Purchases

This weekend I made two, hopefully, life changing purchases.  I'm not sure which one I'm more excited about really.  I think it may be the more expensive one, or at least the more expensive one up front.  In the long run, it'll be the bargain.  I'd been going back and forth between which thing I wanted to get.  They're very different and serve very different purposes.  One was very high tech and the other pretty low tech.  Both can help me with goals I have and both are fun.  I thought I was only going to be able to get one or the other, but as luck would have it, and thanks to a sale at Target and a generous offer from Gak, who knew I wanted both and couldn't decide, I was able to get both.
Do you see that lovely picture up at the top of this post.  This is a picture from the web of my new bicycle (actually, mine's purple, not blue).  Yes, I actually bought myself a new bike.  Gak helped pay for a bit of it and a new helmet since I got rid of my old one ages and ages ago.  I'd been bitten by the bike bug when we moved into this new apartment.  It got worse, much worse, this spring.  You see, I've become quite active again and well, I always loved spending time on my bike rolling around the neighborhood and getting around.  Town is nice and flat (for those of us who aren't used to biking hills right now...) and we live close enough to the grocery store (and many others) as well as the park and some other fun things, that running errands or going for a ride with my son would be awesome, not to mention gas saving.  (Sorry about the run-on there...)
I have yet to get Boo a seat for the back of the bike and a helmet for him to wear.  I wanted to get back into the swing of things before getting that.  Also, I was hoping Kat still had her old one because this will be the last year that Boo will be able to ride it because by next year he'll be too tall even if he's not too heavy.  But, her old seat is being borrowed by another friend, so I'll invest in one of my own to keep in the family or sell/give to someone else next year.
I got to ride for a good bit Sunday after we picked her up, but it's been raining most of the last few days, so I haven't been able to.

As for my second purchase, it was a new phone.  I was eligible for a new upgrade.  I'd been toying with and tossing out the idea of going to a smart phone.  I figured if I did, it would be to an Android based OS.  Partially because I knew I'd never afford an iPhone (I know, the 3G or 3Gs is $50 now... but, I'd want to go 4 because with electronics always get the newest/fastest you can for your buck).  Partially because as much as Gak enjoyed his iPhone, it had a few quirks I didn't enjoy and you seem to get so much more with a 'Droid.  Well, Gak said he'd buy me a new phone.  It turns out he didn't have to.  We'd gone to the AT&T store to play with some of the phones a few weeks ago, and again over the weekend, and I'd found a couple that I really liked.  It turns out that one of the top rated ones was on sale at Target.
Yes, Target again.
For free.
Yes, that's right.  Free.
I go the Samsung Captivate.  It's got a huge screen.  It's got some really cool features and is very easy to navigate.  And did I mention the Droid app store is huge?  I've downloaded a handful of free apps, including two from Weight Watchers.  (Yes, I'm still following the plan, but even if I wasn't actively trying to loose weight, I'd still be following the plan to some degree, as it helps keep the amount of food I eat "real" and helps me not put all that hard work back on.)  I think I'm going to enjoy being a smart phone owner, even though I fought the idea tooth and nail for years.  Actually, I was still fighting it a week or so ago when Gak ordered his new phone (an LG Windows phone) because we were both up for upgrades.  (I was going to just hang on to mine for a good long time since it wasn't broken and did what I wanted it to, but then I realized I was paying for a new phone in my monthly bill anyhow.  Yes, most cell companies pad your bill with the cost of a new phone as part of your monthly access charges, even if they don't say so... that's why a $500 phone can be "free".)

So, in the long run my $180 bike will cost less than my free phone, but that's only because I now have a $15 a month data plan.  (Which is more that I'll probably need since I'm on wi-fi at home and try very hard not to use it at work...)  I'm very happy with both my phone and my bike.  I've been able to use the phone more, if only because I can use it when it's raining.  (Yes, I can bike when it's raining, but I prefer not to...)

Anyhow, I'm very pleased with my purchases, but I've now got 10 minutes or less to get together my breakfast, my lunch and get dressed and out the door.

Peace to all and may you get the tools you need and may they be ones you love.

Phone Review

This week is interesting so far at work. I'm beginning to learn the parts department part of my job. I don't have much to say at the moment except... well... there's room for improvement....

I'm not going to talk about work tonight.

I don't think I'll talk about the boy (too much) tonight.

No, what I realized the other night is that I said back a month ago that I'd let you know how I like my new phone, the LG C360, after a while.

Well, it's been a while.

