Relocation Stuff...

Today I finally got around to look at the package from Home Depot that I got yesterday. I knew what was in it anyways. Now I finally have to 4 power strips. 3 of them will be shipped with the rest of my stuff to Europe, while 1 power strip will go with into the suitcase.
Today Kenny had 2 friends over, Jeff and Adam. We decided to have lunch with them and headed over to Islands in Valencia. The food was as usual delicious and all of us had a great time hanging out. On our way back we stopped to pick up the mail and I saw a envelope that looked very familiar. It was the prepaid certified mail that I bought back in June. (see Blog Post Attack of the Bureaucrats ). So now I finally got my Emergency Passport. That's one thing less I have to worry about. Normally I would have to sign for the letter, but our mailmen knows me and she just put it into our mailbox with a note to sign the delivery confirmation and put it back into the mailbox. That was very nice of her, that way I don't have to make an extra trip to the post office.

Running Errands continues...

Today was another day of running errands. There is only very little time left until I'll be flying to Austria...a little over 2 weeks.
So today I had to order a couple of items. I ordered a replacement SmartPhone for my BlackBerry that died on me a couple of days ago. I also ordered luggage locks and power adapters for Europe. I had been doing some research especially regarding the cell phone prices and Amazon had the best price. Turns out buying a SmartPhone in the States is going to be cheaper than in Austria. This phone is a 'free agent' and that way I finally get out of being locked into a 2-year contract. OK, I pay about 150 bucks more for the phone, but by only phone costs as I go I will have saved the difference within the first 8 month.
Once I had sent out that order it had to print out the eTicket and the cover letter and prepare it to be sent to the Consulate General in order for them to prepare the necessary paperwork. Next up was a letter to my friend Sandra. I had that letter for quite some time but never got around to answer it since things always kept popping up and needed my immediate attention. Today finally I found time to answer the letter. Only future will tell if Sandra gets the letter before I fly to Austria or if I will be faster than the letter.
Next up was package #2 with Daisy's stuff. That was done pretty quickly since I knew exactly what was going into it and had already done most of the prep-work.
After I was done prepping the package and preparing the customs paperwork I headed out to the post office in Santa Clarita. To my surprise there was nobody in line. That hardly ever happens. Lately I seem to be very lucky when it comes to lines at the post office. I was even more lucky with CC-Payment, since they were having problems with processing them, but my payment went through without any problems.
So all in all it was quite a productive day and a lot of things regarding my upcoming relocation to Austria are finally starting to come together!

Running Errands

Today was pretty much a day of running errands. First I checked with my Pet-Relocation specialist that we're certain that we have the right dates for 1st and Final Exit Exam for Daisy. For the past few month we've been going back and forth with the Dates and today I really wanted to to schedule both appointments. Turns out that I had the right dates in mind. So I called our Vet to schedule the 1st Exit Exam for August 10th and Daisy will have her Final Exit Exam on August 16th. That way we're well within the legally required timeframe and it allows for enough time to have the paperwork sent back and forth.
After that I called my parents to let them know that they Austrian Sim Card arrived and I also told them to expect several packages of Daisy's stuff that I'm sending ahead. It also gave me a little time to chat with my Mom. It's great to hear that she's doing OK and of course she already very excited for my upcoming relocation.
Next I had to deal with buying a new suitcase. I wasn't particularly excited to have to go out shopping in 100+ F temps...but I guess that's just one thing that you just have to do. Otherwise I can't continue with the packing. So I went to the Target in Santa Clarita and hoped for the best. Fortunately they had the exact suitcase that I had in mind and that way it was only a fairly short shopping trip in the heat.
Later in the afternoon I oiled the Butcher Block, since that was really something I wanted to have done before packing it up.
All in all a quite productive day!! Didn't get around to continue with the packing, but since the boxes are not going to be picked up for another 2 weeks, that won't be much of an issue.

