I think this is the oddest shift I’ve ever worked that this job. I have to work 3:00am to 7:00am this morning, then I’m working from 7:00pm to 11:00pm this evening. It’s a VERY split shift! It was difficult to go to sleep at 7:00pm, but it actually worked out ok and I slept good. I guess everyone in the house kept pretty quiet. I think it helped to get up at 5:00am Saturday, just to get a jump on the day. Well, here goes… got my Emeril’s Big Easy Bold in-hand and I’m ready to head to work. (It doesn’t compare with a Vente White Mocha Quad-shot, but it’s close!)
Big “I”
I drew a big “I” today, walking at lunch. It’s a little crooked in spots, due to me having to walk around obstacles and trying not to fall down when walking through the lumpy grass in Victory Park. Wearing Shape-Ups (curved, instead of standard flat shoes) makes walking on bumpy terrain pretty dangerous. Anyway, with those factors and the usual inaccuracies of GPS, I’m left with a “drunken I”. But just imagine what I could write out in the desert with a lot of space and very few obstacles to get in my way! Some day I’ll find out. It’ll be kinda like one of those hidden things found in Google Earth.
He’s at it again
Just like old times, I’m playing with the layout of my site again. Bear with me. I sure could use some outside input though, if you don’t mind commenting. A lot of things have changed since I last played with the options, so it’s kinda fun to get back into it and tinker. All the content stays put, but the entire look and feel can change dramatically.
My PicPlz Leftovers
Here they are. After I deleted the garbage, I was left with 22 photos from PizPlz. I didn’t bother with adding the date & times or the geotagging, it was difficult just to decipher the date and time from the data files included in the zip with the photos, so I didn’t bother. The only one I would be curious about is the “Friggin COLD!” photo taken at Wolfenbuttel Park. So I checked the EXIF info. That one was taken 11/20/2010, at 4:35pm.
PicPlz and Meebo are closing up shop. Who’s next?
It’s so sad to see some of my favorite apps going away. PicPlz – Android’s competitor to Instagram – is going away. I got the notice to download my photos last week. I only had a few dozen pics on it, so I’m now in the process of moving them to my Flickr account. This week it’s Meebo. Meebo was an IM service, but it was unique in that it also logged you into most other popular IM services and combined their features into a single app, so you only had to login to Meebo to connect to all of your messenger apps. Needing only one messenger login but having accounts on many of them was pretty sweet.
I think SMS is getting to so popular now, it’s starting to take over as the messenger of choice. Especially now that you can send pictures through it. Meebo and PicPlz had another major thing in common though: They both required some processing and storage, yet they were completely free services. Whether this factor had anything to do with their demise, I don’t know, but I think it’s an interesting coincidence.
Keep that in mind whenever you start relying heavily on a particular app or service… Do you pay for the service? If not, be warned. The service may not be around in the future, if they don’t have a continuous profitable channel of funding. As for Facebook, it’s not free. As they say, “If you’re not paying for a product, YOU are the product.” Facebook is selling you to its advertisers. Advertisers pay good money to make sure you see the specific ads that appear on the Facebook pages you visit. And when you start playing one of their games…JACKPOT! The advertiser and Facebook both make a bundle!
Don’t worry though, Facebook will probably be around for years. As long as their “products” continue to earn them a lot of money. But as soon as enough people get smart enough to “do their own thing”, get their own blog or find a better service to connect with their friends and family, then Facebook will have some tough decisions to make. It’s public now though, which means it’s owned by more that just one or a few people, so does that make it better or worse? Less likely to fold, or more likely? I don’t know. I just wish I could pay a few bucks a month for an ad-free, game-free version of Facebook. I’d sure feel more comfortable with that than I do with what they have now.
Father’s Day
I had a nice Father’s Day today. Sandy made an awesome breakfast of sausage, eggs, potatoes and toast. Next we went to church, then had a nice lunch from Big Star Drive-In, which Sandy picked up for us. We ate in a nice room at ManorCare (aka Washington Manor). After our Big Star lunch we had an awesome ice cream cake (another demerit for my diet…that’s TWO for this weekend–yikes!) and I was about ready to pass out. Very tired now, and a little disappointed that we completely missed out on the Father’s Day Car Show held in Baker Park just around the corner from us this year! We drove by on the way to lunch, but it was over when we cam home 😦 Oh well, maybe next year.
