The three....

I was going to write musketeers, but I think that they're more like the three stooges

Hawaiian Quilts

While in Kauai, Cheryl and I each got a pack of Hawaiian fabric scraps from Hilo Hattie. It was $5 per bag of mostly square scraps which were remnants from their clothing production. I picked a masculine looking pack to make a quilt for Chris's room. Cheryl got a more colorful pack. Here are our finished quilts...

Here's Cheryl's. It's her first quilt and she did a great job:



And here is the one that I made for Chris:



Not bad for $5, huh?

It's been a busy at work since we got back, but look for the Kauai recap to start up again soon!
Aloha!

Long time, no post....

My SIL and Mom mentioned that I haven't posted in a while. Well, nothing much has been happening... I've been injured, I tried running through it. It's my plantar fascia, and it got worse. So my personal physical therapist, Cheryl, convinced me to stop running until it's better.

On one of my non-runnng weekends, we went SUP-ing in Dana Point Harbor. We had to carry the boards from the shop to the beach... those things are heavy! It's a good thing that Jim came with us. I admit that I fell in. It's hard to balance when I can't put my full weight on my foot (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).







Jim and Jena were gone camping for a few days, and it's as if all the critters knew that Jena was gone! We got a visit from Hoover:





And from Sylvester:



Here are some more pics that I took of Cheryl running... since I can't run, I have lots of Cheryl running pictures. Here's Cheryl smokin' Steve. Haha! Yeah, Steve, we are letting this one go viral, lol!



Here's a pic of me... no running, but I'm out there on my bike. I didn't take this one, obviously. I guess it's really trendy and cool to take slanted pictures now. So, do I look cool?



One last picture:



So, that is all that's up at our house.

We have adventures in home decorating coming up SOON!!!

Look who's come to visit...

She has taken up residence in my hanging basket... can you see her?





The geraniums were really starting to come back nice too. Oh, well... She already has eggs so she gets to stay. :oD

HOT HOT HOT!!!

Not Cooling.... yet...

A Girl needs her Accessories

The next step is to setup my Galaxy Tab for travel journaling. Up to now I've been using a traditional paper journal with colored pens. That works, but I still need to type my journaling in when I get home to post to my blog or to create a photo book. It's better to just type it in to begin with, right?

So the first off I need some ACCESSORIES... like a keyboard. I can't journal using the virtual keyboard. That thing drives me nuts! I need a real keyboard that I can touch and goes click, click, click when I type. It was easy finding a keyboard. I just jumped on Amazon and here is what I found. It's cute... it makes my 7" tablet look like a micro-mini laptop... and better yet, it fits in my purse!



Next I needed a journal app. This was a lot harder.. I tried searching for "journal," "diary," "notepad," and "Word." I tried several of the top rated ones and even one called "Travel Journal." As with my experience with other Android apps. They didn't all work well; some didn't work at all; some didn't work with the bluetooth keyboard; and some didn't allow me any way to get the text off the tablet for blogging or photo book creation. Finally in my frustration I loaded a non-free app called Write.

Write is designed for students to take notes in class, but it works perfectly for what I wanted in a journal app. I can start a new entry or add to existing entries. It works great with the new bluetooth keyboard, and it has built in sharing with the Blogger app. It doesn't have spell check though... none of the apps that I tried had spell check. Spell check must take up too much memory on a tablet.

The last thing I need... in the words of Tim Allen... is MORE POWER! On our camping vacation next month, I don't know how much availability we will have to a power outlet. So, back to Amazon and I found this little cutie.



It also doubles as a flashlight, so it's perfect for camping. And BONUS... it's PINK! I tried charging my tablet with it, but it only charged from just about dead to 50%. I'm going to get one for Jim's iPad too, but I'm going to get him one with larger capacity... and his can be blue :oD

The last thing I need is a File Manager. I can't stand not know where all my files are! I need to be able to move them, copy them, delete them, and rename them... In other words, I need to show this android device who's boss. So I found one called, not surprisingly... File Manager.

File Manager let's me control the what's and where's of the files on my tablet. What more can a girl ask for.

So I'm all SET! Bring on the week long camping trip... I'm ready!

More Android Fun...

FUN?!!!... Frustrating is more like it...

I figured out that Android Apps are a "free-for-all," and not all of them are free. I've tried many apps trying to figure out how to stream line my work flow. I'm getting into the Six Sigma process design, haha.

Anyway, the only things I use my Galaxy Tab for is 1) Reading eBooks 2) Posting on my Blog.

READING

Reading eBooks was a no brainer... the Kindle app took care of it all. It even works with most of my library eBooks. I have the Overdrive app for the library eBooks not borrowed from Kindle, but I haven't had to use it yet.

