Sundays

When I was growing up Sunday was the day that Dad made homemade popcorn and we watched a movie. While we were making popcorn he would sometimes tell us about when he was growing up. He would make a huge garbage bag full of popcorn for his family and they would eat that after their hotdogs for dinner, and watch a movie. I have many fond memories of helping, well watching my dad make the popcorn and helping to pick out the movie. As we got older I remember one Sunday that my Dad was gone and I decided I had watched him make it enough I would be able to do it on my own, so I started making it. The only problem was that I put in a little bit too much oil and when I started shaking it some of the oil leaked out from the lid that I didn't have on very tight. Well, I bet you are wondering what happened next. Well, where my pan was there now was a small fire. I blew and smacked it out with a dish towel. Luckily my mom wasn't there to witness. I was scared to death! I am not sure if anyone else was there either, but man after that I just finished making the popcorn and took it upstairs to the rest of the family. Now even though I am gone, Jon and I usually make a big bowl of popcorn every Sunday, that we are around and either play a game or watch a fun movie. (Don't worry Jon makes the popcorn.) A lot of times this is after Marcella goes to bed. But Last Sunday she stayed up and watched the Disney Christmas Classics with us. I just thought I would let you know Dad that your tradition lives on. I think Marcella is going to love it as much as I did growing up. Thanks Dad!

The Price of Living Close

I know it's daunting for our relatives living out of state to think about how much it costs to travel to visit family each year (or multiple times a year). Kanien and I were discussing it, and here's what we came up with. A quick search on www.orbitz.com shows us that we could fly from Salt Lake City to Baltimore, MD for $197 a ticket (that's from April 16-23 2007). So...if a family of three made the trip once a year, that costs $600.00. Yike! Not many of us have $600.00 sitting around to blow! For Kanien and I it'd be $400.00, because Marcella could sit on Kanien's lap, or the Pilot's lap...or my lap! And, if your parents help you pay for a trip like that, it could get even cheaper.



Well...it might surprise you to find out how much it costs to visit relatives when you live closer. From what Kanien and I have figured, we make 2.5 trips a week up to Davis County. Some weeks it's four trips, some weeks it's one trip, but we never go more than 7 days without going up there, and it seems like we go up every other day. A quick internet search and some easy computations reveal the average gas price from July 2005-July 2006 was $2.80/gallon for premium (that's what we use). The trip to Davis county ranges from 60-75 miles roundtrip, depending on where we go, and what we do while we're up there. We'll stick with a value of 68 miles. With a fuel efficiency of 27MPG (a conservative figure for our Passat), we use 2.5 gallons of gas for each round trip (I think that's a pretty convservative estimate, too, as we usually visit both parents as well as store trips and the like). Multiplying that by the average fuel price we spend $7.00 a trip, and $17.50 each week. Multiply that by 52, and we spend $910.00 each year on fuel to see our relatives. I was surprised it was so much.

HaPpY bIrThDaY gRacE!!!!

I hope that you have a wonderful Birthday! You are such a cute girl and I can't wait for you to come and see us. I am sorry I haven't mailed your present yet, but it will be coming. So you will get an after birthday suprise. Just remember It's Great being Eight!! We love ya!

Fixed it

Try to click on the link again. I am pretty sure Jon fixed it. Let me know if it doesnt work. Thanks and i hope you enjoy.
Kanien

Fun with HD

I'm pretty interested in High-Definition media. I love movies and watching movies and going to the theater, and having an HD home theater would be cool (Come on Dad...finish that basement!!!) ;) My video editing software can output true HD, but I don't have an HD video camera, so I can't make any true HD video. I do have a still camera that can capture images far above HD resolution (I'm sure most of you do, too, as even the highest resolution HDTVs are just over 2 megapixels), so I can make HD photo montages. I made some solely for my own (and Kanien's) enjoyment, but thought I'd post it here because some of you might be interested in stuff like this, too.

This one is done in what's called 720p, which is 1/2 of true HD resolution, but most of your computers should be able to run it. If your machine is less than two years old, it should. If it's older than that, don't even bother downloading the file because it's big (135MB), short (2 minutes), and will be a huge chopfest.

Most computer monitors are capable of displaying 720p, its just your graphics cards that can't. I did a 1080p video as well, but the resolution is bigger than your monitor, so it won't look any better than the 720p file. You can still download it if you want, but it's big (180MB), so I wouldn't. Anyway, you can try to watch it then say, "Uh....it doesn't look any different to me..." because I'm sure that's what you're all dying to do! Click the picture to download the video (or right-click and select "save target as...").




Jon