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Friday was such an eventful day that I did the unusual thing of
writing all about it in a mid-weekend, dedicated blog post of its own.
I did no socializing on Saturday. That day was still pretty busy though, the main event of which was our return to the AT&T Store at U Village to upgrade my iPhone. I'm doing precisely the same thing I did in early 2020: upgrading to the phone with a much-improved camera feature, in anticipation of our trip to Australia, with the intent of getting better photos.
In 2020, the camera capability improvement was mostly in taking nighttime pictures—and the difference really was stark; it was absolutely worth it. I did have options for better zoom capability even then, but the difference between the two-lens camera and the three-lens camera was stupid; the monthly payment for the loan on the phone was reasonable for the two lenses and way too much more for three. It was a very different story this time: now I've upgrade the phone and the monthly payment has gone
down! Not only that, but we ordered the phone using Shobhit's corporate account at the AT&T store this time, as opposed to directly through the Apple Store like we did last time, which means the monthly payment over what is now a three-year contract is going on the phone bill
he pays, instead of billing direct to me. And guess what? What had previously been a $43 loan payment monthly for two years, is now all of about $10 over three years (after an $800 credit for exchanging my old phone). I was willing to just budget so that I give Shobhit that much more each month to cover it, but he said I didn't have to, probably because ten bucks is close enough to a negligible difference.
I will still have a monthly payment to pay, however, and this one indefinitely: for AppleCare insurance. That's $9.99 a month, or $11.01 with tax. So as far as what I pay, I went from a $43 monthly payment to an $11 monthly payment, for an upgrade phone. This felt like a pretty sweet deal to me.
Mind you, my two-year contract ended a year ago this month. I kept that $43 in my budget, and just applied it to extra things in the meantime, the past several months just siphoning that amount into our travel budget for Australia. Creative accounting! I have a new budget written up for 2023, though, which no longer includes the monthly $43 payment, now includes the $11 payment, and that means no more extra $43 for the travel budgeting.
I did have to pay for taxes and such, just as I did with the last upgrade, so I still had to make a payment of $176.13 on Saturday. This was after the corporate Microsoft employee discount Shobhit has with AT&T that has never been removed; and it covered a protective case for the phone—something I must have—as well as a screen protector (ditto), a power port which for some reason no longer comes with the new phone even though the charging cord does; and then a free "
clear PopSockets PopGrip for MagSafe." The accessory was free with two other accessory purchases (the protective case and the power port), thus giving me a kickstand for my phone that I've never used before but have already found handy. The coolest part is that it's magnetized and sticks firmly to a circular magnet inside the back of the phone case, easy to remove if needed but very securely attached if not.
Anyway, the phone I now have is the
iPhone 14 Pro—just like last time, avoiding the "Max" because it's just too big for my pocket. The phone I have now is roughly the same size as my previous one, with a 6.1" screen; the Max is 6.7" and would be too cumbersome. I need to be able to keep my phone in my pocket.
The key difference though, as noted already, is the camera. My previous phone was the iPhone 11 and it had a digital zoom up to 5x; the 14 triples that. This should be much handier for observing wildlife from a distance, although I will still be sure and bring our binoculars on the trip anyway. The new phone also has an array of new features I
still need to research and explore. I actually haven't even tested its nighttime photography capabilities yet.
So once we were done transferring all the data from my old phone to the new one at the AT&T Store, we went over to the Apple Store, also at University Village, to purchase AppleCare. This was done within a couple of minutes and then we were on our way. We did a bit of shopping at the QFC grocery store right there as well, and then finally headed home, where I spent much of the rest of the day first captioning
all my photos from the Seattle Convention Center Summit building Open House on Friday, and then writing the blog post about it.
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So that brings us to yesterday, when Shobhit and I went down to Renton to spend several hours with Danielle—more than I even realized we would, in fact. We got to her place at about 11:10, and we must have left around 5:00ish.
The original plan had been for us all go out for brunch in Seattle after she had a client infusion appointment, but then that got canceled and so she invited us down to sit in her hot tub, finally, for the first time. Shobhit tried at first to say it was too cold for hot tubbing, but I assured him you get plenty warm in a hot tub regardless of air temperature. I really thought it would take more convincing but in the end he just went ahead and brought his swim briefs. We also brought two large towels after learning Danielle apparently did not have a lot and that it would be helpful for us to bring our own.
And then, instead of going out for brunch, Danielle made brunch for us: the quiche pictured at the top of this post. It was quite good, I must say; I was impressed. We all had two helpings, including Rylee who happened to be home as well. She was wearing a pink sweatshirt her dad bought for her at a Korn concert. Along the bottom of the back of it reads I HAVE ISSUES.
Danielle asked if we wanted mimosas and I said hell yeah! I then proceeded to drink too many. I had three; barely even felt a vague buzz; but I still should have stuck with one or two at the most, as I wound up with an annoying headache for most of the day afterward. I didn't feel much better on that front until Shobhit and I had gone home, I had a glass of water, and some dinner in me.
We went through a lot of champagne: two bottles' worth, one a medium size and one large. The large one we bought at the local liquor store; Danielle had me ride with her to go get it while Shobhit wasted no time giving Rylee tons of unsolicited advice about college, now that she's going to star high school next year. (I didn't even start thinking about college until I was a Junior in high school. I'm not saying that was smart or anything.)
