My latest eReader Dilemna

Before I you proceed, if you haven't read my blogs about my eReader experience, please read Part 1 and Part 2.

OK, so now that you are all caught up, you know that I now own a Nook. For the most part I have loved it. I have even re-purchased books, for the 3rd time, for my Nook. I have a few books that I like to read repeatedly and I HAD to have them at my disposal. I definitely like the Nook the best out of the readers that I have owned. I like the fact that I can purchase things via wi-fi and I also like the physical look of the reader. I wasn't too keen on all of the dials and buttons on the Sony, or the weight and shine of the metal. It is a tad heavier than the Bookeen but not by much. It is very easy to use and I do like the touch screen on the bottom. I will admit that I haven't really played around with the web or games feature that much because I have my iPhone for that.

I am running across one major issue at the moment. At the time of my purchase, the books that I knew that I wanted to purchase were available through Barnes & Noble. Since then I have tried to purchase a few random books or new releases and I can only find them on Amazon. *sigh Perhaps I should have gotten a Kindle. The main thing that held me back from the Kindle was the look of it and the fact that the Nook enabled me to borrow and loan books to other Nook owners. Apparently the new Kindle is now implementing the Loaning feature. Hmmmmm
I just looked at the details of the loaning and I guess you can only lend a book out one time. That's kind of stupid in my opinion.

The questions that I have now are:
1. Can I get past the buttons on the Kindle? I don't really like the look of them.
2. Can I change the format of all the books I have purchased on my Nook so that they will be available on the Kindle? Will I need to re-purchase these books yet again?
3. Should I just keep the Nook because of its ability to borrow eBooks from public libraries and still purchase a Kindle? or should I sell my Nook and use that money to buy a Kindle?

The only other option would be to purchase the books from Amazon and somehow find a way to change the format so that I can read it on my Nook.

Any opinions or wards of advice are welcome.

The Amazing Dudu Fisher

We got a great surprise tonight at our show.....Dudu Fisher was in our audience! For those of you who aren't familiar with his name, he is an AMAZING singer and performer. He is most known for playing Jean Valjean ( Les Miserables) on Broadway. You can read about him on Wikipedia or visit his website to learn more about him. He also has albums on iTunes...I love the Broadway one.

I didn't know that he was in our audience until intermission, when Sarah came back to our dressing room and told us. As soon as I heard the news I have to admit that I was thrilled and then immediately nervous and suddenly dreading our Broadway section of our show. I have a short solo in one of the Broadway Medleys. The song that I sing? On My Own. ACK! Of course it has to be a song that he has heard a gazillion times while on stage in Israel, New York and London...sung by amazingly talented women. I'm using the word "amazing" a lot aren't I?
Thankfully I didn't mess up on the lyrics or trip on the stage. Yay!

After the show I was coming off the stage and walking towards where he was sitting so that I could meet him. Some of the brothers had already met him during intermission. Before I reached him he smiled and asked,"Why didn't you sing more of the song?" To which I answered,"Yeah right! I was nervous enough as it was!" I told him how I was kinda going,"No....no no no no no no" when I realized I was going to be singing that song in front of him. In case you haven't picked up on it yet...I still get nervous on stage at times.

He was fun to talk with. He commented on the show, the kids' talents, and asked about the sound and monitors because he noticed we didn't have in-ear monitors. Man, would we love to have those! We told him about the rehearsals and yes, the kids are all homeschooled. Yep, we have incredibly talented kids in our family. =)

Then he told us about how he started as a cantor in Israel, singing liturgical songs and went from there to doing Les Miserables. He said that the performance was in Hebrew. How cool is that? I would love to hear a recording of that. A producer ( I think it was a producer) from New York caught one of his shows and asked him to perform on Broadway and the rest is history. I believe he said he was in London in 1996. I missed it by 5 years. I saw it there in 1991 when I was on a trip with my mom.

