Come on Baby, Light My Fire!

My Kindle Fire was scheduled to be delivered today so I decided to do some productive work while I waited for the UPS man.  I've been meaning to tackle the closet in our spare room upstairs.  It has gotten so full with suitcases, fabric, Christmas presents, and off-season clothes that I could barely walk into it.

My linen closet in the bathroom upstairs is full to the brim so I've been stashing some sheets for the twin bed in our spare room in here, too.  Plus there are still some of our son's things in it.

See, I told you.....no room to walk in THIS closet!

Oh, and let's not forget the quilt batting that has been stashed in here as well as Christmas wrapping paper from LAST Christmas.

The first thing I did was move the suitcases out of the closet so I could walk in there, as well as put the Christmas presents temporarily in the other room.  Then I grabbed some boxes and some garbage bags.  Next job was to sort through the hanging clothes and remove clothes that needed to go to Goodwill.  That helped quite a bit.

I sorted through my fabric and neatly folded the larger pieces.  The smaller pieces were put into some clear little bins with lids to go on the top shelf in the closet.  I also dragged my son's guitar amp (why I still have this in our closet, I don't know) and put it way back in a corner of the top shelf.

The batting was arranged up on the shelf as well, next to a tub with lots of quilt blocks for a big reproduction  Civil War quilt that I've been working on forever, it seems like.

The final result was a fairly neat closet that I can walk into and easily find things in.  And before I could rethink anything, I lugged the bags of clothes and the box of other donations down the stairs and out the door where I loaded them into my car and made the trip to Goodwill to donate.

Look at that!  It's the carpet.  You can actually see bare carpet with nothing scattered all over it.  Wow!  I WILL confess, however, that I did have to put a few Christmas presents back in there to hide them from curious eyes next week when the family arrives for Thanksgiving.  It's a big joke in our family that EVERYONE knows where Mom's hiding place is for Christmas presents but hey, if they look, they lose the fun of being surprised.  Besides, it has a nice sliding door that I can conveniently shut.

Just when I was finishing up, I heard a truck pull up outside.  I looked out the window and yippee-ki-yay!  It was UPS.  My Kindle Fire had arrived.  Guess you know what I was doing this afternoon.  I'll give you my first impressions in my next post.

Feeling the Vibes

Did you survive 11-11-11?  Apparently, it was supposed to be quite an auspicious date.  Of course, most of us were probably aware that it was Veterans Day here in the States.  That happens every 11-11, whether it is 2011 or not.   I did a little digging though, and discovered some of the other "buzz" around the date.

The date happens only once every 100 years.  Chances are that you won't experience another 11-11-11 unless health care REALLY improves between now and 2111.  Quite a few cultures and groups considered the date to be very lucky.  The Hindus think it is quite lucky since the number "1" symbolizes the sun.  I guess because the sun is considered "life-giving", then you can pack a lot of life in 11-11-11.

Speaking of packing life in the date, apparently obstetricians were gearing up for a very long day.  Many expectant mothers were scheduling Caesarians for the 11th.  One doctor even offered to refund his fees for any baby that he delivered that day.  I believe I read that he was going to hold the funds in trust for the kids until their 21st birthdays, though, so let's hope he is still around then.

Lots of folks were getting married yesterday.  The date is considered a great one for new beginnings.  I suspect one ulterior motive might have been that it is a hard date to forget, making it less likely that you'd forget your anniversary.

Quite a few folks of a more "pagan" slant were expecting a bunch of mystical creatures known as the "Spirit Guardians" to show up around mid-morning yesterday.  These creatures supposedly watch over us mortals. They also supposedly prompt you to look at the clock at 11:11 as a way to get your attention throughout the year and do things like make streetlights go off when you go by.  This is supposed to let you know that something big is coming.  I'm not sure why they were supposed to actually show up yesterday.  Maybe it was to whack us on the back of the head, like Jethro Gibbs on NCIS, for those of us a little slow on the uptake.

I read one 11-11-11 website that was predicting three possible scenerios:
Something good was going to happen, something bad was going to happen, or nothing was going to happen.  Gee, I think that about covers it all, don't you?

I read that Egypt closed the pyramids to tourists yesterday so that no weird groups would show up and perform pagan sacrifices on them.  All I can say is, "Thank God!"

