Ugh. Had three bad things happen yesterday, so I’ve had about enough of bad things. I like good things. Hear me, Lord? I am praying that everything works out okay re: the one big bad thing, so even though I’m not going into details, I’ll welcome thoughts and prayers. Yes, you-know-who has something to do with it. Ungh.

I wrote quite a bit on BiS last night after we watched TTT on Mom’s new DVD/VCR player. Very nice, especially after we figured out how to get audio. And Mom did like all her presents, and the books my sister ordered for her from Amazon did come. Unfortunately, my Dana didn’t come yesterday, so I guess I have to wait for Tuesday. *sigh* It’s on the truck and everything. Argh.

Other than that, I spent yesterday alternately worrying about the one bad thing and telling myself that’s what I have insurance for. However, I will be making a certain phone call on Tuesday morning (from work, even, argh) and hopefully I will be told they are handling this mess.

I wish I had never met you-know-who.

And I wish the rest of the weekend goes better than yesterday did, minus the good of writing a lot on BiS. Onward…

Oh, and we made zucchini pie last night…

Oh boy. Got my bag. There are seven interior pockets. And (I didn’t count, but off the top of my head) at least seven exterior pockets. Plus the large interior, plus… wow. Impressive!

Black exterior, and it doesn’t look like cheap-o nylon. Red interior, which is cool. I can’t wait to put my Dana in it; the Visor case fits with room to spare.

And it’s not too big, either. In fact, I have one exterior part that is empty at the moment. Cool.

I got to work this morning and my computer was dead.

I guess I shouldn’t have ignored that error message when I turned it off last night. Hmm?

So now I’m using someone else’s computer with a recessed monitor. Which is weird, because I’m looking down, not across. It’s not uncomfortable yet, but we’ll see. I did, however, have to switch out her mouse with mine, because I could already feel my index finger stiffening up.

I haven’t gotten anything in the mail. I’m so impatient. It would be nice to get the Dana before the long weekend, but the proposed delivery date is Tuesday, of course. *sigh*

No word on the bag yet, either, although it has been shipped.

I’m going to try to hook up the Dana to my work machine as well as my home machine so I can synchronize my calendars. This means I’m going to have to use Outlook, but I guess I can’t have everything.

And at the moment, writing-related, I am rereading the first two books in the trilogy because I want to make sure I don’t miss anything. So far, I haven’t found any glaring errors (that I made in BiS, that is.)

Okay, I don’t do many of these online quizzes, but I did this one.

Someone does not know their grammar and spelling. Sheesh! Proofread, people!!!!!!

Your are a theif.

You fight dirty, you don’t care about anyone.
You’ll hire assasins to make “jobs”
easier. You are stealthy, you are not
trustworthy. You’ll switch sides if you start
losing. Money is worth more then your friends.

What type of Swordsman are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I hate waiting for things to come in the mail.

Let’s see. I didn’t get to write at all today yet, but I got a lot done over the weekend, even with the specter of apples and peaches to occupy my time. (The grapes are just about ready too. Yum.) BiS is moving, but I’m getting no inkling of the ending yet. This might just mean that I’m not halfway finished like I thought. Which is okay… I guess.

Let’s see. I made myself a list today of what I’d like to have done by the end of the year, and so far I have 53 things on my list. Now, granted, it should really be things I want to have done a year from now, and I might just rephrase it as such, because some of the stuff won’t be done until next year anyway. But 53 things isn’t bad. At least I don’t think it’s bad. None of the things on the list are horrible, either.

Hmm. Anything else? It’s Mom’s b-day Saturday, and I’m getting her the Two Towers DVD. Dad bought ‘her’ a DVD/VCR combo. I’m sure she’ll say it’s for the whole family and let us all watch DVDs together… right? She wants to go to the casino again, so who knows. Maybe I’ll win another $100.

Tomorrow some bright soul at work (names are being withheld to protect the guilty, but they know who they are) decided to have our team meeting at a local park. Now, mind you, the temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 91. And obvious hot and humid. Not what I’d call a good day to go to the park, but at least I can wear shorts.

