The Internet

About three years ago, Rachel and I finally broke down and got high-speed internet. We started service with ClearWire. It was basically internet over the cellular network, and you had a modem/antennae that you could plug in to any wall socket and as long as you were within the coverage network, presto, instant internet. It was very handy, until the modem started to break down. I had to take it apart three times and re-soldier components back into place. They locked me into a two year contract when we signed up, and the contract was almost up when they sent out notices that they were going to start offering free upgrades and equipment replacement to all existing customers. I was starting to get pretty frustrated with the hardwarem but liked the idea of mobility, so I decided to stick it out till the new hardware came. I'm glad that I did. The free upgrade trippled my DL speed and we got a shiny new modem. The old one still sits on the windowsill, looking old, pathetic and outdated next to the new one. The new modem feels a little more solid as well. I have been fairly pleased with it overall, even though they did get rid of the option to bill me annually instead of monthly... I liked just having it paid and not having to worrk about another bill every month.
Anyway, the real reason I am writing about this is because today, I went into the Clear store in Seattle and purchased a new USB modem for true mobility. The USB modem is about three inches tall or so, and sits unobtrusively off to the side of my laptop. I did have to download and install some software in order to get it to work, but that was fairly easy if only a little annoying. The installation software that comes in the box is only good for WinXP... Vista has been out now for a while... Come on Clear. As far as the connection goes, I am very impressed. I was able to play League of Legends without problems, and streaming video has not posed any problems so far. I haven't tried to DL any large files yet, but I will write about that later.
As of this moment, I am happy with my "$55 Home+Mobile internet for life" deal.

I'm 30

I turned 30 this week. I would have written sooner, but we spent the whole week away from the computer, with family. We drove to Utah to spend time with Rachel's family and to see her grandfather who is very sick. It was basically a goodbye visit. I got some good pictures and a shot or two of video with him and the kids so they will have something to look back on and remember. Anyway, no one knew that it was my birthday except for Rachel until about two days later, since we spent a good share of it driving. And as far as birthdays go it was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. I think I am over the whole birthday thing, now that I am dead, I mean 30.
After we spent three days or so in Utah, we traveled up north to visit my brother in Idaho. He lives in Rexburg and right now there is snow covering everything there. We went out shotgun shooting on someones farm, we went to the sand dunes and went sledding, not on the sand, but on the snow covering the sand. They are really steep, but not super tall so it made for some really great sledding. Ammon didn't really enjoy it, he is a fairly cautious person, and it didn't help that on one run down with him I lost control of the inner tube we were on and rolled it over him. We also played a board game called Blockus. I think that is how it is spelled. If anyone wants to get me that game for my birthday, I won't be upset about it.

The End

Not of my blog, but the year. I would like to list out all of the major things that happened to our family this year. This might take a while, so if you don't see this post until well after the new year, just know that I started it on Dec. 31, 2009 at about 5:30pm. I don't have a lot of really wise or sage things to say, but I just want everyone to have a great new year. I hope that all your wildest dreams come true. There are a great many good things that I hope will happen for our family this year. I hope that we get our house built this year. I hope that I get back the benefits that were taken away from us at work last year because of the economy. I hope that we have our third kid this year. I hope that it is either a girl or a boy. There are other things too, but I want to be done for now. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

Sometimes I think that the Christmas season in general is over rated. I mean, spending time with your family is great and everything( we spent Christmas eve at my in-laws, Christmas morning at our place, and Christmas day with my family), and the whole presents thing is nice (I got a few games for the Wii, some Oriental style cookware, a magazine subscription to one of my favorite magazines, and Rachel bought me the nook, the e-reader from Barnes and Noble though it will not be here till mid February), and the food is always good (I made Belgian waffles for dinner at the Dunns and then for dinner at my moms, we had rib-eye steak and Dungeness crab). But other than that, I think the whole thing is over rated...

But not really. I'll write more when I have time.