Big Mac Attack

Well I finally did it. After many years of friends looking aghast when I tell them that I'm still in PC world, I drank the kool-aid. Okay, if I'm going to be realistic, I guess I did a canonball into the deep end of the kool-aid. It started a couple years ago when I started playing around with iTunes. I liked the look. I liked that it was easy, I liked being able to search for just about any artist and find them. So a year later, I bought an iPod. It became an instant old friend, traveling with me to work every day, replacing the stacks of CDs. Then this past summer came the iPhone. Not to replace my iPod, but really because it was time for a new phone. I like my iPhone, but there are a few things I miss about my regular old cell phone - mostly the easy phone functions that I haven't become adept at yet on the new one (including good voice dialing, video recorder). Then last month I took a giant bite of the apple and bought a MacBook. And I'm in love.


At first, I was scared. I opened the box and couldn't find the stack of set-up manuals, user guides and extraneous software that usually comes with a new PC. I thought for sure something was missing when all I could find was this tiny booklet of information. But that seems typical of the other Apple products I've purchased. But as soon as I powered it up, I was in awe. So bright and clean as the keyboard literally shines up at me. It's like I hear the angels sing every time I open the lid. Again, I had some anxiety at first because I couldn't find all the stuff I had to install and set up and the plethora of Welcome screens that you have to fight your way through. Everything was pre-installed, with the exception of email. I had a little trouble setting that up, which seems to be typical with my ISP. But finally I tried something that I thought for SURE wouldn't work because it was just too easy, and voila. I'm in. It took a couple days for that nervousness to fade away and accept the zen-like tranquility of this new technology.


Since then I've added a few new programs on my own, and I have to say the ease of the drag-and-drop installations nearly makes me teary-eyed. It's never been this easy before. I've so quickly adapted that there have been a few times that I have become frustrated at work because it feels so cumbersome.


The only really scary part of this experience has been the cost. Apple's not cheap by any means. But my hope and expectation is that it's worth it and will be for a long time. I think the only thing I'm unhappy with is that I chose to purchase a corded mouse instead of spending the extra for the bluetooth mouse. The cord is a little short, but I just find myself using the pad more often. Not such a bad thing.


I will admit that there is a certain social stigma that comes with Apple. But I don't care. I'm hooked. I'm so in awe that I have to keep my enthusiasm in check - I've been been accused a few times of trying to convert my friends and co-workers to the cult of Mac. But I don't care. I'm a happy convert.

Prop 8

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

New Neighborhood Tradition

Yesterday we got together with a few of our neighbors and went to the beach to toast the sunset. It's so easy to forget to slow down and enjoy the everyday things around you. We're going to try to get as many of the neighbors to join in once a month. It was great fun. We took some things to snack on - we had two kinds of shrimp, grapes, cheeses, bread, and a little bit of wine. We all took chairs and blankets, but we just stood around visiting and enjoying the scenery. It was a great way to unwind after such a long week.

Tonight we are off to one of our other neighbor's annual Christmas party. We'll be sure to spread the word about next month's Sunset Toast.

Tough day...

Today was not a good day. We had to lay off over 1oo people at work. I had to lose one of my employees in this. While it seems like this is such a small number in the face of the thousands that other companies are laying off, it still doesn't make it easier to know others have it harder. I've never had to have a conversation like that before. I hope I never have to again either.

c

Hello all...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I've fallen out of the blogosphere for a while. The world has been a crazy place - globally, nationally, locally and even personally. But I hope we're on the upswing... or will be soon.

We're heading out to Orlando to see some friends and spend the holiday. It will be a nice change of scenery. And of course good to see friends. I hadn't thought of it before this year, but I think that Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. One of my favorite things to do is to hang out with good friends, with good food, maybe a little wine, and just enjoy each other's company. It's a little harder now with even more friends moved out of the area. So I'm glad we're traveling. Don't get me wrong, I love the friends we have here. It just seems that everyone goes their own way this time of year, and it makes me really miss those friends I have who are far away from me.

