Daily Dose of Love – Toilets
Daily Dose of Love – Toilets Read More »
We’ll be heading to Atlanta soon. We being me, TW and Michelle. This weekend will be part of Michelle’s 16th birthday celebration – woohoo! (Did I sound properly enthusiastic? Let me try again WOOHOOOO!)
We’re staying at the Beautiful Mid-Town Wyndham. We’re going shopping at the Junkman’s Daughter (or whatever it’s called) in L5P. We’re going to hit the bookstore, Charis, that I recently blogged about. I think we’ll take Michelle to Mary Mac’s ’cause everyone needs to go to a southern tea room, once. Besides there are tons of vegetarian choices! The most important part of this trip though is…
Michelle is getting a grown up bedroom for her birthday so we’re hitting IKEA in order to do that. This will be her virgin IKEA visit and only the second visit for me and TW. Someone remind me to bring the camera! We’re excited! WOOHOOOO!
Technorati Tags: atlanta, IKEA, birthday, marymacs, feministbookstore,
Daily Dose of Travel – Atlanta Read More »
I mentioned in my ABC’s of 2005 that six MP3 players have come through our home this year and now you folks get my oh so knowledgable review. I know you’ve been waiting for this before buying your own MP3 players, haven’t you?
First, the iRiver H10. TW bought this for me for my birthday and at first I was just a wee bit disappointed because I really really wanted an iPod Nano. But within moments, disappointment was a distant memory and has never returned. The iRiver is easy to use, it’s quick and it’s sturdy. Love, love, love this little toy so very much. Loved it so much that I bought one for my oldest daughter for Christmas and I do believe she also loves it.
Next into our world was the Samsung YP-T8X purchased for the 10 year old for her birthday by her father and stepmother. It’s got a really nice display and it is shiny shiny. It plays video but she’s only got a 512mb player and that’s just not going to work. I don’t believe the display and shiny shiny is really worth the money money for that tiny player.
Oddly enough, TW and I had purchased a Creative MUVO for that same 10 year old’s birthday. Easy to use, batteries seem to last a pretty long time. The only problem is the buttons don’t feel “substantial”. They feel like they could be easily broken. But so far, so good. She likes the interchangeable color cases but seems to be sticking with the red. And, she’s had some fun with the voice recorder.
Next up, the iRiver T30 for Michelle for Christmas. Similar to the Creative but the buttons are more substantial. The menu navigation is a little tough to get use to at first (though that could be related to the fact that I’ve played with so many players in the last 3 months) but Michelle has it sussed and is thrilled with it. Nice loud sound, which she loves.
And last but certainly not least, Chris NEEDED the iPod Nano. He could not be persuaded otherwise. He’s an apple nut and loyal til the end. So, his father purchased the Nano. When it arrived, I did what I had done for all of the other kids, I started loading some music on it so they could listen to something besides the pre-loaded crud that arrives with these things. The nav wheel is sensitive! And there are soooo many menu options, I got lost quickly. Then the darn thing wouldn’t turn off and I had to reset it. Sheesh. (Did I mention my brief moment of disappointment at not getting a Nano never returned?) But, it is pretty and tiny and light and I knew he would love it – and he did. I just hope he doesn’t break it or lose it, he’s not the most ummm responsible of the six children… And, I surely hope iTunes is easier to use on a Mac than it is on a PC. What a pain in the rear that was.
There you have it, my MP3 player reviews. The one thing they all had in common was my pure HATRED for putting those little felty covers on the ear buds. That just stunk, with every single player!
Technorati Tags: mp3players, iriver, creative, samsung, ipodnano
Daily Dose of Music – MP3 Players Read More »
A – Animoprhs reigned again this year as the series of choice for RJ. Barely beating out HP and the Half-Blood Prince. Here’s hoping she moves along in the new year.
B – Blogs, Blogs and more Blogs. They defined the year for us in ways I cannot even begin to explain. And I suspect they’ll be on any reflecting over 2006 list we may create next year.
