Birthday and Gifts

My birthday was Wednesday. Mary Ellen and my kids made it a wonderful day. We did a combination of things, including having lunch at the Mongolian Grill in Springville. It is a really nice hole-in-the-wall chinese place with good food that is really inexpensive. The people there are really nice but barely speak English. I have decided that doesn't always equate to good food, any more than nice americans running a hamburger joint equates to good hamburgers. I do find, however, nice people who run any business make the business a better place to shop.

Irony: During our lunch in Springville, we got a call from Eric & Sarah, who live in Springville, who we were planning to visit after our lunch. They too had gone out for lunch -- in Lehi. They wanted to stop by our house (in Lehi) after lunch.

Many of the gifts I received were really wonderful and thoughtful, including a couple of gift cards to a book store and Outbacks (both of which I love), a wallet (which I needed), a book (non-fiction - can't put it down), and a MindStorms set from my sweetheart. Some of the gifts were far more random. I know that I can respond with thanks and appreciation for the thought of the gift, but how do you respond when the giver of a "questionable" gift asks if you like it? Or worse, if they had spent a lot of time and effort to find the "perfect" gift that ended up to be something that really wasn't your style or taste, then how to do you respond?

If any of you reading this blog gave me a gift, thank you! And I assure you, your gift wasn't one of the "random" ones. :}

More Computer History Ramblings

I am constantly amazed that it isn't necessary good software that succeeds in capturing the market, but well marketed software. Several cases come to mind:

Back in 1978, CP-M was the best microcomputer operating system with the most users. MS-DOS (Microsoft DOS for the younger crowd) was slower, bigger, less features, and generally shunned by most users. So why is CP-M unknown now and Microsoft the "king" of software? Blame IBM. When microcomputers started appearing, IBM said that they would never catch on. (You may have heard the quote in the 50s by the head of IBM saying that there will only be a few hundred computers ever sold - must be the same guy who said that there will ever be a market for microcomputers.) When IBM saw that they were wrong, they quickly came up with the IBM PC. (Again, for the young folk, the IBM PC wasn't the first PC. It sure wasn't the best PC. Its architecture was really poor. It was put out in a hurry. But it was made by IBM and was well marketed. So it survived, the rest - Osborne, TRS 80, Commodore 64, Kaypro - did not. IBM didn't have the time to come up with an operating system, so they negotiated a "deal" with a young nerd named Bill Gates. They could have gone with CP-M but they got a better deal from Bill. Although I don't care for Microsoft, or any of their products, I will say that Bill Gates knows how to market.

For a word processor, Microsoft Word started as one of the worst word processors. There were several much better than Word, including WordPerfect, XYWrite, and others I can't remember. IBM had a pretty good one that I used for a while. But each one disappeared as the Microsoft Marketing Machine pushed its product harder and harder. WordPerfect held on to the Number 1 slot though, until Windows came out. For some reason, WordPerfect didn't think that it was necessary to have a Windows product. So they were left in the dust by the Windows version of Word. Then Novell bought WordPerfect and didn't know what to do with it. That finished WordPerfect as a contender in the word processing market. Corel later bought the product and still sells and supports it. I still prefer it. It is a lot easier to use. But I use Word too because "everyone uses it".

Likewise, Excel was a bit player in the spreadsheet market. They weren't first. Visicalc was. They weren't the best. They were one of the worst. But marketing wins. For many years, Lotus 123 was the best and premier spreadsheet. But they kept the price high and didn't have any student option. Microsoft almost gave away the Office suite to students. So the students bought Office and became the next business leaders and pulled Office into businesses.

Powerpoint, on the other hand, has been a great product for a long time. It really started as the number 1 presentation product and no one has even gotten close to competing with it.

