Technology is your friend

Let's move on to what it probably my favorite piece of bed rest (or anytime) equipment - The Laptop.

You laptop can open up up to a world of amusement and can also keep you in touch with the outside world.

For starters, consider getting a game of some kind. I know...I know....You probably not into blasting aliens or slicing up zombies or whatever you envision your typical computer game to entail. Look again. In the past several years a whole new genre of gaming as appeared. There are several games that I really enjoy and that have ever required that I wield a BFG. Check out the following:
The Sims series - you can probably get the original sims off of ebay for a song or try out the current Sims2
Civilization - The original civilization has come a long way. Civ4 features fab graphics, new leaders and narration by Leonard Nimoy! While your there check out the Civilization IV - Colonization, as update of one of my all time favorite games!

If neither of these games are doing it for you check out BigFish games. There are literally hundereds of games that that you can download and try out for free for about an hour. If something catches your fancy you can buy it right away for $20. Plus, they add a new game almost every day!

Interested in games, but not interested in paying for them? Check out these lists of open source games, freeware games and commercial games rereleased as freeware. These games generally don't feature the flashy graphics or soundtracks of their pricier cousins, but for the price who can complain. I might also add that some of them can be a little tricky to get working and you may have to tinker a bit.

Okay - you have expored your gaming options, lets move on to another fun aspect of the internet, social networking. You may be familiar with Facebook, mySpace or Twitter, but you may not know about some of the great resources for moms and moms-to-be. There are thousands of site out there full of pregnancy and parenting stuff. Some are great, some are just mediocre. Here are a few of my favorites:

CafeMom - Like MySpace for moms
BabyCenter - lots of good info for pregnancy through your kiddo's 9th birthday
Ask Dr. Sears - Dr. Sears, much like Martha Stewart, you either love him or hate him. Since I am a crunchy granola, breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping mom I love him. Give it a read, if you find im too touchy feely move on.

Don't forget blogs. Clearly, you know all about blogs. There are probably about a million blogs for every interest out there. A great way to find some new blogs is to try out a web app called Stumbled Upon. Essentially what stumbled upon is all about is getting you to a random(ish) web page. Try it out, but be warned, it can be adictive.

Finally, I want to mention my newest addiction, NetFlix. In case you are unfamiliar with NetFlix it is essentially a movie rental site. You set up a Queue and they mail you a DVD (Or two or three or whatever depending on you subscription level). You watch the DVD and then mail it back in a prepaid envelope. If that were all that there was to it, that would be pretty cool since you can rent movies ithout leaving your bed. But wait there is more! You can now watch content online. No waiting! Right now! There are a TON of movies and, my favorite, TV shows. You can catch up on a whole season of CSI or Numb3rs in just a few days! It is a life saver on those days when there is nothing good on TV (like every day).

So there you have it. Some, but by no means all, of the great ways to entertain yourself using your laptop. I will revisit the laptop in the next few days when we talk about other ways to retain your sanity.