ej (v6b)

I’ve had a TiVo for years now. As a matter of fact, I think I’ve “sold” about as many TiVo’s as Best Buy over since I’ve had one. TiVo, in my opinion, is the best thing to happen to TV since cable!

Lately, my trusty Series 2 TiVo has been showing it’s age…it’s a single tuner, 40 hour DVR. I bought it for about $100 in March 2004 and I paid for the lifetime service plan. For about $300 bucks, I (rightly!) figured that in the long run, it would be cheaper than $12.95 per month. When Suzan and I got married in 2005, the TiVo took it’s place in our family’s entertainment center and has been working great. Lately, however, TiVo has been having some “issues.” The video often skips and jumps, and the TiVo doesn’t respond to the remote (we call it the ka-danker after the sound TiVo makes!). Also, the single tuner doesn’t allow us to record two shows at once, or even to record one and watch another. Alex and I have a few shows we like to watch, while Suzan and the kiddies have a couple of other shows that they like to watch, so someone always ended up watching their shows on the bedroom TV. [Read more →]

WOW!  The weather got cold, work got busy, it’s DARK at 6:30!  Did I mention the wind???  What’s up with that?  The century got “winded” out this past weekend–the folks that did it reported 35+mph winds!  I’m glad I took the pass on that!  Anyway, I ended up having a great time at THE Halloween party, but I managed to ride Sunday morning anyway!

So this week, it’s been cold and windy so I found a new way to work out.  I’ve been going to the gym riding the Net Expresso machine.  It’s essentially an upright workout bike, BUT it’s way better than that!  I has a 19″ video screen that play the course you’re on, WITH a pacer and opponents.  You can pass them, but if you slow down you start getting passed!  It has hills, and a “gearshift” that can change up or down through 30 “gears.”  It also records heart-rate from my Polar transmitter, and displays both instantaneous and average power.  The gym also has a challenge board.  This weeks course is 6.8 miles with hills.  In my first try I did 20:23.  Today I played around with some of the easier courses before I did it, and I still did 21:20, so not bad!  It’s pretty cool that it gives power readings.  I wasn’t really pushing today, but I still managed to average 165-175 watts with my heart rate at around 78-85%, so that was pretty cool.  The documentation says that it’s supposed to work online and it will automatically record my workouts, but it’s not working yet.  The employees at the Y said that they are getting more of them in December, so that will be cool.

Today marks a milestone!  After 3 weeks at 190 point something today’s weight is: [Read more →]

Dude!  It’s raining AGAIN!  I finally finished my printer project (we replaced 111 printers that took 27 different toner cartridges, with 3 different models!)  I did manage to go to the gym on Tuesday, then again after school today.  They have a really cool cardio machine there.

They have these Net Expresso machines that are really cool!  I have ridden the other exercise bikes, but they just don’t feel right, so I don’t usually ride them.  This bike, however has other riders, hills, gears that you have to change to keep your cadence where you want it, a pacer, etc.  It also works with my Polar HR strap AND it shows both instantaneous power and average power!  I’m not quite sure how accurate, since I don’t have power on my bike.  I’ve been averaging 200-210 watts for a 45 minute ride!

Brian is having trainer parties on Tuesday and Thursday nights now, but I think I’m going to play with the machines at the gym for right now.

Oh well, tomorrow looks OK, so I might get a quick ride in after work.  Saturday and Sunday both look good, and next week, I have Tuesday off, so I might get some riding in then.

Later!