Wednesday, September 27, 2006

LasTiVo

Ah poor Dan, sitting at work, unable to play with his new toy. His"Series Three TiVo" arrived today. He knows this, not because I called him to tell him the package arrived, but because he was checking the tracking number every hour.

Since it is still hours until he gets home from work, I am posting a picture of the box so that he can know for sure that it is actually here.


I would open it, but I think that might deprive Dan of his Christmas morning excitement.
LasTiVo has arrived!!!!!!!!

Pictures of the box to come.

I have finally early adopted something. Yea! Now to begin my HDTV search. Of course, we have to buy our house in LA first so we can fit the TV around the house. In the mean time, we will be watching glorious high defination television on a 4:3 480i TV set.

Yes, you read that correctly. I accepted a job in Los Angeles and will be working for the group I did my first SEA rotation with. We will move to LA on October 15th or so.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Baby Costume Options

We were wandering around our local suburban paradise stripmall which includes a convenient Rite Aid drug store. Being a sugar addict, I was happy to notice a fresh stock of candy corn displayed in one of the aisles. I was a bit confused, however, I thought that candy corn was a Halloween thing. It seems that much like the day after Halloween means the start of the Christmas season, the end of summer now means that it is time for Halloween candy. Fortunately for us, Halloween candy never goes bad, so it is ok that they stock it in stores 2 months before Halloween.

Not that I endorse the celebration of Halloween, but I do enjoy dressing up and eating candy. There should be more holidays like this. And now that I am a parent, I get to dress up my child in a cute costume and eat all of the candy that he might accumulate.

Now the question becomes... what kind of costume do we dress Will up in?
Here are some options:
Ninja - Maybe we can convince Robin to produce and mail the tiny ninja costume.
Pirate - Will's first sound was "Arrrrr."
Kimono - We could put him in his baby kimono.
Star Trek - We did call him "Riker" before he was born...
TiVo Guy or TiVo remote - It only seems right.

Or, we can follow the tradition of Dan and Angela when it comes to costumes and have all of us dress up with a theme.


Gangsters of the 20's
(and a rugby player with actual scraped knee)
Halloween 2000

Japanese Costumes
Halloween 2001

Thanks to Michele (2000) and Bob (2001) for having the Halloween parties that made our prior year costuming possible. Who is up for having a party this year? We will bring a tasty, chocolately, dessert! And everyone must give Will candy.

But what should Will be? Vote now with your cellular phone. No, wait, just post a comment here on the blog.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Technology Overload

Poor Baby - What have your parents done now?

As many of you know, Dan and I have the tendency to over-use technology in our lives. When we get into something, we go kind of crazy.

Take TiVo, for example. Sure, TiVo is great. (For people unfamiliar with TiVo, it is like a VCR, but with a harddrive, and far superior recording options.) Dan got his first TiVo before we were married. It is very useful for watching a 30 minute show in 20 minutes. You can use the 30 second skip during football games to advance from the end of one play to the start of another (football contains all kinds of useless deadtime). Our first TiVo is aptly named, "TiVo."

But, wait, what if you want to record more than one show at once? Perhaps your two favorite shows come on at 8pm on Thursday night. Oh no! Well, you could get another TiVo. Our second TiVo is Italian. His name is "ViTo."

Then what if you are so excited about TiVo, you are offered a super great deal on another TiVo? Well, you have to get that one. Our third TiVo is named "ThreeVo."

Then, if you get a TiVo credit card and earn enough "points" to get a free TiVo? Well then, who can refuse that? Our fourth TiVo is named "FreeVo."

How could you possibly end up with more than four TiVos? I sometimes wonder the same thing. We ended up acquiring our fifth TiVo, yes, fifth, because it can record shows to DVD, a feature not present on any of the prior 4 TiVos. Our fifth TiVo is named, "SteVo."

Coming this fall... Our sixth TiVo will be named, "LasTiVo."

In any case, sometimes we go overboard with the technology. In our current case, it is with pictures. We have taken many, many, pictures of Will since he was born. Digital cameras are great. We have also taken some video of Will. What comes next? That's right, streaming internet video!

Will has his own web cam!


What craziness. You too can witness Will's life. You can watch him in many activities.

Playing


Standing


Playing with Dad


Eating Food


Sucking banana out of Mesh Bag


Of course, this is not a 24 hour monitoring system of Will. Sometimes he sleeps. Sometimes he helps with the laundry. Sometimes he watches TV. Sometimes he has diaper changes (no one wants to see that). Sometimes I just don't put him in front of the camera. When can you see him doing stuff? Typically at 9am Pacific time. We give him food around 10am Pacific time and 6pm Pacific time. You may also see him playing after his nap, perhaps around 1pm Pacific time.

And, while the blog is public, the web cam is not. You need a user id and password. Drop us an email if you would like to check out the WillCam.

Embrace the Technology!