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Mike's Update
The latest news and information on the Nolan's.
9/27/2008
Kyle's BHS Raiders won against
Mattoon on Friday night 55 to 27. Kyle sprained his ankle in practice
and the trainers made him sit the game out. Too bad because he would
have had fun against Mattoon. Jacob's Cougars tied Peoria Mantle on
Saturday 0-0. PM was the toughest team we faced this season and it was
a defensive battle. Jessica did a great job cheering for the Cougars.
After the game we ran home, showered, changed and headed to Stanford, IL for
my buddy Dan's wedding:
http://weddinginseptember.com/ We all had a great time and
Congrats to Dan and Elena!!!
9/25/2008
Nearly another week has passed
and things are definitely getting back to normal. Last Saturday we
watched Jacob score another touch down against Pekin. He's a tough
running back and has scored at least one touchdown the last three games.
Jake's Cougars won their third game in a row with a 26 - 0 victory against
Pekin. On Sunday, Kyle and I ran down to Champaign, IL and picked up a
new sump pump. This time I opted for a
Wayne WSS20 Sump Pump which features a 1/3 HP primary sump pump with
electronic switch and a battery back up, high flow sump pump with float
switch in one apparatus. I added a heavy duty marine battery to run
the back-up pump. On Monday, I ran over to Menards and replaced my
Simer sump pump under the lifetime warranty. So I also have a 3/4 HP
sump pump pre-plumbed and ready to drop in the hole should the first two
fail. I think we're covered with regards to the sump pit...
We're still working through the claim process but the carpet is down and the
furniture is on order. Thankfully State Farm has been very helpful but
I would have preferred this not happen at all ;-))...
9/19/2008
Not sure where to start but this
week can't end soon enough. This past Sunday we left for church at
8:30 AM. It had been raining for three days straight however I wasn't
worried because I replaced our sump pump with a high end
Simer
3988 3/4 HP sump pump less than a year ago. After church we had
donuts and coffee in the parish hall followed by family portraits in Normal.
We arrived home around 11:30 AM and found at least an inch of water in our
basement. I went down and shook the drain pipe and the sump pump
started up again and quickly started to drain the water. I have no
idea what went wrong but I'm pretty pissed off about it. As luck would
have it I added a sump rider to my homeowners policy a few months ago so
we're covered. Kim, Kyle, and I spent the next 9 to 10 hours cleaning
up the mess. Thankfully Kim had most of our "stuff" either in plastic
storage bins or on shelves and off the floor. The other half the
basement was covered in carpet which Kyle and I had to remove. We must
have moved furniture in the basement four times. By the 11 PM Sunday
night the basement was dry and everything cleaned up. By Tuesday
morning I had guys here putting down new pad and carpet. Once again
Kyle and I had to move furniture back in place.
If dealing with the flooded
basement wasn't enough, I received a call on Monday around 10 AM reminding
me I was supposed to report for Jury Duty 2 hours earlier. However,
they understood my situation and allowed me to report at 1 PM. I ended
up getting selected for the jury of a reckless driving / DUI case. So
I spent the evenings working on the basement and two days in court...
Jury Duty is very unusual here. Even if you're selected for a jury and
complete a case, you still have to call in every day and possibly serve on
additional cases. I was able to return to work on Wednesday but had to
report back to Court on Thursday. After being released from Jury Duty,
I came down with a cold. So here I sit on a Friday night feeling like
crap. I had to miss Kyle's (away) football game in Champaign, IL.
I didn't feel well enough to attend so I stayed home with the kids and Kim
went down with some neighbors. I hear they won 24 to 7. Congrats
Kyle and the BHS Raiders! Kyle's team is now 2 & 1 and Jacob's team is
2 & 0. We head to Pekin, IL for Jake's game tomorrow...
9/6/2008
It
was a great weekend for football in the Nolan
household.
Kyle's varsity team, the BHS Raiders beat their rivals, the NCHS Iron
Men on ISU's field Friday night at the
Bloomington / Normal Intercity Tournament. It was a defensive
battle but very exciting and we WON!!! Kyle's team is now 1-1 and we
hope to see him in the game next week...