The short version, I like it... I really truly like it. There are still a few little quarks I'm getting used to, but mostly because it's just a little different than my old phone.

I'll start with the few down sides I've seen so far. The screen is pretty hard to see in bright daylight. The text entry method is pretty cool over all, especially if you have the word predictive feature turned on (this will actually predict the next word you want to type) in order to enter numbers it's a slightly annoying process, but not too bad.

And that's about the only bad things I have to say. I've only called someone from my pocket once. The slide is nice and solid and usually stays shut when you shove it into your pocket. The ring is nice and loud. Sound quality of conversations is good. The camera, while not as good as my point-n-shoot is good enough for what it is. I mean, come on, it's a camera phone, not a Nikon DSLR. I use it to capture the random cute moments of my son when I don't have my camera with me... or the spontaneous something I want to share, not take a real photograph of. The battery life is decent enough. I've been getting about 4 days per charge if I let it drain all the way. If I forget and get to the point where it beeps at you, it'll beep twice and then shut off instead of just keeping up it's annoying racket. The buttons are responsive and the menus make sense for the most part.

So, yeah, overall I like my new phone. And I think Gak is still in love with his iPhone. I think we got the phones right this time.

Anyhow, I've been poking at this for a while now... listening to my son sing in his crib. I also listened to a preview on G4 for my brother's current project: Saboteur. It sounds like G4 was pretty impressed with it and it's got some unique features. Looks like it could be fun. It's release date is slated for December 8th, just in time for holiday gifting. (Yes, I'm pumping up my brother's project. I want it to do well so he continues to do well. He likes the company he's with and it seems to be going in good directions.)

Oh, on other random news bits... my brother and Becca are finally moving in together. No, they didn't buy a place, they're renting. They're renting a townhouse in the community they eventually want to buy in. I think it'll be great. I hope their move goes smoothly and they can find a unit to actually own soon.

Well, I think I've rambled enough. I'm off. I picked up one of the "new" Puzzle Quest games for my DS. I say "new" because it actually came out in 2008, but I haven't really bought or played much since before Boo was born. Oh, side note, don't buy Myst for your DS. The graphics suck and without the graphics, the game isn't playable.

Peace to all and may your technology be good to you.

New Phone and Long Weekends

Well, we went and did it yesterday.

Gak and I got our new phones. I won't deny that his iPhone is very cool. I want one, but only because it's a really cool toy and is shiny and neat.... and.... Oh, wait... where was I?

Anyhow, this is a picture of my new phone. It's the LG CF360. I tried out 3 or 4 yesterday. This is the one that I'd been looking at the last time I was there. I kept handing them to Boo to see if he would/could slide them open. Well, the first one I handed him he dropped in about half a second flat. I guess he didn't like it. There was one or two that I didn't even bother to hand him. The next one he held onto for about a second, but didn't deem it worthy either. This one, however, he held onto and happily shook until I had to take it out of his hands. I think he liked it. No, he never did try and slide it open or chew on it. We'll see how boy proof it is when I leave it sitting somewhere within his grasp.

So far I'm happy with it. It fits easily in my hand, sounds good and has just enough options to make me happy. It's got the phone, the camera, it will actually send photo messages instead of blanking out on me... It's got a calendar I can use to put reminders and things on, an alarm clock and several other useful little features. It's just what I need and not too much more. I can do more with it, but it'll cost me an arm and a leg because I don't have a data plan, other than my $5/200 message adder. That thought alone will keep me in check.

I'll let you know how everything goes in a couple of weeks... if I remember. If I don't, it's because it's become a ubiquitous part of my life and I'm just not paying attention to it, and that's how a phone should be.

Anyhow, this post wasn't supposed to just be about my new phone.

Today is the beginning of a 3-day weekend for me! Yay! And Gak actually has both Saturday and Sunday off! I like that thought. Unfortunately, he has to work all day today.

Today the game plan is for me to drop Gak off and work and then for Boo and I to head off and get the laundry out of the way. Then we'll be on our way down to GrammaSue's. (I think Boo is actually saying Amma and meaning Gramma these days.... so he's up to Momma, Dadda and Amma....) I was thinking of heading over to Tyler Arboretum this afternoon, or maybe just the Nature Center. I'm not sure. It depends on Boo and the weather I'm guessing.

Tomorrow is still a bit up in the air as to what we're doing. I don't think anyone has real plans yet. Maybe I'll see if Kat/Scott/Joan etc. want to just throw some dogs or burgers on at her place and sit by the fire for the evening. Although, in order to see the fire works, all I have to do is sit in my kitchen. I'm not sure how Boo will do though... last year he was well asleep by the time of fireworks and it was pouring anyhow so there weren't really any to go see. I'm sure he'll be fine... but maybe not if we're watching from home...

