My Fave iPhone Apps

I'm at home for the weekend, pretending to be "normal". That is, I watched some tv, am washing some clothes, made a Walmart run, you know...normal stuff. Also, this is the first time I've turned on my computer in about 24 hours. Wow.

Anyway, I've spent some time this week rolling my iPhone over to the new version (which I LOVE) and updating my apps (small downloadable "applications" that run on the phone itself). I thought I'd share with you some of my favorites.

Word Tower

My newest kill-a-few-minutes-while-waiting time killer, this is one game that I really love. Of course, I'm all about word games, and adding the time a speed challenges just ramps up the fun a bit for me. Add to that the fact that, at the time of this posting, I am in 2nd place on the Global List of winners, well, you get the idea. (Currently $.99)

Pandora

I don't often use my iPhone to listen to music, but when I do, Pandora is my favorite choice. This one works first by allowing me to type in a song, genre, or artist. Once I do, it pulls up songs that it thinks are similar, or fall into the same category as my original selection. As the songs play, I can "tweak" the suggestions using a thumbs up/thumbs down method. I've not only found some great new/different artists this way, but I love the way that this allows me to select music by my mood.

TweetDeck

If you don't know about Twitter, explaining this one will be difficult. If you do, then you probably already know about TweetDeck. Basically, it allows me to enter short bursts (140 characters or less) of what's going on in my life, then posts them to Twitter, FaceBook, and this blog for others to see. This is a small part of what is called "Social Networking".

NYTimes, ABCNews, and WSJ (Wall Street Journal)

Well formatted, timely, grouped and categorized, and FREE access to these news services makes these tops on my list. It doesn't matter that I don't always agree with them or don't trust what they are telling me, the fact that I can find out what they have to say quickly is very useful. If there's anything going on in the world that is of interest to them, I can find out about it so very quickly and efficiently here.

Ocarina

The first time I downloaded this app and tried it out, I spent a couple of hours marveling over the fact that someone figured out how to turn the iPhone into a musical instrument that I could play. After the newness wore off, however, I discovered the part about this app that makes it amazing and really cool in my book. With a tap of my finger, the app shows a view of the globe lit up with lights showing where others are in the world that are using this application. It then hones in on one of the lights, shows the user's name, and allows me to listen to them play for a bit before moving somewhere else in the world. Now THAT's amazing.

Happy Father's Day!

I have a TON of men I would like to recognize on this Father's Day but will only have time/room to mention a few of them here.

My own father: Charles Leon Bishop. My mother was the only one I ever heard call him by his name. I have no memories of us living together really; he was always the infrequent visitor to my home who would sometimes take us home with him for a weekend. "Chick", "Chicken", "Sonny", "Sonny boy"--these were the names he was called by family and friends. My father seemed to struggle with the role often not understanding how to deal with his three offspring. Despite the fact that we spent very little time with him, it never occurred to me that the man might not love me. As an adult, I might would think that by his behavior, but as a child, I think I implicitly understood that being something and being good at something were two entirely different things. My father was no good at being one, especially when I was young, but he loved me and I loved him anyway. He began spending a great deal of time with me after I graduated from high school with the awkwardness of my little girl-ness behind us. Then he died an untimely death just before my 20th birthday. He perished in a fire in his home on Christmas Eve. My hard-drinking, well-loved, laughing, teasing, flirting father has been gone from my life for 30 years now and I still miss him. He was quite a guy.

My grandfather: Myrle Laverne Clark. With the decidedly female first and second names, my grandfather was called "M.L." in public, but growing up, I most often heard him addressed in respectful tones as "Mr. Clark". This man was my idol and the man I most often thought of in the role of a wonderful father figure. I hesitate to use the word "perfect" to describe any person or situation as I believe that role was performed only once, a long time ago, and will never happen again. However, especially in my younger years, my grandfather was about as perfect a man in my eyes as they come. He loved me dearly and showed it. He was fun-loving, but hard-working. He was the reason I still refer to the green bars of Lava soap as "dragline soap" (he was the operator of a large piece of equipment known as a dragline). Grandpa taught me about spiders, alligators, and how not to fear things that go bump in the night. He taught us about working hard and earning your pay, about changing tires and changing oil, about honoring God, and about being humble. I adored that man and was glad to have him in my life for so many years. I miss him terribly.

My husband: Leonardo Enrique Amaya. He's only been "Leo" for the past 12 or so years. He was "Leonard" to me, my children, and our friends before that. Leo and I have been married only 20 years now, but it's been quite wonderful. Leo came to the family with two girls of his own and I brought the same into the union. Leo has always been wonderful with all four, always teasing, always saying out loud the things that most people don't or won't, always asking the most embarrassing questions, and always loving unconditionally. Although he seemed to struggle with the role of father/step-father when the girls were young, he also struggled with other things. After our move to Port Lavaca, however, he became more of a man to be admired in so many areas of his life (I have no explanation for this, by the way) including his father roles. Today, he adores his children and grandchildren more than almost anything in the world and would give his life for any of them. He is becoming the man in their lives that my grandfather was in mine and I could not be prouder to have him as my husband. Today I am missing him IMMENSELY!

