The Heart of Summer via Animoto

This video is viewable on it’s animoto page for browsers that do not support flash. All of my photos can be viewed on flickr; videos are on animoto and YouTube.

Our May was filled with visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Holzhausen, the beach at Millennium Park, camping with Grandma and Grandpa Klein, and Drake running around with my camera. I’ll let you guess which photos are his.

All of my past Animoto videos can be found on my Videos page, or on my YouTube channel. One thing that does bother me about Animoto is that there is no public page that displays all of my creations.

If you are interested in creating your own video slide shows visit animoto.com, were you can create free short 30 second videos. For full length videos you can get a discount of $5 off the yearly cost by using my animoto referral link. You’ll be able to get the All-Access pass for $25 per year for the life of your account.

Phineas and Ferb ©Disney Channel

“I know what we are going to do today.”

Drake has managed to get me watching Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. The basics of the show are two kids on summer vacation that create and do crazy things in their back yard . Like… building a rocket, fighting a mummy, climbing up the Eiffel Tower, discovering something that doesn’t exist, giving a monkey a shower, surfing tidal waves, or creating nanobots.

Drake’s love of all things Phineas and Ferb has gotten to the point where he calls members of his family names of the characters. He is Phineas, Theresa is Ferb, I am Perry (the platypus), and Garrett is baby Perry; occasionally grandma gets referred to as Candice . It’s odd that Garrett is baby Perry as there is not a baby Perry on the show, but there are plenty of other characters.

If you don’t know the show, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is an evil doctor and Perry is a secret agent that is charged with stopping his plans. This is one of the subplots that goes on in every episode. No on knows that Perry is a secret agent, unless he puts his hat on.

Now that I’ve been watching the show for weeks and there are plenty of episodes saved on the TiVo, I do have grown to like it. I’ve gotten the show so stuck in my head I have now changed some notification tones on my phone.  Perry has a one liner that gets played in the background whenever he is found out by Doofenshmirtz. The Perry line plays on my phone whenever I get an email. The other tone is for txt messages, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.

If  you have kids and let them watch TV, I would have to recommend giving Phineas and Ferb a look. Disney Channel has some episodes right online for sampling. Phineas an Ferb on Disney Channel

Last night while I was watching the Red Wings beat the Coyotes I had another mouse incident. I saw it run behind the TV stand, then I went nuts. I pulled out all of the books and things on the bottom shelf, the mouse ran under one of the couches. As I pulled up the skirt of the couch it ran under the other couch, then I lost sight of it.

My crazy continued; I picked up everything from the floor and moved it into the other room. I flipped one couch over to see if it was hiding under there, no dice. I started looking behind and under everything in the room with flashlights just trying to find the damn thing. This lead me to the two DVD racks in the room. I tilted one of them forward and bingo. It was back there. As I started moving the rack out I once again lost sight of the mouse.

So now everything in that room is away from the wall a little bit for easy viewing if I spot it again.

Now, the dream I had right before I woke up this morning was all sorts of mouse oriented. We were watching TV in a house that was mine, but it wasn’t this house. Theresa, Mom, Dad, Megan, Brooke, and Dax Shepard were all there. I spotted was was a gigantic beetle under one of the tables. I immediately jumped into action to find something to catch this foot long black beetle.

After a second I came across a pink plastic bucket and tried to trap it. After the bucket was over it there were claws coming up from the sided scratching the hell out of my hands. The beetle eventually broke free and darted into another room and behind a grandfather clock. My Dad and I started moving things out as he was mumbling something about “this damn old house.”

We didn’t find the beetle, but we did scare the crap out of a large mouse, which took off running into Megan’s room. I started tearing into the room and must have lost sight of it. The dream ended with dad, Dax, and myself searching with flashlights for holes and other places the intruders could have gone. My Dad was having a conversation with Dax about “this damn old house” as I woke up.

