Electronic Toys

Well everyone knows that I am a lover of gadgets ! So
I enjoy getting new toys and getting them all set up just right. A week or so ago my son decided to buy an iTouch and during his "selling job" to me to allow him to spend his savings he converted me as well.

My cell phone contract with AT & T was up so I went ahead and got an upgrade to an apple Iphone. To date I've been very pleased with it. I was worried about it playing nice with my windows pc but the installation of iTunes went smoothly.

So for the last week I've been busy finding out all the pro's and con's from my point of view. I know that a ton of blogs are out there describing the Iphone. But let's face it I'm really mostly interested in how the Iphone works for me.

The only thing that I really miss from my windows mobile phone to the apple Iphone is the loss of Hulu. I didn't realize that apple did not have a flash player available to the iPhone. It's true that a lot of video is available in iTunes so I can enjoy my Stargate and Fringe episodes but really miss my Hulu

Personally I have no problems using iTunes or the app store. All of the software that I rely on such as eWallet and iBirds was available in apple apps. My calandar and contacts smoothly transferred to my new phone via google web. It amazes me the amount of free apps that are available !

So with the success of Alex iTouch and my iPhone my older son got an iTouch for his birthday to replace his aging zine mp3 player. He had a fair number of songs that did not auto convert from mp3 to aac format but he's still pleads with his gift.

-- I'm on the run again, so posting to you via my iPhone.

Weigh behind

Well last year I was able to lose close to 30 pounds off this old body of mine. I sure feel better and it's wonderful to be two sizes smaller in clothes.

However, as often happens whenever I am able to lose some weight I get lazy and don't continue to keep my momentum going. Over the winter I was successful at maintaining my new weight and I'm grateful for that.

I'v been unhappy though that I'v made no progress in losing the next 10 pounds. I felt that 10 pounds was a reasonable goal and yet I've lost / gained nothing.

Well I'm hoping to change that ! I just love gadgets and just up graded my cell phone to an Iphone. There are a ton of fitness apps to help you reach you goals. I have two that I am using on a daily basis to help keep me on track. They are "Lose It" for tracking my food and exercise goals and "iMapMyWalk" to measure the time and distance that I walk or bike. The iMap software connects to my online account and is able to track both my walking and my bike riding.

So I'm hoping that love of gadgets will help me get a jump start on these ten pounds !

-- I'm on the run again, so posting to you via my iPhone.

Composting - first timer

Well, I've decided to try composting our yard and kitchen wastes. Did my usual research on the web and decided to try out the "tumbling" type of composter. Bought one on e-bay and set it up.

Added a bunch of leaves and grass clippings to it today. I must say it filled the 25 gallon barrel much much quicker than I was expecting. Half a bag of clippings and maybe the same in "mulched leaves" and it was half full. I'm now going to add only kitchen scraps to the composter.

Hope to have finished "dirt" in a bout 3-4 weeks if all goes well.

Hummingbirds visit

Oh, I'm sooo excited, I had my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year visit my hummer feeder. Its a nice red feeder with commercial hummingbird mix in it with room for four birds at once. He stayed long enough to take drink from each of the feeder ports. I hope he goes on to tell all his friends of the free meal at my house.

I also have an Oriel feeder up. This is the first time I've offered a feeder for them, filled with raisins, grape jelly and orange slices. I've never seen an Oriel and hopefully they'll like what they see !

The Season of Mud has arrived in NH

Wow what a lovely day today has been !!! Its actually 51 degree's today, the snow is melting and the birds are crowding around my feeders.

Alex has spring fever and has gotten out everyone's bikes for the season. Of course of the three bikes two of them had flat tires, and heaven forbid he be seen on a "girls" bike. He is showing his true 12 3/4 years attitude !

Today my neighbor gave me a call "lets go for a walk", so off we went. A quick trip around the block became a mile walk around the neighborhood as it was just to nice to stop walking and chatting. We took our little mini schnauzer with us and she was so happy to go !! She love to run and she one of those long auto leashes so she can really burn off that stored up energy.

Yesterday, Sydney got loose from me and took off down the road. Alex gave chase on his bike and caught up to her half way down the block when she stopped to smell the grass ! Lucky for us we caught up to her so quick, its so easy to lose a pet and we'd be heart broken.

Extra Cash in your pocket

Like everyone else I know we all want to make a little extra money. Also like a lot of folks I know I don't really have the time and drive to go out and get a second job (or would that be a third job after being a mom (1) and Computer Programmer (2)?)
so I trolled through the Internet to see if there were any "work at home" jobs that seemed legitimate. I found plenty of "get rich quick" sites and schemes, but no real paying jobs.

However, I have found a few sites that pay you to read e-mail or try products that actually DO pay you real money or enough points to really get an item of value in a reasonable time frame. Below I've listed the links to the places that I recommend. Give them a try, you have nothing to lose and might be able to earn a few gifts / cash.

My Favorite site at the moment for "earning" points at is called Swagbucks. You use it as your default search engine. As you search you'll earn a swagbuck. You won't get one for each search but on aveage I get at least one out for completing five searches. Plus they have some fun games to play and earn swagbucks. You get great results as the search returns finds from google and ask.com so I figured if I'm searching for stuff anyhow, I might as well get prizes for it !!

So far I've won 48 swagbucks which is enough for a 5.00 gift certificate at Amazon.com. I'm going to save mine up towards Christmas gifts this coming year. 5.00 GC are great for a teens stocking stuffer !

SendMail -This one pays out each time you get to 30.00 in the "bank". I figure I'll get there once a year by just viewing e-mails. You build your balance quicker by joining different sites that they show you.

Inbox - Is a sister site of SendMail with the same setup. I enjoy them both and have had great luck with them.

As I find others I'll come back and post them with my thoughts !

Eastern Bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings

It may be winter still here in New England but splashes of color can pop-up in the most unexpected places.

I was in Portsmouth Tuesday and leaving the office for my morning walk, as I stepped from the building I caught a glimpse of a bird in the bushes just in front of me. Looking closer I was so excited to identify my first ever Cedar Waxwing. What a beautiful bird he was sitting so still in the bush and in a perfect place to stop and admire him. Eventually, like always he flew off to the trees surrounding the courtyard and I followed his flight to a branch. Only to realize there were about 40 more Cedar Waxwings in the tree !

Today, after yet more snow fell overnight, I headed out to the front yard to clear the snow from my feeders and to refill the empty sunflower feeder. Finishing the job quickly as the chickadees and the titmouse's waited in the lilac bushes, I headed back inside.

From my kitchen the sliding glass doors provide me with a perfect view of my feeders and access to the screened in farmers porch. As I stood there watching all the birds jockeying for position I realized I had a new visitor to the feeder. Quickly grabbing my binoculars and I studied my new visitor. Three bright blue birds were perching on the poles waiting there turn to eat. watching for a few minutes I found that they were waiting for a turn at the suet feeder that was filled with a suet cake of fruit and berries. Picking up my field guide I identified my newest visitors as Eastern Bluebirds. Over the time they visited I had three males and one female.

Its such a pleasure to host these little splashes of color during the white of winter.