Christmas tree at 30th Street Station, Philadelphia

F.B. & I exchanged gifts Christmas Eve. We're poor, so we just got each other 1-2 gifts each. I got F.B. The Dark Knight Trilogy Dvd & 84 mini bags of Herr's Potato Chips!

I LOVE my Kindle Fire. I use it every day. I use it on the train to read or listen to music or browse the web. (I use my T-Mobile Sidekick 4G as a router). I use it on the train platform waiting for my train because there's free wi-fi at 30th Street Station. At work on breaks I might read a book or look at a magazine. At home sometimes instead of my laptop I'll browse the internet and read books before bed. Sometimes I watch Netflix on it too.

I've had my Kindle Fire since the day it was released. (About 5 months). When I would play a game and then exit the game, sometimes there would be this burned image of the game on my screen sort of invisible. I thought it was a just a glitch, so I'd restart my Kindle and it would be fine.

But then it started doing it with other things. Sometimes the search bar would burn into the screen & the navigation bar, so that when I rotated my Kindle I would have 2 dark stripes running alone the screen and if you looked closer you could see the ghosted icons. That wasn't going away even when I would restart. I would sometimes get the keyboard burned into the screen, or the icons on your home screen. It was getting really irritating. I tried to doing a factory reset which wipes out everything from your Kindle Fire, but that did not help. The ghosting was still happening.

I searched for the issue on the Amazon website, on their Kindle Fire Help Forum. There was topic about the ghosting and burned images. It seems a lot of people are having this issue. It's some sort of defect with some of the Kindle Fires.

I contacted Amazon by using their 'Contact Us' button. They must be there 24 hours because I called on a Saturday night at 9:30pm. The customer service rep asked if I had done a reset (holding the button down for 20 seconds). I told him I had done a factory reset and that hadn't resolved the ghosting on the screen.

He told me Amazon would send me a replacement. I just had to send the damaged one back in the box of the replacement with the prepaid UPS label they would email me. They ask for the last 4 digits of one of the credit cards on your Amazon.com account. If they don't receive the damaged device back within 30 days they will charge your account the full price for the Kindle Fire plus shipping.

My replacement Kindle Fire arrived in 2 days! (So I didn't have to go through Kindle withdraw too long, hehe!). Then I packed up my old Kindle and we dropped it off at a UPS store to be mailed. Amazon got my old device back within 2 days also.

Soooo... just beware my Kindle Fire fans. This is an issue with some of the devices. If your Kindle is under warranty Amazon will replace it. My 2nd Kindle Fire is working perfectly and I hope it does so after 5 months of use. Hopefully there will be no need for anymore replacements!



 

It's my 3 day Memorial Day weekend! F.B. & I headed down to Center City Philadelphia today so we could visit the Mutter Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences! We got off at 30th Street Station and walked to the Mutter Museum first, we went early because it's such a hot weekend. It was around 84 degrees (It will be in the upper 90's on Memorial Day, yuck!) I had to put sunscreen on because it was so sunny and hot today.

30th Street Station

After the Mutter we walked down Market Street to 19th Street and headed straight down to the Academy of Natural Sciences. We got to see Logan Square and the big fountain they have there. There's also a great view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. I've never actually gotten to stop here, so it was nice to be a tourist in my own city and take pictures!






Afterwards we went to the Academy of Natural Sciences, which I've been too many many times on class trips and family trips. It's one of my favorite museums.

F.B. with a dinosaur skull!

We were planning on going to The Gallery and Reading Terminal Market but because it was so hot and I had a bad headache we decided to make that another day trip sometime soon. We took the train back home and headed to Friendly's for lunch. We shared a Reece's Pieces sundae for dessert.

Heading home on the train

I also won this psychedelic shark from the crane machine at Friendly's on the first try! Whoo hoo! My Dad has always been really good at winning stuffed animals from those machines and I've won quite a few times as well, though it's been awhile since I last played!

Today, heading to the train station after work with my co-worker who catches the same train. We walk into 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and across from the door leaned up against the wall is a very very dark almost Indian looking guy. You couldn't help seeing him where he was standing coming in the door. Well as we walk in the man opens his winter jacket with both hands and holds back his jacket & button down shirt exposing his naked chest for a few seconds and grins weirdly. I was totally shocked. I say to my coworker. "Um... should we call the police?!" He says, "Why?" He didn't see, he was just a few steps ahead of me! I had to tell him and we debated telling someone but we were late for our train and rushing. I said if he had shown anything below the belt I would have had to grab a guard! And 30th Street Station is a BUSY place too! What a creep!!! Sure have a story to tell my coworkers tomorrow... lol!

My cousin Jessica & I went to see The Nutcracker at the Philadelphia Academy of Music today!

We woke up quite early and hit Starbuck's before our train downtown. Finally tried the Gingerbread Latte. (Still love the Peppermint Mocha though!) Our train stopped at Suburban Station.

We had an idea of how to get to the Academy and there was a "map" on our printable tickets so we set off down 16th street. After we walked about 2 blocks we thought it might be better to stop in a nearby hotel and make sure we were going the right way. The security guard pointed us in the direction we wanted to go. After a little while we were still a bit confused we weren't running into the street we needed. We stopped in the The Art Institute of Philadelphia to ask at the front desk. The lady there gave us much better directions! We were only about 3 blocks away from Broad street! It was freezing out today too! Only around 36F! (2.22C).

The ballet was great! It was 2 hours long with an intermission. Everything was beautiful- photography wasn't allowed during the show but I got some pictures of the theater during intermission. The chandelier was gorgeous! It would actually raise up into the ceiling during the show and lower during intermission.

