Goodbye New Headphones, Time for Newer Headphones

It seems the Rocketfish RF-WHP01 Wireless headphones that I got for my wife also had some static, so I went back on Amazon and picked out another pair to get her. This time, I chose the Sennheiser HD 202 Intense Stereo Headphones. They're not wireless, but the Amazon customer reviews made it sound like it had everything she was looking for, great sound, great outside noise suppression, and comfort. So I guess we'll see.

Almost Sold My Pioneer DV-F727 301 Disc DVD

I almost sold my Pioneer DV-F727 301 Disc DVD today. A guy came over to look at it and was ready to buy, but when he tried to pay $25 for it I realized the zero had been cut off in my posting, because it was supposed to be $250.

Kaboom Scrub Free Auto Toilet Cleaning System

The Kaboom Scrub Free auto toilet cleaning system arrived today, so I cleaned out the toilet tank and installed it. Didn't run into any problems putting it in, so now just have to wait and see how well it works.

Another BBQ!

We did another BBQ today! Yep, we're on a BBQ kick right now. We invited my wife's friend Lisa over and we all had BBQ polish sausages.

New Steering Wheel Cover

Picked up a new steering wheel cover for my car. My previous one broke a couple days ago when I tried to take it off, and I was actually glad because it never did fit right since I switched it from my old car to my current car. I looked at lots of different designs, but had to go to several places before I found one that I really liked. The winning store was AutoZone, which happens to be the same place I bought my previous one.

While my wife and I were out, we also picked up a couple cheap Halloween masks. Later in the evening we got out the Halloween costume box and tried to put together some costumes for this year.

IR Transmitter Issues Solved! Also, BBQing with Friends.

Messed around with the RF receiver/IR transmitter for our MX-600 Universal Remote more today, trying to get it to work consistently. I eventually discovered that the problem was due to interference, as I noticed the red transmission indicator light would flicker on for no apparent reason, when no buttons on the remote were being pressed. So I removed the antenna from the receiver, and that definitely helped, but not enough. I then tried moving it various place in and around the stereo cabinet, and finally found a sweet spot about three feet from the stereo cabinet, away from all the electronics.

I was just finishing hooking everything back up when our friends Ray and Dawn came by for dinner. We had a nice BBQ meal out in the dark on the back patio. The only light came from the singular porch light and then some rope light that had been strung around the gazebo. We have four more lights in our gazebo, but they have blacklight bulbs, so those didn't help.

Moving the IR Transmitter

Moved our IR transmitter for our MX-600 RF Universal Remote from across the room pointing to the stereo cabinet to actually inside the stereo cabinet. I did this because it wasn't quite strong enough where it was to work everything. Tested it out and it worked fine, that is until later in the night when my wife went to bed and tried to use it. For some reason it just stopped working! I tried adjusting it but nothing seemed to work. Talk about frustrating!

Staining the Gazebo

Spent most of the day staining the gazebo. I know I just did this last fall, but it really faded and in some places was even non-existent. After examining the stain bucket closer, it seems the stuff was not really made for outdoors. But that's the stuff they gave me at Lowe's when I explained what I needed! Next time I'll do a better job at being more perceptive.

I also put the glass door back on the stereo cabinet today. We had it off for years, originally because the series two TiVo and/or the DirecTV box would get too hot and start messing up. But we don't have either of those anymore, and rarely use the DVD player, so don't have much need to actually get into the stereo cabinet now. The glass door is tinted, and the cabinet looks much nicer when the door is on.

Oil Change & New Air Filters

Took my car in for an oil change, and got a new engine and cab air filters put in. Then stopped by the recycling place and got about $10 for all our empty containers.

Ordered Wireless Headphones

Ordered my wife some Rocketfish RF-WHP01 wireless headphones, as her headphones broke. I'm going to try fixing them with some of my Sticky-ass Glue as the pads on my own headphones are falling apart, and that's not exactly something that can be fixed with glue. I ordered wireless headphones because she had a pair before and liked the freedom, just they had too much static so we got rid of them.

