Taylor T5

Ken got a new toy Friday — a Taylor T5 acoustic electric guitar. He's been lusting after it since it came out and finally decided it was time to get one. He likes it except for the off-balance neck (which is very heavy, so it ends up pointing at your toes if you don't support it). He says that might be a deal-breaker, and he's got 30 days to return it. Today he bought an amp to go with it; they'll either both stay or both go. Now we have to get all his other gear listed on eBay to pay for these lovlies. :o)

A Summit on Identity Theft Solutions

Thursday I attended A Summit on Identity Theft Solutions presented by the state. The draw was a meeting for notaries, but it ended up being presented by the NNA and was much a repeat of my notary training class. But I also attended two other seminars ("Identity Theft Protection Tips for Consumers" and "Protecting Your Privacy Online") which both contained useful info. For consumers, Mari Frank recommended using credit cards rather than the Debit Mastercard/Visa cards as they offer better protection. She also recommended checking your credit report annually from each of the three bureaus. You can do it online at AnnualCreditReport.com. To protect your privacy online, panelists said that you MUST run both a firewall and antivirus software — and keep them up-to-date. They recommended the Zone Alarm Suite. It just really boggles my mind how people can be such snakes as to steal identity.

Fresh air

It's sunny out today, albiet windy and cold. But we decided to get a bit of fresh air anyway.

and a little song....

We decided to do a little singing whilst enjoying the sunshine.

Martha and Jim's 40th

At the end of January I flew to Baton Rouge for my sister's 40th anniversary surprise party. It was delightful; her kids put a TON of work into it, and the whole thing was a roaring success. Here Martha and Jim cut their cake (which was almond, and so very good).

Cheesecake Bistro

Ned, Merilyn, mom and I ate lunch Monday before I headed out. As you see, we'd parked the car under a tree that was apparently very popular with the birds.

New Orleans

Ned drove me back to the New Orleans airport for my flight out. We had some extra time, so we drove through some of the flood-damaged parts of the city. Here you can see the FEMA markings and the waterline just under the rooftop.

Taylor Guitars

During the annual North American Music Merchants show in January, Ken enjoying touring the Taylor Guitars booth (if you can call a 2,000-sq. ft. room a "booth"). These are a few of their artsy pieces...

RKS at NAMM

The RKS team spent many hours finishing about 50 custom pieces for the show, and the booth was a huge success.

Open Source Office Suite

These are two recommended software packages: the first, OpenOffice, is much like Microsoft's Office Suite. Except it's free. I haven't used it myself, but hear it gets excellent reviews. The second, CutePDF, has a free PDF writer. Save yourself the Adobe Acrobat purchase of $250 or so bucks if all you need is to create PDFs.

This has been one of those days that I feel like I've had a metaphorical dump truck of manure unloaded on my head. But, this, too, shall pass.

Podfitness :: Your Music. Your Workout. Your Way.

Podfitness. How high tech are we? This site is set to launch EOM and I'm really interested to see what it's like. I assume it'll be much like a workout version of iTunes, and I would hope the cost wouldn't be much more than that, either. I applied to Beta test it; waiting to hear if I qualify. Guess I'll have to borrow hubby's iPod (or get my own!).