Update: On Sunday the 24th there were no mouse sightings. However, I can hear at least one in the wall between the kitchen and office. After work today I’ll have to do some more investigating.

After a boring and mildly uneventful day at work we had some dinner and took off for the arena. There wasn’t a large promotion or anything going on, but the Griffins played very well and put the hurt on Peoria.

griffinshockey.com – Returning from a five-game absence due to a concussion, Jimmy Howard made 24 saves to best former Detroit Red Wings netminder Manny Legace and guide the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 4-1 win over the Peoria Rivermen on Friday at Van Andel Arena.

Darren McCarty and Garrett Stafford each had a goal and an assist while Ryan Oulahen had a pair of assists to help the Griffins claim their fourth win in five games and stay within five points of first-place Manitoba in the North Division race.

Saturday started with some shopping and a bathroom project. The valve that controls the shower nozzle failed last week. By Friday taking a shower was not an option due to very little water actually going up instead of down the spout. This situation was a very easy fix. I just replaced the spout with one that has a gate diverter on it. Total Cost: $11.23 & 5 minutes.

I then watched the Red Wings game on TV. They were able to get past the Blues. Then it was off to the arena for day two of Griffins vs. Peoria. This time it didn’t turn out so well for the Griffins.

griffinshockey.com – The game was scoreless until a flurry of goals in the final six minutes of the second period saw Peoria go to the locker room with a 2-1 lead. The Rivermen (34-30-1-1) scored the first two, with Ryan Reaves cleaning up a loose puck in the crease at 14:22 and Nicholas Drazenovic splitting two defenders before beating Jimmy Howard at 17:09.

The Griffins would answer before intermission, as Francis Pare potted his 21st goal from just outside the crease, putting a rebound past Holt. Pare now stands as one of only five rookies in franchise history to score more than 20 goals in a season.

An unfortunate bounce for Grand Rapids resulted in a gift goal for former Griffin Carl Corazzini and a 3-1 Peoria lead just 1:11 into the third period. As Howard skated behind his net to stop a dump-in, the puck took an odd deflection off the end glass and caromed out in front of the vacated net, allowing the charging Corazzini an uncontested goal.

Sunday came and it was promising to be a long day of everything Hockey. The annual Season Ticket Holder Event was going on before and after the afternoon game. After lunch we arrived at the arena around 1pm. We collected our Jiri Hudler jersey cards and headed in. Our first stop was waiting for the next tour of the press box and control room. During this time Drake took a bunch of pictures with my camera. He must really like the flash and screen because he laughed after almost every picture he took.

We all headed up to the press box where we were told that Drake could not be for safety and security reasons. It was basically because there is no barrier keeping him from jumping from the table up there. I call BS, it’s not like I would have set him down up there. From there we were treated to the control room to see the sound and video boards. I even got to press the air horn button!

Down on the ice we were treated to the penalty box, and the chance to shoot some pucks. Drake was so cute and adorable playing with a full size stick. Yes, there are pictures below. After some fun down there we headed up to our seats, where Drake did take a short nap.

The game proved to be as tough as I thought it was going to be. They had to play three games in three nights, and the Admirals are a good team.

griffinshockey.com – The Grand Rapids Griffins suffered the season’s sixth one-goal loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday, dropping a frustrating 2-1 decision in their third game in three nights at Van Andel Arena.

The game was scoreless for nearly 58 minutes until a controversial interference call on Darren McCarty resulted in a power play goal by Milwaukee’s Cody Franson with 2:04 remaining, and the Admirals held on as the Griffins suffered consecutive regulation losses at home for the first time this season.

After the game we all seperated a little to gather some autographs. I sent Theresa to wait for Jimmy Howard. My dad was second in line for Justin Abdelkader, as I waited for Darren McCarty. Once those were completed we headed to the basement where the Griffins locker room is at. Yes, it is a locker room. Yes, it smells like a locker room wehre plenty of hockey players just changed out of game equipment.

