1 month left

Believe it or not, this is actually the first picture we've taken of Lori's belly (on purpose). She's at 36 weeks and dilated 1.5 cm. Little Hattie is trying to kick her way out early. She's pretty active and already has good rhythm.

We went to Vegas and bought a little travel system and some other baby junk. We'll need to haul a trailer around everywhere we go to hold all of this stuff.

We're getting excited to have a little burrito around. 

My Birthday

In 2078 my birthday will be on a Wednesday. Start planning  now.

Oh, and the Parade of Homes is over today.

Parade of Homes

Uggh. It's that time of year again. We have a home in the St. George Parade of homes. It's the time of year when I get to spend 9 hours a day for 10 days in a theater, demonstrating its capability to those passing through. Usually no one really cares, and those who do don't know what they're talking about. It's difficult. You want to have the lights on to show what the room looks like, but if you're trying to show off your expensive perforated screen and projector, the last thing you want is to have the lights on. Don't get me wrong; the system we installed is great. It is reference grade. The room, however, is not. It is 22 feet long and TEN FEET WIDE. Not exactly ideal. 

I spent the better part of two days calibrating the audio part of it. It sounds pretty dang good considering there is no parametric equalizer in the system. There are two Triad InWall Bronze/6 subwoofers that manage to excite every sympathetic vibration in the little wall sconces during even modestly loud passages (and especially with Jazz music). Because the room is so narrow, there is hardly any stereo separation, and no soundstage. Loads of surround envelopment though. The opening scene in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is my reference material for testing envelopment. It is so good it's creepy.

The equipment cabinet is too small, and our HD satellite receiver overheated during the first day of the show. We had some additional equipment in the cabinet, and it overwhelmed the two fans we already had in there. I guess it had been running for hours on end, so I'm not really surprised. No problem; we had another fan close by. Problem solved. Then the lights stopped responding to IR commands given by the remote. The lights don't dim if they aren't told to. I had to do it by hand. It kind of ruins the whole presentation part of it when you can't dim the lights at the right time. I think the problem is with the remote itself. It is the Niles IC2. We were the first people to receive one (worldwide). And it has software problems. We received the remote before they even issued the Alpha version of the programming software. We had a $900 paperweight until the software was sent a few days later (1 day before the show started). Every year is the same.

Anyway, it's been reasonably fun. We actually were able to finish on time and we were a little more prepared than last year. I'll be glad when this show is over.

Baby shower

The baby shower is happening today. Thankfully, I didn't have to be there. I went and did manly things; like gather and chop wood. And drive around in my loud & smelly diesel truck. You know, manly things.

(I grew a beard just for today)

If I had a large gun and some friends, I'd go blow up some more stuff. But I don't have either, so I'll just sit here and update the blog.

House

EDIT: I don't know why the larger version of the picture does not show up when you click on it. 

Here is the final layout of the house.

That is, until it changes.

We went to Home Depot today to look at stuff. A really good garbage disposal is $299 in case you are in the market. It chops bones (but it won't bake a cake).

I completed the HAA Level I and Level II requirements last week. I received notice today that I passed t

he Level I test. I missed 2 questions out of 60. I am still waiting for the Level II results. I spent about 18 hours playing around at home, moving things and fine-tuning. It was the first "calibration" I have done. The results are great. Yesterday, our lead installer informed me I would be performing the calibration of a clients theater. The project has been underway for about 2.5 years, and we are finishing next week. There are three amplifiers, 9 speakers, and four subwoofers. Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Maybe I'll take some pictures.

Since taking the HAA classes, I have an urge to buy new equipment. My speakers are currently for sale on Craigslist.

The little baby is kicking and twirling around inside Lori. She found a nerve that makes Lori's leg fall asleep. She likes to stomp on it. We both think Hattie will be a handful ( I wasn't a calm and mild-mannered baby like you would think). Lori has another appointment next Monday for a sonogram. We'll get to peek in on the baby and take a picture. T-minus two months until our lives turn upside-down and we get our faces melted with parenthood. Wish us luck.