A small rant and other things.....

First the rant.  We're getting ready for a trip to Florida and I'm trying to get my toiletries together.  Am I the only one that's unhappy that everyone who makes shampoo and body wash thinks you need the ubber large size?  I have a small bathroom bag and wanted shampoo and body wash that would last about two weeks.  Isn't going to happen.  I couldn't even find travel bottles in my brands.  So, I purchased 4 three ounce bottles of cheap body wash and shampoo at Walmart.  I emptied them out, washed them and refilled them with my brands.  Now I have a week's worth for my bathroom bag and an extra week in my suitcase.  Two of the three ounce bottles have flip top lids and two have screw tops.  I put the screw tops in the suitcase (ever have a bottle of shampoo leak all over your underwear?) and the flip top lids in a sandwich bag and then into my bathroom bag.

The other thing is my Christmas present from my husband arrived on Thursday.  I ordered a Kindle Fire HD.  I've been researching for weeks trying to find a portable tablet that would do everything I wanted to do at a price my husband wouldn't get stomach cramps over.  The iPad is too much machine for me.  We usually travel with my top of the line laptop.  Even the mini iPad is too much machine.  I researched the Google Nexus but I have an investment in Kindle.  I had the 1st generation Kindle thanks to a generous husband and a brilliant son-in-law.  I loved it.  I graduated to the Kindle Touch (not so much).  It was hard to read at night in bed, it had a dark screen.  I kept touching the wrong places and turning pages - hitting the back key and getting totally out of my book with no bookmark.  By the time I realized I loved my 1st gen, my daughter had her hands firmly on it and .... mama was looking for a new device.

So, I get the Fire HD and start working on it.  First, I have to say it was relatively easy to set up.  I had my Facebook and e-mail accounts in no time.  Netflix took a little longer.  You can't just go buy an app and have it magically appear on your HD - you have to 'down' from Amazon and 'up' from the Fire - sync it - turn around three times and eat a raw egg -  but that was a minor glitch and I'm good with apps now.  Any movies you might have on your computer (digital copies of movies you've purchased) will not run on the Fire.  The Fire only plays MP4 files and you have to search the web for info.  I found two pieces of software:  Wondershare Video Converter and iSkySoft DVD Ripper.  Wondershare worked very well for those digital copies, it converted the WMV files into MP4 files - I loaded them onto my Fire and played them - easy peasy - it just took time.  When I tried to turn my VOP files into MP4 files, the Fire wouldn't play them.  So, I used the iSkySoft which worked really well.  I even changed the resolution to to 1280x800 which looks really good in the Fire.  When you load these movies on your Fire, they will appear in the "Your Videos" category, not in the movies.  Confusing a little bit?  All in all, so far I'm a happy camper.  Now, I just have to learn how to play Angry Birds - anybody got a tutorial?

 

Don't you love Memory Box dies?  I love my Spellbinders but it's nice there's something a little more delicate out there.  And in particular, I love these two.  The background is the Debutante die and the tree is an overlay.  I painted some Mod Podge on a piece of wax paper, laid down the overlay and rub it with a sheet of paper, picked it up with tweezers and placed it on my background.  It's a great way to glue these delicate little pieces.  The snowman is a Lily of the Valley stamps and such fun to color.  Until later....