Ginger, Sandy's brother Mike's wife, passed away last Sunday, after a long struggle with cancer.  She will be greatly missed.  Here is her obituary from the Bruch Funeral Home site:

Virginia A. “Ginger” Wegmann, 54, of Kenosha, passed away peacefully, surrounded by her loving family Sunday, February 21, 2010 at Washington Manor. She was born on August 31, 1955 to James and Margie (Kegley) Hamilton in Zion, IL. She graduated high school from the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped in Janesville. She then received her associate degree in Human Services from Gateway Technical School. Ginger married Michael Wegmann on August 2, 1986 in Kenosha. Ginger was an active member of CrossWay Community Church. Her dedication and love for the church touched many lives and was returned just as strong, particularly during her bouts with cancer. She also helped her dear friend Annie take care of her handicapped daughter through Society's Assets. Ginger was an avid doll collector, with Princess Diana and Shirley Temple being her favorites. She enjoyed camping, PartyLite candles and collectibles, bowling on her Wii system. She also loved Tinkerbell, which she got to meet on a special trip to Disney World, where Ginger got to enjoy the experience through the eyes of her very dear neice Britney. Ginger is survived by many loving relatives, including her husband Mike of Kenosha; her children, Timm Sinnen of Cudahy and Tiana Honey of Elkhorn; her father James Hamilton of Rockford, IL; her sisters Deb (Bob) McDermott of Pleasant Prairie, Sue (Tom) Rasmussen of Rockford, IL and Mela Hamilton of Kenosha; her brother Kelly Hamilton of Germany; her stepson Scott M. Wegmann of Norfolk, VA; and her father-in-law George Wegmann, brother-in-law Rick Wegmann, and sister-in-law Sandra (Jimmy) Trottier, all of Kenosha. She is also survived by her niece Britney Gates, with whom she helped raise and felt a mother-like bond; Maryann Engelhart of Union Grove, and her mother Isabelle Johnson, whom Ginger considered a second mother; Linda Brocksom of Kenosha; Terrie Gilliland of Kenosha; and many nieces, nephews, and close friends. She was preceded in death by her mother Margie, her brother Frank, and her brother-in-law Dennis Wegmann. A celebration of Ginger’s life will be held on Saturday, February 27th at 3:00 p.m. at CrossWay Community Church (13905 – 75th St.). Visitation will also be at CrossWay prior to the service, starting at 1:30p.m. Memorials would be appreciated to the American Cancer Society, CrossWay Community Church, or to the Wisconsin Council for the Blind. The family would like to thank the staff at Washington Manor, Hospice Alliance, Dr. Jeffrey Trimark, and CrossWay Community Church for the loving care given to Ginger.

Bruch Funeral Home 3503 Roosevelt Road Kenosha, WI 53142 262-652-8298

Visit and sign Ginger’s Online Memorial Book at www.bruchfuneralhome.net

I just finished the audiobook "Daemon" tonight.  Wow, great book!  Daniel Suarez really knows his stuff, and this book exposes a glimpse of one possible scenario of our ever evolving society and our dependence on technology and a global internet.  It all begins when one man's obituary appears online. . .

"Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half a dozen popular online games. His premature death from brain cancer depressed both gamers and his company’s stock price. But Sobol’s fans weren’t the only ones to note his passing. He left behind something that was scanning Internet obituaries, too—something that put in motion a whole series of programs upon his death. Programs that moved money. Programs that recruited people. Programs that killed.

Confronted with a killer from beyond the grave, Detective Peter Sebeck comes face-to-face with the full implications of our increasingly complex and interconnected world—one where the dead can read headlines, steal identities, and carry out far-reaching plans without fear of retribution. Sebeck must find a way to stop Sobol’s web of programs—his Daemon—before it achieves its ultimate purpose. And to do so, he must uncover what that purpose is . . ."

Now I can't wait to start reading (listening to) the sequel--"Freedom".

We went to the US Nationals Snow Sculpting Championships this weekend!  The competition was all this week and the judging was yesterday.  Today was viewing day, so we went today to check them out.  There were several great ones this year, and it looked like only one of them collapsed this time.  Click on the thumbnail image to view the photo set.  As usual, there are several photos of each sculpture along with their original drawings and the team signs.  I missed the actual names for a couple of the best sculptures though, so I did my best to name them appropriately.  There's also a few photos of Kevin and Ty who accompanied me.  We listened to the audiobook "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez on the trip there and back.  I got Ty hooked on it--now he wants to listen to the whole thing.  It sure made the drive go by quick--as usual!

I decided to create an "iPod Touch" section on my site because of my recent obsession (a.k.a. addiction).  If it's going to eat up most of my free time, I thought I could at least share my experiences with it and maybe get some input from other Touch or iPhone owners out there.  At the very least maybe I can even talk a few "potential" Touch owners to get off the fence and take the leap.  So this is it, my first Touch article.  I'll figure out how to separate these articles from the main blog too, so us Touch Geeks can have our own separate lil area here.

I'm in the "app discovery" stage with my touch, but I'm quickly learning that this just may be a "permanent destination" rather than a stage.  The apps just keep coming and coming.  They said "over 140,000 apps" recently, which is amazing.  Granted, 95% of them are probably crap, but then the other 5% have got to be amazing, right?  And what's 5% of 140,000? Something like...7,000 apps! This makes me a little disappointed to find that I can only have 11 pages of apps on the Touch, 16 apps per page, or a maximum of 176 apps.  I still have a few pages left to fill, but every week I find a few more I just gotta have.  Many are free too, believe it or not, and even a few great ones are free.

Hans got me started on free radio by mentioning Radio Paradise.  Since then I've tried Last.fm, Pandora and a few others, some even streaming thousands of radio stations from Shoutcast and other popular Internet broadcasting formats.  Today I found Slacker Radio, another one I like a lot with some nice options.  And the other day I found Moodagent, which doesn't stream radio at all, it uses my own music collection on my iPod to generate instant playlists based on my mood.  It displays 5 color-coded slider bars--one each for Sensuality, Tenderness, Joy, Agressiveness, and Tempo.  I slide one or more bars up or down to provide More or less music containing that particular amount of that feature, and it instantly generates a playlist of songs on my iPod.  When a song I like a lot is playing, with one click I can also generate an instant playlist tweaked to the exact properties of that song itself.  Interesting.  It seems to work quite well, and it's fun to tinker with.

K, that's it for today's Touch update. p.s. - This week I realized that my iPod Touch has now become basically an "iPad Nano."

This is awesome.  I'm listening to Pandora Radio and it has ads that scroll up on the bottom third of the screen on my Touch.  Today it pops up with the familiar green H&R Block box and says "Launch Refund Radio" from H&R Block. I couldn't resist, so I clicked on it. The O'Jays "For the love of money", Bing Crosby's "Brother can you spare a dime", Pink Floyd's "Money", Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" and The Beatles' "Money Can't Buy Me Love" are just a few of the tunes playing.  Great idea.  Almost as amusing as the guy in the Statue of Liberty costume dancing the jig on the side of Sheridan Road in Waukegan to get everyone's attention, apparently advertising for "Liberty Tax Services" across the street.