Getting Beeped

Now that I have my Handspring ready to notify me for everything in my life, I'm not missing anything. This thing is fabulous! It's exactly what I've needed my whole life. Hammy hasn't missed a pill because I have a Handspring. I haven't missed an appointment because I have a Handspring. I have birthday cards and presents ready well in advance of birthdays because I have a Handspring. And people say there's no magic pill. I have found it, and it's name is Handspring.

Kay and I have discussed my adoration of my new device. She is still stuck on using a paper date book. I can't say I blame her. I too love the act of writing and seeing things there in print. But my planner didn't have an alarm to keep me in line, and it didn't hold 400 planner's worth of information. I now have all addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and a calendar in one place, something I've never been able to accomplish in my entire life.

No matter how well I kept my planner, I always saved an address to put in later, or I kept several different address books, updating some and not others. I had to hunt through at least three different places to find a current address, which is why my Christmas cards are late every year. I've given wrong phone numbers and forgotten many birthdays because of my faulty filing system. Now those days are over, as long as I am faithful to the Handspring.

I knew I wanted one of these devices for a long time, but I never realized the base love I would have for the thing. For a long time, I never even mentioned my wanting for one, because I kept thinking to myself, I'm just a housewife. Those are for people with real jobs.

But one day, I let it slip to John that I really would like one of the trendy little things, and contrary to his usual nature, he filed it away in his memory. He researched them on the sly, played with his boss's Palm and his lead singer's Handspring and managed to keep the gift a secret until Christmas morning. He didn't even have the gift under the tree but went and got it from some hiding place when it was time to give it to me. Little did I know, it was riding in the back of the truck with my luggage when I came home from Nebraska. Little sneak. So not only did I get a fantastic gift that is changing my life, I got it in such a great way that I want to just kiss him right now.

Now I'm searching for and downloading nifty plug-ins that automatically put birthdays in my datebook for me, keep track of my exercise and keep a shopping list. John wanted me to download the Palmasutra. Uh� no. I don't think he has a clue about the Kama Sutra except for the fact it has to do with sex. It might be worth the download just to see the look on his face when he sees some of those positions.

I really want the Barmaster program that has something like 2500 drink recipes, but it costs money; something I don't have at the moment. That's probably first on my list of purchases. I'll be the hit of vacation. You'd think I was a big drinker, wanting a drink recipe program, but really, I just want to know how to make about any drink asked of me. It's been many years since I did my little bit of bartending, and only one drink of every twenty was something other than a margarita. (Yeah, Mexican restaurant.) Anyway, people always want to know what's in this or that. It's a cool program just for the trivia aspect. I'm so easily entertained.

John and I used to talk about wanting a bar in our house, which is really quite silly. We only drink at home when we have parties, and the last party we had was in October. Before that, it was the kids' birthday party in July, not exactly a big drinking event. We still have bottles of vodka, Frangelico and rum from when we moved here. So unless we only plan on stocking a bar only with beverages that age well, it's out of the question. We certainly don't need something else to maintain either.

We did manage to water our Christmas tree regularly this year, so we don't have a houseful of pine needles. I didn't get the tree taken down over the weekend, so I have to get it done today. The tree pick-up comes around tomorrow, and I don't want to miss it, or I'll feel guilty for adding another tree to the landfill.

It's so depressing taking down Christmas decorations. Maybe that's why I take them down and leave them out all over the place for another month. I must avoid that this year.

I have to go to Goodwill today too. I have a truckload of stuff to take, which will count as what I got rid of today. I'm dropping by Mailboxes Etc. too, so I can give them the blizzard's worth of packing peanuts we have from the holiday packages we received. If I can just get myself out of the house, I'll get it all done. I should put it in my Handspring with an alarm, so it bugs the hell out of me until I do it. I don't think I'm that bad though.