Alex....Meet Alexander Ovechkin....

                                                 Capitals Convention 2010!!

Andrew.....Meet Alexander Ovechkin....

                                                    Capitals Convention 2010!!

Alex Is Playing Ice Hockey

So, Alex came to us 2 weeks ago and said she wanted to play hockey.  She doesn't even know how to skate I said.  But, I believe in trying everything (except a mini van) once.  Saturday was her first practice.  She was fired up to get on the ice.  Never knew it took so long to put on hockey equipment.  I have a pointer to first time players, tape up your hockey socks right below your knee, trust me, they will fall down.  She stepped on the ice and fell down right away.  Then she started to cry.  Michelle got her calmed down, from there, she didn't look back.  She fell down a lot, but got up with a smile on her face every time.  The coaches were very patient, 1 on 1 for the most part.  She started to get it and by the end of the 1 hour practice, she was staying on her skates, could pop right up after going down, and was starting to glide around.  She wants to go to open skate today so she can be in the Olympics.  I'm a very proud dad, what could be better, or cooler, on a Saturday morning than coffee and hockey!

Movie Review - The Crazies

I can't come up with something every day for my cutting the cable blog, so I can add a movie review!

My family is out of town, so besides working in the basement, we so need to have a yard sale, I can catch up on horror flicks.  Michelle won't watch them with me so this is the only time I get.  Usually 2-3 weeks out of the year and I can get them all in.

The Crazies is your typical zombie flick, in fact, George Romero is the executive producer for a remake of his original from 1973.  A biological weapon is accidentally released on a small Iowa town and gets into the drinking water.  Eventually, people start going crazy.  A husband and wife fight their way out of town and in the end make it out alive just as the town is getting nuked.  They make there way to a bigger small town in Iowa, and it leaves a sequel open from there. 

If you really want to watch a recent zombie flick, go for 28 Days Later.  Much better than this one and most of the recent horror flicks.

I Finally Have A New TV!!

It took me a while, but I bought a new tv. For our bedroom. Cheap LED from Wally World. Needed the hdmi inputs. Since getting rid of cable, the tv in our room, a 1980s Sony repair job my dad gave to me years ago, no longer does what I need. I bought another WD Live TV, bought a wireless network adapter and hooked it up to the tv. BAM! I was watching the British Open on ESPN3 this afternoon and Tigers/Indians on MLB.tv this evening. So far so good, I am very tempted to upgrade my router from wireless g to wireless n so I don't have to worry about any choppy screens. We'll see how it goes. Got a good deal at radio shack today on a Net Gear wireless n adapter that was $20 cheaper than anything I could find on ebay. Upgraded the firmware on the WD Live TV and it was plug and play from there!!

Can now fall asleep watching west coast baseball, nothing like listening to Vin Scully!!

Saturday Morning, 2 Kids, No Cable, What To Do?

I first suggest coffee, or any caffeinated beverage of your choice. Now that you can think straight, let me tell you what to do. Since we don't have a workable television yet (I have one on the way to network with the rest of the house) I can't watch tv in bed with the kids anymore. Downstairs we go while Michelle and the dog sleep.

1. There is a PBS feed from NYC on justin.tv. But, no kids shows right now. It does pretty much match our local PBS station here in Roanoke though.

2. Over the air tv. Right now, nothing good on. Saturday mornings on regular tv are not like the used to be. ABC starts some disney shows at 8am, but not much in the way of cartoons. What happened to Looney Tunes back in the day?

3. WD Live TV and Netfilx. It's been a Phineas and Ferb and Suite Life of Zach and Cody morning.

So, even though we don't have cable, my kids and I are snuggled up on the couch watching tv and are all happy. Please, don't forget the caffeine.

So you have sports, what about other TV options?

Okay, even if you are not a sports freak like me, there are plenty of options on the internet to get your favorite shows. The only show I'm following this summer is on the SyFy network. Warehouse 13 Very good show by the way if you want to check it out, Tuesdays, 9pm. My wife loves that terror propaganda spreading #1 show on television, NCIS. I have a link to USA network, and she can watch all the re-runs until she thinks Al-Qaeda is in Roanoke. You like shows on TNT and TBS, I have that too. Weather Channel, all the major news networks, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Bloomberg. Here is a list, which is ever changing, just like the internet, you have to be diligent to keep up your list....

atdhe.net Numerous options are listed on the front page, which is mostly sports. Click the live tv page, which has all the news networks, as well as sites that show movies all day long.

goalfanzine.com I just found this site a couple weeks ago when I was looking for a live SyFy channel stream. It has all the major USA cable and broadcast networks. Schedules are updated daily for the primetime shows. Very nice site. Note, you must turn off any ad block software you may be running and click on the ads periodically. Some of you may not want to do this, but netflix is the only one I ever have to click. If you don't do this, you will not be able to watch the streams. The quality isn't great, not hd or anything, but again, we are saving money here, and quality will have to be given up as a result.

justin.tv again, a great site, good for sports, weather channel, movies, news, you name it. search for what you want, and bookmark the page. you can also register and keep a favorites list.

ustream.tv very similar to justin.tv. search for what you want, bookmark the page, or sign up and keep favs.


Again, there are many other options, these are a few of the best internet sites I have found that broadcast live television. There really is no channel you can't find if you do enough searching, and again, it's all free babeeee!!!