Beanie Babies

I really should have taken a picture of my collection but honestly, all of the items would NOT fit into the picture. As I have previous stated, I am a collector of many things. Back in the 90's Ty Beanie Babies were high on my list. Many of you may remember the Beanie Baby craze. $5 bean bag animals that took over the world and spawned a nation-wide craze. People would pay high dollars for those rare and hard to find toys. The fad created such a high demand for the retired ones that counterfeits were made. It was these counterfeits that brought down the values, much to my dismay.

I got into the craze early on and made a decent amount of money off of these things. I would line up at 6 AM, along with all the other crazies, to purchase these little treasures. You would be surprised by the amount of money someone would pay you for something that will be available everywhere in another month or so. For instance, when the Princess Diana Bear came out, I bought it for $6, traded it with someone online for Rex, a retired one, and sold it on eBay for over $800! Craziness I tell you. OH, and yes, I did mention trading. I traded these online so that I could get better ones or complete my own collection. Also, every weekend I would go to Beanie Baby trade shows...pathetic huh? It was a culture unto itself. You had to learn all of the different hang tag generations and make sure that the tags were in mint condition with a tag protector.

I also got into the Disney Beanies and Ty Attic Treasures. *sigh You can only imagine my collection.

Today Adam and I finally went through my boxes o' toys. I have literally hundreds of these things. My next mission...eBay them all outta here. Well, I AM going to keep my favorite ones, including one, Peking, that I could have sold for $2000. YES, I am kicking myself for hanging onto it. I also have 2 pairs of the Patriotic Trio: Righty, Lefty and Libearty, that sold for $1000 at one time. Ah well...no sense in crying over what could have been. WAAAAHHHH

Our 7th Anniversary

This year we had to celebrate our anniversary late. The actual date is January 5th however, we couldn't do anything until February 20th because Adam has been on tour. As per tradition, we went to the Chateau on the Lake. It's a beautiful hotel situated on Table Rock Lake. We decided to grab lunch instead of dinner and...well....I liked it better it better than the dinners that we have had.

This is the view from our table. It was waaaay too cold to sit outside.

Because it was our anniversary, they gave us a complimentary dessert. Yummmmm

and the winner is...

THE SONY

I finally made my decision. Honestly, I'm not 100% sure of my final decision but....there it is. I decided that I wanted to keep the Sony because, well....I WON IT! I figured I should keep my prize. I do like the side button functions that allow me to get to my library of books faster. The page turn is also faster than the Cybook. I still think that the bottom right circular button is useless. It is supposed to be a history button or something like that. I plan on using a hack so that I can use that as a page turn button. Hopefully the hack will work because it is where the page turn button is on the Cybook and I am used to that location. Frankly, it makes sense to have it on the right side as opposed to the left side, which is how it is configured.

So...my plan is to sell my beloved Cybook on Ebay along with the books that I have already bought for it. Hopefully I will make enough money back to replace some of those books on my Sony. That being said...I still may hang onto the Cybook because it is so stinking light! I'll be sure and post if I sell my Cybook.

mmmmMuffins

The muffins looked much yummier in person. I suppose I should have wiped the spray off of the pan to make it prettier. I used the last of my fresh blueberries for this batch. Yummm. You have to love exploded berries! Adam has been gone for a week and came home tonight for one night. I tried to time the muffins to come out of the oven as he walked in the door. He came home as I was putting the last one on the cooling rack. How's that for timing?

Lizard Kitty Video

Yet another amusing moment with Chewie. I forgot to post this on my blog so...sorry for those of you who have already seen this. The silly sounding giggling is due to my lack of oxygen, because I was laughing so hard. You can't see me on the floor, literally, laughing at my stupid cat.

Rolling Advertising Anyone?

This is what it looks like when I pull up to the back of our theatre. You can see our Hughes Brothers tour bus, as well as five Hughes Brothers cars. =)

Sony Digital Reader VS. Cybook

Decisions. Decisions. Bookeen's Cybook or the Sony Digital Reader? Quite the dilemna. I have been trying to figure out which one I like better and frankly, I'm still stumped. There are pros and cons to each of them. For those of you that don't know...I bought the Cybook in September and won the Sony this past month. I am trying to decide if I need to keep both of them. Well, need is such a STRONG word. Here are a few of the pros and cons that I have found. Maybe you can help me decide or offer up a few more points.

Bookeen Cybook

Pros:

• Lighter
• More protective padded leather case
• It reads more formats including Adobe and Mobipocket
• I have already spent close to $200 on books that will not transfer to the Sony
• There are more free Mobipocket books online than Adobe format
• Cleaner look because of the fewer buttons
• Different fonts are available

Cons:

• Does not read all formats of Adobe
• Harder to toggle through the menu
• Made of plastic so perhaps not as durable
• Limited menus so it takes a while to get to your books if you have a lot loaded onto the reader

Sony Digital Reader

Pros:

• It's RED!
• More durable because it is metal
• I actually won it...which hello? What are the chances?
• More buttons allow easier access to menus
• More functions because of the buttons
• Able to purchase a leather case with a night light attached to it
• Comes with 100 free classical books from Sony
• You can make "collections". These are similar to your playlists on the iPod

Cons:

• Will need to re-purchase the books I have already bought for the Cybook because it does not read Mobipocket
• The metal may get scratches
• Heavier
• Reads only 2 formats, Adobe being the main one. However, it reads all Adobe formats
• Fewer free Adobe books online
• The 100 free books from Sony are mostly available for free in the Mobipocket format
• Not as clean of a look because of the buttons
• Bottom right button is pointless, however, I did find a hack online to change the functions
• The cases aren't as protective

Hmmmmmm, any opinions?

My Sony Digital Reader Arrived!!!

OK...please excuse the bags under the eyes and the fuzzy pjs. It's been stinkin' cold out here and I had just gotten back from a long day of rehearsals. The awesome Sony Digital Reader prize arrived on Saturday. Well, actually, it arrived on Friday but I wasn't home to sign for it. I was....of course...at rehearsals. So, before rehearsals on Saturday I had to drive to the post office to pick it up. I decided to wait until I got home so that Adam could take pictures of the joyous occasion.

At the present moment I am faced with a slight dilemna. Do I really need TWO digital readers? Can I justify keeping the both of them? I am going to compare the Cybook and the Sony Digital Reader and make a decision in the next few days. While I would love to keep the both of them, it just doesn't seem very practcal. *sigh Do I HAVE to be practical?

I'll let you know what I decide after I play around with my new cool toy!