Are We Nerds or What?

I guess this picture says it all! The three of us....Jason, Joy, and me sitting on the deck last night after supper, with our laptops (well that was my seat with the laptop in the chair)....doing what we do on our laptops......me reading blogs and emails, Jason actually working from home, and Joy playing games.



It was nice while it lasted....a little breeze by the pool....until the mosquitoes decided to visit.



Then we moved inside to the sunporch.....







Life is good! :)

Goodwill Finds, A New (Different) Computer & Shelley's Giveaway

Tuesday night while Joy was in dance class, I stopped in Goodwill. I have a regular route through there, scanning the tops of the shelves, usually ending in the books. This time, believe it or not, I didn't find any books. That's very rare. But here's what I did find for a total of $7.00.



I will add the rolling pin to my collection in a crock in my kitchen. I'm not quite sure what I will do with the little Americana basket. I can picture it for sure being used in the summer for get-togethers with silverware tucked inside. But I'll find a place for it's everyday use probably somewhere in my Prim/Americana living room or foyer. I can never pass up a cutting board. This one was a little smaller and just the size to hang in a little wall space between my kitchen countertops and the cabinets. Of course, it will be painted and primmed. And the last thing I picked up there was this little wooden box. I passed it up last week and wished that I had gotten it after I came home. I picture it painted and primmed and on the back of the toilet in the bathroom with prims toiletries tucked inside. I'm brainstorming on that one! But I was tickled to find it still there from last week. It was only 99 cents.

Then I had a few more minutes before the antique gallery/flea market closed, so I made a quick run through there. I found this old wooden bowl for $5. The fruit painted inside has definitely got to go. I hope to have a great prim bowl when I'm finished with it! I was excited to find this because I love wooden bowls. Although I'd love to have true antique bowls, I really can't swing the price tag for them, so I'm fine with reproductions or makeovers!





Second of all I thought I'd update you all on my computer woes! First let me say, I am still a fan of Dell Computers, as every other computer in our home is a Dell...Jason's work computer, Colt's new one, Joy's (Colt's old one), and our desktop. However, that being said, my red Studio 17 Dell had a hard drive problem with in a week after I had it. We took it back to the Geek Squad. They gave us a new one. The second red Studio 17 did the same thing...hard drive problem within a couple of weeks. At this point, I was getting a little skiddish about getting another one. While Jason was waiting in line again at the Geek Squad, another person was in line with the same problem, returning their's also. So, this time, he brought home an HP.



Although I really did love my red computer, I do love this one. It is a 16" screen, instead of 17" and it is black. It is a little easier to cart around and is very sturdy. So far, no problems. Wish me luck. I'm beginning to get a complex about me and computers! :)

And last of all today, I wanted to let you know about Shelley's giveaway. You have until February 28th to sign up. You have a few options about what you'd like to choose....all from her new nature photography site. Be sure to click over and check it out!

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Thank you so much for all your sweet comments on Our Love Story. I loved sharing it and loved hearing Jason's side too! A girl can never hear it enough, right? :)

Come back on my next post as I answer the questions I received on Homeschool Open House Day.

Have a great Thursday! :)

Surprises!

Okay. I really had no intentions of buying a laptop for about a month or so. Really...I didn't! Jason and I had discussed it and that's what I thought. What I didn't know is that he's been looking and asking around (while I was doing my own research), with the hopes of surprising both Colt and me with new laptops.

Colt has been great to let me use his laptop. He doesn't take it to school with him anymore, and he works so much that we were able to share it. When he was home, I would just move to the desktop, and give him back his computer. His computer really needed more hard drive and remember how I told you in Friday's post that it had been doing strange things lately? Well, we took it in to the "Geek Squad" at Best Buy. They ran a diagnostic test on it and he said it's not the most infected computer he'd seen, but was pretty close. They were surprised we were still able to use it. A few months ago, Colt had clicked on something that said we needed to update virus protection or something like that. Well it turned out to be a virus itself. It became progressively worse by just shutting down, pop-ups, and really annoying things besides it was running slowly. Hopefully, they're going to be able to take care of that. If they do, Joy will have her a laptop! She's VERY excited about that. Colt told her he'd pass his down to her.

BECAUSE....he got this one! It's a Dell studio 15 with a 15.4" screen. That's the size he wanted.



And I got this one! It's a Dell Studio 17. It has the 17" screen I wanted and it's RED! I can't even tell you how much I'm enjoying this big screen and with 4 GB of memory, 320 GB of hard drive, it should last me awhile! I love my computer! (And Colt's has all the same features).



We decided on Dell for a few reasons. Asking sales reps in many stores, we were ALWAYS told that Dell and HP were at the top of the list for PCs. I read many reviews online, read all your comments (of course), and called friends that own The Computer Factory. The name Dell was always thrown out there. Jason had researched on his own and came to that conclusion for us, but wouldn't say so, until he saw what I wanted! I know there are many opinions, and sometimes in a particular brand, you just get a lemon sometimes too. But we also considered that we had two Dells already, a laptop and desktop, and never had any problems with them, other than this virus, and obviously that wasn't by fault of the computer. So we figure, if it has worked this long for us, why change? (Kind of like the cars we buy too)!

Jason took us out last night leading us to believe we were "looking" at computers. Little did I know, once we had made the decision of the brand, he had every intention of buying them then. So, I'm a happy girl today! (And Colt was very excited over his too)! Joy is very tickled that she will have her own too! He sure is good to us! :)

Thank you for passing along your advice, opinions, reviews, and comments on the laptops! I appreciate every one! And so, Kath, does that mean we have twin computers now? :)

And here's my other very pleasant surprise that came in yesterday's mail:




This afternoon I will sit back in my recliner with a cup of hot chocolate, and savour each page! But of course, I had to thumb through and find Linda's beautiful home! It is so exciting for me to see her home featured, as I love her decor, so I can only imagine how exciting it must be for her! Congratulations, Linda! I'm so proud for you! :)

Have a great Sunday everyone! Does anyone still take Sunday afternoon naps? :)

Laptop Research and Reviews

We've been looking at laptop computers in stores and online. Of course, we've asked the sales reps what their picks were, which computers seemed to come back more for repairs and such and got a few varied answers, yet most seem to put HP, Dell and Toshiba at the top of their list. We now own two Dells, one desktop and one laptop. The desktop is still fine, although the resolution has improved in newer computers. However, our laptop is probably in its last days, although it has been a very good computer. It has seen lots of use and probably abuse as it has been hauled everywhere and used by the whole family at times. It's doing some strange things lately though, so we're in the market for a new one. So this brings me to our search again. Like we are with anything, we have to thoroughly research our options before we will sink any money into it. We plan to purchase in a month or two.

We have pretty much narrowed our search down to Dell and Toshiba. I'm pretty sure I want a 17" screen since this laptop will pretty much be staying at home (except for maybe when we travel). Isn't this red pretty? After all, red IS my favorite color!





But then this Toshiba gives you just about the same features (very very close) for less money. It's not the pretty red, but I don't want to choose a laptop based on color only. (The exterior of this one is called onyx blue).





So I'm asking you all....what type of laptop do you have? Why do you like it? Can anyone compare Toshiba and Dell? All reviews are requested and welcomed! I can't wait to hear from you!

And I'd like to thank everyone for the comments on yesterday's post. I appreciate the new "followers" as well! I hope you all have a great weekend! Stay warm! :)