Ash and I were both eligible for phone upgrades as of December 24, so we went out that morning and used our “New Every Two” credit to get two free (after rebate) Droid Eris phones.

The phones take a little getting used to since we’ve never had smart phones before. For instance, it automatically downloaded all my gmail contacts into my phone book, and I had to figure out how to stop that from happening. So there’s a learning curve. But it’s nice to finally have a device that I think is every bit as useful as the iPhone, yet on the Verizon Wireless network so it can make phone calls inside Friday’s at the Block, or at Rainforest Cafe, or at any other place where we’ve seen the iPhone fail at being a phone.

I’ve noticed that a lot of new GPS devices are “widescreen” (i.e., 16:9 ratio instead of 4:3 ratio). Call me crazy, but… isn’t a GPS interface actually better in the traditional full-screen aspect ratio? I’d rather see more of what’s directly ahead of me on the map than what’s directly to my left and right. For both televisions and computers, the wide aspect ratio makes sense: Movies are filmed that way, and documents can be viewed side-by-side. But I think they need to draw the line somewhere—based on the actual use of a screen—and that line should have been drawn before GPS devices.

It’s been a long time since Ilse’s been so excited about a treat (a treat meant specifically for dogs, not for people), so I have to blog about these. She absolutely loves these Zuke’s Mini Bakes that we got at Anaheim Feed.

I’ve never seen them at Petco, so I’m not sure how long they’ve existed. They only have the Zuke’s Mini Naturals, which smell gross. I went to Anaheim Feed to find a different treat but ended up deciding to try these. We got her the “Peanut Butter ‘n Blueberryz” flavor because she likes peanut butter more than turkey, and we think she’s allergic to chicken.

She’s been getting them for over a month now, but she still dances and acts crazy when she knows she’s going to get one. She usually loses interest in her treats pretty quickly, so her reaction to these is a welcome change. And they come in a huge box (325 pieces) for a low price (about $5), so that’s a welcome change too!

As a bonus, they’re made without wheat, corn, and soy, which is good if your dog has allergies, or if you’re a dog-allergy-hypochondriac.

By now I’m sure everyone realizes that “Free Credit Report dot com” isn’t really free; you have to enroll in their “Triple Advantage” program to get your free report, and if you forget to cancel, you get billed monthly for their credit monitoring service.

For anyone seeking truly free alternatives, I want to share my own choices for credit tools that don’t cost me anything but do a decent job of keeping an eye on my credit reports and credit score.

1. To get your credit reports completely free once per year, you can use AnnualCreditReport.com. There’s no commitment and no cost. You just pick any (or all) of the three credit bureaus, and you can instantly get a free report once a year to see exactly what’s on your file.
2. To check your credit score as often as you like (although I think it’s only really updated once a month), you can use Credit Karma. It only uses one credit bureau, but that should be fine unless you’re conducting a really sensitive transaction like a real estate purchase.
3. To keep an eye out for identity theft, you can use a service that’s included as a free perk for members of the Auto Club: CreditCheck Select, which monitors your credit report and alerts you whenever there’s a change (like a new account or an inquiry). I know that’s not technically free, but it is if you’re already a AAA member.

Using those three services, you can keep a pretty close eye on your credit without having to pay anything extra!

I’m sort of annoyed with Chevron and sort of not.

The first time I went into the ExtraMile (that’s the convenience store at Chevron gas stations) to buy a cup of coffee, they gave me a punch card. Buy six coffees, get the seventh free. So here we are, a month or two later, and I recently acquired my sixth punch.

I went into the ExtraMile tonight and poured my seventh cup, and I brought it up to the cashier with my fully-punched card. “We don’t take those,” he informed me.

“But I got the card here,” I pointed out. “You’ve punched most of these yourself.”

“Yeah, we punch them, but we don’t give the free one. Any other ExtraMile will though,” he claimed.

Thoroughly annoyed with this suspicious lack of full participation, I reluctantly handed over my Chevron gift card to pay. The cashier went through the motions, printed out my receipt, and then stood there looking at it for a while. The card was pre-authorized, but then it charged me $0.00 for no apparent reason (even though the gift card has well over fifty dollars left on it). I offered to try paying again, but he told me to just take the coffee and not to worry about it.

So although I’m annoyed with their questionable “participation” in their own loyalty program, I did come away with a free coffee after all was said and done. And on top of that, I still have my fully-punched card, which means I still get another free coffee… if I can find an ExtraMile that participates in the redemption part of the punch card.

When you bring your used ink cartridges into Staples, they reward you with a $3 coupon. You used to get the coupon immediately; now you get it in the mail a month later. Still, $3 is $3, and I was able to get a 4-pack of these awesome little gel pens for only $0.49 after my coupon (they were on sale for $3.49)! Hooray for almost-free stuff!

So Verizon was supposed to install FiOS on August 16, but one of their installers called in sick that morning, so again they had to cancel on our entire building at the last minute. Now it’s mid-September, and we haven’t even heard about a new install date. At this point, we’ve definitely decided not to sign up for it when (or if) they eventually come around again.

I really enjoyed [title of show]. It’s a Broadway musical about two guys trying to write a Broadway musical, and it stars the two guys who wrote it, along with the two women who worked on it with them. It’s exactly what you’d expect it to be–a song about writing an opening song, a long scene about a scene that’s too long–but it works. It’s touching and hilarious, and it’s especially great because you’re watching the very people who wrote it… writing it. If you’re in New York, I highly recommend it. It’s an underdog of a show, with no big stars or hit movie behind it, so it’s pretty easy to get tickets.

Since December we’ve been hearing that we’re getting Verizon FiOS “soon” in our building. Finally in June they scheduled a day when every single tenant had to be home, and FiOS would be installing their stuff in every unit. The installers came that morning and said, “oops, we forgot to bring pipes to enclose the cables in the garage, so we need to reschedule.” Now they’re supposed to come again this Saturday, and once again someone needs to be home in each unit. This time I’m expecting, “oops, we forgot to bring screwdrivers, so we need to reschedule.”

I finally got a Sonicare toothbrush. The hygienist recommended getting one when I was at my new dentist’s office last month. My previous dentists just recommended any electric toothbrush, but apparently my new dentist’s staff are believers in the Sonicare hype.

Anyway, in my research of the different models, I found out that Wal-Mart had a model called the Sonicare Xtreme–which uses AA batteries instead of a charging base–and it was only $28 (instead of the typical $99 or more)!

Some reviews online say it dies a quick death if the battery compartment gets wet, so I’ll have to be careful. But it comes with a 2-year warranty, so I should be covered even if it does. I was replacing my Crest SpinBrush ($10) every six months anyway, so if this one lasts just a year and a half, it’ll be worth it. And supposedly it works much better than other toothbrushes, thanks to its “sonic cleaning action,” which I still think is hogwash but my new dentist thinks is science.