September 2009

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September 5, Saturday

Mark, Michelle, Remy and Quincy visited for the afternoon and dinner to hang out.  Remy was most excited to see Shadow.  It's not the first time Shadow has trumped us.  The girls played dress up while Ryan invited some friends over.  The rest of us got to relax and catch up with each other's lives.

September 6-7, Sunday and Labor Day Monday

Jeff wanted a small, three pound (1.4Kg) netbook that would do everything but edit photos.  The Dell Mini 9/Vostro A90 with Ubuntu for $275 sounded good with 3 USB ports, webcam, bluetooth, SD slot, 8GB solid state drive, and 8.9 inch (225mm) screen.  Ubuntu (Linux) is a free operating system that is gaining in popularity for running fast on a slow computer.  The goal was to have only free software installed.  As a backup, the A90 could also run Windows XP, Windows 7 and Mac OS X after upgrading to a larger drive. Ubuntu is much different than Windows or Mac OS X.  After two days of self tech support, most things are working, but not everything.  The wireless card could not connect to my router unless I turned off WPA encryption.  That's fixed, but now the sound stopped working.  I'm not giving up on Ubuntu yet.

9 inch v. 15 inch screen

I still believe Macs offer the best "out of the box" experience.  You either pay with your money (Macs) or you pay with your time (Windows and Ubuntu).

September 8, Tuesday

The kids first day of school at the new bus stop.  The bus hold 48 students comfortably at two kids per seat.  It appears the new norm is a tight three students per seat.  It took over five minutes for the kids to figure this out and make the adjustment as the line of cars kept growing.  Ryan and Ainsley were glad to see some of their friends at school again and they liked their teachers.

September 13, Sunday - Nation's Tri (Swim, Bike, Run)

Betsi competed in her second triathlon on Sunday with her friend, Lori, and her friend and coach, Steve.  See more photos.

September 16, Wednesday

Ryan receives his Boy Scout merit badges from Mr. R. at the quarterly Court of Honor for swimming and mammal studies he earned in July .

Timmy, Louis, Nick, Tim, Roy and Ryan.

September 23, Wednesday

Ryan advances from Scout to Tenderfoot.

September 25-27, Friday-Sunday

Mohammad takes a photo of tent city.  It wasn't this crowded, but the correct angle and zooming made it look that way.

Ryan and Jeff completed a fun weekend at Kings Dominion with the Boy Scouts.  We set up camp in the open field Friday night, rode the rides the next day, returned to camp for dinner, and returned to Kings Dominion for the Halloween Haunt in the rain.  Most everyone was prepared for the forecasted 14 hours of rain.  Jeff learned that tent rain flies need to be waterproofed more than once every 6 months.  See more photos.

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