Vital Statistics

I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday party. Thirty of my best friends showed up and we partied way past dark. In the day time it was lots of kids, sunshine, music and burritos. At night it was music and adult conversation around the fire pit on the deck. My life is good at 40.

Yesterday I received a mystery CD in the mail. It has readings by Jack Kerouac and came from Cheektowaga, NY. I’m quite sure I did not order it and have no idea why I received it. It came addressed to “Mick Ring” which rules out all of the places I order from online. If you know why I received this CD, I would love to hear from you.

My mom offered to help me refinish my deck this week, so I’ll probably take a day or two off work so we can get that done. After a few rainy days last week, it’s been sunny and is supposed to continue that way. We should take advantage of it while it lasts!

Bike odometer: 201 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: n/a
Recent viewing: Giants at Seahawks, Bengals at Steelers, Sportscenter, 60 Minutes, The Simpsons
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: recovering from party
Imperative To Do: Refinish deck, hair cut, new rear fender for bike, finish old blog entries, fix toilet (call plumber), rake
Cool Links: Some Scion stuff:

Vital Statistics

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today I turned 40 years old. I’ll never be 30-something again. I guess I have to enjoy being in my 40s because the alternatives are worse.

One of the great pleasures of my birthday is the gift certificate that Tina’s sister, Michelle, and her family give me from Half.com. This morning the email was waiting for me when I awoke. All I had to do was click a button in the email to redeem the certificate. Then I browsed through my Wishlist and picked everything that I really wanted at that moment. After selecting CDs and books worth about five times the amount of the gift certificate, I removed the items from my shopping cart that were less important. I ended up with three CDs and a book:

The past two nights I have slept very well and don’t remember any mouth-leaking episodes. Tina says that it’s still happening and has to use earplugs. I woke this morning with no alarm after eight hours of sleep. I hope this is a turning point.

Bike odometer: 201 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Last week’s charts
Recent viewing: The Manchurian Candidate (remake), High Stakes Poker, World Series of Poker, Headline News
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Mowed lawn, cleaned office, finished birthday invites, cleaned up back yard and deck, stored air conditioner for the winter, setup music for party
Imperative To Do: Hair cut, new rear fender for bike, finish old blog entries, fix toilet
Cool Link: Marijuana Morals

Vital Statistics

My back is all better after the pressure washing whirlwind last weekend. In fact, this morning I felt like I had more energy than I have for quite awhile. I’m taking a day off from work tomorrow so I can expend some energy on the yard and house before the party on Saturday.

Bike odometer: 196 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Science Friday, John Prine, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers, One Hot Minute by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Recent viewing: Countdown, CBS Evening News, American Masters: Gene Kelly, High Stakes Poker
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Cleaned and disinfected CPAP equipment, bank, post office, FedEx
Imperative To Do: Hair cut, new rear fender for bike, mow lawn, follow-up phone calls for birthday, finish old blog entries
Cool Link: Drug-danger league table: When ranked according to the harm they cause, which drugs are the most dangerous? (Hint: the top two are legal.)

Vital Statistics

Today Tina and I celebrated losing 20 lbs. each by having sushi for lunch. It’s been remarkably easy on the South Beach plan. Tina tells me everything I can and can’t eat which makes it even easier. I wouldn’t be able to do this well without her.

On Saturday I rented a power washer and spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the deck and all of our concrete. After 8 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday, my whole body is complaining today but especially my back. It doesn’t feel like I “pulled” anything, though, so I’m sure it will be OK in a few days.

My mom is getting here on Wednesday and we’re having a big (for us) birthday party for my 40th birthday on Saturday. You are invited!

Bike odometer: n/a (drove today)
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Coverville, MC Front-A-Lot, MC Chris, It’s The Jump Off
Recent viewing: Dead Zone, Countdown, An Evening with the Dixie Chicks, Sportscenter, The Simpsons, The Alternative, The Daily Show, National Pie Championship
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Recycled styrofoam, power washed the deck and concrete, emailed birthday invitations
Imperative To Do: Clean CPAP stuff, bank, refinish deck, hair cut, service van, new rear fender for bike, mow lawn, follow-up phone calls for birthday
Cool Video: Four-year-old drumming prodigy

Saga of the New Tivo, Part II

Previously: : “I wish I had Tivo in the bedroom!”

I slept in on the day of Tina’s birthday (November 10) and arose shortly after she left for art class. After getting ready for work, I opened the box with the new DirecTV Tivo (DTivo) and prepared for installation.

When we first had DirecTV (DTV) installed, they installed our DTivo in the living room (although everybody in the house calls it the “Big TV Room”), a single receiver in the bedroom and a small dish on the north side of the roof. The dish has four coaxial outputs with two going to the DTivo, one going back to the bedroom and one capped.

Thus, my initial plan was simply to replace the receiver with the new DTivo and let the DTivo run on just one satellite channel for awhile until I could run another coax cable from one end of the house to the other. I thought it would be just a matter of unplugging the receiver, plugging in the DTivo and going through the activation process. Well, it started out that easy.

I swapped the DTivo for the receiver and placed the DTivo where her VCR used to be in order to make it as unobtrusive as possible. I would return the VCR upon her request later. I called in to DTV and had them activate the DTivo and verified that all was working well. I even setup a couple of “Season Passes” for her before putting the old receiver in the box and putting the box back where it had been, seemingly making it all look unchanged. Then I departed for work secure in the knowledge that I had delivered another fabulous birthday gift to my lovely and deserving wife.

Next: “But what about when you join the reversed circuit to a “normal” circuit via a coaxial cable connection to the satellite dish?”

Saga of the New Tivo, Part I

In October I decided that a really good gift for Tina’s birthday would be a DirecTV Tivo (DTivo). As you may know from previous posts, we already have a DTivo in our living room that we love. We had a plain old DirecTV (DTV) receiver in the bedroom, but Tina was frequently heard to say, “I wish I had Tivo in the bedroom!” I should note here that Tina spends a lot of time in our bedroom because her craft center is in there as well as her computer.

I briefly considered buying a standalone Tivo with a built-in DVD recorder because Tina also longs for a DVD player in the bedroom. However, standalone Tivos have to work with an existing satellite receiver and will only record a single channel. Ultimately, I decided that the most user friendly solution would be to get another DTivo which doesn’t require an additional receiver and lets you record two channels simultaneously.

After surfing the web and absorbing the state of the Tivo market for a few days, I decided that I would return to my favorite Tivo upgrader, Weaknees. Weaknees specializes in kits that let you trick out your Tivo in a variety of ways. Last year I purchased a hard drive upgrade kit that I used to increase our Tivo’s capacity from 35 hours to 105 hours.

Weaknees is currently offering DTivo units that have had hard drive upgrades for the same cost as a non-upgraded unit from DTV. I eventually settled on the 80 hour unit and had it shipped a week before Tina’s birthday. It arrived a couple of days before and I had to give Tina some lame explanation about what it was. I planned to install it on her birthday and have it ready for her that day as a “surprise.”

Next: “Well, it started out that easy.”