When things work out

Last week, I got notice that I had sold an article about "Domain Name and Web Hosting Requirements" at Constant-Content, and I received an email asking if an author could quote a poem I wrote in a book she's writing about spirituality and knitting.

Monday was our wedding anniversary--34 years!--but we weren't really going to do anything special. We had just gotten back from a short vacation to Bennett Spring, and had eaten out every night, so Bob had suggested picking up Chinese food and eating at home, which was fine with me.

But then when I got home, he asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, if I could choose, I'd like to go get Mexican food, and I'd like a Margarita. So he asked me where I wanted to go, and I chose On the Border. We ordered our dinners, and a regular guacamole appetizer, but it turned out that they were out of guacamole and had to make a new batch. So instead of making us wait, the server came out to do their "Guacamole Live" where they build it at the table, and said that we wouldn't be charged extra for it. While she was making it, she was also making conversation, and she asked if we came there very often. I told her that we probably visit a couple of times a month, but we were there that night because it was our anniversary.

So when it came time for dessert, she said they were comping that, and they were also comping the guacamole, and when we got the bill, I think they must have comped the drinks as well, because it was a lot less than it should have been. It was a great night, and inexpensive. Oh, and when she brought out the dessert, she asked our names, and we thought they were going to sing (oh no), but she just made an announcement, and everyone in the restaurant stood up and clapped for us.

Then, on Tuesday I found a pair of jeans that I had forgotten I'd bought, and they fit! And on Tuesday I got an email from Lee Jeans that everything was half price, and they had those exact jeans, in the right size and color, for $20/pair, so I ordered 2 pair.

And what else . . . oh yeah. Today I got my Amazon royalty check for "Fallen Angel." It's not a lot, but every month I sell more copies--about 40 so far in October and around 100 in total--so I'm grateful for that. It's nice when things work out, even on a small scale.

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What I've been reading

I've been enjoying setting up my Kindle, getting it loaded with all the books that I already owned, downloading lots of samples of books that I want to read--or might want to read--and just generally getting it set up the way I want. One thing I like about the actual Kindle as opposed to the Kindle app is that you can organize books in categories, or "Collections," as Amazon calls them. I currently have:

• Currently Reading (2)
• To Read (38)
• Read (77)
• Slushpile (172)
• Reference (26)
• Samples (39)

"Currently Reading, "To Read," and "Read" are pretty self-explanatory--although "To Read" is mostly made of of books that I've actually purchased and know that I want to read fairly soon. I have a lot of books that I downloaded for free that I don't really know whether I want to read or not--that's the "Slushpile." I couldn't think of a good name for it--does anyone have any better suggestions? I don't download every free book that's offered, but if it sounds like I might like it, I do. It's easy enough to delete them if I don't want them, after all.

"Reference" is dictionaries, the user guide, a Bible, and a bunch of knitting patterns that I converted to Kindle format. I had originally created a "Patterns" collection, but that forced the list of collections to go into two pages, and I didn't like that. (See: OCD) The reason the list is too long is that I also got a subscription to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, and you can't put those into a collection, for some annoying reason. So the current edition stays on the homepage, and previous editions are saved into a "Periodicals: Back Issues" collection that is automatically created once you have more than one edition. And then there's the "Archived Items (119)" collection which is currently all the books that I'm pretty sure I don't care about, and that I haven't bothered to download.

So that means I currently have, or have immediate access to, 473 ebooks on the Kindle. That ought to keep me busy for awhile . . . About 5 years, I guess, if my current rate of reading continues, and of course, that doesn't take into account any new books.

I know I've mentioned Swagbucks here before. Since June 1, when I joined, through searching, a couple of online shopping awards, a few "special offers" and several referrals, I've earned about $150 worth of Amazon gift cards. And somewhere along the line I lucked into a medical focus group forum that pays in Amazon cards--$10/month plus an occasional $25 for a special project--so I haven't spent any "real" money in quite awhile. The gift cards give me free rein to buy pretty much what I want, although I still do spend quite a bit of time deciding what to buy.

There are a lot of good independent authors out there, and I've purchased quite a few books for a dollar or two; mine is one of those, of course! It's currently selling for $1.79, and I've sold something like 80 copies so far, which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but as Bob says, "how many people do you know who've written a book and sold any copies?"

Lately I've been reading mostly paranormal, urban fantasy. I just finished the third book in a series that I consider the best thing I've read in a very long time. It's the "October Daye" series by Seanan McGuire. The first book is "Rosemary and Rue," the second is "A Local Habitation," and I just finished "An Artificial Night." The books center around October ("Toby") Daye, a changeling, that is, half human, half faerie, who lives in San Francisco. In the first book, Rosemary and Rue, she has only recently been released from a curse that caused her to spend 14 years as a goldfish. She's lost her husband and her child, and she's trying to stay away from magic. She works in a grocery store and tries to have a normal life. But she's pulled back into the magical world when a friend--a faerie--is murdered, and she has to find the killer or lose her own life.

