Philadelphia Flower Show - Rated Best Show in the World!

This year we made it to the Philadelphia Flower Show which  received 17 International Festival & Events Association awards for the 2014 show, “ARTiculture” including the top prize, the Grand Pinnacle Gold Award. The Philadelphia Flower Show awards included five Gold, five Silver, and seven Bronze.

KitSplit is receiving a Lot of Attention

KitSplit, the creative artists rental network, founded by our daughter Kristina and Lisabeth Kaufman, is receiving a lot of attention. This week two articles were published on this startup. Forbes presents "Rent-a-Drone: Creatives Can Rent Oculus Rift, Google Glass And More Through KitSplit". While Fast Company writes "This 'Airbnb For Creative Equipment' Will Rent You Drones, Oculus Rifts, Google Glass, More".

Kristina has cofounded a business - KitSplit

Kristina has co-founded a business named KitSplit which is currently in operation in a beta state. KitSplit is meant to help photographers, video artists, and other creative types who have to rent expensive equipment to reduce their costs. It does so using a web site whereby they can rent to and from others in the KitSplit network. This peer-to-peer network is similar to Airbnb in which people rent their living space to others. KitSplit has started with many of Kristina's friends and associates in the NY Metro area signing up at KitSpit's new web site.

Teddi wrapped in a towel

Toy Yorkie joins us in Princeton

After a lot of research on the web and the third trip to Brooklyn to choose a female Toy Yorkie, we finally came home with Teddi:

Summer Asian Lily and the World Trade Center

Today, feels like summer - a warm, humid day in Princeton. 

Thought I'd post a few summer images.
A view of the new World Trade Center from the Hudson River.
And, a view at of this year's Asian lily plant in our front yard:

Complimentary Admission to Cloud Expo 2014 in New York

My firm, Persimmon Telecommunications is offering customers, partners and prospects a complimentary Gold Pass for the entire Cloud Expo 2014 three day event in Manhattan. This pass retails for $2200! It gives full access to all 175+ technical and strategic sessions across 9 tracks, including all Keynotes, General Sessions, Discussion Panels, Technical Breakout Sessions, and the Expo Floor... everything that a fully paid $2,200 Gold Pass offers, in fact, with the exception of Luncheon and the collectible conference bag. If you want to know more about today's cloud offerings and what is coming, this is the place to be. To obtain a complimentary Golden Pass, contact Persimmon Telecommunications.

Another Victim of Northeastern US Snow Storms

Titan, this week's storm, had a much smaller effect on Princeton NJ than originally expected. However, here is a photo from last month showing a victim of this winter's snow storms stuck in about a 15 foot high pile of snow in the Nassau Park shopping center.

Shopping cart in 15 foot pile of snow in parking lot.

Presentation scheduled on Cloud Services for Personal and Small Business Use

Last Tuesday, I spoke on Cloud services at the Computer Learning Center at Ewing. That talk was oriented toward services in the cloud that are most valuable to individual users, services like file backup and file sharing amongst different devices. On February 25, my presentation, Cloud Services for Personal and Small Business Use, will put more emphasis on services that are valuable to those with home offices and other small businesses. This presentation will be at the Princeton PC Users Group monthly meeting.

Fall in New Paltz NY

This fall we spent a weekend in New Paltz NY. After attending a Tai Chi workshop, I joined Valorie to enjoy the town of New Paltz and environs. We stayed at Moondance Ridge B&B, a fantastic little inn on grounds that were landscaped with a very environmentally conscious design. Here is Valorie in the labyrinth:

The grounds are certified as a Wildlife Habitat with the majority of plantings being white spruce which have a life span of 400 to 800 years.

Skiing Telluride Opening Day

This year's Rocky Mountain weather worked hand-in-hand with our travel plans made in May allowing us to ski Telluride on opening day. This year's snow conditions at Telluride were perfect on our first full day in Colorado, Thanksgiving, which happened to be the opening day for this season's Telluride skiing.

