mclo.net

Le Morte de Timmy

The Mc-Lo household has suffered a painful loss in the passing of Timmy the cat. For over a year, Timmy's health had slowly declined due to kidney disease and cancer. In recent weeks, he had obviously reached a level of great suffering that could not be ignored. A very brave Jim took Timmy to his last vet appointment late today.

Timmy was a uniquely wonderful being. He was born and spent his formative months on a pig farm, where he was discovered by his future human companions covered up to his shoulders in pig poop. What he lacked in personal hygiene he made up for with his love for all humanity. He survived the Loma Prieta earthquake, being chased up a redwood tree and falling down a riverside cliff, and five interstate moves. He amassed legions of friends and fans, converting many to the "orange cat brigade."

Until Jim's arrival on the scene, Timmy ended every evening by crawling under the bedcovers and sleeping next to Amy with his head on the pillow. He loved to greet people at the door and sniff their shoes. He spent countless hours purring in laps and giving kisses. Many cats would have taken an instant dislike to a tiny, screeching human invading their home. Not Tim; he waited patiently at Ray's side until Ray got old enough to notice him and give him the affection he desired from all of his humans. He was unfailingly patient with Ray, from Ray's first attempts at "petting" (pulling hair), to his recent efforts to "carry" Tim.

Timmy's absence leaves a very large, orange void in our lives.

You can pay your respects in the Gallery.

Where's Ray?

Looking for photos and videos of Ray? Check out his new site at http://ray.mclo.net

Front Row Tom Waits Ticket!!

Jim scored a front row (balcony) ticket to Tom Waits' upcoming show in Vancouver, BC. For those of you who don't know: (1) Jim is obsessed with Tom Waits, and (2) Tom rarely tours. This is a major, major deal.

We'll spend a couple nights in BC and see how Raymond does with traveling.

More Site Updates

So, you've probably noticed that the web site looks different yet again. Instead of doing something useful at night, like finally getting around to finishing A la recherche du temps perdu or cleaning the kitchen or something, I've been futzing with the web site.

I hope you like it and that you find it nicely showcases Raymond as his first birthday approaches.

There's a bit near the bottom of the page that describes all the various code snippets and plug-ins and what-not I emplyed on this new new site. Also, you can hover your mouse over any little "?" icons you find for an explanation of the various new sections.

I've tried hard to make the code in the site conform to web standards, which means it looks really good in Mozilla Firefox and a little less good in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Please let me know if anything doesn't work or doesn't look right, especially if you have a Mac. And let me know what browser and which version of it you're using.

I Agree With Bush?

Well, not really! The Onion has this little piece of news that I can relate to.

White House Declares War on DSL Provider

New Web Site

Check out the new, shortened web address! That's right; we're no longer at "amy'slastname-jim'slastname.com". Concerns over privacy (for us, and for little Ray) prompted us to move to the easier-to-remember-yet-privacy-ensuring URL "mclo.net".

It'll take a while before all the content on the old site moves over. But head on over to http://www.mclo.net and check out some of the more recent entries for some news and stuff about what's been going on with us.

The site also sports a cool new photo gallery that allows for easier photo posting and an Enhanced Viewing Experience™ for all of you. Please note that baby photos are now password protected so take a note of the name and password you need to log in to the photo site [which was e-mailed to everyone on our Notification list].

User name: [removed]
Password: [removed]

I'm working on making the login process a bit easier, but for now, just look for the "Login" link near the top of the gallery page and click it.

Oh, and comments have been disabled. Just send us e-mail. Too many spammers were posting comments and it was a pain to remove them.

Sick Timmy

Many of you know our orange cat, Tim. We are sad to report that he is very ill.

He had always been a somewhat tubby cat and was never very flexible or nimble. That was part of his charm. Over the last couple years, however, his arthritis has gotten progressively worse and he's lost a good deal of weight.

During our move, he became extremely weak and we noted he was a great deal skinnier, so we finally took him to the vet. The vet diagnosed kidney disease and took X-rays that showed his hips were riddled with arthritis. She also detected a "mass" in his chest that may be lymphoma or a thymic tumor. At any rate, it's also putting pressure on his organs and it's possible that only surgery can treat it. However, he's so weakened from the kidney problems, that the vet doesn't recommend surgery at this point.

He's still as sweet as ever and is incredibly patient with Ray who alternates between wanting to pet him and wanting to put him is his mouth. We have to inject him with subcutaneous fluids twice a week now, so we hope some of the kidney problems will level out.

We'll keep you posted on his condition.

Delays, Delays....

We're still off-line, thanks to the royal suckiness of Qwest, our universally-loathed phone company. If you're a regular reader of this site, you may recall my diatribe about how royally screwed we got trying to set up phone service here in Seattle. Well, it seems that the simple task of changing our address has given Qwest more opportunities to display their incompetence.

