Toys and Boys - Is the Yellow Jersey Cursed?

I am testing out a new toy today and for the next couple of weeks. I'm still wearing my MisFit Shine for general fitness tracking, but also am using a Moov as a fitness tracker and coach. The software on the Moov is much deeper and it is meant to function as a coach, telling the wearer where they can improve, counting cadence, etc. I really bought it for the swimming app because it will keep track of laps, strokes, speed, etc. It's a 30-day return policy so I'll give it a trial run for a bit. If I don't like it, it will be returned.

I'm almost worried that the Moov Fitness Tracker might give
me TOO much information. But I'll try it and see. It's
comfortable to wear, only a bit clunkier than my Shine is, and
if it can help me with my swimming, it might be worth keeping. 

Today is Day 7 of Le Tour de France and once again the yellow jersey winner will not start this morning. Fabian Cancellera won the Yellow Jersey on Days 2 and 3, crashing on Day 3 and not starting on Day 4. Tony Martin won the Yellow Jersey on Day 4, wore it for Day 5 and Day 6, but crashed badly on Day 6 and will not start this morning because he broke his collarbone. So the question becomes, who will win the jersey today? Will they also have to pull out in a few days because they injured themselves in a crash? Ouch! Maybe the yellow isn't such a good goal after all?

The crash happened less than 1km from the finish, so the times were
frozen. Here, Tony Martin is escorted to the finish line by his
teammates. After the podium, where he was visibly in pain, he was
taken by ambulance to the hospital where x-rays showed he had a broken
collarbone. He was immediately scheduled for surgery and has withdrawn
from the race. 

Today is Stage 7, from Livarot to Fougeres (190km). There are only two sprinters stages left, so today should be hotly contended between the sprinters. Today is quite flat, tomorrow will be a bit more hilly, then we have the team time trial and then - the Pyrenees! So those sprinters better be ready to move today. Expect more crashes and more riders withdrawing from the race because of injuries.

Here, Tony Martin is escorted to the ambulance after the podium and
awards. He had to be in some serious pain! OUCH! 

Eleven riders have now withdrawn from the race due to injuries. Orica-Greenedge will have a difficult time of it in the team time trial on Sunday because three of those eleven riders are from their team. They can't afford to lose another rider. Two of the withdrawals were Yellow Jersey wearers. As I asked - "Is the Yellow Jersey cursed?" The field is wide open, but Chris Froome will probably be in yellow by the end of the day.

Here, Daniel Teklehaimanot receives his Polka-dot Jersey. He's the first
Eritrean rider ever to stand on the podium and he was smiling brightly
enough to outshine the sun. Congratulations, Daniel! 

Finally, congratulations extended to Daniel Teklehaimanot, riding for the invitational team Mtn-Qhubeka of South Africa. This Eritrean rider fulfilled a dream by winning the Polka-dot Jersey yesterday and standing on the podium at Le Tour de France - the first Eritrean rider ever to do so. Have a glorious Friday, all.

Late? How Can I Be?

How can I be running late at 4:15 am? Yet, I feel very rushed today and not quite in the groove. I don't think there's any real reason, but it is as it is. *sigh*

This is Gary Wilson, one of my favorite stone suppliers for my own
work, and me. I rarely get my photo in Bead & Button publicity
shots, but they've published this one a couple of times now. I don't
recall if this was 2014 or 2013, but it's one of the rare photos of me. 

I got my entry badge and class/souvenir tickets for the Bead & Button Show in yesterday's mail. It's making it seem quite imminent, even though it actually takes place in a month. But I have things I still have to do to be ready. I guess I'll have to spend part of tomorrow working on things needed for my classes, not just things needed for the house redecoration. But I'll also have to visit the home decorating store as well as Penney's once more to discuss some things and schedule some other things. I can already tell that tomorrow will be a VERY busy day.

The new MisFit App isn't working properly for me.
It's not reading my daily activity accurately, not
syncing properly with my Shine, and generally
making me quite frustrated. If it won't work properly,
why bother wearing it at all? 