I love Toby and all the secondary characters that populate the books. I've read a review that compares the books to the early Dresden files books by Jim Butcher, and the early Anita Blake novels, and I would have to agree. They have the same feel of a world just a little off kilter from ours, a place where, if you look hard enough, and know what to do, you can walk into another dimension, one populated by magical creatures that, in the end, aren't really all that different from ourselves. There are the aforementioned faeries, plus selkies, a sea witch, and a very interesting relationship with The King of Cats. She also has a couple of cats (Cagney and Lacey), plus a rose goblin, Spike--a cat-shaped and -sized creature made of thorns.

In the second book, "A Local Habitation," Toby has pretty much given up her hopes for having an ordinary life, and is working full time as a private investigator. She is asked to find the daughter of her liege, who owns a computer company, and who hasn't been returning his phone calls. Most of the action in the book takes place at the computer company, creating a "country house murder" of sorts.

Children are being kidnapped in "An Artificial Night," the third book in the series, and two of them are the children of Toby's good friends. Upon investigation, it turns out that the children were taken by Blind Michael, a figure from a children's nursery rhyme, and he plans to change them into either "riders" or "ridden," i.e., magical horses. This book is much darker than the previous two, I thought, and Toby finds herself in much greater danger, much of it self-imposed. She can't abide the thought of any children being in Blind Michael's control, so even though the quest seems suicidal, she has no choice but to try to rescue them.

I really love these books, I think they're wonderful. They're both fantasy and mystery, and both aspects are very well done. I had originally picked up "Rosemary and Rue" at the library, but loved it so much that I purchased it for the Kindle, too, so that I have all of the books on it. There are two more under contract, and at least three more to come. Late Eclipses will be released in March, followed by "One Salt Sea."

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Kindle

When the Amazon Kindles came out a couple of years ago, I thought they were cool, but way too expensive. Then I got my iPhone, and Amazon offered the free Kindle for iPhone app, and I was able to read ebooks on my phone. I had gotten used to reading on a handheld device when I had a Palm Pilot, and I enjoyed it. I also didn't really want to carry around an ebook reader; if I was going to do that, I might as well carry around a book.

But the newest generation came out recently, and they now had a wifi-only version that was priced at $139, which I thought was a much more reasonable price, so I was thinking about getting one. Then I was in Target over the weekend, and they had them, so I bought one.

I got home with it, took it out of the box, and plugged it in to charge. Then I got online and tried to register it at Amazon, but just got an error message. From what I could tell, it should be possible to register through the website, so after trying a couple of times wiht no luck, I called Amazon customer service. At first, I got someone in India, of course. She got the same error message I did, so she put me on hold and transferred me over to some uber-Kindle customer service support department.

The guy on the phone talked me through getting to several hidden menus, and tried several different things, but he wasn't able to get it to work, either. I asked him if I had to have WIFI on to make it work, but he said I didn't. We have WIFI at home, but for some reason, I'm not able to connect to it. Bob is, so in the interest of not breaking his connection, I'm willing to be wired.

Anyway, the guy finally decided that there was something wrong with the Kindle, and said that he could overnight a replacement to me if I wanted. I said that I would rather try to exchange it at Target first, but would call back if I couldn't. So I packed it back up and headed to Target. I went to the electronics department first rather than customer service. I took the box out of the bag and said, "I bought this here a little while ago," and before I could finish my sentence, the guy waiting on me said, "We don't have those."

I said, well, yes, you do, I bought it here, and he said no, we don't, you couldn't have. So I just stood there and looked at him, and he sighed and said, "Let me see the receipt," like he was going to say, "Aha! You didn't buy it here, you moron." So I handed him the receipt, and he said, "Well, this is my store. They must have gotten them in while I was at lunch." I guess it was too much to expect him to apologize, and he didn't. He just said, go over to customer service and I'll bring a new one over. Fine, whatever.

When I got home with the new one, I got the same error message. Of course. So I called Amazon customer service again, but this time the person I talked to first told me that they had been having trouble registering the Kindles from Target. Apparently they hadn't done something to them that they should have before they shipped them out. This time we went through a few menus, but the customer support guy eventually said that he could register it remotely. He said it might take an hour or so, but just to leave it plugged in, and it would eventually register.

So I waited awhile, restarted it, and sure enough, it showed that it was registered to me. I read the manual and discovered that I could mount it as a drive on my desktop computer and import documents that way, so I did that.

Then on Sunday I went to Panera Bread for a late lunch, and holed up in an easy chair and downloaded the rest of my books, organized everything, and basically spent a couple of hours getting it just the way I wanted.

I haven't really read a lot on it yet, but I like it, and I do see why it's so popular. I still like the option of reading on my phone, and I like that they sync up, so no matter which one I pick up, I can start reading at the spot where I left off. I don't like the fact that it isn't backlit, and I can't read it in low light, but I suppose that's actually good, since it's probably better for my eyes, but it is inconvenient. But I basically just treat it like a book, and sit by a lamp, and if I wake up in the night, can't go back to sleep, and want to read and not wake Bob up, I read on the phone.

