Dumb it down.

I got a new phone today. I know that right now you are saying to yourself, "But didn't she just get a new phone two weeks ago?" and you are right about that. I did get a new phone two weeks ago. I bought it on the run on the day Diana left town, and had no training at all in how to use it, so for the first few hours I didn't know how to answer a call! I had to let the call ring until the caller hung up and then call it back from the call log until I got back from dropping Diana off, and then Rachel showed me how to answer the phone. (I figured out hanging up on my own, thank you.)

Two days later I went back to the store to ask how to find my contacts list! There was a Contacts list on my Droid, but it was a list of my Facebook contacts, which wasn't helpful at all. I don't call any of those people! Heck, I hide half of them because their status updates are so dumb (not you, of course, yours are brilliant)! My phone contacts list that had been transferred from my old Blackberry was in an imbedded menu about three menus deep! I would never have found that on my own!

There were some other irritations, too, and two frustrated weeks later, I was tired of it, so today I went to the phone store and traded the Android for a new Blackberry, and tonight I am happier. I know, I know, you want an Android, all the cool kids have one, even the white-haired old dear with her Android in a zebra-striped gel skin who was standing in line ahead of me today is hipper than me, but I can live with that.

When will it end?

I've been taking this chemistry class and one thing I've learned is that I don't care about chemistry. I can't believe anyone does! So I'm studying for a test tomorrow and all I can think about is when it will be over and I will never have to think about chemistry again.

In other news, my phone is still smarter than I am, and also smarter than my dog. It has a lot of functions that I will never use, and a lot that I probably could use but only once, and then I will forget how I made it work the first time and will never be able to use again. I'm thinking that when Kim's contract is up in February, I will give her this ridiculously complicated phone, and I will get a new, simpler, phone. I'm looking forward to it.

We had a fun trip to Michigan over the weekend. We went for my niece Kate's wedding, so there was a lot of family time, including time with my brother Ed and his wife. I got to meet Jenna's son Chase, who is darling, and get manis and pedis with Jenna and Sarah. We got to know Inger's stepdaughter Heather better, and she is a lot of fun and really appreciated the armwarmers I knitted for her. (I love people who love my knitting!) Rich got to play golf with his dad and Jenna's husband on a really fun golf course, and we saw some old friends at the wedding reception.

Okay, that's the update. I have to go study chemistry.

In which I am dumber than my phone.

Diana left today, after spending a hard-working vacation painting, sewing, and playing with Maddy. Before we left to drive her to where she would catch the bus to the airport, we stopped at the phone store to get a new phone for me.

I was planning to keep my Blackberry until Kim's phone contract is up in February and then get both of us a new phone on the buy one get one free plan for Android phones at the phone store, but then this week my phone started failing! It might have been heat or water damage, I don't know, and the guy at the phone store switched the battery for me, but it didn't help much. I was able to baby my phone along all week until the contract ended today!

So we stopped at the phone store and I got my new phone and all is well, except for the steep learning curve with this new *smart* phone. Sadly, my phone appears to be smarter than me.

In which Diana is Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

I'm sitting here at work, trying to breathe through a stuffy nose, and I'm hoping that it's stuffy because I was out walking tonight, and inhaling dead leaf mold, and not stuffy because I'm getting a cold! Rich has a very bad cold this week, so bad that he didn't go to Tae Kwon Do classes or his Wednesday night meetings, so you know that is bad! I don't want to get sick! I have too much to do!

For one thing, I have company! Diana got here last night, and I drove to the bus stop in Rockford to pick her up all by myself! RA is out of town, and she doesn't like to drive late at night anyway, because her night vision isn't good, Rachel had to work, and Rich was too sick, so I had to pull up my big girl pants and go by myself! It went okay in spite of the construction on the highway and also, my Garmin is apparently a big fat liar who told me to take a turn that sent me the wrong way when I was almost at my destination.

In spite of everything, I got Diana back to our house, and she had to go in and clean the boxes of yarn off of the guest bed herself while I went to work! Because all of the days she is going to be here? I have to work them. Kathy, the other night operator, is on vacation for the exact same 10 days that Diana is here!

