Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Goals met

Last night before I went to sleep I had a list in mind of things to get done today:

       1. Make Crock Pot Ham & 16 Bean soup for supper
       2. Make binding for the QOV quilt I quilted yesterday
       3. Make backing for the next quilt on the quilting list

I'm happy to say I got all that done plus cutting batting to size and making the binding for that next quilt. I'm thinking maybe I can at least get it loaded on the machine on Friday.

The soup turned out pretty good...DH had two helpings.  One thing though....the beans were cooked within 4-5 hrs on high, not the 6-8 like the recipe says.  So it was ready much sooner than I thought it would be. We ate early tonight.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

.....Mmmmmmmmmmmm.......

......Should a librarian be in possession of an eBook reader? It might seem like going against the grain, but I was curious, did some a lot of research and am now the owner of a Sony PRS 650 touchscreen eReader.



It's compact, easy to operate and fairly lightweight. So much easier on hands than holding a large hard-cover book. Text can be adjusted to six different sizes....good for aging eyes. The screen is what's called e-ink rather than back lit like a computer screen. I've read two or three hours at a time and my eyes don't get tired like they do reading for extended periods of time on the computer. Over all I like it, but if there was one thing I could change it would be to have the screen background more of a cream color instead of the very pale gray it is.  This model doesn't have either Wifi or 3G connections so books need to be downloaded to the computer first then put on the reader.  I use a free program called Calibre to manage my books and load them to the reader. The program can also convert from one eBook format to another as long as there's no Digital Rights Management (DRM) on the eBook. For instance, from Kindle's MOBI format to the more standard EPUB format, or vice versa, but only if there's no DRM involved.  Just so you know, I still like real books too. Something about the feel and smell of the paper and ink along with the ability to see your progress as you read. I'll never abandon them entirely.

My new gadget is laying on the 10-Minute table runner that only took an hour to make at our Quilt Club meeting last week. My Halloween one turned out real cute and it would be fun to make some for all the holidays and seasons.  A set of them would make nice gifts too.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Isn't it interesting?

The library got it's new copy of Consumer Reports today.....the 2011 new car edition. In looking through it I realized that the car industry seems to be going backward when it comes to gas mileage.  The majority of the vehicles featured, and there were lots of them, don't get as good gas mileage as my 20-yr. old Buick. That includes the teeny-weeny sub-compact models. There were just a handful that are rated at 30mpg or better. This is progress?? Who are they trying to kid?? We won't even go into prices of the new "efficient" cars.