Personal Posts

As I mentioned last week, our refrigerator has been returned to us and, save for a slight hiccup, is cooling and freezing and dispensing water as though it were new. I’m very happy that the whole thing is over. I was sick of it a long time ago, and I’m sure all of you out there were sick of hearing about it. But thanks for paying attention.

Often, when someone is in the midst of a bad situation, negative feelings are amplified and run rampant. It’s easy to exaggerate and blow things out of proportion. And since I’ve posted weekly updates (or rants, depending on your perspective) on the ordeal and pulled no punches, I felt that I should take a moment to reflect on the situation, my actions, and my inaction.

Did I take it too far?

To date I’ve published 17 posts (including this one), which comes to about a post a week, that were essentially play-by-play descriptions of my negative experience with Warners’ Stellian. I even went as far as to create a specific blog category to make it easier for my readers to find and peruse them. I linked to and shared links with others who had similar experiences with WS. I worked a little bit of SEO hoodoo in order to show up on relevant Google searches. Essentially, I did my best to saturate the Internet with my story and opinion.

So my first question is, did I take it too far?

Did I not take it far enough?

Over the course of this 4 month process, I talked about the problem with many people, both via my blog and at gatherings of friends and family. I heard many stories of similar situations, and I was given quite a bit of advice (for which I’m grateful).

I got input about possible legal action. I considered, and am still considering, writing a letter to the owner. I was urged to elbow my way through the front lines of customer service and demand satisfaction. I was even encouraged to take my story to the local news and sic the consumer watchdogs on WS.

I clearly wasn’t aggressive or confrontational in this situation. I didn’t attempt to get past the service rep on the phone, I didn’t harass the guys that came to my house, and I didn’t threaten legal action. I played by their rules.

So the next question is, did I not take it far enough?

Why I did what I did

There are a few reasons why I handled it in the way I did.

1) I’m not a strong-arming dick

There are a few personality traits that I don’t have. I’m not a haggler, I’m not a manipulator, I’m not a steamroller, and I’m not a dick. And I’d need to summon at least a couple of those traits in order to force a company into action against their will. It just doesn’t come that easily to me. It takes a lot of energy for me to turn on that kind of behavior, and I’m just not very good at it.

2) No time, no energy

When the trouble started, I was just starting out on my new career of stay-at-home dad. I spent my day entertaining a 1 year-old and feeding a 3 month-old. So I didn’t have much time during the day to place angry phone calls, and at the end of the day, I was either exhausted or the service department was closed. Bottom line: I was just too damn tired to get creative or work up the fire to go head-to-head with them.

3) Writing was easier and possibly more influential

Writing about something is more suited to my strengths. I have a standing appointment with a few hours on Saturdays (when Warners’ Stellian’s customer service is closed), so I had time to do the writing. And since I have a blog with a few hundred views in a good month, it seemed that I could have more of an influence by writing about my experience.

4) Plain old curiosity

Since it was clear that it was going to take a while, I kind of just wanted to see where this would go.

Did I make the right choice?

A few facts:

1.) At this point, my site comes up #7 for a search for “Warners’ Stellian Review” and #19 for “Warners’ Stellian”. And I’ve noticed quite a bit of traffic coming to my site from these and other searches as well.

2.) I got the attention of the company. At first, all I merited was a handful of defensive comments, but ultimately, I received a call from the customer service manager as a direct result of a post on this blog within hours of its publishing.

3.) But most importantly, I reached dozens of people that know me personally and trust my opinion. Yes, merely dozens. But they are all users of appliances and are (or were) potential customers.

I think my chosen course of action had the more significant impact.

Am I passive/aggressive and evil? Dishonest and hyperbolical?

Passive/aggressive? Maybe. But as I said, it was just easier for me to write about the situation than it was for me to call them up and demand to get my fridge fixed.

As far as the accuracy of my account: while my emotions and opinions did come through pretty clearly in my writing, I took pains never to exaggerate the situation. I tried to document the facts as accurately as I could. I didn’t edit things for effect, and I did not fabricate a bit of this. I tried to present both sides and tried to give the benefit of the doubt as much as possible.

The Verdict: Don’t buy appliances from Warners’ Stellian

I want to buy from a local company, the logic being that I’d get better service, more individual attention, and a sense that I actually matter.

