It's 2011 everyone. Burning questions on my mind right now? Where are our flying cars? Why don't we have a colony on Mars? Or at LEAST the Moon!? Is anyone else deeply disappointed about these unfulfilled promises? :P
So this year we visited my parents. I love visiting my family! They are a little odd, quirky, hilarious, and completely lovable. I have always known I was blessed to end up in a family with them in it. Every visit just gives more credibility to that.
It's strange, because I had no real love for the area I grew up in. When I left it, I didn't really regret it. But I do regret leaving my family, and I do miss a "familiar place". Though it's exciting to move to a new place every 4 years, it's also tiring and lonely. When I visit my parents, it's like going home.
Well, not exactly. It's hard to explain. Where ever Mike is, that's home. I truly mean it. If Mike isn't there, than a place (no matter how familiar ) feels foreign and colorless. Like a soup with no salt or spice.
This year I bought myself a Kindle as a Christmas present. I brought it with me to my parents because.... well... if you don't use an ebook reader when you're traveling, what's the point of it? I thought my Mom might like the Kindle. She loves reading as much as I do, and travels about as much as me too.
I was disappointed with her response. She did pick it up and mess with it a little, and a few days later she commented on how amazing the screen looked (better than a page in a book) while I was reading a book on it. Beyond that she didn't say much and as far as I know didn't touch it again.
Then, two days before we leave, she comes over and starts talking about different ebook readers. Not just talking about them, she was wondering which one to buy. I was quite surprised, since it seemed to come right out of the blue. (Though now that I think about it, I bet she'd been eyeing my Kindle the whole time and wondering what the whole eReader thing was about.)
But anyone who knows me, knows that I can't pass up an offer to window shop for electronics. And the best kind of shopping is when someone else is spending money.
You might be surprised to know that I recommended she get the Nook, even though I have Kindle. There are a few reasons for this: My Mom is use to working with an iPod's touch screen. When she first handled my Kindle she kept ignoring the buttons and trying to "touch" the screen. The Nook has a touch screen, which means the learning curve is less severe for her. The Nook and many of it's accessories can be bought in the Barnes and Noble store near where she lives. It also reads more formats than the Kindle (particularly ePub) so she won't have to deal with converting files as much. All of these things together made it a better buy for her.
(For myself, I despise the touch screen. Waste of battery power. I also don't have a B&N store near me. While I truly wish Kindle read ePub I'm not that worried about it. I also like Amazon's Whispernet infinitely better than B&N method. And B&N navigation on their website to find ebooks is terrible. I tried finding free ebooks on there and it's like they made it purposefully difficult. And to top it all off the Nook is heavier than the Kindle.)
So the day before we left Mom and I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a Nook. The Nook Kiosk is literally right in front of you when you enter the store. We already knew what type of Nook she was getting (e-ink w/ wifi only) so we politely ignored the sales person and started looking at accessories.
When we were done we went back to the Nook Kiosk to buy our stuff. The Salewoman was helping an older gentlement who was trying to decide between the Color and two e-ink Nooks. The more the talked the more baffled he looked. You could tell that whatever she was telling him wasn't getting through.
My Mom and I (being perpetually nosy and loving to help someone in a bind) began talking to the confused gentlemen. It became clear to him early on that we knew more about the Nook than the Saleswoman did. He actually took us aside and asked us more in-depth questions. By the end of it, we decided he'd do best with the Nook Wifi E-ink Screen and that's what he got.
I walked away feeling immensely pleased with myself but also a little annoyed with the saleswoman. That man should not have had to talk to fellow customers to figure out what Nook to get. I suspect the saleswoman was trying to push the Nook Color on him. I understand the up sell since it's new and all, but there are better ways to go about it. Her "up sell" was just confusing the poor man, and if we hadn't been there I think he'd have walked away all together. When I talked to her, her knowledge of the e-ink screen seemed shaky at best.
As my sister would put it, the whole exchange made me go: =n=
So now my Mom has a Nook. She already bought some books, even a Bible for church!, and she spent most of the night before we left with her "nose to her Nook", reading. I'm really happy I helped "convert" her to eReaders. I hope she has good experiences with the Nook so she'll keep using it.
