Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Look What I Got For My Birthday


I turned 58 today and got an early birthday present from our pets:
It's a doggie that has human treats inside--the head comes off.  Since Karen gives us treats, we wanted to give her some!

I opened my packages from my husband from smallest to largest.  The first was a Kindle but was disappointing because we do not have wifi and to use it, you need to connect to a wifi connection and enter some password.  I tried calling our Internet carrier (ATT) for the password and the customer rep never heard of a Kindle!  Anyway, eventually she told me I needed to get a router so they could set up a wireless connection.  When we asked about them at OfficeMax, the salesman told me it would only work for the Kindle in our house.  Gerard didn't realize it would be such a hassle.  At this point, I'm looking into returning it.


Gerard videotaped me doing my napkin folding demonstration so getting the videos ready took the rest of the morning.  Then we had a good lunch at Hometown Buffet, took a nice walk in the park and then opened my other two presents plus another one (he didn't count the Kindle since it was a bust) that was a book I had asked for:  Keep Your Brain Alive:  83 Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness by Lawrence C. Katz, Ph.D. and Manning Rubin.


My second present that I opened before going to lunch was an alarm clock/radio that also has a light that comes on gradually 15 minutes before the alarm goes off to act like sunrise which will be nice.  That will definitely help me wake up better.  I set it to wake with music during the week and to a sound of a river on the weekends. It has a sleep feature too that has the light go off automatically.  Spunky Doodle has already discovered the FM antennae wire so I hope we'll be able to use the radio feature.


The big package was a portable electric heater that I can use in my den. It even rotates but it has to be at least three feet from furniture and curtains so I can't use it in our computer room because it's too small with the chairs in there that the cats use. It'll be nice when I have my quiet time in the mornings up there because it's always cooler than the rest of the house in the winter..

It was nice being off work and I enjoyed the day.  Thanks, Gerard, for all the nice things and don't worry about the Kindle--I'll figure something out or else find a way to return it or sell it.  

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13 comments:

BeadedTail said...

Those are all great gifts! Sorry the Kindle didn't work out. I don't have one so didn't think about the wi-fi aspect of it. Too bad there isn't a way to plug it into your computer to do the downloads. Hope you get something else you can use!

Ann in the UP said...

You made quite a haul. I love your treat dispenser from your critters. You could always take your Kindle to the library with you and download the books you want there. There are lots of public Wi-fi hot spots in restaurants, parks, etc.

If you decide to sell it, please let me know.

Heather's Blog-o-rama said...

I'm sorry about the Kindle. You should be able to use it anywhere there is Wifi access, even in public. I know that's what my friends do. I hope you find something that will work better for you.

You got some cool presents. A heater is always nice in winter :) :)I, for one, don't like to freeze :)

Greetings from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)

Lin said...

You can read and use the Kindle anywhere, Karen--without wifi, but if you want to download books, you will have to go someplace that has it. Starbucks always has free wifi as do many other places such as a library as well.

Getting wifi in your house is not hard. Go buy a router at Best Buy and go from there. Joe says you just plug it in, but your computer has to be wifi compatible. (which the new ones are). Be sure to make a password so your neighbors aren't accessing your account!

Let me know if you need more help with that. Don't return it!!

Happy Birthday, pally! It looks like you had a GREAT birthday!

Karen said...

Happy Birthday!

Rebecca Mecomber said...

Lin is right-- you can make the Kindle work easily enough with a wireless router. It's not too hard, it's simply learning something new. You don't need wireless everywhere you go with it-- you can use your home wifi to download books, and then read those downloaded books wherever you are, with or without wifi. I have an iPad and it works in a similar way.

My daughter has a Sony e-Book that does not have wifi capability. She just downloads books to her computer and then plugs in the Sony and loads the books onto her Sony. Se can then disconnect tje Sony and carry it wherever she goes. Ereaders are very flexible.

Let us know how it goes!

Lee said...

Huh? I never would have thought of that with the Kindle, but it's good to know. Personally I love that alarm clock. That's the kind of thing I need in the morning. That or a sledge hammer. So you're a Dec birthday? My daughter is too. She's turning 4 on the 21st so it's busy, busy around here. Happy Birthday!

Sparkle said...

Happy birthday! What everyone else said about the Kindle - most coffee houses have wifi and it is easy to download books there over coffee and then read them at home, whether you set up wifi there or not.

Karen and Gerard said...

Thanks for all the encouraging comments about my Kindle. I will check at work to see if they will let me register it and make a connection there but also maybe the library could help me with it. I will look into that too. I know the "hot spots" are areas I could use it in, but I have to get an initial connection set up using the wifi network password. I can't even get it registered until I do that. I will certainly keep you posted of my progress and if I do decide to sell it, you'll have first dibs, Ann.

It was nice waking up to music again AND the light. It's so much easier getting up when it's light instead of when it's pitch dark.

Here's one of the brain exercises I'll share with you: Wake up to a scent other than your usual coffee smell and shower with your eyes closed.

Mike Golch said...

best buy sells routers as well. I use a netgear wirless/wired router for both the main computer and the back up computer is hooked up wirelessly.

Daisy said...

Happy birthday! I hope you can figure out how to get the Kindle to work for you... my Mommeh loves hers. It is best to download a lot of books all at once, and then you don't need the connection until you get more books. My Mommeh has also discovered some really good Kindle books for .99, or $1.99 or at least under $5.00 each.

Anonymous said...

Well happy birthday a few days late!!! I hope you stick with the Kindle. I have had one since they first came out--mine is the 3G one so the wifi is not the same issue but you should be able to use all the suggestions and comments here to get it to do what you want it to do. I love mine. It is so great for traveling and waiting for appts, etc. No more lugging big old books around and you can get a lot of free books and 99 cent books! The rest of your gifts sound wonderful! You have a very generous husband!

The Silver Age Sara said...

Karen, I don't have wifi and I just download books from Amazon.com to my Kindle. All I have to do is click send it to my kindle and it goes there automatically. Had to set up a Kindle account. But mine is an older Kindle and perhaps the new generation ones are different. I've also found it very helpful to download excerpts of books. It helps me decide what I want to read.
I love all your gifts but especially the heater.

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