My PC set-up using 2 Hauppage WinTV HVR 2250 dual tuners.

As a Christmas present to our household, I decided to purchase and set up a multi-channel DVR system. I record so many tv shows and I'm behind about a year right now. I had 3 DVD recorders that I used to record up to 3 channels of tv shows at once. Back in the VHS days there was a time when I had 4 VHS VCRs set up to record. I converted to DVD-R about 3 years ago and now it's time to go DVR. I was considering the Tivo route. I was ready to purchase 2 of the non-HD 2 channel Tivos until I discovered that the Tivo will not function at all if you do not subscribe to the Tivo service! I did not want to subscribe to the Tivo service. Absolutely not. It's a rip-off. This information lead me back to my original plans of using a PC to handle my digital recordings. Anyway, I went to Best Buy to buy all the stuff because I'm from the instant gratification generation. I can't wait 2-3 business days for something to be delivered to me in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I spent about $1150 on a 8GB AMD Processor HP that has a 1TB Hard-drive, an HDMI Cable and 2 Hauppage WinTV HVR 2250 dual tuner cards w/ remotes. I looked for the 2250 on Hauppage.com, but only found 2200 <-Link which seems to be similar or the same thing. The installation of the cards was simple. Actually, this is just an assumption because my IT friend, Abe <-FB Link installed the cards. He was going to set up the whole thing, but realized he couldn't do much w/out having a cable tv signal. So I brought it home to finish setting up the WinTV software. My main concern was how the software would "figure out" which tuner I wanted to use because I was installing 2 of the 2 channel tuner cards into 1 PC. After playing around with it for several hours, I was still trying to figure out how to tell the software which tuner I was trying to program. I finally figured out that I didn't need to tell it what tuner to use. The software automatically detects the multiple tuners and cards. The software also automatically assigns which tuner to use to record what ever program you set it to record. If tuner 1 is recording something, it just moves on to tuner 2, etc. Makes sense, but I thought I would have complications with it. Hahaha. It also took me a while to figure out that I only needed 1 IR Receiver for the remote controls that come with the cards to work. I was concerned how to control each card w/ the remote w/out interfering with the other card. Obviously, this is resolved by that software explained above. What was tricky was that when I had the 2 IR Receivers pluged in (1 in each card), 1 push of the remote would then create 2 input signals to the software. This lead me to realize I should try taking 1 of them out. That resolved that issue. I'm still trying to figure out how to use the remote control to the fullest. Right now all I seem to be able to do with it is change channels, control volume, pause, ff, rewind, record & stop. The power button also functions, but if I press it, it shuts down the whole PC system. That's not what I would like it to do. I can't seem to use the remote to do any programming or selections of recorded shows. The PC has Windows 7 installed. This is also my 1st PC experience with Windows 7. It seems to be working fine. It also has Windows Media Center installed on it. I was going to try setting up the Windows Media Center software, but didn't know if it would create some issues with the WinTV programmed recordings. I'll probably test this out soon. Another issue that took a couple nights (over night) to figure out was that I needed to disable the sleep mode and auto updates on Windows 7. I figured out the sleep mode after watching tv for about 10 minutes and the screen kept going blank. It took a night of leaving the PC running to find it in the morning on the Windows User Log In screen. This would probably prevent the WinTV from recording the programmed shows, but I'm not sure. Well, I'm happy with the set up so far. For about the same cost as 2 Tivos with lifetime Tivo subscription I have a new PC that can record 4 channels at once while browsing the web or anything else a PC should be able to do. I think it's a better value. I don't mind having to manually set what I want to record because that's what I planned to do anyway.

