Just one sheet...

of paper, every day for a year is almost a ream of paper.  I had never really thought about how much paper that really is until I decided last year to fully embrace Outlook and all of its features.  I've been using it forever - but still keeping information in the old, tried and true format as well.  Now I use it for my email, my calendar, my task list, my contacts - everything I would have traditionally written down somewhere else.  I also started using OneNote for the first time last year and I love it!  This nifty little program has taken the place of my old write-everything-down composition book - a system I've been using for eons.  The switch took a little getting used to, but the electronic notebook format of OneNote is infinitely better - I can still have my page-a-day to do list, but I can also keep my other lists in their own sections of the notebook.  And color code it!  I'm in nerd heaven!  So instead of printing about four sheets of paper a day just dedicated to my various lists, I've retrained myself to use virtual paper instead.  I'm down to printing my one reminder list a day - and by the end of the day I have scribbled notes on it, marked off items, and written down numbers and other important information to be entered in Outlook at the end of the day.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I'll even be able to let this wasteful quirk go, too.  Maybe.  You know the Chinese proverb: the palest ink is better than the sharpest memory...

A little organizing project...

is finally almost finished - my jewelry drawer!  I used to keep all this stuff in clear plastic storage boxes, you know the kind - with a dozen little compartments?  I had crammed them all into the drawer of the old bedside table.  When I got rid of the table with the drawers, I had no convenient place to keep the boxes.  It's not like anything is valuable - more sentimental value than anything else, but I do like to wear my funky earrings from time to time.  After trying a variety of places throughout the house that just didn't work, I realized I had a really big, flat drawer in the antique desk I'm using for the sewing table in the bedroom.  And then I found these adorable ceramic egg crates and well, an idea was hatched.

I couldn't resist that one - sorry!

I did some purging of stuff I never wear and organized the earrings by season and it's much easier to find what I'm looking for now.  Sometimes it makes me happy just to look at the stuff - is that weird? 

Still suffering...

from too much stuff, or at least my desk is.  I've been getting ready for tax season little by little, from making up client folders to purging the paper files and scanning the stuff I might need to reference somewhere along the line.  After having declared war on paper, the mess on and around my desk is the final frontier - and I realized that my poor stereo has just gotten shoved to the back and I don't use it as much as I could.  The iPod was a gift from my husband several years ago; I love it, it has 1,700 songs on it and I used it all the the time - with my headphones.  But that's not a great idea with clients knocking at the door.  Earlier this year I happened upon an inexpensive speaker system and was thrilled to find that my older model iPod worked with just fine with it.  Unfortunately, my iPod took up residence on the speaker dock and fell into disuse.  But then - my Christmas spirit was resurrected this year and with it the desire to listen to Christmas music.  This morning I realized that I had a better spot for my little music machine...

and it has moved into the living room next to my little television and DVD player.  Perfect fit!  And Annie Lennox is happily singing Winter Wonderland as I write.  And now I'm looking around to see if I can just find a place for the stack of old story books that was in that spot...

No mixer involved...

and the brownies came out perfectly.

So much for culinary technology!

Well, I bought a mixer...

after having mixed everything by hand for the past three years.  I had a KitchenAid hand mixer that bit the dust after many years of faithful use.  When I moved from our house to the apartment, I didn't think I'd need a mixer, so I didn't replace it.  After having attempted to make a cake several weeks ago, I realized that I did indeed have need of a hand mixer and I set about searching for the best heavy duty motor in a hand mixer for the best price.  Enter this cute little Cuisinart 9-speed mixer, complete with a whisk beater and dough hooks!  It also has a plastic base that holds the power cord and the attachments.  Fits neatly in my baking cupboard - I love it!

Perhaps a little too much...

I decided to make good old-fashioned pound cake using my Grandma's recipe: a pound of flour, a pound of butter, a pound of sugar and a pound of eggs.  Apparently I beat that cake batter within an inch of its life because instead of being the dense cake I remember from my youth, it's light and fluffy.  Don't get me wrong - it tastes good, but it's more like chiffon cake than pound cake.  I guess that means the mixer works really well on dense batter.

