Uploading backlog

Could, and probably should, be catching up on some work this afternoon, before the start of another busy week tomorrow. However, I've decided that there are better things to be doing on a Sunday, and that I will get into the office at a decent time in the morning and crack on with things then.

Looking at Flickr, I am a bit behind with the photo uploading. There are loads still to be put on from our December holiday (as well as other events near the end of last year, Wembley trip, Chris and Carolyn's party ...) and seeing as it really isn't long now until we will no doubt be taking hundreds and hundreds more on our first ever visit to California, I thought that I should get a few more uploaded now.

There are three separate folders-worth of photos needing uploading from the most recent Florida trip, as there is a separate folder for each of my camera, Nicky's and Jake's. Having previously discovered a problem with having shots from multiple cameras going into the same set in Flickr - that I sort them by the date/time stamp that the camera puts on the photo - I made sure that the clocks in each camera were telling the same time for this holiday so that when I upload each of the folders into the same set, and then sort by date/time taken, they will come out in the right order. Spectacularly nerdy I know, but keeps me happy!

Looks to me like the next thing with digital cameras is having built in GPS so that not only does it stamp the photo with date and time information, it also automatically provides location info as well. I think that I can opt to manually add the location information to the photos, but I'm not sure if I have the stamina to go back through all of the 8,000 or so that are on Flickr to try to do this.

Below are a couple of pictures from the ones that I am just uploading. The first one isn't upsidedown, it's a reflection of the castle, and the second one was taken at our wedding anniversary meal at Bice (at Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal). Given that I wasn't able to upload photos and put them on the blog whilst we were on holiday, I may go back through those posts once uploading is complete to attach some relevant piccies.






Maybe next time I am posting and I am uploading pictures, it will be from an iMac. Fingers crossed that everything happens according to plan tomorrow, and then Nicky and I have a shopping day planned for Wednesday!

Patience

I am reminded of the phrase "Grant me patience Lord, but hurry!". On the house front it's been ten days since we exchanged, and eight to go until we complete. It is so tempting to go out now and spend loads of money, but then I think that would be tempting fate, and something will go wrong between now and 1 March. So, we continue to sit on our hands.

On Friday evening we were in Bluey for our painting lesson at GW. Jake really enjoyed it - we learned about drybrushing and about washes. We're booked in again in three weeks time for another painting session and a gaming one as well.

Whilst we were there I popped in to the Apple store (probably a mistake re the patience!). Had a chat with one of the staff members and learned a couple of useful things. He suggested not bothering with upgrading memory straight away when buying the iMac as I'll probably find that it comes with plenty. If I find that it is struggling later on it is apparently dead easy to upgrade. I also learned that you can't get a Vodafone iphone on pay as you go yet. So we will probably go for a 2 year contract when we get Nicky's phone. Makes the initial outlay lower but the monthly cost a bit higher. Shouldn't be a problem getting the number transferred from the old phone.

Nicky has organised getting a quote from Mike for some work at home. It came in at a reasonable cost, so plan is to be full steam ahead as soon as we get back from holiday. It's going to be great having a games room where the garage is at the moment, but we will need to have a bit of a clear out before we go away.

We've booked our San Francisco hotel (5 nights at the Argonaut at Fisherman's Wharf) and I phoned DVC last week to extend our Grand Californian stay to 5 nights, as we want enough time for parks and our LA Lakers game. This leaves us with 4 nights for inbetween. Nicky has been looking at hotels and attractions along the way. A couple of nights in Monterey looks like a strong contender. Nicky wants to go to the aquarium and spend all day watching the sea otters! I think that a vineyard / wine tasting trip could be on the cards as well.

Nicky is doing a great job of turning herself into a domestic Goddess! In a relatively short time her pies have attained legendary status. I think that she's making some more sausage and bean ones now, some to take over to Grandad at lunchtime (roast beef today) and yesterday we had scrummy homemade carbonara along with homemade blueberry muffins. Next on the list is homemade crumpets.

By the way it's my fault that it's raining today. I bought some new sponges yesterday with a plan to wash my car (first time after having it for 7 months) today. Sorry!