I think I might have gained weight at my parents house, lol. They were constantly feeding us delicious food. Dad made a turkey Christmas Eve dinner that was delicious. (Mike ate everything on his plate and even had seconds!) The last day we were there we had beef ribs (which were also delicious).
Puar (the female long haired grey cat) seemed to remember my parents house. She lived their for 4 years so I guess it's not surprising. I think, of my 3 cats, she had the best time. No one really bothered her, she ignored the dogs (and thus was ignored by them), and got to go outside on my parents screened in back porch. She also got to sit on her favorite seat cushions and watch birds and squirrels.
Ichigo did alright. I don't think he remembered last year's visit at all. He got in a huge fight with Sara (fur flying and everything) upstairs and there after avoiding the upstairs. He avoided the dogs, smacked them around when they got close, and by the end of our visit would chase after them if he felt harassed. (The dogs--Samuel and Skyler--are pansies and run away.)
He likes high places. One of the first things he did was hop onto the 'frig and then kitchen cabinets. Mom took down all the breakables within 5 minutes of realizing there was no way to prevent him from getting up there. Unfortunately she didn't do the same for her nativity set which was displayed on the fireplace mantel. I almost thought he didn't notice it, but botheration, he got up there. Knocked down several figures, one of the three camels didn't make it and I think a wise man lost a bit of his base.
I thought Mom was gonna be upset but she didn't really care. You'd think it'd have bothered her more, she made the whole set in college. I'd think handmade stuff would be valuable. But apparently she was surprised the set had lasted as long as it had and didn't seem to value it much.
Danny spent almost the entire time in the guest bedroom. I think he went out of that room twice, and never got further than the living room. He's terrified of the dogs (even though they're Yorkies) and he refused to walk past their kennels (which were in the living room). If we didn't pop into the guest room enough, he'd howl for attention.
He howled both ways on the drive. Not all the time, fortunately. Actually, I think part of the way he's howling because he think we're stopping to let him out or he doesn't like the road noise. By the end, I think he's just howling because he's got to pee. Hehe.
Sara (Jen's cat) suffered the worst from our visit. Sara hates other cats, has since the beginning. Having 3 of them show up put her in a foul mood. It got worse when Ichi got up on "her" bed (that's Jen's bed). They got into a hug fight which left bald spots on them both. Ichi ran away, but Sara suffered a real mental shock. She was practically scared of her own shadow for days afterward, and she'd go into a spitting rage at Jen's white statue tiger (we assume she thought it was another cat invading her territory).
In the end, Jen hid her tiger and brought Sara's food, water, and litter box into her room. She also kept her door closed at all times to prevent the other animals from getting in. Eventually Sara settled down, but I suspect she won't actually go down stairs for at least another week.
(Eventually, Ichi went back upstairs. I caught him trying to sneak into Jennifer's room. Probably knowing Sara was in there. I don't think he wanted to fight her, but he does like eating other cat's food and pooing in their little box. Little bully.)
I got to spend an evening with Priscilla while I was there too. That was cool. She hasn't been in my parents house since she was a teenager. She had a severe case of deja vu, since very little hand changed around the house. She said it was like walking into her past and being a teenager all over again. (Which would be alot cooler if her teenager years hadn't sucked so bad. Fortunately some of the only good memories she had of that time were at my parents house.)
We went to New Orleans with the Ds. I generally avoid new Orleans, always felt the place was dirty and had a kind of skeezy feel to it. We stayed in the nicer parts of town though, so that helped. We ate a pizza place (got garlic and sun dried tomota pizza, excellent!) and then some sort of desert that tasted similar to a funnel cake. We went to some festival thing called something like "Lighting of the Oaks". (Can't remember the real name.) It was ok, too many people. Worse than a Japanese festival!
It was cold, in the 20s/30s for the first portion of our trip there. It was strange having a coastal area be colder than Northern Texas. It warmed up by the end of our stay, but then I had to suffer the humidity. Never liked humidity, I'd rather deal with the cold.
For our actual travel, nothing much of interest happened. The Fit travels well, though the seats start hurting your butt by the 5 hour mark. We also discovered trucks don't like being passed by small cars like ours and will purposefully go out of their way to pass us by after we'd done the same to them 5 minutes ago. Also, traveling any where near Dallas sucks.
So now we're home. Glad we cleaned up before we left. Something about coming home to a clean house. It's a great feeling! :)
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