If Warners’ Stellian is going to take pride in the fact that they are a local company, they’re going to have to do more than just tout that fact. In order to compete with a big box store, they’re going to have to provide a customer experience that’s better. Yeah, I’ve been jerked around by places like Sears and Best Buy and the like. But that doesn’t mean Warners’ Stellian can point to them and say “But these guys are bad, too!”

The truth is, if you’re lucky enough to get an appliance that works as advertised, then it doesn’t matter who you buy from. But if you get a lemon or have serious problems, then you’re going to want a company that has a good, efficient service department. And after having gone 4 months without a properly functioning refrigerator, I think I can say that I’ve experienced the fact first-hand that Warners’ Stellian has a long way to go before they get there.

I won’t be buying any more appliances from them.

I had hoped, I mean really REALLY hoped, that I’d be writing this week’s personal journal entry with out it being tainted by the dyspepsia that is my ONGOING experience with Warners’ Stellian. That’s right. It’s still ongoing. Keep reading to find out how, after 46 days of having my refrigerator in their possession, they failed to give back a 100% functional appliance.

The apparently non-existant interdepartmental communication

Recent changes in my household’s telecommunications strategy (the discontinuation of the Qwest landlines) required me to update a few companies with whom we had outstanding business. Unfortunately, one of these businesses was Warners’ Stellian.

I placed the call early on in the week of January 5th. I informed the rep that I needed to change my contact information, and proceeded to give over my cellphone number as the primary means of contact. I also directed her to delete the previous primary number, as it had been disconnected.

I was then asked by the rep whether or not I had an outstanding issue, and I said, “Yes, I do have an outstanding issue.” This exchange led me to believe, foolishly as it turns out, that this updated version of my contact information would be made available to those working on my outstanding issue. But I’m reasonable. Let’s go through what would be a reasonable expectation of how Warners’ Stellian’s shop would function in relation to their customer records:

A reasonable expectation

My refrigerator had been in their shop for 40+ days, waiting for parts, being repaired, and being tested. Odds are that the unit had the service ticket attached to it (judging by the gummy remains of the plastic tape that were still stuck to the door of the fridge…classy) for quick and easy reference. This ticket would have, amongst other bits of information, my phone number. The now-out of date phone number.

When the fridge was confirmed to be repaired and functioning properly, the dispatcher would be given the ticket that was attached to the unit. Normally, the dispatcher would then call the number, schedule delivery, and that’d be that. But in this case, the dispatcher dialed a number that was disconnected. What would be reasonable is that the dispatcher would then check the customer record for another number to call.

why what happened indicates a terrible, TERRIBLE organization

Apparently this development, the disconnected phone number, was so confounding that the dispatcher simply couldn’t continue at this point. She had no choice but to set the case aside, regroup, and wait for inspiration to strike. Thankfully for us, the lightning bolt of inspiration struck after only a few days.

I know that it took a few days because the person who finally called me TOLD me. She said flat out that the fridge had been ready for a few days, but they didn’t have a current phone number for me. Now, I appreciate the honesty and all, but…seriously? It took you a few days to just take a* look* at my file and see that 1) there was a new primary contact number and that 2) There was a secondary contact number, my wife’s work number, that hadn’t changed????

I’m not sure where the breakdown is. A lazy employee? A bad software system? A lack of access to customer records by the dispatcher? All of the above? I don’t know. I just know the end results. And only that because the person on the phone told me. Absolutely no sense of urgency for a customer whose appliance has been malfunctioning for a SOLID 4 MONTHS NOW.

This is just plain ridiculous.

But I’m not done.

Where was the automated phone call?

I talked to the scheduler on Wednesday, January 14, and scheduled the delivery of the repaired fridge for Friday.

Typically, the way it’s done is that they schedule the day, but then the night before, you receive an automated message giving you a 3 or 4 hour window in which to expect delivery. And you’re informed of this when scheduling service with the person. This has always been the case (excepting the emergency repair visit on December 1st). But to be fair, I was not warned of this when I spoke to the scheduler on the 14th.

So I can only hypothesize and make an educated guess that the reason why I didn’t get an automated phone call on Thursday night on my cellphone was because the call was made to a certain now disconnected number. Can’t prove it. Just a theory. But a likely one.

And this led directly to my next point of absolute frustration.

The queue, the hang-up, the queue, then on hold; rinse; repeat

Now, I’m at home all day during the week, so, normally not knowing the delivery time isn’t as serious a problem, say, for someone who’s got to take time off to accept delivery.

