The DebDebTig Blog

iPhone 4S - Was the Switch Worth it?

2011-10-22T18:00:00.000-04:00

I've had the iPhone 4S for just over a week now. I am very happily surprised by the new phone. Siri has been interesting, fun, and actually useful on occasion. The battery is incredible! Even after fiddling with it for ours I find that I still have 40 to 50% battery life left. That is a huge difference from the Droid Charge, which would be dead before I got home.

I forgot how easy the iPhone is to use! It was a quick setup to switch from the Charge. Today, I did a quick check of the Charge to make sure I had all the apps I needed. I didn't find anything that was important to me without an app available for the iPhone. Ok, I take that back, the only thing I didn't find was my favorite jigsaw puzzle app. But, I don't need that on my iPhone, I still have it on my tablet.

The size difference is something I quickly got used to as well. I'll use my tablet and/or my Kindle if I want something bigger than my iPhone. And if I really need size, I can always use AirPlay and send the screen to the TV.

Conclusion: the iPhone 4S is definitely a recommended phone. If you want something easy to use, quick to setup, and with the largest number of apps available, get the iPhone 4S.

Android or Apple?

2011-10-07T20:05:00.001-04:00

This week I had a major debate going on in my head. Last Spring when I upgraded my phone I bought a Droid X2 to replace my Droid X. I loved my X and thought that would be a great move. I was completely wrong. The X2 was not ready for release and all I had was problems for the time I had it. Once I realized this I quickly swapped to the Samsung Droid Charge. (That's a long story I won't go into right now.)

It has been quite a few months with the Charge and I have finally come to the conclusion that the Android phones have just been unable to make me happy. I'm switching to the new iPhone 4S when it comes out next week. I miss the ease of syncing my phone with my computer. With the addition of iCloud it will be even easier. I also greatly miss the battery life of my old iPhone. The only Android device that I've owned that came close to holding a decent charge was the Droid X. That phone is still in use by my son but has since been returned for battery issues twice since I first bought it. Thankfully, I can get my iPhone from Verizon so I don't have to go back to the dropped calls issue that was a major factor in why I switched in the first place.

So, in conclusion, Android had me, but lost me due to ease of use and battery life.

Google+ is it the Next Big Thing?

2011-07-10T12:58:00.001-04:00

Late last week I acquired an invitation to Google+. It seems that many people are wondering about what Google+ will mean to Twitter, facebook, and other social media sites. I started pondering this myself and have come up with a few key thoughts on the subject that I'll share with you. Please, let me know how you feel about Google+ as well. Have you received an invitation? Did you try it out or did you ignore the invitation thinking it was spam?

My first thought after logging into Google+ or as some are now calling it G+ was 'hmm.' I wanted to look around and see what Google was bringing to the plate in social media. When you first access G+ you're asked to verify your name and your gender? I thought my profile was up to date in my Google accounts, it has my picture, but evidently it didn't have my gender. Also on that page is the huge warning that they are in a 'limited trial' and pretty much, not to expect much right now. If you haven't yet received the coveted invitation, you also see a button that says 'Keep me informed' rather than 'Join'.

There are a few ways to get hold of an invite at this point: wait patiently for a friend to think you might want one; pester every person you know for one; or buy one. I ended up receiving ones from all three routes. Of course, I only paid 99cents, but that was just so my hubby would stop asking me if I knew anyone with one yet. Turns out, my son received his invitation and sent me one within about 5 seconds of my receiving the one I paid for. Oh well, it was good to have a few hours of quiet before it arrived.

After I was finally logged in, I have to say, I was impressed, even though only slightly. I really like the drag and drop option for organizing people into circles. Someone in UX (user experience) had their head on straight when they designed that! The issue with adding people to circles is that it lists all of your email contacts even if they don't have an account. This seems to be a way that Google can quickly tell you that all these people don't have accounts, do you want to send them an invitation now? Umm, no, I'd rather not spam my friends. If they know me well enough, they'll see I have one and will ask. I did send out invites to the few people that I knew would want one or would think it would be interesting to try out G+.

Now, back to the original question, is Google+ the next big thing? My take, maybe. Here's what the 'other guys' may or may not like:

MySpace doesn't really have to worry, they are very quickly dying all on their own. They need to either reinvent the wheel or jump ship. I'd suggest jumping ship.

Blogger, YouTube, and the other Google tools don't have to worry, they will either stay as they are or be more integrated into Google+.

facebook definitely will have some competition from Google+. They are working very hard at staying in the game, but that's the key word, they are the place where people go to play games, no one else really has a handle on that. Of course, Zynga would probably jump at the chance to add games to Google+ but, I don't think it is a priority for Google at this point. Besides, facebook is where I go to share 'random' information and stuff to specific friends. It took me long enough to get some of those friends onto facebook, it may take even longer to get them into the G+ crowd.

Twitter should definitely worry. The stream on my Google+ page is much easier to read. It's pleasing to the eye, and my profile actually looks like a profile. The new design of Twitter seems to be more worried about you linking to more and more people, although they stop you after a certain amount, and less about allowing you to tell the world who you are. Twitter is great for quick burst of information, if you want to share more than 140 characters, you'll want to do a post on G+ instead.

The privacy options for talking with your circles will be key to the success of Google+ as well as the fact that it is truly embedded within all of Google's other tools. I'm a writer, so the freedom to write is a definite plus in my book. There are still some things that I need to figure out, but overall it's a good start. As you can see, I don't think it will make the other sites go away, but in the end, I see Twitter as my blasts of information to the world and truly hearing instantly about news. facebook is my connection with friends and a place to have fun. G+ is where I can get more involved with the world.

For a great resource, or to add your ideas to help others, check out Google+: A collaborative document.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T07:15:00.001-04:00

Sarah and her Sock Monkey with Daddy after a very long trip.

The Worst Day of My Life

2011-04-10T11:15:00.002-04:00

The worst day of my life was February 1st, 2002. It is the day that my mother passed away. And that day started long before her last breath was gone and didn't end after the 24 hours of February 1st were over. In fact, that day has yet to completely end and it probably never will.

Things can be going along smoothly and all can be right with the world until one thing happens that brings February 1st 2002 back to the forefront of my mind. It could be something as simple as my birthday, I was her birthday present, or something as devastating as a best friend losing a parent.

The obituary read: Naomi Ranguette
PORTSMOUTH - Mrs. Naomi "Ruth" (Reed) Ranguette, 66, of 42 Cutts St., passed away Friday, Feb. 1, 2002, at home with her family. She was born in Kansas City, Kan., Aug. 19, 1935, the daughter of the late Edward and Myrtle (Keith) Reed. Mrs. Ranguette attended high school in Independence, Mo., and McIntosh College in Dover. Mrs. Ranguette was proprietor of Chipmunk Office Services in Portsmouth until her retirement in 2001. She loved to play bingo, read, spend time with her grandchildren and crochet or knit gifts for family and friends.

It went on to describe her family and those who she left behind. The numbers left behind could not all be listed. She was 'Mom' to many more than those that she gave birth and friend to an innumerable number. She had the uncanny ability to understand where a person came from and they'd never know that, yes, she had been there.

The wonderful woman who is my mother went through so much in her short 66 years of life that it is too much to write in a simple blog post. It is my plan to write about her life in a Memoir that tells the truth about the many things that would surprise so many.
She was born Naomi Ruth Mendenhall and lost her biological father at the young age of 12. At 18 she was a mother who had her child take away from her at gun point. And at 32 she became a mother again, to me. I was the daughter she never expected to have, the daughter that held all of her hopes and dreams, the daughter that never felt they could live up to the vision that she had.

My question for you, is this a book that you'd be interested in reading? I will probably write it, for myself if not for the history that it will entail. I will be using many fictional names to protect the innocent, yes she had a very diverse life. But, do you really want to know where this wonderful woman came from?

Eating enough?

2011-03-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

I've been doing very well at watching my calories. Unfortunately, I found that I was watching them too well for a couple of days. I actually was eating too few calories which caused me to gain weight instead of lose it. I have since made sure to eat enough calories while eating healthy and lost the weight that my body tried to hold onto and am down from that. I never thought I'd run into the problem of not eating enough. It's a nice change of pace.

Water weight loss motivator

2011-03-05T08:58:00.001-05:00

I never really thought about the beginning of the weight loss regime. In the last few days I'm down three pounds. I realize this is the water weight but it definitely helps keep me motivated to keep going. My husband is down eight pounds already. I have to keep in mind that a. he started higher and b. he's male. So, I can't really compare us. I can just be happy that he's doing well too.

Today we swapped his iphone app to the same one I'm using on the Droid. We are using MyFitnessPal. They have a helpful website where your data is synced and the app on the Droid has a barcode scanner for adding foods. I had him install it in hopes of the scanner but the iphone app doesn't have that feature. I hope it is added soon as it makes it much easier.

Time to start the weekend. That's usually tough for me since he usually wants to eat out and I'm not sure I am ready for that yet. We shall see.

Difficult start

2011-03-04T20:25:00.001-05:00

Day one was very difficult to stay on task with my diet. Little things like having a healthy snack instead of a bag of chips seemed like I was having an internal battle. By the end of the day I was within ten calories of my daily amount. I made it and went to bed not feeling hungry but feeling relief that I made it through the first day.

Day two seemed like a breeze after making it through the first day. Coworkers ordered lunch from one of my favorite places but I truly wasn't interested as I had brought one of my favorite meals for lunch. A chocolate dessert after dinner and I was all set for the day.

Here we go...

2011-03-02T08:06:00.001-05:00

Today is the start, or should I say restart, of my diet. I have lapsed horribly and am in danger of hitting the number that terrifies me. So, hubby and I are off on a new start. I can't do it alone so he has agreed to come along for the ride.

Wii or Kinect Workouts?

2011-01-01T20:53:00.000-05:00

Wow, I just got done playing on the XBox Kinect. I will have to go back and play the Wii again just to see if my thought is right in that this was a MUCH better workout than on the Wii. The lack of controller or should I say the 'you are the controller' aspect is awesome. You don't have to worry at all about holding onto the remote/Wiimote. I was playing bowling on the Wii just a couple of weeks ago and now, I don't think I'd want to go back. If you are debating between the two systems, be sure to stop by your local electronics store and see if you can try the demos. The Wii has it's advantages, but the Kinect my just kick it to the curb. It was definitely one of the better purchases this Christmas.

Happy New Year! Let's see if I can keep the posts coming more often this year.

Welcome 2011, Goodbye 2010

2011-01-01T00:23:00.000-05:00

2010 was an incredible year. There was a graduation, two weddings, and the youngest off to college. The year went by so fast I sometimes wonder what happened. I'm very happy to have enjoyed my daughters' weddings and watched all my children move on to a new step in their lives.

What will this year bring? Who knows? Here are my resolutions:

Show my husband how much I love and appreciate him each and every day.
Get back to work on becoming healthier through some weight loss and exercise.
Do better at focusing on my classes and doing my best on classwork. (Now, if the text book would just arrive.)

I hope 2011 brings you happiness and prosperity. Enjoy every moment you have with your family.

One week until vacation ... Oh my!

2010-11-19T08:33:00.001-05:00

Where has the time gone? The last 3 months since my daughter got married and my youngest went away to college for the first time have flown by. Today my son comes home for Thanksgiving break. It will be nice to have some time to hangout with family. The conclusion of a huge project is on the horizon as well. This all brings me to a wonderful sigh of relief. The hope is to get visit time and homework time during the holiday week. What are your plans this coming week? Do you plan to take that little time for yourself that we all need? If you haven't thought about it yet you should. Take a break, relax and enjoy life.

Incredible vs. X Results

2010-09-26T17:08:00.000-04:00

I'm thankful that I've had the chance to try out both the Incredible and the Droid X over the last few months via Verizon PR. I knew I was going to be switching to Verizon after having the first phone for only a couple of days due to the awesome reception in comparison to the AT&T service I had been using. The question came down to when and whether or not I'd be getting an Android device. As my visitors know, I became an instant advocate for the Android OS.

When I received the HTC Incredible last Spring I was awed by how fast the phone responded to any inquiry. The battery wasn't awesome but as stated in my review, it's a great phone but if you're going to use it a lot be sure to by a spare battery.

My initial reaction to the Motorola Droid X was that it was HUGE and didn't fit nicely in my hand. The first X had some issues as it kept hanging whenever going into text or phone apps and even was slow with Gmail. I was very concerned that this was not just the hardware so I asked for a new X to be shipped. When the new phone was received it was apparent that the problem was that specific phone and not a universal problem. I grew accustom to the size of the phone after a week but still had fond memories of the Incredible.

