Ipod Wars

Today I have a frustration. I have mentioned in here that I had had some problems with returning my sons Ipod Touch to Wal-mart after getting what I considered to be a better deal at Target. The returning of that to Wal-mart made it so it wasn't worth so much that I got a $25 gift certificate for purchasing the same thing at Target. The experience I had on Friday makes it even a bit more of a problem.

Thursday evening, after arriving home, my son approached me and told me that his Ipod wasn't keeping a charge. I called the people who have the extended warranty (which I purchased) to see what to do. I was informed that I needed to go into Target and exchange it since it was still under the 90 days warranty. So, I went with my son to Target. We saw Spencer who was in the old ward and were told that they didn't have a replacement for it as they were all out. He also called the Jordan Landing store which was out as well. He finally called Fort Union (which was close to my work) and told them to hold one for me.

Friday was a normal day at work. I did leave briefly to get my care inspected so I can go in and pay some taxes (I still need to do the last part) and I had a brake light out as well as had to fix a wiper blade. That all done, I continued to work.

I left work at around 3:00 in the afternoon to go to Target. Arriving at the Customer Service desk, I told them the problem and was told to go get another ipod Touch from electronics. I did this. Then, in looking over the receipt it said that the return value was $204.99 instead of $229.99 because of the $25 gift certificate. I was told that they could not take one in at the $205 and then not charge me the $230. Instead, I need to return the $25 gift certificate, and since I spent it on the extended warranty, in order to get the new ipod I would have to make up the $25. I told them this is crazy. She said it was the rules. I asked for a manager.

The first manager came and repeated that what I was being told was the actual case. I only talked to her briefly but asked for somebody else. A guy came over and he told me the same thing. I told them that it was ridiculous to give me a sale and then when the item breaks to tell me that the sale was no longer valid. He told me that they should not have to eat the $25 either. After all I had benefited from it (and not them). I told them that it was their sale, and was corrected in that it was a promotion. We went back and forth for a bit. He was getting upset at me because I wasn't budging on what was right. He finally told me that he was done going round and round with me and getting nowhere. With him getting angry, I am sure that I got angry as well. I told them that I wanted to talk to corporate. He wanted me to go home and talk to them, but I wanted to get it taken care of now. I asked if he could call a number (that they had furnished to me on a comments card), and he was upset that he should have to call for me. I asked for the phone. He gave it to me and walked away.

I didn't see the phone number immediately on the card (and I didn't have on my reading glasses) and asked where the number was. He was across the room and asked (sarcastically) if he had to dial the number for me. I called him an ass (under my breath) and found the phone number and started to dial. He heard what I had said and came to grab the phone away from me. He told me to leave the store as we struggled over the phone. I told him that I hadn't finished what I came for. He told me to leave and that I was never to come back into the Target store. I refused to leave. He grabbed the phone from me and was going to call security. I said, "You have got to be kidding me". He continued that I needed to leave and I wasn't just going away. I had not done anything to be evicted from the store other than being upset that they would not give me what I still feel was rightfully mine. I talked him out of calling security, and got the phone back.

While I called the 800 number on the phone another guy was hanging around (he seemed to be their manager despite the fact that the one I was dealing with told me he was the top) and told me that we would have to talk after I was off the phone. He had been hanging around behind me for a little while before that. Well, I talked to somebody at the 1-800 number and was basically told that I would either have to return the gift card or pay them the extra $25 for the return. What they all seemed to miss was that I wasn't returning anything. I was coming in to exchange ipod for ipod because it broke while it was under warranty, and I was told to do that from the people with the extended warranty. They kept on acting like I was trying to steal this $25. They shouldn't have to eat it, I should. I tried to get through to them that this made no sense to give a promotion and then go back on it. I asked the guy on the phone who else I could talk too about this. He sent me to somebody in electronics. I was on hold for awhile waiting for the phone to be answered.

While on hold this new manager started to tell me that I had abused his employees and that this was unacceptable behavior. I asked about the abuse of a customer. He didn't like that much. I was the one at fault (completely) as far as he was concerned. He also tried a new scenario. He asked if he had purchased a truck and a promotion was that he got a shell. Well, if he decided to return the truck but keep the shell was he justified. I told him that wasn't the same scenario. In order for it to be the same the truck had to have a problem while it was under warranty and then if he went in to get a new truck (of the same exact kind) he should be able to keep the shell to put on the next truck. He told me that I wasn't right in what I was assuming.

