I haven’t made a post here in almost a month, and all I have is the really lame excuse of “I was busy with the holidays and rehearsing for a show.”  I’m still really busy, actually.  I just started a new semester of classes at Saint Petersburg College (I’m taking the classes necessary to get into their B.S. Technology Management program).

That being said, my creativity is kind of at an all time low – which really sucks because I’m working on a super-secret new project with some friends that is going to require quite a bit of creativity from me in very short order.

The preceding two paragraphs were a lame setup for the cheesy premise of the post that follows.  I’m going to take some of my tweets from the last month and expand on them.

So lame.

Am rapidly becoming convinced that the Bright House cable division does not know it’s ass from a hole in the ground. – December 19th, 2008

This was the beginning of a HUGE saga we had here at the house involving our internet service.  I’ll try to sum it up as briefly as possible.

We had been having problems with our service for months.  Every once in a while the connection would just die, and we’d either have to wait a few minutes for it to come back or reset the cable modem.  I called on it back in July, and at that time they couldn’t find anything wrong.  In early December it was getting really bad and we were losing connectivity several times a day.  On December 18th I called Bright House and started what ended up being a nightmare parade of technicians and phone calls out to the house.  The long story short is that by the end of the saga we had had 8 different technicians at the house, had every single piece of hardware replaced on our cable line (up to and including the tap on the pole), and went through three different modems.  It turns out that, in the end, the problem with us occasionally dropping was the line coming from the wire.  The problems we had during that two week period, however, were mostly due to the fact that on the first day of this crap they gave us a modem that didn’t work properly.  I managed to get our account credited for the entire two week period we had problems, but it was a major ball of suck that I won’t soon forget.  I’m on the FIOS watch list here where I live, and as soon as it becomes available you can bet your ass I’m looking into switching service providers.

All my angst over the computer just got shadowed. My company is now offering domestic partner benefits. Krys can get insurance! – December 24th

This was perhaps the best Christmas present I could have gotten.  One of the big concerns that Krys and I have had over her career as a freelance writer was the fact that she had no medical benefits at all.  She’s been dealing with her gall bladder issue for years now, and has had to pass on going to get medical attention on several occasions because she could not afford to take on another large hospital bill she couldn’t afford to pay.  As of this year, however, she and Jareth now have full medical benefits thanks to the generosity of my awesome company (Grow Financial Federal Credit Union).  Yes, we could have gotten around all that waiting by actually getting married, but we’re still trying to get to a point where we’re financially ready to do that.  We’ve both been married before, and we’re only doing it once more.  It’s going to be right next time.

You know what, universe? You can fuck off with your bad computer mojo. Desktop seems to have shit again. – December 24th

Yeah, this was another computer related ordeal I went through over the Christmas break.  My desktop started acting really funky.   In the end I think the issue was related to outdated BIOS, but by the time I had figured that out I had purchased Windows Vista, a new motherboard, new memory, and a new hard drive.  I went ahead and rebuilt my computer with the new parts anyway, which turned out to be a good thing because Jareth’s computer started acting up too.  I was able to pass my parts down to him, and now Alex, Jareth and I all have upgraded computers.  I also purchased an external hard drive so I could automate backups and prevent any further loss of data (during this ordeal I accidentally formatted my backup drive, which had all my tax files on it.  I get to input everything by hand again this year!).

Conclusion – Wii Fit, while fun, is nowhere near the intensity of workout I need. Back to Yourself Fitness for me. – January 1st

So over the course of the last four months or so I’ve completely fallen out of my workout routine.  What’s more, in the months before that I eased off and started using Wii Fit instead of Yourself! Fitness.  After one workout with Y!F on the first I realized that Wii Fit, while great if you’re completely inactive and needing to get some kind of fitness plan going, is not for me.  I need something more intense than that.  I felt a fifteen minute Y!F workout for days, while doing a full hour with Wii Fit hardly made me break out in a sweat.  I also like the fact that there are no extended pauses while you select your next activity in Y!F.  Don’t get me wrong – Wii Fit is dandy, but it’s an entry level fitness routine in my opinion.

Really looking forward to two runs of Picasso At The Lapin Agile tonight….Ok…I’m not, really. That was a lie. – January 6th

The last week before we opened Picasso was a brutal one.  A lot of changes happened in the last few days that required us all to put in a bit more effort to get the show ready than normally would have been needed.  That being the case, if audience reaction and ticket sales are any indication, it was well worth the effort.  We had a sold out weekend and have gotten a ton of positive feedback from folks who have seen the show.  It’s been a true delight to finally get to work with Kari as a director, and I’ve had a blast helping get this show on its legs.  That being said, two shows in a row is brutal and I’m really kind of thankful I’m done after this for the rest of the season.

I suppose that’s all the really notable tweets I’ve got over the last month.  On the whole, things are pretty darned good.  Yeah, the economy is still taking a nose dive (got my most recent 401K statement today and felt ill), but I have my health and my family.  I don’t need much more than that!