Drifting Through The Lazy, Hazy Days Of July & A Quick Tip

Thankfully, our weather pattern has returned to normal here on southern Vancouver Island and we’re now back to enjoying our mid-70’s temperatures which are much nicer than the 90’s heat wave we had last week.

Monday was a beautiful day so in the afternoon we took Rylie down to the Cowichan River Estuary for a long walk along the elevated levee that follows the Cowichan River as it flows into the Bay. It was 75F but a nice cool ocean breeze made it feel even more comfortable.

Over the weekend we had a nice visit with Carrie and Mason. While Carrie did some housework, Paulette and I wheeled the little man down the road to a Starbuck’s to sit outside with our coffees and enjoy the morning. We tried to get Mason to eat a bit of my Blueberry muffin but all he wanted to do was give it to Rylie. Rylie has really bonded with Mason and their both great buds now. Nothing like a few little treats to win the heart of Rylie!

Mason loves broccoli. Who’d of thunk it?  Carrie said she cut up some for him (it doesn’t matter whether it raw or cooked) and he eats if quite happily and seems to enjoy it.

We’re looking forward to this weekend as Carrie and Mason are coming up on Saturday for a sleepover. This will be Mason’s first visit since he began walking so he’ll have the whole house to explore and Grammy sure has a lot of interesting ornaments on tables as well as kitchen cupboards full of pots, pans and his favorite – tupperware!!

Our Nest Protect Smoke Detector continues to amaze me with some of its neat features. There’s a setting called Path Light I can turn on using the smartphone App.  With Pathlight, Nest Protect senses when you walk under it in the dark and gives off a soft white light to help you find your way. After you pass by, Pathlight turns off. This is perfect for our hallway as it lessens the odds I’ll stumble down the stairs at night. I also like the fact that I can monitor and check the device daily.

We’re taking advantage of Netflix again this summer to watch a few TV series we like both new and some old ones we missed. We watched Orange is the New Black in about a week then moved on to a great series we’d never heard of called The Americans even though it was on iTunes, not Netflix, which meant we had to pay for the 2 seasons we watched – it is excellent. Currently, we’re watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Boss starring Kelsey Grammer. It’s o.k. and better than nothing!

Thanks for visiting!

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Windows 8.1 Tips & Tricks

Well before I started to include my Windows 8.1 Tips & Tricks in this blog, I wrote about how to sign in to Windows 8.1 with just a 4 digit PIN # instead of the usual Microsoft password. I thought I’d better do a quick refresh here just in case anyone new to Windows 8.1 missed that post.

Image 1. Sign into Windows 8.1 with a 4 Digit Pin # instead of a password

One of the things I found rather annoying when I first switched over to Windows 8 and 8.1 was the requirement to enter my Microsoft Password every time I signed out of Windows or restarted my computer. I have a rather complex password to make sure it was secure as it was my entry point to all things Microsoft. The combination of letters, symbols and numbers all meant that it would sometimes take me 3 tries just to get signed in.  Instead of that little test, now I use a simple 4 digit Pin #.

Image 2. Click on Accounts

To change to a Pin # instead of a password is dead simple.  Just move your cursor to the bottom right-hand corner of your screen to bring up the Charm Bar and click on the Settings icon (looks like a gear).  Next, click on Change PC Settings as shown in Image 1 above – it’s in the bottom right-hand corner.  The PC Settings screen will be displayed - just click on Accounts.

Image 3. Select ‘Sign in options’

From the Accounts screen click on Sign in options and you’ll see PIN in the right side window pane.  In Image 3 above it shows the option to ‘Change’ the PIN # because this is my screenshot and I’ve already added my PIN #.

Img. 4 Just enter a 4 digit PIN # and click OK

A 4 digit PIN # is pretty easy to remember.  It could be your street number or even your year of birth.  The nice thing about this PIN # method is it doesn’t have to be a Fort Knox type of security because it only controls access to the computer you are using.  For instance, I have the PIN # sign on for my desktop computer but not for my laptop. My laptop goes a lot of places my desktop computer never will.  So, you might want to check out this PIN sign-in as I find it’s a real timesaver.

Thanks for visiting!