Gmail as default email client

I'm using W7. This will probably work on Vista as well. Thanks to Kevin for helping me figure this out using Buzz (which turns out to be a little more productive than Wave (which I thought Wave was designed for)). Buzz allows many of our friends to read our conversation but I thought others might want to see it also.


My netbook already launched GMail when I click on mailto links but my desktop did not.Somewhere along the line I'd set the netbook to do this, but I couldn't figure out how.

Google suggests using Notifier but if you're using Chrome perhaps you're already using an extension for that. Notifier isn't a resource hog, but I don't need over redundancy.

This MS Help site: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-the-default-e-mail-program
Tells you to go here:
Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Default Programs
To designate default actions for programs and file types.
There you can set Google Apps defaults, including MAILTO links on the web. You still need Google Apps installed, but that gives offline email which is something I want and already use.  
While you're at is, why not install Google Pack (which includes GApps) and let it handle package management for you? You can ignore the Spyware Dr w/ AV and install Security Essentials which is free and runs on XP and above Windows clients. 

These doggies are big

We took HB to a farm last week. He's been making do with fairly short walks around the neighborhood; competing for space with cars, houses and other doggies. We have an awesome friend who's family farm is close by and she let us come up for the afternoon.
HB was a little nervous at first having never seen horses before.

He quickly made friends and after introductions they all got along famously. 

He had so much fun exploring and running around that he didn't want to leave. He ran for 3 or 4 hours, playing in the snow, playing with their dog; Bodi; and exploring the fields. I'm really glad we got a chance for him to run. He doesn't enjoy computers like I do, so actually doing something was pretty great.

Doggiesaur

Now that I'm on the mainland I get the pleasure of living with our animals again. I walk HoneyBear 3 or 4 times a day and he sits at my feet under the desk all day watching me fill out applications.

We left him with his nana this weekend where he gets spoiled in all different ways. He was a rescue and had a horrible life before we found him. We're all pretty lucky.

Here you can see him suffering

My long lost cat, Merlot. I've had her since Xmas 1999. So she just turned 10! She loves to torture HB and then cry about how little food she gets. She is incredibly loving now that HB is gone.

A Nation of Readers

That's how my dad once described the British. They read everyday: a book, a newspaper.

My parents were both heavy readers (one of them British!), my brother was too(also British). My grandmother, who's native tongue is Arabic and learned French in school and who didn't learn English until she moved to the US as adult still reads a Danielle Steele book everyday.

I am not a strong reader.

Over the holidays I saw that most of my adult family are everyday readers, some read more than they watch TV!

My wife loves reading, she reads for fun; fiction & non-fiction and is grumpy when she can't. This past summer I got excited over World War Z and read it as fast as I could, it took me 4 days. My wife had never seen me that excited over a book. Kevin finished it in a night.

How did I become such an undedicated reader? It looks like I have always been surrounded by them, encouraged, shown that it was cool, etc.

I just finished reading His Dark Materials. It's a trilogy, they made a movie of The Golden Compass. It's like 900 pages and it took me 6 months to read. That's two months per book, about four times longer than most people. I'm trying very hard to become a strong reader, it's a habit I want my children to have and they're more likely to learn pick it up if they see me doing it.

I try to be my best.

Closed

4 weeks removed from the islands. It was warm, it was beautiful and natural. My friends that I miss dearly. I ate food that made sense and came from the backyard. I leave behind slow Internet, expensive food and a wonderful job.

I took away a great deal more than I left. I never knew life could be so great.

Much mahalos.

Closure part 3

Last night marks the end of my food club. Mostly older ladies who have been thrilled to have a younger male presence were squirmy that I'm leaving. Some were sad, others looked lonely and lost. I couldn't find the right time to use my secret word but I got lots of teary eyed hugs and even a hand squeeze.

Definitely something that's changed my life since I started going in August. I have two excellent friends that made it an important part of our weekly routine. It changed my perspective on a lot of things and I'm sad I won't be going with them anymore.

Local kine grinds

8 days to go. The goal now is to pack everything and ship. Also to fill up on local food that won't be available en Mass. Musubi from 7-11, saimin, mauna pua, bentos and especially fresh fruit are all being consumed at an unalarming rate. I purchased some food to cover the few meals I'll eat at home but for the most part it's going to be getting what I can while I can.

My new favorite breakfast involves yogurt. Last week it was cereal and yogurt like I had in Sweden. This week it's vanilla yogurt with pineapple & bananas from the farmer's market. Pretty awesome.

I have a few food items to bring to the east coast with me but they'll be gone within a few days or weeks as I share and give them away.

I WANT CHOWDA has been in my lexicon for months now and soon I'll get to use it in earnest. What other delicacies await me in the frigid NE? I'll let you know.

For now, what food do you eat thats specific to where you're from? What do you miss when you are away?

Closure part 2

An ordeal has finally ended. 20 months ago I had my wisdom teeth removed. During that procedure the adjacent tooth's root was broken.

To CYA my surgeon paid for:

• A root canal which could not recover the tooth
• I then had another extraction
• A bone graft of someone else's bone shards and
• Another bone graft of someone else's bone shards
• An implant
• An uncovering
• A failed molding during which the implant was pushed up into my sinus
• A surgery to remove the implant impacted in my sinus.

When the implant made it to my sinus I couldn't form a seal in my mouth. I couldn't use a straw. Breathing vibrated the nerve in the open canal and was very uncomfortable. 

The new surgeon that removed the titanium implant said that the prosthetic tooth is not even necessary because of how much the teeth overlap, so the entire procedure could've been avoided.

My dentist is awesome though and when I went by today to show them the titanium implant I asked for copies of my X-Rays. They didn't know how to export them from the computer so they let me do it. They also gave me chocolate covered short bread cookies. I brought them tangerines.