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Hawaii
Sep 4th
Yes we are here. 
Our trip started fine with us easily catching our flight out of Atlanta. It was delayed half an hour which made it really simple to catch, but we were there with plenty of time even if it wasn’t delayed.
This flight took us to Houston, Tx where we caught our connecting flight to Hawaii. The half hour delay on the first flight meant that really all we had time for in Houston was to go potty and then board our flight, but that was fine with us. 12 hours of flights later we landed in Hawaii.
Since then we have been attending the C3i Global Conference, catching up with friends and swimming in the ocean.
On the first night of the conference Ps Phil Pringle spoke and prayed for healing over certain people. The session was great but Pen and I both struggled with tiredness due to the 6 hour difference between Atlanta and Honolulu.
Today we had the conference in the morning and Cannon Jay John from England spoke. He spoke on what the church should be and how it should reach out to the lost. As far as leadership was concerned the thing he said that struck me was “Your intake (reading the bible, praying etc) needs to be greater then your output, else your upkeep will be your downfall”.
In the afternoon we went to lunch with some friends and then for a swim in the ocean. Ahh a bit of relaxation finally.
In the evening session of the conference Ps Kong Hee from Singapore spoke. He gave the run down of all he went through while building his church to the 24+ thousand that it now has. It was incredibly inspiring.
It has been fantastic to be here in paradise catching up with everyone.
Tomorrow we hope for more fantastic teaching, swims in the ocean and meals with good friends.
A Wedding and Two Parties
Aug 26th
This weekend we went to a wedding and two parties. The wedding was on Saturday. Barn Sweetman (yes he’s the son of our churches pastors Dean and Jill Sweetman) married Holly Hibbert. It was really cool to see two young people so excited to be starting their marriage journey together. It was also cool to see how emotional Dean and Jill were to be presiding over their eldest son’s wedding. Congratulations guys and all the best for the future.
On Sunday we had a Kids-Tribe/Pre-Tribe thank you pool party. It had been raining and due to the short period of time between the party and Steven’s Birthday dinner (we could only stay an hour), the kids didn’t get to swim. Daniel wasn’t too impressed about this but he coped pretty well after 5 chocolate bickies/cookies and some pizza.
Pen and I followed this up with dinner with some of our best friends Steven and Claire, and Brian and Jessica to celebrate Steven’s birthday. B&J combined with us to have our favourite baby sitter Frances King look after their kids and ours. We asked Daniel what time he wanted to go to bed and he said 10. 
We said “Not likely” and said to Frances that 8:30pm would be more like it. Daniel and Gracie (B&J’s daughter) ran off to play, while we went off to Longhorn Steakhouse for Steve’s Birthday. (As a side note, Jessica was telling us that on their way over to our place Gracie was telling them that she was going to marry Daniel)
We had a fantastic time. Pen and I really love the little tradition we have where for each of our birthday’s, the six of us get together to celebrate. It’s fantastic catching up and having adult time where there are no munchkins running around trying to get our attention.
Apparently the kids had a fantastic time too, as when we got home at 9:45pm Daniel was still up playing. Oh well what can you do.
Next week Pen and I are off to Hawaii for the C3i Global Conference. Hopefully we will find some time to blog from Hawaii so you know what we have been up to.
Tivo HD
Aug 23rd
As I mentioned previously we placed an antenna in our roof so we could pick up the local stations in HD, without having to pay the cable company anything. As a side effect of this we needed to be able to record the HD signal. Having been Tivo users for the past 3 years, we couldn’t imagine having to sit down and watch TV at an appointed time. There was only one way to do it and that was to get a Tivo HD.
All in all the installation was quite simple. Connect the basic cable signal up to the cable input. Connect the antenna up to the antenna input. Connect the Tivo wireless adapter into a USB port. Plug the Tivo into the TV and then plug the Tivo in.
Go through the Tivo guided setup, which takes about half an hour and you are up and running.
It was at that point that I ran into my first and only problem. The problem had nothing to do with the guided setup but with the version of the software that came pre-installed with the Tivo HD. 
The base software installation was version 8.1. Apparently somewhere in between version 8.1 and the latest version 9.4 Tivo fixed a “feature” Tivo HD users have come to call the “Gray Screen of Death” GSOD. The GSOD is something that for me only occured on my cable channels. What would happen is randomly the Tivo Box would loose the cable signal and then only show me a gray screen. This would mess up the recording of a show and allow me to only watch TV that was coming in via my antenna. The only way to get the cable channels back was to reboot the Tivo unit.
After talking to the Tivo tech support who only said that I needed to upgrade my software without giving an explanation ( I don’t think the lady I talked to really knew why I should upgrade apart from that was what she had been told) I force connected to Tivo to get the latest software upgrade.
This took quite a while but the good news is that I now have software version 9.4 and everything is now fine.
