1000 Words

This post was written last night. I could not find the photo that I wanted to add, so I am just uploading it now, on Wednesday.

Josh and I just got home from the vet. One of our cats, Eyebrow, (who was well over 12 years old), seems to have had a stroke or a brain tumor or some such. He couldn’t walk properly, or see out of his left eye, or control the left side of his face. We took him to the vet and we’ve had him euthanized.

I’m not a big fan of euthanization, but at the same time, I’m also not a fan of a lifelong friend being in pain. Eyebrow was an awesome cat. In his prime, he weighed 23 pounds. He could take on anyone. LOL He was down to 10 pounds at the vet’s office yesterday. His time had come.

As you can see from the above photo, (he is the one wearing the lovely coat hanger outfit), Eyebrow had a sense of style, a great sense of humor and a true cat’s proclivity toward curiosity. I felt this was the perfect photo for his eulogy, as it really captures his personality. We never had a dull moment with Eyebrow.

When we had guests, Eyebrow would get on the sofa behind them and run a fang in their hair, up and down the back of their skull. Nice, huh? Everyone found it a little unnerving to say the least.  When I would sit, he would crawl up into my hair and purr. He was a great cat. Truly.

We were blessed to have the time we had with Eyebrow. Godspeed, buddy. I’ll miss you… and I’ll always love you and remember you for the loving, faithful friend you were.

My friend Pam posts these little quizzes on her blog all the time and I always think they are humorous, so I’m passing this one on.

You Are an Easter Egg

You’re so sweet, you don’t need candy. You much prefer the taste of artificial coloring instead.

I don’t know how accurate that really is, since Easter candy is among the finer foods in life. I really miss the days when my Mom would make sure I got a really yummy big coconut egg and a white chocolate bunny for Easter!

Happy Good Friday!

Well, I have finished my first assignments for Adobe Illustrator class. I’m shocked. I started out the week looking at the assignments and thinking “No way, no how, this is not happening.” Then I went from that to “Wait, I think I can do this…” Then, finally, it was “Oh yea, this book rocks. If you want to learn Adobe Illustrator you need this book.  Seriously. Don’t even mess with it. Get the book and do the exercises. Because I’m running around so much, I decided to take a class online at Foothill COllege so that I have accountability to do the class with the book, but if you are more self-disciplined, maybe you can do it on your own.

So, for the first exercise, we had to follow the lesson in the book and create a screwdriver and a phillips-head screw.

Next, we had to draw a coffee pot. Seriously. We just learned how to do this stuff and you want me to make a coffee pot? For real? that’s what I thought. It took me close to 2 hours to draw the screwdriver so I expected the coffee pot to be really paintufl. LOL

Well, it kind of was. I drew it once at work, and then I came home and drew it again. I really am much MUCH happier with the version I drew here at home. It looks so nice!

As part of the lesson, I had to do a write up of how I made the coffee pot. When I sat down to write the explanation, I was amazed at all of the things I had remembered, since I did the exercise twice. I’m hoping I’ll have the luxury of repeating exercises as the course goes on so that things really sink in. I know that I learn more by doing than by just reading, so that will help! Just in case you need words to sleep by, here’s my write up.

Create a rounded rectangle about the size that you want your coffee pot lid and spout piece to be. I adjusted the corner roundness down some so that the corners were less rounded.
Create an oval that is elongated and fits up next to the rectangle on the left side, butting the center of the oval with the bottom of the rectangle, to create the spout effect.
Copy and paste the oval to another unused part of the artboard.
Select both the original oval and the rectangle, and use Subtract on them.
This creates the basic lid/spout. (I locked it temporarily so I didn’t mess it up.)
Move the copied oval over to where the original oval was, aligning it into the spot. You might have to magnify to get it perfect.
Create a horizontal regular rectangle the size you want the band on the lid to be, using smart guides to line up the right edge. Overlap the left side a bit.
Select the oval and the narrow rectangle. Apply Subtract to them.
With the band still selected, apply a linear gradient to it.
Unlock the lid/spout. Select it and the band and group them.
Create a rounded narrow  horizontal rectangle to fit between the lid/spout and the container part of the coffee pot. It should be about ½ inch smaller than the lid/spout. Center it below the lid/spout.
Apply a linear gradient to the separator band.
Group this with the lid/spout part.
Create an almost square-ish rounded rectangle for the actual pot. Use the up and down arrows to get it to where you like the corners. I made mine a bit more rounded. It should be about the same width as the lid, including the spout.
Copy this rectangle and make the copy shorter. This will be your coffee.
Play with adding some points to get the wavy look to the coffee. (This part was really hard. I did it 8 times—there has to be an easier way!)
Fill this rectangle with some coffee (I used a nice dark French Roast brown.)
Place this rectangle over the clear rectangle, being sure that you see Intersect and lining up the centers and everything with the smart guides. (Smart Guides are my friend!)
Select everything and group it.
You now have everything except the handle.
Create the coffee handle as described in the class handout (Thank you!). I made mine a little smoother, by adding more sides to the polygon. I didn’t like that pointy look.
Place the handle against the pot, on the right side, so that it is lined up, using the Smart Guides.
Select everything and group it.
Your coffee pot is complete.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to get on and share another creation tomorrow, but it’s going to be a busy day, so I don’t know if I’ll get to it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Please do leave me a comment. I feel like I’m all alone here on my new blog.

