Monday, September 8, 2008

A Public Service Announcement...and a Winner!!

Hi...
I put this picture of Wyatt up here so I can remember how cute he is while I'm explaining how the "rice contest" came to pass.
Saturday morning, I was working on the progress report blog for the house. I'm not quite sure what Ryan was doing. And Wyatt was playing in the living room. I was oblivious. So I turn around and what do my eyes see, but him with a full pint glass of water. And what was he doing with that water???

Well.....

...Lets see what's in the rice!


















Yup...it's my fairly new cell phone.

So, can you put it together?
Well, I turned around to see him repeatedly dunking my cell phone in the water, when he saw that I saw him. He said, "I dip it mommy"!
We won't talk about what came next.

But after that, I decided to try an experiment that worked great for my mother in law.
I'm don't remember exactly what happened to her phone. I am certain, however, that it hadn't been "dipped" repeatedly into a glass of water. But, her phone got wet somehow and wasn't working. So, my brother in law Jared, said that he'd seen a news story about taking your battery and chip out of the phone and putting everything in a bowl of uncooked white rice. And I'll be darned, it worked for her.
So, what could it hurt. I knew that it was my only hope really. I have a 2 year contract on this phone and I just got it this spring.
Yesterday morning, I took it out, hopeful but not expecting much. It turned on. It TURNED ON!!! That's amazing in and of itself, but the screen had all kinds of lines and was bouncing around. So, I took it back apart and into the bed of rice it went again. Last night, I tried it again. It turned on, and I was able to call Ryan and actually talk to him. AMAZING!!! But shortly after that, the whole screen died. At that time, I figured there was no hope, it was fried. But back into the rice it went, what could I lose really?
This morning, I put the phone back together for the 3rd time. It turned on. The screen worked. I called Ryan, it worked. And it's been about 2 hours now, and everything is working beautifully.
I really thought I was going to have a bad report for you guys. But it sounds like this story has a happy ending.
I even have a couple of rice kernels floating around inside my phone. And IT WORKS!!!
Alls well that ends well...I don't have to raid my son's college fund to buy a new phone, and you get a tip to save you from the brink of disaster. So dramatic.

Oh ya...and we have a winner.
My plan was to use Random.org. I know that alot of different people use that to choose their random winners.
I promise that I took the first results, but afterwards, I did experiment to make sure that the number was changing.

(Drumroll please) after an astounding 3 votes. (that has to set some sort of record, right?) The winner is:

Steph from myohmy

So, Steph pick out your pendant from Home Studio and let me know which one you want.
E-mail me at harleygertie@yahoo.com

Thanks to Donna and April for playing along!!!

And store the "rice trick" away in your head for a rainy day...(or possibly just a glass of water)

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I would have never thought of rice to fix a cell phone ... I wonder if it works with other stuff, like your car remote control or the TV remote ... hmmm. Thanks for the contest Em ... it gave me something fun to look forward to! And congrats to the winner!!

MyOhMy said...

No way Em! I am SO excited... you would see me grinning if you were here. I rarely win anything, so you just made my DAY!!!!

You should share this tip on http://www.tipjunkie.blogspot.com
who would have thought that it would work. I'm so happy that it did work because you might need something to cheer you up!
OK I am going to email you right now with my choice... it's so hard... they are all SO cute!!!

MyOhMy said...

I jus tried to email you at the given address and it was undeliverable. Whaz up?

Emily said...

That should work...I just double checked that I wrote it right.
I was wondering why I hadn't heard from you yet.

harleygertie@yahoo.com

I don't think I'm going crazy...I hope not.

I need my sanity to try to stay one step ahead of this little guy!!

Dana said...

I was too late for the contest! I never would have thought rice would be able to fix that, but that is pretty cool. I will definitely keep that in mind for future reference when my little guy ends up doing something like this.

MyOhMy said...

I'm a dork
I typed your address wrong
yikes

lynn said...

wyatt kills me!!!

Melissa K. said...

Wow I wish that I had known about the rice trick, before I threw my $500 phone against a brick wall. Repetedly.
I am glad that it all turned out well for you thou... Now I on the other hand am saving my pennies for a new phone.
*sigh*