You've been thunderstruck...
Well, it's been three weeks since I returned my iPod to the store, they lost it, they found it, and, finally, they lemon'd it out. I now have my new iPod Classic, as it's been dubbed. But there's an interesting little twist to the story...
I got to the store and they went through my massive collection of receipts and service orders on my old iPod to determine how much was paid for the last one so I knew what trade-in value I would have. Turns out I spent just about $300 on the old one. The new Classics are $250 for the 80GB and $350 for the 160GB. I asked if I could get the 80GB and use the residual value toward the cost of a service plan or some accessories. They said no, if I opted for the 80, they would price up the value of it to match the $300 I previously spent. However, if I wanted the 160, I would have to pay the difference. Basically, either way, they would gain money off me.
Well, it didn't strike me as fair to lose money, so, with Katie's blessing via text message (she was in class), I opted for the 160 figuring I'd rather pay out a little more than lose out entirely. As I'm waiting in line and prepping another text to Katie, I look up and there she is! Her class was canceled because her teacher is stuck in Colorado due to weather.
We continue our wait in line and are prepping ourselves to spend about $110 ($50 difference in cost plus the $59.99 for a new service plan). The guy rings it all up and announces our total of $60.04 and asks how we'd like to pay. Katie, very nonchalantly, replies that we'll pay by card and we do and we leave.
Outside, Katie and I look at each other and I ask, "how did that just happen?"
Katie's reply? "I have a v-neck shirt and big boobs."
Hey, sex sells. What can you say?
Note 1: Upon looking at the receipt, we discovered that instead of trying to calculate the difference, the register jockey decided to apply a discount to the cost of the new one. All we paid for was the service plan.
Note 2: I filled this thing up with all the music on my computer plus three full-length movies and I've still only got a whopping 25GB taken up. Time to work on that, eh? Might have to pull some stuff off my archive DVDs.
Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): On the way home from the store, I looked in the direction of our house and saw some of the wickedest storm clouds I'd ever seen in my life. And, thankfully, I had my camera handy. Here's a gallery...
You will need to click through from your feed reader (at least from Google Reader, anyway) to check this thing out. Sorry, I cannot control the fact that readers don't work with this and I love this applet too much to not use it. Or you can just go straight over to Flickr.
Great pictures!
You must have gotten this storm from us. Check out these eerily similar pics from a fellow MN blogger friend of mine.
Posted by: Jeff | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 10:05 AM
Yeah, I had something similar happen to me. Well, not quite. But sorta.
I walked into the Apple store, told Kid Pimples which MacBook Pro I wanted. I went to pay and the Kid Pimples the Second told me a figure that was $500 less.
I almost pulled up my v-neck sweater a bit and handed over a credit card. Instead, I asked -- are you sure that's the right computer?
Ooops.
I almost bought a MacBook. Not the Pro. How come I never get the deal? Oh, yeah. The boob thing...
Posted by: L.A. Daddy | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 10:29 AM
Very impressive job of getting a cut on the price!
BTW, those pics are wicked! It's like an ocean in the sky!
Posted by: BA | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 10:37 AM
Jeff, definitely looks like the same front. It was heading NNW to SSE. I loved her photos, BTW. Thanks for the link.
L.A. Daddy, in that case, I'd definitely worry and fix it. But I made sure I got what I was supposed to get.
BA, I didn't even do anything to get the price. Just happened. Not sure if that was a policy or they just wanted to get me out of there or they completely screwed up. Whatever. And I like that description of the photos. Very a propos.
Posted by: kapgar | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 10:46 AM
We saw those same clouds last night! We were at the gym, where it was, dare I say, sunny. And as we drove home, it got darker and the wind picked up and eventually it was raining so hard we could barely see out the front window. Crazy Midwest, right?!
Posted by: Nilsa | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 11:03 AM
Sweet Deal!
Oh man, I thought about taking some pics of that storm last night. It was ominous.
Posted by: kilax | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 11:36 AM
Sweet photos!
And major score on the dumbass ringing you up. Awesome!
Posted by: sizzle | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 11:39 AM
That reminds me - I need to check to see when my extended warranty is up on my iPod -the battery does not seem to be holding on to power like it used to.
Mike's office just gave them all an iPod Touch. So of course, now I want one of them... (also, is it wrong that between the two of us we now have 1 iPod Touch, 1 30GB iPod Video, and 3 1GB shuffles? I think it might be...)
Posted by: suze | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 12:31 PM
Those pics are pretty awesome.
The 160gb iPod Classic is nice, but too heavy for what I use. I'm sure I could find enough crap to fill up the space, but it's the bulk of the size that turns me off on the 160gb. The 80gb is the same size as my 30gb 5G model and that would be a nice replacement (if I ever chose to upgrade).
You got a good deal there, which was nice. The boobs did it! The boobs did it!
Posted by: martymankins | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 01:14 PM
Sweet deal. And those photos are amazing.
