Junk in the trunk........

Trash to treasure, junking, shabby chick, re-purposing.  All of these terms help to describe an obsession that my wife Mollie exhibits.  Taking somebody's trash and transforming it into a modern day piece of functional art and or decoration is Mollie's extreme hobby of choice.

I admit that I have no vision when it comes to this sort of thing.  I woul

d have never in a million years thought that a hundred year old shutter would make a good bill / mail organizer.  Nor would I haver ever taken old fashioned hand drills and bolted them to a piece of wood to make a coat rack.  However, despite this deficiency I am certainly able to appreciate the beauty of the completed projects.  I am equally if not more so appreciative of my wife's eye for junking and her passion for it.  It amazes me how God had made us just enough alike to make our marriage work and so completely opposite in other areas that make our marriage quite interesting and enjoyable. 

I have slowly started to participate in Mollie's junk projects and begin to feel her joy.  Here is her latest project:

Mollie has always wanted to turn an old trunk into a coffee table.  Two weeks ago while surfing on craigslist, she found this old trunk along with several beautiful white linen table covers.  Cost: $20.00!  We bought some casters at Lowes and I attached them to a wood frame that I then attached to the bottom of the trunk. Ta Da!  A $30.00 coffee table that you can't find in any store that we know.  We are contemplating adding a glass top to complete the table in the near future.

I love this trunk!  My first thought when we finished it?  I wonder how much we can sell this thing for?????

Apple & MAC PC's.......

As most of you know, I often describe myself in the business world as "A geek with a personality." It works well for my job as a Sales Engineer for Xerox. I have always loved computers. In 1984 I walked into our school library and found an Apple IIe computer. A user was writing a simple and (to me) easy to understand code that when executed read "Hello" on the screen. I was hooked. I quickly became a charting member of the Tri-Valley high school's first computer programing team using QBasic and DOS 1.something. That was 1984. (Yes that is me on the Apple II in the library.)


My first pc was an Apple II c. Cost me a little over $2000.00 in 1989 (Some things never change.) It had a 9" green screen and I loved it!!!!!

Quickly, I found out that if you want to make a living in computers, a new company called Microsoft was something to consider.

Fast forward to 2004, the year I was recruited by the then 3rd largest Xerox Agency in the US. In the Xerox world, you have to be proficient at both Microsoft PC's AND Apple MAC PC's. Perfect! Our offices have both Apple and PC's in them and increasingly I see more and more of our customers using MAC's. Well, I have made the switch (Back) to Apple and MAC and all I have to say is "WOW"! My company bought be a new Apple MAC Book Pro and I am simply shocked! Here are the fine points:

LED screen. Very low power consumption and super high resoltion.
Battery. Up to 5 hours depending on what I am doing. 2.5 hours under heavy use.
Easier. Everthing a PC can do (And more) but much fewer steps. Ex. 7 PC, 3 MAC
Value. More included software to numerous to detail.
Viruses. Default deny. Simple, effective and non annoying i.e. Vista
Stable. Does not crash...ever!
Speed. MAC OS 10.5 is very fast on an Intel Core Duo Processor.
Windows. I run Windwos XP in a "Window" on my MAC FASTER than a PC can.
No Registery. Ever wonder why your PC slows down over time? Its the registry.

I'm not a Microsoft PC Hater. I just love value and things that enhance my life not subtract from it.

Here is how to switch to a MAC: Buy one and use it and only it for at least two weeks. Humans don't like change even it its good so give it two weeks. Welcome to the family. :-)

Ok, so its been a while since I posted. Sorry. The holidays were busy as usual and I am still getting used to the whole idea also.

Well I did it, I took the plunge and joined Face Book! I resisted for so long and so many people wondered why. After all, everyone knows that I am a "relationship" kind of guy not to mention a technology expert so why the resistance.

Well two months into it I am learning that I was right all along. Oh sure, there are a couple of cool things like seeing what some of my high school buddies look like now and what they are doing or where they are living etc. but for the most part I am not to excited about the whole thing. To start, I have found that there is an unwritten contest on Face Book that goes something like this - "He who dies with the most Face Book friends wins". It was fine at first, my kids added me and then my sister added me. Soon there after however, I was getting friend requests from teenage kids from Church. Then their friends from school were sending me friend request. Obviously because I am a cool dad or something. I dunno. The final straw however are the people who you roll to voice mail when they call you. Now they can send you little messages through Face Book saying "hey, I have been trying to get a hold of you. Are you ok?" And everyone of you Face Book friends can see the post. ARRRGGHHH! The other thing I found out was that as a father & husband with a full time job in Corporate America, I really don't need to be getting Face Book updates like "Kyle is mourning the loss of her hamster but happy that Sarah is her new BFF."

I haven't killed my Face Book account yet but it is immenant. In the mean time however, I have joined and thoroghly love the social networking site for business professionals called www.LinkedIn.com check it out!