Review- Watts Premier RO-Pure Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System from Costco

We decided to purchase the Watts Premier RO-Pure Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System from Costco since the Brita pitcher takes up so much room in the refrigerator and can barely keep up with the amount of water I drink. The system seems to be the most economical one that is easily available to purchase. The replacement filters are supposed to be easily available also from the website. They don't carry them in the store. Interestingly, I searched Costco.com for this model, but the system doesn't show up, only the replacement filter pack. They also only sell the sediment, pre-carbon & post carbon filters with this pack. They are missing the membrane filter so I'll probably need to buy those somewhere else and the membrane filter is the most expensive! I think I'll ask Costco to also provide that missing membrane filter since the box says, "replacement filters available at costco.com". Even after the major re-design of my apartment's kitchen, there is still dead spot that isn't very useful. This corner in the photo and the dead spot is under the dish rack. It's the only partially inaccessible corner. I am able to crawl under the sink and stick stuff deep inside and 10 years later crawl back in and discover some ancient artifacts, but basically it's not very useable for much. The sliding racks found at stores that are supposed to make use of these dead zones will not work because the stuff will just end up banging into the sinks drain pipes not to mention having to remove everything stored under the sink area just to slide out that storage slider. I decided this would be a perfect spot for the reverse osmosis system. Here is a photo of the under-sink area and the difficult to reach void to the right. As you can see, there is still lots of space to put my time capsule of things to be rediscovered when I move out of this apartment, but the reverse osmosis system is already installed. I installed it in the interior of the front panel, the most difficult area to reach. I kept the area that can be seen in this photo open because it's the easiest to access if I store things there. Here is what it looks like installed. I have the tank as far in the corner as possible and I opted to mount the reverse osmosis filter manifold horizontally. With the filter manifold mounted horizontally like this, all I need to do to replace one is swing the filter out 90 degrees and push the release button. The feature of allowing the filters to swing out 90 degrees is very convenient for me using this odd location. This is what the filters look like when they are all swung out 90 degrees for replacement. It's a 4 stage filtering system. Stage 1 is the sediment filter and is estimated to require replacing approximately every 6 months. Stage 2 is carbon filter that is also expected to require replacing every 6 month. Stage 3 is the expensive membrane filter that is estimated to require replacement every 2-5 years. The 4th stage is the final carbon filter that should be changed every year. I won't need to be accessing these filters very often. After the 4 stages of the reverse osmosis filtration process, how does the water taste?? Fine. I can't say I taste any difference between the water filtered by the Brita pitcher or the reverse osmosis system, but I do know there is a difference. I notice a significant difference in the ice cube. The ice cubes made with the Brita pitcher water, on the right, were like normal ice cubes. Softer with lots of white colored ice in it (like air bubbles and stuff). The ice cubes made with the reverse osmosis water, on the left, are crazy hard and clear as ice. The photo of the ice cubes might be difficult to distinguish that the right one has a larger, denser white center in the ice cube than the left, but it is distinguishable in person. You can tell there aren't any (or as much) impurities in the reverse osmosis water ice cubes. Another side affect is that it has made using these silicone ice cube trays very difficult. The reverse osmosis ice cubes are so solid that I can't twist this tray to pop out the ice cubes! I'll have to go back to the solid plastic ice cube trays until get a refrigerator with a built in ice maker. It's so convenient to have the drinking water available on demand rather than having to wait for the Brita pitcher to filter a half gallon at a time. This system's tank store about 3 gallons of purified water for use on demand, cost about $130 at Costco and took about 30 minutes to install. The most convenient thing about not needing the Brita pitcher anymore is all that extra space in the refrigerator!! =)

Stimulating the Economy...

