A new restaurant and a new phone.

 

As I write this, Christmas and New Year have yet to come.  Yet, I'm rushing to get a co-op newsletter out before the end of the year, so that shareholders see that we are trying to communicate with them on a regular time frame. 

RQS is unable to reach me today, as she left her phone here last weekend.  So we made arrangements for me to pick her up at the train station at 4:30.  Once I picked her up, we decided to go to the new Thai restaurant in town.  Before I say too much about the restaurant, the owners used to have a place in Thornwood, and after 20 (?) years, decided to move to Croton to open a new place.  Their website still lists the Thornwood address, even though they have been located in Croton since Halloween weekend.  

We walked into the restaurant without reservations, and were shown to a table next to the bar.  We were told that since the place hadn't yet been given a liquor license, they were giving away a glass of wine with each meal.  Looking at the menu, we both saw that prices were a little bit more than we expected.  I could easily manage this unplanned cost, so I ordered the Tamarind duck while RQS had chicken in a spicy red curry sauce.  Both were excellent!  We'll be going back when the budget allows for it.

Our next stop was Best Buy, where RQS bought a backup cell phone, just to have a cheap phone for use in an emergency (or, when she leaves her phone at my place).  It took a stop at 2 stores, as the first one didn't have the budget Motorola phone in stock.  When we got home, RQS was about to buy a SIM card directly from a service provider.  I told her NOT to complete the transaction, and explained why she should buy the SIM card through Amazon.  If the card were shipped by the cell phone company, it wouldn't get here until sometime after Xmas.  But, if the card came from Amazon, it would be here before the end of the weekend.  So, RQS ordered the card, then started to set the phone up for backup use.

Hopefully, RQS will be able to use her new phone for phone calls by the end of the weekend.

This was a quiet day until I decided to go out after dark.

 

As I write this, it's a week before Christmas.  RQS now has 2 boxes she can open on Christmas, and I can relax a little before the holiday.  Given that she knows about her big gift (a cruise), I felt that she should have something small to open on Christmas as well.

- - - - -

I didn't start getting ready to go out until 4:30 pm.  Once I was ready, I went out to the car and started driving to Walmart.  But before I was out of the driveway, my brother called to shoot the breeze.  He opened up a little about his home situation, and then we chatted about the family homestead.  Once at Walmart, I took a detour to Best Buy to see if they had a webcam I could use as a replacement.

My back was hurting a little as I entered the store, and proceeded to the computer accessories area.  (I was smart enough to be using my cane tonight.)  Five minutes later, I went to the check out area to pay for the webcam.  And that's when things went South.  One would expect a busy store with slightly less than a week to go before the holiday - but it was almost empty.  There were only two people tending the cash registers, and neither of them were doing anything fast.  One of the attendants were handling a return that was taking forever.  (I couldn't hear much, but if I did, I didn't understand their language.)  The other attendant couldn't feed a new roll of paper into the receipt printing machine.  Ten minutes later, I was almost ready to give up on the purchase and go to Walmart.  But then, a register opened up, and I was finally able to leave the store.

Next, I took a drive and ended up at Trader Joe's.  $60 later, I was out the door with the food I'd need this weekend.  At least, I won't have to go food shopping when RQS arrives tomorrow.... 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                 

The day after, Or: The turkey didn't die in vain. He died for us.

 

After a night where our stomachs digested yesterday's feast, it was time to take care of errands.  Our goals for the day: (1) Bring RQS's computer to the repair shop for a battery replacement, (2) Get my car's windshield fixed, and (3) Buy a new cell phone (the old one's battery needs replacing).  Of these tasks, there is no order that they must be done.  But they must be done while I present as Mario.  AARGH!  

- - - - - -

As usual, I awakened before RQS and decided to take care of some things before going out to get the car windshield fixed.  Unfortunately, several things conspired to prevent us getting to Safelite on time.  First, RQS didn't get dressed soon enough to meet the built in margin I had with departure time to reach Mt. Kisco.  Second, Google Maps directed me to a non-extant address on the "wrong road" in Mt. Kisco.  (I copied the address of 379 N. Bedford Road, and it got corrected to 379 Bedford Road - a location far away from where we needed to be.  And lastly, the street numbering on North Bedford Road was out of sequence, as Shoprite's entry (333 North Bedford Road) came after the small driveway for Safelite while building construction got in the way of seeing Safelite's building from the road.  AARGH!

We proceeded to sit down while my windshield got repaired.  If one looks carefully, there is a spot that got damaged in the safety glass laminate that couldn't be fixed.  However, from either side of the glass, it looks like a spec of dirt.  When it came to paying for the work, I couldn't get them to charge my insurance company directly - I had booked everything with a cash payment.  So I knew I'd have to deal with my car's insurance company when I can reach my agent.

Our next stop was to Best Buy where I bought a new cell phone.  The battery on my old phone is dying, and I figured that it was time to replace it and move things to a new phone.  As I write this, I'm monitoring the process of porting everything over to the new phone.  There will be a few hiccups in the process.  But I expect to be up and running this evening.  Once the new phone is set up for phone calls, I will order a new battery for the old phone and prepare to take it to the shop to be installed.  I will then have a backup phone for emergency use.  Yay!

