Good Morning!

Albert Einstein, who discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy, which explains why, as Einstein himself so eloquently put it in a famous 1939 speech to the Physics Department at Princeton, "You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers." ~Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 50

Dakota woke me up before the crack of dawn today -- sort of a good news / bad news thing. Good: I'm getting stuff done! Bad: I'm SO tired.

My title gave me an earworm .... let me share *G*:



Day two of Weight Watchers was MUCH easier (for me, anyway -- DD had a harder time). My best WW friend? Salsa. It's zero points and I use it on everything. I use it as salad dressing, I put it in my food. Mmmm.... I do love salsa.

DD got an eye-opener at the bread store, though. We brought our points calculator, and she used it on bagels and donuts. ONE donut is 8 points (considering we get approximately 20 per day, that gives you an idea of just how bad it is). It's been giving us a lot of chances to talk about what is healthy and what isn't, what nutrients are less good for your body (like fat -- you need SOME healthy fat every day, but not too much) and which ones are best.

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Note to my Nook: I really hate it when you run out of charge in the last twenty pages of a suspense novel. Really. Just saying. Conveniently, though, I can plug it in an read it if I must.

Still, I LOVE the free eBooks. I have a ton, and yesterday got "Scandal Sheet" by Gemma Holiday (thanks, Tori) for nuthin'. Smart folks giving away the first book in a series. I'm a sucker for a good series.

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And now, I'm off to write. Did things backward today since I was up early. Wish me luck!

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You Are Deep

You try to observe the world rather than judge it. You feel like you are here to learn. You see every side to people. You know that things are complicated and nuanced. You have trouble getting along with people who are flippant or silly. You crave substance. You connect best with philosophical, thoughtful types. Your friends care about ideas.

The Paint Daub Test

Maybe 50/50?

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Expecting a Hatching

If you were to open up a baby's head - and I am not for a moment suggesting that you should - you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland. ~Dave Barry

In Pillar Place: Monarch, Thomas -- the pupa I had to glue back into place a little over a week ago -- is showing black, so he's ready to hatch and I'm a nervous wreck. I swear, it's almost as bad as having one of my own!

In any case, I'm afraid he's not glued solidly enough to stay in place as he pulls out of the exterior case of the chrysalis, so I keep glancing over every few seconds. I hope he hatches soon, or I'm going to be a prisoner inside all day. Watching. Watching. Watching.

In gardening news, I finally had a large tomato ripening ... I've been watching it closely because YUM! Nothing tastes quite as good as a homegrown, vine-ripened tomato warm from the garden.

Yesterday? I went out to look and it was half eaten. Since there were tomato skin remnants encircling the nearby chipmunk hole, I'm pretty sure who the culprit was. Where's the feral cat when I need it?

Speaking of the cat, he must have heard rumors that I was planning to trap him and take him to the vet, because he hasn't been hanging out in my yard. He HAS been in my across the street neighbor's yard, driving her dog crazy, but not here. Darn it. I had PLANS.

Speaking of plans, we're finally going to make the rest of our homemade agility equipment this weekend. It's just been TOO hot to do anything much outside, but since it's cooled down we can. DD is thrilled. I'm sure Dakota will be, too.

DD is NOT so thrilled about the fact that I have everything for her to start school, however. This weekend, I'll be sitting down and going through things to set up her schedule. This year is seventh grade, so things are a bit different for both of us. The school classes are set up differently, and I have more work to do. So does she. I suspect we're both dreading it a little.

But, for now we still have a little time before we have to hunker down and get back to school, so we'll enjoy it while we can.

Have a great weekend!!

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You Are an Artist

Whether your creations are in your mind or on paper, you are definitely an arty person. You see the beauty in the world, and somehow the ugly parts are beautiful to you too. You have an intensity that's unmatched and unstoppable. You feel strongly about everything. You are driven to create. You are never content to just sit still.

The Ice Cream Cone Test

Blogthings: We're Not Shrinks, But We Play Them On the Internet

That's true. It's also true that I like chocolate. Just saying.

