Father's Day and Summer Solstice

As a special treat for Father's Day this year, you have the longest day of the year to celebrate! I hope you are all having a great day with your fathers or with your children. James is spending the afternoon at the Binghamton Mets game with Amy and Ryan. Perfect. I know he misses his dad to this day and especially today so I'm glad he is spending it with his kids at his favorite pasttime. I hope the same for all of you.

In my family history research, I learn many things that surprise me. This hasn't specifically happened recently, but it occured to me that even in today's world we can learn things that might surprise us about our family members. We think we know what others think of us, but those perceptions are often inaccurate. And we don't even realize it! I have very often had my eyes opened by a revelation shared by someone's perception of me or my preferences, motives whatever. We simply do not have the same views of ourselves that others do and such a reality check can be very refreshing.

So, in that spirit, I thought I would share with you all some of my favorite online activties. I am sharing things I think might surprise you as well as give you new insight to my interests. One such website is one that I'll bet Thomas would enjoy very much: The Occasional CEO blog blends history with current events in such an interesting way I look forward to all new posts! Most recently I particularly enjoyed the post: Twitter, Pain, and the Livery Stable Blues: Culture Trumps Technology . Great food for thought. I get regular Grammar Girl updates to keep me current with grammatical trivia.

Podcasts I enjoy on my iPod include Quick and Dirty Tips Get It Done Guy as well as This American Life from NPR; Circuits by David Pogue and Good Morning Gloucester. I've just started listening to Arming the Donkeys explaining recent scientific research and how it affects our lives.

And, yes, I have finally joined the social network world on Facebook. We'll see how it goes. I look forward to all it can offer. Jake mentioned the wide Dalpiaz network so I am very intrigued.

Good thing it's the longest day in the year with all this stuff to keep up with! My family is welcoming a new twig on the family tree today: my sister Paula's son Bill welcomes his second daughter Emma into the world today!