brazenlisa.com

So Ernest’s last day happened recently. We joked about taking pictures of the occasion, and by the time the day rolled around, I was ready! Not that it was a festive, PARTY atmosphere or anything…………

Ceremonial Handing over of the keys

Ernest hangs his head in sorrow (hehe)

Punches out and leaves......

Lori looks on, no doubt thinking Jer and I are nuts

Less than 30 seconds after Ernest punches out, Jer's already removing him permanently from the system

Buh Bye Ernest!

The next day, I was showing Haley the pics on my camera and then I hear, “Liiiiiiiiiisaaaa”

Huh............ what?

Ugh!! Then one more with some advance notice… it didn’t help or change much.

Doing Cat Counts - wheeee!

And last…. a couple of Sugar because she’s so cute. I can’t remember what the little cardboard tray was from, but as soon as it fell on the floor, she sat right on it and owned it.

She's a Sugar B

Don't mess with her card board!

Thank you so much, Hon, for the flowers that you had sent!! They are beautiful and made the whole first floor smell really good. =o)

Front of the bouquet

And the back

Thank you for the message attached to them, as well. <3 I love you too!

It’s been a while since I last posted… I have been mostly bed-bound, staying off my legs that I just haven’t done ANYthing but lay here and read or sleep. I finally got a doctor appointment for this afternoon, in 2 hours. THANKGOD!

Anyway, I finally got my camera and the nook and the laptop all up here in the bed with me, so I have pictures to post.

nook as it comes out of the card board box

 Whoever dreamed up the packaging for nooks did a VERY fine job of it.  It was so hard to fully open that there are videos posted to help people free their new eReaders!  Yes, I used a video to help guide me thru, so I didn’t break anything by accident.

Got the first round of packaging off, still in hard clear plastic case

So you have to charge the device to full battery charge before using it… which I did.  They said it could take 3 hours, but mine only took less than 2.  As soon as the yellow light went off, I got down to business.   =o)

Now-a-days (i.e. 4 days later, hehe) my nook is fully dressed, protected and accessorized.  Oh, and NAMED.   You name your nook, and then that name appears at the top left of the screen.  On the nook forums, I’ve seen long discussion threads about this.  Some people are pure utilitarians and they either put their nook’s serial number OR their own  phone number in case it gets lost and some good samaritan finds it and wishes to return it.

Anyone who knows me, knows I do NOT fall into that category.  I believe that if I were to leave my nook somewhere by accident, the finder would NEVER call me and say, “Hey!  You must be so upset that you’ve lost your nook… I have it tho, safe and sound.  Meet me “here”, and I’ll return it to you.”  Yeah RIGHT. 

And I also wanted to give my eReader a nice, creative name.  Coz that’s just me.   So after I decided which skin I was going to put on it, the decision for a name came fast and easy.  Well, mostly.  Here’s how my thought process went:

I got the Sacred Honu skin from the Decal Girl website.  It’s a gorgeous Hawaiian themed skin, and I therefore wanted a proper Hawaiian name.   After living on the island for 3 years, and subsequently missing it like crazy… it was an easy choice all around.

So, the obvious names aren’t really working for me… like:

“book” in Hawaiian is “puke”.  That’s pronounced Poo-Kay…. but if you dont know that, it’s not a very attractive name.  LOL!
“library” is “Hale waihona puke” or house/closet of books.  Not too cute.
“knowledge” is “ike” …. Mmmmm no.

So I love the whole legend of the volcano goddess… but her name was Pele.  And most people are going to think I’m a South American soccer fan if I used that.  LOL!

Akamai wahine means smart girl… which I like.  hehehe
Kipona aloha means deep love.

Makala pua kai means beautiful ocean… which goes with the skin.  I really like that one… and chose it as the winner.

And if I were to lose it, somehow, and if the person who did find it REALLY wanted to return it to it’s rightful owner, my email address is in the settings screen.  Which is not hard to navigate to.  They COULD do the right thing; even with my creative nook name.

Dillaine cover with the reading light attached

Here you can see the nook w/ the front skin on it, installed inside the cover

And the nook pulled out so you can see the back of the skin - the Sacred Honu

So far, so amazingly good with it.  I really think for anyone who loves to read, it’s an excellent thing.  It definitely changes the old world order of things, tho.  No more thrift shop scrounging for .25 cent books, or swapping bags of DTB’s with family when you get together with them.

[YES, a new internet acronym has been born!!!  DTB.  Dead Tree Book.  I swear to god, it's a common one on the nook boards.  HEHEHEHE]

And no more selling books back to used book stores when you are finished with them.

The upside here is that there are hundreds and hundreds of free ebooks to be had.  Any book in the public domain is free automatically.  For a book to be in the public domain, it’s copyright has to have expired.  And that happens 50 years after the author’s death.  So all the old classics are, therefore, FREE!   It’s a macabre thing, that I find myself doing now…. Googling an author to see when/if they have passed on yet… and seeing how close to the 50 year mark we are.  Weird!

And there are always offers of free ebooks on the B&N site and several others.  I have something like 32 ebooks and only paid for 2 of them… one for $2.49 and I think I did pay $9.99 for one.

You can check out ebooks from your local library if they participate in the Overdrive program.  That’s really cool!  I filled out an online application to the county library here so I could to that, so I just have to go down their and show my proof of residence and then I can check books out that way, too.

Chris sent me one photo and put the rest on his own blog (theaidbag.com)…. well as many as he could before his connection wouldn’t allow anymore of that action. LOL

Snow in Afghanistan

Amazing how beautiful that is. We got snow here, too, in Fayetteville and it’s sleeting now. It is NOT attractive at all. But Nikolas is outside in it, playing with friends.