Jacob's McLean
County Cougars played their first game of the season this afternoon in
Morton, IL. They beat Morton 27 - 6. Jacob had at least 75 yards
rushing and one touchdown on Offense and on Defense Jacob made several
critical tackles that prevented touchdowns for Morton. Jacob had a
GREAT GAME!!! We're watching the Gator's at the moment and although
we're ahead, I sure hoped for a blow out against the Hurricanes...
Come on Gators GET UP AND GO!!!
8/25/2008
Click this link for the ICBMC Lake of the Ozarks Photo Gallery
Uncle John, Skippy (Aaron),
Alice (Mike), Gildo (Brian), Captain Stubbing (Dave), and Bronco Billy
(myself) spent the last four days at Dave's cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks.
It was our 3rd Annual ICBMC Lake of the Ozarks Weekend... A weekend
full of flatulence, motorcycle riding, good eating, and brotherhood.
Did I mention A LOT OF MOTORCYCLE RIDING!
The ride down was approximately 380 miles with some light rain and high
humidity. Dave drove his truck down separately with his bike and a lot
of the guys luggage aboard. Aaron, Mike, Brian, and I met on the
Westside of Bloomington around 8AM and raced down to Delavan, IL to pick up
Uncle John. UJ took us to a local diner for a very good breakfast.
For lunch we stopped in Quincy, IL and visited
O'Griff's Irish Pub (the same place we stopped at last year). We
all like the food so much, this will likely be an annual stop for us on our
way to and from the Ozarks... After a brief stop in Hermann, MO (to
get out of a minor downpour), we arrived at Dave's Cabin around 5:30 PM.
We then jumped in the lake and consumed several cold ones...
On Saturday Dave plotted a 229 mile ride through some of the most
challenging roads in the Midwest. We're talking twisties, elevation
changes, and blind curves at a very high rates of speed. My sphincter
just tightened up thinking about it. I'm pretty sure everyone's butt
was sore by the end of this ride and to top it off, Dave pushed his bike so
hard, he blew the engine. We started around 9AM, had lunch at Sonic
(another tradition), and finished riding around 3 PM. Then back to the
lake for some floating and drinking. We had grilled chicken and sides
for supper.
On Sunday Dave made a huge
breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, hash browns, etc.). After
stuffing ourselves, we rode over to the Lake of the Ozarks Harley Davidson
Dealership to pick up a rental bike for Dave. Dave got a great rate on
a 2009 Fat Bob and
then led us on a 338 mile ride that was more challenging than the day
before. Without going into a lot of details, the rental bike had a
hands free security key fob which had to be in close proximity of the bike
to start it. Some time in the middle of the ride it fell off Dave's
bike, leaving him and UJ stranded on the side of the road while the rest of
us back tracked to find it. Long story short, we found the fob and
meanwhile Dave and UJ got the bike started. We rode some more, then
headed back to the lake to float and drink. Aaron, UJ, Brian, and Dave
took the boat out to tube, while Mike and I floated by the dock guarding the
cooler ;-). We had steak and sides for dinner!
On Monday morning we cleaned
house, returned the rental bike, loaded up and headed out.
Prior to leaving the
Ozarks, Uncle John presented each of us with a personalized Guardian Bell. I've wanted one for some time but you can't buy one for
yourself, it has to be given to you for it to bring good luck. I very
much appreciate the gift UJ! Thank you very much! Our next stop
was the
Central Dairy in Jefferson City, MO for some good ice cream (they don't
call us the Ice Cream Bikers Motorcycle Club for nothing!).
Aaron led us home and although my GPS said we rode 392 miles, it sure
seemed shorter coming home than going down. We stopped off for a late
lunch at
O'Griff's Irish
Pub in Quincy, IL. I made it home around 6 PM.. Next year
we're going to drag Leather Boy and Skullet down. They really missed
another great ICBMC guys weekend!!!
