Sunday, December 30, 2007
New PC - Pics
Not that anyone beside me and my nerdy cousin and uncle (and maybe aunt Pat) want to see these, but in case you do, enjoy pics of my new PC and brand new NEC 19" widescreen monitor!
New Years Resolutions
It's that time of year again, the time that I set goals for myself that by I will have given up on by February 1st. This year, I am really trying to take it seriously, we'll see how it goes. These goals may be a little in detail, but I have broken them down as such, so they appear much more attainable:
1. By July 1, 2008, lose 20 pounds. This breaks down to a little over 3 pounds a month (very achievable) or less than a pound a week. To do this, I will be riding the bike 3 times a week for 30 minutes, and will exercise portion control with my diet. I also would like to eat better and am going to try the 4-5 small meals a day plan for a while and see how it goes.
2. Grow spiritually by:
- spending more time studying scripture
- getting more involved in church activities, however I am called
- living in a way that is consistent with my core beliefs and values, not
the way the world expects me to
3. Keep blog and photo gallery updated often.
This may look like goals for a performance review at work, but I guess that is they way I know how to do it. I look forward to striving towards all of these goals in 2008. I will try to keep updates coming on the weight loss, heck, maybe I'll start an entirely new blog dedicated to this. Eh, who am I kidding, I won't have time to keep 2 blogs updated, can't even keep this one updated.
Anyway, happy new year, and cheers to a fresh start in 2008!
~ETM
1. By July 1, 2008, lose 20 pounds. This breaks down to a little over 3 pounds a month (very achievable) or less than a pound a week. To do this, I will be riding the bike 3 times a week for 30 minutes, and will exercise portion control with my diet. I also would like to eat better and am going to try the 4-5 small meals a day plan for a while and see how it goes.
2. Grow spiritually by:
- spending more time studying scripture
- getting more involved in church activities, however I am called
- living in a way that is consistent with my core beliefs and values, not
the way the world expects me to
3. Keep blog and photo gallery updated often.
This may look like goals for a performance review at work, but I guess that is they way I know how to do it. I look forward to striving towards all of these goals in 2008. I will try to keep updates coming on the weight loss, heck, maybe I'll start an entirely new blog dedicated to this. Eh, who am I kidding, I won't have time to keep 2 blogs updated, can't even keep this one updated.
Anyway, happy new year, and cheers to a fresh start in 2008!
~ETM
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Croup
Ava has been coughing and sneezing quite a bit lately, particularly coughing. And it is a barky cough. While we were at Grandma and Grandpa Wharton's for Christmas, she did not sleep well. In fact, she wouldn't sleep anywhere during the night except on either Kim or my chests. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep in the few days we were in Omaha. That's ok though, its expected, and didn't keep us from having a good time while there.
However, when we got home, we took Ava to the doctor, and he diagnosed her with a mild case of the croup. He said there isn't much that can be done to cure it, it just has to run its course (its a cold, so it is a virus). He did prescribe some steroids to help with the inflamation in her throat, and she seems to be feeling much better today (3 days later). She is eating much more now, and isn't as fussy. Well, except today, she has been pretty grumpy, and refuses to sleep. I put her to sleep at about 8pm tonight (she was asleep when I left the room), and as of now (9:40pm) I believe she is awake. Evidently she woke up at about 8:30ish when Kim went to bed and has been up since. We had her on a pretty good schedule, but have not been following it since she has been sick. So in the next few days we need to get her back on her schedule so she will start sleeping through the night again and won't be difficult for Missy (her daycare provider) next week.
However, when we got home, we took Ava to the doctor, and he diagnosed her with a mild case of the croup. He said there isn't much that can be done to cure it, it just has to run its course (its a cold, so it is a virus). He did prescribe some steroids to help with the inflamation in her throat, and she seems to be feeling much better today (3 days later). She is eating much more now, and isn't as fussy. Well, except today, she has been pretty grumpy, and refuses to sleep. I put her to sleep at about 8pm tonight (she was asleep when I left the room), and as of now (9:40pm) I believe she is awake. Evidently she woke up at about 8:30ish when Kim went to bed and has been up since. We had her on a pretty good schedule, but have not been following it since she has been sick. So in the next few days we need to get her back on her schedule so she will start sleeping through the night again and won't be difficult for Missy (her daycare provider) next week.
Sleeping through the night!
About 2 weeks ago, Ava blessed us with sleep! Yes, she slept through the night 4 times in one week. She slept from about 10pm to 6am. It was good.
Still, when not sleeping through the night, she is only getting up once, usually about 2:30 to eat. We really can't complain about that.
Still, when not sleeping through the night, she is only getting up once, usually about 2:30 to eat. We really can't complain about that.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
New PC
2 weeks ago, I convinced Kim that 6 years to have a PC is like having a car for 20 years....way overdue for a new one. And our old PC worked, but it was showing its age every day. Getting pretty slow. And coupled with the fact that I can get a PC through work pretty cheap, it was enough argument for her to let me get a new one. (Actually I think the statement that really made her decide to let me order it was "How many times have I heard you curse that PC because it is too slow?") ;)
So I ordered the following for $350:
HP Pavilion a6210z customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit)
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 4200+ dual-core - 2.4GHz
2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Skinit - removable, personal skins for your PC - SPECIAL PROMOTION!
