An excellent weekend

Hello everyone. Last weekend went quite well. I went Saturday morning to visit with my two nieces. Mostly, my father and I took care of Amia while Ava was taken to gymnastics by her special gramma and Dan. Amia was a lot more cheerful with the situation this time around and Dad certainly had his hands full taking her outside. She always likes to grab everything in my bag as well as my cane. She seems particularly fascinated with my headphones. I may bring a less expensive pair for her to examine next time. For some strange reason, the new security software I switched to decided to block my netbook's wireless connectivity. This happened both while out at Dan's as well as at home. I went through cartwheels trying to solve the problem to no avail. However, the next day, everything was working again. Part of the reason for this may have been my resetting the cable modem. Rogers is supposed to be switching to a more secure network and this could have been chiefly responsible for my trouble at home. Thank goodness the whole mess resolved itself. Having a netbook which was so utterly secure that one couldn't even use the Internet would have been a painful irony had the situation lasted long.

Mark and Wendy had me over on Saturday night for a delicious chicken dinner. They seem to be doing quite well. I'll hopefully be able to do a few things with them over the Summer. Mark was the first one to become a bit tired this time around. Usually, over the past while, I've been the one who was liable to nod off after dinner. Nice to hear somebody else doing it for a change. The conversation was great as usual.

Sunday morning, I went to the Meadowvale Cristian Reform church for the first time. The difference between its congregation when compared to the Oakville one is absolutely striking. They're quite a lively bunch. The pastor certainly has a healthy combination of thoughtfullness and a respect for modern culture. He also rolls nicely with the unexpected. The other people I've met so far seem quite friendly. It'll take a while to find my stride but I think there's good cause for optimism when it comes to making some real connections. I'm certainly in for some very interesting sermons. It's nice to have something to look forward to next week.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to catch a couple of Ultimate Warrior episodes on Spike TV. That show is going to give me a lot of excellent insight into ancient weapons and combat which will certainly improve the battles in Enchantment's Twilight. A very interesting way to spend a couple of hours. We visited some family friends for an excellent dinner including a wonderful steak. Weekends don't go much better all in all.

Today, my digital recorder at last arrived. I found a Blindcooltech podcast reviewing the DS 50, a predecessor to my DS 61, to be most helpful. The buttons and most menu options remain precisely the same. I took it out for a first trial walk which certainly proved that my basic idea has a good chance of working. Of course, it would help if I didn't have the microphone oriented backwards when I walked the route. One glance at how I had it was enough for my father to solve that one. The other issue was the wind. Today was quite gusty. That problem will doubtless render recordings made on windy days less useful. I may ultimately have to acquire a wind screen for the mic. With the zoom set to wide, it certainly captured the surrounding sounds well. I can set things up before leaving, start recording, and not even think about it until I get back. The voice guidance works quite well. When replacing the batteries, the one nearest the hinge of the battery cover must have the knob end facing down. The outermost battery has the point going out of the recorder. More testing is called for but I certainly have the basics down nicely.