New Tech Toy

The other day we had a snow and ice storm, and I was shoveling snow off the driveway. I do all the glamorous jobs! Well, except for taking hairballs out of the pipes, and hauling our 100-pound (dusty) Christmas tree into the attic...okay, so I don't do all the glamorous jobs.

But anyway, my cell phone fell out of my jacket pocket and lay in a soggy tire track near my car, for at least an hour. To be brief, it was shot, so off we went to the AT&T store to pick out a new one (when did I get so attached to my phone? I guess when I started giving the number out to my editors!).

It's the BlackBerry Pearl, and it sure is perty. I bought Bluetooth too, in case I'm expecting something really important while I'm driving (it won't happen often). My favorite features are

• the handy mute button. No more clicking through screens when the Please Silence Your Cell Phones notice is announced at the movie theater or if it starts playing the 1812 overture while I'm in the library.
• the way cool case that has a magnet that deactivates all the phone's keys, so if I accidentally sit on it, there's no accidental redial to my boyfriend while my husband is in earshot.

The phone has a lot of other features I don't need or can't afford, but unless I drop it in another Arctic puddle, I should have it long enough to grow into it.