I'm Not Smarter Than a Fifth Grader

Maybe it was payback from the universe for fooling my kids on April 1st. All I know is that I have been attacked by technology recently.

With Tom and I apart for 2-4 months of every year, Skype has been a life saver. We are able to have face to face conversations and chat several times a week if not daily. Just after  arriving here I fought off a cold that my seatmate on our second flight tried to give me. It made me a little husky. My friend mentioned it when I called her on my cell phone. The day before when using Skype Tom had also mentioned my voice. 

"Put Mom on the phone, T.J." 

"No, this is Amy." 

"Ha ha! Stop fooling around!"

"No, really. This is your wife!" 

"Wow, you really sound different."

And then we went on to have a conversation. Every time we talked he would think it was T.J at the beginning. On Saturday a good friend called, on Skype, to share some good news. When I answered the Skype call she thought it was Tom. Once I turned on the video she could see that it was indeed me. She advised me to use the Skype call test because my voice sounded wrong. I assured her that I was just fighting off a cold.

When I hung up with my friend I decided to call the test number just to see what everyone was making a big deal about. The way the call works is that you call and record a message which is then played back. When I heard the recording I was horrified! I sounded like a man!!  (How had this happened? And more importantly--how could I change it back??

I called Tom in a panic and asked him what to do. He laughed and laughed but told me he had no idea what to do. Then Troy (my 12 year old son) got on the line and told me exactly what to do. I had to go to the web cam center and click on this and enable that and how it originally got changed I have no idea but I am so glad my son is smarter than I when it comes to computers.

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The other day I read a blog where the blogger shared her sense of humor and fun. As an example she had a link to a video. The text above the youtube video suggested that you turn your sound up and watch carefully for a girl, a bike and a pole. What I saw next had me screaming and I nearly dropped my laptop. I'm apparently not smart enough for you tube!

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On Sunday I bought a water bottle so I can drink my water quota each day. It has a straw drinking spout. I would have preferred a larger opening but this one was on sale so I bought it. When I started using it I was really disappointed. It was all gurgly and I could hardly get any water. All morning I fought with the bottle. At lunch time I mentioned to my kids that the bottle was really weird. "Maybe you should just suck on the straw and not tip the bottle up." Oh. Duh!

Clearly I'm not smart enough for any of the newfangled contraptions.