The phone system went out again on Saturday, which means that once again, while we at least have DSL, we get no dial tone when picking up the phone, and people calling us only get a busy signal. It is completely bizarre because we can find no reason for this.

So today, after sitting through an entire morning of one conference call after the other, I finally gave in and called AT&T to report the problem. It took several minutes of slogging through voicemail hell but eventually I got to a real live support person, and I had only started to get the slightest bit annoyed with the endless voicemail menus and ‘select 1 for this, select 2 for that’ instead of ready to beat my head on the nearest hard surface. Even more amazing, not only did I get a real live person, I got a real live person who was actually *helpful*. Will wonders never cease.  She gave me a test for Richard to run, which he did, and which, naturally, did not fix the problem, but when I called back, this time around I kept on stabbing the 0 button until I got to a second real live person, who was also helpful. They can’t send anyone out today, but they had an opening tomorrow, so I made the appointment and since Richard’s been working from home anyway, due to the kitchen construction, he’ll already be there when the technician arrives.

Naturally, I fully expect that the phone system will magically fix itself mere seconds before the technician arrives, much like it did last time this happens (although last time we hadn’t gotten around to calling for service yet, so maybe it isn’t as ornery as I am making it out to be), but if Murphy’s Law does *not* come into play, maybe they’ll figure out what the problem is and fix it, and we won’t have to deal with this anymore. Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?

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This picture has nothing to do with our phone issues. It just cracks me up. Rosie barely fits on the piano, and it doesn’t look remotely comfortable how she’s leaning her head on the edge, but, well, that’s cats for you.

Sebastian, meanwhile, is just annoyed because someone woke him up with some stupid flashing thing going off in his eyes. It’s a hard life, in our house, being a cat.