When it rains...

Or more properly today, when the sun shines and the wind blows, we get ice, ice and nasty slippery ice.  Not so much fun for Bean, who has 5 more days in his cast and crutches.  Hoping Monday brings the brace and him being able to put the foot down and begin putting some weight on it.

Well, the furnace being out while we were gone last weekend has claimed a couple of more victims.  Death count is now 2 bettas and 3 plants, although I believe 2 more are not going to survive.  It seems to be working fine now, so am hoping that we're done with those problems for a time.  Range is still not working, repairs are expensive and I know The Boss is weighing whether or not we will be repairing or replacing the dang thing.  I'm running out of microwave meals to make, pulling out the crock pot tomorrow to make a real meal.

My biggest stressor this week has been the choosing of a tablet.  I have the celebration of my birth day this week and decided that I want my own tablet, one I can use to surf the web, blog, watch videos and has a keyboard that can be attached when I want to use it to work on my novellas.

There are a lot of darn tablets on the market.  Holy cow, I have been very overwhelmed by all the different options.  

Do I need expandable memory?

Do I want iOs, Android or Windows?

Can I stand Windows 8.1? (Easy answer there--heck no!)

What size do I want? (again, this one was easy, I want around a 10" screen, have the 7" in my Kindle Fire--which I wish would allow me to put word processing on it and be able to add a keyboard.  Love the Kindle line)

Not being brand specific, although I want a good brand, not a knock-off brand and not caring about the specifics of processors, etc, gave me a world of choices.

I finally came down to an iPad Air, Samsung Galaxy Note or Tab or an Asus Transformer.  Huge price differences.  I love how Apple products work and they make sense to me, but The Boss has an Asus and we can share accessories and I like the look of the Galaxys (in white).  

Spending hours in electronics stores where I can't seem to find anyone to help me (and if I go in there just to check on something or am wasting time I can't get rid of them) has frustrated me and I knew I had to do some hands on.  The Boss wasn't a lot of help, since I couldn't narrow down what I wanted, but he did what he could and found me some links and reviews of some of the models I said I was interested in.  He even gave me his tablet for a night to mess with and I became a bit more comfortable with the Android operating system.

I wandered into one last store today and hit the jackpot.  Not one, but three of the gentlemen who worked there took time with me to share what they knew and took time to listen to me and help me find the tablet that I can live with the price but not feel like I am settling for less than I wanted.

Now, will the Boss have it here for my birth day celebration tomorrow?  I've certainly sent him enough links to keep him well informed of my decision...

After 2 weekends off of fun and play, we're back to meets, home this weekend, then it's a race around the western US for the next couple of weekends before the state meet and Bean heading to FL with his band.  I enjoyed the time off and rest and hope it was enough to get me through the next month.

Be Healthy, Be Happy and Stay Safe!