Baby Brother's Room

Today we finished up the baby's room. I like it so much I'm considering moving in. The blue, green, and brown color combination is very relaxing. I think it's my favorite room in the house.

For those observant types, we are reusing most of the furniture that's been in Julia's room. That means Julia is going to get a new, but cheap, bedroom set that should last into her teens. About the only thing we have left to do in the room is to put up letters above the crib that spell out our son's name. In case you're wondering, we're keeping it a secret - even from ourselves. That's a roundabout way of saying we still don't have a name picked out yet.

Because we're now ready to go a full 4 months before he'll be born, this will free me up to focus on the backyard this spring.

Tottenham Get Blanked Again

With all of the big teams playing each other tonight, we needed to win our game against second from the bottom Wolves. Of course, it didn't happen. In fact, we failed to score a single goal for the 5th time in our last 8 league matches. Even though Harry started 5 different players from the previous match (half the outfield), the result was the same. We really miss Lennon.

After our one-on-one with the goalie was saved I decided that if Wolves scored first I'd fast forward the game until 1) someone else scored again or, 2) the game was over. Well, they scored first...and the game ended. "I've seen this movie before". Opposition scores. Fast-forward. We lose. Delete. Vent on blog.

Although technically we're still in the mix, things are looking bleak considering our recent form. We're essentially now in 7th place and City have a big lead on us. We have to put a run of games together soon or else.

At least we still have the FA Cup.

Julia Quote of the Day

Tonight, out of the blue, Julia said, "I smell stinkies! Probably Dadda."

What the heck? In all sincerity and honesty I can say I had nothing to do with this specific instance. It was probably her diaper, the dog, or something else. I see she's already shifting the blame...

Aaron Sees a Who

Sunday morning we pulled back the curtains in our bedroom and saw this. Excitedly, I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. I watched the owl for awhile and even opened the window and made some noises in an attempt to get him to look back at our house.

Since the weather and the distance made it difficult to get a good look, I hopped in my truck and drove over to the street behind us...

22 Weeks

Dancing Flower

Football Jersey Day

To celebrate this weekend's Superbowl (and Superbowl Ad), the entire ministry was allowed to wear their favorite sports team jersey. Of course, the majority of folks wore a Broncos jersey but teams and sports of all kinds were represented.

Here is a photo (courtesy of my camera) of those in our Finance department who showed their colors. Or, in my case, colours.

Your Local Furnace Guy

This morning we woke up early to a beautiful blanket of snow outside…and a figurative one inside our house. Around 6 a.m. we realized that the house was uncharacteristically cold and that the thermostat was reading in the low 60s. I grabbed my coffee and set out to figure what was going on.

It didn’t take long to figure out that the furnace wasn’t working. Like a curious little monkey, I went downstairs and pulled the panels off of the heater. I like to believe that I can fix things but also know when it’s something I shouldn’t touch. You never know how easy something might be to fix if you can adhere to the “look but don’t touch” philosophy of home repair jobs.

I knew that thermostats wear out. So, the first thing I did was to crank the heat up to 90 degrees to see if the thermostat was wearing out in the furnace. That is, if it was giving a bad reading and thinking that 60 was actually 70 and thus not keeping the heater on enough. Nothing much happened. I checked the circuit breaker in the garage. Oddly enough, our furnace has a distinct auditory pattern. The fan starts, the air blows, and then it emits a whoosh of gas igniting just like a gas grill. Then, warm air. The pattern was the same each time except that we never got that final whoosh of gas igniting sound.

I didn’t smell any gas, so I went upstairs and lit the gas fireplace to make sure we were getting gas to the house (did I forget to pay the gas bill?). It fired right up and I kept it on so that the living room would stay warm. I went back downstairs and verified that the red light on the circuit board was solid, indicating everything electronically was a-ok (the back of the bottom panel has a key for the number of blinks and what it means). The furnace kept the same pattern up and did everything it normally does except light. So, I set out to find where the igniter was located.

When I found the igniter I realized that it was very easy to pull out. I pulled it out in one piece and headed up to show Stacey. I practically only breathed on it and it crumbled to pieces. Since that was what I thought was the issue in the first place, I was pretty sure it was the problem. So, I headed down to Rampart Plumbing and Heating and picked up a new one for $30. I put the new one back into the furnace and the cycle started again. After a second or two and after I took a couple of steps back, the new igniter started to glow and eventually reached the point where it was bright orange hot. The gas caught it and ignited the flames immediately. The piece is made of coated ceramic and since it sits in the flame eventually wears out.

Long story short I saved us about $200 (based on a neighbor’s recent experience of calling someone out for the same problem). I got a nice pat on the back for “taking care of us” from Julia, which was appreciated.