8/17/2008
Keep checking back, Kim will be
coming home tomorrow night from her annual
Mom's Gone Wild vacation in Florida. This year only Becki, Traci,
and Kim made the trip, Cricket and Deana couldn't get away.
I'm sure they were sorely missed. I'll get the pics and the scoop
posted soon. While the women were enjoying their much deserved
vacation on the beach, I took Jake and Jess camping. Kyle started
three a days for BHS last week and was too busy to join us. Jacob,
Jessica, and I drove down to
Kickapoo State Park. Kim took the digital with her, so I
bought a disposable water proof camera and thanks to Walgreens 1-hour
developing our gallery can be found here:
Kickapoo State Park 2008
Day 1 we arrived around 1 PM on
Friday, set up camp, bought firewood, bait, and supplies, then settled in on
the dock to fish.
Jessica was the angler of the day. Not only was she baiting her
own hooks, she also caught the only fish that day. Her first catch was
a pan sized Bluegill and later in the evening she caught two catfish.
Jake did a great job baiting hooks and tried very hard but I think our hooks
were too big for the Bluegills. For dinner, we cooked brats over a
camp fire, followed by smores for desert.
Day 2 started early, I woke the
kids up at 7 AM and took them to
Kickapoo Landing
for breakfast. We had to check in at the dock by 8:45 AM to depart for
our canoe trip. The kind folks at Kickapoo Landing drove us out to a
launch site on the Salt Fork River and dropped us off. The
kids and I spent the next four hours leisurely paddling 8 miles down the
river. The river was very low in spots but we only had to get out
and drag the canoe once.. They came out and picked us up at 1 PM and
brought us back to the State Park. We ate a late lunch, picked up more
supplies, then headed back to camp to fish some more. This time, I
caught four Bluegills, Jacob caught four Bluegills, and Jessica caught one
more Bluegill (the smaller hooks did the trick). Later we headed back to the Landing for a catfish
dinner, then back to camp to fish after night fall. The moon was full
both nights and you could literally see the very large channel catfish
swimming down the river. We tried for a couple hours but never caught
one. We then headed to the shower house and took a much needed shower.
With such a full day of fun in the sun and being so clean, we headed back to
the tent and probably had the best night sleep in recent memory. It
got down to the 50's overnight but we were snug as bugs in a rug in our tent
and sleeping bags.
Day 3 started around 8 AM,
Jessica and I woke up before Jake and decided to take a walk around the camp
sites. We visited the primitive sites and the electric sites, then
back to the shower house so I could take a much needed AM BM in a flushable
toilet. Although the outhouses were very clean, I'd rather go in the
woods if you know what I mean... We came back, started a fire and Jake
and Jess played while I broke down the tent and packed up everything.
We extinguished the fire and were on the road by 10 AM. After a stop
at the McDonalds for breakfast we arrived home by noon. I spent the
next five hours doing laundry, cleaning gear, and putting everything up.
As I type this both kids are clean, fed, and sacked out in the living room
with the Olympics playing on the big screen. It was a great
weekend!
8/6/2008
Jacob and I spent this past
weekend at
Camp Ingersoll Boy Scout Camp for the annual "Webelo
Weekend Camp". Jacob is a second year Webelo with Pack 33 and will
likely cross over to Boy Scouts at the end of this coming school year.
Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera, so I don't have any pictures but
the camp was very beautiful. It covered hundreds of acres with rolling
hills, trails, and lake. We arrived on Friday around 5 PM and
immediately
pitched our tent, unloaded our gear, and inflated the
queen size air mattress. It was only 87 degrees but about 100%
humidity making it feel very hot! We then headed to the pool for our
BSA Swim Test. In order to use the lake, kayaks, canoes, or pool you
have to receive an wrist band for passing the swim test. Jake and I
both passed the test even though we had just finished eating a big dinner at
McDonalds on the ride out...
