Today is Dominica’s new phone day. She is set to receive her BlackBerry Pearl in pink from Verizon which we ordered on Sunday. She is very excited to get to switch to a BlackBerry rather than to be stuck using the Palm Treo 700p that we have had. That thing has been nothing but a headache. It is completely unstable, the battery life is pathetic and the features don’t work very well even when they do work. It was a nice idea but BlackBerry just executes so much better and, most importantly, they really make their email system “just work” rather than the Treo where you have to add an email application and then have to manually manage it all of the time. If any of you are on SGL mail – BB service works great with that too.
It is a great relief to know that I am actually ahead of the game on my homework for a change and not having to pound it out at the very last minute. It has given me a little bit of a chance to do some reading in one of my Pragmatic Programmers books that I hope to be able to finish either today or tomorrow.
The sun is out today and while it is very hazy and Manhattan is all but obscured it is a really gorgeous day overall. Our plants are just thriving with all of this great sunlight that they have been getting recently. Here is something that few of you have probably ever considered about having plants in your home – with just these seven plants that we have here right now we are putting approximately the same amount of moisture into the air each day as our humidifier was doing running all day long. Granted it was a small humidifier but it requires electric and distilled water which was costing about two dollars per day. These plants have already paid for themselves as humidifier alternatives. I am hoping to have at least two more if not three and that will really take the numbers up. We need one more ivy for the living room to match the one that we have and we have talked about a spider plant for the bathroom. I would like a plant for our bedroom too because that window gets pretty good light as well but I am not sure if we can manage one in there or not.
I worked until about seven thirty. The first order of business once Dominica got home was to get her new BlackBerry activated and her email account linked to it so that she can check her mail that way now. Other than the weird keyboard system the unit is great. Much smaller than my 8830. Min and I ordered in a Sicilian pie from Nino’s, yes two nights in a row, and ate it while I talked to some people online.
We watched two episodes of Allo, Allo before going to bed. Oreo is very tired tonight but looking forward to his doggy-daddy day tomorrow. He will sleep all day I reckon.
I discovered tonight – I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before – that using Microsoft Maps Bird’s Eye view is really cool for following railroad tracks as they snake through the country. One of my favourite train locations is Silver Springs, New York near where I grew up (and where Mary and Jocelyn lived until pretty recently.) Silver Springs is the most train-oriented town that I know with several lines coming right through the dead center of town. The entire town is built around the tracks. If you start in downtown and follow the mainline as it works its way towards Buffalo you will see three or four trains running on the line in the photos even before you go more than one town away to the far side of Warsaw! The picture quality is really amazing. I continue to be amazed that there is still no call for some form of passenger service to exist over these lines. These small towns would have access to the big city center quickly, safely and easily. Maybe as petroleum fuels become more expensive it will start to make sense again. The lines are already there. We just have to use them.
While doing some browsing tonight I came across the most amazing image of the ATSF Sante Fe Super Chief in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1943 on 4×3 Kodachrome.
