I Love My Kindle. And My Droid.

And soon I'll be able to have them together, thanks to Amazon finally announcing Kindle for Android. Don't misunderstand me here - I LOVE my Kindle. I've had one since August 2008, and there were times that beautiful little gadget saved my sanity while lying on LG's floor waiting for her to be asleep enough for me to be able to sneak out of the room.  I wish Kindles had been around when I was nursing...one handed reading while holding a baby who fell asleep and woke up instantly if I moved would've been a truly wonderful thing.  Besides which, I've read more books in the last year and a half or so than I have in a long, long time.  And even better, a lot of them were free - and not old-classics-public-domain free, either.  To go off on a tangent a bit, yes, those publishers' promotions do work.  I have bought several books after getting the first one in the series free.

As much as I love my Kindle, though, there are times I don't want to carry it around.  Now that I don't have to carry a diaper bag anymore, I've gotten my purse down to a wallet on a string with a cell phone pocket.  Carrying my Kindle requires me to carry a much larger bag, which I don't usually want to do.  I always have my Droid with me.  While I typically find myself checking Facebook or reading comics or blogs when I'm stuck somewhere with a few minutes to kill (like getting to preschool pick up 15 minutes early because I'm running too late to go home but too early to be there at dismissal), I'm MUCH more excited about being able to pick up wherever I left off on whatever books I'm reading on my Kindle that's sitting at home next to my bed.

I have to admit, I've been frustrated and disappointed that there were free Kindle apps for PC, iPhone, and  Blackberry, but not even a whisper of a Kindle for my Droid.  But I'm happy now, waiting anxiously patiently for Kindle for Android this summer.  Thanks, Amazon!

Sad and Pathetic

Yes, it's now about 8:30 on a Sunday night.  There was a time, a few years ago, when this would be a couple hours away from sadly wrapping up a day-long gaming session because all the players had to go to work the next day.  Bedtime would usually be around 1AM or so, because really, sleep was so overrated.

Fast forward to today...it's 8:30, and I'm trying to decide, after a very long weekend filled with lots of kid activities, whether or not it's too sad and pathetic to just go to bed.

Spike, the Ultra Dinosaur

Little Girl (we’ll call her LG) really, REALLY wanted Santa to bring her Spike, the Ultra Dinosaur for Christmas.  In red, please.  Santa, being the jolly guy that he is, thought it would be double the fun for LG if Mommy and Daddy had one too. Think of the possibilities – dinosaur races, dinosaur fights, dinosaur tea parties…  So, yes, Santa brought not one, but two Spikes.  One in red for LG, the other in the original green for Mommy and Daddy to play with.   Santa just didn’t realize that Fisher-Price hadn’t quite figured out that one family might want two Spikes.

You see, Spike is a really advanced dinosaur.  He can walk in different directions, fetch, play with toys, open his mouth and roar, all sorts of fun stuff.  All controlled by one little wireless remote control – and therein lies the problem.  Both Spikes respond to commands given by one controller.  They all work on the same frequency (confirmed by a phone call to Fisher-Price).  And, according to Fisher-Price, while they were apologetic, there’s really nothing they can do about it.  Including, apparently, warn people – because what family would be crazy enough to want more than one giant, roaring, walking dinosaur, right?

So, no dinosaur fights and no dinosaur races (which made LG pretty sad).  We can still have dinosaur tea parties, though.  Maybe we should consider dinosaur synchronized sports.  Or dinosaur dancing.  They’d make a pretty good conga line.

Welcome!

Welcome to From Geek to Mom…and Back Again.  I’ll be writing about geeky things and mommy things and places where they overlap.  You might find posts about my Kindle or my Droid, RPGs, MMORPGs, Wii games, miniatures games, and the occasional comic book.  You might also find commentary on kids’ toys, especially how they get used (or not) by my own little member of the next generation of geeks.  I hope you find something to enjoy here – I’m planning to write something on most days – and if not, tell me what you want to read about!