Vista

I'm testing out the February CTP of Vista (5309) and it seems okay, but I just don't see much of an advantage of these new features. When XP first came out I simply turned off many of the enhancements.

Yes, like always I see the advantage for those who don't know how to navigate around in Windows- but other than the 5 year olds who haven't used Windows in the past - who doesn't know how already? Plus those 5 year olds will catch on just fine to anything you show them.

The funniest part so far for me -

It looks as if they actually broke Solitare. Yes, Solitare that for the most part which has gone unchanged for over ten year other than card backings does not work on my build. I can't even open it up. :)

I give it 10 stars. Excellent job Microsoft.

Walk on the Ocean, Step on the stones

Today for work I had to go to One Tree Hill (Wilmington), North Carolina. The job wasn't especially hard, but it just takes 3 hours to get there ultimately. So, in an 8 hour work day, 6 hours would be spent driving. Well, the way I drive maybe 5 hours.

We've lived in NC for 7 months now - and I still haven't been back to the ocean. Since I was literally 3 miles or so from the ocean, I figured I'd just go home later and stop by.

I know it is no big deal, but when you can just take 30 minutes out of your day to take a walk on the beach as a change of pace, it is actually pretty awesome and clears you head, at least for a minute. It's even better when it is a nice late winter day in the 70s. :)

As far as One Tree Hill goes I'll totally admit I watch a variety of teen shows on the WB - including Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, and Smallville. If you aren't watching those, you are missing out. One Tree Hill I know is supposed to be set in North Carolina, and is filmed in Wilmington. I can only sort of tell by being in the city, but then again it isn't like I was visiting the locations where filming takes place. http://onetreehillfans.com/maps/ (link doesn't work right now but I bet the site will come back up.)

I know I'm a dork. Shut it. :)

Greetings from the Smoky Mountains

Wendy's 28th birthday was on Wednesday. We celebrated it that day, but in our normal tradition we also went on a trip to the Smoky Mountains, to Gatlinburg more specifically. Normally we stay at the Fairfield Inn on River Road, but it was sold out so we looked around online and found the Best Western Zodor's Inn . It is on the other side of town but still within walking distance in Gatlinburg.

Normally we like to hike when we are here so we did a fairly easy uphill trail to Laurel Falls.


What you can't see by the second picture is that I sprained my ankle pretty bad and I could hardly hold myself up. The trail wasn't especially rough - I wasn't even tired or anything. The worst part about it was I had to walk the 1.3 miles back down with a sprained ankle. Needless to say, when we finally got back to our hotel it was getting pretty bad. I could hardly walk. We just relaxed in the room for a while and went out to dinner but no more hiking the rest of the trip and my inability to walk stifled what we could do the rest of the day.

The 2nd day i'm a bit better and can walk in my dorky looking shoes. Hiking is still out of the question and with an ankle support wrap and painkillers I think we can at least walk around.