I have more coming... I was actually not behind the camera for most of this trip, so I'm waiting for Karyn (this means you!) to get me the pix she took..


This rooster is none too pleased to have Maya encroaching on his domain.


The Scottish Highlands Cow doesn't seem to mind having an audience.

Devin and Maya enjoying a snack in the snuggliness of the Chariot.

Maya stops to...umm...Enjoy the scenery.

Here is the new foam-tastic decor that Stephanie has done for Devin's room.


A pile of clouds and a...um... DC-9?



The DHL 'Copter, a Great Year (2006) blimp, and a few balloons. You might notice Stephanie and myself in the larger balloon.

...a Space Shuttle!


Maya on a hang-glider! This is one of my favorites.


A host of other planes (you've already seen the 728 prop plane piloted by Devin).

A snazzy bi-plane with swish trails.


A close-up of Mom & Dad in the balloon :)

A close-up of Devin in the 728 Prop.

So I have a bit of a dilemma: how do I get my pictures and videos shared around the various media consumers in the house? Currently I have 3 computers (work, mine, Stephanie's) and then there's the XBox 360. I have all of this stuff sitting on a ½ TB external hard drive. I had, at one time, a Windows Server 2003 machine that sat in my living room and was connected to the network. That went ok for a while, but for some reason I decided to get rid of it. Probably because I was thinking about ripping DVDs and streaming them to the TV. More on that later.

Anyway, so I then put my gaming PC up here, but it is rather large, and grossly conspicuous, akin to a Honda Civic with neon lights, purple-sparkled paint, a 3-wing spoiler and a loud obnoxious exhaust system. Except that the PC is black and doesn't have a spoiler, otherwise they are about the same. Alas, she was too big for the living room and actually too loud -- for some reason I'm a fan freak, so the PC has 4 fans in it -- and thus was removed to my office for more cave-like gaming.

As of now, I think I have abandoned the streaming ripped DVDs idea -- I ripped a few but never did anything with them, so that tells me I need to remove that from my list of requirements. I procured a laptop that is relatively new and it is currently hidden in the living room with the ½ TB drive hanging off of it. This particular laptop was defunct but with a new hard drive it's functioning perfectly. Now there's the whole business of sharing the media... for some reason Steph has problems maintaining a mapped drive (she's running Vista) to the shared drive on the media server laptop. I sometimes have problems with it as well. It's running XP Pro, and should be doing just fine... perhaps I just haven't spent enough time getting it set up properly.

I also need to get JungleDisk running on it again to use for my off-site backups. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I really need to keep this on it a Windows machine. Using the Xbox 360 as a media extender is really pretty smooth - more so that I would've thought, as it does pictures, video and music. Except it doesn't play AVI files captured from my Canon cameras... a bit of a bummer there.

My next idea was to try out Windows Home Server. There's a free trial DVD on its way to me as we speak and that could be interesting.

Any other ideas?

Steph and I had a dinner + and movie last night, starting with food + libations at The Cheesecake Factory. That was an interesting meal, as the manager at the Factory was Steph's manager at Friday's in Ft. Myers some 12 years ago... small world, eh? So Hugh came by and we chatted for a bit. He is in interesting fellow, and we chatted about our favorite Caribbean things (he's from Barbados) like Carib beer and Bake & Shark in Trinidad.

The piece of the resistance was getting to see Indy IV on opening night - a real treat! It was a little bittersweet since one of my childhood heroes is pushing 70 and he's not buckling nearly as much swash as he used to, but he did pretty damn good for a geezer (sorry Dad). It was neat seeing some of the original characters either through reference or return, and it was an interesting switch replacing the Nazis with Soviet Union Russkies. The script did well to hint at some OSS work Indy did between the previous Indy flicks - all set in and around WWII. And, I'm interested with the Mutt Williams character - he could be a good choice to continue the franchise, if that's possible. I was wondering what supernatural relic would be the gretchen in this release, and it seemed a tad far-fetched at the time... but then I thought afterwards that previous gretchens were the Ark of the Covenant, the more esoteric Sankhara Stones, and finally the Holy Grail. So, really, how far-fetched is the crystal skull? Not much for this flick, and all the previous Indy films in which suspension of disbelief is a requirement. Here's hoping Indy V doesn't take 15 years...

I just finished mowing the back yard today -- an activity which I don't really like but there was a confluence of events that necessitated mowing. The weather is fantastic, the grass is (was) as high as an elephant's eye, and the kids are napping. 'Round the back forty we have two maple trees and a magnolia. The maples were planted in 2002, just before the house was built, and started out around 4-5 feet tall. Apparently one of them just loves the location as it is as high as our two-story house. The other is about half that size. The magnolia I planted in '03 started at four feet (I brought it home in a bucket in the back of the now-extinct Altima) and is now around ten feet. As I was mowing around these trees, admiring the full foliage and soon-to-be-blooming magnolia buds, I was wondering: does a longer gestation/maturity cycle lead to longer, er, longevity? Perhaps put another way: if you take longer to "grow up", will you live longer?

