The Web helps get us off the couch
Editor’s note: Robin Fontaine is communications director for The Spokane Athletic Club.
It’s a wonderful world (wide Web) out there, with great sites that entertain, inform, educate – and end household debates.
Ever watch a movie or TV show and “discuss” what else a particular actor appeared in? My husband, James Dodds, and I enhance our discussions at www.imdb.com, the Internet Movie Database.
When we’re ready to get off the couch, we like to use www.reserveamerica.com to electronically explore campgrounds and reserve our favorite sites. Of course, camping is an excuse to get out on the water in a canoe or kayak, and we’ve used www.pygmyboats.com as a source for the best marine-grade wooden sea kayak kits around.
Traveling
The Web has also helped us find more exotic travel sites. We spent a week at a private villa north of Puerta Vallarta after finding www.buceriasrentals.com/ cabillito_bucerias.htm.
Work stuff
To make these trips possible, there is, of course, work that must be done. As the communications director at The Spokane Athletic Club (aka the Spokane Club), I turn to www.macworld.com to stay up on technology. As the club’s magazine editor and art director, I visit the definitive resource for the magazine industry, www.magazine.org, to see what the big boys are up to. For creative graphic ideas, www.bamagazine.com offers something for designers at any level.
My two favorite sites for engaging, economical stock photography are www.dreamstime.com and www.istockphoto.com. Our club offers reciprocity with other private clubs around the nation, so I visit their Web sites for ideas and general reference. Two of my favorites are the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, www.wac.net, and the Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel in San Francisco, www.marineclub.com.
Connecting with friends
Speaking of Marines, one of the most valuable things I’ve found on the Web are old friends. As the daughter of an Air Force officer, the Military Brats Registry, www.military-brats.com, and the Military Brats Online, www.militarybrats.com, gave me the chance to reconnect with long-lost friends from my nomadic childhood. (One of them had been living less than a mile from me here in Spokane for 16 years – and we found each other online!)
Wine and workouts
Getting together with friends often involves wine, and a good gateway to all things enological is www.washingtonwine.org. Two more of my favorite grape-related sites are www.winelearning center.com and www.winespectator.com.
To balance the wine with workouts, I look for fitness inspiration and information from the American Council on Exercise at www.acefitness.org, and from fitness expert Tom Venuto at www.tomvenuto.com.
Random fun
A variety of other random sites have proved valuable, too. For a good laugh, explore www.funnyandjokes.com (check out the “funny emergency 911 calls” – positively frightening what some classify as an emergency!).
And if your house is like ours, the clocks seem to vary by several minutes. If you get accused of always being late (or early), confirm the time in any time zone at www.nist.time.gov. It settles the debate every time.