I'll have to see how well it does with pumpkin bread...

Remember this...

lovely hurricane candle that Tom & Al gave me for Christmas?  Well, I had filled the bottom with the cinnamon sticks and cherries but I was sort of scared to light the candle.  I would blame it on Peter, but he has really shown no interest in candles or flames.  Or I could say that I was afraid that the cinnamon sticks would catch fire.  But no, I'll admit the real reason was that I was afraid I'd fall asleep while the candle was burning and I'd torch the place.  So stealing an idea, er, taking a cue from my blogger friend Linda, I got one of these battery operated candles and now I don't have to worry about any of the above ridiculous reasons for not lighting the candle and enjoying my new centerpiece.  Isn't it just the prettiest thing?

An amazing discovery...

for a four-year-old: a trash can that magically opens.  Ariela told Baby to put his napkin in the trash - we had lemon bars - and he was mesmerized by the fact that the can opened when he reached for it.  I'm pretty enamored of that, too.

This went on for a while - and the only explanation he would accept was MAGIC.  Don't you wish we could all sometimes accept magic as an explanation for the mysteries of life?

OneNote 2010...

is one of the coolest things that Microsoft has come out with in a long time.  Of course, I'm just discovering it now and I realize that it's been out since around 2003 - but as usual, I am behind the times.  OneNote is part of the Office 2010 software that my husband gave me when I was having a serious Outlook computer meltdown a couple of months ago - and I love it!  Well, all of Office 2010 - but OneNote in particular.  It's a virtual notebook - sort of like my to-do list composition books on steroids.  I've been using it off and on since I installed the software and I like it more and more every day.  And so - I'm taking a big step here.  I'm going to stop using my old-fashioned write-everything-down composition books and do all of my list-making and note-taking in OneNote beginning tomorrow.  January 1 - a great day for new beginnings and starting new, improved habits.  If I were really making a serious resolution I'd be trying to give up the compulsive list-making and note-taking altogether, but I've resolved to put that off again this year.  Some things never change.

Kindle love...

and a free novel from Jeffery Deaver - what could be better?  I am so crazy for my new Kindle 3G e-reader - I think everyone should get one.  Yes, I went for the pukey green cover (they call it apple green, if you really must know) and the best thing about it is

the built in light!  Doesn't even need a battery; it runs off the power from the Kindle battery - which will hold a charge for a full month with the wi-fi turned off.  And it's the perfect amount of light to read in the dark, which I suppose doesn't really matter since it's just me and Aggie and Pete - but it's nice just to turn it off and go to sleep.  This has to be the most amazing and useful gadget I have ever been lucky enough to own.  Really.

Now, about the free book - Watchlist is a collaborative effort from Jeffery Deaver and a host of other best-selling suspense writers: Lee Child, SJ Rozan and Lisa Scottoline, to name a few.  It was excellent - fast-paced, believable and well written.  The characters were very well developed, considering the fact that many different authors with diverse writing styles were both fleshing out the multitude of characters and moving the action along.   Even better - the ending was ripe for a sequel.  Let's hope these writers work together again soon.  And best of all, it was free!

Merry Christmas to me...

and I even wrapped it up.  The box, that is.  Not the thing.  Because, well...  I'll be honest, I couldn't wait.  When I renewed my lease here for another year I got a $100 Best Buy gift card as an incentive.  And so, since it wasn't costing me full price, I decided to brave the crowd of holiday shoppers and went to Best Buy and got the most amazing new gadget.  It's a Kindle3G e-reader!

I am thrilled beyond words - and with all the free words I can load inside the thing!  The sheer number of free books available for download is staggering - and I have downloaded about fifty books so far.  All completely free!  No bestsellers, but aren't the classics better anyway?  It's lighter than a paperback and the display is very easy to read.  I've been researching all of the e-readers out there for some time now and the Kindle had the best features - or so it seemed to me.  My friend, Kathy, has a Nook and she loves it.  Tim has an iPad and he likes that.  I read so many reviews I started taking notes and it seemed that people were most enamored of their Kindles - and so I decided to take the plunge.  And so far, I'm so glad I did!