Well, whee hee, this week I've sort of joined the modern-ish age and purchased an Iphone (and wicked cute case!)

which I'm slightly in love with.  It's even got freaking 'Siri' (slightly annoying that it's a female voice - I want Peter O'Toole's voice, dammit).  Verizon not only gave me 30 bucks credit towards the purchase of any new phone (seeing as my plan was ending on 3/27) but an additional 30 dollars just for trading in my old flip phone, which was probably worth less than 3 cents on the current market.  Said flip phone was my 4th in the last 2 yrs - I kid you not. 

First one I tucked into my jeans pocket and then did the wash.  Pulled clothing out of the machine and heard a 'clunk', looked down, and there was my phone on the bottom of the tub, shiny clean and full of water.  No - I tried - there was no way to dry it out - (short of leaving it in a bowl of rice, per the Verizon technician) - twas totally cooked.  So I replaced it with something similar.

Second phone I had sticking out of my back pocket whilst visiting glorious downtown Old Orchard Beach last summer.  (That's one handy thing with flippers - they can be slid over a pocket so that they cling to the material, right?  No need for a clip.)  So I naturally forgot the blasted thing was there and slid myself into the car seat, only to feel immediate resistance, and to hear yet another ominous clunk.  I looked down, and there was the top half of the phone lying in the street, the bottom half still being inside my rear pocket.  And, no, there was no way to join the two severed halves up - believe me, I tried.  To make matters worse, I was heading to Vermont on vacation in a few days and had to scramble and go buy a

Third - a temporary cheapy pay-as-you-go-phone, just for the trip.  (That's the problem with these new found gadgets - they make themselves indi-freaking-spensible).  So after returning, I then had to go out and buy a

FOURTH phone - a real one this time, ie non pay as you go (because that system is not only expensive, but highly annoying).  Okay?  So let's say a prayer that my pricey little Iphone does not suffer the same idiot fate.

At 60 bucks off, though, I could not resist.  And now I find myself snapping too damned many random spur of the moment photos (including stuff like car accidents) and posting them to, yes, Twitter, and lovely little Instagram:

http://web.stagram.com/n/velvetbabe/

The latter of which feeds to the former, I just found out this morning, and has a rather fetching and groovie retro logo:

This stuff will come in mighty handy on My Trip.  Just have to make sure my brain isn't completely taken over with it a la crack, ie 'oh, that would make a great shot!!' every three damned seconds.