]]> Once again, I called weeks in advance to notify them of our upcoming move and scheduled everything (phone and DSL) to take effect on June 4. Come June 4, we had dial tone. Yippee! It worked.

A few days later, I got a voice mail from "Gina" at Qwest. It's important to point out here that we have "one-number service," meaning that the cell phone rings first if it's on, then the call rolls over to the land line, then finally into voice mail. The day Gina called, the cell phone was on and in our possession the entire day, so she deliberately called the voice mail service directly rather than risk talking to someone. Anyway, the message said that our discount for cellular service was being cancelled because we were no longer eligible, and left a number to call for more information.

Upon calling (about the 14th time I've had to call them in 3 months), I learned that the DSL service was never transferred with the local service. Given that we were no longer "DSL customers," the package deal that earned us a discount on cell service was removed. The customer service guy was able to set the record straight, but now DSL can't be turned on until June 18th -- 2 weeks after I needed it!

It seems that Qwest is really prompt and proactive about removing discounts and special deals after they no longer apply, and not so good at actually providing the services the customer requests.

As a postscript to this whole saga: after our first go-round with Qwest, "Tony" -- a customer service manager -- did give us 3 months credit (a $250 value) for the trouble we've experienced. He also promised to monitor the address change to ensure it was handled properly. Well, thanks Tony. I mean, I appreciate the $250 and all, but let's fix the underlying problems, shall we?!

Finally! A House!!

Well, house-hunting wasn't as bad as some people are having it, but we had been getting pretty discouraged nonetheless. Finally, though, persistence paid off and we now have an accepted offer on a house! It's a cute 3-bedroom Cape Cod with 2 additional finished rooms in the basement, a nice baby-friendly back yard (i.e. no pits of molten lava or wild animal traps), a fireplace, and lots of garden space. We close on May 18th and plan to have a little work done on it before moving in, we hope, early June. Visit our gallery for photos.

April: The Cruellest Month (For House-buying)

So far, in house-hunting, we're 0-2. We were shocked when the little house in Ballard went for $20K over asking. Now, the little house in Bryant that we wanted went for $50-freakin'-K over! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?!? Did we miss the original Tiffany fixtures? Did we fail to notice that the appliances were sterling silver instead of chrome?! Did our geological survey not pick up on the oil fields in the basement?!?! We are getting mighty, mighty worried about having the buying-power to deal with this market right now....

Amy's off to see 4 places today. I guess as long as something has a roof and isn't crawling with rodents, we'll consider it....

Apologies....

I know we owe a number of you dear, dear friends an e-mail and/or phone call, and we're really sorry! We promise that we'll get in touch soon. In the meantime, here's a quick recap of our last few weeks.

As you can see from the other posting today, we were able to take in opening day at Safeco. My going-away gift from the Law School was a package of Mariners season tickets (2 tix for 16 games) that carried with it the option to buy opening day tix before they went on sale to the public. It was a little chancey taking Ray out for a multi-hour commitment without easy egress in case of a major meltdown, but we tried it and he was just fine! Next game is a week from Sunday, so we'll be heading back to Safeco!

Amy's been busily tracking down real estate in between wrestling the boy down for naps and keeping up-to-date on her parenting discussion boards. We put an offer down on a cute house in the Ballard neighborhood, but so did about 3 hundred other people and it ended up going for $20K more than asking (and not to us)! We're now very afraid that the market is soaring again and we're going to be stuck in our crappy little apartment.... Luckily, new houses go on the market all the time, so we just have to keep plugging away. Wish us luck.

My job is keeping me pretty busy. So far, I've been spending a lot of time just going around and meeting people -- 6 of my own staff, 10 department chairs, 10 departmental computer support folks, 8 program directors, and 5 or 6 administrators -- all of whom want a piece of my time! One of these days, I'll finally meet everyone and can finally start doing my job!! Seriously, it's all been incredibly interesting so far and the people are great. I love my staff -- they are some of the most competent and nicest people I've ever had a chance to work with. I'm excited about all the fun and interesting things I'll be getting to do in this job.

So, that's about it for now. I hope to get through my Inbox this weekend and maybe even pick up the phone a couple of times. We really, really want to get more settled here so we can relax and maybe even have some visitors one of these days! Until later....

Qwest on Fire

Qwest is the Seattle area's telcom juggernaut. When we were preparing to move out here, I looked into alternative local phone providers, but Qwest's package deal of phone, DSL, and wireless was the best deal. The salesperson was incredibly friendly and helpful, and picked out some options that would reduce my bill even further. When I got off the phone, I thought: "My, what a pleasant experience," and ticked "Deal with phone stuff" off my to-do list. What followed, was a descent into hell that is unparalleled in my experience with service companies....

]]> I called Qwest on February 12 in preparation for our March 1 move. I got everything set -- local phone, DSL, and cellular service. The DSL set up fee of $99 would be waived, and there was this cool feature called "one-number service" that causes calls to the land line to ring at the cell phone if you want them to. Cool.

