Momma's Got a Squeezebox..............

Many of you know that we moved in August of last year.  At our old house, the first home improvement project I did was wire my living room based stereo to zoned speakers in my kitchen, which could also be faced outward to the backyard.  This involved running wire through my basement, a weaving wire distance of about 100 feet, and all the Monster Cable you can eat.  Music is so important to us, and having a house full of it was essential.  This was done November 1998, and worked perfectly until the day we moved out.

The notion and technology of music delivery (formerly known as radio, stereo, etc.) has changed just a little bit since 1998.  There were no iPods in 1998.  There was no satellite radio in 1998.  We used CD's.  I still made mix tapes in 1998 (you all did it, so shut up).  I occasionally listened to the actual RADIO - yes, stations picked up locally through the antenna mounted behind the stereo cabinet.  To top it off, our TURNTABLE was still hooked up.  We still did VINYL night on New Year's Eve.  I believe an AARP card just got sent to us. 

The biggest difference for us, however, there was no Pandora in 1998.  Pandora is one of a number of Internet-based music sites, and happens to be the one we enjoy the most.  Besides being completely free, Pandora allows you to create your own personal radio stations based upon artists and/or songs you want to put together.  You can create as many as your little heart desires, with as much nuance as you want.  Kathleen and I have created a ton of different stations that meet our unique tastes.  For example Kathleen has her "Folky" station, which broadcasts things like John Denver, Judy Collins, Roger Miller, etc.  I have my "Funk" station, where I can get The Brand New Heavies, Liquid Soul, Parliament, etc.  We collaborated on a station by selecting roughly 50 songs as a basis that we heard played on eclectic 104.9 out of New Jersey.  Needless to say, we dig Pandora.

With Pandora access built into our Blue-Ray player, it was just an Ethernet cable away from being able to be broadcast on our main stereo in the family room.  That was the first home improvement project I did in this house!

Recently, we were sitting outside, and quickly realized that we had a music issue - there was no music.  Logistically, I can't easily get speakers outside, or facing outside.  We needed a solution.  We wanted our Pandora on our back patio.  My buddy Jim picked up, and highly recommended the Sonos, which could do that, and a whole heck of a lot more.  I'm certainly not cheap, but its pretty substantial pricetag was more than I wanted to drop for music on my back patio.  Back to more research and the proverbial drawing board.

Cue the Sunday paper and its ads.  BOOM, the answer.  (cue Angelic humming) The Logitech Squeezebox!

This device wirelessly connects to our home network, provides access to all our Pandora channels and hundreds more Internet-based music channels.  Kathleen found a great Disney channel for Alex.  Plus you can hook your iPod up to it, as well as load the Squeezebox Server onto your laptop to stream content from your own iTunes repositories and playlists.  This product is a perfect example of form and function at an attractive price - it was $149 on sale.  Music now flows on the back patio!