We have a VOIP service and have had for 2-3 years. Some of you will say what? VOIP is an internet phone where all of your calls to and from your phone go accross the internet and back. It is cheap (16$ a month for unlimited US calls and 500 free mins to Switzerland and 3 cents a min thereafter) and fairly decent quality. Yes we use real phones and yes it works pretty well (most of the time). So this brings us to our feature story.

As I mentioned our phone works pretty well most of the time. We have had occasional problems like when the internet goes down we reach for the cell phones but otherwise no big deal. We have noticed the last few days it seems like we have had a few extra wrong numbers but you can blame that on a full moon or low tide or something. So this morning at 6AM we get a call. As I said we had gotten a couple other early AM late PM wrong numbers. My wife and I are awakened after a restless night (wife sick with cold/flu/west nile virus? coughing and keeping both of us up) by a ring. Short on sleep and not without some frustration regarding these unsolicited wakeup calls, my wife answers the phone:


Wife "Hello"

Nice Indian gentleman "Hello, my name is Sridhar"

Testy Wife "Yes"

Sridhar "Do you have an internet phone?"

Defensive Wife "What does it matter to you?"

Apologetic Sridhar "Oh yes sorry. I too have internet phone and have problems with my calls going to your number. I fact I have called you by dialing my own number."

More forgiving wife "Oh. Yes we do have SunRocket VOIP."

Sridhar "Ok. Are you here in St. Louis I think our numbers got crossed somehow."

Wife now ticked at SR "No we are actually 1636 miles away in Idaho."

Confused Sridhar "Hmmmm. I will call today again to see if I can fix phone. Thank you."


So now we start to understand why we have been getting so many confused people calling us all hours with Indian accents. At first I thought it might be people too shy to ask for my Tandoori chicken recipe but no it seems to be a major messup for our VOIP provider. To be honest I think it has been much worse for Sridhar but it is still annoying. So later in the day I call Sridhars wife and had the reverse conversation. I did my good Samaritan duty by passing along a few phone messages from those that had called her that morning. Later I was able to talk to Sridhar and give him all of the information needed to hopefully correct the problem with SunRocket. He has not asked for my Tandoori chicken recipe yet but I think he is warming up to me and might in our next email correspondence. So if you try to call on the phone don't be surprised to find Sridhar or his wife on the other end of the line.

The big trip to Weiser

Today was the much anticipated trip to Weiser, ID to see Uncle Bob. This would be two hat Bob not Uncle Bob from WA. Anyway, we got an early start. No false turns thanks to GPS and we arrived in Weiser by 10 AM about 1 hr 20 mins trip total.

The first line of business was to see Uncle Bobs house which we have pictured below on the left. The house is large and decorated in hats, walking sticks, belts, and lazy boy chairs. Uncle Bob got a deal on 6 chairs just broken in. The kids enjoyed all of the knick knacks and din't break any treasures. We then packed up and went over to see Tia Rosa. Her daughter and son in law have a bed and breakfast. They came up to Weiser from Roseville and bought a mansion for 200,000 and have been working on renovations for the past year. Picture below on the right. Check out http://www.brodersonhouse.com/ . We took the tour, visited, and then went to the country club for lunch. It wasn't too fancy for being the fanciest place in town but filled the belly. The kids fell asleep right quick and we missed out on the Weiser museum and other attractions that Weiser has to offer. There can also be a next time.

Lots of fun but not much blogging or picture taking.

Well, I had a mind to take pictures with all of our family here over the weekend but not so. We were too busy I guess at least that is my excuse. Our story begins:

Friday night fun night:

We went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. The decor/ambiance left somewhat to be desired and also started us off with low expectations but the food was quite good and in the end we left with a positive feeling and full bellies. I wouldn't say it was best in town but best we have had so far with a sample of one.

Saturday:

We went the next morning to pick up our Swiss Uncle from the airport not without some drama. We decided to go into to see him come through the doors. We waited and while and not much happened so we ran down to the baggage claim and no one was there. We looked through the bags and none looked big enough to be Uncle A's. So we asked the attendant if he could check to see if he was on the plan. He got on his computer and said, "He was supposed to be on the plane but he didn't board". So then we start to think of lots of worse case scenarios. I called the wife to make sure she didn't have messages and to see if she could contact him on his cell. By the time I hang up, the attendant says, " Oops I was looking at the wrong day, he was on the flight and he should be here somewhere." But where could he be this is not exactly a big airport. So we decide to go upstairs to see if he is outside on the upper deck as we had only looked below. As we were going up he was coming down. So this is the answer to the mystery. He arrived and passed through the entry doors before we arrived there. As we waited for him there he went not to the baggage claim but to the front desk ticket counter to change his return flight. So this is where he was as we ran around trying to figure out where he went. All was well that ended well and we proceeded to Costco for steak and etc. That night we followed the BSU game and Uncle A crashed on the futon at 8pm due to some residual jet lag. The game turned out well with a BSU win.

Sunday:

This was a busy day with morning meeting and a potluck afterwards followed by our first big gospel mtg which was pretty nice. We will be having them Wed and Sun. This should be a good year for us. Afterwards we went for a quick visit with the cousins of our cousins and then back home for dinner (Uncle A steak) and a game of Settlers that I dominated.