If you haven't heard him sing, I encourage you to listen to some of his music. I love how expressive he is when singing the part of Jean Valjean.

Look what I won

A few weeks ago I entered to win Season 1 of the Vampire Diaries on DVD and actually won! WAHOOO

The contest was put on by TuningIntoSciFiTv.com. If you like watching Sci-Fi genre shows and/or movies, they have a great podcast. They discuss current shows that are on the air, Syfy channel's Saturday night B movies, and much much more. Right now they are also doing a countdown of the Top 100 Genre shows of all time. I've found a few new shows to watch by listening to the podcast, as well as the countdown. They also have a Discussion Forum that covers shows from the past and present that's also fun to participate it.

My first official sled ride

I finally went sledding for the first time in my life. Yes, we attempted to sled last year but really....that didn't count because: 1) It wasn't on an actual sled and 2) We didn't really get that far down the hill. Apparently homemade sleds don't work as well.

We have had a lot of snow in the past month this year. Adam and a few members of our family members went out of town and were supposed to get back on Wednesday of last week...they didn't get back until Friday. They were stuck for two nights on the road because the Tour Bus was basically snowed in. Apparently the bus doesn't like the cold weather either....at least the battery and the brake system on the bus don't. It took a little while for someone to come out and help them because of the weather and the numerous calls that they were getting.

The Midwest got pummeled with two storms in a row. In Branson, we got a nice few inches of icy rain before the snow came in. The two storms accumulated to 18" in a few parts of our yard. Needless to say, I didn't leave my house for about a week. I wanted to go sledding but wanted to wait for Adam to get into town so that we could take pictures.

The sleds that I ordered from Amazon arrived the day before this last storm. We got another 6 inches this time and we still had snow on the ground from the previous storms so.....plenty of snow to sled. YAY!



Oh, sidenote: There's nothing like climbing a hill several times in the snow, to show you how out of shape you are. When I fall on my face at the end while trying to get up....there was a big ol' rock that was hidden by the snow. DOH!

This is what it looked like the day that we went sledding. Adam had the snow thrower out and was doing our driveway, as well as a few neighbors. It was FUH-REEZING outside.
Our kitties decided to use the sleds as beds until we used them. The green one is mine and the blue one is Adam's. The red one is the extra one for friends to use. I'm thinking about somehow decorating it and making it a Liquigas Sled...seeing as it's already got the Green on it. =)

Pointe Royale's Icy Duck Beach

We live in a Golf Community called Pointe Royale out here in Branson. Sorry Mom...she hates when I post things like that. Please don't come over and kill me...you'll just prove her right and I just hate when that happens. It's no secret for most locals anyhow. Andy Williams and some of the Lennons also live in here, as all people that Ride the Ducks are told as they drive by on their way to the Dam so...really, I'm not telling you anything that the typical tourist wouldn't know. In addition, there is a guard shack at the front entrance and well....please don't forget that we are in the Ozarks...Most people out here own weapons so...yeah, you've been warned. Better mom?

Near the front of the complex is one of several ponds. In the winter this turns into an icy beach of sorts for the ducks to gather. I got a few strange looks as I pulled my car over to take a picture of this. Granted, it was pretty stinkin' cold so they were probably wondering why I was getting out of my car in the first place. Anywho, enjoy the pic.

Did you know that cats can walk on water...

....if it's frozen? That's exactly what the feral kitties AKA Kahlan's family, have been doing. The lower pond is always the first one to freeze up and becomes a path for them to walk on. These photos were taken last month...I've just been too swamped to post.

Please notice the kitties to the left. This is the spot that they choose for drinking their water. It is also where they dig out leaves for us. These guys were sitting there for about 8 minutes or so, fishing out leaves. Adam loved it because there were that many less leaves for him to dig out later.

