Hiatus.... Schmiatus

Where have I been? Nowhere really. I've been here. I was unable to make any long transmissions and have really been communicating in short burst transmissions. It is that reason that I did not make contact sooner.

That means that between tweets and facebook status updates I kind of neglected the original way that I shared my opinions and ideas. It's so quick and easy. My bad blogger! Sorry.

Cars, Soccer, Work, & Cars. Busy. Busy. Busy. Reece has started soccer. He has had three games already. He and his cousin Gavin are on the same team. Reece is two months older than Gavin, so they have fun. Sometimes Reece could be a little more aggressive towards the ball. But he'll grow into it. He has fun!

In November on the way to Twin Falls I ran over a deer (I didn't hit it, just ran over it. The truck in front of me hit it). I have been looking for a replacement vehicle. Been searching Craigslist, cars.com, autotrader.com, driving through lots, even checking the newspaper. There are some that will work, then there are the scams! Like the one that was a 2000 Honda CRV for $2900- not a huge stretch of what could be available. I emailed the seller and then I get some mumbo jumbo about sending my shipping address and going through ebay. (If I wanted to buy a car through ebay I would- and I don't!). After weeding those out there have been a couple that I have looked at.

We drove through a dealer lot in Nampa and saw one that looked promising. A 1994 Nissan Patherfinder that was in good condition. Unfortunately there was no price on it, so I flagged down a salesman. They were asking $6995! A sixteen year old car! It has 131,000 miles on it! Kelley Blue Book value is only $3800! But whatever! We made a fair offer OVER BLUE BOOK  and they didn't want it. So we walked away. Not sure what they are trying to do at Bronco Motors Nissan, but it is not trying to sell 16 year old cars. It was a frustrating process... so I voiced my frustration on twitter...

Hopefully here in the next few weeks we'll get the car situation remedied.

No New LOST this week....

There was no new LOST this week. The episode the re-ran was Ab Eterno- a Richard centric episode that gave a lot of back story on that character. A top quality LOST episode. Catch it if you can!

There was however a new LOST: Untangled. Get Down!

Wii...Wii

Have a Wii? We bought one a few years ago and the kids (yeah the KIDS) still love it. We recently got something that makes Mom and Dad like even more. We got our Netflix streaming disc for the Wii. I mentioned before our on-again/ off-again relationship with Netflix. Well, the Wii streaming disc may keep it as an on-again relationship for a while.

It's great so that when we want to watch a movie or a past season of a TV series we can just pop in the Wii disc and it's there in living color on our TV. Now it's not HD quality, but it looks good. Tammy has used it to watch the past seasons of LOST and get caught up for the final season (Happening NOW if you didn't know or have lived in a cave).

We have shared our enjoyment of the Wii disc with our friends and family and I just found out that my brother and his family got theirs and are enjoying movies streamed to their Wii today!

So if you're like me and you don't have a PS3 or an Xbox, but you have a Wii; join Netflix, Order the Wii disc and enjoy!

Parks...Boise River Festival

You can find parks all over the valley. The parks I grew up with in Nampa are still around. Lions Park, Lakeview Park, and West Park. Now there are other parks, but these are the ones that I remember going to as a kid. I remember my parents taking us there to picnic, play and enjoy the outdoors. Then at West and Lions parks I participated in sports baseball as a young man. When Tammy were dating and first married I recall going to Lions park and enjoying picnics in the shade of the trees. As a parent I have taken my children to these parks for the purposes. Parks are an integral part of a thriving community.

The Boise River Festival was another event that utilized the parks extensively. What a great way to spend a hot summer day- wandering through exhibits and booths in the open air. Then in the evening a concert under the stars with the cool summer breeze in Ann Morrison Park. The Boise River Festival was a great way to be outdoors and experience the parks.

Colin Mansfield for his Eagle Scout Project created a video highlighting the Boise Parks. What a way to share the appreciation we all have for our parks.
Thanks Colin!

Thanks to Treasured Valley and Dennis Mansfield for sharing this with us all.


Boise Parks from Colin Mansfield on Vimeo.

LOST... The FINAL SEASON... Get understanding with LOST UNTANGLED

With the final season of LOST upon us, it's important to keep up and keep the story straight. With two timelines it can be tough. This weeks LOST: Untangled includes a special guest... enjoy!

By the by... Something I enjoy while watching LOST is to check twitter and see if LOST is trending (being commented on frequently). If you tweet look for #LOST while watching the episode.

Daydream... or Google dream?

Do you ever daydream? I do. When I was a kid in school I did a lot. Sometimes it meant that I didn't get all my work done in a timely manner. As an adult I have got control of this. But sometimes it is still fun.

Have you ever Googled something just to see what it would cost. Or what it would be like. I do that quite often. We don't even have phone books at our house (the tables were already level), we Google the phone numbers and addresses. Google introduced ads during the Superbowl about searching and now you can create your own "Google Search Story" and share it. It's always fun to see what you can come up with.

Our fourth child was born this past September, so it will be a little while until my wife and I can really "get away", but no harm in trying! I created mine, now you can try and create your own: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories Good Luck!

Another week... Another LOST.

That's right last night was another new episode of LOST. This episode featured Desmond. It was a great to see Desmond again. Remember... the rules don't apply to him. I am not quite sure what that means... But I am pretty sure that's why he can stand up to the extreme electro magnetism. Let LOST Untangled clear up the plot for you!

The last NCAA March Madness Weekend...

This is it. Saturday and Monday are the last NCAA men's basketball games of the year. What a crazy year for basketball it has been. By the end of the third round just about everyone's brackets were busted. My Dad loves going to the games. This year he went to the NCAA Men's first and second round in Spokane WA and saw some good games. We saw him on TV.

Tammy and I went down for the third and fourth rounds in Salt Lake City. They were some good games. We saw a #5 Butler take out a #1 Syracuse. Then we saw #2 Kansas St squeak out a win in double overtime against #6 Xavier, just to be upset by Butler in the next round. It was a lot of fun. From our seats we could see it all... (They were that high, just look)

I'm rooting for Butler on Saturday against Michigan State. Then we'll see who plays each other on Monday night. GO BULLDOGS!

Still need untangled?

Over half way through the season of LOST and more details are added to the plot that will lead up to the finale. Thankfully LOST: Untangled is here to explain it all!

April Fools!

Remember April Fools Day when you were a kid? Everyone trying to think of the most clever thing to try and trick everybody else. Like the teacher who gave you a pop quiz with nonsense questions. That happened to me in eighth grade. Mr. Beal at West Jr. High. He was a cool teacher, so for him to just 'spring' a quiz on us was unheard of. Then he was so serious as he handed out the quizzes. This was eighth grade English class, so a quiz could be intimidating. Then he gave it to us. Now I don't remember all the questions, but here are a few.

• If a plane crashed on the border of the USA and Canada, as cooperating nations, where would the interment of those not dead occur?
• Who is buried in Grant's tomb?
• What day is today?
• If you read through the quiz first; then you don't need to answer any questions.

And many more like this. After a couple minutes some kids started to snicker and giggle at the ones who were still filling out the quiz. Then we all knew. Mr. Beal has us going. We were fooled.

Well online April fools takes on a whole new life. Just look around today and see what there is. Google had one this morning that I thought was clever.
Google changed it's name.

Then ABC created a spin off from LOST - already!

Happy April Fool's Day!