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Friday, April 10, 2009

Picasa web albums issues

Apparently EyeFi is having issues uploading images to Picasa Web Albums this afternoon. I've got several more pictures on the camera with Ryan, Grandmas, and Grandpa holding the baby. Those are floating around in cyberspace right now, but as soon as the problems get resolved, they should show up as part of the slideshow in my previous post. Or, click the title of the previous post and it should take you to the web album to view the pics in an 'album' format instead of slideshow.

Announcing: William Everett Whitcher !!!!!

Update: Born at 7:18am on Friday, April 10th, 2009, William Everett Whitcher weighed in at 8lbs, 9oz. He was so excited to come out into the world, the nurses had to hold him in until the Dr arrived. Since then, he's been very quiet, only crying for two brief moments. He's talking a bit though now, while mom fawns over him. He's a beautiful baby boy!

Also, this slideshow should update automatically as I take more photos. You can also click the title of this post to get to the web album instead of the slideshow.



Original Text:

Hopefully, this post will include a slideshow. Right now, that slideshow only has a picture of the chart of William's heartbeat, but when he is born, I'll be sure and snap lots of pictures. If everything goes well, my EyeFi card will upload the pictures to the web within seconds, and they should show in this slideshow. Hope it works!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

The Whitcher Family is about to be 1 bigger!

We're expecting William to be born sometime tonight. The battery in the camera is dead (Darn it allison for not putting the battery on the charger after the baby shower!) but as soon as I can get another battery or the charger, I'll be ready to snap pictures of the new baby and put them online for all to see. Well, after he's born, of course.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Baby is happy, healthy, and head down.

We're at allison's Dr appt now, waiting for the Dr to come see us. (They always keep us waiting forever here! :( )

We've already had the ultrasound, and the tech says William is about 7lbs right now, and right on target. He is also head down, so hopefully he'll stay that way and make things easy.

I have decided we sould shoot for him being born this Sunday. That way even though it's not my CALENDAR birthday, we would still share a birthday of sorts. Or, a birth holiday, if you will.

I'm in Esc-a-row!

Well, we signed our paperwork for the house and mortgage note today, and are officially in debt for the next 30 years or so. Well, officially that is except for the fact that all the papers were dated for Thursday, due to the delay I mentioned in the previous post. Still, it's all done on our end, and we should have keys in hand by noon thursday.

Now, cleaning, painting, fixing, and moving, followed by the lifetime of repairs and headaches that go along with home ownership.

Sound's like fun, huh?!

(for those who don't get the title, it's a reference to an old gilmore girls episode that my wife has seen way too many times, in which luke's brother buys a house.)

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Home Ownership Delayed. . . Again.

We had an appointment scheduled to close on our house Tuesday morning, and it finally seemed like all of the barriers had come down, all of the glitches rolled out, and we were actually going to own a house by Tuesday afternoon. I knew it was too good to be true…

Today I got a call from Joyce at the attorney’s office where they are handling my closing.  It seems there was a miscommunication as to when HUD’s closing agents needed the final numbers in hand.  My people were planning to send the numbers to their people today, since they said they needed 3 days to get the papers processed.  Unfortunately, their people count 3 days differently than my people, and won’t make Tuesday’s closing since they didn’t have the numbers by close of business yesterday.  Because of this, the closing has been delayed until Thursday.  As a matter of convenience for Allison and I, we will still go to the attorney’s office Tuesday morning to handle our side of the closing, but won’t actually get to take possession of the house until Thursday.  At least that means we won’t have to re arrange our work schedules for next week around the new closing.

So, I wonder what could go wrong between now and Thursday to put it off yet again. . . ? :)

Taking Care of Business

This evening I took time to stop in to two area businesses.  Neither visit went exactly perfect, and yet I left the two stores feeling very different about the experiences.

The first trip was to Benny’s Cycle Works in Silvis.  A little bit of background is is probably in order to explain why I was there.  When I had picked up my bike from the service department nearly two weeks ago, I asked for a couple of copies of the key.  John Brenny, the owner of the dealership, cut two copies and went out to test them in the bike.  While I was still waiting for something else inside, he brought the keys to me and said they work, but stick a little. 

I spent a little over $400 that day, most of which was for labor in the service department.  Some of it was parts, and $16.02 was for these two keys. 

Today, I was back there to ask for a refund on the keys.  When I explained to the guy behind the counter that I could only get them to work intermittently and wanted my money back, he called John up from the back.  I explained again to him that I wanted a refund and why.  John looked a bit put off, and gave me the feeling he thought it a ridiculous request.  He didn’t say as much, but his attitude and expression did.  He refused to refund my money, and said I should bring the bike back in and he would adjust the keys to work.  Now, that might have been a very helpful offer, had it been presented differently, but it left me disappointed.  The more I thought about it, as I drove away, the more upset I became.  It’s not the money that bothers me, but the way it was handled.  To me, it seems that refunding $16 for two keys (which probably cost them about $.50 each for the blanks) would be well worth it to satisfy a customer who has spent well over $1000 in labor alone with my store in the last couple of seasons. 

My next trip was a sharp contrast to that.  I went to a large, national chain store, instead of a small locally owned shop.  I wasn’t there to make a return, but to pick up something I had already ordered and paid for.  I was not a regular customer of the store, and in fact probably haven’t bought anything from there in the last year or two.

I had actually placed my order through the store’s web site a day or two prior, so when I went in the store to pick it up I just scanned my receipt at the pickup station, and according to the sign on the wall I should have my merchandise in 5 minutes or less.

It actually took about 15 minutes from the time I scanned my receipt until I had my merchandise in hand.  During that time, I was asked no less than 3 times what I had ordered, by a confused worker who didn’t seem to know how to handle web orders.  However, at the end of the 15 minute wait, I had my items in hand, and a very nice, polite worker apologized for the delay.  Her tone of voice left me believing that she actually cared about my experience, and wanted me to leave as a happy customer.  She even gave me a coupon for $5 off my next purchase, since they didn’t meet their self imposed 5 minute time limit. 

The store in this case was Sears.  Generally, I don’t expect a much in the way of quality service from national chain stores.  That left me surprised to have been treated so well, especially considering the relatively small amount of my purchase.  It’s funny, how sometimes we don’t always get what we expect.  The stereotype for small locally owned businesses vs. large impersonal national chains is that you will get better treatment and better service from the small business.  If you’re dealing with the owner of that business, that is usually even more true.  I’m disappointed that my experience with the local business didn’t live up to that stereotype.

In the end, I will probably do business with Brenny’s again.  They are, after all, the area dealer for my brand of motorcycle, and I really like working with their service guy, Mark.  He treats me well, knows his stuff, and is willing to explain it to me in simple terms when things get over my head.  However, while I might do business with the service department at brenny’s again, I probably won’t look there when I need parts, accessories, or other items I can find elsewhere or order online. 

On the other hand, I find myself inexplicably tempted to browse over to sears.com right now and look to see what else they might have that I need. . .

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Google's new feature

Every year on this day, Google announces a new application or feature. Some of the past few years have had pretty amazing announcements. This year, it's Artificial Intelligence smart enough to even reply to your emails for you!

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html