Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Checking In

I'll admit it: I'm addicted to the Internet. I'm sitting here in Colville (the town where I attended high school) in the local McDonald's, enjoying a secure WiFi connection for a nominal fee. Although I've been enjoying the out-of-doors swimming, kayaking, hiking, and going on drives looking for wildlife--particularly moose--for my brother-in-law to shoot with his camera, I finally succumbed to my withdrawals to check my e-mail, Google Reader, and cell phone messages (no cell service up there, either). My 13-year-old son (about as addicted as I am) and I took the 25-minute drive south into town and checked to see if McDonald's had a hotspot. Five minutes later, we were hooked up, and I've been enjoying catching up on some of my favorite genealogy blogs.

I've also been catching up on some real book reading this week. I've been enjoying Kimberly Powell's The Everything Family Tree Book, one I've decided is a must-read for my Beginning Online Genealogy students. I've also started David McCullough's Truman--it's been a tradition for me to read a McCullough book every year when I go to the lake. I've also spent some time going through my many Robbins genealogy file folders and citing my sources. Since I can't be distracted by going online, it's been a good exercise and I've added greatly to my to-do lists on my many Robbins ancestors' and relatives' files for when I get back home.

Well, I promised my son some time on Runescape, so I must go. I look forward to doing more catching up Friday night.

2 comments:

Janice said...

Miriam,

What a good mom you are to give your son some time to play his computer game. Don't let anyone tell you that is going to "rot his brain." I gave my son his first computer when he was five, and now he is a java programmer and making a very good living doing that (and happy doing that too boot).

Enjoy your vacation! :)

Janice

Miriam Robbins said...

Thanks, Janice, I did enjoy it! Computer time is a two-edged sword at my house...to be used (or taken away) as a reward (or a consequence)!