I guess we don't need to get our new number added to the do-not-call list just yet

So yesterday, the nice Verizon guy came to see why we weren't getting phone service and discovered that there was no wire between our phone box and the apartment's phone jacks. He didn't have time to wire up all of the jacks, but he got one working and said to arrange for someone to come out and do the rest of them. Rather than pay big bucks to get it done (since all the jacks are installed and it's theoretically just a matter of running a few wires), I figured we'd make it a learning experience and do it ourselves.

Unfortunately, the idiots who wired up our basement didn't label a damn thing. I think that on our first attempt, we actually tried to hook our phone service up to the second floor's phone jacks. Not that it would have worked because we neglected to fully strip the wires before splicing them (as FJ would say, "software fingers!"). Even after fixing both of those mistakes, the phone totally doesn't work (except for the one in the dining room, unless I broke it in the process of trying to get the other one working, but I didn't actually want to put a phone in my dining room). I think I've got it going to the right place, but without a line tester there's not much more I can do at this point.

In other news, the cats are having some trouble with the cat door that Kelly's parents installed for us this morning. I should set up a video camera or something.

If my grandmother tries to call, I'm going to be in big trouble...

I did break the phone in the dining room. Now we have no phone service at all. At least my gf gives me points for trying (she's a much better person than I am, if our roles were reversed I might be annoyed).

In other news, I finally got around to dealing with Car's check engine light (about which I was whining two weeks ago, when it came on as I was trying to wrap up shopping for Kelly's birthday party). The nice people at the dealership replaced a sensor and fixed a few other things and now Car is looking good, just in time for next month's trip to New York, which may break my record for shortest family visit ever (seder on Tuesday night, back at work in Boston on Wednesday morning, I just need to remember to have 4 cups of grape juice instead of Manischevitz).