Posts from — May 2006

The battery on my cell phone wasn’t holding a charge so last week I went to the Verizon store to get a new one. The clerk checked my account and found I was eligible for a brand new phone. They have this deal where you can get a new phone every two years. All I had to do is sign another 2-year contract and a brand new Razr was mine. I’m happy with their service so I didn’t mind going another 2 years with them.

The phone is excellent. It’s small, flat and loaded with features. Then I brought it home and my excitement quickly started to fade. It turns out Verizon disables many of the cool features that are found on a “regular” Razr. The bluetooth is limited, you can’t download ringtones other than ones you purchase from Verizon and you can’t easliy connect it to your computer. I was extremely disappointed that Verizon decided to handicap an otherwise excellent phone. Of course I found ways around their limitations.

I downloaded a trial copy of Motorola Phone Tools that allows me to connect the phone via USB to my computer to transfer and save contacts. Next I found a hack where you just download any MP3 ringtone, save it as a .MID file and email to your phone. The file is still an MP3 and it sounds great but it bypasses Verizon’s stupid policy of only allowing ringtones that you have to buy from them. I’m working on the bluetooth limits but I don’t really care about that since I rarely use it anyway.

So when you call, my phone will ring with the sound of the phone inside the CTU office on the TV show 24.

Sorry about not updating in a while. I’ve been very busy. Earlier this year Pam and I talked about selling our house and moving to a new condo. We searched for several months and found a great place near our jobs. The new place won’t be ready until early October so we had plenty of time to sell our house and prepare for the move. All that changed the other day.

We put our house on the market less than 2 weeks ago. The response was overwhelming with people coming in for showings multiple times every day. The home theater, large backyard and sunporch made our house stand out from similar properties in the area. Because of that, we sold it in 10 days. Actually the sale is still pending but everything looks good for a May 31st closing. The buyers need to move in 30 days later so that means Pam and I will be homeless until October. I congratulate the agents who helped with the sale of our house. Their attention to detail, marketing and great business attitude made the process a breeze.

We found a cool apartment to rent in a great location that’s only minutes from my work and takes off a good 45 minutes off of Pam’s travel time. She’s working on a project on the other side of town and it takes an hour and a half each way to commute.

So this deal is working out for all of us. We sold our house quickly (and for the price we wanted), we’re moving to a temporary place for the summer that’s closer to work for both of us and in the fall, we’ll be living it up in our new condo.

Remind me to get your addresses for the “Moving Party” and “Painting Party” we’ll be having later on.

The only problem is the area we are leaving will quickly go downhill. Without Pam and I to liven things up, nobody will want to live there.