Jenni wanted to know the distance of a circuit of the portion of our yard that is within view of Z's new playground. I remembered Gmaps Pedometer, a nice free online tool that lets you draw a route and tells you its distance. This route travels along two fences, the edge of our driveway, and the length of one side of our house.

I used it here for about the simplest application possible, but you can use it to trace much longer routes and do "there and back" calculations. Of course, Google Maps itself will now help you identify an "on-foot" route and tell you the distance in the process. Gmaps Pedometer is better if you know the route you like and want to know how far you're walking, running, or biking.

Turns out she'll need to go nine times around that portion of our yard to get half a mile in. Start walking, Jenni!