Speaking of chocolate, apparently this week's NOOK In Store coupon is for a small box of Godiva chocolates. So, go into your local Barnes & Noble, show your Nook at the cafe (or the checkout if yours doesn't have a cafe) and get a box of chocolates 9while supplies last). It was on the Nook Facebook page. I'm going today. *G*

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:::Spammers, grumble, Spammers:::

Tough and funny and a little bit kind: that is as near to perfection as a human being can be. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

I spent the first part of my morning deleting spam comments. Even thinly disguised comments that appear to be made by a human are spam when they include a pile of links to advertising sites. Just saying.

I've also added moderation to all comments older than three days -- so at least next time I won't have to go back so far to delete things. *sigh*

I woke early this morning to the sound of a loud THUMP! DD had fallen out of bed. I went upstairs to make sure there were no broken bones and she was buried under her covers, but I heard a small, muffled "sorry" so figured all was well.

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I know you all know how much I love my Nook... I love, Love, LOVE my Nook (one really cool thing? If you take it into a Barnes and Noble, there's always some sort of coupon that shows up when you open your Nook ... a couple of weeks ago it was for a free dessert at Starbucks, another week it had a free coffee). You can even go into a Barnes and Noble and read ANY eBook they offer for FREE for one hour (rather like how you can browse a book in the store). It's non-proprietary, you can upload books in several formats without problem or cost. I read on it constantly and it's actually easier on my eyeballs than a regular book.

The reason I'm raving is this: Barnes and Noble now has a Wi-Fi only Nook for $149, and a regular 3G Nook for $199. In all fairness, I should mention that Amazon countered the lower price with one of its own on Kindle, but I'm such a huge Nook fan (and not so much an Amazon fan) that I have to rave about what I love.

Yesterday, I went into our local Barnes and Noble and bought THREE Nooks and THREE $50 BN Gift Cards for the LASR/WC/Aurora anniversary party in August. We are giving them away (so if you've been wanting one, but the bank account says no -- this is your chance). We're having a scavenger hunt starting August 2nd with just over 150 authors. It's going to be a ton of fun and I can't wait! I suspect I made the Nook lady's day, though, by buying three Nooks. Wonder if she sells that many a day usually? *G*

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In Pillar Place yesterday, things started off a bit rocky. We still had two pillars outside The Box on their food: Mu and Epsilon. Apparently that was a mistake, since when I got up yesterday morning, one -- Mu -- was AWOL. I searched, and I searched and I searched ... but caterpillars are pretty tiny and there were lots of places it could hide. I needed to catch it before it started settling in to make its pupa, so crawled around looking underneath furniture and watching where I stepped (I had visions of squishing it ... yuck).

I have a HUGE ficus tree in my office and I started thinking Mu went there to hide, so was looking, one branch at a time, for a pillar. As I circled the thing, I looked down ... and there she was. Half on the floor, half on the heater vent looking completely exhausted. If you consider her size, the six feet or so that she traveled was a LONG way.

We've opted to put them in separate containers to pupate -- not as small as those toilet paper "gizmos", but I taped a paper towel over the lid of our monarch containers and put a stick inside and left them there. As of last night Mu, Nu, Gamma and Eta were all purged and ready to start cooking. Epsilon was HUGE, but seemed disinclined to walkabout. Maybe he did last night -- I'll be able to check once DH is up.

We're watching Alpha very closely since he should be hatching into a butterfly at any time. I'm excited to start seeing these critters! So far, Mu's little jaunt aside, things have been fairly smooth. Here's hoping that keeps up!

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You're Sweet Because You're Zany

You've got a little zing to you, and people appreciate your edge. You would never use your wit to hurt anyone, but you never pass up the opportunity for a good joke. Your take on the world is a little unconventional, and you don't mind entertaining people with your observations. You may not fit perfectly into the mainstream, but you wouldn't want to. You like being different.

The Sorbet Test

Works for me! LOL...