This evening we’re having Chinese so Sandy can have a break from cooking, then it’s time for the season premiere of Falling Skies tonight! I thought it would never get here. Overall, I think it was a pretty darn good Father’s Day… I’m pooped. I think I’m going to take the advice of the card I got from Kevin right now, and go have a nap… Here’s the photos.
Big Star Manor Care
Having fathers day lunch with George, Rick, Sandy, Matt and Kevin at the nursing home.
Now THIS is a Timeline!
I just updated my “Recent Posts” block on the right sidebar to include not just my last 50 posts, but ALL of my site’s posts! Well over 300 posts, instantly listed, right there… MY version of a Timeline. The first post was from 2001. 12 years of history.
Walks…and everything else for the past 4 years
So, continuing with my Facebook negativity, you won’t be seeing my daily walk posts there any more either. They will, however, continue to appear in the “Latest Photos” block on the right sidebar on my website, as they always have. These are snapshots of my walks, which I try to post daily. It motivates me to “draw something” every day on my walk, using CardioTrainer’s GPS mapping capabilities. Everyone else can feel free to use the “Post to Facebook” option in the “Share the knowledge!” block below my posts on this site–I, however, won’t be re-posting my own posts on Facebook like I have in the past. I feel one post on the web is enough, why overdo it? Besides, I have so much better control over how my content looks and acts to the public on my own site, unlike Facebook.
And shhhh… I’m not doing anything like “announcing” that I’m abandoning Facebook as my “last Facebook post” or anything… It’ll just be like I’ve just sorta “disappeared” to some people. Just you and I know what really happened though, cause you’re nice enough to stop over here once in awhile and look at my site. Sure, socially it’s probably a step backward, sort of. But I’ll actually be posting more often, now that I only have just one single place to concern myself with.
And I’m sure I’ll still stay up on everyone else’s Facebook statuses, since that’s the way they prefer to keep in touch. I just won’t be updating my status there. Speaking of statuses, my website is missing nearly all of my Facebook posts! Time to fix that. Ever hear of “Give me my data”? It allows you to find and backup all of your Facebook data! Seriously. Everything you’ve posted on Facebook, every check-in, every like, link, photo, all of it–is right there, ready to grab and save in many different formats. Keep in mind that this data includes EVERYTHING too though… all the behind-the-scenes information collected for each transaction as well, so it can look a bit complicated, but that’s how everything works behind-the-scenes, so it’s also very interesting… for ME, anyway. So here’s all my Facebook posts, plan and simple, straight from the data. Wow, this is 4 whole years of posts – 2009 to 2012 – and there’s only 67 of them! The date stamp is a little oddly formatted, but you can read it ok. Here goes – 4 years of my life – BAM:
| 2009-07-20T05:43:29-07:00 | Careful with those stupid sidebar ads… I clicked on the one to make a cartoon “tattoo” of myself… turns out it installed a “fast browser search” addon on my PC that was a bit difficult to get rid of! |
| 2009-07-20T05:44:04-07:00 | So much for trust Facebook addons… |
| 2009-07-30T18:45:11-07:00 | Sandy was on the Channel 7 (Chicago) news last night. She went to the vigil for the Shirl’s Custard Stand employee who was killed and Channel 7 interviewed her. I’m trying to edit & transfer the video- so I’ll post it on jimtrottier.com here once I get |
| 2010-03-26T05:09:06-07:00 | This might be a stupid question- but where can I find my frinds list on Facebook??? I just don’t understand why this very simple task can be so hard to find. I click on “Friends” under “News Feed” under my photo and I can SEARCH for friends- but my curent list of friends isn’t there. Under “Friends Online” there’s a “See All” option and that just brings up some chat box that wants me to create a friends list. |
| 2010-04-23T08:04:28-07:00 | Anybody see the recent Facebook episode of Southpark? Wow- another classic! They really nailed it- just like they did with their World of Warcraft episode – Make Love not Warcraft. |
| 2010-05-07T16:36:07-07:00 | Brianna had her baby just minutes ago. Her name is Tessa Jade. She is 6 pounds- 13 ounces- and 19 inches long! Brianna was in labor since 11:30pm last night! Wow! |
