Aunt Ruth is on the Internet

With Meghan off at Grammie and Grandpa Walker's for the past week (and for another week to come) Marcie and I have had time to get some other things done. Such as finally finishing Meghan's book cases that we started sometime in 2006.

Today we assisted my soon to be 83 year old Great Aunt Ruth purchase her first ever computer and get her set up on the internet. The purchasing part was fairly easy - after establishing that she was comfortable working with a laptop we took her to BestBuy (must say that the lack of pushy sales people makes this a nice place to shop.) By the time we'd left we had a laptop, mouse, keyboard, LCD monitor (not sure why, but they bundled this with the laptop for free), a printer and one of the new Bell Internet in a box deals. Once back at her place it took us a couple of hours to get things opened and set-up (there were some initial problems with the "easy-three-step-configuration" of the Bell Internet in a box...) However, by the time we'd left Aunt Ruth had received her first e-mail, conducted a Google search and was comfortable turning the computer on and off. We'll undoubtedly assist her some more in the coming weeks, but it was an exciting first step.

For those interested, her first Google search on her new computer was for "ruth dettmer" which brought up a surprising number of hits, including item number six which was actually about her!

Also for those wishing to send her an e-mail, her address is rdettmer at sympatico dot ca. Be warned that replying to e-mail was something we didn't get a chance to review, so it might be a while before she responds.

I'm A Big Kid Now ...

Christmas Wish Lists

By popular demand, here are links to our Christmas Wish Lists:

Meghan's Wishlist
David's Wishlist
Marcie's Wishlist

I'm still in the process of consolidating all of our wish lists from various sites into this one place. It may take a few days. Thanks for your patience.

Consider making your own list at www.thethingsiwant.com so we know what you would like too.

New Chairs

This morning we raced to Home Depot to take advantage of a 4 day sale on these chairs. When we got there the store had only been open for an hour, and they were already down to their last 2 (there was a rather large pile yesterday).

Happy Halloween

We've been a bit lax in our photography duties as of late. We did go all out with the decorating this Halloween and received many excited compliments. However, we didn't take any pictures.

Meghan had a great time Trick-or-Treating. She even did almost 3/4 of the block. Earlier that day she had been sick (fever and throwing up) but as soon as the first Trick-or-Treater rang our doorbell, she made a miraculous recovery (the fever and everything just vanished!) Funny how that happens sometimes.

David and I attended a Halloween party for the first time in years. It was a lot of fun! Thanks to Mom & Dad Schwindt for taking Meghan so we could attend. By popular request, we've posted the picture above.