"Ice Breaker" Softball - Definitely "Ice Breaking"

Wow.  Got back last night from the first softball tournament of the year, in Eastern Washington.  Cold, cold, cold.

Snowed during at least two of the six games in the tournament.

Tournament director told one of our coaches that this was the warmest it had been for this particular tournament in the last five or six years.  Yikes!

Girls won a game, had a great time, and some of arrived back in Seattle successfully.  Some stayed in Eastern Washington due to the spring break school holiday.

Fun time had by all.

Things to take next time:

• Computer to download photos and check email
• More compactflash memory for the camera
• Monopod
• 1.4x or 2.x teleconverter
• 300 f4 lens

All in all, it was fun.  Good to be home though. :)

Technorati Tags: Softball,Ice Breaker,Travel Items

Replacing many remotes with one remote...

We have a DVD player, a surround sound system, a TIVO and a Wii.

We also have a hand-me-down 37" TV that didn't arrive with a remote.

So we manually switch inputs directly on the TV and control channel changes/volume via the TIVO remote.

I've looked for a while now for a remote that would do all these functions but not break the bank.  Hadn't found one until recently.

Harmony,from Logitech, has remotes that learn functions.  You can define a button to do the following:

1. Turn TV on
2. Switch the input to #1
3. Switch the DVD player on
4. Start playing the movie.

Four steps that would take four individual steps currently.  With the Harmony remote, you can program one button to perform the whole operation.

They aren't cheap ($199), but they come with their own charging base, which would help from LOSING the remote, as long as it gets put back into the charger after it's use is done.

Definitely on my wish list....Harmony 880.....

 

Technorati Tags: Harmony,www.remote-central.com,Remote Control

Tech Product Recycling

From ZatzNotFunny's Dave Zatz, comes this PDF link for a way to recycle most of your electronic 'waste'.

I mean, who hasn't upgraded their computer or their monitor or their TV and found that they have the old one laying around because you don't know what to do with it?

Now you have a place and a way to do that.

Check it out here.

Technorati Tags: Tech Recycling,Tech Waste,Recycling

Gas prices going down again?

Drove by the local AM/PM this afternoon, and noticed that the price for regular unleaded had come down two cents a gallon.

I know, two cents.  Big deal.  You are right.  But going DOWN two cents instead of going UP four cents is a sign that maybe prices are headed back in the right direction?

We will see.

 

Technorati Tags: Gasoline,Oil

Canvas Prints

We recently had a canvas print made.  It was supposed to be a 16x20, but due to the fact that I sized the file incorrectly, it ended up being a 20x24 canvas print.

The print ROCKS!  It's from a company that I highly recommend, Canvas on Demand.

Good prices, great quality.  Great shipping (highly protected shipping containers)

We will definitely use them again, and will recommend them to friends.

Technorati Tags: Canvas,Canvas On Demand,Photo Prints

Live in a flying saucer

Very neat looking house in Tennessee to be auctioned off on Saturday the 15th of March.  Looks like a spaceship. 

Neat, neat, neat. 

Check out the article here.

 

I've long been a fan of the homes from the Monolithic Dome folks, and would love to live in a dome house.  I would especially love this dome.

Someday, maybe.  The flying saucer house is, though, very very neat looking.  Unique.

Technorati Tags: Flying Saucer House,Dome Home,Monolithic

Discovering new music

Sometimes I wonder what planet I live on.

For many years, I've listened to the same music over and over and over.  Never branching out.

Recently, I've been exploring some new forms of music and have found some new CDs that you all should look into:

 

Three Pickers (2003) - Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs.  I love instrumental bluegrass.  Did not think I would like vocal bluegrass.  But I *love* this album.  LOVE IT.  Alison Krauss has a short appearance on the album as well.  Performed live.  Unbelievable good.

Ride (2007) - Andy Leftwich - one of the players from Ricky Skagg's band the Kentucky Thunder, this is his debut instrumental album.  Fantastic.

The Grascals (2005) - The Grascals - Vocal country/bluegrass, with an appearance by Dolly Parton on an Elvis tune Viva Las Vegas.  Sounds like it would be cheesy.  It's not. 

Check 'em out.....

Technorati Tags: Bluegrass,Skaggs,Grascals,Leftwich

Looking for a DVD changer

Mainly for research purposes for later down the road.  I have found a couple, one that is ridiculously over my budget ($25,000 was the starting price), and another for $500.  But the $500, shown here but it is out of stock and may actually be discontinued.

I don't have 400 DVDs.  No where close.  But it would be really nice to be able to throw all my DVDs into a box like this and be able to scroll through them jukebox style. 

Less fingers touching them makes the DVDs work better. :)

I found a system, called Kaleidascape but the system STARTS at $25,000 .  Yeah right.  Whatever.

Ideas?  Leave me a comment.

Technorati Tags: DVD Changers,Kaleidascape