So did you have any unusual experiences yesterday?  See any Spirit Guardians?  I didn't notice any over here but I DID get an "aura" mid-morning.  I suppose it could have been related to the date, but I'm more prone to think it was the usual visual manifestation of the migraines that I'm prone to having.  For the rest of you who had "nothing", hang in there.  It's less than 200 years now until your next chance to feel the vibe.

Now, Which One Was That?

"I HATE the way they have those windows set up at McDonalds, " I told my husband.

He looked up from the Solitaire game he was playing on the iPad and said, "Huh?"

"I mean, how confusing can they be," I complained.  "You place your order at the drive-up speaker and then they tell you to proceed to the first window."

"So what's the problem?" he asked.

"Well, what's the first window?" I replied.  "Technically, they have you stopping to pay at the second window."

He looked at me like I was nuts.  "No, they don't," he said, slowly and clearly like he was speaking to a two-year-old.  "You pay at the first window.  It's simple."

"But actually that's the second window because you pick up your food at the first window.  The first window is at the head of the line and the second window is behind it," I explained.  "If they really wanted to be clear, they'd say 'Proceed to the first window you come to' and then there would be no confusion."

My husband shook his head.  "You're the only one who thinks like this," he said.

"Think about it," I countered.  "If you wanted to be first for something, would you want to be at the beginning of the line or at the end of the line?"

"At the beginning of the line, of course," he answered.

"So if you're in a line of cars pulling up to two windows, the first window you come to is actually the second window along the wall because the first window is the one after it, at the head of the line.You've got a whole line of cars who have to get past the intermediate window in order to get to the 'prize' window (the FIRST window) to get their food, right?" I told him.

He stared at me.  "I swear I don't know how your mind works.  Nobody else comes up with this stuff," he said.

Today I stopped at McDonalds to get a cup of their specialty coffee.  I drove through the drive-in area, placed my order, and the clerk told me to drive up to the first window.

"OK, I can do this," I thought.  "I'll stop at the second window and get it right this time."
I drove up to the window but no one was standing there.  "Aha," I thought.  "They finally got it right."
I started to drive up to the next window but some frantic motioning from the other window stopped me.  A clerk was leaning out the window, beckoning me to come back to pay.

So I put the car in reverse, backed up and gave her my money.  I toyed with the idea of going inside and telling the manager how they needed to change their instructions OR change the signage on their windows but I was too embarrassed to take the time.  I had forgotten that I still had the car in reverse when I gave it the gas to continue on to the FIRST window to get my coffee and nearly gave the guy behind me (and myself) a heart attack.

Siri, I Think I Love You!

Now that I have my new iPhone 4s, I have acquired my own personal assistant.  Yes, the new iPhone comes with Siri.  I can't give you all the technical mumbo-jumbo as to what Siri is but I CAN tell you in layman's terms that she (and I use the humanizing pronoun deliberately) is an artificial intelligence-type of  program built into the new iPhone.  You speak to her just like you would to a normal person and she answers you.

For example, to get the screen above, I pushed my home button and said, "Siri!"

She replied, "Yes, Dee?"

I said, "Do you think it is going to snow this week?"

You can see her answer on my phone's screen.  Siri will do things like read incoming texts to you, write a text and send it for you, call people for you, set up reminders for you, pop up a map to show you how to get to a place you ask directions to, and even make recommendations for things like a good Indian restaurant.

That's only the tip of the iceberg.  There's more she'll do.  You can read all about Siri on Apple's website here.  What I particularly like is that there was no tedious learning curve to use Siri.  She was quite agreeable right from the start.  I can remember the old PDA days when you had to "train" your device to recognize your voice and then train it to recognize your handwriting.  Boy, have we come a long way, Baby!

Apple says that Siri will be able to do more and more amazing things as the months go by and more people use it.  Now if this was a sci-fi movie, you might be getting a little twinge of foreshadowing right about now.  Could Siri one day become too smart for her own good.....or for OUR own good?  Ah, who knows?  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy having someone (or something) at my beck and call who does what I want when I want them to do it.  Besides, I'm notoriously bad at typing on these little phone keyboards and it's incredibly nice to be able to just say a message and have it show up in email or text format.

