So as I posted earlier, for my birthday my husband, parents and siblings all chipped in to buy me an iPad. I can tell you that the iPad is the most awesomest thing ever, but that's for another post. There is, of course, one problem having gotten an iPad for my birthday, and that my birthday comes in the fall - cold weather will soon be upon us. (Yes, even after I move to California, I'm sure I'll need to wear gloves, because it does get cold there once in awhile) - and actually - what's that saying "The coldest winter I ever spent was a
summer in San Francisco?" I'm the type of person that wears gloves the instant there's any kind of chill in the air. Obviously gloves and iPads / iPhones don't usually play nice. I've seen some versions of gloves that will work with these devices, but they usually have some sort of weird nubby thing that's sure to fall off at some point.
Well, Isotoner has come out with a great pair of gloves that work with the iPhone and iPad but without the nubby thing. They're called "smarTouch" gloves. (Although I've seen them in some stores listed as "Smart Touch") They sent me a pair of gloves to try out and I can attest that they do in fact work. There's a piece of conductive thread woven into the index finger and thumb that the iPhone and iPad does register. My one complaint is that it would be even better if this material were on ALL the fingers - especially for use with the iPad because I do use QWERTY typing on it quite often. But hunt-and-peck typing is better than having to release my hands to the elements just to type a few words!
One additional nice feature these gloves have is the non-slip palms so that hopefully I won't drop my phone and crack the glass again. Ahem. Yeah, that wasn't fun.
Giveaway!
Isotoner has reserved two pairs of these gloves for me to give away.
Required Entry: To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite winter activity is.
For an additional entry: Tweet the following (and leave a second comment telling me you did so):
Enter to win a free pair of smarTouch Isotoner gloves that work with the iPhone/iPad! >> @theworkingmom http://bit.ly/ddiX83
(click the link to tweet)
Contest ends October 18th, 2010 at 10pm MST. There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest. I will be using random.org to choose the winner. I’ll contact the winner via email, and he/she will have 48 hours to respond. After 48 hours, if I don’t receive a response, another winner will be chosen.
*Disclosure note: the smarTouch gloves were provided to me by Isotoner.
Before we drove to Hana, I was noticing all these t-shirts that said "I survived the road to Hana" - and separately, both Sam and I had the same thought:
"hmm... that's a funny way to put it." Whenever we talked about this "tourist attraction" to anyone, they all seemed to downplay it. They said - yeah, it's kind of a long trip, plan for a full day, the road is a little winding.
A little? Wow. Maybe I when I tell stories of our adventures I go over the top with my descriptions, but still, I'd never think to describe that road as a "little" winding.
Quite simply, the road was terrifying.
Now I understand why the t-shirts all say "I survived the road to Hana" - because just surviving that road is enough to brag about. Like "I swam in a river filled with Parana and sharks. And then just to make things interesting, they placed a hungry tiger on the shore." Seriously, the road is nuts. It's VERY winding, it's VERY narrow. Some turns are so tight and so narrow, you literally have to hold your breathe as you make the turn praying that the person coming around the bend is far enough over.
This picture above explains why I would be concerned about that in the first place. The huge truck in front of us obviously felt the dividing lines between the two lanes was merely a "guideline," and not something you really needed to pay attention to.
And with such a narrow, winding road, you'd think people would obey the speed limit. Oh, no of course not! Locals as well as tourists zip through this place like death is a paradise you can't wait to see.
They also warn you that there is nothing from the town of Pa'ia all the way to Hana, so you better get a boxed lunch in Pa'ia so you don't starve to death on your way. So of course we heeded these suggestions, but there's actually tons of little roadside local setups that I would have loved to have tried. It makes me think that the hotel has some sort of deal with the "boxed lunch" place to send business their way. At one point, regardless of the fact that we had plenty of food in the cooler from Pa'ia, we stopped at a little local stand and picked up some of the freshest "Pineapple Bread" I've ever eaten. Actually, I've never eaten pineapple bread, and probably will never do so again, but that's just because nothing will ever compare to how delicious this bread was. It was still hot from the oven, and just totally amazing. They also had little bags of fresh coconut. Seriously - how can you turn that down.
One of the things we were going to do, was listen to this CD that was supposed to be a "tour guide" for you as you drive. We didn't listen to him very much. Although it probably would have been pretty funny to keep doing so. The drive was just so difficult that we needed to keep full concentration on every inch. The one part we did hear and are still laughing over is that he said that the road
"used to be" terrible - full of potholes, but fairly recently (2004?) it was paved and
widened. Seriously? If this road is wide NOW, I would hate to have seen it before!
The point of the trip, apparently, is not just to drive to Hana and back, but to stop at several locations along the way. In my mind, I pictured a decent sized pull-off on the road, or at least larger signage to indicate where you were supposed to go, but this was not the case. The pull-offs were mostly no bigger than a small ditch on the side of the road. For some of the stops, it required hiking into woods on a vaguely marked path. All that coupled with my severe car-sickness from the road, we didn't stop much.
