Speak Play Read

Today was one of those days that is perfect for no particular reason.  Just perfect in a quiet way that some days lend themselves to.

I have an extensive collection of bears, but I am not really a doll person.  However over the years a handful of dolls have found their way into my house.  I have a couple Pullips, and two Hestia Ribon, and a couple assorted others.  But when Heather at Little Bearries posted about the Monster High dolls she had just purchased I fell in love with them.  So I ordered Lagoona Blue and Frankie Stein online.  This morning I received an e-mail canceling my order because they were out of stock.

I went over to Toys R Us (these are inexpensive dolls) and found Lagoona, but they didn't have Frankie.  The kid working at customer service was so pleasant and helpful and he ordered one for me right away.  I have to say though, for a manufactured toy these are pretty impressive in detail.

Next I headed off to Barnes & Noble which is one of my favorite places.  I wanted the new issue of Where Women Create, but it hadn't come in yet.  I browsed around a bit and I found a CD set entitled "Drive & Learn French."  I took French in college, but it's been a while and I thought how fun...I can brush up while I am driving!  That might not seem that fun to you, but I thought it was just fabulous!  I also came away with the most adorable little box of notecards.  The box is what I really wanted.  It looks a bit like a small suitcase with French labels on it.  (I really want to go to Paris in case you couldn't tell!)  It will be perfect in bear pics!

I generally tend to avoid books and movies that are over hyped.  I bought Harry Potter on the first day it came out, and no one knew what it was yet so that doesn't count.  But I have been avoiding Eat Pray Love until today.  Since the movie is coming out soon, they had a display of the book, so I picked it up and read the first couple pages.  I decided to go ahead and buy it.  It's not normally the sort of book I read, because I like adventure novels.  James Rollins is my favorite author.  I also picked up "Garden Spells" because it was mentioned on the blog post about the upcoming Practical Magic party...although I would swear I had that book in this house already still waiting to be read.  If I find it, I will pass it on to my friend.

After that I headed over to another of my favorite places...World Market.  I came home with a couple little trinkets, and some blood orange soda from Italy, which is so good!!!  When I paid she said I had spent over 20.00 and I got another free bag...oddly enough this one had the Eat Pray Love logo on it. 

It was raining this afternoon which made me perfectly happy.  I love thunder storms.  After R went to bed I decided to treat myself to a candlelight and paper lantern lit bath.  Now I dearly love paper lanterns, there are several in my house.  They are just dreamy and romantic.  I really like paper parasols too. I added a little lilac oil to the bath, opened the window to let the rain scent in and let it mingle with the scent of orange and pine candles.  It was the perfect summery-woodsy scent.  Gypsy and Rizzo were in their appointed spots in the powder room and seemed to find the whole thing rather enchanting too.

I ended the evening by biting the bullet and deciding to upgrade my internet speed despite the extra ten dollars a month.  (Refer back a couple posts if you're not sure what that's about.)  But I will tell you a secret...I always call the phone company late at night.  Their night time employees don't have as much to do, and they are bored.  If you are pleasant, amusing and conversational with them they always hook you up.  So I got my upgrade and my phone bill will now actually be 12.00 less a month than what I was already paying instead of 10.00 more!  *Insert big cheesy grin here*

All in all it was a great day!  I hope yours was as fun as mine...I am off to finish my bird I am working on!

Hugs, K. <3

It's Only...

R is a techno gadget junkie.  He has XM radio, a Blackberry and another cell phone, a Nook, A Zune, laptop, big screen TV with high definition and sattelite service, a GPS and a whole host of other stuff.  For most presents I get from him it's something electronic.  He can't go into a jewelry or lingerie store but he has absolutely no problem with Best Buy.

I don't have a problem with it, although some of it doesn't seem worth it to me.  Take the Nook for instance...it's no more convenient than a paperback in my opinion.  It's not smaller in any way and it doesn't cost less for books. 

The XM radio I bought him because he travels around the state so much, and he goes through the mountains where he can't get a radio station.  His work truck is a company truck so it's not equipped with a CD player or anything like that.  It still killed me to have to pay for radio though.  But he loves it.

The Blackberry also came from work, but he has a personal cell phone.  He decided this past weekend he wanted a new one because the ringer on his isn't loud enough.  He was looking at that new iPhone.  He decided to wait until February when we are both eligible for an upgrade and can each get one.  The service is only 15.00 more a month.  He assured me that would be a good thing, I could look up directions on the internet if I need them.  Also I can see him on the screen when he calls.  I rarely use my cell phone and I already think we are overpaying for the service despite being on the least expensive plan.  I have enough roll over minutes to last until the year 3000. 

Oddly enough, on those rare occasions I can't find my way I have still managed to figure it out by asking someone or looking on a map.  In 47 years I have always managed to get where I want to go without having to connect to the internet via my phone.

Today I had to call Qwest, they sent me a letter to tell me something on my account had changed, but I hadn't changed it.  After we got all that worked out, she told me that I could upgrade my internet connection speed.  Apparently I am connecting at 1.5 and  I could go up to 7 or 12.  To go up to 7 is only 10.00 more a month, plus 100.00 for a new modem which she told me I could break up into 3 payments and that I got a month of service for free by upgrading.  I told her my connection now is instant.  I don't have to wait for anything to load.  She assured me that it was faster (how can anything be faster than instant?) and that it payed for itself and told me again, but it's only 10.00 a month more.

First of all, I have yet to see for a service of any kind that pays for itself.  Wouldn't that be nice if it really did?  But it doesn't.  Also it's not only 10.00 a month, it's 220.00 for a year if you figure in the cost of the new modem...which we only replaced  for 100.00 a year ago.

The iPhone service at only 15.00 a month works out to 180.00 a year.  That's a lot of money.  All these little things really start to add up if you're not careful.  I don't think they are necessary either.  In fact all this constant upgrading of technology is starting to wear me out. 

I still like books, free radio, asking live human beings for directions, not having to get on the internet when I am away from home...and I am starting to consider getting a couple tin cans with some string for talking to people!  Afterall, it only costs as much as two cans of beans and the string!