I ordered two copies of this book, but I feel like I should order 20. How often will I have the opportunity to be a major romance star? 

Taming Tessa

The Lady Will Not Be Broken ...

With soft whispers and a gentle touch, Tessa Seaton can tame the wildest beasts. The daughter of an impoverished baronet, controlled by an unscrupulous uncle, her remarkable talent for calming and riding unbroken horses makes her a valuable asset, though she dreams of independence and stables of her own one day. Then Lord Anthony Northrup unexpectedly gallops into her life.

... The Gentleman Will Not Be Deterred

At first, Anthony is shocked and angered by the fetching maid who fools unsuspecting souls into purchasing unsuitable steeds. But when he realizes Tessa acts out of love, the dashing nobleman is enchanted. He must release the remarkable lady somehow from her distasteful servitude and have her to cherish forever. But Tessa is no damsel in distress and she will not be tamed; rather, it is she who must set Anthony's heart free with her unique gift and passionate fire.

The picture says it all.

Who knew squirrels liked strawberries and tomatos?

A local woman. VERY strange.

Kathleen Gilroy :: There's a bird on my head

Shoot the cubes into the boxes. Easy, but fun.

There's a new version of the MSN Toolbar with the feature everyone wants--tabbed browsing. It is worth downloading, but it's not as good as Maxthon or even Firefox.

Tabbed browsing is a very, very good thing. Whether you use the Web for fun or work, it'll make you more efficient. So now, let's talk about why the MSN Toolbar's implementation isn't so good:

• Bad installer (still). If you're already using the MSN Toolbar and you try to install the version with tabbed browsing, it'll tell you that you already have a newer version. So, you have to uninstall the MSN Toolbar and then re-install to add tabbed browsing. this is the second time I've had to go through this. Seriously, most hobbiest programmers add upgrade funtionality to their installers, so why can't MSN do this?
• It's buggy. Open some tabs. Switch to full screen. Your tabs are gone. It's not like this is some obscure process I went through; people do this all the time.
• It's not well integrated into IE. For example, if you open up the Favorites tab and open a folder in your Favorites, and then open a new tab, the new tab won't have the same Favorites folder open. So you'd then have to re-open it.
• You'll still have lots of IE windows. Pop-up windows open in new IE windows, not tabs. That's one of the most basic features of tabbed browsing.
• You can't open different groups of tabs. It supports "My Tabs", which lets you open one group of tabs. But Maxthon and Firefox let you any folder of your Favorites. I do this all the time--I have a folder for all the blogs I read that opens all at once, all the Websites I check for software updates, places where people might review my books, etc. The MSN Toolbar limits you to just one set of tabs.

So, if you still need to use IE (Maxthon is better than Firefox, but some things don't work quite right), the MSN Toolbar with tabs makes IE better. But I'll still be using Maxthon.

Disposable video cameras--excellent. I hadn't seen these before.

Single-use digital video cams now available in CVS - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Also check USA Today.

Announced by Steve Ballmer at Tech-Ed today and now live on www.microsoft.com:

Windows Software Update Services (WSUS). Final release of WSUS went live today.

http://www.microsoft.com/wsus

Microsoft Update (MU): Microsoft Update replaces Windows Update. In addition to Windows XP, MU now updates: Windows XP, Windows 2000 SP3, Windows Server 2003, Office XP, Office 2003, SQL Server 2000 SP4 and Exchange 2000.

http://update.microsoft.com

If you're a home user, visit the new version of Windows Update so you can make sure your Microsoft applications are up-to-date. You'll have to update the client Windows Update software. If you're in information technology (IT), check out WSUS. It offers some HUGE improvements over SUS.

It's the Office app that nobody knows about: Microsoft OneNote. I've been using it for a few months now, and it has totally changed the way I work.

OneNote is the equivalent of the spiral notebook that I used to scribble random information in to help me remember it. The thing about note-taking is that it's non-linear. For any particular project, you get a few bits and pieces of information from verbal conversations, from e-mail, and from the Web. These might come at completely different times. So, it's tough to organize all of this information. OneNote is perfect for this, because it works without enforcing any structure. You can paste stuff in from a Web page (it automatically tracks the reference), or paste stuff in from e-mail, or type a note to yourself. If you have a Tablet PC, you can also add handwritten notes and drawings.

Even though it doesn't require organization, it provides for very flexible organization. You have categories, and tabs, and pages within each tab. For example, I have separate categories for Personal notes (like if I'm comparing cell phones) and Articles (notes about papers I'm writing). Sometimes, on the articles, I need to create separate pages to keep track of different types of info. No problem with OneNote. Here's a screenshots on my current notes--storage shopping.

Well anyway, maybe you have a better memory than I do and don't need to write everything down. But it can't hurt to check it out if you ever have trouble keeping track of the little details for a project, whether something for your job or your personal life. There's a free trial available.

Maybe it's because I grew up with games like Galaga, but I like simple games. You don't have to dedicate two hours to learning them or a week of your life to playing them--you can pick them up, play for a few minutes, and then move on.

If you're like me, check out Notebook Ninja.

You do have to read the manual, and you'll need to master using your opponents' body parts as weapons to progress very far. I got to the alien planet level. Let me know how far you get.

I'll try to make this a weekly event, because I always seem to play one of these games on Saturday morning. I found this game via Attack of the Show.

This picture reminds me of the Chinese food place across from the apartment I had in Austin. At the buffet, you could get the usual Chinese food, like General Tso, egg rolls, and such. But you could also get pudding, mac & cheese, and taco fixings. In Austin, people expect Tex-Mex everywhere.