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Windows 7 Meets XBox Media Center Extender

2009-12-18T13:57:00.000-08:00

Chapter 1: Windows 7

I've always been an early adopter of new versions of Microsoft's operating systems. I had Vista installed the month that it was released, and although it never really caught on as a corporate replacement for the old, reliable Windows xp I've enjoyed using it for last couple of years with very few complaints.

Now comes Windows 7 this year and the tradition continues. I had a chance to do the upgrade to Windows 7 Business about a month ago, shortly after it's release. And even though it didn't seem to have very many new features or capabilities over Vista, the installation went smooth with no major problems.

Chapter 2: A bit of networking...

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I've been pondering purchasing either a Netflix Roku, or a new BluRay DVD player with network capabilities so we could stream Netflix movies to our TV without having to wait for discs to arrive.

Regardless of the selection of hardware, I knew I'd need to run CAT5 cable from the router in Justin's room, to our TV in living room. I took stock and found I had enough cable, and just needed a couple RJ45 jacks to do the install. Long story short, I drilled a few holes in the walls and floor, crawled under the house and ran the cable, bought a 2-jack panel for Justin's room, and used his old wall plate in the living room to finish a nice, clean network extension.

Chapter 3: Choosing the Hardware

Now the research began. I knew we wanted to do Netflix thing, and I needed to choose between the follwing applicable solutions:

1) Roku, going for about $100 it just did Netflix. It would get the job done but how boring. The DVD players did other neat stuff like YouTube and Pandora playback.

2) Network Bluray players, namely by Samsung and LG were my first choice. Going for $150-$300, they'd give us BluRay capability, Netflix access and a few extras like YouTube or Pandora depending on the player.

3) We already had an XBox 360, and I knew XBox Live had a Netflix client avaialable. I was only luke warm on the desire for being able to play BluRay movies, and $50/year for XBox Live was very attractive compared to $150-$300 for a BluRay player.

Bottom line, $50 for XBox Live was the cheapest solution to get Netflix content streaming to our television, so that's what I went with. Who'd know just how cool it would really be...

Chapter 4: XBox Live

It was a quick setup plugging the XBox into the new network jack, updating the Xbox to the lastest version of the dashboard, choosing a new gamertag, entering billing information before we were rolling on XBox Live.

I quickly found the NetFlix client available for free download and install under the Video Marketplace menu, and had 'A Christmas Story' streaming on the TV with "Ooos" and "Ahhs!" from the family only about an hour after starting signing up for Live.

Chapter 5: Media Center Extender

The next day, still excited about the new family toy, I started exploring the other options available in the XBox 360 Live dashboard and came across "Media Center". I was moderately familiar with Media Center from playing around with it on Vista, but having very little use for it at the time.

I wasn't expecting the Windows 7 Business installation I'd recently done to have Media Center as part of it, but decided to check anyway. Come to find out it did. So, after checking out the client on the XBox, I was given a 6-character code which would authenticate the XBox with the Media Center software on the computer. So I jotted the code down, went to the computer, and opened a browser to the xbox.com/pcsetup setup site, ran the installation, entered the code and had the link setup.

I then opened Media Center, and ran it's setup. This allows you to tell Media Center where you keep your personal photos, music, and videos. With Windows 7, this actually adds these folders your 'Libraries' which appears to be a new indexing feature with Windows 7.

Finally, returning to the TV and launching the Media Center Extender, I had access to 1) play slide shows of my photos, 2) play and search music, and playlists (which is a bit slow and cumbersome when you have a large music library), play home videos (with our digital HDD camcorder, all our home videos are already in MPG format on the computer), and of course play any downloaded videos or media from the Internet.

So for a total of about $65, that $15 for a network wallplate, and $50 for Live, I not only can play games online with others, and play movies from NetFlix, but now I NEVER have to wait to encode or burn a DVD to play on my TV. This has already saved me countless hours! So if you're at all tech savvy, and have an XBox 360, and a Windows PC with Media Center on it, this is a very cheap way to enhance your TV viewing capabilities.

Chapter 6: The future

We've been enjoying the Netflix and Media Center extenders for a couple weeks now and I've make a couple changes to the setup.

First using your XBox controlller in lieu of a remote control has a couple disadvantages. First, you have to turn the controller on every time you want to change what you're watching, fast-forward, rewind, etc. This means that the XBox controller is left on for very long periods, which in turn means you start going through batteries a lot quicker. Solution: for $20, you can purchase the XBox IR remote control which uses an normal IR signal rather than the active radio connection that the conroller uses, which saves batteries, is always 'on', and has very clear buttons for doing common operations like loading Media Center, fast-forwarding, rewinding, etc.