However, I had just confirmed that my glasses were in (ordered 3 frickin’ weeks ago; they sit finished in the lab for days, and you make me call you to see if they were done, Pearle Vision? I’m coming for you next!), and I would have enjoyed being able to go out to get them. Unfortunately, some scheduling was required in order to do this. Erin was home, but had appointments, and could only watch the kids in the morning. So I decided I’d just call Warners’ Stellian and see if I could find out the delivery window, so I could plan accordingly.

I called at 9am, and was put in line behind 1 other person. A minute or two passed, and suddenly my call was disconnected. A common mistake. I’ve worked phones before. Believe me, I’ve hung up on my share of people by accident. No big deal. I dialed again.

And took my place in line behind 3 new callers. Irritating, but, shit happens, right? So I wait for 2 or 3 minutes, listening to the nice man tell me that everyone’s busy but that there are only 2 people ahead of me…then 1…and then I hear a few clicks on the line, a jump in the music, and then I’m…still on hold. I wait for a few more minutes, and a few more, and then I begin to realize that the nice man is no longer talking to me, and I’m no longer being told that all customer service agents are busy. I’m being told that my patience is appreciated and that they will be back with me shortly. Wait…back with me?

It was a subtle difference, but it meant that I was no longer in the queue, I was simply on hold. Odd. I waited for a total of 10 minutes. Then hung up and called back.

I was behind 1 person in the queue, and then this time, it was even more pronounced: the sound of a line ringing and then being immediately put on hold. By this time, I’m furious. I just spent 20 minutes just trying to confirm some information that I should have been given in the first place!

I realize that phone systems are incredibly complicated animals, and obviously, one of the busiest times for a call center is when they first open, and if this was the only problem I’d been having with this company the story would be different. But since I’ve had so much trouble with them, getting the runaround with the phone system makes me feel even more hostile toward them.

Ultimately, I don’t get the information I’m looking for. I can’t plan my morning. Just one more strike against Warners’ Stellian added to a long line of strikes.

A 100%, fully functional refrigerator…isn’t in my kitchen

Before they delivered the fridge to my house, the techs at Warners’ Stellian’s shop tested the unit to make sure it was working. And I’m glad they did it. They very thoroughly tested everything, the freezer, the refrigerator…and the water dispenser. And then they packed it up and on the night before the delivery, they loaded it into the delivery truck.

That delivery truck sat in their unheated garage overnight.

During one of the coldest nights in January.

With water still in the water dispenser system.

I know this for three reasons:

1) When the unit arrived, there was a small icicle hanging from the water dispenser on the front

2) When the delivery guy went to hook up the water to the hose in the back, the connector was blocked with solid ice.

3) After attempting to hook it up, the delivery guy told me about the garage.

The delivery guy advised me to wait until evening before trying to connect the water again. So I did. Now, I can’t tell you if the freezing of water has damaged the hoses inside the refrigerator, because it never got there. The hose connector on the fridge’s side sprays water all over my floor when the water’s turned on.

The bright side

Well, in an effort to keep positive, the refrigerator cools to 35 degrees just like I tell it to. The freezer to 0 degrees. So at least I have that going for me. And there’s more room to store my food. If I try to keep my expectations to just these facts, I’m not filled with fury. Which is a positive.

But, having spent the weekend without a functioning water dispenser, I’ll be spending some time on the phone with customer service.

Please do me a favor and pray that I’m able to get through, won’t you?

Want to read about my bad experience with Warners’ Stellian and their extended warranty from the start? I’ve created a new category here at the Q-Blog that contains all posts that touch on the subject of my powerfully bad experience with Warners’ Stellian. Check it out.

Links

Warners’ Stellian

Since joining LifeTime Fitness in late October, I’ve been very good about getting to the gym and working out 4 or 5 days a week, lifting weights and running. And I feel that I’ve been getting some good feedback from my body in terms of increased strength, more endurance, and more energy in general. However, as far as actual measurable improvements, according to my fitness assessment last week, I’ve only made the tiniest step toward my goals.

The fact that I made any progress at all is something that I should be happy about, all things considered. The truth is that I’ve had a few pretty significant obstacles in my way these first few months. So I can’t be too hard on myself for lack of forward progress.

