Dear Friends,

Someone told me many years ago to never start a letter out with an apology, but I have to make an exception for this issue of Kibbles & Bytes. Actually, I have a couple of apologies to make. First of all, we have not gotten our Kibbles & Bytes mailings right for about six consecutive weeks. We discovered, with your help, that customers were getting multiple copies of our newsletter and sometimes up to six copies or more. So, I would walk down to Mark’s desk and scream, yell and pound my fist on his litter-strewn desk and he would assure me that he was going to fix it (all minding our Team Operating Principles, of course—see my outro!).

Okay, it took a couple more weeks, but we finally figured out how to get you just one copy but that next issue somehow didn’t get out to the entire mailing list. Mark made a big mistake because I was one of the people that didn’t get my copy. More bouncing litter on his desk. He figured that one out and the next two issues of Kibbles went to everyone, but then I got messages from many of you that the newsletter was coming through in raw HTML and not displaying properly. I am happy to report (with both fingers and toes crossed) that I think we have solved all of these problems and you should only get one copy this week (and it will display properly). I really apologize for this unprofessional email mess and we pledge to keep it fixed. Please let me know if there are any repeated problems!

My other apology is even more embarrassing. In my rush to write my introduction to Kibbles last week, I got a bit sloppy and had a senior moment when I confused Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Trust me, I really do know the difference and my mother immediately called me to scold me as soon as she got her copy of Kibbles. Yes, it was Rosh Hashanah last week; no seder, but one of the high holy days for Jews. The other is Monday (Sunday eve) when we celebrate Yom Kippur or the day of atonement. I guess I have some atoning to do!

There are signs of fall all around these days. The leaves are rapidly changing and falling with some of the nicest fall foliage in years. I take the long way on back roads to work these days and it is simply beautiful. Yesterday, as I passed the Neil farm, there was a whole rafter of wild turkeys grazing in the newly harvested corn field. The most noticeable sign of fall for me is that it is now dark when I get up and I am up before the dogs most days. Artie’s iChat status is predicting snow on the mountain tops by next week, but I’m pretty skeptical. I do remember that one year on Art’s wedding anniversary/Autumn’s birthday—October 3rd—there was accumulation of snow up on Prickly Mountain and the brilliant fall colors were highlighted by white snow. I hope that it holds off a little more! The field mice are also starting to seek warmer quarters and I noticed that they have been chowing down on my cat Mothra’s food.

We have gotten stock of all of the new iPods and I have to say that the new iPod nano is the coolest iPod yet. Apple has hit a homer with this new version. Be sure to check out Ed’s comparison between the video on the new nano versus the HD Flip camera below.