Trip to Visit the Mouse in his House

I admit it. I am a Disney fanatic. I LOVE Disneyworld. And Disneyland. So when Mary Ellen asked where I wanted to go for my retirement trip, there was really only one place to go. When I was a kid, I never got to go to Disneyland. Although it was only 400 miles away, that seemed like forever for a young kid like me. My first trip was a few months after we got married when we went to visit Mary Ellen's aunt and uncle in the Los Angeles area. I was hooked on that first trip. The next time was many years later when Mary Ellen was pregnant with Rachel, our 5th. We had just bought our first camper and used it to go to Disneyworld for the first time. It was a wonderful trip. We stayed in Fort Wilderness, the campground on Disney property. It was (and is) the best campground you will ever see. Somehow, there were no flies, mosquitos, or other bugs. There were Disney movies every night. You could go swim in the lake, or bike around the campground, or take the boat or bus to any of the theme parks. We saw the light parade on the lake every night and the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom.

This trip was different but just as wonderful. We decided to not rent a car and to book the entire trip through Disney - the flight, transportation to the park, the hotel, and even the food. We thought it would be the most "convenient". I figured the food would be mediocre, but I was wrong. It was fabulous. We dropped our luggage off at the Salt Lake airport, and the next time we saw it, it was in our room in the Caribbean Beach Resort. We got off the plane and walked onto a bus which took us to the resort. We ate a wonderful dinner at the resort that evening. It was steak with a Caribbean flare. Everything about the meal was great - the service, the steak, the vegies, and the dessert.

The next day we spent at Animal Kingdom. It is still one of the best parks to visit. I especially love the Safari ride. Disney has designed it so you ride through the jungle, then the savannah, seeing animals all around with no cages or bars. Besides the safari, there is also a couple of jungle walks (Asia and Africa) with animals and birds and beautiful pathways through the forests. We ate dinner at the Tusker House, a buffet with foods from Africa and Asia. Again it was wonderful.

On Day 2, we started out at Typhon Lagoon, a huge waterpark with a lazy river (we went around a couple of times) and a wave pool. By "wave", I mean a real tidal wave about 8 feet high at the start that travels the length of the pool (probably 200 feet) ending in a small wavelet for the kids. Lots of fun. There were also slides and chutes for the more adventurous (not us).

After the waterpark, we went to Hollywood Studios. They have a new ride - Toy Story 4-D Midway Arcade - where you ride around with 3-D glasses from one midway arcade to the next, shooting virtual darts, balls, pies, etc at various targets. There are about 5 different arcades each person has a chance to shoot at and build up their score. No prizes but you get "ranked" versus other people in the park that day who rode on that ride. Really a LOT of fun. We also saw the mini-cars in well done "movie" set, Muppet 3-D, and several other rides and shows (Beauty and the Beast was really well done.) We ate dinner at the 50s Cafe, where they had old 50s furniture, TVs, TV shows, etc in small 50s dining rooms where you eat with about 4 other families. The waiter/waitress is "mom" (since you are in Mom's house), constantly chiding patrons to "get your elbows off the table" or "stop fighting with your brother" with appropriate punishments (standing in the corner, singing "I'm a little teapot", or the like), with mom-style dinners (I had meatloaf, Mary Ellen had steak).

Day 3 was Epcot. We really enjoy watching the kids playing in the fountains between Futureworld and the World Showcase. Also they were having their International Food and Wine Exhibits, so there were many extra stalls with food from all over the world that you could sample. Part of the meal plan was a snack for each of us every day, which we could use in these stalls. We especially liked the cheese sampler with some wonderful cheeses. We also enjoyed The Seas, The Land, a new to Florida "Soaring" ride - taken from Disneyland where you are "gliding" over various California scenes. It is so realistic that you lift up your feet because you glide so low. That evening we ate at Cape May in the Beachclub Resort, a seafood buffet that was terrific.

The last day was Magic Kingdom, with its rides (Jungle Cruise, Journey with Winnie the Pooh, etc) and another wonderful dinner at the Crystal Palace, another buffet with beef tenderloin, salmon, and many other wonderful dishes. It also was a "character" spot so we ate with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, and Piglet. Check out the pictures via the link at the right.

It was Florida, however. So it did rain every day. It was in the upper 80s and very humid. The crowds weren't bad though and no hurricaines this time. But we were prepared and the rain didn't really bother us at all. Mary Ellen could have done without the heat though.

Alpine Loop

This past week, Mary Ellen and I took a drive up American Fork Canyon to view the fall colors on the Alpine Loop. The Loop is a narrow, winding road that starts in American Fork Canyon, loops up around the back of Mt Timpanogos, and ends up near the mouth of Provo Canyon. Although the Utah Valley isn't showing much fall color, we found a lot along the Loop.