C – Melissa got off the boat but TW and I stayed on the cruise in January. I don’t want to cruise again and TW doesn’t either but we oddly spent some time pondering queer family cruises and author cruises and Panama Canal cruises. Weird what cruising does to you. It’s something they put in the water or the food or something. My mom, aka sockmouth grandma, has moved part time to Charlotte to be closer to the Heir to the Throne.
D – My old Dodge Caravan no longer lives in the driveway. I signed it over to Chris when his Camry died in January and then he traded it in for a Tercel at the end of the summer. E and I miss the Caravan quite a bit. It was part of our history and it was sad to let it go.
E – A very large elephant has been purchased in the hope of having a grandchild to give it to next year. Jenn & Ronnie are officially “trying” (though have not yet succeeded).
F – Who’d have thunk Prince Joe would choose to play the flute… and almost enjoy it for more reasons than practicing has the potential to drive his family insane? Who also would have guessed his weird FCAT testing science fair project would net him a ribbon and inclusion into the regional science fair? Educational standards are weird.
G – Gamecube was purchases, as promised, when the Prince held up his end of the bargain and our lives have not been the same. Unfortunately he is no longer holding up his end of the bargain but the Gamecube remains. We need to work on that. E became Gameboy crazy, as well and the Grace Bridge is no more.
H – Homeschool or school at home? Whatever, we’re still doing it with Michelle. Speaking of Michelle, hair color and style changed and changed and changed. 2 of the 3 Hermit Crabs live on! Hazel the pink roomba has been a much loved addition to our lives.
I – My iRiver birthday gift is the BEST! 6 MP3 players entered our lives and the iRivers beat the iPods and the Samsung and the Creative hands down! TW and I enjoyed our first (and so far only) trip to IKEA in October. We need an IKEA!
J – RJ has discovered Practical Jokes, thanks to Nick magazine. She’s not very good at them but she tries hard and it’s amusing.
K – Keep, Sell, Trash! The fixation TW and I have acquired for Clean Sweep resulted in a Clean Sweep Birthday for me! We’ve not really been all that successful at following through but we’ve made some attempts and that counts for something, right?
L – Chris moved out of the house and in with his g/f and her mom in LaCrosse. We thought he would be moving back in before the end of the year but the move back home date has moved to February. The lemon tree finally produced lemons! 4 NEW laptops came into our home, 3 have survived!
M – Middle School for his highness, Prince J and magnet school for RJ and E. This means a lot of driving and a lot of pretty tough homework for all three.
N – Neopets have lost their lustre, a little. But our pets haven’t died!
O – TW got an office! With a Window! Joy!
P – Jenn and Ronnie PCS’d to Charleston and that makes me happy, happy, happy! PRIUS aka whaleyboy car! TW got me a PRIUS, for CHRISTMAS! And she didn’t really violate any Denise rules to do it.
Q – Qatar was on our radar and will be again next year.
R – Riley aka Heir to the Throne joined the family in July. I still say my sister should go back to being Childfree By Choice… and give me the baby!! The dirtbag retired after 25 years in the USAF. And, E is still rat crazy and created a rat sun bedroom to prove it.
S – RJ is still synchronized swimming. Though she seems less enamoured than in previous years. In fact, “oh man do I have to go?” is frequently heard when she’s asked to get her suit on and find her goggles and nose clips.
T – Tree work was finally authorized and accomplished. Good for the backyard and our electric and cable wires. Not so good for the front yard where the much loved tree in front is less loved because it is not so cool. Three turtles remain and are threatening to take over the living room.
U – Ulcerative Colitis is out, Crohn’s is in. Whoopeee.
V – We three women, (TW, Michelle and I), finally saw the Vagina Monologues at UF, together.
W – “My girlfriend the webmaster” is a phrase often heard around here. TW got a maddening nice new job in her department.
X – RJ’s x-rays after a skating incident led to a cast over the summer. Not so fun when you love to swim and scooter.
