An amazing few days

It's just been an amazing few days. Let's take it from the top:

• Kissy Missy: She left Thursday for an intense seminar in Detroit. It's the last session of her MBA Program. She's back tonight, tired, happy and exceedingly joyful she's earned her master's degree. Wow.

• Fuzzy: Picked up his new car Friday. His first car, the legendary Caprice, made it 14 years from the factory to the end of the line. It was an amazing vehicle, and proof, to me, that miracles happen. The new car: a 2004 Taurus. Sure, it's white-bread, boring and has only six cylinders. It runs, it's affordable and he'll make the payments.







• Robert: At Blue Lake this weekend for the first spring rehearsal for the Southern Winds symphonic band that will tour Europe later this summer. He's geeked - what can I say?



• Andrew: He's spending his mornings rehearsing for the high school's play festival (He plays evil genius Count Otto von Brunno, "the second-most dangerous man in Europe) and his afternoons and evenings working. Jobs do that to you.
And he's wishing for snow.

• Katherine: She attended a seminar on women's empowerment today. Tonight, she's enjoying Jazz Night at the Soaring Eagle Inn - Christopher's in the jazz band. At least he's not the drummer there.

• Me: I broke a tooth.

More from the Tech trip

I've added about 14 more images and text to the story of the Michigan Tech trip - scroll down or just click here.

Hello, City Hall?

We knew that water rates were higher in Mt. Pleasant than at Lake Isabella, but I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw when I opened up the water bill yesterday.
The bill was for $9,899.32 - if I paid it on time. The city was claiming we used 2 million gallons of water.
That's a lot of flushing.
I called City Hall, as I suspected there might have been, um, a billing error. (Ahem!) The conversation went something like this:
ME: Hi. This is Mark Ranzenberger ...
THEM: Oh, thank you for calling! You have a new bill on the way. I sent it out this morning. I am so, so sorry.
ME: Ah! You've already caught it, then?
THEM: Yes. I just wish that hadn't gone out. We have some new software, and the wrong multiplier got put into your account. It's fixed.
ME: So how much is the new bill?
THEM: About $20.
Actually, I've heard horror stories about unresponsive bureaucracies and weird errors. I'm actually quite impressed that 1. The department knew who I was right away, and 2. The problem had already been solved.
Maybe. I haven't seen the new bill yet.