Second, using your XBox as a Media Extender, you'll quickly learn that the 360 is REDICULOUSLY loud. This is due to both a loud stock fan, and a loud DVD drive. After some research I came across the Talismoon Whisper fan, which I just purchased online for about $20.

Please note, that during the process of replacing your stock fan, it does void the XBox warranty. I'm not particularly worried about it, as I've recently already voided the warranty after repairing a red-ring of death using the 3-penny heat-sink replacement, and overheat reset 'trick'. Which are beautifully, and very clearly documented on YouTube.

So happy holidays and I hope this helps someone with their decision on Media Center setups. It was a lot of fun doing the setup.

Fall Home Projects

2009-10-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

It seems with the gain in popularity of micro-blogging, and my lack of time due to having a 10 month old baby I haven't been blogging for shit lately. But I'm breaking that trend today...

Removing Some Bushes...

So the last two months or so I've been delving into two notable home projects. First, last month I got sick of pruning three large bushes on the side of the house. Well.. I'm not sure if they were bushes, trees, or just really gnarley weed-trees; all I know is they were of two different varieties, and they all grew about 6-feet, mostly vertically per month, during the summer months.

So I figure it would be a nice area for a clean birch tree, a bench and maybe a swing for the baby later on. So I went out one day and cut them all down at the base and piles them nicely next to the fence to cut up later. Then I see that these bushes have lifted the sprinkler system out of the ground by their roots.

"Okay I think, I just need to dig out the roots and relay the sprinkler system underground."

Much easier said then done. Long story short: I ended up buying a 16" chainsaw, going through 4 chains, buying an 8lb axe, breaking a shovel, buying a new 'The Excavator' titanium alloy shovel, borrowing a neighbor's pick-axe. It literally took me three weeks of going out about 3-4 times a week working them before I finally got all the roots out. So finally, last week I got it all out, and was able to buy new PVC and re-lay the sprinkler line. I still need to level the ground, and replant lawn seed before I'll be ready to buy a new tree for the area. Realistically I probably won't plant a new tree until spring to give it a good chance to take hold.

New Genie Garage Door Opener

So when I bought the house I quickly learned that though the existing, old-ass, chain-drive Sears/Craftsman garage door opener was working, neither of the remotes worked.

After doing some diagnosis, I came to realize that the receiver board in the opener must be bad. If I remember correctly the necessary board was out of production, and the few sites you could order one from were ridiculously expensive, compared to simply buying a new garage door opener.

But alas, I had never installed a garage door opener, and being that we use the garage mostly for storage anyway and it push-button still worked I wasn't about to pay someone $300+ to install a new one at the time.

Fast-forward to last week. I go out to blow off the driveway, push the button and, "ENNNGH!", nothing. It just started making a buzzing sound and doing nothing when I pushed the open button. It was dead. This was in the middle of my Last Hurrah getting the aforementioned roots out of the ground, and I was about 2-seconds away from just calling someone to come out and install a new one.

However, Saturday I found myself at Lowes and I figured I price them and perhaps try to install one as much as I could, myself. I opted for the Genie screw-drive that was on sale for $160 or so. I got the old garage door opened down and dismantled, and I got most of the head-unit, and main rail put together on the new one that night. Sunday we stayed home from church and I used the time to really attack the project. I was able to stack boxes to help me elevate the unit and finally get it mounted; installed the Safe-T eye sensors and new button.

It was a helluva lot of work and consumed a huge portion of the day but ultimately I got a new opener installed, with working remotes finally, didn't have to pay an installer, and learned a thing or two about how these things work.

Back From Disneyland

2009-07-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

So Friday we took off early in the AM and dropped Marley off in Manteca and did the drive to the Disneyland Hotel; a great view on the 10th floor of the Wonder tower. We were right above the area where they have weddings and got to watch one as soon as we arrived.

Saturday we hit the parks for the first of three days. This day: Disneyland. We did most of the major rides: Indiana Jones, Finding Nemo, the Matterhorn, and Star Tours where Justin managed to lose his lanyard with his 5-day hopper pass, and which was covered with fancy pins from the souvenir shops. We went back 10 minutes later and it was already gone; not at the ride's lost & found; not at the parks lost & found. So from then on, we had to stop by the Guest Relations desk each day for a replacement 1-day pass for him to get in. We go pooped around 4PM or so, and headed back to the hotel for some pool time and rest for the baby. Then later that evening we went back into the park to watch the fireworks show on Main Street. Very, very cool. Now it was late, and all the family-friendly restaurants were closed but we found a Torilla Jos Express for some burrito-goodness.