When it came time to switch to Verizon I posted my iPhone on eBay. It sold in just a couple hours via BuyItNow. That was a major bonus in my book as I got to buy my new phone much earlier than I had anticipated. I walked into my local Verizon Wireless store and took a good half hour to debate between ordering the X and waiting for it to arrive or buying the Incredible and having it right now. I decided to go with the Incredible since I remembered liking the size of it much better than the X and definitely liked some of the HTC widgets.

After a couple days with the Incredible I started questioning myself about whether or not I bought the right phone. I mentioned to the PR rep that I had moved to Verizon but that I was having second thoughts about the phone. She offered and sent me another X so I could use both at the same time and get a better idea of which I liked more. After 3 days with both phones I came up with the following comparison chart:

Motorola Droid X	HTC Incredible
Uncomfortable to hold	Fits nicely in my hand
Very easy to type	Types wrong a lot
Includes the Contacts widget I want	I could use a different widget
8 Megapixel Camera	8 Megapixel Camera
No error messages	Error message for syncing HTC Facebook
Has other options	Clock/Weather widget I want
Physical buttons	Sensitive home buttons
Display = 94% battery	More apps in memory using the battery

Table notes: Green=good, Red=bad, Black=indifferent

As you can probably figure out from the above table, it was hard for me to decide between the two phones. After watching the battery on the two phones for a day I decided that the X won hands down. Note that the 94% battery on the X means that the display was what was using the battery the most. Even with the large display on the X it still lasted much longer than the Incredible.

I went to the Verizon store, returned the Incredible, paid the $35 restocking fee, had my phone number moved to a borrowed phone, and ordered the Motorola Droid X. It was the best move I could possibly have made. I received the X a short two days after ordering. After 5 days I have now gotten used to the size and am extremely happy with my choice. I do have to reiterate, the Incredible is a great phone, it just wasn't the phone for me.

Note: Froyo was released to the Motorola Droid X the day my phone arrived. This immediately took care of one of the issues I had with Android which was the inability to have two Exchange accounts. I have not seen any issues since installing the update.

AT&T vs. Verizon Update

2010-09-13T19:35:00.000-04:00

This weekend my iPhone finally was told to get out. I just couldn't take the lack of service and dropped calls whenever I wanted to talk to someone. I made the switch to Verizon and bought the HTC Incredible. The service is awesome. I had a point this morning where I was about to make a call and then stopped because I remembered that I was about to drive into a bad coverage. I that had a smile moment when I realized that I have Verizon now and made the call with no issues. That told me I definitely made the right decision! Thank you to my new network. Now the debate is only if I bought the right phone which I am questioning. More on that to come.

The X Trials Take 2 - Days 3&4

2010-08-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

The last couple of days with the Droid X have made it clearer how much I like this phone. Don’t forget how I thought it was way too big in the beginning. The size no longer bothers me at all. My daughter installed a very nice texting app that kicks that feature up a notch and seems to take away any lag. Yes, I did say lag. This phone has started to slow down a bit but not enough to really be bothersome and definitely not as bad as the original X.

Today's positives:
I love to type on this phone. It works so smoothly and quickly that I can't complain at all. Note that every blog entry for this phone has been made directly from the phone.
The places app came in handy today as I needed to find the number for a nearby athletics store. It was quick and very easy to use. It is similar to the Google Search app on the iPhone but MUCH faster.

Today's negatives:
I use it a lot and killing the battery. My daughter commented that she bought a larger battery for her Incredible. I'd suggest doing the same if you'll be doing a lot with the phone.
I tried the Incredible for a few minutes today and the size of it in my hand did feel nice. Yes, I do know that conflicts with my positive, but that's the point.
Similar to my iPhone it does get warm if you use it while charging. I definitely do NOT recommend making a call on any of the phones while charging unless you want a red ear or you use the speaker phone.
I'll only have this phone for a few more days so please let me know if you have any questions.

The X Trials Take 2 - Day Two

2010-08-18T08:28:00.000-04:00

Day two was the day when I suddenly realized that the size of the X doesn't bother me any more. I will have to take another look at the Incredible when I see my daughter this week. But, when I saw the original Droid it seemed way too small after using this phone.

Today's positives:
I found the size is no longer san issue but a definite benefit.
I have repeatedly used the phone to browse and even to access my school's blackboard and the browser works perfectly. But would you expect less from Google?

Today's negatives:
I was having some issues with the swype typing and shut it off. Now I miss some of the auto corrections I was getting. I'm sure I'll find a happy medium. This negative once again is not hardware specific.
As you can see, I am really enjoying the X.

Please leave a comment with any questions you may have.

The X Trials Take 2 - Day One

2010-08-17T08:40:00.000-04:00

On Monday a new Droid X arrived. It had only been three days since I sent the other one back with some major issues. I immediately opened it up and was very quickly reminded why I love using a Droid. The phone is SO fast! The install of apps is quick and easy and phone updates come in over the air so there is no need to hook it up to a computer to check and install them.

Today's positives:
I love how fast everything works on this phone. I knew this is how it had to work and i'm glad I got the chance to see it work right.
Email was a quick and easy setup for both gmail and exchange server updates.
To be sure that something I installed didn't cause the slow text problem I verified after each app that everything still worked. Nothing broke the phone proving it was a hardware issue with that specific phone.

I have had no negatives as of yet. The size isn't bothering me yet either.

The X Trials - UPDATE! Motorola Announces Droid 2

2010-08-10T11:14:00.000-04:00

The Droid X has been having a rough week as some of the apps that should not have issues have been running much slower than expected and has made it so that I don't use it as much as I would like as a result. I hope to have this corrected or possibly swap out the phone for one that isn't having this issue. I'll post an update later on the status of the issues.

On an exciting note, the Motorola Droid 2 has been announced and will go on sale before the week is out! (pre-order online 8/11 and in-stores 8/12) Motorola isn't holding anything back when working on their Android phones. The Droid 2 comes with the keyboard similar to the original Motorola Droid making the die hard physical keyboard fans happy. It also ships with Android 2.2 pre-installed. This phone includes 8 GB of on board memory and an 8 GB MicroSD card (upgradeable to 32 GB) and a 1 GHz processor.

I'll let you know if/when I will get a chance to review this new phone.

The X Trials - Days 3, 4 & 5

2010-08-07T22:44:00.000-04:00

The last few days have been hectic at work. The Droid X has actually helped me keep track of work e-mails while I run from one meeting to the next. Using the email on the phone is quick and easy and definitely something I like about the phone. Now, if the Android 2.2 update would come in while I'm trying out the phone I'd be very happy to let you know how the multiple sharepoint accounts work, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Positives:

The email is quick and easy to use. I haven't had a chance to setup all of my accounts on the phone, but the ones I have work great.
Gmail is incredibly easy to setup as you'd expect from an Android device.
There's a quick way to print pictures at your local CVS right from the phone. This would be great for someone that took a lot of pictures with their phone. With the awesome camera on this phone it makes sense to make printing pictures easy. Unfortunately, I'm a Walgreens photo person as they are more readily available for me.
Today I took my mac with me for a ride when we went out to try out the wifi hotspot. Wow! It is fast! The Internet connection was quick and it held through an area which is notorious for bad cell phone service. I was very nicely surprised.
The battery life has been about as I expected. It seems very similar in capacity to the Incredible. I was able to draw it down some using the hotspot, but that is to be expected and warned about on the phone itself.

Negatives:

I think I prefer the sharepoint email setup that I used on the Incredible over the corporate sync setup that is available.
I went to use the Blackboard app that I was so happy about being available and it isn't supported for my school. It appears it would be free if I was using Sprint. That won't be happening as I can't get service at my house with Sprint.
The phone and data issue is true. The wi-fi connection drops the minute you make or take a phone call. This could be an issue if you are working remotely and need to take a work call.

Over all the phone has been great. There does seem to be some things about the phone that are hanging unexpectedly where they didn't hang at all on the Incredible. I hope this is something that can be corrected before I send it back.

Drop me a note or comment with any questions.

The X Trials - Day Two

2010-08-04T21:49:00.000-04:00

Today was one of those days when I couldn't help but be happy with the phone. But, the reason I really liked the phone today didn't have much to do with the phone itself. I had service every time I wanted to make a call and the calls were always clear. I didn't realize how much I missed that part of demoing a Verizon phone.

I've had a few people that wanted to take a look at the Droid X and so far I haven't heard anything bad in feedback. The Droid X when compared to the original Motorola Droid is much larger but also much lighter. The screen is so much better than the original or the iPhone 3G.

Today's positives:

It held all my calls. The only call that was actually dropped was dropped by an iPhone, not the Droid.
I found that the Blackboard app is now available for the Android OS. (This was a requirement to switch as I'm currently taking classes.)
It seems they have a lot more apps than they did just a couple months ago when I did the Incredible review.
The camera takes very nice pictures. Although, we did compare to an Evo and iPhone 3GS and it was only a bit better than the iPhone and similar to the Evo.
It's fast, really fast. I keep getting frustrated with the iPhone because it seems so slow in comparison.
Creating an email reply, even with attachments, is quick and easy.

Today's negatives:

When dialing with one hand I seem to be able to press the number closest to my palm when trying to reach the number on the other side. This wouldn't be a problem for people with hands that are larger than mine.
I saw the stand that is built into the Evo and definitely wish the Droid X had one. This isn't really a negative because there are cases that could make up for this and they only reason I mention it is because I saw how awesome it is on the Evo.
TweetDeck still isn't available for the Android OS, but they do have a mobile web version coming soon. Again, this isn't truly a Droid X negative.

So, as you can see, I'm not finding many negatives to the Droid X so far. I wonder if I would like it as much if I had the Incredible in my other pocket instead of an iPhone.

The X Trials - Day One

2010-08-03T21:34:00.000-04:00

Today the Motorola Droid X arrived at my office. It was a nice surprise as I wasn't expecting it for a few days. I found out it was arriving about two hours before it showed up. The first thing I noticed was the box seemed smaller than the one for the Incredible. Once unboxed, my first thought was 'It's big!' The second was that it is a lot lighter than it would seem for the size.

Positives for today:

The phone is lighter than expected.
The Droid X is fast like the Incredible.
The camera is really nice and works just like a regular camera and not like you would expect a cell phone camera to work.

Negatives for today:

It is a big phone and I'm not sure I'd like having a phone that size. The Incredible was a nice size.
The volume toggle is on the right hand side of the phone which just seems wrong but I'm sure I could get used to it.

That's it for today. I'm sure I'll have more over the next few days. Let me know what you would like to know about the Motorola Droid X and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Motorola Droid X or HTC Incredible? Compare & Review--Coming Soon

2010-08-01T18:43:00.001-04:00

Over the next week or two I will be posting daily reviews of the Motorola Droid X. I am so incredibly frustrated with my iPhone and my AT&T service that I will probably be switching to Verizon after the review is complete. Of course, that does depend on if I can actually get one of them when I'm ready to switch. Currently Verizon stores are quoting a week turnaround on the HTC Incredible and a two week turnaround on the Droid X.

Let me know what questions you have about the Droid X. I am happy to compare it to either my iPhone 3GS with AT&T service or the HTC Incredible that I reviewed previously.

Plan Comparison: Incredible on Verizon vs. iPhone on AT&T (Updated 6/2/2010)

2010-05-31T17:58:00.005-04:00

Updated: 6/2/2010

Below I have broken down the possible costs for each of the phones. I have included both a family plan option as well as a single plan option. There are some interesting differences between how each company classifies their plan features. Unlimited, doesn't always mean as many as you want it to mean.

Verizon	ATT
Family Plan 700 Minutes
$60.00 + $9.99	$60.00 + $9.99
Verizon Friends and Family and ATT A-List available at the next minute level
Individual Plan 450 Minutes
$39.99	$39.99
Data Plans
$29.99	$30.00 NO Unlimited plan available 2 Gigabites $25.00
Visual Voice-mail
$2.99	FREE
Unlimited Messaging (includes SMS, MMS, Video, and Voice)
Family Unlimited $30.00 5000 + Unlimited to Verizon $20.00 500 + Unlimited to Verizon $10.00	Family Unlimited $30.00 Individual Unlimited $20.00 1500 $10.00
Activation Fee
First line $35.00 Additional lines each $25.00	First line $36.00 Additional lines each $26.00
Early Termination Fee for Smart Phones
$350.00	$325.00 for all smart phones after 6/1/2010
Business Discounts Available (check with your company)
8%	9%

With rates so close the monthly cost cannot be a detractor for either phone.The difference is about three dollars and that is because of the visual voice-mail which is not a necessity in my book.

Just announced by ATT: They will no longer be offering an Unlimited data package. Package offerings will be 200MB plan for $15 and a 2GB plan for $25, additional 1GB will cost $10 if you go over your limit.
Note that current ATT customer plans will not be affected.

The Incredible Days - Day Twelve

2010-05-25T23:01:00.001-04:00

Today will be the last full day that I'll have the HTC Droid Incredible. It has been a fun experience and I will miss this little phone. I've got the box out and it's ready to go back after a nice visit. I have one more question from a reader to answer: "does it do joint mail inboxes?"

