I've been having some problems with my Linksys WRT54G wireless router and was searching online for a firmware upgrade that might solve the problem. I stumbled across this linux based replacement router firmware. It's super easy to install, it's free, and amazingly powerful. The new firmware gives me the ability to boost the power of my router to about triple what it was before, do automatic dynamic DNS updating, do VPN right to the router,QoS rules for throttling traffic and setup my router as a wireless hot spot. Routers with this kind of functionality cost a lot of money. This is very cool and very painless to upgrade and configure.
You can read more about it here at Lifehacker.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Tiff
Last Saturday, our friend (and one of my old youth group kids) came over to watch our kids and the Schultz's kids - giving a total of 4 girls under 8 plus Nate. Needless to say she was beat. We got home and found her passed out on top of her homework on the couch, drooling on her books. Our babysitters deserve hazard pay.
Halloween
The kids had a chance today to wear their costumes at school for the big parade in front of all the other kids. Cathie was helping out in the kids classes and got a chance to see them both. Nate was an old man, and Madeline a modern pumpkin.
Our friend (and Nate and Maddie's kindergarten teacher) Sheri has some pretty amazing costumes each year, that leave her open to plenty of mockery later on by us. This year was no exception as she was a giant pencil.
Will, Monaca, my Dad and Sheri all came over for dinner and then to go trick-or-treating. The Madeline's went trick or treating together and Nate got to go solo for the first time with his two friends Austin and Enno.
We didn't have a ton of kids this year, so people must have been pretty generous. My Dad took Emily, Monaca took the Madeline's and Will and I monitored the boys for the first few houses while Cathie and Sheri manned the front door and sampled the candy:
Both Nate and Maddie hit every house in the neighborhood and did pretty well for themselves.
The oddest thing any of them got was by Nate, who got a rubber band and a box of raisins from the same person. Once they came back, Cathie and I "checked their candy" which means we went through and took a 10% tithe with anything that looked good (or dangerous, as we told them, and our parents had told us). This is a time honored tradition passed from generation to generation, only our kids have caught on to it.
Our friend (and Nate and Maddie's kindergarten teacher) Sheri has some pretty amazing costumes each year, that leave her open to plenty of mockery later on by us. This year was no exception as she was a giant pencil.
Will, Monaca, my Dad and Sheri all came over for dinner and then to go trick-or-treating. The Madeline's went trick or treating together and Nate got to go solo for the first time with his two friends Austin and Enno.
We didn't have a ton of kids this year, so people must have been pretty generous. My Dad took Emily, Monaca took the Madeline's and Will and I monitored the boys for the first few houses while Cathie and Sheri manned the front door and sampled the candy:
Both Nate and Maddie hit every house in the neighborhood and did pretty well for themselves.
The oddest thing any of them got was by Nate, who got a rubber band and a box of raisins from the same person. Once they came back, Cathie and I "checked their candy" which means we went through and took a 10% tithe with anything that looked good (or dangerous, as we told them, and our parents had told us). This is a time honored tradition passed from generation to generation, only our kids have caught on to it.
Devil's Night
We went over to the Niemi's last night for their annual Halloween party. We've been doing this with the kids since they were babies and Jen keeps out doing herself every time. We all came dressed in our costumes with Lori and Em both dressing as Dorthy:
Jen had a haunted house set up in the basement that was fun, but the highlight was a dance routine that she worked with all of the girls on for a month choreographing to the song "I want Candy". They had matching outfits and it was a great dance routine:
Justin dressed up as a South Lyon native, while Lori and Emily had matching costumes. Lori took her wig off later and we got to see her without her makeup.
I was able to test drive a new hair style, which I found very becoming (I call it my Dorth-hee look), but Cathie and Lori had better looking wigs.
Jen had a haunted house set up in the basement that was fun, but the highlight was a dance routine that she worked with all of the girls on for a month choreographing to the song "I want Candy". They had matching outfits and it was a great dance routine:
Justin dressed up as a South Lyon native, while Lori and Emily had matching costumes. Lori took her wig off later and we got to see her without her makeup.
