What did I ever do without the 'net at the holidays?

Ordering hard-to-find items online, making wish lists for faraway relatives to know what my girls' need and want and emailing distant friends to ask for new snail-mail addresses in order to get actual Christmas cards to them.

I've been rediscovering my love for/reliance on technology this holiday season. Another reason: I am thinking of upgrading my cell phone - shall I go with Chocolate or a Razr? Still deciding. Have lots of internet research to do in order to select.

There's another 'net-based thing - product research - I don't give a second thought.

Now I'm remembering my first mobile phone, circa 1993.

It was a 7-pound bag phone with the keypad on the back of the handset and a base to hang it up on. Got great signal, cost a lot. I needed it to phone in late-breaking stories to the newspaper I was reporting for in those days (as a young newbie reporter - and I was cutting edge, having a cell phone at all back then). I was even able to write off the cost of the phone on my tax return because so few people used such phones for anything other than business back in the "old days."

Wow. I feel old now.