Joe and Jamie's Blog

Saturday was an exciting day. Not only did we have the MLS game to go to, but Verizon came to install FiOS for our TV and internet. I am very happy we finally are getting digital cable plus consistent internet speeds with great upload speeds. You can view my post where I was very disappointed with Time Warner here.

The installation process took around four hours for completion. That includes the guy running the cable from the pole to the house, mounting and activating the box on the house, and then checking the signal strength to each TV before plugging in the cable boxes. We are lucky that the FiOS terminal is the pole right in front of our house, makes for an easy setup when you are the main pole for the area.

Our installer Darrell was very neat and knowledgeable. He did an excellent and thorough job. I have some pictures of him connecting the wire to the pole and the box on the outside of the house. I helped him where I could since I am interested in all that sort of stuff. Learned a lot about how they deliver the fiber that day.

I haven’t been home all weekend besides just being here for the install to know how great the TV service has been. I know its nice to finally put our HD TV’s to use. Today I really tested the internet. I have been uploading and downloading files all day to see if the speeds slow down at any point, and they don’t. We have the same download speeds as Time Warner, but ten times the upload speed. We got the internet bundle with the 20/5MB speeds. What is great is they can always increase the speed dramatically if I want and guarantee the speed consistently. Here is the new speed test from www.speedtest.net while on FiOS.

Time to head down to the Time Warner office now and return the equipment.

I just ordered Verizon FiOS tonight and it will be installed this Saturday. This means that our Road Runner email addresses will no longer be in service.

Please be sure to update your contacts to our new personal email addresses shown on the contact page.

Jamie will be sending out a mass email tonight with her new email address. Thanks.

As promised in this previous post, here are some pictures of the painted pantry. This took a lot longer than expected, and still isn’t fully completed. Too many birthday’s and busy days at work I guess are to blame. I still need to move the refridgerator to paint behind it and finish painting the cabinet doors so I can hang them. I’ll get around to most of that this weekend…hopefully.

This past month I have been gradually repainting the kitchen. My mother, well all of us really, were tired of the old wall paper that was starting to come down. It had been up there for 10 years, my guesstimate. So after a few weekends and weekdays, skipping a bunch of days in between, the kitchen is now freshly painted. Just need to paint the outside door and I’m all set. I am waiting on the weather to warm up a bit before I start the door.

Now I have moved into the pantry. We stuck with the same colors since the rooms flow into each other. I am about half done with the pantry. I need to finish the trim, paint behind the fridge, and inside the cabinets. From the pantry I get to move into the dining room and start all over. Fun, Fun, can’t wait.

How the kitchen looked before the project

Above is what the kitchen looked like before we started this. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture so I had to crop this from an older photo. At least you can see the color and wall paper.

Aww so pretty!

Snazzy looking corner there!

See the pantry, that's next!

While the tree was being decorated Sunday, my father and I hung the icicle lights on the house. It wasn’t too cold out, compared to Saturday. Lights went on the gutter nice and easy since they gutters are brand new seamless gutters.

After Jamie was done with the tree she came out and helped me put the colored lights on the railings. It went fairly smooth, just had to use zip ties because we weren’t allowed to staple into the freshly painted house (painted just this summer). Jamie left to go bring my sister to work and I put up the last strand of white lights that went around the wreaths and over the door. The pictures aren’t as great as seeing it up close, but that’s what I get for dropping my camera right before taking the pictures. Come drive by and enjoy!

Christmas lights on the house

Christmas lights on the house

Today we went out and bought our Christmas tree. Since it had rained for two days straight and was below freezing we decided to just get one off a lot somewhere, rather than go cut it down. We had to the same last year and the tree was great. Our family likes the short and full trees. Ceilings aren’t too high in my house, plus its a pain decorating a 7 foot tree when you are 5.5 feet tall.

My father and I put the lights on it after cutting the base and getting to to stay in the tree stand. The next day, my mother, sister, and Jamie put all the decorations on the tree.

After the tree was set, Jamie and I wrapped up our gifts to get a jump start on things. More or less we had nothing better to do, but its fun wrapping gifts.

Check out the tree!

The chosen one.

Jamie holds the chosen one while I step back to take a look.

Christmas tree with lights on it.

Larger wreath on the front of our house.

Wreath on the front of our house.

Christmas tree all decorated.

More of the decorated Christmas tree.

Closeup of the little dog ornament!

Jamie adding candy canes to the tree.

All done decorating!

Jamie wrapping Christmas gifts.

All the presents are wrapped!

Who put those there already??

It was a typical autumn weekend full of cutting the grass that was way too high to rake leaves and then getting all the leaves into bags for the first collection this Wednesday coming up. As you can see there are plenty more leaves to go around. Jamie and I spent a few hours each day this weekend picking up all the sticks and leaves from the yard and mowing.

You can see here we filled up a good amount of leaf bags even though all the trees still look like they are full. By the time we were done, there were two more barrels  added and another leaf bag.

I just really love the way everything looks when I go outside now. I have a great time enjoying the cool weather and like to be outside as much as possible. Jamie and I were a little tired so we didn’t go on our walk, but we’ll do that next weekend.

For some reason I thought this was the coolest shot I have taken all season. I know I’m weird but looks, its half empty, and not from the top down like most other trees.

And here is that one pain in the butt tree. See how its barely yellow on top? Yeah, that tree waits until it snows to fall, making the last cleanup impossible and really annoying.

Here is a shot of Tymor Park in Lagrangeville where Jamie plays soccer. I am just glad I don’t have to rake all those! See the white thing towards the left? Everyone out here owns horses apparently so they always take them out and practice jumps and stuff. Fun watching the dogs run around with the horses too.