Family Day!

Well, yesterday turned into Family Day indeed!

I was at squash with Maya, but completely unreachable, which I'll explain. Jenny phoned Mom, talking about how they were in town, and we reached the conclusion that getting everyone together would be nice. Since we're better equipped to handle the four kids here, everyone wound up coming over. Bob cooked most of the food (we made rice - kinda tough), and Mom and Dad brought over their Buffalo purchases, including the new pair of black jeans I'd requested, and we're all good to go.

So I had interviews on Thursday night, and since the last one ended at 9, I drove Kris home (my student teacher) then was driving home myself, listening to music streaming from my iPhone. Out of nowhere it just stopped playing, kind of unusual. I glanced at it, and saw the dreaded connect me to iTunes screen.

Nothing I could do about it on arrival home, as I helped put the kids to bed, but once they were all asleep, I came downstairs and attempted to restore it. No joy. Called Rogers, and together with a nice tech guy, attempted to restore it. Again, no joy. Tried off both the new laptop, and in a bit of desperation, even set up the old laptop and tried. You guessed it, no joy. So the tech guy suggested I go to the Apple Store, so Friday afternoon I walk into Fairview Mall for the first time in years and years, find the Apple Store, and have my "Genius Bar" appt. Some genius. He spent five minutes trying, then told me he could sell me a new one for $240. Wow, a 3 year old model for $240. Nice racket if you can get it, eh? So my warranty is up, and my upgrade eligibility doesn't come until July.

So I leave the Apple Store and head to the Rogers store, where I'm promptly told there's nothing they can do. Getting kind of tired about hearing that there's nothing they can do, I come home and call Rogers, where I'm told that they'll give me a free phone. Great - a smartphone, of course, right? Um, no. What about the data plan I'm paying for? Well, I'm under contract for that, so I'll have to keep paying that. Even if I can't use it. I can get an iPhone 3GS. Great - how much? $330. For more, albeit not quite as much, outdated technology.

At this point I get kind of upset. After expressing my unhappiness in a somewhat polite way, and apologizing for getting upset because I acknowledge that the poor girl answering the phone is in no way at fault for the stupid rules, I get passed along to the next step in the process.

In five minutes, everything is resolved. They're shipping me an iPhone 4 for $160. It may take a couple of weeks to show up, but there's Arturo's old blackberry floating around that I can use in the meantime. Not ideal, but it'll do.

Now I'm just waiting for my cards. I ordered my cardset on August 6th, and it's supposed to be first in, first out on shipping the orders. Clearly it's not, as I still don't have them. The people who live near the mailbox must be questioning my sanity at this point, as every day when I get the mail I leave cursing.

We're making some progress on the Chloe sleep thing. Turns out she likes being tucked in. So last night I tucked her in, she tossed and turned for a bit, then fall asleep. At an almost decent hour, too, a lovely little change.

Maya's skating is coming along too - we're gonna go this morning, if it's not too cold. She is almost past needing the V shaped thing to hold her up, I guess it's a skate trainer? She's got her skating trip this week, so I guess we'll see how she does. It's been impressive to watch her sheer determination. She told me she was really embarrased last year, and it's clear to see - that isn't gonna happen again, even if she has to fall 300 times. I've literally almost had to drag her off the ice each time we've gone.

Ah well, off to deal with another recent family obsession. I'm making WAFFLES!