For those of you in Utah, I would greatly recommend this trip as something not to be missed. The colors don't last long and they are nearing their peek. People told us that the colors weren't too great this year. We found that true on the Provo Canyon side of the Loop. But the American Fork side was breathtaking.

For more photos, click on "Alpine Loop in the Fall" in Our Photos on the right.

Grandkids Sports

One really wonderful reason that we are now in Utah rather than in Pennsylvania is "Grandkids". We had tried to always be in Utah for "special events" - births, blessings, priesthood ordinations, and baptisms, but we missed a lot of other events, like school awards, plays and musicals, scout awards, and sports events. So for the last couple of years, we have been able to attend a few of the grandkids sports, including little league baseball, T-ball, basketball, football, and soccer.

This year Braden is playing soccer. Last year it was baseball. I will admit that watching soccer is a lot more fun because the game is always moving up and down the field. Baseball has a lot of "waiting" time. With little league, there is a lot of "waiting" time. There usually is a lot of walks and view hits. Not that it is boring, it is just slow. And the other kids (all younger) get a bit antsy with all of the "waiting". The soccer seems interesting to the younger kids, as it is always moving, with running, kicking, and more running. Braden has also played basketball which is also a fun and fast sport to watch.

Kalin is playing football again this year. Kalin LOVES football. He has attended the BYU football camp for several years now and really enjoys the camp, but loves playing even more. Even better, Kalin is really good. He is fast, quick, and agile, with good hands. His only handicap is his size. Some of the other 14 year olds are HUGE. I admit it is difficult to watch my grandson get hit by a linebacker that is almost twice his weight. This year he decided to Z-down, which evidently means to stay back with the younger kids that are a bit smaller for their age (I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong). So he doesn't seem nearly as small as he did last year. That and he has worked to put on a little weight and a lot of muscle this year.

At the Huntman's house, football is definitely a family affair. Don has been involved with the league for the past few years, this year as the vice-president or assistant-something - the 2nd in charge of the league. Kimberly is a cheer leader for the team and has been for a few years also. Karla is usually at the games, along with Kassie and Kyle. Kyle always leaves the game with several more "new friends".

For us, watching an entire game is usually more than we can handle, but 30-60 minutes is fun and very enjoyable.

End of An Adventure

Tomorrow will be the last day of our Church Service mission. Time seems to have passed both slowly and quickly. It has definitely not been what I have expected. But both Mary Ellen and I feel a lot of appreciation from those we have worked with over the past 12 months. We have both learned a whole lot while being able to contribute our talents toward serving in the Church. While I have worked with Windows and Unix, I have never done anything with Macs, and this whole year has been spent working on Macs, first just setting up new machines, but the last several months I have been writing various scripts to help the Curriculum Department through a number of transitions. My supervisor, the Controller of the department, said that we couldn't have come at a better time as the department was facing a number of technical transitions that were greatly taxing an overworked IT group. Mary Ellen has learned a lot about using the computer and, although she denies it, she does much better on the computer now than she did a year ago. She will be missed, maybe not for her computer skills, but because of her positive and happy attitude, a willingness to do anything, her artistic capabilities, and most especially her ability to make people feel good.

I will definitely miss the people, walking by the Salt Lake Temple every day, the challenges of problem solving, writing programs, designing systems, seeing new brides in the beautifully landscaped grounds, and cheap lunches in the cafeteria. I won't miss the 62 mile round trip through rush hour both ways four times a week, the politics, or the constant soliciting by the homeless around temple square.

Mary Ellen pointed out how much of what I had learned at Penn State had been in preparation for my work in the Curriculum Department. It seemed that whenever they had a problem they couldn't figure out how to solve that I had already faced and solved that problem before. Even today in my last meeting they started talking about Integrated Library Systems and what I might know about them. Fortunately, I just had to give them a quick response and leave all the work to them. A lot of what I did seemed like reruns.

