Coffee and Kindle - Replacement Received

My new Kindle 3G and Coffee

I finally received my replacement Kindle, the new Kindle 3G, yesterday afternoon after waiting practically forever. It was lost enroute and eventually arrived after eleven days of shipping and lots of phone calls and emails with Amazon/Kindle. So here's a photo taken this morning of the new Kindle and my morning cup of coffee.

If you've read my other posts about my problems with Amazon/Kindle, it's been a long haul to get a new replacement for my three month old defective 2nd Generation Kindle. First they sent me a "refurbished" one as a replacement and it didn't work. Duh! It took lots of complaining and unpleasant words before I got a new one as a replacement. I'm still waiting for my refund, which they claimed to have processed over a week ago, but which still isn't showing up on my credit card account. When that finally gets straightened out, I'll have to deal with the issue of getting a refund on my warranty for the original Kindle. You see, they want me to pay for a new warranty for the replacement Kindle, even though I already paid for a two year warranty and only had my Kindle for less than three months when it went on the fritz.

Since I've had both the 2nd Generation Kindle and now the Kindle 3G, I can give a few comparisons. The new one is smaller, lighter weight and has darker print and better contrast. I like the switches better on the new one. Also, the vents are on the back upper corners of the device instead of the back bottom corners. This should prevent overheating, which I think was part of the problem with my 2nd Generation Kindle. Since I've only had this new one for 24 hours, it remains to be seen how it will hold up to steady use.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the Kindle. It's a great concept for an avid reader who always wants to carry his or her books around at all times. My complaint is primarily with the warranty that allows them to replace a defective Kindle with a refurbished one at their discretion. I think that's a rotten policy and if I'd "read the fine print" before I bought my original Kindle, I wouldn't have bought it for that reason. On the other hand, since I didn't find that said "small print" before I bought my Kindle, after I bought it, it was too late to turn back. I really liked my 2nd Generation Kindle until it went on the fritz after only ten weeks of use. As I've said before, the Kindle is great when it works and not great when it doesn't work.

The other major problem with Amazon/Kindle is the poor customer service. I spent a horrible two weeks fighting with Amazon and Kindle support in order to get my replacement Kindle 3G. I tried to explain to them that their customer service is the worst I've ever encountered. But I don't think they cared one way or the other. I've been a satisfied Amazon customer for over five years, but I'd only bought books, CDs and DVDs. I only once had to return a book, when they sent me the wrong one. So I had no idea that I would have such a big problem in purchasing my Kindle.

Even though I've had a rather unpleasant experience with Amazon and Kindle Support, that doesn't mean everyone else will have the same problem. My adult daughter got her 2nd Generation 9" Kindle last January and has not had any problems. I'd like to think that what I encountered was an exception to the rule.

Do I recommend the new 6" Kindle 3G? So far, I think it's great! Considering the price, I hope it works for a good long time. If it does, then I'll be a very happy Kindle owner. All I can say is, if you want to buy one, please be sure to read the warranty, including the "fine print."

Mums the Word!



Mums and Potted Wildflowers

"Mums the Word!" I've wanted to use that expression for a long time. Well, this was a day for mums, or rather, chrysanthemums. They were on sale for $1/pot at WalMart, so how could I help but buy some? Actually, my husband was out doing the grocery shopping this morning and I called him on his cell and asked him to get some of the mums. So he brought home seven little potted mums, which I promptly replanted in the glazed pots on our patio. So pretty, in bright yellow, purple and gold. If the mums are still on sale tomorrow, I think we'll buy some more.

This has been a week that went by much too fast. It seems like all I did was blink and the week was gone. Maybe it was the beautiful Florida weather? This is the perfect time of year, with temps in the 80s and a cooling ocean breeze. In fact, Monday morning was so cool I had to wear a sweatshirt when I sat out on the patio early in the morning. The other mornings have all been a little warmer, so no sweatshirt was needed.



This afternoon I took photos of the planted mums. Yep, I take photos of everything. I also took photos of the pale blue skies dotted with small white cotton-ball clouds. The sky was so beautiful today I was almost tempted to take out my oils and paint some sky-scapes. But the day was too nice to do anything more than take a few photos, listen to the birds, watch the butterflies and blue dragonflies and read.

