February 24, 2012

A BFF Visit & Verizon Wireless Ambassador Fun!

Breakfast + Brunch
35 comments

Good morning, friends!

Look who is here — one of my BFF’s and bridesmaids, Jessica! We were roommates in D.C. back in 2007 and 2008.

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I’m so happy to see her again — we saw each other a ton in 2010 (I visited her (and potential grad schools) out in Seattle area in January 2010, I saw her in August 2010 for a friend’s wedding, and was in her wedding in Texas in October 2010), but not since! So sad. It had been WAY too long.

We headed out for a nice long walk this morning — it’s REALLY warm here today — 70’s already?! She was thrilled because it’s been a very cold (and gray/rainy) year in Seattle area, apparently.

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Love that NC sunshine!

Before heading out to walk, we had some nice warm weather breakfasts. I was planning on whipping up my Simple Baked Oatmeal for us, but it was way too hot outside! So weird.

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I had a big bowl of cereal with a mix of mesa sunrise (love this cereal) and Kashi heart to heart, plus banana, berries, and 1% milk.

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Deeelish.

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Jess had a big snack last night before bed since her system was all thrown off from traveling all day, so she was in the mood for a smaller breakfast this morning.

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She enjoyed one of the new Chobani passion fruit yogurts — we both really love the flavor of this, but don’t like the seeds. I love the seeds in the pomegranate one, but not in this. Please take them out, Chobani? 🙂

In other news, I received an exciting package yesterday!

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I was chosen as a Verizon Wireless Ambassador, and they sent me a new Droid RAZR to review here on the blog! I’m excited because my current phone is rather outdated — I have a smart phone, but it’s a Palm (remember when I first got it — 2 years ago — and reviewed it on the blog?), and while I still love it, it’s super annoying that I can’t get ANY apps on it because no one makes apps for Palm.

Given that, the first thing I did on my new phone was to download the USAA app. I have been dying for this app!! USAA is my main bank/credit card/savings account provider, and they are entirely online (no physical banks, etc.), so to deposit checks I used to have to mail them in and wait up to a week for them to be deposited. About a year ago, they made an app for Droid/iPhone so you can instantly take a picture of your check and deposit it! Amazing.

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Matt has a Droid, so he’s been helping me get all set up (and downloading a billion other apps for me already). So far I like it! It’s super thin:

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But the screen is nice and big, which is perfect for cruising the internet, etc. The camera seems a billion times better than the one on my old phone, too.

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I’ll share more thoughts/reviews as I explore the new phone more, so stay tuned. Do any of you guys have a Droid RAZR? Any tips/favorite apps?

—

Jess and I are off to explore Chapel Hill and to do some fun wedding-related stuff — she used to be a wedding planner and I clearly have zero clue what I’m doing, so it’s been amazingly helpful already to talk to her! Yay.

Happy Friday, friends!

—

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Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Wireless Ambassadors’ Program and have been provided with a wireless device and three months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.