Sunday we did California Adventures, and hit most of the major rides there: Soaring over California, Screaming over California, the Grizzly Rapids, etc. Then we spent a good amount of time toward the back of the park at the Midway games and having lunch (and a Grand Margarita for dad :oP From there we waited in line for Aladdin and in the meantime I was able to go on the Tower of Terror. The Aladdin show was fantastic! Afterwards we had a great dinner at Naples; unfortunately Andrew was pissed by this point and made it a rough dinner. From there back to the hotel... pool/spa time... and watching the Main Street fireworks from our balcony.

Monday was back to Disneyland, but only after having the Character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen and getting lots of pictures of the kids with the different characters. We were absolutely exhausted by this point, but made it through ToonTown, the Haunted Mansion, Bugs Life, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. We had lunch in Critter Country before Lisa split with the baby to go shopping at Sephora while Justin and I did a few rides. Justin and I took the Monorail back to the hotel where Lisa and the kids watched TV, relaxed, and Justin played with a new Lego Agents set the Lisa bought him in Downtown Disneyland. In the meantime I got to checkout the Fitness center. The fitness center requires that you sign a waiver at the front desk to 'activate' your key to get in, and nobody under 14 is allowed in; as such there was NOBODY in this fairly well-equipped gym. I enjoyed that for about 45 minutes, then went back to the room for Justin and headed to the pool (after getting a Rob Roy at the bar :o).

After an hour or two in the pool we went back up to the room, ordered room service, started watching Life As A House which I Netflixed before we left. We were able to connect the portable DVD player to the TV. We caught the Main Street fireworks one last time that night.

Tuesday (yesterday) the fun was unfortunately over. It was all packing, loading the car, getting a quick bite to eat and hitting the road.... a quick stop in Manteca to pickup Marley, who'd only done minor damage to the sitters home :o(. As much fun as we had, it was REALLY NICE finally being home!

Weekend Update

2009-07-13T13:19:00.001-07:00

Pauls 40th BDay Party
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Friday

After work Friday I went to Mike and Jens and helped setup for Paul's BDay extravaganza.

Saturday

I took care of the baby while Lisa worked until about 3 or so, then we packed up and headed to Mikes for the party. Had a great time. Drank a million horns.

Sunday

Yesterday we went to Christina's baby shower and had a great time. We didn't have Justin this weekend. Afterwards, we got home and Lisa and I BBQ a couple steaks and watched a couple movies.

Independance Day Weekend

2009-07-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

We had Friday (7/3) off from work. We cleaned house for part of the day then headed to Stockton for Mikey's 28th birthday party. I had a cool time hanging and BSing with him and Ryan, then Mikey, Justin, Ayden and I enjoyed their pool while the women played with all the babies (they just had a little girl, Rinoa)

So Saturday morning we woke to my mom and grandparents who were coming by. I went and picked up Starbucks for everyone, and I helped my mom with typing a paper for her class while the grandparents got to enjoy baby time with Andrew.

Saturday afternoon we spent a bit of time over at Trish's pool with the neighbors and had a cool time before leaving to our ultimate July 4th destination. The Dermal Clinic girls all got together with all the kids for some pool fun and fireworks. We BBQed some burgers and dogs; good times.

Sunday we chilled out most of the day. We watched the old movie Starman which I'd Netflixed, made some meatloaf for dinner and then watched a disc of Malcolm in the Middle.

Father's Day Weekend

2009-06-22T11:18:00.001-07:00

Friday

We took the family and met Mike, Jen, Bella, and Jen's mom at Rosewood for dinner. We had a great time and afterwards took the kids to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some candy apples.

Saturday

We took Justin to Sequoia's birthday party around noon, then headed up to Bill and Olaya's for some Father's Day fun with Lisa's sister Susie, David, and their new little one Judah. Michelle, Lisa's old neighbor, was there with her husband and new little one as well. Bill BBQed some ribs and sausage. We all enjoyed the pool and spa and had a great ole time...

Sunday

We had my whole family over for Father's day: Eddie, Justin, Grandma, Grandpa, my mom, Mike, Jen, and Bella. I BBQed some bacon wrapped steaks from Costco and we enjoyed a pony keg of Heineken while watching the masters golf game.

We followed that with the new Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie on OnDemand, and hung out at the neighbors pool last night to polish off a pretty killer weekend.

Hunt Picnic 2009

2009-06-16T11:45:00.001-07:00

The annual Hunt Picnic was Saturday. We didn't have Justin this weekend so we didn't partake in the typical attractions like the Mickeys Grove Zoo, FunLand, or the Japanese gardens. We did have a good time, and got to spend a lot of time with the family. Everyone wanted baby-time as this was Andrew's first Hunt Picnic. We stayed for about three hours, had some good eats, and Lisa and I made it into the 5th round (or so) of the balloon toss.

