Well, we just got back from MD Anderson, and once again Steve had a good report! We are now three years
out, pulling for the magical five…YAY! The bad news was that the chemo did
some damage to his kidneys and liver, which has prompted the doctor to tell him
that he should cut out caffeine from his diet entirely. The irony (oh,
the irony!) is that we had just ordered a serious
espresso/cappuccino/coffee machine, the
DeLonghi
Magnifica, which arrived while we were gone. Does anyone know of any
naturally decaffeinated coffee beans? Is there such a thing? The doctor told us
that the process used to decaffeinate regular coffee beans introduces toxins
which may or may not be completely washed out in the decaffeination
process, and that Steve should avoid them.
Of course, after having been gone for four days, I returned home to a stack
of mail and unfinished business. These are some of the tidbits that I want to share
with you all…
I was contacted by a
Panasonic rep about their new
Oxyride Extreme Power batteries a couple weeks ago, and I agreed to give
them a try. Guess what? The hype is true. I tested them against a brand
new pack of regular alkaline Duracell batteries that I had, and I was able to get a little bit better
than twice the amount of pictures when using the Oxyrides (with flash and
display screen) with my power hungry Fuji S7000.
While I prefer
rechargeables, the Oxyride batteries will make a great choice for times when I
need a ready-to-go set of batteries right away. If your camera or other
high-drain electronic item uses traditional batteries (AA, AAA), then you might
want to give these a try. If you are giving someone a power hungry Christmas gift, then don’t forget these batteries. Even better, first
download the $1 off coupon I found on the site!
***
CooLanyard has enlarged the size of the finger ring for their
Digi-Grip Camera Finger Rings, which I reviewed earlier this month. I have
just updated the review to reflect that fact…and I am offering four of the
larger rings and one of the smaller to the first five people that email me
saying that they want to try them. Make sure that you include your name and home
address, and I will let you know if you will be receiving one. Ho Ho Ho!
***
Scott Jordan sent an email to say that the new
SeV
Ultimate Cargos Pants are now shipping. I expect to have their review up
around the end of the month. Refer to my
previous diary entry on
December 5th to see what all the happy fuss is about.
***
I ordered a sync & charge cord from a seller on eBay so that I could see if
my "new" HP Jornada 928 would power on…and it did! After charging for five
hours, it now appears to be holding its charge, and all of the PPC functions are
working. I have a T-Mobile SIM card inserted, but it is showing "No Network"
when I happen to know that there is one. I wonder if there is a magic button I
am supposed to push – or if this device just doesn’t like my card? Ah well, what
a blast from the not-so-distant-past! It is wild to see how milky the
screen is, knowing that I would have been more than pleased with it years ago.
Screen technology, along with everything else, has really come a long way in
just three short years.
***
CES 2006 party invites and press swag are flying through the mail right now,
and it is killing me (killing me!) that Julie and I aren’t going this
year. However, something interesting has come up…Moto,
the company that designed the one-time-use digital camcorder for CVS sent me one
for fun. Their flyer said to use it for capturing "the best moments of CES, or
[to] make [my] own Taxi Cab Confession." After using it, I was to send it
in to them in return for a DVD of the footage shot, or turn it in to CVS and pay
$12 for the processing. As if!
I wanted to see how I could turn this thing into more than just a one-time
item, as it is a pretty nifty little 20 minute digital video recording device.
So
look what I found…
More later! :0)