Y – My yellow smiely coffee mug lives on, who would have guessed it would have survived this long (10+ years).
Z – Chris is pondering life as a zookeeper, veterinarian or some other animal type handler. This means he’s going to have to go back to school, doesn’t it? And stay in, doesn’t it?
Originally seen on Underpaid Kept Woman!
Technorati Tags: yearinreview, life, reflection
Daily Dose of Life – Reflection Read More »
Trying to drive a whaleyboy car is confusing! Wait, you’re probably confused about what a whaleyboy car is, aren’t you? Around here we call the Toyota Prius a whaleyboy car. We do that because TW made fun of me when I finally voiced my desire for a Prius. She says it’s ugly and looks like a whale. Fine by me, I can be a whaleyboy, the guys who drive the whales according to Chris Moore’s FLUKE (a really great book, by the way).
Anyway, those things are confusing! First, there is no key. There is a little square box that looks like any normal remote locking thingy for a normal car. You stick that thing in the slot and you push the power button. But you have to have your foot on the brake or pushing that power button is going to get you nothing but a few lights on the dash.
After you’ve pushed the power button, the only way you know for sure the darn thing is “running” is you see a READY light up on the dash (which is really FAR away from where you’re sitting compared to regular cars). The thing is so quiet, you truly do not know it is on.
Then there’s the shifter. One little knob and when you push it into “gear” it hops back into it’s “resting position” and stays there til you shift into some other gear. Scared the heck out of me. I thought I didn’t do it right and was trying to force it to STAY in the reverse position. While you’re backing up, it’s helpful that there is a constant beep beep beep til you shift into another gear. This helps you know for sure that it really is running because that READY light just didn’t feel like enough proof to me.
Confusing!
Shifting into DRIVE was no big deal, once I got use to the shifter bouncing back to it’s resting position. Parking was something else entirely. The shifter indicates NEUTRAL is directly to the left of the resting position. It isn’t. It’s left and a wee bit UP but not too far up ’cause that drops you into reverse. I never did master neutral but I came close doggone it. After it’s in neutral you push a button with a big P on it, which means park. Not to be confused with the POWER button which has to be pressed after you push P for park to shut down the magic, errr engine.
And if all of that isn’t confusing enough, there’s a gear marked “B” – what the? I got my driver’s liscense when I was 15, almost 30 years ago, and nobody ever told me there was a gear called “B”. According to the user manual, it’s what you use if you feel like the regular brake isn’t giving you enough “braking power” – my dad said, oh like a downshift. I don’t know. I was afraid to try it.
Weird!
And then the display, wow. This really big computer screen that tells you how much gas you’re using, (when it says 99.9mpg while you’re driving it is really sort of freaky), tells you how much battery you are using and has little cars to indicate how much you’ve recharged since drving. You can make it display everything in English or French (hmmm no Japanese, odd eh?) and you can change the display colors from green to blue to beige to something else I can’t remember. (I chose green ’cause it’s Christmas ya know) And there are a zillion buttons for air conditioning, which is also the heater, and a zillion more buttons for the sound system. I shudder to think how many more buttons would have been there if we’d rented the one with the DVD screens in a zillion locations in the car! Did I mention these buttons are all on the TOUCH computer screen and not normal dash buttons????
FUN!!!
Technorati Tags: prius, toyota, hybrid, christmas, whaleyboy
Daily Dose of Confusion – Cars Read More »
Some of you may remember a recent blog entry in which I asked the question “which one of you dingbats, I mean kind and generous people, bought me a Prius for the holidays??” Well a few days I figured out who the dingbat kind generous person was… TW BOUGHT ME A PRIUS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!
She’s soooo bad at keeping gifts a secret, which is good because I truly do not like surprises. She would drop remarks about someone, probably my sister, buying me the car for Christmas. Now some of you who know some things about my sister could maybe see how this could be a possibility. But, those of you who would think that (including TW) just don’t know my sister. So it really never was a plausible idea for me.
