Our San Juan Islands Vacation Looms

We’re just a few days away from beginning our vacation to the San Juan Islands. I can’t believe its almost here. I’ve always loved the Pacific Northwest, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity to introduce our kids to it.

It will also be the first flying vacation the kids have taken since our trip to Italy two years ago. Now that Hallie’s 5 and Travis is almost 3, it will be interesting to see how they enjoy the travel.

Kelly and I don’t splurge on a lot of things, but we do love to travel. I can think of few things more educational for our kids than visiting someplace new.

Heading Home Today

Today (this morning, actually) is my last day in Annapolis. I’m spending most of the day in Baltimore working with a customer. My flight leaves BWI this evening, though if things go smoothly I may be home earlier than that.

I had a good time wandering around downtown by myself yesterday evening. The cool, dry weather had been replaced by mugginess, but I walked from the office to a local bar/restaurant in spite of it. I took my laptop along, thinking I’d do some writing there but instead enjoyed people-watching too much to haul it out. A Fordham’s Tavern Ale and a shrimp-and-steak dinner later, I was headed back to my hotel room to spend the rest of the evening finishing a book.

It’s been a nice visit. Annapolis is a charming city. Still, I can’t wait to be home again!

Revenge Of The Cable TV Monopoly?

Hours after I posted my glee about the apparent defeat of the Local Government Fair Competition Act (HB 1587), my home’s cable modem goes kaput. Hmmmmm. Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat?

Interestingly, still not a word about this in the local high-profile press, as far as I know.

Update: At the moment I posted this, Ryan Teague Beckwith at the N&O mentioned it in the paper’s politics blog, so that’s some mention, anyway.

Update 2, 9AM: My cable modem is online again. Looks like a routine firmware update might have taken place last night, giving the modem a new IP address and making it temporarily invisible from the outside world. It had been months since that had happened, so I was due. No conspiracy here, move along. 🙂

Wakemed, UnitedHealthcare Reach Deal

I’m slow finding out about this, but ten days ago Wakemed and UnitedHealthcare apparently kissed and made up after UHC’s dropping the hospital from its coverage left many patients hanging.

Once I got laid off in May this became a non-issue for me, ironically. Still, its good to see that UHC recognizes the valuable care Wakemed provides. After the movie Sicko came out there is no doubt in my mind who the good guys were in this matter.

N.C. Bill Limiting Municipal Internet Effectively Killed!

Mark Kleinschmidt reports (and Wilson’s Brian Bowman confirms) that N.C. House Bill 1587, the so-called Local Government Fair Competition Act, has been moved to committee. This effectively kills it, thanks to the many citizens who let their opposition be heard!

Says, Kleinschmidt:

Reports from the committee meetings tell me that after the committee’s action, Chairman Luebke publicly thanked those who took part in the “tremendous grass roots effort, ” that “brought this bill to a halt.”

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Watch Yourself

I got to Baltimore this morning and realized I packed no less than three watches. Being that I only have two arms to wear them on, this is quite unusual indeed.

I wonder what message I’m trying to send myself.

Ahoy, Annapolis

I return to Annapolis tomorrow morning for another three days ashore …er, or something like that. Two days will be spent in admin training and the last day will be a customer upgrade, I believe. I’m hoping to get more time to look around, too, but we’ll see.

Check with y’all later.

Using Thunderbird With Zimbra

My current employer uses Zimbra for email and calendar hosting. I’d been told that there was little that my favorite email client, Thunderbird, could do as far as interacting with Zimbra.

Of course, I got IMAP email working with Zimbra fairly easily. To my delight, though, I got Thunderbird syncing with the Zimbra server’s calendar feature! Here’s how it works:
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Pacific Northwest Weather

Man, I’m just loving this weather lately. Its like a taste of the weather we’ll enjoy when we visit the San Juan Islands next week. Kelly and I both agree we’re looking forward to Washington State’s occasionally-chilly weather.

On another note, I was amused to see Sunday’s News and Observer’s travel section feature the San Juan Islands. What would y’all write about if it wasn’t for me? 🙂