Things wear out, things stop working. So I’ve recently made a couple of acquisitions.

First, new shoes: [Hi-Tec Multiterra 2 Sport](http://www.hi-tec.com/category.php?styleId=3744&colourId=11009) (color as pictured), for everyday and summer excursion wearing. They have a system of criss-crossing shoelaces that allow me to tie them up tight. And they have squishy rubber soles to minimize bone-crushing impact when I am walking. They also have convenient pull-tabs on the heels to make it easier to put them on. Finally, they are made of a breathable material so that my sweaty feet do not suffocate as they would in, say, a sealed neoprene sock. Oh, the wonders of modern footwear.

Second, a new cell phone: [Sanyo RL-4930](http://www.sanyo.com/wireless/handsets/index.cfm?productID=1219). Towards the end of last week, my trusty [Sanyo SCP-8100](http://www.sanyo.com/wireless/handsets/previous_models/index.cfm?productID=946) suddenly lost its ability to receive a signal. I took it over to the Sprint Store, and they said that they couldn’t fix the problem (their first question was “Did you take it out of the country?” Um…. nope! It was sitting on our counter one night, and all of a sudden it stopped working!) They offered to give me a reconditioned replacement SCP-8100, which would cost me $50. The other option was to get a $150 rebate on a brand new phone, so I decided to take that. I liked the RL-4930 because it was small, rugged, and feature-packed… it does cool stuff like recording up to 130 minutes of voice memos, speech recognition (you can say “Dial Number 555-1212” and it will dial it), and speakerphone (not a groundbreaking feature, but a feature that I’ve never had on a cell phone). Also, should I ever decide to sign up for Sprint’s “ReadyLink” push-to-talk feature, this phone is compatible. (Anybody have Sprint ReadyLink?) It continues to have the excellent user interface that I have come to know and love in Sanyo phones. It doesn’t have a camera, but that’s okay… I’ve never met an affordable camera phone that I liked. I ended up paying $30 for this new phone. Good deal!