Our first night out....

It doesn't sound like much but we had our first night out without Zachary last night. My work's Christmas party wasn't really a child friendly occasion so we left Zach with Grandma and Granddad and headed out. We left about 6:30 and home about 11. I managed to only check my phone a handful of times and we only sent 1 text to say we were on our way home. I think I was the most stressed about leaving him out of the two of us.

All went really well though, we arrived home and couldn't hear him crying from the street (which was a good sign) and he was happy to see his mum and dad home.

When good blends go bad...

Some TV Speakers...

I know, didn't I just get 7.1 going? How could I need any more speakers?!?

Since we got the TV we've been toying with idea of some speakers to increase the sound quality (I say we, because although I want them Ness suggested it first). It's not the the TV speakers are un-listen-able but when you swap from the TV to either the Tivoli or worse still the Jamos it's very noticeable difference.

I've been looking at a couple of options, either running something from the Zone 2 output of the Sony or some separate powered speakers. I decided to look at some powered speakers and run them from the output of the TV simply because the looping everything out and back in through the amp was just going to be too many points of failure when the Harmony was involved, with surround modes, sub setup changes and listening position settings.

I started looking at some high end computer speakers, specifically (as much as I hate to admit it) the Bose Computer MusicMonitors. While I normally prescribe to Bose philosophy (Buy Other Sound Equipment) these seemed to fit the bill with pretty small form factor but decent enough sound. Their real problem was the exorbitant cost. I continued searching and I stubled across what I thought was the ideal set, Wharfedale Pro Diamond 8.1. I loved the old Wharfdale setup that I used to have and missed the sound of music tracks they produced in comparison to the Jamos (although the Wharfedales just can't compete in the movie front). These are the same speaker setup with an Active Bi-amp design with 60W LF and 40W HF power.

Yesterday however I was swayed with yet another set of amplified speakers, this time from an iPod Dock. The Cygnett Unison i-X5 iPod speakers.

No prizes for why these drew my attention... :)
They are an Australian designed speaker and (even in a black finish) look stunning. They are also (most importantly) no slouch in the audio department. With a number of reviews holding them in high regard. 

In the end it will come down to price, the Wharfedales will probably sound better (although not red) but are 200+ more than the Cygnetts.

Only time will tell (and by then I'll probably have found something else)

the sun is getting high at 530am

Last Post, in a day of blogging

I did a bit of work today to get the 7.1 speaker system going. Vanessa, Zach, Tia Mandy and Grandma went to the moonlight cinema to watch Rocky Horror so I set about making sure my 7.1 system was up and running. There were a few minor hicups here and there but nothing a Zip Tie or two couldn't fix.

From Lounge makeover

From Lounge makeover

From Lounge makeover

I've only used it for a little of Gears and about 5 mins of Speed Racer but so far the new setup sounds promising. Stay turned for more updates.

It's a miracle. We can cook again!

We had new kitchen appliances installed the other day. Which I admit is probably only exciting for us. The spock with this though was that we bought an induction cook top and none of our old pots and pans worked. Luckily thoug there are shops for this sort of thing and I picked up some nice shiny new ones. We've only got enough to get up by hoping that they'll be on sale after xmas.

Where is the pram when you need it?

A relatively successful shopping day today. The crowds in the city weren't too bad and despite forgetting my research notes I finished almost all of the shopping I had planned to do. I even managed to fit in a little bit of shopping for me.

Xmas Shopping

For some reason i've found shopping for presents really hard this year. One of the hardest things has been trying to work out what to buy and not buying Zach anything new.
Today i'm going to try and Finalize the shopping but i suspect that the City will be a bit of a nightmare

Epic Fail

So.... after a motherboard replacement for my video issues and then a new monitor because the backlight was broken (not plugged in) there seems to be a few things my laptop would like to chase up...

Really how long does it take to write a post.

