The third anniversary is the leather anniversary. I got him a leather jacket, wallet, and belt. Honestly, what else would there be to give? Unless we were into some unmentionable activities… which we’re not just for the record.
My hubby splurged on 2 iPhones (with leather cases). One for him, of course. Now, not being an electronic guru, I just didn’t know if I even cared about owning one of these things. I had always been fascinated by people who owned one and could stretch an image of their dog with just their fingertips. But I figured the fascination ended there.
Not so. Once I downloaded my first “app”. We iPhone people call them “apps” instead of “applications”. It’s our little jargon. What’s that? Your cell phone doesn’t have apps? Pity.
And it’s just that that gets you. You start with a free taste. I could stay up all night searching for new app freebees. For Christmas, I told everyone to give me iTunes gift cards so I could get another fix. I was hooked. More than hooked. I was on a gadget high so big I thought I’d never come down. I’d exhausted all the cool free ones. Shazam being my favorite. You can hold up your iPhone in a noisy Chili’s restaurant and it can still tell you what song is playing over the speakers, even if you can’t make it out yourself. Friggin’ amazing!!!
I’ve got GPS, restaurant critics, a carpenter’s level, a guitar, cute kittens with stupid misspelled captions, even an app that locates my husband right at my fingertips! Heck, I think there’s even one that controls the weather if I can just find where I put it. Yes, folks this was a love affair that would last a lifetime.
Until…
“Oh [expletive]!” says my husband from the other room. He dropped my iPhone moving it to the charger one day and shattered the glass front.
“No problem” I’m thinking. No doubt this is a 2-dollar part and is the last thing to go on and the first thing to come off in a repair. What could this possibly cost?
We take my shattered iPhone to the Apple Store with as much care as if we were bringing a wounded puppy to the vet.
“I’m sorry” says Eric, the 17 year old kid with the grommet in his earlobe. “You’ll have to make an appointment with one of our geniuses” as he checks out another teen customer who’s taking her own picture with a MAC.
Now folks, when entering a store in the mall, one doesn’t expect to hear the words ‘you’ll have to make an appointment’ but hey, they have geniuses! Fantastic! “Which ones are the geniuses?” I ask. I kept looking for someone with a pipe and a sweater vest and Einstein-esque hair but they all pretty much looked like Eric.
We make an appointment for the next day. They just couldn’t squeeze us in today. We come back and check in at our appointment time and still wait another 30 minutes to be seen by a ‘genius’.
He took one look at my shattered little friend and told us it would cost 350 dollars. 350 DOLLARS!!! I chuckled back with an old sit-com line. “I’m sorry. For a minute there I thought you said it would cost 350 dollars.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Yessiree! No matter what logic I laid at his feet about this being a cheap part and easy to repair, he wouldn’t budge. Not even the fact that we only paid $300 for the device itself moved him. “Apple policy” he cites.
I thought “Fine. I can live with the shattered glass front. Now it has character!” The fact was it did still operate perfectly well. So what if I had to extract tiny shards of glass out of my ear after each phone call?
After a week, we found a plan B. It was an unauthorized repair site where they could fix it for a mere 100 dollars. However the warranty would be officially voided. But in my opinion, if something else happens to this baby, I’m still not going to spend the $350 to get it fixed. The risk is only if a factory defect shows up suddenly. But so far, the gamble has paid off.
After this experience, I still love my iPhone but I handle it as if it were a test tube of plutonium. Oh, and for the record? I don’t think they’re really geniuses. I don’t even think they could make it onto Jeopardy.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Property of HGTV: If Kilowatts Were Raindrops
My 2nd installment on www.hgtv.com/changetheworld
My challenge to my family this last month: Lower the electric bill. This was actually more of a task than I had bargained for as our electric company raised its rates in the middle of our challenge.
Here’s how the conversation went at the dinner table last month…
“Okay, I have our first “Green Challenge” for my blog.”
“What blog?” says my daughter.
“You know, the blog I told you I was writing for HGTV’s Change the World?”
“I don’t remember you telling us about a blog” says my son.
“It was just last night.”
…silence… then not silence….
“What am I hearing in the other room?” I asked.
My son “The TV”.
“Let’s start there shall we?” (My family is not short on irony)
“Anyway… we’re going to be better about turning off lights, not leaving the curling iron plugged in, not leaving the tv on and see if we can lower the electric bill.”
After a few eye rolls I had what I thought was the team spirit. My husband’s task was to change out the old money-sucking lightbulbs to CFL’s, the squiggly-more-expensive-but-less-in-the-long-run-bulbs.
That weekend, the bulbs were replaced. And I began a campaign of interrogation just this side of the Spanish Inquisition. When someone entered the room, I would ask. “Where were you? Did you turn the lights off? Did you make sure the fridge was closed? Is that a radio I hear? Did you shut down the computer?”
Soon my test subjects became conditioned to my badgering and I was only able to eke out half of a question before their response.
“Did you turn off…”
“Yessss” (more eye rolling)
Then it was “Did you t-…”
And soon “Di-…”
And then just a raised eyebrow would do the trick. By George, I think they’ve got it! I had them trained! I was General Patton in front of the American Flag and these were my frightened soldiers heading for the front lines to do battle with the electric bill. Did we win, you ask?
