ARCHIVES: AUGUST 2009

Saturday, August 29

You wouldn't believe my luck. My husband and I had been looking at this one Sony laptop for me on Amazon all week. I had been eyeing it friday at lunch. Friday at dinner, we decide that yes - let's go ahead and order that one. We come home from dinner, pull it up on Amazon - low and behold, my new laptop has gone on sale!!! A whole $120 off!

It was too good to be true, but it was true.

Somewhere in this country, there's a brand new sONY laptop, all snuggled in it's packaging, headed to my doorstep. It started the journey today and will end it, in my sweet little hands, sometime later this week and hopefully by next weekend.

I will be blazing new blogging trails soon! I will be blazing new music trails! I will be tweeting and surfing!

Friday, August 21

There's a local bookstore that has a terrific, well-organized young adult section with lots of employee recommendations and such. I find this particular store helpful when I don't have any books in mind for my next read. I found a few things on my last visit and then, prompted by Adam, decided to check out the sci-fi/fantasy section in the adults area. I asked the closest geeky worker if he had any recommendations and I purchased a book that he called 'the beginners fantasy book' and was on my way.....though I was a bit reluctant.

The cover of the book has a dwarf, an elf and a beautiful warrior woman, clad in fur-trimmed warrior outfit. The summary on the back said something about the quest to reveal the mystery of a blue crystal staff. (Crystals!) I'm kind of laughing, but I go with it.

About 3/4 of the way through the book, I am wondering what's up with this book. It's pretty good, but it's playing out like a satire of itself. Dwarf? Check. Buried, forgotten city? Check. Unicorn? Check. Pegasi? Check. Creepy wizard guy? check. Mustachioed knight? Check. Lady named 'Goldmoon' with boyfriend named 'Riverwind'? Check. Black dragon with red eyes? Check. Elves? Check. Treehouse restaurant? Check.

I googled it this morning to see what sort of reviews I find about it - I wanted to know if this was considered 'good' fantasy, by fantasy book standards. That is when I learn that I'm reading a book based on Dungeons and Dragons -- which struck me as funny.

I don't think I like 'main stream fantasy' -- perhaps I can seek out some fringe fantasy writers. That said, I am pleased that I can move on from here.

Thursday, August 20

I am still blogging on notepad.I am embarassed by the lack of blogging but notepad leaves a lot to be desired. Hang tight. A new laptop is within sight.

I was in Virginia for a long weekend and have returned with a dash of sun on my white pasty body. I said a dash -- just a tiny amount. It was a fantastic visit and everyone is doing great. I made it to the beach, did some swimming, went into some trashy beach shops, rode a bike, spent time with my nieces -- it was too short. Do you remember what green grass looks like and tall green trees? I am happy to be reminded of those things. Easy to forget in dead, over-cooked AUstin, Texas. I miss my family - I will return for Christmas.

We went to Best Buy last night to look at laptops - We may be very close to making a decision. There is one factor helping me narrow down the options and that is that I am trying to avoid the super reflective keyboards, which are very popular right now. I am way too detail oriented and those fingerprints would make me nuts. I mean, do I really need ANOTHER surface that requires wiping.

Thursday, August 6

This week has included an activity known as 'rollerskating with my lady friends.' Following this activity, I would like to record some notes and observations, as to be utilized upon the next rollerstaking event, to take place in the near future.

1. Wear something cool (not work clothing) - skating rink is hot.
2. Bring change for the lockers.
3. Bring change for the vending machine - the cafe is closed.
4. Bring change for the photo booth!
5. Pocket-sized hand sanitizer (?) - extra credit for that.
6. Knee socks (?) - extra credit.
7. Don't forget to write song requests down early on the song list.
8. Perhaps lip balm.
9. Come in chewing gum, so you can spit into the giant container of chewed gum sitting by the ticket booth.

This list reminds me of a another list idea that I wanted to share.

The last time we went on vacation, we discovered that we forgot to bring several things that we like to have while we travel, but wouldn't really be considered essential. Hats, binoculars, sketch pads, the neti pot, etc. AND these are things we seem to forget repeatedly.

When we got back, I took a sharpie to a peice of card stock and made a list of all of the things we forgot and put it in my luggage! Genius! Next time I go to pack, I will refer to that list and away we go with all of those extra items.

Go make a list of something.

Sunday, August 2

SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! I am typing to you from notepad, trying to edit this html.

We had to return the new Acer Aspire laptop because it didn't work. What a disappointment to have finally decided and purchased a new laptop, only to load all of my files on there and then to have to send it back. Sigh.

I decide I am going to blog on my work laptop and I will install a trial version of Dreamweaver. A great temporary solution, right? Nooooooo. When I run the install program, it starts installing ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR!!!!

I went to the troubleshooting page -- funny, I didn't see anything like, "When you tried installing Dreamweaver, did you have the Illustrator installer instead?" Yeah. That wasn't there.
For now, we are going low tech with notepad. Hopefully we can order another computer and everything will be magical and wonderful again! Cheers to that.

....oh June. sigh.