Joe on Telluride slopes opening day

Do you see the Telluride airstrip in the upper right?

October 2013 Morning Glories in Princeton NJ

Happy Thanksgiving! Wow - winter temperatures are definitely here. Last month we still had beautiful morning glories along our front steps:

Summer Week on Long Beach Island

This summer we spent a week in the borough of Barnegat Light on LBI. Barnegat light seemed to be affected by Sandy the least of all towns on LBI. It probably is at least partly because of the dunes that they have developed between the ocean and the borough. This is a natural protection from wind and ocean. Some family from the Baltimore-Washington area came to visit. You see some of us here:

Both Joe and Kristina refreshed our wind surfing skills:

America's Phone Companies should Maintain Reliable, Affordable Basic Phone Service

Some local phone companies are making an effort to avoid providing traditional basic phone service to all service areas. Not having traditional wired service can be a problem during a disaster when many buildings are without power and cell phone towers are either out of service or overwhelmed with calls. A more detailed discussion is presented in "No Second Class Services at the Jersey Shore" and "AARP, Consumer Groups Fighting to Protect Landline Telephone Service".

There are many competitive services available which you can find at "Local and Long Distance Phone Service Options". Many of these phone service options are very appropriate for certain situations, however, many of them require that you have a source of power at your location. Plan ahead for power outages and cell tower outages. One approach is to install a generator and/or a UPS so that you still have power even if the utility company is not supplying power to your location. This approach is being taken by many who experienced many days of no power after Sandy.

This morning's visitor

While watering some trees planted this spring, I heard a movement nearby, looked up, and saw:

Visitors to Princeton

Today, there are a lot of visitors to Princeton for University Reunions. We have our own visitors. You may see a hint of them in this window box that is just beside our front door.
For a closer view, see the closeups on Flickr.

Irene feeds Sandy

It's now the 13th year of this century. Already this century New Jersey has experienced two major hurricanes. Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. After Irene struck, President Obama declared all 21 counties of New Jersey to be a Disaster Area. It was the worst storm in the history of PSE&G, our utility company.

Then, in 2012, Sandy struck. Sandy had the largest diameter ever recorded of any Atlantic hurricane. It impacted twice as many PSE&G customers as Irene. Hopefully, this sequence of worsening disasters doesn't continue in 2013 and the rest of this century.

Here I am sawing Irene droppings into kindling. I used remnants of Hurricane Irene to feed the fire that warmed is in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy while we were without the electric power which is necessary to run modern heating systems.

Grand Oak withstands Sandy by Shedding

You've seen the photos of many trees downed by Hurricane Sandy. Here's an oak tree that stood steady.

It's interesting that instead of large branches breaking off of this tree, the tree "shed" what seem to be thousands of branch ends which ranged from a few inches in length to a few feet. You can see some of them piled up in a line in the street above. Here is a photo of a typical one.

It's as though the tree knew that it had to relieve the force of the wind so it discarded leaves and tips so that it could survive these immense forces. Reminds me of a ship's crew tossing cargo into the sea to avoid the ship sinking cause of encroaching water making it too heavy to float.

Hurricane Sandy hit Princeton hard on Monday

Southern Way is a relatively short one-way street in Princeton. At the end is Cedar Lane. Although Southern Way was hit hard by Irene, it made out better with Sandy. Perhaps Irene and some other storms in recent times cleared out the weak trees. Cedar Lane and other streets nearby are a different story. Here is the view looking east - to the right from Southern Way.

You can see yellow police tape tied to some of the dangling wires! So let's look a little to the left.

You are seeing the top of an electric company pole pulled off to the left. What caused it? Looking west, towards the second pole further to the left, we see:

Since our electric supply appears to be fed from that end of Southern Way, you should not be surprised that we are without power. PSE&G estimated that it will be restored Monday evening.

