For our summer vacation this year, we decided to mix things up - a few educational things the kids have been wanting to see or experience, and a few pure amusement things for all of us. I could wax poetic for a while on the benefits of home schooling, but suffice it to say that with our year-yound approach, the kids are still enjoying the act of learning.. and we're reinforcing their enthusiasm as best we can.

Our first stop will be in New York's Central Park to visit the statue of Balto (the dog that 'saved' Nome Alaska). Ever since the kids read about Balto, this has been on their list. We'll end the day at a nice campsite in New Jersey just a couple of miles from Six Flags.

I'm taking Rebecca and Jacob on the Six Flags Safari in New Jersey: an up-close and personal visit with some creatures like giraffes and elephants. I'm sure there'll be more - it's a 2.5-3 hour affair. Reasonably expensive, but as my wife and I discussed, we think it's a small price to pay if the kids really get something lasting out of it. Who knows... with their penchant for biology already, this might put them on the path of becoming scientists! Or, it could end up being just a very pricey T-Shirt. We'll see!

Other stops on the trip will include the Maryland Zoo, the Liberty Bell (we'll be eating at Geno's too), Washington D.C. (standard faire: Lincoln Memorial, White House, etc., but the kids will enjoy it), a nice looking aquarium (Adventure Aquarium), and also some Crystal Caverns.

Our 'final' destination is Virginia and Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, where we'll be camping and doing day-trips - Fishing and what-not.

In any case, we're all looking forward to this! I'll try to blog (or at least Twitter) daily. We'll see how this works out, though: wireless hotspots might be hard to find.

Weee! Almost a week into my trip, and I finally found some cheddar cheese. A company friend back home who's been in India before suggested I try a convenience store in one of the malls, and sure enough, nestled amongst a myriad of other food stuffs, were some small packages of cheddar.

I frankly have no idea how to get back there if I need to (it's something like the "Mega Mall", but there are tons of small malls scattered around), but the package I bought should last me until the end.

I am looking forward to shopping in Delhi this weekend, and plan on seeing if I can find a snake charmer to take my picture with. I think that's the only thing that my kids would get a kick out of - pictures of their dad standing next to the Taj Mahal aren't all that exciting (see that dot? That's ME!). I've heard that Snake Charmers are against the law though now in India, so am unsure if I'll be successful.

Anyway, I've settled into a pretty nice morning routine - I tune into the Sox game, if they're playing, in the morning via GameDay, have breakfast, chat with my wife on google talk, watch a bit of a sci-fi movie on the DVD player, and then go to work.

Not sure what's in store for tonight's meal.. I think I might be on my own, which might actually be fun and relaxing.

You've gotta like MLB's Gameday Live feature. I'd rather be watching in Hi-Def to be sure, but being able to watch pitch-by-pitch results from anywhere in the world is pretty cool.

I may end up buying a Slingbox though

Jon and I had fun :D

The Galleries

We're watching Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III over again. The acting is still as bad as I remember, but the kids love it. As soon as Lucas authorizes HD versions of the DVD's, I'll pick up a set. In the meantime, we'll continue watching the classics (Shrek, Monsters Inc, etc. for the kids, and the Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Bladerunner, X-Men)

Watching stuff in true HD though is still incredible. I'm watching Hockey of all things, just to see the detail. The few shows that I actually DO watch are terrific in HD (How I met your Mother, Big Bang Theory) and I'm hopeful that Charter adds more channels soon to the HD lineup - Discovery channel is still in 'regular' resolution.

My brother and I will be catching the Red Sox on opening day (4/8) in Boston at the Beerworks - we may not be able to get tickets, but we'll still be able to enjoy the Fenway atmosphere, with good food, good beer, and tons of TV's.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my trip to India in a couple of weeks, too. I was amazed at how complex the process of getting a Visa was.. Ireland and Canada were downright trivial compared to this.

Amazon's front-page should be outlawed. They show you the items you've viewed in the past, along with recommendations on stuff you may like (which are surprisingly accurate), and to top it off, show you what other people have done after looking at whatever item it is. It's peer pressure, really, except that I don't know these people. I mean, how the heck do they know that I like Star Wars, Ginger Altoids, AND books on Wiki's? WTH?? (oh yeah.. I bought all that shtuff there)

In my defense, though, Red Sox season is starting, and my 'old' TV never really cut it as a HD set, even though it was big (51" Samsung). So, when I was browsing on a Lenovo X61 Tablet I'm evaluating, and went to Amazon to buy some printer ink for our Canon MP960, I saw the Sony Bravia KDS-55A3000 taunting me. I tapped my tablet pen on the "buy me.. you deserve it! you've worked hard! Think of the children! They need to see the Sox in HD!" button and told Mary Lou (my wife) that I'd kinda/sorta, you know... bought a TV. She just rolled her eyes.

BTW, this set was one of CNET's Highest Reviewed sets of 2007, and earned an Editors' Choice award.

Mary Lou and I actually picked it up at a Fedex depot early, to get a couple of days use out of it before it was actually scheduled to be delivered. It was surprisingly light (151 pounds). Hooking it up was pretty easy and intuitive - I really like the placement of the inputs on the SIDE of the set, and not on the back where these things normally are.

The first 'real' show I watched was the Red Sox in Japan - live HD Red Sox at 6am is pretty cool...