11 years ago you said “I do”
11 years ago it was a Saturday too
Our wedding was crashed by an uninvited guest named Georges
By all of our out of town invited guests, he was not adored
In these years we’ve had some downs but a majority of ups
We expanded our family with a couple of kids and a couple of pups
Our girls are the perfect reflection of the beauty that is us
Calm, patient, beautiful and endearing with very minimal fuss
I would not change one single moment that has brought us to today
Our hands forever entwined nothing can ever not be OK
You’ve blessed me with love, grace and years of time
It still feels like yesterday the moment I asked you to be mine
There are no other words I can find to say what fills my heart through and through
Every inch of my heart, every molecule of my soul, is completely still in love with you

I still remember the exact moment I decided I was going to ask you out. We were at work and you were wearing your blue jean shorts overalls that day. You just sat someone a table and were walking back to your post as I checked you out and watched you walk away. It was in that moment something very clear and very strong pushed me to follow you. I remember striking up a conversation, putting my arm around your shoulder and dropping the very confident line “So when are we going out?” I guess it worked because you agreed with little threat of harm and the following Sunday we dined at the Coach and Four followed by the movie Forget Paris. I remember not kissing you on our first date, because I didn’t do that sort of thing. I remember what you wore and the hideous shirt I wore. It was 1995 though… Still, it feels like only yesterday. How is it possible 11 years of marriage and 14 years of companionship can only feel like 10 minutes? Because it was written in the stars and so perfectly aligned is how.

Thank you for 11 years of sharing my name. Thank you for putting up will all that is me for 14 years. Thank you for the 2 amazing lives we have created and most of all, thank you for spending the rest of our lives ahead together. I love you.

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For the rest of my readers, here’s some neat little tidbits of information that also took place on September 26, 1998. Or just in 1998…

It is true we got married in an outdoor ceremony in the middle of a hurricane. Hurricane Georges struck shortly before, during, and after our celebration. All of our activities took place outside in between rain bands. Although most of the effects were felt de to the lingering of this storm, here’s the Wiki Page of the effects.

The President gave this radio address on the morning of our wedding. It was all about the war on cancer he and his administration were waging. Pretty interesting to read today.

Some other interesting things that happened in 1998… (full list)

• Smoking banned in all restaurants and bars in California. (high five to California for starting this trend)
• Denver Broncos win Super Bowl defeating the Green Bay Packers (way to go boys!)
• S&P 500 breaks 1,000 for the first time
• Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan
• Dale Earnhardt wins 1st Daytona 500 in 20th attempt
• The first XML spec is released (nerdy coolness)
• Titanic wins 11 oscars
• FDA approves Viagra, older dudes with limp noodles and the porn industry celebrates
• George Michael gets arrested in the men’s room
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom opens (I remember going to the cool preview days)
• Detroit Red Wings sweep Washington to win the Stanley Cup
• France wins the World Cup in France defeating Brazil
• Microsoft releases Winblows 98
• Google, Inc. is founded
• The stupid Yankees won the World Series
• Mark McGuire juices up(allegedly?) and beats Roger Maris single season home run record
• AOL buys Netscape
• Elle Fanning, Jaden Smith, Bindi Irwin are born
• Sonny Bono, Harry Carey, Frank Sinatra, Phil Hartman, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry are unborn

So with the wife away for the next 5 days at a conference I get my little ones all to myself. Aside from all the work they will require on top of my other paying work I needed a good kickoff. So we went to dinner on a “Kids Eat Free” night which is always good. Because they each devoured every last morsel of their individual kids meals(fried shrimp and mac n cheese) with fruit cups, I treated us to a special desert. It’s called Capt’n Jack’s Buried Treasure. It’s a homemade ice cream cake with oreo cookie crust, caramel, chocolate fudge, and heath bar crunch served on a bed of hot fudge. Uh-huh, it IS as good as it sounds….see for yourself!

Waiting Patiently...

