Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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I got a Kindle!

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Well … I bit the bullet and went and bought a Kindle. I’ve been look at the Kindle and thinking about getting one for at least a year.

Last weekend I finally decided that the time had come to get one. Why .. well maybe it had something to do with the super heavy novel that I’m trying to finish reading (The Girl who played with Fire). The thought of reading it on something that weighs just over half a pound was appealing. I mean, have you see how thick and heavy the novel – The Girl Who Played with Fire is? It must weight four or five pounds!

I ordered the Kindle on Saturday and it arrived last Tuesday – a day earlier than had been estimated. Of course I had to play with my new toy within minutes of it’s arrival.

I had already downloaded a few (21) free Kindle books from Amazon over the weekend. Did you know they have quite a few classics (pre 1923) that they offer for free? They also have a version of kindle for the PC so even if you don’t get an actual Kindle you can still read books created for the Kindle on your computer or even your iPhone or iPad.

The first thing I did with the Kindle was to start reading the instruction manual that came loaded in the Kindle. The Kindle was very easy to figure out, but reading the manual gave me a way to start getting used to using the Kindle and reading a book on a computer like doohickey rather than on paper. It only took me about 10 minutes into the manual to start becoming very comfortable reading on the Kindle.

I still haven’t finished reading the manual. I wanted to get started reading something I was interested in as soon as possible so I transferred the many free books that I’d found on Amazon to my Kindle and later that evening I went shopping for more books – Ones that I actually paid for.

Kindle books come in a wide range of prices. To justify the expense of buying the Kindle I’m trying to get books that are $6 and under … so I guess I won’t be getting any newly published books for a while. I’m in Canada so the prices and deals aren’t as good for me as it is for my American friends. Oh and I’ve also found several other websites where I can download or buy more books that will work on the Kindle.

So I guess I’ll be reading as much as possible in what little spare time I have.

I’m not thrilled with how Amazon is set up for finding Kindle books. If you’re just browsing it’s kind of hard to find books in the price range that you’re interested in. It’s kind of tedious like filling out an employment screening form. I certainly got used to reading on the Kindle faster than I have searching for books I want to read.

Do you have a Kindle or have you tried reading eBooks on your computer, iPhone or iPad? How do you like reading books on something like the Kindle? I’m enjoying it, but I tend to read on my side in bed so I’m terribly afraid of falling asleep and dropping the Kindle only to wake up as it crashes to the floor!

Oh and if anyone knows of some good sites where I can get really good deals on eBooks I’d love to hear about them.





Our dog could live at the beach – no problem!

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I’ve been really lazy about posting the pictures that I’ve taken lately. I mean really lazy!

I’ve had some pictures on my computer that date back to October that I hadn’t cropped or done anything with, let alone uploaded to my Flickr account!

If you’re a regular reader or if you’ve browsed through my blog you already know that I like to take pictures of my garden, my dog and events that I go to here in Toronto and elsewhere. I often post them when when I blog.

Anyway, I spent some time on the weekend working on my photos and uploaded some of the backlog to my Flickr account. Now they’re ready for posting. Of course I still have to go through my most recent photos ie the ones I’ve taken since my garden started coming back to life in March and get them ready for posting too.

Maybe I’ll spend some time doing that this week or on the weekend. Speaking of the weekend … I think we’re going to have to cut our grass this weekend! I don’t think we’ve ever cut our grass as early as April before! But it’s been green since March and it’s really growing now.

While we’re at it I think it’s about time we put out our patio furniture too! The weathers been beautiful so we might as well get our table and chairs out so that we can enjoy the garden and the beautiful weather in comfort.

Would you like to see some of the pictures that I’ve been holding on to for a while and not posting? Ok, well here’s a few of my beautiful Labrador Retriever Midnight at the beach and lounging at home.

Can you believe that on March 7th we had a day that reached 19 Celsius (66 F)? Yeah, here in Toronto! I know that probably doesn’t sound that warm to those of you who live in warm climates but that’s downright hot for the “Great White North” in March. LOL Well, my brother was visiting from Vancouver and we decided to get outside and enjoy the day so that’s how we ended up taking our dog to Cherry beach.

Here’s a shot of here in action trying to fetch a stick as it lands in the water:

Our lab chasing a stick into the water

Another action shot as our Lab, Midnight, races into the cold waters of Lake Ontario:

Black Labrador Retriever running into the lake

Midnight finally coming back to shore. She’d whine for us to throw a stick or even a rock into the water for her to fetch:

Our Lab coming out of the water splish splash

And here’s a picture of Midnight playing with some of her new doggy friends on the beach:

Our dog playing with some friendly Rottweilers at Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario, Toronto

Those Rottweilers were twice as big as here but she got along with them great.

