Family Update – 4 Aug 07

We returned from our vacation earlier this week and got settled back into the routine (sort of).  We spent much of our time in the pool (although we did venture out to the Everglades, Marco Island (Naples), and down into the Keys).  All in all, it was a very relaxing and fun time!  Click on the image below to view the photo album: 

We celebrated Delaney’s 8th Birthday on Monday.  It was something she has been looking forward to for months…..counting the months, then weeks, then days….  She is at the age where birthdays are still a big deal.  She got a huge 3-story wooden dollhouse that is about 5 feet tall, a $50 Barnes and Noble gift certificate, a movie from Ben, and a few other odds and ends.  In the evening, we went and saw the Simpsons Movie.  If you like the Simpsons TV show, the movie is defintely worth the trip….the kids and I enjoyed it…..and Karen even laughed a few times . 

On Wednesday, I finally ditched our cable company provided DVR and replaced it with a new TIVO HD box.  I had used TIVO for many years (with satellite DirecTV) until we moved into this house a year ago.  Since the house was not wired for satellite, I opted to go cable and took their provided box, a Scientific Atlanta HD 8300 recorder.  This thing was a piece of crap, and extremely user unfriendly as compared to TIVO.  Since TIVO just came out last week with a new (affordable) HD box for cable, I went out and purchased it right away.  What a difference!  It uses CableCard technology whereby you can receive digital services (Digital cable) from your cable company by inserting two PCMCIA style cards into the TIVO box (they decode the scrambled digital signals). TIVO provides so much more than just the basic record capability….and it does it so much better!  One of the best things about the new TIVO box is that they have integrated it with broadband internet services.  So, the TIVO gets the TV signal through the cable lines….and I have connected it to my home network via a wireless-G adapter.  This allows all of my TIVO updates and TV guide updates to come via broadband (versus the phone line).  But that is just the tip of the iceberg.  It also enables a ton of cool features, like using Amazon Unboxed (an online video rental system) that allows me to rent movies or TV series (from my PC or from the TIVO box) and have them delivered electronically via internet directly to my TIVO box!  We rented the Bourne Identity and the Bourne Supremacy yesterday for 99 cents each, and they were delivered directly to TIVO where I have 30-days to watch them (each title is available for 24-hours once you actually start to watch, but you have 30-days to start watching).  There are also tons of other videocasts that you can download as well, for free.  TIVO is truly on the leading edge of the convergence of broadcast and broadband.  They should soon be releasing a Vista/TIVO HD compatible version of TivoToGo software that allows you to move the recorded content from your TIVO Box to your Vista PC for viewing on the road via laptop, or other handheld device.  This is a capability that exists for Series 2 TIVOs (pre-HD), but has not yet been finalized for the Series 3 (HD) TIVO boxes. Next week, we will be taking a long weekend to travel to Illinois for my cousin’s wedding.  It should be fun (although quick trip) as I haven’t seen my cousin or his family for several years and most of my brothers and my parents will be traveling out as well.