RIP BlackBerry Bold

Well, my BlackBerry has been acting up for the past 4 or 5 month. I pretty much had already decided to replace the thing, but since it still was working the majority of the times I just couldn't get myself to buy a new phone. With move to Austria coming up I had either to unlock the BlackBerry or buy a new phone, but the thing I wasn't going to do is to go through the hassle of having a device unlocked that's not working properly.
When all the issues started it was a minor inconvenience, as the BlackBerry was crashing probably 3 to 5 times a day. Over the past few month the system freezes got more and more frequently. But usually a hard restart normally did do the trick. I had noticed that it isn't so much a system crash as a display crash in the beginning and that leads to a full blown system crash. I've also noticed that, if I don't use the BlackBerry for a couple of hours I can do quite a number of actions on the phone without it freezing up. The more often I use the BlackBerry the more frequent the crashes got. Within the last week I had gotten so bad that I can send 1 text message before the thing crashes.
Well today the BlackBerry had the final system crash...and I haven't been able to get it to work since. Luckily I found my old cell phone and after reloading the battery in putting in the Sim card I had at least a working phone. I can't believe how much I've gotten used to a smart phone, as suddenly being without one really sucks!!
Well now I don't have choice and have to get a new phone. Luckily I already know what can of phone I want and it's going to be a 'free agent'. And on top of that it finally gives me the chance to get out of being locked into 2-year contracts.

Packing continues...

This morning a took a closer look at the 'Welcome Package' for Daisy's relocation. I know roughly what it was supposed to contain and everything seems to be there. Most of it is quite clear. Not entirely sure though if EU- and International Health Certificate are being done together on the First Exit Exam. Guess I've to read it again and maybe email my pet-relocation specialist. I didn't quite have the head to deal with governmental regulations. So I went to continue with the packing fun.
It had occurred to me yesterday that I might not have protected the Rotisserie as well as I would like to. It's probably OK, but I wanted to make sure that it is well protected. Sol I opened up box #2 again. Getting out all the packing noodles is so much fun!! Once that was accomplished I wrapped the Rotisserie nice and tight in Bubble Wrap and made sure it was very well protected. Then I put the Rotisserie back into the box, filled the voids with packing noodles and taped the box back up.
Next up was box #3. First I protected the Bread Maker with a quite generous amount of Bubble Wrap. Once I was satisfied it went into the shipping box.
By that time it was time for coffee...but turns out that I had run out. So I took a quick trip to Sweetwater Farms to pick up coffee. A day without coffee would be quite upsetting indeed!!
After I got back from the store and had started to coffee I continued to work on shipping box #3. I managed to pack all the DVD's into the box. Then I made sure the all the voids were nice and tight filled out with bubble wrap and packing noodles. I had more room in the box, but the box was starting to get heavy and so I decided just to put an empty box as kind of placeholder in. That serves 3 purposes: It fills out the remaining void, it protects to items from moving around in the box and it prevents the box from being crushed.
Next up was lunch and since I was starving and didn't feel like cooking I had left overs from last nights dinner. I relaxed a little after a fairly late dinner. I couldn't start packing shipping box #4 since some of the clothes have to go into the box as well to keep the weight at an acceptable level. In order to do that I need first to figure out what clothes exactly are going into the suitcase. To do that I have first to buy a new suitcase. By the time I could have left for one of the local Target's it was about 5 pm and shopping for a suitcase on Saturday evening is not what I consider fun. So I decided to deal with the entire suitcase fun on Monday. Since the boxes are not going to be picked up for another 2 weeks that shouldn't be a problem at all.

Let the Packing commence...

Well, today it was finally time to let the packing begin. But of courser there were some other things that needed to be taken care off as well. I still hadn't ordered the power strips. Those of you who read my Blog regularly probably know that buying the power strip in the store costs about 5 or 6 bucks more than ordering them online. On top of that Home Depot offered free shipping this week. So I ordered the power strips online and they should be arriving by the end of next week.
Next up was Daisy's nail trimmer. I really like the PetiCure nail trimmer, but for some reason the on we bought a couple of years ago stopped working. I checked it out and now the PetiCure nail trimmers are about 50% of what we paid a couple of years ago. So, that made the decision for me pretty easy. I ordered it online and it should be here by the end of next week.
Well, by the time I was done with all that stuff it was almost 1 pm and I was getting hungry...so I decided it's time to get lunch started. I decided to have Roasted Pecan with Mixed Veggies. It was quite yummy.
After lunch I assembled the first shipping box and I made sure that it was taped nice and tight. In the first Box I put the Mixer, the Ice Cream Maker and lots of misc. smaller stuff. Couldn't put any of the bigger items in that box since the mixer is quite heavy. Once the box was about 2/3's full I filled the rest with packing noodles to protect the mixer and ice cream maker. I taped the box shut and put 4 Address Labels on it and made sure that they're taped a way that they won't come off.
I put the Rotisserie in the box #2. There was enough space to put 2 small boxes of my personal stuff in it as well. After that I filled the the spaces between with packing noodles...and I ran out of them. So I went out and picked up several bags of packing noodles at the local Staples store. Once I got back, I filled the box with packing noodles and made sure that the Rotisserie was well protected. Then I taped the box shut and put several address labels on it.
So I managed to pack two 6 cubic feet boxes so far. I'm far from being done, but all in all it was quite a productive day!!

