1
I have 20 ebooks sitting in a folder on my computer. I have read two of them and skimmed two of them, which mean the other 16 are just sitting there, laughing at me for taking the time (and even spending several bucks for many of them) to download them and then never even open the pdf. I need to do something about this, but the something won't be buying a reader. Any suggestions?
The way I usually attempt to read an ebook is to distract Miriam with a snack, then get two paragraphs in to find she has scaled the back of my chair, then get another sentence in only to have to wrestle her away from the keyboard. I plop her back down to eat and before I even sit back down, she has managed to dart past me, leap onto the chair, and hit several keys so that the file I was reading has completely disappeared. This might happen a few times before I give in to her cries for "Moo-sih! Moo-sih!" and find a youtube video of an old musical number to placate her. (Lately it's been "With A Little Bit of Luck" from My Fair Lady. I'm a sucker for Miriam's calls for "li bih! li bih!")
The Sound of Music is another popular choice.
So yes, I need a way to read ebooks that doesn't involve an electronic device that I will have to pry away from a toddler. I'm contemplating printing them all out. Has anyone done that? Would it cost a lot to go to an office store or copy center and get them all printed out? (My computer doesn't do automatic double-sided and printing at home would not be worth the headache.) Is there some other alternative that I'm missing here?
2
While I'm asking for advice, what do you know about freezing liquids? I've tried freezing chicken stock in the plastic jars that Ball has, but I must not leave enough headspace because several of my lids have cracked. Can and should I freeze in glass? Or just other old tupperware containers? If it makes a difference, the liquid-ish things I'm freezing are stock, pesto, applesauce, and salsa. (Clearly I still haven't learned to can yet.)
3
How important do you think it is for a group to have a facebook presence? I keep meaning to start a facebook group or fan page or whatever for our local NFP group, but to be honest I don't want to be the one to keep it up since I'm trying to wean myself off facebook more and more. Since no one else has volunteered to do it yet, we still haven't started one. Do you think it's super important to do? I keep reading that people only see 20% of your posts anyway, so I'm not sure that it's necessary. Do you? Do you feel very connected to local groups by them being on facebook, or are emails and in-person meetings sufficient?
4
Apparently all seven of these takes are going to be me asking you questions. I guess I need quite a bit of advice!
So the next question: Is it worth it to have a land line? I thought it was. I've insisted several times to my husband that it was. But since we got this number, we have gotten calls at least once a week from creditors trying to hunt down Michelle Meredith. I assure you that I will let them know if I ever find Ms. Meredith because the calls are extremely annoying. Yesterday it went overboard, though. I got 14 calls in five hours, and this time they weren't even courteous - when I said it wasn't her number and to remove it from the list, the callers actually hung up on me. And somehow I couldn't even call them back. I was furious, and according to the phone company the only solution is to change my number. Which means we will probably become a cell-phone-only family after all. Unless you know of another way to stop these calls?
5
Here's an important question for the parents out there - what's the going rate for babysitters? Our 12 year old neighbor is taking a babysitting class tomorrow and I want to be prepared when I'm finally ready to leave Miriam with someone other than my mother. I know you pay more or less depending on how many kids you have, but what about the sitter's experience, etc?
6
Okay, let's be honest, I'm not going to be open to real babysitting for a long time. But I do want to try the whole mother's helper thing a few times before the neighbor girl has to go back to school. How exactly does that work? Do you explain everything to her and then just let them play? Do you have her do actual help around the house or just have her distract play with your daughter so you can actually get stuff done? Do you completely disappear and hide up in your bedroom trying to catch up on reading your friends' blogs? (Obviously that's the option I'm hoping for.) And how much do you pay for something like that?
7
I've been looking and looking for sandals that are firstly comfortable and secondly not ugly. I found some yesterday and they are heavenly to walk in. But I'm not sure about the looks department. I know they're not the cutest things in the world, but I don't think they're ugly. I'm just a little worried they're too mom-ish. What do you think?
See better pics here.
Have a great weekend!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!