A few weeks ago, we decided to help do our share in "stimulating the economy". Everyone knows how badly the auto industry is affected by this situation. So what did we decide to do?? No, we didn't go out and buy a new car. I would think that is a foolish thing to do. We did decide to help support the home furnishing industry. We took advantage of "Red Tag Clearance Sale" that was going on at the Honolulu Design Center next to the Moana Pacific condominiums. Actually, a couple weeks before that we tried to find stuff at their warehouse sale in Kapolei. That was an experience we'd probably never try again. It was hectic and not really organized. They probably plan it out that way so that people can't really get more than one "deal" during the sale. To make a long story short, we didn't find anything we wanted there. This dark brown wooden cabinet that I am using for a t.v. stand with extra storage (much needed in a condo) is actually a buffet. It was a clearance item and when I saw it, I immediately pictured it working out for our living room entertainment center. It has three doors that enclose several cubic feet of storage and an open area above it with a built in light which I am using for the components of the entertainment center (dvd player, Nintendo Wii, etc.). What I haven't done yet is make some holes in the back of that area to run the wiring and cables out the back. That's why they are all hanging forward in this photo. The UPS Battery Back Up and my HP Printer will also call the cabinet space home soon. Another modification that I have already done to this buffet is remove the legs. This allows it to sit flush on the floor and also lowers it by about 6 inches creating a perfect height for the t.v. Another reason why we chose this buffet is that it matches the color of our recently purchased coffee table and side table. Believe it or not, we found the coffee table and side table at Marukai 99 Cent Store. Unfortunately, it wasn't 99 cents, but the pair was just a little over a hundred bucks on sale. We couldn't find anything we really liked at the Honolulu Design Center and we were so excited when we saw these at Marukai. You can't see the side table in this photo, but it's under the lamp to the left, which we purchased from Target in the mix-and-match section of lamps. Don't pay attention to the curtain (temporary), the white filing cabinet and black refrigerator. Those are only there until we figure out where to arrange them. The white leather sofa and chaise lounge sectional was actually our first furniture purchase a couple months ago. This is what led to the other purchases. These are the new bedroom furnitures that we just bought. It's a high chest and a wide dresser. The old furnitures we had were too low and narrow so we didn't have enough drawers for all of Kelli's... um our clothes and stuff. With these 2 pieces, we actually still have extra drawers with nothing in them... yet. What have you done to help support the struggling industries?

Kitchen Update

Current Photo... :] Finally, an update to my blog. It's been a while. I just really haven't been able to sit down and post anything to my blog. Lots of it had to do with the big mess of construction junk taking up most of the place. Anyway, it's not complete, but at least it's a fully operational kitchen. We're still waiting on countertops and a few cabinet pieces, but other than that it works as well as the Death Star did for Vader... Mid-Demolition (Almost 2 years ago...) :|

Home Made White Bread Bake...

I've been missing from the blogging world for about a month. Things were getting a bit hectic and I have not been having time to blog. :( I've been wanting to bake some bread at home for a few months now. My kitchen is still not completely finished with the renovations, but at least I have installed my range/oven and have some plywood counter tops. Here is my 1st loaf of "Basic White Bread". I kind of used the recipe from the KitchenAid Mixer book with a bit of variation. Eventually after practicing, I hope to finalize my favorite recipe and use it from then. Oh, I forgot to mention that I found a temporary hire job as a "Baker Assitant" for a Japanese bakery. The ad looked very tempting requiring no experience and only 1030pm-5am for $16/hour. I figured why not get paid to learn?? So that's what I've been up to about 3 nights a week. It's at Kimuraya, on Koko Head Ave., for those of you familiar with Honolulu. By the way, they are planning to close down February 15th or so that's why they have the temporary hire baker assistant. That's sad news because I remeber this bakery being there since I was a child. Here is my 1st loaf of white bread. It smells so good I just want to eat it! At the same time it looks so good I don't want to cut it! What will I do? I'll let you know how it tastes and what I do with it... Ok I couldn't resist so I sliced off a piece. Tastes like bread. The crust is very tasty and soft. I think I will increase the sugar and milk quantities in my next dough and see how that goes.

