Outlook in Our House

Well, I think I mentioned this is the podcast, but I gave up my paper wall calendar a couple of months ago to put my calendar in Outlook. Since Dan was using it, the only way to make sure that he knew about family events was to make it a meeting that showed up on his iPhone, which meant that half of our stuff was in Outlook anyway, so it just made sense.

Parts of it are great - I can put in there to remind me to change the furnace filter in 3 months and it does, do the dog's flea & tick every month, and the annual birthday reminders are nice too. So, the weird thing is that the computer is dinging at me all the time! And if we're both home, so is Dan's phone, and Dan's computer. *Ding* Vinny has karate, *Ding* today is "blue" day at preschool, *Ding* Nick's birthday...

I still print out the calendar once a month or so - I'm a paper person at heart - and hang it on the fridge. I don't have much of a sense of time without that grid on the wall. I also carry a copy with me in the diaper bag. But now, I'm having problems keeping them all synchronized.

So does this mean I need a PDA? I don't want to go there - it's that slippery slope with this tech stuff! I would've been fine with a little planner, but Dan wasn't remembering stuff, and there you go. But we almost missed a doctor's appointment because it wasn't in Outlook. Ugh - well, to be continued.

Ethical Considerations of Halloween Candy

So, we went trick-or-treating last night and great fun was had by all. Vinny is finally old enough to appreciate that going on to more houses means more candy. So he picked the biggest Halloween bag we have and said he was going to fill it up. He didn't do that - but I bet the kid has a good 30+ pieces in there. There are a couple of full size candy bars in it. My problem is, who owns the candy?

Clearly, the adults own the extra candy that was not picked up by trick-or-treaters. We actually budgeted pretty well this time, so we don't have much left over. Now, he's 4 - it's going to take him forever to get through it, I don't want him to eat it all - is it ok to sneak a few pieces? What about the candy that the two year old got? Does Dan get some because he went to the extra houses with Vinny and I didn't?

I think that I really need to leave it alone. But it sure does look yummy...