Okay, on to the pictures. There are 77 pictures in thumbnail form below the cut. There are also two videos from the locker room. Enjoy!

Yesterday for Free Movie Monday I ripped rented Sex Drive. Theresa had made the recommendation. We’ll probably watch that one later this week or next. I still have the X Files movie on the TiVo waiting to be watched. Once there is a night with no TV on I’ll watch that.

Today I am going to pick up Transporter 3 and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I feel kind of bad for getting all of these free rentals from Redbox, so I am going to pay for a couple, plus the are only $1. On top of that I should be getting a fresh disk since these were released today. The potential of scratches should be zero.

I’m not sure what I will get for Free Movie March Wednesday yet. Maybe Body of Lies.

The only thing that is not working correctly now is pyTiVo. I use this to transfer videos back and forth from my TiVo units. For some reason I cannot get the TiVo units to see my computer. The computer can see 3 of the 4 TiVo units in the house. What’s even stranger is that now the TiVo units cannot see all of the other units in the house. I still cannot figure it out. The only real bad thing about this is that I cannot transfer my movie collection that is on my computer to the TiVo units. This might put a damper on Free Movie Monday with Redbox.

Thursday Criterion Games released new cars for Burnout Paradise. Yes I did buy them, just like I bought the Party pack. This whole paid DLC is new for me, as this is the first bit of Add-Ons that I have purchased for games that I already own. Both of the packs have seemed worth it to me. The new car packs that have been announced, Toy Cars & Boost Specials, may see screen time in my house, but I’m not sure. I do know that I will purchse the Big Surf Island pack as well as the Cops & Robbers pack. I still think they should bring back Crash Mode.

Drake went to a play date with Aunt Pat, and an old friend of mine stopped by to say hi.

Friday was a short day at the office. For lunch we went to the bar next door for some food. After that we just decided to call it a day. We went to the arena for a hockey game, but couldn’t get in. I had ripped the wrong tickets our of our season ticket pack. Theresa and Drake waited for me as I ran back to the car to go home and get the correct tickets, I still can’t believe I did that. That was the first time I brought the wrong tickets, now I’ve forgoten to bring tickets all together twice, but not the wrong ones.

The Griffins on Friday put together one heck of a game against the Manitoba Moose. This bit of statistics make me happy:

GriffinsHockey.com: With the victory, earned before a raucous capacity crowd of 10,834, the Griffins (33-13-6-5) pulled within four points of Manitoba (38-15-0-5) in the North Division race, broke the Moose’s eight-game point streak and ended their 14-game road point streak one game shy of the American Hockey League record.

Saturday morning it was nice to sleep in a bit as Drake didn’t feel the need to wake up at 6.30am. After we got up and what not Drake and I left to go to my parents house. Theresa stayed home to get some shopping and a few things around the house done. My mission was to install an external hard drive and move the document folders on the computer at my parents house. I had forgotten that the internal drive there is only 30GB. They now have plenty of space on their new 500GB drive. I also tried to fix the VHS/DVD Recorder combo unit that I bought for them some time ago. It is acting really strange, it shuts off after being on for only about 14 seconds. Since it is out of warranty the only suggestion the manufacturer had was to leave it unplugged for a while to see if it would reset itself.

The Saturday night game was a different story then Friday night. On paper we should have had no problem beating the Lake Erie Monsters. On the ice however we did have a problem. I’m not sure if the Griffins were all there mentally for the game.

Per Ledin scored twice to lead Lake Erie to a 4-2 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday, making the Monsters the only team this season to claim a pair of regulation wins at Van Andel Arena.

GriffinsHockey.com: Grand Rapids owned a commanding 33-18 advantage in shots for the game, but Garden City, Mich., native Jason Bacashihua made 31 saves to help the visitors to their second road win in as many nights against a second-place team, following the Monsters’ 3-1 win at Rockford on Friday.