I have a lot to write about from this past week, but for now I'm just going to stick with the mums. I'll write about the other things tomorrow.

The Ordeal of Bathing Dogs

Shani

This morning was bath day for our two dogs, Nikki and Shani. For these two, bathing is an ordeal. They would rather do anything else in life than get a bath. Now it's not as if they dislike water. Give them a wide open beach with gentle surf, a bay, bayou, lake, river, stream, creek, pool, or even a mud puddle and these are two happy dogs. But just try coaxing them into having a bath. Bathtubs are out. Showers are out. So we have to resort to a bucket of soapy water and then drag the dogs, one at a time, onto the back patio for a much needed shampoo and rinse. They'll do just about anything to keep that first drop of soapy water off their fur, which is just fine with a little dirt, thank you very much. But since they primarily want to be inside dogs, a bath now and then is a must.

So we started with 96 lb Shani, who for some uncanny reason, knows when she's about to get a bath. Today we had to half push, half drag her out the sliding glass door and onto the patio. Once she gets soaped down she resigns herself to the ordeal and cooperates with no problem. When she's fully shampooed, rinsed, shakes off, is dried with a towel and then given her after-bath-treat, then she's a happy camper. Of course, in 2 to 3 months time we'll go through this all over again.


Nikki

Nikki, now at 41 lbs, is easier to handle. Today I just bodily picked her up and carried her out the door. Of course, I'll pay for that later with an aching back, but at the moment it seemed like the best solution, as there's no way to coax her out the door. We've tried that method too many times and it never works. Nik has short fur, so it takes only minutes to get her cleaned and dried. Then she heads straight for the kitchen to wait for her treat. The treat today was half a slice of turkey-ham.

My Mom has two Basset Hounds, Lulu and Daisy, who love getting a bath. They jump willingly into her downstairs bathtub and enjoy their bath. She used to bathe them one at a time, but they both wanted to be first. So now she just lets them both get in the tub at the same time. Of course, they get an after-bath-treat too. After that, they run up and down the long hallway like crazy dogs.

My sister-in-law, who has four small dogs, a Shih Tzu, a Chihuahua, a Yorkie and a Chorkie (a Chihuahua-Yorkie mix), just puts all her dogs in a plastic tub on her condo patio and bathes them as a group. She says the dogs sulk for about an hour or two, because they're offended that she would do such a thing to them.  Then, once again, they're all happy and much nicer smelling dogs.

One time I took Shani in for a bath. After charging me $42 it turns out they tranquilized her in order to give her a bath. I was furious and have never subjected any of my dogs again to that kind of experience. So maybe Shani does have a reason for not wanting to get a bath?

Anyway, after the bath and a nap, our dogs usually sniff each other to check out the new smells. They seem to like being clean, after the fact. Also, I think our dogs take great satisfaction in knowing that we get a bath at the same time as they do, because after all is said and done, we're as soaked as the dogs and have to change into dry clothes afterwards. As I've already said, bathing the dogs is an ordeal, but we'll do it all over again in a couple months or so.

Learning Colors

I spent last Saturday afternoon with the grandkids. This time I brought a selection of art supplies for my grandson, Bubba. He was delighted to find green kid's scissors and a green plastic box to hold his new treasured art supplies. "Nana, you know that green is my favorite color," he said. "I know sweetie, that's why I bought you green scissors and a green art box."

When I'd gone to Bubba's PreK4 class the week before last for Grandparents' Day, his teacher had said Bubba needed more practice cutting with scissors and with coloring. Well, since I'm "into art" that's right in my line. So, in addition, I'd bought a new box of crayons (new ones are always better than old) and new watercolor markers, plus an art workbook that had lots of colored pages with lines, squares, circles, triangles, etc. for him to cut and paste.

The twins, not to be left out on anything, were put in their chairs and pushed up to the big dining room table. They were given coloring books and crayons and were instantly into their art projects. Amazing that  at only 19 month olds they were very intense about coloring. Our art time went on for a full two hours. Whoever said little ones only have a three minute attention span? These three have a longer attention span than me when it comes to art.

