Gots a Present

Every year the company I work for (temporary agency for high-tech people) gives out a holiday gift. Last year, my job had ended, but Lee was already in this job, so he got the really nice travel bag they gave out (which for some reason is getting all dirty and messed up in the garage, rather than being clean and ready for travel in the bedroom).

This year the lovely, blond, and professionally dressed woman gave me a nice hand-written card and a little zippered case, emblazoned with the company name. Inside were some nifty items: a fairly good quality pen, a tiny notepad, a very tiny mini-USB mouse whose retractable cord really isn't a very sterling retractor (haven't tried it as a mouse yet, since I have a fine standard-issue ALE mouse when I am docked, and when I am not docked, its clone can be found in my standard-issue ALE computer bag (btw, you, too could have one for like $5 or $10 at the Discount Computer store on Anderson Lane near I-35--they have all of ALE's cast-offs, it seems).

But the cutest item is the teeny, tiny digital picture displayer. It supposedly can be a keychain or attach magnetically, but I can't find anything metallic enough here for it to hang on. And after going through the instructions for using it, as well as trying to read the instructions on the digital picture frame I got my parents for displaying wedding photos, I have come to an insight. I think paying more for a frame may not bring you all that much better in a frame, but may give you an easier user interface and instructions. All the over $100 frames seemed to have intuitive touch screens and copious, well illustrated user manuals. This teeny one and the one I got Dad and Flo had either insufficient instructions (practically zilch on the parental one) or confusing ones (I think whoever did the layout on the teeny one was quite the jokester.

But, oh well, I figured it out anyway, and Lee figured out the parts of the parental one that I couldn't fathom. And other than washing all the photos out, the little one displays them quite cutely. Now if anyone asks for wedding, kid, or husband photos--boom! I can show them some!

Is there anything else going on in my fascinating life? Here are some highlights.

• I am off work all next week as part of ALE's cost-cutting initiative. Some folks get a holiday bonus and a vacation; contractors get no pay. I hope this changes soon! In any case, local buddies, if you are free any day next week other than the 25th and want to hang out, knit, play music, watch TV or eat, let me know, because the kids will be gone, and Lee gets to work three days next week!
• Beccano's guitar arrived yesterday, and I realized I posted a photo of the slightly lesser quality version of it--he has the "professional" model. And he is IN LOVE with it. He just loves how it plays and how smooth the neck is now that it got a little polishing...ahh. Every adult guitar player who sees it compliments him on making a good decision. And, if you read yesterday's comments, you'll know it goes over well with savvy younger guitarists, too!
• Holiday gifts are arriving, and thank goodness I remembered where a gift I'd bought Tuba Boy had gotten off to. That is a real problem with buying things very early--I lose them! I am quite pleased with my scaled-down gift giving. It's so hard for me to do.
• I made butternut squash soup last night. And Lee and Beccano gamely ate it. I will take them to dinner somewhere nice later in the week as a reward.
• Give me ideas for stuff to blog about next week. I will have time...