I really just thought someone was playing around and clicked the “reserve” on my Things I Want list. No way TW would buy me a car. We can’t afford it and while money, or lack of, has never stopped TW from indulging me (or anyone else she loves) she knew that I would truly not have been happy about such a purchase.
So a few days ago I was talking to my mom on the phone about holiday travel plans and gift purchases and I jokingly asked her if she bought me the car. She laughed and said “that would be your sister” ha! My sister was in the room and said she saw it was reserved but she certainly didn’t do it, ha! again! And then it hit me…
TW did not buy me a Prius, she rented it! For a week! Just the perfect amount of time for me to enjoy it, play with it, figure out how the magic of 99.9mpg works and show all sorts of people how cool it is. And just the perfect amount of time for me to figure out whether or not I really and truly want one, if I ever actually have the $30,000+ it would cost to buy it.
So the car arrived today. It’s white (which is good because that is the last color I’d choose so it will be easy to take it back). It’s fuel efficient! It’s interesting! It’s fun! It’s magic! I LOVE IT! It’s one of the BEST gifts EVER!
Be on the lookout for more PRIUS driven posts over the next week… pictures too, and the pictures are important because TW did some “detailing” that you really MUST see!
Happy Happy Prius Day!
Technorati Tags: christmas, surprise, gift, prius, toyota, hybrid, car, thingsiwant
Daily Dose of Surprise- PRIUS! Read More »
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Daily Dose of Holiday – Names Read More »
OK this is coming to you courtesy of Heresiology but is dedicated to my friend Karen. Please do read the post, it’s a nice Solstice celebration recap. And at the bottom, this classic…. (Maybe I’ll get the little kids to sing it tonight while I record them on the iRiver…)
‘God rest ye, Unitarians’
To the tune of “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”
Gods rest ye, Unitarians, let nothing you dismay;
Remember there’s no evidence there was a Christmas Day;
When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact.
Our current Christmas Customs come from Persia and from Greece,
From solstice celebrations of the ancient Middle East.
This whole darn Christmas spiel is just another pagan feast,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact.
There was no star of Bethlehem, there was no angels’ song;
There couldn’t have been wise men for the trip would take too long.
The stories in the Bible are historically wrong,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact!
Technorati Tags: unitarianuniversalists, carol, gladtidings
Daily Dose of Christmas Cheer – Bah! Read More »
Discardia: A floating holiday to celebrate letting go.
I always forget about Discardia until it’s too late. I forgot about it in the fall until Ed talked about it on his blog. I vowed I would not forget next time. And I didn’t!
I have mentioned it to Michelle in passing a couple of times each month. She’s never seemed very interested. Sometimes she’s even done the typical teenage “fine, just throw it all away, I don’t care!” thing and stomped off to her messy room. Not the reaction I was going for, obviously. Discardia is about celebrating letting go, not huffing and puffing and feeling forced into letting go.
I was patient. I was also lucky.
TW and I had been watching Clean Sweep quite a bit and I even had a Clean Sweep Birthday which helped to keep thoughts of clutter reducing fresh in our minds.
That wasn’t enough though. We needed to go further than that. And I do believe Michelle got there all on her own this week.
“Mom, I just realized that 75% of the stuff in my room is stuff I have never needed and never really wanted. I mean it was fun to get gifts. And fun to buy. But most of it I never even used or touched or looked at again.”
So Michelle spent several days really cleaning out her room. She hasn’t gotten rid of all of it. The idea of letting go of the entire kit n caboodle all it once is a little overwhelming, I think. But she hit the point where I hope she’s going to think more about whether she’s truly in need of a particular object or simply in need of something, some intangible something that brings pleasure or piques an interest or simply fills an empty space.
Discardia is a celebration of letting go, indeed.
Nancy White talks about Discardia and reflection on the past and quite a few folks on 43 Things practicing Discardia, too.
Daily Dose of Life – Discardia Read More »