Hunt Picnic 2009
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

A Little CAT5 Under the House

2009-06-15T09:01:00.001-07:00

Last week we spent a good deal of time rearranging Justin's room so he'd be able to sit at, and do work at his desk. After moving his bed from in front of his computer, my two main issues were 1) his desk is only about 18" deep which hardly was enough room for his computer monitor, let alone a keyboard, and 2) How was I going to get Internet access in his room?

So Friday after work I stopped by Costco and picked up a new 24" Viewsonic monitor for me, which let Justin inherit my 20.1" Viewsonic perfectly giving enough room for his keyboard and trackball.

Now Internet... I decided I could move the modem and router into his room and give him a wired connection since he had a phone jack right next to his computer, and I was hoping that even though the distance was longer, having the router being higher off the ground, I'd get better WiFi access on my computer in the game room.

No such luck. I wired up his computer and the Internet was blazing fast, but mine, though it was reporting a 'good' WiFi connection could hardly load a page. I was jealous as hell :o) So out came my good old 100' CAT5 cable running across the house from his room to the game room. The wired connection was so much better than ANY WiFi I've used in the house I knew it would have to be permanent. Unfortunately the wife would never have a 100' CAT5 running through her living room and kitchen, even for fast Internet, so the time had come for another home improvement project.

So Sunday Lisa and I got some breakfast burritos from Sunny Rose, then hit the 9am service at church with Andrew. Afterwards I pulled out the drill and the boring bits. I drilled a 1/2" hole straight through the lower game room wall into the crawlspace the runs under the rest of the house, then fed all but 6' of the CAT5 into the hole. Then out came the 24" drill bit; I drilled a hole through Justin's wall, down through the floor.

Now came the dirty part. Crawling under the house and retrieving the cable, and pulling it over to Justin's room. Using the drill, I widened the hole in the floor and fed the CAT5 up to Lisa who was waiting to grab it. I used the opportunity to clean up the coax cable I'd recently installed in Justin's room before climbing out of the hole.

Then a quick trip to Lowes for a couple RJ45 wall plates. While I could have gotten a punch-down tool and one of those fancy mult-port plates, they wanted like $50+ for a punch-down tool. So I settled for a couple RCA screw-down plates. I got home and cut the slack on the CAT5. Pulled off the jacket about 3" back on each end of the cable, then had to carefully pull off the jacket of each of the 8 delicate wires within. Screw them down, then mount the wall plate after a quick test.

I vacuumed up all the wall debris, rearranged cables and viola: a perfectly clean room-to-room network connection. I spent an hour enjoying watching some Alice in Chains music vids on YouTube in HD on my new 24" monitor! Bliss. :o)

Andrew at Santa Cruz

2009-06-12T10:52:00.001-07:00

Andrew at Santa Cruz
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Thursday Lisa ditched me at work, and took the kids to Santa Cruz with Kimi, Chris and their kids.

Another update...

2009-06-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

Not too much going on...

Saturday we didn't do a whole lot, but I was able to take the Pilot in and get it smogged. Passed just fine and sent in the registration.

Sunday we did the church thing; Lisa and I joined Justin the the 5th and 6th grader's program to try and get Justin to actually enjoy going to church. He had a blast doing the lesson, then getting to play indoor baseball with the kids. Afterwards I mowed the lawns while Lisa cleaned house, and later, Lisa and I reorganized Justin's room setting up a fish tank and making his desk and computer actually usable, rather than his desk doubling as a headboard (don't ask).

Yesterday evening we got online, and bought some tickets to go see Jason Mraz in concert. It was a fathers day gift to go along with some new BBQ utensils I got. Yeah, I know it's not fathers day yet... we're just kinda like that. :o)

Then last night we spent an hour or so over at Trish's pool. Not a bad end to the weekend.

This morning, on the way in to work the check engine light came on in the Pilot. Pretty weird that it came on right after the smog check... So I guess I'll be dropping the car off tomorrow at Honda. Bah...

Lambs & Ivy Valance

2009-06-01T14:25:00.001-07:00

Lambs & Ivy Valance
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

We had a pretty quiet weekend. We had three Netflix movies. Lisa's, Traitor was rockin', and my two, Susperia and Malena were sub-par at best. Later we also watched Taken, on Comcast OnDemand which was just frickin' outstanding.

