I am feeling like I managed quite the coup late last night!

I have been using my brother's old Treo 650 as my phone for a while now. I have been most grateful he passed it on to me when he got a free upgrade because the Palm organizer has helped compensate for my MS riddled, cheese hole brain. Of course, it is just an added bonus that I was able to load the bible on it.

I noted here, a while ago, that it sometimes freezes and one day I had to persevere with many a power cycle and resets to get it started again. My brother, the consummate minimalist spend thrift, has actually been encouraging me to get another phone.

While I have been researching which Treo might work, taking a hard look at the Centro, I have put off the decision because of the cost and my uncertainty in model choice. Each time my Treo freezes, I cross my fingers that it is not the last time and pop off the battery for a hard reset.

Well, my brother called last night to tell me the new Centro model was now available at Sprint and I ought to take the plunge. He extolled its virtues and still I waivered until...until...he mentioned it now comes in GREEN!

Oh my! To have a green car and a green phone!

My fingers did the walking rather quickly to log onto my account. My brother talked me through the upgrade I had so that the phone only cost $79. That's not too bad, I thought. Especially since I am getting a GREEN phone!

But, my friends, the sweet deal did not end there. You see, I had a $75 loyalty credit available to me for signing up for another two years that I did not know existed. I was able to use that credit even thought the phone purchase added two years as well. No, I don't have four years to go...I just got twice the credit!

So, a $4 phone is a good deal, right?

Wrong!

I learned that if I switched to electronic billing, I would save an additional $5. That means that my transaction was actually negative $1.

Now I just have to wait until the shipping gurus deign to put my new GREEN phone on a truck and send it my way. I am hoping that is soon, but that notification email has yet to land in my inbox.

SIGH