Virtually idle? Not quite.

Okay, this is a blog, not a diary, so I don't have to account for myself for the past few weeks. But I do wonder myself what I've been up to.

I took on a couple of small computer tasks, which were fun because they involved learning new things. Jim's little company website (the little applying to both the site and the business) needed an update, so that took a day or two. It now has an improved name: http://www.seaschoolnfld.com/ We debated the name briefly. The full Sea School of Newfoundland was too unwieldy. Someone already has http://www.seaschool.com/ . Jim wouldn't use nl, the official abbreviation of the province's name as he contends it would be too likely to be confused with the Netherlands in a marine context. So we did the old nfld, which could just as easy be Newfoundland and Labrador anyway.

My other computer project was to learn how to put together a DVD slideshow that Mother could watch on TV. Last summer I scanned ~500 family photos in preparation for our reunion. With Brittany's help, we got together a show of about 150 images that we used at Mother's official 80th birthday party. I noticed at Christmas that Mother was looking at them on the Scaplens' digital picture viewer and decided I'd try to get them into a format she could use at home.

I enjoyed the challenge of doing it -- finding the software on line, learning how to use it and generally making it work. I added music from the exceedingly slim collection I had on the computer. I haven't done any downloading, free or otherwise, so just went with what I had copied from a few CDs a couple of days before leaving home. (So it's heavy into Ron Hynes). The biggest problem was replaying it over and over while making revisions. Every time Sarah Maclaughlin sang "I Will Remember You", I'd burst into tears.

This week we have stirred ourselves to write more sailing articles to go into The Navigator and be posted at SeaRoom, http://www.searoom.com/