Lisa worked Saturday and I watched Andrew. Andrew and I mostly hung out in bed and watched TV. Though I did find a minute to get his valances hung in his room as you see here. Later we met Mike, Jennifer and Bella at Revelucion 1910 in Lodi, a great little Mexican joint for dinner, followed by a private tour of the Ripkin winery where Mike's working now. A very nice winery I can't say we've had a chance to visit.

Sunday Lisa and I played hookie and ditched church. We drove up to the Airport Cafe near Galt for breakfast, then went and visited her grandparents in Stockton for a few hours before heading to Costco for our regular stockpiling of food.

We got Justin back from his dad's last night, he got to hang out with his neighbor buddy while we BBQed hot dogs and a couple, killer, bacon-wrapped steaks we got from Costco.

First Anniversary in Napa

2009-05-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

So Lisa and I left Lodi on Saturday for our first wedding anniversary which we spent in Napa with the baby. On the way we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory and did the tour, which was the first time for me. Andrew was great the whole time and enjoyed all the bright colors.

We stayed at the Westin Verasa a hotel that opened up last year and has very modern rooms and a classic feel. The room comes with a 32" LCD TV, an XBox you can play DVD's on, cordless phones, and iPod enabled alarm clocks. The hotel has a HUGE pool and spa, as well as a large workout room.

Saturday we settled in and had a killer lunch in the hotel restaurant, called Bank, which is what it cost to eat there. But seriously one of the best chopped salads I've had in a long time. That evening we went to the pool and took Andrew swimming for the first time. He had a blast. We stayed for quite a long time, Lisa and Andrew posting up eventually in a covered cabana where Andrew ate and mom read about the "John and Kate plus Eight" shenanigans, and I swam and enjoyed the hot tub. We had dinner again at the Bank. This time I tried their steak and fries. The garlic fried were great, but the flank steak was the fattiest, piece of crap I've had in a long time. Back to the room, Lisa was tired and slept while I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on the XBox.

Sunday we hopped in the car and started driving north. We stopped at BV Vinyards and had some wine. Then to Franciscan Vinyards, and had some more wine. Then to S. Vattui... this place is pretty special. Across the street from Dean & Delucca's the amazing kitchenware store, S. Vattui is a quaint little Vineyard offering a large tasting room and small grocery store where one can choose from a huge variety of cheeses, meats, olive oils, and such. It's situated in a nice, cool, tree covered, grassy park complete with benches and tables to enjoy your purchases at. By this time it was getting a little warm, and dad was feeling a little tipsy, so we took the opportunity to relax on the grass under the trees, feed the baby, and enjoy some salami, tomato-pesto cheese, and smoked cheddar on some water crackers. All while enjoying copious amounts of water to dilute the vino.

That done, back to the car and we continued up CA-29 into Calistoga. Here we saw signs for the Old Faithful Geyser, so we stopped, paid our $8/person and each got to see the famous Geyser, one of only three in the world, erupt two or three times. The grounds also had Tennessee Fainting Goats as well as other petting-zoo sort of animals. I tried my damnedest to get a goat to faint, but all they'd do was run from me. :o/

Back to the car, we returned to downtown Calistoga and did some window shopping of the old stores, until we came upon a book store. By this time it the temperature was
up to about 102 and cresting. So we spent this hottest time in the nice air conditioned book store, where Lisa found a good novel she's been reading all week. When we were finished there, we cruised down the street and decided on Pacifico's Mexican restaurant for dinner. Pacifico's had outstanding food, and great service. I recommend the Tres Marias.

Back to the hotel and burnt out. I went to the spa for an hour or so, while Lisa started watching Benjamin Button that she missed the night before. I came back to the room and finished the movie with her, enjoying the rest of our smoked cheddar and the bottle of merlot we bought at the Franciscan.

Monday we began our trip back, stopping only once at an IHOP for some good 'ole home style eatin', and finish off our trip.

Painting the Kitchen (Why wallpaper sucks)

2009-05-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Repainting the Kitchen
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

About this time last week, just before the 'eye' incident, Lisa and I decided to repaint the kitchen. It's been one helluva chore as we didn't realize that when I bought the house, the previous owners had simply painted over existing wallpaper. Just the act of trying to completely remove all the wallpaper turned into a complete mess. All I can say is thank God for the Roman Piranha Wallpaper Shaver. Really digging in with it allowed me to shave off the paint, and usually the top layer (the design layer) of the wallpaper without wetting the wall. We filled up about four trash bags full of painted paper.

Then off came all the floor and door trim and pulling the the nails going through them and still stuck in the walls. Then the messy part began: getting the lower paper and adhesive off the walls. For this we tried Roman Piranha Gel Wallpaper Remover which worked well enough. It was easier to apply by hand or rag than use the nifty roller on the top of the bottle. You let it soak in and use the scraper to get the paper and paste off the wall.

