Thursday, August 23, 2007
I had my closest encounter with actually eating shit last night when acquiescing to my daughter's request to eat at the mall Rainforest Cafe resulted in what must have been last week's shrimp and rancid bacon entering my mouth. First it was over an hour wait (wait for two is about 45 minutes, they hand us a card with a time about 55 minutes in the future, then we show up and "sorry, we're running a little behind"), then a good half an hour until the food arrives. I order the shrimp en brochette...it finally arrives...already the smell is not appetizing. I dig in...not good...fishy and...something else I can't identify, maybe burned even. But I keep eating one more, one more, thinking, "Maybe it's not that bad, maybe it was just that bite..." It was that bad. Why didn't I say something? I wanted to get the hell out of there already and go home. And the waitress was so solicitous I wanted to give her her tip in advance just to stay the hell away from us. I'm not a big "send it back" type, but this probably should have been one of those times. Even the rice was cold and the little side-salad thing that's usually pretty good was bad.
They did have a nice animal show for the kids, though.
My main point here is not the adventure in culinary scatology, though. I may be changing cell phone providers. I thought my phone was dead (I managed to get a new antenna, though), but if I change phones in the future I'll probably change providers, too since my plan with ATT/Cingular no longer exists and it would cost about $90/month for three lines and I didn't care much for their phone choices which were all pretty expensive. One line is for my parents who need a bare minimum ($0 - $10) phone. ATT didn't have that.
The other two choices look like Verizon and T-Mobile, both at about $80/month for three lines. T-Mobile had a cheap phone and a mid-range model for about $50, but I'm concerned about their coverage. The salesman was selling me on the phone with four frequencies or whatever, meaning you can use it literally anywhere (it wasn't expensive). Do I care about that? I'm sure the Verizon phones do the same thing, but at what cost? Anyone in the New England/Boston area have a suggestion or can you tell me how your experience has been with either company? I'm clueless on these things. I've never even sent a text message in my life.
Shrimp and bacon? You are eating this?
Gevalt! No wonder you are having trouble with your cell phone!
:)
I must say that New England has some of the worst cell coverage I've ever encountered. I'm not really sure there is a good answer. *sigh*
I have a Treo with Verizon service. In Chicago Verizon had the best coverage hands down. Here... who knows.
I can do "data" from my house, but our town doesn't allow cell towers, so phone reception is REALLY bad (2 bars tops) no matter what carrier we have. (data means I can get on the web and I can do text messages - although I do few text messages it's easier with a Treo than with a regular phone because of the keyboard)
What I really wish is that the cell providers had a "test phone" you could take to your house and see if you have real coverage with that carrier - not to mention checking out most of the places you frequent... to decide on which is best. That would violate their "gotcha" clause though.
If TMobile works for your parents - you might want to check into "prepaid" phone service for them. You buy the phone and a certain number of minutes. Then when the minutes are used up - you purchase "new minutes" through phone cards from places like Target or Walgreens... that kind of thing. It might be better for them than having a monthly plan. Plus the phone will always work for 911 calls even if they're out of minutes. Verizon doesn't offer that service that I know of. Then you could get regular service for the other 2 lines.
Thanks Teresa. That idea is definitely worth considering.
Yeah, seriously, dude.
If you're going to eat trayf, at least make sure it's worth the damage you're doing to your neshama.
;-)
Sol,
I agree with Teresa. My dad is a minimal phone user, so I got him an unlocked Razr on ebay, under $100, and a T-Mobile to go prepaid sim card on ebay. Then added 1000 more minutes to the card for $100 and he's good for a year. Just need to refill any amount so the minutes don't expire before the year is up.
Sol,
Ive had Verizon for the past four years and its been a pretty smooth and trouble free experience, had ATT before that and couldnt believe the difference in coverage.
Jay
Sol: I gave up contract with Verizon a few years ago because it was too expensive for our needs. I now have pay as you go wtih TMobile I also buy the 1000 minutes for 100.00 for the year and there are only a few bare spots in the Brookline area. My husband had Virgin Mobile and I made a deal with them as he rarely uses it. They charge 15.00 every 3 months to one of our cards and it is fine. Also am able to use in areas where Tmobile doesn't work. Hope this helps.
Verizon works the best in NH. That's what we all have. My Mom's phone costs $10/mos on our plan.