New Growth

Finally starting to see some new growth in that brown spot in our front lawn. We re-seeded and I've been watering everyday and it's paying off. The grass in the corner died after the corner sprinkler stopped working. I replaced it shortly after I noticed that something was wrong, but that was also during the time when we had consistent 106 degree weather every day, so there was little chance for the dying grass to survive.

The Results Are In

Had my followup doctor appointment today to learn the results of my tests, and... I'm very healthy! Woo-hoo! My wife came with me this time, and we went straight to the grocery store afterwards. After we got home, we barbecued up some pork, and it was delicious!

New Press Release Section

I used Wordpress to add a nice press release section to my website. I had a press release section before this, but I admit it wasn't a very good one. This new one should not only help me to add press release quicker and make them look nicer, but should also help me become more familiar with Wordpress.

BBQ Part 2: Beef & Chicken

We went out back and barbecued our dinner again this evening, though now it was time to try beef and chicken. Again they turned out well, though the beef definitely had more flavor than the chicken. Didn't even need any BBQ sauce for the beef!

Our First BBQ!

We finally barbecued! We've been to barbecues, but never ourselves barbecued, so I'd call it a momentous occasion. At first we were going to use the small tabletop one I got from my dad, but then we decided to use the full-sized one we got free off of CraigsList awhile back. Both are the charcoal kind. At first we used too few charcoals and it just didn't get hot enough to do anything, but once we added more things got cooking. We cooked up two burgers and three hot dogs, and they were all delicious!

Trimmed Tree & New Video Card

I trimmed the tree in the front yard today, and afterwards put a RADEON X600 video card in my computer so programs that were trying to use some aspects of OpenGL would stop crashing. And it worked!

Lots of Hot & Sour Soup

My wife made two huge batches of her hot & sour soup to bring to work tomorrow. She was nice enough to put some aside for me. She loves me so much!

A Cool Day

Today was the first cool day we've had in a long time. I awoke to discover it had actually rained. Yea! Spring is here! We'd better enjoy it because in a few of weeks winter will be upon us.

Another Internet Outage

Our internet went down again at about 11:30pm, and was out for about an hour. When you don't have it is when you think of all the stuff you really need it for....

Visiting Lita

We went over to visit Lita, a friend of my wife. I installed some stuff on her computer and tried to get some pictures off an old computer to put them on the new one, but no matter what I tried it just wasn't happening. It was too old of hard drive with the wrong type of connections to just put in the new computer, and the device I have that is supposed to bridge that gap allowed the computer to recognize the drive but kept saying it needed to be formatted, which was out of the question. The computer that the drive was originally in wouldn't boot at all, just kept beeping with no video output. And moving it to another computer she had didn't work as it would constantly reset half way through booting Windows. So I had to bring the old hard drive back to the house and put it in one of my computers as a secondary drive, and that let me get everything off it that she wanted.

I beat Half Life 2: Episode 1 this evening.

Fixed TiVo Guide Data!

The TiVo guide data for several of our HD cable channels were fixed today. TiVo put the channels back where they were supposed to be so I no longer have to do any manual recordings.

We went to see Piranha 3D today, except it wasn't showing in 3D. It was an enjoyable flick, pretty much what I was expecting, though there were a lot of scenes that were specially made for 3D, so it was disappointing not to have the full effect. Afterwards we went out for a nice meal at Red Lobster... just something about all those carnivorous fish made us feel like going there.

A New Doctor

I had a general physical exam today with my new doctor. It had been years since I had a doctor I could call on, so last week I finally decided to do some research and pick one out. The two main factors for me were proximity to my house and reviews by patients, and after meeting the guy, I think I made a good choice. The exam went well, though I was unaware I needed to fast for some of the tests, so I have to do that tonight and go in for the lab stuff tomorrow morning.

I finished Half Life 2 tonight. Now time to start on Half Life 2: Episode 1.