Posted by: Kevin Spencer | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 01:18 PM
SAWEEEEET!!! On the ipod bit that is. As for the weather...those are some pretty scary clouds. I would be hiding under my bed if I saw those.
Posted by: Marie | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 02:21 PM
Yay for big boobs and v-necks! (I'm so jealous.)
160GB? That's amazing!
Your pictures are fantastic and the photo widget thingy works fine in Feed Demon (sorry if anybody else said that, I didn't read the comments first.)
Posted by: Penelope | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 04:27 PM
Nilsa, wasn't it amazing how quickly it got dark out? Freaky!
kilax, you should've taken some. Storms are great practice in terms of composition and lighting.
sizzle, I like to think he was a kid sticking it to the man by doing this for me consciously. ;-)
suze, it's not wrong at all. Katie's got her 30GB video, I've got my 160GB classic and my old 15GB gen 3, I've got a 1/2GB gen 1 shuffle, and Katie's got a 1GB gen 2 shuffle. We're right there with you. And, believe me, I did consider a Touch last night. But not when, for $50 more, I could get 20x the memory.
marty, it is a bigger iPod, but only slightly moreso than my old 15GB Gen 3 iPod that I've been using the last several weeks. So I'm kinda used to the heft. Only now the heft comes with video.
Kevin, thanks!
Marie, I love storms. You'll learn that about me if you haven't already. ;-)
Penelope, good to know it works in Feed Demon. Never tried that program before. But I'm too in love with Google Reader right now to bail. Oh well.
Posted by: kapgar | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 04:57 PM
Wait a sec ... weren't you bemoaning how you'd never fill up 80 GB but now you've just doubled that? I hate you. :)
Cool storm photos, btw.
Posted by: Nicole | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 07:13 PM
Those are AWESOME storm photos!!! It looks like a sideways tornado.
Posted by: BlondeBlogger | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 09:26 PM
You can rent movies on iTunes now, which is pretty cool. That takes up some room, too.
Posted by: Avitable | Friday, 11 July 2008 at 11:28 PM
So ehm... which store was that again
*grabbing ultracleavage shirt from closet*
Posted by: DutchBitch | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 04:05 AM
Now you just need to go back and get one of the new IPhones... and you are set!
(Cleavage works wonders)
Posted by: Exception | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 07:56 AM
Big boobs are one of my best assets! LOL
Great pics! Did it totally dump, or did they just roll on over?
Posted by: Lisa | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 10:25 AM
I wish I had boobs...
Posted by: Gary LaPointe | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 12:43 PM
Great photos! That's one thing I miss about the midwest - the beauty of those kinds of storms. The only storms with that kind of intensity I see anymore have names, and that's not a good thing...
And, not that you don't already know you're lucky in having Katie, but only a truly GOOD woman knows how to use her boobs with class and style. :)
Posted by: Amie | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 03:31 PM
Nicole, I know I did. But what I hate even more is losing money that belongs to me. ;-)
BlondeBlogger, dunno how, but I had a feeling you might like them, my fellow storm junkie.
Avitable, I knew they did that, but I haven't really looked into it much. I usually just iSquint my DVDs.
DutchBitch, the images in my head right have me wanting to just send you my iPod. ;-)
Exception, sadly the store doesn't sell those.
Lisa, oh it dumped. It really dumped.
Gary, they don't quite work as well with guys. Sad.
Amie, yeah, when the storms are significant enough that they receive names, there's something wrong.
Posted by: kapgar | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 08:48 PM
Freakin' AWESOME pics Kev!
Posted by: John | Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 10:43 PM
Thanks, John. Sometimes Mother Nature makes it almost too easy.
Posted by: kapgar | Sunday, 13 July 2008 at 12:04 AM
Me and my cleavage top are off to the Apple Store next month... Mind you last time I went I was wearing the 'A Little Geeky' t-shirt and all I got was questions about it. Maybe that's the answer - Dave's shirts and boobs!
Posted by: Bec | Sunday, 13 July 2008 at 11:02 AM
Happy hunting!
Posted by: kapgar | Sunday, 13 July 2008 at 04:02 PM
We had the same kind of clouds/storms. It is so beautiful sometimes...when it isn't keeping my kids and I up at night.
That is a great deal you got. Awesome!
Posted by: tori | Monday, 14 July 2008 at 10:26 AM
tori, it truly is beautiful and I love snapping shots of it. However, I did just see a video online this morning of a woman who was taking video of a storm and she was struck by lightning. Might have to rethink my "out in the midst of it all" approach.
Posted by: kapgar | Monday, 14 July 2008 at 11:35 AM
Boobs + Cleavage = Deals. It's a fool proof equation.
Posted by: Sheila (Charm School Reject) | Monday, 14 July 2008 at 02:26 PM
Certainly seems to be. ;-)
Posted by: kapgar | Monday, 14 July 2008 at 05:20 PM