I realized that while I do a lot of reading, I don’t share a lot about what I’m reading. I also have come to realize, as a member ot Good Reads, that I write horrific reviews!  (If you are looking for me there, just look up September Radecki and I should pop right up.)

Anyhow, I am still reading. Even though I am going in a thousand different directions, I have to always make time to do a tiny bit of reading or my head would explode!

I just, this morning, on the drive to work, finished the Audio version of Carolyn Hart’s Dead Days of Summer. This was apparently part of a series. It was the first one I’d read . I found it to be a decent, if not good read. Certainly not in the great literature of our times league, but a good, solid book that kept my interest. I found myself a bit annoyed with the characters for part of the time. (and yes, I was reading the Unabridged version). There were loopholes in the plot that were huge. There were things that should have been resolved and were not.

In all, I found the book to be entertaining and enjoyable, with enough going on to keep my interest while driving for the last two weeks. I’m a little baffled by the front cover, which I have attached here. I saw nothing in the book that had anything to do with fireworks. Nothing. It was a book based in the South, in Summer.

In other news, I still am head over heels for my Kindle 2. I’m still very very happy I bought it, even though I feel a bit guilty at having spent the money, at what turned out to be a bad time. It was worth it and I read from it almost every day! I’m really astounded at how much I like it and at how well it performs. The only single thing that I would change is making it have a built in reading light, or something similar. I am still hunting for a reading light that I like with it. I take it with me just about whenever I leave the house, except for going to work, because I can’t be trusted. I’d totally want to read! LOL My brain seems to have adjusted to the new format. About a week ago, late in the evening, I was reading something, and my left hand reached across to turn the page. Hmmm. Hello? Brain? There is no page! It was interesting that my brain knew it was time to turn the page and sent my hand over. I guess we’ll know I’ve been truly assimilated when I don’t have to think at all to click the “next page” button!

Hope you have a wonderful, quick Friday that goes by in a blink and ends up with a nice Margarita.

-Take care and have a lovely weekend! I plan to finish planting my garden and crop with the girls tomorrow.

If you know me at all, you know I have always been a voracious reader. I read anything and everything I can get my hands on. I love *good* romance novels (not Harlequin, sorry), as well as a good mystery, and almost anything else.

Some of my favorite authors are Sue Grafton, John Grisham, Jennifer Weiner, Stephanie Mayer, J.K. Rowling, Shakespeare (really), Homer (I swear–The Iliad and The Odyssey are my very favorite books of all time), Louisa May Alcott, and just about any "new" author. I'll read anyone's books!

When I was growing up, my Dad managed Toys R Us stores. In fact, he more than managed them, he opened many of the SF Bay Area Toys R Us stores. That meant that I had to spend a lot of time at the stores. After school, and during vacations, I was there, much of the time. Naturally, he had to keep me busy. So, I would "borrow" books and read them. I have read every single Nancy Drew mystery from the first through whatever was written by 1975 or so. I've lost track, but it was a LOT of books! I also devoured Trixie Beldon, The Bobbsey Twins, and many others. (I don't remember reading The Boxcar Kids… not sure why.)

During college, I read. A LOT. I have a Bachelor's in English. This means that for EACH class in my major, I read anywhere from 10-15 books in a semester. It was great, it was horrible. Great because I read lots and lots of different books. (Among my favorites was Dr. Mary Lou Lewandowski's class in Science Fiction. Dr. Lew passed on a couple of years back, I miss her a great deal. She opened whole new worlds for me in reading.) It was horrible because it cut into my personal reading! On vacations, naturally, as much as possible, I'd bury my nose in a book. LOL My poor family. All I ever remember doing while growing up was reading!!! LOL I am sure I did more than this, but I remember always reading.

Over the past year, since I've been working at VMware, with my commute that can be anywhere from 40 minutes to 1 1/2 hours each way, Steven got me listening to books that I downloaded from Audible. (If this motivates you to join Audible, please be sure to give 1RadChick as the person who recommended it to you, please!) I have been reading anywhere from 1 to 3 books a month this way. It's kind of cool, if you can get past the accents that some of the readers have/assume while narrating the books. I've learned that it's best to listen to "lighter" reading, because otherwise, I want to sit in the car and listen when I'm supposed to be getting out of the car at my destination!

So, what is this whole diatribe about? Well, this week, for me, the world of reading tilted and changed. Significantly. Why? Because I bought myself a present. I bought myself an Amazon Kindle 2!
I preordered it when I got my bonus (maybe the last bonus known to man, but that's a whole other story and one I'm sure everyone is familiar with if you live in the US right now!).

It arrived on Tuesday. I got it out of the box in record time and hunted around quickly for an extension cord because I wanted to plug it in and charge it and read! While I had been waiting, I had downloaded several books from Amazon, so I knew that they would be there, ready and waiting for me. Well, it did not disappoint! This is the coolest thing I have ever seen.

