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.