I was able to test drive a new hair style, which I found very becoming (I call it my Dorth-hee look), but Cathie and Lori had better looking wigs.
Rhythm
It's been a weird last month. As chaotic as my life can be, I keep a pretty regular rhythm to it. I have some very regular things that are normally non-negotiables in my world. Things like:
I've worked out twice in the past four weeks. I've sat down in the morning and opened my bible maybe once. I finally went to church this past week after being gone for a month and done one date night with Cathie in October. Life was crazy last month. Between my Mom's death, going to Europe and our family vacation, it threw my life out of whack and it feels good to be getting into my regular rhythm of life again. I'm back to the gym, I sat down this morning and read my bible, I got a chance Sunday to go to church and hang with my junior high youth group kids (who are the greatest junior high kids in the world. They're just amazing and bring a giant smile to my face when I get to spend time with them) and I want to schedule a date night with Cathie. It feels good.
I'm traveling tomorrow for a couple of days and them I'm home, until I'm not.
- Getting up at 5AM to work out with the guys at Triad on Monday, Tuesday and Friday
- Having my cup of coffee in the morning and spending time reading my bible, praying and journaling before work
- Going to church on Sundays and being tightly connected into other church stuff happening, like our junior high youth group on Sundays mornings and Tuesdays.
- Regular date nights with Cathie
I've worked out twice in the past four weeks. I've sat down in the morning and opened my bible maybe once. I finally went to church this past week after being gone for a month and done one date night with Cathie in October. Life was crazy last month. Between my Mom's death, going to Europe and our family vacation, it threw my life out of whack and it feels good to be getting into my regular rhythm of life again. I'm back to the gym, I sat down this morning and read my bible, I got a chance Sunday to go to church and hang with my junior high youth group kids (who are the greatest junior high kids in the world. They're just amazing and bring a giant smile to my face when I get to spend time with them) and I want to schedule a date night with Cathie. It feels good.
I'm traveling tomorrow for a couple of days and them I'm home, until I'm not.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Pumpkin Carving
We carved pumpkins today - kind of. Nate wasn't in the mood for carving, so he didn't even get a pumpkin. Maddie and I did one of these crazy, complex pumpkin carvings.
Maddie and I scooped the pumpkin out and I spent 30 minutes doing a pretty bad job trying to carve out intricate detail:
Em decided she wanted to paint her pumpkin, and paint she did. Every square inch was covered at the end, topped off with about 3lbs of glitter:
In the end, the pumpkins turned out pretty neat:
Maddie and I scooped the pumpkin out and I spent 30 minutes doing a pretty bad job trying to carve out intricate detail:
Em decided she wanted to paint her pumpkin, and paint she did. Every square inch was covered at the end, topped off with about 3lbs of glitter:
In the end, the pumpkins turned out pretty neat:
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Load Up
For some strange reason, every time Bob Rays has a party, the next morning we have load-up. It never fails. Brad, Bob, Eli and I do load up and take down at church on the first and fifth Sundays of the month. We show up about 7:30 AM on the given Sunday at the school where our church meets. We unload 20 or so 8'x5'3' crates into the auditorium, setup the chairs, screen and unload some of the sound gear with Mark, Les and Mike. After church, we do the same thing, but backwards. It's not the hardest thing in the world, but 7AM on a Sunday morning just feels early and we finish around 12:30ish. In breakfast, hang out and catch up on life - which is one of the big reasons we do it.
As I said before, 7:30 is early. It's even early if you show up at 6:30 because you forgot about daylight savings time and then sit around for an hour thinking your friends blew you off. If you did all of those things this morning, your name would be Eli. We assumed the best about Bob this morning when he didn't show, figuring he had broken his leg, had liver failure, or misunderstood the daylight savings time concept, thinking that it was a 12 hour shift in time, and showed up this evening.
As I said before, 7:30 is early. It's even early if you show up at 6:30 because you forgot about daylight savings time and then sit around for an hour thinking your friends blew you off. If you did all of those things this morning, your name would be Eli. We assumed the best about Bob this morning when he didn't show, figuring he had broken his leg, had liver failure, or misunderstood the daylight savings time concept, thinking that it was a 12 hour shift in time, and showed up this evening.