Let's start this party

Fun and Delicious!

all that remained

Ever get the shaft when seeing an ad for a service you already have enticing new customers with a sweet deal? If you have cable, satellite TV, or a cell phone chances are you have. Look, I understand the importance of special promotions to get new customers and increasing business. What I don’t understand is why the loyal customers always get the shaft. You know the fine print “New installations/customers only.” To that I say bullshit and enough is enough.

Right now, I’m watching my DirecTV service as I have at my current residence since 2002. In 2001 and 2002 we lived in an apartment where we could not have a dish. Before that, we had the service for 3 years. That translates to being a loyal customer for 10 years. A decade of monthly payments from my residence instead of monthly payments to a crappy cable company. I’m guessing an average of $120 a month, since I get HD and multiple receivers and the NHL package, for 10 years which is about $14,000 of my business that went to them and not their competition. I’m sure I’m underestimating too, I just don’t want to fully disclose what we really pay.

So a few weeks ago, I’m grazing through a magazine where I see a large ad from DirecTV. The new ad looks like this:

That’s not even the whole sweet deal. Go to the website, and if your not signed in as an existing customer you’ll see it for yourself. Basically you pay for the NFL package, exclusive to DirecTV, and you get all the other channels including movies for free. FREE. It lasts for 5 months and then you are expected to continue some level of HD service. My current PLUS package with HD is $65 a month. The Premium is $110 a month. I also have HBO and Showtime and the Sports pack which are also additional.

Back to where I am getting screwed. I would like to participate in this offer. I would like to pay less per month for 5 months and get more programming including the NFL games this season instead of shelling out an additional $300 plus the extra for the Premier package. If I wanted the same channels as a new customer, it would cost me $525 over 5 months. $525 is a lot more than the $300 a new customer has to pay. $225 savings to a new customer instead of a loyal existing customer. That’s not all though. See that free HD DVR receiver? I already bought one several years back. The HD DVR service being offered for free? Yup, I pay extra per month to have that as well. I even have all the needed equipment setup and installed already. So even more savings to a new customer.

I’m not asking for anything except for DirecTV to offer me the same programming at the same current promotional rate a new customer gets. I think having the service for 10 years is a good enough resume for offering me the promotion. Obviously I’m not going to leave the service anytime soon. Maybe I will be inclined to keep the Premier package after 5 months. Maybe I will be inclined to get the NFL package next year. Maybe I will continue to refer new customers to the service I have often bragged about in terms of quality and reliability. Or maybe not. Maybe not because to this company, a new customer likely to drop the service after the promotion ends is more important than a customer of 10 years. We have called them twice. Spoke to 2 different customer service reps about giving us the programming. We were rejected twice. We could not create a new account under a different name because the service address is the same. Basically, our reward for being loyal customers for 10 years is hearing “screw you” for even asking. For what? I estimate DirecTV would lose about $40 a month in programming from me. That’s right, DirecTV would be out a total of $200 JUST IN programming fees by giving me the same promotion. To DirecTV, 10 years of service is not even worth $200 to them. If you consider the savings they get in hardware and installation, it’s probably a wash.

As a consumer what can I do? I could say screw you right back and switch to the other dish service. I could switch to cable as well but I really prefer the signal quality and programming DirecTV offers over the rest. Why should I suffer though inferior services, in my opinion, just to say screw you to one company. One account obviously means nothing. $200 means nothing to this company, it’s all about customer volume I guess. All I ask is to be able to have the opportunity to take advantage of these offers. Stipulate I can only do one per calendar year, I’m fine with that, just give me the same options.

As consumers we need to stand up and demand that special offers like that need to be offered to loyal existing customers as well. As a corporation I can’t imagine you would prefer high turnover of revenue streams to a steady customer base that is loyal and vocal about the quality of service and customer relationships. In today’s economic climate and vast array of options in every service related industry, we have many options as consumers. It’s time to cut the crap and start treating existing and loyal customers equal or better than new and potential customers.