Move over, Jetsons

I've had my iPhone for six months now and it has transformed my life in a myriad of ways, the least of which is the ability to blog from bed ... or the quilt store ... or aisle 5 of the Ho' Depot. My evolution underwent another step just the other day as I went to make up a grocery list.

But first, a little back-story. Maintaining and updating a grocery list has always been a challenge for the household. I used to keep it on my Palm pda. Whenever an item was needed, I would fire up the grocery program and check off the Need box. While shopping, I could fill in details like the aisle and the price of said item. Noting like some data collection to make the chore more chore-like. Well, since the iPhone came along, I have a noticeable shortage of pockets. Since I refuse to wear cargo pants or strap on a utility belt ala Officer Friendly, something had to go and the pda was booted. This made the most sense since my wallet resides in my other pocket. I no longer have my Palm on my person at all times so the grocery list was no longer always available.

There was also the little detail of how The T would add things to the list. We tried many things like a paper and pencil list on the wall or on the fridge or on the table or every place else where it would either be lost or misplaced or accidentally recycled after it was used as a coaster. I would add the items to the digitized list when I saw them accumulate. Well, most of the time I did. This issue of The T's access to the list was never fully resolved.

Recently, the list became a pile of labels. For instance, all the tea ran out at the same time. Yup, I couldn't believe it either. The boxes for lemon zinger, honey lemon ginseng, oolong, evening delight, rooibos, and that other one all came up empty at the same time. (I wonder if the grrllzz mistake the tea for catnip during their midnight sojourns.) Rather than spend valuable time writing down all those multi-word names, I simply tore the box-tops off the boxes and piled 'em up on the counter. When I told The T it was my new way of creating the shopping list, she walked over and set a banana peel on the pile. The flaw in the design of the list was immediately apparent.

So now we've arrived at my latest solution for grocery list creation, thanks to the iPhone. When the last of an item is plucked from the shelf or when the milk jug goes empty, I simply take a picture of it with the phone. I am slowly creating the ultimate in iconized food lists. I'm also sorting the pictures using folders for Need and Not Need. I can transfer the photos to the appropriate folder as the pantry grows empty or the cart grows full. The iPhone has become the iPhood.

"How does The T access this list?" I hear you cry. Well, just this very morning she realized we needed bananas and apples and bread and I had not taken any photos of the last specimens in the house. She surfed the net for images of said items and emailed them to me. Well, OK she tried to email them to me. This plan worked right up until her pc realized she was trying to save a picture of the rainbow-striped Apple logo and crashed. So, she sent a picture-free email listing the items and I surfed the net for said images and took pictures of them on the screen.

It's a wonder we were ever able to get food into the house before the iPhone.