The theme is based on TRON. It’s the clock in the screen shots below. It will go with a GDE home replacement skin I’m developing right now, some of which you can also see in these shots (wallpaper, some of the tool bar).

Anyone that has questions or comments about the theme, feel free to send me an email. I’ll be happy to tweak up different versions (within reason!).

Alright, so it’s the same old room with the same old stuff in it for the most part. Even the cats don’t appear to be overly excited in the picture. Still… it’s BETTER.

First of all we did our friend and professional furniture rearranger, Kelley, proud by rearranging all of our furniture for the first time in 5 years! Kaycee and I spent an hour pushing stuff around the living room to see how well it fit. I think we ended up with a really good arrangement that opens up more space and puts all of our storage in one spot.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also changed things functionally. Kaycee had the DirecTV rep crying in despondency yesterday as she heartlessly ripped away their $70+ per month allowance. See the rabbit ears on top of the TV to the right? That’s now our live TV feed along with a CM7000 DTV converter courtesy of our own tax dollars.

Right now, the rabbit ears give us a fairly decent digital signal. I’ll soon be boosting that BIG TIME by building one of these beauts for a couple of bucks.

The final thing we’ve done is integrate a Home Theater PC (HTPC) which is tucked in to the left of the entertainment center. Hardware-wise I built it from a throwaway machine and added a video card from our friend Nitin. It’s running Ubuntu as an OS, and uses XBMC and PlayOn to play media from a variety of sources including DVDs, downloaded content, music, and live content from places like Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube. It’s a great little system that can be remote controlled by anything with a web browser, and will soon be remote controlled by… a remote control. 

What’s left to do: Another shelf for the entertainment center would be useful for the Wii Fit (which you can see is kind of jammed in there). The speakers are in weird places at the moment and I’d like to correct that. I’ll be running some cable in the crawlspace for surround speakers, and also to wire up the HTPC which tolerates wireless but occasionally disconnects itself when it’s doing heavy lifting. All simple stuff, really.

Being out from under a monthly TV payment makes us happy. The kids are going crazy over old shows (Flipper, for example) and we’re not missing out on anything except for some live sports (*cough*Hurricanes*cough*). Overall I think we’ll be glad we kicked DirecTV to the curb.

With a couple of vacations coming up, we’ve been discussing which to tackle first with Gavin: Big boy bed, or toilet training. Choice number one… well… I already ruined the surprise in the title of this post.

So Gavin has been using a twin mattress on the floor for a couple of weeks. He’s been generally refusing to nap in the middle of the day, and happily dismantles his room instead. No biggie. We’ve gone through these things before.

Today was different. He got quiet after a while so Kaycee went up to check on him. There was an obstruction blocking his door! She opened it enough to look inside, and this is what she saw.

The obstruction.

She had the presence of mind to stifle her laughter and reach her arm around the door for another picture. Considering she couldn’t see what she was taking a picture of, she did pretty well!

Oh the humanity.

Yes, he is breathing. No, we’re not waking him up.

From top to bottom: Shealyn, Angel, and Oreo.

 The piggies were small when we first got them, so they fit well in the pet store cage that Sheri passed along with them.

Their original cage.

However, they seemed to be getting bigger by the day. It became clear that we’d need a new cage, so we did some research. It seems that guinea pigs need plenty of room to run around and get exercise. After looking at expensive store cages (which were STILL too small!) we decided on what’s called a C&C (cubes and coroplast) cage. The “cubes” part is modular storage cubes, and coroplast is the stuff that political signs are commonly made of. With some tape and zip-ties you can use these inexpensive materials to make the perfect cage for guinea pigs.

Once we had our materials, we went to work on building the cage.

The girls help with the new cage in progress.

It was pretty amazing how quickly the whole thing came together after a little planning. We soon had the “cubes” part all put together. You can also see where we attached inexpensive closet shelving as doors on top to cat-proof it. 

The old cage and the new one. BIG difference!

After we made boxes out of the coroplast (the yellow stuff) and added some other touches, the new cage was finished!

The new cage - all finished.

The new cage. Another view.

Detail showing the ramp on the bottom floor.

The top floor "kitchen" area.

Oreo getting a drink.

• They’re social animals, and enjoy being held.
• They’re extremely gentle, and trainable (if they want to be trained).
• While sudden noises/movements might make them run and hide, they tolerate (and even seem to prefer) a busy environment.
• They don’t like to pee/poop on you. They’ll let you know vocally and by nibbling on you if they need to be put in their cage to go to the bathroom.
• They need lots of room to RUN. 
• They can only jump a couple of inches.
• They call for each other if they’re separated for too long. Then they celebrate when they find each other again.
• They ‘popcorn’ to show they’re happy. If they’re really happy, they jump up and down just like a couple of little bucking broncos.

Ah, Stephen King. Everyone knows who he is, and I’ve heard from just as many folks who don’t like his work as those that do. Those that don’t like it have lots of good arguments:

    It rambles. It’s too wordy. It lacks good pacing. Who would be afraid of that anyway?!

Funny thing is, I think all of those are true! I also happen to love what Steve-o writes not simply in spite of those arguments, but because of them.

During a conversation with my brother last week, he shone a light on the fundamental quality I like about Steve’s work. Every story of his is a study of humanity! From the made-up language we came up with as children to the strange times when something ordinary seems downright creepy. All of the weird quirks people tend to keep to themselves are on those pages. It’s all about what makes us tick.

When he’s “on” (which is a lot of the time in his books) Steve shows what’s going on inside his characters’ heads like no other author I’ve read. It is so much more complex than giving a character a sense of motivation or sticking to a plot line. When he writes it’s as if he becomes those people in a way that is very real, and is doing everything he can to describe what it’s like to be them.

That’s as well as I can explain it. So… about the book…

Just After Sunset is a collection of thirteen short stories. Most are short enough to read in one sitting, which I thought was particularly nice. Several might even be considered vignettes. Unusual for Steve, isn’t it?

It has been forever since I’ve seen short stories by this guy, but he hasn’t gotten rusty at all! He has a knack for throwing me into the story with the first sentence, and I’m held in thrall until it is done. With just a couple of exceptions he succeeded in doing this with every story in the book. Even in the cases where he didn’t, I enjoyed myself. When the last story is done, you’re treated to a behind-the-scenes look at his motivation for writing each one of them.

If you’re a Stephen King fan you must get this. It gets a 9 out of 10 score from this fan.

If you’re not a Stephen King fan this book might still be worth a try if you’re into fiction. The stories are short, and extremely well done. I say get the paperback and give it a go. At the very least you probably know someone who would appreciate it if you gave it to them.

This was the scene the other night as I was trying to make dinner while he was scaling the front of our fridge.

“Okay, but do not eat any!” replied Papa.

Well, technically she didn’t EAT any cookies.  However, what she did do was take her finger and scoop out a chunk of chocolate from each cookie on the cooling tray.  Glad I had already set aside the batches I was making for church and a gathering with friends!

I’m asking for you to pray for the family she had to leave behind….

her wonderful husband, Steve

their son, Kevin (4), who absolutely adored his Mommy

their son, Kien (1), who just joined their family this summer

their daughter, Aria (1), who just came home from Vietnam and few short weeks ago

While I am thankful she is no longer suffering, I mourn her passing as she was a truly kind and generous woman.  She will be missed.

You can read her family’s story at http://karinupdates.blogspot.com/