Lack of sleep

Under normal circumstances, the amount of sleep I get a night is under my control. It’s just a matter of being personally responsible. Go to bed at a reasonable time that would ensure I get 7 or 8 hours. However, with an infant in the house and a crabby 18 month-old light-sleeper going through an improbable sequence of teething, barfing, bad colds, and teething again for weeks on end, sleep became something of a rare and precious commodity.

I have never been as exhausted as I was during the stretch from late October to late December. 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night was a good night, but 4 non-sequential hours was a more common experience. And while that’s okay for a short stretch, only getting that much sleep over 2 months will wear a guy down to the nub. I wandered around in a daze for days. I forgot stuff. I lost my vocabulary, my once vast array of nouns shrunk to the universally applied “thingy”. I was truly afraid to drive because my attention would wander. I’m still hesitant to play any Guitar Hero-esque game because my reflexes and reaction time is still that of a baked sloth. I’d embarrass myself.

During this period, I still went to the gym regularly, but because I wasn’t getting the sleep I needed, my workouts weren’t optimal. Sleep obviously affects energy level and recovery time for muscles. But apparently, it’s also linked to the perception of exhaustion. So it was possible that I was feeling more tired than I actually was, and therefore stopped running too early.

And on top of that, lack of sleep causes the hormones that control appetite to make people actually feel hungrier. So if you’re not sleeping enough, you’re body compels you to eat too much. And for me, the problem of increased appetite was only aggravated because of our lack of a functioning fridge.

Refrigerator Issues

To regular readers of the Q-Blog, my struggles with refrigerators are nothing new. But there was a definite impact on my life, both financially and physiologically, because I was unable to keep healthy foods like produce on hand to prepare meals. Throughout October and into November, because of the lack of a fridge, Erin and I ate out much more frequently than usual. And everyone knows that restaurant foods have more calories and other bad stuff than similar foods prepared at home.

Couple this high-calorie, high-fat, high-carb diet with the increased appetite from working out and lack of sleep, and I was just eating way way too much bad stuff. Admittedly, this was still somewhat under my control, and a stronger willed person may have been able to fare better than I did, but my situation during this time definitely slowed my progress toward fitness goals.

The holidays

The holidays nearly killed me. Due to just crazy scheduling and bad weather, I didn’t get to the gym more than 3 times between 12/22 and 1/4. That’s 2 weeks where I didn’t work out; the same two weeks where there are more culinary and beveragical temptations than at any point in the year. This was a huge setback in my cardio fitness statistic. Marathon runners (people who are actually in shape) lost 25% or more of their endurance after 15 days of not training. I can only imagine that I lost more than that during my two weeks of non-exercise. I know that my muscles complained a lot the day after my first strength-training session.

But I’m back on track now, and there shouldn’t be any long interruptions again for several months. And I have no reason to believe that I’ll just stop going to the gym

It’s not from lack of motivation to get to the gym

A lot of people have the most trouble with simply getting to the gym. Fortunately, this is not a problem for me. I have the best motivation to get to the gym and exercise I could ever ask for: I get a 2 hour break from kids in the middle of the day. This break in the day was enough to get me to the gym even on the days when I didn’t really feel like exercising. Not to say that I don’t like my kids, but when my day consists of 10 or even 12 hours a day just me and them, any break is welcome.

The danger of me not going to the gym is pretty minimal. And since this most challenging of obstacles doesn’t exist for me, there’s no real reason why I shouldn’t be able to achieve what I’ve set out to accomplish.

The next 2 months will be better

I have no reason to believe that the next 2 months will be anything but all forward progress. But I have to take control of a couple of things:

1. Diet: I need to keep my caloric intake to 2500 calories. This has proved surprisingly challenging for a guy who enjoys his eating, but do-able. I do okay on my fruit and veg intake, and I’m pretty good at eating 5 smaller meals through out the day. I’m going to try to eat less meat and cook more with beans. Stuff that will fill me up more but not with calories and fat.

2. Sleep: With Torbin’s bedtime now at 7pm, same as Thessaly’s, I should be able to both get work done in the evenings AND get to bed at a decent hour. It might be tempting to stay up later, but my goal is to catch up on my sleep debt and regain my words.

And while I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, here’s to less of me in 2009.

There’s little to complain about when considering how 2008 closed out.

On New Year’s Eve, Erin and I were fortunate enough to have Grandma in town to stand guard over children which freed the two of us to perhaps taste a bit of freedom for a night. While the idea of going to an actual party seemed somehow unrealistic, fanciful notions of an evening spent whooping it up by attending the cinema and perhaps partaking of a feast and several large glasses of beer floated through our heads in the days leading up to the end of the year.

