a new wee toy

Because much of our family scatters at Christmas time, visiting in-laws still back in Kansas, we usually have an early get-together with gift exchange. With 4 grown children, 3 in-laws, and 5 grandchildren, that's a lot of gift buying for limited incomes! So we draw names each year.

This year, our daughter-in-law Misty drew my name. She gave me this new fountain pen, a Kaweco Liliput with an extra fine tip. Being German made (like my much loved Lamy Safari), the nib sizes run a bit larger than Japanese pens, so the finer the better!

For now, I'm using the ink cartridge that came with the pen, which is a water-soluble blue. When empty, I can refill it with my favorite De Atramentis Document inks that are waterproof.

The tiny Liliput writes extremely smoothly, starting up right away with no skipping or ink-blobbing. It is actually quite comfortable to hold, with the cap posting securely to add length (it screws on to prevent being knocked off). And it's small enough to fit inside a standard metal travel palette, right next to a travel brush!

Meanwhile, I am done with Hughes internet. We don't have many options, living in the country with all these trees around us. Even with an upgrade, we still could not stream programs and the least bit of wind caused us to lose connection. Not worth the high cost!

So our oldest son, Jason, set us up with a booster for our cell phones, mounted on the old pole next to the cabin that previous owners used for a TV antenna. With a signal boost, I can now use my phone or my new iPad Mini for internet, using a "hotspot" mode as needed for my computer. Hughes was metered; our family plan with my phone and iPad is unlimited.

My next problem was posting to this blog. Apple no longer supports the Blogger app and I couldn't seem to post things through their Safari browser. So I tried downloading the Google Chrome browser to my iPad, then selecting "request desktop site" from the drop-down menu. And so far, it works!