We're currently stuck with no option but Qwest for our home phone/cable/internet needs, and unfortunately qwest just decided they were going to switch off their current service and change everything around. At first we were bummed out, but its actually turned into a revelation!

First problem was no more cable, only satellite TV, which our HOA is kind of against because dishes everywhere look ugly. Second problem was our 720p TV and my aging TiVo Series 2 both had analog tuners instead of digital and we have an upcoming digital switchover which meant no more TV at all! The solution turned out to be remarkably easy: a new TiVo HD and a digital tuner. Sure we now only get the basic cable channels but that's mostly all we watch anyway, and at least now it's all in lovely 720p resolution (and up to 1080i if we get a better TV in the future). The TiVo HD also has Netflix and Amazon Video built in too, so it's a one box does all solution!

Today Qwest flipped over to their new internet system which is finally using fiber optic cable, and we jumped from 3Mb to 12Mb download speed - yeah baby! Now we can watch all the Hulu, Netflix, iTunes & Amazon video we want, on demand :-) It's kinda nice to be cable free for the first time in a long, long time.

One of the perks of my new job is we get to do something fun one afternoon a month. This month we hired 3 Hummers and went off-roading in the desert thanks to the guys at Desert Storm Hummer Tours. They could fit 11 people in each Hummer, luckily we were all seat-belted in because these things bounced all over the place as we drove over rocks, up impossibly steep hills, and did 40+mph power-slides in loose sand :-)

Obviously not the best way to celebrate Earth Day (whoops!) but it was a lot of fun. Highly recommended for any of you guys coming into town soon...

Photos are here.