Mistakes Were Made

Mistakes.  We all make them.

Some are big.  Big enough to change a life - either yours or someone else's.  Some are small.  Barely a blip on the radar.

Some are small, but traumatic in a strictly personal kind of way.  Just... well, embarrassing.  For example - what happened to me last week.

It's the Easter season.  and Easter brings jelly beans.  I've never made any secret about the fact that I am more than a little bit obsessed with that particular candy.  You can read all about it HERE.  So, it probably comes as no surprise that, through no fault of my own - there were suddenly no less than three bags of jelly beans sitting on my kitchen counter!  OK, full disclosure - some of the fault is mine.  But I'm only taking responsibility for one of those bags.

That evening, while standing in the kitchen talking to the male offspring, I helped myself to a handful of jelly beans. Popping them, one by one, into my mouth.

This was about the time the pup decided he was ready to go outside.  I hustled him to the door and prepped to do potty duty.  We are still working on house training, so part of the routine is to take a few training treats along as rewards when he does his business outside.

While standing around waiting for Max to do his thing.  I popped another jellybean in my mouth.  immediately my mind registered the thought, "That jellybean has an odd shape".  Then, as I started to chew - the flavor struck.  That was NOT a jellybean!!!

Yes, you guessed it.  I was eating a dog treat. EW!!

As you might imagine - at that point, there was a great deal of gagging noises and spitting done by myself!  And I couldn't really get rid of the flavor until I went inside to drink a glass of water (swish and spit included) and brushed my teeth.

Lesson learned.  Do not mix Easter candy and dog training!

Out of Touch

Frustrated.   That's the only word to describe how I felt most of the afternoon. 

The messaging feature was not working on my phone.  Every time I tried to send or check texts or emails, it would just say "Initializing" for about 2 minutes and then go back to the main screen. 

(Over, and over, and over.  Until I was ready to scream.)

A quick Google told me first of all, that this must not be an unusual problem with this particular model of phone. 

(The Samsung t582g)

One suggestion I found was to try resetting the phone to factory settings.

(Which did NOT work!)

Another Google entry led me to a site which suggested rebooting the phone by removing and reinstalling the battery .

(Which also did NOT work!)

As I continued reading, I quickly realized that my only other options were to completely restore the phone, which would mean all Contacts, ring tones, etc would be lost.  OR I was going to have to contact my service provider to get a new SIM card.  I was not happy about either one. 

(And of course - this is the point when the phone starts beeping the "low battery" warning at me)

Fighting the urge to just throw the darn thing at the wall , I continued to stare at the computer screen hoping I would find an easier solution to the problem.

(easier solution - aka: one that makes me happier than the one I have been presented with)

However, I quickly realized I was going to have to suck it up and try restoring the phone.

I attempted to blue tooth my contacts to the computer. 

(Which ended up being one more thing that did NOT work)

Which left me with a) actually lose all my contacts, or b) copy them all down by hand and manually install them back into the phone later.  So, I pulled out a trusty pen and paper and started writing. 

(It was at this point I was thinking that pen and paper never have data errors or have to initialize)

Fortunately the reset seems to have done the trick.  And once again I am text capable.

(Now, if you will excuse me... I have to go re-do my entire contact list. grrrr....)