Peculiar MO (Low 25 Foot of Snow on Ground High 35)
We are hoping that maybe next year we will get the breaks, both from a basketball refereeing perspective and weather. Weather wise we have another foot of snow on the ground, that is three times in three weeks where it has snowed a foot. Here are a couple of views.
This one in late March makes us wonder if we will be able to leave in early April. Next winter we plan to be in Goodyear Arizona so maybe we catch a weather break
Now we just have to catch a refereeing break for Bob's Iowa State Cyclones which consistently have been on the wrong side of bad calls this season, the latest was the charging foul on Iowa State in the NCAA tourney today that should have been a blocking foul against Ohio State wiping out a made basket and a free throw to possibly go up 4 late in the game. Nothing against Ohio State which is a great team and not to say that it decided the game because there was time left on the clock, and we know that refereeing is a tough job, but why are the Cyclones always on the wrong side of these calls? One incident that did decide a game was the game against Kansas in Ames where a charging foul against KU should have been called in a game with Iowa State in the lead by two. Then a shoving call underneath by a player that already had fouled out but was still in the game was not called but a touch foul with two guys on the floor is called against Iowa State. It was so bad that the Big12 Office sent a letter acknowledging the many mistakes. Sad but true but that was the second letter, the first being after the Oklahoma State game and another set of bad calls costing another potential victory. Maybe next year we will be on the other side of the bad calls, even better maybe no bad calls. We should be talking about a great NCAA basketball game between the state schools from Iowa and Ohio instead of the refereeing.
Bob has been holed up watching all the March Madness games. The new Genie DVR has worked out real good. We didn't have to worry about programming the 2nd DVR beforehand, all of her programs were already available. With 12 hours a day Thursday-Sunday of basketballs games she did have to add more programs to watch.
We'll end with a cute photo, we bought the birdola, basically a corn cake on a bungee for the squirrel to keep it away from our feeders. It took awhile but they finally found it.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Peculiar MO (Low 25 Mostly Sunny High 40)
The first step in solving any problem is admitting you have a problem. Well, we have a problem; we are TV junkies, we watch way too much TV. That being said we recently upgraded to the new Genie DVR from DirecTV and we have to say we like it.
Some of the features we like:
- 5 programs at 1 time, already have a time when 7 programs are needed. Luckily some of these programs are not on network stations and they repeat during the week.
- Genie client in the bedroom that has the full functionality of a DVR and the ability to watch and program shows on the main Genie DVR in the living room
- 1 terabyte of storage. When we went from our cable DVR a few years ago to the regular DirecTV DVR we were amazed at how much program storage that DVR had, and this DVR has even more. The 1 terabyte number just amazes me. Now this has been a number of years ago but when our company got a robotic offline mass storage unit the initial buy was for 14 terabytes and it was very expensive. Now PCs and DVRs have 1 terabyte storage, simply amazing.
- ability to have 100 series programs. Our old DVR had a limit of 50 and we were constantly having to manage that. Deleting old programs after the finale so that another program can be added happened way too often. We still have a couple to add but right now we are sitting at 55 series programs.
- ability to program in the future past the 2 weeks of programming in the guide for some programs. For example 'America's Got Talent' starts June 4th but Bob was still able to program the series.
- Picture in a Picture (PIP) is provided by Genie.
Even though we know we watch way too much TV we probably won't be changing anytime soon, it sure came in handy during our winter storms that is for sure. We will say that although we do watch a lot we still have avoided watching 'Duck Dynasty'.
For those old television watchers like us, I Dream of "Genie" - get it :-)
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Peculiar MO (Low 25 Mostly Sunny and Warmer High 67)
We will have a couple of nice days with a high in the 70s tomorrow but then colder. As the tentative date for our departure gets closer a frantic nature has emerged; there is so much to do and so many people to see before we leave that it seems a little overwhelming. This is probably due to the fact that we always had months before we were leaving and not it is just 3 weeks.
We are getting things done; yesterday we had the Cameo washed and detailed and the Ford washed and detailed. Today we get the roof mounted automatic Winegard satellite dish rewired to be single wired multi-switch (SWM) so that we can get the new Genie DVR from DirecTV. We are such TV junkies that having the ability to record 5 things at a time and watch the programs on the living room Genie in the bedroom is very appealing to us.
As promised here is the tip. We recently had a scare on our Norcold refrigerator which luckily turned out to be the cheapest option of a new thermistor. While researching the problem we came across the Acu-Rite Refrigerator Wireless Digital Thermometer (approx. $25 on Amazon), showing here.
With a sensor for both the freezer and refrigerator compartments with a wireless connection to the monitor it is a great idea. The monitor has magnets that are designed for use on the refrigerator but RV refrigerators, and most RVs in general, have hardly any metal for anything magnetic. Luckily in our Cameo there is the bottom part of the convection oven exposed where the monitor sets just fine. If no metal there is a stand that clicks open. What we also like about it is that you can set individual alarms for each area so you know when problems are occurring. We have used it so far to monitor the temperature so we can get the right temperature setting. A neat gadget for RVs and homes alike that is not that expensive.
As the departure date approaches we hope to do more blogging and we will definitely do more once we hit the road again.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Peculiar MO (Low 25 Mostly Sunny High 36)
We recently passed a significant Netflix milestone, we have rated over 1,000 entries of the Netflix library. Starting with "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" in April 2004 we have rented and returned almost 500 movies and TV shows. There are currently 336 in our queue with another 8 in the saved area waiting to be released. A great way to spend the cold winter days is to watch something from the Netflix envelope.
Speaking of cold winter days the second snow storm dumped almost a foot of snow bringing the 5 day total to almost 2 feet. It has warmed up and the snow is starting to melt so all we have now is either snow or mud. We cannot wait to get out of here and for spring to be sprung.
One of the few bright spots has been our backyard bird cafe. We recently added a "Birdola", which is a big cake that hangs on a bungee cord and is supposed to keep the squirrels away from the cafe. The birds liked the first one and the squirrel couldn't be bothered since he likes the woodpecker cage showing here.
One thing that has worked is a bag of stuff to throw on the ground, the squirrel likes this.
Of course JJ likes to keep track of everything, here he is right up to the window with a Junco on the other side on the ladder.
We have been lax in our reading of blogs and blogging, hopefully when we get back into moving and sightseeing mode that will improve.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
