Something I never thought I would say...

No chewing on your feet while in time out.

Parenthood is so weird. :)

Family Update

Last weekend Bryce started to become mobile. I wouldn't say he is really crawling yet, but he does the slow scoot across the floor. So now I guess it is time to pull out the baby gates again and get them all setup.

Kyla also had a first this week. She played the Wii for the first time! It was a game called de Blob, where you basically have to roll around as a blob of paint and paint the buildings. A great starting game for her.

Feeding

Kyla told me she wanted to feed Bryce this evening.

Bedtime

Bringing our pictures to the web.

Google recently dropped the price of online storage for Picasa, their online picture album site. Now for $20 a year you can get 80GBs of online storage (used to be about $100 for this). I decided that this was a sign that we needed to move our pictures into the cloud.

After uploading for most of the week, we now have all of our pictures online. Which not only provides us with a backup of our pictures, but also allows quick and easy access to the pictures. It is also quite easy to share these pictures with others if we want.

So far it seems to be working great. I'll post again if we find any major disadvantages to doing this.

Google Operating System

Google had a media event today and went into details on their new OS. It has some great ideas, checkout the video below.

This operating system won't be available for about a year, but I think it brings some interesting ideas to the table.

Donations

As I was browsing Wikipedia today, I noticed they are having a fund raiser. As I thought about it, I realized how much I depend on Wikipedia to answer my questions. If it disappeared, I personally would lose a valuable resource so I decided to throw $10 their way. Not a huge amount, but I am sure every little bit helps.

Lights

We are working on putting up a few lights on the garage. I know it is a foreign concept for those of us that live near big cities, but it gets pitch black around here if the moon isn't shining.

Motorcycling

Kyla and I are visiting my parents today and she is getting some good riding time in.

Kyla picking her own outfit

I let Kyla select the shoes and coat she was going to wear out to dinner last night.

Goodbye Hobo wallet

The hobo wallet was starting to fall apart, so I finally broke down and bought a Slimmy. So far it seems to be great, although it is a bit thicker then the hobo wallet.

Droid Phone GPS

I am quite excited about new Droid phone coming out on Verizon this fall. It has a ton of awesome features, but one that really caught my eye is the new GPS built in. Check out the video below, and tell me you don't want this phone!

Google Reader gets better

If you use google reader, you may have noticed they have been adding a lot of features to it recently. One of the recent features is the ability to recommend items you may be interested in.

It uses the articles you have "liked" and the feeds you have subscribed to in order to figure out what it should recommend. You can read all about it below, however I can tell you so far this feature seems very useful and quite accurate.

So if you use google reader be sure to check it out, and if you don't use google reader you may want to give it a try sometime.

Read more here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-gets-personal-with-popular.html

Chicago Children's Museum

Spent a good part of the day at the children's museum. Between the water play area and the camping area, Kyla had the best time.

Family visit

We stopped by to visit my grandmother during our trip. We were able to see lots of family during the visit.

Rest of the family

Stacey and Bryce dressed to the nines.

Taking a walk

Enjoying the grounds at the reception.

Flower Girl

I'll try to post some more later on the day.

Traveling Desk

Before we left for Minnesota I decided to build a tray for Kyla that she could use while we drove. She could use it for coloring, eating, or just to set the DVD player on (She loves to watch her Disney movies as we drive).

Just a quick shot of the board before I started.

And the board in place as we drove. I glued two little feet to it so it is raised up a little bit and just rests on the edges of her chair. The other end is just wired up to the headrest of the front seat.

For the next trip I'll probably make a better way of attaching it to the front seat (right now you have to take the head rest off to remove it) as well as giving it a quick coat of paint or stain. For one night of work though it is working out quite well, and I think she is very happy to have it.

Google Voice Invites

I just saw that I have three google voice invites. If anyone is interested in one let me know.

Field trip

Wednesday Kyla had a field trip to a farm for preschool. They got to go on a hay ride, watch a puppet show, and pick out a pumpkin. Overall it was quite a success.

