Dear Friends,

I started playing with the new features in iPhoto, which is part of iLife ’09. I love the Faces feature and started to go through my photo library and identify faces. I started out with my grandkids and it was funny that iPhoto thought the faces were the same as their dad and mom. Once I had identified them, however, it was fast and easy to have a complete library of photos of the kids. I highly recommend this upgrade! All of our new Macs now come with iLife ’09.

I was in Montpelier yesterday to meet with the public policy coordinator for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Andrea Cohen. That’s really just a fancy title for lobbyist, and it is great to have someone as qualified as Andrea representing businesses with a different point of view. There were hearings going on about a number of bills and issues and the state house was full of legislators, lobbyists and advocates.

Every time I go to Vermont State House I am filled with pride for Vermont. I do not know of many other states where I could drive up, park right in front of the State House and before I have a chance to hang up my coat, I am greeted by first name by legislators and state employees. It is the epitome of open citizen led government. I spent some time talking with Andrea about the issues that might come up while I am on vacation, and while we were in the cafeteria, we met several of the principals in the issues we were discussing. Democracy feels good.