Matt's in India

My friend Matt has long wished to travel. At 24 he saved up enough money so he could do it. Earlier this month Matt left for a month-long adventure in India. From time to time he emails with details of his journey. Wow, what a great time he is having - experiencing and learning lots plus meeting some new friends along the way.

I don't get to do much (any) exotic travel myself so when my friends go on a trip to just about anywhere I love it when they send back pictures or postcards. Matt took his digital camera along and has been sharing a few pictures here and there. I thought I would share some of my favorites here. There are 9 photos in this little slideshow.

Restasis

Walter had an appointment last week with his eye surgeon. The doctor started him on Restasis drops. You've probably seen their commercials in the past with that cute Janine Tuner. Their advertisements would lead you to believe that the drug's usefulness is to solve a dry eye problem and create more tears. The doctor tells us that it doesn't necessarily do that, and that's not the reason he wants Walter to take it. He says Restasis may help to smooth out the surface of Walter's cornea. A smoother, less wrinkly cornea could mean better sight. So our goal with Restasis is to see if it can give Walter a little more sight than he currently has in his right eye.

When Walter looks at the eye chart now he can see the big E at the top. That's it - just the big E. There have been times in the past when he could make out the second line of the chart. It would be great if he can get that back. We'll have to see how it goes. After a few days of use Walter reports that Restasis actually leaves his eye feeling drier instead of producing more tears. He goes back to the doctor in a month.

Happy Dancing Birthday Nikka

On Monday, March 19th my little friend Nikka turned 5 years old. Wow, she is growing up so fast! It was just yesterday she was a tiny thing. Oh wait ... she still is a tiny thing!

Nikka's birthday party was on Sunday the 18th and unfortunately I couldn't make it because that's the day I went to Ilwaco with my Mom and sister Jozi. So I called Nikka's mom Michelle to express my regrets and ask if I could maybe come to Maple Valley for a visit on Monday. As luck would have it, Nikka had a dance class to go to that day and Michelle said I could come along and watch. Yay! I knew from Michelle that Nikka loves her dance classes and I've been wanting to see her dance for quite some time. This was the perfect opportunity.

Of course I took my camera and got some pictures and video to share with you. Here is a photo of Nikka stretching. If you would like to see more pictures you can click on the photo and use the Next and Prev links in Webshots to see the rest of the album.


This video is about 2-1/2 minutes of still photos and video clips from the class. I had a great time watching Nikka dance and it was fun to share a little bit of her birthday.



Happy Birthday Nikka!

Good to Feel Well

It was kind of a rough week for me healthwise. Early in the week I finally succumbed to a cold that had been coming on for some time. That was pretty miserable for a few days.

Just as the cold was at its worst I managed to pull a muscle in my back. The pain made it hard to sleep, and finally on Thursday I took a day off work to recover.

On Friday as my cold was feeling better I broke out in hives. I've had one incident in the past where the hives turned into an emergency anaphylaxis situation, so it was a little scary because I didn't have my epi pen on me like I'm supposed to. Anithistamines, remaining calm and relaxed, and resisting the urge to scratch the itchies did the trick though and the bumps stayed at a manageable level until they finally disappeared in the evening.

Last night I had my first good sleep without awakening to back pain and today I'm just appreciating feeling well. I hope all of you out there are feeling well too.

More Ilwaco Pics

I uploaded a few more pictures from last Sunday's Ilwaco trip.

This is a photo of Mary Jane showing us her medals earned in World War II. That's a bronze star on the left and a purple heart on the right. Mary Jane was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in the Philippines like my Dad.

To see more of the pictures you can click on the photo then use the Next and Prev links within Webshots.

Ilwaco

On Sunday I drove to Ilwaco with my Mom and sister Jozi to visit cousin Mary Jane. Mary Jane is actually a cousin of my mother's. She and Jozi share a passion for family history. Mary Jane is getting up there in her years and she wanted to share some of the genealogy materials she has collected with Jozi. It also provided a nice drive and a fun visit for all of us.

For those who may not know where Ilwaco is, you can find it on your map in the southwest corner of Washington State next to Long Beach and Seaview. That's near where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

This photo shows Mom, Mary Jane and Jozi.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

What a fun time I had at the parade! My little friend Elliott came to watch Todd and Wendy in the parade too and he brought his folks Doxey and Cynthia along.

Elliott is 8 months old and this was his first parade ever. I think he enjoyed it. You will see from the pictures that he had a little nap while we were waiting for the parade to start. But once it got going he was wide awake.

Todd did not warn us that we might need to learn to swim in order to see this parade! It started raining well before the parade started and the rain got heavier as the start time neared.

We got to the parade route early because we didn't know how many people might be there and we wanted to secure a good spot. Doxey and Cynthia found a great overhang for us to stand under. Once the parade got underway we had to leave the overhang to get close enough to see and photograph any action.

