!@#$%^&* Computer!

Having an internet connection problem here. Last several days all my energy has gone into troubleshooting. I'm seriously wish I could junk this thing and move back to my Mac. However, all my business stuff is windows based - argh. I did at least switch from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. Hopefully the security will be better. I also now have two different spyware programs, in addition to Norton.

I really miss my Mac; I actually felt competent once. They purposely make Windows difficult so that they can keep all the shmoes who fix it employed. I don't know anyone who has not had computer problems with Windows, which caused them to be without a computer for a week or more. Have you? I bet if you're on a Mac you are laughing at the rest of us losers. I miss being one of the people who laughed!

Here's hoping I don't time out while I publish...

Uncle Mike's Wedding

This is the first time that the D family has all been together in several years. We're turning into a "weddings and funerals" family. Although my parents probably wish it otherwise, I think it works just fine for us.

On the top left is my brother Robert. In front of him is his life partner and her son. Front left is my sister Debbie. Then me and my men. The bride is next, standing next to my brother Mike. In front of him is my mom. Next to him is my dad. And the two on the right are Mike's wife's children.

The wedding was lovely, as were the two celebrations following. I had the pleasure of taking photographs for the couple, enjoying alone time with them in the limo on the way to our photo destinations, right after the ceremony. I remember the first hour after my ceremony finding it so hard to stop smiling, and it was no different for Mike and Mary. Check out the glow:
It was so very cool to be there for all those smiles and all that glowing. You can't fake that kind of intense positive energy.

We missed taking photos at the lighthouse because it started to rain, but later we were treated to a truly spectacular rainbow, and I played with it in photoshop:
Instead of checking and answering all my email this morning, I spent the a.m. going through all the photos, and playing with some as well. Overall, I think they came out pretty good, although I do wish I used the flash in the church; some of the photos are slightly fuzzy, and it could've been avoided with the flash. I'm always an advocate of natural lighting though. As soon as I get all the photos uploaded I'll post a link here. Some of them will not be up though since I ran out of disk space and had to use film. I'd like to get them on CD too, but only if they are high enough resolution to print from.

We will be heading back up to Maine for Easter in two weeks. April always seems to be such a busy month for us. For now, we are glad to be home.

Boston

On the way to Maine we stopped in Boston for the day on Friday. Instead of going to the Aquarium, we decided on the Children's Museum. It is one of my all-time favorite children's museums. They do a great job with keeping the kids attention; everything is so interactive. I thought maybe R was getting too old for it, but he liked working the cash register in the grocery store just as much as E did, and spent a lot of time playing in the water area. He also liked the new house area, where he could build one out of blocks, and the Japanese house, where he made an origami goose which he was quite proud of. E's favorite areas are the grocery stores and weaving. And of course, they both love spending time in the construction zone and rock climbing. They also played a giant game of chess. Really, it is a terrific museum. We managed to spend about five hours there. Aquarium would've been three, tops.

Unfortunately I don't have photos to post here. I needed the room on my disks for Mike's wedding, so I uploaded my photos from Boston onto my sister's laptop. I'm hoping she is good about getting them posted on Winkflash for me. We really had such an enjoyable day, I'd like to make sure I have photos.