Ray's Masquerade Party
Even after starting yesterday at 4AM, nothing would keep us away from a Ray's party. We went to their masquerade party last night and had a great time. From the picture, it may look like I didn't dress up. I did. I went as my friend Brad. This wasn't tough to do. Brad has three main outfits and I just chose one of them, consisting of:
- White Jeans (he claims that they're for his veterenarian practice, but he wears them all the time)
- These weird rubber shoes that he claims are for duck hunting.
- A cut-off MSU sweatshirt
- "Old red" Brad's red jacket. He has had this jacket for at least the 12 year I've known him. He has left it to me in his will.
- An Independence Day movie t-shirt. 10 years ago, my brother Jon gave me a box of these and we used them as prizes at a youth group event. Brad has worn his non-stop since then.
- A can of Budweiser and a tin of chew. He never goes anywhere without them (except the chew, which he has finally quit.
Eli went as a pirate (and learned you shouldn't drive whit an eye-patch) and Bob and Anne had a Phantom of the Opera thing happening.
Cathie dressed as a princess, complete with Madeline's tierra and banner. The outfit slowly tranformed a she added Eli's pirate wig and hat to the ensemble. Rudy's costume deserves special mention, going as a stylin pimp. I'm not sure if this was a costume, or more every day wear for Rudy.
Harvest Party
What is a Harvest Party? No idea, but we went to one today after church at our church's property - where my friend (and church elder) Nicki was dressed as Tigger. Since Dana and Eli decided not to invite us to Olivia's birthday party, we had no choice but to go. Apparently, a Harvest Party is a Halloween party, but if a church had a Halloween party, people would think that the church worship's satan, and we can't have that, therefore we had a "Harvest party" sans devil worship. The kids got dressed up, got to paint pumpkins, play games and trick-or-treat from the backs of people's cars. The great thing about the event is that the whole event was done as a food drive for our local Active Faith food bank. People decorated the back of their vans with amazing, elaborate decorations. We hung some spider web stuff. Needless to say, we didn't win the decoration contest.
Emily was dressed as Dorthy and brought Riley as her Toto. She won a prize for her costume. Nate went as an old man, complete with grey hair, beard, cane, teeth and glasses.
Nate's latest thing has been to do the "bunny ear" thing to people in pictures. We have 100 pictures from vacation, some with Nate in them making the "bunny ears", some with just his hand making them.
We Got home around 2 and then carved pumpkins. We've been on the go so much, it felt good to just be able to come home and hang out and crash. The Lions have a bye week so they're not able to lose.
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Dear Abby
Lots of people dress differently when they go to church for lots of reasons. Dear Abby had a recent article asking people's opinions on how they dress for church. Check it out, there's some great perspectives in it I thought Mark Driscoll's blog post, Dear Abby: Can I wear my swim trunks to church? was an interesting take on the whole thing.
In my opinion, how you dress is ultimately a heart thing. What are your motivations for how you dress. If dress is how you express reverence and worship God, then go for it. I like to be the lowest common denominator so that when someone comes to church and feels under-dressed, they can always look at me and know that there's at least one guy dressed worse then them.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Flight Delay
We were the last ones on the plane for our 6:25am flight out of Orlando, just barely making the flight. Our flight from Memphis had mechanical difficulties so we sat on the plane for almost three hours before taking off. For the Memphis to Detroit leg, Cathie deserved first class,so I hung in the back with the kids. Emily listened to High School musical and entertained everyone around her by serenading her stuffed animal Simba, as you can see from this video below:
Madeline eventually finagled her way into a first class seat next to Cathie while Nate, Emily and I sat in squalor back in coach.
Thanks so much to Nicki and Chuck for watching Riley and for Tammy for looking after the house while we were gone and for the Raitz family for helping cart us to and from the airport.