| 2010-08-03T16:09:42-07:00 | is Going to watch the last two episodes of Reaper – Season 1 tonight! |
| 2010-08-19T18:55:38-07:00 | My website is down. Everything is lost. It was hacked- and my host says their policy is to wipe the entire site out- then unlock it so I can rebuild it. Nice. I’m already in the process of switching hosts- and I’m working up a good rant about my old host. TOTALCHOICEHOSTING SUCKS! Come on over to jimtrottier.com (in 24-48 hours when it’s fully transferred) and watch me rant. |
| 2010-08-29T05:34:53-07:00 | has just joined SourceCoast. Home of the best Facebook Connect and Joomla integration component- JFBConnect. (http://www.sourcecoast.com/) |
| 2010-09-01T16:44:43-07:00 | Car show this Sunday! We’ll be there! he Southern Wisconsin 82nd Airborne Division Association will hold its seventh annual Car Show from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday- Sept. 5- at Simmons Island- 50th Street and Fourth Avenue. Cars- trucks- motorcycles and military vehicles from all years are welcome. The fee to enter a vehicle is $10. There is no fee for spectators. |
| 2010-10-09T10:51:53-07:00 | I’m listening to The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World (Unabridged) Part 1 by David Kirkpatrick on my Audible for iPhone app. |
| 2010-10-10T18:57:44-07:00 | Dexter was awesome tonight! |
| 2010-10-17T18:57:10-07:00 | Dexter’s got a partner! |
| 2010-10-26T14:18:14-07:00 | Listening to “Love Theme From the Godfather” by The Godfather Soundtrack and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com |
| 2010-10-26T14:50:09-07:00 | Listening to “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” by Darius Rucker and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com |
| 2010-10-26T19:05:31-07:00 | Listening to “I`m Going Home” by Hootie & the Blowfish and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com |
| 2010-10-27T08:33:19-07:00 | Listening to “Lithium” by Evanescence and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/5pcq |
| 2010-10-27T20:34:50-07:00 | Listening to “Mad World (American Idol Studio Version)” by Adam Lambert and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/106ua |
| 2010-10-27T20:47:28-07:00 | Listening to “Everybodys Fool” by Evanescence and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/1h0gr |
| 2010-11-02T14:05:39-07:00 | shout “I voted!” Today to get a badge today (but don’t lie) |
| 2010-11-07T13:41:22-08:00 | Walked the indoor track @ RecPlex today. Found out there’s no GPS reception there for MyTracks- so mapping is useless. Anybody know of a good pedometer for Android? None of them work as well as iTreadmill does on the iPhone. |
| 2010-11-07T18:37:42-08:00 | I’m sharing my progress using Lose It! (http://www.facebook.com/loseitapp) on Facebook! |
| 2010-11-07T18:42:39-08:00 | I spent 1 hour walking. 286. calories burned. |
| 2010-11-13T09:56:15-08:00 | Watching SKYLINE! |
| 2010-12-15T12:24:29-08:00 | Listening to “My Destination” by Boston and loving it! See the video and lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/16jub |
| 2010-12-20T17:09:00-08:00 | Using Google Skymap & waiting for tonight’s lunar eclipse. |
| 2010-12-20T23:01:35-08:00 | Too cloudy to see lunar eclipse tonight. Bummer. |
| 2010-12-24T07:03:15-08:00 | Thanks to everyone for the encouragement on my workouts! With that- and the motivators built into CardioTrainer- it makes it fun and keeps me wanting to do more. I could do without the wagers it wants me to do for my New Years Resolution though. |
| 2011-01-10T21:25:01-08:00 | We just got into bed tonight- saw a bright flash in the window- then heard a boom! House at 2115 55th Street just blew up!! Listening to the chaos on the scanner right now. |
| 2011-01-15T19:36:48-08:00 | Listening to “Secrets” by OneRepublic and loving it! See the video and lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/22hv3 |
| 2011-01-23T14:56:35-08:00 | GO FREEZER!! |
| 2011-01-23T16:25:10-08:00 | Listening to “A Thousand Suns: The Full Experience [Explicit]” by Linkin Park and loving it! Visit http://www.tunewiki.com for more |
| 2011-02-02T04:15:39-08:00 | Check your furnace vents! This has got to be the most-called issue for the fire department during the storm–gas smell in homes due to clogged vents. And don’t forget your dryer vent as well. |
| 2011-02-02T04:16:59-08:00 | This morning’s scheduled Chihuahua Toss has been CANCELED. He would never make it out alive! |