Really, I just wanted to finally go out for dinner and see a movie for the first time since our anniversary in mid-September. But, as seems to be the case more often than not, frivolity was soon yoked with the need for efficiency and a responsible usage of time: it became necessary to spend some of our precious hours of unfetteredness in order go to Target and/or Home Depot and/or Menards to look over and probably buy some boring old storage bins and utility shelves for the basement.

I really don’t have much of a reason to complain about buying the boring stuff. While Erin’s been slowly eaten away inside by the sorry state of our basement and the possessions and materials stored therein. But I stood to benefit just as much as Erin.

See, for the last few months, I’ve been sharing my office with Torbin and his crib. A less than ideal situation with a net result of me not really being able to do any work before he wakes up, typically about 8 or 9, nor after the youngster went to bed, lately around 7 or 8pm. Which is great from a getting to bed early standpoint, but not so much for a blog writing and comics drawing perspective.

The plan was for me to move my office into the basement, a move to be made possible by packing all the loosely stacked stuff that organically accumulated in the fairly large space down there into soon-to-be-purchased bins and putting it onto soon-to-be-purchased shelves. I was looking forward to the new space, but not the work needed to actually move into it.

So it was with a somewhat heavy hearts that, after putting kids to bed, we bid good evening to my mother and stepped out into the cold night. We drove South to the magical land of Eagan, where all roads of my life seem to lead, intending to have 2008’s benedictory meal at Doolittles and then begin our search for the best deal on household storage items.

A digression in honor of a chicken sandwich

I now want to take a moment tell you about the best damn chicken sandwich on the planet. Doolittles is a local chain of restaurants that takes great pride in the big rotating skewers full of roasting chickens that you see upon entering the establishment. They also have the best chicken breast sandwich that you’ll ever have. First they take a giant knife and they just whack off a chunk of the breast meat, throw it between a bun with some chipotle mayo and some cheese and they put it in front of you. Simple as that. I daydream about this sandwich. And this is where, despite the 30 minute wait in their lobby, I wanted to spend the last free moments of 2008: chewing on one of these sandwiches.

(They also have awesome key lime pie.)

Full bellies and warm feet; no bins or shelves

By the time we were seated, had our beers, savored our sandwiches, were pissed about the fact that the key lime pie was “seasonal” and therefore unavailable, settled for the vanilla ice cream and giant brownie, and got our check it was 9:45pm.

Most of the stores we were going to go to close at 10, so we said, “Screw it”. And went home. I was in bed at 10:30.

It was an anticlimactic but comfortable way to end the year, and I wouldn’t have done it any different. Unless there was something I wanted to see playing in the movie theater.

We did the shopping the next morning, and I spent the entire next day carrying crap from upstairs to downstairs (with the help of my parents and Erin).

Threat of even less work being done in the coming week or more

Sadly, I’m not finished setting up my new office due to power supply issues. My two surge protectors were discovered to be disfigured by heat. So I’m going to have to do a little rewiring in the basement with the help of my dad. But even that can’t be done until I get the new surge protectors I ordered from Amazon.

The impact of this may be that, in the short-term, I may miss a week or two of comics. I have 3 episodes still in my buffer, but have none currently in progress. Once I get my main computer up and running, I’ll have more time in the evenings in which to draw, but it takes more than a couple of weeks, typically, to complete a sequence, so I’ll likely miss deadlines in a few weeks based on a problem suffered today.

Not happy about it, but that’s the way things go. I am happy that I’ll be able to get a little more time to work now, though. It’ll be worth the pain.

2009 also begins without our refrigerator

I picked up a message from last week from Warners Stellian letting us know that they just received word that the parts they had ordered will be arriving on January 5th.

So it’s been more than a month with the loaner fridge. Glad we have it, but I’d like the one I bought back, please.

It’s been an exhausting run, but we survived the holiday week, and even got a good couple of days just to sit around and relax a bit.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Day was a busy one. The wife and I have started a tradition of having a nice breakfast and then exchanging gifts. This year it was a bit hurried because we had to fit in nursing, naps, and packing around the meal, unwrapping, and playing with new toys, all in time to get on the road by 1pm. No small feat. And we only missed our target by 45 minutes or so.

