It's warming up for Christmas

The snow began disappearing fast once the sun got higher in the sky yesterday, and it's supposed to be highs in the 40's and 50's right up to New Year's Day.  I was able to take Gabe out for a walk yesterday, finally.  We both miss our walks when the weather isn't cooperating.  Gabe was so anxious to get out there, he didn't even run when he saw me get his coat.  He just stood there and let me put it on him.  That's a first!  I guess he figured if that's what it takes to get outside, he'll cooperate.  

I recently bought myself an Echo Show.  I didn't think I'd ever buy another Amazon Echo device of any kind; the Echo and the portable Echo Tap (which is no longer made) were plenty for me.  That was before I started using allrecipes.com for so many dishes.  I'd take the iPad into the kitchen with it displaying my chosen recipe, but it would often turn off before I could get through the recipe, even though I had the iPad set to stay on for ten minutes (yes, I could have set it for longer, but then I'd forget about it at other times and it would use up the battery too fast).  When the Echo Show went on sale for Christmas shoppers, I ordered it.  Unfortunately, the recipes didn't work so well for me.  I'd say the exact name of one of my saved recipes, and the crazy thing would give me every recipe except the one I wanted.  I decided to send it back.  But then...

I noticed I could choose to have my Amazon photos shuffle through the screen; that means ALL my photos, over 20,000 of them, because every picture I've ever put on any computer or device goes to Amazon photos.  Why so many pictures?  Well, back when I was a lot more faithful at blogging, I took lots pictures for my blog; I'd take far more than I needed, just to make sure I had some good shots.  Unfortunately, I'm lazy.  So I never deleted any of the extra ones.  At this point it would be such a monumental task to sort them out, nobody could do it.  But now, that's paying off.  Cliff and I check the thing every time we go through the kitchen to see what's showing.  Oh, the memories!  There are lots of pictures from my horse-riding phase, too.  There are shots of dogs that died too young on 224 highway; those make me sad, but they remind me of the good times, too.  It's the same of the pictures from the past of grandchildren, or the child we were babysitting for five years.  Oh yes, and our motorcycle days!  Our road trips!  Relatives and friends who are no longer with us!  (Too many exclamation marks, I know.)  

So I decided to keep the Echo Show for that purpose alone.  Of course, it also works like the other Echo devices, answering questions I might ask; but that isn't really necessary, since the Echo in the living room can hear me from the kitchen just fine in this little trailer house.  In fact, I had to give the Show a different name,"Amazon", to keep two devices from answering me at once.  Crazy situation, I know.  BUT...

This morning I decided to go back to the Amazon website and look at some of the questions people asked about the Show:  One question was this:  "How can I watch my Youtube videos on the Echo Show?"  Someone answered, "You just get on whichever browser you choose (Silk or Firefox) and go to Youtube."

Well, I figured if that works for Youtube, it should also work with Allrecipes.  

It does!  Boy, am I glad I didn't return this thing.

I'm going to have to give up Amazon for Lent, though, because I'm haven't been sticking to my usual budget.  I've never been one to observe Lent except for going to all the Friday night fish fries at local Catholic Churches, but I may as well start now.  

For whatever reason, I'm going to cut back!  (Aside to Cliff:  Stop laughing and shaking your head.)

Yours truly,
Donna 
the Spendthrift.