Siri is also funny.  I asked her if the iPhone was the best smartphone.  Her response?

"You're kidding, right?"

A Novel Use?

When my iPhone 4S was on order, I blogged about my search for the right case/cover for it.  The result was the BookBook case shown above.  It seemed perfect for someone who loved reading as much as I do.  But then I got my iPhone and started using the case.  Alas, it wasn't as perfect as I had hoped.  The size and weight was great, it felt just right in my hand, and the protection it offered my phone was wonderful.

The drawbacks were several major ones that I just couldn't get around.  The main drawback was the fact that there was no cut-out for the rear-camera.  Whenever I wanted to take a picture, I had to undo the tab at the top (cleverly disguised to look like a bookmark) and push the phone up partially from the bottom of the case until it cleared the holder enough for the camera lens to be usable.  The second drawback was when I wanted to talk on the phone, I had to fold the cover back onto itself and hold it that way while I talked.  It felt stiff and awkward.   The BookBook case also was advertised as being usable as a wallet/credit card carrier.  I knew from reading reviews that it wouldn't hold many cards.  But if I put three cards in there, it was very difficult to push out the one in the clear vinyl.  I guess the thought was that you could just keep an ID there and flash it at folks who ask for an ID instead of having to take it out all the time.  Also, if I put several bills in the wallet part, I could barely pry the credit cards out because it made things so tight.  In all fairness, it would probably loosen up over time since it is made of leather.

So I did some more research and finally settled on a colorful CaseCrown Glider case for my iPhone and I'm quite pleased with it.   I love the color, it feels wonderful, and I can easily put it in my special FM transmitter device that I use to listen to podcasts and music through my car's stereo.  That left me with the BookBook case.  Should I try to sell it?  I REALLY liked its uniqueness and the feel of it.  What to do?

I decided to adapt it to hold my miscellaneous credit cards, ID cards, and store cards. I have so many of these darn things that they don't all fit in my regular wallet, which I reserve for the really important cards like my driver's license, military ID, debit card, bookstore card, and insurance cards.  I WAS using a separate wallet for the other cards but it was bulky and took up space in my purse.  Looking at the little BookBook, I decided it would be perfect for these auxiliary cards.

I took the little "dummy iphone box" that had come with the case, cut off the top end, reinforced the sides with packing tape, and voila!  I now had a perfect little container to hold my extra cards.  In they went.  The velcro tab that was designed to hold the phone in place works perfectly to keep the cards from sliding out. I can also put several cards that I use more frequently on the other side of the case in the card slots.

My new system has been working great.  It's perfect for its new use.  In keeping with the literary theme of the case, "All's well that ends well."

A New Look

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you're probably rechecking your link and wondering what in the world happened to Hot-Flashed Funk.  Well, don't worry.  You've arrived at the right blog.  We just have a new look.....a more modern look.  I blame it on my email.  You see, I opened up my email today and there was the November update from Blogger highlighting the new templates they were featuring.  These templates are more in keeping with the trends these days in electronic magazines and blogging.

I couldn't resist.  As my son frequently tells me, "You LOVE change, Mom!."  He's right.  I love to shake things up and try new things.  I also have been enjoying reading blogs and news on my iPad via Flipboard, Blogshelf, and Zite which use formats similar to the new Blogger templates.

So....to read one of my posts, just click on the post and you'll see the expanded post.  To see other posts, just scroll down and click on whatever strikes your fancy.  If you are wondering where the links on the side went to, look up in the blue bar across the top of this blog where it says "Pages."  Click on that down arrow and you'll see that I've made a separate page for each of the different link categories.  If you see something you want to share with the world, the new template makes it easy to share the link now on Twitter or Facebook.

In the next few weeks, Blogger has promised to roll out more gadgets in support of these new templates so maybe I can get back to including a pic of my latest knitting project or my tweets or random books from my library.  But if not, I'll just have to blog about projects as I finish them and you can always head over to Twitter to follow me.  I don't Tweet a lot so you won't be inundated. You'll find me over there as "Booklassie."  And I must say...looking at the picture above, I never noticed before now that my monitor that's hooked up to my laptop when I'm working at home is askew.  I guess that would explain my view of life.  Have a great day today, kids!