| 2011-02-12T17:43:49-08:00 | Rollover on I94 & hwy 50. Guy got out and walked away with a head injury. |
| 2011-02-16T05:12:34-08:00 | Kenosha’s city garbage men are so considerate… This morning at 7:00 am they didn’t have a wide enough path due to a couple cars parked on our street- so they sit there and lay on the air horn for about 5 minutes- wake up the entire neighborhood- until someone comes out and moves their car. Would want to have to walk a couple extra feet with any trash cans! Sheesh. |
| 2011-03-04T05:52:43-08:00 | Listening to “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) [Explicit]” by Katy Perry and loving it! See the video and lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/2m35s |
| 2011-03-13T17:43:52-07:00 | I keep getting scolded for mispronouncing the Japan city where the reactor is melting down: Fukushima. |
| 2011-03-19T13:15:13-07:00 | I’m still walking daily- and checking in everywhere- but Facebook is missing it. I was told that Facebook often changes their API- which breaks connectivity with many apps- and doesn’t let the developers know what has changed. Wonderful. My whole world just falls apart. Thanks- Facebook. |
| 2011-03-26T09:37:27-07:00 | Fascinating scene on Sheridan Road & 67th Street right now — One Northbound lane open- all the rest packed solid with parked police cars. The funeral for the police officer killed in the line of duty is at Green Ridge Cemetery. I’m uploading a few photos now… |
| 2011-04-10T16:03:34-07:00 | A child fell off the North Pier about 30 min ago… police are still searching the water. |
| 2011-04-10T16:15:54-07:00 | They found the child! Loading the ambulance now. No word on condition yet. |
| 2011-04-21T15:44:34-07:00 | The Playstation Network is down- possibly for a day or two. Kevin is having withdrawal symptoms… He can’t play with his online friends in LBP 😦 He should go back to playing Dodgeball I guess! |
| 2011-05-04T18:20:30-07:00 | Jacob Lusk really sucked tonight. What the heck happened? He was Sandy’s favorite. |
| 2011-06-02T14:26:47-07:00 | Thanks everyone- for the well-wishes on the 19th anniversary of my 29th birthday! (it sounds much better that way) |
| 2011-06-30T18:28:23-07:00 | Wow- tornado just ripped through here or what?!?! Trees fell all over down- ripped our back screen door half off- security lights shattered…now sirens everywhere and our power is out! |
| 2011-06-30T19:06:34-07:00 | Big hole in our neighbors house…wow |
| 2011-10-02T16:23:53-07:00 | Just activated Showtime for another season. All set for the Dexter and Homeland premiers tonight! |
| 2011-10-03T16:35:44-07:00 | Woohoo! Just installed Netflix on my Xoom and it works great!! |
| 2011-11-24T05:43:17-08:00 | Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Please disregard my wife’s warning this morning to not eat too much turkey… GO FOR IT! If you can stay awake through the whole Packer game- you didn’t get enough tryptophan. I’m skipping lunch to save space. Enjoy! |
| 2011-11-24T14:49:37-08:00 | Brown Thursday was awesome!!! Hope everyone else’s was just as nice. |
| 2012-01-03T15:03:58-08:00 | Matt made supper tonight… His version of a Nafi’s Bigfoot omelet! It was awesome. Added 2 drops of Angry Elf- and it was perfect! Matt- where’s the pic?! |
| 2012-01-19T06:11:57-08:00 | Ice cream sandwich for breakfast!! (Got Android 4 on my Xoom this morning) |
| 2012-01-24T16:51:57-08:00 | 1 12-oz. Can of V8 + 2 drops of Angry Elf = 1 glass of AWESOME! |
| 2012-02-26T18:49:41-08:00 | Go RANGO! Best animated feature film! |
| 2012-02-26T18:59:30-08:00 | Hugo for best visual effects- over Transformers 3- Real Steel- and Planet of the Apes… Guess what I’m picking up Tuesday! |
| 2012-03-17T13:30:14-07:00 | Wow- just watched the most bizarre episode of Greys Anatomy ever. Season 7- Episode 18…. They must have been trying to compete with Glee during sweeps or something. <insert eye roll here> |
| 2012-03-25T12:18:35-07:00 | Headache resolved. It always drove me nuts how I’d accumulate dozens of notifications in my Motorola Xoom tablet’s tray in Android 4. Today I found that- instead of flicking off each notification to remove it- there’s an “X” at the bottom of the list. When you click it- it clears every notification and the list is gone! Sweet! |
| 2012-03-30T15:32:57-07:00 | I received the Android 4.0.4 update on my Xoom today. It offers improved stability- smoother screen rotation- faster performance- and a bunch of other improvements. If you’re on Android 4- install this update. |