My brother-in-law: Jessie Baldock. Jessie lives next door to our home in Port Lavaca with his wife, Leo's sister, Grace. It is not Jessie's role as father to his two sons that I admire so much (I see them only very rarely) but rather his role as father-figure to everyone he encounters that is so admirable. To Leo, Jessie is the brother he never had and sometimes even the father that he misses so much. To the neighborhood Jessie is the guy that will help out with anything at any time and the one to ask an opinion from if advice is required. To our girls and grandkids he is the "Uncle Jessie" that is well-loved and the supplier of all kid-worthy surprises--glow sticks, fishing outings, stairs for getting out of the water easily, homemade cakes (these are only the most recent ones!). To me Jessie is the man to whom I can share any secret concern, who will give advice when asked but hold back his opinion when that is the right tack, who always makes time for me when I need it and leaves me to fend for myself when that is what I want, and he is and has been the "other man" in many parts of my life, a relationship fully approved and sanctioned by Leo. Jessie is the man most loved and admired by Leo and I and we consider ourselves lucky to have him.

There are so many others out there, friends, family, acquaintances, and even some that I interact with but have never met. To all of you who have played a role in my life, large or small, today I wish a very Happy Father's Day!

Boarding His Flight Now

Leo's just getting ready to board his flight to Frankfurt. I'm sure going to miss him. However, we really had a WONDERFUL time together this set off. Not only were we able to attend 9 of the nephew's final baseball games, we were also there in Austin when the Danbury Panthers won their first ever 2A Texas State Champion title! (Note: This was their first time to advance past the regional level!) Leo was thrilled to be a part of it all. As he boards his plane today, he is still nursing a bit of leftover hoarseness from his game day enthusiasm (yelling). The last phone call he made was to my sis to thank her for getting the team members to autograph a baseball for him. It will definitely be a prominent fixture in his newly completed "man cave" back in Port Lavaca.

In other news...

...Rebecca is moving into her new apartment today, 1.2 miles away from our Houston office, and I am saying "goodbye" to those high priced Houston hotels. Her couch is VERY comfortable and the pool is right outside her patio door. We have a LOT of project work to get caught up on later this week, but today she has the day off as she settles in to her new digs.

...Leo and I were able to see three movies during his stay here in the states and we loved all three. The fist was "Wolverine" and was actually my pick as I am a big sci-fi fan. The second was "Star Trek" and was a surprisingly good flick. The third we saw in Port Lavaca on Saturday, "Angels and Demons". Again, ignoring the hoopla over the religious conflicts in the storyline, we really enjoyed the mystery and excitement of the story. This month's movie selections were definitely three thumbs up.

...I got word yesterday that some meetings have tentatively been set up in Papua New Guinea at the end of July so I am preparing a lot of materials, in both hardcopy and software versions, to help us present our business case to our contacts there. You will definitely hear more about this if/as it develops further.

...Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of our little church, Six Mile Baptist, and we enjoyed a wonderful celebration and dinner on the grounds with an attendance of somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 people. (Note: Last week's regular attendance was a bit low with only 10 of us there to give you an idea of the size of the congregation.) We really had a lovely time together and I was thrilled Leo was able to be a part of it all.

...Now for some baseball details. Our oldest nephew, Colton, generally starts at left field but also plays right field depending on who is pitching. He played well during all of the last 9 games and we were thrilled to watch him be a part of winning the State Championship in his final year of high school. Next year his brother Tyler begins high school and Leo is already trying to figure out how to attend more high school sporting events. The State Championship news coverage was pretty good considering the small size of the town of Danbury (1,600 people).

Note: News links generally have a limited "life" but these should still be good for a few weeks.

• Title dream comes true for Danbury, The Facts, June 14, 2009
• Fans flock to Austin to support Panthers, The Facts, June 13, 2009
• Panthers pound Ponder in state semifinals, The Facts, June 12, 2009
• Danbury to face Holliday for state title, The Facts, June 12, 2009
• More articles from The Facts
• Zimmerle gets it done for Danbury, The Houston Chronicle, June 14, 2009
• Behind Zimmerle brothers Danbury rallies for 2A title, The Houston Chronicle, June 13, 2009
• Danbury Celebrates State Championship Victory, (video) Click2Houston, June 13, 2009
• Danbury Baseball Prepares for State Tournament (video) Click2Houston, June 8, 2009

Hangin' Out in Austin

In spite of the incredibly beautiful storm backlighting the view of the University of Texas Tower outside our window, we are having a blast tonight in Austin. The Danbury Panthers, including my awesome nephew Colton, beat the Ponder Eagles today to advance one more level in the playoffs. Tomorrow at noon they will compete against the team from Holliday for the Texas Class 2A Baseball Championship title. We are so excited.

