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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

New Design And A Gilberto Story, Literally

My new design is up! Judi from Doodlebug Designs worked her magic again.

And if you'll please look up at the top of the page, you'll see that I'm using my new domain as well! I'm now officially Laural Out Loud!

The only problem is a Feedburner issue. Drat Feedburner's help desk. I switched my original feed address to my new one just like it told me to, and this morning I woke up to a big fat ZERO. So I'm trying to figure out what that's all about.

In the meantime, let me tell you about our cell phone bill.

Yesterday I had to pay $213 for the month of October. Yep, $213. Are you having a heart attack like I did? I was hyperventilating a bit as I looked through the phone bill to try and see what had happened. We always had rollover minutes up the wazoo, and never ever went over.

The culprit, it appears, was Gilberto. And how exactly does a guy use up 2000 daytime minutes (not to mention all the other free weekend and nighttime minutes)? Especially one that doesn't really like to talk on the phone?

The answer is World of Warcraft.

After calling Gilberto, I found out that he and his cousin, who just moved to Vegas, have been calling each other and leaving their phones on the entire time they play World of Warcraft, just in case they have something to say to each other. This usually happens at night, about an hour before I go to bed (that's when I catch up on T.V. It's really the perfect set-up). And JUST BEFORE our free nighttime minutes kick in.

On our plan, any call that's made during the day uses daytime minutes for the entire call, even if it continues into the nighttime.

The breakdown is alarming. 7 nights a week. Three hours a night (he stays up later than me). 21 hours time 60 minutes is 1260 minutes per week. And that totals a whopping 5040 minutes per month!

So all in all, we actually got off easy! It looks like the majority of those calls were made right after our nighttime minutes started. Can you imagine a bill for over 5000 daytime minutes?

When I told my mom, she laughed and said that when she gets home from work around midnight, Gilberto always has his cell phone on the desk, turned on speaker, chatting away with his cousin. Although, it's more his cousing chatting and Gilberto grunting in affirmation every once in a while.

Sometimes my husband and his cousin come up with the most idiotic schemes.

Though it kind of reminds me of last week's The Office, where Jim and Pam had their really tiny headsets on the whole day. THAT was brilliant. But they must have a really great daytime minutes plan.

18 comments:

  1. Just start calling them Lucy & Ethel. LOL.

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  2. HA! Also, I love the new layout. It's really lovely.

    Also also, thanks for the heads up about the site the other day. I thinks I need to hire myself someone who knows what the h they are doing. Hmm.

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  3. Unbelievable! I understand your pain, hon! Sometimes those phone bills can really hit ya where it hurts, ya know?

    And the new design? I LOVE it! It's so fresh and nice. She did a great job!!

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  4. Laural, I'm loving it! Looking good momma! Can't believe your hubby did that. *sigh* Men.

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  5. First, I love your new design!
    Second, that story is just too funny :D
    I'm off to switch your domains in my feeder :)

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  6. Ohhhhhhhhhh seriously???? Tell your hubby about Teamspeak (teamspeak.com). My hubby and his doofy gamer friends use it and it's FREE. You just have to download it and buy headphones with a mic ($14ish at wal-mart). It's awesome really because you can have a 'room' and you can set it to private and let your guild in or whatever.

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  7. Oh! And I LOVE the new digs ;)

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  8. LOVE the new design!

    And as for Gilberto??? I say take away his phone or WOW. His choice.

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  9. I love the new design!! Yay! So cute! I am totally grabbing your button because you my dear, are my favorite!!

    Now as for Mr. Gilberto himself...That is a lot of WOW...and I have never seen the game in my life! hehehe, that is pretty funny that he and his cousin sit on speaker though! As for the phone bill...ouch. Ouch. My sister and I racked up a phone bill of $350. When I opened it, I almost died. I think my heart might have actually stopped. Minute overages are a beast!

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  10. Perhaps Gilberto and his cousin should get phone service thru the same carrier that allows free unlimited mobile-to-mobile.

    Lovin' the new design!

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  11. From the sounds of it you didn't totally freak out by calling and yelling at the poor call centre people. As someone who used to be that girl on the other end of the line, Thank you! :)

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  12. Laural- I saw your post about your cell phone bill and would like to help you. I work with a company called Validas (www.myvalidas.com or www.fixmycellbill.com). We can help you right-size your plans and recover those overage charges. We might also be able to get Gilberto on a plan where he's not using peak minutes for those calls. If you're interested, check out our site and drop me a line at ed@ejfmail.com. In the spirit of the holidays, we're happy to help you out free of charge.

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  13. My husband is obsessed with this game. He went out before midnight last night to stand in line to buy the new game. Men.

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  14. Oooohhhh, I really like your new design!! Beautiful colors - it really grabs me.

    Wow on the big phone bill. Or should I say "ouch!"

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  15. Love love LOVE the new look.

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