| 2012-04-01T17:32:14-07:00 | Just started reading book 3 of the Hunger Games- “Mockingjay”!! OMG! District 13 EXISTS!! |
| 2012-04-05T13:44:52-07:00 | Sorry for the map issues with Everytrail today- its not very up-to-date- but its storing everything- so it’ll show up by the end of the trip some time tomorrow. I’ll try to get pieces up as often as possible. |
| 2012-04-19T16:44:34-07:00 | Went to the Dr. today. Numbers look awesome- and I lost 7 lbs in 2 months. Thanks Jay & Shell- for not fattening me up in Arizona! All the sweating probably helped! |
| 2012-04-19T16:54:02-07:00 | Almost forgot… we went through South Park- Colorado (actually named Fairplay) on our way back home from Arizona (in case you missed our Foursquare check-in). Unfortunately it was at night though- so we weren’t able to see much or take pictures. If it had been during the day though- I’m sure Walter and Achmed would have enjoyed a few more on-camera Kyle- Stan- Kenny and Cartman parody poses. |
| 2012-04-26T09:32:03-07:00 | PhilPhil must go home home tonight. |
| 2012-04-30T11:55:16-07:00 | Holy crap- today’s 2 o’clock orange nailed my glasses dead center in my good eye! My wife’s trying to blind me! |
| 2012-05-05T12:59:06-07:00 | Got our 2012 assessment: Wow- our property value went DOWN $17-000 this year! I certainly hope this means less we have to pay in property taxes! I see how all of those repairs we did last summer really paid off…NOT. Thanks- City Of Kenosha. At least now I understand your initials… way to stick it to us! |
| 2012-05-23T19:24:06-07:00 | Told ya! |
Photo collages
A customer of mine turned me onto a new application recently… Microsoft Autocollage 2008! She was using the trial version and wanted to know if it was safe to use, or if it might have spyware or a virus embedded within it. I was shocked that this was a Microsoft product I had never heard of before, but it has apparently been out for years. They’re still selling it, so it hasn’t been abandoned, though it’s still titled “Autocollage 2008”, which most likely means it hasn’t changed in 4 years.
After looking at it a bit and playing with the demo for several days, I decided it was cheap enough for the value it provided, so I went ahead an bought the full version. It’s very simple to use, and can create excellent results! You simply feed it a folder full of your photos, and it analyzes them, detects faces in them (and I think objects as well) and then lays them out and blends them together as a collage. YOU can decide how many photos you want it to use in the collage, and you can also specify “priorities” on the photos you’d most like to include, and it will use those rules when building the collage. This posting includes a really nice one that I made with it. The next thing I want to try, is to use turn a collage into an awesome mosaic using AndreaMosaic!
Facebook is a mess
I’m gonna start micro blogging on my site instead of having two places I post all the time. Facebook is constantly changing and I hate the timeline view. My site never changes formats, has no ads, and loads much quicker. I have no visitors either, but that’s nothing new. So if you’re actually here reading this, thanks for stopping by, and stop by more often. From now on I’ll be posting here like I normally did daily on Facebook. Now, if I can just get my Foursquare and Cardiotrainer posts to come here as well, it would be bliss…
Nice weekend…On call
Sandy made me an awesome breakfast this morning and even picked up a Starbucks to go along with it (Vente White Mocha Quad-Shot)! That was only the beginning of a nice day though. Not exactly perfect, because I’m on call this week, and I did have a few calls from work today, but nothing bad enough that I couldn’t take care of remotely. So I managed to sneak in a nice lakefront walk this afternoon with Kevin and Socks, in-between IT emergencies. It was risky, but we managed to clear it without a single phone call or page! We parked in front of Kemper Center (only because the line of parked cars went from Wolfenbuttel Park–where we usually park–all the way down to Kemper) and walked to Wolfenbuttel, Eichelman (missed that one on my Facebook post, in case anyone noticed), then West to Heim’s Downtown Toy Store, then Scoops Ice Cream. (see map for details). Kevin had a vanilla one-scoop m&m cone with a bubble gumball in the bottom (free with his Gold Card from being on the honor roll at school) and I had a water. Then we took 6th Avenue-A, walked past Library Park, and back to Kemper.
