Windows 7 Trick

Most of you won't care about this one bit, and I have little that's good to blog about these days, but after updating to Windows 7 there's one nagging issue that I just finally figured out and need to document somewhere.

I like to share files between all my machines at home. I backup data on one machine to another, and I keep all my downloaded files centrally. When we upgraded to Win 7, my mapped drives to administrative shares (C$, D$) broke. I searched high and low to find out why, and it appears to have something to do with Homegroup usage and increased security, blah blah blah.

Finally, I found a registry update to fix the whole thing:

How to access Administrative shares in Windows 7.

There, documented.

Peanuts and Legacies

Then (1994) ...

Now...
When I was a kid, I'd sometimes fly with my dad on his routes around the country.

During my college years, this was a particularly fun time, and my freshman year I spent many weekends flying all over the country with him, doing my homework in flight and helping out as a volunteer flight attendant. Things got to the point where I even had a uniform shirt and was accepted as one of the crew. It was a great time in my life. It was a great time for my dad and I to grow closer, and I enjoyed the fast pace in my first year away from home. It wasn't uncommon to fly to the Northeast and back to the west coast again in a single weekend.

To date, my kids haven't exactly shared in the fly-wherever-you-want lifestyle. A few weeks ago, however, when we went to see my parents in PDX, they got a taste of what it was like for me. It was a great time to pass on a bit of the Peanut Legacy to them.

On our return flight from PDX, I noticed that the flight attendant was readying her snack service and asked if she wanted help. At first she politely declined, but then I said something (don't recall what) and she picked up on my heritage with a "you've obviously done this before" statement. I smiled, told her that I'd grown up with it, and asked if it was OK if I had my kids help out. She was happy to oblige. When I went back and pulled the kids from their seats, they must have thought I was a little crazy. I gave them a basket of peanuts and crackers and told them to start passing out to the passengers. After a couple rows of "how do I do this" behavior, they caught the spirit and had fun. They wound up doing the entire plane's snack service! Amy got so into it that I

convinced her to even go help with garbage service, and a few minutes later she was moving down the aisle with a latex glove on one hand pronouncing "Garbage?" over and over. It was so cute. And she even got a $2 tip from one passenger. She was pretty proud of her self.

Afterwards, I told them that I used to do the same thing with Grandpa and that there's

a picture on our wall at home (above) with me doing just that. They'd never noticed it before, but they have now.

It was a real treat to be able to share a bit of my history with my kids, and especially in a way that was unique and fun. It helped remind me of the great things I've been able to do in my life.

Scout Ski Day

A couple years ago, Jo and I decided to take the two older girls skiing for scout ski days. It's not the kind of thing we typically do, for lots of reasons. The day didn't go so well. It was super-de-dooper cold and the kids didn't eat anything good before we started. After one try down the hill, they were done, and so was our day.

Last weekend I decided to try my luck once more, but learned from my previous mistakes, maybe. It was again Scout Ski Day, where you can get a lift pass and free lunch for $25. How can you pass on that when it can easily cost triple on a normal day? To boot, Amy is in fifth grade and gets a free pass from the ski people. Double bonus. So we had to go.

First, it was just Amy and Misha with Dad this time. A little quality bonding time. Jo doesn't have any love affair with snow. My coworker was kind enough to let us stay at her condo so we could avoid the morning drive and enjoy a more leisurely morning. We wanted to leave by 5, and in normal fashion, it was closer to 7 by the time we got on the road. We got up to Silverthorne around 8:30 after passing several accidents and slowdowns. Our major issue of the night was that the address we'd been given didn't actually exist! I tried getting through to my coworker but since she was on vacation herself, wasn't able to. So I did the next logical thing (I thought). I figured the address was a typo and started trying garage codes on nearby units. I only selected units that didn't have snow tire tracks, since I knew no one had been there recently. After my fifth or so try, I found the right place and it worked. I think the kids were slightly freaked that Dad might get arrested for attempted breakin, though. We then had a nice evening at the condo.

The next day, I had planned to get the kids into ski lessons, but overnight I realized I could save $250 by not doing that part and trying to teach them myself. I'm cheap, what can I say. The kids were fine with the decision. In fact, they were happy to spend more time together with me. Wow, surprising. I also cheaped out on rentals and went to Sports Authority in town instead of renting on the hill; I saved 50% on that.

