Diversions

  • Nightmare on Independence

    With Halloween approaching, the most difficult of tasks was upon us – deciding what (and if) we would do in regards to a haunted house. The first problem is that admission fees have risen rather steeply in recent years, and the second is that our kids are at…

  • 25th Annual Mint Hill Madness

    The 25th annual Mint Hill Madness festival was held this weekend, and it was quite an improvement over years past. Held at Mint Hill Park on Fairview, the event has seen dramatic growth recently – as has just about every event in the area. It's hard to imagine…

  • 43rd Annual Festival in the Park

    Yesterday we visited the 2007 edition of the Festival in the Park – the 43rd go-round of this annual staple at Freedom Park. As is usually the case for the event, the streets around the park are absolutely packed – so you'll want to be prepared to walk…

  • EVGA nForce 680i SLI 775 A1 Motherboard

    It's been a good while since I've built a PC, so when I decided that it was time, I figured that I should start with a solid motherboard. The problem, of course, is to decide how to choose. I mean it's not like there is only one motherboard…

  • The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum

    After Wonderworks, we really didn't think that there was much that we could do to match the activities of the prior day (in actuality, we didn't really think about it). Especially since we were finally on our way home. But relatively early on a Sunday morning, we just…

  • Infrant ReadyNAS NV+

    In recent years, USB drives have gained popularity as storage needs have grown. I had a 230 gigabyte drive until perhaps a year or so ago, at which point I outgrew it. Yes, I really do store more than 230 gigabytes, but that's not what this is about….

  • The Great Thanksgiving Food Poisoning Virus From Hell

    I have to say that Thanksgiving is, hands down, becoming my favorite holiday. Yes, this is at least partially because I like to eat. But it's also because there is very little work involved. And no, this does not mean that I don't do any work for Thanksgiving….

  • Get to Know Your TiVo

    One of the first things we noticed on our new TiVo was that it already had some shows recorded, in a group called TiVo Video Tours. Our first thought was that it was going to be something like the quasi-spam email that you get from Microsoft when you…

  • The New Hanso Foundation

    After it seemed that The Lost Experience appeared to have come to a rather disappointing conclusion, fans who followed the unfolding drama over the summer may have (understandably) been a bit underwhelmed….

  • 180-hour TiVo Series2 DT DVR

    We recently purchased our second TiVo – the 180-hour TiVo® Series2™ DT DVR. Sure, we considered the fancy 300-hour TiVo® Series3™ HD Digital Media Recorder, but as we don’t have any HD-capable displays, and the 120-hour Series2 box that we already have rarely fills up, we really didn’t…