My Phone - It Takes a Lickin' But Keeps on Tickin' (But Not for Much Longer)

I know it's time to upgrade my phone. I have been pushing it off for a while but recently had a conversation that went something like this while we were driving in the car with my family:

Me: Yes, I did get that lollipop at the bank but you can't have it now. I'll get you another lollipop when we get home.

Hubby: She can have the lollipop, although it looks a little melted.

Me: But I need it.

Hubby: What? What for? I know you race around a lot from interview to event to home again, but how about a granola bar. That lollipop has seen better days.

Me: I'm using it for my phone. (I get the look from my nuclear engineer husband that I know so well. It's the look that says probably about now, yes now, the space ship will come and take her back to Planet Venus because seriously, what the hell is she talking about? Why didn't I marry someone normal like a chemical engineer?)

Me: Um, yes, I lost my stylus for my phone and that lollipop works like a charm, but I can't break off the candy part because then the stick might get stuck in my phone. I need to get a new phone anyway since it's really old and doesn't work so well. I didn't want to get a new stylus.

OK, my husband and kids are silent. The kids are still angling for the lollipop, but my husband is quiet. Thank goodness he knows how to pick his battles.

Hubby: That's really...innovative. Maybe we should have named one of our kids "Invention" and change your name to "Necessity." (Yeah I get it. Necessity is the mother of invention.) And maybe this isn't the time to bring this up, but don't you report a lot about telecom and tech?

So now I have to upgrade my phone. I liked Wired magazine's one-page graph in its July issue, page 32, that aims to answer the question in something of a tongue-in-cheek kind of way "What kind of smartphone should I buy?" If I follow the chart, it tells me to get an iPhone.

I'm not sure. That means major money, changing providers and a contract cancellation fee.
I'll keep you posted as I go on my new phone journey. It's a big purchase for me - as a reporter I'm on the phone all day, all over town.

P.S. Listen up Real Simple editors, sure I thought you were smart when you told me that I could dry a sweater in a salad spinner, but I bet I'm the first one to come up with a new technological use for a lollipop.