I don’t feel as though I have much to write about right now. And I don’t have any new pictures to post.

I could mention how much I enjoy my new cell phone.

I could mention that I went climbing tonight and seemed to be getting back into my groove and that my back will certainly hurt tomorrow.

I could mention that I signed up for my company’s corporate challenge walk/run taking place on Thursday and that while I am having second thoughts, I think a 3.5 mile run is quite manageable and I will do it.

I could mention that I’m very stressed and tired and have been getting headaches every day for the last four days.

I could mention how happy I was when a friend complimented me on the photos I’ve been posting lately.

I could mention the books I read this weekend - there were several - and talk about the new one I’m really enjoying.

I could whine about my currently re-emerging headache.

However, I don’t really want to write about any of these at length. I’m tired and know that I won’t sleep for a bit yet since my mind is speeding and awake. It’s partially due to the soda I had at dinner because my headache was so bad, I resorted to caffeine to help me over the hump.

Ah well. As Miss Scarlett said, “After all… tomorrow is another day.”

So my new LG enV² cell phone arrived today. I got home a few minutes ago, all excited to activate it (it was already charged and ready to go.) I decided to do it online - it’s late, I have to wake up early… this is easiest, thought I.

I went through the three easy steps and got to the “click here to accept the user agreement” page. Well, because I’m just that way, I decided to actually read a bit of the user agreement. I’m used to the usual, “you can’t sue us, we’re not responsible for X, Y, Z, you have to pay your bill, early termination fee” etc. But I’ve had this same account since 1996 so I’m fairly certain I’m still OK with whatever rights they’re taking/leaving.

What caught my eye was that in the second or third paragraph, it mentioned some company (not Verizon - let’s call them “United Sprocket Co.”) and said that by checking the “I accept” box, I was verifying that I was working for them as an independent agent of “United Sprocket Co.” (which I’m not) and allowing them to monitor my phone calls (in the immortal words of Whitney, “Awwww, HELL TO THE NO!”).

I checked to see if there was any relationship between “United Sprocket Co.” and the company I work for; there is not, nor did I think there would be. I do get a small discount (something like 5%) on my cell phone service because my employer is signed up for it (one of those corporate incentive thingies), but my company does not pay my cell phone bill, so I really don’t think they’d reserve the right to monitor my phone calls in exchange for my getting a measly 5% discount. If that’s the case, I would gladly pay the extra 5% so I could have a little less Big Brother in my life.

So, I’m guessing that my account info for the renewal is somehow tied to a corporate phone account for someone employed by “United Sprocket Co.” My regular account page contains no mention of the other company, so that’s reassuring. Of course, dialing the 800 number didn’t help at all since their hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. (What’s this? I thought you were all outsourcing to Bangalore so that there could be someone on the other end of the phone 24/7. I guess not!), but I’ll call from the train in the morning or when I get to the office.

It’s just weird and I don’t want to assume that it’s a glitch in their system until I talk to someone and have this straightened out.

So I have an awesome new cell phone that I can’t use yet because I actually read the small print and thought twice. Grrrr. Ignorance would be cell phone bliss, I guess.

Friday. I haven’t looked forward to a Friday this much in quite some time. It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I’ve not been working out as much as I’d like and since I was getting angry at myself and aggravated at my lack of progress, I decided to take this week “off”. Come Monday, I’ll approach from a different angle and make it work for me. More running, more Pilates, more weights. It can be done. In the meantime, fun stuff!

• PAPERCRAFT STEAK DINNER?!??!? Yes. Fire up your color printer and assemble a paper steak to delight your friends and family. The site’s in Japanese, but you can figure it out.

• CROSS-STITCH! I’ve been thinking that once I finish knitting this baby blanket I’m making for my friends, it might be time to take up a new craft - like cross-stitch. To that end, I’ve been checking out the cross-stitch kits at my local craft stores. They’re all rather corny and so not me- “Footprints”? Precious Moments characters? A bald eagle against the flag? I’d prefer and old school grandma sampler, honestly. But that’s me. My aesthetic runs in a different vein. Just imagine my delight when I discovered this cross-stitch generator at Dark Lilac! I can upload a picture I create in Photoshop or a favorite image and it will generate a cross-stitch chart including the colors of DMC brand embroidery floss you’ll need. I have plans to create one of my gimpy wrist MRI (just have to resize in Photoshop) as well as one of brussels sprouts or other such food.
• SHRINKY DINKS. I stopped at Michael’s on my way home from work with my friend Krys. She was picking up scrapbooking supplies; I went in to buy unnecessary stuff. Craft stores and Target are perfect for that. I found they were selling packs of blank frosted Shrinky Dinks and my childhood came rushing back to me - like the fumes generated by sticking sheets of plastic into the oven to watch them shrink. That said, I bought a pack. I have colored pencils. I have an oven. I have jump rings. This means I can make pendants and keychains and other random crap - but however I want to do it. Crafty crafty! ($4.99 for 10 sheets)
• Summertime = bright nail polish colors. The new Essie colors for this summer left me a little underwhelmed. There was a color near the display, though, that attracted me. It’s not new for this season, but it fits right in and it’s awesome. It’s called Calypso - a bright fuchsia. It garnered compliments and that’s always nice.
• After much deliberation and whatnot, I’ve finally selected and ordered my new cell phone. Not a Blackberry, not the LG Voyager, not the Samsung Glyde. There were issues with each one (bulk, size, price, less than stellar reviews) so I did a Goldilocks kind of thing. In the end, I checked the Howard Forums and reviews for the phones I was considering - these led me to several people raving about the LG enV(2). It also had good ratings from c|net. It’s not as sexy as the others - it’s not a touchscreen phone; it doesn’t have a huge display on the front. But that’s OK. I wanted a full QWERTY keyboard - it’s got that. I wanted a larger display for web browsing and email composition - it’s got that when you open it up. I wanted a phone that’s easy to use AS a phone - this actually has a number pad for regular old dialing. And it cost me a whopping $49 after my upgrade discount. It arrives on Tuesday. Yippee!
• I’ve just pledged to be a part of Firefox Download Day 2008. It’s not a pledge to do anything other than download the newest version (that would be version 3) of Firefox on the day it’s released. Love love love love love. I love a browser. Hmmm. This might be part of the reason I’m single.

In another two weeks, it’s new cell phone time for Miss Eva. I’ve been waiting for an update on the Samsung phone I posted about ages ago, and that’s the one now known as the Samsung Glyde.

It could be that, a Blackberry Curve or the LG Voyager.

c|net (my initial/trusted choice for such decision-making basics) reviewed the Glyde and gave it a 7.3 out of 10. That’s good.

They gave the Voyager 8.3 out of 10. That’s really good.

c|net doesn’t have an editorial rating for the Blackberry Curve yet, but the users give it a 9.0 out of 10. This I will take with a grain of salt since people get a little too attached - the Crackberry phenomenon.

I’m going to have to suck it up and go into a Verizon store (I loathe that part of the process) to play with them and see which interface is most eva-friendly. I’m pretty savvy with those things and can learn to use a new toy quickly - but the simple matter of how it feels in my hand will be part of the decision-making process, too. When the Verizon sales dudes come up to me to start pitching, I might pretend I don’t speak English. That should get them to leave me the hell alone.

I haven’t gone to a brick-and-mortar Verizon store in almost 6 years; I’ve done all my phone upgrading and plan changes online since I just hate the wireless store experience. It reminds me of the scene in Best in Show where the yuppie couple are discussing how lucky they were to be “raised among catalogs”:

I totally get that sometimes. Also, I love this scene and I adore Parker Posey.