Boo at the Zoo

We went to Boo at the Zoo on Saturday. The kids get to dress up and trick-or-treat at the zoo while checking out the animals.

The tiger was hungry for some strawberry.

The little bear is hibernating in the cold.

Friday Volleyball

Every Friday I have been going to play Volleyball at a local church (Shhh, don't tell anyone). They have two indoor courts, and we usually play from 7pm to about 2am. The level of play is incredibly high, and I am usually one of the worst ones on the court. But it is helping me to improve my skills very quickly.

Bryce on his throne

Smiley Bryce enjoying a football game

My office

Just wanted to share a pic of my office. It is a geek paradise.

Things to find in the picture:

3 Nerf Guns

Golf Club

Family Picture

SIX MONITORS! :)

Weekend Work

This past Sunday around 10am I went out to stain the playhouse. I was thinking I could get this done in a couple hours and be back inside in time to watch some football. Oh how wrong I was.

I was probably a little over half finished when I went inside at 9pm or so . I did manage to do another 3 hours or so on Monday evening, but I still have another few hours to go.

I must say it is looking pretty good though. Check out the difference between the stained and un-stained areas.

Browser Comparison

This one is for my wife. We recently had a discussion on why I would push Google's browser Chrome instead of letting people stick with Internet Explorer.

My main argument was the user just has a better experience when using Chrome.

Now I have some real numbers to back up my claim. Check out the main graphic here:

http://sixrevisions.com/infographics/performance-comparison-of-major-web-browsers/

Also, that is comparing Chrome to IE 8. I would love to see what the number would be if Chrome was compared to IE 6. And if anyone out there is still using IE, I would encourage you to download and try one of the other browsers. Saving a few seconds every single time you go to a web page can really add up.

First day of preschool

She is quite excited.

The future of computers (part 2)

In order to continue to take our computing habits into the "cloud", I needed to find online replacements for all the things we currently do on the computer. This post is just going to be a quick list of what we are using.

Standard Programs (you probably already know about)

Email: Gmail and Yahoo Mail

Documents/Spreadsheets: Google Docs

Financials: Mint.com

Less Known Programs

Syncing files between computers: Dropbox

Syncing bookmarks between computers: Xmarks or Chrome bookmark sync (in beta)

Online Todo list: ToodleDo

Diagrams (like Visio): Creately

The future of computers

There is a trend in computing to move towards "cloud" computing. This just means programs reside online instead of being installed locally. Think of using Gmail instead of running Outlook on your computer.

The advantages of this are huge as everything then travels with you no matter what computer you are using. In addition everything is automatically backed up. It doesn't matter if your laptop dies, you can just go get a new one and all your data is safe. On vacation? No problem, just find a computer in the hotel lobby and you are good to go. There are very good solutions on line for Email, banking, instant messaging, having a calendar, document creation (word, excel, etc). And this is just a small subset of what is online today.

It seems that everything is going in this direction. Video games have always been traditional program you install and play. However there are 3D initiatives that will even move these into the cloud. One accomplishes this by allowing 3D items to be displayed right in the browser(O3D), and the other is actually drawing the game on a server somewhere, and just sending you the screenshots.

So besides making our lives easier by keeping all our information easily accessible, this also means the operating system becomes less important. If you check your email online, you don't care if you are using Windows, OS X, or Linux. As long as whatever you are using has a browser you are good to go.

So we took our first step towards this last night, and I installed Linux on our laptop. Now I have tried to use Linux before but always ran into problems. However lasts night installation went great! After I installed it, it popped up a box saying it found drivers for my wireless card, and with two clicks it was all setup and working! The interface is very nice as well as everything is very logical and easy to get to.

Pancakes

She's half-way finished eating her Mickey Mouse pancake. We also made a fish pancake, a motorcycle pancake, and a caterpillar pancake.

