Smart Move?

I'm starting this entry from my new smart phone. It was Karen who was originally pushing for a phone with a data plan; I thought it would be too expensive. But my old phone stopped working, and our old plan was past its contract date, so she did some shopping and found us a plan that may actually save us some money.

The plan itself is more expensive, of course, but it allows us to use our Internet connection at home to make cell calls, and so we may finally be able to get rid of our expensive and less than satisfying land line.

Which means we say good-bye to our Wolfeboro phone number of over 14 years, but we gain a few bucks a month, maybe a higher-speed Internet connection, and all the cool stuff our phones can do.

Like blog from the palm of my hand. Not as fast as typing on a full-sized keyboard, but handy for adding thoughts to an entry while I go about my business at home, or anywhere where there's a wireless connection open (I started this entry at the library and am continuing it at home going back and forth between the computer and the phone).

There are other greet little features, too, that I've only begun to explore. I can do email and eBay and ebooks (egad), check job listings, watch Netflix streaming (not necessary but really fun), take high-definition video and still pictures, set alarms and reminders, maintain a shopping list, check my bank accounts, follow the weather, get directions (yes, the phone has GPS), play music, and edit text. And I even found an application that helps you find planets and constellations in the night sky (which I only knew about because I saw a friend use it on the Fourth of July).

But enough about the phone; it's time to do a little catching up. Directing "Almost, Maine" was an amazing but exhausting experience. Now that it's done, we've had time to spend together as a family. And as luck would have it, the end of the play coincided nicely with the beginning of one of Karen's vacation weeks. So we managed to get to the planetarium, spend some time at the beach, see a couple of movies (Cars 2 and the last Harry Potter installment, both winners), and even visit Thomas, all too briefly.

No more directing for me for a while. "Little Shop of Horrors" is the next play coming up, and I'm just playing one of the skid row bums. Then I'll probably lay out of theater for awhile until I've figured out how I'm making a living. My recent job hunting has convinced me that it probably won't be through regular employment, and I'm going to need all the time I can find to develop some other ideas that I have.

Meanwhile, we'll keep plugging along, holding it together and trying to finish the house. Which reminds me: I have some deck plans to work on.