Lyrical Ganster
For the most part, my brother Jon is a funny guy. The only problem is that he knows it and doesn't mind telling you. His favorite way of sharing the joy long distance through his blog comments. Often times, they're very funny, and I'm all for funny comments. Recently, he's taken it upon himself to make sure others know how funny his comments are. He has been known to call people, and then bring his own blog comments up in conversations repeatedly to remind people of how funny they were. For example, he recently posted a comment (on his own blog, mind you) that he found funny:
Yes Dave, I did come "out of the cupboard. Are you trying to tell the world something? Maybe you should look up the definition of "out of the cupboard" on Urban Dictionary before you leave a comment like that.It wasn't enough for Jon just to post this funny comment. He also sent me the following e-mail, forwarding the comment, with the preface:
I am the lyrical gangster, the comment master...
If you get a chance, please drop Jon a quick note and let him know how funny he is and how funny his comments are. It will make him feel good...and funny (ha ha, not peculiar).
Emily
Last night while walking back from the pool Emily saw two spotlights in the sky circling back and forth. She said to Cathie:
Mom, do you see those lights? That's Grandma. She's an angel in heaven and she's flying around waving to us!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Vacation Lessons Learned
- Staying in a two bedroom condo with all of the amenities was way better than just sticking ourselves in a hotel room. We had a full kitchen, washer/dryer and two full baths, including a king-size bed and jacuzzi tub and full bath for Cathie and I. We loved having the space to get away from each other, and each person having their own bed.
- Throughout the week, we tried not to cram too much in. On our days at Universal, we would start early to beat the crowds, ride everything, and then get out there by oneish and go back and hang at the pool.
- Bringing snacks, drinks and lunch to the parks was genius. Not only did it save us a bundle, but we didn't have to wait in long lines for food only to eat stuff that was nasty to begin with.
- There's not much new under the sun. Each of the parks has pretty much the same as every other (with the exception of Animal Kingdom) with only minor differentiators. They've all got the 4-D movies where the water splashes on you and the seats vibrate. They've all got the 3-D rides where your car moves around a 3-D screen, log rides and circular rides where the kids control the vertical axis with a joystick.
- Emily is scared of just about every ride in every park except rides involving animals.
- Everyone needs to bring a Cathie with them to think of every detail and bring every conceivable thing that any of us could ever need before we think of it.
- This is the perfect time of year to go on vacation down to Florida. We never waited in lines more than 10 minutes at any park we went to, yet we still had beautiful weather.
- Disney has thought of every possible way to make money while you're on vacation. Every single one that's legal at least.
- The Slingshot
- Hulk (Islands of Adventure)
- Spiderman (Islands of Adventure)
- Men in Black (Universal Studios)
- The Mummy (Universal Studios)
- The Slingshot
- Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
- Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
- Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom)
- Woody Woodpecker Rollercoaster (Universal)
Vacation - Friday
Our last day of vacation (sigh). Today was a lazy, sleep-in day. The kids have made it a fun thing to run up to the resort general store in the morning and get me my Wall Street Journal and some donuts. Yesterday, I got a bonus when they decided I needed one of every paper they had. Maddie and I ran up to Chik-Fil-A to get some Chick-n-Mini's (per my brothers Jon's and Dan's recommendations).
The original forecast was for thunderstorms all day, but it's since changed to sunny and mid-80's. The girls went shopping this morning while Nate and I went to DisneyQuest, a giant interactive arcade, Disney style. Nate was in heaven at DisneyQuest.
The place was a five story arcade with big group games and individual video games, all free. The first thing we did was a design-your-own-roller-coaster ride that allows you to ride it in a 3-axis simulator. I learned that fake roller-coasters make you more nauseous than the real ones. We kept going on it and making nastier and nastier coasters that threw us around worse and worse. Most of the games were 3-D, like the fighting game where you had a 3-D sword and a 3-D helmet.
It was amazingly realistic. We spent almost four hours just running around playing video games, and Nate could have easily spent another four hours there.
Meanwhile, Cathie took the girls shopping. They went over to Disney Marketplace and over the course of 3 hours hit one store: The World of Disney. The girls each had some money to spend, and spend they did. Madeline bought a princess kit and Emily bought a watch and a bank.