I got a little peeved that they wouldn't ship my new cell phone to the apartment because I "didn't have a history with Qwest." I needed to pick a local UPS Store to which I wanted my phone shipped. The salesperson helpfully pointed out that it was my choice. Now, the reason I don't have a "history" with Qwest, is because I don't live here yet. How the hell am I supposed to know where the closest UPS store is to my new apartment? Nevertheless, like a good little netizen, I fired up my browser and found that there's a UPS Store about 4 blocks from the apartment. No problem.

On March 4th, when I finally arrived to the apartment (#306), there was no dial tone. "Oh well," I figured. "I'll deal with that after the movers come tomorrow." So, on March 5th I called the repair line and reported the problem. Qwest dispatched a repair person the next day -- a Saturday. "Wow, what great service!" I said to myself.

The repair guy called me on my cell phone when he arrived and I buzzed him into the building. After quite a long time, he called again and expressed confusion because I wasn't in apartment 203 and the woman who was there didn't have phone service with Qwest. Well, that's when it all became clear. They hooked up service in the wrong apartment. After sorting that out and finally getting a dial tone, I called customer service to fix the address problem.

While on the phone with them, I inquired about the DSL modem and instructions. I hadn't received them and they were probably sent to the wrong apartment, too. The customer service rep looked it up and said: "Hmmm. This is strange. It shows you ordered DSL but the order was never actually processed. Nothing has been shipped to you. We'll get that set up for the 12th." Great. The 12th. 12 days after I had requested it.

At this point, I figured I'd try out the new cell phone and the "one number service" the salesperson had gone on-and-on about. However, when I followed the instructions for activating it, I received a recording telling me that the service was not available for my number. So, another call to repair. Another phone jockey saying:

"Hmmm. This is strange." Type-type-type. "Hmmmm. Is your cell phone number [not my cell phone number]?"

"No," I respond. "It's [my actual cell phone number]."

"Well, it looks like no one ever associated that number with your account." Type, type, type. "There, that should fix it."

Sure enough, it did. At this point, I'm mildly irritated, but happy that service is so responsive.

Next week, on the 11th (a day early!), I get a package delivery notice sticker from UPS. They tried to deliver my DSL modem but couldn't reach anyone. This is strange as Amy had been home all day and recalls hearing no buzzer. The next day, same thing. "We tried to deliver your package..." Amy swears she was home all day and heard nothing. I look closer at the sticker. They tried to deliver it to APARTMENT 203! After calling both Qwest and UPS, I changed the address but now I had to wait until Monday to get on-line. My irritation level is rising! Luckily, they had Saturday pick-up hours. Now, UPS distribution centers are (a) never located anywhere convenient, and (b) are usually located in the worst parts of a city. Seattle is no exception. But, I got my modem and the DSL service actually worked when I plugged it in.

A few days later, I get my bill, which was sent to apartment 203. So, another call to customer service to find out that the billing address is different from the service address, and only the service address had been changed. Upon scanning the bill, however, I see that I was charged the $99 DSL set up fee; that my service was activated effective February 12th and not March 1st; and that I was charged $9.99 for picking up the DSL modem at the UPS DC! Needless to say, I raised holy hell and got the fee waived, the start-date adjusted, and the delivery fee taken off. The customer service rep, as always, was very friendly and, apparenly, empowered to make all these adjustments, which was rather surprising.

Overall, my experience with Qwest has demonstrated that they have put an awful lot of effort into training their phone jockeys but not into actually following through on providing services. During the course of this experience, I had to place at least 10 calls to customer service to correct their mistakes, I was without phone service for 5 days and, without DSL for 2 weeks. At this stage of human history, is it too much to ask that stuff just works as ordered? I don't think so.

Moving to Seattle

Jim just accepted a position as Director if IT for the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. Our plan is to get the house in Madison on the market by February 1 and move out to Seattle (likely into an apartment at first) the first week of March. More news as it happens; stay tuned!

Tired of Cute Babies?

For all of you who think that Ray looks like his daddy, here's a rare baby photo of Jim. This should put all that nonsense to rest ... and give you nightmares!

Blogged Down

Updates have been infrequently lately because I've been converting the site over to Movable Type blogging software. It's just about done and ready for prime time, so take a look. It might not look very different, but the new software will enable us to post stuff more quickly. Plus, now that we're a "blog" we join such esteemed company as Iranian vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi and soon-to-be Canadian prime minister Paul Martin. We expect them to come over and hang out with us now that we're all in the same club!

Movable Type can automatically send out notifications whenever a new entry is posted. In fact, if you're reading this in your e-mail, that means it's working! Also, you, the gentle readers, can post comments on each entry, finally making our site the two-way communication medium I always dreamed of!