I really have no clue how it's so late already. As usual, Grace and I slept in till 9:30am, but I gave her the pacifier so that I could get dressed before I got her up. After breakfast, getting stuff ready to go, getting Grace dressed, switching the carseat over (the truck seriously needed to be run), it was already after 11am. Sadly, Kurt called me for the last time in several months at 11:15am, when I was most likely fastening my seatbelt and resetting the clock in the truck before leaving the driveway. He said the cell phone wasn't working, which is why he called the house. I never got a call from him on my cell phone. It's quite sad.
All we did today was go to the local pack n' ship (where I was nickeled and dimed to death -- gah), get gas in the truck (I was running on fumes; $35 later my truck is much happier with me), run down to the big Navy Exchange, and stop in on a friend. That took all freakin' day! It was after 3pm by the time we got home, and then I had to put Grace down for a nap. I had some computer time, and the next thing I know it's 6pm and I've got to wake Grace up so she can eat dinner. After her dinner, I made some baby food (some broccoli and some chicken -- yum yum!) and made myself a frozen dinner. By the time I was done with all that, it was almost 8pm and time to get Grace ready for bed. Once she went down, I folded the laundry that I have ignored for the last few days, started a load of diapers, and finished reading the Sunday paper. That brings us to now. Where the hell did all the time go?! At least the time is passing quickly. This is one day closer to Kurt coming home. :o)
Last week I went on the internet and ordered myself an mp3 player. Kurt has the RCA Lyra 20GB. He did a fair amount of research before he settled on that one, and the thing he likes most about it is the large screen on it. For me, it's too large. It's heavy and bulky, and I just don't like it. I saw one on clearance at the Navy Exchange, the Rio Karma. It was $200 there, and I almost bought it, but then we'd just purchased Kurt's digital camera, and spending $400 in one day probably wasn't a good idea for our checkbook. :o)
I went on the internet and saw that all the reviews for this particular player were all glowing. One review also said that Rio is in the process of discontinuing this large capacity model, and I knew I wanted a 20GB. I said to myself that this was the player that I wanted, and I went ahead and ordered from Buy.com for $188 after shipping.
The player came on Friday, and I immediately broke open the box and installed it. The instructions suggest putting the Karma on the charger for at least five hours for maximum battery life, but they also suggest uploading music to the player while it charges. That's what I did, and I managed to install a couple gigabytes worth of songs. (My neighbor came over mid-transfer and installed a 6GB hard drive into the computer just for my music. Wasn't that awfully sweet of him?! He offered out of the blue; I didn't ask or anything. I have lovely neighbors!)
I put the Karma back on the charger and went to bed. In the morning, I took it off the charger and left it on the computer desk while I went to the beach with J. When I returned late in the afternoon, the battery was much lower than it ought to be for being shut off all afternoon. I talked to my neighbor about it (the one who installed my new hard drive) because he has the same model, and he suggested that I run the battery all the way dead, charge it all night, and then see what happens. I did that, and took it off the charger on Saturday and went to the zoo with HC and the kids for Mother's Day. When I came home, the battery was discharged again. Grrr. At this point, I decided to send it back to Buy.com, get my money back, and buy it from the Navy Exchange. Even though I paid $11 more for it from the Exchange, at least I have it. The whole point of the mp3 player was to be able take it on the airplane with me when I go home to Virginia to visit my parents next month.
So now I have a new one, and I followed the directions for charging to the letter. I have a full battery indicator right now, and I've played 10 songs already. But I'm still rather nervous that it won't work properly, and I'll have to give up the player. I love this player. It's small but heavy enough so you remember you have it in your pocket or whatever. It's got a huge hard drive, and the functionality is amazing. I don't want to give up this player, so I am praying with everything that's in me that this one works properly. Cross your fingers!!! :o)
So what's in my mp3 player?? Well, I have it on random right now, and it's played Sublime, the Beatles (three times already, and I only have one Beatles album in there!), Barenaked Ladies, Jimmy Buffett, Metallica, Pink, Billy Joel, and the Dixie Chicks. I don't have any classical in there yet, unless you count Metallica's S&M. I love that album! I wish I were a professional cellist for the San Francisco Symphony so I could have played on this album. Amazing, really.
Oh dear Lord it's already almost 11pm!! See, this is what I'm talking about!! And people wonder why I don't go to bed before 1 oer 2am. OK, I'm off to watch Iron Chef! :o)