Milestone

So one year today I broke down and bought my first cell phone. I know this because I have a "pay-as-you-go" phone, and my minutes would have expired today had I not leapt to the rescue by adding additional minutes. In my plan, I am charged $1 for every day that I use the phone at all, plus an extra 10 cents per minute thereafter. Close study of my friends showed me that most of their calls nowadays are of the short and sweet variety--for long distance or international I might as well use Skype anyway, the quality is as good as a cell phone.

So I like to think of my plan as an $8 a month plan where I get 6 days of use and 20 minutes of talk time. Several months I used more, but several I used less. Of course, I'm a single guy, not an uber-parent attempting to coordinate with a clan. I'd place it's usefulness above most of the gadgets I own (sorry infrared thermometer) but still below that most important accessory of modern life, the microwave.