two drivers, two cars

I'd like to start this post by saying that we really enjoyed having only one vehicle out in Pasadena. We very rarely had conflicts with who needed the car on any given day. Of course, Andy was able to walk to class and spent a bit of time studying (also on campus). And we lived mere blocks away from the nearest heaven, I mean Starbucks. And Target. And good restaurants. And shopping. Noah's Bagels was too far to walk, but it was an easy bike ride on a Saturday morning. Owning one car made perfect sense (not to mention the fact that we had nowhere to park a second car).

Unfortunately, back home, it doesn't make so much sense. Andy has a totally variable schedule and even I am getting into the act with trying to schedule shoots around silly things like good light. And there aren't a lot of places within walking distance (although we anticipate riding bikes to First Watch when the new one opens!). So we decided that it was time to get a new vehicle. What kind of vehicle was the subject of much debate and contemplation. In the end, we decided to get something subtle and inconspicuous.

What do you think?

ebenezer

So, for whatever reason, I really just don't love Halloween. It's not a religious thing or anything like that... maybe it's the sugar? Anyway, to this date, I have always made my kids dress up for Halloween in hand me down costumes or odds and ends from their dress up box. How scarring. This year, though, with Halloween being on a Wednesday, they were at church for the event, with a parade and fun and games. I joined in the excitement and agreed to purchase actual costumes for the event. They were thrilled. This year, we sported Jack Sparrow, Lucy Pevensie, and the White Witch (because Elanor likes the bad guys).

tips on setting up a new computer

I'm feeling compelled to write this because I've been asked for help setting up new systems (or protecting old systems too) several times within recent memory. For those of you who are not as geeky as I am, meaning you don't visit websites that are even vaguely geeky or techy, here is Robin's quick tutorial on basic PC things to know. If you want more in depth info, I guess you can email me, but if you really want to know something good, then email my brother instead.

antivirus software: don't have it? Then please don't tell me because I don't want to know. I probably don't want to get emails from you either. Don't tell me you don't want to spend money on it because seriously, in this day and age that's not an excuse. If you keep an eye out you can always get a good program for free (after rebates)! If you don't even want to do that, there are free (before rebates) options as well. Here are the absolute and total freebies:

• avast!
• AVG

I'm currently using avast! on my desktop because my free after rebates program of choice (Kaspersky) doesn't like it. I don't know why. One caveat, though: the free programs may not let you schedule regular scans, so you may have to remember to run full system scans yourself. Once a week is good, but I'll forgive you if it's only once a month. FWIW, I no longer use Norton because it didn't play nice with Vista and it really does use more than its fair share of computer resources. I'm greedy that way.

spyware: If you have Vista, Microsoft's Windows Defender is already installed. If you are running XP, I would recommend downloading it. Does it do much? Honestly, mine has never caught anything (then again, I am a careful surfer). But WD is meek and inoffensive and FREE, so why not? One great thing about it is the Software Explorer, which allows you to turn off various unnecessary startup programs (like Adobe Reader, iTunes, Quicktime, etc.). You will want to run the Software Explorer after you have installed all your main programs, because every time one of these guys thinks it's important enough to run at startup, it will do that when you install it. That means that when you do your weekly update of iTunes (c'mon, Apple), you will have to go back in and disable it again. And again.

Another great freebie in this category is Lavasoft's AdAware. It doesn't offer realtime protection unless you pay for it, but the scans are thorough and delete anything remotely spyware-ish. Even tracking cookies. I love it for that alone.

browsing: Are you using Firefox yet? If you're not, you should be. I only use IE for going to Microsoft's site, running Microsoft Update, and uploading pictures to Shutterfly (their plugin does not work with FF). FF is more secure than IE, plus it has great addons available which are worth their weight in gold. I don't even use very many but they are enough to make me never go back:

• AdBlock Plus. Once you install this, all the ads you hate to see on your favorite sites will become mere white space. Could anything be better? If the AdBlock filter doesn't catch an ad, right click on it and add it to your list. Some sites (cars.com) don't play well with this plugin but they are few and far between from what I've seen.
• Customize Google. For you gmailers.
• FireFTP. If you need to FTP stuff and want a free FTP client.
• McAfee SiteAdvisor. This one is critical and works for both IE and FF. Install it, and you have an automatic Jiminy Cricket supervising your searches. Install it and then search for something like "free Photoshop" or "free wallpaper" and see what happens (green means safe, yellow means "be careful", and red means DANGER. Kind of like a stoplight. Easy!).

office: are you too cheap to pay for Microsoft Office? But still want to play nice with people who do? Then try OpenOffice. It's free and it's compatible with Microsoft's version. When you get a new computer, even if you install MS Office, make sure you uninstall the MS Office Activation Wizard, the trial, etc. The AW goes first--as I recall it won't come off if Office is off first. And who wants two copies of Office taking up space? I'd take off Works, too, because why use a program that's not compatible with your friends'?

all purpose setup: I have not used this one for myself, and the author takes no responsibility for any damage done to your computer, but this is for those systems that are fresh out of the box. Do you, like me, really hate that your new computer comes with all kinds of junk/trial software that you don't actually want? The PC Decrapifier (yes, that's its actual name) checks what's on the system and will uninstall the junk for you. You still have control over what goes and stays but I'm sure it helps you to sort the good from the bad.