So to all my friends out there, near and far... I love you all.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Gettin' things done

This a good day to get things done. I took the day off, so today I voted, bought a guitar tuner, went grocery shopping, bought a yoga DVD I've been thinking about, and finally took pics of our new vegetable garden.

Voting wasn't bad. Our precinct isn't too big, so I think I only waited for about 2 or 3 minutes. On the way out running my errands, hundreds of Obama signs seem to have sprouted overnight. It was kinda cool to see that display in my mostly republican neighborhood.

I found my way to a local music store and bought a guitar tuner. Someone at work told me about them. I never knew such a thing existed. I'm gonna go try it out today. While there, I saw a flyer about classes starting in January. $89 for eight weeks! Sounds like a bargain to me. I'm seriously thinking about checking that out.

I picked up the "A.M. Yoga" DVD too. It has five twenty-minute sessions. Monday night I go to a class, and it's something I look forward to all week. So I may try to do this a couple mornings a week too. Still not great at it, but I think I hit a milestone this week. A lot of the poses that I struggled with seemed to have clicked this week. Love it.

About three weeks ago, we built a small raised bed for vegetables on the south side of our house. We planted grape and cherry tomatoes, zuchini, summer squash, basil, radishes, mixed lettus greens, jalepenos, and yellow and red bell peppers. Next we're going to build a trellis and plant some beans and/or maybe snowpeas. The tomatoes are doing really well - lots of little blooms already.

We've also been talking about extending the fence on the north side of the house closer to the street. That will give us a place to put a couple rain barrels and a compost pile. We haven't had a place for a compost pile in a few years. And with all the yard debris we produce, it's just a good idea. BTW - did you hear that the recycling company in Pinellas county is going to stop accepting glass for recycling for the next year?! Bad timing - since St. Pete is JUST starting their curbside recycling program. Apparently there is a real glut in recycled glass. Yet recycled glass items are still exhorbitantly expensive. Go figure.

Inside the Big Picture...

One of the things I like the most about taking pictures is when you get to see the details you would otherwise miss. There's just something about peering into a small world to see the strange but beautiful things...

Fort De Soto Paw Playground

All is well.

About three months ago, I wrote about my personal health crisis. It wasn’t pretty. But, I’m happy to say that after my follow-up appointment with my doctor this week, everything that should be normal is normal again.

It was a lot of work – diet and exercise. And 20 pounds later, I feel better, and I’m on the right track. (Not to mention the “new” wardrobe I’m finding in my closet!) I still have a way to go – another 30 to reach my goal weight. And maybe more if I can, but that would put me in a happy place for sure.

I‘ve been somewhat regular at the gym – still going to the yoga class on Mondays. And then three more gym visits for the week. Two weeks ago, I went kayaking for the first time in a year. I had a great time. I didn’t have the shoulder issue I had before. So I went out again last week. I was out for two hours when I decided I should come back in, even though I was having such a good time. I felt pretty good that day. But the next day I felt like someone had beaten me with a bat! But it was that good, hard exercised pain.

I still refuse to say I’m “dieting” because that sounds so temporary. I really have to make permanent changes. Still eating my veggies, which was never a problem. Eating a LOT more fruit to compensate for the lack of sugar intake. And switched to whole grain whenever I have a choice (the Barilla Whole Grain Pasta is actually really good). I’m still limiting carbs, but not in a torturous Atkins way. But pasta and rice has gone from a 3-4 nights a week meal, to a 3-4 times a month meal.

All that being said, shopping habits have had to change too. It’s been a challenge, and it’s been enlightening. I’m eating more organic, but not completely. But I seem to have developed this new (loose) rule that if I look at the ingredients and it has more than a dozen or so listed, it’s probably not good to eat. Especially if after the first few ingredients, it starts listing a bunch of chemicals and additives that I can’t even pronounce. It (usually) get’s left on the shelf.

Today starts the new season of St. Pete Saturday Market. I’ve been looking forward to going down and finding some fresh produce. So, after our morning trip to the dog park, I think I’m going to throw myself into the crowd to do some open-air shopping.

