Getting Started on Grandparent Trip

Mark and I are taking our annual Grandparents trip this weekend. I arrived at DFW about 5pm yesterday and he was supposed to arrive at 9pm. Due to weather in DC, he didn't pull in until about 1am.

After a few minutes of conversation about California bankruptcy and marijuana laws we were out. Of course, the Days Inn I reserved for $25 on Price Line is clean and functional, but not as nice as either of us are used to. The best part...they gave us a single queen sized bed rather than two twin beds.



Today, we head to see my paternal grandmother and father's brother. On the way we'll stop by a house where we lived in the early 1970's in Plano, TX.  This is the house I lived in second longest of any and the school I attended as long as any all the way through graduate school (K-3rd at Mendenhall Elementary).Technorati Tags: family, MLW, travel

Where are the phones?

The pay phone has gone away. Maybe someday has stations will be like this.

Today's beach read

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Doh! Another day down in recovery.

I love Acer PC's.  I own three of them currently and have owned a few more in the past. 

I do NOT love IE 8.  I installed a Beta of it about two months ago and it totally crapped out my Lenovo X60.  Today it was included in my MS Update on my Acer AM3100 and it completely ruined that one too.  It was so bad I decided I would do a system restore to remove all traces of it.

Unfortunately, I used the restore disks from my Acer Aspire 3690 instead.  :-(  Not only does the 3690 use XP instead of Vista, but it has completely different drivers and specs.  In other words. the machine was DOA after recovery.  Now I can't find my AM3100 restore disks, and am reverting back to an old XP CD I had sitting in the garage.  I will have to order new recovery disks for my 3100.

From now on I will do the following:
1) Never install IE.  I'm a Firefox/Chrome guy exclusively. (The only problem with this is that NetFlix requires IE! DOH!)
2) Tape each system's Restore Disks into an envelope under the desk.  That way I know where they are and they're never far from the PC.
3) I'm pretty good at backing up data regularly, but I should also do monthly system backups so I don't have to start from scratch like this (e.g., install OS, Office, Utilities, Browsers...).

What are your best practices in personal technology recovery management?

A Great Day at Magic Mountain

At magic mountain for the kids bdays.

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Me and Tiny on our way home from astro camp.

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Happy birthday

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A beautiful day at the grand canyon.

A beautiful day at the grand canyon.
Originally uploaded by 5 Ms In SoCal

We had a wonderful time at the Grand Canyon last week. We were only there about 16 hours, but it was sure nice.