Amazon Unboxed on Tivo

We recently tried out Amazon's unboxed service where you can download Movies to rent or buy. Since Amazon is giving people $15 in credit to try out the service, we rented the Departed for $4. Overall, the picture quality is pretty good although not as sharp as DVDs and you only get stereo audio and not digital surround. The other thing you don't get that you get with DVDs are all those deleted scenes. The service really appeals to those who don't rent enough to warrant getting Netflix, who don't have an HDTV and accompanying upconverting DVD or HiDef DVD player, or for those who don't want to drive to their local blockbuster. Overall, I probably wouldn't use this service until they fix the picture and audio quality. After all, you didn't spent all this money on a HDTV, receiver, and speakers to watch VHS movies in Stereo. I must say though it was nice to have the movie show up on Tivo's playlist. Maybe we need to get Tivo Series 3. :)

A little arts & crafts, sun, kettlecorn, and trash cans?

Tempe's Festival of the Arts down on Mill Ave.


Christy enjoying some kettle corn.


I think this is probably one of the largest trash cans I've ever seen. You can see a normal size one next to it behind the pole.

Now we can have a baby....

Before....


...and after. Only took about 10 minutes with help to setup. The sides are stationary so it makes the assembly really easy.


The glider chair. I wonder if I'll ever get to sit in this one.


Might as well through in a few more pieces to fill out the house. Unfortunately my speakers don't fit on the lower shelf standing up. This is really strange since I measured the speakers and the shelf. Good thing I'm not an engineer...oh wait.


Sofa for the living room. You won't even be able to see the cat hair on it. :)

Surprise!

More than 2 months of planning, thousands of miles flown to arrive in Phx, emails and emails of lies, the look on Christy's face......priceless! :) (Not sure how long this photo will stay up.)




Baby shower the next day at Arcadia Farms.

We just switched from ATT Wireless to Cingular

just in time for Cingular to switch back to the New AT&T. We had gotten AT&T wireless service before they were bought out by Cingular and never switched over our plans, sim cards, or phones. But recently, Christy's phone has been acting up and the only way to get a new phone was to switch to Cingular's roll over plans. You can see our old phones on top and the new phones on the bottom. Christy got the Razr V3xx which is the 3G version and I got the Cingular 2125 smartphone which is basically like my old audiovox except it has the faster edge network instead of the GPRS, 1.3 MP camera, joystick instead of the Rocker button that Christy hated, and a few other improvements. The switch though was not painless. Cingular could do a lot to improve their operations.

First I tried to get the phones for free but the different Customer Service reps wouldn't have that. Or they would accidentally drop me while I was on hold. That did really happen. Some were really nice and said I could get 200 bonus minutes and offered me $50 in credits for being such a good customer while others would barely budge or give me anything. So after finally deciding to pay $50 per phone, they actually screwed up and sent me 2 Razrs. So I called back up and they credited me another $50 for the inconvenience. Then they credited me another $25 because they couldn't stop the order. Finally, I think they credited me another $25 because they couldn't activate my sim card when I called in because of technical problems. Then when I thought all was fine, it turns out they screwed up the plans. When I called back in to correct it, they told me one of the sim cards was bad and they would need to send out another one. I'm actually surprised we even get cell service at all. But in the end, they ended up paying us $50 or so dollars to get 2 new phones.

Also, if you talk to one customer service rep and they tell you one thing, call back and talk to another. They told me I could get 200 bonus minutes added on for free. Then when I finally decided to place my order, I told the new rep about the minutes and they said no problem. Well since the phone order was messed up, I had to call back and the new rep said that they couldn't honor the 200 anymore. Then finally when I called again to fix the plan details, I mentioned the 200 bonus minutes. The rep said no problem and added them on for me.

Finally our light works....

...and it only took 5 years or so. Here's the after picture of our new 4" recessed halogen light. I found an insulated ceiling 4" recessed fixture that uses halogen lights at The Great Indoors. This particular halogen light uses 120V and not low voltage so you should be able to put a normal dimmer on them. The recessed fixture was only $20 with another $10 for the trim.


You can see the old non-working light with its black trim. You can also see the last of our brass fixtures that need to be changed out.


This project should have only taken an hour or so but the old fixture was placed right next to a stud such that the new fixture wouldn't fit. As a result, I had to move the opening. You can see the stud and the new hole here.


Here you can see the repair in the ceiling before spackling, texture, and paint. The three screws go into a piece of wood that runs over the drywall repair. This way you can securely anchor the drywall.

Just 2 more lights to go....

Porch light where birds like to sit during the winter and crap all over it.


After I installed a recessed light. Only two more lights in the house that have that ugly brass. One day we'll find something to replace them with.

New addition to the family

We haven't named him yet but we did buy or rather I bought a new roomba scheduler from Costco last week. The cool thing about the scheduler is that you can schedule when it comes on to clean and then after an hour, he goes back to his charging station automatically. Talk about automated. The only thing is you have to empty his dust bin after every use. So far Roomba works pretty well. As long as he can pick up the cat litter and hair, I'll be happy. Oh and Riley left us a nice present the day after we got Roomba. I think he was feeling a little neglected or scared.

Propane torch for carmelizing sugar.....one day.

Here's the industrial strength torch for carmelizing sugar for Creme Brulee. We actually have a handheld torch that would take forever. I think using this (which I believe professional chefs use), we could carmelize in seconds instead of minutes. But the actual reason for buying this was to solder some pipes for our new water heater.


You can see my beginner soldering work on the pipes. Solder all over the place and not the best looking job. But the pipes don't leak so I'm not complaining. You can even see where I scorched the EnergyGuide label.


Here's the old water heater.


Here you can see that the tank was beginning to rust through. Probably the right time to change it.


Here's the new one. Only took me like 6 hours with 3 trips to Home Depot because I forgot to buy something or a change of plumbing strategy. The model we got is from Sears and is their top of the line electric water heater. The water heater has an efficiency rating of 0.95 and has an R-value of 24. Although in the summer, our garage is like 130 degrees anyways.

Finally after 2 months.....

The Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm vibration reduction zoom len arrived. This lens is probably the most sought after lens for any of the Nikon DSLRs. An easy way to tell is to call up your local camera shop and ask if they have the lens. The usual response is them laughing at you because the wait is usually a few months. Trust me, I just had that happen to me in OR twice. The demand is so great you can sell the lens for easily $100 - $200 more than the retail price. The lens actually costs more than our camera. :) You can read reviews of the lens from Ken Rockwell or from David Pogue's blog.

So you might be asking, how do the pictures turn out? Well, our D40 had a problem with the flash not firing so it's back at Nikon being fixed. Hopefully it'll be back soon. We've waited 2 months, what's another week or two.


Here's the lens fully extended.

Mechanical failure

The wall anchors I used to hold the shelves on failed. You can see the bottom shelf leaning against the sewing machine. If the sewing machine wasn't there, you'd see a much bigger mess and holes in the wall. I've since then replaced the top anchors with toggle bolts that open up behind the wall. Those supposedly can support a lot more weight than the anchors I used before which look like large screws. I still think one of the cats jumped onto the shelf causing it to fail. Maybe Riley since he's the heavy one.

Garage cabinets in less than 2 weeks.

Before....



...and after.


The amazing thing is that 1 guy installed all of these in ~5 hours. He had a staple gun and probably used a few thousand staples to put all of the pieces together including mounting it to the wall. Oh and check out the outlet in the peg board!