An Early Birthday Present

Yesterday did not begin well. I woke up and the whole house smelled like cat pee. I knew that the litter box needed to be changed,but I couldn't remember if Rick had bought litter on Tuesday.There wasn't any in the house.If he had,no one had changed the box. Rick was snoozing in the living room,but woke when I came in.My first words were,"Phew! The house stinks from the litter box!" To which my not yet awake hubby replied,"Well,why didn't you change it yesterday?"  Of course, my mind (which wasn't awake it's self yet) immediately goes on the defensive and my imaginary hackles go up. "Do we have litter? Where is it?" "It's on the porch," he replies. "Fine," I grumble.Now I am completely annoyed.Why didn't he just change the damn litter yesterday? What am I,a mind reader? I look out on the porch,and it's the 35 lb container,which yes, I can lift,but it's still heavy and awkward. So of course, I make a great show of carrying this monstrosity into the house,and I drop it rather loudly on the bathroom floor. "I'll get it,"Rick calls,just as annoyed. "Oh, no,it's apparently my job," I said,snidely. And I so I proceeded to  change the litter. I was completely annoyed with Rick for a while afterwards,and he he apologized later. I guess he felt I was blaming him,but I wasn't,I was just commented on what I smelled.I guess it wasn't the best thing to come out of my mouth first thing in the morning. Even we can get snotty with each other once in a while,though it doesn't happen very often.Especially before our first cup of coffee!

That seemed to set the tone for the day-I wound up with a headache,which made me feel real tired and just down in general.

Rick and Brother B went to their Dad's yesterday,then went to do some Christmas shopping in Newington,then went grocery shopping.They were gone quite awhile,which I knew they would be,but they didn't get back until almost 3:00,having left before 9:00. After they unloaded the groceries,Rick told me to put down my crocheting,close my eyes,and hold out my hands. He had Zach put something in my hands,which,I discovered was a Kindle $50 gift card.Rick then gave me something wrapped in his coat."This is an early birthday present,because if you don't like it,it would have to be returned the weekend after Thanksgiving,and since your birthday is on Thanksgiving,it wouldn't give you much time to use it and decide." I took it out of the coat wrapper,and this is what it was:

 I had discussed  e-readers with Rick on several occasions,and whether or not I would like one. I love reading,always have.I am not as voracious of a reader as I used to be,since life gets in the way,but I still love books.There is nothing like curling up with a good book. E readers would certainly save on storage space,and since we only have so much space,I don't have room for a lot of books.However,I was not sure if I would like the "feel"of an e-reader.

Rick had been thinking about buying one for me for a while,and stopped into Barnes and Noble to check them out. He picked the day that the Kindle Fire came out,(which he had no clue about) so there was a line at the bookstore when they showed up. Rick liked the look of the Fire,and it's capability (music,books,magazines,web browsing) and he liked the touch screen as opposed to the older models. Barnes and Noble had just received the shipment,and they said they were the first store to get them in the state. It came with a free $50 card,which is cool. The only thing was,they were told that we could download books through a USB cord connected to the computer,which we can't.We need WI FI. So they are now down at Staples,getting a WI FI router. In all honesty,we needed one,anyway. Our old computer is in Zach's room,and since we now have high speed and no longer have dial up,we would need a router for him to use his computer. We can also now use Rick's old lap top.

So I have now entered the 21st century regarding reading. I am anxious to begin my e-library! It was a nice early present.