Postscript to Vista and Digital Cameras

I guess I didn't quite finish the story on my saga with moving (well, trying to move and failing to move) my Digital Cameras to Vista. I also tried to move them to my wife's iMac. On an iMac, you don't need drivers for each digital camera. So when I tried both the Canon and the Nikon on the iMac, both worked fine. iPhoto grabbed all of the photos without a hitch. Chalk up another one for the Mac.

Vista and Digital Cameras - A Warning

I have always had a love / hate relationship with Microsoft. I have been using them as a software Operating System for almost 30 years, but I found that their software was generally buggy, over inflated in terms of features and size, and frequently changing from one version to another caused many of my applications to cease to function. My latest issue has been with my digital cameras.

In the last five years I have very much enjoyed taking pictures with my digital cameras. My first digital camera was a Casio. It had no card, it could store about 16 640x480 pictures, it had only a serial cable to download them to the PC, and that took about 20 minutes for all 20 pictures. Battery life - 4 AA batteries - was about 20 pictures. But it was a start and it whetted my appetite for something better. The better came in the form of a Canon S30, a small 3 megapixel camera that took great pictures, used a Compact Flash card for storing up to a couple of hundred at a time, and a rechargeable battery that would also last a couple of hundred pictures. I have had this wonderful camera for about five years. When I retired from Penn State a couple of years ago, my retirement present was a Nikon D50, a still much better camera, with wonderful interchangeable lenses and great battery life and marvelous quality. I still use the Canon for quick pictures and for things a small camera suits better. But the Nikon is my first primary love.

This past month, though, I changed my computer from an HP something running Windows XP to a Dell Vostro running Vista Home Premium. As I have worked through the task of moving software from my old HP that I was planning to retire to the new Dell, I kept running into the "doesn't work on Vista" (sometimes not well, sometimes not at all, sometimes won't even install). So I would search google and the manufactures web sites, find the "Vista patches", and continue with the move of hundreds of programs and gigabytes of data.

This past week I started moving my Canon and Nikon software to Vista. After installing all of the Canon software, I started downloading the updates for Vista. To my surprise, there was no update for the camera USB driver for the S30. Looking around on google, I found that Canon didn't update the drivers for the S30. In short, it no longer works with all of the rest of the Canon software that I was using to organize my pictures. I could still get it to connect as a disk drive and drag the pictures into Vista, but the auto categorization features that the Canon software gave me no longer work. After thinking many unnice thoughts, I removed all of the Canon software from Vista and reinstalled all on my old HP. So I now have to keep that machine around to keep my Canon pictures organized.

I then started on moving my Nikon software to Vista. This time I didn't uninstall it from the HP. I checked the web site for Nikon first. They had an update that made their application Vista compatible. Fine. The update was an update - you had to install the CD version first and post a number of updates from their website. So I get the CD and try to install it. The install fails with the message that the operating system isn't supported. I go back to the Nikon web site. They only have patches for the installer, not the whole package. Too many people were "stealing" the software. My CD (and camera) is "too old" for them to support on Vista. So I leave that on my old HP as well.

I think all of this just says that if you have older cameras (more than a couple of years old), either (1) don't go to Vista on a new machine or (2) buy a new camera that is Vista compliant when you buy a new computer with Vista on it. In the case of Nikon, I could have just upgraded my HP to Vista and it would have worked (as well as Vista will work on a older machine). The Canon, alas, would still be toast.

Ferrin Family Birthday Parties

One of the really wonderful things about living in Utah are the Ferrin Family Birthday parties. The Utah kids have been having monthly parties for all those who have birthdays during the month for several years. When we moved to Utah two years ago, they moved the parties to our house, mostly because we are central to all of the kids (we live right in the middle with three kids 20 minutes north and three kids 20 minutes south), and also because the numbers had grown from around 12 to closing in on 30.

This month they had a pool and play party. They brought over a couple of swimming pools and we set up the "bounce house". It turned out to be the coolest summer day since early June but it was still in the low 80s and very wonderful weather. Besides the pool and bounce, they had Nintendo DS shared video games where they challenged each other to Mario Cart races, the regular games and toys downstairs, and food. There is always food at these parties. Everyone contributes something and we usually have a lot left over.

