Uh-oh Dad’s Downloading More Books On His Kindle

Posted on June 25, 2012 by SloanParker

Non-techie Dad called again for help with his Kindle. If you recall, I’ve mentioned his issues before. This time he hadn’t even started downloading the book yet. Guess he wanted to be on the phone with me IN CASE he had issues. Which he did. Here’s how it went…

He says he’s all ready to download the book…

Me: “When the next box pops up, go ahead and click Save.”

Dad: “Okay, I clicked to download it. Do I click Save?”

Me: “Yes, click Save.”

Dad: “Okay. I think I’ve got it. Let me put it on my Kindle and I’ll call you back.”

Ring.

Dad: “I can’t find the book on my computer.”

Me: “Where did you save it when you clicked Save?”

Dad: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Okay, let’s do a search.” I told him the steps to perform a search for all the kindle files on his laptop (he hasn’t read that many so it shouldn’t be too hard to find the new one). Once he had the search window up, I told him what to type. He had to key in 5 characters.

Dad: “Hold on, I have to use both hands.” I heard him set the phone down and press the five keys with a long pause between each one. He picked up the phone again. “It’s searching.”

Me: “What did it find?”

Dad: “Just the books I’ve already read.” He proceeded to read me everything he could see about the files. The names, the dates saved, even the file sizes. “172 KB, whatever that means.”

Me: “But not the book you want to read?”

Dad: “No.”

Turns out he had selected the Adobe file, not the Kindle option that takes you through Amazon to borrow a book. So he had to do it all over again.

When he was ready to download the correct file…

Me: “When the dialog box comes up, click Save.”

Dad: “Okay.” Long pause. “I clicked to download it. Okay, a box comes up, do I click Save or Find?”

In my head: Save, save, for the love of God, click SAVE.

He cracks me up!!

Friday Photo: My cat playing a nun

Posted on June 15, 2012 by SloanParker

I think my sweet disaster boy (he’s a giant klutz) wants to be a nun. He got the blanket on his own head and then just sat there for the longest time.

Never Laugh at a Cheesy Catalog until You’ve Seen Every Last Item

Posted on April 30, 2012 by SloanParker

Lately I’ve gotten a huge influx of mail-order catalogs. The kind with bizarre items you can’t believe someone thought up, let alone had made into an actual product.

Rosie has this silly and adorable habit of paging through those catalogs and giggling as she finds gem after gem.

Like this…it’s called the Butt Putt.

Image source

Can you believe that name? And to top that off, it farts when you sink the ball in the hole.

So, there’s my sweetie sitting on the couch, turning pages, laughing, and showing me item after item while I was trying to read my email. Good thing I find her laugh infectious and her 12-year-old-boy humor cute.

Then she stopped laughing and said, “Oh, that’s kinda cool.”

I was scared.

Seriously scared.

I didn’t want to end up with some sort of farting alarm clock.

Then she showed me this…

Image source

And she was right, it was kinda cool. Of all the things I’ve looked at to hold my Kindle while I read in bed, I think this one looks like it might be both useful and comfy.

Anyone have anything like this? Or something similar you can recommend? I’m not sure I can bring myself to order from the catalog with the Butt Putt.

Ah, maybe I will.

Friday Photos: Game Night

Posted on April 20, 2012 by SloanParker

Haven’t shared any game night pics in a while. Here’s what we’ve been playing…

The first one’s an oldie from my childhood. My sweetie and I are going through our games to see which ones we want to keep. Hadn’t played Life in years, so we thought we’d give it a go.

Mine’s the car with the 2 hubbies and a daughter. Rosie’s is the one with 2 wives and a son. She didn’t want the kid (I guess she thought he’d mess with her girls’ honeymoon), but the game made her take him so the poor kid had to sit all the way in the back.

The 3-D version of Blokus is tough!

The rest of the games are from my uncle’s game club. Thanks for teaching us new games, T!

Coloretto is a great little card game. Easy to learn and the version we bought has a set of rules for two players.

Vikings is one I did not expect to like, but I just loved it. You can play it with two people (we are always on the lookout for new 2-player games), but sadly we can’t buy our own copy. It’s not available for purchase anymore.

Jaipur is another card game that allows for two-person play.

For Braggart, you make up a “story” with the cards in your hand, and it can be quite humorous to see what people come up with. Or what they are forced to play. Great for a group.

This was the best hand played all night:

“While wearing nothing more than my boots and a smile…I covered myself in oil to wrestle with…a party of drunken dwarves…and I am probably a better person for it.”

Acquire is another one I did not expect to like. It was fun predicting where the board was going and which companies would hit it big. Sometimes your plans worked out. Sometimes you got screwed. Sort of like real life. There were five women playing with one adorable young guy that looked half my age. He was sweet and patient as he taught all of us newbs how to play. I didn’t tell him I was already writing a story in my head about him meeting someone special during an all-nighter at the gaming club. I could see them sitting across from each other, some very sweet touches between them under the table as they tried to flirt with serious gaming still going on all around them.

Quote I Love: When you know you’re about to see him

Posted on April 9, 2012 by SloanParker

“Passion is that feeling you get when you know you’re about to see him. It is that ache you have in your stomach after you’ve just left him. Passion is the fear of never seeing him again. Passion is what love is all about.”

–Unknown

This quote reminded me of something my sweetie and I were just discussing with utter amazement. So many times, even after all these years, we still get a rush when we see each other. We still want to be together like we want to be with no one else, even minutes after we annoy each other. We still have rose-colored glasses that help us see past the faults and disagreements and everyday problems. We still cuddle and giggle like we just met. For me, that’s how I know it’s love.

That is what I hope everyone has or will find.