And with it comes colds. I’m finally over mine, and have my voice back at full hollering strength, but its working its way through our kids now.
Ben seems to be mostly recovered — Nic woke up one night to check on him, and he had a fever of almost 104. The poor guy was miserable yesterday, sitting in his chair, mouth hanging open, eyes drooping, barely holding his head up to watch TV. Today he’s pretty much his normal self.
So now its moved on to Abi, who can’t nap today because she can’t breathe — she insists on having her soother (paci, nuk, whatever you call it where you are) in her mouth, and her nose is too full of snot.
Nic, as usual, thus far remains immune. Alas, none of these inflictions have ever hit Daisy…
As reported, the last 10 days have been very busy, but things will be slowing down a bit by next week, so we’re hoping the weather continues to be beautiful and we can enjoy some time outside of the house together. We’re itching to start our outdoor home improvement projects!
Note the new video, and pictures on the sidebar…

OK, that was fun. My voice barely made it, but I managed to talk for the better part of 2 hours, about nothing but geek stuff.
In the mid 90s it was very hard to be a Mac fan. But this group of people, like many other faithful users, did it anyway. They bombed down to Boston every year in a van and rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in tech — in the 90s anyway.
Talking about the company Steve Jobs created after he left Apple in 1984, and how what that company pioneered changed computing, and in particular, changed the Mac into an entirely new beast, was giving this group the back-story to the history they experienced. A chance to re-live the glory years, when the Mac was anything but glorious.
For some of them it was a bit technical, and I could see their eyes going square on me, but over-all I think it went pretty well. I got lots of nice compliments on my presentation, as well as the subject matter. In fact, they kinda treated me like a special guest speaker, and I kinda had a lot of fun with it…

– Apple’s tiny new iPod Shuffle. Almost as small as a key, VoiceOver navigation, 4GB. Making tech smaller makes something like this all the more plausible…
– Sixth Sense Technology. Portable kit that merges the real world with the digital one in natural and compelling ways. Its only an experiment right now, but this kind of thing isn’t that far off. Watch the video!
– America’s First Lady — at work in a soup kitchen, showing the world what grace looks like. Too bad the mainstream media missed the point.

Last week I got that cold that’s been going around. I took a day off, drank lots of water, pounded the vitamins, and did my best to be ready to go for the weekend.
Sunday I spent 5 hours walking through Toronto, talking above traffic. The conversation was fascinating and our efforts somewhat rewarding. But by the end of the day, my cold was back and my voice was gone. Not scratchy, or weak. Completely gone. Can’t squeak out a single word.
And of course, Monday my entire body was aching from the work out. Unaccustomed as I am to sustained movement over 5 hours, a mutiny has begun in my lower extremeties. One that threatens to keep me from ever trying to move so much again.
Surprisingly, my back is doing quite well. My calves ache, and predictably, my feet hurt, but not so much as I would have thought. My left knee is another story. I have no idea why only one knee should be so problematic — I don’t think I was walking harder with my left leg — but it definitely feels like someone hit it with a hammer.
None of this would be so bad if the next 2 weeks weren’t so full. I previously blogged about how the pace of our life is much slower than we’re used to. It would appear that I spoke to soon.
So, if you see me, from a distance, hobbling toward you like a crippled old man, and upon our meeting, I don’t greet you verbally, please don’t be offended. Its not that I don’t like you, its just that its taking all my effort to keep my body from falling apart…

While this recession is certainly hitting some people hard, there are a lot of young professionals, who, so far, seem to be weathering the storm without any problems. In fact, some of us are approaching the point of having disposable income, and looking for a place to invest it.
If someone were to buy 1000 GM shares now, at $1.60 a share, and hold on to them while the economy bottoms out, then begins climbing back upward — and assuming a company like GM survives the fall-out — such a person could make out like a bandit. If GM’s stocks were to return to half their April ’08 value, an investment of $1600 would net a return of  $23,400. That’s 14 times the initial money, in what could be a fairly short amount of time.
We’re not, ourselves, thinking of such an investment, but a friend is. As I stated earlier, I haven’t a lot of confidence in GM. And we’d rather invest when things begin curving upward, not while they’re curving downward. But that change in curve direction can’t be too far off, and one wonders how many opportunities you get in your life to buy when things are really low…
I don’t know my financial history well enough, but is this how previous recessions were turned around? Have people historically made money this way? We dabbled in the stock market a little bit a few years back, made a very thoughtful and researched buy and sell, and made enough money to buy a couple nice couches. It was certainly something we’d consider doing in the future… What say you, Internets? Any advice out there?

Apple’s Forgotten Future
Presented by Jon Wise
In 1985 Steve Jobs was forced out of the company he co-founded, by a man he hired to run the business. While Apple carried on with the momentum set by the Macintosh, having their share of hits and misses along the way, what Jobs did next would help shape technology for the next 20 years, defining the modern Mac in a way few people have imagined.
Come out on Thursday and learn more about this almost-forgotten chapter in the history of our favorite fruit-named computer…
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Jon Wise is a Senior Technology Developer at [redacted] with 10 years of experience developing software applications for Windows and the Web. He’s a graduate of Conestoga College’s Computer Programmer/Analyst diploma, and most recently worked in New York on a manufacturing performance analysis system called [redacted].
He’s been a Mac user since 1993, when he found an old Mac 512k (FatMac) in a dumpster, and brought it back to life. Since then he has worked, in some capacity, on every major Mac OS release since 4.x, although he’s never pursued Mac software development professionally. Jon has published articles on Macs in (the now defunct) eLondon Magazine, and was interviewed by Wired Magazine for an article on Apple’s Newton MessagePad in 2002.
Jon currently lives in [redacted], with his wife Nicole, and two children: Benjamin (2 years old) and Abgail (1 year old), and enjoys travel and video editing on his Mac. He owns and regularly uses a MacBook Pro, an Intel Mac Mini, an AppleTV and an unlocked iPhone 2G.
Here’s hoping I have my voice back by then!

Nic and I have owned 3 Saturns, and been very happy with every one of them. They’re solid cars, get great gas mileage, have no persistent repair issues, and they look decent. We appreciated their no-haggle pricing, and their sales people that treated you with respect.
Of course, that was then, and this is now. For the past couple years, under a new CEO, Saturn has slowly lost everything about it that made it distinct. Now they just put a Saturn logo on other GM cars, including Chevys and Opels, and try to shovel them out the door.
So I guess we’re not too sad that GM is officially closing Saturn’s doors in 2011. Their innovative manufacturing facilities will continue to be re-tasked for GM’s boring, un-interesting vehicles… which will continue to be decimated by more adaptable and consumer-focused car companies. Good thing the government gave them all that bail-out money…
Oh well, we were planning on getting a Saab next anyway. Hopefully they haven’t run that brand into the ground by the time we go car shopping again.