A historic moment Tonight, the boy peed in the potty for the first time, and after he asked to sit on it bare-bottomed for the first time. For a parent, this is like being a first-round NFL draft choice -- you are in the game, now you have to reach the Super Bowl (so to speak).

The return of cranky boy Our 2 1/2 year old, after a week or so of happiness, has started being more like a 2 year old in the last couple days. On Friday he wouldn't let his mom take him to the car after a doctor's appointment (he was looking at a fish tank in the lobby), and later wouldn't leave his day-care classroom. Yesterday, he was happy most of the day but would not nap, and then around dinner time started to get very, very cranky. He must have been badly in need of sleep, because when I picked him up he fell asleep very quickly -- and slept from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. with only a brief interruption. Saturdays are often like that -- he is too excited to nap, and then collapses. This is different that his mom and dad, who are collapsing all week long.

Another sign of getting old An amusing column in today's Boston Globe contains this sentence: "Back in the Paleozoic Era, about the time of its last full-scale renovation, the Park Plaza wasn't a bad hotel; these days, it's more exhausted than just tired, catering mostly to downscale conventions, airline crews, and people who don't know any better." Now, I can't say if Brian's right about its current condition, but a while back my wife and I started our honeymoon there. This was back in the "Paleozoic Era" after that renovation. It seems the hotel recently hosted the "Fetish Fair Fleamarket", and a visiting family reported that "As the elevator door opened, in walked a woman in a leather bustier leading, by a dog leash and collar, a man wearing nothing but a string thong." I guess that would have added some spice to a honeymoon ...

How low can you go I donated a couple of old coats to the Pine Street Inn. One of them was a NY (really NJ) Giants coat. They need men's winter wear badly for the homeless. All seriousness aside, my wife wondered which was the worse fate: To freeze to death on the street, or to walk around wearing a Giants' jacket. After this season, you have to wonder.

Motivation I am not feeling very good today, and was debating either taking a day off or working from home. Then the boy put a Bob the Builder tape in the VCR for about the 100 millionth time. OK, I'm not staying home today. Starting to wish that Bob has an unfortunate accident involving Rolly. (If you don't understand, count yourself lucky.

Me, too It just occurred to me that some people might think the rather dull stuff I write about here, and not very often either, is all I'm thinking about. Well there is a lot more, some of which might not make sense, and most of which is just too private for here. Sorry, but you are better off not knowing. As I said, it doesn't make much sense anyway.

Can this get more complicated I'd vowed to stop writing about FedEx, but I have to add this update. Today, after concluding that my first attempt to "overnight" a package to my eBay seller had been lost, I stopped payment on the money order, laid out cash for a second one, and sent another overnight letter. Tonight, the first package suddenly arrived at the seller. Now I have to explain that they can't cash the first money order, but have to wait until tomorrow for the second one. Apparently, the first package was somehow found by FedEx -- althought they never contacted me, even though I had complained about being able to find it before. And the tracking history, starting yesterday, suddenly appeared on the FedEx site. I think I need to become a subsistence farmer or something; my current life is way too much of a hassle.

A good word Since I've been slamming lots of people recently, I should put in a good word for Same Day Service. They come to your house and fix appliances, and they really come on the same day you call. Our dryer had slowly lost its fire, so my wife called them yesterday, and a rep came over and rebuilt the dryer and installed a better vent pipe. It cost a bit, but no hassels and no waiting. This is the third time we've used them and have always been impressed. The best thing is that, with both the washer and dryer, they showed up with the correct parts on the truck to fix them.

Ultimate Tivo Gnome-Girl wants to "tivo my life please". Well, this is close: A friend at work recounted today that he and friends were not quite ready to toast the arrival of 2004, so he paused the broadcast of the ball dropping until they were ready. Who says time waits for no one.