We saved 38 dollars!! God Bless America!
Last night after opening the mail, I gloriously carried the electric bill into the living room for all to celebrate. This was a moment to cherish until my husband asked “Did you leave the light on in the kitchen?”
My challenge to my family this last month: Lower the electric bill. This was actually more of a task than I had bargained for as our electric company raised its rates in the middle of our challenge.
Here’s how the conversation went at the dinner table last month…
“Okay, I have our first “Green Challenge” for my blog.”
“What blog?” says my daughter.
“You know, the blog I told you I was writing for HGTV’s Change the World?”
“I don’t remember you telling us about a blog” says my son.
“It was just last night.”
…silence… then not silence….
“What am I hearing in the other room?” I asked.
My son “The TV”.
“Let’s start there shall we?” (My family is not short on irony)
“Anyway… we’re going to be better about turning off lights, not leaving the curling iron plugged in, not leaving the tv on and see if we can lower the electric bill.”
After a few eye rolls I had what I thought was the team spirit. My husband’s task was to change out the old money-sucking lightbulbs to CFL’s, the squiggly-more-expensive-but-less-in-the-long-run-bulbs.
That weekend, the bulbs were replaced. And I began a campaign of interrogation just this side of the Spanish Inquisition. When someone entered the room, I would ask. “Where were you? Did you turn the lights off? Did you make sure the fridge was closed? Is that a radio I hear? Did you shut down the computer?”
Soon my test subjects became conditioned to my badgering and I was only able to eke out half of a question before their response.
“Did you turn off…”
“Yessss” (more eye rolling)
Then it was “Did you t-…”
And soon “Di-…”
And then just a raised eyebrow would do the trick. By George, I think they’ve got it! I had them trained! I was General Patton in front of the American Flag and these were my frightened soldiers heading for the front lines to do battle with the electric bill. Did we win, you ask?
We saved 38 dollars!! God Bless America!
Last night after opening the mail, I gloriously carried the electric bill into the living room for all to celebrate. This was a moment to cherish until my husband asked “Did you leave the light on in the kitchen?”
Property of HGTV: Lovable Chaos
This post is actually from www.hgtv.com/changetheworld I am blogging for my own company (it's like giving it away... yeesh!) My assignment is to document my family's attempts at living green for a year. My call sign? "Gang Green". Here's the first post:
In my home, there is no clutter. The counters are kept clean. The paperwork never piles up. The laundry is immediately folded and put away while still warm. I have a beautifully manicured lawn with flowers that bloom each season. My two children are fed healthy dinners each night and then we read from classic novels before promptly going to bed.
Okay, you’re not buying this are you?
If I really had to describe life in my home in two words or less it would be “lovable chaos”. I have a husband with a home-based business, a 14 year old girl, an 8 year old boy, a large dog, and what seems like an even larger cat.
I am big on preservation and living green. I love this earth and don’t want to leave a big ugly footprint. However, the difficulty of leading that kind of life increases proportionally with the amount of living creatures in your home. So I would say I’m not earning too many green points compared to others.
Each day doors are left ajar, lights are left on, TV’s are left blaring, someone stands staring into the fridge for minutes at a time, my daughter takes 30 minute showers, and I sometimes dry a laundry load twice to fluff it up because I had left it in there so long.
My goal this year is to make my home and my family more earth friendly. This blog will be my witness and confession to the progress I am making as a working mother with her hands overly full who’s trying to “go green”.
For the record, I do have one can for garbage and one can for recycling. That’s about as “earth-conscious” as it gets in my house. However, I once considered switching to cloth napkins. But when the paper napkin package got down to three left, I panicked and drove my SUV to the store for more. Does that count?
In my home, there is no clutter. The counters are kept clean. The paperwork never piles up. The laundry is immediately folded and put away while still warm. I have a beautifully manicured lawn with flowers that bloom each season. My two children are fed healthy dinners each night and then we read from classic novels before promptly going to bed.
Okay, you’re not buying this are you?
If I really had to describe life in my home in two words or less it would be “lovable chaos”. I have a husband with a home-based business, a 14 year old girl, an 8 year old boy, a large dog, and what seems like an even larger cat.
I am big on preservation and living green. I love this earth and don’t want to leave a big ugly footprint. However, the difficulty of leading that kind of life increases proportionally with the amount of living creatures in your home. So I would say I’m not earning too many green points compared to others.
Each day doors are left ajar, lights are left on, TV’s are left blaring, someone stands staring into the fridge for minutes at a time, my daughter takes 30 minute showers, and I sometimes dry a laundry load twice to fluff it up because I had left it in there so long.
My goal this year is to make my home and my family more earth friendly. This blog will be my witness and confession to the progress I am making as a working mother with her hands overly full who’s trying to “go green”.
For the record, I do have one can for garbage and one can for recycling. That’s about as “earth-conscious” as it gets in my house. However, I once considered switching to cloth napkins. But when the paper napkin package got down to three left, I panicked and drove my SUV to the store for more. Does that count?
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