It was a very nice walk on an almost-perfect day. The beach and parks were very busy. We would have went swimming at Rec-Plex or at Woody’s if I hadn’t been on call this weekend. That would have been pushing it though, and I know I would have definitely gotten paged if we had. That’s the way it works, and that’s just my luck. I’m hoping next weekend is just as nice, so we can include a little swimming in the mix. We’ll see.
Milwaukee Zoo
I just posted a bunch of photos from Kevin’s field trip to the Milwaukee Zoo we took last Monday. I chaperoned a group of six 8th-graders (including Kevin), along with another father. It was a good time. Lots of walking and ogling of animals. I took over 500 photos because I stayed in burst mode most of the time. It enables me to get several continuous shots of the same subject, then later when I view them I can pick out the best ones for posting on the web. Here they are, my 56 best out of over 500. I just wish more of the animals had been awake. Many of them were just sleeping and hiding. I guess it all depends on when you go. All in all it was a fun trip though.
My Birthday
Everyone wants to know if I had a nice birthday. At this point, I don’t know why you’re supposed to celebrate getting another year older… maybe you’re supposed to be glad that you’ve managed to survive this long. Believe me, I am. I’m 49–or as Mark says, “older than dirt”. Everyone says that about their grandparents. I’m not quite there yet. Not a grandparent anyway. And I FEEL better than I have in years. I’ve been losing weight with all of this walking and eating right, and it’s making a lot of things easier. Heck, I can almost see my feet again!
We went to visit George in the hospital yesterday. He’s doing better. He’ll be going to a nursing home for rehab next, and we’re hoping for the best. Next I worked on Ty’s laptop. He somehow managed to spill Aunt Jemima over his keyboard, basically gluing down several of his keys. This took some work, carefully popping off, and removing, each glued key, cleaning it, and cleaning everything underneath it, then reassembling it. Not an easy task on a laptop. On a regular PC keyboard I would have just replaced the keyboard with a new one, but on a laptop this can get pretty pricey. It worked out ok though, and the keys are working fine again.
Next, Kevin Ty and I went swimming at Rec-Plex. I did 10 reverse laps and the current channel–this is a hot-dog-shaped channel of current where you can basically just ride the current around the loop with no effort at all. Walking in reverse, however, is just the opposite. It requires MUCH effort, and after a few laps you can really feel it. My goal is always 10 reverse laps. After 7 laps I got a cramp in my left calf, but I managed to still complete the full 10 laps. Kevin, as usual, got “carded” again a couple times when we got in the hot tub. The age requirement is “12-16 year olds allowed if accompanied by an adult, under 12 not allowed.” Apparently Kevin always looks like he’s under 12, because they always catch him and look to me. He’s 14 now, so this has been going on for almost 3 years. He just hasn’t “sprouted” yet. Ty, on the other hand, with his “hint of a moustache” is never an issue. But since Kevin and I are members, I am relieved to know that if he ever REALLY gets carded–where the want proof–all they have to do is check their own records. They have his photo on file, along with his date of birth, which proves his age, and they’ve had it since we started going there. I think we even went there right after his 12th birthday, just to celebrate him now being “hot tub-eligible”… yes, I believe we got carded that day, too.
When we got home from swimming, Sandy had an awesome supper of cheese ravioli & meatballs with marijuana sauce (yeah, it’s marinara sauce, but I pronounce it differently), then it was on to a video chat with Jay and his family.
I had planned to have a fire as well, but we quickly ran out of time and had to get to our double-feature of MIB and MIB II to get ready for MIB III, which we’re going to see today. Ty passed out halfway through MIB II, and Kevin opted out of the whole thing, since he has watched them both so many times in the past. I guess we’re about as ready as we’ll ever be for today’s matinee.
Uptown Car Show
Kevin and I (and Socks) went to the Uptown Car Show yesterday. It was ok, but kinda small compared to the others we’ve been to. There didn’t seem to be many cars there this time. The reserved block between 60th Street and Open Pantry was completely empty, though it was still blocked off from traffic, reserved for the car show.
