I would like you to dance...

Some random, assorted thoughts (a Round Up, perhaps?)...

Columbia's 40th birthday is getting a lot of play in the local media. On Sunday, the Sun gave us this article about the more-than-a-month-long party and this one about the Spear Center in the old Rouse HQ. Meanwhile, the Examiner drops two long stories today about our fair city. And last Thursday, the Flier did it's part with an overview and a calendar of birthday events.

Of course, the bloggers are not without comments of their own. Dan Beyers discusses the Spear Center story and sees a possible return to a kinder, gentler development overlord, while Hometown Jessie's a little tired of the same old, same old.

But as someone who's been known to stretch birthday celebrations beyond reasonable limits, I'll just keep my mouth shut and focus on the approaching start to my own birthday season.

Thanks to a little help from others, the online Columbia pathway map is making good progress. Dan's now looking for photos of various points along the paths to include on the map, one of the great attributes of the Google Maps system. I have tons of pathway pictures to share, which I'll add just as soon as I finish playing with my new favorite Google toy...

Sketch Up. I spent a few (well, several) hours with this program Sunday night creating a drawing of our potential deck for inclusion with our application to the Oakland Mills RAC. It took about an hour to get comfortable with the controls and features, but once past the learning phase, working with the program was a cinch.

I really think this could be of great use to Columbia homeowners trying to get approval for home improvement projects. More broadly, anyone interested in making changes to their house or yard will likely find Sketch Up an invaluable tool to help visualize projects before putting shovel to dirt. And, like most Google applications, it's free!

To give you a sense of what the program can do without ruining the surprise, here's the "before" sketch of my house.


Pretty cool, huh?