Best wishes for 2010. May everybody enjoy good health and may the new year be full of joy & happiness.

Mother nature brought us some snow, a little earlier than usual in the year. I snapped some images at sunrise that give a glimpse of our garden with a winter blanket of fresh snow.

Nothing fancy. Just my previous desk with the G5 and the mini and a big work table besides it. Only half my stuff is hooked up, and I still need to snake some cat 6 in, so I’m getting by on wifi to the router & NAS on other side of the house.

Currently on the bench: macbook with dead battery ( + full backup + snow leopard clean install) – hp slimline with dead psu -toshiba notebook waiting for windows 7.

Mother nature brought us some light snow this morning, which, together with freezing temperatures, probably means the end for these last standing flowers.

Almost finished stacking a few cords of wood :)

Yes, that’s an iPhone 3GS 32GB next to the stylish Mercedes-Benz MHI BlueTooth adapter.

Costly little buggers, but ultimately it seemed that was the cost of seamless integration without headaches, maximum safety and forward compatibility (Operating system update wise) with the benefits of the iPhone ecosystem.

Pairing the two was easy and it just took a moment to figure out that for address book synchronization, you need to physically switch the iPhone off and back on. It doesn’t happen during initial pairing or when they re-discover each other when you return to the car.

All I can say is the iPhone 3GS is pretty smooth to operate and making phone calls from your steering wheel is way cool. Let’s just hope the AT&T and partnered GSM network won’t disappoint. AT&T can advertise “more bars in more places” as much as they want, but the GSM network in Maine still means “no bars in many places” where CDMA is fully present. Ultimately some apps and car integration caused the purchase, so … Steve Jobs made me do it ;)

With widespread night-time freezing throughout the state, we can “say goodbye to the growing season”, as one news reporter said. The euphemism or politically correct term for all your plants will turn to mush.

It is sad to see summer and fall come to a close, so soon after such a horrible  summer. We are once again puzzled why so many trees have already lost all their leaves, while some are still turning colors and others appear green.

Here’s what the capital looks like right now from across the river.

fall view of the Maine state capitol across the Kennebec river

Yesterday evening, while returning from our cabin, we saw a mother and two baby moose. A first for us. After a couple minutes, the mother walked into the woods with the kids in tow. Being dusk with a small point and shoot camera, from our roadside vantage point, we didn’t get any spectacular photos that do the experience justice … but we still have a couple worth sharing, I thought.

baby moose roadside in Maine

female moose calling the kids into the forest

It is literally one of those lucky moments, where we got to see them just as they were near the road, but wildlife being wildlife, they were out of view minutes later.

As the days get shorter and the website & blogging bug started biting, it is easier to slip behind the computer in the evening and high time to share some of this summer’s news, which was intentionally kept a secret ’till family visited (so it would be a surprise).

Rather than getting into a lenghty post (and carrying on about the absolutely  horrible summer weather), I thought this snapshot might reveal some  changes in our life:

Car and house

Yes, that is a different car in front of a different garage, which is of course attached to a different house.

So, yes :) we bought a new car and moved into a bigger  house.

We’re pretty excited. A super comfortable and safe all wheel drive vehicle for when winter hits. The house was not as easy nor quick a decision, but we after some negotiating, we bit the bullet.  We’re still getting settled, but you can look forward to a house tour soon.