The Boy Scouts ran the camp, led
all the activities, and entertained the boys. I think they all did a
fantastic job and definitely made the camp a memorable experience. We
had a very good time. Jacob earned the following merit badges and belt
loops:
Outdoorsman,
Readyman,
Aquanaut,
BB
Gun Shooting, Archery, and Fishing. Our days began at 8AM and
ended at 10PM and was full of activities (merit badge classes, hiking,
canoeing, and fishing). Unfortunately, sometime around 4 AM on Sunday
a bad thunderstorm rolled through camp. A lot of lightning, thunder,
and rain but our tent kept us safe and dry. In fact, Jacob and I slept
through most of it. We woke up late (around 9AM) tore down camp and
headed to Cracker Barrel in Morton, IL. There were more activities
planned on Sunday through noon but due to the rain / weather, we decided to
cut and run. The weather was clear when we arrived back home, so we
spent the rest of Sunday cleaning and drying out our gear. We had such
a good time, I plan to take Jacob and Jessica camping and canoeing in a
couple of weeks...
7/18/2008
First off, Happy Belated
Birthday Dad! My dad turned 60 on 7/16. It's been a month of
milestones, I turned 40, my son Jake turned 10, my dad turned 60, my brother turned 18, and Kim and
I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. What a great month!
Last month my daughter turned 8 so it was special too!!
I just got home from my business
trip to Memphis. Now that air travel is such a pain in the rear and
being Memphis is only 500 miles from Bloomington, I opted to ride my Beemer
down. It wasn't that bad going down on 7/16 but the ride home today
was literally a pain in the rear. I took four Advil, drank about a 1/2
gallon of Gatorade, and considering filling the tub with ice to sit on / in.
It was very hot, a lot of traffic, and my butt, wrists, legs, knees, etc,
etc, etc, are very sore.
The trip was for business but I
had a really good time in Memphis. I stayed at
The Peabody Memphis
and after the long ride I couldn't make it past the Lobby Bar. After
many beers with the ducks and finally getting to my room and cleaned up, I
went to the world famous
Charlie Vergas' Rendezvous for dinner. It was in a basement, in an
alley across the street from The Peabody. I had the 1/2 rack of ribs
and 1/2 lb pork shoulder. It was fantastic!!! I then walked down
to Beale Street and checked out the sites and sounds. Later I
purchased an autographed copy of D'Army Bailey's book,
"Mine Eyes Have Seen". It featured many pictures and chronicled
the events that led up to Dr. King coming to Memphis, the famous
"Mine
Eyes Have Seen The Glory..." speech, and his death. D'Army Bailey
is a Judge in Memphis and one of the founders of
The National Civil Right's Museum.
The next day I spent in meetings
from 7 AM until 6 PM at the Peabody. Later the host took us back to
Beale Street for dinner at
BB Kings Blues
Club. In addition to numerous Maker's and Coke, I had the Gumbo
YaYa (Smoked chicken, andouille sausage, crawfish, peppers, onions, diced
tomatoes, & dark roux with white rice) as an appetizer followed by the
"Carolina BBQ Salmon (Grilled Salmon filet over low country rock shrimp &
andouille sausage, cream corn and topped with crispy fried tobacco onions),
and for desert I had Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Chocolate Syrup. I'm
in dire need of the gym after the past three days!
This morning, I woke up, checked
out, and headed over to
Performance
Plus Motorcycles to get new tires on the Beemer. Since the Metzler
Z6's only lasted 7,000 miles, I figured I could try something new.
Marvin sold me the newest tires from Michelin, the
Street Pilot 2 tires. I did some research prior to coming down and
the tires look very promising. I just spent the last 500 miles on them
but it's hard to say how they handle. I spent the last 7 hours on the
Interstate and will need some twisty back roads to really test them out...
The German magazine Motorrad ranked them the best of all Sport Touring tires
(wet/dry traction and longevity)... I'm headed to the Ozarks next
month and if I remember, I'll give you an update on their performance after
some real technical driving.