Running Errands continues...

Around 10 am this morning Kenny left for San Diego to attend ComicCon. I had to run some more errands. First I to finish the first package of Daisy's stuff that I'm sending ahead to Austria. It contains mostly her nutrition supplements and flea protection to get her through the transitional phase. Once that was done I headed out to the post office in Santa Clarita. When I got there there was only 1 person in line in front of me. That was a total surprise, as I've never ever seen that happening. Since I had filled out the customs paperwork at home it was once of the fastest trips to the post office.
Next up was Stater Brothers. I had to pick up some groceries for meals I wanted to prepare while Kenny was at ComicCon. I got most of it. Then I headed back and made a quick stop at Sweetwater Farms (our Grocery store in town) and picked up a Butternut Squash. After that I headed back home.
Once the groceries were put away it was time to prepare lunch. I was going to have Broccoli Cream Soup with Rosemary Olive Bread. It was absolutely yummy. After lunch I really wasn't too much in the mood to start with packing and so I continued to work on consolidation my external hard drives. It's something that needs to be finished within the next 2 weeks as well and I was making quite good progress.
Today I got some good news from my pet-relocation specialist. So far Daisy's paperwork is all in order and everything is progression as planned. They will be sending out the so called 'Welcome Package' containing the form for the Commercial EU Health Certificate and the check list for the paperwork that has to go with Daisy. Now it looks like that she will be having the 1st Exit Exam on August 8th.

Running Errands continues...

Well, today was day 2 of running errands. I was heading out at around 11 am. First up was the post office in Canyon Country. I had to pick up customs forms for a couple of packages that I plan on sending ahead to Austria. I found the customs forms, but of course there have to be more than 1 form. Form 2976 and Form 2976-A. I wasn't really sure what's the difference anyways and I wasn't about to to wait about 1/2 hour in line to ask one of the employees. So I grabbed a couple of copies of both forms.
Next up was Lowe's. I really wanted to get the entire issue with the power strips done. After some searching around I finally found the power strips. But they go for about 12 bucks and I know that I can order them online for about 4 bucks. So I decided to order them online once I got back home. Next I drove to the Target next door to look at some suitcases. The zipper of my current suitcase isn't really working properly anymore and one of the wheels is broken off...so it isn't quite an optimal solution for an airport. I was looking at suitcases with a width of at least 25". Better would be one with 28" width. They have quite a selection there and they cast between 60 and 130 bucks. When I looked at them they all seemed to be made pretty much the same way and I really couldn't tell any difference in quality. That was quite confusing. So I left it for now, since I have about 3 weeks left until I have to make a final decision. After that I headed over to the local Staples to pick up some packing peanuts, just in case I should start with the packing during this week.
Then I headed back home to have lunch. I really didn't feel like making anything from scratch and so I enjoyed left overs.
After lunch I worked on the final check list of the documents for Daisy's Relocation. I wanted to check with my Pet Relocation Specialist to see where we're at with the paperwork and to make sure that everything is on track. There are still 3 1/2 weeks left, but I really would like to set up the appointment for the First Exit Exam and for the Final Exit Exam. By the time I was done with the check list I knew they weren't at the office anymore, so I emailed him and now waiting to hear back.
After  I was done with that I started cross-referencing the items from the Relocation Inventory with the according pix I took when doing the inventory. I wasn't particularly looking forward to that, since it's a lot of work and kinda time consuming. But I couple of hours later I was done with that as well.
So all in all it was quite a productive day!!