Sunday will be another grand adventure. In only the way it can be with my group of friends. (So yes, that means inject a HUGE dose of chaos right about.... here.)

To make a long and confusing story a bit shorter and hopefully make a little more sense... Kat and Joan were going to take the kids camping this weekend from Saturday through Tuesday. Well, after surviving the normal chaos that surrounds all we do... it turns out that We're going up to Knoebles on Sunday and while Gak, Boo and I are going to come home Sunday evening, everyone else is going to camp overnight there. I wish we could, but there is no way I'd be able to take off Monday. (See previous post about reporting month...) Oh well. There will be other weekends this summer.

Anyhow, I'd better wrap this up. It's getting a little long winded and if you've stuck with me this long, you either really love me, or more than likely, you're really bored. *laugh*

Anyhow, peace to all and may your weekends be good and your phone work.

Brain Melt

First things first... No, I didn't get dragon pictures yesterday. Yes, Boo turned 13 months old and it was even sunny out, but I just didn't get the photos. He was a tired, cranky boy and so I put him down in his crib for a bit. He didn't actually sleep, but he was content to just lie down for a while and unwind I think.

Now, on to other things. Like my brain melting. I've been staring at numbers all day and they're all getting a little bit blurry. There were some changes made recently to the reporting software and checking software and so, that means a lot of double checking and stuff on my end. And my brain hurts. It feels like it's about to turn into a puddle at the base of my skull. I wonder if I tilt my head to the side if it'll leak out my ear. I hope not. I need it for a while yet.

Other than being very busy and hectic here at work, it is going well. I'm not sure if I said anything, but one of my buddies who was a contractor here left at the end of last week for a permanent position. He'd only been here for a short time, but he was a good guy, who seemed to be trying hard and was fun to have around. I'll miss him. It also turns out that George, the contractor who's been here for a bit over a year now and I had doing a good bit of the training is going to be the new training manager. I'm actually pretty excited about that. Less training that I'll have to do to get him up to speed and I know he's going to do a great job at it. It doesn't become truly official for another two weeks or something like that yet, but close enough. In reality it wouldn't really happen until closer to August anyhow, with it being reporting month and all. I already told him and the rest of the group I don't care if they throw out everything I did and start from scratch. In many ways the whole training program could use that. It needs a major overhaul by a fresh set of hands with lots of new ideas. I just hope that he doesn't get bogged down and his ideas squished flat.

Well, I'd better check on the evaluation I was running while typing this. Wish me luck. This is try 3 or 4 with this set of reports.

Oh, Gak and I are heading over to the AT&T store this evening. He's getting the iPhone. I still haven't made up my mind quite yet. I like the one I was playing with last time, but I'm not sure if there aren't some other features I'd like to have as well. I know I'm not getting any kind of smart phone. I so don't need the distraction. If I was still traveling all the time, that would be a totally different story. I'd pick one up in a heartbeat. It would be a bit of a life saver really. Oh well.

I'm off... my rocker maybe, but I'm off.

Peace to all and may your brain not melt.

Blink

Where did the time go? Last I looked it was still Wednesday and I had the rest of a long week ahead of me and a weekend to look forward to. Now it's Tuesday again already. Uh.... did I blink or something?

Anyhow, I guess I should recap some of the highlights from the last week. Gak worked his butt off all week open to close. Some days were buys, some days not so much. Boo had a good week at day care. It seems he doesn't like hot dogs any better at school than he does at home. I'm lucky in the fact that if you get it into his mouth, he'll swallow it about 99% of the time.

Let's see... I know I've missed some boy milestones recently. He's using his Tonka truck that PopPop gave him for his birthday like a pro, even giving Trey a ride from time to time. He's really Mr. Squirmey when it comes to butt changes. He's drinking regular milk about half of the time in the day. I still pump in the early am most mornings and he nurses first thing and last thing (if he's awake when I leave...). At school he gets some regular milk with lunch and bottles of momma milk in the afternoon. He's also started eating shredded cheese all by itself. I'd tried to get him to eat it before, but suddenly Saturday night he decided he did like it. He's up to 4 teeth up top... and maybe a molar coming in back, but I really don't know. He really hates it when I stick my fingers in his mouth.