- Look, honey, a waterfall!! Ok keep going!!!
At one of the bathroom stops we found on the way (we were told there were NONE!) we looked at the list of "sights" to see on the road to Hana, and decided the one and only one we REALLY wanted to see was the black sand beach. So we headed straight there. It was incredible. There was a lava tube right near the beach, and the sand was truly amazing. All of it comprised of black sand and rocks formed by lava flowing down to the ocean thousands of years ago. I so wanted to take a sample back, but then remembered what someone had told us about not taking sand or rocks... something about bad luck and really with so much of our life up in the air right now, I need as little bad luck as possible. I don't even want to think about tempting fate.
Coming back was a much easier trip, for me anyway. I had been so wound up and felt so sick on the road in, that I was completely exhausted and fell asleep for most of the trip back to the hotel. Probably made Sam's life easier that way too. LOL!
If you do ever come to Maui, and have never done the drive to Hana, and want to... well, at least now you'll know what you're getting yourself into. LOL! I'm not sorry we did it, but I can't see myself ever wanting to do that drive again!
We are in Hawaii right now and I've decided that this is where I want to spend every vacation for ever and ever. I am so in love with this place I've been moved to tears several times already. The hotel we're staying in is completely fabulous. The two upgrades I made when we booked the trip were to get a room with an ocean view and to have their breakfast included.
First the view is absolutely spectacular! And the breakfast, for some reason, I thought it was just going to be a continental breakfast: some coffee, a bagel, maybe waffles if we were lucky. HOLY COW the breakfast is HUGE. Made to order omelets. scrambled eggs. Hash browns, eggs benedict, lox, bagels, fruit, waffles, steamed fish, even miso soup! There's so much I can't even remember it all. Then for seating, they placed us right next to this koi pond that has a waterfall. It's simply paradise.
In the lobby of the hotel, in the open air, there's another huge koi pond with another waterfall, and birds that just hang out there: like swans, flamingos, parrots. Everything is just over the top beautiful.
We splurged yesterday and had a couples massage. Then we drove down to the Maui Aquarium. Again, expectations were moderate, reality far exceeded anything I could have imagined. The first few buildings were very cool, but what totally blew any aquarium experience I ever had out of the water was showing up in the shark building JUST as they were feeding them. OMG!!! They have a glass tunnel that actually goes through the tank so these huge stingrays, hammer head sharks, and tiger sharks swim directly over your head and around you. Just.... OMG!!!
If my vacation was over right now, I'd say we had a fantastic time, but there's still more to come. Today we're just going to play on the beach and go kayaking, and snorkeling off the beach, then tonight we're doing a luau (yes, I know they're hokey. I've still always wanted to see one) Tomorrow, the road to Hana in our convertible. Then later this week, we'll take a snorkeling boat tour. Still not sure about the helicopter ride. We've been tossing the idea around, but with my fear of flying, it might not be a good idea. LOL We'll see.
All the restaurants are crazy expensive. IF I had any regrets, it would have been to get a kitchen in our room so we could have made our own dinner one night. But otherwise everything is about as close to perfection as I could imagine.
"
-Ferris Bueller
Yeah, no kidding. So much has happened in such a short span of time, I'm literally dizzy. Most likely from adrenaline.
So here's the order of events:
First, we weighed it all out, and even though Portland, OR sounds like a nice place - the fact of the matter is that Sam wasn't seeing a lot of jobs there. As well, I know even there, without family nearby, I wouldn't be 100% happy. Whereas in California, there are more job opportunities and we have family nearby. My brother has offered to help us get settled, so all in all - this is a no brainer. We are headed to California.
The hard part was deciding when. Sam still has a job technically, but it will soon be ending. But they haven't been really clear about when. At the same time, we can't base our lives around them. Another factor is the kids. Rachel is FINALLY in a good school, with a awesome teacher - she's doing really well in class - so I did think maybe we would wait it out this year and head out in the spring as soon as she got out of school... but... I have no idea what the market will be like in the spring. Right now, the market didn't seem all that bad to me. At least not as bad as I would expect with the current economy and headed into the "slow" season. There were a few house sales right on our street... so we figured we'd jump while it was hot.
We did a massive clean up, and de-clutter, got the house ready to show, put it on the market on Monday. I figured we'd be sitting on the market for at least a month, maybe 2 or 3... We've had such amazing luck in the past. The two previous houses we've owned and sold, we had a buyer immediately after the Open House. I didn't want to get my hopes up that we'd hit it a third time.... but we did. In fact, we BEAT our previous records. LOL! This time, the open house was scheduled for Saturday... but we didn't even make it that far. We got a good buyer by Tuesday night. Seriously. AND, of course we want to make this buyer happy - but they want to move in yesterday. So forget about a lengthy packing and closing process - we're all going to rush it through in a MONTH.
A FREAKING MONTH from today I will be in my car heading out to California for GOOD. I can't even wrap my head around it.
