Finding Rosie

I read a snippet in the paper this morning about Rosie O'Donnell suing some tabloid because they claimed she was breaking up with her partner, Kelli Carpenter. The article also noted that Kelli Carpenter recently had her name changed to Kelli O'Donnell.

I was and am a huge fan of Rosie, but Kelli changing her name seemed a bit odd to me since I had also read somewhere in the past that sometimes it was a struggle for her to maintain her own identity as the partner of such a high profile person. But I digress...

Reading this simply made me think of Rosie, and reflect on how she has absolutely and totally removed herself from (or has fallen from) the spotlight since she left her show. Thus, my thoughts of her reminded me of her interesting yet bizarre book, Find Me. How ironic the title is right now, as Rosie is nowhere to be found.

I won't give away the premise of the book, but I will say that my emotions once I reached the end of the book are hard to describe -- I was intrigued, yet stunned that Rosie was so open and yet so gullible about the strange relationship that she became entwined in.

As a fan, I hope that Rosie has found happiness.

Mattel says “ello” Empowers Girls

Interesting info from Mattel,

"Get ready to deconstruct the building toys of the past, and get ready to say, “hello” to “ello™.” ello is the first creation system for girls that inspires them to design and create whatever sparks their imagination....from people to places to jewelry, the possibilities are endless. The ello creation system extends beyond the linear play patterns historically associated with boys’ building toys and engages girls in a way relevant to them by incorporating social play with creativity and crafts. Unlike anything else on the market, ello not only provides the tools and inspiration for girls to build elaborate fantastical environments, but also includes pieces to create characters and decorative accessories."

My take on "ello" -- my daughter is 11 and it is tough to find 'toys' that she will play with anymore. She's a typical 'tween' and she focuses more on clothes, computer, and crafts than on toys. She got ello for Christmas and has played with it briefly once or twice. Interestingly, she's having a few girls sleep over tonight and told me that she was going to get out ello to play with them. I think ello has a certain 'cool' factor because of its funky, fun style.

Tivo turns me on to IO Pen

Every couple of days I will sit down in front of TIVO and 'catch up'. I'll scan for new shows from my huge wishlist (Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, Shirley Maclaine -- don't laugh), review the Showcase areas for new movies, and read new TIVO messages.

It's interesting to observe the interactive advertising TIVO presents. TIVO sent me a new message with an attached 3 minute video clip about a really cool new product called the Logitech IO Personal Digital Pen. I watched the video and immediately wanted this item. The pen has a digital processor inside, and when you write on the IO specially encoded paper, it records everything that you write. You can then upload it to your PC via a USB connection. The pen holds up to 40 pages of handwritten text. How cool is that? I immediately thought of my neice who will be heading off to college in the fall.

The pen runs around $189, but I think the turnoff is the cost of the paper that is required, which runs about $24 for 80 sheets. Apparently every pixel of the paper is somehow encoded and the pen records this as you write. Maybe if you write really, really small....?

The TIVO video got me really psyched because it provided a web address and indicated that TIVO was giving away these pens to TIVO subscribers. I rushed to my computer to snatch up my free pen, only to discover it was a contest, not a freebie for everyone. It also looks like we're out of stock on this item right now, but it was so Jetson-like I couldn't resist talking about it.

Customer reviews are mixed, but it's definitely a fun to have, interesting item for those 'ahead of the pack' technophiles.

Longing for a long lens

I'm into photography, and since I've gone digital, I take pictures constantly. Believe it or not, I was a freelance paparazzi for ten years. Now that I'm old, married and a mom, my photography is all kid-based.

As you may have guessed, I have a number of SLR and digital cameras. My Sony Mavica FD-95 was my first digital camera. It's a fantastic camera but definitely on the big (i.e. inconvenient) side. Since I got it three years ago, I haven't found any digital cameras on the market with a comparable zoom lens -- until lately.

The Olympus Camedia C-730 has a huge zoom range -- and -- it's small! I've been wanting this for quite some time and one of these days I'm going to break down and get it. I've pored over the customer reviews and I get relatively good vibes from them, although of course there are a few unhappy campers (there's always at least one in any bunch).

When contemplating a purchase like this, I always get that nervous feeling that as soon as I buy it, a bigger, better, and of course cheaper model will come out. Of course if I keep waiting, the price will come down, but the technology will become outdated.

Maybe after tax time.

Does this vacuum suck (in a good way?)

I really hate vacuuming. I think it is mainly because our sweeper is this huge clunking thing that weighs like 50 pounds and dragging it up and down the steps is a nightmare. Thus, our house only gets swept when my husband does it (or I'm desperate because friends of MINE are coming over).

I have been saying for three years or more that I really wish "they" would make a full power cordless sweeper. I discovered this Shark Cordless Sweeper which looks to be the real deal - my dream come true. I discovered this item because it is the hottest selling item on Coolshopping.com. We have sold literally hundreds of these things! Apparently it also has its own informercial, which I've never seen.

My birthday was last week and I TOLD my husband to get me three of these (one for each floor, of course). I figured at $59 each if they ended up sucking (in a bad way) that it wasn't that big of a deal. I starting envisioning sweeping nirvana as the big b-day approached....

Too bad the hubby blew off birthday shopping until mid-afternoon on my actual birthday. Sweep on, dude.

Six Degrees Feet of Separation....

Too weird. They mentioned "Trading Spaces" on Six Feet Under (another of my obsessions) tonight. How cute is Kathy Bates in her guest starring role as the earthy shoplifter? It crossed my mind that she and Ruth may become more than just friends....