7/14/2008
On 7/1/2008, Kim and I
celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary. We started dating in High
School and have been a couple for 22 years. On 7/11, I turned 40 years
old. To celebrate both milestones we rented the
Cottage on Lake Galena and Kim and I spent three days and two nights
enjoying the sites and flavors of Galena, IL. For my birthday Kim
suggested we take my motorcycle and it turned out to be the perfect vehicle
for sightseeing and finding the best parking on Main Street. The roads
between Dubuque, IA and Galena, IL are awesome on two wheels. Even the
ride through the neighborhood of our cottage was very fun (lots of twisties
and elevation changes). We left home at 5:15 AM on 7/11 and arrived at
Gina's BMW in Iowa City at 8:30 AM. We had to go through Iowa City, IA
which was more than 100 miles out of the way to get my bike serviced at
Gina's BMW. I have several more rides planned this year and since Iowa
City was within 2 hours of Galena, Kim allowed me to make the detour.
4 hours later we were back on the road. It took another 2 hours to get
to Galena but we were on Main Street at the Desoto House for a late lunch by
2:30 PM. We were at our cottage shortly after 3 PM.
Check out our photo gallery of our weekend getaway.
Kim and I enjoyed Galena so much
we intend to make this an annual retreat. We HIGHLY recommend the
following:
-
The Cottage at Lake Galena from the folks at Scenic Hideaways.
The property was very clean, very well decorated, and much larger than
it appears in the pictures. It was an absolutely gorgeous
property, very secluded, romantic with a great view of the lake and
sunsets. The home is in the Galena Territories Neighborhood and
within a few hundred yards of the Eagle Ridge Golf Resort and Spa.
The cottage comes with several Galena Territory Association Home Owner
passes which gets you significant discounts on boat rentals at the
harbor and other GTA amenities'. If you rent it, they already have
7 wine openers so don't buy one in Galena. The home has a washer
and dryer so you can do laundry if need be. The folks at Scenic
Hideaways made check in and check out so effortless we never actually
saw anyone. We mailed the deposit and left the remaining funds in
the foyer desk. We will be back, in fact I'm ready to send a
deposit for next fall...
-
Galena Canning
Company is well worth a visit and had we not been on a motorcycle we
would have purchased unknown quantities of hot sauces, mustards,
marinades, sauces, etc. There are samples of nearly every product
available for taste testing and they're fantastic. Kim's favorite
product was the
Pumpkin Butter and I loved the
Raspberry Habanero Honey Mustard (sweet and hot) but there were many
others. Chef Ivo has daily lunch
specials (i.e. sandwich, nacho's and salsa of choice for $5).
-
Galena Cellars
Winery - we never made it out to the vineyard but we did go to their
Main Street tasting room. For $3 you can taste up to 6 wines.
After identifying several good wines we ended up only buying one bottle
of their
Country Red. It was a red table wine with added grape juice.
Very sweet. The night before we mistakenly went into the wrong
store (Galena
River Wine and Cheese - which is a very good store but they didn't
offer local wines) and we picked up two great California wines.
Later I ran out to the
Eagle
Ridge General Store and bought two more bottles of California wine.
Unfortunately we were only in the mood for one bottle by the time we
found the Galena Winery. BTW, the General Store has a sandwich
shop, groceries, fuel, and many other necessities, so if you visit and
forgot something (or on a motorcycle without room to pack coffee,
creamer, food, beer, and wine), chances are they have it...
-
The
Atomic Toy Company - we had a great time in this store. The
owner is a riot and makes shopping very fun. They had so many
games and trinkets from when we were kids we probably spent an hour in
this store. We bought the kids a few gifts and I picked up a
Buddy Christ statue for my desk at work. It was well worth the
visit.
-
Galena Trolley
Tours - we took the one hour tour of historic Galena. The
driver was a retired High School Teacher and a fantastic tour guide.
Don't skip out on the tour, it was worth every penny! We ended up
going back to visit some of the sites on our motorcycle.
-
Vinny Vanucchi's
Italian Restaurant - although we had great meals / snacks at many
establishments in Galena (Green
Street Tavern, Galena Cafe, etc.) we very much enjoyed dinner at
Vinny Vanucchi's. The service was great, the food was great, and
the Chianti was perfect. I had the Tortellini Carbonara and Kim
had the baked Manicotti, excellent...