Ice Sculpting Competition

It's that time of year again! This past Saturday was the Ice Sculpting Competition at the Titanic. I have stopped by for the past few years since it started. This is the first year that the weather wasn't completely overcast and misty. Another first.....HUGE crowds and a radio station playing music. I'm so glad that people are starting to catch on to this cool event. On the other hand...I did rather enjoy it without the crowds because you could actually get closer to the pieces and watch the carvers at work without someone in your way. Here are pics of the sculptures from this year.

My knitting journey

I finally learned how to knit! I am so excited that I finally learned. I tried learning a few years back but gave up. I attempted to learn from a kit but that didn't really work out very well. I have always been fascinated watching ladies knit at lighting speeds. There is just something so calming and relaxing about it that drew me in. Also, as you know, I love to read. I always tend to "read by author". I find an author that I like and read all of their books. Once I finish those....I move on to another author. A few years back a ran across Maggie Sefton's books. She writes murder mysteries that are light-hearted and have a knitting theme that runs through the series. The main character, Kelly, learns to knit throughout the series and helps solve mursers. After reading these books I decided to give it another go. This time I had Maria, one of my adopted sisters, teach me. Amazing how easy it was to learn when someone actually showed me in person. She taught me how to do a knit stitch and a purl stitch. After that I found a few patterns online and played around. There are also patterns at the end of each of the books that I think I may be trying in the following months.

I started learning on #11 needles. This is one of my samples that I was trying to learn on. I like the look of the purl stitch so I thought that I would try and do a scarf with that pattern. Big mistake! That was one of my first lessons....purling tends to curl. Wish it didn't, but it does. Oh, in case you don't know what purling is...it's the stitch that looks like a braid.

This scarf was from a kit that I bought several years back. I forgot that I had it. Maria actually knitted the first 5 inches of it when I first had the kit. I decided to finish the scarf before trying another scarf. I figured the fuzziness of it would hide my mistakes.

Hannah really loves lime green and liked the scarf so I gave it to her for Christmas.

Here is a scarf that I started knitting for Adam. It's on #6 needles. I actually did about 14 inches or so but decided to scrap it and start over again. I messed up on the tension so it wasn't straight enough for my liking. I'll eventually finish his scarf.

While I was making Hannah's scarf, Emeline kept hinting that I could make her a scarf too. =) So...I started playing around and made this scarf for her. I tried figuring out how to make a slit in it so that I could pull the ends through. It was actually kind of big and I offered to make her a normal scarf that was more her size but she really wanted to keep this one.

SO....as I was making Emeline's scarf GEORGE decided that he wanted one too. This is after a few tug-of-wars with it. It was really cute. I was working on it during the show and trying to work on it between numbers. Every once in a while I would be sitting and grabbing a drink or catching my breath and I would have George come over to me. He would tap my leg and say," Vikki, work on my scarf." SO CUTE!

After making those scarves and while working on Adam's scarf, I decided to try my ginormous needles. These are the ones that are in the top picture of this post. I knew that I would be able to make the scarves faster because of the size of the needles and I needed a sense of accomplishment. Adam's scarf was taking me forever and I wanted to finish a scarf again before Christmas. Here is the first one that I made. Of course, as per the pattern, Jessie saw the scarf I was working on and loved the colors so.....I gave it to her.

I decided to try it on the night before I gave it to her. I decided that I should go ahead and make Mara a scarf too, seeing as I had already made 4 scarves for her family.

This is at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve. Hannah didn't wear her scarf so she's missing in this scarf picture.

Maria's scarf

Kristina's scarf. I also made a scarf for Diana and mailed it out with her Christmas gifts. She chose the same colors that Mara chose. The final tally for Christmas scarves was 8 this year.

I finally had a chance to make myself a scarf. I finished this one on New Year's Eve around 11:30 PM. The next thing that I want to learn is how to use the circular needles. There is a pattern in the back of one of the mysteries that doesn't sound too difficult that I may try. I have a feeling that it will take me quite some time seeing as it uses so many skeins. I'll post updates after I can track down some worsted wool yarn.