So Long, Time Warner Cable!

Yesterday was a momentous day in our house - in addition to the election: 

We cancelled our cable service! 

We will save $100 a month while still viewing all the same programs. (insert happy dance here!)

What finally sent us over the edge was Time Warner sneaking in a $4 a month charge for renting their cable modem. A cable modem, mind you, that the installation technician  REQUIRED us to use even though that is not Time Warner’s policy (I could do a whole other blog post on this saga alone). Of course, this $4 was in addition to horrible service and sporadic signal. 

Here’s how we did it:

For about $80, we purchased a HD antenna that plugs into our digital ready television giving us all of the local stations - AND in better quality than we were receiving via Time Warner. Note that each television needs one of these - but you literally just plug it in and have the TV scan for channels.

Programs that aren’t local or we don’t view live are streamed off the internet for free through our AppleTV - which we purchased a couple of years ago for about $100.  For example, if we want to watch last week’s episode of Big Bang Theory, we go to CBS.com on our apple laptop or newer iPad and have it stream the video to the AppleTV.

We plan to subscribe to Hulu Plus for $8 a month - but we haven’t had a need to yet.

We still have Time Warner for our internet access - because we don’t have any other options where we live - and believe me, we’ve searched. We did purchase our own modem.

$100 a month - that’s $1200 a year! If you are even considering such a move, I highly recommend it. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Or let me know if you’ve done the same and how it went.

Here's our HD antenna - it's about the size of an apple ipad.

10 Month Update
We still love being cable free. The only big change from the above description is that we purchased Roku from Best Buy for about $80. It's a box that plugs into the back of our tv (similar to Apple TV - but with many more channels). If you want to get your Geek-on - then check out Plex, which turns your computer into a server and then speaks to your Roku - so that you are able to stream previously aired shows from ABC/CBS etc. straight to your tv. It works  similarly to a dvr but it only keeps the last five episodes.

Aspergers: To Tell or Not To Tell....

From: Emily Vogt
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 11:05 AM
Subject: New Student Henry Vogt

Hi there.

We know you are very busy with the beginning of the new school year, but we thought it would be a good time to introduce ourselves and our son, Henry.  Henry’s past teachers have told us that knowing a little about Henry makes all the difference. 

In first grade, Henry was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism.  He is a very bright kid but struggles with the social aspects of school. He is very literal and loves rules and routine. He is unable to lie but has difficulty understanding others intent. He tends to be disorganized (and we will continue to work with him to improve this).

The first few weeks may be a struggle for him as he adjusts to the new school and community. We’ve encouraged him to ask questions and pay attention.

He is well aware of his Aspergers and is very open about answering any questions, so please feel free to ask him.  Also, please feel free to contact us - especially if there is anything we can do to help support you.

Thank you!

Emily and Tom Vogt

This is the email we sent last year to each of Henry's teachers before school started. He was switching from a small Catholic school to a good sized middle school. Among other challenges, he would be switching classrooms/teachers for each subject and no one would know him.

Over the years, we have learned again and again - the hard way - that it is always best to give Henry's teachers a "heads-up" about the asperger's syndrome as soon as possible. We don't ask the teachers or school for accommodations (his grades are excellent) but it helps give the teachers perspective.  For example, one past teacher thought he had a very poor attitude until we talked to her. She had understandably mistaken his monotone voice, propensity to point out teacher's errors, and occasional inability to move forward as a problem student.

Last year, Henry asked me to send the email note. This year, he's not so sure. He's come a long way since the first grader who really struggled with all aspects of school - but I don't know that I am ready to let this one go. He tries so hard and takes school so very seriously, I hate the thought that a teacher out there might mistake it for a "punky" attitude.

Volcano Yellowstone?

Yellowstone was the last stop on our vacation - and we all agree that it's the first place we would visit again. I've heard for years that it is the most visited National Park in the United States - and now I get it. It is so very beautiful, so large and filled with so many animals. If we do return, I would love to do it in the winter because we've been told that the animals congregate around the geysers for warmth.

I didn't know that Yellowstone Park is an ancient volcano caldera - which explains all the geysers. Visitors are constantly warned by signs to stay on walkways and trails because they could easily step through the crust. People die every year from ignoring these signs. Amazing! 

Old Faithful - of course we had to see it. It goes off about every 90 minutes (+/- 10 minutes).  I didn't expect it to live up to the hype - but it did.

I just had to include this photo - I've probably got another 20 that look just like it. It's Old Faithful pretending it's about to erupt - which it does for about 10 minutes until it does the real thing. From the sounds of all the cameras clicking, I assume that the 500 people around me have similar shots.

Here's a shot of about half the crowd - but you can't see how deep it is - about 4 or 5 rows of people sitting and standing.

There are geysers and mud pots all over the park. The steam behind us is from very hot water. Notice the walkway we have to stay on - Henry was very nervous about it because there were no handrails to help protect him.

I like this photo because it shows how large the steam clouds get - and it's constant. There were places where the water was literally boiling.

Aren't the colors here beautiful - I promise that we didn't photoshop this at all.

Another photo from almost the same location and time - you can tell from the mountains in the background and the clouds - it's just focused on a different section.

Some of the areas smell - BAD. The motion in the mud behind us is due to boiling.