Segway

Saw this walking into Lowes the other day. It is a Segway for offroading. Just awesome.

Pushing Google Chrome, even in Mexico

This will be a quick post.

We are in Mexico, and they have some computers setup for everyone to use. The computers are fairly locked down so you can't change many settings in Windows. I am able to install Google Chrome to use instead of Internet Explorer, so I am quite happy with that.

However I figured everyone should be enjoying Google Chrome instead of lame old IE, so using my computer wizardary I updated all the Internet Explorer shortcuts to open Chrome when clicked, but they still have the IE icon and name on them.

So far I have seen a few people using the computer and no one has noticed. They just get to experience a faster broswer without even realizing it. :)

Oh yeah, vacation is going good and all that, I'll post more details with pics later.

Playhouse Ladder

One of the other projects I did this past weekend was to put up a smaller ladder on the playhouse. This connects the exit of the tube to the back balcony (through a trap door). One step closer to being done.

Ladder is just the two boards and two black rungs.

Funny Shows!

I recently came across some funny online shows I wanted to share.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

This is a must see, great writing, great singing, and just all together very entertaining! (A little old now, but still great)

(42 minutes)

The Guild

http://www.watchtheguild.com/

A web series about a group of internet gamers. If you have ever played a MMO like World of Warcraft, this is a must see for you.

(Multiple episodes, each a few minutes long)

Legend of Neil

http://www.atom.com/channel/channel_legend_of_neil/

Parody about someone trapped in the original Zelda game. Quite funny if you have ever played Zelda on the original Nintendo. Warning: Mature Audience's Only

If you just want to see one episode, check out their latest which is a music video: http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/legend_of_neil_203/

(Multiple episodes, each a few minutes long)

Let me know if you check any of these out. I'd love to hear what you think of them.

Shoe Shelf

One of the other projects I did over the weekend was to create a "Shoe Shelf" for our front closet. With three people storing shoes there (soon to be four once Bryce starts walking), it was getting to be a jumbled mess at the bottom of the closet.

The boards cut and ready for assembly.

The completed shelf!

The shelf in place (no shoes on it yet, as I am giving it another day to dry).

The funny part about all of this is Stacey saw what I was doing but I never told her what it was. (I wanted it to be a surprise). Last night she started trying to guess what it was, and since I knew she would figure it out sooner or later, I instead told her it was a step for our cat to get onto our bed easier.

Unfortunately she thought that was a good idea and told me it was nice of me to think of the cat. So now it looks like my next project will be building a cat step. :)

HD Over the air

I am sure most of you heard about the switch recently when all TV stations stopped broadcasting over the air. While they did stop broadcasting the old signal, almost all of them are now broadcasting HD over the air (OTA).

Unfortunately your old rabbit ears antenna will no longer work to pick up this new signal. You can purchase a new HD antenna for anywhere between $50 and $150.

Or, you can just look on the internet and build your own. This is exactly what I decided to do.

First I gathered the materials for the project.

Wiring the antenna

Complete!

I plugged this into my computer (I have a card in there that accepts HD signals), and without even tweaking the direction or anything I was able to pick up 6 channels in great quality!

I still need to play with this more to see what else I can get working, as I expect I should be able to get around 20 or so channels. I'll keep you all updated.

Sleep out tonight!

Bonnie and Kyla are sleeping out in the playhouse tonight. It is supposed to get into the 50's tonight, so hopefully they will stay warm enough!

Spare Tire

So how do you discourage someone from driving too much on the spare tire? Easy, paint it bright red. Talk about classy. :)

I actually got some complements on the spare tire as I was changing it. Apparently I should just get four of these and I'll be ultra cool.

Volleyball is Expensive

So I started going to some free pickup volleyball games recently. These are held in downtown Akron every Thursday night, and sponsored by the city.

So last Thursday as I am parallel parking I got a little two close to the curb. As I pull the emergency break, I hear this nice hissing sound. I decide to go play some volleyball anyway, and figure I'll deal with it when I get back.

