T-Mobile = A Lot of Work

I bought Tracy a T-Mobile phone for Christmas with the intention she would return it to T-Mobile and re-up her plan to upgrade to a better phone. On Monday, Tracy and I made the trip to T-Mobile by her townhouse in Blaine after the movers were finished to look over her options.

What we learned is T-Mobile's phones are absolutely terrible. It's no wonder I had dry sweats buying her phone a few weeks back for her present. The selection is really weak compared to other cell phone providers and almost every phone has received a mediocre review. I bought her the Gravity, which is the poor man's Sprint Rant. Since I paid full price for the phone, she was able to use the credit and buy what she really wanted.

After looking over her options, with a little convincing from me, Tracy opted for the Blackberry Curve. It required her to upgrade her plan with unlimited data, but I think it's worth it. It's not much more a month and she'll get addicted to the Internet. The phone is probably the best T-Mobile offers. It's no i-Phone touch (John and Katie) or a Blackberry Storm (Dan), but it's pretty good.

What's not good is upgrading a plan at a T-Mobile store if you are in a rush. I think I spent less time getting a home mortgage than we did at T-Mobile upgrading her phone. Why does it take 5 minutes just to ring up the phone purchase and memory card and another 15 - 20 minutes to get the phone service switched over? I'd say it was pretty ridiculous and my patience has a tendency to wearing thin over customer service. Maybe she was moving as fast as she could, but it's just T-Mobile's antiquated computer software ... kind of like their phone software!

Well, we are staying at the Siegrist residence ... Holiday Inn Express as John calls it ... for the next two nights. Thanks for letting Tracy and I crash at your house and we look forward to New Year's Eve.

I Got A GPS, Tracy Got Sirius

Another great Christmas so far with Tracy and her family. We were able to spend a fun night at the Burns' eating pizza, playing cribbage and opening gifts. Then, we made a bolt for her mom's side at the Theisens' eating cheese ball and exchanging more gifts. The yearly tradition of lottery tickets from Tracy's aunt scored me $2 and her $1. No big winners this year.

This morning, Tracy, Tim, Laura and I exchanged gifts. Tracy scored Sirius Satellite Radio's Sportster 5 and a home kit from her mom, plus installation. Pretty sweet and definitely needed in Murrieta. I got Tracy the Gravity from T-Mobile, which she really likes. Of course, she guessed she was getting a phone two nights ago. No clue how she guessed it, but today she found out she was right.

I got some fun board games, shirts and even a book about "What's Your Poo Telling You." But, the gift I'm really excited about is the Nextar GPS she got me. I've never had a problem getting lost, but it has seemed to happen a little too much in SoCal lately. I guessed my gift too, but Tracy's poker face is WAY better than mine!

Oh, and I did get this sweet blue jean Levi shirt from her dad's girlfriend in our name gift exchange last night. Canadian tuxedo anyone? I think I might keep it so I fit in really well in SoCal. If Leno can pull it off, maybe I can too?

Well, we are off to my parent's house in Lakeville, nearly two hours from Sartell. It will be good seeing my family. It might be the last time we are all together for awhile, so I'll savor it. I'm excited for our Christmas dinner too ... the non-traditional STEAKS! Nice!

Merry Christmas to all.

C & T

Congrats Paskes

I wanted to say a huge congrats to Jason and Carrie, who just two days ago welcomed Carter James in to their lives at 4 lbs. 6 oz. It was an unexpected early Christmas present, but I'm really glad Carter and mom are healthy and doing well.

Congrats Paskes. Too bad Tracy and I will be moving to SoCal, or we would have offered to change some diapers...likely story.

Shiny Shoes

Leave it to the professionals. One of the shoe shiners at the airport said my shoes could use a shining when I walked by, and the sad thing is I agreed. I've been putting off shining my shoes myself, so I decided to sit high on the shoe shining perch and get my shoes looking respectable again. I'd say it's the best $6 ever spent ... with a $2 tip.

It's a little weird sitting up high watching people stare at you as you get your shoes shined, but it's kind of cool too. I swear I could see my reflection in these puppies right now! There's something to having a pro shine your shoes that seems kind of old school. Maybe my next stop will be a professional barber to shave my face with the old hand blade. Well, maybe my first step should be trying to grow some real facial hair. Take it in strides I guess.

35 minutes until I take off on Sun Country direct to MSP's Hubert. I hope Petter didn't steal some of the materials off this plane during all his swindling. Sun Country does charge $15 to check a bag. I'll only assume all the baggage funds collected go straight to an off-shore bank account. See, it's fun to assume.

See all of you this Christmas and New Year's. And, if I don't, escape the frozen tundra and take an affordable trip to visit TRACY and I during the New Year. That's right, she's moving in with me and we are driving to SoCal in the Jetta. I think our lives are about to change drastically living together, but nothing surprises me. Maybe it will be the same?

Now, I'm asking you, give us your best piece of advice of what you've learned once you moved in with your significant other. Hopefully this gets entertaining.

I'll Be Home For the Holidays...

Yesterday Tracy and I got my flight booked to return to the Twin Cities over the holidays. I'm flying out of San Diego on Tuesday, Dec. 23 and will be in town through New Years before we road trip it back to SoCal.

We had a little difficulty finding a reasonable one-way flight, but Sun Country turned out to be the best option. It was interesting watching the price of the flight change from one hour to the next. Originally, I wanted to fly home at 4:45 p.m. so I could get in a full day of work, but that flight went up $125 during the same day. It started at $219 and is now over $400, even with 70 open seats. We were going to book it when we first saw it at $219, but I wanted to wait 12 hours for payday ... bad idea.

The early 9:45 a.m. flight at that point was $145, but I was holding out to try and save a vacation day by flying at 4:45 p.m. Not to mention I have to work this weekend to stay caught up, so missing an additional day in the office isn't the best idea right now. At any rate, we played the game of watching the fares bounce around and decided to jump on the $219 early flight before it got too expensive. Three hours later, Tracy checked the price again on that flight and it was $269. If somebody knows how or why fares bounce around so much, fill me in.