BLOGGING

Posting to my blog was not so easy. I tried many apps... different cameras, different photo editors, different journal apps. Some paid for, and some not... and many many apps that did not work or only partially worked. Thought I would like one app to do it all, no such thing existed. I needed a camera app, photo editor app, blogger app, and other apps that I didn't know I needed until I tried them as you will see if you keep reading:

I several different cameras... the popular Zoom FX, Paper Camera, and others that add special effect or borders. But, I keep going back to the camera app that came with the tablet. It's easy to use. I can zoom in and out using the volume buttons, there is a timer, burst mode, and I can record video with it. It's has everything that I need in a camera, plus it saves my pictures to my SD card instead of tablet memory. The other camera apps have been removed from the tablet.

I have tried many many many different photo editors until I settled on Aviary. It's easy to use. I can fix the image quality, add frames, crop, add text, and it can share with Blogger. That's what I need 98% of the time. One of the editors I tried was the very popular Instagram app. I like my pictures clear, bright and colorful. Near as I can tell, Instagram is for making your pictures look old. They do have a great community, but I can't have my family going to multiple sites to see what I want to show them.... I think that's just rude.

The last thing I needed was the Blogger app. The Blogger app lets me create a new post (with text and pictures) and publish it to my blog. Simple, straight forward and easy.

Now I can post simple text and pictures to my blog! Hooray!

So here is my blogging process:

1) Take a picture. I can use the camera app or take the picture through Aviary.
2) Edit the picture in Aviary.
3) Select sharing in Aviary and post straight to Blogger.

THE NEXT STEP

There are some fun apps out there that let me "play" with my pictures. Here are my favorites:

Instead of posting an entire line of photos to my blog, I'll post a collage of photos. The first collage maker I tried was Photo Grid. It did everything I wanted, so I didn't even try any other app.

InstaPlace along with InstaWeather are fun they let me add some stylish text over the photos marking the place, time and weather. However, they require wifi to work. So even though I have GPS location turned on, it still won't tag the photo without wifi. A total bust for camping. I added the InstaPlace information on the camping photo in the post below after I got home (no wifi in the campground).

So here is my blogging process if I want to use any of these extra apps:

1) Take a picture. I can use the camera app or take the picture through Aviary.
2) Edit the picture in Aviary.
3) Save the picture to my SD card.
4) Open the picture in the app of choice.
5) Edit the picture (create collage or add location text)
6) Save the picture to the SD card.
7) Post the picture using blogger.

I hope this helps anyone who is trying to get some basic use out of their new android device.

Test new Android app

How do I get rid of the virutual keayboard? I'm using the blue toothe keyboard. Hit ESC o to remove the keyboard. Spell check? I need spellcheck! ARRGH!

At least I figured out how to post a photo!

Nothin' nothin'

It's been quite a while since I've blogged, but really there has been nothing going on.

Chris is out of summer school, and is waiting for Fall semester to start. Cheryl is in summer school. Jim went camping twice without me. I'm super busy at work and too tired to do anything when I get home.

So what to blog about... nothing much, but did you know that today is National Zucchini Day? In fact every day of the year is assigned an American National Food Holiday.

Cheryl was born on Bean Day... somehow that seems fitting.
Jim was born on Irish Coffee day. It doesn't seem right that is an AMERICAN food holiday.

Shellfish and Snails get their day too...
Chris was born on National Baked Scallops Day.
Grandma and Papa were married on National Ecargot Day.

How sweet it is...
Papa was born on National Gingersnap Day, and Grandma was born on National Sugar Cookie Day.

Jim and I were married on "Grab Some Nuts Day" ... enough said there...

And I was born on National Parfait Day. I don't remember ever having a parfait. Maybe for my birthday this year :oD

So what day is your special day?

http://www.tfdutch.com/foodh.htm

It must be Christmas!

It all starts with a red cup! Cheryl and I had our first "red cups" of the season on buy one holiday drink, get one free afternoon. Nothing like a special treat for my birthday... a gingerbread latte. I wonder why "Jack in the Box" is caroling on the Starbucks cup?...

I had a really nice day at my folks house! Chris made me a new blog header. All from scratch... no clip art used! Do you LOVE it? I DO!!!

Cheryl got me a new whistling kettle in RED! It's so PRETTY I LOVE it!

Jim got me a Samsung Galaxy Tab... I must have left enough hints, lol! I'm still trying to figure it out. It's going to be very handy to have around! I LOVE it!

Another thing I LOVE is all my family coming together and making me feel special on my day! I LOVE you all!

Another sign of Christmas comes from my dad... He's always the first one on the block to hang his Christmas lights.

Ready or not... here comes Christmas! Planning. Projects. Decorating. Shopping. Trying to remember what radio station plays the 24/7 holiday music.

Bring on Christmas! I'm Ready!

