And the Old shall become New again

I'm in home decorating mode. I generally vacillate between living in this mode and travel mode. Since I have a trip booked for next month and the newest issue of HGTV magazine arrived in my mailbox over the weekend, it only makes sense that I am thinking of new ways to make the house look nicer.

Subscription infor here!

While I am trying to slow down and savor the magazine, one of the pieces I have gotten to featured an old rotary dail phone on the wall. It looked really cool and I was thinking I was in need of one of these. As an aside, did you know that if you have a landline phone and dial 911, even if you don't say anything/aren't able to, it goes to your local police and they will come out to check on you. That's a really helpful safety tip and we pay for a land line but don't have a phone connected because we live off our cell phones. So that is part of the thinking behind my need for a cute phone in addition to its simple cuteness. One of the things I love about this magazine is that they don't just show you pretty pictures, they give you the specifics on where to find the items, what the paint color names are, etc.

So this phone was located at www.oldphones.com. I went to check things out and found this. A rotary phone, like the one I grew up with on my parents kitchen wall, will now cost you about $100!! Whaaaaaaaaat! It makes me think those Storage Wars guys are right and that my dad is a smarter guy than I give him credit for by saving absolutely everything under the sun. Come to think of it, they probably have their old rotary phone in a pile in the basement somewhere!

The Phone Saga Continues...although it should not

I'm fairly certain that everyone is over hearing about my new phone journey. However, after my most recent Phonemania post found here raved about the service at the AT&T store at the mall, which was the deciding factor for us choosing to sign another two year contract with this company as opposed to one of the others we visited and felt warm toward, it felt totally essential to follow up after what unfolded yesterday.
I had done of the the "minute requests" on my phone because I was curious. When we went in for the new plan, the sales associate encouraged us to drop to the lowest number plan since AT&T mobile to mobile minutes just switched to cover ALL other cell numbers, regardless of carrier. How many minutes do you really spend talking to land lines anymore? I don't even know my own land line number by heart after two years because we so rarely even plug that phone in. I honestly can't say I have ever dialed out from it. So I was just interested to see how many minutes we actually did talk to land lines, since those would be the only minutes actually getting used from the plan. I got the text back and didn't really understand it. I did it again in a couple days and, from the number rising, I could tell that the text was actually telling me the number of minutes OVER our plan we were going. IMPOSSIBLE, I thought.
Next, I got a service text message saying we had spent $50 in text messages this month. Again, this would be impossible because we pay for unlimited texts because we do a lot of that.
The phone company won't ever actually deal with me and my feisty-ness because Hubby is the primary on the account. Hubby is not nearly as (fill in the blank: aggressive, worked up, vindictive, justice seeking, angry, upset) about all of this, or really anything in life, to be fair. Soooo, I'm a little panicked letting him call to take care of all of this because we all know nice guys not only finish last but also pay more for their phone bills.
Long story less long, Hubby was able to at least get us out of the overage charges and back onto a real plan, although getting him to describe the details of any of this or help me understand what our new/actual plan is was another thing I would label as impossible. The guy at the store somehow promised us 20% off the quoted monthly bill, as an incentive to stay with AT&T over taking our business to another company. Let's see if Hubby can get that reinstated, as well.
The moral of this story is that the great service I raved about was all LIES. I truly blows my mind. How could a sales associate blatantly lie? He really told us we were getting A, B, and C and then we got X, Y, and Z. There were no similarities between what we agreed on and signed a new contract for and what we got. Just the fact that Hubby had to spend his whole morning on the phone fixing all of it is unacceptable.  While Hubby is just glad that we are not going to have to take out a loan to pay a phone bill that is totally different than what we expected, I want retribution. I want the store manager at the AT&T in the Natick Collection to know this is happening. I want corporate AT&T to know this is happening. I want anyone I can reach by reading this to know this is happening. And I want an apology.