Each month a different family is the planner and host. Stef and Josh did the pool party. They decide what to do, what to eat, make all of the assignments, and are generally in charge. Next month Neil and LeAnn are planning the party. It does get to be a challenge getting a date where all seven families are available. We have to work around Kalin's football, Braden's soccer, and BYU football games!

Over the last year, we have had Pirate and Princess parties, picnics up the canyons, game nights, and several parties around different food themes. As I said, there is always food...

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

A jewel that Mary Ellen and I discovered a little over a year ago is Thanksgiving Point Gardens located just north of us. It is a 55 acre garden that starts the year with about 250,00 tulips arranged in the most breathtaking colors. Later in the year it changes to hollyhocks, roses, and other summer flowers that are equally beautiful. On a warm summer evening, the walk through the gardens is generally cooler than the rest of the valley and makes for a lovely two mile walk through various themed gardens and meadowlands. In addition, there are six or so waterfalls that are the largest man-made waterfalls in North America.

On Monday nights in the summer, they also have "Family Home Evening" nights with various themes. They had a artist night where kids could paint and sculpt, a pirates night complete with a wild bird show, a jello fight night (we skipped that one), a waterslide night, and a rocket launching night.

I have taken a number of pictures at the gardens. The spring pictures are located here and the summer pictures are located here.

Ward Single Adults

Our calling in the Church is to advise the older Single Adults in our ward. We actually received this call before we even moved into the ward. We got a cell phone call as we were crossing Kansas on our way to Utah. The Bishop of our ward at the time had 33 older single adults (35-99) and was concerned that someone was looking out for our needs. We had a few in the 35-50 range but most were in the 60-91 range, and most were female. The Bishop asked us to hold a monthly family home evening for the group and to alert him, the Relief Society, and the Priesthood of any needs they had.

Our monthly meeting were quite enjoyable. We usually had about 5-7 out in any one month. Single Adults in the 35-99 group divide themselves into various groups: those that don't want anything to do with any group called Single Adults, those that feel they are too old to participate, those with families that are too busy to participate, and those that like to have the companionship of a group. It is the last group that attended our monthly get-togethers.

The ward was split last April. While we had half the members of the previous ward (350 out of 700), the number of Single Adults fell to 8. One didn't want any contact, 2 didn't want to be involved with the Single Adults, and the rest are pretty active in the group. A few months ago they asked if we could meet more often, so now we meet twice a month. we now have a wonderful group of members, one older male and the rest middle aged females. They are very supportive of each other and we have some really wonderful discussions during our meetings together.

Abi's Dance Recital

Today after working at the Church Office Building for a few hours, we went down to Orem to see Abi's Dance Recital. They had all of the dance classes from the Orem Fitness Center perform a couple of numbers. Unfortunately, before they had to go on stage, they had them watching a princess movie of some sort on a wide screen in a room backstage. Abi didn't want to go out for the first number because she was too busy watching the movie. She did participate in their second number.

Mary Ellen is Going Back to School

Mary Ellen has been accepted back into BYU and will return to (hopefully) finish her degree starting in January. Last week, before she was even accepted, we had gone down to BYU so that I could get a hair cut. While she was waiting for me, she went over to the Art Department to see if she could talk to an advisor about which emphasis she should be applying for. The advisors were either not there or busy, but the secretary gave her the materials that she needed to be able to apply for entrance to the art program. She was told that she couldn't take any art classes until she was accepted into the program, that those decisions wouldn't be made until April, and that she needed to fill out a multi-page application and submit a portfolio.

She was really discouraged that she would have to wait until spring or next fall before taking art courses. While walking down the hall, she noticed a professor had his door opened. She asked him if he could answer some of her questions. After talking to her, he said that even though she was interested in Illustration as an emphasis, it seemed to him that Studio Arts would be a better fit for her varied interests and background. He asked if she had anything with her that he could see what her talents were. She was carrying her journal with a drawing of Wilford Woodruff in it that she had done for the Church. When he saw her work, he left for about 10 minutes. When he returned, he told her that she was "in". Mary Ellen asked "in" what? "In the Art program". It turned out that he was in charge of the art program admission and had already admitted her based on what he had seen. This even before she was accepted into BYU!

