Amusing anecdote about the present I let him open this morning: About six weeks ago, when I first saw it in Staples, I'd decided to get him the USB Palm Connect kit, so he could sync up his Palm with his Powerbook. Last Sunday, Matt was going to play Ultimate Frisbee, and I decided to use the opportunity to pick it up for him. But when I got to the Staples, the damn place was closed. So I sighed and decided to by it after work on Monday.
Sunday night, Matt told me, "I'm adding something new to my wishlist!"
Thinking of Christmas coming up, I was thrilled. I said, "Oh, really? What?"
"The Palm USB kit!"
Heh. At least I knew it would be well-received.
My parents are taking us out to dinner tonight to celebrate the occasion, and Matt decided he wanted to go to the Peddler, which is a local very nice steakhouse. I'm looking forward to it.
You know, it occurred to me this morning that from about mid-October through January, I live pretty much in anticipation of the next celebration or holiday.
Hallowe'en.
Then my birthday.
Thanksgiving and Matt's birthday are right around the same time, though which actually comes first varies a bit.
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season, which isn't so much one celebration or event as a whole month of them.
And then, of course, New Year's.
This year, we're adding one more celebration to the mix - Matt's dad's wedding, which will be in two weeks.
Gonna be a hectic month.
Our Thanksgiving, as I've already told the notify list, was very good, though Matt and I have a 'fridge bursting at the seams with leftovers. But that's not exactly a bad thing!
Actually, as I fixed myself a leftovers lunch this morning, I noticed that the leftovers are going faster than I'd anticipated. Which also is not a bad thing. I need to re-bake the potato-apple casserole, because I discovered yesterday that the center of it isn't completely cooked. (Mmm. Raw potatoes.) And I need to figure out something to do with leftover cranberry sauce. But everything else is going to be eaten up before the week is out, or else is waiting for some specific use. (For instance, the ham my folks left us is waiting to be part of a macaroni and cheese casserole.)
We do still have a Dutch apple pie and a half-gallon of butter pecan ice cream in the freezer untouched, waiting for some excuse to use them, but how hard is that? (Hey, it's Matt's birthday! Pie and ice cream!)
Anyway, I'd meant to take a picture of the table once it was all set and laid out with food, because this was the first year I'd made Thanksgiving dinner mostly by myself, and we'd be eating off our own china, and quaffing water from our new crystal, and I was feeling proud of myself and happy with my beautiful table... But in the rush, I forgot. Sorry, guys.
I've been waffling for a couple of months about whether I should get a cell phone again. I had one for a while, but I hardly ever used it. In fact, I eventually cancelled it because it was never even charged. But then, when I did want to use it, it was really helpful, and it was nice to know I had it if the car broke down, or something unexpected came up while I was out.
So this time, I thought, I'd plan more carefully. I'd get a recharger that I could keep in the car, so I wouldn't have to remember to take the phone out of my purse and plug it in every night. And I'd research the plan options much more carefully. Just recently, I'd been hearing about two options that I thought were especially nice: Family plans (in which multiple phones all draw from the same bank of minutes and receive a single bill) and free long distance (which I hope I don't have to explain). If I could just find a plan that combined them, for a reasonable price...
Finally, last week, when I stopped at Staples to pick up Matt's USB kit and some cartridges for the printer, I grabbed a bunch of flyers. Most of them went into the trash right away, but one of the SunCom brochures grabbed me and wouldn't let go. It's what I wanted, almost exactly. A family plan with free long distance. The long distance is only free if you're calling from within their area, which stretches from Maryland down to Florida, and as far west as Tennessee and Kentucky; and if you leave that area, there's a 60-cent-per-minute roaming fee. So I'd have to be pretty hard-pressed to use the phone if, say, I was in Chicago, San Antonio, or Montana visiting family.
But then, I can't think of a reason I'd want to use a cell phone if I were visiting family, since someone local would be on hand most of the time. And the phone would let us call family from home; we'd just have to keep an eye on the minutes usage.
So I called SunCom's customer service number and drove the patient gentleman who answered crazy while I pestered him with questions and made sure I understood exactly what the charges would be calling from various locations to other various locations. He took down some basic information and gave me an "approval number" to use when I went to get the plan.
The one question I knew I should ask had to do with Matt's phone. Every time we go to Staples, we walk by the cell phones, and Matt points to a bank of them and says, "If I had a cell phone, I'd want one of those." I knew I should ask the nice customer service fellow whether they supported the phone Matt wants, but I couldn't remember even the company that makes it. So I had to content myself with something like, "...and you do support a wide variety of phones, right?" - which the customer service guy assured me they did.
So Saturday, we were out shopping and I decided it was time to just do it. We went to Staples, and waited while they paged someone to come and help us... And I'm not sure what happened after that.
The phone Matt wants wasn't on the wall where they're usually kept; it had been moved over to the cell phone displays. I told the Staples guy that we wanted the package, and Matt told him which phone he liked, and apparently the Staples guy wasn't allowed to sell us Matt's phone (I learned then that he's interested in the Motorola StarTAC line) if we were getting the SunCom plan. Or maybe they were out of the StarTAC phones altogether? I wasn't sure; I knew only that the Staples guy was telling me we couldn't get the SunCom plan and the phone Matt wanted. He had only two phones that he could sell with the SunCom plan.
I'm still not sure why. It's my understanding that if we'd already had the phone, they could have activated it with the plan, so I don't know why they couldn't sell us the phone, then activate it. Matt thinks they were out of stock, which always happens to us at Staples, but I don't remember the guy ever actually saying "out of stock." I dunno.
It occurred to me after we'd left that Matt never actually said he wanted a cell phone anyway - just that he liked the look of the one line of phones. I couldn't remember when or why I'd gotten fixated on this family plan thing, but it hadn't been Matt's idea.
So now I'm trying to decide whether I want to go ahead with the family plan thing and check some other local SunCom stores, or if I should research an individual plan for myself. Matt won't say if he even cares which way I go. So if any of you know of any really great cell phone plans, or want to warn me away from any, let me know.
A four-day weekend, and now it's back to work. This should be illegal. After a four-day weekend, there should be another short week to sortof ease us back into it. Don't you think?
Bah. I'd better get on with the day.
Word of the Day: quaff - to drink (a beverage) deeply
- A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Current Projects:
- Dad's Christmas stocking
- tree ornaments and snowflakes
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