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I Got Nuthin'

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. ~Bill Watterson

No news today -- all the same. And, I'm still feeling under the weather, so am thinking now that I've got my LASR/WC pages up, I might go back to bed. In fact, had I not had to get them up, I wouldn't have been up at all... I'm tired. Blech. These are the days I really wish I had someone else who could do my job there. *sigh*

I did watch the new "Bones" last night. Does anyone else think it's ... icky... about Angela and Wendell? From the first kiss, I kinda went... ewww.... And Hodgins is breaking my heart. I'm not pleased with that storyline at all. Just saying.

I did love the "I won't tell anyone about the scream, if you don't tell anyone about the gun." line ... very cute. I'm glad they're letting Bones loosen up a smidge.

Okay, I'm waking up. Guess I won't go back to bed :-)

DD is discouraged that DistinctivelyDD is not selling out of her earrings on a weekly basis, lol. I'm wracking my brains trying to think of things to do to get her store out there more. I might even see if the local Agway would carry her stuff in their "New Hampshire" store. Maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to ask... and if they won't carry her stuff, maybe I could leave some business cards there. I need to find more time to see how to interact on Artfire. There are forums and stuff that help.

In the meantime, she's still trying to save up for a Nook. I told her I'd buy the cover, but she has to buy the Nook. She's about 1/3 of the way there (thanks to a friend who sent her a Barnes & Noble GC for Christmas). Yesterday, she cleaned house with me to earn a few dollars. And then, she made me a book of coupons that are actually invoices -- $1 to sweep the floor, $2 to clean out the pantry, etc. I have to admit, this is the most determined I've ever seen her. She's not one to hold on to her money ... so for her to not have spent any in the last few months is amazing.

She mentioned buying the Nook to my SIL who told her the idea was stupid. She didn't understand why you wouldn't just buy books instead. DD was very sad when she told me ... she frequently gets conflicting information from my in-laws about stuff. I told DD that the fact is, right now? She has NO more room on her bookcase. So, if she wants more books, she has to get rid of some. With a Nook, she'll never run out of room. AND, she'll have thousands of books at her fingertips.

Speaking of a Nook, I did find one drawback: when you don't pay attention to your battery level and forget to recharge when it's low, and then you read a book and get to a really exciting scene and... run out of juice. That happened to me last night. I should have known. I can't remember the last time I charged the thing. I'm such a dork. And, yes, other than that (which was really operator error), I still love the Nook.

Guess I do have something to say :-)

DH always says I never have trouble talking. However, that's it for now. Happy Saturday!

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You Are Fabulously Friendly

You're nice to everyone you come across, even if they aren't being particularly nice to you. You genuinely like others. You love your friends, and you're happiest when you're a social butterfly. You always have a smile, joke, or kind word for someone. You're kind to everyone, even if they aren't very friendly back. You are simply a people person. You naturally make friends with almost everyone you meet.

What Makes You Fabulous?

Uh.. no. Not even close! LOL...

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Nook, and Shopping and Sweetness - Oh my!

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. ~Dave Barry

So... I finally spent some quality time with my Nook last night, actually reading a book. I've never been able to spend much time reading on my computer for two reasons: 1. I feel obligated to work when I'm on the computer and 2. My eyes ache after too much time on the computer, and reading is supposed to be relaxing -- plus, my fave place to read is in bed right before I go to sleep.

A note about the Nook -- the complaint I had about not being able to reach the arrow to turn pages when the cover was on? I'm a total and complete dork. Last night, I noticed a set of four snaps on the back of the cover. Not being a total idiot, I figured they must have a match somewhere and lo and behold! You fold the cover all the way around the Nook and snap it in place. Voila! I can now turn the pages with the cover on. Can you say "DUH"?

So, last night, in bed I read five chapters of the book I bought. One of the complaints the Nook received was that it can take 3 seconds for the page to turn (as opposed to 1 second on the Kindle). I'll be honest and say that this little quirk didn't bother me at all. I can manage to keep the thought in my head that long while I "wait" the whole 3 seconds for the page to turn. Additionally, BN has mentioned an automatic software update after the first of the year to address this issue.

