Here A Nook, There A Nook, Everywhere A Nook Nook!

Nookie Love!

What can I say?  I love my new Nook.  I got this for my birthday and it is a wonderful new addition to my library.  I think Barnes and Noble did a bang up job on this sweet little eReader.  It is sleek and gorgeous for one thing and is easy to hold which thrills me because nowadays it's getting just a little harder to hold a book with these old fingers for very long.  And with an Android operating system inside, it can give us endless possibilities to make this eReader one of the best!  Android also gives the Nook a great way to turn your pages.  Actually, the Nook gives you two ways you can turn your pages, you can use the little forward or backward buttons on the right and left hand sides of the Nook, or you can  swipe the 3.5 inch color LEC touchscreen just below the the eInk display screen.  Shweeeet!

Nook and Nook Cover

Here is my cover I got with the Nook.  I love this cover.  It has two small clips that keep my Nook safe and sound inside and the front cover folds back so it is out of the way while you read.  It is a nice color gray and has the Nook  on the front and the little blue tab at the bottom, when you flip open the cover you see the Nook 'n' inside.  It has a suede feel to it and does a good job of protecting my Nook from dust and grime.

The reason I chose the Nook over the Kindle, Sony and other readers out there is because, first I really did a lot of researching and looking hard at the features they had to offer.  I must admit, I was going to get the Kindle when the Nook first came out.  In fact my beautiful sister who devours books like most people devour peanuts had asked me what I thought about the Nook when it first came out and if I thought it would be best to get the Kindle or Nook.  Well, I had not heard of the Nook until she had mentioned it so I took a look-see to find out what all the hubbub was about and after I weighed the established Kindle against the Nook my thinking was, go with what works...the Kindle.  We talked about it and I got the feeling that perhaps my sister was wanting the new Nook a little more than the Kindle.  The Nook has some wonderful features that you don't get with the Kindle but seeing the Kindle is pretty tried and true we both agreed that was the way to go.

Sis got her Kindle for Christmas last year and she loves it.  I'm thrilled that she is happy with her reader.  Me?  Well I waited.  Not because I thought the Nook would get better over night, I know it takes time for new electronics to get the bugs out and it's usually better to wait until a version 2 would come out to get one...no, I waited because I am sorely behind on my reading, which by the way frustrates my sister to no end!

Well, low and behold my birthday rolls around and I had been keeping my eye on the Nook reading different forums about the Nook and the reviews were looking better than I expected and it had a pretty impressive software upgrade which sounded prettty darn good.  So after all the reading and seeing how favorible it was and looking at all the features that you can get the Nook that you don't see on Kindle, I went with the Nook. 

In fact one of the best features of the Nook is, if your library has Overdrive where you can download books and audiobooks to your computer, you can check out ebooks (my library allows an ebook a 21 day loan) and download them to your computer to your Adobe Digital Editions and then put that book on your Nook.  You can charge your Nook from a wall socket or USB cable from your comupter.  In fact the book I'm reading now is one from my local library.  Very cool.

Something else the Nook allows you to do is purchase ebooks from quite a few other book sellers, such as Kobo books.  You can actually download files from your computer and add different wallpapers and screensavers to your Nook.  I'm not sure if the Kindle does that too, but it is a very nice way to personalize your Nook.  I downloaded some very cool wallpapers and screensavers from Nook-Look.

A Bit Of Whimsy From Groucho Marx

All in all, the Nook is pretty user friendly.  If I can figure all this out in such a short amount of time, anyone can!  And there all kinds of forums out there to help you out.  They really helped with some great tips in case your Nook freezes up on you.  Mine did when I first got it, I didn't panic because I know most all electronics gadgets will do that sometimes...so first thing I did was look up 'nook freezing up', and voila there it was, all kinds of good advice from some very nice people out there lending their help.  I found several very easy fixes.

Nook In Charge Mode

Ok, I hope I haven't gone on too horribly long about my obsession with my new gadget.  I will say this one last thing that changed my mind from the Kindle to the Nook, the battery.  You can replace the battery in the Nook and with the expandible memory that the Nook allows with the micro SD expansion slot you can keep unlimited amounts of books on your memory cards!  So with the 3G and Wi-Fi enabled reader to top things off (really, the list of comparisons are here at Barnes & Noble Nook ) you will see why I chose this eReader over the others.

Well Dear Reader, I will now step down off of my Nookie soapbox and just say that cross my heart and hope to die the Nook has made reading fun again for me!  Adios until we meet again! 

Jumping Jehosaphat...It's June!

And Time Marches On!

Well, the last time I posted I think I made a promise to tend to my blogging garden a bit better than I have in the past.  And what do I go and do...I have gone and done exactly what I said I wasn't going to do in the first place.  Ugh!

Dear Reader, if you are indeed out there and perhaps have even found a fondness of my blabberings, and every once and a while follow along with me on this path of schizophrenia, I am sorry for my lack of 'follow through'.  Please believe me when I say it was honestly unintentional neglect on my part.  But neglect it was, so here is a little something that has happened in the mean time.