The Facetime Horror Show

My new iPhone 4s arrived Monday and I've been having fun setting it up, getting things transferred over from my old iPhone 3 and trying out the new features.  Let me just say right now that I LOVE Siri.  FINALLY I have somebody I can boss around who actually will listen to me, even if she IS an artifical intelligence "person."

After I finished my phone activation, I decided to take my iPhone out for a "test run", so to speak.  I called my brother.

"Hey, John,  I'm calling you from my new iPhone," I gloated.

"Cool," he replied.  "Hey, doesn't it have Facetime?  We could try using that."

"OK, hang on, " I said, as I searched the call screen for the icon, "Let me switch over to it."

Sure enough, up popped my face in a little window and the phone indicated that it was trying to connect to my brother but no picture was coming up.  We fiddled around with our phones, talking all the while on them, trying to figure out what we were doing wrong.

"Hey, remember that YouTube video I sent you of that old couple trying to figure out how to use their computer's webcam?" I asked him.  He laughed.  "I sure hope these phones aren't recording us."

"Oh, maybe I have to click on the 'Accept' button," he said.  Up popped his face.

"Jeez," I said.  "Where ARE you?"

"I'm in my computer room but it's pretty dark in here," he answered.

"I'll say," I laughed.  "All I can see is a floating head.  You look like that host of the old Saturday afternoon horror show we used to watch on TV when we were kids."

"Maybe this will help," he said, as he reached up to turn on a light he had hooked to his computer monitor.

"Aargh, turn it off," I chuckled.  His receding hairline made the glare on his forehead blinding.

"Sheesh, I can see you but I can barely see me on this phone.  I'm in this little box up in the corner, " I said, as I  took off my glasses and leaned closer to get a better look.  "Holy s___! Is that what I look like?  Look at the bags under those eyes!  I could fit a whole sale at Macy's in those."

We spent the next 5 minutes amusing ourselves making faces at each other via Facetime.  Ain't technology grand?

"Hey, what's this little camera icon down here in the corner?  Maybe I can take a picture of you on the screen like I can when I'm Skyping," I mused aloud.  I pressed the icon.  Suddenly I was looking at my tablecloth.

"Whoops, that must activate the camera on the back of the phone," I told John.

"Hey, neat," he said.  "Do you still have snow there?  You could show me."

We spent the next 5 minutes aiming our phones at different views in our houses.

Our fun was interrupted when he had to cut the conversation short to leave for an appointment.  Gee, and we were having so much fun.  Just think of all the great moments of sister-brother bonding we've been missing without Facetime.  Until next time......

We Made the Weather Channel

Yes, our little corner of Pennsylvania made the national news this weekend when a freak snowstorm hit us on Saturday.  Jim Cantore, from the Weather Channel, actually came to town and was broadcasting live from our area as the snow came down.  Now remember....this was October 29, not the end of November or early December.

It was a really wet, heavy snow too, which made it particularly devastating to tree branches, fences (like our neighbor's fence seen in the distance from our backyard), and power lines).  The towns just south of us got about 10 inches of snow Saturday.  We got about 5-6 inches of snow before things tapered off and I suspect it was actually more but the weight of the snow just compacted everything down.

I kept expecting us to lose power.  The lights were flickering all day and several times they went off but came right back on.  I was working away on my computer most of the day and even when the power went off, it came back so quickly that my computer just came back up without rebooting.

We were the lucky ones.  When all was said and done, over 250,000 people in our area were without power.  Ugh!  Even our church was without power until Sunday afternoon.  Our church staff decided to cancel most of the activities and one of the services but they went ahead and had one service without power or heat and over 170 people showed up.  The heat generated was from warm hearts and good fellowship.

I got a lot of knitting done Saturday and Sunday.  It was the perfect time to snuggle under a blanket in the recliner, find some episodes of a British comedy to watch (I'm currently working my way through past seasons of the British show "The IT Crowd," and to work on winter knitting.

