I just glanced quickly through 2012's blogs and realize I have really been MIA this year. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of reasons (excuses) not to blog. And that to-do list I keep citing? I swear it just won't go away. Home-ownership (while I still love it) is definitely more work than I'd expected.
Now I know why people get married: when you own a home you have to live with another person to (1) afford the place (2) cover the necessary hours of manpower (3) still find time to see your significant other (easy when they sleep in the same bed as you, right?).
I'm not going to give up; I'll just keep chipping away at it and hope that this is temporary.
Also, massive amounts of caffeine should help.
When I worked at Sam's, we had a customer named Bill who came in and drank glass after glass after glass of milk. No one liked waiting on him for this reason, but I didn't mind. The other servers joked that he needed a milk IV.
I think I need a coffee IV.
Portable, please.
Thursday, March 29
Wednesday, March 28
March 28th and I’m still opening Christmas gifts…
Did I mention that my amazing boyfriend went overboard at Christmas? Of course, this isn’t what makes him amazing, but his thoughtfulness and generosity certainly helped to reel me in and amaze me pretty much daily.
As I said, he went overboard:
I have already enjoyed a few of my gifts immensely, especially the kitchen items (plenty of entertaining in our home these days) and the gift cards. Others (like the Snuggy, not shown) have been deemed a dud and have already been pushed to the back of a closet.
And there are still others I have yet to open and /or use. Among the latter (until last week, at least) was the Kindle Fire. I have to admit: I was skeptical. I enjoy the written word. On paper. I mourn the loss of the newspaper as we migrate to electronic news. The same holds true for books and magazines. While I am also a self-described tree lover (and subscribe to the old-school “save a tree” sentiment), there is just something special about the feel of a book in your hands, the spine across your fingers, the smell of the paper (especially in older books) that draws me in.
The kindle offers me none of these.
So when Tommy bought me the Kindle for Christmas (unsolicited), I was interested but not excited. In fact, my excitement was so scarce that it took me a full ten weeks to pull the Kindle out and begin to learn it. For the first week, I played on the web. A bit. Certainly nothing extreme or exciting. It is faster than my laptop but loses its signal far more often (I’m certain the poor connectivity is due to my less-than-desirable internet provider more than the Kindle, laptop, iPhone or iPod as we have the same problem with all our devices). I navigated through its most basic of capabilities and my interest grew, though only mildly.
Prior to my owning a Kindle, I developed a preconceived notion of the price of an eBook. I had no basis for this number: it was purely arbitrary. After all, it’s an eBook; there is no production cost, no material cost. So the price point I set in my head (again, purely arbitrary) was $3.99. You can imagine my surprise to learn that many of the eBooks are, in fact, more expensive than their hard-copy counterpart. $9.99 for the Kindle edition of Mississippi Sissy (one of my favorite books) while the paperback is $5.99 new! This further led to my discouragement and I’ve yet to pay for a Kindle book, downloading only the Amazon freebies, which are generally books that I will, in all honesty, probably never read. I’ve yet to begin even one of those freebies.
And then there was last night.
After some “virtual” complaining, my wonderful friend Lisa offered up her services. She has an extensive Kindle book collection, including several books I’d asked about specifically. We spent no more than an hour setting the Kindle up for email sharing, retrieving books from her account and getting my settings in order.
So last night before bed I decided to move into this century and give the Kindle a fair shot at making an impression.
And (oh boy) did it!
I love this thing. Absolutely. Love. It. While I’m still a bit saddened that the tangible qualities of the hard-copy are lost, I can still make notes, highlight, bookmark. I can look up a word’s definition while I’m reading. I can change my background, the text and background colors, even the margins. I can see how much progress I’ve made, skip to a specific chapter, even search for words in the text (that would’ve been useful in college!).
Simon & Schuster can’t touch that!
I’m literally one day in, and I’m in awe. I had no clue that ceasing to fumble through pages or bookmark your spot could make such a difference. I haven’t even read my handbook to determine what other tricks I’m missing, but I am definitely looking forward to it.
And, as I am fortunate in that I have MANY a “Lit geek” friend, I’m sure I will never run out of either great book suggestions or free downloads of those books.
