Winding Down the Old Year . . .

Yesterday we had our last 'hurrah'!  Which is why this post is late because I'm actually writing it at 6:15-7:15 on New Year's Eve morning!  Thursday was supposed to be one of the nicest days this week-overcast with temps in the 60's.  The hubster was planning on taking down the outside Christmas lights, except he had already done that on Monday. 

So we decided to take a short day trip to Silver Dollar City.   Short is a relative term.  It's about a 3-3-5 hour drive.

I packed up a ditty-bag with the scarf I'm crocheting for the kidlet and my Kindle.  The kidlet packed her Nintendo DS, a couple of books (and regaled us with information about Chupacabras and Leucrotta's--yes, I had to look THAT one up on wikipedia!) a pillow and blanket.  The hubster ALWAYS drives . . . for a couple of reasons:

1) I HATE DRIVING

2) I used to offer to drive, but when he wanted to change drivers we would be in a place (Denver, snow, mountain driving) that I had pre-negotiated my refusal to drive.

We stopped to eat lunch at Zio's in Springfield and continued on our way.  We knew it would be crowded because this was the last day SDC would be open until mid-March--but WOWZERS!  We opted for the paid parking that is available for season pass holders.  We'd have to walk to and from our parking space but it sure beats waiting for a tram along with a gazillion other people to take you to the North 40 parking area!

As I mentioned, we go to SDC for the rides.  Oh, sure, they have shows and craft demos, etc, etc, but why waste time watching a show if you can ride a rollercoaster????  The lines were hideous because some genius in SDC's management decided to have the mechanics start breaking down the cars on ALL the rides, leaving only one car per ride.  NOT SMART, PEOPLE!  (yes, I'm going to send them a letter.  And yes, I realize the didn't expect the last day to generate that many people.  And yes, I realize they hadn't calculated the temperatures would be in the 60's--but this isn't the first time someone messed up).  If you are scheduled to be open, then you need to anticipate a crowd. We waited an hour for Wildfire.  PowderKeg was better since they had two sets of cars running. 

While we waited in line for Wildfire, it got dark and SDC became a magical fairyland with lights.  The lights made up for my earlier crankiness. 

We left around 7:30 for the drive home.  It was too dark to crochet, so I pulled out my Kindle (with its handy dandy little light) and started to read Treasure Island.  I have NEVER read TI, so I thought it would be a good idea to get used to the Kindle by reading a 'freebie'.  I'm about 1/4 of the way finished.
And if they didn't provide the little line at the bottom of the page, I would never have figured it out! There are a couple of love/hate things I've discovered while using an ereader. 

--I enjoy reading on the Kindle.  Even though I needed a little light to read it at night, it was not distracting to the driver.  If you angled it right, it didn't glare on the screen.

--I HATE that I can't 'cheat' and read the ending.  Oh, I know things will work out, but I still like to check it out.

--I don't like the way the formatted the ebook.  I don't know if they screwed up because it is a freebie, but sometimes the paragraphs were indented and sometimes they weren't.

--I didn't like that I had no idea where the chapter breaks were.  True, skipping ahead I might figure it out, but they run the chapters together with the text--THERE IS NO EASILY SPOTTED BREAKING POINT.

--My eyes got tired quicker than I expected.  I don't know if it was because we had a long day, or if it was because of the ereader, or if it was the light.  I'll have to test a couple of theories.

--And I won't go into it here, but I STILL THINK IT'S A TOTAL RIP-OFF BY PUBLISHING HOUSES TO CHARGE THE SAME PRICE AS THEY WOULD A PRINT BOOK.  Talk about a 90+% profit margin!

Well, that's it for today.  I need to round up last year's goals and set some new ones for this year.  I tried to read 50 books this year and I'm on book #48--I should finish it today--so I think that is a good goal to keep for next year.

If the weather cooperates, we'll be hanging by the outdoor fireplace tonight before we transfer to the hot tub.  Hubster and I will have some bubbly and the kidlet will have sparkling grape juice. . . at least with a drink in her hand, she'll refrain from 'swimming' in the hot tub.--NOT RELAXING! O' child who sprung from my loins!

See you all in the New Year!