I had joked that I wanted the house sold for my birthday. I think I need to be careful what I wish for. (Well somewhat) The other thing I was wishing for my birthday was an iPad. You can just imagine how much I've been drooling and pining for one... I wonder how anyone could have ever guessed it's what I wanted for my birthday... well, that and my trip to Hawaii - which is the reason I really didn't think I'd get the iPad too... but I GOT IT!!!!! And it's everything I was hoping it would be. No birthday wish remorse at all. I totally love it.
So yeah. We go to Hawaii for vacation - Just Sam and me - then we come back and hit the ground running like crazy people. Pack. Move. Done.
Oh, where will be staying in the meantime until we get settled? Heh. My parents. You'd think when your kids turn 40, you're free from them moving back in with you. Think again. And it's not like I'm just bringing a load of laundry from College. I'm lugging a husband and two kids with me this time! LOL!!!
This past weekend we made the trek up to Park City to the
"Park Silly" market they have on Sundays. It's lots of fun, always get to see cool jewelry, clothes, and crafts. I love to look but rarely buy anything. We saw this one booth for "
Twisted Spiders" - and I had to break my rule and get one. It's not like I'm a fan of spiders, but at the same time I'm fascinated by insects in general just about as much as I'm grossed out by them. (Yes, I know, a spider isn't an insect, it's an arachnid - don't get technical on me!) 😉 So, the jewelry... they make these spiders out of metal wire and beads, and I've never seen anything like it. (They then make the spiders into necklaces, earrings, pins) They looked too cool to pass up. Even cooler was seeing all these (FAKE) spiders all over their booth table. Take a look:
I
The creators of PunFlay’s Mathomatix Number Sense for the iPad, outdid themselves from a technical and educational standpoint. As a child works her way through the 5 different games included in the application, she is having fun while gaining number skills and concepts that build on each other in a natural and pedagogically appropriate way. I wonder how many other apps have been checked against the National and California Standards for teaching mathematics to kindergarteners. Very impressive!
Booster Balls focuses on counting from 1 to 30. The child collects 10 balls at a time and then feeds them to a cute little monster. A child’s voice gives clear and easy to follow instructions and provides a model for the child to count along with. The game is simple and fun. My six year old granddaughter, Kayla, liked catching the balls and feeding them to the monster even though the game was clearly no challenge. Five year old Joey and 3 year old Leah really enjoyed counting along, and with each repetition of the game became more confident.
Do the Dotty is a “connect the dots” game with sets of 10 numbers up to 30. Now we are upping the ante. Not only do you have to be able to count, you have to recognize what the number looks like and follow the instructions, connecting the numbers in sequence to create a picture. Kayla, of course, breezed through, repeating the game many times, changing the colors of the completed pictures. Joey declared the game really fun, but required some assistance as the numbers increased. After a few tries, he began to recognize the numbers on his own. I could tell that playing the game over a period of time would improve his skills. Leah loved creating the pictures, but needed a lot of help following the directions and recognizing the numbers.
Recognizing the numbers in sequence is one thing, but finding them in random groups is another challenge. Numberella provides this challenge. The players are asked to pick out a specific number floating in a cloud to create a rain shower. Easy for Kayla, not so easy for Joey and Leah, but entertaining enough not to discourage repetition which leads to learning.
Now we come to the really conceptual challenge, using an understanding of what the numbers stand for to manipulate objects. Fishoonka and Toot Toot Train accomplish that brilliantly. Fishoonka emphasizes the concepts of ‘more and less’ by having kids move fish back and forth to create the requested pattern. Toot Toot Train takes it to the next level by requiring the addition or subtraction of cars to create the desired train length. Joey needed guidance to achieve this but began to get the hang of it. Even Leah began to get the idea and was very pleased with herself.
All in all, I give this app 5 stars. As an educator, I appreciate the careful crafting of the games from the concrete to the conceptual. This is a real learning tool as well as an attractive and entertaining game, a bargain at $1.99. Bravo, PunFlay!
Number Sense HD: $1.99*
*Price at time of this writing
Disclosure: We received a free copy of this app for review purposes
J
Vacation’s over for another year. So to cheer up all the kids who just started back at school, we’re now giving away MemoryMania completely free! This is a limited period giveaway offer.
MemoryMania is the biggest memory match game for kids in the AppStore. In MemoryMania users find 20 different sets of cards to choose from, and each set contains 15 different pictures. That’s 300 pictures – no other memory match game can compare with MemoryMania!
There are two game modes – a classic memory match, where you look for pairs of cards, or a hide-and-seek game, where you try to remember where the picture is and uncover it.
MemoryMania users love the 2 different game modes, the large choice of cards and the cute design that’s just perfect for kids.
Here's a link to see a video of the app. And if you'd like to
read more about the app, you can do so on the developer's website.
Memory Mania: FREE*
*Price at time of this writing
My name is Jennifer and The Working Mom is my online journal. I'm very bad about updating it regularly. I like writing, but not as much as I 
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