I had a somewhat illuminating conversation with Danielle on the way to the liquor store. We got to talking about how Shobhit can drive me fucking insane, particularly with this penchant for arguing with every single thing I do or say, often before I even have a chance to do or say them. For example, he had already stated that to open a champagne bottle you're supposed to hold the cork and twist the bottle. He handed it to me to try, and I literally hadn't moved the fucking thing before he shouted, "You're supposed to twist the bottle!" as though I had started twisting the cork, when all I had done was start positioning my hands. I was like, "That's what I'm fucking doing!"
In the car though, Danielle said something that really stuck with me: "You're very reactive with him." And . . . she's absolutely right about that. She added, "I learned with Morgan, if you're reactive, things don't go well." I admitted this is something I need to work on. I am deeply tempted to point out that she's comparing a relationship with a spouse to her relationship with a child, but that's not really fair to point out. The point holds regardless of the type of relationship you're dealing with. And I already know from experience that if I reign in my reactionary responses to Shobhit's crazy making behaviors, things do go better.
Shobhit is also very reactive with me, mind you. But that's beside the point. We're talking about me right now.
Danielle couldn't find her purse and had to ask if I could buy the champagne. I was fine with that. She felt bad because she had really wanted to be able to cover everything for our visit, but I hardly consider that an important thing to achieve. Besides, I had already budgeted $40 for when we thought we'd be going out for brunch. Now all I actually spent was just over $17 for a large bottle of Brut champagne.
We got back, and Shobhit was still talking to Rylee about college. Rylee is 14 years old now and she was very polite and gracious, and actually seemed to regard a lot of what Shobhit said to her as useful. We then all sat around the dining room table to eat our slices of quiche and drink champagne (except for Rylee), and shortly after that, we all changed into our swim suits and got into the hot tub. It had been right around freezing temperature earlier in the morning, but by the time we got in the hot tub, all three of us bringing our mimosas along (Danielle stressing to be careful not to spill any of it into the water), it was about 39°. Still pretty cold, but the hot tub was so warm that all three of us spend several periods sitting up on the ledge to cool off.
Danielle got the hot tub just a few months ago and is clearly considering it a fully worthwhile purchase. "I practically live in here," she said. I had a feeling she would have happily stayed in longer, but I don't think we spent any more than an hour in it, if that. Shobhit and I both got a little overwhelmed by the pruning heat after a while, and we both showered to rinse off in the basement bathroom before changing back into our regular clothes.
Danielle suggested we watch something, and I suggested this new Natasha Lyonne show on Peacock called
Poker Face, in which she plays a woman who can always tell when someone is lying and solves a different murder each episode. The conceit is a bit of a stretch, less because of the fantastical "human lie detector" thing than because she isn't playing a cop—she's actually on the run from the mob. So, somehow, while
on the run, she's encountering a different murder to solve as an amateur sleuth each episode along her travels? We watched two episodes at Danielle's and then another later last night at home, and that premise strains suspension of disbelief after a bit. But, the show is getting incredibly good reviews, and the premise does also allow for very different settings and a whole new cast of guest stars each episode, so it's certainly never boring. Plus, I love Natasha Lyonne.
Anyway, Danielle only paid half attention to the show, spending a lot of time texting on her phone and openly admitting she would be watching them again later. Shobhit was like, should we go home? But Danielle said, "I love having you guys here," so we just settled in to hang out and watch the show for a couple of hours.
Once we finally did leave, we went to the DK Market Asian grocery store to do some produce shopping; went to two more stores in a fruitless quest to get a refund on a smoke alarm we can't make work in our condo but which we can't remember where we bought it or when, and in the end we gave up. At least we did get a refund on the 2-pack we got at Costco, which we returned after two full years on Saturday. They had such a hard time scanning the bar code on the Membership card I've been using since 2005, they finally issued me a fresh card. Shobhit went ahead and got a fresh one for himself too.
I have a strangely warm feeling about my Costco membership, because when I joined in 2005, I was added to Shobhit's account as his partner. It was the first "official" thing we ever got done as a couple. I remember Craig regarding it as ridiculous thing for me to get excited about at the time—it's just a store membership after all—but it meant something to me, to have any entity whatsoever outside of ourselves offer validation of our relationship. Remember, 2005 was still seven years before Washington State legalized same-sex marriage, and
ten years before it was federally recognized (and we could file taxes jointly, woot!). So even small things like this were meaningful gestures, and forever cemented our loyalty as Costco customers.
Incidentally, the very jovial guy who took our photos (and who had been working for Costco since 1997) assured us that our Costco memberships would be honored at any Costco in the world, including ones we might go to in Australia. If I get a chance, I should maybe talk to someone at the one in Adelaide to see if there's any way to get an Australian login online, so I can order calendars to be printed and delivered locally to Uncle David and Mary Ann. Or . . . wait, I forgot. I have more to figure out there, because Costco just licensed all their photo services to Shutterfly. Is that global too? I'll have to find out.
But. I digress! Shobhit and I got home, put away the groceries, fed the cats, had leftover lentil soup and naan for dinner, watched this week's truly excellent episode of
The Last of Us on HBO Max, watched the third episode of
Poker Face on Peacock. And then I went to bed.
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[posted 12:28 pm]
