DirecTV Version 2.0

Grace slept in today again and so we didn't go out today like I thought we might. I was considering going on a bike ride, but we ended up not having time anyway. Right after breakfast the DirecTV installer called and asked if he could come early. I said no problem and he showed up before lunch.

We got our new receiver (DVR Plus Model R15) and to some extent I'm not all that disappointed, but it's not as good overall as the old receiver. Tivo really is the best in my opinion. It's called a dual-tuner receiver and indeed you can record two things at once, but you can't switch between the two shows like you could on the old receiver (Hughes model DVR80.) So unless you're recording at least one thing you can't watch two shows. That's irritating! I read online that allegedly they plan to have a software upgrade in the future that will change this, but until or even IF that happens we're stuck without it. One good thing is that you can rewind for 90 minutes instead of only 30 minutes. But like I just said that's only for one show, you don't have two buffers for the two tuners, only one.

Another irritation is that the remote works on the same frequency as the High-Definition receiver and so whenever I turn it off or on or change a channel, etc. it does the same thing on both receivers. I'm certain there is a way around this, but I haven't figured this out yet and the instructions don't tell you anything.

I called the office of Lisa Madigan - the Illinois Attorney General - today to find out the status of our complaint with Libertyville Lincoln Mercury but the person handling it was out. Hopefully they will call back tomorrow. I also called the Ford store today and they need their Edge back, so I'll be dropping it off tomorrow after gymnastics; and yes, I'm getting a Taurus.

On the fun side, a friend of mine called me today and we talked Fantasy Football! I'm so ready for football to start. Bears training camp starts July 27. Unfortunately we'll be in Colorado at that time. But maybe I can convince Julie to stop there on the way home. We'll be practically driving right by it! Anyway, my friend and I were talking about getting things started for this year and possibly using a different server this year to host our league. We've used RTSports for the last two or three years I think and it's not all that special. I think we're going to revert to a site we've used in the past called fanstar. I think my Dad is going to join the league this year, but we still will need at least one more franchise owner.

DirecTV...Morons?

Well today was Thursday and our only real plan was a play date with a friend of Grace's. We ended up canceling that because she was playing with some other friends and it would have been a huge struggle to get her away from all of those friends and over to her other friends house. So we'll have to do that another day.

Since we didn't have any other plans and nothing else came up we just hung out at the house today and played with her friend from across the street. "A" came over after lunch and everyone seemed to have a great day playing and whatnot today.

I was supposed to have a "Dad's Night Out" tonight, but as it turns out the only person that was going besides me couldn't go. So I just invited the neighbor across the street over for dinner at our house. We had some excellent burgers on the grill that I think I got from Oberweis Dairy. I would double check but our internet is out right now for some reason - probably weather related. We're getting some pretty good storms right now.

So anyway, these burgers are completely free of antibiotics, pesticides, etc. and the beef was vegetarian fed, etc. And they were very good! We'll have to get some more...as long as I can remember where we got them.

I never did get the lawn mowed today. I just don't feel well enough yet so I'll have to do it after the rains are over and the grass dries out again which should be in a couple of days - probably Sunday. So after dinner I ran to the library and checked out a book that they bought for me. I had asked for them to borrow it through inter-library loan and they said they couldn't get it and that she was going to put a request in to have it ordered but that was no guarantee that it would actually get ordered. Low-and-behold I got an email today that it was in. So that was exciting. It's called "Beginning ASP.net 2.0 in C# 2005" and it's a big book. I'm looking forward to reading it! Unfortunately the library closes at 9pm or I would have stayed there longer and relaxed as a break was welcome today. Our house seems to be the "community" home more and more lately.

So then I ran to Blockbuster and the post office and came home. Julie was surprised to see me back so soon, but I didn't feel like staying out too late as I need to get to bed and get more rest so I can feel better. So Julie turns on the TV and low-and-behold (there's that word again) the DirecTV-Tivo box doesn't work. So I call DirecTV and I'm on the phone with them for 30 minutes fixing the problem. Turns out that when we added the two new boxes yesterday, they deactivated this box. And I don't mean in such a way that they just turn it back on, allegedly it can never be used again. Which stinks because now we can't even sell it. They don't make the Tivo boxes for DirecTV any more. The only way to get Tivo now is with a Tivo box. So they tried to offer us $10 off per month for the next year. I said that's great but how are we going to record shows? So after a little finagling she was able to provide me with a new dual tuner DVR (not Tivo mind you) for free on Monday afternoon. So we'll be without Tivo for 4-5 days and I'll have to burn all the shows off of the Tivo to DVD (that I actually want to keep) and then we'll have to re-setup all the shows we want to record in the new one. The only good thing about this is that the new DVR has 200 hours of record time and our old one only had 70. So that will be nice, but it won't be Tivo which we love. I asked about a hi-definition DVR and she said that would cost me $300. Julie said no; But actually, that's a pretty good price. Especially considering it's not a lease, they would actually sell it to me which they don't really do any more. All their new equipment is by lease only on their website.

