My Mimi Moment

Well a couple of days ago my DSL went out. I ran my Adware, Spybot, Stinger and AFG softwares and they found a couple of things but nothing real big. I ran them because last time my DSL went out, it was because a virus had "eaten the internet modem connection." So then I ran the softwares that came with the stinkin Dell. Nothing. I decided that rather than pay some guy to reformat my hard drive, I'd do it myself. How hard could it be, right?

So I go to my mom's and look up on the internet how to do this step by step. I take notes. Reformatting the hard drive means I will lose EVERYTHING, including my DSL software, which isn't working anyway, but I really don't want to call Verizon and get a new DSL package, so I decide to call them and see what they say.

"Thank you for calling Verizon DSL technical support, my name is You-wont-remember-in-ten-seconds, how can I help you?"
"Yeah, my DSL isn't working."
"Can you describe the problem in a little more detail?"
"Um... I click on Internet Explorer and it says it can't find the server."
"So it's not connecting to the central server."
"Darn, you people are geniuses. Glad I called."
"Are the lights on the modem lit?"
"Yeah, the power and ethernet are, the DSL is blinking, and the internet is unlit."
"Ah, your modem isn't communicating with the central server."
"No crap, really?"
"Let me test the line, one moment please.... Yes, it's definately not communicating."
"I'm glad there are people at Verizon like you who can tell me what's going on, cause you know, I'm REALLY confused."
"We like to help our customers."
"I noticed."
"Well, we'll sent a technician out tomorrow to have a look at it, ok?"
"Ok, bye." Click.

So the tech comes at ten o'clock.

"Let's check all the lines first. Where is the phone jack?"
"Over there in the corner."
Tech walks over, moves the cat box, stands back up, looks at wall, looks at me and smiles.
"I think I found your problem."
"Did you find the missing hamster?"
"Hahaha. No, the phone cord is unplugged." Reaches down and plugs it in.
"Darn kids!"
"Have a nice day, ma'am."