56Kbps Data/Fax Modem for dial-up Internet access
160GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
FREE UPGRADE! LS 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
2 USB, front audio ports
Integrated 5.1 Capable Sound w/ front audio ports
No additional security software (60-day Norton Internet Security trial)
Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
I realize it is a little skimp on the hard drive, but I have a few of those laying around I can use, plus, I think I am getting a big external hard drive for Christmas. Also, I maxed out the RAM on this system, but I also know that you can buy thumb drives real cheap, and with Vista, you can designate thumb drives to function solely as extra memory. This is my first experience with an AMD processor, we'll see how it goes. Its working well so far. (Note: this price is no monitor included, but we have a 15" LCD we use now, so I am using that until my birthday in February when I hope to get enough money to buy a decent 19" widescreen LCD.) I know it only has Vista Home Basic on it, but we bought a copy of Vista Home Premium through Kim's work, I'm just waiting for them to get it in.
I also picked this up at OfficeMax yesterday: http://www.belkin.com/support/product/?lid=en&pid=F8E829-BNDL&scid=7 . The PC came with a keyboard and mouse, but it wasn't an optical mouse. This Belkin combo was the last one there and it was only $25! Wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse. I couldn't pass on it. I really didn't need it, but it was too good to pass on.
So you may ask, what are you going to do with your old PC? I mean it is a P4, 1.8 gHz, 768MB RAM. Not bad, but definitely not new. Well, after a few more weeks and I am sure that I will have everything off of it that I need, I will be wiping it clean, adding a 120GB hard drive, a TV tuner card and installing MythBuntu on it. (MythBuntu is a distro of Linux that comes optimized to run the PVR software, MythTV, on it.) To this, you might ask, Erich, you already have a DVR through Dish Network, why would you do this? Well, a couple of reasons...first, some of the shows we record we would like to be able to burn to DVD. Right now we can't do that with DishDVR. Second, I would like to run Ubuntu as one of my main PCs to get more exposure to see how far it has come since last time I did this about 2.5 years ago. Third, I'm a big nerd, and that's one of the things I like to do in my spare time.
I know the 6 people who actually read this were hoping to see pictures of Ava on this. Sorry, but I will post pics of her again soon. In the meantime, you can go here to see some updated pictures!
-ETM
So I ordered the following for $350:
HP Pavilion a6210z customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit)
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 4200+ dual-core - 2.4GHz
2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Skinit - removable, personal skins for your PC - SPECIAL PROMOTION!
56Kbps Data/Fax Modem for dial-up Internet access
160GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
FREE UPGRADE! LS 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
2 USB, front audio ports
Integrated 5.1 Capable Sound w/ front audio ports
No additional security software (60-day Norton Internet Security trial)
Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
I realize it is a little skimp on the hard drive, but I have a few of those laying around I can use, plus, I think I am getting a big external hard drive for Christmas. Also, I maxed out the RAM on this system, but I also know that you can buy thumb drives real cheap, and with Vista, you can designate thumb drives to function solely as extra memory. This is my first experience with an AMD processor, we'll see how it goes. Its working well so far. (Note: this price is no monitor included, but we have a 15" LCD we use now, so I am using that until my birthday in February when I hope to get enough money to buy a decent 19" widescreen LCD.) I know it only has Vista Home Basic on it, but we bought a copy of Vista Home Premium through Kim's work, I'm just waiting for them to get it in.
I also picked this up at OfficeMax yesterday: http://www.belkin.com/support/product/?lid=en&pid=F8E829-BNDL&scid=7 . The PC came with a keyboard and mouse, but it wasn't an optical mouse. This Belkin combo was the last one there and it was only $25! Wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse. I couldn't pass on it. I really didn't need it, but it was too good to pass on.
So you may ask, what are you going to do with your old PC? I mean it is a P4, 1.8 gHz, 768MB RAM. Not bad, but definitely not new. Well, after a few more weeks and I am sure that I will have everything off of it that I need, I will be wiping it clean, adding a 120GB hard drive, a TV tuner card and installing MythBuntu on it. (MythBuntu is a distro of Linux that comes optimized to run the PVR software, MythTV, on it.) To this, you might ask, Erich, you already have a DVR through Dish Network, why would you do this? Well, a couple of reasons...first, some of the shows we record we would like to be able to burn to DVD. Right now we can't do that with DishDVR. Second, I would like to run Ubuntu as one of my main PCs to get more exposure to see how far it has come since last time I did this about 2.5 years ago. Third, I'm a big nerd, and that's one of the things I like to do in my spare time.
I know the 6 people who actually read this were hoping to see pictures of Ava on this. Sorry, but I will post pics of her again soon. In the meantime, you can go here to see some updated pictures!
-ETM
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Ava Pics
Soon after birth:
About 2 weeks (she was a pumpkin for Halloween):
3 weeks (with our Puggle, Ella):
Ava and Dad:
The happy family:
Ava and cousin Sophia:
Ava
This is about a month overdue but I have several to catch up on so here it is:
Ava Ann Matteson joined our family at 7:33am on October 16, 2007. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long. She was very healthy, as was Kim, and we very lucky and blessed to have her. I will be posting pictures soon.
Ava Ann Matteson joined our family at 7:33am on October 16, 2007. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long. She was very healthy, as was Kim, and we very lucky and blessed to have her. I will be posting pictures soon.
Monday, November 5, 2007
New Blog
Since having our child, Ava, I decided it was best to move my blog over to a hosted, backed-up service, rather than relying on my old server in the basement, and hoping that it won't crash someday soon...
Blogger hosted my first blog, and it was very user-friendly, so I'm back. Be looking for lots of pictures of Ava, our daughter!
Blogger hosted my first blog, and it was very user-friendly, so I'm back. Be looking for lots of pictures of Ava, our daughter!
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