Ultimately though I found that a spray bottle simply filled with soapy water, and with the nozzle set to 'force spray' worked the best. Being liquid it instantly permeated the paper, where as the gel took time to soak in. So then after finishing this nasty task, we picked up the sloppy mess off the floor.

Then came patching. No problem. I pulled the can of spackling out of the garage with a couple putty knives and we went to town filling the nail holes. We also found, behind the stove, that that was previously the location of the clothes dryer as there was a gaping 4-inch hole which for exhaust, as well as a 220v plug which hopefully we can turn into a new circuit for the microwave, but that's another story. I went to Lowes and was able to find a 6" adhesive, netted patch that had a square, galvanized panel to cover the hole. This worked nicely to cover the exhaust port. You just stick it on, and spackle over it. Patching in place, we sanded all patches to get a smooth surface.

One last issue before painting. The old wallpaper still had left rough patches all over the wall from dried paste and other adhesive. The problem here was that even wetting it, it was too slipper to be able to scrape off. With a bit of research we learned it was time to wash the walls with TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate). You buy this stuff in a small box containing a white powder and mix a small amount of it with hot water and it's REALLY effective. For this you want to lay down a plastic drop sheet as TSP can stain surfaces. Also it's a good idea to wear gloves, as it can burn your hands after a while. To be even more effective, I used a 3M 60-grit SandBlaster Paint Stripping Sponge. This too was a messy process, but scrubbing the living hell out of the walls really got all the paste off. Once washed, you'll also need to rinse the walls. It's my understanding that the phosphate in the TSP can prevent your primer from sticking properly. Also after rinsing with cold water, the walls will have a very squeeky-clean look and feel.

Finally we kicked into high gear. We busted out the paint rollers, and a couple foam brushes along with 1-gallon of white primer and in two days we had the kitchen primed. Then yesterday, while I was at work, Lisa finally picked out a color, a sort of sage-green. She was getting really sick of having a messy kitchen and started painting. She had a good three-quarters of the kitchen done by the time I got home. I helped out a bit, and started working on getting the trip put back up.

Bottom line, we're about 95% done and have a really great looking green kitchen with with white trim. (And REALLY clean walls)

Eye Allergies from Hell

2009-05-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

So Thursday morning I wake up feeling mostly okay and once I'm out of the shower Lisa asks me, "What's wrong with your eye? It's swollen." I disregard the comment and say, "Oh sometimes my eyes are puffy in the morning if I'm really tired." She seemed to know better.

So I go to work and realize on my way there that my left eye is really irritated as it starts to water from time to time. By the time I arrive I can still work, but my eye is just killing me. It's all swollen up and watering profusely.

Now I was already planning on working from home on Friday and I had rescheduled a meeting with my boss to Thursday to facilitate that, so I needed to at least needed to make it through my 10:30 meeting. He was cool and offered to push back the meeting, but I wanted to get it out of the way. Real smart. Do you know how hard it is to have a serious conversation and try to look someone in the eye while trying to not look like you're balling your eyes out? Not fun. He gave me a bunch of napkins and by the end of the meeting told me to "get the hell out of here."

By the end of the meeting I knew I was just jacked. I needed a doctor or my eyeball was going to explode. I called Lisa and let her know I was heading for the doctor. She asked who my doctor was, and come to find out she was calling my doctor about the time I arrived and asked to be seen. She knew I was in a bad way, and wanted to make sure I got seen. My doctor was heading to lunch, but agreed to see me before she left.

I explained that I'd been repainting my kitchen, and be it wallpaper debris that got in my eye, or crap from mowing the lawn from the day before, it was killing me. She asked if I'd ever had allergies before and I said, "No." She was convinced that was the diagnosis, and the painting and yard work all exacerbated the situation. She prescribed me anti-biotic eye drops and told me to take Claratin daily.

The drive home was hell. Lisa asked me to stop and get her second round of antibiotics she's taking from the last time she was sick. I did, then tried to pickup my eye drops, but the doctors office hadn't pushed through the script yet. I'd say I could have cried but, well, I was.

I got home and went to bed, and Lisa, God bless her, called the doctors office, pushed through the script, and went and picked it up. As soon as the first drop hit my eye I was in heaven.

It took about two days before the swelling went down. It's still not completely normal, but I'm still taking the drops three times a day and it seems to keep getting much better.

I'll tell ya. I don't know what the hell hit me. By comparison, I don't mind being sick at all... lay it on me. But I hope to God I don't have to ever go through that again!

Asparagus Festival 2009

2009-04-29T13:43:00.001-07:00

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

This past weekend Lisa and I took Andrew to the Asparagus Fest in Stockton. Had a great time.