-
The Galena
Convention & Visitors Bureau website was very helpful in planning
our weekend. Check it out and plan your trip today...
Kim was a real champ and
actually enjoyed the bike ride. Her only complaint was the wind on the
Interstate but the bike was comfortable and my driving was confidence
inspiring (I added that part ;-)..
In total we rode approximately 570
miles over the three day weekend. Keep checking back because I have
motorcycle trips planned to Memphis, TN, Lake of the Ozarks, and Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach...
6/20/2008
We're back from our annual two
week family vacation in Florida. Kyle brought his friend Brian along
and we had a great time visiting family. The first week we stayed at
my Mom's on Ormond Beach frolicking in the ocean and riding in the boat.
We spent a couple days in
Orlando at Sea World and
Aquatica Water Park and both were a BLAST!! Kyle and I rode the
Kraken Roller Coaster several times in the front and back seats.
The lines were non existent and we were able to get off and back on with
minimal to no wait. The entire family rode
"Journey to Atlantis"
and the picture says it all!. I don't remember the names of all the
slides at the water park but they were a lot of fun. We celebrated
Father's Day with my dad and father-in-law. One night we went to my
dad's favorite wing place, the next night we went to
Harry's Seafood Bar & Grill which is a favorite of mine and my
father-in-law. We stayed at my father-in-law's house in Jacksonville
the second week and spent some time shopping and visiting with Bill and Aunt
Charlene. We also spent some time with Julie and Ryan swimming at
their family pool. Our last stop was my sister's house in Glen Saint
Mary. The kids got to spend some quality time with their cousins
riding 4-wheelers, dirt bikes, and swimming. Kim and I tag teamed the
drive home. We left Sarah's house at 6 PM EDT and arrived at our door
in Bloomington, IL at 7 AM CDT. I created a gallery of all the
pictures Kim took and posted them here:
Summer Vacation 2008
5/21/2008
Kyle just completed the 2008
Track Season and is taking Finals this week. Kyle works with me on the
weekends doing landscaping for the Bloomington/Normal rich and not so
famous. When he's not working, in school, or at a track meet he spends
all his time with his girlfriend Victoria. Tori is in Kyle's Honors
Lit class, is a BHS Cheerleader and involved in Competition Cheer as well.
We like Tori very much. Jacob had his fourth baseball game last night
and is doing fantastic. Jake is a natural... I believe Jake's
team record is 3 and 1 but who's counting... Jessica finished Ice
Skating and is still an active Girl Scout and participates in "Fit for Fun"
at our family gym. Jessica will start gymnastics this Summer.
Jessica also received her First Holy Communion a couple weeks ago.
Fortunately my mom came up for the event and spent a week with us before
heading out Route 66 with her friend in KC. My mom and her friend
Laurel spent the past two weeks driving down Route 66 to New Mexico and
back. I'll have to create an album of all the pics she sent. It
looks like they had a great time! Kim is doing great, she's been busy
with teaching CCD (which broke for Summer a week ago) and helping with Jake
and Jessica's end of the year class parties and field trips.
I've been doing fine, works been very busy at the office and on the weekend
landscaping. I hit the gym three days a week and still ride one night
a week with my Ice Cream Bikers Motorcycle Club (yea, we're hard core;-).
I have a couple motorcycle trips planned this Summer (one with the boys &
one with Kim for our 20th) and a long family vacation in FLA. I can
hardly wait! Keep checking back and check out the
new photo's in the
gallery on 5nolans.com
4/16/2008
Well, its been a long Winter and
it still doesn't feel like Spring yet. Kyle turned 16 at the end of
March and is driving now. He's currently running track for BHS.
Jacob started track as well for Washington and will start Pony Baseball this
week. Jessica is still in Figure Skating and other fitness activities
at our family gym. Kim and I are dong fine. We just put up a new
trampoline for the kids and have the landscaping ready for Spring / Summer.
We have a lot planned for the coming months so keep checking back...