I received a replacement for my defective MisFit Shine in the mail late last week and have been wearing it and downloading it regularly. While it was being exchanged, they uploaded a new Android app for the product. It's not working well. I'm quite frustrated and very unhappy. I really enjoy working out with a fitness monitor. It gives me feedback. and also allows me to track my progress in ways other than just relying on the bathroom scale. So while I'm dealing with Technical Support on my Shine issue, I'm also looking at two other products out there that work well for my major two activities - swimming and cycling.

The Amiigo might be a good app for me. The bracelet is worn for
some exercises, such as swimming, the shoe clip is worn for running,
cycling and elliptical and it can be taught and customized to work with
weights, so my Body Pump might be able to be programmed into
the software. It's interesting. 

One products is the Amiigo (yes, that's two i's in the name). Although it is more expensive than my Shine, it is still in the realm of affordable. I suspect it will look grungy in no time, but if I got the black, I'd probably be OK with that, and they were pretty immediate when I emailed them for additional information on how the app works on Android phones.

The Moov is another fitness app that works well with swimming. Again, it
gives more information than the Shine, but it's only wearable via the strap, which
you change from your wrist to your ankle, depending on your exercise.
I'm not sure about the longevity of the strap, and their cycling app isn't
developed yet. But their swimming app is fabulous and they have a
special on right now for $119 - very affordable. 

The other product is the Moov, which looks great, but the cycling app is still in development (although the swimming app looks fantastic).

I rarely sell things on eBay, but my MisFit works well, and
probably would have no problem with the Apple app. If I did
decide to sell it, I would just have to specify that it should be
used with the Apple app, not the Android one. 

So I'm wondering. If the Shine turns out to be a bust because of their poor software, will I be able to convince them to give me a discount, or should I sell the Shine on eBay for people who would use the Apple app (which seems to be working very well) and take the money from that to apply to either an Amiigo or a Moov. It's a quandry.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I'm off to the gym for cycling and Body Pump.

I Need A Weekend - MisFit and Beads

Yesterday afternoon, my new MisFit Shine was delivered with the mail. Although I was mega-rushed last night, getting a construction update e-mail off to my customers, I took an extra half hour to get my new toy synched and recognized by the Android software. I'm not used to glancing at my wrist and seeing the Sea Glass color, but it's nice and minimal. I'll wear it from now on and we'll see how long it will last this time. Today is a cycling day, so new activity for it to track.

I had really missed having my MisFit Shine. It's
so light-weight, and I liked the way it looked
as I wore it. The fact that it tracked my fitness and
my sleep was a bonus. I finally have my replacement
unit and I'm delighted to break it in at the gym in an hour. 

Although the Wild put up a fight, they couldn't quite make the win over Chicago last night in the first game of Round 2 in our quest for Lord Stanley's Cup. We ended up losing 3-4. Next game is Sunday, so DH has been making rumblings about taking me out for Thai food tonight. We have a new Thai restaurant that opened a couple of weeks ago and is quite close to the house, and I've been missing Thai food since our last local outlet moved across to a completely different location.

I really love the Minnesota Wild logo. It was designed to look
fierce, bring out aspects of the landscape of Minnesota, but
not have the identity of any specific animal. I really love
the North Star as the animal's eye. 

April turned out to be a really crappy sales month at the shop, but the first day of May was excellent. Thank goodness for Native American customers from Canada picking up beads for their pow wow outfits. That one sale, along with a very steady stream of customers, brought the dollars to a point that I was happy with. Now if the rest of the month can just follow along with this trend.

Regalia worn by the dancers at pow wows are often intricately
beaded. Although I looked for something more elaborate (in the
realm of women's traditional garments, this one is well done,
but not intricately designed). The more elaborate pics I found were
all in-motion pics, so much harder to see the beauty of the garment.
Traditional women's dancing regalia can weigh as much as sixty
pounds. Beads are used on almost all regalia for both sexes and all ages. 

So, I'm off to the gym and ten miles on the bike before work. Have a great weekend, everyone, and if you have a mother you want to treat, remember that next Sunday is Mother's Day here in the US. It's probably time to start shopping so that you're not looking through the dregs left behind by those who are more punctual. Happy Saturday!

