I love my iPhone

So, yes, I am a touchscreen kind of person after all.  

We made the big leap to ATT a week ago and so far I am pleased.

But I am more than pleased with my new iPhone, I love love love it.  

So many things so easy to do, but I want to learn more and better and so will be taking a free class at the local Apple store Saturday. 

In the meantime, I am looking forward to a few extra days off and a big fat book and maybe a couple of movies.

Video Greetings from the Library

The staff of the Jimmie B. Keel branch library, where my office is, created this holiday greeting for the library system's staff blog.
Pardon the shaky camera work by me.

This Beer's for You

Another cool post from Death & Taxes.

This post dedicated to Mark and Thom.

Black History Timeline

Take a look at this fascinating mashup on the Death & Taxes blog.

Abby & Doug's Annual Holiday Party

Last Saturday evening -- Alan, Abby, Paul, Norman, Mark & George, hanging in the kitchen.

Libraries in Hard Time

This report that was on NBC Nightly News tonight made me feel proud to work in a library.

It was a short and stormy relationship.

I went out and bought the BlackBerry Storm at Verizon a few weeks ago, the very day it came out.  I had been interested in an iPhone, but liked Verizon's phone service and had heard many bad things about ATT service, so no iPhone for me.  But the Storm looked like Verizon's answer to the iPhone and it is made by BlackBerry which I already know and love from my work phone.

But I didn't love it.  I couldn't type a quick email on it, I was so clumsy with the touch screen, it was very frustrating.  And there were other annoyances, for one big one, I couldn't get it to reconcile my personal email.  Was I on the internet or not?

And then I read David Pogue's scathing review  and felt somewhat relieved that I'm not the only one and also regretful about how quickly I had bought it.  But as Pogue pointed out, Verizon has a generous return policy.  So I tried for another week, and then gave up.  I returned my Storm to Verizon and they gave me all the money back, no questions asked.  

Big Sigh of Relief.  And I realized I'd missed my simple little LG Chocolate.  

But still, I do want a phone that can give me access to my email and to Google.  And it's nice to have a calendar in there too, and a camera.  So what do I want?

Well I think I want something that ATT has and Verizon does not.  And so I am almost ready to make the jump.  But which will it be?  

There's the iPhone of course, but now I am wondering if I am just not a touch screen kind of person.  And people keep telling me how lousy it is as a phone though they love everything else about it.

And then there's the new BlackBerry Bold.  I know how to work a BlackBerry and it's got a gorgeous screen.  And David Pogue likes it.

Any advice?

Thanksgiving 2008

_MG_8382, originally uploaded by Our Labor Of Love Photography.

Our traditional photo, in our traditional spot.  This year by Whitney Chamberlin.

And Marley is somewhere, we just don't know where.

Marley

_MG_8558, originally uploaded by Our Labor Of Love Photography.

Now that is a good looking poodle.
Thank you, Whitney.

Dogs and Toys

Daisy feels the need to protect her favorite toys.

Because if she leaves them alone, Marley is likely to hide them where she cannot reach.

Some new art is hung

Mark hung the new pieces I picked up from the framer this weekend.  
I love this poster of Barack Obama made all from words that make up the country's hope for what his administration will mean for our future.  It's a limited edition print I picked up from the Artists for Obama part of the campaign website.  I also got a print we bought from an expat artist in San Miguel de Allende when we were there for the wedding last spring, and a Matte Stephens New York City print I got on Etsy recently.

Dylan loves the women

Dylan was so happy to see Jen and Leigh last night he could not decide which lap to settle on.

Thanksgiving in Atlanta

As always, we had a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend in Atlanta at Barbara & Steve's home. Mark, Dylan, Marley and I drove up Tuesday night, and the next morning we headed down to Little Five Points to pick up Jesse, Thom and Jasper who spent the night at the home of Jesse & Whitney Chamberlin, wedding photographers extraordinaire. They have an amazing abode, it feels like country but is literally right in the middle of the coolest part of Atlanta.

We got to pick up the gorgeous wedding albums we had ordered, to meet the Chamberlin pugs, and then we took off.

Stopped for a little lunch at the bakery in Decatur where we picked up the cakes Jesse had ordered for our Thanksgiving dessert. Back at the house, we got to show off the albums. Then Mark and I headed out for massages.

We went to R. Thomas for dinner.

Then we headed over to Grant & Joanna's apartment for dessert and some fun with Rock Band.

The next day was Thanksgiving.

We played Wii tennis (Thom actually made an avatar for every single person who came),

sampled some great beer brewed by a friend of Krin,

sat down at our longest table yet, twenty people, for a wonderful, nearly vegetarian dinner.Afterwards the guys cleaned up,

we ate those amazing cakes,

and played Trivial Pursuit.

It was fun to have the Chamberlins -- Whitney, Jesse & their son Gracyn -- join us this year. You can see the great photos they took here.

During the weekend lots of laptops were always in evidence.
Sarah got the chance to catch up with old friends

and to do a lot of work.

Dylan relaxed in Mark's suitcase.

Chaos relaxed in a sunny spot with a good view of the front door.

Friday we went to the High Museum to see a fascinating show about the Terracotta Army discovered in China.


Later we went to see Milk, an important and beautiful film, had a great veggie dinner at Dynamic Dish, and did a bit of bar hopping (and played Random Article Wikipedia Charades once again).

It was a wonderful, if exhausting, holiday with great friends.