Encouraging...

[susandennis]

I kept my leg elevated all afternoon - my foot and Travis shared a pillow - there's some bonding for you. I think I got up to pee once.

Finally at 5, I got up and made some dinner and at it and realized that my leg was not killing me. Actually, it was hardly hurting at all. I walked around the condo for a while - the same walk that was excruciating this morning... no problem. So I gathered up some garbage and walked down to the dumpsters. Down the stairs. There were a couple of twinges but really, it was amazing and so encouraging.

It's back on the pillow now with Travis and wrapped in ice. Oh how much I would love it if it would just heal up. If it feels like this or better tomorrow, I may give it a spin around the block.

---

Not a whole lot new otherwise. Work was good. It looks like the week is going to be busy. I'm only working through Thursday.

Friday a.m. early squirrely machupicchu and I are going to hop a train to Canada. Vancouver. We didn't plan it this way but it's mighty handy that we'll be out of the country when the End of The World comes. We don't have a big agenda (at least not that I know of). I need to go to Tim Horton's because I have never been and it is kind of embarrassing to be a virgin at my age. Matthew wants to eat dinner at the top of Empire (where we are staying) on Friday. Our train home leaves for home Saturday early evening. Should be great fun.

---

I just called Sprint to find out about making calls and checking email in Canada. Their website was a bit confusing but the customer service rep I got was not much better. I have no great complaints about Sprint - their customer service is pretty lame most of the time but then I rarely need it. BUT one bitch I do have is that every single time you talk to any one at Sprint - face to face or on the phone, when you are done they either demand to know if you will give them high marks on their survey or explain the ramifications if you don't. It is tacky, and stupid. I totally get that it is not the fault of the customer service people - it is a very ugly corporate initiative. I always lie and tell them that I will give them the highest marks and then I ignore the survey.

---

The Mariners game will not be rained out tonight. Unless the roof breaks.

---

And that's what I know as of right this minute.

Comments

[dietcokewithice.livejournal.com]

I have Sprint, I spent a weekend in Vancouver with a blackberry and an Evo last year for the Olympics. It works fine (coverage wise) but I had roaming charges for 2 calls I made, and I think I recall paying a premium for the kb's I used for getting on the net. The billing that followed that visit was $5-6 higher total, if I recall.

[susandennis]

Excellent info! Thank you. When they call with a survey of you, I will give you the highest marks, honest!

Seriously, that is very good to know. Thank.

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Yay for less leg pain!

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

I know with AT&T, international data roaming is merely expensive if you prepay for a chunk, and astronomical if you don't.

The digging I just did suggests data is either 0.2 cents oer KB ($0.002/KB) if you want to pay as you go, or $40/month on top of your existing plan for unlimited roaming data in Canada. What did the guy you talked to say?

Tim Hortons rocks. Truly excellent coffee, and they sell very, very affordable canisters to brew at home. The Timbits are like donut holes, the donuts in general are good, and the soup and sandwiches are tasty.

[susandennis]

Sprint lady told me if I paid $2.49 a minute would be $.20 a minute to call and $.59 a minute it I didn't. Data would be slow but she didn't know if it would cost more and she said that text was 'plan' but she did not have an explanation for what 'plan' was. I decided that it was not going to exorbitant and I probably would use it that much anyway.

Good TH info. Mainly I just want to roll the lip of my cup back and see if I get a prize.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

Yup, I found the same info about voice calling. It's $2.49/month to get the cheaper per-minute rate. Useful if you'll be making more than about five minutes of calls per month. (This is a much better deal than AT&T offers for international voice roaming.)

"Plan" means you get to use the text messages you're already paying for in your current plan, either included or at the rate you pay. If you have paid for 200 text messages per month, you get to use them in Canada at no extra charge. If you pay 20 cents per text message on your current plan, that's true up north, too. (For AT&T, incoming texts are handled that way, and I have to pay extra to send outgoing texts while out of the US.)

[machupicchu.livejournal.com]

.
.
I've been thinking about the phone-in-Canada thing too and right now my plan is pretty much just to stick with using wifi wherever it's available. I don't have a whole lot of need for the phone function anyway.

What I'm still trying to decide is what to do about money. Should I take out cash and get it exchanged for Canadian dough? For how much? These are questions I keep asking myself. I could pretty much stick with Visa (I'm guessing American Express isn't taken much in Canada?) but I believe there is a charge for every transaction the bank has to convert from Canadian currency.
.
.

[susandennis]

Oh they will be fine with your American Express card. In the olden days, the exchange rate was far lower for credit cards than for cash.

My plan is to take U.S. cash and use my credit/debit cards as much as possible - and try to keep Canadian cash to a minimum.

FYI the hotel charges $8+ for 24 hours of WiFi for one computer. Not unreasonable but it better be good WiFi!

[machupicchu.livejournal.com]

.
.
$8 for wifi? Well there's an immediate demerit for the hotel in my mind! But, I'll probably still pay it. I pay that much for wifi on my phone during an airplane ride. Still, most hotels offer it for free, at least in the U.S.; I have no idea if common standards are different in Canada.

I guess I'll stick with your same plan too -- bring some U.S. cash (and not even that much) and just stick with cards. I like the idea of not dealing with coins I don't understand.
.
.

[seekerval.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, train trips are fun! Here's hoping you have an even better time than you're expecting to have, and the leg and weather are on their best behavior.