So, some new stuff has def. happened recently.
My brothers company, CarDomain.com has downsized once again, ex-ing the staff from its long standing SoundDomain division, amongst others. SoundDomain.com is one – if not THE – largest online community for audio enthusiast. Their forums and members are very dedicated. They have users on there from beginners to shop owners, to those guys that seem to have nothing better to do then make their car as loud as humanly possible!.
Emily and I got a new phone system today. We’ve been using vonage for a while now – and previously another online group that went WAY under. Vonage has worked well for us, unless I had some huge download going 🙂 Previously we were using a two phone 5.8ghz system that worked pretty well for the last 2 or 3 years. One of the phones recently started acting up so we have now upgraded to the new Dect phone system.
Dect? what is dect?? Dect is a new frequency used by home cordless phones. Its a lower frequency, but right now, its only for cordless digital phones – this means it should be a really clear, strong signal. Previously, the 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz range were shared with wireless computer networks, absorbed microwave and other electronic interference, etc. So this should be a nice upgrade.
I went with a Panasonic 4 extension system (it can take up to 6 handsets). Should be a nice upgrade to our 2 phone system – esp for those who want to get a hold of us :). We looked at vtech, uniden, AT&T and other phone systems, but this panasonic one was the most comfortable unit, and to be honest … panasonic really has cornered the market on cordless phones.
When Big Sean visited a few weeks ago, we got a picture of him holding Little Sean just like he did when Little Sean was just 2 weeks old. He has gotten so big!!
I learned how to solve a rubix cube today. I always thought that it was just random luck, but there are actually a lot of algorithms that you have to use depending on the way the cube is set up at different times. It’s really interesting and a great brain workout!
Now I just have to memorize all the algorithms and then I can REALLY look like a genius! 🙂
I recently added some new toys to my geeky collection. Back in October, Dmoney hooked me up with a new phone – the HTC 6700 for SprintPCS. I LOVED this phone, I actually used the mobile Word/Excel frequently, it was excellent for text messaging, was convenient to have a decent camera around, etc. Last week, the keyboard started to go out – requiring pretty excessive pressing to get things like the space bar and lower qwerty keys to work. It was also starting to lock up once in a while and when a reminder popped up, it immediately went away so I couldn’t disable, snooze, etc.
Anyway, our SprintPCs contract expired almost a year ago, so we decided to shop around to see what was available. After visiting a bunch of websites and spending some time in the CinciBell store, we determined our current plan with Sprint simply rocks and couldn’t find anyone to even match it. Long story short, Emily and I both got new phones yesterday. She got a new Katana and I got the HTC Mogul (the 6800). The Mogul is faster and runs Windows Mobile 6. Love the phone. Couple pics I stole from the net:
This is by far the highest class machine I have ever built. I ran the FutureMark 3dMark06 on both my old computer and new computer and was pretty amazed. The old PC was running Vista Ultimate 32 bit and the new PC is running Windows XP Pro 64bit (to utilize all 4GB ram). 3Dmark on the old PC hit 3906 marks. The new PC was around 14,567 marks!! I may go to Vista 64Bit, but wasn’t really impressed with Vista enough for the 1.5 years or so I ran it. The changes to the control panel and Windows Explorer were enough to put me off. I never ran into stability or driver issues when using Vista, even with my printers.
We started out on Saturday by attending a musical that Emily’s cousin Wes was in. It was a small theatre group introducing a new Christian musical. We enjoyed it. Sean enjoyed his afternoon with his Auntie Gamma (Emily’s Aunt Laurie).
Emily made us a reservation at John Philip’s in Crestview Hills. Its one of my new favorite restaraunts. The menu is small (wine list huge), but the selection of appetizers and entree’s is not missing anything. I went with the Filet (with a side of mushroom bourdalaise sauce) and Emily got the prime rib. Having a restaraunt of this nature makes me feel we don’t need to drive down to the waterfront anymore! The service is great as well. Our waiter was never overbearing and even remembered the last time we came in (and he wasn’t even our waiter that time!).
Ashley kept an ear out for Sean while we were out to eat – Thanks again Ash! Another advantage of the colony! Emily and I finished up the night watching the movie Jumper – although she didn’t make it through and had to finish it on Sunday. I don’t know why that movie got such a bad review when it was in theatre’s, as we both enjoyed it. Def. a renter and not a buyer though.
On Sunday, Emily, Sean, and I went to the Newport Aquarium. We got the idea a few weeks back when we visited a Petsmart store. He just stared with great awe into the little aquariums there.
We had a great time. Sean stayed up for it as long as he could. We actually got almost to the end before he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. He only missed the penguins (We’ll just have to catch them when we go to the St. Louis Zoo next time).
On Monday, I came home to a Father’s Day surprise! Emily and I have been looking for a small table and chair set to have on our front porch, but never got around to picking one up. I had a model that I liked, but Emily was unsure about it. Turns out, she liked it enough to make it my father’s day gift – I was quite pleased!
Last night was James Taylor at Riverbend! My mom got 8 tickets, 4 in the 2nd row of pit and 4 in the 5th row of pit. She set up a contest to see who was most worthy to sit closest to James during the concert. Two nights ago, we all took a 10 question general knowledge quiz about JT; that was the first part of the contest. Laurie came in 1st, me in 2nd, then Paul, then Ash then Brian. Phil didn’t have to compete for a seat b/c he and mom already claimed two of the “B” row seats.
The second part was that we had to bring something to the limo that best represented James Taylor to us. Everyone had really cute ideas; I brought Little Sean with a tag on his shirt that said “Sweet Baby James.” It was really cute and I got extra points for it!
The third part of the contest was a “finish the lyrics” contest in the limo on the way to the restaurant. Aunt Laurie won that round by far!
There was also an immunity idol that got you an automatic seat in the B row. If someone brought “the elephant” (long story…if you haven’t heard, ask us sometime) to the limo and sat it with them through dinner, they automatically got a B seat. Brian did it proud as can be and got his B seat.
I ended up with a B row seat for winning the overall contest, but gave my seat to Ashley so she could sit next to Brian. We all decided to switch it up anyhow after the intermission.
The seats were amazing and so was the show! During the intermission, some of us went up and got our tickets signed by James and got to touch him *sighs a dreamy sigh*. During the last couple songs, we got to go right up to the stage and sing and dance. My mom, Aunt Laurie and I were literally right in front of him against the stage…wow. It was cool. He looked right at us during “How sweet it is to be loved by you.” My mom nearly fainted 🙂
Thanks again to my mom for an awesome, unbelievable night! It was a blast!!!
Sean did great with his very first babysitter too, went to bed around 7:30 without a problem, and didn’t wake up until 4:00am. Thanks again Kristan!!
So my family has an obsession with a video clip from the internet. We constantly are saying “Surely?” and “Now my head” (while patting our heads) to each other as onlookers and household visiters look at us like we have 3 heads…until they see the video. It’s a little girl reciting Psalm 23. I’ve never seen such a cute thing in my life (well, except our little boy) and I had to finally post it. We watch it almost every day.
