i'm tired, after having not slept very well in belmont, and then waking up at 8:00 in the morning for the verizon technician who didn't arrive until noontime. danny (the verizon guy) told me it'd take 4 hours to do the installation but i didn't believe him. he had another technician from newburyport (keith) shadowing him for the day. i was completely mortified because hailey was barking the whole time as i kept trying to calm her down and there was the whole issue of the mess down in the basement, where basically clothes strewn all over the floor like it's the garment district. most of that clutter was courtesy of my sister, who could care less about being tidy, and decided to spend the day hanging out with a friend while i was on my hands and knees vacuuming the dog hair off of the floor for fear of the repair guys seeing how dirty we really are.

for those who don't know, verizon FIOS is fiber optic communication, faster than traditional coaxial cable. having just started in belmont, verizon was offering some cheap promotional packages. finally, some competition for the comcast monopoly! i saw the technician thread a thin filament of translucent fiber optic line into a converter box that splits the signal into the more traditional coaxial lines wired within the house. in fact, it really did take those guys 4 hours to do the installation. once everything was hooked up, wireless internet access was the first thing to go live. next they ran a script on the PC desktop that remotely activated the two set top boxes (STB's). i ended up calling for an additional upgrade, going from an HDTV STB to an HDTV STB with DVR, for an additional $10/month. i myself have never personally used a DVR before, but with 200+ channels to choose from, a DVR is a necessity in order to record all the shows worth watching.

the best part of the day (besides surfing through a million channels and on demand programs and shows) was calling comcast and telling them to cancel my parents' account. i wish i had the foresight to record that conversation. suddenly they were super nice to me and tried repeatedly to get me to change my mind, even though it was already too late. i told them i called their retention department a few weeks ago and got really poor service. the man on the phone apologized, and told me verizon might offer some sort of 30 day trial, and if i'm not satisfied, i can cancel and come back to comcast, with all the perks of a new customer. too little too late, comcast! fiber optics is the future, we're never going back to wires!

i just wish that cambridge could get verizon FIOS as well, i'd switch over in a heartbeat.

i had some dinner in belmont (chinese dumplings). after hailey finished her own food, she was whining to go outside. my mother watched as hailey disappeared to a far corner of the backyard, where she'd stashed a rawhide bone i'd given her earlier during the day (i had a suspicious she hid it, but i couldn't find it anywhere in the backyard, so i just assumed she ate it). i rode back home just as soon as it started to drizzle. i put the cover over my bike when i got back, the first time that thing is seeming some action. back at home, television seems so drab with my measly 70 channels (actually even less, because i never watch any of those religious channels nor the golf channel).