Considering this question for trees is probably not the answer. I would imagine that given a relatively stable environment a tree will live indefinitelya really, really, really long time, given the species. And by stable I mean stable over the lifespan of a tree. So what about the fauna? Why have a lifespan at all? Supposedly cells oxidize over time, breakdown, and the internal biological clock of the cell determines that it is done, and that's that. Cells die and are not replaced, biological processes eventually breakdown, immune systems weaken and the animal/person either dies "naturally" as the cells contributing to life support are too few in number to sustain life, or the animal/person dies as a consequence of the immune system's dysfunction.

I will naturally require some empirical evidence. Off to Google and Wikipedia to look up the numbers.

UPDATE:
Well, I certainly found some interesting things to ponder. I still need some data on timespan for sexual maturity. Courtesy of the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Max Lifespan, in years:
Dog 34
Elephant 57
Horse 62
Human, Medieval England 33
Human, early 20th Century 50
Human, current 77-79 (varies by region)
Giant Tortoise 177

Gestation Period, in days:
Dog 62
Elephant 640
Horse 337
Human 266
Giant Tortoise 120-240

What gives with the tortoise?

So we're on Day 2¼ of a 2½ day weekend without Mommy. We're fairing ok, but I can't get as much done as I had intended. I managed to get the front lawn mowed, edged and weeded, but I still have the entire backyard to do - perhaps today during nap time. I had also contemplating starting my radiator replacement job, but I think that's going to be about a 6 hour activity, so I will have to wait until Steph gets home. We haven't been to the Comet in a few days... I may try to do that this afternoon after nap time, but that depends on how tired I am after the back yard activities. :)

Not to be outdone, Devin does his share of getting all over himself in the hampsteresque tube structure at Chic-Fil-A.

Steph has been working on new decorations for Maya and Devin's respective rooms. What follows are pictures of what Steph has created out of foam, pipe cleaners, heart and soul. What a job, eh?

Maya has a "tree", Mommy tickles Devin with a tree, Maya & Devin & Mommy, and as I mentioned earlier, the huge branch that fell in the same area. This branch was big enough that I could barely move it. We were in the area 15 minutes before it fell.

I've gotten quite a few questions along the lines of "how do I get pictures and/or video off of the blog?" Here's a short tutorial.


If it's a "regular" blog picture (meaning, you click on a picture and it opens in the same window but in a larger size), then you only need to right-click on the picture and select "Save Picture As...". Once you do this, you'll get another dialog box that asks where you want to save the picture and what you want to name it. Simply supply the folder and file name, and you'll have the picture!

If it's a "picasa" blog picture (meaning, you click on a picture and it opens the Picasa web site photo album), then you have a few steps. Once you have opened the album, you can download the entire album by clicking the "Download this album" link, that is on the left-hand side of the album. You'll also note the Picasa download link represented by the Picasa icon to the right of the link - click this to download Picasa, which you'll need if you want to download entire albums. If you want just a single picture, once the album is opened, find the picture you want and click it. You'll see a larger version of the picture, and there is a link on the right-side of the display that says "download this picture". Click the link, and then select the location and filename and click okay. That's it!

If you want to download video... well that's a bit more complicated. First, find the video in the blog. Click it to play. Fast-forward to the end. Once you get the ending frame that says "replay", click the menu button in the lower-right corner. You'll see two options: embed and url. Click "copy to clipboard" under the "url" section. Then, open a browser window to www.keepvid.com. Click inside the text-box, and then press CTRL-V, or right-click and select Paste. That will put in the URL to the video. Then, select "YouTube" and click the "Download" link. This will enable an option below that says ">> Download <<". Right-click this link and select "Save Target As...". You must save this file as a .flv file, but you can name it whatever you want, such as "maya sleeping.flv". Click OK and the video will download. You will need a special player to view these - I recommend VLC Player - available here.

Just thought I'd post a bit here on what we're using to log these miles on the trails.

Steph is using a Specialized Crossroads, which is basically a "comfort" hybrid. It has a relaxed geometry, which is good for Steph as she has long legs and a short waist - she doesn't need to be hunched over.

I'm using a Giant FCR 3, which is a "performance" hybrid. It's mostly a road bike, but has a slightly aggressive geometry, similar to a mountain bike, so I'm used to it.

The kids are cruising around in a Chariot Cougar 2 (red/silver/grey). We opted to spend a little extra money in this regard, because it's carrying precious cargo. Chariots are handmade in Canada, and have a stellar reputation for performance, safety and. stability. We also tacked on the stroller kit - we plan to use this as a stroller when we travel, as the tandem stroller is heavy and just plan unwieldy. I've ordered a custom canvas bag for travelling from Hoggan's Custom Canvas. It will look something like this, but will be larger.

There are some other options too which we are working out... like rear-view mirrors, extended bars, replacement grips, etc but we haven't gotten all that put together yet.

Devin and Maya enjoying a snack in the Chariot on the Silver Comet Trail