This week I'm in training for a good chunk of the week learning how to program IVR system. Woot.

Justin's Birthday Luau

2009-04-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

Justin's Birthday Luau
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Jusin had a buch of friends over today. We decorated the house in a beach theme, complete with helium baloons, beach music, and lei's. This is just after he blew out the candles on his rockin' Spiderman cake.

End of week update...

2009-04-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was Justin's tenth birthday, and we were planning an early dinner at Sizzler with Lisa's grandpa Bill, aka Papa the Beast, as it was his birthday as well. Unfortunately, we found out Wednesday night that the field trip Justin was going on yesterday to Columbia, Ca., gold panning and such, wouldn't return to school until 5PM. Now, as it turned out, when Lisa called her grandparents to relay the news, come to find out her grandma has fallen ill will fluid on her lungs similar to what our whole family came down with last week. So they would have had to cancel anyway.

Later, yesterday afternoon, I went back to St. Joe's again to see my mom. She says she's feeling better, however they still don't have a firm diagnosis. The nurse was finally allowed to give her some Jello and juice which she was really happy about. As it's looking, it's not a blockage and now appears to be more like an infection; and at the same time they say her potassium is low, so they've started her on an anti-biotic, and a potassium supplement. Now while there's not firm diagnosis, it's been suggested that the appendix could be the culprit in this situation. More to come on this...

Justin's 10th Birthday at Chili's
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

So after work yesterday I picked up Justin from school who'd just come back from his field trip. As a backup plan we took him to Chili's for his birthday. We had a great time and he got sang to by the waiters and got a free dessert. Fun stuff! This weekend we're planning a lunch and a movie with 8 of his friends; I'll follow up on this later.

Good News and Bad News

2009-04-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

So yesterday after work, I went home and enjoyed a glass of wine with Lisa. We did a bit of yardwork, and then with Justin's help we offically ordered our tickets for Disneyland. So mid-July we'll be taking a roadtrip, staying at the Disneyland hotel, and enjoy more animated shananagans than you can shake a stick at. I then cabled up the dog, and enjoyed dinner out back in the warm evening. Lisa made some yummy spiral pasta with ground turkey and maranara. It was looking like a beautiful night, until I came back inside and Lisa was on the phone with grandma Lila. Aparently mom had gone to urgent care for abdominal pain and was admitted to St Joes. So far, all we know is it's looking like another bout of the same sort of 'blockage' that she'd encountered last year. I haven't seen her yet; I'll probably go around lunch today, but Mike was there with her last night. So great day went a bit sour. :o/ More to come.

Dog steak... (or stake) BBQ Weekend?

2009-04-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday was busy as expected. Lisa was just getting over her bout of being sick, and had to work an hour in the morning. Meanwhile, I took Andrew to his cousin Ryan's birthday party at Lodi's new World of Wonders Science Museum. We had a great time. The exhibits were really good and Dr. Wow helped the kids each build a small robot which they got to race against each other once finished. Around 12:30 the party wrapped up, and we swung by home to get Lisa and Andrew and head to Stockton for a birthday fiesta at my mom's. A first for her as the hostess I believe. Our Justin, and I were the birthday guests. We also celebrated Jessica's birthday though her and Justin were out of town. Justin got a ton of Legos. Mom gave me my dad's old Stockton Fire Department badge and belt buckle. I got a couple bottles of wine from Mike and Jen along with a Very Best of The Grateful Dead CD which I'm enjoying as I type this. Ed and the grandparents each gave me Lowes gift cards which I put to good use Sunday. After the party we all went home. Lisa got ready and went to a bachelorette party for one of her friends while I watched the kids. Justin and I watched King Kong and played with Legos while Andrew slept a lot.

Sunday was a blast. I mowed the front and back while Justin went to Trish's house to swim with the neighbor kids and Lisa cleaned house. I hosed off the porch, and headed out to spend my gift cards.

I stopped by Discount Pet Supply first. Knowing that we're going to be hosting Father's Day at our place I have some work ahead of me. I got 18" galvanized steel ground stake and a 10' steel cable, such that you pound the stake into the lawn to where it exposes only a steel eyelet, from which you attach one end of the cable, and the other to any moose-of-a-dog, effectively limiting his range to a 10' radius.

Then off to Lowes, where I picked up 4-new black, wrought iron chairs, some lawn seed and a manual tiller. The new chairs now supplement the other four, non-dog-proof chairs we have around the fire-pit table. While the other chairs work, Marley ate one of the pads so we normally don't have them out; and without the pads they're un-sittable. The new ones were cheap, dog-proof, and perfect every-day chairs. And for gatherings we now effectively have 8 chairs around the firepit; very cool.