The electronics guy came on the phone. I told him the whole story (as I had with the first one) including them wanting to throw me out of the store, and he told me to hold while he could see what could be done. I was finally told that it they could do something for me and to get somebody from Target on the phone. I gave it to the most recent manager that was there. He talked for awhile and then hung up the phone. I was then told that before he could do anything, I had to apologize to his workers. I thought this was ludicrous because they had it from people above them that they could do this for me. But, to avoid conflict, and to get my way, I went along. The first one that came to me was the first (who I didn't think I had offended). I was surprised by this, and told her that I had nothing against her and I didn't think I had been rude or abrasive to her. I also told her that since she felt I did, I had better apologize because no offense was ever meant. In the meantime the other one came up. I turned to him and said that I had meant to offend him, but I was in the wrong in choosing to do so, and I apologized. I also let him know that I felt he had started the anger through how I felt I was being treated there. But, I did apologize and I meant it. He shook my hand saying no hard feelings. They then went forward with getting me the ipod for ipod trade without having to pay extra.

Another problem presented itself. The warranty that I now had was no longer valid because it was with the first ipod touch. I didn't bring in the receipt for it, but did call home to get the receipt number so they could look it up on their computer system. One thing that I hadn't noticed when I bought it was that I was charged $29, and they gave me the $19 card instead. I don't know what happened there exactly, but something that wasn't right happened. They weren't able to take care of the problem without having a receipt. I took the ipod (the new one) and left the store. It was 4:30. I had spent almost an hour and a half with this going back and forth and being on hold. It was a frustrating experience. But, I had prevailed.

I had been told in the store that yelling didn't get you anywhere (I don't think I ever actually yelled, but I do get loud, especially when I am upset). But, evidently yelling does finally get you somewhere when you get to the right people.

I arrived home and told my wife about the experience. I also told her that I still had to get the warranty attached, so after eating some dinner, I went to the store in Jordan Landing that I had bought the original one at. I asked for a manager and showed him the problem with the $19 versus the $29 warranty. I also told him that I had to return it so I had to get the new warranty over to this one. He told me that he needed to figure some things out, but that I should go grab the right warranty from electronics (which I did). He was able to figure out how to return the one warranty, but now had to figure out how to attach the new one to the new ipod. He told me that he would have to return the ipod and then re-buy it after putting the proceeds on a gift card. It took him a little while, and I asked about the price difference at which he said that since I had gotten it for that price it was a simple matter to do a price change on it. He told me I shouldn't have had this problem in the first place. He then sold me the $29 warranty for 1 cent. He told me I owed him a penny and when I went to get the penny, he laughed and told me he was only kidding.

Once again, I told my wife about the pleasant experience in comparison to the experience from hell, and she told me that I needed to talk to Target. Finally, I did call Target. My conversation was cut short because it was quitting time, but I got everything through to them. At one point she went to call the store and talked to the store manager at Jordan Landing. She came back on and said that from his understanding he had taken care of me quite well. I told her that he was correct and that she had called the wrong Target. Now, I felt I had to apologize to him. The woman I talked to was flabbergasted (or seemed to be) at the treatment I had been through. I was told that this would be given to the proper people so they could at the very least look into it, though I will not hear anything else from it. Well, that is what I refer to as Ipod Wars. I'm just glad that it is taken care of.

So, Saturday came and went, and we really didn't do anything, and then there was today.

Today, we went to our normal meetings. My wife was able to go to Relief Society because Allie wasn't there, and then we went to Sunday School as well. After Sacrament meeting, my son and I went to do our home teaching and got home in time for our home teachers to come over. Nothing out of the ordinary today (except that I got my home teaching done for the month).

Autopsy results

Well, we finally got a call tonight telling us what the results were of the autopsy. My wife's mom called and told us that Ben had coronary disease as well as water on the brain. He was overweight, but I doubt that was completely the problem. I am wondering if it is a family genetic problem, so Chantelle and Ben should probably get checked to see how they are doing. It is concerning to me that a kid of 29 years old dies of something like this.

My wife tells me that there was something with his head when he was born that it was too big or something and they had to do something at that time. It makes you wonder how much of this could have been avoided or if it is all in Gods plan at this time. All I know is that Ben was way too young to die.

Funeral

I spent Monday at work. There was stuff that I had to get caught up on and it was good to get doing something else for a change. There was nothing too unusual that happened there so I won't bore with details of what it is I do at work.