You can see from the picture, that Emily got a little annoyed after a while at how long it took Maddie to pick something out. Later on, Emily discovered her new love at the giant Lego store: playing with Legos.
After swimming and shopping, we went swimming at the pool to get one last day in. It topped of at 85 today, so we soaked in the sun before heading out to dinner.
We hit The Cheesecake Factory for dinner in order to enjoy gigantic portions that we could never finish and not even take home with us.
Cheesecake Factory+Palm Trees and eating outside in October. Gotta love it.
On the way home, we hit the Slingshot. The Slingshot is a set of 210 foot towers with a capsule pulled back between them, like a slingshot. You're launched into the air 330 feet at 110 miles per hour, pulling 6Gs as you shoot up in the air. At the vertext, you flip over and free-fall downward 200 feet before rebounding back upwards, bouncing back and fourth until you come back down. It is comparable in thrill to freefalling while parachuting or bunjee jumping off a mountain. The force when you are shot straight up, peak, and then free-fall is second to none. Nate, Maddie and I all went. They were less afraid than I and both said it was the best thing they've ever done.
Tomorrow we wake up at 4:30, load the kids at 5AM to make a 6:30 AM flight.
The original forecast was for thunderstorms all day, but it's since changed to sunny and mid-80's. The girls went shopping this morning while Nate and I went to DisneyQuest, a giant interactive arcade, Disney style. Nate was in heaven at DisneyQuest.
The place was a five story arcade with big group games and individual video games, all free. The first thing we did was a design-your-own-roller-coaster ride that allows you to ride it in a 3-axis simulator. I learned that fake roller-coasters make you more nauseous than the real ones. We kept going on it and making nastier and nastier coasters that threw us around worse and worse. Most of the games were 3-D, like the fighting game where you had a 3-D sword and a 3-D helmet.
It was amazingly realistic. We spent almost four hours just running around playing video games, and Nate could have easily spent another four hours there.
Meanwhile, Cathie took the girls shopping. They went over to Disney Marketplace and over the course of 3 hours hit one store: The World of Disney. The girls each had some money to spend, and spend they did. Madeline bought a princess kit and Emily bought a watch and a bank.
You can see from the picture, that Emily got a little annoyed after a while at how long it took Maddie to pick something out. Later on, Emily discovered her new love at the giant Lego store: playing with Legos.
After swimming and shopping, we went swimming at the pool to get one last day in. It topped of at 85 today, so we soaked in the sun before heading out to dinner.
We hit The Cheesecake Factory for dinner in order to enjoy gigantic portions that we could never finish and not even take home with us.
Cheesecake Factory+Palm Trees and eating outside in October. Gotta love it.
On the way home, we hit the Slingshot. The Slingshot is a set of 210 foot towers with a capsule pulled back between them, like a slingshot. You're launched into the air 330 feet at 110 miles per hour, pulling 6Gs as you shoot up in the air. At the vertext, you flip over and free-fall downward 200 feet before rebounding back upwards, bouncing back and fourth until you come back down. It is comparable in thrill to freefalling while parachuting or bunjee jumping off a mountain. The force when you are shot straight up, peak, and then free-fall is second to none. Nate, Maddie and I all went. They were less afraid than I and both said it was the best thing they've ever done.
Tomorrow we wake up at 4:30, load the kids at 5AM to make a 6:30 AM flight.
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
Vacation - Thursday
Today was our big day at the Magic Kingdom, the happiest place on earth. We started off when the park opened and met Sheri's friends Charlotte, Jeff and Spencer. For the first ride, Cathie and I took Nate and Maddie on the infamous Space Mountain while Charlotte and Jeff took Em and Spencer on the Tomorrow-land ride. We saw this stockade and after seeing a picture of Jon and I in the same stockade, had to take a picture.
