So what is this bizarre plot to the left here you ask. Some highly technical computer modeling of some fringe science? Perhaps one of those new-fangled computer thingies we know dvhart is always going on about. Maybe some nostalgic artifact from his days studying electrical engineering? Well... no. In fact it is simply the beam plots of an over the air antenna I am looking at installing in my attic. Yeah... just trying to watch TV. Turns out that there is a lot that goes into picking up a TV signal - an awful lot. I'm a week into my search for the right antenna (or antennas as the case may be - VHF-HI an UHF bands you know), and so far I've determined that despite living within 3 miles of the two transmission towers I care about, and even though those towers are within 10 degrees of each other, I appear to be dealing with skyline multipath and some other issues resulting from living in a valley and being surrounded by lots of very large trees. Oh, and the foil backed insulation in my house really doesn't like radio waves. It's been fun, but I don't know how anyone without 5 years of intense math and electrical engineering coursework behind them would dare attempt a less than trivial antenna installation. Sheesh. No wonder nearly everyone I know pays for cable! So in case you're interested in what it would take to setup OTA DTV (over the air digital television) at your house, check out the following links. Happy Hacking.

• TV Fool
• Antenna Web
• AVS Forum
• HDTV Primer (the source of the image above)

Thanksgiving is here again. It was quiet one for us here, but we enjoyed our time together as a family. We even skipped out the big food preparation and instead went to Marie Callendar's for their Holiday feast. we ate to much, and Devon had way to much Chocolate Satin pie but it was nice to come home to a clean house and just relax. We hope everyone else had a great day and time to relax and enjoy friends & family, and all of their blessings.

Well I know I am in trouble with my sister for not posting more this last month. It has been a crazy month and while I have had good intentions to post I just didn't ever feel like spend my limited free time posting. So what has happened in the last month, well lets see...

Trip to Mesquite: At the end of October we made the journey to Mesquite (2 hour plane ride & then 1 hour car ride after getting baggage & car rental - dvh3 was an angel!) My oldest nephew Jordan was speaking in church as he prepared to leave on his mission to The Baltic's (Estonia). My 10 year class reunion also happened to be the same weekend so we had lots to keep us busy. Really glad to have gotten to see a few of my old classmates but I must say I enjoyed the family time most of all. dvh3 got to play with his cousins and was following his new best friend Dayton everywhere.

After a few weeks of disillusionment with my progress on BrainDump, John S. pumped me up with noise about casting a broad net and all that. You know, the percentage of people interested in BrainDump may be small, tiny even, but if I notify the entire planet about it, I may just get a handful of interested and talented people to participate in its development. So this weekend I spent some time and finished up the web presence of BrainDump.

I generally have glorious visions of productivity for my weekends. I invariably (on Friday anyway) see them as an opportunity to get just a little bit ahead of where I am at the time. Saturday often presents itself with a few extras I hadn't considered on Friday, that make it difficult to get those couple of step forward I so long for, but I can usually manage at least one. This morning, dvh3 had other plans for me... he woke up at his usual hour (about 6:45) and Mary Lou stuck him in front of the digital babysitter so we could sleep in a little. At 8:00 his show was rolling credits and he needed his "muck", so I rolled out of bed to tend to his urgent demands. Too late it seems. He managed to get his hands on a red permanent marker and proceeded to furiously color the floor, the two new leather ottomans, the new leather chair, and the new area rug...

I'm a hopelessly slow reader, and it continually frustrates me, and later shames me in front of my friends. I just can't read the information fast enough to keep up with the world! I blame elementary school who had me read a grand total of I think 2 books by the time I was 12 (both involving dying dogs [1]... what the hell is wrong with you people?). I've been reading some things on how to improve my reading speed while maintaining comprehension, and also looking into how technology might be able to help. A colleague pointed me to SpreedNews which turns out to be awesome, and I top out at just under 500 words per minute before I simply don't remember anything about what I read. Now if the Amazon Kindel could incorporate this technology and allow me to read anything on the Kindel with this fancy rate adjustable phrase flashing awesomeness, I'd buy two... today. Unfortunately, one of the core technologies of the Kindel is their fancy pants epaper screen, which while it is great to look at and easy on the batteries, its refresh rate wouldn't allow for 20 words per minute, let alone 500. Ah well, maybe when Devon is my age he can get me a nice ereader that solves all my problems, without killing any dogs.

1. "Old Yeller" and "Where the Red Fern Grows" - both belong on the banned books shelf at my local library.

Well for those that don't already know, Devon is going to be a big brother in May. Baby #2 is officially on the way. Mom & Dad are very excited and Devon is also excited to be a big brother. So far he is requesting a little sister so hopefully he won't be disappointed if it ends up being a little brother.

At 12 weeks I am stilling dealing with morning/all day sickness. But it does seem to be getting slightly better. I also find that I am exhausted nearly constantly. Big thanks to Darren for picking up so much of the slack. If anyone is interested you can see the 1st ultrasounds here: # 2.

The Portland Children's Museum is currently running a "Bob the Builder" exhibit. Devon was very excited to go and luckily got there in time to meet Bob (although once he got up close he wasn't quite as excited.) He had a great time playing with all the different exhibits, especially the water tank - pump blue "water" balls through the tank. He also liked getting to try out all the machines and guess what saying they'd repeat. There was also a "Machine petting" out side where the kids could climb on really construction equipment. Definitely something we need to go back for before it is gone.

Okay the weather is starting to turn so I thought I better finally get the blog about of summer. We had a very busy summer this year & relatively short (because the rain didn't stop until late June) but we enjoyed it. Devon took a Sports class through the local Rec. center and loved getting to go play with balls. Soccer balls, t-ball, balloons, basketballs, and one of his favorites bowling. He also took a swimming class which he enjoyed especially the finally day when he got to go down the slide. We also spent a lot of time visiting new parks this summer. You can see many pics from those excursions here: Parks.

We also enjoyed a few days at the coast with friends. We visited Pacific City, OR with our friends the Mauery's and we had a great time. We have known Vernon and Lauren for basic 10 years and 3 kids later we are enjoying getting back to the point where we can have adult conversation. Thanks to Nicole their 5 year old who puts of with Devon (I believe she is his favorite friends) and helped keep the parents informed when the boys started getting tired of each other (Nathan is only 6 months older then Devon but some days that is a BIG age difference!) Even though the beach was a bit windy we had a great time. More pictures posted here: Pacific City, OR. Oh and if your interested in a funny picture of me being attacked by a blanket check out Lauren's blog from our trip - she has some great pictures of the kids too!

Free-IQTest.net - Online IQ Test

So our Friend's the Mauery's posted their test scores so I had to try it. Not to bad considering I guessed on a few, I made it into the "Gifted" category. Lots of advertisements trying to get you to sign up for stuff at the end before they give you your score though. You can wade past it all but it takes a while.