It really hit home last night how little time we have left. I own an eBook, which means I have this device that's about as big as a paperback and works kind of like a Palm Pilot, and I can download books into it from the Internet or through its own modem if I hook it up to a phone line. eBooks are cheaper than buying a paperback; most are between $5-10, and the classics are even cheaper. And no, I can't do any more to it than read books; I can't store people's phone numbers and my schedule in it. But it's useful to me as I can store hundreds of books in one handheld device, and I can read at night without light since the screen is backlit.
However, I do have the old model of the eBook, and the company that manufactures them has decided to run an offer where you pay $50 and send them your device, and they upgrade the hardware and the software in it so that it's the next model up. This is way too cool because with the next model up, you can do tons more stuff. And another device would run me about $200.
The only problem is I don't have enough time left here to send away my eBook and wait for it to come back. But the promotion ends tomorrow, so I signed up anyhow and will just have my eBook sent to my in-laws' house in Arizona where we will be stopping on our way. And if it doesn't come to their house by the time we leave, we'll just have them ship it on to us once we have an address there.
Which reminds me that we're supposed to figure out how to procure a mailbox of some sort in Seattle so that we can forward our mail there instead of to our in-laws' home. I don't really want to forward our mail twice (I don't have that much faith in our Postal dis-Service), and I'm not sure what my in-laws will think when they start receiving my Victoria's Secret catalogs.
You should see the latest catalog -- they have this v-string thong (!!!!) in white, with netting falling off the back of it like a bride's veil. And the piece de resistance -- it plays music. A musical bridal thong. I'm sure that's what every groom in the country is looking forward to on his wedding night.
Pardon my digression.
But I keep forgetting to call, or rather to have Kurt call. Maybe I'll actually remember tomorrow....
In happier news, we finally got our W-2's. I made far less than a recent graduate of the College of William and Mary ought to be making, but hey, I didn't have the job for the money. And I didn't work but six months last year. The only thing I'm worried about is Kurt's bonus. See, the Navy gives re-enlistees a bonus every time they reenlist, up to a point. You get half of the bonus when you reenlist, and the other half gets spread over the beginning of each fiscal year of your reenlistment. But the Feds take out their share (33%!!!!!) before you get it. I really don't want to pay taxes on it twice. I'm pretty sure the IRS knows we paid them already for the bonus and that it will all work out. But hey, I'm paranoid. :o)
I think I just decided to take my Anne of Green Gables boxed set with me when we travel. I just looked up and saw it, and realized that I don't know the last five books as well as I'd like to. I also have the original ordering of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe series in a boxed set. None of this "The Magician's Nephew goes first" stuff for me, no sir! I'm sure my sister will probably want to fight me for it, but no way am I giving those two sets up!!! Or my Little House on the Prairie boxed set, which no longer has a box because I read those damn books too much!! I think they're at Dad's house... I really ought to check.
Which brings me to another topic that I'd like to discuss. My darling stepmother *rolls eyes* sent me an email in which she reminded me that when she and Dad go on long driving trips (which never require a motel stay since Dad refuses to stay anywhere but at friends' and relatives' homes because of their reasonable prices), they like to rent tapes from Books on Tape to help pass the time.
Yes, I remember Marty renting a book for each of us while we traveled throughout the US during my childhood. Of course, I couldn't actually listen to my own books since Dad and Marty played their tapes over the van's sound system, thereby drowning out my Walkmans. And if they turned down the volume, they couldn't hear the reader. It's a good thing that no emergency vehicles came past us on these trips; I doubt Dad would have heard them with their sirens blaring.
But you see, a book that would interest me would probably not interest Kurt. And I have another reason, which also feeds into why I don't like listening to Kurt's comedy CDs when we're in the car together.
See, in the age of headphones for Walkmans and earpieces for cell phones so as to be able to shut out the rest of the world, I actually like to *talk* to my husband. Or anyone else that I'm with, actually. And when you listen to someone talking, whether they're reading a book or giving their comedy routine, you can't really talk to the other person while you're listening!
But Marty and Dad, talk!? Why, I believe the world as we know it would come to an end! They're just really good at shutting each other out.
It's a shame, really. I know my dad deserves so much better.
Today's quote of the day: "I know you can't hear me; your head's shoved too far up your ass!!" Red Forman to his son Eric, That 70's Show (loosely quoted)