GJ (grandson J, age 5) spent the night with us in the RV, and he was a good sleeper — to borrow one of J's phrases. J and I awoke around our usual time and pussyfooted around the RV while GJ continued to sleep. I downselected images from Friday some more so I could select some for the blog. GJ got up around 8:15.

IHOP

We went to IHOP in Parker for breakfast around 9:15. I'm not a big fan of IHOP, and I think it's because of a bad first experience when I was a child — the pancakes I had then were terrible compared to what I was used to from home. I got a Create-Your-Own Denver Omelete w/whole wheet toast instead of the pancakes, J got a free Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity, and GJ got scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes. GJ happily poured the whole pitcher, about 1.5 cups (about 350ml), of maple syrup over his pancakes. I tried a bite of J's pancakes with the special mixed fruit topping, and it was sickeningly sweet. (J loved it.) I think that's why I disliked the pancakes there as a child — the special fruit-flavored syrup didn't sit well with me. While working on this blog entry, I found a press release for the return of the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity item to the IHOP menu, in which the chief marketing officer said, "The Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity helped IHOP build our reputation for fun, sweet and craveable food that our guests can count on." No wonder I'm not a fan of IHOP, they deliberately want to provide sweet food that I don't like. Fortunately, there was no sickeningly sweet additives in the omelet so it was quite edible. When J asked GJ if it would be OK if we went to the Verizon Wireless store so that I could look at a Droid X phone, he replied, "You can look at the phone, but you're not buying one," and it cracked us up.

Droid X

We went to the Verizon Wireless store in Parker around 10:25 so I could play with a Droid X. It's the latest Android-based phone from Motorola, and I was just about ready to put my money down if it ran Fliq Notes as good as the iPhone. I've been using a Palm device of one flavor or another for years and have been keeping a log using Palm's Memo app. Lately I've been using Mark/Space Notebook on my Mac which syncs with the Memos on the Palm via Missing Sync for Palm OS, and Fliq Notes will also sync with it. I was quite impressed by the build quality and form factor of the Droid X — it would be very comfortable to use. The extra tall display, when held like a phone, makes for an extra wide keyboard when held sideways, and I found typing on the virtual keyboard in that orientation to be very easy. I asked the saleswoman if I could download an app to try out. She said sure and pointed me to the Market icon on the home page. I quickly and easily had a copy of Fliq Notes loaded on the Droid X and started playing with it. I was disappointed to discover that Fliq Notes for Android doesn't currently have the same features as Fliq Notes for iPhone, and the big feature it's missing is a way to conveniently only show notes in one category at a time. On the iPhone, there are collapsible headers for each category such that when you touch the header the notes for that category are displayed, and when you touch the header again, the notes get sucked back up. In the Android version, I think it's possible to search for all notes in a category, but that's not nearly as convenient. Along the way, I played with the built-in Google Voice to enter text in an input field, and it did fairly well. I couldn't figure out how to copy/paste text on my own while there, and I didn't want to keep J and GJ waiting too long, so I'll have to go back some time to play with the Droid X some more. As of now, I'm inclined to wait for Fliq Notes for Android to be improved before I make the jump to an Android device.

We went to O'Brien Park in Parker around 11:00 to play light sabers with GJ. We played for a while and sought out some shade to keep cool.

We took GJ home around 11:30 and visited briefly with the other grandkids: GA (grandson A, age 8.5) and GS (granddaughter S, age 3).

Then we went to Safeway to pick up a few things that were on sale then ...

We went to King Soopers to do a major grocery shopping haul. After I picked out a few things, I let J wanter the aisles at her leisure while I sat in the Starbucks lounge and cleaned up the log on my Palm Treo 755p. I also went to the nearby Wild Bird store to buy a hummingbird feeder holder that we can attach to our windows so that we'll be able to hang two feeders in the future.

We returned to the RV around 1:35 and I had lunch. Then I processed three of the four images for the next blog entry before we left around 3:45.

We picked up GA and took him ...

To Target so he could print out some of the pictures he took when he was with us on Mt. Evans. I dropped him and J off at the door and ...

Went to the nearby Home Depot to pick up some wire to install the cell phone amplifier in a different location and to make a longer cord for our toaster. One would think that buying wire by the foot for such applications would be the best way to go, but it was actually cheaper to buy some short extension cords. I wanted to buy 8 ft (2.4m) of 18-2 for the cell phone amplifier, and at 30¢/ft, it would have cost $2.40. Instead, I bought a 12-ft (3.6m) 16-2 extension cord complete with plug and three sockets for $1.98. I wanted to buy 4 ft (1.2m) of 16-2 ($38¢/ft) and a plug ($1.99) for the toaster which would have cost $3.51, and instead I purchased a 6-ft (1.8m) 16-2 extension cord with a nice moulded plug and three sockets for $1.14!

I went back to Target to meet up with J and GA who were still shopping.

We returned GA around 5:40.

We returned to the RV around 6:00.

We had dinner of Bertolli Shrimp Scampi & Linguini and some Private Selection (Kroger brand) Rustic Pugliese bread to go with some of my special Oil and Vinegar Dip — mmm.

After dinner, I processed the last image for the blog then worked up the blog entry.