How to install Eclipse for C++ on XP and Vista

This is kind of a strange post, but I spent all day with Chris trying to figure out how to install Eclipse for C++ development. There are tutorials for how to install Eclipse for Java, but not C++. Since we have it figured out, we thought we'd share for all the others trying the same thing. Here's what you do (be patient these loadables are HUGE):

1. Download and install MinGW from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/

Click on "Looking for the latest version? Download mingw-get-inst-20120426.exe (662.7 kB)"

2. Add MinGW bin directory to path enviroment variable (step by step below for XP, Vista is similar):

Go to Control Panel/System/Advanced/Environment Variables
Select path in the list of System variables
Press Edit
Go to the end of path list
Add a ; and add bin directory in MinGW directory (e.g., ;c:\MinGW\bin)

3. Download and install Java - Windows Online from http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

4. Download Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers, from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/index.php (32-bit or 64-bit)

Find out if you have 32-bit or 64-bit OS by going here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827218

5. Unzip eclipse-... .zip
Create a shorcut on your desktop to Eclipse (e.g., to c:\Program Files\eclipse\eclipse.exe)

All done! Now try it:

1. Start Eclipse (close that big window with the icons that comes up)

2. Name your workspace.

3. Create a project: File -> New -> C++ Project

Select: Executable -> Hello World C++ Project (NOT a GNU Autotools project!)

4. Build and Run!

New pictures

I'm on a wall decorating spree! It's amazing how just changing the pictures around in a room can make it feel like new! I've never been a big wall decor person, but with Cheryl's help, I managed to put together a nice wall.

The drawing by Cheryl isn't new... I just moved it from a different wall. And I added a couple of my favorite layouts of the kids. The highlight of the wall is my Christmas present from Chris. Isn't this great?!!! It's a panorama he took of Positano, Italy last summer. I really LOVE it!

Girls in Hats....

Knowing my current obsession with mixed media girls, it's no wonder that I LOVE this idea by Junelle... Girls in Hats!

I don't know if I'll actually make any, but I started drawing hat pictures just in case (all on yellow post-its of course).

Speaking of girls in hats...

They brought a photo booth to the company Christmas Party! A couple of my running friends Shanaz (left) and Paloma (middle) talked me into this little adventure. You can see that I'm starting to get into it there at the end, hahaha!

Engineers without Borders

Last weekend I competed on the Panasonic Engineers without Borders team! I was the last person asked to join, making up our team of 13 engineers. I'm one of the oldest people on the team! {sigh} When did I get OLD?!!! Anyway, here we are! Panasonic's Engineering team!

Engineering without Borders isn't so much an athletic event as it is a team work event. Our first event was a series of relay events which included a balloon toss, pass the water down the line to fill a bucket, and pass a hula hoop down the line and back again... We also had: putting...

A walk the plank to the end of the field and back:

In this one we were supposed to find little foam blocks in a bin of packing foam, without knocking any foam outside the bin (points deducted if we get any foam on the ground). It's not as easy as it sounds!

Our two basket ball players were enlisted to throw the balls into the bucket... they didn't say we couldn't use a couple of our BIG guys as a backstop, lol! Riding on the edge of the rules kind of set the tone for our team, which you will see later...

In this one we had to get everyone to fit on one a small square. More points were given for the smallest squares.

We got a little messed up because we couldn't use the same people in each event (they should have told us that before!) Miriam and I were supposed to run the maze, but we had just done the plank walk. We had a bit of confusion as we tried to figure out who could take our places in the maze. As a result, we lost the relay event.

And here is my dodge ball debut! We had to field three teams. I was in the first team. I didn't know that dodge ball had so many RULES! I'm so proud that I wasn't the first one out... I was the second.... A ball that I threw was caught by the other team, so I was out. My team lost. Our second team fielded won. And our third team lost. So overall, we lost...


Then there is the infamous ropes course! 8 people go up the ropes course and race to the end. The rest of us are on the ground building as tall a structure as we can before the ropes people finish the course. Points are award for the first team finishing the ropes, and for the tallest structure.

Here is the ropes course... I would have loved to go up there, but there was a height requirement.


So I was part of the ground crew (actually I spend more time taking pictures than building the structure). We were handed a gallon zip bag of popsicle sticks and paper clips. We were told that that was all we could use to build our structure. So, our interpretation was that we could use the bag too...

The plan... split the bag open, roll it up, and build on top of it. BRILLIANT! Well... The other teams complained, and we were disqualified.

We also had a tug of war 5 rounds of 12 people each side. Since we had 13 on our team, we had a tug off between all the women to see which one would sit out. Guess who lost? But I took a lot of great photos! Hahaha!

So overall, Panasonic came in 6th out of the 10 companies competing. Kind of a dismal finish for our team of runners, basketball players, and weight lifters.

It was still a FUN time! Here we are waiting for lunch after the competition was over... FIRST in line! At least we got first in something! LOL!