Diana is really here to visit with Maddy, and she got a great start this morning when Ash had to go help a friend with something, and Rachel worked last night so she needed to sleep in the morning, so Diana went over early in the morning to play with Maddy! They had a lovely time together!

When I woke up today, I had a call from work, telling me that we were having a disaster drill, and if I came to work as a responder, I could get my flu shot as well as education credit for showing up. I brought Diana to work with me and gave her a tour of my department, which was thrilling for her. Rachel came to get a shot, too, and then she and Ash took the baby to do some shopping.

I had someone coming over to have a little knitting lesson, so Diana and I just had time to grab some lunch and then go back home. While I was helping Summer knit, Diana decided that the piles of DVDs on top of the entertainment center looked messy, so she organized that area (and dusted - hey, maybe that's why my nose is stuffy! All that dust that was floating around!)

Sometime this afternoon, my phone died, so after supper we had to go to the cell phone store to get help! That was an experience! The people watching was entertaining, the young man who helped us was charming and had beautiful eyes, and my phone wasn't dead, it just needed a new battery. When he took the phone apart to look at the battery, the cell phone guy said it looked like it had gotten wet, and smelled like Dawn dishwashing soap. We laughed and assured him that me and my phone do not go near dishwashing soap! That is not my job! He replaced the battery and it's all working just fine now.

Tonight we went for a walk with the dog, Rachel and Maddy, and I spent the entire walk trailing behind eveyone, talking on the phone, because while my phone was dead I had gotten several calls that I needed to take care of. Diana and Rachel took advantage of my phone-calling to make me walk through the cemetary with them, in the dark! I was too busy talking to have more than a moment of misgiving. I didn't get possessed, so it's okay.

After the walk we went back home so I could get a nap and Diana could watch some cable TV. She's enjoying it because she doesn't have cable at her house right now, and so for 10 days she can watch all the Food Network and E! she wants to. When I was leaving for work, she was reluctantly getting up to go to bed, and she was sorry to have to turn the TV off. I told her to get some pillows and sleep on the couch - she can leave the TV on all night, and I think she might be doing that.

In which Fruit Loops are not dog food.

So it has been a busy weekend, and I'm back at work tonight with studying to do and another pumpkin hat to make. This is the fifth pumpkin hat I have made in a week, and after this one I have only one left to make and then I am done -DONE- with pumpkin hats. For another season, anyway.

The fun project that I would like to do more of is mitten knitting! Someone asked me to make some mittens, using her Civil War-era pattern, and her lovely wool that is grown on sheep raised by 19th century sheep-raising methods, and I said I would be happy to, because it is so pleasant to work with that wool of hers! (Also, she is paying me to make them.)

So I told this person that I had several other projects going on right now, and that I wouldn't get to the mittens right away, but then the mitten pattern looked interesting and the yarn was lovely, and I thought it wouldn't hurt anything if I just swatched a little swatch, just to see how it knitted up...and now it is two mittens later, and I have just discovered that what I thought was a mistake in her pattern-writing is a mistake in my pattern-reading! (Is anyone surprised at this? I'm sure my children aren't because they always say that I only read my favorite words!)

I will be doing some ripping back on the mittens tomorrow, but for tonight I have this pumpkin hat to work on. And chemistry practice problems to do.

In other news, we have had a couple of incidents with the dog, where he has been all crazy hyper, running like a wild thing in one direction and then back in the other direction, and you can't even calm him down, it's crazy! The first time it happened was after Maddy had visitied and shared some Fruit Loops with the dog, and then later, when Rich was juggling Maddy in one arm and a half-eaten Twinkie in the other hand, he dropped the Twinkie and Sonny barcuumed it right up! Tonight the dog was able to score a few dropped Fruit Loops again, and now I wonder if those few pieces of cereal are triggering the crazy behavior? He didn't have that many! Maybe 10 Loops! What do you think? Does the dog need a Ritalin milkshake, or will keeping him away from the Fruit Loops fix the problem?