A Good Friend Gone

Late in the middle of the night, Charlie's (our dog) spine suddenly ruptured. Most likely from all the various ailments he's been dealing with, and the medication to help him. He was in terrible pain, more pain than I'd ever seen any animal in. I didn't want to see him suffer anymore and decided to put him down. I didn't want to stay to see the vet do it, but he's been faithfully by my side for the last 12+ years, I couldn't bear to let him die alone. I can't really get the picture out of my head of my dear friend dying before my eyes. I know he's at peace now, even though I am not. All this on the eve of my daughter's birthday. At first we weren't going to tell her, but I don't like deception so we told her in the early afternoon. She's definitely handling it better than I expected, (and certainly better than I am)

10 Years ago…

Happy Birthday Rachel! Then: and now: Seriously, 10 years?? Who put life on Fast Forward mode?

Summer is almost gone?

TMatt Mullenweg will be there. I'm really psyched about that. I feel like some things are coming full circle - A few years ago, Matt asked me to speak at a panel at SXSW and I turned it down. I feel kind of stupid having done that, but at the time, I was working for a company (not for myself, might have been more inclined to do it otherwise), as well, it meant having to travel there by plane and speak in front of people (obviously) - my two worst phobias: flying and public speaking - all rolled up into one. Anyway, I'm glad I was able to get over at least one of those fears in order to take this on.

Lola’s Alphabet Train – iPhone Game

WClick here if you'd like to see a video of the game. Lola's Alphabet Train: $1.99* Lola's Alphabet Train is also available for the iPad: Lola's Alphabet Train HD: $2.99* *price at time of this writing. Disclosure: I received a free copy of these apps for review purposes

The Big Brag and Yertle the Turtle – ebooks for the iPhone and iPad

Oceanhouse Media has recently released the next set of Dr. Seuss books as universal apps that work both on the iPhone and iPad. I've already expressed my love of Dr. Seuss books, so once again I'm thrilled to see the collection continue to expand. The Big Brag and Yertle the Turtle feature the ability to read the story yourself, have the story read to you (manually turning the pages), or auto play (pages turn automatically). Sound effects can be turned on or off. In case you're not familiar with these titles: in The Big Brag, a rabbit thinks outloud to himself about he thinks he's the best animal of all, at which point a bear listening nearby disagrees with him and boasts that he is the best of all animals. So they put their skills to test against each other, the rabbit trying to hear as far away as possible, the bear trying to smell as far away as possible. They are then interrupted by a worm who says he can see so far, he sees around the world and back again to two fools who have nothing better to do than argue who is better than the other. In Yertle the Turtle, Yertle is king of his pond, and all he can see, but he is greedy and wants to be king of more - to do so he needs to see more. So he orders his poor loyal turtle subjects to come and make his thrown higher and higher. They obey, but one turtle complains that it isn't fair. Yertle ignores his pleas and continues to order more and still more turtles over so he can sit on them. Finally the complaining turtle sneezes and makes the huge turtle tower crumble to the ground, sending Yertle into the mud and freeing all the turtles. I think you'll love these stories as much as my kids and I do. Zach happily listens to the stories over and over again. The Big Brag: $1.99* Yertle the Turtle: $3.99* *price at time of this writing Disclosure: I received a free copy of these apps for review purposes