The Burrow

I went to the gym.  It's my New Year's Resolution - 15 minutes, 3 times each week, on the step machine - and I'm trying to stick to it. Unfortunately, on Saturday I got a replacement phone for my Moto Droid.  I installed the apps I wanted, including the LAFitness one that held my membership card.  I didn't have the card number any more; I'd thrown it away once I loaded it into my phone.  No worries, thought I.  They will have it at the desk. They did.  I entered it, along with my universal User Name and Password.  Nothing good happened. The app told me that an account with that number already existed.  Duh.  I knew that,  That's why I plugged in those numbers and that name and password.  Unfortunately, the app didn't offer me any alternatives. I turned off the phone and restarted it.  I deleted the app and reentered the number.  I received a new number and started the whole procedure again, from deleting and reinst...

I bought myself a new phone today.  I did it all by myself.  I did the research, I considered the options, I made the decisions, and nowhere was there a Cuter offering advice. To call this unusual is to understate the obvious. I start to hyperventilate when I have to consider entering an electronics emporium.  Best Buy makes my palms sweat.  Thinking about talking to the worker bees at the Verizon Store sent my tummy into panic mode.  I have never, ever, ever, entered one of these places without the guiding presence of a child by my side.  Physically holding me upright, or tethered to the other end of my phone, all questions and decisions on laptops and tablets and cell phones and desktops have been considered by the Cuter at my side. Not so today. Today, emboldened by my three previous, lengthy, thought provoking visits to that same Verizon Store, I took the plunge. I brought Anna Quindlen's  Still Life With Bread Crumbs , in hardback, and I settl...