Hurricane Sandy approaching New Jersey

The calm before the storm - scenes of the season in Princeton:

Blue Berry Identification

Today, I spotted these blue berries growing near the canal in Princeton. I also noticed them growing in Marquand Park near the parking area.

Someone from the US Dept of Agriculture helped me identify this plant. It's Ampelopsis brevipedunculata, the porcelain berry.

Wow! Mia Farrow tweeted about KDB's Gay Talese video!

Here's a tweet from Mia Farrow about KDB's New Yorker video about the writing lair of the legendary writer Gay Talese: https://twitter.com/MiaFarrow/status/254661331876192256

Marbled Orb Weaver in our front yard

Every day recently that I walked through one part of our front yard, I encountered a massive web rebuilt from the previous day. Finally, I spotted the builder and identified it using Google:

BEACH CREATURES Video

Although this video was published just over a year ago, it's such a great video about a such a great creation, that I decided to post a link to it again. It's about a Dutch artist and his wind-powered sculptures that walk on the beach: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/09/beach-creatures.html

No Budget? No Pay!

Like any public corporation, Congress should be required to pass a budget annually. It has passed a budget and the spending bills required to fund federal operation only four times in the last 60 years! See No Labels: No Budget? No Pay!

Park City, Utah in June

An advantage of working in Telecommunications, is that we take an annual trip to a Telecommunications conference. This year we stayed at a fabulous lodge in the Park City mountains. It's a shame we had such busy meeting schedules and not a lot of time to enjoy the location. With the industry continually changing, lots of training is required to keep up. Over and above the typical areas like T1, DS3, PtP, MPLS, PRI, OC3, Fast & Gigabit Ethernet Line Services, we had significant training on mobility management and cloud options. It was good that the last day, Saturday, was a break from work. We tried golfing at about 6500 feet above sea level on a windy day. By the way, it was our first time on an actual golf course! We had taken some lessons in May, basically learning how to putt and hit the ball down the driving range. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Luckily, the day was set up as a scramble and we had two experienced golfers in our foursome.

Montauk in April

At the end of April, we spent a long weekend in Montauk at the eastern tip of Long Island. Being off season, it was very pleasantly quiet.

Joe at the ocean

Val near Montauk Manor

December Trip to Paris

Been very busy. Finally posting that we took a rather enjoyable trip to Paris at the end of December. Weather was a little warmer than in the Northeast US at the time; however, those cool days would feel great about now.

KDB on the Musée d'Orsay balcony

Joe & Val on Ferris Wheel over Paris

Hurricane Irene in Princeton

Our power was restored after almost two days - the partial vacation ended. Actually, while the power was out, we put in lots of time needed to clean up the numerous branches and twigs spread around our property.

There were two very unfortunate deaths in Mercer county:
* one was a Rescue worker who was confirming that no one was trapped in a car submerged on Harrison St near the canal which is about half a mile from our home,
* the other was a landowner who removed a manhole cover hoping to clear water from his flooded property - the large amount of water already rushing down the pipe apparently created a vortex that sucked the man into the sewage pipe.

Here is a view of the stairs and tunnel for passing under the railroad tracks at Princeton Junction train station: http://foureleven.tumblr.com/post/9518080147

What is SMA?

SMA is Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a genetic disease that occurs in approximately 1 out of every 6,000 kids; it leaves the spine underdeveloped. See A Thousand More by Kristina Budelis, Piotr Malecki and Jeff Rhode.

Tools for Managing and Protecting your PC Files

There are some great tools available on the web to help you manage and protect the files on your PC or MAC. I discuss aids to using your PC in greater detail at my Joe Budelis Help page. Here, I'll just mention two of the web sites that I recently started using that provide a great service and it's free for their basic offering.

Do you work on more than one computer? If so, wouldn't it be great if files on the two (or more) computers that you work on were kept synched? Well, files on more than one computer are kept synched by DropBox as long as each of the computers is connected to the Internet.