I look forward to more of these instances wherein my natural pessimism is defeated by pleasant surprises. Sometimes being wrong isn’t so bad, after all.
Happy reading, y'all!
As I said, he went overboard:
 |
| Unbelievably, this isn't even all of it. |
And there are still others I have yet to open and /or use. Among the latter (until last week, at least) was the Kindle Fire. I have to admit: I was skeptical. I enjoy the written word. On paper. I mourn the loss of the newspaper as we migrate to electronic news. The same holds true for books and magazines. While I am also a self-described tree lover (and subscribe to the old-school “save a tree” sentiment), there is just something special about the feel of a book in your hands, the spine across your fingers, the smell of the paper (especially in older books) that draws me in.
The kindle offers me none of these.
So when Tommy bought me the Kindle for Christmas (unsolicited), I was interested but not excited. In fact, my excitement was so scarce that it took me a full ten weeks to pull the Kindle out and begin to learn it. For the first week, I played on the web. A bit. Certainly nothing extreme or exciting. It is faster than my laptop but loses its signal far more often (I’m certain the poor connectivity is due to my less-than-desirable internet provider more than the Kindle, laptop, iPhone or iPod as we have the same problem with all our devices). I navigated through its most basic of capabilities and my interest grew, though only mildly.
Prior to my owning a Kindle, I developed a preconceived notion of the price of an eBook. I had no basis for this number: it was purely arbitrary. After all, it’s an eBook; there is no production cost, no material cost. So the price point I set in my head (again, purely arbitrary) was $3.99. You can imagine my surprise to learn that many of the eBooks are, in fact, more expensive than their hard-copy counterpart. $9.99 for the Kindle edition of Mississippi Sissy (one of my favorite books) while the paperback is $5.99 new! This further led to my discouragement and I’ve yet to pay for a Kindle book, downloading only the Amazon freebies, which are generally books that I will, in all honesty, probably never read. I’ve yet to begin even one of those freebies.
And then there was last night.
After some “virtual” complaining, my wonderful friend Lisa offered up her services. She has an extensive Kindle book collection, including several books I’d asked about specifically. We spent no more than an hour setting the Kindle up for email sharing, retrieving books from her account and getting my settings in order.
So last night before bed I decided to move into this century and give the Kindle a fair shot at making an impression.
And (oh boy) did it!
I love this thing. Absolutely. Love. It. While I’m still a bit saddened that the tangible qualities of the hard-copy are lost, I can still make notes, highlight, bookmark. I can look up a word’s definition while I’m reading. I can change my background, the text and background colors, even the margins. I can see how much progress I’ve made, skip to a specific chapter, even search for words in the text (that would’ve been useful in college!).
Simon & Schuster can’t touch that!
I’m literally one day in, and I’m in awe. I had no clue that ceasing to fumble through pages or bookmark your spot could make such a difference. I haven’t even read my handbook to determine what other tricks I’m missing, but I am definitely looking forward to it.
And, as I am fortunate in that I have MANY a “Lit geek” friend, I’m sure I will never run out of either great book suggestions or free downloads of those books.
I look forward to more of these instances wherein my natural pessimism is defeated by pleasant surprises. Sometimes being wrong isn’t so bad, after all.
Happy reading, y'all!
Saturday, March 17
The fight against MM is making headlines again
My amazing friend Jana was featured in the local media again this weekend, when Fox 13 did a feature on Jana and her battle against Multiple Myeloma:
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com//dpp/health/stem-cell-transplant-offers-new-lease-on-life-rpt-20120316
Though I've posted little about it on FB (and even less on my blog), Jana is at Vanderbilt in Nashville working on stem cell transplant #3, this time using her brother Van's harvested stem cells. The transplant, the hardest of the three so far, took place Wednesday, March 7th, and Jana appears to be doing great-she's even eating on her own, which is a huge feat for her!
I'll try to keep things updated on her...and as a quick plug, next year's (although technically that's *this* year's) Miles for Myeloma walk/run is scheduled for November 11th, so start thinking about how you'd like to get involved!
