It was a lump of coal...until I got connected into the home WiFi network.

SHE who cashes my paychecks was not going to be happy unless her systems administrator [aka he who takes out the trash] got it working soonest.

The last thing I did was to turn off my home wireless router and cable company Internet modem and when turned back on I powered up the Kindle Fire (KF) and it made a connection.  

The basic connection steps are not that difficult to follow and I did them without reading them first. When it didn't connect right off I reviewed various blogs and the Kindle Forum along with Amazon's instructions on making a connection. 

Since Santa Claus made this KF before the latest software upgrade came out, I downloaded the software to my computer then transferred it to KF with these instructions.  

Getting frustrated so I went to lunch (everything better after lunch).  That's when I tried the router/modem turn off/on step.  Bottom line:  I am not sure what finally made the difference in getting connected.

A review of KF forums and and others blogs shows there is no one solution to making the connection soonest.  

Merry Christmas and may you make wonderful connections in 2012.