Thanks for the Snow!

I have just returned to Phoenix from a 10 day business trip to the East. I had a few training classes that I needed for work, so I decided to knock them both out in one trip.

So, here's the breakdown of my travel:
- January 16, 2008 - Today, I flew from Phoenix to Minneapolis to Dulles. My travel went well today, even with checked luggage.

- January 17, 2008 - I had training in Reston, Virginia today. It snowed during the training. I think we probably had about 6 inches of snow.

- January 18, 2008 - Today was a terrible day! I had a project that blew up in my face. At the same time, I was trying to keep an ear open for my training. As the day went on, I became very discouraged. My wonderful wife sent me a message that was very encouraging. I thank God for Tiffany and her words of encouragement today! On the way down to Richmond, I had to type a document for work. As such, I wound up buying a Spring Broadband Card because I needed to be on the internet (The card didn't work, so I had to use a co-workers card). A co-worker drove the car through the slow traffic. At 11:45pm, I finished the document and sent it off. It was a huge relief to turn off my computer and go to sleep. I was also very thankful that the class wound up going well. I was able to pass the certification exam without problem.

- January 19, 2008 - I spent today with Peter and Sara. Today was Peter's 29th birthday, so I joined him for breakfast, Wii playing, duck pin bowling and the Melting Pot. I also replaced my Sprint Card today, which will be very helpful on the rest of the trip. It snowed in Richmond this evening. It was pretty, but it was COLD!

- January 20, 2008 - It was a great day! I visited Immanuel today and had a great time seeing old friends. In the afternoon, I went to visit Matt and Julie. I installed Windows XP on Julie's MacBook Pro today (That was a new eXPerience for my resume!). The drive back to Northern Virginia was surprisingly smooth and nice.

- January 21, 2008 - I flew to Newark, NJ today in the middle of the day. Dulles and Newark are both dead airports in the middle of the day (Maybe it had something to do with the holiday, but I am not sure). From Newark, I drove a little north to Fair Lawn/Saddle Brook, NJ. I am bummed that my hotel does not have an operational pool right now!

- January 22, 2008 - Today was the first day of training for me at Radvision. The training went well today. There was a little bit of snow today, but nothing like the snow last week. In the evening, I hung out at a mall so I would not get bored at the hotel. I also had to do some work during the training today. We are working on a pretty big project right now and it seems to be going fairly well.

- January 23, 2008 - Nothing much to write about today. Training, dinner, relaxation at hotel.

- January 24, 2008 - Upon the completion of training today, I took a train to New York City! I really missed not having Tiffany with me in the city. I had a good time walking around Times Square, eating dinner at Junior's and pretending to shop at B&H Photo. Once the sun went down, it got really cold. I opted to head back to the hotel earlier than I wanted to, but that's ok.

- January 25, 2008 - Home at last! After a nice long flight today and after killing some time in Tempe (to avoid traffic), I safely arrived home this evening.

BOA Cards

BTW- The cards arrived the next day. I am very impressed with Bank of America right now... Hopefully they will continue impressing me.

I do find it strange that they are purchasing Countrywide though... Of course, maybe they have great faith in the future of the mortgage world. Maybe they know something we don't... =)

Gmail Hiccup

Google must be up to some sort of 'evil' today. This morning, as usual, I opened up Outlook to get my work email from exchange and my Gmail email via IMAP. After coming back from lunch, I noticed that Outlook was showing me a message that it could not connect to Gmail. So, I logged into Gmail and noticed that my chat feature was gone, IMAP was gone and I had the invitation box showing up again. I suspect Google accidentally reverted my account to some earlier state, but I hadn't lost any email.

While typing this article, I hit the refresh button on Gmail... Boom... Everything is back to normal. Outlook is working as normal. Chat feature is back. Invitation box is gone.

Odd...

Edit: Looks like I am not the only one having problems with Gmail.

Thank You to Bank of America!

This morning, I received a telephone call from Bank of America stating they noticed possible fraudulent charges on my credit card. The call came from an automatic system, which made me a little nervous. Instead of giving my life data to the machine, I hung up and called BOA directly. After a brief wait, I was able to speak to customer service. After explaining the story, I was promptly transferred to the fraud department. After another short wait (less than 5 minutes), I was greeted by Julie C. I quickly explained the story to Julie and she let me know that they did have an automated system and that it did try to call me this morning. She looked at my account to verify that one charge appeared fradulent (It was a "test" charge for $9.22 from DIRECTPO). She then told me that they saw another charge yesterday for $890.00 coming in from a hotel/restaurant in Mexico. After verifying that I had not made either purchase, Julie informed me that she was going to close the account immediately and issue new cards. When I asked how long it would take to get the new cards, she told me that it would take 5-7 business days. I asked her if there was a faster method as I plan to travel early next week. She told me that she could ship them overnight. She then informed me that I would not be held responsible for the charges and reminded me to update my credit card information with places that might have it on file. She also let me know that all of my present charges would move to the new account and that my rewards program would also be updated.

In a day when customer service seems to be at a premium and hard to find, I would like to thank Bank of America and Julie C for the prompt attention and quick resolution to my problem.

While on the call, I was logged into my account verifying the information against Microsoft Money (I have used Money for a little over 6 years now). As soon as she told me the account was closed, I hit the refresh button and it had already been removed from my online accounts. Prompt and friendly. I then proceeded the shred my compromised credit card (BTW, I have had that credit card for more than 6 years and have not had one issue with it).

Let's see if the new cards make it by tomorrow... =)