Sincerely,
Team Jana
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com//dpp/health/stem-cell-transplant-offers-new-lease-on-life-rpt-20120316
Though I've posted little about it on FB (and even less on my blog), Jana is at Vanderbilt in Nashville working on stem cell transplant #3, this time using her brother Van's harvested stem cells. The transplant, the hardest of the three so far, took place Wednesday, March 7th, and Jana appears to be doing great-she's even eating on her own, which is a huge feat for her!
I'll try to keep things updated on her...and as a quick plug, next year's (although technically that's *this* year's) Miles for Myeloma walk/run is scheduled for November 11th, so start thinking about how you'd like to get involved!
Sincerely,
Team Jana
Wednesday, March 7
I heart cards
Random, I know.
But there really is no better feeling than receiving an unexpected card in the mail (amongst the junkmail and, even worse, bills).
I'm a big fan of mailing cards and other "lemme-catch-up-with-you" letters...especially since my friends are scattered around the US.
I've subscribed to a couple of "frugal mom" (and the like) emails, and it was through one of these that I discovered cardstore.com. I ordered two cards from the site completely free (they didn't even ask for my CC info, which is the best way to determine there are no catches!)-- one for Lea's Sweet 16 and another for Melissa's birthday, which is next month. The quality of these cards has been far better than you find at Walgreens/Walmart/Target, and the cost is very reasonable. Most cards are around $2.99, which is about what you pay at the chain stores. Best of all, each card is personalized and you can even add a photo. The selection is good, plenty of funny cards, the site is user-friendly, and you can opt to have your order shipped directly to you ($1 shipping) or addressed and sent directly to the recipient (.65 shipping). If you ship to yourself (as I did with the girls'), it comes in sturdy cardboard packaging, ensuring it isn't bent during transit. I've sent my first directly to the recipient today (to Jana at Vanderbilt) and I don't anticipate any problems given my past experiences with the company. (FYI, they are currently doing free shipping, but I'm not sure how long that will last!)
Once I placed my order, a discount code popped up on my screen, valid through April 1st: 25OFF for (you guessed it!) 25% off of your next order. That makes the cards $2.24 each (even better!) so I may stock up on a few upcoming birthdays and simple I-miss-yous.
Send a card, send a hug :)
Enjoy, y'all.
But there really is no better feeling than receiving an unexpected card in the mail (amongst the junkmail and, even worse, bills).
I'm a big fan of mailing cards and other "lemme-catch-up-with-you" letters...especially since my friends are scattered around the US.
I've subscribed to a couple of "frugal mom" (and the like) emails, and it was through one of these that I discovered cardstore.com. I ordered two cards from the site completely free (they didn't even ask for my CC info, which is the best way to determine there are no catches!)-- one for Lea's Sweet 16 and another for Melissa's birthday, which is next month. The quality of these cards has been far better than you find at Walgreens/Walmart/Target, and the cost is very reasonable. Most cards are around $2.99, which is about what you pay at the chain stores. Best of all, each card is personalized and you can even add a photo. The selection is good, plenty of funny cards, the site is user-friendly, and you can opt to have your order shipped directly to you ($1 shipping) or addressed and sent directly to the recipient (.65 shipping). If you ship to yourself (as I did with the girls'), it comes in sturdy cardboard packaging, ensuring it isn't bent during transit. I've sent my first directly to the recipient today (to Jana at Vanderbilt) and I don't anticipate any problems given my past experiences with the company. (FYI, they are currently doing free shipping, but I'm not sure how long that will last!)
Once I placed my order, a discount code popped up on my screen, valid through April 1st: 25OFF for (you guessed it!) 25% off of your next order. That makes the cards $2.24 each (even better!) so I may stock up on a few upcoming birthdays and simple I-miss-yous.
Send a card, send a hug :)
Enjoy, y'all.
***UPDATE****
Cardstore.com is doing another free promotional offer right now (I got the email this morning).
Free card and free shipping with the code CCE2246 at checkout.
Only one free card per account (although I did order and pay for a second) and (again) they won't even ask for your credit card information (or force you to create an account). It's completely commitment free (and you know how I feel about business commitments!)
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