Rebecca and I drove from Port Lavaca to Houston this morning so I could attend a meeting. After a 2-hour meeting, we turned and headed to Austin. We arrived just after the start of the game and thoroughly enjoyed the game. After the game, we checked into the AT&T Conference Center (hotels in town were booked because of a biker rally) and are enjoying the way cool amenities that the hotel/conference center has to offer. Mexican food at a nice little restaurant a couple of blocks away, a nice shower and chillin' out at the room, and we are really looking forward to tomorrow's game.

Go Panthers!

Whirlwind of Activities

I've waited so long to post an update...now I don't know where to begin! Guess I'll try to group my updates into categories and see how that works.

Leo's New Contract
Yes, that's right. In spite of all our lovely plans for Leo to RETIRE [again] this November, we have changed our plans. Technically, his contract is up this month so we had to make some hard decisions. We thought we had it all figured out when he got an email offering him a 25% increase in pay. Yes, believe it or not. Although we discussed the options non-stop for a couple of days, in the end we realized that a) Leo really does like the work, b) the project people really like Leo, c) the 28-off part of his schedule is something we LOVE, and d) he has never been a "quitter" and the job is not yet complete. So...Leo will be continuing his "tour of duty" in Nigeria until June 2010.

Danbury Panthers Baseball
On the night Leo got back in town we drove to Danbury to watch the boys play what could have been the last game of the season. We've been to 6 games since then, and are now headed to Austin on Thursday to watch Danbury compete for the State 2A Championship! It's all been very exciting to see, especially since our oldest nephew is a starter (left field) on the team. Oh, we can't forget the 8th grade graduation of the youngest last Thursday and the High School graduation of the oldest on Friday. It has definitely been a busy few weeks for our boys in Danbury.

House Updates
Leo and I went on an outing to pick out tile for the master bathroom. It's been a topic we've revisited over and over for several months now, but we think we found "the one" for our project and will be making a purchase soon. We also stopped by and picked out some new pieces of furniture for the house including a bench for the master bedroom (a place to sit and put on our shoes), a lighted bookcase for the entry, a large clock for the living room, and a couple of chairs for Leo's tv room. We also visited a local appliance dealer this week and purchased a washer/dryer set (front loaders) and a new freezer with an ice-maker to store in the garage. We picked out two sets of kitchen appliances--stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, oven, and microwave--so that we can look at a higher end selection and compare them to a mid-range selection and make a choice that we can live with. The next steps will involve designing the cabinet layout, then starting the construction process. I can't imagine I'll be pursuing this while Leo is gone, but who knows...I might.

School Work
Although I'm still not registered for classes at Texas Tech, after talking with the program director I have a good idea of the class I will be registered for in the fall. (Note: The program is rather intense; proof could be offered in the fact that it only takes one 3-hour class to be considered a "full-time student" and seconded in the fact that first semester students are limited to one class.) So, I got online and purchased the textbook used by last year's class and have begun digging through it. Surprisingly, I am enjoying the book very much although I spend much of my time looking up words in my dictionary. I mean, although the words are mostly familiar to me, I really have been spending a lot of time making sure I get the proper meanings and contexts in my mind. The text has my brain a bit scrambled at the moment as I am examining topics surrounding "technical communications" and viewing them from a vantage point that I just have never had before. It's all very interesting.

Work
In perhaps the biggest change of all, this week has Rebecca and I working full-time together. Transferring tasks, responsibilities, and knowledge has us both slowed down a bit at the moment, but we can see light at the end of the tunnel and realize that soon it will shift around and our efforts will begin to result in "more" output than the two individual efforts combined rather than "less". All in all, it seems to be going quite well.

Living Arrangement
We have also put money down on an apartment in Houston at a complex I previously lived at (and loved). We will be moving in a week from Monday. Yippee! No more high dollar Houston hotels! The apartment will be Rebecca's, and she is footing most of the bill for it, but I am making a donation to the effort as well in exchange for the opportunity to use it when I need to. We are expecting the routine to be (at least when Leo is in Nigeria) that I drive in on Mondays, stay at her place on Mon-Wed nights, and drive home on Thursdays. We are trying to arrange a schedule of 4 10-hour days per week if at all possible.

Now I know this has only been a Reader's Digest Condensed Version of my activities for the past few weeks, but hopefully it will hold you over until I begin posting regularly again. We are well, we are happy, and we are busy. Here's to hoping the same is true for you.