The rains continued through the parade and most everybody in the parade got soaked. We were feeling sorry for Todd and Wendy who were the flagbearers in the parade, but you will see from the pictures and video they were smiling through it all and didn't seem to mind the wet.



To see more pictures from the parade you can click on either photo above and use the Next and Prev buttons in Webshots to navigate the album. OR, you can view the 4 minute video below which includes both video clips and photos from the day. You will see that the weather didn't dampen a lot of spirits and there was plenty of fun to go around.

Thanks Elliott, Doxey and Cynthia for coming to watch the parade with me. And thanks Todd and Wendy for agreeing to be in the parade so we could watch!

Pretty Cherry Trees

Interspersed with the typical Seattle rains we have also had some beautiful days. You can tell that spring is indeed on its way. This time of year we love to see the first signs of spring in the form of flowering bulbs coming up and our favorite trees blooming. One of my favorites is the cherry tree. I admit that I cannot tell the difference between a flowering cherry and a flowering plum - they both look the same to me. But beautiful is beautiful and I get the urge to take pictures around this time of year.

A recent outing with my camera took me to the Harbor Steps near my office. I love how the beauty of the cherry (or plum) trees soften the harshness of the urban landscape. Below is a slide show of some photos I took a few days ago.

Happy Spring!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! Did you remember to wear green today?

Today I will be going to the St. Patrick's Day Parade here in Seattle for the first time. My friend and coworker Todd Zboyan and his lovely wife Wendy will be the flagbearers at the front of the parade. Wendy is from Ireland and she will be carrying the Irish flag while Todd carries the American flag. If I can get any decent pictures I will share them here on the blog.

If you attend today's parade be sure to wave to Todd and Wendy. And if you can't make it watch for them on the local news if they showcase the parade.

The parade starts at 4th & Jefferson and heads up 4th Avenue to a reviewing stand at Westlake Center. It officially ends at Seattle Center where there is an Irish Festival going on both Saturday and Sunday from noon until 6. I wish I hadn't already made plans for this weekend - I bet that would be a fun event to attend. If you are looking for something to do this weekend check out more information about the Irish Festival here.

Speaking to Children

I want to share with you a post written by my San Francisco friend Jason over on his Virtual Parenting blog. I enjoy reading Jason's blog where he shares his experiences as a first-time parent from the male perspective. And of course I love to see pictures and video of his little girl Harper who is nearing two years old.

The post I'm referring to (you can find it here) is about something he learned at Harper's day care on how to speak to and deal with children. I especially appreciated the first example he gave about hitting because it shows how one can teach a child to respect and care about other human beings - something lacking in some families today. I was impressed with his insight and really happy he shared this. Parenting is the most important job in the world and it makes me feel good to know that Jason, like many of my friends, cares enough to do it well. It brings me hope for the future.

Even as a non-parent I found the post worthwhile. It's good advice to take a little more time and use more words sometimes when dealing with other adults in our every day relationships. If you get a chance I encourage you to give Jason's post a read.

DST = Daylight Saving Time?

As you've probably heard Daylight Saving Time takes effect this Sunday morning (March 11) at 2:00 a.m. That of course means we will be "springing forward" or moving our clocks ahead by one hour.

Most years this involves losing an hour of sleep and some time to a ritual of running around setting the clocks in your house. And that's it, you're done. This year is different though for anyone with a computer.

This year Congress has changed the rules about when Daylight Saving Time starts and ends. I believe the goal was energy savings - using less lights and less heat.

In the past we could take for granted that our computers would know to change their clocks when Daylight Saving Time kicks in. But computers have to be told that Congress changed the rules. Springing Forward comes 3 weeks earlier this year. For the average home computer user you won't see much of a problem. You can get patches to update your computer or you can just change the time manually.

But folks who work in IT departments across the country are finding things are much more complicated for networked business computers. Every system we use must be checked to see if there is a patch or if some manual change is necessary. Patches provided (even by Microsoft) are unreliable and sometimes just plain don't work. I'm sure we will all hear stories on Monday of how people were affected when some big company's computer system didn't roll over the time correctly. Can you imagine if your airline's computers got off by an hour?

We won't know the full extent of issues until Monday when the business week begins. But a lot of IT staff are holding their breath this weekend that all goes well and any problems will be minimal. Some believe that DST should no longer stand for Daylight Saving Time but maybe "Darn Stupid Thing" or "Didn't Someone Think" before changing this law?

I remember the last time they changed the rules on Daylight Saving Time. And at first that made me wonder "what's the big deal? We've done this before." But it has been brought to my attention that the last time was 20 years ago when we as a society were much less dependent on computers.

In a few days it will all be over and I'm sure any problems will be quickly resolved. But Monday could be fun.

