ClintandTina.com

OK, not really… I just pulled a muscle really really badly… Did it last Thursday and it still hurts, though at least now I can lift my arm over my head (with some pain). Thanks to all of you who encouraged me with stories of torn rotator cuffs and permanent arm damage… It looks like I’ll be OK. For the full story, visit AV Rant where I went into a bit more detail…

Today is Valentine’s Day and I didn’t flop so bad this year. Tina got some nice roses, a card, and about a pound of chocolate turtles. Caleb got some nerf stuff. Caeden even got a cute book that we read “at” him (not a reader, this one). We all received cute cards from Caleb, who takes it upon himself to spell out words on his own - phonetically of course. It’s cute:

Caleb is frum uth = “Caleb is from Earth.” We’re not so sure about that, but it’s still cute. Read the rest of this entry »

My brother-in-law got a new job fairly recently and is set up in a nice downtown office. The company makes very nice document management software that can scan large volumes of papers , pull the text off of it, and database it. Talk about reducing file cabinet storage space! The company name, Ademero (pronounced “adam-arrow”), brings to mind a kind of hybrid superhero. This is the first time I can remember him working so close to home and it’s nice to have him close enough that I can swing by on occasion and say hello or we can go to lunch.

We finally got the outside of the house finished. Yeah!!!!! You are missing my little happy dance. We still need to do landscaping, but the house has come really far. Many people have said it doesn’t even look like the same house. A huge thank you to Clint, Tom Gaige, and Tom Rutherford (Quality Choice Painting).

We had a fun but simple family birthday party for Caeden and he got his first no-holds-barred taste of cupcake. It took all of Tina’s self-cntrol not to wipe his face after every bite but he managed to get a lot of it down - well, at least the part that wasn’t all over his face. His cousin Joshua had engorged himself on a large personal pan pizza-sized cake at his birthday party (with the help if his Nana) but we opted for a slightly smaller portion for our little Tyke…

 Caeden did pretty good at opening presents - at least the kind that consisted of paper stuffed into a gift-bag. Actual wrapped presents took a little help from Mommy. Daddy got to try out his new digital SLR camera (toy) and snapped so many pictures Ansel Adams would be proud (I believe that if I take enough pics, the sheer force of numbers will land me at least one good shot!)

Next up is Christmas and our niece and nephew’s Christmas pageant at their church.

Luke Skywalker and Baby Yoda made their debut at the 2007 DeBoer Halloween spectacular. Actually this was my first real trick or treating Halloween with my kids. We went around with some friends from the neighborhood and knocked on doors… some of them actually opened and people came out.

Was it me or were the number of “here’s a jar of candy, take it yourself” homes a bit high this year? I don’t recall that in my youth - of course the candy was perceived as being safer and we had about 10x the number of houses to ’sack’.

Baby Yoda is on the left; the right photo is Elizabeth (butterfly), Joshua (lobster) & TJ the airplane (Tina’s sister’s kids) plus Caleb (Luke Skywalker as X-Wing Pilot) and Caeden (Baby Yoda)

We had fun. Caeden rode the evening out in a backpack, eating his Mommy’s hair and drooling down her neck. Caleb pretty much couldn’t help himself from actually entering people’s homes at each stop and telling them which candy was his favorite. That, of course, was when he wasn’t singing a new song he learned that ended with something about “…smell my feet, I don’t care, I’ll pull down my underwear” if he didn’t get a treat… Ah, good times. Why do we do this again?

Oh yeah, free candy and our kids aren’t the best counters yet.

Yes, it’s true. Pumpkins last approximately 48 hours in Florida before they become a quivering mass of gelatinous ant-bait. “Harry” the cantankerous Jewish pumpkin (named him after my grandfather, God rest his - wait, he’s not dead) sank into an abysmal state this evening after enduring two rains and the hot, humid, baking Florida sun. We put him out on Thursday evening and, well… he barely lasted two days before he looked very similar to what you see here.

(click for a generously sized picture - not for the squeamish)

R.I.P., Harry… it’s like we hardly knew ya.

Some of you know I’ve been working on wrapping up some videos for like… oh, forever… now. The Audioholics website wasn’t ready to handle them until this week, but they are finally posted. They include a video on installing surround sound speakers and another that is about 40 mins long of the best products we found at CEDIA in Denver (it’s cut like a  TV show and stars our AVRant duo who are both more talented and funnier than I in front of the camera.

• Surround Speakers Install video (starring Clint and his friend Tom)
• Best of CEDIA video (produced by me)

Caleb brought home a real live chrysalis from school (his teacher gave everyone one to take home). We watched it for days (it was supposed to take well over a week to ’spawn’.) One day, Tina and I noticed that it had raised up as if he was doing situps and turned a slightly darker shade… Minutes later Tina called me and Caleb over to show us a fully-emerged butterfly. We all missed the actual escape.

Somehow 10 days became 4 days, but we forgot to ask how long the thing had been sitting around I suppose.

Once the butterfly emerges, he basically holds on for dear life as his wings dry (and drip stuff that looks very much like blood.) It’s a pretty cool thing and it really drove home all those Hermie books we’ve read.

No, I’m not leaving to go skiing or anything fun like that (can you do that in September?) I’m going off to spend 20-hour days covering new home theater products and eat beef and sushi at nice restaurants… The annual CEDIA convention is held in Denver (thank goodness, it used to be in the armpit that is downtown Indianapolis… for those of you from Indianapolis I don’t have to apologize cause you know what I mean).  Are there ANY good restaurants in Indy? There are tons in Denver and it’s like the highlight of the trip…

Anyway, we’re doing videos this year. I’ll post them here as they are completed… Should be a  lot of fun and we are bringing a crew of 7, including the team from AVRant.com.  We’ll likely do an impromptu podcast Wednesday evening and possibly Thursday and Friday as well.

It’s going to be hectic, but it’s usually a lot of fun as well. Jam 5-7 people into a hotel room with wireless Internet and you’re bound to have loads of fun.

I’ll try to check in from Denver once I get situated…