jamaica, man

The Steads are going to Jamaica in June!!!!

We looked at a beach vacation, and as it turns out, for a little bit more (okay, a good bit more, but still!) we can get two plane tickets and a week in an all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay. We're so excited!

We ordered our passports today and they'll be arriving in six weeks. Now I'll be counting down until June 3!!

For now, I'll leave you with a recipe to celebrate:

Jamaican Cocktail recipe
3/4 oz dark rum
1/2 oz coffee liqueur
3/4 oz lime juice
1 dash bitters

you know it's mardi gras when...

southdowns parade 2009

Southdowns is a small parade that runs through our old neighborhood. It's the heart of Baton Rouge and next to the high school I attended.


a family parade


The Steads


The newly engaged Eric and Brittany with Valerie


school based therapy girls

happy vday

i am obviously not a real estate photographer

but this is what i have:

the view from the dining area


the dining area


the wine tower and cooler


the kitchen


the office


the guest bedroom


master bedroom


laundry room


scott on couch

the steads vs the cable company

so, we've never really been fans of the cable company here. they're over-priced, and they're the only cable option, so they seem to get away with murder.

occasionally i'll catch one of their commercials that brags about their customer approval rate, and i always wonder who it is that likes their cox cable service. their customer service representatives are second only to walmart.com in the worst service ever. if they ever sent me a survey, i'd have to make my own bubble and say "excruciatingly painful" for every interaction.

so after ordering the cable service online, waiting the three day period, and not hearing anything about when they were coming to install service, we did the thing that we hated doing more than anything... we called. turns out someone is using scott's social security number (but with their own name and address... does that mean cox cable's data entry person made a typo?) and has not paid their bill. we have to come in.

we started shopping for other options, but i'm a creature of habit and i'm comfortable knowing that mtv is channel 40, hgtv is 54, cnn is 34. we didn't want to change. so we thought we could just open the account in my name... right? because no one is using my name/social to have a cable account.
not the case. they have an open account in my name. seriously? we just purchased a house and none of this was on our credit report for us to straighten out. account is delinquent from 2005. ridiculous!

it was only $60, and we finally decided that living without cable/internet wasn't something we wanted to do... so we thought we could just call, pay the amount, and set-up the new account.

cox told scott they wouldn't open the account because our address was attached to the several attempts... so we would need to go in to their office during business hours to set up service.

we finally gave up, but we were frustrated. then magic happened! because scott is an at&t management employee, we get the highest speed DSL for $10 a month. we ordered directv (not the dish, because we got bad reports) for less than what basic cable costs, and the total price is HALF of the "competition" (the cable company). amazing! maybe i should have paid attention to those directv commercials a long time ago.

now we just have to reclaim our identities!!


we obviously need a bigger tv!

The Big Move

So, we made the big move. So far we're waiting on our living room furniture, our appliances (fridge, washer, and dryer) and cable!
That means... no internet. I'm typing this now from work, but I have a super busy week so I won't be able to post photos or update.
That just means it'll be that much better when it happens!