Cindy and Greg

As some of you know, my brother is in the midst of a re-model of his townhouse in Washington, DC. During this re-modeling he has been thinking about adding a security system to the house as a general pre-caution. He has one problem, no landline in the house. He utilizes Perceiva VoIP for his home phone (read: “spam phone number”) and he he uses his Sprint Blackberry for everything else. Most alarm systems from the likes of ADT, Brinks, etc require an analog phone line, or an ungodly expensive GSM transmitter (which is all fine and good if your home is in an area that has good GSM coverage). During his search, he came across a company called Ingrid Home Security. These folks have thought out of the box and developed a home security system targeted to service providers like Cox and Comcast to resell to its customers as part of a “triple play” type solution (telephone, Internet, television and now home security). They have made their product available to consumers.

So after some time reviewing the technology (while Stephen reviewed the company, their investors, etc), Cindy and I decided to place an order. We have been looking for a security system on an off for a few years because of the traveling I do, I hate leaving Cindy home alone. Anyway, we placed the order Sunday morning (5/25) and our order arrived on Friday 5/30 (they apparently upgraded us to 2 day shipping). The boxing was very Apple like (that will make sense to a few of you). It was clean and neat, with easy directions. As I was installing the system, it was incredibly easy to follow and understand. I would recommend reading the directions so you can really understand the system. I had the doors secured in about 30 minutes. We have 14 windows on the main level and choose to go with window sensors, in lieu of the more economical motion detectors because of the pets. The windows took a little bit of thinking to make sure the senors did not impact the way the window opened (either for air or for cleaning), but I found a good method of installation. I did run into 2 problems during the installation, both user related. The keychains didn’t program at first, but I found I needed to program them while standing near the keypad console (makes sense if you think about it). And the senors in my office didn’t seem to want to connect to the security grid the first time I installed them. I fired off an e-mail to IngridHome support desk and had a phone call within 2 hours. They said that sometimes you just need to play with it a little bit, which I asked if that was code for user error, the woman kind of chuckled.

Some of the  truly unique about Ingrid is that it connects to your broadband AND your analog phone line. You can use either or both to support your system. You get a web console called MyIngrid (creative, yes) that gives you a full view of the system, its health and all the configuration options possible. You can have it send you text messages/emails when you have a change in system status, a failure, or breakin. You can program various users and assign notification levels based on the user code entered to disarm the system (for example, the kids coming home from school, get a text page to let you know they are home). You can even bridge systems in geographically diverse locations together (how cool is that)?

There are a couple of wish list items for the Ingrid:

1. Temperature Sensor (monitor temps in specific locations within the house)
2. Carbon Monoxide Monitoring
3. Water Sensor (for flooding)

Check out a couple things:

• Comparison matrix
• Various components of the system
• InGrid Videos

I should add, the entire system was under $700 bucks and less then $30 a month to monitor. This compares incredibly well. ADT/Brinks advertise a system for $200, but then if you have more then 1 window or door, you need to add senors for those, if you want smoke detection you need to add those as well. So the system from ADT/Brinks for our home was well over $1000. Plus the monthly monitoring was more expensive especially when you included the smoke detectors.

So color me impressed!

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So for a little more then a year now, we have had two lighting fixtures that were out of reach. Once sits about 10 feet above the kitchen counter, it is a spotlight that provides light around the sink. This light burned out just after we put in the granite countertops, so we couldn’t stand on the counters to replace the bulb. The other was a spotlight over the fireplace. This we could have reached if we really tried, but we didn’t.

So yesterday after a trip to Richmond, we stopped at Home Depot and picked up the bulbs and a little tool to help change light bulbs that are that high. Amazing how replacing two bulbs can change your perspective on a room.

