The past few days have been … interesting.
Friday night, after work, Eric and I headed to the Verizon store to pick up new phones – the LG Lucid for him (after six years with his flip phone, it was time for him to join the modern world!) and a white, 8GB iPhone 4 for me. We were there for two hours, which was way too long. But! We actually became real grown-ups and started our own plan. Eric got to keep his number – I had to change mine, since it turns out my great-grandmother swiped my upgrade back in March. Having a new phone number is strange – I’d had the old one since I got my first cell phone at 16. Anyway, if anyone has any app recommendations for me, please let me know – right now I have the basics (twitter, facebook, goodreads, gmail, instagram).
Friday night, after playing with our new phones for a bit, I received an email from the county, warning of severe weather. Not two minutes later, the house is shaking from the thunder. I ran to unplug my computer, Eric ran to save our plants on the deck (we have a small container garden that we keep on the deck railing). He managed to save the peppers, but the tomatoes ended up flying off of the deck right as he reached for them, and we ended up losing our tomatoes. As he came back inside, the power flickered, surged, then went out.
Eric’s brand new phone was still plugged in to the wall. When we plugged it in in the car on Saturday, it was dead. Fried. So. Back to the Verizon store we went, and now Eric’s on his second phone. So, PSA – keep EVERYTHING plugged into a surge protector. We had barely any warning before the power surge, and thankfully the folks at Verizon replaced it immediately.
We’ve been without power ever since, charging my phone in the car when we ventured out, and we’re not alone: almost one million people in DC and 2 million between Indiana and DC lost power. Most people around us have power back, but our entire block is out. The power company says we could be out of power until Friday. We’ve had to throw out everything in our fridge and freezer. It’s alternated between bearable and miserable the entire time – during the day, it’s not so bad, but at night, it’s sweltering and almost impossible to sleep. I don’t even mind not having hot water, since it’s so hot in the house that taking a cold shower is almost heavenly. The poor cats are miserably hot – when I left for work this morning, both were sprawled on the tile floor in the bathroom, not moving. I think they have the right idea.
We spent Saturday and yesterday with one of Eric’s best friends, Isaac, playing Settlers Catan and drinking leftover wine from the wedding. Thankfully, I finished Bitterblue on Saturday morning before my Nook’s battery died, and I have a few physical books that I’ve been meaning to read, so we haven’t been bored out of our minds. My phone and my Nook are both charging at work right now, and if we don’t have power by tomorrow morning I’ll bring in my laptop and charge it so I can at least get some writing done. For now, I’m scribbling notes and making character profiles in my notebook for the book I’ll be writing after Flightless and praying that the power is on tonight so I don’t melt. I can hope, right?
That’s awful, especially in this heat. Your poor cats must be shedding like crazy. Mine like to hang out on the kitchen floor where they can feel the cold from the basement seeping up. Hopefully you get power back soon!
Its so easy to forget how much we use electrical devices….I hope you get power back soon!
Its so easy to forget how much we use electrical devices….I hope you get power back soon!
Its so easy to forget how much we use electrical devices….I hope you get power back soon!
That’s so crazy about your power. At least you have work so you can still talk to MEEEEE
Now, app recommendations – I think most of these are available everywhere so hopefully you can use them too.
GAMES: Angry Birds is a timesuck, but so addictive. I love Robot Unicorn Attack but mostly because of the epic theme tune. Temple Run is ridiculously addictive and you will sit there all night playing, but hey. Fun times.
iTorch4 uses the iPhone light as a torch and it is brighter than any torch I have at home – could be useful in your blackout!
Goodreads have an app so you can update your progress on the go.
Shazam will listen to 30 seconds of any song and tell you what it is, but Soundhound will listen to you humming a song and tell you what it is. Crazy shiz!
Moleskine do a really cute app that I’ve used more than once for when you get a brainstorm and have no pen.
G-Whizz lets you access your google docs/calendars etc.
Pinterest! It’s so much better in app form.
WhatsApp and Viber let you send free texts anywhere in the world using your data, which is fantastic because those texts are usually so expensive.
Flipboard is really pretty – you can pick your interests and it’ll show you the top stories from the day and it actually flips. Super cute.
Wander is one of my favourites – it pairs you up with someone random in the world, and you are each other’s tour guide for a week. You send photos over and back of things in your town. It’s nice, a personal way to get to know a place. So far I haven’t encountered any perverts. Bonus!
LivingSocial app is really easy to navigate and better than the website, I think.
Autodance takes quick videos of people and then makes them dance. It’s hilarious.
Snapguide gives pictorial how-tos for anything you can think of. Really great for crafts and cooking.
Primrose bakery. I need say no more.
Aaaand that’s about it <3
I’m sorry you’re without power! I can’t even imagine. It’s been 100+ degrees here for the past week and it’s absolutely miserable. I hope your power gets turned back on sooner than later!
Temple Run and Doodle Jump are my two favorite iPhone games. They’re incredibly addictive. The creators of Temple Run just teamed with Disney to create a version of the game based on Brave, which is even more addictive! Plus, the graphics are better and you get to play as Merida.
Snapseed is a really awesome photo editing app. It makes your pictures look professional and really beautiful. I use it in combination with Instagram a lot.
Have fun with your new iPhone! I just got a 4S about a month ago and I’m in love.
Oh, and hello, by the way!
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