So how did I know it was a software fix? While waiting for the software to download I started reading on Tivo’s Forums, where I found this used to be quite a common occurrence. For some people though it was worse then what I had. If they were using dual cable cards then when the Tivo HD peformed a GSOD for them, they were dead in the water. With a reboot their only recourse. Now however after software upgrades, everything seems to be good.
The moral of the story is, if you buy a Tivo HD and encounter the GSOD, make sure your unit has at least software version 9.4 installed on it.
After all this would I recommend getting a Tivo HD. YES!
For more on this issue check out Tivo Gray Screen Part II
Another Weekend and congratulations
Aug 17th
It’s Sunday and another weekend is almost done. Yesterday Pen traveled off to Woodstock (not the place where the big concert was) and tried to help a friend of ours with their end of year finances. This left me with the kids for the day.
We started by going to Kroger where both of the kids were very happy to have a cookie/bickie to eat. Stephanie was so happy that she stuck the 1/2 I gave her into her mouth and sat there for a while with cookie protruding from her mouth, looking as pleased as punch.
After dropping the groceries at home, we then headed off to Home Depot to pick up a cable outlet faceplate and a cable box for the wall. The reason for these purchases is because this past week I installed an antenna in the roof and ran a new cable down the wall, so we can pick up the free to air, High Def local channels without having to pay the cable companies exorbitant fees.
After the kids nap, or in Daniel’s case rest I took them to the Mall where we were going to go to a Jumping Castle place. This didn’t work out however as the place had closed down. Thinking quick while Daniel is asking “What is the something special we are going to do?” I took the kids to the play area in the mall. Daniel got right into it, while Stezza was a bit unsure due to there being so many “Big kids” around. After about 10min of watching everyone from daddy’s arms she got into it and had a ball.
We followed this up with an ice cream and drink from Chick-fil-a. Stephanie is now a HUGE fan of chocolate shakes. 
Sunday was church where we helped implement a new security system in the Pre-Tribe area. Basically every parent now has a key tag whose number is assigned to their children. If you don’t have your key tag then you can’t pick up your kid(s) from Pre-Tribe. It’s quite simple and most parents were very appreciative of the system being put in place.
After a lunch at a Greek restaurant with our friends Nicia and Pablo, we are now back home. Daniel has had a rest and is now watching “Toy Story”. Stephanie is having a much needed nap (2 hours late), Pen is reading her new book “The Shack” and I’m here typing the blog entry.
In other notable news this week, our good friends Rob and Belinda Billing’s second child was born. Molly Sarah Faith Billing was born at 6:38am on 8/6/2008. Congratulations guys and welcome to the world of multiple children.
Motorola H680
Aug 12th
A month ago my old Motorola HS850 bluetooth headset broke. By breaking I don’t mean not working any more, but broken in that it would just flop around on my ear while I was wearing it. So it was time to get a new headset. After some investigation I decided on the Motorola H680, pictured to the left. So far I have to say I’m happy with my purchase.
The H680 is smaller, lighter and has a better sound quality then my old HS850. The downside is that it does take longer to make a connection with my phone and is a touch harder to put on (this is only an issue if I have forgotten to put it on or turn it on and/or someone calls me while I am driving).
Overall though it was a great upgrade and well worth the purchase. If you are looking for a new bluetooth headset consider this one. If you haven’t used a bluetooth headset yet, try one, you’ll love it.
Daniel is growing up
Aug 8th
Today is a bit of an eventful day. Today was Daniel’s last day in the 3 year old room at Daycare. For those of you wondering ‘why was he still in the 3 year old room?’; yes he has been 4 for about a month and a half now but the way things work here in Georgia, the Daycare centers follow the school year for what is known as Pre-K (aka ‘the 4 year old room’).
This means that all of the kids in Gwinnett County who will be starting school next year (who are aged 4 before September 1), start Pre-K on Monday the 11th of August.
Pre-K in the US is what an Aussie would call ‘Kinda’ and Kindergarten in the US is what an Aussie would call ‘Prep’. (i.e. First grade starts at the same age, but Kindergarten here is attached to the ‘elementary’ school, the way Prep is attached to primary school) Clear as mud? 
The sum of it is, that our little boy is growing up. In Pre-K they actually run a classroom like environment, and for the first half of the day teach them the required syllabus. This includes counting, alphabet, shapes, learning Spanish, learning the vowels, gross motor skills and respect for yourself and others to name a few.
Daniel already knows & excels at some of these, and we can’t wait to see him being challenged in other areas. Just think in one more year he’s in school and then we really do have a kid on our hands and not a baby or toddler anymore. Crikey I can’t believe how time has flown. Well at least we still have Stezza to fill in the baby gap for us.
Podcasts
Aug 2nd
About two years ago I gave up listening to radio on my way to work and started listening to Podcasts on my iPod. If you don’t know what a podcast is then check out this Wikipedia article . Since my commute averages about 45min this gives me a good amount of time to listen and learn each day about what is going on in the world or to just be entertained.