Have you ever lost files cause of a failed hard drive, viruses, trojans, or some other reason? If so, you know that it's important to back up your files. You can set IDrive to back up files on a scheduled basis.

In both cases, you receive a certain amount of space free. The free space can be increased by referring others to these services. In fact, by using the links in the two preceding paragraphs, you will increase the size of my free space.

Joe Budelis wins iPad at 2011 Telarus Agent Conference

Joe Budelis participated in an educational "team game" at the 2011 Telarus Agent Conference which emphasized some interesting facts about Telecom Carrier Service offerings and built team spirit. The game was played by four teams to be the first part of a selection process for the person to be awarded a newly purchased iPad. Then, a random drawing of those in the winning teams selected Joe Budelis as the winner of the iPad.

And the Snow Melts

Icicles from snow melting on roof.

Another Snowstorm hit the Northeast!

Before


and


After





Or

should

it be

Summer

and

Winter

Rome and Florence during a NJ Blizzard

We left for our Italian vacation on one of the last flights out of Newark before airport operations were seriously hindered by the December 26, 2010 snow storm. Although the weather in Rome and Florence was wintery, we were lucky to get out of the NorthEast USA before many flights were canceled and not to have to shovel and otherwise deal with the major snow storm.


Here is Valorie and KDB smokin' a clove on the front steps of a church in Rome. There are more photos of our vacation on FLICKR.

Valorie published Why is Hypoglycemia on the Rise?

After considerable research, Valorie published an article on Hypoglycemia in her Gaia's Pen blog. Whether you know what hypoglycemia is or not, you will likely find this article to be interesting.

Tai Chi Ch'uan (also spelled Taijiquan) Class in Central NJ

For about two years I've been attending T'ai Chi classes. If you are in the Princeton area and are interested, a new class is starting on September 25 for beginners or those who desire reinforcement in their training. See details at classes in classical Yang Style T’ai Chi Ch’uan.

Another Tree Mangler Hits Princeton

After quite a dry spell, late yesterday, a heavy thunderstorm hit Princeton. The tree damage observed afterward suggests there were quite a few strong micro bursts. These photos show a tree whose trunk was cleanly severed right into the ground!

Congrats to KDB on her first Blog post at The New Yorker

It's great to see that KDB's first blog post at The New Yorker has been published: "On and Off the Walls: Suburban Knights".

Summer Recipes by Local Executive Chef

Valorie has published summer recipes that have recently been presented by local Executive Chef, Christopher Albrecht. To see what Chef Albrecht presented using produce locally grown in the northeast USA, see Gaia's Pen.

What is your Best Internet Access Option?

On Friday, May 21, Joe Budelis will again give a presentation to help one explore and find the best Internet Solution Provider for their location. This presentation on Internet Access will be given at the Brookdale Computer Users Group May meeting and details are available at "Comparison of Internet Access Options such as Satellite, DSL, Cable, FIOS, T1, EoC, 3G, 4G".

Some material on this topic is available at "Comparison of Cable, DSL and T1 Broadband Internet Access Options."

Cherry Blossoms in Princeton

The spring brings beautiful blossoms on the Japanese Cherry tree in front of our home. Here is a photo of Valorie framed by the cherry blossoms draping down from the tree.

Comparison of Internet Access Options to be presented at Trenton Computer Festival

Joe Budelis, owner of Persimmon Telecommunications, will present "Comparison of Internet Access Options - How to Compare, Shop for, and Choose the best Internet Access option" at TCF-2010, the Trenton Computer Festival in Trenton, NJ. Options such as DSL, cable, FiOS, T1, DS3, OC3, Fast Ethernet OCx, and GigE will be compared. The PowerPoint slide presentation is available at How to Compare, Shop for, and Choose the best Internet Access option.

More info is available at TCF Talks, Forums, and Exhibitions.