Of course that means I have to shave my legs… *sigh*

And I have to make peach crisp for this thing too. Argh. At least that’s easily done.

Anything else? Not at the moment, at least. I’m going to go change my clothes and write.

Oh yeah. A year ago today, you-know-who and I decided to call it quits. Comparing last August to this August, I think I’ve moved forward quite a bit, don’t you?

I did it. I ordered one. Whee.

BiS is smoking tonight. Double whee.

Why am I saying whee a lot all of a sudden? Is it my inner child emerging?

Oh boy. Today I found out that Alphasmart has upgraded the Dana, and lowered the price. There’s free shipping until August 31, too.

Tempting. Very tempting. The more I think about it, the more I want to buy one now. But $379 is a lot of money, even though I could afford it just fine. Hmm.

Thursday night at the writers group meeting, my arm hurt so bad that I couldn’t move it at times without shooting pain. I already knew what the culprit was–my backpack, which isn’t ergonomic by a long shot–but the thrifty person who lives inside of me didn’t like the thought of buying a new bag just yet.

But then I thought about what I’ve bought to make my hands and wrists feel better–a trackball mouse–and although that was only $20, I could feel the difference within an hour.

So yesterday I ordered a Healthy Back Bag from my favorite outlet site, Sierra Trading Post, because I’m getting sick of this arm trouble. (It’s not my shoulder; it’s my upper arm. I don’t understand why it’s not my shoulder.)

So once it comes I’ll have an ergonomic bag as well as an ergonomic mouse. Whee.

What does this have to do with buying a Dana? Well, the bag was (yikes!) $60. I bought it with some of the leftover money from my free paycheck. So I already feel like I’ve spent too much money, even though it was okay to spend it.

I guess it’s just been so long since I’ve had any money to spend that when I do spend it, I feel like I shouldn’t. But I’m on track with paying off the credit cards, I have money in my savings account, and I’m more financially stable at the moment than I’ve been for the past three years.

I’m going to buy a new computer after the credit cards are paid off, and pay cash. I’ll have that money even if I buy a Dana now. That’s not the problem.

Hmm. I don’t know. It almost comes down to two questions: Do I need a Dana right now? or is it just that I want a Dana right now?

Need vs. Want

Need: More memory. If I’m going to be reading more ebooks, I’m going to need more memory. My Visor, at the moment, has 2mb free.

Want: More memory. More memory = more works-in-progress able to be on the device.

Need: Something a bit more stable than the Visor/Keyboard combo. Since the Dana’s all one piece, it will be much more stable for balancing on my lap.

Want: Something small enough to fit in my new bag, because I’ll be damned if I’m going to get another bag for the Dana. (I think it will fit. I do have something roughly equivalent in size so I can check. Which I will.)

Need: To transfer my work calendar to my device, whatever it may be. And use it instead of my paper calendar. At the moment, I’m working from two calendars.

Want: Less junk in my new bag.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… I could go on like this for days, but I’m not going to. I will think on it and make a decision by the 31st. Because thrifty me sure doesn’t want to let that free shipping go if I am going to buy one.

(You can tell I’m a Libra, can’t you?)

Okay, things they are a-moving!

Vicki will be joining me at Ebook Reader, which will relieve the weekly deadlines a bit.

I’m doing Review #1, which will be posted September 5, and she’ll do review #2, on September 12. We even have a dedicated email address for the blog: ebookreader@myway.com. What fun.

Something New.

I’ve been contemplating this for a while, but haven’t had the time or the money to implement it until now.

Ebook Reader will be a review spot for both small press ebooks and small press epublishers, starting September 5, and updated every Friday with a new review.

I’ve always wanted to write book reviews, but I suck at them, so this is my practice arena until I’m good enough for my tastes. And since I’m reading a very good ebook at the moment, I figured now would be a good time to implement my new blog.

The Brown County Writers Group now has a website! Go visit! My story, Binding the Hunt is on this site as well, for Gabriel fans…