Finally here’s a shot of Midnight in one of my favorite poses. I call it here “My feet smell terrific” position. LOL Does your dog sniff (and chew) it’s own feet too?

Midnight our Black Labrador Retriever looking adorable on the couch

Another beautiful day

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It’s another beautiful day here in Toronto. After a week of normal weather we’re having a really nice day! Currently it’s 19 C (66 F) and it’s supposed to get warmer still.

My garden is appreciating all this great weather. As I’ve said a few times recently, my garden is way ahead of itself. If I didn’t know the date, I’d swear it was already May when I look at my garden. I have tulips coming up and developing flower buds, Glory of the snow flowers blooming, crocuses, muscari, snow drops and many other plants coming out. It’s amazing.

I think I might just bring my laptop outside so I can get some work done and enjoy this beautiful day in my garden.

Sorry that I haven’t been writing too much lately. I seem to have picked up yet another bug. On Sunday I woke up with a really sore throat and my abdomen was hurting like crazy. I’m better now than I was on Sunday but I’m still feeling off. My husband is sick too. He came home from work early on Tuesday, stayed home yesterday and then tried to go to work today but ended up coming home a couple of hours early. Darn viruses!

Hopefully you are enjoying some nice weather too and NOT fighting some kind of bug like my husband and I are!

The garden looks superb but my back is shot

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I think I’m still recovering from the long weekend. Ok I know I am.

Since we had fantastic weather here in Toronto (seriously 25 C (77 F) is HOT for April here!) I spent a lot of time outside in my garden. My husband and I started tidying up the garden beds on Thursday evening when he came home from work and we continued working on the garden on Friday and Saturday.

14 yard waste bags later and we’re done!

Yes you read that correctly … we managed to collect 14 bags of leaves and uh rose branch trimmings. Yes it’s a little early to trim the roses, but most of them actually have leaf buds or actual leaves now … so I think it’s ok. LOL

My back is done too. Each evening I had to lie down with a heating pad to ease the spasms and ache in my lower back and hips. Luckily my back is a bit better today, but I sure did a number on it.

I’m sure not getting enough sleep over the weekend didn’t help either. My bedside lamp, a really nice one from Ikea that I’ve been using for a few years started humming or buzzing. Why do Ikea lamps buzz? Well, it’s not the actual lamp, it’s the attachment near the end of the plug that buzzes. Grrrr

It bothered me enough last night that I went looking for new lamps online and I found some wall scones at Hinkley lighting that might work if we place them on the wall on either side of the bed. That way my husband will finally have his own light. Not that he needs one … he tends to fall asleep most nights as soon as his head hits the pillow and if he’s not asleep in 5 minutes he thinks he has insomnia. LOL

Anyway … the good weather is over for a few days. We’re back to closer to normal temps and it’s raining raining raining oh and gloomy. Oh well it’s good for my garden (which has plants coming up that I don’t normally see until May!) and it will give my back a few days to get better before the garden lures me out there again.

Did you have a good Easter weekend too? Was the weather great or what?

A great day for gardening and barbecuing

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It was such a nice day today! My husband had today off since it’s Good Friday so we took advantage of the great weather (24 C! 75 F unheard of temps here in Toronto for early April) and spent several hours outside tidying up the garden.

We spent a lot of time working on the garden beds in the front of the house. Of course this is always slow going because we know a LOT of our neighbors so we were stopping to talk to them briefly every so often.

While we were outside we saw our old awful renter neighbors drive by a few times. They seem to be hanging out at a house down a side street that’s opposite our house so we can see them quite easily. Since our old neighbors and the people they are hanging out with are basically criminals my husband and I thinking of putting in some kind of security system … maybe one of those wireless security systems of course we’ll have to price it out, but with people like that hanging around we’ll feel better knowing we have a security system.

After we were finished tidying up the front garden beds and moving a few plants around (ever try digging up a rose that’s been in place for 10 years? AH!) we did a bit of work in the backyard and then my husband fired up the BBQ.

We just finished eating some fantastic tasting hamburgers. I was starving so it’s great to have that tasty food in me!

Did you take advantage of the holiday today and perhaps get some yard work done as well? Or maybe you got together with family?

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