- anne

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35 comments
  • A day explorying with a BFF is a good day! :) Super cool phone! I swore that when I got my Iphone that I wouldn't really use any of the apps. I was wrong! Have an awesome Friday!
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  • Ugh 70s?!? I'm so jealous! And are those cherry blossoms in your pics?! So pretty!
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    • I'm not sure if they are cherry blossoms or just something similar, but they are gorgeous!
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  • I have USAA too, and I LOVE them! USAA magazine talked about filing auto claims using the app, complete with diagrams of the vehicle. So neat!
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    • Wow, that is really cool!
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  • Yaaay! Say Hi to Jessica!!! Hope you guys have fun!! :)
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  • I can't wait to meet Jessica tomorrow! And that's so awesome about the Verizon Ambassador program!! Can you tether? ;)
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      • Ugh. Jealous of the tethering...it's free, isn't it? It's like an extra $20/month with my iPhone...
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        • I'm not entirely sure if it's free with a contract or not... I hope so! Right now it's free, obviously, but I'll see in 3 months if it still is I guess!
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  • I feel similarly about the Chobani yogurt. I love the pomegranate seeds (pomegranate is my favorite Chobani!!), and while I like the taste of the passion fruit yogurt, the seeds just are too big and weird. It sort of makes passion fruit not worth eating. I bought 5-6 of them initially, so I had to use them all up, and I'm getting a little more used to it. However, I'd like the flavor more if they took the seeds out.
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  • Verizon seriously has the BEST service! You are going to love the phone :)
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  • I don't like the seeds in that flavor either. Kinda weird. Vanilla is still my favorite Chobani flavor. I'm an iPhone for life! All the others are just trying to be like Apple. No offense!
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  • I agree about the passion fruit flavor! The flavor itself is delicious but the seeds are weird and huge and annoying! Usually try to pick them out, haha! Doesn't work out too well.
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  • I tried the Chobani passion fruit yesterday for the first time and wasn't sure if you're supposed to crunch the seeds or just swallow. I crunched and I didn't die so I guess it's ok.
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    • Haha yeah same here... still alive ;)
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  • Congratulations, Ambassador! Neat that you got a free Droid; awesome, in fact! Look forward to your assessment of it.
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  • The seeds are gross! Too bad, because the flavor itself is delicious. I couldn't decide whether to try to pick them out or just swallow them whole. As much as I enjoyed the passionfruit flavor, I'll stick to the other, seedless Chobanis from now on!
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  • Oh yea, that cereal looks soooo good. I wish I were more cell phone/ipad/droid/ etc.etc.etc. savvy. I only know how to make a call and answer a call. When my daughter visits us it bums me out to hear the sound D R O I D. My husband, kids and grandkids are experts. I ask them to teach me how to use it and they tell me "Oh mommie, you don't need one, daddy has one and that's sufficient. Somehow, I feel insulted. Hahaha Hope you have a terrific weekend.
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  • Wow, SO jealous of your awesome weather. We just got snow in Chicago...and I thought March was next week? Enjoy your weekend with your friend, always a treat to have visitors!
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  • Hi Anne! I'm a relatively new reader of your blog. I just wanted to say hi, and that we share the same wedding date (10/13/12)! Have you picked a dress yet?? Also, I love your save-the-date cards.
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    • Yay wedding date twins! I did pick a dress - we went shopping over the holidays while I was home in DC. It was so fun and very surreal! Have you?
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  • I actually had the Passion Fruit Chobani today. I first tried it a couple weeks ago, and thought the seeds looked like mouse turds initially (they really do). Now, they don't really bother me...but they still look like mouse turds.
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    • Hahhaa they totally do.
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  • See if you can get the Viber app. I have an iPhone, but I *think* my brother in Brazil has a droid. The Viber functions similar to iMessage, that you can send text messages for free from one user to another (the other person also has to have Viber on their phone), and you can also make free phone calls (similar to Skype). I use it over the wifi, and get to talk to my brother in Brazil, Karl talks to his sister in Seattle, and I can also text back and forth. Oh, yeah, and the app is free, so it's easy enough to convince your friends to download it. I love it! For picture apps, I posted about the diptic here and it's worth the money! http://carlarunstheworld.com/2012/02/08/having-fun-with-diptic (my where I've been page has mostly diptic pics now!). Other good apps you can check if they also exist for the droid is Camera +, Color Effects (to make a picture black and white, but bring back what you want in color), photosynth (panorama pictures, including 360 pics), and PopBooth (for photobooth pictures). Have fun! (And thanks for the USAA app tip! It's what my husband uses and I had no clue we can just take pictures of things w the phone, as our scanner keeps giving problems...)
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    • Amazing - thanks for all the tips!
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  • Such good timing that you were in need of a phone at the same time you were sent one to review!
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  • Ever since I've been reading your blog (first time commenter here!) I've been loving Chobani and other Greek yogurts! They are so filling compared to other yogurts, especially those nasty "whipped" kind! Love your blog! -TA
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  • Hi. I'm relatively new to your blog and haven't commented before, but if the makers of Chobani in any way shape or form look at this blog (and I pray that they do), there are three of us in my office that love Chobani yogurt, BUT the seeds in the passion fruit flavor have got to go. We all three love the flavor of the passion fruit but can't eat it because the seeds gross us out, we're not sure if it's the crunching or that they look like mouse poop, for me it's a combination of the two.
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    • Here's hoping they read this! :)
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