11.26.06
Posted at 8:59 pm by James
B & I have been meaning to put our cell phone plans together for a while now, and today I finally got down to the researching and deciding part. Now, my Motorola v60g has served me well for over 3.5 years, with its 3 lines of text, aluminum exterior, and 5-day battery life. But hey, when you sign a new contract, you’d better take advantage of the opportunity, right? (It’s hard to believe how messed up our phone system/companies are compared to the rest of the world.)
So after some online research, trips to the T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular stores, some more research at letstalk.com and review sites, and another trip to Sprint and US Cellular, I finally came home and ordered us 2 KRZR phones via Sprint’s 550-minute shared plan.
Now I’d like to take a moment, just sit right here, I’ll tell you… well, that these cell phone names are really dumb, first thing. My first guess was “cruzer”, but the T-Mobile guy emphatically asserted that the proper pronunciation was “craazer”. Of course, then I said “craazer” and the Radio Shack guy said “cruzer”. It’s impressive that these Motorola phones are so popular despite there names. “Hi, I’d like a silver please… or is it a sliver?” And the music phone? “Hi, I’d like 2 Al Roeker phones please!” Okay, rant over.
So B & I have fallen to calling them “the Craisins”. Name aside, I’m getting some noticeable geek-excitement over them. They’re basically like razers, but skinnier (not thinner or shorter) - which was the only problem I had with the razer in the first place. So yeah. Free phones that are Bond-worthy (well, his could probably shoot poison darts), Sprint has a tower on the Tech building so I can get reception even through 4 floors of concrete, and we’ll still have plenty of minutes on the smallest plan available.
And the sentient cell phone? NOT the craisins - it’s my good old v60. An hour after I ordered the new phones, I pulled it out of my pocket to start the process of getting the 140 phone number off of it - and the antenna was broken. Folks, that phone has served me without fail for over 1300 days - and it breaks the hour after I get a new one! I as well as anyone know exactly how technology works and how silly anthropomorphizing it is, but I can’t help feeling that it was just heartbroken and lost the will to live. Sniff. We’ll give you a good funeral, v60.
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11.25.06
Posted at 7:47 pm by Becky
While attempting to turn leftover mashed potatoes into latkes:
B: When Claudia was little, she had a teddy bear cookbook…
J: That’s horrible!!
B: Hm… maybe that’s why she became a vegetarian.
(An aside: making latkes makes me think of Jewish Family Dinner Night. Latkes and matzo ball soup… good times. I miss Jeni, and I need more Yiddish in my life!)
Today was very busy for a Saturday. I got up before seven so I could go use my 20% off before 9 am coupons at the fabric store. I was somewhat self-controlled and only bought things for Christmas presents. Well, maybe there was a present for me…
Then I drove (full of dread) to the mall. Visions of craziness danced in my head. However, once I arrived at the mall, I found a parking space, ran my errands in record time, went to the gas station, then was home by 11. I was amazed. Perhaps I will have a new day-after-day-after-Thanksgiving tradition.
The rest of the day was cozy. I finished my side of the thank you notes (hey! Emily Post says we have a year!), so I got to lovingly remind Jamie to do his half. I think he still loves me, at least. 
A co-worker gave me a stocking to piece together for her nephew, so I got the sewing machine out and went to work. It turned out pretty well, and the best thing is that we’re bartering–I sew and get yarn in return! Then I started another sewing project, only to get extremely frustrated with a malfunctioning bobbin-casing (read: machine no stitch-y), so I switched to knitting. Jamie joined me to watch Forrest Gump. I forget how much that movie gets to me. Then it was 8 o’clock and we hadn’t eaten dinner (though we had consumed a large quantity of chex mix that I made earlier today), so our latke adventure began. If I knew the Yiddish word for Gentile, I’d use it.
For those who are interested, Jamie and I will be in the Olympia/Tacoma area from roughly December 23rd to January 2nd. Hope to see you then!
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11.23.06
Posted at 10:10 pm by James
Well, hello all. It’s been a while. We just finished up a fine day, and I thought I should share it with you. We stayed in today, and spent most of it with K & G (one of my groomsmen, remember?). Becky made the potatoes, pies, turkey (breast in crock pot), yams, corn-dish, and rolls. I made the cranberry jelly. K & G brought over appetizers, salad, and coffee and cider. We basically had a feast, and ate less than half the food. It was good. Then we played Boggle for a bit — Becky liked it and says we should get the game, even though my score equaled the total of the other three combined. 
So I don’t know if we’ll play that one much together.
We took a break for familial phone calls (I cleaned the kitchen - I’ll get ya tomorrow, Mom and Dad!), and then tried a game of Settlers of Catan. While eating pie. Apple and pumpkin. That ended up taking about 3 hours to finish, so we wanted it to be over by the end. I think we spent too much time thinking and trying to trade each turn. The ending was quite funny, though, as K and I had been battling for world domination (longest road), but then G got largest army and then a random point from a card and won almost by accident. Matt and Jeni, any tips to make that game go faster / be more fun?
The cats were entertaining as well. They always are, it seems. So, a good day to be thankful for. I’m sure we’re less appreciative of having more comforts than some people. But as Ecclesiastes says, God gives us food, work, riches, and the ability to enjoy them all. And we are thankful. Now, don’t you go get trampled tomorrow.