Running Errands

Today was pretty much a day of running errands. Last night I tried to order my pre-paid sim card for Austria online. Well, that didn't quite work out as planned. If you order it online you have to sign for the delivery of the sim card in person. Unless someone perfect transporter technology that's not very likely to happen. So this morning I called my parents and asked them to pick up a pre-paid sim card at the local '3'-Store. I explained to them exactly what I wanted and they promised me to pick the sim card up and mail it to me. So my sim card is in the works. I also got to talk with them for a bit and it was fun to hear how excited they're of me moving back to Austria in less than 1 month. I also heard that my Sis, Bernd and my 2 nephews were staying at my parents for 1 week of their vacation.
After the phone call I had lunch and relaxed for about 1/2 hour before heading out. Boy, running errands in 103 F isn't particularly that much fun. First I drove out to Stater Bros. in Santa Clarita to pick up doggy food, since Daisy was out of food. I looked for Daisy's favorite snack...pig ears...but couldn't find any. So I settled for a kind of beef jerky thingy. Next up was the local home improvement store. Had to pick up Rid-X and was also looking for power strips, but couldn't find any. I didn't spend lots of time looking around for those power strips, since it isn't that urgent that I buy them. I then headed over to the local petsmart to pick up some doggy shampoo that's going to be sent with some doggy meds to Austria to get Daisy over the transitional period.
When I got back home I checked online about Daisy's favorite snack, and it looks like nobody is selling it anymore. Quite a bummer! But Daisy does like the new beef jerky thingy, but she's done with that even quicker than she was with the pig ears.
All in all I managed to get about half of the errands done that I have to do this week.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

It all ends...that was the tagline for the 8th and final installment of the Harry Potter franchise. I opted to to see it on Friday with a group of friends, with whom I've seen several premieres of the Harry Potter movies.
We met for dinner a Fudruckes and hung out and chatted for about 1 hour or so before heading over to the movie theatre. We went to the Arclight in Sherman Oaks which has reserved seating and therefore no waiting in line...one of the best things ever!! The Arclight has this huge wall of posters, normally it's various movies coming out but this time it was all the different Harry Potter posters over the years and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! We got some drinks and snacks and found our seats inside the theatre.
The movie picks up right where the previous ended. I'm not going to analyze the entire movie play by play, Kenny did an excellent job with that!! Check out his BLOG for that!! I will just write how I feel about the final Harry Potter movie:
It's a great action packed movie and a great way of ending the series. Absolutely loved the action scenes and the special effects. The characters stay pretty much within their established parameters, so  there isn't too much surprise there. What was surprising that there are quite humorous portions of the movie. I'm not quite sure what it is with that movie, for me there's some sort of a emotional  disconnect. It just didn't emotionally engage me the same way as all the other Harry Potter movies did. Maybe it's that they built up a hype, that the movie could have never ever lived up to. Maybe it's because it's basically a action movie and the emotional connection is never really being established. Maybe it's the fact that you pretty much know how the  movie is going to end. All those movies end pretty much the same way, the bad guy always dies. The only question is if the good guy has to die as well or through how much torment the good has to go through in order to defeat the bad guy. Maybe it's a combination of all those factors or maybe I would feel differently if I were to watch movie 7 and 8 together. I do hope that the emotional disconnect is not because I've become bare of any emotions...that would be rather upsetting.
All in all it was a very enjoyable and good ending for the series and maybe in time Deathly Hallows Part 2 will grow on me and I will see it in a different light. Only time will tell.

Customs Paperwork

Today I was finally able to deal with the customs paperwork. Before I even started I realized, that although Kenny had made me several copies of all the forms that needed to be filled out, that would only partially help me, since I needed to make copies of each and every form. Having worked for many years in business administration I know how important that is, just in case something should go wrong. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem, but with the printer/copier out of ink that certainly was a problem. So I checked on the internet who sold the in cartridge at a reasonable price. Turns out that Best Buy was the one who had it on sale. So I headed out to the Best Buy in Santa Clarita to get the ink cartridge. I found it without any problem and by noon I was back again.
The I dealt first with the itemized property list for the Maritime Insurance. Good thing that I had prepped that list yesterday with all the replacement cost. But I still manage to screw the form up twice. The third time was finally the charm. After the property list I dealt with the UK Import Paperwork. That are 4 or 5 forms, but they went surprisingly very quickly. I only had to do that particular form once and that was quite a positive surprise. After that I wrote and printed the cover letter for the Schumacher agent, guess the administration guy in me is showing here through. After that I mad copies of all the forms including a copy of the photo page of my passport and put the entire thing in an envelope.
Next I headed out to the post office in Canyon Country to drop the letter off. I had to stand for about 5 minutes in line since I wanted to have a delivery confirmation. By about 4.30 pm I was back home again and I'm very happy that the paperwork for the shipping company is done, as that means it's one less thing I have to worry about.

