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Friday, September 7, 2007

AT & T Service Disruptions

I am not sure what is going on with AT & T but it seems that there service has failed us today. I woke up early in the morning and got on the phone (I do most of my work over the phone), by 10am my phone (Blackberry) stopped making any outgoing or incoming calls at all. Those that have tried to get in contact with me would not even get a busy signal or voice mail, the line would stay quite with not sound at all when someone called me.

Thankfully I was receiving my e-mails and sms messages.

When I got to the office I called AT & T to find out what is the problem, and they told me that they are experiencing difficulty with service in New York area, when I mentioned that it is effecting my business tremendously the representative told me that they sympathize with me but nothing can be done until approximately 2pm. How does that help me?

Thankfully my service was restored by 11:30am. But guess what, now I don't receive my e-mails.

This reminds me why I switched from AT & T 7 years ago and now I thought that it would be different this time, but I guess nothing has changed.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Los Angeles - Day 8

I haven’t had a chance to upload pictures from today just yet and will probably do it tomorrow night when we are back in New York.

It has been a wonderful day in LA, a little hot, but we are not complaining.

We took another tour this morning to see the City of Angeles, or at least the famous places that everyone talks about.

Let me recount what we saw: the Hollywood sign - did you know it was originally put up as an advertisement for a company, but then it was decided to keep it for the sake of the industry; Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, some of that walk of fame, the foot and hand prints of famous actors. Then we went into Beverly Hills to see, of course, you guessed it, the houses of the rich and famous, among those were Tom Cruze, Shawn Connery, Tom Hanks and so on and so forth. Wonderful estate, a lot of property, everything is green and neat with butlers, maids and service entrances for personnel. :) Of course we loved it.

Quick pick at the Rodeo drive, the van didn’t stop for us to shop, and that somehow is a good thing. But all your favorite boys and girls are here: Channel, Dior, Michael Corrs, I might be misspelling some of the names, forgive me, but there were so many of them there.

We did stop at Farmers Market, and had a quick lunch there. Again I picked at some stores, but there was no sense to shop so far away from home in a timed break. Common shopping is not something you do in a rush, ok maybe if there is a big sale, but that is a different story.

After that we came back to our room and just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. And now we are sitting in the lobby of our hotel and I am working on this blog, while Gor checks some news and figures our way to the airport for tomorrow.

It is always a little sad when your vacation is over, but to be completely honest with you, we love our home too much, so we are actually happy to get back to our place.

Kisses, pictures are going to be posted tomorrow evening.

Pictures are here

Los Angeles - Day 7

Los Angeles, there is a lot of controversy about this city. Some will say they love it, so will hate it; some will just simply stay indifferent. We liked it a lot, not enough to say that we want to live here if a right opportunity will come along, but enough to say that this is a place where you can have a good time, either just the two of us or coming out with friends. There is definitely a lot of interesting things to do here.

So today we spent the whole day at Universal Studio, I have strategically made reservations for a VIP tour around Universal Studio, and it came out great. Aside from having a illustrious tour guide, who obviously likes what she does for a living, we have managed to get on practically every ride and without having to stay in line.

You will see on the pictures some of the rides that we were on, and just to mention a few: Back to the Future (which will be closed tomorrow for good), its been open for 14 years to entertain and now will be permanently closed. Instead of it there will be a new ride made especially for Simpsons.

The Terminator, Shreck, Sea World, and Jurassic Park were among many rides we took today.

But I am also taking my hats off to the tour behind the scenes of the studios itself: the making of the sound, and decorations, I can go on with the list of the things that we saw and learned about endlessly.

Just to sum it up, if there is a kid in any one of you my dear friends, this is the place where that kid should come out and have fun to the full extent.

By the time we came back to the hotel we were pleasantly tired. So we went to bed right away.

Well without further bragging about it, here are the pictures, see it for yourself. Pictures

Santa Barbara and Universal City - Day 6

We left Pismo Beach at about 11 am and started moving toward our final destination Los Angeles. Since we skipped breakfast we decided to stop for quick bite at Santa Maria. I don’t know what it is, but food excites me (in a good way of course), so we went in an all you can it buffet. It was good and we sure enjoyed both the main course of breakfast and of course ice cream for desert covered with chocolate chips and crushed nuts.

Then we have stopped at Starbucks a few miles away, and did “number twerve” (if you don’t know the joke please use the link joke (sorry don’t have it now but promise to post it later), if you have no time to watch the joke is has to do with the fact that this was a drive through Starbucks. Satisfied with out version of the joke we then got back on the road to see the beauty of the Pacific Coast and to visit Santa Barbara on the way.

Santa Barbara turned out to be a beautiful town, we only had time to explore the State street with its shops, cathedral and Museum of Art. And guess what the bus that runs up and down this busy street cost only 25 cents, that is why it is filled with tourists and those who just begged for the money. But it is beautiful and we appreciated the little streets and shops that we saw. I am hoping you would be able to appreciate by looking at the pictures that we did.

Of course those of you who know that in the 80th and 90th everyone was watching a soap opera “Santa Barbara” in Moscow, for sure and probably other parts of Russian Federation. It was an experience, I haven’t missed an episode of “Santa Barbara” Somewhere from 1990 through 1994, then I came to New York and realized that the show lasted 20 years, so I parted my ways with it. But being in Santa Barbara, felt like being in a place where you know pretty much everyone, and even though we haven’t really run into Cruz, Iden or Mayson, we also still don’t know if Cici is in a coma. But it was great and we loved it.

Then we were on the way to our hotel in Universal City, which is 7 minutes walking from the Universal Studio and since everything has been ordered through AMEX, we are of course are treated to complimentary breakfast all three days, wine and cheese platter to fulfill our Romance package, and are staying at Sheraton with a very impressive lobby. I am sitting in the lobby at this moment enjoying my complimentary Mimosa and Gor just finished his Mohito waiting to be checked in. I will finish the blog with links to the joke and links to pictures tonight.

And I am back, not that you would notice the break that I took from writing, but we had dinner at Universal Studio Street Mall and it seems great. We are going to spend a whole day there, since we booked ourselves some VIP trip.

and here are the pictures for you, and wine and cheese in the room for me. :)

Pictures are here