June 2025 Stockpile
It's a hot Summer day in Las Vegas. I realize that I haven't written a stockpile post for some time. This seems like a good reason to stay inside the air-conditioned office for a few more minutes.
Discounted Flights
If you too are feeling this heat and wondering how you're going to get a little break, check out Flights From Home. It's a service that will send you genuinely good deals on flights to places around the world. Currently, it only covers a handful of airports (LAS/SLC/PVU/IDA) but they pick quality airlines with minimal stops and send it in an email a couple times a week. It's enough to satisfy or tempt your wanderlust. They have a paid tier, but the free tier is good for most people.
Sedona, Slides, and Stars
We took our family for a trip to Sedona, AZ.
Our main goal was to try Slide Rock State Park for some cliff jumping and a ride down the natural water slide. That was a fun adventure. If you decide to try it, get there early and get ready for some chilly water.
Sedona is also a star gazing wonderland so we found a spot at dusk and watched as the night sky lit up.
We also enjoyed a box of Sedonuts as well. The Lemon Blueberry was fantastic.
Merlin Bird App
As Candace and I sat on the back porch of the Sedona Airbnb, I fired up Merlin Bird ID. I'm not really a birdwatcher but it really is amazing to use this app. It's like the Shazam for bird sounds.
While you use the app, it will listen for and identify birds around you. It will create a little list of what kind of birds are making the sound and you can look around to spot it. It also keeps a nice record of all the birds you have spotted.
When we started the app up, it showed that there was a Northern Cardinal nearby. Just a minute later, we spotted him on top of the power pole. Really cool.
Connected Devices
A year ago, I switched from Eero to UniFi for our home wifi. The performance and control has been as good as hoped.
I do like the little bits of data that can tell a story too. The little gray bars in the graph shows the number of connected devices. In their movement, you can see the space of time that we all went to church. You can also spot later in the afternoon when additional family came over to celebrate Cole's birthday.
It's a good reminder that the connected world is always connected and compiling stories whether you try to or not.
—
“Stockpile” is a series where I share observations on random topics all in one post. You can read more of these in the “Stockpile” category.