You can have multiple mailboxes and you can setup gmail in either the default mail account or in the gmail app. I'm not sure which app is better. I used them both and they seem to work the same. The only reason I would setup a gmail account under the mail app would be to have all of the mail accounts in one place. In order to switch between accounts you tap the title bar and it shows you a list of the accounts you have setup in that app. For the gmail app you press the menu button and select 'Accounts' to switch between accounts. After a bit of searching and trying multiple accounts I see no way to use a combines account feature on the Incredible. According to what I've read on the web it may be available on other Android phones.

Today's positives:

It is a great phone and the Verizon service works great in our area.
The more people I talk with about the Incredible, the more I hear how much they love it. People who have been interested in the Incredible but haven't had a chance to see one in action were given the chance to use it for a few minutes when I was around. The different things that people do with the phone when they first get it is interesting. Some immediately check out how fast it browses the web. Others ask about the MMS messaging or the camera. While others flip around the phone to see what apps I have installed that they can play with. If you haven't gotten a chance to try the Incredible and you're thinking of buying one, please try it out first. At most Verizon stores they have working phones that you can try, be sure to ask the Verizon rep if they don't have them on display.

Today's negatives:

Man am I going to miss this phone. I wasn't planning on liking it.

I will be following up in the next few days with my final review/comparison of the iPhone 3GS and the Incredible as well as sample costs for each.

The Incredible Days - Day Eleven

2010-05-24T22:08:00.002-04:00

I have less than two days left with the HTC Incredible. It has been interesting so far. In answer to @Pannoni's tweet: "Which Twitter app did you like better? #iPhone or #HTCincredible? What happened when you clicked a weblink in the twitter app?"

I still greatly prefer TweetDeck over any Twitter app that I have tried on the Incredible. The apps that I have tried include:

Peep: This one was installed when I got the phone. It didn't contain the features that I want such as being able to view specific lists. It didn't update the way I expected either. When I just looked at it a second ago there were no new tweets and with over 2000 that I follow, that isn't possible.
Twitter: This is the Twitter app created by Twitter, it is a very cute app as it has the Twitter bird and he has the current trending topics popping up around him. Click on one of the topics to view the most recent tweets on the subject. It includes six icons on the main screen which include: tweets, lists, @mentions, retweets, direct messages, and my profile. The lists feature is nice as it shows your lists, the lists you follow as well as the lists that follow you. The only drawback to this app is that it doesn't give you a list of your saved searches. I have a lot of these and it would be a pain to recreate each one using the search tool.
Hoot Suite: I did try Hoot Suite, but it just didn't work the way I had expected. The benefit of this app is the ability to follow more than just Twitter. This ability is a must have in my Twitter app.
Seesmic: This is the app I ended up with. The layout of Seesmic was very nice and it could do multiple Twitter accounts. It did not, however, do any other accounts. The timeline as well as the rest of the home screen were very easy to read and navigate.

So, in answer to the question, "Which Twitter app did you like better? #iPhone or #HTCincredible?", I like the iPhone app much better than any app I tried on the Incredible. The good news is that there are two options for TweetDeck that are coming soon, a mobile web based app and the Android app. I'm sure I could make do until one of these became available if I needed to.
In answer to the question, "What happened when you clicked a weblink in the twitter app?", all apps opened a browser window and quickly went to the selected site.

On to today's positives and negatives.

Today's positives:

I borrowed an iPhone from a friend that did not have a shield of any kind installed to compare it to the Incredible which doesn't have one installed. The iPhone was as sensitive to the touch of the Incredible but the Incredible opened and ran everything much faster. This is to be expected as the processor is much faster than the one in the iPhone.

Today's negatives:

I've been meaning to tell you about how sending an MMS message works. I do have to admit that sending an MMS is incredibly fast over the Verizon network. After days of sending apps from the Photos or taking a picture with the camera I just found the hidden option to send an attachment when sending a message. It seems they hid a lot of stuff under the menu button for this phone and OS.
Another thing I really don't like about the MMS message is that you have to select to edit the image to add more pictures or to add text to the message. This is not intuitive in the least as there is a box just below the picture that you have selected that looks like a text box. It does however say in that box, where you'd expect to type, "press Edit button to edit." If you need to write something like that in an on screen box, then you did it wrong.

That's it for today. Send me any last minute questions and I will reply to them tomorrow.

The Incredible Days - Day Ten

2010-05-23T23:33:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe it's been ten days since the Incredible arrived. Do you ever get that feeling that it both feels like forever yet it also feels like yesterday? That's how I feel about the HTC Droid Incredible at this point. I've gotten used to having it in my pocket and the newness has warn off. This is a good thing as it will give me a better place to be at when I do the final comparison. I didn't end up taking the InvisibleSHIELD off of the iPhone, instead, I'm going to try a friend's iPhone to see how it feels without it. I'm sure the sensitivity will increase, but I'm not sure by how much.

Today's Positives:

I don't have anything major to report in this area except that it just felt natural to have it in my pocket. There are plenty of things that, if the phone was mine, I would definitely be looking into further like the contacts.
I did notice the Car Panel, it's a nice feature that has just 6 large icons on the screen to keep you from having to search when you should be driving. Navigation and Make a call are the two most important ones in my book. I'm not suggesting you use the phone while driving, but this page will make it quick and easy when you need them.

Today's Negatives:

There are a lot of apps that I count on that aren't yet available on the Android Market. I'm sure they are coming, but they would be missed.

No other positives or negatives for today, I think I've caught everything in my previous posts. If you have any last minute questions, let me know. I've also put out a couple feelers to AT&T about their Android phone as well as the iPhone. Please post a comment and let me know if this review has been helpful to you. I hope to continue with the reviews in the future. So, let me know if there is a specific item, electronics/book/software that you'd like reviewed and I'll see what I can do.

The Incredible Days - Day Nine

2010-05-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

It was a quiet day with the phones. I tried a couple of things out per request of my readers but otherwise, it was a standard day where I read e-mail, text'd with my family and forgot about my iPhone in my other pocket. Someone pointed out that the touch sensitivity of the Incredible vs. the iPhone 3GS could be the fact that I have an InvisibleSHIELD on the iPhone. This is very possible and I will be sure to test that theory before giving the iPhone a poor grade on the sensitivity. Now onto the questions:

Does the Incredible have a built in spell check?

The answer is a resounding yes. In the Settings menu under Language and Keyboard, Text Input, there are two options for spell check. One for each type of keyboard, the QWERTY on screen keyboard and the phone keyboard/compressed QWERTY. I have both of these settings checked which is a nice find for me as I find 95% of the time it does well at anticipating the correct word. The spell check is also color coded. If it is suggesting a word it is green and if it has no clue what you mean it is a bright orange. I'm not sure if that would work for the color blind, but it's a nice feature.

How well does the phone work when in vibrate mode?

I took a look at the Amazon review that mentions the vibrate being very light. I would seriously like to know the answer to 'compared to what?' I regularly have the Incredible and my iPhone on vibrate while I am at work. I put it to the test by swapping between the two and having someone text and then call each. There was very minimal difference between the two phones. The iPhone is slightly, and I do mean slightly, stronger when it vibrates. On the first try I actually thought the Incredible was a little bit stronger. Either way, the vibration works perfectly for me on both phones whether in my pants or coat pockets.

On to today's negatives and positives.

Today's positives:

I played around in the contacts area and found something I really like. It takes all of my contact information from the various accounts and links them together, facebook, exchange, google, all the info is there and it gives suggestions on other accounts that may be connected to this contact. Time to add a few more of the account options.
There's an option to save attachments to either the phone memory or the external (microSD) memory. This would be handy if you needed to move files from the phone to a computer that doesn't have bluetooth available.
It talks very easily, via bluetooth, with the MacBook I'm using right now. It makes it almost seamless to move a picture to the desktop for editing. I have a Windows laptop as well with a bluetooth adapter. I'll try that out and see if it as seamless as with the Mac. It's really nice to see the Android OS work so well with the Mac OS.
It looks like I haven't mentioned the weather on the home screen of the Incredible. This is a really cute feature. Right below the clock is a visual representation of the weather at the current location. I loved it the other day when it was raining! I'm not going to spoil the fun of that, you'll have to check it out on your own.
Yesterday I heard a different alert then the ones for messages. When I looked at the phone I found a new update. No, it wasn't the highly anticipated 2.2, but it was nice that it was SO easy to do the update. I clicked the option to update and it was done less than a minute later. No computer needed.
I didn't realize until today that the Maps feature wasn't the Navigation feature. They are just well integrated. The Navigation tool is as quick and easy to use as you would expect from Google.

Today's negatives:

This one has happened a few times, I'll get a call, usually from the same person, and I won't be able to answer it. I'm not sure why this is happening but I can't get the slide to answer to work or any other way to get to the point where I can answer. Of course, if I had my wireless headset on, it would be easy to answer, but this has been annoying as I really wanted to take that call.

That's it for today, keep coming with the questions.

The Incredible Days - Day Eight

2010-05-22T01:06:00.002-04:00

Today blog is being posted from the Incredible as I sit listening to a great band playing.

I have not previously noted how the messaging is on the phone. I have to admit that it worked so perfectly that I didn't even think about the fact that I was using it. I've used the SMS as well as the MMS and the just plain work. I've only had ONE message not go through on the first try which is far better than what I'm used to! The pictures are awesome and images are automatically adjusted to the correct size for sending over a 3g network. This of course doesn't touch the size of the original file on your phone either. I have the sensation setting on which makes it so easy to type and know that the text is actually being entered. Since I've had this phone to review I've become more and more frustrated with thee iPhone's touch features as it is not anywhere near as sensitive as the incredible. There is one other neat feature available on the incredible and that is the ability to see the message has been received. This reminds me of how the blackberry messenger works. I think this is actually a Verizon option for many if not all of their phones. Please correct me if I'm wrong there.

Today I was finally able to try out the visual voicemail. I found this to be very similar to the one available on the iPhone. The only difference is whether or not it is included with the data plan. I don't believe it is on Verizon but I will definitely check into that when I do the price comparisons.
Now on to today's positives and negatives.

Today's positives:

As I said, I tried the visual voicemail and found it to act the same as the one on the iPhone. This is a good thing as I like the way it works.
I've been able to quickly type this entire post via the Incredible without a lot of work. It is definitely easy to type long emails on this phone. I really like the on screen keyboard.
I've tried out Skype a few times and it works great and doesn't use minutes, or so I'm told. Calls come in and say they are a Skype call and you answer just like any other call. You also don't have to leave the Skype app open and on screen.
Google Voice is well integrated and works similarly to Skype. You can also set the phone to ask you whether or not to dial using Google Voice.

Today's Negatives:

When the Google Voice prompt is turned on it asks on every call including the ones via Skype. I know they are competitors but that should be easy to detect so it doesn't ask.
I've said how I like the phone's sensitivity but sometimes it gets annoying, like when you are trying to wipe off the fingerprints and smudges.
Man does the screen get dirty quick. If you buy one I highly suggest getting an invisibleSHIELD to keep it scratch free and at least a little cleaner.

I'll be reviewing the phone for a few more days before I send it back and do my final posts. Please let me know if you have any specific questions I can answer. Thank you to my Twitter followers for passing on the word about the review and sending in questions.

BTW, e-mailing the blog from the Incredible made it so there were very few edits that needed to be made. When I e-mail it from the iPhone it takes a lot of reformatting.

P.S. It came to my attention shortly after I e-mailed the blog that AT&T is raising the Early Termination Fee (ETF) to $350 for smart phones starting on June 1st. This might be an important part of making the decision to switch now or to wait until the current contract runs out if you're going to switch. From AT&T: An Open Letter to our Valued Customers

Update: Current AT&T wireless customers who are within their existing service agreement or have an existing enterprise service agreement will see no change to their current terms. I found this hidden within the Open Letter referenced above.

The Incredible Days - Day Seven

2010-05-20T22:50:00.001-04:00

I kept a close eye on Google I/O today. There were some great announcements regarding Android 2.2. I'll give a run down comparison of these announcements as well as the iPhone OS 4 announcements later. There were many items in 2.2 that almost had me running for the Verizon store to buy a phone. The wi-fi hotspot was an awesome addition, the only issue is, how much will it cost me if I were to use it when on Verizon? Coming soon to my blog are: an iPhone OS 4 vs. Android 2.2 comparison, Verizon vs. AT&T comparison, and of course the final review of whether or not I would trade my iPhone for an HTC Android Incredible. That last one even has me wondering what I'll say.

