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This post was prompted by Caleb’s recent comment in which he inquired if anything blog-worthy had happened recently. The answer is: not so much.

So why am I writing today? I stayed home from church this morning with Logan who is a little sick. He had the “croop” and was not breathing well on Friday. We are keeping him away from other kids until he is better. The funny thing is that he has been taking some cortisone to reduce the inflammation of his airways. This seems to be putting him into an ultra-high energy mode. He has spent the last 15 minutes running around the living room, bouncing off of furniture, wiggling, dumping Legos in between couch cushions, and babbling. He is very sick.

I knew I would be staying home this morning, so I got outside around 8am to mow our lawn which has been neglected for the last couple of weeks. Between my excessive traveling schedule this month and the weekend rainstorms, I haven’t been able to do regular yard work. Today was partially successful. I cut about half the lawn when the downpour started. We also got our annual home owners association notice reminding us to trim our trees to allow 9ft of clearance above sidewalks and roadways. The yard work never ends.

I mentioned my traveling schedule. I have been lucky enough that I haven’t traveled for business since November last year. However, June has seen that change. By the end of the month, I will have taken 4 trips for work: Tennessee, Tennessee, California, and New Jersey. I counted 14 days that I will be traveling this month.

I have found a friend and fellow xbox lover at church. We have managed to get together a few people for some multiplayer Halo sessions on the LAN. I think it will become a monthly ritual on the 3rd Thursday.

That’s a flavor of the un-bloggable news that has been occurring since the end of March. Expect another update around September 25 when Halo3 is released.

Yesterday, my sweet and understanding wife allowed me to indulge my taste for video games for a couple of hours even after the kids woke from naptime. Connor came in to watch me play Splinter Cell: Double Agent for a while. In this game, you play Sam Fisher, a NSA dark ops agent. He sneaks around spying and has cool toys like night vision goggles and lock picks. Connor enjoyed watching and I let him watch as I swam around under water in the artic ocean. Later he wanted to dress up like “the man from that game.” Below is the result:

I love his imagination. Now, I hope I can keep him from sneaking around in the dark and spying on terrorists.

Do you have any projects that you started with the best of intentions but never completed? We all do, don’t we. I thought I would confess one of my little projects that I keep finding ways not to complete. Keep in mind that this is my project–not something someone else asked of me–so you would think I’d have a vested interest.

When we first moved into our house in January, I spent many hours setting up my man station-also known as the entertainment area. I carefully unpacked all the electronics (television, DVD, receiver, DirecTV boxes, Xbox, CD player, homebrewed PVR, network hubs, speakers), wires (speaker wire, A/V cables, ethernet cables, power cords, surge protecters), and remotes (eight or nine including the all-in-one master). Then it was time to meticulously route cables and connect components while taking a few extra minutes to label things for the future day when the cables inevitably work into a morass of plastic coated copper and terminals. A few weeks later, I would do this wiring all over again when I purchased my new TV. Then, the real work began.

The trip from California had rattled my media computer enough to require a re-install off the operating system and software as well as some reorganization of the hardware inside that I had been neglecting. Next, I need to get a network connection to the entertainment area. Luckily, the previous owners had done some home wiring and run ethernet cables throughout the house. Unluckily, they had neglected two rooms that I found to be critical–the living room and the master bedroom. In fact, I need two network connections in the living room (one for the PVR and one for the Xbox) which is readily addressed by a small 4-port switch. After purchasing some special tools (fiberglass wire-puller, 3/4 inch drill bit, and "old work" outlet housing), I got to work.

The living room was easy to complete, there was plenty of room to work and some wires had already been pulled. We live in a one story house with attic access so pulling wires is as easy as locating the desired wall, drilling a hole in the top plate and sending the wires down to a hole cut in the sheet rock below. This is a cinch for interior walls that contain no insulation such as my living room wall. However, the best spot for a network drop in the bedroom was on an exterior wall. That was not fun. Not only was I thwarted by insulation on multiple attempts to pull my wire fshing rod through the wall, but drilling the hole was a challenge. The location of the hole was so close to the eaves of the house that I had very little room to work. (Keep in mind that I am lying on my stomach across ceiling joists covered in fiberglass insulation). After several hours, multiple trips up the attic ladder and a face full of pink insulation, I did manage to successfully pull my cabling into place.

Everything was wired up and in place except for one last detail–and this is my unfinished project. I have the obligatory 5.1 surround sound speaker package that any self-respecting, male, American consumer between the ages of 18 and 35 feels compelled to own. Not wanting to mar the wall with tacked up wires, I decided the right thing to do was pull speaker wires through attic to the perfect spot on the opposite side of the room where I would hang the speakers with some nifty wall brackets. This project was not nearly as complex as my previous endeavor and in fact I now had all the tools and experience I would need to proceed. Upon locating the desired spot to place the rear left speaker, I discovered a little gift from the previous home owner–a roof leak. We had not noticed this leak during the home inspection because it was in the shadow of the eaves and so near that fireplace that leaking rain water had been running down the wall rather than marring the ceiling with a wet stain.

From here, the project went on hold until after the roof repair. I didn’t want to place any wires where there was an active leak. A lengthy process of repair quotes and aborted repair appointments (due to heavy rain!) extended the repair for a couple of months. Then, the procrastination began. By now, I had my surround speakers sitting on the floor for 4 months. I not longer noticed them, the impetus to complete the project was gone. Excuse after excuse has kept me from completing the job like the fact that we hit the summer months and the attic was 120 F. Anyway, this weekend I took another step toward the completion of this project by buying some new speaker wire. That’s right, this is not a story about finally finishing the project. It’s still not done. But now it is cool outside and I finally have a repaired roof and all my materials and tools assembled. No more excuses. I will finish this project.

By popular request (16% of regular readers), I am announcing the purchase of a new television set in our household.  It is the most glorious thing to grace my living room (besides Megan). I don’t yet have photos of it in place but you can find product info and images here. I chose to go with a Samsung DLP, the HL-R4677W. It is actually a discontinued model as of August 2005 and I bought it at a reduced price. This was not the model I was researching but I think that it is actually has a better picture quality than the one I had been considering.  It also fits perfectly in my TV cabinet with about a half inch on either side of the bezel which is better than the other unit would have fit (that one was actually a little wider and might have been a problem). I’ll try to post some actual photos in the near future when we have our internet connection up at home.

We have been watching OTA (over-the-air) HD broadcasts–like the premier of 24 last night–and DVD’s which both look superb.  DirecTV won’t be installed until next weekend but then we’ll be in full-blown middle-class American mode with all TV options at our fingertips. I haven’t hooked up my Xbox yet but imagine Halo 2 will be stunning on the display over my HD connector kit.