After reading for about 30- 45 minutes I had no eyestrain, I wasn't tired from holding the Nook (which is a little bit heavier than your standard paperback) and turning the page by pushing the arrow was automatic. The only thing that bugged me was if I accidentally brushed the bottom screen and turned it on -- it's backlit so the brightness was annoying. It goes to sleep after a little but, but I did it twice and was irritated. My own fault, really. Gotta keep those lazy thumbs in place, lol!

Okay, moving on...

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I pretty much started and finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. I made three stops around town: L. L. Bean outlet (got DH and Dd their gifts), Bead It! (for supplies to make earrings and a necklace for my best friend -- I need to get a move on, she lives in California and no, she doesn't read this blog, lol), Michaels (for more beading supplies and something else that I can't say because the person it's for DOES read this blog) and Agway (got DD one gift and several stocking stuffers for the entire family). Then, at home I shopped at Amazon and Bella Sara for DD. Now, I just need to go to Samaritan's Purse and make various donations in other people's names for all of my in-laws and do a little more online shopping for two other family members. Easy peasy. Best thing? I didn't have to deal with crowds!! I absolutely refuse to go to the mall, or any where near it, until after January 1st. Now I just need to get my Christmas cards out. They are right here, next to me, and have been for a while -- I wish they'd address themselves. *sigh*

One thing I discovered yesterday is that I have little use for over the top sweet lovey-dovey-ness. At Michaels, there was a couple there shopping. The lady said something derogatory about herself and the man said, "If you weren't like that you wouldn't be you, and I love you the way you are."

Okay... that was kinda sweet and I could deal. But then THIS happened:

"Aww.. you love me?" In a little girl voice.

"Just a little bit." In a 'you're a cute puppy' voice.

"Really?" Leaning in and smoochy-smoochy.

"Okay, I love you a whole lot."

More smoochy-smoochy and then more "I'm so glad you love me." "Of course I love you."

BLECH.

I nearly went into a diabetic coma from all the sugar. And I made a point to get the heck out of the aisle until they stopped. Ick.

Clearly, I'm not as much of a romantic as I might think.

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You Are the Thimble

You are a very resourceful and crafty person. Some may even call you cunning. You are always looking for opportunities to get ahead. You are very creative and original. You like to survey each situation and carefully plan your move. You have a good instinct for defense. You like to protect what's yours, and you never take on too much at once. You believe in holding back until the time is right.

What Monopoly Piece Are You?

Hmmm... mostly right!

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The NOOK!

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Ann Schabacker

I'd had a couple of things I'd planned on blogging about today. The huge storm that dumped about a foot of snow on us, for one:




In DH's words, "Now THAT is a snowstorm!"

Yep, he was excited. Partly because he could do this in the yard:

Ready... Set....


GO!!!!!


But then, UPS arrived and changed all my plans. The wonderful man brought me this (I almost kissed him, but he wasn't my regular guy and probably wouldn't have understood, lol):



Yep (squeee...) THAT is my Christmas gift to myself: The Nook eReader!

I've wanted an eReader for a few years now, but just couldn't find one I liked. Pre-Kindle, there was Sony, but they were expensive and I just wasn't in love with them. After buying the three we gave away for the LASR/WC anniversary I decided, again, that I wasn't willing to spend the $300 for them (the wireless one they're coming out with next month is $400). It didn't help their standing with me when I couldn't get the Sony eReaders to talk to my computer. I couldn't even charge them up and finally had to send them to Judy to see if SHE could get them to work. She did, but not without great effort. AND it took forever to upload books onto them from the computer.

So... I scratched Sony off the list.

Kindle was tempting... so very tempting. It really did everything I wanted, but I just couldn't get past the fact that I had to buy my books from Amazon. Yeah, it's cool for them that they kept it all in house, and the prices was right on both the eReaders AND the books. But I'm stubborn, and don't like being told I can't do something (like buy books from the publisher or from Fictionwise), and I didn't like the fact I wouldn't be able to load up all the PDFs I've purchased over the past three years. I've heard that software exists to allow you to do all of that, but it annoyed me that I'd have to jump through hoops for it.

So... despite the very real temptation, I scratched Kindle off the list.

