Electronics, Furniture, Cooking and More

Four days and counting until my parents get here so of course I am trying to get these as put away and set up as I can.

One of those things was putting together a new TV stand I bought for my bedroom. I'm usually pretty good at putting together furniture. I can't cook, I'm not crafty, my taste can be lacking....

but boy can I wire a home entertainment center and put together some furniture.

Well, so I thought. Things were going smooth, each piece fitting together right despite the poor instructions and I was even thinking I might post a picture of the finish productI was proud.

Until I went to screw in that back piece that looks like wood but is more like cardboard or something.... I had two pieces backwards which means I couldn't screw in the back piece. I had to take apart the whole thing to swap the two pieces.

Then it came for the doors. Almost done and then I could carry on with getting everything done.

An hour later...I still can't get the doors quite right. They won't line up...and they will wait until my dad gets here this weekend.

So I have to unhook the cable and my cable internet to put the TV on the stand. I set everything up, hook all the cables in and even tie them together to prevent the nasty mess that usually happens in the back.

I program the remote that goes with the cable box. Almost done...

Turn on the cable box...blank screen. Nothing. Can't flip channels, no snow, nothing.

I check all of my connections, tighten all cables, no luck. I check the cable in the other rooms to make sure they work, they do.

I pull out the instructions to make sure I didn't forget anything. Oops, I have to call and activate the box.

I call and activate the box. There are a few issues...a different name showing up on the box, etc. We get that all resolved, and all is good!

Now it's time to take a break and check email.

Hmmm...no internet connection. No biggy, just need to reset everything.

Did that. No luck. So after 30 minutes of unplugging, power cycling, restarting, repairing, etc...no luck.

So I call the cable company again. THIS is what cracks me up.

Pressed 1 for English

Pressed 1 for Issues

Pressed 2 for Cable Internet

"We are experiencing higher than normal call volume. Your wait time will be longer than usual. Please check www.comcast.net and click help with your internet connection."

Do I need to explain that???? Ugh!

So I'm on hold and the system tells me to make sure I've done a complete reset with the modem and the computer. I have, but I do it one more time....no luck.

25 minutes later, I'm still on hold and am still using every trick I know to get a connection.

Finally, I go to completely unhook everything, where I feel the IEEE cable is loose.

I promptly hang up with Comcast.

So, if I am usually good with putting together furniture and wiring electronics and I screwed that up today....

....maybe I could actually cook a good dinner or something.

Or maybe I should just file today away as a test of my patience...