At this point, Mary Ellen doesn't know how long it will take her to finish but she is really excited to go back and get her degree. Tim really doesn't know how to feel about his Mom being at BYU the same time as he is.

Macs vs PCs

My niece wanted to know if I liked Macs. The short answer is that I like them a lot. But being in computers since 1968, 40 years, that answer seems a bit short.

I have been involved with PCs since they were born in the 80s. The first PC that I worked on was an Osborne, a "portable" PC with a 53 column by 20 line screen, in phosphor green, with two floppies and no hard drive. It ran an operating system known as CPM. It was owned by the Church. I wrote a payroll system and a expense tracking system as the Assistant Stake Financial Clerk in Dbase II. Soon after I bought my first machine - a Compaq Portable. More of a luggable than portable. It weighed 18 pounds. I had a full screen (80 x 24) but still was a two floppy drive system. It was more of a PC than the Osborne, running MSDOS 1.1. Shortly thereafter, we started using PCs at work, starting with the IBM PC XT. It had a hard drive - a whole 10 megabytes. After floppies which held 280k, the hard drive was wonderful.

Over the years, the hard drives got bigger (and much faster), the operating system changed into Windows and went through various flavors (3.1, 96, 98, NT, 2000, XP), the network appeared and also gained speed (before that it was modems - I started at 110 bits per second, then 300, 1200, 9600, 56k), everything got faster (the original PC processor could add two numbers in 4 microseconds, current PCs add the same numbers in less than a nanosecond), and smaller. Other things appears that in retrospect seemed to be miracles - CDs, DVDs, jump drives, SD cards, flat screens. I often wonder what will appear in my grandchildren's lifetime.

Being in computers as an occupation, PCs were only part of my technology career. I worked primary with BIG machines on proprietary operating systems written by IBM, DEC, Honeywell, Univac, and others. The first computer I bought at Penn State had three disk drives, each with a 200 megabyte capacity, two tape drives, and a processor with 80K of memory. The memory alone took three cabinets, each big enough to stand inside of. The price tag for that machine was about $3,000,000. There was also a card reader and line printer. It could support about 12 people logged into it, all working to convert the card catalog into machine readable form. Even though we were doing all of this conversion, we couldn't at the time envision a totally online catalog. The price of such a thing to support the then 60,000 students at Penn State would have been incredibly high.

To skip forward to the question of Macs vs PCs. As part of my wondering in the wilderness of computers, I also worked with an operating system called Unix. Actually I worked on several flavors of Unix. It was an odd mix of MSDOS and Windows, allowing power users to do things with the "command line" but also having a windows environment as well. It was much smaller than Windows (still is), more powerful and versatile than Windows (still is), and generally much cheaper than Windows (still is since its derivative, Linux, in all of its flavors is generally free). It is also more stable, and much more secure, than Windows.

My first experience with Apple was an Apple 2e, a pretty primitive machine that played games well but we couldn't do much more with it. The first Mac came out, looked really nice, but was pretty impossible to program and very impossible to see what the operating system was really doing. While we again tried to work with the Mac, we really didn't do much with it. The small graphics section in the libraries loved Macs. I couldn't see why they couldn't use PCs. They typically used Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Page Maker, and the like. Adobe had a version for the PC. The interfaces were the same. Macs cost a lot more than a PC. I didn't understand why they insisted on using Macs. But since there were only a couple of them versus 1600 PCs, it wasn't worth fighting them. We just didn't support them very well.

Then a few things happened: Apple changed the operating system on the Mac with the advent of OS X. While it still looked like a Mac for the user, under the covers was Unix. I knew Unix. So suddenly I new much more about how the Mac OS worked. I could "get under the covers" and fix things on a Mac. But they were still expensive, even Adobe wrote Photoshop etc for the PC first and then ported that version to the Mac, so I still didn't understand why people, especially the artistic ones, insisted that a Mac was easier. Even though Mary Ellen was one of those. Then I started working at the Church Office Building. We have about 250 Macs and about 100 PCs. The artists again insisted the Macs were easier. I still wondered why, since the programs were identical. So I started watching Mary Ellen as she was now having to work on a Mac. She struggled a lot to learn the programs, but seemed to be much more at home on the Mac than she ever was on the PC. Even though the programs were the same, there is something about the "usability" of a Mac that talks to the artistic types. For a geek like me, I liked the Mac even more once I got into supporting a whole lot of them. The tools generally worked better, they were easier to fix, they were easier to install, they were easier to uninstall. The screen was beautiful. And most significantly, color reproduction was MUCH better than a PC ever could be (what you see on the screen is what will actually print). Additionally a whole lot of things that you had to pay extra for on a PC were part of the Mac package, including wireless, bluetooth, and several other technologies that I won't bore you with.