Customs Paperwork...or at least kinda

Well today I really wanted to do get with all customs paperwork done that's required for having my stuff shipped to Austria. I thought would take me probably about 1 or 2 hours and should be a piece of cake. Well, not so fast. I had to print out 4 forms, while I was printing form #2 the printer ran out of ink. I really didn't want to drive out to Santa Clarita just to pick up a ink cartridge, so I emailed Kenny to print it out at work. Couple of minutes later I heard back from him that he was going to do exactly that. When taking a closer look at the customs forms I realized that I had to figure out a replacement value for items listed in the paperwork. I could have just guessed it, but that just doesn't seem like the right way to go. You definitely don't want to have your items underinsured, but you also don't want your items overinsured either, since you're paying a percentage of the shipment value as insurance premium.
So I sat down and figured out the replacement value of each and every item. Good thing that I had finished the detailed Relocation Inventory yesterday. Well with a couple of items I just had to guess a replacement value since I could find it anywhere. But I'm fine with that. It took me pretty much all afternoon to figure out the value of each an every item. I was very happy when I was done with it. I still hope to send the entire paperwork to the shipping company by tomorrow.

Relocation Inventory

Today I received the paperwork from Schumacher, that I have to fill out in order for them to be able to clear customs. In order to insure the items being shipped you have to do a inventory and I wasn't particularly looking forward to that...as it's a lot of work. First you have to do the overview inventory list. Then you use that list to figure out the replacement value in order to clear customs and to figure out the amount the shipment has to be insured for. Once I was done with that I had to work on the detailed inventory list, since every item has to be listed separately. That's not that important for items of minor value, but with items of higher value it is important. Should the insurance case occur you have to be able to provide a detailed list of items you're filing a claim for, you have to know how much each item is worth and you have to prove with a picture that you really owned that item.
So I spent the better part of the afternoon working on the inventory overview, the detailed item list and took a picture of each item. I was quite happy when I was finally done.
I hope that I can finish tomorrow the paperwork and mail it back to the shipping company.

Star Trek Padd for iPad

I've been going back and forth over buying an iPad for several month. There are so many reasons to justify that. It makes 40th birthday present. With me moving relocating to Austria it will be one of the last bigger purchases in a long time. I'm substantially below my relocation budget and I have a credit from the dentist for services not rendered. On top of that I need a decent electronic device when going back to Austria... you guessed it I'm an Internet addict. Now CBS (who owns the Star Trek franchise) comes out with a Star Trek Padd app for the iPad. Now you truly have a Padd that lets you access a ton of Star Trek Info. For me as a huge Star Trek fan that's a major incentive to get an iPad!!
Here's the promo video...

Kids Get It!!

This has to be the cutest video I've seen in a long time. Kids are so innocent when they are not brainwashed by their parents. I always say hate is tough and this is proof. I love how you can see him struggling with the concepts but then putting it together and being so excited and then as kids do.. he just wants to go play ping pong now.
Kids get it right away...so why exactly are adults being such morons ?? Guess we'll never know...

If you want to know the story on how the video came to be... Click HERE...

Dividing Clothes & Wildfires

After Kenny took a break from podcasting we went into Santa Clarita to get lunch. On our way back we noticed smoke coming from the direction of our house. When we got closer we realized that it was actually burning at the exit to our house from the 14 freeway. When you looked from the porch it looked like as if the fire was burning right over the ridge...and in the sense it was. Luckily they knocked the fire down within 1 hour and everything is well again. 

Once we got home we watched some TV and then we went through all of our clothes to separate Kenny's clothes form mine, since I will be leaving in less than 4 1/2 weeks and some of the clothes will be packed up and shipped to Austria.

Running Errands

Today was pretty much a day of running errands. I had planned to look for the shell for the external hard drive, but for some reason things just kept coming up and I never got around to doing it.
I did manage to crush the cans and make a quite decent progress cleaning up parts of the mess after the Indian Jones Marathon. On top of that I finally caught up on online reading stuff and I finished organizing a bunch of info into the appropriate Google Docs.
Today humidity was up to 45% and made the 90 F feel like 105+ F, so I decided not to do any of the yard work stuff that I had planned on doing. Today I got confirmation from Schumacher Logistics, that they have received my holding fee and now I have to wait for info how we are going to precede with the itemized cargo list. Finally the last of Daisy's Meds arrived today in the mail. Now I just have to pack them up and send them to my parents. That way I'm all set for the transitional period regarding Daisy's relocation to Austria.