The Ackerman family Christmases have typically been quiet affairs, what with me being sans siblings. But this year was a little different. The addition of a 18 month-old and a 5 month-old makes what’s normally a low-key celebration a more zesty affair. My mom, smartly, decided to serve Papa Murphy’s pizzas for dinner, so as to minimize cooking and cleanup time and maximize time spent playing with grandkids before they head off to bed.

The early and tasty dinner was followed by a wild thrashing of wrapping paper and throwing around of a new set of foam blocks. And I’m sure that the full appreciation of the lovely little wooden cradle (just the right size for Thessaly’s new Elmo plushie) will come later, after the thrill of the season subsides and she can get into some more serious playtime. The youngsters made out very well, reaping the full rewards of being the only set of grandchildren on this side of the family.

Erin and I also were recipients of some lovely and generous gifts, and had a very fun Christmas Eve. We even stayed up until 11pm, well past our bedtimes, in order to play my parents’ in some rousing games of tennis and golf on their Wii.

Christmas Morning comes early…really…damn…early

Sleeping arrangements were a bit tight, and we had put Thessaly in the same room that we’d expected to be slumbering in. But as we retired, the commotion of opening doors and rustling bedsheets roused the usually heavy nighttime sleeper.

And she didn’t fall asleep again until nearly 4am.

And it wasn’t a quiet 4 or 5 hours of being awake either. It was an early morning neverending span of a full-throated, tears-and-snot-running-down-face, sweet-Jeebus-is-someone-killing-her style screaming.

After awhile, we adjourned to the basement to try to afford my parents some peace and maybe some sleep and, in between the little girl’s mucousy intakes of breath, tried to work out just what the hell was going on.

Earlier in the day, she had been noticed chewing on her thumb and starting to act teething-little-girl crabby, so we dosed her with some ibuprofen. But she had been well-behaved and happy until bedtime, and while she resisted going to bed initially, we assumed it was the new surroundings and/or the atypical amount of sugar that she’d ingested in the form of a few servings of fruit juice. No big deal. And she did eventually went to sleep.

I’m not surprised that it took us as long as it did to think of it, and it was Erin who got it right. But about 15 minutes after giving the girl the good stuff and after a few stories and a lot of rocking, she was out. Erin then came back upstairs, put the girl in the bed, got bed herself…

…and enjoyed a luxurious 2 hours of sleep before Torbin woke up and wanted to eat a little something.

The rest of the holiday was very nice

After a nice, but bleary-eyed, Christmas Morning breakfast, and a quick enjoyment of the fine and equally generous wares that Santa brought, we were back on the road, this time with the outskirts of small Western town of Henning as our destination.

It was nearly 1pm when we pulled into the driveway of the in-laws, and we joined a large party already in progress. Erin’s 4 brothers, their wives, and the host of 11 or 12 offspring fill a house like few families I’ve seen. There was plenty of food and conversation, and it was a good time.

Our youngsters were immediately swept up by their excited cousins and played with, freeing we oldsters to melt into soft couches and try to recover somewhat from the previous night. Good naps were had by all, and it was a nice time. And as families departed, the volume level continued to drop, and the relaxation increased. A relatively good night’s sleep was had by all, and the next day, quieter still, was a nice balance of conversation and lounging about.

My only source of tension was concern about our Friday night departure. It had been misting all day, and while temps were above freezing during the day, as night approached they started to sink. Fog warnings and icy roads were in our future. Another night spent there was an option, but I had only fed the cats enough for 2 days, I had a minor and breakable commitment on Saturday morning, and mostly I just wanted to go home and be home for awhile before starting the next week.

And the roads were icy and treacherous for the first hour and a half until we got to the freeway, but it was smooth sailing thereafter.

Home again

We pulled in at 11 or 11:30pm, tired but happy. The kids had slept well the entire ride home, and Erin put them into their beds while I half-unpacked the car. But, as is quickly becoming the norm, sleep was a long way off for us.

Thankfully, it was not due to barfing, as was the case after Thanksgiving. But there was a point where Erin and I were lying in bed getting serenaded by both children over the child monitors. More ibuprofen was administered to a little girl and a baby boy, who’s taken to flipping over, had to be flipped back. Eventually sleep was achieved, albeit punctuated by a feeding @ 5 or 6.

But no one is sick. Just tired. And maybe a little crabby from teething.

We survived Christmas 2008. Yay. Now, I’m going to go lie down.