It does take some getting used to. Why? Because you have to be willing to let go of the physical books. Reading on a Kindle is different from reading a physical book. There is no familiar texture, no pages to turn (you press a button-a very conveniently located button, by the way!), and no weight to it. It is a remarkable experience. You can change the size of the text on the screen, so no matter what, you can usually read! There is no light, but I'll order a reading light that will fit with the cover that I have ordered (yes, pink). Minor details.

As an aside, once I finish reading books, unlike Steven, I am done with them. Finished. I don't ever read a book again, because I have a photographic memory and I see the pages and know what is on them. Therefore, there is always the issue of "what do I do with this book now?" once I finish a book. This takes care of that! I'm sure I'll have to offload books from the Kindle, but for now, I'm in heaven. No more bookcase space to find. Yes!

Amazon has a lot of books available in the Kindle format, and you can also listen to Audible books (but not read them, the Kindle reads them to you!), so there is a wide breadth of available material. My first thought was that this could be the best gift ever for an English major. Imagine being able to carry this little dazzler (it weighs less than a pound) rather than all of those books.

The day after my Kindle arrived, I was on my Good Reads account (my username is SeptemberR if you want to join me in reading), reading my friend Mary Ann's review of a novel she had just finished. When I clicked on the book's title, I noticed that there was a link underneath to Amazon. So, out of curiosity, I clicked. It brought me directly to Amazon, where there was a Kindle version of the book available. I bought it. I felt like I was just so cool. This morning, Josh announced that they are starting a book called Kindred.
Octavia Butler is one of Steven's all time favorite authors, and we had agreed that when Josh started this book, we were going to read it. You guessed it, I have downloaded it to my Kindle!

As far as cost, the Kindle was a bit pricy, but I think I'll use it on a daily basis, and that makes it worth while. I also think I'll carry it places where I might not necessarily carry a real book. I'm the girl who loses bookmarks, loses my place in my books, and just doesn't bring them places because I hate losing my place.

I know that the honeymoon won't last forever. I know that my Kindle will lose some of its appeal and become just like a book, but for now, I'm thinking of more and more scenarios where the Kindle will enable me to read more than I have had time to do recently, and for me, that's a good thing! In some of the materials I read about the Kindle, there were various statements about the fact that when you read a book, you should forget that the book is in your hands and essentially become immersed in the story to the point where you forget that it's "just a book." This is paraphrased, because naturally I can't find the quote right now, but you get the idea. I think the Kindle really does have the potential to become the way we read. I can't wait to go on a trip. I read anywhere from 10-15 books when we travel. I take up valuable space in suitcases. With airlines now charging by weight, I'm thrilled that I will be able to 1. carry my Kindle with as many books as I want on it and not have them in our suitcases, 2. no longer have to leave books in Hotel lobbies sneakily, because I don't have room in our bags, and 3. Steven won't have to find me a bookstore to buy me more books. (That's probably the best part, for him!)

Which brings me to my family. Steven reads as much as I do, actually probably more, because he does a better job of managing his personal time and doesn't have time sucking hobbies (LOL) like scrapbooking. He's been eying my Kindle and reading all about it. I imagine that at this point, he knows more about it than I do, but won't admit it. (I'm thinking his birthday, shhhh don't tell him!) Josh picked it up and said "what the heck is this thing?" When I explained what it was, he said "I might even read something on this… this is super G." (Super G is the new "cool")… that would be a win. Josh is allergic to reading.

I imagine at this point, there are some people who are saying "just visit your local library and borrow real books there." Personally, I LOVE borrowing books from the local library, but, you know what? My local library was torn down more than two years ago. They are rebuilding. I have never seen a building project go more slowly than this project! Anyhow, once the library ever gets finished, I promise to be a good citizen and borrow books. Hmmm, maybe they'll have Kindle books to loan!

In any case, I've joined Mary Ann in a challenge to read 50 books this year, and at the rate I'm going right now, I'll make it. Last year, I only got in 38 books, which is low for me.

I'll be blogging from Ben Lomond over the next several days. It's my weekend away with the girls, Scrapaway. I can't wait. I am all packed and should be picked up around 10. Yea!!!! (yes, I AM taking my Kindle!)

-Take care and make time to read!

I was thinking about it this morning, and while I know all about Good Reads, you might not, so I decided to share.

I think I found Good Reads a year or more ago. I visit their site often and am able to keep track of all of the books I read there, as well as when I read them. You can also write reviews of the books you read to help others decide if they want to read the book. I love it. I have found so many books to read just by scamming on Mary Ann's book list. LOL

Anyhow, Mary Ann and I committed to a 50 book challenge last year. Because of school and some other life things that came up, I didn't make it, but this year, I am well on my way, with 9 books finished and another 2 in progress. Yea!

I really like Good Reads. I think it's a great way to keep track of what I've read and what I want to read. It used to be that I would go to a book store and buy a book I'd already read because the title looked appealing. Now I try to check my account (it's free), to see if I've already read the book.

That's my excitement for the day. If you decide to join, add me as a friend! Just do a search on my name and I should pop right up! Looking forward to sharing books with you.

-Take care and make time to read at least a chapter a day!