Then, Barnes and Noble came out with the Nook. They sent me an email on the first day they were accepting pre-orders for it. To be honest, I really hadn't heard that much about them, but from their email information I became intrigued enough to do a lot of research. First, I checked out my pet peeve about the Kindle. Did the Nook let me upload PDF files?

YES! It did, and without any problems at all.

And, after finding a comparison of the products on some technical website, I discovered that it pretty much had everything the Kindle did (except text to speech and I think the Kindle battery lasts a little longer, but the Nook has more memory space automatically -- I liked more memory -- AND I can buy extra memory for a very reasonable price if I need it), was the same price as Kindle ($259) and it let me upload not just PDFs and ePub documents, but it's also an mp3 player to boot.

Yeah, baby. I was sold and I placed my order that day. That turned out to be a good thing, since the Nook ended up having the same problem as the Kindle did when it was first released -- demand was far higher than supply. Thankfully, since I'd placed my order so early, I was in the group first in line to receive one.

Yes, I played with it a little last night. Here's what I found:

First -- unlike Sony, the Nook comes with an AC adapter for free. This meant I could charge it that way, and wasn't locked into using my computer. However, because of my bad experience with the Sony eReader, I plugged the Nook into the wall with the adapter AND into my computer. It worked flawlessly both ways.

Good start.

Next, after it charged for about 2 1/2 hours, I started it up and took the tour they have. It told me all the cool stuff it does and I was even more excited. I logged into the BN.com site and linked my Nook to my account. Everything is still going smoothly.

Now, to test their claim that I can read my PDF files. It doesn't tell you HOW to load them up -- and while I realize this may have a been a no-brainer for a lot of folks, it took me a little bit to realize that I had to plug my Nook into my computer where it because a sort of travel drive. From that point it was simply a matter of copying and pasting my PDFs into the new file. It took about 20 seconds to copy over a couple dozen books (again, unlike the Sony which took forever for each book upload -- sorry Sony, but you keep having strikes against you).

Okay -- PDFs loaded up, let me see if I can (1) Find them and (2) Read them.

Tap the screen, tap my documents and VOILA! All of my PDFs are there. BUT... for some reason, some of them didn't show up with their title. I had a couple that were stored under the first line of the story, others that were the title and I even had one that was saved under the author's name. Odd. And I can't figure out how to fix that, because the files are all saved by name on my computer and that was how I copied them over ... my guess is that it has to do with how the story was formatted by the publisher. Also, the covers are in black and white, and don't show up in the "covers" link on the Nook. Those were both small issues, and the fact remained that I could still access the books I've purchased in the past.

Okay, I opened one PDF. It appears as though the Nook coverts them to a Word document (this is supposition on my part, so don't quote me on it). That was fine, and it was perfectly formatted and easy to read. I can change the text font (to one of three choices) and the size (small, medium, large).

I'm still happy. So far, it's still all good.

Next I had to test how buying a book from BN.com worked. Was it simple to buy it and get it to my Nook?

I logged into to BN.com and chose a book. The "buy" button said "Buy now, read in seconds" and they weren't kidding. I clicked, it charged my credit card and sent the document to my Nook before I could take a second breath.

I went to the Nook, tapped the screen, tapped "check for new BN content" and VOILA!! The book was there and ready to read.

Be still my heart.

Buying books this easily can be very, very dangerous.

The only thing I don't like about the Nook so far is that I can't put it in its cover, hold it to read and turn the pages easily. The little arrow to turn the page is too far up on the reader for my thumb to reach. I either have to take it out of the cover, or shift my hands to use my finger. I think I can live with that, though, if that's the only downfall.

So, on a scale of 1 - 10, the Nook gets a 9.5 from me.

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You Are Chemistry

Of all the types, you are the most "mad scientist." You love to really get to the essence of how things work. You are also a total brainiac and good at crunching out equations. You are very detail oriented. You understand concepts and theories well. You are capable of very abstract thought. You are inventive and creative. You might create a drug to make everyone smarter or come up with a totally new food flavor!

What Field of Science Are You?

Maybe I could invent negative calorie chocolate!

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