Technology Hates Me

There comes a point where sometimes you realize you're being too cheap. Either that time is now, or technology in general has decided it hates me and is now ganging up on me.

I had the internet set up at home, then I had a roommate who had paid for his internet up front at his old place move in. Since I was paying month to month and he still had several months left on his account which he had already paid for, we switched the internet over to his. When he moved out, I decided I could get by without the internet at home, seeing as I could check my e-mail on my phone, and I could look at things online during my lunch hour at work. It worked reasonably well; the only time I ran into issues is when I wanted to put pictures in my blog posts, and those pictures were sitting on my computer at home. A little pre-planning and a USB key could probably fix that, but instead I contented myself with not using pictures.

My phone started having problems :(

So, I took it into the Apple store to get it fixed. They gave me directions on how to fix the issue, and I went on my merry little way. I had every intention of posting today, so I grabbed my laptop and headed over to the Starbucks near my house. Free WiFi and 1/2 price chai? Sign me up! I paid for the chai and settled in for a little blogging when a login screen popped up. Wtf? I asked the barista about it, and apparently their WiFi was down. If I had known that I would have stayed home rather than paying for a drink. *grumble*

But, seeing as I had a drink beside me and a comfy place to set up my computer, I figured I'd fix my phone. I connected my phone to iTunes, synced it, pressed the sequence of buttons as I had been told to do earlier. The phone shuts down, does everything it's supposed to do... then can't find iTunes. Huh? Check the connections, everything looks fine, then the phone crashes. Crap.

All I wanted to do was write a blog post!

So now I'm sitting in the Apple store again, using their free WiFi, while my phone is being restored to its factory settings. Apparently iTunes had to be connected to the internet in order to fix the problem? Nobody told me. It's been several hours since this started, I'm hoping I didn't lost too much.

Did I mention this could have been avoided if I had just set up the internet at home? For about $30 a month? Yeah, time to stop being cheap. I'll call them tomorrow.

Mmmmm Chai...

This morning's bus ride was filled with sweet visions of Chai Latte as I read the post over at Fabulously Broke about Starbucks' 1/2 price Tea Latte promotion. *drool* It most certainly helped with the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes for a bus in -25 weather. Thanks FB!


This right here ladies and gentlemen is Chai Porn. Mmmm...

 Unfortunately I can't make it to a Starbucks today between 2-5pm, and frankly in this weather I really don't want to go outside any more often than absolutely necessary. So, I used up the last of a gift card and bought one after class. The spot has been hit, I am now happy(er). When I was working in a camp job, away from civilization for 3 weeks at a time, I would pack boxes of concentrate in my luggage to mix with milk and ice in my water bottle. Needless to say, I was the recipient of more than one jealous stare (and yet no one else just brought the concentrate with them...)

I could wax poetic for a while, but I think that's enough for now. Anyone who loves them as much as I do, and I know there are a lot of you, knows that the cost of them adds up over time. You can get Tazo Chai concentrate in Starbucks and at the grocery store, but you'll probably notice it isn't quite as strong. According to my barista former roommate, the concentrate they use is MUCH stronger. Even after adding water it's still stronger than the store stuff. It works nicely in a pinch though when you have a ridiculous craving, and it's a fair bit cheaper too. The cost of 2 grande chai lattes is approximately the cost of 1 carton of concentrate. Following package directions you'll get 4 lattes out of it.

However, last winter my mom got me a milk frother for Christmas. I have a little too much fun with that thing... I got into making Starbucks style drinks at home for a while. I was making a pretty awesome Cinnamon Dolce Latte that was similar to the one you get in Starbucks. Very similar actually. I've tried making my own copycat Chai Lattes at home as well, though I've never tried to copy the Starbucks one. I think it's time I do try to though. *evil grin* There looks to be some interesting looking recipes here as well. If I come up with a good taste-a-like, I'll post it.

Sometimes it seems like a bit of a shock looking at the sugar contents in these recipes, mostly because we don't know what goes into our drinks when we buy them. According to Starbucks their grande Chai Tea Latte has 42 grams of sugar. This is approximately 10 teaspoons, or little under a 1/4 cup. Suddenly I don't feel so bad for using the occasional teaspoon in my tea at home! lol. That right there is why it's a treat, not a daily indulgence. It's also why a lot of people lose weight when they start cutting out the extra drinks. Oh well, what's the point in living if you can't occasionally enjoy it? I certainly do, and I'm now staring longingly at my empty travel mug. Soon my friend, soon.

Payday

I love the feeling of money in my account. It's right up there with paying down my beast of a debt that I've accumulated. Today I got both :) Shortly after checking to see that my paycheck had been deposited, I put almost $500 onto my debts, and $250 towards my upcoming utility bills. I never pay my utility bills when they come in, they're always paid in advance. By the time I get the actual bill, it almost always says they owe me money. I don't mind that. It means that if I have a legitimate emergency I can forego paying my bills for a month and nobody gets pissed at me for it.

I am being a little bad however... I'm drinking Starbucks as I write this. Or, as my dad calls it: Fivebucks. He's not far off, my Grande Chai latte set me back almost $4.50. At least today they gave me a survey slip. That means the next one is on them :D I love that.