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11.13.06
Posted at 7:26 pm by Becky
I took a “personal day” today. It was glorious. According the the form, I was having “family issues”… if what to do with your sister is an issue.
So, to solve our issues, we slept late, did laundry (while aforementioned sister slept later), ate lunch with Jamie in Evanston, went to the craft store to find scrapbooking stuff (yay for a sister who wants to make a scrapbook of our wedding!) and look at yarn (in a fit of self-control, I only walked away with a free knitting pattern), and went to the grocery store. Then we made calzones for dinner. Yum.
In other news, I recently fell down. Trip-in-slow-motion-try-to-catch-yourself-end-up-sprawled-out-on-the-
sidewalk-wondering-how-that-could-happen-given-that-you’ve-been-
walking-for-about-22-years fall. Completely biffed it on the sidewalk. Luckily I think only a few cars and passersby saw. I still felt rather silly, and I’ve been dealing with a skinned heal of my right hand ever since. Luckily I only use my right hand to write, drive, cook….
Also, I survived report card day. It was a bit touch-and-go during the firedrill, but I saved my coffee (completely left my purse and super-important legal document attendance book) and all was well. Most of my parents were great, though they all decided to show up at roughly the same time. I was a busy girl from 4-6:30! By the end I had lost the ability to think or speak coherently (which was good, given that I needed to check in with the boss). How do these kids speak another language all day every day?! Much needed dose of empathy? Check.
Wednesday night Claudia came! Yay! We’ve eaten a few nummy dinners, went shopping, hung out and read (”You two are boring,” Jamie says. Bah), played games, and had good conversations. I like my sister.
It will be a bit difficult to go back to work tomorrow, but luckily they were kind and planned a half day in honor of my coming back. Now that’s love from the employer… kind of makes up for not getting Veterans’ Day off this year.
All in favor of Jamie writing about what is going on in his life say “aye”.
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11.04.06
Posted at 9:41 pm by Becky
(That’s “bach” as in bachelorette, not as in Johann Sebastian.)
Indeed, I am without my hubby today. Jamie went on a retreat, and I stayed home to theoretically do important and edifying things. Not so much. Instead I:
- Didn’t shower until 2ish
- Ran a few errands (including renting the first season of Desperate Housewives on DVD… no, I am not desperate)
- Crocheted a hat
- Loaded the dishwasher (ha! At first I typed “dishwaster”) to clean up after our very first dinner party, which took place last night. More later.
- Folded some laundry
- Went to O’Hare to pick up Mo and have dinner while she had a long layover on her way back to Princeton
- Knit and watched TV (I am determined to empty my knitting basket so that I can start new projects–I’m discovering one of the joys of marriage is someone is there to critique your crafting habits)
The past week has been a bit of a challenge. After school classes started, which means I race downstairs at the end of the day to teach kids to knit. Fun, but an extra time commitment is not exactly what I was looking for this week. Report cards were due Wednesday, and despite the fact that I told the kids that I was writing the comments for their report cards (and they reacted with appropriate expressions of horror), they still did not behave themselves. At least only one of them got to talk to the police this week. I miraculously got the report cards done on time (tip to the teachers–print your comments on mailing labels and just stick them to the cards. Then the next quarter, all you have to do is change a few words and print again! Yay!), thought it was a challenge to figure out how to say things like “Your child is a lying, cheating punk” in a nice teacher way. In Spanish. After I finished the report cards, I had to write my Individual Growth Plan for the mentoring program. Basically it just involved setting a goal and saying what I would do to achieve the goal, so it wasn’t hard, just annoying. Especially when I would rather be baking for our professional day potluck.
Friday the kids didn’t come to school (not a coup, just a professional day), and I had a meeting for a writing project I signed up for. I was really proud of myself when I said “We were under the impression that this would not take up our whole day and that we could spend the afternoon in our classrooms. I’m going to be selfish and say that I need that time.” Becky puttin’ the smack down! They must have taken me seriously, because they called their artist who was supposed to take up our whole afternoon and had him come early (he still ended up taking forever to do his schpiel). Later the other teachers thanked me. I’m proud of myself for sticking up for what everyone was thinking, and not putting up with an infringement on our union-regulated half-day of prep in our rooms when we didn’t agree to give it up. Teacher power!
Friday I shifted gears from school stuff to our first dinner party! We hosted a small group dinner with a “comfort food” theme. I raced home from work to clean the kitchen, make two chicken potpies, try a new cider recipe (yummy) and watch Jamie make pumpkin bars. We had a delightful dinner, though our tiny table forced a bit of creativity (who knew TV trays could double as table leaves?). The food was yummy, we had about a billion desserts, and the kitties didn’t get too freaked out. Yay.
A certain sister-in-law asked about our Thanksgiving plans. We are staying in Chicago, and hopefully having dinner with some friends, then I’m cranking out thank you notes (and perhaps even afghans! But not to go with the thank you notes). I have a full day of school on Wednesday, so travel gets a bit hectic. Sigh.
My eyes are getting droopy. I hope it isn’t to weird trying to fall asleep without Jamie next to me… I suppose I could do it for 23 years, it shouldn’t be too hard, right? But I do miss him. Perhaps I’d better get down the down comforter.. my heater is gone.
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