The music was great (didn’t get the name of the band, sorry), and they had a KPD Canine training demonstration that was interesting. We walked home after that (Sandy wasn’t available for a rescue pickup) and I was pretty exhausted.
This time, Kevin took all of the photos of the event. Take a look, I think he did a great job.
Yesterday
We had a nice walk to Heim’s Toy store yesterday. Kevin loves drooling over all of the toys, and since Socks and I always enjoy a good walk, we chose it as our destination again.
Speaking of Heim’s, a few weeks ago I ordered Kevin a “Newton’s Cradle” from Amazon. He had been asking for one for a long time, and Heim’s said they had them but they were out of stock. They took our number and said they’d call us when they came in. After several weeks with no calls from them, I gave up and ordered one for him as a surprise. It came this week, and he likes it. Well, when we were at Heim’s yesterday, we window-shopped, and noticed that they have a whole shelf full of Newton’s Cradles–even two different models! So where’s our phone call?! Not that we’re interested any more, since we already bought one elsewhere, but that’s not the point. Oh well. I guess they don’t need sales as much as we thought they did.
Another thing we just have to do when we go to Heim’s is stop and see the cats. There’s a cat adoption agency right around the corner from Heim’s and they have a large bay window. The cats lounge all throughout the place, including on all their cat furniture located in the window. So we just go by and say hi, and see what antics they’re up to. Yesterday, however, another couple was there…using a laser pointer! Cats and laser pointers work well together, apparently. This was really funny to watch. Sandy, who stopped to pick us up when we were done, decided to join in on the fun, and pulled out the laser pointer she has on her keychain. Try TWO laser pointers on a dozen cats in a single room! Then hold up a chihuahua for them to see… Ah, good times.
Oh yeah, ice cream and ants. We stopped at Scoops next to Heim’s and had two scoops each. It kinda reverses the reason for the walk, but it was fun. I had a scoop of bubble gum and a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough. Kevin had two scoops of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Sandy had a scoop of peach and a scoop of strawberry, I think. And between Heim’s and the cat house, we ran across this. Yeek! I’m not sure what was under there, but the ants sure love it, whatever it is!
On another note, Kevin also now calls squirrels by looking around whispering “tic-tac! tic-tac!” He seems to think squirrels like these things now. Thanks, Pat!
New Xoom Launcher
I recently found a new launcher for Android that’s really awesome! I had been using ADW Launcher for some time now, and thought it was the best one out there… up until about a week ago. I’ve given it a week to make sure it didn’t turn out to be another one of those flashy homescreen apps that turns out to be riddled with bugs, very clunky and a terrible experience, before I went ahead and posted something recommending it. So you can rest assured, it’s a pretty sweet launcher.
I found it after browsing around on mycolorscreen.com and looking at other users’ homescreens. Several of them were using something called “Apex Launcher Pro”, and that intrigued me. The next thing I know I’m installing it on my tablet and digging in deep. This one isn’t for everyone though–it’s only for ICS (a.k.a Ice Cream Sandwich, or Android 4). So it won’t run on my phone, only my tablet. That is, until US Cellular finally releases an Android 4 phone… then I’ll be all over THAT.
Anyway, since it’s designed specifically for Android 4, it looks and feels a LOT like the stock Android 4 launcher–everything is there, the very smooth-scrolling screens outlined in their box containers (only seen when scrolling your homescreens), the smooth page-by-page app drawer icons and widget pages… everything is still there, except there’s tons MORE you can now do and change. Every feature seems to have added abilities. Everything from Folders (which can now have square outlines, circle outlines, custom outlines, or even take on “iPad-like” grid qualities) to what happens when you press the Home button, to how you want your app drawer to look and act… and yes, you can even adjust your “grid size”, having more or less icons and widgets on each homescreen, whetever you prefer. You can cram them full with a grid of 10×10 (100 icons per screen!) if you like, or even bring it down to 4×4 to make it look just like a phone display on your tablet!
Apex’s settings screens even look exactly like Android 4’s settings pages, so it all blends together perfectly, making it just feel right. I think this is really the first launcher I’ve used where, after a week of use, I really have no complaints at all. I haven’t found a single one of those little “gotchas” yet that spoil the whole experience.
