The best intentions

I had the best intentions of posting some info and pictures I took last week, but then my new Droid2 arrived!  Taaa Daaa!

I haven't bought a new phone for three years, so all the features in this phone were really foreign to me.  When I was at my daughter, Kristy's, house last week, she had a new iPhone and it looked pretty neat.  She was following people on Facebook, getting and sending e-mails, checking websites, lots of different things.  I've been thinking about getting a new phone for a while now, and that tipped the scale for me.  When I got home I did some searches on the phones available, and decided on the Droid2.

My daughter-in-law, Trish, has the Droid X, which is the one Leo Laporte, the Tech Guy on the radio recommends, but I was thinking I might do better with a real keyboard and the Droid2 has a slide-out keyboard.

So, it arrived this afternoon, and I've been playing with it since - pretty much non-stop for over five hours!  At first I couldn't even figure out how to get the normal Home Page - it had something weird on the page that I couldn't get rid of.  And it kept "going to sleep" every 30 seconds while I was trying to figure out things, very frustrating! : (  I called Verizon, and the woman couldn't figure out what was going on, either, put me on hold, and I lost the call.  That was probably when my old phone was disconnected.

The phone didn't come with an Owner's Manual, so I went on-line and downloaded it.  I'm going to have some fun with this!  For the last 5 hours I've been setting it up, downloading apps, syncing it, etc.

It's kind of like reading the blogs I'm following:  I see something, click on it, start reading, accidentally hit the screen wrong, then I'm in another area, so I start reading about that, or checking it out, looks good, download that one, etc.  Little by little, I figured out some things, and I think I like it.

I called the local Verizon store this afternoon to see if someone there could take some time with me if I came down, and he said every Saturday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 they have Droid2 classes.  So, think of me tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. (if you're awake) when I should be sleeping in - down at the Verizon store learning what I need to know to operate my phone.  What a world we live in!

I also got the Multimedia Station to charge it.

I can create a wi-fi hotspot with up to five connections with this phone, so, from what I'm reading in some other blogs, it might be helpful on the road?

I'm with Verizon, and until today I was on a month-to-month basis since my 2-year contract was up last year, but I'm sure I'll stay with Verizon, so signing up for another 2 years won't change anything for me, except to get a $150 discount on the phone.  This is the first time I've actually paid anything for a phone, I hope it's worth it!

From Me and My Dog, have a good evening, everyone! : )

Catching up on my reading...

I have so many blogs to catch up on.  I didn't do much reading while visiting with my daughter and her family, so tonight I'm catching up and enjoying hearing about all your adventures while I was gone.

I'm also following the links to some of the blogs you are following.  Once I start doing that, I'm gone...  Suddenly it's two hours later, and I'm following new people in all phases of their RV lifestyles. 

It's fun to add new followers to my list.  Seeing that you follow their blogs is a good recommendation for me that I'll probably enjoy their journeys, too.  So, thanks!

I love the way Blogger allows me to list the people I follow, and puts them in order so the most recent blog updates are at the top of the list.  Before I started my own blog, I had the list of blogs I followed in an Excel spreadsheet, and every day I copied and pasted every URL into my browser, in order, so I wouldn't miss any.  Of course not everyone posts every day, so lots of my copy/pastes had nothing new, and it was really time consuming.  This is a MUCH better way, and I can zip through all the recent posts until I get to ones I've previously read. 

So... back to my reading.  I'll blog more tomorrow.  My eye is on the prize:

From Me and My Dog, have a great night! : )

Jelly Belly Factory

We left at 4:30 a.m. on Friday morning, and Katie and I drove to Vacaville to visit my daughter, Kristy and her family.  She has a great husband, Matt,  and two darling kids, Lauren who is 3 this month, and Andrew, who is 5.

We were sooooo busy while I was there.  I took some photos and will post them this week with brief discriptions of where we were.

One day we went to the Jelly Belly Factory - just me and Kristy and the kids.
 

Matt was working, so although he loves jelly beans, he couldn't go.  I got him a bag of belly flops, though. (Those are the jelly beans that didn't pass muster, too big, too small, or not the right shape or shine.  They are collected and sold at half price in big bags.)

BELLY FLOPS

In the shopping area they have free samples of different kids of fudge, various other candies, and every jelly bean flavor available.  You ask for the flavor you want to taste, and they give it to you, in your cupped hand, from a little tiny spoon.  Lauren learned how to make her hand into a cup during the sampling.  : )

SAMPLE BAR and FRONT OF SAMPLE BOXES

Following are photos of Kristy and the kids - none of me, thank goodness - wearing the official tour hat.  We were waiting in the outer room for the tour to begin.  If you don't wear the hat, you don't take the tour.  It's a requirement.  Lauren put on her own hat.  Kristy later told me my  hat was upside down, too.  Like Grammy, like Granddaughter.  You can see by the expressions on their faces that the waiting room wasn't too exciting.
 

ANDREW

 LAUREN

 KRISTY

It was a neat tour, very interesting, and I'd recommend anyone in the area taking the time to tour the factory.  You get samples as you go along the tour, and a little bag free at the end.

FREE SAMPLE BAG AT END OF THE TOUR

We were in Fairfield, CA but they also have tours in a factory in Wisconsin. 

You won't get Jelly Bellys any fresher than this!

From Me and My Dog, have a good night, everyone! : )

Katie at the Mount Olympus Games XXIX

WELCOME to my new Follower, Dave.  Thanks for signing on - I hope you enjoy my journey to fulltiming!

I'm back home again.  I thought I'd be too tired to put a blog together today after driving eight hours, so I have another JibJab for you - my grandkids love these little videos!

Here's Katie at the Mount Olympus Games XXIX:

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

If that isn't at Gold Medal performance! : ) 

I'll tell you about my trip during this week, and show you some pictures I took.  

From Me and My Dog, Winner of the Gold, have a good evening, everyone!

Butterfly conservatory

Today my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids took me to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA. I couldn't believe all the rides and exhibits and animals there.

I've never been in a butterfly conservatory before. When you walk in, it's warm and humid, junglelike, full of flowering plants, bushes and trees. Then you notice butterflies every where. Small, medium and large butterflies of all colors, drifting down toward you, lighting on a leaf, chasing each other. It was like being in a fairytale.

Unless they were sitting on a leaf, they were moving too fast for my camera to get a good photo. I have a new Canon, and it's not the fault of the camera.  I'm just learning how to use it, and today I had a lot of practice before the battery started going out.

Here are some of the photos I took:

From me and my dog in her princess dress, have a good day, everyone! :)