While listening to the Google I/O Day 2 Keynote I kept finding things that I didn't know Android could do and because of that I played with the Android a lot today. This of course lowered my battery for the day. When we went to dinner tonight I left the Incredible at home plugged in for the first time since it arrived. The more I used my iPhone while we were out, the more I missed the speed of the Incredible. I also realized how many apps I have installed on the iPhone that I never use. This doesn't include the ones that I've removed from the iPhone but are still available on my laptop. On to today's positives/negatives points.

Today's Positives for the Incredible:

The more I talk to people about the Incredible the more I realize how much I love this phone.
I used my iPhone a lot today after I plugged in the Incredible and man did it seem SLOW!
I found a Twitter app that I actually like, it's called Seesmic and it worked well for what I want to do. It also didn't crash on me like yesterday's app did. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to make it the default Twitter app and make Peep stop sending me notifications as I don't need two notifications.
I found the ToodleDo app which is great news as I love their tools.
I was happy to hear about the better integration with Exchange announced at Google I/O.

Today's Negatives:

The battery was almost dead by 6p.m. which made it so I had to plug it in and use the iPhone, note that I was also able to deplete the battery in the iPhone today although I wasn't using it nearly as much. Another note of interest in the battery realm is that I stopped bringing the charging cable to work after the first day. I trust the phone to make it through the day. My iPhone cradle is sitting on top of my computer. I don't trust it to last.
There is no clear date of when 2.2 will be released and/or when it will be available for the Incredible. The only comment they made on a release date was that it will start rolling out to 'Android 2.2 will be here soon, and some devices will get the update in the coming weeks.'
There wasn't much else that was negative today except I started thinking about the cost of switching.

The Incredible Days - Day Six

2010-05-19T21:13:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of Google I/O. It was hoped that they would be announcing the features of Android 2.2 during the Day One Keynote. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. It was mentioned that they have some exciting news for tomorrow morning, so I'll definitely check out the Day Two Keynote.

It was a quiet day for the Android. I downloaded a couple of apps, including Sudoku, Shazam and Hoot Suite Lite. Hoot Suite crashed the minute I tried to view my home feed for Twitter. It also didn't seem to update the feed very often after I did get it running. At this rate, there is no way that app could replace TweetDeck. I did post to the TweetDeck forum to request to be a beta tester for the upcoming TweetDeck for the Mobile Web.

Today's Positives:

I once again found myself picking up the Android instead of the iPhone to view e-mails or to look something up. The speed was the main reason.
Sudoku worked as expected. It was a free app so I didn't expect anything outstanding, but it worked nicely.
Have I mentioned how awesome the camera is? It takes a very nice picture which is awesome compared to the slightly blurry ones I get from the iPhone.
YouTube also works very well. But iPhone does that very well too.

Today's Negatives:

It was a quiet day on the negatives front. The only issue was the fact that I didn't like Hoot Suite.

That's it for today, let's hope for some good news from Google tomorrow.

Android 2.2, what's coming?

2010-05-19T11:56:00.000-04:00

I will definitely be checking this out. Now I'll have an idea of the future of the Android OS like I have an idea of the future of the iPhone OS.

The Incredible Days - Day Five

2010-05-18T21:27:00.001-04:00

As I become more familiar with the HTC Droid Incredible I find myself using it more and more instead of picking up my iPhone. When talking to my co-worker, who owns a Motorola Droid, I end up talking about the many things I like about the Incredible.

Today's Positives:

It's fast, yes, I've said that, but the more I use it the more I notice how fast it is compared to my iPhone. Apple, are you going to be making the new iPhone faster? Should I wait and try it out before I make my final decision on iPhone vs. Droid? Somehow, I doubt they would send me an iPhone to use the way Verizon sent me the Incredible. Truthfully, that would be the only way to make a really good decision on which phone to get.
The facebook app on the Incredible just seems to work so much more smoothly. This has got to have a lot to do with the OS and processor of the phone. I find myself picking up the Incredible to post something to my facebook feed rather than the iPhone. It's just easier.
The battery was about the same today. One benefit of the Incredible is that you can swap out the battery and do it very easily. Sorry iPhone, but the lack of being able to swap out the battery really does suck.
I found the calendar today. It works with ALL my calendars and not just one of them! I love that feature. I've had to use a Google calendar sync app so that my exchange calendar and my Google calendar.
Foursquare is much quicker to use and it finds stuff that the one on my iPhone doesn't. It also hasn't had me in the wrong state yet. Yes, I've had that happen.

Today's Problems:

The screen picks up everything, I can try to wipe it off and it still thinks I did something. I hate a dirty phone screen so I wipe it off a lot and I'm constantly moving around the phone and sometimes opening apps. I did almost call someone too.
It doesn't seem to 'get' who I say to call when I use the voice dialing. It would be nice if it would use the nicknames that I have setup and then it wouldn't have a problem finding my husband or my daughter.
I find myself not using Twitter from it as I really doing like the Twitter app. Have I mentioned 'I want my TweetDeck!' Sorry, but it is my source for Twitter info and I miss it.

That's it for today. Let me know if you have anything you want to know and I'll check it out.

The Incredible Days - Day Four

2010-05-17T21:53:00.000-04:00

Today was the true test to see how much I'd really use the battery each day instead of the 'play with the new toy' mode that I was in all weekend.

Today's positives:

The battery worked perfectly for a normal day of use. The two phones were actually at almost identical battery power levels when I left the office. This means the Incredible passed the battery test.
Did I mention that I bought Cash Cow? I like the fact that you buy stuff with your own Google account. So, it will be wiped when the phone is returned to factory default after I'm done with the review. Cash cow works perfectly! I had recently been having crashes at the end of the scenarios on my iPhone, there is no such problem on the Incredible.
I just noticed, a minute ago, that the Incredible seems to be getting e-mail on my Gmail accounts about 30 seconds to a minute sooner than I receive them on the iPhone. I actually had time to open the e-mail and look at it and set down the phone and forget about it before it came in on the iPhone.
I didn't have any dropped calls today, though I didn't talk to anyone from the house on it. Though, my husband's iPhone dropped the call while I was talking to him earlier. Yes, it was definitely his side, not mine.

Today's negatives:

I received confirmation that the Incredible is indeed limited to one Exchange account. If anyone has heard a definite date of when this might change, please let me know.

Next, I need to find the pricing for similar accounts on both AT&T and Verizon using the iPhone and the Incredible. The big question 'Does it really cost an extra 15 bucks if I want to add an Exchange account or is that just for Corporate accounts?' I definitely still have some playing to do to figure out how much I like this phone. The speed is awesome, but that can't be the winning factor.

The Incredible Days - Day Three

2010-05-16T22:06:00.000-04:00

Sunday was an event filled day for the HTC Droid Incredible. I killed the battery twice and it bounced off a table and fell on the floor. Thankfully, no damage done. When we stopped into the Verizon Wireless store I showed the tech the problem with the camera and he thought it was a problem with too much in the phone's memory. His first comment was 'all phones should come with Task Killer installed.' So, we downloaded 'Advanced Task Killer' from the App Store and we were off. I'm baffled at how many apps appear to be running all the time though. I'll have to wait and see how using this goes as it didn't seem to help the battery all that much today. Here's today's positives and negatives.

Today's positives:

So far using the Task Killer has kept the phone from crashing during photos. I was glad to be able to show the tech what I was talking about, but once the other tasks were closed I couldn't repeat the problem.
It's fast, yes, that's on every list, but it seems to be the biggest and best part of this phone. The speed is awesome.
I finally figured out some of the features of Peep.

Today's negatives:

Killed the battery twice in one day. That's a bit ridiculous since I wasn't really doing much with the phone today.
It shouldn't take a 3rd party app to make the phone run better, though Task Killer has helped.
I want my TweetDeck! No, I'm not associated with them, they just are the best Twitter app out there for PC, Mac, iPhone and hopefully, Droid (soon?)
Last night, after I posted my blog, I dropped a call while sitting on my couch. Dropped calls are NOT ok. That is a MAJOR fail for Verizon service in my book. I can handle the battery and I can wait for multiple Exchange accounts and TweetDeck but I can NOT drop calls while at home.
Today I confirmed that there is no way, currently, to add a second Exchange account to the phone. I'll have to play a bit and see if I can find a work-around for this.

G'night Incredible, lets see if you can do a little better tomorrow.

The Incredible Days - Day Two

2010-05-15T23:40:00.000-04:00

The HTC Droid Incredible had a rough day today. I killed the battery once again after a full night of charging. Although, I can do that with my iPhone as well when I'm using it a lot. The day started with my husband trying to watch a video that wouldn't play. It was a .mov and played fine on the iPhones but couldn't open on the Incredible.

Today's positives:

It's really fast! Oh yeah, that was yesterday's positive too. ;-)
It's really easy to type with the keyboard.
I found the option to hold down a key to use the shift character. This is handy as I thought I always had to hit the number key to go to characters and was wondering why it would even show the shift characters if you couldn't use the shift key to type them.

Today's negatives:

I killed the battery again because I was using it too much. This was even with a full charge.
I couldn't open the .mov file that I could open on the iPhone.
TweetDeck isn't available, yet, for the Droid and the Twitter app that was installed on it makes no sense.
We were taking a few pictures and it froze. If I hit the power button the phone was able to get out of the issue but it happened a few times. I have to admit this looks like a bug in the phone that will be fixed as I've seen others have had this problem as well.

Ok, shutting it off for today. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

The Incredible Days - Day One

2010-05-14T23:02:00.001-04:00

Today, the HTC Droid Incredible arrived at my office. I am excited to get the chance to check out this sleek little phone and of course to checkout the Verizon Wireless service. My current phone is an iPhone 3GS. Note, I love my phone, it's awesome. What I don't love is when I'm on a call and I get a dropped call or like today I get a very loud echo of myself. AT&T has been very responsive this week to my issues with their service. They did note that there was a problem at one of the towers in Dover which caused my echo, but that and dropped calls shouldn't happen as often as I do. Ok, the rant is over, now onto the fun.

The package was simple. A UPS envelope with the phone box, a note and a return shipping label inside. The note was simple and included contact information in case I were to run into any problems. So, for the next few days, probably close to the two weeks allotted, I will be carrying around my beloved iPhone as well as the Incredible.

Positives so far:

It is incredibly fast! (no pun intended)
It was very easy to setup my Exchange server for work and two of my Gmail accounts. The Gmail accounts didn't surprise me, I mean it is a Droid.
Texting with my daughter was a breeze. It's hard to mess up texting, but the Incredible handles it very well. I will have to get used to the keyboard though.
It's fast, did I mention that already? Really, I LOVE the speed.
I drove through that same area where I had the problem this morning and had no issues. The phone worked great. Actually, at the one point where I saw a single digit of service, the phone crackled once and then went right back to working beautifully.
My husband loves the fact that he can hear me clearly. He usually has trouble understanding me when I talk to him on our way home. FYI: I used the same hands free set on both phones today.

Day one issues:

The battery was dead when I got it, not the phones fault, but it did make it difficult to start off running. Even though I let it charge for quite a while, I was able to kill the battery. I'll have to see how it goes tomorrow after a full night of charging.
I said it was easy to setup the Exchange server, what I didn't say, was I can't seem to setup a second Exchange server. Yes, I know that you can't have two on the iPhone either, but it is coming in the iPhone 4 OS and is something I really need. Note that I did receive a call, that I missed, from Verizon offering to help me with the Exchange server. I'll talk with them tomorrow and see if this is actually possible.
I didn't see a way to shut down a program completely or to close a web page after viewing it without just hitting home where it would sit in memory.
Somehow my husband accomplished downloading a game that sat in the background, I'm still not sure why it sat there, and killed the battery. I only knew that this game was running when the phone warned me that I was almost out of battery life and it showed what was running.

Conclusion: I'm not sold on it, as of yet, but I do love the speed and the lack of dropped calls. I'll have to wait and see if I can get the hang of it and to find out if there is a way around the Exchange issue.

STC Summit Follow-up

2010-05-14T11:27:00.001-04:00

Last week I attended one of the best Technical Communication conferences I've seen in a long time. The big difference with the STC Summit this year? Twitter was in use everywhere. Upon arrival I saw a tweet from someone else who had arrived for the pre-conference certificate sessions as well who was looking to have dinner. This was just the first of many tweets from the conference. At last count it appears there were over 100 people tweeting from the STC Summit.

