I guess because they have to. Chris left our of town on a business trip today – not even 8 hours later, Tyler is asleep and I am pooped. He was especially fussy this evening – not sure of the culprit. I couldn’t do this every day without some help – the Moms who do are truly extraordinary to me.

I have much to do as Friday morning Chris and I leave for Sonoma, although I have not the energy to be productive. I had several profound thoughts today that I wanted to blog about. Of course now they all escape me.

Tyler is definitely saying “da-da” granted that word has no association to his father just yet. Chris and I went with Susan and Sammy to Fredericksburg and took the kids to Enchanted Rock. It was a fun weekend and this kids did great! On E-Rock, Tyler decided to let us know that he is “tree hugger”. We stopped near a tree to take a break in the shade. Tyler proceeded to hug the tree and call it “Ed”…was pretty funny.

The thing he does now that kills me is he will being to cry and babble saying “et da da” and so on. He is using the new words and trying to tell me what is wrong. The urgency in that voice just breaks my heart. I want so badly to understand him so I can make it all better.

Anyway, I suppose I should at least get the kitchen cleaned up. Thank God my parents are coming Wednesday evening. There is no way I would be ready for this trip otherwise.

Wow – I was surprised with the great service I received. My keyboard completely stopped working last week so I hooked up an external keyboard so I could still work. Of course, by the time I call support it was working. However, this gave me an opportunity to address the fact that I had rubbed off about 17 letters on my keyboard. They are sending out a technician to remedy that next week.

I think the lesson here is that if you buy a computer, get the complete care contract. Jackie and I got great deals of these laptops and they came with 3 year complete care contracts meaning that a tecnician would come on-site to fix any problems. As anyone would tell you, 3 years on a laptop is like a lifetime, so to have that coverage is useful. I suppose that is why the support experience was good – they could actually help me. That is the lesson – get a good support contract if you buy a Dell. Dell won’t pay for support, so if you want it, you will have to.

Now I don’t know how it would have been if the problem was software related not hardware. Of course whenever my software goes to hell, I just blow the system away. I think it actually takes less time to start from scratch then too spend hours, days, months trying to troubleshoot some of this crap.

Oh, and I was going to ask the support guy where he was located. He sounded like he was from India, but spoke really great English. I can tell you some crazy stories about Dell support in India… My favorite was a friend who chatted with a support rep about a computer problem….his response was to turn off the computer and then “flea powder”. My friend was at a loss – was she supposed to flee?!?! It was pretty funny.

I have no problem with the folks in India – they are hard working and doing their best. I have a problem with Dell trying to save money by outsourcing support and degrading their support because there is a communication barrier.. I also have a problem with “Americanizing” the support out of India forcing these folks to adopt American names for their job so they seem more American….. I am pretty sure they guys I spoke with is not really named “Jack”.

Update: Well, the guy misread my contract, so I will have to ship the laptop to them…. don’t know what I will do with work….urg.

Not wanting to appear to be too out of touch, I wanted to comment on what happened in London yesterday. I think it is so sad that many innocent people die because these “terror” groups think that bombings will bring revenge against perceived ills. Typically, with the US, I would imagine that there is some legitamacy to these groups’ anger. I am sure the US has plenty of direct or indirect blood on its hands. And I guess Britain does as well. Still, an eye for an eye just doesn’t work.

Each of these people had lives and loved ones and their deaths are sensless. It kills me to even think of my baby being taken away from me or me being taken away from Tyler. I can just imagine him crying because he wants his mommy and I wouldn’t be there. I wonder how many kids leading blissful little lives had to wake up this morning and face the reality thet their mommy or daddy is gone and never coming back. It just kills me to think about it…

I wish we had a president in office who was more focused on bringing dicplomacy and peace to this world. I wish he worked to build a united community and had the attitude that the world is only as strong as its weakest country. There will always be factions that are wanting to harm and destroy, but I think this goverment has done things to fuel their fire.

Anyway, the death and injury toll is still rising. What is amazing to me is that they reopened the subway today. Was surprised they were able to do that. It is just so sad….

Beki and Craig, some friends from our college days, invited us out to Craig’s parents farm in Fredericksburg for the 4th. We went up there Sunday and Monday. All I can say is WOW. What an amazing place – it was so relaxing. Took me back to all the weekends we spent at my grandparents when I was a kid. You sat on the deck relaxing, swam in the pool and snacked and lounged the day away. At night you enjoyed the countless starts that dotted the night sky. It was so great and Tyler was in a great mood the entire time we were up there.

Thanks so much to Beki and Craig for sharing their family weekend with us. We enjoyed spending time with thier family and getting to see how their son Erik, almost 4, has grown into a little boy.

Well, I have been away for a while. I haven’t been blogging at mornings at work and have been to tired in the evenings. It is 9pm, Tyler is in bed and the dishes are done, so I am going to do a little catch up blogging….

I have some seperate thoughts to share, so I will do some separate posts…. Peruse at your leisure….