myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

Michigan has a HUGE Renaissance Festival in Holly every year and I really want to go this year. I’ve been to it in the past and it is a blast. It is open for 8 weekends and I have no specific date that I am interested in, so I’m seeing if anyone else wants to go and which dates work for them. If you want to go, make a comment so others can see who’s interested as well. Here is the info:

Weekend Themes:
Buccaneer Beer Fest: Aug. 18th and 19th
Grab your tankard and set sail to Hollygrove for adventure and fun.

Highland Fling: Aug. 25th and 26th
Kick up your heels with traditional Scottish music and the annual Highland Games.

High Seas Adventure: Sept. 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Drown yourself in laughter at the Swab the Deck game or Perfect Pirate Contest

Wonders of the World: Sept. 15th and 16th
Join us as we celebrate cultures from across the globe with International Dances and Song.

Shamrocks and Shenanigans: Sept. 22nd and 23rd
Celebrate everything Celtic during our Irish Heritage Festival.

Sweet Endings: Sept. 29th and 30th
Parting is such sweet sorrow, but we make it better with our tasty Chocolate Festival.

Ticket Prices:
$17.95 for Adults
$8.95 for Children
I can get tickets ahead of time so we won’t have to wait in line, but in order to do so, I’ll need to know who’s interested and have their money in hand.

Directions:
The Festival is located in Holly, Michigan off I-75, exit 106, on Dixie Highway between Pontiac and Flint.

I-75 Northbound Traffic:
Exit 106 (Grand Blanc), stay in left lane of exit, travel two blocks.
Turn left onto Dixie Highway, southbound. The Festival is two miles
south to the right.

I-75 Southbound Traffic:
Exit 106 (Dixie Highway - this is a left exit). Merge to the right.
The Festival is located two miles south on the right.

Little Christopher David Pratt II was born today at 10:09am. He was 9 pounds and 7 ounces at an impressive 20.5 inches long.

He was technically due last Wednesday (5/16), but he wasn’t ready yet. At Monday’s OB checkup, PJ and Chris found out that their little prince could be closer to 11 pounds so a C-section was scheduled for this morning. Everything went fine during the surgery and PJ and Chris are getting to know their son. He scored exceptionally well on his apgar tests (8 and 9) and is actually nursing fairly well.

 

Okay, so I received a recommendation from Carrie for the plugin “now reading” since I’m a huge reader. For some reason, last night I decided to stay up playing with it instead of going to bed with Ian. While the whole idea sounds like a really good idea, there are some things that do not float my boat as of yet.

1. The search engine doesn’t allow you to search for one author and then have a bunch of her books come up so you can select multiple ones. Laurell K Hamliton has 15 books in one series alone that have reviews on this site and I was going to try and transfer them into the plugin; however, I had to actually book in the title of each book for it to come up. It wouldn’t let me just put in her name. That was annoying since I have another series from her that I would like to eventually do a review for as well;
2. There is a lot of repetitiveness in the actions to navigate the management section. When you go to edit the library entry of a book, once you hit update, it doesn’t automatically take you back to the main list. It keeps you at the edit page and you have to re-navigate to the list page since there isn’t a “go back” selection on the page.
3. The whole administration process if very time consuming. Well, this could also be due to my desire of inputting all of my past reviews. At the same time, I really don’t get on the computer that much anymore since I’m entertaining or with Ian. So the idea that I’ll be able to put a book that I’m reading into the program and then have time to give it a review at a later date may be stretching it. Plus I tend to read books really fast. I can go through a book within 24 hours if it really draws me into it (and seriously, those are really the only books I try to read). So I’m not really sure if it is worth the time yet.
4. The layout sucks. Well, only initially. You can go in and customize it to however you want it to look, but it doesn’t come up being functional without having to mess with it, so it really isn’t a choice to customize it. It’s a requirement. Goes back to that time management issue.
5. Editing is also a two step process.  Why did the designer have  a short edit screen and then a long edit screen?  Why didn’t he just converge them into one screen?  Again, a time management issue and one too many steps for a simple process.

Okay, Jesse wants his lapto back, so that’s my review for now.  I’ll update this when I get a chance to play with it some more.

I had to take a picture of this because I didn’t think anyone would believe me when I told them. I had a visitor tap on the slider door this past week…