On to the good part:

We finally got onto the hill around 11:00am. The green mountain (easy side) wasn't open for the season yet (still less than two feet of snow, though I bet that's changing rapidly). We buckled in and went to the top of the only-open bunny hill. I gave the kids a few tips and we started down the hill. Amy struggled a bit (sadly, she's got her dad's sense of athleticism.) Misha acted like she'd done it multiple times before. Amy and I spent some more time together, but she was really stressed out and it kind of overwhelmed her so she took a break. Misha was going down the bunny hill and back on the lift before I could even find her. She was having so much fun.

We did this a few more times and then went for lunch (free chili for Boy Scout Ski Day). After lunch, I was worried Amy wouldn't want to do anymore since she'd had such a hard time. But she really surprised me and toughed it out the rest of the day. We found another practice area where she could stand on the magic carpet (moving sidewalk) and hone her skills. We worked on it a few times together, and then she spent several hours all by herself working on it. She didn't fall at all and greatly increased her confidence. I was so proud of her for not quitting despite how hard it was for her. It was one of those rare moments where I was truly proud of a kid. Not in a "that's my girl" kind of way, but rather a button-busting moment of awe.

While I was helping Amy, Misha went a couple hundred yards back over to the bunny hill and was having tons of fun all by herself. She asked me why I came back when she later saw me! I convinced her that she was doing so well that she should try something more challenging, so I took her up the big lift to the top of the mountain; notice her Misha smile. It was cold up there! In typical Misha fashion, she just said OK and figured "I can do that." This is Misha at the top. She pointed her skis downhill and slowly snowplowed all the way to the bottom. In fact, she didn't fall once! Pretty cool. She didn't know it at the time, but one of the sections on the way down was intermediate and fairly steep. She just zig-zagged down the hill without saying anything negative at all.

All the way down I was cheering her on with the kind of pride that I've rarely felt towards my kids. I was so proud of them both for what they'd done. They both overcame the limits of what they thought they could do. It was a special day as a dad.

Afterward, we had planned to stay overnight again and skip the bad afternoon traffic. But the threat of a heavy overnight storm changed our minds, so we stopped for pizza, waited out any traffic, and then zipped home without any issues at all. The next morning we were glad for the choice, as there were several inches of snow in Denver, and surely much more in the mountains.

We had a wonderful day, didn't spend too much dough, and indeed bonded. Good weather, good skiing. Mission accomplished. I may actually even take them again! I think I even earned some good daddy points to cash in later when they don't love me so much.

Smoking Christmas Light Deal

If you live near me and have United Power, they have a smoking deal right now for buying LED Christmas Lights (notice how I said Christmas Lights and not holiday lights!) You can get up to $4 per strand rebated to you, with no limit. So if you buy LED lights on sale (I got a bunch for $7.99 each yesterday at Ace), you can get half the price rebated and then the rest will pay for itself in one season with the 90%-lower power consumption of LED's. That's a nice deal.

Rebate Info

For those in other regions, your utility might do the same thing. It's a nice way to switch to the newer technology.

Blogging

Maybe blogging is losing its appeal for me, because I just can't seem to make myself post anything amusing or ranting any more. It's strange. I even have three or four 90%-completed drafts (mostly of rants) that I just can't manage to publish. Wonder why.

Things That Bug...

Daylight Savings. Really, it's 2009. Can't we do it differently? Changing clocks is so 1985! Not knowing if Arizona is the same time as me or not is just plain stupid. Now I'm all depressed because it's dark before I even finish work. It's nice to be light earlier in the morning, but I think we should stop playing like we control the light.

833!

That's right, the answer is 833!

I took my new GPS trainer on a mtn. bike ride today and now I know the answers to many of life's deepest questions.

1. How tall WAS that hill?
   1200 feet, baby, but with two loops at the top, it was 1700 feet vertical!
   
2. How many calories did that hill burn?
   Yep, 833! I like that number. Now I can eat garbage the rest of the day and feel good about it!
   
3. Was I really about to have a coronary?
   Yes. With an avg heart rate of 155 (including at rest), and peak at 176, I really was about to blow a gasket!
4. Did I look ridiculous at my pathetically slow speed, getting passed by all whole came after me?
   The GPS was hazy on that one, but I have a hunch...
   

Isn't it good to know? Of course. And now you know too.

Seriously, this mountain bike stuff is SOOOO good. Coming down that hill (at 23.2 mph, since you asked) is adrenaline like nothing else. If you live in CO, you must go ride Hall Ranch. It truly is wonderful.

Thanks for the bday present, Dad.