Plucking of White Pine from our Home

Since their climbers decided it wasn't safe to do otherwise, Well's Tree Service used a crane to remove the white pine from our house. At the top of the tree there were two leads. Here you see one of those leads being carried from over our home. I estimate it's less than 1/8th of the tree. However, it in itself is as large as a good sized tree!

Below is one of the last pieces being carried away from our home.

Saved By a Tree

Now that it's light out, I see that the damage to our home by the white pine would have likely been worse except that it's fall was hindered by a black locust tree on the other side of the house. If the tree people were to just cut off the top of the pine tree, the weight of the pine could move it further into the house. The tree company says their approach tomorrow will be to trim everything they can to reduce the weight before they cut the locust support.


You can see the tree guy on the roof. He's installing a tarp to provide temporary protection from the rain.

The reason that the pine tree went down is that white pines have shallow roots and the wind was able to pull the roots out:


Here's a closeup of where it was uprooted:

Rain, Wind and a 130 foot Pine Tree

This is the 130 foot pine tree that had stood 10 feet from our home. It had seemed sturdier than trees still standing around it!

Snow Blizzard in Princeton, NJ

The holly tree in the above view out of Val's second floor office window on February 10 is leaning, not because of the wind, but because of the weight of the snow on it's branches. The next day, with much of the snow removed, it looked as shown below.

KDB to Israel and Ski Slopes

This winter break, KDB joined a college trip to Israel. She really enjoyed the introduction to the country given by the tour. She also made good use of her new Canon 5 d Mark II professional camera. Here's one of the photos that she took in Israel with the new camera: Trees.

Now that she's back in New York, she's joined the ski club and, on many weekends, is skiing slopes in the Northeast US. This week she has actually skied in Manhattan's Central Park.

Japanese Maple in Princeton

I've cared for this Japanese Maple since it was about a foot tall. It started, without my help, between our driveway and our Japanese Cherry tree. For many years, the tree expert has been saying that the Japanese Cherry is ill and should be removed. However, we still enjoy its cherry blossoms every spring. I'm using it as an anchor to train the Maple away from the driveway. Presumably, because the Cherry shades the Maple, the Maple has tried to grow at a substantial angle into the space above the driveway. The Maple shows spectacular fall colors. The green and yellow just behind it are leaves on the Cherry. And, the red blotches in the upper left by the house are berries on one of our Holly trees. This photo was taken in November, Today, being December, most all leaves have fallen and I just about finished leaf raking for the year.

Are your Photos Backed Up?

Recently, our laptop hard drive had to be replaced. Luckily, we regularly back up all important data on our PCs. If you aren't, you should. We use Mozy. which is an on-line backup service offered free for 2 GB of data. For additional storage, you can pay or you can refer others as I'm doing here. This and other tips are discussed on my home page at Joe Budelis Home Page Tips & Money Saving ideas.

Diet & Weight Loss Articles

Since my last posting, Valorie's posted several interesting articles on her Gaias Pen blog, for example, Transition Diet: Nourish Earth and Weight Loss Tools That Really Work.

Protection against H1N1 Swine Flu

Valorie just published an article Ten Foods to Optimize Immunity in her Gaias Pen blog. It and other articles in her blog give useful information that can help you protect yourself for the coming flu season.

Princeton Wildflowers

A week ago Sunday, we joined Steve Hiltner, the Natural Resources Manager of Friends of Princeton Open Space. on one of his Princeton Wildflower tours. This one was along the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath. It was quite interesting to learn a bit about flowers, trees, and other plants that we have passed by often, most of the time not even noticing them. The flower in the photo is jewelweed. Steve demonstrated how, via coiled springs, the seed pods pop when touched - a great demo for kids. After the walk, I did some more reading and found the seeds are edible and the juice of the jewelweed's stem is known to be useful as a skin remedy. Rubbing it on the affected spot stops mosquito bite itching, relieves wasp and bee stings, and is also said to be good for such affections as warts, bruises, fungal skin infections, nettle stings, minor burns, cuts, eczema, acne, sores, and any skin irritations. See Jewelweed (Impatiens species) and other articles on the web for more info.

