36 Months

So my little one is now 3 years old.  On the way to the big "trey" this year, she's had 3 separate birthday parties and had 4 separate birthday cakes.  We are simply unable to not celebrate Ally's birthday on her actual birthday (even if we know we are going to have a "real" party during the next weekend).  So we get a little cake and then we always end up getting company (both Wifey's family as well as my own end up coming over) so the "little" get together becomes a full blown "party". 

Ally already tells us she wants to "save her birthday for later" on certain days.  What a fun concept that is...I don't want my birthday in the middle of winter so I'm going to "save" it for a nice early spring day.  I'm seriously thinking of suspending celebrating my birthday until it's nice out, maybe a little barbecue birthday action?  The heck with the "make sure the walkway is shoveled so people don't kill themselves trying to get in" crap.

In case your wondering the Dora bike and the Rose Petal Cottage were the two biggest hits.  We'll be assembling the cottage tomorrow, I'm sure that experience will be an entire blog's worth of stuff right there.

Oh, if there's any Red Sox fans out there, please sign the "Keep Mike Lowell" petition to show your support for the best 3rd basemen in Sox history!

"Luke I AM your father...."

Much like the famous scene in "The Empire Strikes Back" HP throws me for a loop, turning everything I know upside down and inside out.  I finally get in touch with "Sal" a Senior Case Manager at HP and he refunds my $99 piece of crap phone support warranty I was tricked into purchasing.  He apologizes for the confusion and then listens to my story (I've already purchased my shiny new Macbook at this point).  Sal tells me that he has the authority to extend my warranty and help me with my problem.

What?  Huh?  Wait a minute I heard this one before...let me guess I pay $99 and all my problems are solved right?  Well here we go again...Sal tells me after a quick review of my case he can extend my warranty, for parts and labor for a year for $139.99.  I tell him I need to think about it as I'm not really trusting anything anyone from HP says at this point.  Wifey and I discuss the issue and determine that we should go for it and fix the old laptop so we can either both have our own, or we can try to sell it.  I call Sal back and end up leaving a message 2 days in a row.  I'm convinced I'll never hear from Sal again, in fact I'm assuming he's been placed in HP's tech support relocation program where they put certain representatives in hiding after they promise deals like the one that was lobbed my way just 72 hours ago.  

Much to my surprise I get a call back 2 days ago and it's my new buddy Sal.  I tell Sal that I'm ready to go ahead and give him my credit card and get fleeced for the $139.99 so I can extend my warranty for another year.  This is the part that catches me off guard...Sal says he's reviewed my ordeal and that he's going to approve my 1 year extended warranty with NO CHARGE TO ME.  Wait...what?  Sal tells me that I've been put through enough and that I can keep the $139 and spend it on whatever I choose.  

So supposedly there's a Fed Ex box being shipped to me with a prepaid sticker on it and I'm supposed to send my laptop in for repairs.  I'm very skeptical that this will work, but I now have a glimmer of hope that HP may not suck as bad as I first thought.  I'll continue to let everyone know of the progress, as HP's reputation (as far as I'm concerned) is hinging very much so on the success of this transaction.

So just like Darth Vader in the Star Wars series, HP began this story as the epitome of evil and midway through the story they take a turn showing a lighter side.  Hopefully things will work out, but until then I retain the right to continue to badmouth and hate HP.