When I do get back to inspect the damage, I see a nice slice on the sidewall of the tire. Apparently I managed to back up perfectly to line up the tire with the only metal edge on the curb. One in a million shot, really. I pull the spare out and manage to get it changed within 15 minutes or so.

Since the tires are half worn, I decide I should probably replace both of them. After calling around some, I managed to get a half decent deal and get the tires ordered. I tell the tire store I will bring in both tires tomorrow so they put the new ones on.

So when I get home I start to take the tire off, I realize that I lost the wheel lock key after changing the tire, and I can no longer get the other wheel off the car! After hitting myself repeatedly for being so stupid, I begrudgingly call up the dealer and ask if they can help me out.

The first guy I talk to at the dealer says I need to talk to service, as they have master keys and can help me to figure out which key we need to order. So I get transferred to service, and after setting up an appointment for later in the week, I ask how much he is going to charge me. He tells me they can probably do it for $95! After calming myself down, I ask him if he is insane, as all he needs to do is try each master key they have until one fits. That is definitely not worth $95 dollars. He is decidedly unhelpful, so I hang up, call the first guy back, and he says to bring it right over and he'll help me for free. Finally something goes right!

The $45 part that I left in downtown Akron somewhere.

I end up ordering a new wheel lock from Porsche myself and get it overnighted ($45). I am finally able to get the other wheel off and I take them both in to get the new tires on. Of course when I get there they have no idea who I am, and don't have any tires waiting for me. :) Turns out they shipped the tires to the wrong store, so they have to get the brought over to this store.

The other tire finally comes off!

I do finally get the tires back on, and am now driving the car again.

So my free volleyball game only ended up costing me about $350 or so. Man, staying in shape is getting expensive!

Camping!

Bedtime

Money is dead

The 75 cent air compressor now takes credit cards! That is so awesome!

Bicycle ride

We took a fun bike ride through the metro parks today. Not only is it beautiful but we are getting good exercise!

New gamer in town

Bryce Update

Smiles all around.

Garden Update

Tomato are coming in nicely. Not sure how the squash is going to fare in the small area but so far it is behaving.

Blog or Facebook

So I recently joined facebook (http://www.facebook.com/shawn.goertzen). However I am trying to figure out how this fits into my online presence. When I started the blog, I did it as a way of sharing parts of my life with the outside world. Now that I am on facebook, it seems like I have two ways of doing the exact same thing.

So I am guessing many of you other bloggers out there also have facebook pages. Do you post the same info to both? How do you decide what goes where? I'd love to hear some ideas on what everyone else does.

Camp Out (Part 2)

The overnight stay in the playhouse was a success. We went out there and read some books, ate some animal crackers, then went to bed. Kyla is already asking when we can do it again.

I think next time we will go out earlier and maybe watch a movie or something out there (just on the laptop), that we we can spend more time snuggling in our sleeping bags. It isn't as much fun when we just go to sleep right away. Any other suggestions on activities we could do before going to bed?

Camp out

Kyla and I are going to attempt our first camp out in the play house. I'll let you know if we make it the whole night.

Magnetic signs

We had a hidden message on our refrigerator when we got home. I especially like the creative use to get an extra E and C. Thanks Greta!

Farmville

There was a six mile backup to go over/through the bridge tinnel so we decided to take a more scenic back road route. It added about 20 minutes onto our 5 hour drive but probably saved us that much in avoiding traffic.

Our route took us through Farmville where we are enjoying a nice dinner at a restaurant named Charleys. We are sitting our on their deck looking at the creek running below.

Balcony View

I can see 28 volleyball courts from my balcony!!!

Metro with aunt and uncle

The metro is so much fun when you are three.

Tasty!

Hershey Park

Eating lunch at hershey park. We are enjoying some excellent chocolate milk. :)

Trip is going good so far, except that I already lost my credit card. We were able to figure out were I left it though and back track a little to get it.