Keep sending good thoughts my way.

Desparation.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_10_02_Virgin_Mary_story/srvc=home&position=also

I'm not a morning person. Really.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the "rise and shine" type. I'm more the, "sleep in while the rest of the world gets the coffee ready for me" type. On occasion, I can get up early if there's a reason to. But usually, I'd opt not to.

Lately, I've been waking up early in the morning. Well, early for me anyway. During the week, I rarely get to be annoyed by my alarm clock anymore. I'm usually up before it begins its morning whimper of NPR chatter on ultra-low volume (did I mention I'm a really light sleeper?).

Pre-dawn hours are almost mystical to me – a strange kind of foreign magic. Perhaps it's because I don't usually see them. Years ago, when I thought I was a jogger, I got up early and went out for a jog at the crack of dawn. I saw lots of people that I didn't know, but they all acted as though we were casual friends. The UPS driver honked and waved. Other walkers and joggers said things like "good morning." Drivers on their way to work or where ever waved or nodded a slight hello. It was freakin' weird. Kinda made me wonder, are there really two types of people in the world? Morning People and Non-Morning People? Why do these MP's seem so friendly? Have I slipped into Stepford? Are they secretly running the world? Do they know something the rest of us don't? Should I be scared? Or should I just go back to bed and let myself believe it was all a dream?

For some ungodly reason, I woke up at 5:30 this morning. It's a Sunday. I think that by law, you're supposed to sleep in until 10am on Sundays. But I'm up. And the really strange thing about being up early is this compulsion to be somewhere or do something that I don't normally have time to do. Maybe it's to see if the morning people are still out there.

Kayaking

Today we went kayaking. We haven’t been in over a year. I’ve had problems with my shoulder. Since going back to the gym regularly, and practicing my interpretation of yoga, it seems to be better. So it was time to try it again.

We had some friends meet up at our house this morning to join us, so there were 5 of us all together. We loaded up and went down the street towards Ft. De Soto. We put in and headed out. It’s been a long time. The weather was perfect. It was warm and sunny, but not late enough to have that furnace-type Florida heat yet. We paddled out to Shell Key, so it was a short trip.

We hung out at Shell Key for about an hour. Again, it wasn’t too late in the day yet, so there wasn’t much boat traffic, which was really nice. We re-discovered why it’s called Shell Key. Actually, the first thing we saw was that the beach was littered with sea urchins. I’ve never seen so many before. And they were everywhere in the shallows. I walked a short way on the beach collecting lettered olive shells. Only the biggest made the cut. Within just a few minutes I had to turn back because my hands were full.

We paddled back along West Shore in Tierra Verde – some of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen. I think we were gone for about 4 hours all together. I had a really great time. I missed it a lot. It was so peaceful. Almost therapeutic. I see myself doing a lot more of that in the near future.

Brilliant!

Thank you!

Late on Friday, I decided to join a friend on
ASAP's AIDS Walk St. Petersburg. The walk was the next morning, so it didn't leave a lot of time for planning and fund-raising. I'll confess that we talked about it earlier in the week, but I had another commitment that I thought was the same day, but wasn't. So we sat down and registered online.

We decided to become a team of two. We brainstormed some team names - determined to come up with something fun. We came up with "Crosswalkers."


Since it was last minute, we didn't really expect to raise any money aside from the donations we would make ourselves, but we each sent an email to small groups of friends. Well, this morning I was AMAZED to see that we had raised $130! I don't know who of you donated online, but I must say THANK YOU! I know that it doesn't sound like much money, but we honestly weren't expecting to raise anything because we were so late.


I haven't volunteered or participated in this event for about three years. I was really happy to see that it was a much larger crowd. Although - I've apparently become a hermit, because I only saw one person there that I knew.


There were lots of the usual type crowd there. Also a lot of families. There weren't as many characters there as I expected. There was a small group of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence among the crowd.


Next year, we decided that we will plan a little better and do some work to make it fun and involve more people. There will be a repeat appearance of team Crosswalkers, and we decided we will need to dress the part (we're thinking big sun hats and sunglasses). A little Dame Edna inspiration. So, if you're looking for some fun next year and like to walk, keep us on your calendar for September 2009!

