Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Upgrade delight and new phones

Holy cow! I was looking at the hotel confirmation email I got with adding the extra night and upgrade to a 1 bedroom suite. I thought/assumed it was their smaller one bedroom, but the confirmation says it's their "one bedroom residence suite"....that one runs for $800/night! The hotel website info says this suite is 935 sq ft. I told dh this is probably too nice for us, LOL. 

We went and got our new license plates and registration for the new car, now that I had the paperwork needed to do this. Good lord, Montana has a million license plate choices! The benefits of living in a very small town - we, again, were the only customers in there. No wait, no line. Quick and easy. The husband of one of the ladies that works at the vehicle licensing office in the old courthouse was a guy who did some work when we built our house. First he was working for excavating guy and was here when putting in all the ditches for utilities. Then he took a job with the propane company and did our propane stuff later in the build. Anyhow, it's been awhile since dh chatted with him and I guess his wife told him she talked to us today, so he called and they chatted on the phone quite awhile. Dh always gets to hear a lot of town "gossip" from him. I don't know if he is still considering running for county council, but he should. For example - this is a county of only a little over 4000 people. Our county's road maintenance dept has a $5 MILLION dollar surplus! What in the actual hell? So, the guy just tells them a budget he doesn't need or plan to use each year and they just hand it over? Dh watches the weekly council meetings online. Whenever this guy is there at a meeting he just always tells them he's not doing this or that - like when a new small group of houses goes in somewhere and it's a county road to it...says he's not taking care of it. Then I say then what the hell are those new home owners paying taxes for? And why does a small community of 4000 people need a $5 million surplus in just one dept? How about he tell them his realistic budget and if he doesn't use it all, it goes back into the general fund at the end of the year. Yet, they keep raising our taxes.

Last night we had some tasty salmon, that comes pre-seasoned/marinated, on a cedar plank. But, I forgot how much it smokes up the oven/house while baking it! I don't know how to not have it do that. It comes in like a vacuum sealed plastic, with all the seasons and marinade on it, while sitting on this cedar wood plank. There is NO WAY the marinade doesn't drip off the salmon and the plank (it barely fits). The instructions say if baking in the oven to set the plank directly on the middle oven rack, bake at 425 for 18-20 minutes. Well, all's that does is let all the juices drip down onto the bottom of the oven and bake on there and make a mess! Last time I tried placing a tray on the rack below to catch the drips and the drips just bake/burn on the tray and create all the smoke/smell. This time I tried placing the cedar plank directly on a sided baking tray and it wasn't quite as bad for smoke, but still did it and all the juices just burned onto the pan, which is still soaking in the sink trying to get off. I can't imagine if I hadn't put the tray under it, the whole bottom of my oven would have been caked with this burnt on mess. It's the smoke filling the kitchen I don't like, so I guess I won't be getting that anymore, darn. We used to get a different brand, several years ago (haven't found it since Covid hit) and I don't remember it doing that at all, but it was also on a plank. These are the types of things as to why I do not enjoy cooking, LOL.

I decided it's finally time dh and I get new cell phones. Mine is a iphone 6 and his is a 7. They are only 32gb storage and we are both maxed out. Not to mention the other day mine got weird and part of my screen was missing! A square section on the corner of my screen was blank. It went away after I restarted the phone, but I'm sure it's ready to be replaced. I've had mine about 3 1/2 years and dh has had his phone even longer that that. So, I decided to get us both iphone 11's. Cheaper than 12 or 13, but I'm sure will seem plenty new to us. Basically 2 phones for what one of the newest models cost. Hopefully it will end the "I don't have any room to take another video or picture" whines from dh. Or like when we were at our friends in Texas last summer and I planned to video tape the surprise at the birthday party, my phone stopped recording because I didn't have enough room. (thankfully everyone else was recording!). DH of course wanted a black phone (not white, or purple or yellow or green or red, LOL) so his is on backorder for 2-3 weeks. I got the light purple one and it should come in a couple days. When I had my last phone sent to me, it came with detailed instructions on how to set up the new phone and transfer everything that was on my previous iphone and it all transferred over no problem, so I'm hoping it goes that way for both of our phones. I'm going to do mine first and if all goes well, I'll do dh's. If it does not, well then we'll take dh's new phone into Verizon store for them to do it.

Minus 13 degrees when I got up this morning. Gorgeous blue sky and white snow everywhere. Just beautiful.

16 comments:

  1. I think you were very wise to go for the iPhone 11 (that's what I did too). In any case, it'll be an improvement over the iPhone 6 and much cheapter than the 12! And that hotel room looks fantastic - lucky you!

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    1. and I see they have a iphone 13 now too. I'm not spending $1200 for a phone! The hotel looks amazing. I wish I could just tell dh "you go off today and do that drive class, I'm just gonna hang out here all day" LOL

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  2. Good luck on the phone transfer!! The room looks divine!

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    1. I should have my phone in a few days, so I'm hoping it all transfers just like this one did.

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  3. That is a huge room. You are certainly getting a bargain.
    I have a new phone and cannot figure out how to do things on it. sigh

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    1. that's why I'm sticking with iphones. We know how to use them, haha. I do not want to have to try to show dh how to use something new.

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  4. Foil either on the pan then the plank or foil at the bottom of the oven. It shouldn't smoke as much.

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  5. That is a great upgrade. I hope you enjoy your mini vacation. I am sure they have a spa too. If it looks nice and clean and if noone else is using it (darn COVID), do use the spa. It is sooooo relaxing.
    Yesterday it jumped up to 62 degrees Fahrenheit here. Today, it was not as warm. However, I can definitely smell the Spring in the air.

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    1. it doesn't appear to have a spa (surprising!) but does have a year round heated outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna.

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  6. You'll love your stay - we love staying at Hyatt! Recognized the room right away (as I think we've stayed there!)! ;-)

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  7. Could you turn on your range hood exhaust fan while cooking the salmon to vent the smoke outside?

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    1. I don’t have one. My oven is a microwave/oven combo in the wall and my stove top is separate in the counter with no hood.

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  8. You should have no trouble transferring your phone info. I have androids, it's fairly simple & Verizon will take you thru it. Or you go to them buy you're fairly tech savvy. :}
    And ya...nice upgrade! That room looks like something from the Mad Men series.

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    1. it worked great when I did the transfer from my iphone 5 to 6, so I'm hoping the process is still as easy and successful. I haven't watched Mad Men - I think that was on HBO? which I don't have.

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