Between 9 and 4, we hit the park in it's entirety. We never had lines over 10 minutes or so, which was great. We brought our own lunch and split up occasionally on rides like The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Charlotte got the girls into Cinderella's castle (she works there) to see Cinderella and get their picture taken:
While Cathie, Nate and Maddie were on a coaster, Em and I found Wendy and Peter for a picture.
We ended the day by getting the kids Mickey ears with their names on them. I was talking to the lady Doris who monograms them and asked her how many she'd done in her lifetime. She said she'd probably done millions. She'd been doing this for 20 years and lost track after the first million of them.
We had a blast at the Magic Kingdom, ending the day with a big parade. It hadn't changed much in 14 years. They've added a couple of rides and kept up the traditional rides, but it's still the same as it was when I first came. I think my expectations for Disney were higher than the kids, remembering how much awe I'd been in when I went 20+ years ago. With all of the technology that kids are exposed to, I'm not sure Disney is as awe inspiring as it once was, but the kids had fun.
We came back, went to dinner at BW3's and then headed to the pool. Emily made the brilliant observation:
We're hanging out in the room, Nate and I cheering on the Tigers in the World Series. Casey just hit a home run.
Between 9 and 4, we hit the park in it's entirety. We never had lines over 10 minutes or so, which was great. We brought our own lunch and split up occasionally on rides like The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Charlotte got the girls into Cinderella's castle (she works there) to see Cinderella and get their picture taken:
While Cathie, Nate and Maddie were on a coaster, Em and I found Wendy and Peter for a picture.
We ended the day by getting the kids Mickey ears with their names on them. I was talking to the lady Doris who monograms them and asked her how many she'd done in her lifetime. She said she'd probably done millions. She'd been doing this for 20 years and lost track after the first million of them.
We had a blast at the Magic Kingdom, ending the day with a big parade. It hadn't changed much in 14 years. They've added a couple of rides and kept up the traditional rides, but it's still the same as it was when I first came. I think my expectations for Disney were higher than the kids, remembering how much awe I'd been in when I went 20+ years ago. With all of the technology that kids are exposed to, I'm not sure Disney is as awe inspiring as it once was, but the kids had fun.
We came back, went to dinner at BW3's and then headed to the pool. Emily made the brilliant observation:
Mom, I know why they call it a hot tub. It's hot, and shaped like a tub.
We're hanging out in the room, Nate and I cheering on the Tigers in the World Series. Casey just hit a home run.
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Vacation - Wednesday
We got up early and made our way to Universal Studios theme park. We got there when it opened, but it didn't really matter, as the park was pretty much deserted the entire time we were there. Cathie and I had been there fourteen years ago on our honeymoon, and not much had changed. They had some decent rides and shows, like The Mummy roller-coaster and the T2/3D show. When Nate and I had talked yesterday about the ideal roller-coaster, he told me it would be to have a roller-coaster that let you play video games on it. He found it in the M.I.B. (Men in Black) ride where you have a laser gun and get to shoot aliens as you play.
By one we had pretty much seen the park and we were able to find the first Starbucks we'd seen anywhere, which tasted just like home.
In the afternoon we came back to the condo and went swimming. The weather was perfect and we couldn't tear the kids away from the pool.
For dinner, we went to Medieval Times for a dinner show. When you arrive to this giant castle, you can first tour the old village around it and watch craftsmen do their work. For dinner, you're seated at tiered tables around the arena and you're assigned a Knight to root for. We rooted for the red knight. The waitresses (self proclaimed, "wenches") bring you food without any eating utensils, which Nate loved. From the time we entered, they referred to each of the girls as Princesses and to Nate and I as "My Lord". The girls loved this, and it got old for Nate after a while. As dinner is served, the knights compete in different competitions with the highlight being a joust and fight to the death.
Each knight picks a fair maiden who he is fighting for in battle by presenting a red scarf to her on the end of his lance. When our Red Knight came over to Madeline and presented the scarf to her over everyone, she was in heaven. She had the biggest smile on her face throughout the rest of the knight and walked around on cloud nine.
We finished up the night heading over to Disney Village and checking out the shops, including some life-size lego creations at the lego store and a giant McDonalds.
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