Map Your Walking, Running or Cycling Routes

I recently learned about a new tool on the web called GMaps Pedometer where you can map your walking and running routes and print or share them. Mapping a route with this tool shows you both distance and elevation gain. It’s much easier than trying to drive your car around to see how long your route is – especially when some routes are walk/runnable but not drivable.

The site is http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. Note the link at the bottom left of the page to “Usage instructions” to see how to do it.

You can see a sample map here.

Meeting Story Going Public

Last month I posted the story of how Walter and I met and mentioned that one of my favorite blog authors (Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users) was looking for stories about people whose lives had been positively affected by an online experience. Of course I had to respond by submitting our meeting story along with a photo of the two of us.

Yesterday I got an email back from Kathy Sierra. She said our story was exactly what she was looking for and asked to use it. She condensed the story to a short paragraph and will be sharing it along with many others as part of a video presentation in the opening keynote of SXSW Interactive Festival this coming Saturday in Austin, TX.

SXSW is a conference for web designers, programmers, tech entrepreneurs, bankers, investors, and educators. There will be panel discussions and education on topics from web design, usability, and blogging to wireless innovation and new technology business models. This thing is big. There were 4700 in attendance last year and I see that one of their speakers this year will be Dan Rather.

Kathy's presentation is meant to inspire web developers, software programmers, etc. about the value of their work in connecting real people. After all, if it weren't for folks doing that kind of work there might not be a Walter and me! This page has a photo of Kathy from when she spoke at SXSW last year.

And here I thought Kathy was collecting stories for some kind of school project (she mentioned her daughter was helping her after all). Of course I gave Kathy permission to share our story. She tells me the video will be posted online near the end of March. How cool is that!

Walking to Whistler Via Anchorage

At my office they are doing this PACE study (stands for Promoting Activity and Changes in Eating). Every few months they come up with a new way to inspire us to get more exercise and eat better. This month it’s a 3 week challenge for 40 of us to walk a certain number of steps which we turn into a virtual walk from Seattle to Anchorage to the Four Seasons Resort in Whistler, BC.

They gave us all pedometers and water bottles and we have to turn in our steps once a day. They also posted some reasonable walking routes from the office that are doable on lunches or breaks.

The goal is to raise our awareness of how much we move and inspire us to walk more. So far I’ve tried out the walking routes and I’m doing a respectable job on my number of steps.

Each week there is a raffle drawing for a gift certificate to Whole Foods or REI from those who have turned in their steps. What I appreciate is that it's noncompetitive. You don't get penalized if you didn't walk enough steps. Any competition is with yourself.

My friend who is organizing this "walk" had some extra pedometers and offered me one for Walter if he would do this with me. He took up the challenge (once I explained to him that no, we were not actually walking to Anchorage) and he has gotten back to walking every day.

At the end there will be a grand prize raffle drawing and the winner gets a summer weekend trip to the actual Four Seasons Resort in Whistler!

Is Spring Coming?

Well it seems like that crazy little groundhog in Pennsylvania doesn't know anything about the Pacific Northwest. Earlier this week we got another dose of winter. Or as Steve Pool of KOMO-TV described it "not a brush with winter, but more of a tickle."

On Wednesday I drove to Olympia early in the morning to take my mother to a doctor appointment. When I got to Olympia it was snowing lightly. There was a dusting already on the ground as you can see in these pictures:


All day long the weather went from snow to hail to sun and back again. Very crazy! It was the last day of February and it's unusual for this area to get snow in the lowlands so late in the year. Most people are ready for it to be over, but I was kind of excited about it. Check out this video:



I don't like it when the snow gets dangerous to drive in, though. As we drove home from Oly in the evening there was more of the snow and hail, especially between Olympia and Tacoma. This video is a compilation of 4 different snippets taken between Olympia and Tacoma.

In the first piece you can see how the hail is starting to pile up on the side of the road. In the second piece you can hear the hail as it clatters against the windshield. The third piece shows a patch of blue sky in the distance and the hail/snow blowing across the roadway. The last section features the pileup of hail on the windshield. It's so fine it looks like snow, but if you look more closely it appears like tiny styrofoam all piled up. The audio on that one features KOMO radio where they were interviewing callers about snow reports in different areas. Pretty interesting.




Once we passed Tacoma you would never know there had been anything but beautiful sunshine all day long. The road was bare and dry. When we got home to Seattle it was starting to snow again. Turns out that it was snowing heavily north of Seattle and south of Olympia. The towns of Everett (north) and Centralia (south) got 5 to 7 inches each an dof course locations to the east in the foothills (like North Bend) were also blanketed. I hear it was really beautiful, but we missed the worst of it in Seattle.

As the rhyme goes March has come in like a lion. Let's hope it goes out like a lamb!