Pumpkin night!

The boys and I did the pumpkin today in preparation for the festivities tomorrow!

The are pretty stoked about going out and getting lots of loot. I cannot say I blame them. I have a lot of good memories of Hallowe’en as a kid.

Will is dressing up as Eragon. That is a character from a book that we have read together and is being released in December as a movie.
Jacks is dressing up as Brom, another character from the same book. They are going trick or treating with Will’s best friend Justin.

So, right after dinner tonight we got into the pumpkin. I dug all the guts out for them and then started to carve. I think it turned out okay. We did an owl design this year.

The best part was after the pumpkin was done. I gave the boys a big bowl of pumpkin guts and told them to separate the seeds from the pulp. They both did a good job. Jackson was in there like a dirty shirt He could not get enough of doing it. So funny.
After that I washed them, put some salt on them and threw ‘em in the oven. An hour later, they were all ready for eating.

William told me earlier that he would help getting them separated but did not like them. After an hour in the oven, the kitchen was smelling pretty good, so after a bit he told me he was interested in trying some out. Well, a little bowl later I think he is hooked.

Good memories. Good times making memories.

kde desktop on ubuntu edgy

KDE is a different type of desktop that you can run under linux. I am running it now. A little more slick than Gnome. Ooh doggy.

Linux rocks!

Pastor Appreciation Month

October is Pastor Appreciation Month.
We took our pastor and his wife out for lunch today
I cannot explain to you how much I love these two people. I realize that I am related by marriage to them but it goes far beyond that.
First Uncle (Pastor) John.
This man has a heart for teaching God’s word to the people. Period. He is incredibly good at digging deep into God’s word and preaching it in such a way that I am challenged each week.
He loves the people of our church as a shepherd does. I love him.

Secondly, his wife. What a wonderful woman. I am blessed to call her both my pastor’s wife and my aunt-in-law (??) She is so caring. Aunt Doris a great person.

What a great time. Just sitting, enjoying lunch with them and chatting. I wish we could do it more often with them.

So ask me how to save about $500

Yup, liking this linux thing I must say.

Gotta like no fees for programs.
Me do likey.

So far, so good

Ubuntu Edgy is working like a charm

There are a few bugs I would like to work out but I am sure I will get there. Chief among the issues is that my touchpad on the laptop is doing weird things.
-I can’t scroll with the scroll areas
-I can’t do a tap and drag either.

I am sure that these are settings but I just have to find them.
Other than that, I think that the biggest issue for me is going to be the fact that I know where nothing is

In the Windows environment, everything is comfortable and known. Not so here. But that is why I need to push myself to learn this. If I could fall back on Windows all the time, then I wouldn’t be moving ahead all that much would I?

It’s worth a shot right?

Ha! I have been tinkering with Ubuntu Dapper and Ubuntu Edgy the last couple of days….
My biggest issue (as Topher would undoubtedly agree) is that I could not get the wireless card in my laptop to work consistently.

I figured it out inadvertantly (sp?) this morning. I was still having problems and getting very frustrated and thought what the heck? I will try to connect to my wep enabled wireless without a key..

Bingo! It works like a charm now. Bizarre. I know the wep is on, because Nan’s machine requires the passkey. Strange. But I am much happier now.

Now I can get to tinkering with the os to see how it performs on a daily basis.
More to come.

Something new…

A few of my clients lately have been asking the question about why Microsoft… Well, I have been doing a little research and to be perfectly honest, I am not sure.

With the exception of when you want to run an office product for a certain reason, ie.. Access because Dogfish Enterprises has written a customized database application for you, it is beginning to make more sense to look into open source.

Look at the numbers on this. On average, Windows XP is approximately $175. Microsoft Office is approximately $300-$500 depending on the type you buy. That is anywhere from $475 to $675 in licensing fees you gotta fork over before using your machine legally. Blech!!!!

So, in come Open Source. Linux (in its many variants is FREE for the most part.) There are some commercial versions available that still don’t cost all that much. Specifically for the end user in the office or home.
I talked to the all-knowing Topher He suggested looking into Ubuntu.

I am installing it now. Actually this is the 5th time of installing it. It is super easy to do and quick too. The reason I am installing it so many times? I want to make sure I know how to do it.
I have to say, so far I am impressed. There are all sort of features and a nice windows (a la apple) look and feel to it.
I don’t think that the plug and play status is quite there but I think that some people would be willing to give that up when balancing the money, the fact that Linux gets few if not no VIRUSES and it way more stable than Windows.

I will keep posting to let you know my thoughts as I get far along…

Dogfish

Snow today…

They are forecasting snow today and tomorrow.
These are the days of year that I really don’t like.
I think I ought to move to Bermuda or something. I am really not fond of snow.

My boys like snow. Because they have snowboards. I used to love snow when I went skiing as a younger person.

Hmmm. Looking forward to Spring already.

Sigh…

So long beautiful

Nan is taking her blog offline today. She is done.
For now. I will archive it for a while to see if she would like it back in a while.

So long beautiful.

Vehicles bite man….

So we have been driving our Honda Accord for about 3 years now. No issues. We bought some tires last year and have done our regular maintenance like good ordinary, suburban people.

Last week, my check engine light comes on. Take it to the local guy who was recommended and he resets it. Drive it, the light goes on again. Take it back… They replace the gas cap…. Drive it again and the light goes on again, but lo and behold, my Airbag light goes on too! Oh how wonderful!!!!

So, after tinkering with it and replacing a solenoid, we now have the car back with the Airbag light still on. The mechanic wonders if it will go off in the next couple of days.

We’ll see.

My point in all this is that we have had a good run with this car. Our previous vehicles required much more work than this one has and I am hoping that this is a unique incident. I would not like to go back to the days of visiting the mechanic every other month.