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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Google Voice ROCKS!

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: an episode of Law & Order SVU

Ever heard of Google Voice? No? Oohhhh it's {singsong} AWWWEESSOME!

Okay think about this:

My Google Voice number is 615-2800-CCS (615-280-0227)

Feature: If you call that number, my cellphone will ring. Or my home phone. Or my work phone. Or all three at the same time, if I set it up that way.
Benefit to You: That means you only need to remember one number for me. You don't need to go around saying, "Okay now what was CC's cell number/home number/work number?" It's (615)-2800-CCS. That's all you need to know.
Benefit to Me: You can reach me and yet my cell number and home number are kept private :-).

Feature: If I don't already have your phone number in my Google Contacts phone book (i.e. I don't already know you), you have to say your name and I can decide whether I take your call right then or let you go to voice mail and leave me a message.
Benefit to Me: Great way to screen junk telephone calls :-)

Feature: If you leave voice mail, not only will it let me know you left voice mail, but it will also transcribe your voice mail and send it to me as a text message and/or in an email.
Benefit to Me: I can read your voice mail almost immediately after you leave it; I don't need to call my "check your voice mail" number.

Feature: It's not tied to a location.
Benefit to You & Me: I move to Nashville in a few months. That means my cell phone number and home phone number will probably change. But you still only have to remember 615-2800-CCS, because all I would need to do is change the number/s my Google Voice number will forward calls to :-).

Feature: It's free! Well not *completely* free. Calling US and Canadian numbers is free. There's a small fee for international numbers (11 cents a minute for calling Philippine landlines; 17 cents a minute for calling Philippine cellphone numbers)
Benefit to Me: It's cheaper than Yahoo, so I can stop using (and paying for) Yahoo and use Google Voice instead.

There are more features and resulting benefits, but those are the top ones :-).

Getting a Google Voice account is currently by invitation only. If you want to get on the waiting list for an invitation, click here.

Labels: Found on the Internet

Posted by Unknown | 3:01 PM | 1 Comments |

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Our Next Home

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: Nothing right now

Steve and I spent the weekend in Nashville. Our mission: to find our next apartment for when we move in early January. We had started our search in the Franklin area, and on Saturday we identified an apartment complex (as a matter of fact we already filled out an application for it). However, after it was done, I kept fretting about it, even though it was the most logical choice: the other apartments were either in a neighborhood we didn't want to live in, or too expensive. This was in the middle. But it didn't feel like the perfect fit for us, you know?

So, on Sunday, which was the day that we were supposed to drive back to Memphis I asked Steve if we could take a look at a few apartments in Brentwood. Brentwood was the original neighborhood I wanted to live in, and was the closest match to the neighborhood we live in now (thanks to http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/match/). But Brentwood is a MAJORLY expensive neighborhood. I figured that whatever rates we found in the Franklin area, Brentwood would just be even more expensive.

Turns out it's not.

This is going to be our next apartment: The Landings of Brentwood. Now THIS feels perfect. Not only is it in an awesome neighborhood, the rent is actually about the same for what we're paying now.

If you'd like to see the pictures full size, click here.

Visiting the Landings that day was very timely. They were running a special on the floor plan we wanted (2Bed-2Bath, 1002 sq.ft/93 sq.m), which was scheduled to expire at the end of that same day. The market price for the rent was $950/month, but because of the special it would be $840-890/month. Also most fees were waived, so all we needed to pay in application fees was $99. The thing that Steve REALLY liked, and what he said made it feel like the perfect fit for him, was that they had this rule: if your pets are rescue pets, then they won't charge you a pet fee for them. Katya and Jack aren't rescues, but it's nice that they have that rule. There is also no weight limit for dogs.

Now I don't expect it to be perfect. I've lived in an apartment for 5 years, I know there'll be occasional issues with maintenance and things like that. But that comes with any apartment complex. Steve and I wanted to find a place to live that was in a really nice, safe neighborhood where the rent was affordable and it was still close enough to shopping and a hospital. We found exactly that :-).

Now comes the chore of packing, and making all the other preparations for moving. But we feel really good that where we're going is just as nice (if not better) than where we are now. Considering we currently live in Germantown, that's saying a lot :-).

Labels: Home, Travel

Posted by Unknown | 7:28 AM | 0 Comments |

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Monday, October 05, 2009

Disney World! Part 2

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: the Vikings-Packers game

Steve and I reserved Days 5 & 6 of our Disney World vacation as time for going back to theme parks that we enjoyed--that meant return trips to Epcot and Magic Kingdom :-).

Pictures of Day 5: click here
Pictures of Day 6: click here

Steve and I had a fantastic time at Disney World. If you plan on visiting just the 4 theme parks, 6 days is perfect, because at the end of the 5th day we were starting to get Disney'ed out. We've gotten our fill of Disney and won't need to come back for a few years :-). Maybe for our 7th anniversary we'll take a Disney cruise to the Bahamas :-).

Labels: Travel

Posted by Unknown | 7:43 PM | 0 Comments |

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