The skies above Winona Lake weep today in concert with our country at the great tragedy of Sandy Hook. Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. We have no words, just the prayer that those who suffered great loss will be comforted.
Daily lifting life's empty bowl to see what God provides to sustain, nourish, and strengthen His child.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Is an e-reader in your future?
More and more people, including seniors, are buying and using tablets. As the prices fall, the trend will grow. The Nook Color I bought last January is already about $100 less than what I paid. Our retirement community purchased 4 Kindles thru a grant, and they will soon be available at the front desk to check out for reading books. My literary club which mainly has members in the 60-90 age bracket will have an e-reader panel in April for those who have e-readers to bring and share how they are using them.
The first thing one needs to determine before purchasing a tablet is how one will use it. In my case, I wanted something that would connect thru Wi-fi so I could check my email and Facebook while away from home. The book reading was almost secondary. Many magazines now offer parallel delivery; i.e., those who subscribe to the paper issue can receive a digital issue on their tablet for no extra cost. We receive Time that way. Though I mostly read the paper issue, I have at times taken the tablet with me to doctor’s appointments to read while waiting. While away from home for several weeks this winter, the digital copy will be delivered and read on the tablet. I will be able to keep current.
If one is going to read magazines on the tablet, then a color tablet is best. Also, if you want to read art books or cookbooks, or children’s illustrated books, a color version is essential. So you need to consider what type of reading you will do. Another issue is the depth of selection. Amazon has Barnes and Noble beat in the amount of choices available. If you want to use apps, Amazon also has more to offer. The Nook Color handles pdf files well if you are going to upload such files from your computer to take with you. The Nooks often have more storage capacity as well. My Nook Color will take an extra storage card to handle more titles. I am curious to compare my experiences and device with others so I am looking forward to my club’s panel.
I am not into apps. Obviously, Amazon sells more apps than Barnes and Noble. A little known fact, however, is that because Nooks are Android based, there are cards that you can buy on the internet to insert into the extra storage slot that make it possible to load apps available for Android smartphones onto a Nook. Barnes and Noble sales people will tell that you void the warranty, but they have no way of knowing what kind of card you have inserted. The card must be inserted before turning on the device; then, removed again before using the company’s installed standard features, but it does not change the guts of the device in any way. Tech people can hack into the operating system and make permanent changes to avoid having to remove the card, but that will void the warranty. Since I am not big on apps, I haven’t tried this card, but for people coveting more apps this is a possible way to increase the choices.
I was amused when I read an article by blogger So Many Books where she describes that her husband likes his lighted device so he can read in bed. If he nods off, the device eventually shuts itself off but of course remembers where he left off in his reading. This is better than dropping a heavy book onto the floor and losing one’s place. Actually, her blog is a discussion of the physical book versus the digital book. Like her, I would miss the physical feel of a real book if none were available. You can follow the discussion at http://somanybooksblog.com/2012/12/05/the-physicality-of-books/ . It certainly removes “clutter” and frees space in the home to replace physical books with digital ones, but I do have an emotional attachment to the physical book.
Maybe a tablet e-reader will be under your Christmas tree this year. It certainly has many advantages including the ability to increase the size of the font and the portability of many titles to read. If the prices continue to fall, you may have to treat yourself to a gift.
The first thing one needs to determine before purchasing a tablet is how one will use it. In my case, I wanted something that would connect thru Wi-fi so I could check my email and Facebook while away from home. The book reading was almost secondary. Many magazines now offer parallel delivery; i.e., those who subscribe to the paper issue can receive a digital issue on their tablet for no extra cost. We receive Time that way. Though I mostly read the paper issue, I have at times taken the tablet with me to doctor’s appointments to read while waiting. While away from home for several weeks this winter, the digital copy will be delivered and read on the tablet. I will be able to keep current.
If one is going to read magazines on the tablet, then a color tablet is best. Also, if you want to read art books or cookbooks, or children’s illustrated books, a color version is essential. So you need to consider what type of reading you will do. Another issue is the depth of selection. Amazon has Barnes and Noble beat in the amount of choices available. If you want to use apps, Amazon also has more to offer. The Nook Color handles pdf files well if you are going to upload such files from your computer to take with you. The Nooks often have more storage capacity as well. My Nook Color will take an extra storage card to handle more titles. I am curious to compare my experiences and device with others so I am looking forward to my club’s panel.
