Weekends Are Made for This . . .

• Eating out (at a new Mexican place, Blue Agave beside LaRosa's in Tri-County for supper last night, [new for us, that is] and Bronte Bistro at Joseph-Beth Bookstore for brunch today).
• Running errands: Visits to Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's, the Apple Store, Staple's, and of course my favorite, Kroger's.
• Good times with friends: the Wuskes last night and Bill and Verna Weber and Paul and Sev Friskney today at brunch.
• Doing stuff we love: After Costco last night we picked up the Wuskes and drove to Newport on the Levee to hang out and see the fireworks after the Reds game. We stumbled into a big Oktoberfest celebration on the river bank below the stores at the Levee. We'd already eaten, so we passed up the goetta balls, brats with sauerkraut, and funnel cakes (although that last one really tempted me).
• Doing something on a lark: In addition to trying the Mexican restaurant when we'd really driven over there to eat at LaRosa's, we and the Wuskes decided to try the giant ferris wheel set up at the edge of Oktoberfest. It was a beautiful evening to see all the lights at the riverfront and feel the cool breeze.
• Laughing: with the Wuskes, and always with Sev Friskney and Verna Weber. The Webers, Friskneys, and Taylors used to get together every six weeks or so, but we hadn't been together since before school was out last spring. It was great to reconnect. And laugh. We sat at Bronte for at least 2 hours together.

On the way home, Evelyn and I decided just to stop at the Apple store and see what they're saying about iPhone 5s availability. The guy said a) they're getting new stock every evening, b) the online "order and pick up at the store" option had been disabled; maybe it would be reinstated this week, and c) if you show up at the store when they open, at 10 a.m. weekdays and Saturday, you'll have a pretty good chance of getting the phone you want. That's encouraging, because I thought with the hot interest in the new iPhones (9 million sold in the first weekend), maybe they'd be out of stock till next month or something. Also discouraging, though, because taking two hours on a work morning to drive down there, wait in line, and get the phones set up before driving back to work is almost impossible. We're thinking we'll be there when the store opens NEXT Saturday.

21st Century, Here We Come!

I decided we would take a plunge into the 21st century and get iPhones. Our current cell phone contract has expired, so we can change with no penalty.
I decided we should get the 5s model, better in every way than the 5c, but the 5s couldn't be preordered.
We decided we'd go to the Apple store during suppertime when maybe the line wouldn't be long. It wasn't long, but by the time we got there, all the Verizon 5s's for that store had been sold.
"You can order them online," the polite young fellow in the blue shirt said.
We ate supper at Cheesecake Factory (a couple of delectable dishes from the "Skinnylicious" menu--and we resisted the urge to get cheesecake for dessert), shopped the sale at Dillard's (Evelyn found some shoes at a great price), and then headed home through a driving rain to watch an old movie we had recorded months ago.
Before we fired up the television, I went online to order our phones. But the online Apple store will allow a person to order only one phone at a time. Only when it is delivered (in 7-10 business days) and activated can the second phone be purchased.
That won't work for us.
So we'll keep checking the Apple store every other day this week to see when their additional stock gets in.
21st century--we'll be there soon. We just don't know when.