Elizabeth kicks butt in her first half-marathon

Elizabeth’s completed her first half marathon today – in just over two hours!

Chip Time: 2:02:26

Way to go baby!

Complete Race Results here

Snow in Southtown!

Yes sir, it’s snowing in Austin.

If it’s good for me, it must taste like ass

My wife has a good post on healthy eating, and more specifically, healthy cooking. I can certainly attest to the fact that she is a great cook, and it doesn’t seem like it’s “good for me”. When I was a kid, if my mom said it was good for me, you could be sure it tasted like ass. Think liver, brussel sprouts, and poached fish. Sorry, Mom.

Now my wife does most of the cooking (yes, I’m a lucky man), and she’s posted recipes for some of our favorite meals on her website. It seems like people think all we eat is grilled chicken breast & broccoli every night. While we do eat grilled chicken breast & broccoli (which I actually like) occasionally, she prepares unbelievable meals that I never expected to be “good for me”.  Her chicken chili is one of my favorites. Yum!

Liquid Stainless Steel

Check it out: Liquid Stainless Steel
Turn your old frig, microwave, blender, etc. into a stainless high-end appliance.
Think I’ll have to try this on some of the brass doorknobs still left around our house.

Elizabeth’s in training for her first half marathon

January 28th – Elizabeth will be running in the 3M half marathon.

Go baby!

Home Automation

I’ve had more than a few people ask me about my home automation, so here goes:

Outside Lights:

Goal:
I wanted my outside lights (front door/walkway, and driveway) lights to go on and off automatically, and I wanted to be able to maintain switch control of them.
In addition, I wanted to be able to dim the lights.

Hardware:

* I replaced the in-wall light switches with Leviton dimmer switches, which enabled X10 control, maintained switch control, they’re dimmable, and as a bonus, there is the soft-start feature, which gently fades the lights on and off over a 2-second span.

* To control these lights, I used an X10 Mini Timer, which allows me to easily set the on & off time of the lights.

Summary:
I’m really happy with how this works. It’s simple and reliable, and it’s so nice to have the lights be on when we get home, and I never have to worry about turning them on and off. In addition, switch control is maintained, while adding in dimming and the soft-start feature.

Master Bedroom:

Goal:
Make it easy to control the lights from bed, and enable dimming for a better bedroom atmosphere. We have two wall-mounted bedside lamps.

Hardware:

* Two X10 Lamp Modules

* Two X10 Mini-Controllers

Summary:
Not only am I happy with this, but so is my wife. The lights can be controlled from wither side of the bed, the controller is easily reached from within bed, the lights are dimmable, which gives a nice glow to the bedroom, and the “All Lights On” and “All Lights Off” buttons on the controller makes it easy to turn both lights on and off with one button.

Family Room:

Goal:
I have a CinemaQuest Ideal-Lume backlight for behind my TV, which I wanted to be controlled via my Harmony 880 remote. In addition, I have a floor lamp behind the couch, and I recently added rope lights above my window valances, so I wanted those lights to be controlled as well.

Hardware:

* X10 Infrared Command Console

* X10 Lamp Modules

* X10 Appliance Module

Summary:
Surprisingly, this is the automation that my wife likes the best. Being able to control the lights with the same remote as our A/V system is simply awesome. When the harmony remote turns on/off the TV, it also turns on/off the TV backlight. In addition, the lights are easily controllable simply by pressing the buttons on the X10 controller.

Christmas Tree:

Goal:
During the Christmas season, we wanted an easy way to turn on/off the tree lights, without having to crawl under the tree and plug in/unplug the cord.

Hardware:

* One X10 Lamp Modules

* We use the existing X10 mini-controller in the master bedroom.

Summary:
Couldn’t be easier to tun on & off the tree lights. I also considered using the X10 Mini Timer to have the tree lights turned on/off at a prescribed time, but manually clicking the button to turn them on is pretty simple, and when we go to bed, simply pressing “All Lights Off” turns off the bedroom lights and the tree.

Backyard Landscape Lights:

Goal:
Automatic on/off of backyard landscape lights

Hardware:
* Low-Voltage Landscape Lights
* Landscape Lights Transformer with Dusk Timer

Summary:
This has been working perfect for the last 4 years. The lighst turn on automatically at dusk, and turn off 5 hours later.

HVAC:

Goal:
To have the heat/air-conditioning programatically controlled for more comfortable living and to reduce energy costs

Hardware:
* Honeywell Programmable Thermostat

Summary:
Set it and forget it, works great. Being able to set multiple-times in a day is a key, as is separate weekday/weekend control. For example, during the week, we have our desired temperature from 7-8:30 AM, and from 5:30-9:30 PM. On the weekends, we have our desired temperature from 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM.