We’re spending a couple of days in Scottsdale at the Sheraton Desert Oasis. We’re here because we had timeshare points that were going to expire at the end of the year and we needed a few more points on United to make Platinum for next year (I qualified on the flight to Phoenix; Diane will qualify on the flight home). So far, we’ve mostly seen freeways and shopping centers, but that should change tomorrow.

Hertz gave me an upgrade to “President’s Circle” for this trip, which meant I could choose just about any car they had available in Phoenix. There were a lot of them (unlike last year in Maui, when we had to wait forever for any car). I wanted a smallish car, so I took a 2023 Nissan Altima, only to discover it didn’t have Car Play. I took it anyway – and regretted it two minutes after leaving the garage when I realized that I couldn’t really see the map on my phone while I was driving. Oh, well; I’ve made worse decisions!

The resort is pleasant; it’s much more like an apartment complex than any of the Westin timeshares we’ve been to in Hawaii and California. The area is loaded with shopping, housing developments, golf courses, and the like; we had Persian food for lunch at AZ Kabob (recommended) and gelato for dinner at Frost (just as good as the Tucson location we used to visit). I even found new oven gloves at Sur la Table to replace the ones I bought at their San Francisco location a few years ago – now that’s true vacation productivity!

I wanted a fast charging cable for my Apple Watch to add to my travel kit before going to Kauai earlier this month. Best Buy had their own brand on sale for $10 less than the Apple cable and most of the reviews were very favorable, so I bought the Best Buy cable, only to discover that the cable only charged my watch at normal (slow) speed. I took my Apple cable with me on the trip.

Today, I brought the cable back to Best Buy, got a refund, and bought the Apple cable for the travel kit so I’ll have it for our next trip.

I wrote a 2-star review of the Best Buy cable on their site; after I submitted it, the site asked me to write reviews of other recent purchases, like the new Mac mini I’d bought in November. I was curious to find out what other people were writing in their reviews, so I went to the Mac mini’s page and discovered that it was on sale for $60 less than I’d paid for it two weeks ago!

Best Buy has a good price-matching policy, including price protection (at least during the holiday season), so I opened a chat to request the current price – five minutes later, I had the refund.

I still haven’t written the review of the Mac mini.