Last Saturday, I had at&t’s new service U-verse installed throughout my house. The technology is really impressive, but let’s just say there are some teething problems that, so far, are degrading the ‘wow’ factor.

The at&t installer showed up just after 9am on Saturday, and quickly got to work. She ran some tests on the signal coming to the box on the side of the house, and then at the individual outlets. She spent the better part of two hours tracing the mangled up cable runs from my basement, and an additional hour sorting out the copper jungle that hung from the rafters that provide telephone service.

She sorted out and organized all of that mess, and then tacked up up neatly to the ceiling. She was very polite the entire time, and did not mind that I looked over her shoulder to see how things come together.

According to a Reuters report, the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States could draw a salary, it would amount to about $138,000 per year. Of course, that’s assuming that she’s paid for a 92-hour work week, with 40 hours drawn at base pay and 52 hours drawing overtime pay.

A list of occupations dear old mom may have on her resume:

Housekeeper, cook, psychologist, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer, and psychologist.

A salary of $138,000 per year seems a bit low, all things considered.

Anyway, it’s something to keep in mind this …

Today, Provident Energy Trust (PVX: chart, web, Y!) offered to purchase Capitol Energy Resources Ltd. for 467 million Canadian dollars, or about $420.5 million USD.

Provident is paying a 3 percent premium for the company and a 10 percent premium to the 30-day average closing price. One down side is that PVX will assume Capitol’s net debt of about C$41 million.

Capitol owns a conventional oil field in Canada’s Alberta province. The company estimates the field holds 30 million barrels of proved and probable oil reserves.

The deal’s closing is …

It seems our friends to the North are implementing a new surveillance system to track license plates. In short, they use cameras to record license plate numbers, and it then compares the numbers to “license plates of interest”.

It’s kind of an interesting way to find stolen cars, uninsured cars, cars driven by drivers with suspended licenses, etc.

I’m sure there will be those who claim this will be technology that can be used against your personal freedoms, however I think it may be a good tool for law enforcement to use to expedite criminal investigations.

Of course, I have nothing to be afraid of. And neither does my car!

Today Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez took control of Venezuela’s last foreign-controlled oilfields, situated in the Orinoco Belt, which could contain the biggest oil reserves in the world.

He basically came in and forced any U.S. oil producer out, however compensation for their assets is still being negotiated.

So what does this mean for us, and why should we care?

For one, I think Mr. Chavez is on some thin ice. He really doesn’t know what he’s up against, as it takes some serious money and advanced technical know-how to drill and produce oil in the vast depths of the Gulf of Mexico. The serious money he has, the advanced technical know-how …