I did leave a little bit early from work so I could arrive home and help get the family ready for the viewing that evening. My wife and kids had spent the day taking care of a few things and my wife was concerned about a friend that works at the Obituary office of the newspapers because of some of the things that transpired. The newspaper had a misprint on Ben's obituary (actually two). One was noticeable to all as they missed the "s" in the word sister. The other wasn't so noticeable. They put the wrong month on the date of his birth. Anyway, my wife talked to Janine tonight and there was no problem with her.

Of course, I'm off track here.

We left for the funeral home and had told our kids that we would be there for about two hours, and that it wasn't an exciting thing to be at. Soon after we arrived there, our son decided that two hours is a really, really long time. There wasn't a lot of people that came, but we did talk with those that did. One that was a bit humorous for me was a group of people who worked with Ben. One of them pulled the others over to some pictures that were there of Ben and pointed at one that was Ben with his family (Father, Mother and two sisters). She said, "I didn't know that Ben had a family". I had to point out to them that it was Ben's father that they thought was Ben (he always has had an uncanny resemblance to his father). They were astounded. I later introduced my wife to them and they couldn't believe that she would be turning 50 this year. I have to admit that she does look real good.

Eight o'clock came and our son was right on us about getting out of there. We told him that we had to stay around for a few people. He couldn't stand that. He had been bothering me about leaving early anyway and to actually stay late was out of the question. We did finally leave though to promises of ice cream (it turned into a root beer float). We stopped into the store to pick up some root beer and a couple of other items.

This morning I slept in since I didn't have to be to work. There was a little bit of wash to be done and that was done. I also sat down to watch the inauguration of President Barak H. Obama. It was quite enjoyable for me to watch. He did a good job with his speech after he was sworn in too. Of course I didn't expect anything different. My prayers are with the new Presidency of the United States and I hope that all will go right. He's not my choice of President, but he is who we have to work with now that we have voted him in.

We left for the funeral home right after his speech. Our son had already been to a band practice this morning and got home by 10:00 and we were grateful that he made sure to be home on time.

There were a lot more people to the viewing just before the funeral. I had a hard time after the family prayer (which was done by Chantelle's husband Mike) watching Chantelle with her final farewell to her brother just before they closed the casket. She just broke down and sobbed. My heart (and every bodies) went out to her. What could we do, but watch? Her husband gave her a comforting hug. We then walked into the chapel (is that what its called in a Mortuary?) and had our seats. At first Chantelle and Chris were by their mother but brother Bay (from the bishopric of the third ward) told them they could sit up front. Melanie was left sitting alone. She actually gave the opening prayer of the services which I wondered how she could do that and do it so well.

The service started and Marie sang a song that she had written about leaving. It was beautiful and heart wrenching. Melanie just started to sob with her whole body shaking. I had to get up from my seat and walk to her and sit by her to put my arm around her. She loved the song, but boy did it tear her up. Marie's voice is so beautiful and she did a great job.

Next up was Chantelle. She did a wonderful job, and as expected had her moments of tears. Chris then got up to speak. He spoke completely from his heart without any notes. He too did a wonderful job. He asked for people from the audience to come up and speak. Three people (including Nathan) got up and said a few words. It was a time for more tears as well as hearing about the joy that Ben had given to all. Anne next sang Psalms 23. As usual, it was beautiful. Then Kent got up and spoke. He is the grandfather to Ben and did a wonderful job of talking about Ben and Ben's life. We then sang "God be With You till We Meet Again", and then the closing prayer by Gladys (Kent's wife and step-grandmother to Ben). Anne hummed a song that had been written after Adom's death about 10 years ago (he is a 17 year old nephew).

I got called up with the other Pall Bearers to take Ben out to the hearse. We then waited around for a bit until we needed to head to the cemetery. We were right behind the hearse. After everybody arrived we brought his body over to the final resting place. Brother Bay then called me up to dedicate the grave. I did this through the power of the Priesthood which I hold. I had written notes because I knew that I would be a bit emotional, and would forget some of the things I wanted to pray about. I think that went OK.

Once again, I was heartbroken when looking over at Chris who was in the arms of his wife being comforted. There really isn't anything you can say or do when all of this is going on.

Finally we headed over to the church (which is right next to the cemetery) and had a nice lunch of ham, funeral potatoes (talk to any Mormon and they can tell you what those are), vegetables and assorted cakes. There were also some rolls there. We had to take some of the cake home with us. Our kids wanted to stay at grandmas house, but we left and came on home anyway. We watched a movie at home and relaxed around our home for awhile.

