Missives from the 6th Floor

Dawnise has had her current cel phone - a Nokia "candy bar" - since it was the "new new thing" in 2004, and it was getting a bit long in the tooth. She'd looked at the iPhone and decided it wasn't worth the price tag (a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with), and would still be a hard sell at the rumored $200 price point. She'd also played with my work-issued Blackberry Perl and decided it seemed usable and feature-rich enough for her, and the fact that it could be had for free with a two year contract from T-Mobile made it a strong contender.

So after chatting with one of the sales critters at the Costco wireless booth, we gave the final "bugger off" to AT&T and ported her number to T-Mobile and a shiny new red BlackBerry Perl. The Mac software (PocketMac) was a free download through RIM, and was easy enough to setup and get working.

We signed her up for an unlimited data plan, at least initially, so she's playing with Google Maps, Google Talk (on Google Talk and know Dawnise? Add her as a friend - her first first initial + last name at gmail.com) Opera Mini, and the whole bevy of third party applications (including one to control the color of the back-light behind the trackball).

Including an accessories kit and Blue-Tooth headset, it'll end up costing us about $30 in tax after rebates. Oh, and a two year contract with T-Mobile, who seems to be no worse than AT&T so far.

While walking around the store, we spotted a leather duffel bag. I admired it for a moment and walked on, but Dawnise decided I needed one (apparently my bag fetish was written all over my face) and dropped it in the cart. It's probably big enough to pack for our trip to the east coast at the end of the week.

Finally, I looked a bit at a camera bag, but decided to have a larger look 'round before committing. The one they had in store was a LowePro, and looked nice, but I'm trying to find something that'll play nice with my messenger bag, since I anticipate carrying them simultaneously at times.

My camera arrives tomorrow, according to UPS, and Chris dropped off his bag full-o-lenses last night, unasked. Quite kind of him. When I get home tonight I'll look at what he left me, and decide exactly how much kit I want to lug around NY.