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As many of you know Grandma (mother’s mom) passed away back in August. While cleaning our her apartment in Fishkill, we found hundreds of pictures dating back to the early 1900s. So I made a project of it, I spent a Saturday scanning all of them and putting them online. Some are simply fabulous, take a look at and let us know what you think…Shanley Family Pictures

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While Christmas has come and gone, we have some great memories of the holiday with our families. On Sunday, December 22 we made our way up to Washington, DC for a couple of days with mom and Stephen. We stayed at the Omni Shoreham hotel, it was nice and the service was excellent. On Christmas morning we made our way up to Toms River, New Jersey to spend time with Cindy’s family. Cindy’s mom is retiring this year (today actually) and will be enjoying 2008 and beyond as a retiree. After a couple of days in New Jersey we made the trek back down I-95 stopped in traffic at the Wilson Bridge and I-95 South near Dumfries, we made it back to Williamsburg late yesterday afternoon.

While it was great to see everyone, it was very nice to be back in our own bed. I wonder if we will be able to make it till midnight on New Years Eve?

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This morning while doing some after hours work I turned on the TV in my office to find the movie Elizabethtown on HBO. I don’t know what it is about this movie but I can since the first time I saw it, I could relate to the character that Orlando Bloom plays. In the beginning of the movie Drew (played Bloom) is on the top of the world. He had created a sneaker that took 8 years to develop and was slated to take over the athletic world. Just as it was released, there was an issue that recalled the sneaker, costing his company close to one billion dollars. After being fired, he went home and was about to kill himself when he got a call from his sister, that his father had passed away. So in the course of a week, he went from being on top of the world, to the bottom of the emotional world. This is not unlike when dad passed away. Cindy and I were married on October 30, 2004 and dad passed away on Sunday, November 7, 2004. From the highest highs, to the lowest lows in a matter of 180 hours.

Looking back it is hard to believe it has been three years.  I often find myself trying to remember my last words to dad, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to remember what they are. I remember clearly the last time I saw him, it was the day after the wedding and we were getting ready to head back to Dumfries to get ready for our “mini-moon” to San Francisco and he was sitting in the chair in the room at Ford’s Colony. He was weak, but smiling and happy.

The movie Elizabethtown always brings back strong emotions and memories of dad for some reason, with the tears comes comfort in knowing the impact that dad made on my life. So if you get a chance, be sure to rent Elizabethtown and remember someone whom you loved.

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Cindy and I had an incredible getaway vacation in Banff. Cindy celebrated her birthday with a Mountain Mint Pedicure at the Willow Stream Spa while I recovered from the travel with a jet lag massage and had an incredible dinner (perhaps the best we have ever had) at a small little wine bar called Grapes. We celebrated out anniversary by sitting in the jacuzzi overlooking the snow capped Canadian Rockies. There are few words that can describe the beauty of Banff, AB. We have approximately 300 photos in our gallery from the vacation.

On a funny note, while touring the town of Banff, we stopped into a local Tea Store and the proprietor tried to guess where we were from. His guess…Alabama (wtf?).

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Some of you may have heard that Cindy and I have started a project to re-design our family room. At this point a lot of the work is done, we are waiting on the painting and carpet. Once this is done we will need to wait for our furniture from Crate and Barrel to be delivered, but we are narrowing down on the room. Here is a run down of what we are doing:

• Replace the couch with the Crate and Barrel Axis Sectional in a Mocha micro-fiber suede
• Move the large Rojo cabinate into the dining room and replace it with the Rojo Media Cabinate (also from Crate and Barrel, Rob from the Short Pump store is our new best friend).
• Remove the “bathroom marble” fireplace surround and replace with the same granite from our kitchen
• Build and install a mantel around the fireplace
• Removing the built-in over the fireplace
• Replacing the TV and mounting it on the opposite wall (we choose the Samsung LNT5271F, 52″ LCD)
• Install new surround sound system
• Paint the room
• Wire audi/video from the new TV to the built-in behind the sofa
• Replace my office door with a glass insert door
• Finally, new carpet (removing the crappy builder burber)

Today we came home to find our mantel installation completed. See the before and after shots below:

Before…	After

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