My little girl Molly was playing with her brother Mikey in the back yard over a month ago and I heard the most awful sound come from my poor little girl.  There she was standing on three of her four legs with the left rear leg up and shaking so hard it almost knocked the wind out of me.  You see, I was never blessed with human children so I'm one of those pet owners that adores my babies as if they were real babies!  :-)

So anyway, took her to the vet, her knee was in bad shape...now I have no idea how that happened with her just wrestling around with her brother but after a couple of weeks on pain meds and her still not really using it or playing with her brother and acting shy and, well it's hard to explain, but you just know when something is not right.  So the decision to have surgery was in place and let me tell you, it really was one of the hardest things to do.  First of all because, well, I'm a horrible nervious nelly kind of mom to begin with and when it comes to those two little precious puppies, I will lose my mind when something bad happens to them.  I about died when my Mikey got a bee sting...oh my gosh, you would have thought the sky was falling until I finally firgured out what had happened and went online to see what I could do before I took him to the vet.

Anyway, back on topic please!  :-)   So my girl goes in for surgery and when she comes home, let's just say, honestly, I can not put into words the pain in my heart when I saw that precious little dog with her oversized cone on her head and the staples in her leg and how happy she was to see me even after I had given her to those people to cut her open and grind down her bone, put pins and stictches in her knee and then staple her up.  And of course along the way...well actually it was just two days that I took her back to the vet because I thought for sure I had crippled her for life!  It's hard not knowing exactly what to be looking for or what to expect.  All this time during her recovery I was sure that she would be lame because of some horrible thing I had let her do, or something I should have done that I hadn't.  

So, long story short...oops, too late for that I'm afraid, even though I can tell she isn't putting her full weight on her leg, she is doing pretty great.  You know, when you take them in there and they tell you it will be 6 to 8 weeks for recovery, well that isn't true.  My vet said in all truth it will be a good 6 months to come to full recovery.  I still think I may have done a few things wrong like walking her a little too much in the beginning but she seems to be doing just fine.  Playing with her brother, jumping up on the couch and jumping down without any effort or pain.  She favors that right leg but each day I see a little more improvment so now I've finally allowed myself to exhale and give my girl oodles of hugs and kisses for being so sweet and good and brave for all she went through.

Happy June y'all.  It's been horribly hot here already.  Too early of a start for summer, afraid that means we have a real cooker coming in store for us this year.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a few minutes to spend with me!  Hope to be talking to all of you real soon. 

Spring Has Finally Sprung!

Hello Spring!

Well, well, well...the frost is finally off the pumpkin and it is starting to warm up down here after a winter I though would never end.  I guess after living down here in the land of eternal summer, my poor old bones have acclimated to 100 degree tempuratures.  So this winter was quite a reminder of what life was like with a very real hint of winter weather.  I just can't imagine what it was like for everyone up north after being away from  having to battle the cold and snow that I had so lovingly enjoyed when I was living up there all those years ago.  And I must say, even though I can't imagine living up where the winters are long and hard, I still miss them.

We had a hard freeze for four straight days here and through it all, while most all  my plants succumbed to the bitter cold, I had one little darling of a plant that was in full bloom the entire time of the cold snap.  These little Johnny Jump Ups have been reseeding themselves since my loving Alaska Master Gardener sent them to me so very many springs ago.  She had sent me a bevy of seeds to see if they might grow down here for me.  I had gotten a few of them to sprout that first spring except for the Poppies she had sent.  But one of those packets of seeds were these sweet little Johnny's and they have been with me since the very beginning.

So for your viewing enjoyment here is my first touch of spring that has fearlessly survived all winter long.

Sorry for being away for so long.  I hope to make more frequent and hopefully fun and interesting posts.  Here's hoping your spring is coming up as colorful as mine!  :-)

 

Happy New Year!

Hello 2010!

Wow.  All I can say is, boy am I getting old!  Honestly, I remember a time in my life that the idea of my living to actually see the year 2010 was inconceivable!  Ah, to be that young again, that devoid of the reality of being at the end of your life instead of the begining.  Please don't think me morbid, it isn't that at all, it's just ruminating on what has been and what new enlightenment may lay ahead.  It's just that being young has a unique quality of a sense of timelessness.  I remember getting older each year on my birthday but not really comprehending that I too would one day be, well...old.  Perhaps I should say it this way, getting older.  Which on some days is really not that bad at all!  But I do believe that, dude, youth is totally wasted on the young!  ;-) 

When I was young and watching the Jetson's on TV with all the futuristic gadgets and gizmos, I guess in my childhood naivete, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be able to see so much change in my life, so many ground breaking and history making times and innovation and to actually witness history.  I mean unimaginable history making events.  I'm glad I have though, glad to be able to sit here blogging and perhaps having someone clear around the world reading my musings about, well, not much of anything!  :-)  So, Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you are safe and sound and somewhere warm.  Even here in Texas we are getting that Artic blast and it brings back memories of what winter was for me back in the day! 

It's grooming day for the little dogs but don't tell them that!  They are quite happy being scruffy and smelly, go figure!  They always look so good and smell so great and are just so cute after their hair cuts and baths, unfortunetly, it doesn't last very long.  In fact, after their spa treatment they go out in the back yard and head for the first smelly thing that their noses take them to and roll in it!  Yikes!  So wadda gonna do?  It's a dogs life I guess!

Well, it's about time for our groomer to come so I will close this up for now.  Adios until we meet again.