WOW this thing is GREAT!!!

Seriously it is!!! If you don't know what it is let me enlighten you. It's called Roku. It's a wireless entertainment box and my Dad got it for me for my Birthday. I initially liked the idea of getting one simply so I could stream Netflix from my TV instead of my laptop all the time. But let me tell you it's so much more.

It took me about a week or so to get up the energy to want to set it up because initially I thought I would have to plug it into my router which would constitute me rearranging my furniture & not something I was really keen on. In a place as small as mine you want to maximize your space as much as possible and once the furinuture goes down you don't want to move it (I now have to re-evaluate the BR setup...but that's another story, for another time). However, in the process of the set up I realized that I could setit up wirelessly to my router & then that made me want to use it even more, not to mention I could still keep everything in it's place.

So after the set up, I connected it to my Netflix and then realized that Roku has it's own channels that you can subscribe to. Some you have to pay for, but they also have quite a few free ones that are actually pretty useful. Like I was able to connect my Pandora (music) account to their Pandora channel & have music play through my TV, totally cool! Lest anyone thing that Pandora is strictly for "popular" music, I happen to have my stations setup for classical, hymns, musicals & opera, so there is quite a variety. And it's come in quite nicely today as I've commenced my Saturday cleaning. I haven't had to stop & switch CD's etc. It's really nice. I also downloaded some more spiritual channels, like thier Sermon Audio channel! Now I can also listen to sermons that my church, and others like ours, have downloaded. It was a little weird last night when I was scrolling through the information and I ran accross Pastor Sargent & Pastor Jeremiah's pictures from their Sermon Audio accounts. Haven't found Bro. Geist on their yet, but I there's time for that. The one channel that I did opt to pay for is called The Streaming Bible,  I can listen to the Bible being read anytime I want. It was pretty neat last night just to check it out and to have it on in the background. Scrolling thought their radio channel was also pretty interesting, because now I can listen to my talk radio through my TV as well. Gone is the static of my antenna! Definitely a fun "toy" to get. And just so you readers know, no you don't need a fancy LCD or HDTV for it to work. I'm using my old tube TV for it. Thanks to my Dad for thinking of it. I'll never pay for cable again after this.

New Toys

Today I went home sick from work. Yes, it's that lovely fall weather that we have here on the island:P Not to mention m allergies have been driving me nuts. In any case I really don't want to get sick as I'm singing a special in church next Sunday so in an effort to unclog my sinuses I decided to invest in a Neti pot and see what it could do for me (that's a pic of one to the left).

For those of you who are not aquainted with a Neti pot it is a "nasal lavage devise". In other words it washes out your nose. Sure we blow our noses all the time, but what about the rest of what we can't get to. Our noses are just filled with germs that need to be cleaned out. Anyway, I wanted to get rid of the germs and unclog my sinuses so I went out and got one. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pretty desperate. Using it felt a bit like what happens to you when you jump into a pool without holding your nose, except instead of it going up and staying there it drips out of the other side, essentially clearing the guck out, and because it needs to be filled with some non-iodized salt, I could taste a little salt when I didn't bend my head far enough forard. And you know what, honestly, my sinuses feel great! This is gonna be a regular thing for me. It probably won't keep me from getting sick all the time, but at least it will help keep the germs away.

Let me also just say that Ziploc makes some really great products. My fave, until tonight, are the Zip'n'Steam bags. Fresh steamed veggies (or meat) in just minutes, which is great since I usually don't want to break out all my pots and pans to cook for just me. So another new toy I got is the Ziploc Vacuum freezer bags. I LOVE these!!! I Stored at least 2 weeks worth of meat in my freezer tonight, and it was super easy to use. One day I'd like to get the nice electric freezer safe bags, but that can wait for now. Seriously it will be great have some food in reserve for later so I can get my moneys worth and not have to rush to eat it all right away. I know it sounds may sound a little odd for a single gal to be buying all her groceries at once, but I hate going to Albertsons unless I have to. I don't like to grocery shop every week so I get all I need at once that way I don't have to. Plus it helps me budget my money better.

So yeah, this post was pretty lame, it was meant to be more about the Neti pot than anything else, but I'm tired so I'm rambling. Anyway, those are some of my new toys.