Well, as of today, we now have DirecTV set-up for our television, and AT&T set-up for our telephone & internet (via DSL). Before the weekend we had Charter Communications, the local cable company, set-up for all of these. This means we have a new-new phone number to pass along to all of you...

Our new phone # is: (678) 482-8425

Why the change? Let's just say we had a less-than-stellar installation experience with Charter. Let me count the ways...

• It took an afternoon's work before we moved to find out all of the information I needed about Charter's package offerings via their website. The distinction between all their packages wasn't very clear, nor were their channel listings. Add to that the fact that they offer some form of resell opportunity for businesses (which you can see by searching for "charter cable" on Google), and it all adds up to a lot of effort to find what I was looking for.
• I decided to go the online sign-up route, both because of the special rates/deals they offered when you ordered online & because I'm just an online sort of guy. Took about 10 minutes to choose all the options & fill in all the blanks. When I was done it informed me to call a certain # to set-up an installation date/time. What transpired after that was being on hold for a good 30-45 minutes and having to go back through every sign-up step & had previously done online.
• Charter sub-contracts their installations to an installation service here. Our installer acted like he didn't want to be there and would hardly make eye contact with us.
• He drilled into & mounted the cable modem on the wainscoting in the room without asking us first (which I had to unmount & repair).
• He failed to install cable outlets in every room we asked him to & which he said he would do.
• Our telephone (via Charter) was inconsistent & hardly worked. Our existing wireless phones mysteriously wouldn't work which forced us to buy new ones (we chalked it up to moving loss, but after AT&T hooked us up we realized our phones were just fine).
• When I called the service # the installer gave me he tried to wiggle out of responsibility for our problems.

I called Charter after only 3 days and canceled - all for reasons that, besides the bad phone install, really didn't have anything to do with their service. Just proves the importance of putting your best foot forward.

A sidenote: AT&T had our new line hooked up within hours of my call; the DirecTV guy came out Saturday and got us hooked up - giving us more than we thought we were getting (he was able to install in more locations than they told me on the phone) and did a knock-out job on the professional installation. I have no reason to doubt that the DSL will work flawlessly as well (had DSL for three years & never had an issue).

I just finished getting our internet & computer hooked up, so I thought I'd jump on here really quick & post a quick update to let you all know we are alive & well! We survived the moving week (not going there again anytime soon), four nights in a hotel, a "once in a decade" Atlanta snow storm (all of about 3 inches), and tired feet. :-)

We got to crawl into our own bed last night & had probably the best night's sleep we've had in a week!

I'll post more here when I get to a pausing point in the next few days.

I found this Dilbert strip on my laptop as I was cleaning it off today. Figured what better place to put it than on our blog :-)

(click for a larger version)

We are in the midst of a busy week, attempting to get everything packed up before Sunday. Our closing dates all got shifted around at the last minute and we are now moving next week instead of the end of the month as we originally thought. Good for our family, but it makes things a bit crazier around the house :-).

This time next week we will be on our way to Atlanta - arriving late Tuesday night. It will take a few days before we are fully able to close on our GA home & move in, during which time we will be staying in a hotel. We've got a lot on the list of things that need to be done in those few days in-between, so it should go by quick.

We've been trying to space out the packing - spending around 4 hours or so a day. It's made the process seem less daunting and we should be done in time for the movers to arrive next Monday.

We'd covet your prayers - especially in the coming weeks, as we move to Atlanta, get settled into our new home/neighborhood, get accustomed to a new job, and attempt to get acclimated as quickly as we can to the surrounding community & our new life in Georgia.

I turn in my Mac to the church on Sunday, and we pack the Dell downstairs probably on Monday. We'll still be able to keep up (a little) with our email via my iPhone, but we won't be able to do much else until we get settled into our home & I get the WiFi back up. I'll post our new contact information before we pack everything up, though.

I'm about to head off for my last day at LifeWay. It feels kind of weird, to tell you the truth. When God moved us out here a few years ago we really thought we were here for the long haul. We even talked about how strange (and sad, in a way) it would be that our kids would consider themselves Tennesseans and would always look back & think of Nashville as their hometown.

Now I guess it is Georgians and Atlanta. I really hope so. Our kids are right on the cusp of being at the age when a move would be very difficult. If Josiah was a couple of years older & in middle school, I don't know if we'd be making this move. For now, they are adjusting very well & in many ways are looking forward to the move. The caveat is the same Andrea & I have - leaving home, friends, & familiarity.

After about 3pm today I will be unemployed for about a week. Our closing dates are floating around and it now looks like we may very well be moved into our new home in Atlanta a couple of weeks earlier than originally planned. That's good (less hotel stay time), but also crazy as we attempt to get our home packed up & all the moving details finalized (utilities scheduled to start, etc.).

Same disclaimer as before - updates here won't come very often, if at all, in the next several weeks. Once we have contact details together I'll post them here for everyone to change their address book. For now it's off to work here for the last time and packing straight ahead!

I've been playing around with a new web 2.0 service for the last several months. It's called Grand Central and it is owned by Google. Think of it as telephone on steroids! They tout themselves as "The New Way to Use Your Phones" and have more features than I have time to post here. Check out their website for details, and if you're interested in signing up for your own number just leave me a comment & let me know as I have some invites left to hand out.

While my friend, Alec, was here a few weeks ago we stayed up playing around with the service, one, of which, was trying out their "Record this Call" feature. Made me smile again :-)