Is it spring yet?

It snowed on my birthday:


The calendar says April, but New England shows no signs of warmth. Today there is a nor'easter sweeping up from the gulf of Mexico, which caused tornadoes and suchlike destruction down in Texas. It's interesting to look out and see this same system that caused a lot of damage, many miles away. I'd much rather be here, though.

We're settling. Colleen's flight to DC was cancelled Thurs night, so she had to re-book for a 6inthegawdawful A.M. flight the next morning. Fortunately, a taxi ride beat out the husband for driving. Our house is astonishingly close to the airport, once you've figured out where to get on the expressway (not freeway. That's a San Diego term that I have not shed.)

After picking C back up from the airport, we moseyed out to Brighton to shop for a tv. We went to Best Buy, me armed with the Costco ad showing the tv at a sale price and high hopes for a price match. They went for it, and we got incredibly good service from the AV dept, trumping the last, crappy experience I had with their Geek Squad. Never, ever use the Geek Squad. If ever I meet a more hapless failed IT person, it will be in another lifetime.

So...the specs. It's a Sharp 42", 1080p. Hay mucho resolucion. I initially bought a panasonic DVD player that advertised upconverting to 1080p, but never got above 480p. I think something was flawed in its automatic resolution detection. Plus it seemed to struggle to put the picture onscreen. I took it back (great service again) and got a Denon for about $75 more. Much better.

Comcast is coming out today to upgrade the cable. What a sad corporate state they live in. They wanted to charge me $20 to come out and "install" my DVR box. I told them that I can install it myself, I just want someone to come and remove the limiter on my line. And I feel that because Comcast stuck it on the line in the first place, I shouldn't have to be charged because someone has to physically remove it. Stupid way to do it, IMHO. They shouldn't be able to charge me $20 whenever they feel like it. BUT the creme is that all of their service people have to propound the corporate lie, and pretend that I actually need them to install the box, etc. From the 2 (two) phone sales people to the counter woman who helped me, I had to let them all know that I would not be paying for a service upgrade and clarify my position. They gave me a free HDMI cable, so that was worthwhile. I'll be watching the Sopranos tonight.

-j