Ski Season has begun--officially

Winter in the NW is unbelieveable. We have so many activities available to us. In our family, we will spend the rest of the winter at 49 Degrees North and other various mountains within our PNSA region, downhill skiing and watching our youngest daughter race with her teammates on F.A.S.T. (Forty-nine Degrees North Alpine Ski Team)

Saturday was the beginning of the long ski season for us. I always anticipate the beginning of the season with mixed emotions. Excitement-There is nothing better than to stand at the top of the mountain with the sun beating down on the beautiful sparkling white snow and to see the most magnificent view I have ever experienced. Hesitation-I always wonder if I can remember how to get on and off the lift and then actually ski down a mountain since I tyically start my pre-season workout the first day of ski season. You see, I am a late bloomer when it comes to skiing and waited until I was 39 to actually take up the sport.

In the end, I experienced both emotions and ended the day with great success!

Unbelieveable--It's almost winter.

So here it is a couple of weeks before Christmas and we are starting ski practice tomorrow so I think, "Hey I should add to my blog!" ...So I look back at my last post and realize that the last time I blogged was in July when I was complaining about 86 Degrees. Now the high is suppose to be 34 today and I am complaining about how cold my office feels.

Well since my last blog entry, I bought the Verizon Samsung i760. I have had it just a little over a month and still haven't figured out if I like it or not. I do love the ability to dial with buttons instead of the touch screen and I like the slide-out side keyboard over my old vx6600 touch screen which I also loved when it was new. I also love having Bluetooth and the built in wireless. Although, this morning was a bit funny when I dropped off my daughter's oversized, costly school project before work and looked down at my phone as it was trying to access every network in the Brentwood. :) There are a lot of folks who need to set up some security on their wireless networks in the area. I do not like the fact that Verizon wants to charge extra if I want to use the tethering capabilities when the old 6700s worked fine and I already pay for data. This is a little more than irritating since I can't use both the phone and my laptop at the same time. It is not like I would be using more bandwidth! All and all, the final report is still pending, but my every two years isn't up for 1 yr and 11 months so I guess I'm stuck with what I have. At least it runs Windows Mobile 6 and I have longer battery life!

What did we do without technology Jane???

Wow, I cannot believe that here it is the end of July already. I think I slept through the last two weeks because it has been soooo blasted hot here and the girls were so busy or kept me busy. I came home, cooked dinner or at least would throw something together and we would either lay around the house (with no AC) or head out to the pool which is just my temperature, 86 degrees F.

On top of it all, I had to shuffle kids to the dentist, the oral surgeon, the Harry Potter book premiere at Borders, Sr portraits at Green Gables, and I also had to look for a place for my 10yr old to stay while my other daughter was heading out to a friend's lake place for the week. So where did I turn to for help? Technology! Without it, I would have been running all over the place or living on hold. I could check the weather (I knew it was hot so why did I need the confirmation?), confirm dentist appointments, view my daughter's proofs, pre-order our Harry Potter books, order dinner and enroll my daughter in day camp all via the WWW. I'm not quite Jane Jetson yet, but I know that clothes changer is just around the corner, but then again, Jane did have to go to the mall, I can do it all from my laptop by the pool.

iPhone Hype

The iPhone came out and as promised, we saw lines for the new device. See Erin Morath's Detroit News article: iGot One. My DD #2 has a good friend who is studying at Vanderbilt this summer in a special program for students who will be entering their Sr year in HS next year. While there, many of these teens received their iPhones which were overnighted to them. Quite a hefty phone with a hefty price tag for those who are not yet out of HS.

My biggest disappointment in Apple, once again is that they made an exclusive deal and limited their market. I, a typical Windows Mobile user would have probably moved over to this new wonder device, but Apple decided to go with one single carrier. Since my Windows device is a few years old and I am ready for an upgrade from Windows Mobile 2003 SE (yes 03), I would have probably moved over to the new state of the art device allowing me to have my iTunes and podcasts at hand, but Steve Jobs wasn't a fan of Verizon, I guess. Steve's loss.... I guess I'll wait for a Verizon device that runs Windows Mobile 6. Until then, I guess I'll just keep watching my favorite iPhone video on YouTube!

SharePoint as a training tool

We are in the midst of adopting SharePoint as a part of our online file sharing and collaboration system. I am in the middle of testing it by putting our Office 2007 training program together. For those of you who don't know anything about SharePoint, it allows us to put out files up on a web accessible system, set permissions on them, create a blog and probably a lot of other things, I haven't gotten to yet. So far I have created a page, written a blog entry, added a link, added RSS links. It truly has been an exciting day!

Second Life and Learning

Yesterday I recieved my new Technology and Learning magazine in the mail and browsed through it. The article that caught my eye was about using Second Life for conferences. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) sponsered a virtual educational technology conference via Second Life (SL) this spring. What a great way to get teachers from all over the world into the classroom and to experience what their students are doing.

Personally, I could never understand why people were paying to live in a virual world when I had the SIMS for the cost of a program. Paying property taxes and so on its stressful in reality, I'm not sure I want to do it in a virtual world. I honestly have never been into the SL site. I've just gathered at the door, but this new use may just make me have to try it out. It is great when people like Veritas Variscan aka Doreen Pugh is thinking outside the box and looking for new ways to educate teachers and to force them into their students' world.

The birthday of a nation

Yesterday was a day of celebration for our great nation--A birthday party of sorts. It just didn't seem to be the same for me as it used to be when I was a kid. I really miss the fireworks in the backyard. I never noticed it until this year how much I really missed it. Our county doesn't allow ANY fireworks due to fire danger. There is an exception as there is a big display downtown which is where 15,000 of your closest friends go too. You go downtown, pay to park if you can find a place to park, watch 20 min of fireworks and then spend the next 2 1/2 hours trying to get home. Somehow, it just doesn't seem to be the 4th of July without burgers, dogs and sparklers.

We did get to hang by the pool with the kids which was fun. With a college aged kido, it can be a bit difficult getting the girls all together. We swam, made burgers and dogs, ate corn on the cob and ice cream. All in all--it seemed like a nice mid-week, Saturday afternoon.

On March 11, 1964, I was born a princess.
On March 12, 1964.... I became an average American girl born in a small agricultural town to two average American parents who gave me an average American name.

Where did it all go wrong??? I was destine for greatness and now I am, not so bad, but destiny definitely took a wrong turn! What was it thinking, did it get sick on March 12th and not show up for work? One of my favorite book covers (I haven't read the book, but I do own it) is "When did I Stop Being Barbie and Became Mrs. Potato Head?" I mean, there is nothing wrong with Mrs. Potato Head, but that wasn't in my plans. She is huggy, plump, dimply, and a bit like what my grandma was like...lovable. But, I should (as encouraged by my grandmother) be a career woman, jet set with all the luggage, freetime, and the body that won't quit. I already have the blonde hair and a decent personality. That is why I know I was born a princess. Maybe my real parents haven't found me or maybe they placed me with a good family so that I would know what it would be like to be common and then later couldn't find me because they moved a couple of times. Even so, life has not been all that bad, I just wonder what it could have been!