The social media sessions included:

Strategies for the Social Web for Documentation by Anne Gentle @annegentle

Web Technologies and Dynamic User Assistance Panel Discussion moderated by Alan Porter with Anne Gentle, Molly Holzschlag @mollydotcom, and Stewart Mader

Using Twitter to Enhance Your Organization's Communication by yours truly @debdebtig and Greg Koch @ekingme

All of the sessions were well received and included a lot of great information for people and organizations who are in or would like to be in the social web arena. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing the SUMMIT@aClick to catch some of the sessions I was unable to attend.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-12T10:13:00.000-04:00

Remembering John Fitzgerald Kennedy on a recent trip to Dallas
November 22nd, 1963

The Scare - Updated 8/1/2010

2010-04-29T11:00:00.003-04:00

We flew to Florida and landed in Tampa. After we got to the car I said to myself, 'you can do it, what are you scared of?' I had myself so worked up before getting to Florida about this silly bridge that I knew I had to face my fears and that is exactly what I did. When we got to the Skyline bridge my husband looked at me with a look of surprise that I didn't pull off to switch drivers. The bridge in my mind was about 3 times the size of the one I drove over. It was actually a pretty bridge that really didn't bother me much if at all. It was an easy drive from Tampa to Sarasota, except getting completely lost finding the hotel. I have to admit that I'm very glad I made myself drive over the bridge.

In June we'll be flying to Florida to go to my daughter's wedding. The plan is to fly into Tampa and drive down to where she lives for the wedding. This sounded like a fabulous idea until she was kind enough to send me this link the other day: http://www.esf-protrainer.com/myPictures/Tampa/Skyline%20Bridge.jpg. In case you can't see the picture, it's a picture of a bridge in or near Tampa along the highway headed south. For most people this wouldn't be a problem. For me, it's a HUGE one. Ever since I was a child I have had, for some unknown reason, an extreme fear of bridges. Once I clicked on the link I literally shook from fear. If I were to happen upon this bridge while driving down the highway I would go into a complete panic attack. The fear would be incomprehensible for most people to understand. Though the image shook me to my core, I do have to thank my daughter for letting me know about it before I made that drive. I think the people on the highway will appreciate the fact that I will take that turn just before the bridge that allows for a chance to switch drivers (I'm sure that wasn't the real reason to put a pier right before the bridge) and for me to not go 20-30mph over it since the speed limit is somewhere around 75. I will still be shaking as we go over, but at least we'll get over it a bit faster with my husband driving.

Now you know one of my biggest fears, bridges. It is truly a totally irrational fear to think you will plummet from the bridge to the water below, but it is one that I have yet to figure out how to truly conquer. This from someone who is more than happy to jump out of a 'perfectly good airplane' and float through the sky under just a piece of fabric. As I said to a friend the other day, at least with the parachute I'm in control, with the car plummeting to the water below, I'm just plain dead.

Wordless Wednesday - Where I've Been

2010-04-28T23:07:00.002-04:00

twttr sketch

2010-03-21T17:14:00.001-04:00

twttr sketch
Originally uploaded by jack dorsey

4 years ago today, Twitter was born. This photo labeled 'twttr sketch' shows the beginning of a site that has brought social media to a whole new level. It's incredible to see that this started in his mind as early as May 31st 2000.

Happy Birthday Twitter, keep up the good work.

Tuesday Evening at the Gym

2010-01-05T22:08:00.000-05:00

This was a strange day. I started off in a really bad mood but pulled out of it with a bit of a discussion and a few hours passed. After a very hectic day I left and headed for the gym even though I'd get there a good 30 minutes before my hubby. While I waited I worked out on some machines for thighs, pectorals, abs, and calves. Once he arrived we headed over to the stationary bikes where I biked a good fat burning 4 miles. That was a nice ride and I got a lot of reading done on my homework. Tomorrow night is a school board meeting so if I get out of work early enough, I may run to the gym and shower and head to the meeting. I hope so, because I'm really some how starting to enjoy going to the gym every day. Now I really see what my daughter was saying when she said that it actually was starting to feel good. I didn't realize how much I missed my daily workouts when I took my break over Christmas. I'm so glad to be back to a routine.

Have a great night and I'll catch you late tomorrow!

First Monday of the Year

2010-01-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

It was a crazy busy day today. I had one of those yummy banana muffins that we made yesterday for breakfast. My son doesn't like them which could be a benefit since they'll last longer that way. We went to the gym after I got home from work today. It was pizza night at the gym, so basically it cost me calories to go to the gym today. Thankfully, that only happens once a month.

Heading to bed as I'm done my homework and I'm exhausted. Have a great one and I'll catch you tomorrow.

Sunday a Day to Relax?

2010-01-03T21:39:00.000-05:00

My first thought this morning was 'man this room is a mess.' So, rather than get anything done today, like working out, or going to the movies, I decided that I couldn't take John's side of the room any more. I took all of the clothes out of the hampers and folded them and cleaned out the dresser and put it all away. Except for the small pile of ironing.

We did run to the mall to get a part for the tractor and a wrench. Otherwise, it was a day of cleaning. When I get into that mode, there's no stopping me. Which is probably good, since I'm not usually in that mode.

John and I made some low fat banana chocolate chip muffins to have for breakfast this week. They smell yummy and the calories are nice and low.

It's back to work and school tomorrow for all of us. Our busy schedule is back and John has decided that we're adding in an evening workout after work as well. We'll see how it goes.

Have a good night and try to have a good Monday too.

Saturday and the New Gym

2010-01-02T21:24:00.000-05:00

Today was a very productive day. Even though it has been snowing all year so far, John and I hopped in the car and went to the new gym. The Planet Fitness in Lee just opened their doors yesterday. It's a nice gym. A bit smaller than the one in Dover, but they figured out to fit a ton of equipment into that small space! FYI, the Cybex SUCKS! Yeah, it's one tough workout, so I'll probably get back on it again. But, I didn't last long this time. Bike, ab crunches and Cybex were it for me today.

We came home from the gym and I played My Fitness for the Wii. I'm not sure if I like that either. That whole thing with seeing yourself on the tv while you workout isn't so great. When it comes to the Wii, I think I'll stick to Wii Fit Plus where I can work my abs with the hula hoop.

Went out for breakfast on our way home and run a ton of errands. I didn't do well at recording today, but I know that I was around my calories due to the 50 minutes worth of workout I accomplished today too.

I finished the afghan I was working on as well. Over all a very productive day. Tomorrow is the first day of my Business Law class and they are talking about seeing a movie. Catch you tomorrow!

Happy New Year and Getting Back on Track

2010-01-01T20:23:00.000-05:00

First and foremost: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here is hoping 2010 brings you excitement, joy and love of friends and family. It's going to be a very busy year around our house: STC Summit in May, Patti getting married Spring/Fall, Dorothy getting married Labor Day, and of course both John and I losing weight.

It was an interesting month for me and my diet. I didn't do very well on the workout side of things, but I am definitely still eating much better and losing weight. According to the scale on Tuesday I had lost 18 pounds compared to my 'stuck' weight of last summer. In case you're wondering, that's what I'm using as my base since I was stuck within the same 2 pound area for the last 4 years!

Today is the first day of the new year and I'm using that as a good reason to get back to the blog. During December John decided that since I was losing weight on my plan he'd join me and not use Nutrisystem. In my book, that's a good thing except I have to make it work. Today was also the day that I came up with a plan to make it work. I made out a menu/calendar for the week using a couple of good cookbooks. This will help us know what needs to be taken out for dinner from the freezer and with the simple recipes I can actually help out with the cooking! (I don't usually cook.)

Lunches will continue to be Weight Watchers (WW) SmartOnes or some other decent food. I'm getting good at eating out without overdoing it. Exercise is going to be interesting. I love doing the Wii Fit, but I can't seem to get John to do it with me, so, in his stocking was a black card from Planet Fitness. I hope to take advantage of meeting him in Lee when I don't have a meeting to do a short workout before heading home for dinner.

That's all for getting caught up. FYI, found an AWESOME meatloaf recipe from WW for dinner today. See you all tomorrow!

Off for a few days

2009-12-06T19:09:00.000-05:00

I'm studying for my Quantitative Analysis final. I should be back to
the blog later in the week.
Sent from my iPhone

Thursday and Relaxing?

2009-12-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

Thursday started off with me being very tired from a stressful day yesterday. I actually still had a headache from the night before for most of the morning. Breakfast was peaches and cottage cheese. WooHoo! I got out of the breakfast bar rut. Lunch was from Subway. I got one of the 6 gram subs with the fat free honey mustard and no cheese. Those are surprisingly filling and yummy. I was very happy that I remembered to order it with no onions for a change.

After work I headed for Shaw's to do some grocery shopping. I was finally running out of dinners. Unfortunately, it appears even when I think I'm doing a good job at not spending much on healthy foods I spend about the same amount. At least this time it wasn't less than a week after the last time.

Dinner was leftover turkey and stuffing. No Wii Fit today as I didn't get up early and my husband seemed to not want to give up the TV again. Let's see if I can get up early tomorrow and work out. After all, it's FRIDAY!

Board Meeting Exhaustion and Early Exercise

2009-12-02T22:14:00.001-05:00

It has been a long day so this will be short. I just got home from a very tense school board meeting. Ate well today. Am VERY happy that I worked out this morning. Now I'm exhausted and going to bed. Looking forward to a night without a meeting or school tomorrow!

Blogged from my iPhone

Tuesday and Lunch with Hubby

2009-12-01T21:41:00.002-05:00

My husband had the day off today so I woke up and had to get up on my own. Usually he turns on the TV and heads out the door a while before I get up. Somehow that is much less annoying then my cell going off from across the room.

I got out the door with some leftovers and a couple things to eat. I grabbed a slice of turkey for my morning snack. Breakfast was another breakfast bar. I need to go grocery shopping and get some cereal or something.

At lunch my hubby decided he needed to come into town. So, we decided to have lunch. It was a very nice treat to break up the day. We decided on Margarita's. I ordered a chicken wrap that was delicious. I saved the other have for dinner as I was stuffed.

After work was class. My last Quant class before the final. Though it was a shorter class than usual I couldn't get my time on the Wii as hubby didn't seem to want to give it up. So, another day with little or no exercise. If I get up early enough maybe I'll fit it in the morning. Board meeting tomorrow night.

Blogged from my iPhone

Back to Work, it's Monday

2009-11-30T22:14:00.000-05:00

Today was a busy day. It looks like it will be busy the next couple of days between meetings and school. I have a very important meeting tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll tell you about it soon. Breakfast today was peaches and cottage cheese. I had a snack/breakfast bar mid-morning to deal with a tinge of hunger that was going on while I awaited lunch. Lunch was a package of broccoli and cheese. I'll have to make sure to double check that I get the steamer packages as this wasn't one and it was a pain to cook. Dinner was a burrito bowl at the best burrito place in the area. It was right next to tonight's board meeting making it too convenient to pass up. I'm just glad there were more healthy options.

Work is getting busy as we get close to the end of the year and a lot of software releases. I hope your last day of November was productive. Mine was, but I missed working out today. Let's try again tomorrow after class.

Sunday and Running Around

2009-11-29T21:32:00.001-05:00

Today was a busy day. I got up this morning early, well, early for me on a day off; started my brother's laundry so he could bring home clean clothes instead of stinky dirty ones. I then hopped online for a bit while we waited. We got some time to chat about stuff in general while we waited which was very nice. Once his laundry was done the running around part of the day started. Breakfast was a breakfast bar. I know, that's not the best, but it's better than not eating anything which is what I probably would have done. Snack before leaving was a piece of turkey breast. Even now it is still very juicy and delicious.

I drove him home to Lowell, about an hour and half away. He was happy to be home though he really enjoyed his visit. I then headed north to Nashua to spend some time with my adorable niece and beautiful sister-in-law and her husband. We took the little one for her first visit to see Santa Claus. She slept through the whole thing! She didn't even seem to notice when Santa switched arms or when the photographer took her for a minute to show us the pictures. They came out wonderful! I hope to have one to post for my Wordless Wednesday post this week, so check back.

We walked around the mall for a while and I was able to carry my niece and give her random kisses for a while even though she was so sleepy. Every moment with her is precious as she is growing up so quickly. She has the most wonderful little giggle and is already saying 'Hi' at only three and half months. She has learned to mimic her mommy on that one. It's so cute when she does it because she lights up with excitement when she hears it out of her own mouth. The light in her eyes when she seems someone she loves is so sweet and will make your heart melt.

After my visit I headed to Manchester to drop off a gingerbread house kit to my baby girl. She loves making them. Of course, she isn't a baby any more, but her eyes still light up and make me smile just like they did 21 years ago. She was tired and sleeping before work. But, I did get to have dinner with her fiance' at the Red Arrow Diner. It's a great little place to eat. I had a breakfast sandwich. I guess I was making up for breakfast.

After dropping him off, I headed home to catch up with all of you and visit with my 18 year old baby boy. I can't believe they are all grown up now. It seems like just yesterday I was holding them and kissing them on the forehead while they slept in my arms.

Tomorrow is back to work and hopefully back on track! Let's hope for a great week even though it will be a busy one.

More Shopping Saturday

2009-11-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today was day two of my Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, I still didn't finish it. I have a few more people to buy for including one that I need to get a present for from my brother. Otherwise, his shopping is all done. That is usually a single Black Friday shopping day to complete, but I just couldn't fit it all in yesterday.