Oh Dear ... Good News and Bad News In One

I love my MisFit Shine fitness tracker. That said, it decided to die yesterday quite unexpectedly. I sent a report to them with the specifics and screen shots, and they notified me back (within twelve hours, so great customer service) that they believe my unit is defective. The good news, they will replace it at no charge to me. The bad news, the color I've been wearing is not available. I will look through the other colors and choose a different one, send the defective one back to them in tomorrow's mail, and wait to get my new one. I've been wearing it long enough now that I'm quite familiar with what exercise regimes push me up to the levels I want, so a week or two without my Shine won't be horrible. But I'll miss seeing it on my wrist :-)

So which color should I choose? I had the lower left, but it's
not available right now. I'm thinking either #1, #2 or #3, but I'm
edging to #1. What do you think? Comment ant let me know. 

I have a new gadget (toy) arriving this week sometime - a completely waterproof iPod Shuffle for my water days. I normally am swimming 1500 yards on my guppy days and I want to push that closer to 2000 yards so that I have a mile+ in the water. I also want to pick up my pace a bit, and music can help me do that. I spent time on Sunday putting together a heavy metal playlist for my Guppy Days and when my new toy arrives, I'll load it up, use the Flip Turn headphones that are included with my Shuffle, and hit the water. I can hardly wait!

UnderwaterAudio.com offers a completely waterproof iPod Shuffle
in several colors along with headphones that can be used for swimming
or other water activities. I think I ordered mine in blue just to keep it
separate from my gym iPod which is green. I need color cues like this
at 4:45 am - LOL. 

But life carries on while I'm doing all of this. Today will be a busy day at work because yesterday was practically a ghost town in the store. Minimal customers and those who won't spend more than $10 makes paying bills an exercise in creativity *sigh*. So I'm determined that today will be better.

I really hate to do drastic measures like a System Restore to
an earlier time point, but after more than eight hours of getting
nowhere with my laptop, I finally gave it. It took a while, but
it did the trick and I'm back up and running. 

Additionally, yesterday my laptop just wouldn't operate properly, despite restarts, etc. I finally gave up and did a System Restore to last Friday. Now things seem to be working properly again. Of course, I didn't do the Restore until 4:00 pm, so most of the day was a total wash, at least as far as getting computer work completed. But there was plenty of other work for me to do, so I concentrated on that instead.

I really disliked the catalog cover and promotional materials
for the show this year. Usually they have a project and
some really pretty beadwork to get people inspired. This year
they focused on classes, and I didn't even bother posting the
visual materials for my customers to look at. Cover pic = BORING!

And finally, I got notifications and instructions from one of my teachers at my conference in June. Now to download and print out those instructions and gather my tools together so that I can have a great time playing with fire and metal in Milwaukee. I'm really looking forward to the conference even though I'm going to be broke again because of the expense of it all. It's my only vacation (aside from the Labor Day extended weekend with my BFF Sharon each year) and I'm determined to make the most of it.

Happy Tuesday, all! Have a truly fabulous day filled with joy!

Writing Writing Writing, and Still Not Finished

I finally got my first B2MeM story (Strings of the Heart) posted at both LOTR Community Stories and B2MeM and almost caught up on reading and reviews. I also got two drabbles posted in Tolkien Weekly - since I had two characters wanting to be showcased, I wrote a quick drabble for each of them. I didn't get any work done on my next B2MeM story, but it's well under way. So, my writing world is progressing. A lovely chat with Aearwen crowned my Wednesday day off.

I use a smaller version of there bright pumpkins as my B2MeM avatar.
It's so much fun to be participating in this once again. 

That said, I didn't get as many books scanned yesterday as I had wanted. I really had wanted to finish the hallway bookcases, but I still have two remaining. Hopefully by the end of Sunday I'll have those two finished and can start in on the next section of paperbacks. I have cataloged more than 500 paperbacks so far. It's been interesting to see what boxes are already full. DragonLance books are already filled - that's one of DH's favorite series, and I like it too. If we have more DragonLance in a different spot, I'll have to start a new box. And my "B" box is also filled to capacity. I blame that entirely on Marion Zimmer Bradley and her Darkover books (and other series besides). I adore her work and own almost everything she's ever published. I'm surprised that my M box isn't filled yet. I have a lot of McCaffrey's Pern books. But I may have most of hers in the Library bookshelves which is the last shelving unit I'm planning to scan.

