What did people do before the Internet?

George doesn't have school on Fridays, so we generally spend it together running errands, cleaning, and playing outside. Today he woke up with a suspiciously stuffy nose and a bit of a glaze over his eyes. So we did all our usual activities, but we've also spent an amazing amount of time on the computer.

One of George's favorite finds is Google Videos. Our search key words:
Steam trains
Black steam engines
Thomas the Tank Engine (I know, shocking!)
John Deere tractors
Model railroad

(Taken with the web cam as Thomas comes into view)

See that smile? I suppose it's worth the brain numbing repetition of steam trains (whistling! wheels! train signals!), overloud narration by excited moms & dads at Day Out With Thomas events (Look! There he is! And here's the gift shop!), and poorly filmed extreme close-ups of model trains (somehow always located in dark basements, hmmmmm, we've got one of those...).

While he watches and points to each one he wants to see (and believe me, he knows his way around the various menus), I blog-hop, look through photos, and, today, got sucked into Facebook. I'm not sure what the purpose of this site is, other than seeing updated photos of friends from long ago. But it certainly does kill time nicely. And hey! I was able to chat with my brother, my best friend from high school (who I had exchanged emails with this morning), and about a dozen people from DSP who I... chat with... everyday. Um. Hmm.

Yeah, I'm really not sure it's the most useful thing I've ever seen, but at least I had something to do while trains chugged across my other monitor!