Birthday!

It's my birthday today!

The photos are ones that Malaia took at a fairly recent air show, and they're there because I just like them.

I couldn't get her to answer me about this, but they look like the Blue Angels to me.

Steve just put up an entry on FaceBook that says:

Off to the air show, then a swell party.

I asked about the show, and he said:

51st annual Chicago Air and Water Show, with the Thunderbirds, Lima Lima, Golden Knights, and assorted other team and single displays by civilian and military fliers. It included a flyby of the USAF Heritage Flight, a P-51, A-10, F-15 and an F-16. All were "loud and proud". Sorry, no pix.

This is part of the reason that I felt compelled to put up photos of planes, even though they're not the Thunderbirds.

On the subject of birthdays, I really got a haul this year. The computer I've been saving up forever to buy is finally bought, shipped, and has arrived. I now have to configure it to utilize the internet, and then add software for the things I want it to do. John called me and told me about a pile of software that I need to install immediately to avoid viruses, etc. It sounded all very complicated. I need to get him to write down the list of what has to be installed.

Before I can do that, though, I needed to get an internet connection for it, and I looked to T-Mobile to provide it. They currently have two deals to do that. One is a USB dongle that connects your computer to a 3G cell phone line. It's an elegant solution, but the monthly charge is a bit pricey, and there's a limit on how much use for each month.

The other one is a really great deal. Start-up costs include about $40 for a combination converter for a phone, wifi, and T-Mobile hot spot that plugs into your existing broadband connection, plus a $35 installation fee. Monthly fee is $10. For that you get an unlimited connection for a landline phone inside the US. If I'd wanted to call overseas, I could add $5 additional. Also, unlimited wifi and/or hotspot.

I had been planning for a while to get the $10 a month unlimited phone service for a while. The new hardware also includes wifi at no extra cost, and since I'm about to set up the computer right now, it seemed the perfect time.

Of course, that also means that I need an actual phone. Holly chipped in $22 of the total price to buy me a really nice phone, rather than the cheapest one from WalMart that didn't have all the features I wanted. The one I got has everything I could possibly want in a phone: volume control on the ringer, with several different ringer sounds that I can really hear, and that won't sound like the phone on a TV show; volume control on the handset; it's cordless; 50 name/number phonebook (this is what I need to program); and I can plug in the headset I already have!

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I got this far in my post, and Lynn called to wish me a happy birthday. I told her all about my new phone and gave here the number and her cell phone battery ran out, so she called me on the new phone! My first call on the new phone was my sister, to wish me a happy birthday! How cool is that?

She also had some news that was a little less happy. She's been diagnosed with a macular hole in her eye, and had surgery for it on Wednesday. She's off from work for a while, and at home recuperating. If everything goes the way we hope, she'll have all her vision back in about 6 months. As of right now, she can't see out of her right eye. So far, everything seems to be going perfectly. I'm glad that it's fixable, and that it looks at this point that she'll be OK, but I feel bad for her that she had to go through it. At this point, it's a major nuisance, but that's so much better than losing the vision in that eye. It would drive me crazy, though, if I had to go through it, so I feel really feel bad for her.

I told her that from time to time I feel sorry for myself that I'm losing my hearing (especially since I really believe that I don't need to, but that doctors don't care or feel I'm worth bothering about), but then I think that if I had a choice between losing my hearing or vision, I'd definitely want to keep my vision. Lynn said I need to get another eye exam soon, and I'll have to investigate that, and plan to do it in September.

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There will be two episodes of Merlin on tonight, and if I'm not mistaken, these will be the end of the season for the series.

Also, The Chronicles of Narnia will be on tonight on ABC Family. Naturally, with two good things, they'll be on at the same time (at least for part of the shows).

I hope you're having as much fun as I'm having!

Saturday Was Fun!

Yesterday was really fun!