Stars over Princeton

Friday night, Val and I observed stars over Princeton at the AAAP Simpson Observatory. Through the telescopes, among others, we saw Vega (the brightest star that evening), the Hercules Cluster, and several twin stars. We also saw Jupiter and a couple man made satellites move across the sky. The Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton offers public viewing through their telescopes Friday nights between April and October, weather permitting. Go to the link earlier in this paragraph for more info. Or, if you find yourself in the Princeton area and don't have this page in front of you, all you have to remember is to Google "Princeton Directory". You will find a link to the AAAP site on the Clubs and Organizations page.

Valorie started a Blog: Gaias Pen

Yesterday, Valorie started her first blog Gaias Pen. Her first entry is an article Managing Stress with Desk Pranayama. I'm sure she will be posting a lot of esoteric thought-provoking articles.

Another Presentation on "How to Do Webinars"

Again, Joe Budelis of Persimmon Telecommunications gave a presentation on Web Conferencing. This presentation was at the Brookdale Computer Users Group in Monmouth County, NJ. There were about 35 people in the conference room at Brookdale Community College and several people joined the web conference from four remote locations.

KDB Summer Plans

KDB is going to take some credits towards her bachelors degree at Barnard the latter part of this summer in Paris. Meanwhile, she has found various part time work assignments for the first part of the summer.

How To Do Webinars to be presented at Trenton Computer Festival

Joe Budelis, owner of Persimmon Telecommunications, will present "How To Do Webinars" at TCF-2009, the Trenton Computer Festival in Trenton, NJ. The PowerPoint slide presentation is available at How to Choose a Conference Service for business or personal use. If you would like to join either the Saturday morning or the Sunday morning presentation remotely, at least 30 minutes before the start time, register at "How To Do Webinars" Registration.

4 Bedroom House For Rent in Country Setting near Princeton, NJ

Four bedroom house for rent in Blawenburg, NJ. A charming 4 bedroom country house that I rent out, is becoming available in June. The current occupant, as planned, has just bought a home. If you know anyone who may be interested, send them to Princeton Area 4 bedroom Houses For Rent.

Winter Trip To Southeast India

Joe & Val visited southeast India January 31 to February 9. We had been thinking of visiting India for some time. KDB already toured India on a high school trip! Valorie had been reading the teachings of Dattatreya Siva Baba, who is known as "The YouTube Guru". When he organized an India trip around his birthday, Valorie took it as a sign since it was her birthday. So we went on what was a very special tour of India. Even though tour participants were from various countries, Siva Baba was able to obtain permission for us to visit temple areas that were physically labeled as off limits to foreigners! The tour might best be described as a religious pilgrimage but, at any rate, it gave us a unique view of India very different from what a typical visitor would see. I plan to make some of our photos available to those who are interested. For starters, I've uploaded some to Facebook. If you are not already a "friend" of mine on Facebook, request that I "friend you" to see those photos.

KDB toured Costa Rica on Winter Break

On KDB's winter break from her Barnard classes, she toured Costa Rica with a group of college students from the NYC area. She enjoyed activities like white water rafting, exploring a volcano, and flying over the forest canopy on a zip line.

Mobil NECC Reunion

Brian & Melanie Callahan & Doris Wert & Carole Umscheid organized a reunion for Mobil employees that took place on November 14 at Washington Crossing Inn, Washington Crossing, PA. It was great to see a lot of associates, some of whom we hadn't seen or been in touch with for some 8 or 9 years. Doris put together a booklet in which each of us summarized what we've been up to since we left Mobil in Princeton. In addition to the organizers, attendees were Lou Umscheid, Joe & Valorie Budelis, Mike & Kathleen Cosentino, Harry (MTC Engineering Acct Mgr) & Helen Frank (aka Leah, also worked at MTC Pennington), Steve Goldman, Sue Good, Dianne & Bill Hargraves, Bob & Gail Hinkle, Don & Sue Karp Lowing, Jerry & Linda McDermott, Roger Porto, Trish Donaldson (escorted by RMP), Bill (still @ Exxon-Mobil, 25 years now) & Lisa Radcliffe, Sallie Rochford, Frank & Marilyn Romano, Denise Schooley, Bob & Nancy Swierczek, Robin & Connie Unangst, Joe and Ruth Yencha, Ron Wolfe, and Ann Crocker.