I start my drive each day listening to the CNN News Headlines which takes about 3min and gives me the news headlines for the day. After that I move onto what ever else I have downloaded for that morning.
The main podcasts I listen to in no particular order are:
Buzz Out Loud by CNET – A daily tech podcast
This Week In Tech – A weekly tech podcast
Phil Pringle Preaches – a weekly (well it used to be weekly) podcast of one of Phil Pringle’s sermons.
Golf Better – A fortnightly podcast about the latest gear in golf.
Podcastle – A weekly Fantasy short story
EscapePod – A weekly Sci-Fi short story
Celtics Stuff Live – A weekly podcast about the Boston Celtics.
Of all of these my favourite would have to be EscapePod. Steve Eley does a fantastic job bringing a diverse range of Sci-Fi short stories each week. Anything from a well written children’s story about a dragon, to superhero stories, to space operas, to stories that are definitely not for children. If you have 45min a week and you’re interested in Sci-Fi stories I highly recommend this podcast.
If you are in the tech industry then “Buzz out Loud” and “This Week In Tech” are a necessity.
If you want good, challenging preaching then Phil Pringle is the way to go. Phil Pringle’s podcasts are both Penni and Daniel’s favorite podcasts to listen to. Yes that’s right Daniel listens to Phil Pringle podcasts and even requests to listen to them.
All of these Podcasts are available through iTunes, but iTunes is not a necessity to listen to Podcasts.
So if you are sick of the talking heads on the radio and want to listen to something a bit different then I suggest you give Podcasts a try.
A couple of Vacation Days
Jul 28th
This weekend Pen and I took some leave so we could spend some time with the kids. Pen took Friday and Monday off while I took Monday.
On Friday Pen and Daniel were invited to the pool by some friends from church. Daniel had a blast running around, jumping, swimming etc. They followed the pool up with a good hearty lunch of McDonalds and went home where Daniel had a nap for two hours. (He did play hard). That afternoon they went to our neighbor Julie’s house (who has just had a little girl – Jeslyn) so Daniel could have some more water fun playing with his buddy, Jase, in their little pool.
Saturday was spent shopping and playing at home. Stephanie enjoyed playing ‘pretend sleep’ on Daniel’s big boy bed while mommy was making it. Mommy knew better than to leave her child up so high with no hands free, and as her daughter sprang herself off the bed toward the toybox, time slowed down… Pen yelled ‘noooooo’ (slow motion) and caught Stephanie’s very elastic top in a desperate attempt to catch her daughter on the way down. Yeah, she has a cool cut and shiner now on her left eye and when someone asks, our standard response is ‘You should see the other guy!’.
Sunday involved going to church and in the afternoon the kids got to play on the slip and slide. Daniel loved it. Stezza thought it was good, but according to her it was just as much fun to get up and down off a chair.
Monday we went off to the Georgia Aquarium and spent the morning there. We could tell that Daniel was excited as he talked non-stop all the way there, and was running, skipping and jumping around the aquarium while we were there. Stephanie also loved it, and there were many squeals of delight/joy coming from her as the animals swam past. If you haven’t been to the Georgia Aquarium I highly recommend it.
We finished the afternoon off by going to The Children’s Museum of Atlanta. Once again the kids had a ball, this time separately. Stephanie loved playing in the 2 and under section while Daniel tackled everything else. He even got to go in a circus parade while he was there. According to Daniel the clowns were very funny. (The Children’s Museum currently has a circus theme.)
Now it is time for rest. All of the kids are in bed and Pen and I get to savor the last of our vacation day before being back at work tomorrow.
Batman – The Dark Knight
Jul 26th
I went and saw “Batman – The Dark Knight” with a couple of mates last night, and all I can say is “Wow!”. It was awesome! Action packed and intense from start to finish.
Christian Bale again did a good job as Batman, and Heath Ledger was incredible as the Joker. You would swear that Ledger was insane, he played the role of the Joker that well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an academy award nomination coming his way for the role. Others who had seen the movie told me that they were skeptical going in about Ledger’s performance as they thought it was just hype after his death. The hype though is worth it.
The movie is summed up best by one of my mates who had already seen it. “You won’t regret spending the $10 to see this movie.” Over all I give this movie a 9/10, it was that good.
Kung Fu Panda
Jul 21st
Daniel and I went to see Kung Fu Panda yesterday at the cinema. This was the second full length movie Daniel had gone to at the cinema and the first one that he had no connection to at all. (The previous movie was “Veggie Tales – The Pirates who don’t do Anything”)
The movie itself is quite funny and worth seeing (7/10 for a kids movie) and it’s something we will probably end up owning in the future, when it is released on DVD.
How did Daniel do in the movie? Let’s say he was really good at sitting down and watching the movie for the first 1/2 an hour. For the next hour he was up and down on his seat. Looking forward, looking backwards. Tapping on the floor and the seat in front of him. All while watching the movie. (Hey, he’s 4!) He had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
The girls got to have some together time too while the boys were at the movies, which Pen said was lovely.