So it all turned out OK in the end, but we are without Tivo for a few days (which really stinks) and we won't have Tivo on the new one; it will be DirecTV's proprietary PVR software. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a horrible mistake.

Cubs Game V3.0

Grace woke up late today like 2 minutes before the photographer from the Daily Herald got here. She let him in with her pajamas on. So he waited while she got dressed and then he took some pictures of her brushing her hair and of us eating breakfast and then getting in the car to go to Vacation Bible School (VBS).

While she was at VBS, I went to Best Buy to look around and then to Target to get Grace a second waterproof mattress pad for her bed. We're going to cut her off from the pull-ups at night, so we need the extra mattress pad.

She had fun at VBS again today and was pretty excited about it. After I picked her up we came home and were going to have lunch, but she got to playing with the neighbors outside in their new slip-n-slide and refused to eat. So she missed eating except for a snack. Then other neighbors were over and lots of playing took place. It was kind of a crazy afternoon. Then I sent Grace over to the neighbor across the street since I had to leave to go to my 3rd Cubs game of the season. I was stopping at one BIL's house on the way to the other to pick them up and our nephew came with too. So we left a little after 5pm and didn't get to the parking lot by Wrigley Field until 7:30pm. So we missed the first inning and a half. But the game went 12 innings so we got our money's worth (they were free tickets anyway.)

It was a good game, but they didn't win, so that wasn't so good. But we had a good time and actually since the game got over so late it was good after all that we drove instead of taking the train because we would have been home much later if we were waiting for a train to take us home.

I never really wrote anything about the recital on Sunday. It went really well; albeit a long day as well. We got there before Noon and Julie just dropped me off as she was going to get some snacks and some video tapes for me and I had to set up the video equipment and then help sell tickets. The videotaping went well except there was one dance where I accidentally pressed pause instead of record in the middle of the dance. So I missed at least a minute of that dance but other than that it went pretty well. Everyone danced really good and Grace and Julie looked great. I'm still working on transferring the video - I've been so busy I haven't had the 4 hours it'll take to finish that. Plus I needed a new cable to be able to transfer it straight from the camera to the DVD recorder I bought a month or two ago.

It's really cool to be able to record from the satellite straight to DVD; that's all I've done so far--plus recording from TIVO to DVD. Now if I could just convince Julie that we need a new Plasma TV and a new a/v receiver. Actually the receiver was acting up the other day. I was trying to make sure a DVD recorded properly and all I could hear was the TV; I couldn't hear the DVD playing at all. It had me worried more about the DVD recorder because I wasn't sure that it was recording the sound onto the DVD's. But it was fine the next day, so I'm not sure how long the receiver will continue to work plus the TV's sound hasn't been working in a long time which is why we rely on the receiver to provide the sound for us. So that's about it for today and for Sunday.

It's warm out

Today was a hot day - 87 and quite humid. And of course Grace wanted to go outside and play. I finally let her because I couldn't take the begging any more. I let her and her friend who was here for a play date go outside and run through the sprinkler. But I don't think either of them really like going through the sprinkler so it didn't last long.

I made them wait a few minutes while I mowed the front yard. Since I need to mow the grass and I was going to get it wet with the sprinkler, I mowed it real quick before I turned it on. So they went up and down the sidewalk on Grace's bicycle and scooter about 2 or 3 times and then I turned it on for them. They were happy and playing for about 10-15 minutes and then they got bored. So they went to play in the back yard and I put everything away. Then about 10 minutes later Grace's friend's mom came to pick her up.

Then since she was hot, she wanted to watch TV. I turned on Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, if you haven't seen it it's a cute show on PBS. It was actually a new episode that had recorded on our Tivo. Then when it was over there was another episode on live TV. So she was really enjoying it. Then one of the neighbors came over for a few minutes to play and then Grace went back outside to play with some other neighbors. Then we all went up to Antioch so Julie could practice the "Mom's dance" for the recital.

I was right about the baby robins, they are gone. Didn't see any of them today. That's amazing to think they weren't even two weeks old and they aren't even in the nest anymore, wow! Alright, I'm tired so I gotta go.