Lazy Sunday Morning - Toaster Oven French Toast Casserole

The end of a 4 day Thanksgiving weekend is always tough... Trying to fight the rush to the Walmart Black Friday sale left me in absolute disappointment! (They decided to change their proceedures and thousands of people were waiting in a dark line exposed to the elements while last year we were killing time inside the store for hours just waiting for 5am! Tricky buggers!) Anyway after all that exhaustion I woke up on Sunday and had some energy to cook breakfast. But wait... my kitchen still looks like this! The cabinets (2nd try) are expected in this week by the way. In all that Safeway excitement, they lewered us to purchase $25 of groceries to receive a dozen eggs for FREE! Yay! Free Eggs! Then I bring them home last week and start to think, "how will I cook these 12 eggs without a normal kitchen?". Finally I decided I'll whip up a batch of french toast baked in the toaster oven. These are the very basic ingredients that I used. Eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, wheat bread and sugar. In fact I didn't even use fresh milk, I used Milkman powdered milk. This method of making french toast in the oven was very interesting to me several years ago. I can't remember where I came across it, but I think it was on Martha Stewart's show. Anyway after I thought of it, it's pretty much the same as bread pudding. Ingredients: 6 slices wheat bread (mine was from the loaf in my freezer) 4 large grade A eggs **FREE from Safeway!** 4 teaspoons sugar several drops of vanilla 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup Milkman milk (prepared) or regular milk is better Your favorite Butter, fruits and Syrup to serve with french toast. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl (except bread!) and mix well. Put slices of bread into a baking dish that can hold the bread and liquid just at the right angle. If it's too big your bread won't stay standing and you'll need more bread and mixture. Pour mixture over bread and make sure all the bread is moist from soaking the mixture. All the liquid should be absorbed by the bread. Preheat (toaster) oven to 350F and bake french toast for about 30-35 minutes. There should be a golden brown top and the insides should still be a little moist. Slice into portions, server with your favorite fruit, butter syrup and breakfast meats. A hot cup of home roasted coffee goes really well with this also! I've been reading a lot of bread baking recipes and blog posts recently. I really want to bake some bread!! All I have is this toaster oven. Has anyone tried to bake a loaf or bun of fresh yeast bread in a toaster oven? I'm anxious to bake bread and I think I'm going to have to try to bake some before my kitchen oven is back in action!!

Hydroponic Salad Mix Seedlings...

It's been about a week since I revamped my condominium vegetable garden. This is a picture from today. I added on a homemade water diffuser sponsored partially by Starbucks Coffee's recognizable green straw the labor and engineering was provided by me. The mixed greens and other seedlings seem to be sprouting very well. Most are about 2 inches in length or more. A few have began showing their 1st true leaf sprouts. This water sprinkling design I made is not the most effecient for several reasons. 1st of all it allows the water to evaporate faster and there is more splashing, another reason is that it wets the above ground part of the plant and if you have a plant that prefers to only have moist roots (like some flowers) this will not be good. I set this system up like this because it just looks neat when the water is pumping. It's the "Garden Water Feature" of my condo. PS- In the larger picture above, you can see a part of Kelli's 2nd bonsai tree in the foreground. The original look of that ficus tree is in my previous hyrdoponics post from last week. We're loving the "Art of Bonsai" classes!

Home Coffee Roast - Disaster!

Home Coffee Roast - Disaster! It's been pouring rain for the past few days here and we've been having winds from the south. Here, in Honolulu, it means humidity! Today it's not raining, but it's very hot and humid. According to weather.com Waikiki's humidity is 69%. I checked this after the disaster. Normally, I chill the pan and have it ready to put the roasted beans on and get it over to the fan to cool as quickly as possible. I also put one of those freezer ice bags under a cooling rack and rest the pan on it as the fan blows. This usually draws the heat from the pan pretty quickly and makes sure the beans don't sit and bake. I noticed something unusual today. It was so humid, the pan formed condensation while the beans were cooling!! This was bad! Moisture is not something that should be going into your fresh roasted Sumatra Classic Mandheling beans!! I better work on my mesh colander & vacuum cooling set-up. There's just no space while my kitchen renovation is in progress. I roasted this small batch to a "city" roast just after the 1st cracks were heard. I wanted to try a lighter roast because I read another foodie blog about lighter roasts (Lisabeeen Homeroasted Coffee)<-click. I usually roast to a darker Full City+ or Vienna roast. Because of my concern about the moisture ruining the fresh roast, I decided to test a cup right away even though you are supposed to let the bean rest a few days. It tasted ok. Looked really light after grinding and even the coffee looked light. I could taste the difference from the darker roasts. I don't know for sure how it will taste after the bean rests though, but due to the moisture contamination I'll have to re-do this roast. Related Links: Guatemala Fraijanes- Finca Aqua Tibia to Vienna, Sulawesi Grade One Toraja & Rwanda Butare Bourbon, Mexico FTO Oaxaca Pluma - "At City+" & Sumatra Classic Mandheling - "Full City+", Guatemala Fraijanes, Brasil FTO Poco Fundo, 1st Home Roasting Post, Zimbabwe AA -Dandoni Estate Full City + Roast, CoffeeGeek.com, Sweet Maria's Coffee, Sweet Maria's Roasting Guide.

