How Productive Of Me
Things achieved this weekend:
Got our cell phones upgraded. This took most of yesterday. A cell phone upgrade was part of a deal we got from T-Mobile, in return for renewing our contract: They're switching our service plan to a slightly better (and slightly more expensive) one, but it should save us money relative to what we were paying, since we kept going over our alloted monthly minutes (mostly M's fault). We now get twice as many minutes, and free nights.
My first choice was the Sony Ericsson T610, recommended to me by a friend at work who's seen quite a few phones. But T-Mobile doesn't sell them anymore, and trying to track down a leftover one in stock at an authorized T-Mobile store became too much trouble. So instead, I went with the Nokia 3660. I paid a bit extra to get it, rather than going with a freebie, so I can use it as a GPRS/HSCSD modem (Infrared for now, perhaps upgrade my laptop to use Bluetooth someday). My plan is to use it as a platform for running SSH on the laptop, so I can reach my home machine from wherever I happen to be. I'm particularly planning to use this from work, where the overly-restrictive computer usage policy prevents me from simply SSH'ing from any of the available machines. I'm also thinking it could be fun to try writing software for it, as it runs both Symbian and Java. Must remove the smarmy picture of Catherine Zeta-Jones, though.
S paid a bit more to get a Sidekick II. Well, he wanted to spend his income tax refund that way. Of course this means I can now IM him to tell him to come home and do the dishes.
M got a Sharp TM150, probably mainly for the coolness value. The website gave us the impression it would be free after the rebate, but what the big print offereth, the fine print taketh away. Apparently it's only free if you're getting a new line. If you're upgrading, it's just half-off. Well, I argued with the support people about that, because we could just as easily have dropped the line and gotten a new one--our old contract had run out, and we agreed to sign a new one. They compromised by offering to take a hundred bucks off one month of our service, six months from now. Kind of a delayed rebate. You can get what you want from a big company, if it's not too expensive for them, and you're willing to be demanding and unpleasant for ten minutes.
senssuzy opted for the Nokia 6010, because it was free, and because she's more sensible than the rest of us.
Once we're all sure we're satisfied with our phones, we can send in all the paperwork to get the rebates. Money goes out, money comes back, most of it. It works out to Suzy and I having spent about $140 in total, most of it taxes on the phones.
Got my darlin' Civic Hybrid its 30,000 mile maintenance. This had been bothering my conscience for a while. The car's still in great shape, no problems.
Getting caught up on laundry. Another thing that's been looming over me.
Sorted through all the email in my Inbox. There was a lot of it. Found a couple of messages I really should reply to. Also updated my email filters.
Spent some time catching up on LJ. Still a bit more to read.
Defrosting the upstairs fridge now. Maybe soon we'll be able to open the freezer compartment again.
This morning, I'm testing my new phone.
Got our cell phones upgraded. This took most of yesterday. A cell phone upgrade was part of a deal we got from T-Mobile, in return for renewing our contract: They're switching our service plan to a slightly better (and slightly more expensive) one, but it should save us money relative to what we were paying, since we kept going over our alloted monthly minutes (mostly M's fault). We now get twice as many minutes, and free nights.
My first choice was the Sony Ericsson T610, recommended to me by a friend at work who's seen quite a few phones. But T-Mobile doesn't sell them anymore, and trying to track down a leftover one in stock at an authorized T-Mobile store became too much trouble. So instead, I went with the Nokia 3660. I paid a bit extra to get it, rather than going with a freebie, so I can use it as a GPRS/HSCSD modem (Infrared for now, perhaps upgrade my laptop to use Bluetooth someday). My plan is to use it as a platform for running SSH on the laptop, so I can reach my home machine from wherever I happen to be. I'm particularly planning to use this from work, where the overly-restrictive computer usage policy prevents me from simply SSH'ing from any of the available machines. I'm also thinking it could be fun to try writing software for it, as it runs both Symbian and Java. Must remove the smarmy picture of Catherine Zeta-Jones, though.
S paid a bit more to get a Sidekick II. Well, he wanted to spend his income tax refund that way. Of course this means I can now IM him to tell him to come home and do the dishes.
M got a Sharp TM150, probably mainly for the coolness value. The website gave us the impression it would be free after the rebate, but what the big print offereth, the fine print taketh away. Apparently it's only free if you're getting a new line. If you're upgrading, it's just half-off. Well, I argued with the support people about that, because we could just as easily have dropped the line and gotten a new one--our old contract had run out, and we agreed to sign a new one. They compromised by offering to take a hundred bucks off one month of our service, six months from now. Kind of a delayed rebate. You can get what you want from a big company, if it's not too expensive for them, and you're willing to be demanding and unpleasant for ten minutes.
senssuzy opted for the Nokia 6010, because it was free, and because she's more sensible than the rest of us.
Once we're all sure we're satisfied with our phones, we can send in all the paperwork to get the rebates. Money goes out, money comes back, most of it. It works out to Suzy and I having spent about $140 in total, most of it taxes on the phones.
Got my darlin' Civic Hybrid its 30,000 mile maintenance. This had been bothering my conscience for a while. The car's still in great shape, no problems.
Getting caught up on laundry. Another thing that's been looming over me.
Sorted through all the email in my Inbox. There was a lot of it. Found a couple of messages I really should reply to. Also updated my email filters.
Spent some time catching up on LJ. Still a bit more to read.
Defrosting the upstairs fridge now. Maybe soon we'll be able to open the freezer compartment again.
This morning, I'm testing my new phone.