WWWWWOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[Bob]

Well, it COULD be a woooooooo if you told us about how you were becoming a wilderness living food hunter.

[k1]

But if there's no mail, then you can't get bills in the mail! 

[RVR II]

But if there's no mail, then you can't get bills in the mail! 

True, but I am awaiting stuff like ink cartridges, copier toner, and OH another motherboard for a computer.. Stuff that Makes me money

[LucasM]

Finally managed to pack and print postage for the birthday gifts for one of my oldest and dearest friends.  [The delay, though irritating to me at first, resulted in the time window for buying and adding things to the box to expand to include two blu-rays that dropped DRAMATICALLY in price in the last week (like: 1/2 off for one, more off for the other), which I could then include for her.]  There were two birthday things (and a bunch of 'non birthday things') that wouldn't fit in the flat-rate box that I used, so I'll have to ship them separately.  (Hopefully soon.)

But 'WWWWOOOO!!' the main birthday gifts for her Jan 21 birthday will be picked up by my carrier tomorrow.

[CJones]

I just saved $600 per month on my health care. Thanks, Obama.

Oh no, I didn't mean that sarcastically. I was paying over $1000 a month before. Blue Cross/Blue Shield can kiss my ass. Thank you Optima and you Mr. President Sir!

[Bob]

Wow, that's a lot

Congrats......now go buy me gifts.

Chop chop

[gbeenie]

So, not a bad Valentine's Day, all in all.

Laurie came home with a gift bag:







Then, we were off. After going to the eye doctor's office to pick up my new glasses (which were both fine; but there is some bad news about my vision overall: http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php?topic=4448.msg843736#msg843736), we went literally next door to the T-Mobile store, to see about their current promotion, where they buy out the ETF (Early Termination Fees) on your contract with your old provider. Now, we had gone to Verizon in November of 2012, in order to get our first iPhones; it was the first time we'd had phones with a contract in like seven years, and I was regretting it hardcore within a few months. So, we had to trade in our 4Ses (for a trade-in amount that, while not trivial, was not terribly exciting either), buy new phones (iPhone 5Cs; the 5S' features were not super-compelling, at least not for an additional $100/phone) and port our numbers (which I wanted to do anyway). Because there's no contract for the service (which means if a better-priced plan comes along, we can switch to it; good luck doing that on a contract), the cost of the phones is NOT subsidized, so that was a bit of a hit; however, because my credit mandated a substantial down payment, the amount left, when divided up into payments (which is a thing they do), STILL leaves me with a lower payment than I had with Verizon. For that money, I get (for two phones):

• 4G service
• 2.5 gb data per phone (as opposed to 2gb shared with Verizon); although I'm unlikely to need Unlimited data, that's only $10 more a month
• A protection plan that includes the ability to upgrade the phone with guaranteed trade-in after six months
• Best of all: No contract, and no Verizon.

The only downside (apart from what to do with my miles of 30-pin cables) so far is that the housing on the iPhone 5C is SUPER-slick; I need to get this puppy into a case pronto.


After that, we went to eat. Thursday night's episode of The Taste had Anthony Bourdain taking his contestants to an izakaya restaurant. Intrigued by what we saw, we searched to see if there were any izakaya style places in our vicinity; sure enough, there's one ridiculously close to us (have I mentioned how much I love the metro Atlanta food scene?). So, we went there the next night.
OMGravy, you guys. It was, far and away, the best Japanese meal I've ever had, and instantly rocketed near the top of my overall Favorite Places list. Seriously, find out if there's one near you; I'm pretty sure Googling "izakaya" along with your zip code will suffice.

And, to top it all off, Laurie got us tickets to go see Craig Ferguson tonight. SCORE!

[Quantum Vagina]

Speaking as someone who semi works for Verizon (I technically work for Xerox) I hate Verizon. Worst service I've ever had was with them. I'm on my parent's AT&T plan right now, but I'm going to be switching that around soon, either starting my own plan with them, or, s witching to T-Mobile. I actually get a discount with all three providers, and I've already checked the prices between two of them. 80 bucks aonth gets me unlimited everything with T-Mobile, while VZW gets me 6GB for 100. I really do like AT&T, though, so I wanna give them a run at it.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

while VZW gets me 6GB for 100. I really do like AT&T, though, so I wanna give them a run at it.

I've been with deathstar since they took over Cingular, 3GB is $80 ($85 for unlimited texting), add $10 to go to 5GB with tethering.  I forget what the overage is per GB, I rarely go over 1GB so have never gone over on my 3GB plan.

[Quantum Vagina]

while VZW gets me 6GB for 100. I really do like AT&T, though, so I wanna give them a run at it.

I've been with deathstar since they took over Cingular, 3GB is $80 ($85 for unlimited texting), add $10 to go to 5GB with tethering.  I forget what the overage is per GB, I rarely go over 1GB so have never gone over on my 3GB plan.

Well, I know I get a 20% discount. Xerox has a deal with them.

[d00hickey]

I've been with Straight Talk, unlimited everything $45 a month and no contract, it uses AT&T and Verizon signals so never out of service, friggin amazing. Occasionally if I'm broke I'll just pay $20 for phone calls and texts. The biggest draw back with Straight Talk is that you have to buy the handset outright but they carry all the popular phones and some other good discount phones. My phone is a Huawei with Android 4.0.1, a 1.3 Ghz processor and plenty of ram, it has very little storage but I bought an SDcard. I'm not really a fan of nice phones like Iphone and Samsung Galaxy (even though you can get them on Straight Talk) because no matter how nice they are they still feel like really slow old computers.

[Quantum Vagina]

Sorry, but having dealt with Straight Talk through work, no, never not once.

[Variety of Cells]

I've been with Straight Talk, unlimited everything $45 a month and no contract, it uses AT&T and Verizon signals so never out of service, friggin amazing. Occasionally if I'm broke I'll just pay $20 for phone calls and texts. The biggest draw back with Straight Talk is that you have to buy the handset outright but they carry all the popular phones and some other good discount phones. My phone is a Huawei with Android 4.0.1, a 1.3 Ghz processor and plenty of ram, it has very little storage but I bought an SDcard. I'm not really a fan of nice phones like Iphone and Samsung Galaxy (even though you can get them on Straight Talk) because no matter how nice they are they still feel like really slow old computers.

They are getting better.  My iphone 5 is almost at a speed where I would like it.  Though it is pretty painful whenever I use my fiance's 4. 

[anais.butterfly]

I love Verizon.

[RVR II]

I love Verizon.

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