My food today was a bit off. I stayed in bed much later than I should have today. Then I had a late breakfast. Once my husband showed up from his morning errands we left for shopping. Of course, this entailed lunch as well. I had a small roast beef sub, no cheese or mayo. It was good. Today's shopping was just Target and Wal-mart. I did find a few good deals at Target, but Wal-mart didn't do much for me even though I did finish most of my brother's shopping there. Now we've got some cyber shopping to do and then we'll be done minus stocking stuffers.

Dinner was turkey stew with dumplings, I only had the one dumpling. Dessert was a delicious chocolate mint cream pie that I won in a silent auction at work. Today's exercise routine was just walking. I hope to get back on track with my Wii Fit workouts tomorrow when things finally settle down.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

I am exhausted! We spent the day out shopping. Over 8 hours just walking and shopping for Christmas presents. My pedometer tells me that I got in more than twice as many steps today than I usually do.

Breakfast was a bowl of Kix before we headed out. After close to an hour in Toys R Us, which was the first store we walked back to the car before heading for a coffee at Starbucks in Barnes and Noble. That was my treat for the day as I got a soy latte rather than just a coffee. Though, I did stick to just a tall rather than my usual Venti that I would have bought before going on my diet. It was more than enough.

Lunch was from Taco Bell. I made sure to go the fresco route to keep the calories lower. After the day of shopping was over, we headed home. It was a nice surprise to have a fresh bowl of home made turkey stew waiting for me when I arrived. Dessert was a piece of pumpkin pie. That is thankfully all gone so I won't have to worry about wanting more of it.

Tomorrow is my second day of Christmas shopping as I never got to Wal-mart or Target today. Hopefully, I'll keep it way below the 8 hours of today.

Thanksgiving Turkey Day

2009-11-27T07:39:00.001-05:00

It was the day I had worried about the most, Thanksgiving. This was an even bigger worry for me with an almost 40 pound turkey with a dozen people scheduled to come out. My husband is the cook in our house and he wanted to be sure we didn't skimp on the holiday dinner just because we are on a diet. He definitely didn't! We had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, whole homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, candied yams, peas, and some awesome homemade rolls.

One thing that helped me not over do it was the plate I gave myself when I set the table. I didn't have the large dinner plate that most of the table had. Instead, I had a smaller square plate. It was just big enough to fill me up.

The turkey came out perfect! It was delicious and SO juicy. That is one benefit of a fresh bird. They are very juicy. I did pick at it a bit but I figure that was better than picking at some of the dishes available.

I did workout for a bit on the Wii Fit. I went to take a nap to head off to the sales early. I ended up sleeping until this morning hence the delayed blog post. Now I am off to the stores. So, I've got hours of walking to do today.

Blogged from my iPhone

Wednesday and Thanksgiving Prep

2009-11-25T22:13:00.000-05:00

It's the day before Thanksgiving and of course that means that we need to clean, set the table and my hubby starts cooking. It also means stress and stress usually means the munchies. I've come to really dislike the holidays. It's just a bunch of stress for me rather than fun and joy like it used to be.

I forgot that I had taken home my Kix yesterday so breakfast was a breakfast bar. Lunch was a turkey sub as the guys ordered out again. I left work early enough to go pick up my brother and my husband in Massachusetts. Traffic the day before a holiday usually sucks coming home. Once we picked up my brother and hopped on 495 we saw that it was the usual traffic jam so we decided to stop for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I tried my 'Good Foods' app on my phone but it basically said that we could have vegetable soup and not much else. We both had the grilled chicken with some healthy sides.

We got home and have been cleaning and setting up for tomorrow ever since. I did take a 25 minute break to do Wii Fit to try to destress. It helped a bit. I went for another long bike ride (15 minutes long), hoola hoop and advanced step dancing. Time to relax a bit before I head to bed. I'm hoping to eat somewhat good tomorrow but still enjoy my turkey dinner. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-25T07:05:00.001-05:00

Betty, the turkey who has received a full pardon. She's such a sweet turkey. I'll never have her for Thanksgiving.

Tuesday and Wii Fit

2009-11-24T22:03:00.000-05:00

Today was a busy day at work. I got up early for the first day in weeks. So, the day started off on the right foot even more than usual. I knew I had breakfast stuff at work and lunch at work so I didn't pack anything and headed out the door to make it to work an hour early.

Breakfast was a bowl of Kix, I haven't had those in a few days so it was a nice change. Lunch ended up being chicken fingers from the guys' favorite pizza place. It turned out the calories on that with BBQ sauce wasn't bad. After work we hit the grocery store to get the stuff for Thanksgiving. It actually cost less than either of my last two shopping trips for healthy foods! Dinner was a flat bread and peas when we got home.

I got 20 minutes on the Wii Fit today, better than I did all week. I did a new track on the bike ride, hoola hoop and advanced step dance. It was great except for the heckling crowd (3 people) that I kept having to tell to shut up. They were backseat Wii driving, I didn't think that was actually possible, but they did it!

Dessert was a fudgsicle and a creamsicle. Yum! Love it when I leave myself enough calories for those. Tomorrow will be interesting since we have to pick up my brother which means we'll probably be eating out again.

Marines and Monday

2009-11-23T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today was a busy day. It was very much a Monday, but not all that bad. I woke up to a son who wasn't feeling well and was very tired myself. I didn't prepare well for my day when it came to food. I grabbed a banana and an apple and headed out the door. I have some lunch items in my desk for days like this and figured I'd use one. When lunch time came around one of the guys suggested Subway. I ordered a turkey and ham sub. It was very good and the calories weren't bad at all. Now, the chocolate chip cookie that I didn't order had almost as many calories as the sandwich though!

After work we had a recruiter from the Marines stop by to talk to my son. They gave him a test and he did really well on it for someone that wasn't feeling all that well. Actually, she seemed shocked that he did so well. We'll have to wait and see how he does on the full battery test.

I joined him for some stick fighting again tonight and that was it. I'm exhausted and heading to bed as soon as this is posted. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a much better day than today.

Sunday, Birthday Party and Stick Fighting

2009-11-22T21:08:00.000-05:00

My son actually got up early this morning. He went to stick fighting (Modern Arnis) for 10am. For him, that's an early morning. I got up to meet a friend and give her a turkey for Thanksgiving. Now all that we have for turkeys in the fridge is the 39 pounder for our dinner. Breakfast was a banana and a fiber one bar. I wasn't being very creative today.

We went to my sister-in-law's house today to visit my lovable niece and celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. That could have been a horrible thing for the diet. We ordered from Papa Gino's and I had two slices of cheese pizza for lunch and a small piece of cake for dessert. That still left me enough for the steam fresh vegetables for dinner.

Exercise today was different. I did Wii Fit but I also decided to agree to my son's request to do some stick fighting practice. It's starting to come back. I didn't realize I had gotten so rusty, but then again, I didn't do it for very long. It definitely is still fun though.

Tomorrow was going to be Zumba, but my son scheduled for a recruiter to come to the house for 6:30. UGH! I guess that puts it off for another week. Let's see how this week goes with Thanksgiving on Thursday. It should be interesting, especially with an over 39 pound turkey!

Turkeys and Shopping

2009-11-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

Today was a busy day at our house as we had 9 turkeys to take to the processor. A few of them were really big so they were interesting to load up as I was the one picking them up. Thankfully I remembered to use my legs to lift and didn't hurt my back like my husband did after picking up one smaller bird. It turns out that our thanksgiving bird weighs in at over 39 pounds! The Christmas bird will be 37 pounds.

This means that both of those birds that I picked up this morning weighed abou 50 pounds! Most of the others weren't much smaller either. So the main exercise for today was chasing two of those turkeys around for 10 minutes or so and lifting a whole lot of weight. I did a lot of walking via shopping today too. So this is the first day in 2 weeks that I'm not getting on the wii fit. It does keep telling me to take a day off so today is it.

I had a banana this morning for breakfast. I probably should have had something a bit more filling but turkey loading had to be done. Lunch was Taco Bell with the low fat version of a fiesta burrito which my husband tried as well. Those are always yummy and the calories aren't that bad. Dinner was at Fresh City as we were out searching for a pan to fit the bird. With all the running around today I'm going to call it a night. Let's see how many calories are in birthday cake tomorrow as it's my brother-in-law's birthday.

Blogged from my iPhone

Good News and Movies

2009-11-20T22:09:00.003-05:00

Today started off great. I had an e-mail that made my day. Then, since I was in such a great mood I decided to see if the Wii Fit was right last night when it said that I had lost a few pounds. I got on the scale and it confirmed that I had lost SIX pounds! Wow! Even finding my son hadn't gotten up in time for school didn't kill that mood.

For lunch today we ran over to Hannaford and picked up some sushi. The avocado shrimp was awesome. Note that I just recently started having sushi, but it has definitely grown on me. Well, most of them, not the salmon though.

When I got home I went straight to the Wii Fit so I wouldn't have to worry about it later since I was hoping we were going to the movies. The phone rang while I was working out and my son's friend asked if we wanted to go to the new theater in town to see New Moon. Sweet! That's exactly what I had planned. My husband got home and we packed up for the movies. Today was a run, hoola hoop (I'm getting really good at that) and step dancing on the Wii.

Dinner was at the Chinese restaurant by the theater. I didn't do bad on the calories there but my stomach was bothering me the whole night. The movie was great. It followed the book very well.

Hair Cut, New Freezer and Results

2009-11-19T21:50:00.001-05:00

Today started off poorly as those on Facebook and Twitter probably know, but once I got out of the house and to work things went well. I've had quite a few comments in the last couple days asking me if I've lost weight. WooHoo! That's a definite sign that I'm heading in the right direction. When I got home tonight I did finally allow myself to look at my progress graph on the Wii Fit and it shows a steady decline in my BMI and weight! That is definitely encouraging to me as usually I get stuck in a rut after a couple pounds and then give up.

Today's breakfast went back to Kix, I haven't had those in a few days. And today I tried Christi's idea of cottage cheese with my celery instead of the peanut butter I would normally use. It was perfect! I love cottage cheese and I had just the right amount left in the container to take to work to use with the celery when I got the munchies. Thanks to those I definitely didn't have the munchies much at all today.

We suddenly realized a couple days ago that we had a slight, well, not so slight problem that was going to happen this coming Saturday. We raise turkeys and they will be going in on Saturday and we'll need to store them in our freezer. Well, with all the vegetables and other stuff that we've added to the current freezer we're already at max capacity with no possible way to clean it out in time for the turkeys' arrival. Since we've been talking about replacing the freezer anyway as it's over 14 years old we decided to just buy a new one. Hubby and son picked it up tonight and just as I got about half way through this post it made it into the house. It's bigger than the old one and has compartments so our stuff won't get thrown in there and lost forever.

I am under calories again today. I'll probably grab a fudgesicle for dessert. They make a great low calorie treat! I didn't get much time on the Wii today but did workout. I'll be trying for longer tomorrow.

The best part of my day was the two hours I spent at the hair dresser. I got a lot done. Between that and my weight loss I'm feeling really great.

Leave a comment and let me know what's on your mind. If you have any questions or if there's any ideas you might have.

Board Meeting Night and Snacks

2009-11-18T22:03:00.001-05:00

Tonight was another late night for me. I had a school board meeting after work but didn't have time to make myself dinner before the meeting. That was why I was hungry when Michelle asked if I wanted some Apple Crisp. I love it so I immediately checked the number of calories and said yes. It was very good. For lunch thy guys wanted to order from Papa Jays (a local pizza place). I ordered a salad with tuna rather than my usual steak and cheese sub. I need to remember to order no onions as I just pick them off and they stink up my office. That's all I smelled for most of the afternoon. YUCK! I got home from the meeting and hopped on the wii fit and did a four mile bike ride (I got lost on the island). So that's it for today.

Hopefully, tomorrow's blog will be back on the computer rather than my phone.

Blogged from my iPhone

Late Night and Day 2 of Week 2

2009-11-17T22:16:00.000-05:00

It has been a long day today. I had a case of the munchies again today but still made it through without going over my calories for the day. I did make sure to eat supper before leaving the office so I didn't have a case of the hungry horrors after class. It worked well as I wasn't hungry when I got home at after 9. I skipped dessert tonight due to the late hour but still did some time on the Wii Fit with some hulla hoop, a 2.5 mile bike ride and a step routine. That was enough to have me ready to hit the sack. So, on that note I will catch you all tomorrow.

Blogged from my iPhone

Monday, Monday, Monday...

2009-11-16T21:55:00.000-05:00

It's Monday and due to last night's Patriots game I was tired all day. So, the morning started off with me wanted to go back to sleep. I got up grabbed some stuff to eat for the day and headed for work. I didn't really think about what I grabbed, but only grabbed stuff that is on my diet. I had setup a water bottle for today but left that sitting on the counter. I had a t-shirt that I was going to bring for a workout class, but I forgot that on the bed. So, my Monday didn't start off very well.