Phonemania: The Conclusion

I finally decided on a new phone! It's the HTC Inspire from AT&T. I have to note that we made follow up visits to T Mobile and were still pretty sold but then went to the AT&T store in the mall, which made a world of difference!
Unlike the other two locations we had visited, the mall store actually had phones that were charged and working so we could figure out what we liked. The service was great, as well. Whereas the guy we talked to a a different location told us that they basically didn't care to keep as customers, the staff at the mall store was very accommodating and tried to work deals out with us to keep us. And it worked!
The  new phone is way too fancy for me. I seriously need to read up and study it in order to really understand what it can do and how to do it. I tried to post a blog entry the other night so I could attach a picture of the kitten licking the phone, which I found so bizarre, but I couldn't figure out how to add a title and the typing is an acquired skill, for sure.
One really cool feature  is that I can speak my text message. Sometimes it mishears me and recorded " I use the animal hospital as a vet" as " I use the animal hospital as a bed" but my real friends would get that either of those could be true so don't judge:)
So....I hope to figure this thing out soon and have tremendous pictures to share with you!

Phonemania

This weekend the plan was to relax and not let this daylight savings stuff throw me off my game. Despite having my garbage disposal break and make a dent in an already busted budget and leak vast amounts of nasty smelling liquid under my sink, mission accomplished.
The other big activity of the weekend was launching Operation: New Phone. As previously mentioned here (probably too many times because it's been on my mind a lot lately), I still have just a regular, chunky phone with no internet or special features. I am ready to upgrade into the world of Smartphones and Androids, although I have to admit I don't understand all the differences. Hubby and I went on a tour de telephones this weekend, visiting T-Mobile, Sprint, Metro PCS, and AT&T-twice. Most of them tried to wow me with gigabytes and features beyond my comprehension. I did get to play Angry Birds for the first time and it's like the Muddy Buddy of games. I want more!
So, no purchases were made and we are still analyzing plans and phones and prices but here's a brief, novice breakdown.
AT&T is our home base. It's the only cell carrier I have ever used in my personal life. (My work phone is a simple Verizon one). We started here and were intimidated by the pricing. Over the course of the weekend, the prices didn't fluctuate a ton, though there are slight differences in what the price gets you. The phones were all uncharged so we couldn't play with the phones and figure out if we like them. A different AT&T store was our final stop, as well. This time, I admit I was rattled by a customer with sagging pants and  no undies revealing too much crevice and hair. The customer service also shook me as the sales guy straight out told us that the company doesn't care if we take our service elsewhere. Well, that just made me feel all warm and loyal!
Metro PCS-affordable until  you really look. They still charge roaming fees. It just didn't seem practical if you want to use your phone anywhere but your house.
T-Mobile was enthralling. The sales guy was fun, the phones were on and Angry Birds was in play. They offer good incentives in terms of cash back to switch over but their mobile to mobile minutes are only free to other T-Mobile phones, whereas AT&T and Sprint are free mobile to any other mobile, regardless of carrier. The phones are more expensive than AT&T phones but they are practically magical. The My Touch 4 thing actually had a flashlight app with different brightness levels. Way to wow me!
Sprint was a little too stuffy. The sales people stood behind tall cubicles and asked our first names, which I didn't even bother correcting when it was repeated back erroneously. We went in there right as they were closing so we didn't linger but the environment didn't sell me. A friend told me their coverage isn't great and he can't wait to switch back to Verizon.
Speaking of, Verizon is the one place we didn't go. We were working under the assumption from a few people that the prices are higher there and we already get our cable and stuff through them so have dealt with their customer service and stuff.
I just want something with a good camera and fun effects. Suggestions???

I'd like to write a creative post tonight

But it's not in the cards. I had a great weekend and took more pictures that I need to catch up on downloading and posting here but....I CAN'T FIND THE CAMERA CORD THING! At least I tried, right? This problem might be solved if I had one of those fancy phones that takes pics and posts them online. I am like Zack Morris currently, with none of those special features. My hubby has the same phone and I can hardly understand him; he honestly sounds like a T operator on the phone.
So...on the to do list:
Find camera cord thing
Figure out if you spell it cord or chord. feel free to weigh in
Go phone shopping
Write a better blog post when I have pics to go with my stories.