BlackBerry Fever

BlackBerry fever.

I have it. 

It's what has been occupying most of the time since last Sunday when I picked up a BlackBerry Tour from my local Verizon Wireless store. 

This phone is so zippy compared to my Motorola Q9c.  I loved my Q but it was definitely showing its age.  It was slow but it did get the job done. 

The BlackBerry world is a whole new experience.  I'm having to learn an entirely new operating system.  Unfortunately, I miss some of the ease of Windows Mobile.  I was very surprised to find that it was significantly fewer steps in Windows Mobile compared to BlackBerry OS to do some of the simplest things.  I hear this will be improved with OS 5.0.  I sure hope so.

There are some quirks I have found: customizing the ringtones and alerts can be a futile endeavor.  For some reason it is totally hit or miss whether I get the system default or my custom setting.  Luckily, there are several great online resources for BlackBerry phones:  CrackBerry, BlackBerry Forums and coming soon: MyBlackBerry.

The downside of being an early adopter is being the guinea pig for a product that might not be totally ready for prime time.  There are few accessories currently available for my Tour.  I desperately want a dock and it won't be available for another few weeks yet.  I'm looking forward to getting a nice custom theme but the software to make them hasn't yet been updated for the Tour.  So I end up checking the forums daily (alright, hourly) waiting for new information.  I'm sure all of this will be resolved in a few weeks but in the mean time I'm going to have to muddle through. 

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I finally forced myself to update the PokerSlut Tour Leaderboard for the past two weeks. 

I'm surprised nobody was giving me grief about not having it done. 

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It never fails.  Whenever TOH goes out of town all hell breaks loose at my house.  Kids get sick.  Crap falls apart.  Such a huge PITA. 

This time my BFF T came into town so I was hoping I'd escape the usual out-of-town curse but, alas, no.

• The reverse osmosis drinking water system started leaking.
• The propane tank went dry a few minutes shy of well done burgers.
• One of the kids' faucets sprung a drip.
• The oldest breaks his bike's rear brake trying to fix it himself.
• I cleaned the air filter on the HVAC only to not be able to get the damn door back on - apparently an issue with Trane's CleanEffects Air Cleaner System that we paid megabucks for to alleviate the oldest's allergy symptoms.  After calling the HVAC guy (whom I am on a first name basis with for years now) I managed to get the door back on myself only mere moments before a near meltdown.

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OMGWTF!

WalMart already has school supplies! 

Only 33, count them, 33 more days until school starts again!