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Holiday weekend

Usually during the week I have granola (Kellogg's Low Fat Granola with Raisins) and yogurt for breakfast. I put the granola in a zip-lock bag or one of the littlest plastic containers, pack it with my lunch and take it to work to eat when I get in. If I eat breakfast too early, i.e., at home, I'm starving before lunchtime, but if I wait until 9:30 when I get to work, then it will carry me through to noon.

Once in awhile, maybe once every two weeks or so, I'll drive through McDonald's on the way to work and get an Egg McMuffin or bacon, egg and cheese bagel. I'll do this if I'm running late and didn't have time to pack my breakfast/lunch--if I have McDonald's for breakfast I probably won't eat much for lunch, maybe just some snacks from the kitchen at work. Or if I have a meeting right away when I get to work, and know I won't be able to eat my breakfast, or if I know it's going to be a hard morning.

This morning Bob was going fishing and he needed to take a few things from the grocery store, and he also had to pick up something somewhere else, so I went to the grocery store for him. I almost never get going that early on the weekends, or on my day off! So after I went to the store, I drove through Wendy's to try their breakfast. I had a coupon for a free breakfast combo. I chose the Artisan Egg Sandwich on ciabatta, with potato seasoned wedges, and it was great!

Aw man. I just went to the Wendy's website, and it didn't mention breakfast at all, then I went to their Facebook page, and apparently the Kansas City area is a testbed for breakfast items. I hope it does well and they keep it, I thought it was really excellent. And no more expensive than McDonald's -- the sandwich, side and drink would have been $4.34, if I had had to pay for it, which I didn't. Now I'm worried. I might have to get it tomorrow, too, just in case it goes away . . .

We got Friday off as well as today, so I had a four day weekend. It was really a nice break. I didn't accomplish a whole lot, I guess, but I got somethings done that I'd been needing to do. I got the oil changed in my car, and got my hair cut and colored. I bought a new clothes hamper for the bedroom, since Dinah has destroyed mine. I got out the sock that I put away in March after I got out of the hospital, and started knitting on it again, and I had a great nap this afternoon. It was a good weekend.

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September

September might be my favorite month. I've always loved Fall, and I always loved going back to school. It wasn't so much the school part that I loved, I guess, but all the accoutrements. New notebooks and notebook paper and pencils and erasers. I still have a cardboard pencil box that I had in gradeschool, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. I loved getting my school supplies and putting them in the box, putting paper in the notebooks, getting everything ready for the first day back.

After weeks of temperatures in the high 90's and low 100's, it's cooled off, and last night it almost felt like Fall. When I got home tonight I opened the windows and turned off the air conditioner. Bob may want it on again tonight when we go to bed, but for now, I'm enjoying the breeze through the windows, and Dinah seems to be enjoying it, too. She spends a lot of her time now between the drapes and the sliding glass door in the back, just watching. So now she can smell the outdoors, too, as well as watch.

I've been struggling for awhile with notetaking at work. I tried to move completely over to digital, with the iPhone, and iCal, etc., on the computer, but it's really not possible to take notes on the iPhone. Sometimes I would take my laptop to meetings, but I think that's distracting to the other party, and, again, not really conducive to taking notes.

So I'd been using a spiral notebook, pretty much a page a day, making lists of the projects I'm in charge of, staffing requirements, things like that. But a couple of times lately I've wanted to refer to a calendar, and the iPhone calendar wasn't really what I wanted. So I bought a datebook, just a month on a two-page spread one, so that I could have a calendar in front of me when we're making scheduling decisions. But then I end up carrying the spiral notebook and the calendar, and it was getting kind of cumbersome.

So I decided to go back to a day planner. I'm definitely not abandoning the iPhone, far from it, but I'm conceding that sometimes, paper and pen are just better. I still have a beautiful leather Franklin Planner binder that I got a few years ago. I went to look at their fillers, though, and didn't find anything that I wanted. I used to use the "Blooms" fillers, but they changed them and they're incredibly ugly now. And I need a certain layout that few of their fillers were using. So I looked around some more, and ended up buying a Day Timer filler. I haven't used them for years, but so far it's working out well.

I couldn't find any 2010 fillers in town, so I bought one that starts in January 2011, and also some undated month pages, and I've been using them, but this morning I went ahead and ordered a July 2010-June 2011 filler from Amazon. It was discounted a little bit (not much) since half the year is over, but I decided it was worth it just to save aggravation.

What I found with the spiral notebook/calendar system was that it was hard to find specific things when I was looking for them. With the Day Timer (or Franklin Planner, or any other system), there's a place for appointments, a place for phone calls, a "to do" list, and a page for notes (I use the two page per day system). It's heavy to carry around, but honestly, it makes me happy, so I'll deal with that.

It feels a little like buying new school supplies, and that makes me happy, too.

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