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October 20, 2009, a Tuesday
Fort Collins (E&SilJ) to Parker (K), Colorado, USA
— Ordered a new laptop hard drive and I also got camera envy
Had my normal breakfast in the RV. J discovered that NewEgg.com is selling a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200 rpm 2.5" SATA Notebook Hard Drive for $99.99, and she also noted that a lot of the recent reviews of the drive are negative. I've been keeping my eye on this model since it was released, and now that it's below $100, it's very tempting. Canon also announced the EOS 1D Mk IV, and I have extreme camera envy! It's a 16.1MP body that can shoot at 10 fps for 28 RAW frames, but what really got me excited is that it's possible once again to select any of the 45 AF (auto-focus) sensors. For some odd reason, Canon reduced the number of selectable AF sensors in the Mk IIIs, and I'm still frustrated by it. Another nice thing about the Mk IV is that it uses the same LP-E4 battery as the Mk IIIs. I want one!
We left in the Jeep around 9:10 to go meet J's daughter E at The Armstrong Hotel in Old Town Fort Collins where E works. We chatted with the owners, Steve and Missy, for a while before E, J, and I walked to the nearby Olive Street Bakery to get some pastries. I got a blueberry turnover, J got a slice of Raspberry White Chocolate cake, and E got a scone. We took the pastries back to the lobby of the hotel to eat and visit.
We returned to the RV around 10:10. I looked at reviews of the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200 rpm 2.5" SATA Notebook Hard Drive on NewEgg, and one post said the clicking problems that people have been experiencing are due to an incompatibility between the drive's APM (Advanced Power Management) settings and the laptop's. The same reviewer gave a link to a utility that can help set up the drive to work better with a MacBook Pro, so I ordered a drive. I also ordered a Mapower MAP-KC21ES USB 2.0 and dual FireWire 800 enclosure for the 320GB 7200 rpm drive that's currently in my 15" MacBook Pro. I started to work up a blog entry. We left at 11:40 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.
We stopped on the way out of town to hook up the Jeep to tow.
We stopped at the RV America in Loveland, Colorado, around 12:20 to pick up some parts. Before going in, I tested the continuity of the conductors in the umbilical cord, and one was intermittent. I opened up the plugs, and one side was missing a screw to hold the conductor to the connector. The other side was missing two screws, but the screws were inside the housing. Had lunch in the RV, then went inside to buy some light bulbs, a dome light switch, and a new plug for the umbilical cord. We left around 1:30.
We stopped at J's father F's, who lives near Denver. J uses one room in his basement to store things, and we dropped off and picked up some things.
We stopped at my storage unit too to drop off and pick up a few things.
We reached our "home" in Parker, Colorado, outside J's friend K's place around 5:40. Leveled the RV, hooked up electricity. We left in the Jeep around 6:05.
We went to SJ&DilK's (J's Son J and Daughter-in-law K's) for dinner, and I put in a load of laundry. DilK had made a pot roast in the crock pot that was very tasty. She also made some Pillsbury Crusty French Loaf bread that I thought had come from a bakery. After dinner, I played with the grandkids: GS (granddaughter S, age 2.5), GJ (grandson J, age 4), and GA (grandson A, age 7). We went back to the table to have dessert of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. GJ had said that he didn't like pie but liked cake, so I was surprised that he said he wanted what I was eating, so I dished out a piece of what I called "pumpkin cake" for him (yes, I'm a sneaky granddad), and he wasn't too fond of the flavor. After we finished dessert, the grandkids and I went back to playing. I finished my laundry, then we left.
We returned to the RV around 8:45 and I was pooped! I put away my laundry, then worked up a blog entry. I opened up the 5x7 cards I received from Exposure Manager, and they look terrible! I size the image to be 6.5 inches wide so there's a 1/4-inch (0.6cm) border around it, but the cards were only 6 13/16 wide with a 1/16 inch (0.16cm) border on the left and a 7/32 inch (0.56cm) border on the right — more than twice as big. One of the cards had a black-and-white image of a waterfall, and it had an unacceptable green cast to it. I was ticked! I had received some cards from them in February 2008 and they looked OK, so I was surprised that the cards I just received looked so bad. I use Exposure Manager to fulfill my online image orders, and didn't want my customers to receive the same shoddy prints, so I started to look for another outfit to do my printing. I had stopped printing all of my own images when I moved into the RV full-time because there was no room to carry the printer and paper around. I kept printing the images that I sell through The Majestic Gallery because I wanted to offer a first-rate product that's archival (Epson UltraChrome inks and Epson Premium Luster paper), passes my quality control, and is signed by me.