I finished this cowl.  The pattern is the "Nougat Cowl."  I love the colors of the yarn, don't you?  It reminds me of the changing leaves of trees in autumn (not that you'd know it, looking at the trees in my yard after our winter storm).  This wasn't a Christmas gift.  I took a quick break to knit this up for myself.  When I saw one like it at my local yarn shop and found out they had some of the same yarn available, I just had to snap up a skein and whip one up, too.  Now that it is finished, I'm working on a Boo Boo Bunny for little Luke.  His sister, Mika, reminded me that Luke didn't have a bunny of his own.  She was holding HER bunny at the time, which I had made for her when she was a newborn.  That was all the incentive I needed to get busy on some knitting for baby.

Stay warm!  Winter is obviously just around the corner.

Killer Apple Antics

Every so often you stumble across something so funny you just have to share it.  Today is that day, my friends.  In keeping with the "scary" theme of Halloween and with a tip of the cap to someone who did a great job of musical editing, I give you......The Attack of the Killer Apples!  Enjoy.

Freaky Friday Faves

It's Friday again and if predictions hold, this could be the start of a "Freaky Weekend" so I'm calling this post, "Freaky Friday Faves."  Yes, things are afoot for the weekend and I'm excited to see if they pan out.  But more on that in a minute.  Let's get started on five things that have or had me feeling blessed this week, shall we?

1.  Our little Mika - Isn't she sweet as a daisy in this picture?  It is always a joy to receive a weekly update on the grandchildren, especially since the update is accompanied by new pictures.  I can't wait until she gets here for Christmas.

2.  Our little "spud", Luke - Not to be outdone by his big sister, our grandson, Luke is getting cuter every day as well.  From the pictures we've seen, he seems to be quite the smiley boy and I have a feeling that this is indicative of a good-natured personality.  Boy, I can't wait to hold this little guy again.

3.  It looks like the new iPhone 4s is on its way to our house.  We got the notice yesterday that the Commander's new iPhone was enroute and due to arrive here today.  Since we ordered both phones on the same day, I'm hoping that means that mine will also be delivered today although so far, I haven't received any email to that effect.  Even so, I can live vicariously through his enjoyment of his new phone.  At least I have my new iPhone case here and all ready for my phone, when it arrives.

4.  Snow is in the forecast!  Yes, you read that right, folks.  They are predicting 3-6 inches of snow here in south-central Pennsylvania  for tomorrow afternoon.  This is October.  If the snow arrives as predicted, it will be the earliest appreciable snowfall on record in this area.  Could this be a harbinger of things to come this winter?

5.  Bad A__ Housecleaning - No, that's not me.  I just couldn't resist sharing this picture with you.  A friend posted it on Facebook. I don't know who to credit the pic to (so sorry for that) but just love the humor.  Wow, if I tackled my housecleaning like that, I almost think that dirt would cower before me, or at least run to the neighbor's house.  Sadly, I haven't reached this level of cleaning yet.


Do you have some highlights to share for this past week?  Why not blog about them and then jump over to Living to Tell the Story and click on Mister Linky to join the fun?

Pardon Me While I Locate My Brain

"No, no....you DON'T want to keep going!"

Something happened on my way to visit my mom in the nursing home.  I went one way and I think my brain decided to go a separate way.  You see, I was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike just one stop over from my town.  It should have taken me about 20 minutes.  Well, you know how your brain kind of goes on automatic pilot when you're driving sometimes?  Maybe that's what happened.

"Maybe I need one of these smart cars to tell me what to do."

As I approached the exit, I noticed police cars set up at the exit ramp with flashing lights, a long line of cars and trucks sitting on the ramp and lined up all the way through the exit terminals and down to the road I wanted to go on, and a temporary electronic sign set up by the exit saying "Caution...accident.  Expect long stops."

"No problem," I thought.  "I'll just go on to the next exit and get off there and take the back roads over to the nursing home.  That way I'll avoid getting stuck in this jam."

So I sailed right past the exit and got about 200 or 300 yards past it when I suddenly realized......oh, no......I'm on the Turnpike, not Interstate 81.  The next exit isn't one mile down the road.  It's 22 miles down the road.  It's like being in a cattle chute.  You can't just turn around and head back.  You have to stay the course and keep on going until you reach the next official exit before you can loop around.  It wouldn't have been so bad except that it was a gray, rainy day, most of the leaves have already fallen off the trees, there was a mist hanging around so that there wasn't even much of a view to see, and I had lots to do at home.

