Dumpster Diving

Sometimes I'm such an idiot.  One of those times was yesterday.  I am trying to phase out plastic food storage containers because they're a waste of money.  I can only use them until they start to get stained or smell funky, plus I'm not entirely sure that all my plastic is BPA free.  And I can't put them in the microwave.  You know, the list goes on for a while.  So I've been tossing them one by one.

Yesterday I went to Target in search of good glass storage containers with safe, tightly-fitting plastic lids.  I found some great Pyrex that can be frozen, microwaved, baked, etc.  And they have lids so I can carry leftovers to work without worrying about leakage in my lunch bag.  I got several containers all with matching lids and I was so excited.

I brought them home, unpackaged everything and set about either handwashing them or loading them in the dishwasher with the other dishes to be washed.  Then the cable guy got here to switch our cable service to another outlet, I did laundry and dusted and straightened up and took trash to the dumpster and I didn't think about my new storage containers any more.

This afternoon I went to pour leftover salsa into a new glass container because the plastic one was leaking. (Another reason!  Loosely fitting lids!  Argh!)  But I couldn't find the corresponding lid.  It wasn't with the handwashed things in the dish drainer, not in the dishwasher, not in the cabinet where I store plastic lids.  I couldn't find it any where.  Then I realized that I couldn't find the rectangular lids for the small baking/storing dishes, either.  And it hit me that the box that held this particular set had looked much bigger to me than necessary when I unpacked it.  But I got distracted with laundry and the cable guy and didn't open up the bottom of the box.  So I figured that the lids must have been at the bottom of that box.  And that box was taken to the dumpster yesterday.

So I went downstairs and dug through some of the nastiest trash I've ever seen and found my Pyrex box -- all the way at the very bottom of the dumpster.  It was so disgusting.  There were flies every where and it's about 89F today -- way too hot to be digging through smelly trash.  Ugh.  It was worth it, though.  The lids were indeed in the box under a cardboard divider and now I have a complete set of storage dishes with lids.

Lesson learned: always, always, always open up the entire box and take out all of the packing material before you throw it into the dumpster.

New Phone

A few weeks ago I took Samuel to the office for his 7 year well visit.  And by 'the office' I mean my office, where I work.  It's chock full of great people who can take great care of my kids. Anyway, moving right along ... The visit went just fine.

Jennifer called during the appointment but I couldn't answer the phone so (I thought) I put it back into my coat pocket and continued the visit.  Just before we left my friend Lisa came in to poke Samuel's finger and check his hemoglobin level.  He. Did. Not. Like. That. One. Bit.  It took both of us to wrestle him onto the table and pry his pinky finger out of his fist for the 1/16th of a second it takes to employ the lancet.  His hemoglobin was great, by the way, a testament to his incredible strength.

We collected ourselves and headed over to Chick-Fil-A for some lunch.  While in Chick-Fil-A Samuel blew some bubbles into his milkshake which caused it to explode all over the table.  I reached for my phone to take a picture, all prepared for a PSA post here about blowing milkshake bubbles.  But my phone was not there.  I looked in my 14 coat pockets and my 5 pants pockets and my bag.  Not there.  No biggie.  Probably in the car.

We finished lunch and went to the car to take Samuel back to school.  My phone was not there.  I ripped up the floor mats, moved my seat back and forth, dumped out my purse twice and moved all the booster seats.  No phone.  Went back into Chick-Fil-A.  No phone.  Went back to the office.  No phone.

I was a tad freaked out because my phone is integral to my daily life and I didn't realize just how integral until I could not find it.  I figured that I must have thrown it into the trash at Chick-Fil-A and decided that it wasn't worth searching through other people's half-eaten food for a 2 1/2 year old phone.  So I dropped Samuel off at school and headed to the AT&T store.

I've been drooling over iPhones for years.  I almost bought one last summer.  But I didn't.  But that's neither here nor there.  Anyway.  It's been past time for me to get a phone upgrade for months and months but I just kept putting it off.  I figured that the loss of my phone was a sign of some sort that I should get a new phone.  And why not get an iPhone?

The AT&T dude was very cool.  I told him the sad saga of the morning and how all the signs were pointing to an iPhone.  His eyes practically turned into dollar signs like in a cartoon.  I decided on the 16 GB 3GS, the accessories to accompany it and the Apple Care to support it.  I couldn't fathom needing 32 GB of space on a phone, for Pete's sake.  But again, not important right now.  Moving right along.

I decided to go ahead and get a new phone number.  I've kept my Texas number because it was simpler than changing my number and I kind of liked the, "Hm, where is that number based?" questions.  But when in Colorado ...

I got my phone, fell into a nice, comfortable infatuation with it and finished my party errands.  The only reason to be upset was that I had lost all the contacts in my old phone, about 200 numbers.  (Yikes!)  As I waited in the pick up line at the kids' school, Paul called me and said that Lisa had texted him and said that she had my phone at the office.  (My phone is so important because, of those 200 numbers, I have precisely 3 memorized -- Jennifer, Paul and work.  When I got the new number I was able to call Paul and Jennifer and tell them what happened.)

Crappola. Now I had two phones, one of which was deactivated.  Do I return the iPhone and keep my old phone?  Or do I just transfer the old contacts into the new phone?  Returning it was out of the question.  I was already in loooooove.

So I got the old phone from the office (Apparently, Samuel kicked it off the table during the finger poking episode and Lisa took it to the nurse's station, thinking I'd come back for it.  And I did but she hadn't told the front desk about it so they told me they didn't have it.), took it to the AT&T store and the nice man who sold me the iPhone opened it up to retrieve the SIM card so I could have all my numbers.

So, long story short: girl loses phone, panics, buys brand new fantabulous phone, falls in love, lives happily ever after.