Today has been one week that I've been on the diet. Wii Fit says I've lost a few pounds already which is definitely helping me want to keep going. I feel better when I get dressed and my clothes are getting loose.

Food was hard for me today as I seemed to have a case of the munchies that refused to go away. Thankfully, I had brought a 100 calorie pack of Cheez-Its which helped me make it until lunch time. I had a fat free chocolate pudding that helped me make it until supper time. I worked out on the Wii Fit and got my husband to work out with me today. Slowly I'll get him to workout longer with me. But, I'm very happy that he's doing it. Next week, I hope to try the Zumba class after work that one of my friends teaches. I'm thinking if I add in Zumba one day a week and the gym one day a week I'll have a bit of variety without taking out too much time in my day. The gym is waiting until after Thanksgiving week.

Tomorrow's a school day. Let's see if I can do better this week then last week and actually eat something for dinner before class.

Sunday Night Football and Wii Fit

2009-11-15T21:55:00.003-05:00

Today was one of those days when I didn't think I was going to do well. It's Sunday and that usually mean sleeping in and not eating breakfast until late. Well, I did get up at a decent hour for a change, but I forgot to eat until a couple hours later. Instead of making something to cover my hunger that would be way too much food, I had a banana and an apple to settle my stomach down. A little while later I had a decent lunch.

Dinner was fun as I pulled my son off of the XBox and dragged him off to the mall. We walked around a bit after picking up the new Super Mario Brothers Wii game. Dinner was at Taco Bell. I looked up the nutrition facts on the web as they didn't have any of the nutrition facts available. The Fresco helps a lot. I was able to have a burrito without ruining the day.

We got home just in time to catch the beginning of the Patriots/Colts game. That's when I realized I hadn't worked out yet today. Thank goodness we have a large TV with picture-in-picture. My son setup the PIP for me and I watched the game while I worked out. Note that the step games don't work so well without the music. But, the hula hoop and bike work just fine.

We did go grocery shopping to pick up some more veggies as my husband has been sharing those with me. In the process I found fudgsicles again. Definitely worth the 30 calories! So, that was dessert tonight! Now my son's off to Mario world and the rest of the Patriots game for me. Go Pats! Back to work tomorrow.

Saturday, now what?

2009-11-14T22:58:00.003-05:00

It's day six of my diet and I think the Wii Fit has got to be wrong because it's telling me I've lost almost four pounds already. Yes, my pants are loose, but not THAT loose. I'm guessing that today's weigh-in was low because it was earlier in the day then usual. My husband made me happy today and played Wii Fit for a bit. I'm glad he did since I know he has fun with it once he gets started and him playing helps me want to play too. My son didn't do his Wii Fit time as of this writing, but he might if I remind him since he's currently driving or should I say squealing around in Burnout Paradise.

Today was a good diet day overall. I had some fruit and cottage cheese for breakfast. And was able to eat out with my husband, son and friend for dinner without killing my calories. I even got to have dessert when I got home. Once again, it's late and I still didn't use them all up. I'm working on getting closer, but today that didn't work very well. Stop by tomorrow to see if I get any better. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the new direction of my blog and if there's any info that you'd like me to add.

Friday and Day 5

2009-11-13T21:01:00.003-05:00

It's Friday the 13th and I didn't realize it until the day was half over. I should have played a lottery ticket or something as it's usually a good day for me. Today was ok except for my stomach bothering me for most of the day. I pushed the water and took some Advil and am feeling a whole lot better than I was when I woke up today.

Since I wasn't feeling well, I was definitely worried that I'd not eat the right amount of calories today. Somehow I still ate less than my total calories for the day, but I spread those throughout the day. I even splurged and had pizza for lunch. It felt good to know that I could still eat out with the guys for lunch without blowing the diet.

My son and I played Wii Fit again tonight. I did another mile bike ride on the game while he did about 14 miles. Somehow he keeps unlocking new stuff that I don't have available yet. Now, if we could get my husband to play too, then it would be a lot more fun. He's really good at the balance games.

BTW, if the Wii Fit is correct, I'm down over 2 pounds since Monday. Let's see if I can keep it up over the weekend. That's usually my highest calorie time of the week.

Wii Fit and Day Four

2009-11-12T21:48:00.003-05:00

Today started off with me getting up a lot earlier. It was chiropractor day. Quick trip in to see him and I'm good for a long time. Grabbed some fruit and my choice for lunch and headed out the door. My son barely left me a cup of coffee, so I was also trying to keep myself from going to the coffee shop so I wouldn't buy a latte, I'm sure that would be bad for my diet.

I stuck to the plan of parking further away so that I have to walk more and I always make sure to use the stairs. The idea of putting the creamer upstairs and getting it for my coffee only half works because I end up not drinking as much coffee. So, it's a double-edged sword, either drink more coffee and walk the stairs more, or drink less coffee which is probably better for me.

Today's calories came really close, actually I went over, but I made up for it in exercise which brought me back below my total for the day.

My husband is off at a concert tonight, seeing Star Wars. With that in mind, I thought about going to the mall for dinner and shopping with my son. I got home, even posted to facebook that I was going and than promptly decided not to go. I realized that I was too hungry and could very easily eat way over my calories for the day so I decided to make dinner. I still ended up over estimating what I could have. But, dinner was a delicious combo of peas, shrimp and some healthier pasta.

We booted up the Wii Fit and my son went first today. He ended up working out for 44 minutes because he got lost on his bike ride and couldn't find the last two flags. I got over 30 minutes in and had fun with a couple of the new ones.

Overall, it was a good day. I almost forgot to post though and realized that if I let myself skip that I'd not be keeping my promise of accountability to myself and you.

Hump Day and Day Three

2009-11-11T20:31:00.004-05:00

I woke up at 4am with a major case of heartburn. Man, that sucked. I was tired all day because I couldn't sleep after that. Of course, that didn't help my mood today either. Exercise was fun, I played Wii Fit again and tried to skateboard! That would have been hilarious to watch, thankfully, no one was watching as my husband had fallen asleep on the couch. It did havesome new stuff for me to try other than the skateboard and those were all good. I did another bike ride which I enjoy. Some how I brought my Wii Fit age down to 29 while my son's went up to 25. At this rate, I'll be younger than him tomorrow.

With my over wonderful mood, I could have really messed up on the food front, but I didn't. I grabbed lunch from the freezer and a couple pieces of fruit and a diet soda that I never drank. Today was a coffee (not much) and water day. It seems I'm actually craving water more now which is bringing me closer to the amount I should be drinking. Surprising how that works. I made shake and bake chicken breasts and spinach for dinner. My son seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, and he was nice enough to mention BBQ sauce which kicked the chicken up another notch. Yum! I almost feel like I'm getting to eat more good food than I used to when I wasn't trying to eat healthy. I'm also getting full a lot sooner now.

That's it for today. Let's hope I can be in a better mood tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

Class and Day Two

2009-11-10T21:20:00.005-05:00

Today was an interesting day for me. I woke up before my husband left this morning and actually stayed awake and watched the news for a while. This was surprising as I usually sleep for another hour after he leaves. I have to admit that I should have gotten up and worked out. It was the only chance to actually do that for the day. My main activity for exercise today was the fact that I worked hard to park far away from the entrance. It worked at least somewhat since my DSi walk meter is flashing green meaning that I exceeded my step goal for the day.

Food went great today. I had leftover calories and ate whenever I was hungry because I kept my FiberOne snack bars in my desk. Dinner was the meal I thought I was going to have trouble with but it went better than expected. I grabbed a cheezit snack pack and a FiberOne bar figuring that was going to be it because class would run until at least nine and I would get home too late. It ended up the professor let us out by 8:30 and I got home early enough to have a bag of broccoli and cheese. YUM!

Speaking of YUM, I had the most delicious lunch today. It was a Smart One southwestern flatbread. I was really surprised how good it tasted. Thanks for the suggestion Christi! I'll definitely get more of them.

So, overall the day went well. I hope to do some Wii Fit again tomorrow, that would make it 3 out of 4 days since I played it on Sunday too. Thanks for following my blog. You are welcome to leave a comment.

Grocery Shopping and Day One

2009-11-09T20:24:00.004-05:00

As the American Proverb says, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." I have to say, I truly hope so. My husband recently started Nutrisystem and since he is the cook in the house, that kind of left me wondering, "what the heck do I eat?" Since I have some weight to lose too, and I didn't want to spend that kind of money for two of us, I decided to follow the advise of a couple of friends on facebook. Thank you Christi and Karin for that little nudge I needed.

Today just before lunch time I paged Christi and asked "want to go grocery shopping with me at lunch time?" Thankfully for me, she said yes and a little while later we were off to Shaw's. Before we left I re-downloaded the 'Lose It!' app on my iPhone and recorded the FiberOne poptarts I had for breakfast.

We spent a bit too long in the store and spent a bit (ok, more than a bit) more than I was planning. But, I really think it was completely worth it to get started on the right foot. I bought a bunch of different kinds of apples, a seedless watermelon, a 1/2 cantaloupe, summer squash, and some pears from produce section. And that was just the beginning! Grabbed a bunch of different Healthy Choice meals, both frozen and shelf, as well as a couple of FiberOne items. We looked at the calories on every item I picked up and I was surprised to see that some that I liked and thought were healthy had a LOT of calories. While, others that I wouldn't have thought of were good.

Over $100 later, it looks like I bought a couple weeks of food, we packed up and headed back to work. I had a great lunch today as it was one of the Healthy Choice meals. I haven't found one that doesn't taste good. Of course, I don't buy stuff I don't think I'll like. But, so far so good.

Dinner was Sushi and a steamer bag of broccoli, rice and cheese. Thankfully, my son came home and ate with me. That helped, not having leftovers or 'extra' sitting around for me to eat just so it didn't go to waste.

After dinner I hopped on the Wii Fit and tried out the new Wii Fit Plus Routines option. I did a bike ride course for over a mile, some major hula hoop and leg lifts. Man, that was a heck of a workout for me. It said I burnt about 65 calories.

Since I had 200+ calories left, I had my late snack of two 100 calorie packs. They were delicious! So, the first day has ended, with me not drinking enough water, but still drinking at least 2 glasses more than usual and getting some exercise.

For tomorrow, my plan is to do some walking either at lunch or before class tomorrow night because I know I will be too tired after Quant. Stop by tomorrow and see how it goes. I'll have to figure out supper since I'll be at school for 6pm.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T10:46:00.004-04:00

My sweet distraction, our niece Sarah Jean. She's growing up way too fast.
She's already 2 1/2 months old!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-05T09:53:00.003-04:00

OMGosh! I WANT ONE!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-22T16:51:00.004-04:00

Dorothy's picture from her trip to London in 2004, it's a great picture of the Eye of London.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-15T10:28:00.005-04:00

My first AFF Jump from start to finish. WOW!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-01T10:20:00.005-04:00

The beautiful glowing mommy-to-be at her baby shower.
My new niece is going to be adorable!

My Review of A DOG'S TALE GLASSES - CHAPTER 1

2009-01-29T16:02:00.001-05:00

UncommonGoods

Never before in all of literature...er, glassware have we encountered such a dynamic and endearing character as the one in A Dog's Tale. Chapter one introduces us to a protagonist, whose bark is worse than his bite and who propels the story forward with his aggressive, even daring, behavior. T...

Nice Sturdy Glasses

Deb Barrington, NH 1/29/2009

Gift: No

Pros: Sturdy, Durable, Attractive Design, Thick Glass, Comfortable To Hold

Best Uses: Informal, Home

Describe Yourself: Stylish, Practical

These glasses are AWESOME! They are sturdy and are great to use. My husband loves them and I am definitely thinking of getting the next set. The designs are just one more benefit to an already fantastic glass.

()

My Review of PUNCTUATION PEN

2009-01-04T20:37:00.001-05:00

Originally submitted at UncommonGoods

Grammar geeks won't be the only ones who will appreciate designer Harry Allen's unique use of punctuation. In a modern pattern that looks more like hieroglyphics than everyday punctuation, the punctuation pen echoes a blank piece of paper and black ink for a look that's polished but ...

Best pen I've owned!

By Deb from Barrington, NH on 1/4/2009

Gift: Yes

Pros: Easy To Assemble, Durable, Attractive Design

Best Uses: Writing, Work

I Am A: Family Older Kids

I added this pen to my Christmas list as a 'nice to have but no one would ever buy it for me' and then I received it! The pen is perfectly weighted for writing and writes very smoothly. Many people have commented on it as very nice. As a writer the punctuation on it is a nice benefit to an already fabulous pen.