I called the Commander to get some sympathy.  "Hey, it could be worse," he said.  About 10 minutes later, he called me back.  "Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm heading back now.  I finally made it to the next exit," I replied.

"Oh, too bad," he answered.  "I was just thinking that you might want to take Route 11 back when you get off the Turnpike because the exit you want will probably still be blocked."

He was right, of course, but it was too late to do anything about it.  I did the logical thing.  I sailed past the exit I wanted AGAIN and just headed on home.  I'll try again tomorrow.

"Hey, brain....where in the world are you?"

Guess my brain was lost in space today.  Thankfully Mom wasn't expecting me so she wasn't disappointed.  Luckily, I had gassed up the car the other day, too, because my tank had been rather low.  Let's hope I can figure out what road I'm on by tomorrow.  Oy!

Disguised as a Book

BookBook Case for iPad

Wow, this company ships quickly!  I ordered my BookBook cases on the 24th of October and they arrived today, the 26th of October.  Talk about a pleasant surprise.  Let's take a look at the iPad case, shall we?

Here is what the case looks like before you put the iPad inside it.  There is a leather thong-type strap that hooks around a leather circle.  There is an elastic strap on the top of the side where your iPad goes as well as two leather tabs on the bottom that the iPad slides into.  The inside is a nice soft suede that provides a non-scratch surface that won't damage your iPad screen.

Here is how it looks with my iPad inside the case.  I had to take my Smart Cover off the iPad but all that means is that I have to put it to sleep myself now and not expect it to go to sleep automatically like it used to when I'd close the cover.

BookBook case set up as Stand

When you want to use this case as a stand, you slip the top of your iPad out of the elastic and take the leather strap out from behind the iPad.  It sounds fussy but indeed, it is a very quick operation.  Now you put your iPad back under the elastic and then fold your case open, taking the leather strap around, under, and back to the little circle thing (sorry, I don't know what the official name for it is), and then adjust the angle you want for the stand before wrapping the strap several times around the circle to secure your stand.

iPad in Upright Stand Position

 Reverse the procedure when you are finished using your iPad in the "stand" postition.  When you aren't using it with the "no-hands" approach, you can just hold it like you would a book on your lap and it will stay open while you manipulate your screen as normal.

 BookBook case Spine

Put your iPad in sleep mode or turn it off when you're done using it and zip up your case and this is the end result.  It looks just like a book.  How cool!

BookBook iPhone case 

I also got my case for my new iPhone 4s (which still hasn't arrived).  I wanted to show you how the two cases compare in size.  If you've ever seen a pocket-size New Testament, my new iPhone case is about the same size.

Waiting for my new phone

Now I just have to get my new phone and then I'll take out the "dummy" filler and slip that baby in my new case and put a few credit cards and my driver's license on the other side and I'm good to go.  Oh, guess I'd better slip a twenty in there as well, in case I get hungry for a snack.

Device Cases for Booklovers

If you've been reading my blog, then you know that I LOVE to read.  Books have been some of my favorite things since I was just a kid.  In the past few years, I've changed the way I like to read books, preferring now to read them electronically on either my Kindle or on my Nook.  Still, it's nice to give the appearance of a book and with that in mind, I've found some covers for the technical gadgets in your life that will show others that you are a fellow booklover.

1.  Zazzle has a wide variety of iphone cases for booklovers.  Check out the selection at this link.
http://www.zazzle.com/for+book+lovers+iphone+cases

2.   This vendor has got to be one of my current favorites. BookBook makes covers for iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and MacBook Air. Right now I have a cover on order for my iPhone 4s and my iPad and when they arrive (well, and when my iPhone arrives), I'll be sure to post a review of these covers for you up here on the blog.

3.  DodoCase covers can be simple or more elaborate like this Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore Case for iPad:

4.  Gelaskins offers covers for Kindles and Nooks like this one designed by Colin Thompson.  You can also submit your own photo which they can make into a custom skin for you and they do a great job.




Nedrelow - offers simple traditional book covers that you can personalize with your own custom texts or purchase with text the company offers.



So what are you waiting for?  Go check these companies and their products out and see how you can advertise your love of reading.