2/4/2008
Today is a very sad day for the
Nolan family. Our little buddy Rusty whose been a loyal member of our
family for 12 years succumbed to kennel cough and a congenital heart defect.
Rusty contracted kennel cough while being groomed at PETCO. His heart
defect prevented him from healing and after three weeks of suffering, we had
him put to sleep tonight. We tried many different treatments and he
just kept getting worse. We love you and will miss you, you were a
great dog.
1/12/2008
Happy belated New Years! I
hope everyone is healthy and enjoying the new year. We all braved the snow
storm and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate New Years Eve with the
Monson's. Then made it home in time to fall asleep on the couch before
the ball dropped. We spend our Saturday Morning's at Eastview watching
Jessica's basketball games. Jessica has had only two games thus far and
has improved each week. Jessica is still in Figure Skating and Girl
Scouts. BTW, if you need some cookies, give us call because its that
time of year and we'll ship them to you... Kyle and the rest of the BHS Football team are in weight training four days a week and he's awaiting
track season. Jacob is considering getting back into basketball and
currently getting ready for the Pinewood Derby for Scouts. Kim is
still teaching CCD classes at St. Mary's and active in Women's Bible Study at
Eastview. She continues to watch kids before and after school and busy
with numerous other activities. I recently moved back to the Wireless
Networks team on the Wireless LAN vertical and was named the Strategy Lead
for the Wireless Networks & Cable Design team. So now I split time
50/50 between architecture and enablement. I really missed the
hands-on technical work.
Speaking of hands-on technical
work, our home router (D-Link
DI-808HV) died last week after three years of heavy albeit highly
reliable 24x7 use. I typically get between 2 to 3 years use out
of the SO/HO routers before they die unexpectedly. I have a lot of
machines on my home network, run VoIP, and host
5nolans.com , so I
definitely get my money out of them. We're on our fourth router now
and I'm so impressed with it, I had to share more info here but first I want
to caution everyone about the
D-Link DIR-130.
I'm very satisfied with D-Link (the company and their products), however I
had high hopes for D-Link's latest VPN router, the DIR-130. I ordered
it direct from D-Link
Shop.com (where I buy all my home network gear) and received it this
past Wednesday. Out of the box, the DIR-130 was defective. I'm
not certain if it was defective hardware or firmware but from what I've
found on-line, there appears to be firmware issues with this new device.
I was also disappointed to find QoS missing from the product. I would
recommend you hold off buying this unit until D-Link posts a firmware
upgrade greater than version 1.10.
Due to the problems with the
DIR-130, I was able to negotiate the overnight delivery of new hardware with
the very flexible "management" folks at
D-Link Shop.
This time I opted for the
D-Link DGL-4100 and
D-Link
DGS-2208 and I'm VERY PLEASED with both products. We move large
files (music, video, and images) between laptops, desktops, and network
attached storage. We also stream media from PC's to our home
entertainment center and we're absolutely addicted to playing the PS3
on-line (COD4, COD3, RFOM, MOH:Airborne, & Warhawk, etc.). Not that we
had issues before but everything runs much smoother and faster now.
The delays with connecting to the Playstation Network are all but gone and
the lag while playing on-line is gone too. Streaming media is very
fast and responsive as well. I should point out that I used to connect
the PS3 via 802.11g and now connect it via full duplex 802.3ab (1Gbps).
Otherwise all my other wired NICs are 802.3u (100mbps) but with the QoS
mechanisms and the 16Gbps non-blocking switch architecture of the new
hardware, everything appears faster. I HIGHLY recommend both products!
I still haven't found a dual
band 802.11n Access Point that meets my requirements. I'm
looking for a stand alone 802.11n AP that uses 40MHz channels on the 5 GHz
band and simultaneously runs 802.11g on the 2.4 GHz band. I also
want it to use 802.3ab for the backhaul (yeah, the Cisco 1250 fits the bill
but way too expensive for the home market)... The only SO/HO device
I've found that comes close is the
Linksys WRT600N but it's a combo device (router/switch too) and I want a
stand-alone AP... Maybe in a year or so one will come out...
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