Tonight, I took the kids to Young Men/Young Women. It was a combined activity. I really didn't want to go (and neither did my son) but we went anyway. They played Scripture Battleship. That is a game that there were questions asked that are scriptural questions and when one team gets the right answer they get five balls to try and seek the ships on the other side of the net. When somebody is hit, they are out (although they can still help answer the questions). They do have to stay where they are though once they are settled. In the end, they took down the screen between them so they could end the game a bit earlier.

Well, that's about it.

Death of Ben

This past weekend has been one of grief. I have also been worn out for most of the weekend. When somebody dies it takes a lot out of all those around him or her. In this case it was Ben.

Hasn't the Wach family had enough of these early deaths? Wasn't the death of Ben's father last year (just before Thanksgiving) enough? Haven't there been enough early deaths in this family from Jimmy who died at the age of 27 and then his wife two years later at an early age (leaving behind three year old twins). Then there was Adom in 1998 at the tender age of 17. Steve, just before Thanksgiving (my wife and I were called on our Anniversary about this one). Steve was the oldest to die. At least he was in his 50's. Now, of course, there is Ben. At the age of 29. Why is one family having to deal with all of these young deaths? I just don't understand. On my side of the family, we only have the one who died at 52 (my brother Randy). The rest of us are left to pick up the pieces.

I was called at work this past Thursday. My wife and I were dealing with other problems with our daughter so I thought she was calling me on that. Instead, she called me and told me that Ben was found dead in his apartment. He was found by his cousin who lives with him. My first thought was that he had committed suicide (I no longer believe that to be the case). I waited for my wife to get over to her moms house and then decided I would go over there for lunch and see what I could do to help. I thought I would go back into work, but decided against it.

One of the problems that we had was that all of us knew about the death, but Melanie (his mother) was nowhere to be found. Anne wanted to go out and do everything she could to find Melanie and was quite upset that nobody was doing anything toward that end. I understood both sides. The one side is that we probably would not be able to find her since nobody knew where she had taken off too, and then the other side was a mothers instinct to try to find the mom because that is what she would want to happen if it were her child. Since Anne was very emotional and since she would probably want some company, I went with her.

We first went to the Holladay library and then went to a Walmart that Melanie may have gone too. She was in neither of those places so we went to the Salt Lake City Library (all places Melanie frequents). We didn't find her in any of those places and got a parking ticket because we were a couple of minutes past the expiration of the meter at the Salt Lake City Library. We were finally called and told that Melanie had arrived home. We went back. It was good to be with Anne because we were able to talk about a few things and enjoy each others company.

Melanie seemed to take the death of her son in stride. She was upset, but she kept it all together. Not bad for a bi-polar person. She did complain that she had lost half of her family of six (Crystal her daughter of SIDS, Steve her husband, and now Ben). She still has the other two kids who have gotten married and have three kids between them.

A little later in the day, Kent and Gladys came on over. Kent is the grandfather and Gladys is a step-grandmother. They had a picture of Ben to hand to Melanie and it was a picture that she thoroughly enjoyed having. An offer was made to give Melanie a blessing. I anointed and Kent gave the blessing. Then Margaret (my mother-in-law) decided that she wanted a blessing. Kent anointed and I was to give the blessing. As I went to give the blessing, I panicked because my mind had gone completely blank. I had nothing to say. Then the words came pouring into my mind and I was able to give the blessing. I know that the blessing was not my own. It was what our Heavenly Father wanted to be stated for Margaret and her family. I don't even remember what it was that I said, but my wife tells me that she was wondering about the spirit because the words flowed so easily and flawlessly. She wondered if there was another power there. I can testify that there was indeed.

Anyway, we just stayed there for the rest of the evening. We did have to let my sons band leader know that he would not be able to make it to the game for the pep band that night and our daughter had some homework to finish. We also had to sit down and have a talk with her about a couple of things that are concerning us about her. We got through all of that OK.

Friday, I had a couple of errands to run and then we went over to the Wachs house. We had our son and daughter come over a bit later (after school) and we just hung with them as they did things like picking out the coffin and getting the plot. I was just glad that I didn't have to do any of that stuff. It seems that a funeral costs around $10,000 if you are trying to keep it on the cheap.

