Webb Family Blog

I am happy to be on a week free from school. Kellie and I have finished a class on Monday (actually Sunday) and we are off until next Tuesday. On Tuesday, we start a statistical analysis class. This past Monday was Kellie’s 29^th birthday (for the first time). I spent most of the day shopping with her at the Roseville Galleria and surrounding stores with her and her mother. Later, we met up with Kellie’s friends Crystal and Pam. We ate and then returned to our place to watch a movie, Employee of the Month. It was pretty funny.

One thing I am anxiously awaiting, is to become available any day now. That would be a digital video recorder (DVR) from SureWest. One of the crazy things is they have announced some of the features, but not the price nor even who the manufacturer of the device is. So far, all the set-top-boxes (STB) provided by SureWest have been from Amino Communications. I currently have three AmiNET130 set-top-boxes… one directly attached via HDMI to my big-screen HDTV. The other two are tied to two of my ReplayTVs. Some of the specifications that have been mentioned about the DVR is that it will have the capability of recording two shows at a time and that recorded content will be viewable on other machines in the house. It is also noted to have a 160GB hard drive and I’ve been told that it will not initially be able to off-load recorded content onto an external hard drive. I presumed that the new DVR was going to be the AmiNET530, as it is from the same manufacturer as all the other STBs and it meets all the specifications announced, but I’ve heard someone else mentioned it was NOT going to be from Amino Communications. There are not a lot of manufacturers of these devices, so I’m not sure who will make the product. Not knowing the ins & outs of each product, I’m not sure which units would be compatible with SureWest’s IPTV network, but my second guess would be a device from Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco company. Scientific Atlanta’s IPN603MCG DVR appears to also meet the specifications. SureWest uses Cisco for some of the network infrastructure, so this is why my next guess is with them. It was reported that the DVR could be released on Thanksgiving, but that has come and gone. I’m told it could now be later this week. My plan is to actually get TWO of these machines… giving me the capacity to record more shows at once and twice the storage. If I do so, I’ll no longer need my ReplayTVs. I guess anxious is the best way to describe my affect at the moment. I’ve been missing many of my favorite TV shows because I am not available to watch them when they are on and while I can record them on the ReplayTV, those don’t record in high-definition like these new machines.

Today, I was having a difficult time trying to work on my school project while at work, so I spent some time working on my blog site. Like usual, my work is probably not immediately visible by everyone, but believe me, I think it was significant. First off, Kellie never got around to posting on the blog, but a couple months ago, she decided to start her own blog. That is fine, but I wanted to share her info on this blog. I set this blog up to automatically grab posts from her other blog and place them here. I also have been having an issue with the program that sends an email to everyone when a new post is written to those that “subscribe” to my blog. Kellie’s mom pointed out that she was no longer getting emails letting her know when I wrote something new. This issue was actually quite complicated and I had technical support at Host Department, my hosting company, work on this issue… it got bumped up to higher tech support, but it eventually got fixed. Lastly, Kellie wasn’t liking the picture of the two of us from our cruise a couple years ago and wanted a new photo at the top border of the blog. If you couldn’t notice, I took an image from yesterday you may see in another post.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Ron was able to join us, which was nice because he had to work last Thanksgiving. We had another “Sunset” Thanksgiving. Donna did a great job as usual of getting things ready and making a wonderful meal. She made one on my favorites wok-seared red cabbage with toasted pine nuts and blue cheese….YUM! Ron is the lone vegetarian again, as the other vegetarians have become flexa-tarians. We are currently working on a large project for school and thinking about going to my 10-year high school reunion tomorrow night. Ron’s parents and grandmother will also be coming to spend the night tomorrow so we will be having a full weekend trying to get it all done.

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving Day. Kellie and I had a nice day. First, I took the day off work, so I was able to sleep in. My parents swung by our house to pick up an inflatable bed. They were headed up to Reno, NV to see my little sister Terri. Once they left, Kellie and I headed over to her parents, where her parents and Cousin Katie came aboard my car and we left for Oakland. We had some very heavy traffic from West Sacramento to Fairfield along Interstate 80, but past there it was smooth sailing to Uncle John’s house in the Oakland Hills. Along the way, we listened to a Weifert family favorite a few times and in two different versions… Arlo Gutherie’s Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, both the original 1967 version and the 1997 30^th Anniversary version. When we arrived, we found we were the last to arrive. It was a beautiful day. We could clearly see across the San Francisco Bay, over to the peninsula on the west side of the bay. We had some good food, including a dish I particularly liked. This dish was similar to the traditional “green-bean casserole,” but instead of green beans, it had broccoli. The sunset was beautiful too, as it set behind the peninsula. Kellie and I posed for a picture just as the son dropped below the hills across the bay.

I pulled out my laptop after dinner and desserts and several people enjoyed looking at photos and other stuff. After a while, we finally loaded up and left for home. Along the way, we listened and sang to country Christmas music on my Sirius satellite radio (Channel 62). I am really happy for this channel. I am not normally a country music fan, but they have the best Christmas music.

Kellie woke up before I did this morning, despite me needing to get up early for work. Her mother came over to pick her up to go shopping. I think she left the house around 5:45am; I left shortly thereafter. I am currently at work. I haven’t done anything yet, but I’m somewhat expecting a pretty busy day. I’m surprised to not be sent anywhere yet. I figured I’d put out a message before I got busy.

Christmas season is my favorite time of year. I put up Christmas lights last week. I used all LED lights, as they are more energy efficient. I am using a new electrical connection I placed a few weeks earlier. When I leave for work and when I return home from work, it is usually dark out. I like to have the lights on to greet me coming and going, but I don’t want the two welcome lights on all day long, so I decided to put in a light sensor to automatically turn on my lights at night. I decided to place an electrical outlet under the eaves and placed the light sensor on the outlet. When it gets dark, the GFCI outlets turn on, as well as the two welcome lights. I plugged my Christmas lights into this GFCI outlet box. I have encircled my house with these Christmas lights.