As a result of all of this, we are buying a Mac for the home. Mary Ellen really is looking forward to it. We will still have PCs as well. I have a lot of software that is PC only. The big pluses for a Mac (other than the big one - Mary Ellen wants it) is a very large, crisp, screen, a small footprint (on an iMac, the processor, etc, is part of the screen), it is fast, it is quiet, it integrates software very easily. The down side is cost (about 2x the cost of a PC), and more than that, having to reinvest in software that I already own on the PC. There are ways to run PC software on a Mac nowadays, and we do that at the Church, but you really don't want to buy a Mac and spend all of your time running PC software on that Mac. Too many issues, too many problems, and too expensive, and unnecessary.

For my niece, this was probably MUCH more than you wanted to "hear". But I do like Macs. Especially when they use Mac software.

Church Service Mission

Mary Ellen and I have been serving a Church Service Mission since last September. Every Monday through Thursday (we needed three days to recover), we have spent the entire day in Salt Lake City. We both serve in the Curriculum Department on the 23rd and 24th floors of the Church Office Building. Besides publishing the Church Magazines and manuals, the Curriculum department is responsible for everything published in print that the Church has, including signs, bulletins on various church events, labels for the cannery, pass-along cards, etc.

Mary Ellen serves in the General Graphics area which deals with everything except the magazines. For the first several months, she spent her time trying to learn to use the computer, a Mac, and Quark, a high-level program for page layout. It was a particularly painful experience as computers are really greek to Mary Ellen. She would take a document, change the English text to whatever language the document was requested in, and reformat the new language to fit in the document and clean up the language specific requirements. The Church publishes in over 110 languages. Most documents are done in at least 50. So she may be working in Spanish (relatively easy), Russian (not too easy), or Urbu (miserably hard). Each language has different rules for the formats of dates and the placement of quotes (plus a few other things that I don't understand). Mary Ellen knew that she finally was catching on when she was working on a Russian document that "didn't look right". She said it looked "German" but displayed in the Russian alphabet. It turned out that she was right!

I work in the Technology Support area. I spent the first several months installing new iMacs. Since I had never worked with Macs before, I enjoyed learning how they work and how to set up 100+ machines. Unfortunately my supervisor learned that I knew a few other things about technology and so I have spent much of the last several months as a consultant and implementor of repositories (I worked on these at Penn State for many years but the Church is just starting with them), XML conversion, implementation of a new mail system, and several other things that I have had previous experience doing in my earlier careers, and which I enjoyed retiring from two years ago!

One of the benefits of working in the Curriculum department is monthly devotionals. We are able to hear a general authority speak to us the first Friday of every month. Also we have had a few special firesides in the evenings with both a general authority speaking and a catered dinner! They have been wonderful experiences. Another wonder benefit has been working next to the temple every day and walking through the grounds on Temple Square as they changed from Fall to Winter to Spring and Summer.

Little Grandkids

While recouperating, we have had a few visits from various family members, especially grandkids. I don't think there is anything more precious to a grandfather (or grandmother) than the company of little grandchildren.
And we have a number of the sweetest, most beautiful, talented, etc, etc, okay you can probably read some bias here. I think I was way too busy with making a living, serving in the church, taking care of the house, doing bills, and especially learning to be a father to truely enjoy two and three year olds. I must admit it is a lot easier being a grandparent since I don't have to discipline, teach, be consistent, be the judge, and everything else a parent has to be. I just have to be a grandpa.

Mostly that consists in spending time with them, sitting downstairs while they play, throwing balls up the stairs, eating their pretend food, and above all, listening to their chatter. With Laura, Stefanie's 13 month old, she is just learning to climb the stairs. So she just wants me to be on the stairs with her and grab her feet and pull her down on her tummy.

