First of all, how in the world does everyone else call their cable/internet provider and get them to match a lower rate from a competitor? I am currently paying $42.95 just for the internet portion of my cable bill. This is just ridiculous! I read everywhere how "easy" it is to just call Comcast and get them to the lower rate. Nope, didn't even want to budge on that one for me even when I hinted I would have to look into this competitor offer. The only thing they were willing to do was drop me to the lower tier of service for $23.95 per month. Well, what choice did I have? I really don't think I will notice a change in my service. The only thing I am slightly worried about is my VOIP phone service. We really don't use the home phone for the most part anyways. *edited to add* I just checked my VOIP providers website and they have found "A 256Kbps connection (inbound and outbound) has shown to be the minimal connection needed for a quality call." No problems there.

The reason I say they are not the brightest at Comcast is because the rep was being so quick to push the change through, that she didn't even let me finish asking if this would interupt my service at all. Well, guess it does since the call dropped!!! Ha ha ha... that's how VOIP works! Had to get a chuckle out of their stupidity there. Well, they'll hit me with a $1.99 fee to make this change, but if I don't like the change they wont charge me to switch back. It's an improvement, but not quite what I wanted. Well it took me WEEKS to get up the nerve to make this call, so I'll take my limited success. Don't plan on mentioning this to DH - see if he notices!

In other news:

- Updated my sidebar to reflect the first two car payment goals DONE! This has DH's car paid off through December. (Not quick enough since we want this piece of junk GONE. Has a flat tire as of this morning.)

- My car was hit last week and the insurance adjuster thinks it will cost $325 to fix! HA! I want to pocket that money. The dent is about an inch across and we'll either leave it or try to pop it out ourselves. Bad luck with this car so far - I was stopped at a light when the car behind me waved a kid on a bike on through. Car coming up on my right pops the kid right into the side of my car. Sorry, I don't know how badly the kid was hurt. Worse case maybe a broken arm - if even that.

- Just went over my projected tax return for next year and it looks like we'll owe the feds at least $550. Bleah. Tried projecting an increase in my 401k contributions and we'd owe more??? Just not sure what to do here. A decrease in S125 health premium costs plus an increase in pay are hurting us tax wise. Yes, I know things could be worse!

DH suggests declaring taxes unconstitutional and turning our condo into a fortress. No thanks, don't want to be anywhere near the Browns. (Elaine Hatch Brown was my dentist years ago!! Is that why I need so much dental work?)

- Last but not least - my mom's financial aid at the hospital was APPROVED!! They have determined it would be a financial hardship for her to pay for services. Her account will be zeroed out after insurance payments for anything medically necessary between now and the end of February.