More stupidity Not to beat a dead horse, but I guess a FedEx box might as well be a garbage can, if they lose your package. I would not be so upset if someone didn't threaten to give me negative feedback on eBay for not paying on time, as well as relisting the item I was trying to buy. In the past I've come to rely on FedEx. Now I am starting to wonder. Here's an exchange I had with them by email. I'd like to hear what you think. Didn't I explain that I knew the tracking number wasn't in their system. Am I being too harsh? From: trackingsupport@fedex.com Subject: Re: FedEx Express Domestic: Status of Shipment Date: January 5, 2004 11:17:51 AM EST To: markj@3cat.com We received your inquiry. Thank you for contacting FedEx. Unfortunately, the airbill number you provided is invalid or not found in our system. Please verify it, then make another attempt to track your shipment using our online tracking page: http://www.fedex.com/us/tracking. If you continue to have difficulties, call our Customer Service department at 1.800.Go.FedEx® 800.463.3339 for assistance. We hope this information is helpful. Again, thank you for contacting FedEx. [name omitted] On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 20:55:00 -0600 (CST) you wrote: Name: Mark H. James E-Mail: markj@3cat.com Nature of Request: Package Trace Support Question How would you like us to respond: Email Me Category: FedEx Express Domestic Subcategory: Status of Shipment Package Tracking #: XXXXXXX Account Number: XXXXXXXX Appx. Ship Date: 12/31/2003 Sender's Name: Mark H. James Recipient's Name: XXXXXXX Comments: This is my SECOND REQUEST for more information about this shipment. It was put in a drop box in Cambridge, MA, on 12/31/2003, but the tracking number has not appeared on your site and the recipient expected payment Friday. So far all I have gotten is a form autoresponse from you. I pay for overnight service and expect a quicker response. Thank you

I didn't know ... That livejournal is done with open source software. Sometimes we forget that lots of not-so-geeky Web sites are powered by open source. And open source plays a big role in lots of very commercial software, including what I write at work and the OS of the Mac I'm writing this on now. This is very old news, I know. Unless you listen to Microsoft. For some reason, lots of people do.

When customer service sucks Today's gripe is about FedEx. It is supposed to be an overnight delivery service. On Wednesday I dropped a FedEx envelope, complete with airbill, in a FedEx box in Cambridge, MA. So far, however, the tracking number has not shown up on FedEx website. I know everyone makes mistakes, but when I tried to contact them through the form on their website about 10:30 today, all I've gotten back is a automatic response that told me nothing. Do FedEx drop boxes not work? Is FedEx not responsible for what gets put there? It seems if you do overnight delivery, you need to respond to questions a little faster. My second complaint is about Western Union's auctionpayments.com site (formerly bidpay.com). I had two problems with them. First, a payment was returned as undeliverable, sent out again, and never received. Second, they refused to approve a payment, but did not tell me this for about a week and a half. Again, I used the form on their website to submit questions. With them, it took many days, and a second loud complaint, to get a confusing response. Even now, the first payment is still listed as being sent, even though they told me it had been canceled. Fair disclosure: I helped build one of the leading email response management software packages. I would love it if people used it, but when I'm the customer I just hope they use something. At least FedEx has a number I can call. Auction (non) payments doesn't list any phone numbers. You have to write to them, via snail mail. Very high-tech.

Random note snazzykat has the best error page around.

2004 Happy New Year, everyone! As for me, I slept through midnight. Or more accurately, I was planning to, until my still-not-gone coughing woke me up. I rang in the new year staring at a Web browser without my glasses, trying to buy stuff on eBay (and accidentally bidding $199 for something when I meant to bid $100. Memo: Wear glasses next time). Resolutions? I am vowing to start working out again, but I'm always doing that. More seriously, I think my main resolution is to try to not look ahead a year or five years. I need to spend more time enjoying the present, instead of bemoaning losses of the past or uncertainty about the future. This doesn't mean I won't try to fix things I don't like about my life. But I need to spend more time fixing and less time planning to fix. They say kids make you think about the future, but I think my new one is making me think more about the present. And especially, a little bit less about the past.