Holly and I stopped at Michaels first. They have finally gotten in all that Spring yarn that they started to promise last January! Some of it is nice, too. I just wonder how they've stayed in business since January. I haven't been checking all the departments in the store, but I have to say that the yarn department has had a lot of bare space in it for at least four months, most of it with signs telling people that the wonderful Spring yarns are coming. Spring projects should have been finished around March or April, so I'm a little confused about it.

We went on to the T-Mobile store, where they gave me a song and dance about the balance of the money having been applied to my bill. It would have been nice if I had known that, though. I have to go through my bills now and make sure that the money actually was applied to my bill. I don't think it was, but I could be wrong.

We also went to WalMart, and then to Ruby Tuesday, where we had fun talking, as usual.

Before she left, Holly modeled the new Hermione hat I made for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL. I found out that I ordered more than a generous amount of yarn for the hat, I ordered enough for two of them, and I finished the second one last night. I'm now thinking about making matching mitts.

And a side view.

While we were there, Holly was playing with my camera and took this photo of me. I'm really getting to look old!

Well, the Harry Potter movies are on ABC Family today, plus my DVR is almost filled, so I'm going to get back to watching fun stuff on TV!

I hope you've had as much fun this weekend as I have!

Still Hangin' in There

The earache hung on for all of Wednesday, got a bit better yesterday and is back again today.

But I did get out and get my new phone.

The old one was doing fun things like: a half hour after I ended a call, it would make a little alert noise and inform me that it had just ended the call. That's happened five or six times. And it leaves me wondering if I used up 2.5 to 3 hours of minutes that I didn't actually use. I don't know.

So, I got a new T-Mobile G1. It's got some wonderful features that make it easier to use than my old Sidekick 3, but some features that leave me wishing for the Sidekick. I was able to transfer all my phone numbers to the contact list on Google, and it uploaded them to the G1 in about a second after the service was connected and I'd switched the SIM card to the new phone. 

It also uploaded my calendar from Google, which means that almost all the work of setting up a new phone was done before I even started. And the good thing about the calendar is that it opens to the month view every time (because I set it to do that), unlike my Sidekick which would give me a note that said "No upcoming events in the next 7 days" instead of letting me see a calendar.

Switching the SIM card was not as easy as it might have been. You need to apply an excessive amount of force to remove the back the first time, which you need to do to switch the card. I called Holly to see how to remove it, and she assured me that I was doing the right thing, I just needed to be a bit more assertive.

It has some great features, though.

It can pinpoint where you are and give you directions from your present location to any address you care to type in. Well, it does if you're in a 3G area. They put in a 3G network in DC, and continued it out into the suburbs to just about 3 miles short of where I live. It still works fine as a phone, and does very well with the internet, but I know from using Holly's phone that it does even better on a 3G network. Once it knows where you are, it can give you a local map or a satellite photo of the place you are, which can be useful if you're looking for a place that's nearby and can't figure out how to get there.

It has a free application that will let you take a photo of a barcode on an item in a store, and tell you how much it is, plus let you know the prices of the same item in nearby stores and online.

I downloaded a free application that will let me record a sound and make it into a ringtone. I can't wait to make my phone sound like the middlewatch from The Middleman! If you liked that link, search for "Middleman" on YouTube.

One of the things I don't like about it is that I can't pair it with my bluetooth headset. Holly's had hers now for at least 4 months, and she still can't get her bluetooth headset to communicate with it. She said it found and started talking to her computer almost instantly, but there's nothing the two of them can do together. 

She'd much rather have it talk to the headset. 

So would I.  

The instructions in the manual (and online) just don't work. I'm going to have to call them and ask them how to do it.

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There's a new Ghost Whisperer on tonight, and, of course, a new Dollhouse. SciFi will be showing a rerun of Moonlight, always worth watching, as well as Battlestar Galactica.

TNT will be showing The Lord of the Rings trilogy over the weekend, starting tonight with The Fellowship of the Ring, followed tomorrow night by The Two Towers, and finishing Sunday evening with The Return of the King. If you're busy on Friday or Saturday evenings, you can catch the whole trilogy on Sunday, starting late in the morning.

Have a  great weekend!