NordicTrack to go in Utility Room

Gee, we sure have accumulated a lot of stuff (junk?) over the years. Nancy and I (actually it was mostly Nancy) worked on readying the utility room for the new addition - our NordicTrack treadmill. We have more work to do - mainly shifting some items to the "little house" in our backyard. Sears will deliver the treadmill on Monday and the person who will do the assembly is coming over on Tuesday, I think.

While going through boxes in the utility room I came across some old pictures that had been saved but never put in albums. I took a cursory look at several of them. It boggles the mind to look at pictures that are over a decade old and realize that you experienced first hand that time and place i.e. cars from the fifties, clothes from the sixties, hairstyles from... I'm not sure, maybe outer space? Many of the pictures depicted fun times and valued friends. I'm thinking of getting a scanner and posting some of the photos to my blog. Since my scanner dates back to the Windows 98 era, I want to buy a replacement. Fry's may have what I'm looking for, they have a gala opening of a new store in Roseville this weekend - perfect timing!

Unique Sounds of Brandi Carlile

I recently discovered a recording artist that has really caught my interest. Like virtually every musician that I listen to, I never like every song that they include on their CD, that would be expecting too much, but Brandi Carlile sings a few on her latest album that are really special and that I feel help define her unique vocalization. Her music is available from a variety of sources, but I first heard it at Apple's iTunes. Two of my favorite songs that she sings are - "The Story" and "Until I Die". When you get a chance, take a listen - and let me know if you also like the music of Brandi Carlile.

NordicTrack to Arrive Next Week

Nancy and I have decided to add a treadmill to our "utility room", as we call it, to increase the likelihood of our taking a daily walk/jog. The weather is not always accommodating when it comes to meeting our goal of walking most days of the week. The criteria of "most" days, can easily slip to "some" days, if you factor in the weather as an excuse (along with many other excuses that are equally tempting). This will take the weather factor out of the equation and make it easier to meet our goal. The NordicTrack A2250, purchased from Sears, is to arrive the first of next week. We've got some work ahead of us this weekend to prep the utility room for the arrival of the treadmill. The unit will take up quite a bit of space and the room isn't particularly large to start with. Who knows, we might actually have to throw some stuff away? That should make for an interesting room cleaning experience.

Mac Computer Users Group

Every once and awhile, I venture over to a Mac Users Group meeting, even though I don't own an Apple computer anymore. My reason for going is usually out of curiosity in regards to a new product that Apple has recently debuted. I did use Apple products when I was teaching, we had some Apple computers in the lab, but I've always been more interested in PCs than Macs. I decided to check out tonight's meeting because the key presentation - a demo of Apple's new Apple TV - looked interesting. The device is compatible with Macs and PCs and it basically is a wireless streaming device that allows you to transport your saved videos, music, JPEGS, pod casts, etc., from iTunes, to a HD TV. It has several limitations as to it's use, i.e. no support for HD DVDs or Blue Ray, but it does have an HDMI output, and when the source is of high quality, it does a good job of streaming videos and the like at a quality that is quite good. It's relatively simple to hook up and will work using an Ethernet connection, or as mentioned, wirelessly over a G/N network. I took my little Samsung camcorder with me to the meeting, so I captured a few seconds of the presentation to post to the blog. Take a look...

http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w275/jimdaviselkgrove/?action=view&current=SMOV0039.flv

Day Starts with CNN

Each morning, one of the first things that I do upon awakening is to turn on our TVs to cable channel forty one - the CNN channel. Nancy and I leave it on during most of the day. If we see something that interest us, we will turn up the sound, otherwise, the picture remains in the background. Most days, upon first glance, the stories are about the war, news around the US, politics, stock market activity, world news, etc. Today was one of those days that you couldn't just turn the sound off and take an occasional peek at the screen. Today the news was about the Virginia Tech massacre. We devoted quite a bit of time following the day's events regarding the shootings, and afterwards we still felt like we came away knowing very little as to the "why" of this tragic occurrence. Today the news was even more compelling than usual, and as often is the case under those circumstances - it wasn't good. We'll watch some more tomorrow, to see if someone can figure it out.

Nash Metro and Old Cad

Today I had an interesting conversation with one of my neighbors. As I was taking my walk, I passed by a house that had the garage door open and I saw that the owner was attending to an older model car. A second glance revealed a Nash Metro - a cute little car that was manufactured from the early fifties through the early sixties. I had seen the car once on the street, as it passed our house, but I didn't know who owned it. It really catches your eye, as it is painted red and white and is just as clean as a pin. It looks like new. Given my lifelong interest in cars, I just had to ask the owner about her vehicle.

Patty, a recently retired teacher, is the owner of this nifty little vehicle and she took some time to tell me all about it. She and her sister bought it off of eBay - just a couple of weeks ago. The previous owner, from Los Angeles, has owned it for fifteen years and he did a complete restoration of this 1961 model. It's a hardtop, with a three on the tree and pretty much all of its original equipment. Patty said it has an AM radio, that works - albeit, only when it feels like it. One headlight is a little weaker than the other, due to a wiring problem, but other than those couple of maladies, everything works fine. I hope to get some pictures of Patty's Metro, if she is willing.

Staying with today's car theme, I snapped a shot of an older model Cadillac a couple of weeks ago, using my cellphone. Check out the picture. It's posted at the bottom of the blog. Take a close look at the license - it's quite apropos.

Sherlock Holmes at the B Street Children's Theatre

We just barely made it on time to see the B Street performance of Sherlock Holmes. We left with what we thought would be plenty of time to arrive for the one o'clock show at the Children's theatre, but with the heavy rainfall and slow freeway traffic I had to get off the freeway and take a side street to make it by one o' clock. I'm glad we decided to get tickets for this show, it was really good. Each production that Buck Busfield (Tim's brother) produces, seems to get better and better. This show had a foggy forest setting - along with some other very authentic staging. They had great props and costumes: collapsible chairs, cap pistols, a time machine and lots of wigs. All great stuff! The acting and casting was flawless and made even more impressive by the fact that it was their preview show of Sherlock Holmes. Nancy and I especially liked the female actor who played various roles and was exceptionally good as a witch. The kids really seemed to like this show. they were all very attentive and fascinated by the story.

I've posted a few more pictures. A couple are from last night's Friday Night at the Movies, and the other one is from one of the artworks that are for sale at the B Street Theatre.