Lunch seemed like a good idea. Get out of the house. Get some air. Get up off our rear ends.
Anyway, I had to go out and do errands, then or later. Might as well combine the two.
There's a family restaurant in San Mateo we go to from time to time. Comfort food. Heidis Pies (can't get a whole lot more "comfort" than pie now, can you?)
As we took our seats - "seat yourselves, wherever you want" - Dick spotted an advertising gimmick-ey thing on the table. Text "Pie" to some number or other, and win! (Maybe). A whole pie.
Well, I've got this nice shiny new phone - and I text, quite a bit. What was I supposed to do? Off went my text (don't you just *hate* people texting in restaurants?). An almost instantaneous reply - I won! As above - a whole pie! For free. Right then and there. Dang.
Our waitress was ecstatic. We were the third customer of hers to win. Seems they've been running the promotion since August. How observant of us. I know we'd been there at least once before since August. I don't recall seeing the promotion.
It's too early for the Holiday season pies - mince would have been my choice. Raisin works as a great second choice. I seriously need to buy some vanilla ice cream for tomorrow (yes, there's still some pie left).
And maybe some lottery tickets.
Apropos my shiny new phone...
On Thursday I indulged my geek side (again) and took the day off work to go to Nokia's Sunnyvale offices. Microsoft and Nokia were running a full day (8 to 5 - but they provided breakfast) Developer Phone Camp. I was there with my Windows Phone. But that's not my shiny new phone.
My shiny new phone is the Nokia N9, which you can't get here in the US, which I had drop-shipped from Denmark, which is just gorgeous, which is the first and last of its kind that Nokia's producing because they're going with Microsoft Windows Phone software, which is... Stop, Kevin. Remember, breathe. In...out...in...out... OK. All better now?
Sorry. It's just...
Well, anyway, I brought my N9 with me, just to have the coolest phone in the room. Childish. I know. I showed it off to a Nokia employee. He snapped it right out of my hand! In error. "Where did you get this," he demanded.
This is Silicon Valley. NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements) abound. Instances of prototype devices turning up in the oddest of places make headline news. It seems my phone, at first glance, might bear some resemblance to as-yet-unannounced products. He returned my phone once I showed him the error of his ways.
I'm probably lucky I didn't get tossed out on my above-mentioned rear end.
Life in the Valley. Dad would have loved the story.
You're lucky you got your phone back. ;)
ReplyDeleteI envy your electronic geekiness. I have no interest so don't understand all the phone changes (I also hate to talk on the phone, so that probably goes without saying). I couldn't take a picture with a phone to save my life and have trouble getting to the part of the menu that has a message waiting for me. :D
@Laura - Indeed. He was most unhappy with me. "I bought it," said I. "Not possible," said he. Well, yes, it was possible. Once he understood the phone wasn't what he seemed to think it was.
ReplyDeleteAll the photos in my Haiku book were taken with my phone. As they say, "the best camera is the one you have with you."
Don't worry about envying my electronic geekiness - I envy you your writing chops.
I wish I could afford more of the shiny things I see, but I'm phonphobic so even the shiniest of phones necessarily drops lower on the wish list.
ReplyDeletePeople texting in restaurants doesn't bother me at all, although I am always puzzled when I see people sitting at the same table ignoring each other while engrossed in the tiny screens. People talking on phones in restaurants bothers me a lot. [Why do they have to speak more loudly into something right next to their face than they do to someone across the table?] And when they use them like a walkie-talkie... well, let's just say they are lucky I am not a violent man by nature.