I'm Still a Total Geek.

Got my new fancy, super smart pen in the mail today -- a LiveScribe Pulse Pen. It's a pretty neat little thing. Of course, I was totally excited when I saw my work colleague show me his, but when I was telling the Slacker and others, they were all, like, "oh, yeah, I've heard about those" or "oh, yeah, my boss has one" or "oh, yeah, those are pretty neat." Once again, though a total geek, I was completely out of the loop.

But I don't care. I still get excited by new-to-me technology! So there! And my enthusiasm convinced my boss, so we both have one now! We'll see how it works out. I'm not in as many meetings as I used to be (oh, if only I'd had one of these when I was Project Director or implementing Banner). But workflow, business analysis, etc. can still benefit.

On a separate note, AMERICAN IDOL is BACK! This week, Chicago auditions. I'm finding they aren't as painful to watch as in previous seasons -- okay, maybe the are (as I listen to someone singing Tiny Tim as his audition). I'm not a big fan of the auditions, so I look forward to when the real competition begins.

Bring it, Simon!

Keiko & WoW

Keiko makes her debut in WoW after the recent release of the new Calico vanity pet.

Here we have Keiko and Pirjo taking a moment for a nice holiday photo-shoot in Dalaran during the Winter's Veil celebration.



Pirjo has nearly 70 pets to care for now! Sometimes she just doesn't know what to do with them all!

Happy New Year! Redux?

Okay, I'm a few days late posting Happy New Years greetings, but as the saying goes, better late then never. So to all my faithful readers (you know who you are, all 3 of you!), HAPPY NEW YEARS! I hope for us all a wonderful year full of many blessings that we both give and receive.

I spent New Years Eve quietly. I joined Andrew and some friends out at the beach for sunset, champagne and fire. Even though it was too cloudy to see the sun actually set, we felt it in spirit.

Here are some of the group chatting around the bonfire as we wait for the sun to make it's farewell to 2009.



Here are some of the guys -- aren't they totally cute? -- making their way down to the shoreline.



Here are all of us, sans Andrew, by the fire. I know the picture is dark, but heck, it was dark and who wants to deal with a flash when you've got a roaring fire? Just imagine a group of happy people, slightly flushed from champagne, and you'll have us just right! If I get the time, I'll try to mess around with the pic in photoshop or something...



And more cute boys.



And while we were not able to watch the sun actually set, we did watch the Blue Moon rise, at least during the few moments when it peaked at us between those pesky clouds.



After the bonfire a few folks joined me back at my place for some more champagne and some foodie things. We watched the cut-over to 2010 in NYC along with Kathy and Anderson. The rest of the night was just me and the kitties curled up on the couch watching, of all things to watch on New Years Eve, The Thin Blue Line. Sometimes I wonder about myself.

All in all, it was a chill way to move from 2009 to 2010.

Incidentally, I still have left over champagne chilling in my fridge... it really mustn't be wasted.