I started this post on Sunday and it's now Wednesday and i still haven't finished. Yesterday (Now should read Saturday) was a hot day! We had plenty of plans of going out yesterday but after a few hours out everyone was too hot and cranky to keep going so we cancelled the rest of our day and headed home to the sanctuary of the Air Conditioning. It certainly has been earning it's keep over the weekend.
I must admit I wasn't really prepared for how sleep deprived I would end up over the last 7 weeks and the heat certainly makes you feel every lost minute of sleep.
Work has been pretty busy as well with two projects trying to finish sign off before xmas. I've actually tried to had a day off in the last two weeks but each time have ended up with a meeting before 8am and the rest of the day filled. I was going to move the day off to the week before Xmas but it's filled up already *sigh*.
I thought I should put up some xmas present suggestions as well because I've been getting a few hints that I'm hard to buy for. 

So here goes: (in no particular order (and for the second time because my phone just powered off in the middle of typing and lost the list))

Indoor/outdoor Thermometer
Camera lightbox
Wii games
360 games
DS games
Cool/Retro/Gaming T-Shirts
Any of these Blurays
Any of these DVDs
iTunes Vouchers
Small Computer speakers (like Bose Companion II)
Tivoli Sub
Bluetooth mini keyboard
Guitar hero in any form
Real Arcade stools (or Kartell ones)
Astro Chair
Apple TV
New riding gloves/jersey/shorts
Cuff links (gaming or geek related is always good)
Any gluten free goodies
Crocs

Glow Brick

Gorillapod

Pyramat Gaming Chair Helps You Keep Up Appearances in the Office [Office Chair]

Duracell PowerSource: Impressive Portable Power For All Your Gadgets

Frigits Mini Rube Goldberg Toys

Wall-mountable Fireplace Heats Up Your Living Room

pulpo drop coat rack 
dish doctor 
propello fan 
amleto 
slide light 
savings tower 
offi laptop + mag table 
candela 
Mario Kart Track 
Remember stools 

TIX Led Clock
Plush Robot Tissue Box
Welcome In Binary Floor/Door Mat

USB Mini Desktop Aquarium
atomium floor lamp white 
woofy cable concealer white 

Not to Overshadow Ben, but it's Post 1000!!!

Surely there should be some streamers or something... maybe a balloon?

Actually this is post 1002, post 1000 was the one while I was out walking Zach. Unfortunately I don't have anything as insightful as Ben to write for my posting milestone. It will be great to catch up with Ben while he's here! 

I do have some good news though, yesterday I spent 20 mins running on a treadmill followed by someone taking an ultra sound of my heart. The end result of that is an all clear from my Pericarditis episode earlier in the year! Probably one of the best Christmas Presents I could get.

And where was my real camera

A beautiful sunrise on the river

Someone was a bit cranky this morning so we came for a walk to enjoy the sunrise. We've been pretty happy so far (touch wood)

Monday and back to the grind

We had a great weekend this weekend. After a long time coming I finally got around to watching Ironman. While it's a better than average comic hero conversion movie, the transfer to bluray is STUNNING and just looked fabulous in Studio 54 GoldClass. It was almost as cold as the real gold class as well with the new industrial strenght aircon.

The weekend was filled with a fair bit of work for me with the occasional outing (as Ness has put so beautifully) for some Chrismas Shopping. It was pretty hot out in the markets but we managed to keep Zach out of the sun despite his protests about wearing the hat.

The weekend went really quickly and I feel somewhat down on sleep, but hopefully this week will be a bit quieter and I might get some longer sleeps as Zach is staying asleep a bit longer (probably with the combination of the aircon and moving Zach to his own room)

And after a few weeks of searching I finally found my DS again, which is perfect timing as Andrew and I are going to brave the worlds longest sushi queue in the City today, We'll need something to entertain us!

It's official Coooooold in here.

The aircon is in da house!

From Aircon

The installation isn't finished there is still a lot of plastering work to be done but the big important job is done, the cold stuff is in! It's nice and cool in every room of the house now even when it's not blasting the air out. There is still all the finishing to be done, like boxing in the unit and the ducting into the lounge all of which will be done next year, but even now the cooling is better than ever.