How To Do Webinars presented at Trenton Small Business Week

Last Wednesday, Joe Budelis, as owner of Persimmon Telecommunications, presented "How To do Webinars"as a part of Trenton Small Business Week in Trenton, NJ. For details see How To Do Webinars at Trenton Small Business Week. The PowerPoint slide presentation is available at How to Choose a Conference Service for business or personal use.

Montauk and back to Barnard

This month we spent some time in Montauk on the tip of Long Island where we had great beach weather. We ended the month yesterday by driving KDB back to Barnard.

Earlier in the year, we lost Tulip, a white Persian cat. We still have two of her kids, Rama and SnowWhite.

Informal NECC Reunion August 1, 2008

Brian Callahan arranged an August 1 informal lunch and get together for some of us from Mobil NECC. The photo, courtesy of Doris Wert, shows, standing from the left, Joe Budelis, Melanie Callahan, Bob & Nancy Swierczek, Carole Umscheid, Brian the Man, and Doris Wert is seated. Denise Wyckoff Schooley was in the area and stopped by briefly before lunch. Pete Gerster had planned to be there but we are all saddened that instead he was making funeral arrangements because of the sudden death of his son, Martin. Brian is arranging a more formal NECC Reunion for November.

This Summer: Valorie writing articles on Health & Wellness; KDB at The New Yorker

This summer KDB is a Photo Intern at The New Yorker so she is in the midst of the controversy over this week's New Yorker cover page. See
NPR:'New Yorker' Editor Defends Obama Cover.

Valorie, a Certified Holistic Health Counselor and Reiki Master, has published several Health and Wellness articles. To see some of her articles, you could simply do a search on Sands-Budelis.

Storage Space available near Princeton NJ in Montgomery Township, the Village of Blawenburg

If you are near Princeton, Montgomery, Hopewell, Rocky Hill, Skillman or Belle Mead, NJ, I have some rental storage space available in the village of Blawenburg. If you know anyone who needs to rent a storage shed or garage in the Mercer county or Somerset County area, have them contact me or send them to Princeton NJ Storage Rental.

VoIP (Voice Over IP) Demystified Presentation

This weekend I gave a couple presentations on VoIP Demystified at the Trenton Computer Fair. You can see the VoIP (Voice Over IP) Demystified for more info on VoIP.

Vacation to Los Cabos - The tip of Baja

We just returned from the tip of Baja California - Los Cabos. It was heartwarming to be able to enjoy the 70 to 80 degree beach weather in Los Cabos while we checked the temperature in Princeton and found it to be 19 degrees a number of days (and that wasn't Celesius). It was comfortable that the temperature in Princeton warmed up to the 50s for our return.

The vacation was mainly about relaxing and getting away for a few days. We did make time for the requisite shopping and took a dinner cruise around the gate at Cabo San Lucas. We saw a couple whales and also road amongst some dolphins at the very tip of Baja.

The Changing Times - Email

Thought I'd write about an example of the changing times. Although many of us make extensive use of Email these days, there are many in the younger generation who don't have time for "old fashioned" things like Email. They are too busy talking or texting on their cell phones!

Sometimes, this is the reason that we don't see answers to our Emails. Of course, our Emails also might not get past a spam filter, the answer might not get past a spam filter, or there may be any other number of technical explanations.

In summary, if an Email is important and you don't receive a response, verify that it was received by sending another Email or trying an alternative means of communication.