(legalese)

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-24T07:53:00.002-04:00

The 10th Annual Calef's Baked Bean Bake-off

MJF: Take the Politics Out of Science

2008-09-23T20:45:00.004-04:00

Today was an incredible day at UNH. There was a rally for Jeanne Shaheen with Michael J. Fox as the guest speaker. He came to New Hampshire to talk to voters about stem cell research. Jeanne Shaheen's daughter Stephanie spoke to the students and guests about the reason her mother believes stem cell research is so important. Jeanne Shaheen's granddaughter Ellie has Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is one of many diseases that could be helped by stem cell research.

As my nephew has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as well, I feel very strongly about the search for a cure to this horrible disease. No child or adult should have to deal with checking their sugar before they can eat. Can you imagine being a child and knowing how to test your sugar and doing it many times a day? It is not something any child should have to learn how to do.

After Jeanne Shaheen went to the podium she introduced Michael J. Fox and spoke about how he has worked to be such a great advocate for stem cell research. Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's Disease, another of the diseases that could be helped by stem cell research. Other diseases that could be helped by this research include spinal cord industries and CANCER. Who doesn't want to find a cure for cancer?

Michael J. Fox is a wonderful speaker and speaks from the heart when discussing this important subject. The hardest part for me was seeing him have so much trouble. It was a short speach, but it was right to the point.

Stem cell research funding was vetoed by President Bush in 2007 and John Sununu voted against overturning that veto. Why do some politicians run from this subject? Because they are afraid of the religious ramifications. As my husband puts it so well: Stem cell research if performed in the United States with government funding could be controlled and monitored, if it is done outside the United States the possibilities are only as limited as the funding.

To Michael J. Fox if you happen to read this: Thank you for making the trip to NH to help educate the public about the Bush policies on stem cell research and to support our next Senator from NH.

Let's take a lesson from Michael J. Fox and follow his suggestion: "Take the politics out of science, send Jeanne Shaheen to the US Senate."

Fire Fighters support Jeanne Shaheen

2008-09-19T20:11:00.003-04:00

Tonight was great. The Rochester Fire Fighters had a cookout in support of Governor Jeanne Shaheen who is running against John Sununu for United States Senate. Jeanne Shaheen was able to bring about the change we needed while governor of New Hampshire and I truly think she's the one to bring that change to Washington.

Rochester's Team Shaheen put together a great rally and brought the candidate to Rochester to speak to the people of Strafford County. Being from Strafford, this was an important stop for Jeanne. It was great hearing where she stands on all the important topics including the war in Iraq, the energy crisis and issues in education.

The fire fighters cooked up some delicious chili and served it up to the many in attendance. My son enjoyed it so much he had somewhere in the vicinity of EIGHT bowls! Thanks for the great company, the great food and the chance to speak with Governor Shaheen.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-14T20:07:00.005-04:00

The Welcoming Water at Rye Beach

Smart Puppies

2008-09-14T19:41:00.005-04:00

Our poodle Jennifer thinks she's a person. She refuses to ever use the doggie door even after three and a half years! I know poodles are smart so the lack of using the doggie door is just annoying.

Jennifer is actually our second poodle. The first was just as bossy as this one and also didn't think she was a dog. Is it a poodle thing? Probably.

Both of the poodles have had toys that were like babies to them. Jennifer is currently carrying around a teady bear that has had its innards removed by one of the dogs. Whether it was Jennifer or not I don't know. I actually think it was probably one of the other dogs as they are more into ripping out the stuffing then she is. She also has a build-a-bear puppy that she carries around all the time. He actually has a name as most build-a-bear animals do. His name is DJ, he used to be my son's but he grew up and decided he didn't need it. It is her favorite baby even though it is twice her size.

Do you have a dog that thinks it is a person? Does it have a stuffed animal of its own? Leave a comment and let me know about your dog.

Picture Note: The picture is of Jennifer trying to help with my homework.

When did Hi turn into Hey?

2008-09-11T21:00:00.001-04:00

The other day I went to ask someone a question via instant messenger I realized that I've changed from send a 'Hi' to sending a 'Hey'. So, that's the big question, when did 'Hi' turn into 'Hey'?

My daughter said that she uses 'Hey' only for people she knows and that it is 'smoother' then 'Hi'. 'Hi' is used for people she doesn't know very well. In her case this would be the family of her patients.

One thing that is strange for me in that aspect is that I still send 'Hi' to my husband, but 'Hey' to my daughter and co-workers. So, with her definition that doesn't make sense as I should know my husband better then anyone.

Louise Fletcher wrote at Career Hub an article entitled Hi Hey Ho Hum about the use of Hey in a job search. That was written in 2006. I guess I'm behind the times on they Hey vs. Hi debate.

Do you use Hi or Hey? Do you only use them with specific people or types of relationships? I'm curious to hear what you have to say on the subject. Leave a comment and lets figure out the Hey/Hi of it all.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-10T10:37:00.003-04:00

Belle: You are still greatly missed baby girl. Missing since October 2006.

Tom Brady, where are you?

2008-09-07T15:51:00.009-04:00

Update (Monday 3PM 9/5): WMUR News alert: Brady Out For Season New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is out for the season.

Update (Monday 9/5): The only confirmation of any kind on how Tom Brady is doing so far this morning is that he is due to go in for an MRI today. Here's hoping that things go well for him.

---------------------Original Post--------------------------

Within the first minutes of the New England Patriots vs. Kansas City Chiefs game Tom Brady hobbled off the field with an injury to his left leg. There was absolutely no word on his injury or his return until after the half time show. As of this writing there still has not been difinitive word on how long he will be out. They did finally say he wouldn't be back for the rest of the game, but that wasn't reported until the end of the third quarter.

For many weeks we've been waiting to see if he'd be playing in the opening game today after reports of an injury to his right foot. He was watched closely to see if he was favoring the foot right up until he was on the ground with the leg injury. Can Brady make it back onto the field? His fans certainly hope so. Many who had chosen him to lead their fantasy football teams are truly upset and hope for a quick recovery and return as well. I wish him the best and hope for a speedy recovery.

When Brady left the field many thought that was the end of the Patriots for today. Cassell came to the field in Brady's stead and quickly gave New England their first touch down of the game surprising many of the New England fans. The big question for New England was 'Could they still win without Tom Brady?' At 40 seconds left in the 4th quarter the answer was a resounding YES! It was a tough game all the way with a final score of 17-10 New England. The final minutes of the game were just as scary as the first few minutes. Kansas City made FOUR attempts to get the touchdown they needed but were unable to get past the fantastic New England defense.

Will New England get Brady back any time soon? Will New England continue on and win their regular season games? We'll have to wait and see.

What did you think of the game if you saw it? Any predictions on New England's future? Any predictions on the future of Tom Brady? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

When do you get your best ideas?

2008-09-05T00:05:00.000-04:00

It seems that there is a certain time of day when ideas start flowing into your mind. Unfortunately, for me that time is just as I'm trying to go to sleep at night. I put down my bedtime reading and try to go to sleep and then my brain suddenly starts churning out TONS of ideas for blogs, how to update the documentation at work, the biography that I'm going to write, and lots of other things like how to get Jennifer our poodle to finally use the doggie door (that's another blog post).

What I wonder is why can't I have these great ideas at let's say 2pm when I have a notebook or computer handy to do something about it. Since it occurred to me that this happens at bedtime I have a notebook by the bed. The problem is the light. If I turn it back on to write stuff down I'll probably wake up my wonderful hubby.

When do you get your best ideas? How do you make sure that you'll remember them? Do you bring a small notebook around? Email yourself? Post a comment and let us know about your idea times and how you make the most of them.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-03T10:40:00.002-04:00

North Beach on Oahu... Who wouldn't love it there?

When you can't get in... Ranting

2008-09-01T17:43:00.004-04:00

Some of you may know that I've been working on my Bachelors degree for a while now and I'm finally on the finally leg. If everything goes right, I will have my degree on January 15th. I will have completed over 135 credits on December 31st. I can't wait!

I'm currently enrolled in a couple of courses. One that I have greatly enjoyed so far is a management course entitled Business Management and Policy. It has been interesting learning the ins and outs of creating business strategies and business case studies. We had an assignment to do a case study of Google that really got me thinking. I have to admit that if it weren't for my instructor, it wouldn't be half as interesting. He makes you think about the subject in a totally different way and can always make you laugh. I'm sad to say that this will be my last class with him as it is also my last management course for my degree.

So, why did I start on this discussion about my degree and how close I am to finally getting my degree? Well, you see, I haven't been able to log into BlackBoard all weekend! I have a class that should have opened up on Sunday with all the documents posted. But, I have no idea if it is there. I've talked to the school help desk for hours and until this morning no one wanted to admit that it wasn't a problem with my password (they've reset it twice over the weekend). I actually had one tech tell me that I couldn't log in because my password was reset. Yeah right! I guess he doesn't know that I work with software for a living and I've been a student at the school for a while too!

I hope things are corrected soon. I didn't spend close to a thousand bucks (each) to not be able to get to my class information! How come when you WANT to do your homework you can't? I don't remember having this problem when I was in high school. ;-)

Thanks for reading/listening. I'll definitely update when it has been corrected.

Let's Boycott LOL

2008-08-22T08:00:00.006-04:00

It is one of the first Internet acronyms that you learned. LOL simply means 'laugh out loud'. The big question is, how many people actually do laugh out loud when they type LOL? How many times have you typed this?

I don't know about you, but I'm completely sick of this 3-letter acronym. There are so many other ways to say it without using those dreaded three letters. I've included a few for you:

L - Laugh ... that one is much more accurate
LOIS - Laughing on the Inside ... usually more accurate
LTS - Laughing to Self ... I like that one, it works
GGG - Giggle ... that's the one I've been looking for!
C&G - Chuckle and Grin ... I like it, but I can see us all trying to remember the &
:-) - simple, straightforward and well known
S - Smile ... like L, simple and to the point
GSC - Giggle, Snicker, Chuckle ... I tried using this one, but no one seems to get it

Which one do you like best? Got a better idea? Or, do you just like LOL because it's easy and been around forever? Leave a comment and let us know.

Wordless Wednesday #1

2008-08-20T15:56:00.004-04:00

Birthday Flowers from my Hubby!

What's on Your Nightstand?

2008-08-17T16:59:00.005-04:00

I have been an avid reader since I could first read. With a role model as wonderful as my mother who ready 2 to 3 books a week, how could I not love to read? I wish I had the time to read like that now. Maybe after I finally finish up my degree I'll be able to get going on my 'to be read' list. That's a whole different post.

Each night as I try to relax and get my mind ready for bed I have two magazines that help me out. They sit on my nightstand, a make-shift nightstand, created from a CD rack where these magazines fit perfectly. Guideposts and Reader's Digest are the magazines that I can't live without. Of course, as a writer, mom and animal lover, I definitely have a lot of other magazines that I get as well. Today, I read an article or two every night. This not only helps me relax but helps the magazine last while I wait for the new issue to arrive.

Many years back, I was probably about 16, my brother sent me a subscription to Guideposts. At first I wasn't sure, but once I started reading I was hooked. Guideposts is an inspirational magazine for all faiths and reminds you how God interacts in your everyday life. They now offer a couple of other magazines, one for teens that I highly recommend for those of you with kids in that range.

Reader's Digest was one of the first magazines that I read as a kid. I love the jokes especially the true ones! My mother always had it sitting on the coffee table and it was a well read magazine by both of us.

What do you like to read? Do you have something that helps you relax at night so that you can sleep? Leave a comment, maybe you have an idea that we hadn't thought of yet. Keep it clean please.

Free Falling at 14,000 feet

2008-08-14T20:23:00.003-04:00

Today was the most AWESOME day I've had in a very long time. I'm pretty sure the only days that could possibly compete with today are my wedding day to my wonderful husband and the days each of my kids were born.

A couple of years ago I made a list of things titled 'Things to do Before I Die'. This was before the 'Bucket List' made this popular. One of the big things on my list was 'Go Skydiving'. My husband seriously thought I was nuts and would never do it. My daughter obviously knew that I would. She bought me a gift certificate to go skydiving at Skydiving New England in Lebanon, Maine.

Today was the big day and I was pumped from the minute I woke up. I felt like I was going to bounce off the walls. My daughter got here about an hour and a half before we needed to be there and was surprised to find me awake and raring to go. Note: I never get up early.

After a short class on what to do and what not to do during the jump we waited for our turn to jump. Matt, my instructor, was an inspiration and wonderful. He dealt with my hyper mood well and definitely made it a jump to remember. The freefall for about a minute after backflipping out of the plane was incredible! Have I mentioned that this was AWESOME?

I walked away from the jump today knowing that I definitely want to do this again. Anyone up for it? Maybe I'll update my 'list' and change 'go skydiving' to 'get my skydiving license'? That should work well with 'get my motorcycle license'. Right?