Going back

How do you go back to work after 5 consecutive days off? I feel like a totally different person. I slept until later than 9:00 yesterday morning, which says a lot because I can't just sleep late every Saturday. I'm up so early for my routine during the week that my body won't let me sleep any later than 7:30 on the weekends. My routine has morphed and getting out of bed was hell on ice this morning. Long gone are the days of showering with sunlight beaming in the bathroom window. At noon. Then running errands, playing video games, and watching movie trailers until the wife comes home. Life as I know it — DVD marathons, lunch in bed, hair so dirty that your scalp gets sore, and pretending that getting up to plug in your laptop so that it doesn't die before you're done reading blogs is a big deal — is now back to blue cloth cubicle walls, fluorescent lights, time sheets, conference calls, deadlines, and slacks. Oh god, the slacks. Do you think I can get away with sweatpants if I wear a tie?

Fixed my Dish

Back in March we switched to Dish Network, and I had a couple of complaints. I'm happy to report that — even though the situation isn't ideal — I've finally reached what I would call an acceptable solution. Someone had originally written that I should call Tech Support, and since I was in the mood to have a bad customer service experience and then pick a fight about it, I did the next worst thing and used their online chat support. After filling out the pre-chat form riddled with JavaScript errors (the geeks are rolling their eyes in disgust, the non's are rolling them in ignorance) that asked for my name and issue, I prepared for the person on the other end to ask what my issue was in broken English and then refuse to give it and instead insist that they find out from the form I had just submitted. Like I said, I was in a sour mood. I think it made me mad (er?) that instead he asked in perfect English if I could hold on for a second while he looked at the information I had provided. Because I wasn't going to get my fight. Then he did the unthinkable. He solved my issue.

The issue turned out to be that the video mode of the receiver was in the wrong mode, and it had never occurred to me that the receiver might have its own mode that I should check. Just pushing that * button at the bottom left of the remote cycles through the modes and eventually finds one that fits just right. It has to be switched manually between modes when watching HD vs. SD content, but a majority of what we watch is in HD so hopefully it won't come up too often. All I wanted was a fight. :(

Weekly Winners #2

Hmm, if I'm going to continue doing Weekly Winners, I may need to cut back on the photo posting during the week. I usually end up posting the best of them as we go, leaving little to nothing for Sunday. I really liked the picture in this post, but I'm not going to repost it here.

Love my hair in that last one.