Best Buys, Great Deals and Free Stuff

To those of you who haven't visited my home page, I thought I'd mention that it might be worth a few minutes of your time to scan the great deals including free stuff that I list there. It's a compilation of good deals that I've found mainly on the Internet. I put it together partly so that I would have one place that I could go to see all this info but also so that friends good take advantage of my findings. The first two topics of the dozen or so are about Telecommunications services that I sell. The rest are services or other offerings that I have either taken advantage of myself or that I intend to take advantage of at some point. Info is included on Free Directory Assistance, Free software including things like antivirus software, firewalls, spyware removers, and many other useful areas. View my home page at JoeBudelis.homestead.com.

Helping to stop Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin Lymphoma and Myeloma from taking more lives

I just signed up to participate in an endurance event to help stop Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin Lymphoma and Myeloma from taking more lives. I'm doing so through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Visit my Team in Training page and make a donation, however small.

New Approach to Borrowing and Lending Money

If you need some cash, you can borrow up to $25,000 at competitive rates. Thousands of lenders compete to lower your rate. Or, if you want to lend some money, you will be one of those lenders. Read more about it and join at no cost:
https://www.prosper.com/referrals/all.aspx?utm_content=link&utm_campaign=referrals-all&utm_medium=referral-link&utm_source=referrer-JoeBee

Vegas and Utah

We were so busy traveling in March and with college application decisions, etc, that April was a catch-up month and I only now realize that we didn't post anything here about our March trips.

Vegas I took my annual trip to the Channel Partners meeting in Vegas at the beginning of the month - it's a chance to learn about new Telecommunications service offerings and to spend some time with others on our Telecom team. Since Valorie is getting involved with me in the business, she accompanied me. Val is helping develop our VAR Partner network. Although some of our meetings were useful to her, she especially enjoyed a little gambling and the shopping!

Utah We spent 10 days in Utah. It was our first visit to the state and we enjoyed it. We started with a few days in Salt Lake City during which we learned a little about the Mormons. After a side trip to Sundance during which Val and KDB enjoyed the spa, we then went up North to the Eden Valley. Although the weather at the condo where we stayed was actually warmer and sunnier than weather in NJ during that period, the skiing on Powder Montain was fantastic.

It's Barnard College

Finally, KDB has made her decision that she will attend Barnard College. It was a difficult choice between Barnard and Tufts.

VoIP (Voice Over IP) Demystified

This weekend, I gave a couple presentations on VoIP (Voice Over IP) Demystified at the Trenton Computer Festival. You can see an Abstract of the presentations at the bottom of
http://www.tcf-nj.org/web/TCF-2007-Talks-and-Forums-on-Saturday-Room-RC-D.html.

Privacy???!!!!!!

KDB considered that I was invading her privacy and insisted that I remove comments in this blog about her, her awards and the college application process.

Windsurfing on Nantucket

Last month, we took a 10 day vacation to visit Nantucket to see some great films in the Nantucket Film Festival. This was our first visit to the island in a few years. Real Estate prices and restaurant charges have continued to sky rocket. We were very surprised to find that our friend, John Arno, has closed Vincent's restaurant and leased out the space to an upscale restaurant. Vincent's was always one of the more affordable restaurants on the island. However, The Atlantic Cafe still excellent, affordable food including their World renowned Nachos Deluxe. KDB made great progress in her windsurfing with some lessons from her dad.

KDB won awards at the 2006 High School Open Figure Skating Competition

At this year's High School Open Figure Skating Competition, KDB and her school did well. KDB earned first place in Preliminary Compulsory Moves. Her school, Princeton Day School, won first prize overall. A commercial photographer took photos at the Open; I'll point out KDB on the photogapher's site. On this page, there are 5 photos of KDB in her light pink dress, beginning in row 7. In this team photo, KDB is second from the right in the rear. By clicking on these photos, you can see an enlarged image.