On Saturday our friend Chris was having a yard sale. I took over a ton of clothes Boo couldn't fit in any more. Yes, I kept several things back for me, but I still had tons to take. The biggest news of the day was watching Boo put an entire strawberry in his mouth and chew it up. That boy loves his strawberries! I made one whole sale for a quarter. I blame the advertising, Dianne forgot to put the baby stuff in the listing. Oh well. It all went to Goodwill after. I promised myself that none of it would be coming back into the house. We've got enough crap clogging up the spaces.

Other than that, a low key weekend. We wandered around a bit. We had to replace Boo's copy of "Very Hungry Caterpillar" as it finally broke in two. Sorry Becca, I think... but it just goes to show how much he loves that book! We also shopped phones some more. It looks like Gak is going to get the iPhone and just give me the extra for the data plan. I've decided an iPone is a very bad idea for me... especially at work.

In other news, Boo got us all sick. He had a bit of a cold over the weekend and yesterday, Gak and I both came down with it hard. I have a doctor's appointment this morning for my allergies and asthma, so that's all good. I also plan on talking to her about my foot because I've had an "ow" issue for a while now and should probably get it poked at. And maybe I can talk to her about my sleep, or lack there of... I can get to sleep just fine, but staying that way for more than an hour or two at a shot hasn't happened much in a very long time. It's not Boo related, he's been sleeping through since he was about 10 weeks old... that's almost a year ago now! (Eep! When did that happen????)

Anyhow, I'd better pay attention to my boy. He's trying to steal the mouse again. Oh, there are new pictures up on Flickr.

Peace to all and may time not disappear on you.

I Love (?) AT&T

Well, that was an exercise in extreme patience and almost futility.
I just spent over an hour on the line with AT&T trying to straighten out something I should have taken care of over a year ago.
Yes, that's right, a year ago.
Back shortly after we moved into the new apartment, Gak and I got new phones. I forget the whole story, but for whatever reason we couldn't transfer Gak's old number to a new phone. Something having to do with the AT&T/Cingular merger. Anyhow, we were able to keep mine (thankfully!), but this whole thing required us to close out the old account and open up a new one with my number and Gak's new number. No big deal. My bills have been automatically billed to the credit card. I noticed two bills each month from AT&T, but as the company was paying, I kept saying "I'll take care of this next week." Well, next week finally came. (I'm truly embarrassed at how long this took me...)
What really prompted this is Gak's phone started acting up yesterday (it's better today) and I figured I should probably get all this straightened out.
I called the 800 number given to me online on my account. I even got to talk to a real, live human being pretty quickly. It all went downhill after that.
Once I got through to him that my number is actually on two accounts he transferred me to his manager because he couldn't find the second account. I then had to repeat the entire story to the new guy. He did find the second account, but it was on the "old" billing system. He then transferred me to some chicky who talked too fast who was on the "old" system because he could only access the "new" system. So, yet again I have to try and explain everything. She muddles her way through for a bit and then transfers me to another woman. Well, it turns out that this woman was also on the "new" system. I almost didn't find that out in time. I almost accidentally got Gak's new number canceled! Eeep! He would not have appreciated that.
Well, she transfers me to another woman. Yes, that's right, this is person number 5 that I've talked to. She quickly figures out she can't help me. I'm trying very hard not to loose my cool at this point. I mean, I worked customer support for power plants for 4.5 years and have been traveling with the wonderful airlines for the last 3. I know a lot of these problems aren't their faults, they can only do what their systems tell or let them.
I have to remind myself of this several times.
This woman was nice enough to stay on the line with me while she connects me to person number 6. Person number 6 makes sure she understands what's going on and I double check to make sure she's talking about the right account. By now all kinds of numbers are getting mixed up in my head and I can't read my own writing any more. (Not like it's that great to begin with...) I'm pretty sure it was this 6th person that was finally able to cancel my old account.
This whole adventure took over an hour.
It's a good thing I'm not overly busy at work.
Of course, I hang up the phone and about 5 seconds later Gak calls to tell me he's still at work and to pick him up there. I relay the outline of the adventure and he just groans.
All this because we need to get Gak a new phone soon.
And from what I've heard, AT&T has slightly above average customer service for the cell companies. At least everyone I dealt with was polite and I'm pretty sure were native English speakers. (Hey, I have nothing against someone in India or elsewhere being support, if I can understand them, and they can understand me. They've got people just as bright, if not brighter, than people here... I don't care who helps me, but I shouldn't have to ask them to repeat themselves 10 times to understand they told me to reboot the computer.)
Ugh.
Well, I'm going to get a few emails sent out and turn off my brain and go home.
Peace to all and may your phone bills be simple, and your customer service needs few.