Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Week Away Together

This week Chuck and I are celebrating our 32nd wedding anniversary. Thanks to the graciousness of a couple in our church we are spending the week in a condo in the mountains and we are having a fabulous time. Some of our accomplishments have been:

Not using an alarm clock. At all.

Looking for constellations while relaxing in the hot tub.

Taking a hike on an old logging road in the rain.

Sitting in front of a real snapping, popping fire in the fireplace.

Knitting. Lots and lots of knitting.

Watching it snow.

Watching lots of movies.

Watched the series finale of both Lost and 24 on a very large screen tv.

Ate a pot of the best chicken and wild rice soup ever.

Reviewed the past 32 years.

Dreamed about our future plans.

Calculated that in another 32 years I will be 83 and he will be 86.

Planned to start a new savings account for our next trip to Hawaii.

Sat together on the same side of a booth in a little local coffee shop.

Marveled that even after being together 24/7 we would still take more of the same.

Counted our blessings.

And realized that God has been so very, very good to us. We are happy. We are blessed. We are in love.

I don't think we can ask for anything more in this lifetime.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Weekend Checklist

My weekend accomplishments included:

Vacuuming and dusting the living room - Check

Changed furniture around - Check

Planted the flower beds and hanging baskets - Check

Mowed the nearly 1/2 acre lawn - with the push mower - Check

Treated blisters on hands caused from mowing the nearly 1/2 acre lawn with the push mower - Check

Trimmed with the weed whacker - Check

Watered the flowers - Check

Had dinner with daughter, son-n-law and sweet granddaughter - Check

Dessert at DQ - Check

Went to Church - Check

Dinner with family - Check

Trip to Wal*mart to pick up prescription - Check

Finished sewing layette for niece's baby who is arriving SOON - Check

Fell exhausted into bed so I can go to work tomorrow and recuperate! - Check

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Report Card

So I have had my Kindle for about a week now. I have wanted one for a really long time but I have to admit I did have some nagging little doubts in my mind about what it would be like to read a Kindle instead of a "real book". Obviously, those doubts weren't big enough to keep me from purchasing one - but they did nag at me a little bit.

So in case any of you are considering plunking down about two hundred and fifty George Washington's, I thought I would share my thoughts so far.

What I Love:

I love that I can hold it in one hand and drink a cup of coffee at the same time with my other hand. I love that I can pet the dog or scratch an itch or turn down the volume on the tv remote and never take my eyes off the page. It just works.

I love that I can adjust the size of the font for my eyes. The longer I read, the bigger I can make the font. I can change the number of words in a line as well. It is very light weight and it is easy to hold if you are sitting, reclining, or laying down.

I love that I was in Wal*mart yesterday and saw a newly published book that I want to read, "From the Heart" by Laura Bush. Typically I would wait until it came out in soft cover or until I found it at the used book store. This time I simply pulled my Kindle out of my purse, searched for the book, purchased it at a price that was less than the soft-cover edition will be and downloaded it all in less than a minute. I can peruse a bookstore anytime, anywhere. Technology - it's just AMAZING!

I love that it is small and light enough to carry in my purse. I am planning on making a quilted sleeve for it to fit into to prevent any scratches - but it is the most compact thing imaginable. And it has the capacity to hold 1500 books! That means that right now I am carrying more than 30 books in my purse!

I love the free books you can download from Ama*zon. I couldn't believe how many there are. Many classics and many contemporary.

I love that it keeps my place for me. I stop reading, lay it on the nightstand and the next time I turn it on - voila' - there I am. No more searching for my place. No more lost bookmarks.

I love the dictionary feature. If I read a word I don't know all I have to do is put the cursor in front of the word and a window pops open at the bottom of the screen with a full definition.

I can go online with it. If a book or an article has a link I can go to it on the WWW. Wow.

What I would Improve-

I wish there was a light feature for nighttime reading. I know that the reason there is not a back light is so that reading the screen is identical to reading a paper page. I do have a book light I clip on it so mostly that is not a problem. Well, I had a book light clip until Tyler dunked it into my glass of water that it was sitting beside.

I wish there was a way to loan a book to someone else. If I read a really good book I would have to loan my entire Kindle for someone else to read it. It makes me sad to not loan a book.

I would make the page turner button silent. It has a very quiet clicking sound each time I turn a page. I don't know why it has to click.

I wish you could print a page from it. If a book has a pattern or a recipe it would be really cool if you could make a copy of it.

I wish that pictures were in color - but they are black and white, like newsprint.

Although there is a bookmark feature that allows you to mark a page or highlight a section, I have to admit it is much easier to just thumb through a book to find something you want to re-read.

Overall -

I love it. I am happy I saved all these months to purchase it. I envision many, many happy hours of reading. I already have 31 books downloaded just waiting for me to read. And all but four of those were free ones. I will still buy paper books. So many of my books are my friends really. I love having a full series sitting on the book shelf. I love the way a book smells. But there are many books that I don't necessarily need to have on a shelf. Those are the ones that will go on my Kindle.

Now, if my Kindle could just manage my life, allowing me time to actually read the books on it - I would be a happy camper!

p.s. You might wonder why I don't get books at the library. We live in a rural town and our library fits in a single wide trailer! I could order books using the inter-library loan system, but I am much more of an impulsive reader than that. I could also order them from the library at the University I work at, but same thing - I am an impulsive reader. I don't like waiting for books and I don't like having to have them finished by a certain date. I don't always know what books I want to read until I see them and I can't see them if they aren't there - LOL!

I know. Just indulge me, please.