I am not into apps. Obviously, Amazon sells more apps than Barnes and Noble. A little known fact, however, is that because Nooks are Android based, there are cards that you can buy on the internet to insert into the extra storage slot that make it possible to load apps available for Android smartphones onto a Nook. Barnes and Noble sales people will tell that you void the warranty, but they have no way of knowing what kind of card you have inserted. The card must be inserted before turning on the device; then, removed again before using the company’s installed standard features, but it does not change the guts of the device in any way. Tech people can hack into the operating system and make permanent changes to avoid having to remove the card, but that will void the warranty. Since I am not big on apps, I haven’t tried this card, but for people coveting more apps this is a possible way to increase the choices.
I was amused when I read an article by blogger So Many Books where she describes that her husband likes his lighted device so he can read in bed. If he nods off, the device eventually shuts itself off but of course remembers where he left off in his reading. This is better than dropping a heavy book onto the floor and losing one’s place. Actually, her blog is a discussion of the physical book versus the digital book. Like her, I would miss the physical feel of a real book if none were available. You can follow the discussion at http://somanybooksblog.com/2012/12/05/the-physicality-of-books/ . It certainly removes “clutter” and frees space in the home to replace physical books with digital ones, but I do have an emotional attachment to the physical book.
Maybe a tablet e-reader will be under your Christmas tree this year. It certainly has many advantages including the ability to increase the size of the font and the portability of many titles to read. If the prices continue to fall, you may have to treat yourself to a gift.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Jigsaw Puzzles
When my husband and I were courting, we discovered that both of our families had a history of enjoying jigsaw puzzles. My family did them in the summer sitting on the porch of the Big Bear cabin. His family did them around holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas; his mom often put a tablecloth over the unfinished puzzle on the dining room table so they could eat and then removed it so the puzzle workers could continue.
Most people probably look for a pretty or interesting picture. We have arrived at certain criteria before adding a puzzle to our collection. Because we like to do puzzles together with family (usually around the holidays), we look for puzzles with “zones.”
This puzzle my sister-in-law brought to our house for Thanksgiving is a good example.
Though there is some repetition of color, there are distinct areas an individual could work on while others worked on other zone areas: the embroidered towel; the small blue and white plate; the medium plate which has a distinct pattern; the garlics; the wooden board and knife; the eggplants in the bowl.
I liked this puzzle so well, that I searched ebay to see if there were other Ceaco Culinary Classics puzzles. There are, but the only one zoned as well as this one is the fruit puzzle.
We have started stocking up on smaller puzzles (less than 1,000 pieces) which gives us a better chance of finishing in one day.
Puzzles with extensive unbroken portions of one color (sky, grass, snow) don’t make it to our house these days either. I will never forget the puzzle I worked on one Christmas at my parents-in-law. Grayish white sky, snow-covered ground with the only “anchor” being a fence that ran thru the middle of the scene. Not at all enjoyable. Yes, I want a challenge, but I want to enjoy it. Complicated puzzles like the one I gave my husband while dating consisting of a pizza means studying the picture extensively to see if the pepperoni lies next to a green olive and a mushroom at a certain angle and are also troublesome. I have experienced plenty of puzzle sessions with box hogs who insist on holding the box lid in their hand or turning it towards his/her self. In this case, that was the only way to do the puzzle.
One Christmas we met in the fellowship room/dining area of my mother-in-law’s senior apartment complex. We had 3 puzzles going at the same time (some claimed we were in competition to see which table finished first, but I never signed on to that), but when we came down to the last half dozen pieces they didn’t fit, and even the colors seemed somewhat off. Turns out we had a roving family member who decided to surreptitiously move pieces from one table to another. All 3 tables of puzzlers found themselves with a conundrum, but we finally figured it out.
Searching ebay for the Culinary Classics got me hunting for a Christmas puzzle. We have a 1,000 piece village scene, but I was hankering for something smaller. Ta-da! I found it, and it arrived Wednesday. The sky will probably be the hardest part, but at least some of it is straight-edged border and there appears to be a shaft of light breaking it into parts. We’ll find out next week when we unbox it and lay it out on the card table.
P.S. The hardest part turned out to be the tree. So many ornaments and candles look alike.