Aids Walk St. Pete

Yoga Update...

Back in April, I mentioned that I finally got the nerve to try the yoga class at the gym. Since then, I've switched gyms, and tried a couple others. I still enjoy it, although I still feel really awkward. My description of trying to bend a potato in half still fits. But It's getting a little better.

The instructors at my new gym aren't as good, I don't think. The instructor of the first class I tried wasn't very personable. I got the sense that she drew the short straw. The class I go to now is a little better. She said she also teaches at another yoga studio and is also a massage therapist. She seems a little more into it, and is good about walking around the room and giving feedback and helping out.

There's another class I haven't tried that they call "Yoga-Ball" a combination of yoga and pilates (I've also heard it referred to as "yogalates"). But I have horrible visions of me falling off the ball and onto a neighbor. I'll continue to go to this one, because I do enjoy it. And honestly, it's a good change of pace from the circuit training and the cardio stuff. As I get better, maybe eventually I'll seek out another class elsewhere.

Summer Photos

A few things in the yard right now...

What's in a name?

One of the interesting things I have found living and visiting the East coast is how connected to family history people are. I find it fascinating to hear people talk about where their grandparents or great grandparents came from. We didn't really have this on the West coast. My theory is that it took longer for the West to be settled, so there is a generation or two that is separated from their families who may have stayed on the East side of the continent, or remained in their "homelands."

A while back, I saw an ad for ancestry.com while watching something on the history channel. I decided to take advantage of their three-day trial just to see what it was like. I sat down at my computer, and much to my amazement, within about 20 minutes I was able to trace my grandmother's side of the family back about 500 years to Notinghamshire, England (Mullins, to Flint, to Flynte). I didn't get far on my maternal grandfather's side. But I was curious about the name. I thought I knew that Mullins was derived from the French. I didn't realize that there is also an Irish derivative. My mom's cousin sent me some family history on disk a while back. But it wasn't very well organized. Some word documents and powerpoint shows. I keep saying that I should go through and sort them out some day. I wasn't so lucky on my father's side either. I got to my great grandfather and hit a roadblock. I'm not sure if anyone has done any studies there.

I don't have any delusions of finding famous ancestors or claim to fame of any sort. It's all just a curiosity. Who knows. Maybe I'll decide to subscribe to ancestry.com someday. I have lots of photos I could scan and share. There might be someone else out there who would be excited to see them.

Read and Re-read...

For those of you who know me, you know I like to read. I always have. Growing up I was the odd kid who spent all his extra time in the local library. The public library was about two blocks from school. Often, I would get out of school, and walk to the library until my mom would call looking for me and the librarian would come tell me it was time to go home for dinner. I think I was the only kid in the world who would get into trouble for reading. One day my mom got mad and told me to get my nose out of that book and go outside and play. I replied by saying something to the effect of, most parents would be happy that their kid was reading. Not a popular response.

Now it's tough just finding the time to read. It's very cliche to say, "so many books, so little time." But it's so true. I have one bookcase that hold's recently read books and books I want to keep. Most are passed on to friends and co-workers. Then there's the unread bookcase. It's pretty full right now, and so I have to avoid going to bookstores - which is one of my favorite things to do.

Part of my problem when it comes to books is that I have serious closure issues. If I start a book, I MUST finish reading it. Even if it sucks or I find it really boring. I have books that I started reading years ago that still haunt me, begging to be finished.

Recently, I picked up a book when I was in Portland shopping at Powell's (aka the greatest bookstore in the world). I started reading it, and it seemed familiar. I thought maybe I read something else by the author that had recurring characters. But now that I'm 50 pages into it and committed to finishing it, I realize, I have read this book before. Dammit. Of course, I don't remember how it ended, so I'm stuck. I have to read it all the way through again to completion. Fortunately, it's been a good story. But not so good that I remembered buying it before.

So I guess I have to revamp that saying. So many books, so little time to read them a second time around.