Month: January 2007

Apple has some cool new products

I know, I’m a geek. So just ignore this post if you’re looking for the fun, family stuff. I’ve been listening to the Keynote speech at MacWorld. That’s usually where they announce all of their new products. Last year was the Intel chip, so you could run Windows on your Mac. This year, it’s the Apple TV, the iPhone, and everything related. I think Apple has relegated Microsoft’s Vista launch to a complete afterthought. Even though I work with Microsoft products everyday, I’m 10x more excited about what Apple is doing.

The Apple TV lets you stream your videos that you put on iTunes to your TV. That includes movies that you would get off of iTunes, fancy DVD movies Julie creates, etc. It also includes any sort of slideshow or whatever you create in iPhoto. Really cool stuff. The first compelling reason for me to get an HDTV. Well, that and the analogs will be obsolete soon.

The even cooler product is the iPhone that’s been anticipated for a while. Truly a cool thing. I’ve never been much of a phone fan. You won’t find me typing into a Blackberry or whatever. But this one is different. They partnered with Cingular. Some think that’s a bad thing, but I don’t know enough about phones and service providers to comment. All I know is that it looks cool. Someday . . .

You can get all the nerdy details here and here.

Classic Skating Roller Derby

This is Julie for a change. I thought I would write about our family night–one we soon won’t forget. We started off the night eating at Apollo Burger–home of the best flame broiled burgers around (in my opinion). The girls are still getting used to the Utah trademarks i.e. fry sauce & family discounts. Speaking of discounts, Classic Skating rink had a whopper of a deal that runs (yes, you guessed it) every Monday night. A family of six can skate from 6-9pm for $10. We pulled up and talk about an 80’s flashback. I don’t think they have changed a thing at the rink except maybe the shoelaces on the skates! I’m exaggerating a little but it was very much like how I remembered the joint in days of yore.

It was quite a task just getting everyone’s skates on and standing up—then came the ballad of the awkward and uncoordinated. Lets just say I’m soooo glad we tried roller skating before we took them ice skating (it was in the running). Within five minutes, Abigail was zipping all over the place showing off her moves. One time around the rink with Grace and my lower back was screaming for ice and time out! The minute Lucy stood up in her skates she was posing in her ballet positions and to my surprise was quite coordinated with the skating. She headed straight for the middle (free skate area for free thinkers) and danced in the neon lights.

Brian was too cool to put his skates on for the first 30 minutes. After seeing all the other families discoing around on foot, scooter, strollers, you name it he decided it was safe to venture out and help Grace who at this point was a permanent fixture on the floor. By the end of the evening we had heard many 80’s flashback favorites, participated in many silly Hoky Pokyish games and such, stuffed ourselves with tangy taffy, swedish fish & sour patch kids (to go along with the theme), and Grace had made great strides in actually staying vertical. We left @ 8:00 with wailing, sore bottoms, our notes on what to bring next time (stroller, scooter, & knee pads) and a sugar high that can’t be matched. I asked Grace if she like the music and she said excitedly, “Oh yes, Mom, especially the High School Musical soundtrack–I loved it!”

The only way we could get them to leave was a promise to come back. They asked when and I told them when they go to bed good 14 nights, THEN we’ll think about it. Could work out good for all–2 weeks out we shouldn’t have any bruises left (exception Grace may still be recovering–she fell hard), it’s only 10 George Washingtons, and we might have little girls that go to bed on time with visions of Classic Skating nights yet to come! We spent a grand total of $21 for dinner and a night of Helter Skelter Skating. Enjoy the pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Gwenyth is Little

Julie took Gwen in this morning for a well check-up. She was very impressed with the office and with all of the people there. I can’t remember the doctor’s name, but he came highly recommended by a few folks, and he didn’t disappoint.

While all of that was fine and dandy, the doctor basically told Julie that Gwenyth is less than one percent on the charts, and unless she starts drinking whole milk all day long, she’s going to be small her whole life. We’ve always kind of blown things off in the past, because she eats like a tank. And she eats pretty much anything and everything. But now we really need to focus on getting her lots of whole milk and other dairy products. The doctor suggested cheese. I think I might suggest ice cream, so I can have an ice cream partner at night.

The whole thing kind of alarmed Julie, I think, and we’re probably going to be making some changes to the little one’s diet. Less crackers, rice, and noodles, more milk, cheese, and lard. She’d better enjoy it — it’s probably the only time in her life that a doctor will recommend that for her diet. Maybe I’ll gain some of the 15 pounds I lost in the last month stressing about this move. Hopefully not.