Well, halfway through our art projects, Baby1 (they both still call each other Baby) switched from her chair to my lap, which put us between Bubba and Baby2 at the dining table. Bubba would cut out a colored shape and hand it to Baby1. I'd say the word for that color and Baby1 would smile and repeat the word. Then she'd hand the colored piece of paper to Baby2 and I'd say the color and she would repeat the word. When we got to yellow, both girls beamed and sang out, "Yellow, yellow, yellow." They did the same with blue. "Blue, blue, blue," they repeated in their little sing-song voices. I pointed out to Baby2 that the blue circle matched her blue t-shirt. You could see the wheels turning in her brain and then she reached into the crayon box and picked out a bright yellow crayon. She handed the crayon to me and said, "Yellow," with a big smile on her face.

I was bowled over. Not only were the twins repeating the words for the colors, but they understood the concept of color. And at only 19 months old? So the color game went on and on. Green and purple were a big hit too and the girls continued to sing out their colors. Funny thing, when I said, "white," they just looked at me with annoyance. Apparently white held no interest for them? I tried to get them to say the word "pink" but maybe that color was too ordinary? Their bedroom is in pinks, so that's a color they see all the time. So maybe they didn't care to put a name to it?

Bubba, at almost 4 1/2, was more interested in the variation of colors. He grouped the shades of blue together, the oranges and reds, the yellows and golds. Though he's learning his letters, he can't read yet. So he wanted me to read the name of the colors on the side of each crayon. Though he knows all his colors, he added "coral," "lavender" and other new word colors to his vocabulary. Anyway, the four of us had a grand afternoon doing art and learning colors.

I Love "Dancing with the Stars!"

I have to admit that I love "Dancing with the Stars!" I'm one of those people who picks up the phone and votes. Only I didn't vote last night. There's something extra sad about being the 1st star voted off. So I just can't bring myself to vote the first night.

I happen to also be a long time football fan. So "Monday Night Football" is something I don't want to miss. So I ask, whoever made the decision to play the two opposite each other? Last night I had to flip back and forth  between the two channels each time there was a commercial break. I know, I could get a DVR and record one or the other. But I'm stubborn about new fangled things and am not yet ready to get one. I must confess, I'm not a techie type and still haven't mastered my DVD player, so I'm sure I'd mess up trying to use a DVR.

Anyway, it's great that tonight they replayed the dancing from last  night's "Dancing with the Stars." Maybe that's for us football fans? Anyway, I enjoyed watching every single dance, even Margaret Cho's comedic dance routine and David Hassellhoff hamming it up. Michael Bolton seemed out of his element, but I imagine he has the potential of becoming a good dancer.

I thought Florence Henderson did a great job and I should look so good at her age. She still has great legs! I thought Bristol Palin was adorable and sexy. Once again, I loved those gorgeous legs. I've been a football fan of Kurt Warner, so I had to cheer him on as he did his first dance. I think he did a pretty good job for a quarterback turned ballroom dancer. Brandy looked great! Hey, we've watched her growing up on the TV, and now she's a beautiful young lady and I'm sure will be a wonderful dancer.

Jennifer Grey was just exquisite on the dance floor! I imagine she's going to be my favorite throughout the season. I didn't know the other few, but still enjoyed watching them dance. Anyway, I know I'm going to enjoy watching this season's "Dancing with the Stars."

I wasn't surprised that David Hasselhoff was the first to be voted off. As my grandson would say, he didn't have "dancing feet." On the other hand, I remember meeting David Hasselhoff in Las Vegas many years ago at the opening of the "New York, New York" casino. He had such boyish charm then. So the same charm is still there, just a bit aged.

I definitely enjoy the musicians who appear on the second night. I'm a long time fan of "Santana" and enjoy "Daughtry" too. So it was great seeing and hearing them perform together. I loved their combined sound!

Well, I'm already looking forward to next week's "Dancing with the Stars" and "Monday Night Football." So maybe I'll have to get that DVR?