Independence Day

For this Independence Day Kenny decided to visit his Dad in Corona. Well, I didn't quite feel like traveling around in 105 F heat and on the other hand I wanted to deal with the 1 external hard drive that I had troubles mounting. After Kenny had left I tried my luck with the hard drive. the existing firewire cable didn't mount the drive. So I figured I try it with several other firewire cables. With pretty much the same success or rather lack of same. But I didn't want to give up that easy. I reset the hard drive and tried my luck again. Still no success. Next I tried to mount the drive via a USB cable. Apparently there is some issue with the ports, as I can hear the drive starting and running. My next idea was to put one 500 GB drives into the drive shell and see if I can get the data off the drive. Well I didn't get the chance to try that, since I couldn't find the drive shell. Guess we must have put the shell out in the garage when my family came for a visit.
So instead I decided to make myself Burgers 'Harry Style' with my special marinade, made of olive oil, mustard, BBQ Sauce, mayo and Balsamico Vinegar. I have to admit, it's not a really healthy choice... but it's sooo yummy!! I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in front of the TV.

Indiana Jones Marathon continues...

With the help of Jen Kenny prepared breakfast: Bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash brown, toast and OJ. While that was happening most of our guests started to watch Galaxy Quest. Once breakfast was ready we paused the movie and everybody got breakfast. Then we all settled down in the TV-Room and continued to watch the movie. About halfway through the movie one of our guests decided to head home. As soon as the movie was over the rest of our guests packed up and headed out.
All in all it was a great event and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it!!
Kenny took some great pix of the Indian Jones Marathon / BBQ Party!! You can check them out HERE...

Indiana Jones Marathon

Today we were having a Indiana Jones Marathon / BBQ Party. The entire event was supposed to start at noon, but Kenny's friend Chris arrived about 2 hours early. At noon about 7 people had showed up. Within the next hour another 5 people joined the event. The available space in the TV-Room kept getting smaller and smaller and we had to use pillows to provide everyone with something to sit on. At the beginning Daisy wasn't a happy camper, but since everybody left here alone and I was always close by she got used to the crowd.
At 1 pm we started with 'Raiders of the lost Ark'. Kenny started the BBQ and was going back and fort between the movie and the BQQ. About 1 hour into the movie we paused, so that everyone could grab lunch. We all grabbed the food and went back into the TV-Room to continue with the movie. During the second half of the movie the last of the guests arrived, grabbed some food as well and we continued to watch the movie.
Next up was "Temple of Doom". After we had watched the movie in its entire length 3 of our guest departed.
Next up was "Last Crusade". About 1/2 hour into the movie another guest joined us. Halfway through the movie Kenny left to pick up Pizza at our local Pizza place. Although the Pizzeria is only about 10 minutes from our place it took Kenny about 1 hour to get back with the Pizza. By the time Kenny got back the movie was over and everybody was just hanging out and chatting. Daisy was getting more and more comfy with the entire situation and even let a couple of gals pet her. After everybody was done with the Pizza a couple of people chose to have some shots and do some stargazing.
Those who were left at that time went into the TV-Room to watch "The Crystal Skull", the final installment of the series. After the final movie people did more stargazing, chatting, snacking and more shots. Some chose to play Wii. Around 3 am two guest headed back home. The remaining 8 decided to stay and spend the night. Kenny and I made sure that everyone knew where they were sleeping and had pillows and blankets before hitting the bed ourselves.

Google +

Today Google revealed it's new social network called Google +. I was skeptical as I wasn't sure I wanted to jump into another social network as the few that I'm in seem to take up a lot of my free time, but when the opportunity came up and I could get an invite before many others I jumped at it.
Well it's only been a day but I have been on this site non-stop checking out every nook and cranny. I love this new site. It's like a cross between Facebook and Twitter. It's very clean looking and not cluttered like Facebook. It has a great video chat program "Hangout" and it has these things called Circles which allow you to group your "friends" in various circles and only share what you want with whom you want. Another great feature is "Sparks". It lets you search any search term that you're interested in without ever leaving Google+. On top of that you can pin a search term to your Sparks Menu for quick reference and of course you can quickly share an article with your circles or the web.
The next great feature are Photos. All albums are by default private. You have to choose with whom you want to share an album. Absolutely love it!! But there is way more to Photos than meets the eye. You can do basic photo editing and apply basic photo filters. All of your Photos are uploaded to your Picasa and that gives you the full functionality of Picasa. On thing especially intrigued me was the option of being able to easily move pix between albums, without having to re-upload them. Absolutely love it!!
If you want to read more about Googl+, you can find a very good article HERE....