I Held My Breath And Jumped Right In

My job requires that I work five ten hour days one week and six ten hour days the next. Last week was my six day making Sunday my one day off. I'm not complaining, mind you; it's just one of the many reasons the folks who work under my management remind me........"That's why you make the BIG bucks"!

That one day holds a lot in store for me; laundry, ironing, cleaning, errands (if time allows) shopping, etc., etc., Sometimes I even let the Betty Crocker in me sneak out and actually cook a decent meal for the Fireman. Keeps him interested, 'cuz he never knows when to expect it!

This past Sunday, I started my routine by throwing a batch of whites into the washer, changing the bedding, dusting and vacuuming the bedrooms. An hour later, I had put the whites in the dryer, threw a batch of pastels into the washer and was ready to start on the bathrooms.

As I was passing my lap top, with cleaning stuff in my hands and sparkling toilets on my mind, I decided to quickly check out my favorites blogs before plunging (no pun intended) into porcelain bowls and such. Internet Explorer coughed and sputtered as usual (I can't figure out why Windows Vista and IE hate each other since they are both the children of the great Mother, Microsoft) before I was able to click on my Favorites to quick-link to the blogs.

Looking at the list under Favorites, my eye caught the site for Mozilla, creator of Firefox, an alternative to IE. I had read about this Web provider a few weeks ago, and heard good things, so I had asked Sandee, my daughter to try it out and let me know whether or not she liked it. I'm a coward, you see, when it comes to exploring new things on a computer along with the fact that I knew Sandee would be able to rescue her computer if something went wrong. I wouldn't have a clue what to do. Well, I looked at that link and said to myself (had no response from Sandee yet) "Oh, hell, why not? You only live once." Therefore I clicked that link, panicked a little, and hit the "download now" button, held my breath and jumped right in with both feet.

This took all of about three minutes and there I was with Firefox 3 as my Web browser. The problem was that all I had was a simple tool bar, and a big white page with nothing but a Google logo and search bar. My day of cleaning, etc. was a thing of the past. "Well", I told myself, "you created this monster, now you have to kill it." I went back to the Mozilla page and read the information which I should have read before I started. This is like building your own house. You get to choose the features that you can't live without. There are hundreds of options so I spent the next five hours figuring it all out, stopping for breaks once in a while to un-jumble my brain.

In the end I have iGoogle as my home page with all kinds of stuff to fill up that big white page I started with, again hundreds to choose from. There are 272 color/style choices for the toolbar header and it seems like zillions of buttons to fill those bars, each performing a different function. I can still open new windows in tabs (any color you want, I chose multi-colored tabs) The only thing I haven't figured out is how to get my Windows mail button onto the toolbar, but I can still launch it from my start up tray at the bottom of my screen.

I have to say, I LOVE IT!!!! Everything works fine. All of my settings, etc. were transferred intact and it does indeed work faster and better than IE. And I didn't make a dent in the possibilities it offers. If anyone decides to give it a try, be sure to add the Stumbleupon add-on. It takes you to places (you choose the categories) you never dreamed of, most at the speed of lightning.

Yes, indeed, my one day off was productive after all. Life is good. Amen and goodnight.