Briax soaps from New Zealand...

Briax Soaps... I met a nice and interesting couple from New Zealand at the Outrigger Reef Hotel the other night. They gave me a couple of bars of this Briax soap. 1 bar is labeled with the green sticker as a "work soap" and the 2nd is wrapped in the black labeled "bath soap". They both smell very good and contain special natural items that condition your skin as well as help cleanse it. The Work Soap is pumice based and also has honey, goat's milk and sunflower. It worked really well when I used it to clean up the thin-set from my hands after I worked on my kitchen floor tiles. The Seaweed Bathsoap is a "secret recipe" of seaweed and other natural ingredients. You can see and feel the small particles of seaweed in the bar. Of course, it smells great and it says it also promotes blood circulation and improves skin texture. Briax Industries can be found on the web here <-click. He also races classic cars which is why we got even more involved in conversation. His car racing website is here <-click.

Boots & Kimo, Kailua, Hawaii

Boots & Kimo, Saturday Morning Breakfast... In preparation to watch the Blue Angels air show, Kelli and I woke up pretty early on Saturday morning. It wasn't planned, but I think some noisy garbage trucks woke us and kept us up from about 5am! One of the issues to deal with living in Waikiki. Although I don't believe they are allowed to do the trash pick up so early in the morning. Anyway, since we were awake, hungry and planning on being at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base early enough for the air show, I suggested we just head out to Kailua and try Boots & Kimo. We left Waikiki about 645am, early enough to have a nice breakfast and be at the show before 10am like I planned. When we arrived at Boots & Kimo at about 720am. There were already 4 people (2 parties of 2) waiting outside. I went in and registered my name for a party of 2. Immediately after, I noticed the other 2 parties of 2 coming in to register. They didn't read the sign that said to register. Of course, I was called 1st so we asked the other parties if they wanted to go ahead, but they declined since they had "all day" and didn't read the proceedures. They were all very nice people! =) So were we I suppose. Anyway, don't forget to sign in at the cashier! We ordered the "specialty", Macadamia Nut Sauce Hotcakes and a "Maui Wowee Omelet" with 2 mugs of hot coffee. Our food came out in about 10 minutes or so. Quite quickly for a packed restaurant that seats about 20-30 at max(??). The special Macadamia Nut Sauce on the hotcakes was very delicious! It wasn't too sweet, had a nice buttery creamy consistency and a well balanced Macadamia Nut flavor. The hotcakes were pretty much standard (good) hotcakes. The sauce makes it all worth the trip. I might try to make a macadamia nut sauce of my own some day after my kitchen renovation is completed. The "Maui Wowee" omelet is a vegetarian omelet. All their omelets are made with 3.5 eggs! They have options for egg whites only, etc at an extra cost. I chose the standard with the fried rice option for $1+. This omelet had "charcoal roasted mild jalepenos" in it with some mushrooms, tomatoes and swiss cheese. The jalapenos is what caught my appetite. As you can see, the omelet is very nicely folded and almost resembles a burrito. The fried rice and omelet were tasty and neatly presented, but pretty much tastes like the things in it. Of course it tasted great, but nothing that can't be whipped up on your own stove as long as you have some charcoal roasted jalapenos ready. Again, the main selling point for me. Boots & Kimo is located at 131 Hekili Street in Kailua <-Google Map. Related Links: Boots & Kimo Googled, 131 Hekili Street in Kailua <-Google Map.

Update to Kitchen Renovation Project, Counter Measurments and Electrician's Rough-in.

