Samsung Epic

For my birthday, my husband upgraded my cell phone (an LG Lotus) to a Samsung Epic. While the phone got rave reviews, I wasn't sure if it was for me. Personally, I prefer flip phones...even though they are a dying breed in the US. Despite my dislike of smart phones, I am finding myself warming up to it. I like being able to watch YouTube videos or play Hangman while my daughter is at swim class. (My husband has an app on his HTC phone for a barcode scanner, which is neat but I don't know that I would ever use it.) The camera/camcorder is also much better than the one on the Lotus. The one downfall is that it just isn't pretty. I'm planning on looking around for a case for it...but out of the box, it's just plain and boring and blah. At least my Lotus was a cute purple with flower designs. I know that comes off as very girly but, in reality, I enjoy having things that look different from everyone else. No one I knew had a purple phone or a Lotus (which also comes in red or black) in general. But that is something that is easily fixable.

Overall, I really do like my Epic. My favorite part is the slide-out Qwerty keyboard. I don't like the touchscreen keyboard so it's nice to have the option to use a "real" keyboard if I want. If it is within your budget (it is a rather expensive phone), I highly recommend it.

Eureka Holiday Special

Eureka is one of the "can't miss" TV shows in our household. Last night, they aired a holiday special! As always, it was smart, funny, and added a little twist to the story. (Though I wonder if Sheriff Carter has gotten any term life insurance quotes recently. He is almost always in some sort of danger!) Sadly, I don't want to talk about it too much in case you haven't seen it. (Much like I haven't seen the Warehouse 13 holiday episode from last night yet. It's on my DVR though!) But if you love Eureka, you'll adore the holiday spin on the show. So awesome!

Oh no! The dentist!

Alas, today is another short day. Not for anything fun though. My daughter and I have our appointments for our dental check-ups. Usually my daughter is OK with going to the dentist. For some reason, she doesn't want to go this time. One of the reasons is that she's going to miss gym class. Today is the day they are working on the pull up bars to get ready for the President's Fitness Test. She'll just have to get over it. Teeth are more important than chin ups.

What a weekend

This weekend was filled with activity. Unfortunately, none of it involved watching jdoramas. My daughter had a winter tap performance at one of the local senior centers. It was pretty cute. Their costumes consisted of black shirts/leotards, jeans, garland as skinny ties, and a bow in their hair. The idea was that they would look like Christmas presents. I think the seniors enjoyed the performance. My daughter and I also took in a local performance of The Nutcracker. We both enjoyed it, even though it was difficult to find the venue. If everything goes well, we'll probably check out a few other performances from that dance company. Dance has now filled our lives to the brim!

I hate winter

Man, I absolutely hate the winter. It was so cold this morning that some of the wet patches from yesterday's pouring rain froze. My car slid a little as I drove past one of these patches. (I'd hate to see the insurance quotes if I crashed my car into a tree thanks to ice. We pay enough as it is!) And it's only the beginning of December! We still have at least three months before it starts to warm up again. Please summer, come back to me!

Kinect

It has now been awhile since we purchased the Kinect. I have to say that the entire family enjoys it a lot. While there are some buggy games out there (I'm looking at you, Zumba), if you do your research ahead of time, many of the games are tons of fun. My daughter's favorite is Kinect Adventures, which comes with the system. To be specific, she likes the Rallyball mini-game. It's a lot like Racquetball but your hand is the racquet. The goal is to use the balls to break boxes. You hit the balls with various parts of your body. It is a pretty interesting game. My favorite is Dance Central. Then again, I really like to dance. The moves are easy enough for anyone to pick up and you still get a decent workout from it. I haven't tried the harder levels yet. I'm working my way up to it.

I'm sad that there are developers throwing out buggy games for the Kinect. I really wanted to play the Zumba game. However, everything that I have read about it says it is terrible. C'mon guys, this is an awesome system. Take the time to develop the game properly before throwing it out there. The users will love you much more for it!

Can I have a nap now?

I hope all the people that celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend had a nice one. Mine was extremely busy. I wasn't sitting around browsing web directories or even out in the stores doing Black Friday shopping. We visited both our families on Thursday and Friday. Then Saturday was filled with our normal Saturday classes. (I have Zumba and my daughter has swimming.) Then there were errands to be run. It was tiring! And it doesn't look like it will get any better until after the holidays. December is such an exhausting month.