New Feature! Choco Journal! Choco snowman by L.A. Burdick

Happy New Year's Eve and welcome to a new feature on theevildrsin called Choco Journal! 

If there is one thing I'll remember about 2020 it will undoubtedly be...all the chocolate!  I received so much choco for the holidays that I will need to document what I liked and disliked. Spoiler – I will like everything.

Today's choco is the snowman by L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates. Like Whitman's Samplers, they are often given as gifts and come in a trademarked box. Unlike Whitman's Samplers, the box is wood, tied with a ribbon, stamped with a wax seal – and extremely expensive.

It's a very special treat, basically an event, starting from unwrapping the box.

The choco snowman is white chocolate outside of dark chocolate ganache blended with clementines. The top hat has a whole roasted hazelnut inside. 

Ratings (out of five)

Price 5

to me this is very expensive. We have been lucky to receive L.A. Burdick Chocolates as gifts.

Visual appeal 5

Is there anything cuter than this snowman? Yes. Stay tuned for future posts.

Remorse over eating something this cute. 5

Yes this is a real thing for me and a huge problem with many of this company's chocolates.  Wife...no remorse whatsoever!

Taste 4

All the ingredients are natural with no preservatives and taste great but I'm not a huge white chocolate fan. But you can't have a choco snowman with a dark choco shell, can you? CAN YOU? I'd be up for it!

Get smart

After about 13 years the prepaid dumb phone experiment is over.  Welcome to the smart experiment, i.e. like everyone else.

The last time I had a "smartphone" iPhones did not exist. Then about 6 years ago I got a prepaid plan with a basic phone and I never heard from my family again.

http://theevildrsin.blogspot.com/2014/10/how-i-changed-to-prepaid-cellphone-plan.html

Dumb phone + 

    + I saved tons of money. I spent less than $100 a year.

Dumb phone -

     - I had to carry two devices; the dumb phone then a wifi device for all internet tasks. Two devices to charge, maintain and keep track of.

     - my parents (yes I actually did hear from them once in awhile) and I used my wife's smartphone to communicate because "Aiya! Two dollars!"

     

Why did I finally get smart(phone)?

 

     My dumb phone and wifi device were getting old to the point both devices were way past any updates and were losing most functions except for text, email and light browsing. 

      I was willing to spend (way) more money to save time working around a cheaper system. Time is a limited resource and there is no getting it back, but you can spend money and do things to save your time doing things you don't want to.

      I wanted to consolidate to one device.

      

I was 99% settled on a base model iPhone SE until I discovered I could get a smartphone in MINT GREEN if I paid about double and got a higher end model.  Easiest decision ever!  MINT GREEN!

Expected benefits of getting smart.

       Device consolidation. One device to do everything. Only have to charge one device.

       Navigation. I'm great at getting lost.

       Touchless payments. Especially in pandemic times it's great to not have to hand anything over or handle cash or cards.

       Shrink the wallet. Put every possible card on the device so I don't have to carry it. 

       Better communication with family. So far, crickets, but it's early days. It's worth spending 8x more if I appear more available.

Updates to come!