I've titled this photo: "Darwin at Work!" See the sign next to her? Tom actually pointed the sign out to her photographer and he just ignored him. She didn't fall through the crust - but if she had, I would've gotten a great shot.

The colors here are from mineral deposits.

There are a number of amazing waterfalls in the park. Henry often ends up sitting and gazing out at them.

This one reminded us a lot of Vernal in Yosemite.

Like Vernal except that you hike down to get to it and then the hard part is hiking up and out.

Henry and Jessica getting along :)

There were lots of flowers throughout the park.

You Yellowed-Bellied Marmot....and Other Cute Animals We Spotted in Yellowstone

Although we took TONS of beautiful photos of the landscape and geysers in Yellowstone National Park, my favorites are still the creatures we were lucky enough to see. We even managed to see a grizzly bear - from quite a distance.


I am impressed with how much wildlife is in Yellowstone - and how quickly the rangers appear at sightings that draw a crowd.


As an aside, this is my first post from my desktop computer. While away, I used Blogger's app and then Blogsy on my ipad - neither seem to compare with the functionality and ease of my desktop. If you have an ipad app that works well for you, please let me know. :)

This is a Yellow-Bellied Marmot - when we spotted him, we had no idea what he was. Fat squirrel? Baby porcupine? Beaver confused about where the water is? 

This was the most amazing Elk we saw in the park. What a rack! A local told us that there are a couple of bucks that must have their antlers sawed off every fall because they start charging cars and people.

We saw a few Bald Eagles in the Park.

Two baby bears sleeping WAY UP in a tree 

A close up of them - how do they manage to do it without falling out?

The top bear woke up first and did it's best to wake up the second bear. We kept wondering where Mama bear was. 

Here she comes. Mama bear came over the hill towards the babies after they both woke up.

Here's the crowd to my left - there was about the same number of people to my right. It was a party atmosphere - everyone was so excited. There was a ranger there to make sure so one got too close and to answer questions.

Here's the grizzly bera that we saw - he's a bit shy and he was pretty far away. Again, we found him because there was a crowd gathered on the side of the road - and a ranger.

Jewel Cave National Monument

While in the Black Hills of South Dakota, we visited Jewel Cave. There's something so dramatic about touring a cave. After taking an elevator the equivalent of 23 stories straight down into the earth, we emerged into a different world. We went from a temperature of about 85 degrees to a steady 49 - did you know that all caves are the temperature average of the surface?

 

At one point, the ranger turned off all the lights so that we could experience total darkness - which was wild until I accidentally blew it by accidentally taking my camera off sleep mode. Even though my kids weren't standing next to me and there were 31 people on the tour, Henry immediately called out "Mom!"

 

It was difficult to get photos but here are our best attempts....

Taking a quick break - there were over 700 stairs that we climbed.

One of the walls of the cave.

Beautiful crystals on most of the cave walls and ceiling - gorgeous but worth almost nothing.

Jessica looks cute but you can't see the amazing wall behind her.

I saw spots for a couple minutes after this photo as my eyes readjusted

This caves version of stalactites

This is called cave bacon -the whole piece was about 20 feet long.

 

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Donkeys and Bison and Antelope - Oh My!

I love Custer State Park in South Dakota - and 5 days ago, I had never even heard of it. I have so many fun photos of this place, I was going to divide it into a couple of posts - but I want to make it CLEAR that these were all taken in the same park, along the Wilderness Loop. We returned to the park 3 times during our stay - it was that amazing.

 

First, the antelope. We were so excited to see the first dozen or so antelope that we pulled the van over and took photos. I love watching them run.

Next were the bison/buffalo. I figured that "seeing" the buffalo meant that they would be far off in a field - and that I'd need the big camera lense to get a good shot. Boy, was I in for a surprise - at one point, we had a herd of about 500 buffalo crossing the road and surrounding the van. And did you know they make this weird growling noise that has a monster quality to it? Most of all, they have such personality and are fun to watch.

Tom took this from the driver's side van window. We were "stuck" here at least 30 minutes.

I can't leave out the big horn sheep. I've been trying to spot them in Palm Desert since we moved there last summer - without ANY luck. It just figures that I have to go all the way to South Dakota to see them.

Whenever you see 2 or more cars pulled over to the side of the road in any state or national park and people looking in the same direction, slow down and look - usually they've spotted something good. In this case, it was the sheep.

Doesn't it look like he's smiling?

Finally, my favorite animals in Custer Park - the donkeys! The donkeys were originally brought to the park for some reason (I don't remember). Once there was no longer a need for them, they were just set loose. Since they were originally domesticated, we are allowed to feed them. The ranger recommended carrots or celery. We went through 10 lbs of carrots and 2 lbs of celery over two feeding sessions.

The first time we fed them, I suddenly looked around to find Tom and the kids back in the van with the doors shut - while I was still outside. Apparently, Tom made the mistake of carrying the WHOLE bag of carrots with him and the donkeys rushed him.

This donkey ended up rubbing the inside of his lower lip up and down Tom's whole window.

Is Tom trying to feed him or stick the carrot up his nostril?

All vehicles must pay the feeding "toll" before proceeding

Dude - that's my sideview mirror you are rubbing against.

Yes - I am feeding this donkey AND taking a photo.

Can you tell that Jessica is trying to escape this donkey and he is being quite persistent?

We weren't the only ones feeding the donkeys.....

 

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