My husband has incorporated puzzle making into his woodworking hobby. He affixes posters or calendar pictures on birch plywood and then creates “figurals” (special shaped pieces relevant to the theme of the puzzle) before cutting the pieces. Many of these have been gifts to family, and he houses the puzzle in special boxes he makes.
There have also been some free-standing puzzles.
Yep, we are definitely a puzzling family.
Most people probably look for a pretty or interesting picture. We have arrived at certain criteria before adding a puzzle to our collection. Because we like to do puzzles together with family (usually around the holidays), we look for puzzles with “zones.”
This puzzle my sister-in-law brought to our house for Thanksgiving is a good example.
Though there is some repetition of color, there are distinct areas an individual could work on while others worked on other zone areas: the embroidered towel; the small blue and white plate; the medium plate which has a distinct pattern; the garlics; the wooden board and knife; the eggplants in the bowl.
I liked this puzzle so well, that I searched ebay to see if there were other Ceaco Culinary Classics puzzles. There are, but the only one zoned as well as this one is the fruit puzzle.
We have started stocking up on smaller puzzles (less than 1,000 pieces) which gives us a better chance of finishing in one day.
Puzzles with extensive unbroken portions of one color (sky, grass, snow) don’t make it to our house these days either. I will never forget the puzzle I worked on one Christmas at my parents-in-law. Grayish white sky, snow-covered ground with the only “anchor” being a fence that ran thru the middle of the scene. Not at all enjoyable. Yes, I want a challenge, but I want to enjoy it. Complicated puzzles like the one I gave my husband while dating consisting of a pizza means studying the picture extensively to see if the pepperoni lies next to a green olive and a mushroom at a certain angle and are also troublesome. I have experienced plenty of puzzle sessions with box hogs who insist on holding the box lid in their hand or turning it towards his/her self. In this case, that was the only way to do the puzzle.
One Christmas we met in the fellowship room/dining area of my mother-in-law’s senior apartment complex. We had 3 puzzles going at the same time (some claimed we were in competition to see which table finished first, but I never signed on to that), but when we came down to the last half dozen pieces they didn’t fit, and even the colors seemed somewhat off. Turns out we had a roving family member who decided to surreptitiously move pieces from one table to another. All 3 tables of puzzlers found themselves with a conundrum, but we finally figured it out.
Searching ebay for the Culinary Classics got me hunting for a Christmas puzzle. We have a 1,000 piece village scene, but I was hankering for something smaller. Ta-da! I found it, and it arrived Wednesday. The sky will probably be the hardest part, but at least some of it is straight-edged border and there appears to be a shaft of light breaking it into parts. We’ll find out next week when we unbox it and lay it out on the card table.
P.S. The hardest part turned out to be the tree. So many ornaments and candles look alike.
My husband has incorporated puzzle making into his woodworking hobby. He affixes posters or calendar pictures on birch plywood and then creates “figurals” (special shaped pieces relevant to the theme of the puzzle) before cutting the pieces. Many of these have been gifts to family, and he houses the puzzle in special boxes he makes.
There have also been some free-standing puzzles.
Yep, we are definitely a puzzling family.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Looking Like Christmas
We downsized to a tabletop tree even before we moved to Indiana. Now it is just the right size for our sunroom.
But I had accumulated lots of ornaments thru the years that wouldn’t be the right scale for the little tree. I have experimented thru the years how to display my favorites from trips and craft fairs and that had graced my gifts. I used a lot of them as package toppers, but I couldn’t part with these yet. This year I put them in the wooden compote dish my husband made last year.
The painted gourd ornament from Santa Fe, New Mexico found a close-by niche.
There are other things though. A collector’s plate that my father had and never used that I was unable to sell on ebay has become central to my lighted bookcase display.
My mom had a really cute tissue box cover at her house one year when I visited. She asked my cousin to make one for me for the next Christmas. This cousin did these on her long bus ride to work and home.
I have tried a few new things this year. The little pillow my sister gave me one year at her house now sits on the loveseat next to the new wine sherpa throw.
My Debbie Mumm plates scooped up at after-Christmas sales at Mervyn’s are too reflective to photograph well. I have some hanging in a plate rack in the sunroom and some in the kitchen cupboard with mugs to use throughout the season. Here is a photo of one of them from ebay. She sure was popular for awhile. I haven’t heard of her in years; have you?
There are a few other touches, but I have rambled much too long. Enjoy your own decorations and memories.
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