I'm amazed at how quickly they got all the gear into our place and how they did it. When I checked it out at lunch that vent you can see in the photo above was being held in place by a guy in that ceiling space.

We did get some plaster work done but mainly patching up from where the lighting was done yesterday which looks great.

From Aircon

They've done a fantastic job and if anyone is looking for airconditioning I'd recommend these guys in a heart beat. Both days they've been here despite all the plaster cutting the house has been almost completely dust free.

The aircon is getting close.

I dropped home today to discuss some of the finishes for the plastering and it's progressing really well. The exposed ducting is different to what i expected but not really sure I knew what it would look like. The good news is we're still on track for an Icy studio 54 by tonight.

Documentation

Apparently our Scope documents are too detailed for our customers.... I've spent a few hours working out a new template today...



I think it's pretty succinct

7.1 is on it's way

After blogging that there wasn't much on the way as far as tech was concerned. Well after some innocent ebay browsing I stumbled across some matching speakers for my Jamo THX system. They are the flush mount rears for the system, which means I'll finally have a >5.1 system after have 6.1+ amps for years.

Yesterday we had some new lights put in, (which is a continuation of the previous light change over) we added some halogens on the roof in the bedroom (which look fantastic) and a big fluro in the study (which finally gives us some usable light)

Today is also the Aircon day! Hopefully by the weekend we'll be kicking back in some chilly A/C!

Floods in Venice

Just a year after we were there, Venice has been hit by some amazing floods. Tom sent me these photos yesterday.

Previous Next

The Adriatic Sea has poured into the streets of Venice reaching a level not seen for more than 20 years, leaving much of the Italian city submerged, forcing residents and tourists to wade through knee-high water.

I remember something I forgot to post...

From more photos of zachary

Aren't baby's supposed to lie on their back? Clearly Zach missed the memo. At least he's started rolling to both sides now so he won't get a flat head.

Wish I could think of a title.

I should be able to think of a title but here we are posting and without a title. It's been a busy few days. I had a whirlwind trip to Sydney for Dev's wedding. Unfortunately we were told that Zach shouldn't be flying so we changed the travel plans and I flew down alone. I made it to one of the Ceremony's but had to fly home early and missed the others. It also ment I had to miss out on catching up with people while I was there.

From What's in a Name?

The ceremony was great and the bride and groom looked fabulous. It was a great ceremony (even though I didn't really understand any of it). Apologies to everyone I had to cut short on in Sydney.

It's really starting to get humid up here at home and I'm very looking forward to the Air Con install this week. It's been a hot few days but it hasn't got much over 27 in the house but the humidity has been up over 70% most days (even now at 7am it's 70%) Zach doesn't seem to much of a fan of the humidity either.

We went out for our usual morning walk this morning, but amazingly we weren't the only one with a STOKKE stroller out on the river walk. There is another white one that passed me this morning, while we complimented each other on a great pram choice.

The little Zach is really starting to grow, I'm not sure how much longer he's going to be fitting his 0000 clothes, he does look cute in a hat though.

more photos of zachary

The next few days are going to be busy as we have to clean out the study for the A/C install. I'm not looking forward to moving that desk bed that is for sure.

There has been little movement on the technology front for a while, although I am keeping my eye on a pair of speakers that match my Jamo THX ones, which would give me 7.1. The A/C budget does tend to slow the progress of the tech fund a little. I did pick up a copy of Iron Man on blu ray, which I think will be on the top of the watch list for the first post A/C movie night. With no A/C and our windows the only source of cooling it's a little hard to close half of them off to lower the screen and then turn on the heat pump (also known as the projector). We did fire up the gear for Vantage point last week on Foxtel HD. Not a bad movie (certainly not a great one) but didn't try to be too much, and it was short.

That's about it for this post, I'm sure there is more I should put in here....