Sunday morning Theresa and Drake stayed home from church. She was not feeling well, and a bunch of snow had fallen. We had a laid back morning watching TV and playing video games. The Grffins played at 4 in the afternoon which gave them 3 games in less then 72 hours. This time they were able to pull out a win, which shouldn’t have been a probem, but the third period was almost heart stopping.

GriffinsHockey.com: Jimmy Howard made 32 saves in his return from the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, including 20 during a frantic third period, to help the Grand Rapids Griffins claim their third win in five nights, a nail-biting 5-4 triumph over the San Antonio Rampage at Van Andel Arena.

Combined with Manitoba’s 2-1 loss at Chicago this evening, the Griffins have moved within two points of the first-place Moose in the ever-tightening race for both North Division and overall AHL supremacy.

After the game we went to the grocery store to pick up some dinner and some food for the week. I think this week I am going to be playing more of Burnout and Roller Coaster Tycoon, as long as I don’t get sucked into too much TV.

Theresa brought home a pizza for lunch on Sunday. It was infested with a tumor.

New Years Eve was nice. The Grand Rapids Griffins game was fun. The team had nice black jerseys on. I know there are a lot of teams that have black third jerseys that people don’t like, but I do. One this is that if they were to wear these black jerseys on a regular basis they will need to get black helmets. The Griffins normal helmets are a dark blue, but they still looked good with the black. We did not stay for the indoor fireworks, Drake was tired and I wanted to get over to Brooke’s place.

Drake went home with Grandma and Grandpa, and Theresa and I went to Brooke and Rob’s apartment. My other sister Megan and Brooke’s friend Katie was there as well. Nothing too fancy, we just played some Apples to Apples and watched Dick Clark stumble through the night. I think it was about 2am when Theresa and I made it home.

New Year Day was Christmas all over again. We had waited to have Christmas for my immediate family until then for a number of reasons. One thing that worked out well was that the Winter Classic II was on NBC. We opened more presents and watched the Red Wings win over the Blackhawks in classic fashion. It seems strange that last season Detroit could not beat Chicago.

After the game I helped Eric change the serpentine belt on Theresa’s Alero. Funny thing, you have to take off a motor mount to get the belt off and on. It didn’t take too long to do, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it by myself.

On our way home we stopped by Theresa’s sisters house to say hi and check on our niece. She had swallowed something earlier in the day and made a hospital visit. She’s fine now, but she still has not passed whatever she ingested.

Once we got home we made a Best Buy run. I had accumulated enough gift card money to purchase an Asus Eee PC 1000H for $5.99. My mom had picked one up a few days ago and I didn’t think about it when she bought it, but there is no dial modem in these. My mom’s house currently only has dial up internet, so now she is waiting for a usb modem to be delivered. They are thinking about getting a connection card from Sprint for their internet, which might even save them money if they were to drop their land line. The only problem with that is they would lose the phone number that I grew up with, and is the only number of theirs that I can remember off the top of my head.

Moving on… the Eee PC that I bought does not have the new fancy Atom processor in it. In fact it only has a 900mhz processor in it. That has yet to bother me though. There is 1GB of ram in the little thing which helps. The real test is going to be installing the Sling player. If It can handle that then I’m all set. I don’t plan on doing anything more intensive then that on the little guy. Surfing the web, checking the email, playing Pogo.com, and watching TV via Sling, that about it.

The software success come in the form of getting the HP On-Screen Cap/Num/Scroll Lock Indicator software extracted from my computer at work so I can put it on my Eee PC. There is no light or on screen notification for caps lock on the Eee PC, which bugs me. I set a router password in reverse case because I didn’t know the caps lock key was on. This program will help out tremendously. The other thing I did was remap the up arrow and right shift key. I made them trade places because my right pinky kept hitting up when I wanted shift.

I didn’t get too many pictures during the weekend. There were not that many good picture taking opportunities. We did take a family picture that I am sure my aunt will distribute soon.

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