Good morning:

Well, how was your Thanksgiving? Even though our family was spread out we talked to all and Marcia, Adrianne, and I had a Norman Rockwell time across the street with the Knoops. Thanks Jeff and Mary Ann.

This year there was no battle, just a massive display of “Tour de Force” by the perfect little family across the street. For those not in the know, Marcia has been consistently outclassed and out maneuvered by them when it comes to Christmas home decorations, especially in the area of icicle lights. I came home from running an errand just as the whole group came outside. Dad carrying a 40 or so foot ladder, as if it were nothing. Eldest son with a simple nod assisted in holding the ladder in place while mom and the younger ones started laying out the lights. By the time Marcia was able to put down the baby blanket-embroidering project that has taken over her whole life, they were done. An hour later I struggled outside trying to maneuver our little stepladder through the front door as Marcia carried the two little bundles of lights.

I too got caught up in the Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. Yesterday morning 7 AM I was at Staples picking up a Read-Write CDRom drive – on sale for $9.99 after rebate. It was already well after dinner when I gave up for the evening with the simple (according to the 5 page installation manual) installation procedure. Whatever I tried I got a skull-and-crossbones message stating the “API Initialization Failed”. Problem is, there is no reference to an “API” file anywhere. The accompanying software is German and I even got on line to their web site in Germany, probably in a place with a name like “Belsen Bergen”. This proved to be absolutely no help at all – “achtung, you vill read every one of our 350 pages of help, ja!” I have promised Marcia that if it can’t be solved within 2 hours today I’ll drag it to work and beg our power-twin techs to deal with it.

Hey, it’s time for a coffee refill. In place of listening to NPR Echoes I have had a CD by Lila Downs on “Borders“, what a great voice (hit the link and have a look at her great web site). Talking about “best”, go to the bottom of the page and click on the new “Week’s Best” button. Especially for the wordsmith crowd and those with kids, this site is a bit slow to load but once the applet is in place be sure to play around for a bit – if you like words then this is the site for you.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Dirk