A few weeks ago we decided to turn off our cable subscription. It has been easier than I thought it would be too. We replaced the $90/mo cable bill with $11 Netflix (blu-ray), streaming free internet tv and a couple of $1 movie rentals from Redbox.
Our blu-ray player in the theater has Netflix connectiviy as does our Wii in the living room. I also hooked up my Linux netbook to the HDTV in the living room and we can watch anything on Hulu or wherever from the web. The mythtv box is still connected to the network and I can drop media into a folder and share it to the Tivo upstairs using pyTivo.
Hockey and football season are just around the corner and the new seasons of Fringe, NCIS and CSI will begin in the fall. That’s when we will see how our system will work. Hulu should have most of the major network content that we watch. I am going to replace the $160 NHL package with $69 Hockeystreams.com and see how that works. Can’t miss a Sabres game!
I do wish that Netflix had more recent content to stream. They have a decent selection of tv series (we just started watching Dexter) and some older movies – but not much in the way of new movies. Of course you can get the newer movies in the mail but Redbox is only $1/day and they have a great selection of new releases.
I’m going to avoid using torrents. I can only think of one show that I might search the torrents if I cannot find it legally online – Top Gear. I’ll exhaust all legal means to find the shows online first. It would be easy if the BBC would allow non-UK residents to use their iPlayer on their site. I’m not going to consider using a UK proxy either. Maybe Amazon VOD has Top Gear?

We decided to remove the carpeting in our formal living and dining rooms and put some nice maple laminate down instead. The 2 rooms are about 450 sqft together. We purchased Mohawk Tanned Maple 8mm for the varied pattern and to lighten up the room a bit. The old brown carpet was a bit drab.

So Bud came out and brought some tools and we decided to bring the level of the floor up to the same level as the floors in the adjacent rooms. We bought 17 sheets of 5/8″ OSB and some screws and liquid nails. The OSB went over the tongue and groove yellow pine with some liquid nails and several screws. Once the was done we put the foam underlayment down and started piecing the floor in. The entryway around the stairs was a bit tricky and we needed to buy a Dremel multi-tool to cut out notches for the flooring to slide in to. The entire install took from 2pm-10pm Saturday and 6am-6pm Sunday. Bud left at 3:30 and Kim helped me with the rest of it.

Now we need some new baseboards!

Click the link below to see the pics..
Flooring Pics

Alaska Cruise and Denali Pics

We have had a week to digest all the food we ate on the cruise. I have uploaded a few pics of the trip. Just click the link above to view them. Keep clicking on them to enlarge hem.

Coral Princess leaving from Vancouver
Day 1 @ sea
Day 2 @ Ketchkan
Day 3 @ Juneau
Day 4 @ Skagway
Day 5 @ Glacier Bay
Day 6 @ College Fjord
Day 7 @ Whittier
bus to Anchorage
1 night in Captain Cooke
train to Denali
2 nights @ Denali Princess Lodge
bus to Fairbanks
1 night in Great Bear Lodge

It’s been a long project but it is almost complete! I have to add a door and finish the trim – a little bit of touch-up painting and that’s about it.
The screen is 7′ diagonal and is acoustically transparent. I built 3 Schumakubins for my front LCR. For the surrounds I built 4 Dragon Foals. Both of those designs are from Parts-Express tech talk members. Thanks Pete and Wolf!
For the subs I am using 2 12″ Protech’s being driven by an old Sony stereo receiver which is soon to be replaced by a dedicated sub amp (Outlaw Audio or Dayton sa1000). The Denon AVR-2808CI is a great piece of equipment. I am getting a Samsung 3600 Blu-ray player for Christmas and for now I using an Optoma projector instead of my Infocus Screenplay4800. The projector will be replaced sometime next summer.
The 4 chairs are Home Theater Berkliners with power recline and they are pretty comfy!
The equipment rack is a well-known internet design called the Flexi-rack. I actually made 2 of them and connected them together and the rack fits perfectly in the opening at the rear of the theater. The pics show it unpainted but I have since painted it flat black.

It sounds and looks great down there!. I have only watched a few movies and a couple of hockey games so far but I’ll be spending a lot of time down there as I get it finished. Who is bringing the popcorn???

Click here to see some pics as it it now

While in Europe I had some nice pils and realized that all of my kegs are empty! It’s been a long time since I have brewed and it’s time that I get busy. I’m going to make a nice easy-drinking pils. The ingredients are already on the way and it looks like Sunday will be brew day!

euro pils

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
Batch Size (Gal): 10.00 Wort Size (Gal): 10.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.00
Anticipated OG: 1.047 Plato: 11.69
Anticipated SRM: 3.3
Anticipated IBU: 44.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
93.8 15.00 lbs. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
3.1 0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt 1.033 2
3.1 0.50 lbs. Munich Malt(light) Canada 1.034 15

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
2.00 oz. Czech Saaz Whole 3.50 9.2 First WH
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz Whole 3.50 3.1 10 min
3.00 oz. Hallertauer Tradition Whole 6.00 32.4 60 min

Extras
Amount Name Type Time
1.00 Oz Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
WYeast 2206 Bavarian Lager

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Multi Step
Grain Lbs: 16.00
Water Qts: 21.60 Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 5.40 Before Additional Infusions
Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.35 Before Additional Infusions

Rest Temp Time
Acid Rest: 0 0 Min
Protein Rest: 125 10 Min
Intermediate Rest: 0 0 Min
Saccharification Rest: 152 60 Min
Mash-out Rest: 170 10 Min
Sparge: 170 75 Min

Total Mash Volume Gal: 6.68 – Dough-In Infusion Only
All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.

