Becky:
09/22/2008 @ 17:04 ET – for 31 minutes
09/25/2008 @ 17:36 ET – for 33 minutes (disconnected)
09/25/2008 @ 19:38 ET – for 26 minutes (on hold; did nothing)
09/30/2008 @ 16:56 ET – for 3 minutes (disconnected)

She gave up at this point.  A good friend recommended that I try the Verizon Direct forum over at DSL reports.com.  Verizon actually pays employees to answer questions on this forum.  With great hope, I registered an account and posted my question on 09/30/2008.  A very kind employee with the registered nick of VZ_MichelK responded stating that she couldn’t really help me directly.  She did, however, provide guidance on what I needed to tell the CSR.

Here is the catalog of my phone calls:

10/02/2008 – 13:03 ET Spoke with a Ms. Mitchell. She told me that she had taken care of everything and that my wife should receive an email regarding the new install date.  I never received the email

10/03/2008 – ~15:07 ET – 15:54 ET Spoke with Ms. Tillman. She said she made a note on the account and forwarded a request to the “referral group.” She said that a network technician will be going out to set it up. I think she meant that the technician will be making sure that everything is in place to proceed with the provisioning process. I provided her with my mobile number for callback, but never received a phone  call or an email

10/13/2008 – 09:27 ET – 10:30 ET Waited for 1 hour and 3 minutes on hold.  Apparently Verizon’s CSR group is closed for Columbus day, but they don’t change their greeting(s) or log out of the IVR?

10/20/2008 – 09:37 ET  – 09:58 ET Spoke with {forgot to ask for name}. I immediately explained the situation and requested to speak with a supervisor in a polite dialogue. I was told that it would take a minute to secure the ear of a supervisor and was put on hold.  Loretta is the supervisor I was transferred to. She is trying to get in contact with someone in the “Dry Loop” group.  Loretta told me that she was going to do some digging and get back with me sometime between 16:00-16:30 ET on 10/21/2008. She seemed to understand the situation and stated that she would thoroughly document it for me (in the Verizon CRM?).

I have yet to hear back from Loretta, Ms. Tillman or Ms. Mitchell.  I also have yet to receive an email from Verizon.

For what it’s worth, the people I have spoken with on the phone and the kind VZW employees (VZ_MichelK, VZ_DebbieH, and VZ_KlaudiaK) on the forums have been extremely polite and empathetic.  I just wish at least one of them was empowered by Verizon to help me.

I was starting to lose faith in Digg…

Please go download Firefox 3 today.

I still haven’t uploaded pictures from the trip to Mass. Becky uploaded some though.

On our way back through Boston, Becky took me by MIT. I was supposed to have dinner with a friend and his wife, but he told me they’d rather dig holes in their backyard. :-\ sorry spot, I had to

The phone has an unlimited data plan, so my colleagues and I felt compelled to try to find ways to utilize this service. A coworker found MidpSSH, an SSH/telnet client for various java-enabled mobile devices.

I’d like to pause for a moment and thank Karl von Randow for writing MidpSSH.

I managed to get MidpSSH installed, but I really wasn’t looking forward to the task of importing 61 Putty sessions from my work laptop. The same resourceful coworker pointed out this section of the documentation to me. I whipped up this script to massage a regedit.exe export of my Putty sessions into a format that MidpSSH could use. I didn’t realize that regedit exports were in unicode/UTF-16 until today. I know that I could have used Parse::Win32Registry, but I didn’t want anyone else that used the script to have to install a perl module to use it.

I entreat you to be kind. I’m a network/systems admin, not a programmer.

Enjoy!

Friday, I went to lunch with Keith, Yossi, and Roi (sp?). Dan was supposed to come, but he drummed up excuses ranging from jury duty to family emergencies to get out of it. We savored the wonders of Noodles & Co without him. P.S. If someone from Noodles & Co reads this, please open a franchise in Chattanooga, TN!

I hung out with Jesse and Angie on Saturday (pardon the picture quality, Becky has the good camera):

Current Album: 05/03/2008 - Chicago with Jessie and Angie
Images:

Note that Angie is pregnant with a girl and due in July!

And I went to Chris Walter’s wedding on Sunday (check out the garden where the reception was held!):

Current Album: Ceremony
Images:

I drive a 2006 Golf GLS TDI. It’s a PD TDI, for those of you that care.

Here are some pretty charts:

As fun as it was to be in DC visiting Becky, I never sleep well anywhere but my own bed at home. It’s really good to be back.

Here’s the synopsis:

- Drove to DC on 04/17-18

- Had Passover Seder with Becky’s extended family in Silver Springs, MD on 04/20

Current Album: 04/20/2008 - Passover Seder
Images:

- Worked in the Juniper POC lab in Herndon all week (04/21-25)

- Went to Becky’s 10 year HS reunion @ BMA with her

- Drove back from Hamburg, PA -> Chattanooga yesterday afternoon

I’m ready to sleep for about a week now. I barely had enough energy to go to the gym this morning.