With Paul, Stefanie's 3 year old, it is all about balls. He loves balls. Any size, any color. He loves to throw them up the stairs have have them bounce back down. Actually, he loves to have grandpa throw them up the stairs and have them bounce down on him.

Since he is three, he also likes to go up to the top of the stairs and throw things over the railing. While that is fine with paper airplanes, and almost okay with small balls, we draw the line at trucks and cars (his other most favorite toys).

Paul loves to spend time with his cousin Abi. They are both three and have played together pretty much every week since they were born. Abi is a little older and pushed Paul around a lot when they were smaller. But now that Paul is bigger, it is a little harder for Abi to keep him under control. Watching them play together is a joy.

Brinna (pronouced bryn-a) is the youngest of our grandchildren. She is Rachel's second and is barely five weeks old. She does what most five week old girls do: sleep, eat, burble, cry, and poop. Little babies are wonders from heaven. There is no experience for a grandfather more tender or rewarding than holding a small baby while she sleeps. Especially the ones that like to cuddle.

Brinna loves to be warm. And fed. Even in the middle of summer she likes to be wrapped up in a blanket. Her sister adores her and likes to be a little mommy to her.


Abi is Rachel's three year old. She loves to play in our basement under the stairs where we have a little kitchen set up with pots and pans and fake food. We also have a slide for the kids and a bounce house that we set up when there are a number of them around. Abi also likes to Dance. Rachel takes her to a community dance class where a number of three year olds "dance" with their leotards and tutu's. There is a dance recital next week. It ought to be cute (and probably hilarious as well). Kudos to the patience of the dance instructor. Watching her try to keep the attention of 8 3-year-olds is like trying to get a bunch of kittens to march in formation.

A Week of Medical Abuse

This past week has been a bit of a trial for the two of us. On Monday, I had surgery on my right shoulder. I really expected that when the doctor said I would be up and around in a "few days" that I would actually feel better in a couple of days. I should have realized when I asked if I could go back to work on Thursday and he replied "probably not" that a doctor saying you will be up and around in a few days is something akin to the pilot saying "we may experience a little turbulence" on an airplane, a sure signal to sit down and cinch up your seatbelt.

On Tuesday Mary Ellen went in for her annual "smashogram". Then on Wednesday she went in again to get some cortisone shots in her back. For the last six weeks, she has been pretty miserable with back pain. We are hoping the shots help reduce the pain and let her get back to somewhat of a normal activity. It has been several weeks since she has been able to go into the Church Office Building and she really misses it. After the shots, the local anesthetic caused her feet to go numb. For a while, she couldn't really walk and I still wasn't up to helping her. Fortunately Eric and Sarah came over for a few hours to help out until the drugs wore off. They also kindly vaccuumed and cleaned a bit - a great help and lift to Mary Ellen.

We were able to go to church yesterday but we still aren't running any races. I will be in a sling for another week (yuck) but at least I got the pain catheter out and am no longer tethered to home.

I am not really sure how much of a "blogger" I am yet. I really am not one to talk much about myself. But being able to keep in touch with friends and families through their blogs is really inspiring.

Zoo Reviewed Renewed

We started nearly 30 years ago with the "Zoo Review", a weekly family letter printed on our first computer, a Compaq Portable, printed on an Epson RX80 dot matrix printer. The software was something basic but did allow columns and some graphics. It took us hours each week to produce it. Part of that was because we had all of the kids contribute (well, the ones that could write or at least talk). At some point, we may try to scan in some of the "archives".

Now we are finding that we are enjoying evenyone's blogs so much that we decided to give it a try. We hope it works better than the web pages we produced 2 years ago (it lasted about four months). We find that blogs help us keep in touch with neices, nephews, cousins, friends, and even children who live far away (and some not so far).

We thank all who spend a lot of time so far in post entries for us to enjoy, especially our two sons and neices Carol Ann and Mallory, and several others that I am forgetting right now.

A disclaimer - both of us are over 50 and reserve the right to forget things that have happened to us over 10 minutes ago.