We have gone through another death in the family; this time our 22 year old cat, Brownie, left us a couple of days ago. That's an OLD cat, and he was doing pretty well until the last few month where he really started to look and act his age.

He lived a long life, he was a great mouser in his day, and got to eat a little turkey at Thanksgiving - so I guess that's not too bad of a ride. You can see a picture of him in better times here.

We can put another Thanksgiving holiday in the books. Good turkey, good times. My wife was a little worried as it was the first time in many years that she had used a gas oven to cook the turkey, but she needn't have fretted; it was delicious.

My wife's sister and her family visited, as did our daughter. Our son couldn't make it this year, but he at least was able to call and speak to us. The weather was good too. That was an issue as our in-laws have a 3 hour drive down here.

All good stuff - and yes, I am thankful for it.

We are getting into that time of year again where you start checking off the signs that Winter is on it's way...

Crisp evenings and cold mornings - check
Extra blankets on the bed - check
Set the clocks back - check
Dig out the ice scraper for the car - check
Get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday - check (yay!)

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, is out. I have been somewhat interested in following it as I am in a technology job, so it makes sense for me to experience "new stuff". I was less interested in Vista, after it quickly became apparent that it was not really catching on as Microsoft had hoped.

Windows 7 seem to be poised to be better received, and after installing it on my 4-year old laptop, it seems very nice, and pretty quick. I also have a version of Linux on the laptop, configured in such a way ("dual boot") that I can choose either operating system when I start up. Linux Mint 7 seems quite comparable to Windows 7 in many ways, and was actually easier to install, as far as drivers and so on - that was kind of surprising.

Pretty interesting compilation of visual effects in movies over the years...