Saturday, July 9, 2011

New Stuff!

Here's the post  I was working on before I morphed into The Terminator.

You might think that living just south of (IMHO) one of the best, most vibrant and beautiful cities in the world, we'd have a plethora of really good, independent coffee places.  Sadly, this is not the case.  Sure, go north into the City or south to Silicon Valley (where coffee is basically THE food group) or over one of the bridges and in to Oakland or Berkeley and you're fine, but for some reason, here on the Peninsula it is very difficult to find a really good cuppa without visiting the chains.  (I have NO issues with the chains, but I do like to support local merchants, and to try something new once in a while).
Well, all that has changed!  Thanks to Yelp! I found a new place.  Not only does it have GREAT coffee, it is a beautiful space with free Wi-Fi, plenty of seating, and good food.  OK, the food LOOKS good, I didn't actually try it.  It's also near my doctor's office (and right next door to a nice mystery book store).  And they have those little punch cards where you get the 10th drink free.  Love that!

Not loving the new Verizon tier plans, however.  Hubby and I had been trying to upgrade our phones before July 6th, when the new plans took effect and the unlimited plans were ended.  Basically, if you got an unlimited plan before the 6th, you could have it for life.  But we're not due to upgrade our phones until November, which means that in order to get a smartphone on the unlimited plan we'd have had to pay full price.  And let me tell ya, until they come out with a smartphone that does the dishes and the laundry and babysits the kids, I am NOT paying $600 for one!!!!!!
We tried working with Verizon.  We begged.  We reminded them that a) we've been loyal customers for 8 years and b) we're trying to GIVE THEM MORE MONEY!!!!!!!  Because even with the unlimited plan, we'd be paying $50 more a month!
If you are a new customer, they will give you a GREAT deal: iPhones and the like for $199 plus the unlimited plan.  If you're an existing customer?  Well, they've already got you, they have the good technology, they have something of a monopoly, and they could not care less about you.  Why should they?  Chances are very few people will switch to a different carrier.  Virgin Mobile has great plans, but the phones are fairly basic and they don't have nearly the same coverage.  Same with Sprint and others.
(BTW, Verizon has bought the domain name "verizonsucks.com" so that no one else can use it.  But one industrious soul has created "verizonsucksass.com."  The hatred of Verizon, even on its own boards, is legion.)
Despite all this, Hubby has found a way around some of the red tape.  I'm kind of hesitant to write about it, but suffice to say it's fairly brilliant.
And, come November, I still get my cheap(ish) iPhone.  I'm hoping that, since the iPhone 5 will have been out for a couple of months, the earlier models will be even less expensive.  We'll see.

Moving on to a MUCH happier (and way cuter) subject, WG is confirming that she is part fish. Every day she tries to put on her swim diaper and bathing suit by herself, letting us know that she would like to go to the pool.  She also stalks my husband as he does his laps: she gets out of the pool and skips alongside him, then gives him the sign for "more" when he stops.  If he doesn't go right away, she gives him a little push.  He calls her "Coach," lol!  It's so cute!
And LG is jumping into the deep end, doing flips, and swimming under water for long periods.  So, I guess we have TWO fish.

We also have these really cool nocturnal birds that live here. They're not owls or nighthawks, so I'm not exactly sure what they are, but they're pretty cool-looking.  Anyway, when we were at the pool at dusk the other day, one of them flew in and settled on a branch not far from us, just sitting and watching.  Then it flew and settled on an even closer branch.  It stayed there, looking at us, until another family came to the pool.  As soon as it saw them, it flew away.  But it was really cool!!!!!  He stayed with us for 15-20 minutes.

We'll be off to the pool again soon.  Hopefully without incident.  But at least Hubby will be there to help.  Always good to have an ally!

Have a great weekend!

2 comments:

Geosomin said...

ooh. iPhone...I've finally broke down and gotten a cell phone. It's taking a bit getting used to but now I'm wondering what I did without one...I think I might get an apple Touch to use as an ipod/online toy as a grad present to myself (if I have any $$ leftover from paying all my library fees off...ahem). Right now if I had internet on my phone I think I'd waste a lot of time...I'm bad enough on my laptop when I'm supposed to be getting work done :)
I'm so glad you're getting family time at the pool...:)

azusmom said...

My S-I-L has an android phone, and she said the other day that having the internet at your fingertips is not always a good idea, lol!