Edit:
Changed the hops a little. Moved the 2 saaz additions around – 2oz at 5 mins and 1 oz FW.
As I was checking the temp of my strike liquor I broke my brewing thermometer! Had to dump and clean the mash tun and go to wally-world for a new thermometer. Digital this time – no glass.
Hit 125F, 152 –> 147F –> 166F. Hit 1.034 preboil as I wanted. Pitched 2206 and 2001 @ 2pm and no bubbles as of this morning. Fermenters are in the brew fridge @ 50F.

Click here to see our Cruise Pics

We were invited to join some friends, Frank and Lisa, on a cruise to the Baltic. It just so happened that Kim just finished school and we could go! We hurried to book the cruise and the flights and started doing some research. The cruise was leaving from Copenhagen, Denmark and going to:
Stockholm, Sweden
Helsinki, Finland
St. Petersburg, Russia
Tallinn, Estonia
Gdansk, Poland
Oslo, Norway.
The ship was the Emerald Princess and it could hold 3500 cruisers and another 1000 crew. Our cruise was about 400 cruisers short of full. The ship is fairly new and very nice.
We didn’t get to see Copenhagen since we were tired from the flight over from Cleveland –> DC –> Copenhagen.
Days 1-2: We were at sea and just slept and tried to get accustomed to the time change.
Day 3: Stockholm, Sweden -
The buses to take us to/from town were slow and we wasted a lot of time. I hope they get this corrected for future cruisers. We met up with a friend of Frank’s, Michel and his wife, and they took us around the city. We visited the Vasa museum and did a little site-seeing. Along the way we found a little pub and had a beer. I had a local micro that I can’t pronounce but it was an amber lager and was pretty light but tasty nonetheless. The girls did some shopping and we headed back to the ship. The Vasa museum was impressive and is a must-see. Overall I enjoyed Stockholm and wish we had more time there.

Day 4: Helsinki, Finland:
Helsinki was very nice. We walked around and rode on the tram a bit. There wasn’t much souvenir shopping so we didn’t really buy anything. The Rock Church was on our list and it was worth a visit! The wound copper ceiling was neat to see.

Days 5&6: St. Petersburg, Russia
Lisa arranged a private tour company (Anastasia Travel) to take us around and show us the sights. I highly recommend this option. Our giude was very knowledgable and spoke great english. We went to the Peterhoff Palace and wandered around there most of the day. This place wa amazing and all those fountains are gravity fed!
We also went to a little bakery and had some really nice desserts. She also took us to a couple of nice shops so we could buy stuff to take home.
The next day we went to the Hermitage and walked through the Gold Room (or was it the Diamond Room??) This place was a bit overwhelming. Gold and more gold and more gold.

Day 7: Tallinn, Estonia

This was by far our favorite stop. Tallin reminded me of the cities in the Lord of the Rings movies. We walked around there and had a couple of beers (Saku) in the square while the girls shopped. The scenery here was amazing and Frank and I took a lot of nice pics. We were only there for a few hours and had to hurry back to the ship.

Day 8: Gdansk, Poland

We liked this place alot as well. The bus trip to the city took us through Gdynia and it was a typical city. Everything was very cheap in Gdanks. We had some brews from Zwieck (proniounced Ja-Vice) and some ice cream. We saw Neptunes Fountain and took some more pics. I would go back here again.

Day 9: . At Sea

Today was a lazy day and we just relaxed on the ship. While sitting in the wine bar a submarine came up next to us and some of the crew were sitting on the top of it. That was kinda cool. We went under the bridge that connect Sweden and Germany again as we passed by Copenhagen on our way to Oslo.

Day 10: Oslo, Norway

Frank and Lisa were getting off the ship a day early here so we went our separate ways and explored Oslo on our own. Kim and I walked up to the Palace and back down through the shopping areas. Very nice city but a bit pricey. I had a beer called Frydenlund and we bought some gifts and headed back to the ship. We did see the Nobel building too. There were more beggars here than any of the other cities we visitied.

Overall we had a great time and recommend this trip. There were a lot of rude people on the ship especially when it came to the lines for excursions and the buffets. The quality of the food was just ok for the most part. We had a bad meal in the steak restaurant but Princess made it right and gave us a free meal at Sabbatinis. That was a nice meal and I would recommend you spend the $25 cover charge to eat there. I would also recommend avoiding the buffets and try the room service. As far as the balcony room – it was nice but the trip was a bit cold to sit on the balcony much.

Next up is Alaska!

The server went down so I’m rebuilding the site. Should be running in a day or two. Might add the old content again but probably not. The photos will all be there though.