Trav_Labyrinth
says
Happy belated New Year, all! I lost my luggage (which contained my phone and laptop), when returning from my Christmas travels, rendering me electronically mute for a few days. Anywho...it's nice to be back!
Happy New Year! Did you recover your luggage?
you were missed
No. I gave it a good effort, since getting back last Thursday, but it seems to be lost, so I caved and purchased a new laptop, so here I be.
Welcome back and happy new year! I'm sorry you lost your things, though. 
can you do a "find my phone" function on your phone? I know iPhones have that (if you turn it on) so maybe others do too?
Mmm...not sure...it was some sort of LG phone through Virgin Mobile. I'll go ahead and look into that, then.
ArielWingtips
says
Welcome back TLab ! EEK! How did you lose that luggage? Didn't you carry it on?