Then off to Apple Market for hot dogs, buns, chicken and some brewskys.

So now, Marley tied up in the shade with his house, water and food is happy. The BBQ is roaring. Justin playing next door. Andrew getting to enjoy the warm 90 degree temps, and light breeze in his swing outside, and Lisa and I cooking and enjoying some beers without an animal jumping all over us... It was just AWESOME.

I think we finally found the right formula to be able to enjoy our back yard again!

Related? Me thinks not...

2009-04-17T13:13:00.001-07:00

FW:
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

On your left, my son Andrew. On your right, Beeker from The Muppet's Show. The similarities are uncanny. What the hell? :o)

Still sick...

2009-04-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

So Justin has gotten much better, and Andrew, now on antibiotics now has shown much improvement. He's got another follow-up appointment this afternoon. However, Lisa and I have gone from relatively well, to full-on sick as the weekend progressed. Lots of chest congestion, sore throats and headaches.

Yesterday we had a nice Easter at Lisa's dad's. The kids got to swim while Bill BBQed dogs, chicken, and such. Later we had a Easter egg hunt in the front yard. We had to leave a bit early to get Justin back into Lodi by 2 so he could spend some time with his dad.

That's about it. Lisa and I watched The Machinist yesterday afternoon; pretty weird psycho movie, but good. And last night I cleaned the garage out a bit.

Baby's First Time Sick: Viral Pnumonia :o(

2009-04-10T09:33:00.001-07:00

Baby's First Time Sick: Viral Pnumonia :o(
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

So Andrew's been doing not-so-hot since last Friday. It started as a green goopy eye, turned mild fever, turned heavy check congestion, and from-which not eating a whole lot.

So yesterday day Lisa finally got him in to see the doctor. They used saline to clear out his nose, and ordered a chest x-ray and a mucous swab to check for RSV. We finally got the call last night, that it was probably viral pnumonia, but because it could be bacterial pnumonia she prescribed us an anti-biotic.

So yesterday, both Justin and I started feeling sick too, so today the three of us are home while Lisa's working. She'll be stopping by the pharmacy to get Andrew's medicine around lunch time, and hopefully we can get a handle on things this weekend.

Voice of Urkel: Did I do THAT?!
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

So today I'm home playing Mr. Mom again, and I go out back, to bring in the garbage cans which were picked up yesterday, and low an behold I find that SOMEBODY, Ahem-Lisa-Ahem took a garbage bag out last night, and when she discovered that there was no trash can, decided to leave it outside. Bad idea. Here's what Marley made of the trash bag in one night. It's actually quite remarkable what happen to the innards of a diaper when left out in the rain.

Andrew's Rockin Out

2009-04-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a little clip we made of Andrew rockin' out to daddy playing the Ovation CC059 geetar...

Helping mom shop

2009-03-27T14:37:00.001-07:00

Helping mom shop
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

No story. Lisa just sent me this and I thought it was hecka cute so I had to share it...

Start of Spring '09

2009-03-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

Finally a dog-proof gas grill!
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Lisa and I had a nice weekend. Friday after work, I stopped by Lowes with a battle plan to resurrect our gas grill. The one where the dog ate the propane hose and the ignition button. I'd already bought a new hose, but I needed to find a way to protect the hose from his clutches, and I did. An hour of walking back and forth between the BBQ department and galvanized pipe department at Lowes, I'd created it: a collection of 1" pipe fittings that would perfectly latch onto the hole on the side of the BBQ and curve up to the gas inlet underneath the side-burner. Another hour later and we were home laughing at Marley knowing he couldn't touch the hose any longer!

Saturday her dad and Olaya wanted to be able to spend some time with the baby so we headed up to Galt in the late morning. We visited a while with her grandparents; her grandpa was there to help lay a concrete foundation for a fence they were putting around the pool pump. All doing well.

Later, leaving the baby with Olaya, we had a spectacular lunch at Macaroni Grill: salad, entrees, wine, dessert, coffee... the whole enchilada. It was one of those sublime meals you don't want to leave from. Afterwards we went to the UnitedArtists16 theater in Elk Grove and watched Nicolas Cage's latest film, Knowing which was really great as well.

So then Sunday Lisa had a work meeting early in the morning and I went shopping for the BBQ we were planning for the evening. Mikey and Lindsay came over with Ayden. We all had a good time catching up. The BBQ worked great and made kick ass burgers and cheesy sausages. It's always interesting seeing Ayden and getting the preview of what Andrew's going to be like in two years. Yikes! :o)