Photos left to right: the old igniter, the gas and red light on/solid, the new igniter in the flame, the new igniter in the flame, white electrical cord showing the igniter power supply, Quincey looking very concerned.

My Apple Experience

I’m hardly one of those crazy Apple freaks…yeah, you know who I’m talking about. However, I’d like to share another positive experience further reinforcing why I won’t ever buy a PC again.

What is different about a MacBook Pro, then say, your typical laptop? Macs are more expensive (maybe – read on). As far as home use is concerned, that’s about the only advantage I can think of that PCs have over Macs. Upfront cost. I don’t need to tell you that Macs are virus free, more stable, have a better OS that never crashes, are extremely more sexy (in both look and form factor), and in general just work better. Oh wait, I just told you.

Back to the subject at hand. PC guy: eat your heart out. When was the last time you heard a PC tell its owner that its own hard drive was failing? Yeah, that’s what I thought. My experience is that it tells you when it crashes or gives you the blue screen of death. A few days ago I opened up disk utility in my MacBook Pro. Sure enough, my MacBook Pro had evolved into some kind of self-aware being that told me that I should back my files up because the hard drive was failing. Seriously? Maybe that’s why it gets the “Pro” added to the end of its name.

I thought about it for awhile. Well, my MacBook IS coming up on 4 years old, I thought. Yes, that was another shameless plug for its quality – 4 years of problem free computing courtesy of Apple (even considering I upgraded the memory and OS). It’s the computer equivalent of driving a Toyota or a Honda (recent events not withstanding). I took it down to the futuristically designed and decorated Apple Store near where I work and signed up for a free Apple Care doctor’s appointment. Guess what, no co-pay or office visit fees! They checked out my Macbook Pro on the spot for free and they confirmed the worst...my Macbook Pro HAD evolved some computer sixth sense and had properly self-diagnosed itself. My guess is my MacBook Pro had been secretly surfing a WebMD equivalent site while I slept and then covered its own tracks by deleting the history.

Apple quoted me a price to swap out my hard drive. Since my laptop was old, they only carried 160 GB hard drives now – double what I currently have. Of course, they made sure I had backed up all my files with Time Machine (more on this later). I knew they were going to be more expensive but didn’t expect them to tell me that (in not so many words). The guy asked if I wanted to shop around at some of their recommended dealers in town. I declined, since I didn’t want to attempt to fix it myself nor hassle with potential hacks…not too mention the Apple Store is literally across the street. So, I left my MacBook at the store with the undersanding that it should take 3-5 days. Guess what? They called the next day to tell my it was ready. That’s called under-promising and over-delivering.

I took my newly fixed computer home and fired it up. To my pleasant surprise, they had loaded the same operating system but had upgraded me to iLife ’08 for free (the main software applications for Macs). I’m sure the only reason why I was “upgraded” was because my original software was so old that they didn’t carry it anymore…but that’s OK. To me, the customer, it’s the same result as if I had purchased it. Currently iLife ’09 is out and sells for $80. Who knows how much ’08 sells for – if it does. I’m glad I never actually upgraded and paid for it. My Mac screams in comparison now. I have twice the hard drive space, on a brand new hard drive that isn’t cluttered from 4 years of use. As I mentioned above, I plugged in my Time Machine backup and am in the process of restoring all of my files. It works like a charm. I’ve restored all of my files except my pictures - which are currently being transferred now. Having a backup system built in to the software and that is user friendly is a great idea.

Apple will be keeping my business. The next time I buy a computer (probably for Stacey) it’ll be a Mac. Sorry PC guy, for my use, they are just better in every way.

Tottenham 1-1 Birmingham

It's been a great run. Today is the beginning of February and we're still in 4th place. However, I, along with most fans, are less then filled with confidence that we'll stay there in the coming weeks. Over the last 4 games we conceded 3 injury time goals and only won one game. 5 points out of 12 is slightly under expectations considering our opponents, if not fair. However, for us to keep this 4th spot we needed results a little above expectations in my opinion. Not only that, but the manner in which we dropped points only makes it more disappointing.

We dominated Hull City, completely bottled it against Liverpool, performed well against Fulham, and choked at the last minute against Birmingham this weekend. According to the run of play, we should have 4 more points (9) from these past 4 games. This weekend we play Villa. Although we have 2 easier games after that, our next 3 out of 5 opponents include Villa, Everton, and City. After that, we have a run of easy games before the massive month of April. However, if we don't overperform in our next 5 matches and take points from Villa and City, I think 4th place will be gone for good.

Looking at the table, techincally we're not even in 4th place considering City is 1 point behind us with 2 games in hand. This may be the beginning of the end. However, this season has been a bit unconventional and we still control our own fate. I'm not throwing in the towel just yet...even if the month of January saw me wadding it up in preparation.