Our kids went home with Pam and Anne and my wife and I just went to our home alone. We met with Pam and Anne on Saturday at their home in Bountiful. We had some spaghetti dinner and I worked on their computer to see if I could fix it to the point that it wouldn't turn off on its own. I messed with a couple of settings and for now it was staying on. I did mess up the Internet though. In the long run I had to talk to Qwest in order to get passwords and such from them so we could bring it up. I also reset their wireless password to one that Anne could remember so now it is all working. The kids were helping to put together some collages of Ben to be put around during this funeral stuff. It kept them busy. We once again left our kids overnight with Pam and Anne.

Sunday, my wife and I were feeling half dead. We went ahead and went to church so my wife could teach and I could be with the Deacons. Our lesson was on the Priesthood. I was able to share my story with my mother-in-law in a meaningful way in that meeting. I then went and helped my wife in her class with Allie. We only went to Sacrament meeting long enough to partake of the Sacrament and then there was a mass exodus to leave (of which we were two). We headed to the Wach house almost immediately where we met up with our kids. There was some anger today from Melanie and Margaret about this death. I was there for a part of it and then Anne and I went to my parents house so we could get a picture touched up to put on the program for the funeral. That took us quite a bit of time (Anne was doing all the work) and we got it all done to where it was looking great. It took too long and we lost the picture a couple of times. I was glad that was over.

Well, that's about it for the weekend. I guess I did argue some politics with my father-in-law (he dragged me into it) as well as he was going on about the Mormon church and blacks as second class citizens. I won't discuss that right now though.

I have to go to work tomorrow and then I will take Tuesday off for the funeral. I also have to do the dedication on the grave.

Ryan Farewell

There hasn't been too much that has happened this weekend. We just did the regular things around the home and I went to work. There wasn't any snow to speak of. I will mention that the snowplows have not been servicing my neighborhood properly. When you drive your car down my street you are in danger of taking out your oil pan. The roads are that rough. They have been packed with snow in some areas and melted away in other areas. It is like riding on a mountain road that has not had much maintenance. A lot of the neighbors have been complaining but it is to no avail. I don't know what is going on there.

Anyway, Saturday morning we had the kids do their regular chores and then our daughter went to her friends house. She called a bit later asking if she could go sledding. I gave my permission. We didn't want our son to just hang around the house (which he was doing) so we told him he could take the analog converter box for Grandmas TV and go install it for them. We are told that those of us that are getting analog signals for our TV's won't have that available after February 17th. They may be changing that date because the government has run out of coupons that make the $50 boxes about $10. It will be interesting to see if they change that. Our son was only too happy to comply. Meanwhile, at home, we were doing laundry and various other things. In the evening we were wondering if we should have our son come home at night (we really didn't want him to do too much night driving) or just have him stay at his grandmas house and come home in the morning. Of course, he elected to do that. Our daughter was put out that he got to stay at Grandmas house.

Sunday came around. My son made it home in plenty of time, and we got ready for church. Of course it was a bit later since it was Ryan's farewell. We just had to be to their Bountiful ward by 1:00. We played around with the dog and enjoyed being together and then headed out. We were a bit early to the ward and just went into the chapel and sat down. Most of our family was early, so we were able to visit for a bit.

After a couple of youth speakers, Ryan got up to give his talk. He did a much better job than I thought he would do. He was enjoyable to listen too and we could actually hear because we didn't have about a million kids screaming for their mothers attention like we do in our home ward. That made it even nicer. The last speaker there was Ryan's priest quorum advisor. He told us a bit about Ryan and said that they had put into their quorum for Ryan to give the weather report at the beginning of every Sunday lesson. This was a good way to involve Ryan since he is extremely interested in meteorology. I just thought it was of interest that they would do something like that. It just shows that we need to try to involve everybody in any way possible.

Afterward, we went to Ryan's house and had some lunch and visited with some of the other family members. We had an enjoyable time of it.

We arrived home, and then relaxed around the house for the rest of the evening. Glen came over to get the blue card that we had received from the Boy Scouts for our sons Eagle stuff. He was going to go and get what was needed for the three Eagle Scouts in our ward. We discussed mentor pins a little bit and need to find out if we can find Mrs Evans who was our sons 6th grade teacher. There are also a couple of more people in our ward that we think are deserving of these pins, but we will have to work with our son on that.

Well, that's about it.

Stake Young Men/Young Women

This will just be a quick one.

