But when a half-crazed woman in a bad wig shows up on his doorstep, what's a nice guy to do? Why, invite her in, unknowingly help her in her search for the truth and, in the process, fall head over heels for a woman who's never been less his type.

Doesnt' this sound AWESOME????

Here is the link to the rest of the page.

ONE LOVE FOR LIV

Check it out or better yet join in on the contest so you could win her book. I've read her stories before and she's never let me down. If you want upbeat and happy, then Marianne Arkins delivers.

My Good News

Guess what?
As of next week, I am going to have a High Speed Internet connection!

I am SO so very excited and I can't wait.
No more 20 minute load time for a My Space Page!
No more not being able to see all these YouTube things I 've been hearing about!
No more sitting around waiting for a pic to load so I can share it with you.
No more having restrictions on the size emails I send!
No more having my internet connection severed because I'm online for four hours straight.
No more limiting how many people I can BCC or CC my emails to. Right now, I can only do Five, but I have over 70 People!
No more waiting for a Doppler Rader picture to show bad weather in my area and by the time it loads, the worst has passed OR it got so bad we lost power anyway...which is REALLY inconvenient.

I am SO excited!
Woot!
Yippee!
Kowabunga!

I can't wait to do a YouTube link on my blog here. I can't wait to try uploading a little film clip from my camera. I can't wait until I can do things that took me an hour and have them done in 20 - 30 minutes.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!