Slow Going and a Question

Things are going pretty slow around the house.  Work has been absolutely crazy.  I've been getting there early and leaving late almost every day.  And I'm running around like a crazy person while I'm there.  By the time I get home (after an hour bus ride or a 40 min bike ride) I'm exhausted.  And with me just getting over a cold and J still in the peak of his cold, we're just not very motivated.  I can say that we've only accomplished one thing on our goal list, one thing for the whole month.  Sad.  But I'm hoping to try and revive me ambition and get my butt moving on things.

The plumber is scheduled to come out on Friday.  So hopefully they will clean out all the pipes and our water flow will be back to normal.  We know that we have a large tree that grows into our plumbing, so the pipes need to be cleaned from time to time.  We're hoping that is what's wrong, and after the plumber comes out, we'll be back to business.  But I guess we'll see what he says.  I would love to take down the tree and replace it with a more manageable tree.  The only thing is, the tree is huge, HUGE, and will cost a small fortune to remove, so it's not going to happen anytime soon.  We're hoping since half of it is on the neighbors property, he'll maybe go halfsies with us.  But for now we'll just deal with it.  :-(

In totally unrelated house business, I am thinking of getting myself a little present at the end of the year, because I've earned it.  Okay, maybe I haven't earned anything, I haven't been all that motivated to create new beadwork/glass or do anything around the house lately.  But I think I've made up my mind on this.  I think I'm going to get myself a tablet.  You know, like and iPad, but not.  Don't get me started on the feelings towards Apple, most of you wouldn't approve.  There are now a nice selection of tablets out there, so I feel I don't have to drop $700+ on one.  I was looking at Googles Nexus 7, which I like and has seen nice reviews, but it has a smaller screen.  I'm also interested in the large Kindle Fire HD.  The Kindle looks amazing on paper.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GFRB9E/ref=fs_j

I've decided to take the plunge, even though I own a laptop and a smart phone, for a few reasons.

I think having a tablet would be awesome for art shows.  You could use it to show off your work, you could use it to take custom orders, add customer information, and you could even possibly use it to take credit cards (I'm looking into if my credit card program will work on a tablet).  You pretty much could eliminate any paper.

I also read a LOT of scientific papers at work.  I hate sitting at my desk and trying to read off the computer screen, it's just not comfortable, and I hate having to print off the papers, what a waste of paper.  So I thought it I could have a tablet to read pdfs, it would make it a little bit easier and a maybe even a little more eco friendly.  I could also read all my electronic books and magazines on it, which would be easier then trying to read them on my phone's small screen.

I would also be able to entertain myself on my hour long, dark, boring bus rides each day.  Which would be nice.

I'm going to wait until the end of the year to make my decision because I want to see what others think of them first.  I want real people to own them and use them on a daily basis and see what they think.  See what they find annoying and what the love.  Then I'll hopefully be able to narrow down which one would be the best for me.

So do any of you out there have a tablet of any kind?  Or even an ereader?  I'd love to hear your take; your likes and dislikes.  Anything that would help me decide if this is a wise decision or is it just going to be an overpriced solitaire player ;-)

~ This is not a paid post (but if someone would like to send me a tablet, I won't complain), I'm just curious about tablets.  I was not asked to write this post for any company, just my own rambling thoughts.