Tonight, I went with my kids to the Stake Young Men/Young Women activity. It was watching parts of the program we watched being made a couple of months ago. It was called "A Brand New Year". You can get the whole program here (http://abrandnewyear.lds.org/index.html).

First of all, my son didn't want to go to this. He didn't know why he would want to watch it a second time. I didn't have an answer for him because I was feeling much the same way he was on this. I was able to get both of my kids there though and I showed up to support the Young Men that I work with.

We arrived right at 7:00. When I went into the gymnasium of our church building, I heard somebody asking a member of our ward to get some Young Men to set up more chairs. There were no chairs under the stage. I had to suggest that we get them out of the primary room. I was told they wouldn't be in there (except the small children's chairs). I went there anyway, and we found all the chairs that we would need. They were rapidly set up.

I found Glen and I sat by him through this program. They had water bottles, licorice and pop corn for those attending. The audio system wasn't working very well and we could barely hear those conducting this meeting. Then, they put on the parts of the DVD that they had. The problem was, a whole bunch of people were talking and you could barely hear anything coming from it. At least they calmed down near the end when Elder Holland was speaking. It ended on a good note. Overall, I wasn't impressed with what we heard tonight because everybody was in too rowdy of a mood. It wasn't a problem with the DVD, but rather there were too many teens who would rather talk and socialize than watching this. The stake did the right thing bringing people together to watch it, but maybe should've tried to calm people down a bit.

Anyway, that was about it for this.

New Year

Well, obviously writing on my blog wasn't one of my New Years resolutions. I don't even know if there is a lot to write about right now. Our church time has changed to be 11:00 now instead of 9:00. If it was just me, 9:00 is the perfect time because it gets the church thing over with earlier in the day (I know what a bad attitude). For my family though, 11:00 is the perfect time for church. It's not so early that you have a hard time getting there, and it's not so late that you have a hard time getting there (the 1:00 time is the worst).

So, let's see, New Years Eve I left work a little bit early and went home. This confused my daughter because she thought my wife had said I would be over right after work to pick her up and bring her on home, but we had decided that we were going over there and that she should eat dinner before coming home to get ready for a dance that evening. This caused a little bit of tension in the family. My wife and I headed over there at around 4:00. Of course our daughters plans changed even as we were driving to where she was.

There wasn't much going on over there, but we were with family. We had taken a couple of games over, but they really only played one of them (Jenga). Then, around 8:00 Pam and Travis drove our daughter home. My wife and I were watching a movie that I hadn't seen (at least I don't remember seeing it). They came back and they had brought Mamma Mia (the movie) over with them. That is my wife's favorite movie for now. She has watched it a bunch of times over this last week. I'm going to lose count soon (as it will be over the amount of fingers I have, and my toes are covered because of the cold weather). Anyway, we all watched that, and then rather than stay for the midnight activities, we left. Our son still stayed at Grandmas house, and we headed home. We would be home by midnight and finish up our evening at home. My wife was tired but would not go to bed until our daughter got home from the dance she was at. That was around 12:30. It really wasn't an exciting evening for us, just a late one.

We have had a bit more snow during this week. This shoveling is getting rather old, and I was appreciative today that my son had gone out and started shoveling before I got home. When I got home today, my daughter was on her way out the door for shoveling the snow as well. She came in after a short time vowing that she is never going to help him shovel snow again, as she is shaking a shovelful of snow off herself.

I had both New Years day and Friday off of work, and we just mostly stayed around home. There wasn't too much to be done and it was nice to just be home. I did go pick up our son on Friday and his grandparents hated to see him go. He was a good help to them. We also got more of the Christmas decorations down.

Saturday was the normal chores around the house, but later we went to see a movie at the Megaplex at the District. We watched "Bedtime Stories". It was a cutesy type of film, but I don't think our son liked it all that much. At least we were there as a family.

Our daughter has been spending some time with Kiera (one of her friends from school) and I guess they are working on some school project together. We have done quite a bit of driving between the two homes as we bring her home for dinner and then back again. At least she isn't real far away.

I hated to go to work on Monday, but it is something that has to be done. I had checked on some of the jobs over the weekend while I was at home, so it wasn't overwhelming to come in to see what had happened, but there was a couple of jobs that didn't work on Monday morning. One of the servers has been giving us a hard time, and I had to work with a couple of people in order to get all of my jobs through. Really, there isn't much to report during the long time that I haven't written here.

And, no, I did not make any New Years resolutions.