Philadelphia Academy of Music:






After the show we headed back to Suburban Station to catch the 1:35pm train because my other cousin Chrissy, Jessica's sister was visiting from Georgia with her husband and we wanted to meet them for an early dinner.

On the way back- City Hall in the distance:


Oooh we saw Tiffany & Co. on Walnut Street, but we didn't have time to go in and browse. I sooo want something from Tiffany's someday from their $100 & under section online, hehe.



We also saw Love Park across from Suburban Station but didn't get to visit this time around.


After we got back on the train we headed up to see my cousin & her husband. We went out to Chili's for dinner. Had a really long but nice day! And fun getting to play tourist in my own city again, lol!

Our work campus finally made the big downtown move. We are near 30th Street Station now. (Patty- all your NYC tourist stories- I have one! We were walking along & some guy was telling his wife or female friend, "Yeah they got rid of 30th Street Station years ago!" What the?! Obviously he hasn't been to Philadelphia in years because I've been through there every day this week for work!)

I am not liking commuting so far but I don't really have a choice. Driving home in Center City Philadelphia traffic would probably take longer than the hour I'm on the train. My biggest peeve is the train being late to or from work. Or switching tracks at the last minute. I guess eventually I'll get used to it. It's just I've been spoiled. I've been driving since I was 16, I've never really taken public transportation. My commute to work for the past 8 years was only a 10-15min drive! So having to commute an hour each way every day is something that's going to take awhile to get used to.

In other news- my back is so much better! The 1 week of bed rest and steroid's made everything heal up quickly. I'm still a bit stiff in the mornings and at night but I'm pretty back to my old self. And all the walking with commuting now has definitely healed & strengthened my back. I'm just happy to not be in pain anymore. I'm stubborn about going to doctors and I usually wait much longer than I should before I will go.

And because it's my 1 year anniversary tomorrow and Christmas is next week! I wanted to do a Holiday Giveaway for all my blog readers!

I will be giving away 2 Bath & Body Works products. Twisted Peppermint Handibac lotion and Winter Candy Apple Pocketbac Gel, 1 sample sized package of Starbuck's ground Christmas Blend coffee (I am in LOVE with this coffee people, it is so bold & rich!) and also a cute Christmasy pen!


This giveaway is open internationally & also to family & friends. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me:

What is your favorite Christmas food, candy or drink?

For extra entries:

-Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. (You can find the 'Followers' link under 'Contents' on the right hand sidebar. If you follow already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question). 

-Follow me on Twitter: @tunaynamahal82 (Include your user name in the comments. If you follow me already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question).

-Tweet about this giveaway (Include your link in the comments).

Giveaway Ends: December 31st, 2010.12AM EST.

And yes, I am pushing the Twitter thing. Why? Because if it helped me win a giveaway it might help you too. ;-)

Yesterday was my last day of work for awhile. Its furlough time again. I'm a seasonal employee and 3-4 months out of the year we are furloughed until they recall us back to work. When I return to work we will be located across from 30th Street Station in center city Philadelphia. I've worked 8 years in Northeast Philadelphia with a 10 minute commute. And now I'll be making an hour long commute on the train whenever I'm recalled back to work. I guess it will work out because when our immigration process is finished and F.B. is in the USA he will need the car to commute to work and if I'm taking the train I won't need it.

Yesterday evening after some grocery shopping I stopped at Petco with my brother. Ever since I got my 3 girls from SRR and ended up with 11 ratties, I've wanted to make it an even dozen!

So please meet my gorgeous little blue hooded girl Jasmine!






She is so mellow and laid back and was immediately chilling on my shoulder when we got home from Petco. They also had 2 little blue rex dumbo eared girls, but since I could only get one my brother made me choose Jasmine because she looked like our Ginger. Jasmine was handled at the pet store and the girl there said she would walk around with her on her shoulder, hehe. Just like my Ginger rat, Jasmine was the star of Petco. I have 10 rats in my Ferret Nation cage. And Fennel & Barley share a smaller 2 story cage with no room for any other cage mates. So I've reached my limit! <:3 )~~~

Time for a Blog Quiz Giveaway! If you've been a long time reader of my blog you should probably know most of the answers to these questions. If not; try utilizing the search bar on the upper left hand corner of my blog or the 'contents' list (keywords) in the right hand column of my blog. The person who answers the most questions correctly wins a $10 Walmart Gift Card, a 1.7 Fl.oz. L'Occitane Verbena Body Lotion and a Philadelphia souvenir light up key chain that I picked up at 30th Street Station!

Prizes:

How to enter:

1. Please email your quiz answers to: tunaymahal8279ATyahooDOTcom Subject line should be: Blog Quiz Giveaway

2. Leave a comment on this blog, saying you've emailed your answers. Both these steps are required for your entry to be valid.

3. This give away is only valid for USA & Canada residents because of the Walmart Store Gift Card. Friends & family are allowed to enter because it's my blog. :-p

Good Luck! Giveaway Ends: May 31st, 2010! Winners should be announced June 1st!

Quiz Questions

1. Where did F.B. & I meet online?

2. What does F.B. stand for?

3. How many years have F.B. & I been in a long distance relationship?

4. How many trips to the Philippines have I taken?

5. The first thing I said to F.B. in person was?

6. My favorite drink at Starbucks is?

7. F.B.’s favorite thing to eat is?

8. Date we were engaged?

9. Our legal date of marriage is?

10. F.B. & I like to watch this cartoon?

11. How many tattoo’s do I have?

12. I am obsessed with this theme- when it comes to books?

13. How many rats have I owned altogether?

14. What does ‘Tunay Na Mahal’ in Tagalog mean?

This post will have a future date until the giveaway is over!