The Battle is Lost

Well it has finally happened. IT has won the battle and I will be giving up my PowerMac at work. It turns out they found a way to block my MAC address on the network so I am dead in the water via internet. So I'm in the process of switching back to windows (insert sigh here). At least it will be an XP machine with 4gb RAM instead of vista with no hardware power.

So I am beginning to look for windows alternatives to the many Mac apps for which my productivity has come to depend. Here is a short list of what I have found so far:

Mac : PC alternative

Dashboard and Spotlight: Google desktop and sidebar

Adium: Digsby

iPhoto: Picassa

Spaces: I will try microsoft powertoys first

1password: KeePass

Textexpander: Texter

iWork: MS Office (ugh)

Safari: ie7 (IT is blocking firefox, safari and chrome)

garageband: audacity

I am still needing alternatives for: quicklook, imovie, quicksilver, SnapzPro, automator, pdf editing and apple mail (they also block outlook trying to force us into using firstclass).

All in all, I am not alone in thinking our IT department has lost the realization that they are a service department and have become way too controlling.

Easter Egg Hunting

We went to the Citywide Easter Egg Hunt in Decatur Yesterday and the denial I had tried to hold onto was finally lifted. I had tried to convince myself that it wasn't that different here, but when we pulled up to the park and heard the musical entertainment, I was shocked. They were playing countrified gospel music!! Not the obvious choice for a children's event, but I guess it reflects the area.

In better news, at least they had actual eggs (plastic though) for the kids to find instead of the paper cutouts they used in Evergreen Park. They let all of the kids go hunt at the same time, so the bigger kids dominated. Ashley was able to get one egg, but Ryan was to small to get any.

We discussed amongst ourselves ideas to make the hunt more fair, but in the end made our own egg hunt this morning. To paraphrase the commercial, "you live, you learn and then you have your own egg hunt!"

Out of the mouths of babes!

Ryan, Ashley and Cathy are playing "Mario and Sonic at the Olympics" for Wii and as usual there is some trash talking before the race starts. Cathy tells Ashley, "You're going down!"

Ryan turns around and says to Cathy, "You are going down, I'm going up!"

A lesson in Marketing

Ryan sits on the couch next to mommy as she reads the farm animal book to him.

Mommy: What does a horse say?

Ryan: Neighhhhh

M: What does a pig say?

R: oink, oink, oink

M: What does a duck say?

R: quack, quack

M: What does a cow say

R: moo, moo chick-fil-a!

Ashley's 1st Grade Play

Ashley was Cat#2 in this year's Eastwood Elementary 1st Grade Play "Eastwood at the Zoo". The Cats opened and closed the play and just plain looked cute throughout. Look for some video to come soon via youtube.

Our Favorite "Thing"

To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss on Monday, Ashley's school had a "come to school dressed as your favorite Dr. Seuss character. Guess which one is our favorite.

The Emperor's New Shoes

So we are at Payless shoes looking for some shoes for Ashley to wear in her 1st grade play and Ryan spots these Lighting McQueen slippers that he just "had to have"! Guess what his favorite movie is?