There’s a free version of Apex Launcher, so you can try it out and see if it looks like it’ll work ok for you. Then there’s the full “Pro” version, which is actually just a key that unlocks all of the free version’s features, for $3.99. The Pro version includes a bunch more transitions and many additional features that make it a truly great experience way beyond the stock launcher. Give it a shot if you’re running Android 4… go ahead, add some sprinkles to your Ice Cream Sandwich! Hey… aren’t those called “Jimmies”? Ha!
A few favorites
I just added a few more favorites to the small “Arizona Vacation – 2012” photo album. This set is intended to include those photos I love the most from the entire trip, so I’ll be placing some photos here that you might also find in the other photo albums from the trip, just to highlight them. Here’s today’s uploads:
Here’s a few shots of the “nippliest” mountain peak I think we saw… I think these turned out great, considering they were taken in a moving car though the front windshield. You can see a bit of dashboard reflection and a few slaughtered bugs on the widshield if you look real close, but I think even that adds a little something interesting to the shots. Shot 1, Shot 2, Shot 3.
I meant to ask Jay this when we got to Arizona, but completely forgot about it until I found these tonight: What the heck do you call these “retarded punk-ass cacti” we saw on the way down, in New Mexico?! I expected to see more of them during the trip, but I only saw them on the way there, just after we passed White Sands. They look like cactus that don’t know how to cut their hair or even look decent and respectful…they’re just “punks”. It was very amusing to me (and apparently ONLY me, as I was the only one laughing–hysterically–in the car) when we kept driving past more and more of them. After I calmed down a little I was able to snap this and this.
And here and here is proof positive that not everything is brown in Arizona… regardless of what everyone thinks… It is, however, much more expensive to maintain this color of lawn…
And lastly, to close out today’s posting, Achmed and Walter watch the sun rise over Lake Pleasant. G’night.
Back Home
We’re back home now. We got in around 4:30pm on Sunday, after another marathon 2-day drive up from Arizona. Pat and I decided to go through the Colorado Rockies on the way back for a change of scenery and to see a whole different part of the country. It was pretty amazing–and pretty scary at times. We ran into a couple blizzards in the mountains that made things pretty slow-going for awhile, but we came through it unscathed. I took a ton more photos (over 400) on the way back, so feel free to take a look. There’s some awesome mountain shots in there, along with a few shots of the blizzard conditions. And here’s the EveryTrail path we took… Check out the “Statistics” on that one! At our highest elevation we hit 9,993 feet!
When I hit the first snow storm in the mountains, I think Pat was asleep. It went from crystal clear sky and road, to ice-covered road and blizzard conditions in a matter of seconds. Then, about a quarter of a mile into it we came upon an overturned car in the ditch. There were four other cars stopped along the side of the road helping, so I kept going, though I did slow down much more after that.
It sure was a quick, activity-packed, whirlwind ten-day vacation, that’s for sure! Everyone had a great time, and we brought back a lot of great memories–and a lot of extra gifts and keepsakes. We’ll definitely be doing it again, but next time we’ll stay longer. Not necessarily to do more–we did plenty, believe me–but just to take in everything that much more, get a better feel for things, and perhaps do some serious decision-making. Sandy will be coming next time for sure. Even if I have to drag her.
Arizona Road Trip
We are currently on a one-week vacation in Arizona! We drove down here, leaving Wisconsin on Thursday, April 5th, 2012. Here’s some highlights:
This was our drive from Wisconsin to Arizona. Then I tracked our Grand Canyon visit on Everytrail. Most of the photos from the Grand Canyon are attached to the Everytrail trip, but for the COMPLETE Grand Canyon collection, click here. I also took two panoramas, which are here and here.
I also tracked our drive up to the top of South Mountain on Everytrail.
Here are a couple of Panoramas from the top of South Mountain. You can rotate them 360 degrees, and view them fullscreen:
http://www.photaf.com/index.php?PanoramaId=79400
http://www.photaf.com/index.php?PanoramaId=79399
Here’s a few of my favorite shots from the trip. And here’s our collection of photos from the Gateway Arch.
Here’s our photos from Jerome, Arizona – a tiny town located at the top, and on the side of, a mountain. What a scary drive this was, but the food at The Haunted Hamburger was great! It was featured on the Food Network. And this is the complete photo set from our trek to the top of South Mountain.
And last, but not least, this is a collection of Achmed and Walter’s antics on the trip.
JimTrottier.com 