He started out in his new Vans, but they soaked thru really fast, so he came home for his Timberlands, but he has to finally admit those things are too small now, so the only other thing was for him to wear his new football cleats! LOL

I’ve fallen a bit behind, but only by a half a week, at this point. Just finished up Week 3 blocks!

Week 3 Blocks

Bottom yellow one is “Michael’s Motorcycle” – 22 pieces
Middle blue one is “Mary Ruth’s Corset” – 28 pieces
Top green one is “Mary’s Journey” – 33 pieces
Triangle is “Tartan” – 33 pieces

Whew, the triangles give me hell, I have to tell you! I have like 4 hours in that one… and it’s wonky! Not horrible, but it’s the best that I could get it after ripping and redoing two times. I got to not caring anymore, just like that last one. LOL

12 blocks done so far.

First… I watched my first BluRay movie tonight! It’s been a long time since I sat and watched a movie at home, to begin with, but I’m so glad I did. I added the BluRay option onto my Netflix and this was the first disc to arrive. Thank you PlayStation 3!

It’s funny… the first one that came. You’d think I would make sure some huge, cinematic feast was the first on the list, but as it happened, I got “Julie & Julia” as my first BD. LOL!! A romantical cooking movie… not exactly full of action and special effects!

Anyway, I really liked the movie and it made me want to look at the cookbook! Even try some of the recipes…. but let’s not get crazy here.

Secondly, I finally spent my Christmas money that my Dad and Grandparents gave me! Thank you Dad! Thank you G&G!

While looking at eReaders for Chris, I inadvertantly decided I wanted one REALLY BADLY. Spent a few days agonizing over the choices… Kindle, Sony reader or Nook. Amazon, Sony or Barnes & Noble. Hmmm.

My reasons for choosing the Barnes & Noble nook are as follows:

- I like how it looks better.

- I like how I can go inside a real store and “do stuff” there… they talk about exclusive content you can get while in a B&N. Don’t know what it is, but it sounds exciting.

- I like how it uses “Overdrive”… the bit where you can go get free eBooks downloaded at your local participating library. I searched for one here in Fayetteville and there is ONE. But that’s cool…

- Just in general I LOVEEEEE how old classics are part of the public domain and are therefore FREE!

- The nook uses the Android OS and I read that makes it easy for people make cool new mods for it. hehe

- Oh, I think the lending feature is neat… tho it’s pretty restrictive… but at least it’s possible.

- I like how the nook can accept SD memory cards to increase storage even more, and SD cards are cheap.

- And I like how it looks. =o)

So last night Nikolas told ME that he wanted to go get his hair cut!! Secretly I was thrilled… outwardly I showed some reserve and concern; “Are you SURE…?” (Please say yes! Please say yes!) He was sure!

After school today, we had to hit the PX up for a couple of school supplies for the new semester, and then it was Barber Shop time.

HANDSOME BOY!

Mr. Man! Looking rather self-satisfied, I think!

When I mentioned I wanted to take pictures for Dad tomorrow, he said, “Where’s the camera?!” Well ok! So pictures tonight, then! The gel stuff the guy put in his hair is gone, it’s still nice I think.

He said he felt like a convict taking these shots. We took one from the rear, too... but ya know.

Hi Dad =o)

Peek-a-booooo! (Said in your best Beavis voice!)

Ohhh Sugar Sugar!

MAG Cover art

Today was movie day!  Elizabeth missed out on dinner with her boyfriend’s family, so because I felt bad, I told them I’d take them to a movie, and today was the day.  Nikolas and I went along and invited my friend Lori and her son, Zach.

Nice theater, eh? With the flowers on each table… It screamed for me to start taking photos! We were waiting for Warren to arrive, so you know she was looking pretty. hehe

We didn’t get to see Avatar as was the original plan, so we ended up seeing the new Jackie Chan movie, “Spy Next Door”. It was a cute, family movie… perfect for the boys.

We have a new member of our family…….

That’s right, Kratos (and the only system one can play God of War on) is a new member of our household. Must be chilly in hell today, right? =o)

I’m ahead of schedule…. I know in time that’s not likely to be the case, so I’m running with the ambition now, while I’ve got it.

Week 2 Blocks

Triangle is BR2, “Leigh’s Woods” – 31 pieces
Blue block, “Cathedral Window” – 21 pieces
Orange block, “Peek-a-boo” – 20 pieces
Purple block, “Woven Meadow” – 39 pieces

That triangle was a nightmare. It’s not perfect and I don’t care anymore. I can only rip and redo a single block SO MANY TIMES before it just doesn’t matter. In the grand scheme of this huge quilt…. that triangle on the edge isn’t going to even be noticed. Right? Yes. Right.

So I’m officially finished thru week 2, and in reality it’s still just the beginning of week 1 of The Party. YES! I like it. And I’m still playing video games, so I’m not neglecting the XBox.

I checked out “Spongbob: Truth or Square” from work for Nikolas and guess who’s actually playing it? And likeing it? Yes I am. hehe

I just finished my first 4 blocks for week 1! Technically 3 blocks and 1 triangle for a total of 118 pieces of fabric so far.

M8 - Enchanted Square

K9 - Scout's Honor

I9 - Chase A Myth (41 pieces in a 4 1/2" block!)

TR5 - Michigan Dunes

Week 1

One last shot of Sugar…. I think if a quilter has a cat, they are always involved!!

I think she doesn't care for the flash. hehe