Marion Zimmer Bradley is one of my favorite authors for many, many
years now. I love almost everything she's written and the worlds
she has created are wonderful, rich and diverse. 

I have been using my new washer and dryer a lot and can conclusively say, after more than 50 uses, I'm very happy with them. The one negative that had been noted in reviews held true - water doesn't evacuate from the detergent dispensing drawer completely and the drawer has to be removed and emptied after each load - but that's a minor inconvenience. I'm thrilled with how clean my clothes are, the amount of clothes I can put into a load, and the general everything about the new washer and dryer. It was a great holiday gift and I have no regrets.

I'm very happy with my washer and dryer and have been using them
a lot since we got them in January. This was a good decision. 

The other product that I had discussed getting is my Misfit Shine fitness tracker. This has positive and negative aspects, but as a fitness tracker, I'm quite pleased with it. I wish it was also a heart rate monitor, but I knew it wasn't going in, so no surprises. I purchased the Coral color and that's what I would change if/when I get another one down the road. The finish doesn't survive contact with the swimming pool's tiled wall and has a few scrapes and dings on it. But it works really well, I've been wearing it 24/7 since I got it more than two weeks ago, and it tracks my sleep as well as my varied activities. It works really well in the pool for my swimming days, and on the cycle for my machine days, two exercises that can challenge a lot of trackers that are focused on treadmills and elliptical machines. It's well designed, it does what I bought it for, and it was only $100. I declare myself satisfied right now. We'll see how long it works before I have to replace it. Fitness monitors have a history of short lifespans.

I'm very pleased with my Misfit Shine. The surface finish isn't as durable
as I had expected, but the performance is excellent. 

And on that note, it's time to get ready to get out of here and hit the gym. Have a fabulous Thursday, everyone. Write something, review something, tell someone that you love them. Make some happy waves today.

I'm a Misfit (Of Course, That's Not News)

I'm now a Misfit. Well, I've been a square peg in a round hole for most of my life, so that's no surprise to my long-time friends, but this is a bit different. I splurged and bought myself a wearable fitness app called a Misfit Shine. The app, designed by a former Apple designer, is thin, sleek, elegant, and is the only wearable app I could find that can be worn in water for swimming (one major reason why I bought it). I just received it at the shop yesterday morning and didn't even have a chance to look through the instructions until late in the day. But I've had it on ever since and I'm going to give it a good workout for the next two days - today on my stationary equipment, tomorrow in the pool - and see what I think. So far it's tracking activity and my sleep time well, and it looks really pretty. Take a look...

I chose the Champagne color of the Misfit Shine. It fits in a variety of holders. This
is the sport band. It also has a very strong magnet clasp that comes with it
to attach it to clothing or shoelaces. Options include a leather watchband
and a necklace which I have on order.

It's made of aircraft aluminum and has lights around the outside that indicate how
well you're doing on your fitness goals for the day as well as when you switch
to sleep function. It functions as a watch, although not a great one, but for $100 it
 was affordable, beautiful, and it can go 5 meters down in water. Fabulous!

I have birthdays to do quick cards for. I'm going to have to do them tonight because I'll run too tight on time this morning and I don't have Photoshop on my new laptop (expensive, don'cha know - LOL). But I promise, I'll get cards made and posted for two past birthdays and one current tonight! So don't give up on my even though my time disappeared into smoke over the past five days. I haven't forgotten about you and would never do so!

There are at least two birthdays that I've already missed as well
as my friend Elfscribe5's birthday today. I need to get some e-cards
designed and posted for them! 

I wasn't expecting much with my new fitness regime, except to save my life. (OK, I guess life saving is a big deal - LOL.) I was losing muscle tone at an alarming rate and knew if I didn't want to enter my next decade of life in a wheelchair, I had to do something about it. But it's paying off. I love going to the gym at 5:00 am (yes - I know it's early but it works so well with my crazy schedule) and I'm even losing weight which I also desperately needed. So, as of this morning, I'm down 10 pounds since Christmas. Yippee!

I'm not dieting as much as being conscious of what I eat and adding the
exercise. I actually consider the exercise more important right now so if
the pounds want to leave, I'm all for it! 

So, if I grab pics quickly for this and post it, I might be able to at least get one birthday card done, or not. Have a wonderful Tuesday!