We left in the Jeep around 9:10 to go meet J's daughter E at The Armstrong Hotel in Old Town Fort Collins where E works. We chatted with the owners, Steve and Missy, for a while before E, J, and I walked to the nearby Olive Street Bakery to get some pastries. I got a blueberry turnover, J got a slice of Raspberry White Chocolate cake, and E got a scone. We took the pastries back to the lobby of the hotel to eat and visit.
We returned to the RV around 10:10. I looked at reviews of the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200 rpm 2.5" SATA Notebook Hard Drive on NewEgg, and one post said the clicking problems that people have been experiencing are due to an incompatibility between the drive's APM (Advanced Power Management) settings and the laptop's. The same reviewer gave a link to a utility that can help set up the drive to work better with a MacBook Pro, so I ordered a drive. I also ordered a Mapower MAP-KC21ES USB 2.0 and dual FireWire 800 enclosure for the 320GB 7200 rpm drive that's currently in my 15" MacBook Pro. I started to work up a blog entry. We left at 11:40 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.
We stopped on the way out of town to hook up the Jeep to tow.
We stopped at the RV America in Loveland, Colorado, around 12:20 to pick up some parts. Before going in, I tested the continuity of the conductors in the umbilical cord, and one was intermittent. I opened up the plugs, and one side was missing a screw to hold the conductor to the connector. The other side was missing two screws, but the screws were inside the housing. Had lunch in the RV, then went inside to buy some light bulbs, a dome light switch, and a new plug for the umbilical cord. We left around 1:30.
We stopped at J's father F's, who lives near Denver. J uses one room in his basement to store things, and we dropped off and picked up some things.
We stopped at my storage unit too to drop off and pick up a few things.
We reached our "home" in Parker, Colorado, outside J's friend K's place around 5:40. Leveled the RV, hooked up electricity. We left in the Jeep around 6:05.
We went to SJ&DilK's (J's Son J and Daughter-in-law K's) for dinner, and I put in a load of laundry. DilK had made a pot roast in the crock pot that was very tasty. She also made some Pillsbury Crusty French Loaf bread that I thought had come from a bakery. After dinner, I played with the grandkids: GS (granddaughter S, age 2.5), GJ (grandson J, age 4), and GA (grandson A, age 7). We went back to the table to have dessert of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. GJ had said that he didn't like pie but liked cake, so I was surprised that he said he wanted what I was eating, so I dished out a piece of what I called "pumpkin cake" for him (yes, I'm a sneaky granddad), and he wasn't too fond of the flavor. After we finished dessert, the grandkids and I went back to playing. I finished my laundry, then we left.
We returned to the RV around 8:45 and I was pooped! I put away my laundry, then worked up a blog entry. I opened up the 5x7 cards I received from Exposure Manager, and they look terrible! I size the image to be 6.5 inches wide so there's a 1/4-inch (0.6cm) border around it, but the cards were only 6 13/16 wide with a 1/16 inch (0.16cm) border on the left and a 7/32 inch (0.56cm) border on the right — more than twice as big. One of the cards had a black-and-white image of a waterfall, and it had an unacceptable green cast to it. I was ticked! I had received some cards from them in February 2008 and they looked OK, so I was surprised that the cards I just received looked so bad. I use Exposure Manager to fulfill my online image orders, and didn't want my customers to receive the same shoddy prints, so I started to look for another outfit to do my printing. I had stopped printing all of my own images when I moved into the RV full-time because there was no room to carry the printer and paper around. I kept printing the images that I sell through The Majestic Gallery because I wanted to offer a first-rate product that's archival (Epson UltraChrome inks and Epson Premium Luster paper), passes my quality control, and is signed by me.