Unplugged and Unincumbered

Greetings from...our living room! I am writing to you from the latest addition to the Pruetz family -- an Apple Mac Book. It's a fantastic, laptop computer with lots of bells and whistles.

We've had a desktop Mac for a few years now and while I'm still very much a PC person, I've grown to love the Mac in a lot of ways. Todd is a graphics guru and having a Mac just makes sense. Our desktop has served us well.

Recently, my dad has been bitten by the Mac bug. He got an iMac and has had a really fun time playing around with the functions that you just can't get on a PC. He's had so much fun, in fact, that he decided Todd needed an upgrade to his current computer and bought him a laptop. We'd been in the market for a laptop anyway (so we could take it on vacation and such), so what great timing! Todd was totally surprised by the gift and he and my dad are already planning on their first iChat and other fun events.

The Mac Book hadn't been in our house for 24 hours before Todd ran out and bought a wireless router. Not knowing much about how internet connections work, I didn't realize how easy it was to go from DSL to wireless. I thought you had to subscribe to a service or something, but you just need a router that converts the wired DSL signal to a wireless signal.

So now, instead of being tethered to my desk, I am sitting in my favorite chair in my family room, just typing away. It's pretty cool. I know wireless internet connectivity has been around for a long time, but to finally have it in your own home is a pretty liberating experience. :)

This weekend was a fun one for our family. Obviously, we had family in town. Dad and Jean came in on Saturday and we had a bar-b-que here at our house last night. This morning, the whole family attended 9:30 Mass where Addison, my niece and Goddaughter, took her first Holy Communion. Communion and the Eucharist are the benchmarks of the Catholic faith and to see Addy take the body and blood of Christ for the first time was something that brought a lot of pride into my heart. Our faith continues...

Afterwards was a reception at ZZ's house for about 35 people. It was lots of fun and the zillion-and-one kids there had a great time playing together.

We were supposed to go to a Fiesta event this evening, but a rainy day caused us to cancel.

Fiesta is a ten-day party here in the Alamo City. Over the course of two weekends and the weekdays in between, there are over 100 official events and hundreds more unofficial events. Some of the events can get pretty wild and wooley, like OysterBake and NIOSA (pronounced nye-OH-sah and stands for Night in Old San Antonio), while others cater toward families and youngsters. Falling under the latter category is the Fort Sam Houston Fiesta Event. We've never been, but our good friends Jennifer and Jesse and their two kids go every year. It's a family-oriented event with food and games for the whole fam, a paratrooper show and a firewords finale. We had planned to take a picnic out there and let the kids run wild, but it wasn't meant to be. Definitely next year.

We're also fans of the Pooch Parade which we won't be able to attend this year.

So, if you're planning a trip to San Antonio, you may want to consider doing so in April. Enjoy the events, the street parties, the stage shows and the parades. You won't be let down.

I know I've been promising to post photos of the kids and I swear, I will soon. I just need to actually take some. :) Thanks for bearing with me.

E