Geneachat

I blame the atmosphere in Salt Lake City for the scratchy throat I seem to suffer each time I visit  but perhaps it is because my vocal chords get a good workout while I am here.

Yesterday started with a breakfast date in the hotel with Jan Brandt, a genie from California, whom I  first met at Rootstech in 2012. Jan, a committed genie,  has very strong British roots as well as links to Australia so we had plenty to talk about. The time we spent together just flew - can't believe I missed an opportunity for a selfie. The pancakes I devoured were a nice change from the muesli bars and breakfast drink I usually have in my room.

Fluffy blueberry pancakes - I may treat myself to these again before I depart

As my mouse had died prior to leaving for Salt Lake I wandered up to the Microsoft shop and bought a new blue mouse. I didn't realise that it was a Bluetooth one until I unpacked it. The good news is that by having a bluetooth connection it frees up another USB port on my laptop. I bought a few things at Macy's but was disappointed to find that there wasn't much stock in my favourite fat ladies department.

Afternoon was nap time as my poor old body clock had fought sleep on the previous evening.

Highlight of my day was a dinner at Red Iguana 2, a Mexican restaurant with  some of my genimates. Our wonderful friends Roger and Lisa from Michigan collected Sharn White and I and ferried us to the restaurant. I particularly enjoyed meeting online genimates Ursula Krause and Dave Robison, in person for the first time. I won't bore you with details of our evening - the photos I am sharing below will tell the story. (Apologies for fuzzy photos - I exported them at too low a resolution - I have my L plates on in my new image management program).

Strawberry Daquiri

Red Iguana combination - I don't know what was in it but it tasted good

Dave and Karen Robison

Roger Moffatt and Ursula Krause

DearMYRTLE and Gordon

Roger and Lisa

Sharn, GeniAus and DearMYRTLE

Back to the Blue Lemon

Salt Lake City, 7 February.

Today's luncheon get together organised at the Blue Lemon by DearMYRTLE aka Pat Richley-Erickson brought together geneabloggers from all over the place. Having spent quite a deal of time with my Aussie mates I was pleased to sit with a group of bloggers from the US who had some interesting stories and useful tips for researching our collateral lines in the US.

As is my practice I tried to grab some photos of those in attendance. I find that having these pictures is a useful aide memoir when trying to remember people.

Thanks Pat and Russ for our beautiful blogger beads and for all your efforts in making us feel welcome in your city.

Back to Learning

You may or may not know that I keep in a page on this blog a record of my  genealogy related learning activities. I previously explained in a post from 2011 why I keep this CGD Learning Log.

I have recently taken a ten week break from more formal learning while travelling around the globe and visiting with Mr Geniaus many of the places on our bucket list. During this time I tried to keep up with happenings in the genealogy world and to conjure up a blog post now and then. I have not, however, save for a few visits to repositories in the UK been a diligent old researcher or learner.

For my first learning activity after my return I watched a Hangout on Air by two of my fave genealogists, Pat Richley-Erickson (aka DearMyrtle) and Russ Worthington. In this video which is now available here on Youtube Pat and Russ explain the importance of having a profile on Google+ that will allow others to recognise you as a person with shared interests.

If you are a Google+ user and wish to tweak your Google+ profile I recommend that you watch this video. If you are not a Google+ member it is time you joined up.