Well, those are the highlights... if you were to call me for help setting up your new computer, this is what I would tell you to work on, although you would have to look up the links for yourself. It's not a comprehensive list by any means, and I can't take responsibility for blowing up your computer (meaning follow my advice at your own risk). If I think of something else, I'll let you know.

add this to your list

All right, I did it. I knew that you didn't have enough blogs to read, so I thought I would add one more for your edification. But since you all carefully followed my instructions from my last post and have started using Google Reader (or something similar, although I take no responsibility for any mishaps you have in setting up something that's not Google Reader), I figure adding one more piddly blog from myself will not take you any time at all.

You can find it here. It's part of my photography site and will mainly have pictures of people you may not know. I won't even promise to be super diligent about updating it, so sorry. Mainly, I just wanted to see if I could do it.

shopping

happy shopping: Last year, my friend Angie gave me a cool little purse that was made by some design student at Savannah College (I think). I have been carrying the purse ever since (except for walking through the greater LA area because it's not what I would consider secure) and love love love it. I love it so much that it's starting to wear out. I have also had a minorly catastrophic pen leak in it and have had to start considering the sad thought that I would have to replace it. Before I became too maudlin, however, I thought I would Google her (since she considerately put her name on my bag) and hooray! She has a website! And hooray! She has some cute purses on sale! Her name is Claire Sanchez and if you are interested in a unique purse or bag, I recommend you check it out.

not so happy shopping: I have been anxiously waiting for Canon's annual fall DSLR and accessories rebates so that I can treat myself to a new zoom lens. Turns out that I need not have waited. There are four lenses that have similar specs (the differences are small but critical) and three of them are on the rebate list. The one I had decided to buy... well, it's not. Now I am torn... do I still buy it? Or should I get one of the less expensive ones? The rebate wouldn't have been a huge impact, honestly... it would have gone from crazy ridiculous to just crazy. But it would have helped. No, I won't tell you which one it is.

blood drive update: Jerry came in at 3:47. Bruce, 3:72 (you do the math). Beth scratched. Luella, 4:26. Me, 8:26. I'm slow but steady. Betty came in at 5ish? I'll check with her on the number.

photography: I've been contemplating jumping on the blogging bandwagon on my photography site (like you don't have enough blogs to watch) so that I can post pictures there instead of making you look at them here. I mean, I'll still give you pictures of my kids here, but maybe you don't want to look at other people's kids. I've just finished shooting an awful lot of pictures around the church and would like to share some of my favorites. If I start one on that site, I'll let you know, and both of you can add it to your RSS feed.

techy: And if you are wondering what on earth that is, I actually don't really know. You can ask David (my brother). What I use, and I totally recommend it, especially for all you gmailers out there, is Google Reader. See, what happens is you tell Reader what blogs you visit (it may work for other things too, I honestly don't know), and it does all the checking for you. All you do is click on the link for Reader (which is under More on my screen right now) and it tells you who has posted since you last were on Reader. It's fantastic. I mean, seriously, do you get tired of visiting a friend's blog day after day after day... she doesn't post for like three weeks, so you don't check for a week, and then you discover that she posted five times or something while you weren't looking? Not that I've ever done that to you. Google Reader totally takes care of the watching for you. And you can sort the blogs you visit into categories, like photography, family, church, etc. It's pretty awesome. An RSS reader does the same kind of thing, I think, but I am not sure on the details. Try it, though, it will revolutionize your blog reading life.

happy birthday

Hard to imagine it, but my baby brother is 30 today. I feel pretty sure that he was a gawky teenager just yesterday. Or at least last week. But 30? I started to do the math in my head for his age and wanted to pinch myself that it's really 2007. Amazing. I'm sorry I don't have a recent picture of him to share with you, but that's not a problem I can correct until Christmas. At which time I will take care of that. No longer a teenager... he has a lovely, intelligent, and creative wife now, and two cute-as-a-button kids, a house, a real job... the only thing missing is a dog. Hmmm, Rabia, did you get David a puppy for his birthday? Because I'm thinking that's what he's really missing here. Me, I gave him an awesome compact flash card months ago for his new camera, because it's really important to me that he take lots of pictures of his cute children and send them to me since I live thousands of miles away from them and can't shoot them for myself. Talk about a self serving birthday present. Do you even want to know what I'll give him for Christmas?

Sunday: blood drive at church. Stay tuned for times!

rock star

This just in, citizens: Jenny reports that not only did she donate a pint of whole blood in a near record time of 4 minutes, 57 seconds, but she also got a free Bengals t-shirt signed by actual Bengals. Even better, she is officially signed up for the National Bone Marrow registry! Sounds like a lot of action packed into one morning to me. But I guess you can get more done when you bleed quickly.

Great work, Jen!

And to the rest of you: have you donated blood lately? Have you asked about signing up to be a bone marrow donor? Get on it!