Monday:

The day started with sourdough waffles thanks to Auntie and then we did some last minute shopping with Uncle A before we put him on the plane with only 3 pounds over on his luggage to which they allowed with a reprimand. So we said our goodbyes with plans for them to come mid Dec through mid Jan. The grandparents and i picked up the kids and had a quick campus visit and then it was home for napping. All in all a busy and fun weekend with plans to get back together soon for more fun this winter.

Sorry about the no pictures. Maybe for the winter visit.

Grandparents start the fun early

The Grandparents left Winnemucca this morning heading for Boise. The plan was to be in Boise by early afternoon. For those of you who have made this trip it is a monotonous with sage and open range with not so many towns or people or services. Kind of like going across Nevagda on I80 but without so many places to stop. There are however, lots of cows and coyotes. Cell phone service is mostly not. Anyway, 45 minutes out of Winnemucca the Grandparents decide to blow out a tire.

If you look close at the picture you can see a car at the side of the road. That would be the grandparents. Luckily, there is a spare and Grandpa has changed a couple tires in his career as farmer. But the big question of the day - how far can one go on a donut spare anyway? I guess we will find out. So here we wait to find out if they make it to civilization or wether we need to make a trip to Jordan Valley, OR to rescue them or ? what we do know is they won't be here anytime soon.

Three hours later...............

Well, we just got the call that they found a spare tire and got it put on and they are headed our way. They are about 45 minutes away so that is good news. The bead news is that we put off cleaning the house as we weren't sure if we had to go get them. Hopefully they make it without further problems. I am off to clean the house and my children have a mind to do the opposite we shall see how it turns out.

Looking forward to a fun filled weekend....

We are very excited that our Swiss Brother in Law/Uncle is coming to visit from Switzerland. He is in the states for a meeting and will pay us a visit. We don't even know all of the places to take visitors as we have not been here long enough to figure it out. So I guess we can explore together. We will take some pictures and post them especially for the poor Swiss haus frau and her 2 kids still at home.
We are also excited to have the grandparents visiting but we had been palnning that for months. Maybe we can try to take in a football game or some other fun Boise thing. BTW BSU is now ranked 25 in all major polls this week.

Cat in the Hat - Thing 1 and Thing 2 visit the Extrem4 household

Ok, you will all recall the story of the Cat in the Hat, when he visits the two kids and ends up messing up the house and getting that gooey stuff all over everything. Today, I figured out what that gooey stuff is, thanks to my two kids (aka Thing 1 and Thing2) running some indoor rainy day experiments with Playdoh and water. Who would have guessed that the secret ingredients used by the Cat in the Hat to spread mayhem was simply Playdoh and water. But this is all it takes to spread a film of gooey (in this case blue) film all over the floor, chairs, tables, the carpet, the Things 1 and 2, etc, etc. Once it is all cleaned up, the Playdoh will mysteriously disappear into blue air.

Resident Cowboy rustling Piglets

As you can see this cowboy just rode in from a log nap out on the range. He caught this one stray Piglet and was taking him back to the pen when I shot this picture. Notice the Ostrich skin (fake of course) Ropers this young roper is sporting. Picture below shows detail not to be missed. where do they get blue Ostiches I wonder?

Well, the house may not been clean and dinner is not started but we do have multiple blog entries in one day and that counts for something! (Doesn't it??)

You can take the girl out of Michigan but not the Michigan out of the girl.

Experimenting with video. This is not worth the download unless you are a grandparent of my kids.

http://myweb.cableone.net/chestrem/CIMG1315.avi

Click on this link to view short unexciting video.

Mr. Buddy

There is nothing quite like a berry smoothie to give you that red Walt Disney pencil thin moustache.

TSCHAU not TSCHUSS

Here we are playing with our blog. I am learning how to post with pictures etc so bear with us. Here is a our first attempt. We finally got our plates. I had TCHUSS in Michigan because TSCHUSS was not available and it was the same here so i went to TSCHAU. I suppose that next year when it is time for renewal I will check to see if TSCHUSS is available for the other car so we can have TSCHUSS - TSCHAU in our garage.

Family blog.....Take II

Heidi has been the blogger in the family, which is odd since I am supposed to be the one that is into computers, electronics, and neotechnology (I am still your best bet for a road trip to Fry's.)I started one blog that lasted for one post but not beyond that. We now read lots of blogs and I have realized more the value of blogging. It is easy to do and is a good way to disseminate pictures, video and news to the masses.

So here I go again. This time I am thinking of more of a family focused blog to keep up with the life and times of the Extrem4. I don't think many beyond family or friends will find it interesting but you never know (the other night I spent an hour reading a blog of a girl I went to high school with and haven't seen in 20 years.)

The previous blog was created with a different idea in mind. Kind of more like a journal/soap box for me to pontificate on general social issues and solving the world's problems. I imagine that this blog will not be without the occasional pontification but it will be kept to a minimum. Ultimately, I need to reclaim my place in the family as the #1 techno suave family network administrator that I am. So without further adieu I'll move onto the posting of familial posts.