Unfortunately, when we got home, the computer repair shop was closed for the weekend, as was my insurance agent.  RQS and I will be dealing with this on Monday, when everyone is back at work.

- - - - - -

While I am by my computer, RQS is cooking the chicken breasts I bought for Thanksgiving dinner.  One of the four will be used for Chicken Salad sandwiches.  Another will be used for Chicken Linguini Alfredo. And the remaining two will go into the freezer for later use.  Upon opening the package, RQS remarked - these breasts are heavier than the turkey breast we had last night!  Somehow, I think I did right....

T minus One and counting

 

Saturday.  The last day I had to get ready for the upcoming cruise.  Was I ready?  No.  But some things have to be prioritized, and others have to be dropped from the schedule.  And yet, I had last minute complications....

When I woke up, I found that a file had gotten corrupted on my computer.  Unfortunately, this file made it possible for me to restart my email client.  After looking around on the internet for a solution, I was of the mind to delete everything in the "Program Files" folder related to Thunderbird, and reinstall from scratch.  One problem - some files just didn't want to be deleted, even with me in administrator mode.  So, I renamed the folder, and reinstalled everything.  After a couple of tries, I was able to restore the program and was lucky to have the bulk of my old emails.

RQS didn't get moving until 11 am or so.  (I had awakened earlier, and finished fixing my computer problem before going into the living room to chill.) Neither of us were in the mood to start getting ready to go out until 12:30, but this would mean that we wouldn't be going to the movies later on. By the time we got out the door, I ended up changing my dress because it was too warm to wear the heavy dress I had first put on.  (It would have been perfect after the sun had set, but this was yet the daytime.) And then we were off to the nail salon for our mani-pedis. 

Both of us were starting to get hungry, but our next stop was Micro Center.  I needed to buy a new cell phone charger and RQS needed to buy a cruise safe power outlet.  Sadly, RQS could not find what she wanted in Micro Center (or in Best Buy later on).  By the time we left Micro Center, we were both very hungry.  I was getting weak due to low sugar level (I had much less than usual to eat) and needed to eat something soon.  So off to the one Arby's I knew of in Westchester.

I'm not sure of how many of my readers have eaten at Arby's, but i remembered their Roast Beef as being very tasty.  Their Yonkers outlet was very small, and designed for take-out customers.  It took a few minutes for us to get our food, as only two people were manning the store - both doing food preparation duties when not at the cash register.  Although the sandwich was tasty, it did not fit my memories of the place.  Yet, I might go there again if I have a craving for a roast beef sandwich.

Once done with food, we returned home (with a stop for ice cream),  By the time we neared home, I was glad to be wearing leggings under my dress.  Hopefully, I won't return to weather colder than this when our ship comes back from Bermuda.

Just another brick in the wall....

 

Have you ever had your phone turn into a brick?  I have, and it's not fun.

- - - - - -

I have been looking at new cell phones for a while, and have been dickering about whether I should buy a new one or not.  Well, that decision was made for me at 3:30 this morning.  My phone changed from being something useful to being a brick.

You might be asking, "How did I know that the phone was a brick?"  I wasn't sure at first myself.  When I woke up this morning, I thought it was 3:30 am based on the display of my phone.  When I looked at my watch, it said 6:45.  I thought that the watch was set poorly until I looked at the cable box. Then it dawned on me - the phone got stuck, and my alarms didn't ring.

At this point, I made the decision NOT to go to work and called in sick when I knew I wouldn't be waking up my boss.  And then, I tried to reboot the phone.  No luck.  I now had the first boot screen flashing on the display, with the phone boot up process stuck in an endless loop.  Now it was time to try a factory reset.  I couldn't even do that.  My phone was officially a brick!

- - - - - -

Now that my phone was now a worthless piece of electronic waste, I knew that this was going to be a Mario Mode day.  I would need to present myself as Mario, just in case my legal identity needed to be verified.  And I didn't want any headaches from people serving me today.  So off went the idea of putting on a tunic and leggings, and on went the idea of wearing a long sleeved shirt and trousers. And off I went to Best Buy to see what phones they had in stock.

In chatting with the salesperson at Best Buy, he had a slight preference for Samsung phones over Motorola, noting that he had heard of this type of Bricking Problem before.  Yet, he recognized that the Motorola phones provided excellent value and run close to stock Android.  Given that I wanted as much memory as possible AND wanted a phone I knew would be upgraded to Android 12, I chose the Motorola phone.  If he had more negative things to say about Motorola, I'd have gone with Samsung and dealt with their needless Android skin mods and their dumb Bixby button.

- - - - - -

When I finally got home, I started the process of taking the SIM and Micro SD card out of the old phone and installing them in the new phone.  Although I have a wealth of SIM removal pins, I didn't have one as long as needed to eject the new phone's card tray.  I was very lucky to make sure that I saved all materials for the phone, as I found this pin and used it.  After that, the restoration of apps to the new phone was easy.  Everything had been backed up, and all I had to do was log on to my Google account and start the process of reloading apps from the Google Play store.

As much as I like the new phone, it still seems a little foreign to me.  Until I have a new case that isn't that slippery, I'll have to be very careful when the phone is out of my purse or my pocket.