The electrician did his rough-in, or most of it. Things are coming along. I am still coming up with a solution to the lighting issues. As I posted in a past blog, $2500 for the dual circuit flexible rail system with 2 spots and 3 pendants is just way too ridiculous and it doesn't necessarily look the best either. I'm leaning towards making a small drop ceiling to take care of this situation within budget. Below are the drawings and measurements for the counter surfaces. **update** Apparently, I didn't post up my feelings about the $2500 cost of the dual circuit flex rail system. Anyway, That's ridiculous. I'm not buying that because it doesn't look the nicest and it's the most expensive. Related posts: Kitchen Renovation.

Update to Kitchen Renovation Project

Here is the floor plan for the renovated kitchen. All appliances are being relocated to create what I hope to be a more efficient lay out. Related posts: Kitchen Renovation.

Update to my kitchen renovation project...

Yesterday I purchased the flooring tiles and got some lumber, etc. for the new partial height wall. This morning, I made the frame of the wall. The higher part will be hiding the range top and counters of the kitchen from the living room. It will also double as a high bar counter that you can stand or sit at and see out to the ocean and Hilton Hawaiian Village (and their weekly Friday night fireworks. The "kitchen renovation" label below should bring up all my past posts about my kitchen renovation.

My Kitchen Renovation...

***!!! A Licensed Contractor should always be used to perform renovations!!!*** 9/13-9/14 I live in a Waikiki 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo. It is in a great location, that offers channel views of the oceans and iconic buildings in Waikiki. (Hilton Hawaiian Village, Outrigger Reef and soon, Trump Tower, etc.) The original kitchen design practically blocks all nice views from the actual living area of the living room while displaying the not so nice views of the neighboring buildings. My renovations should alter this and make the nice views highlighted while blocking the "ugly" views instead. Big job! These are the new cabinets, boxed, unassembled. They are custom designed and imported. They took about 2 months to arrive. 9/18... This morning, the cabinet manufacturer came to assemble the cabinets that are in the boxes pictured above. Upon inspection, we realize that the colors of certain base boards and other places of the cabinet do not match the doors. This photo shows the 2 colors and materials. The exposed areas are supposed to the the lighter colored, thermofoil finish (doors, baseboards, etc.) and the insides are supposed to be a cheaper laminate finish that doesn't quite match the thermofoil coloring (back of cabinets, shelves, bottom, etc.), but "close". Now, if this is as close as it gets for the inside to match the outside, it might be okay to pass off because nobody would normally be seeing the insides. The problem is there are glass doors therefore allowing the inside to show out and the exposed baseboards are also done in the inexpensive finish so it's very visible!! It seems the supplier is going to try a 2nd attempt at this custom order and bring it in again. Now the kitchen will be looking as shown in this picture for another month and a half! Of course, we'll work on the flooring and the mid-height wall in the time being, but that would probably be done in a week or less. At least there is no rush for that now. **Note: Made in China...** To be continued... Related Links: My Kitchen Renovations, Google "Dorm Room Cooking".

Temporary Kitchenette set-up... Dorm Room Kitchen/Cooking.

I posted and am updating a post about my kitchen renovations. During this time, I have a small basic set-up to continue cooking in the 2nd bedroom/office/living room during the renovation process. We were at Home Depot on Saturday night. (Yes! Home Depot! Not a night club, restaurant, etc.) Anyway, there was this 1 "Everstar 3 in 1 Griddle" left on sale for $12.99. It was an open box special. We bought it to add another appliance to the temporary cooking set-up. It has a griddle plate, waffle plate and those triangular smashing ones. Panini Style Grilled Chicken Salad Sandwich I made this grilled sandwich with my left over chicken salad mixture that I prepared last week. First I splashed some extra virgin olive oil on the griddle then sprinkled some Italian dried herb mix, garlic powder and black pepper. I rubbed the slices of bread over the mixture. Then I put spread some of the chicken on one side and some cheddar cheese on the bread. Put it together like a sandwich then pressed it in the griddle for about 5 minutes. This is not fancy stuff, but it's fancier than just eating a sandwich on toast. Related Links: My Kitchen Renovations, Google "Dorm Room Cooking", Grilled Chicken Breast with Curry Fried Rice and Chicken Salad Sandwich.