Planes, Trains and Automobiles

As I mentioned previously, Kate & I were in Florida for a few days the other week. The day we were scheduled to leave, however, the weather in the Northeast was not quite cooperating. Continental canceled all their flights to Newark, and booked us on a flight back late the next night. This was odd, because plenty of flights were happily landing in Newark, but we never got the story. We decided we had to get out of there.

The solution? Car to the airport, fly to Philadelphia, cab to the train station and take the train home. It took 10 hours with flight delays, but we did make it home that night. That's one thing I really like about living in the Northeast - plenty of affordable transportation options.

Rows of Wheelchairs

A couple weeks ago, Kate & I flew down to Fort Lauderdale for a little conference. Actually, I didn't attend anything, but the idea of hanging out in a Westin spa hotel on the beach in 80 degree weather was sounding pretty good.

We flew out of Newark nonstop to Florida. As we were sitting there waiting to board, I was starting to notice a certain demographic seemed to be dominating the waiting area. That's right - there were more octogenarians swarming around that gate than I've seen since.... Well, a long time anyway.

As we were boarding, I overheard the gate agent reiterate her request into the walkie talkie: 14 wheelchairs with attendants were needed to assist in boarding the plane. I've seen 2 or 3, but 14 has to be an all-time record.

Lots o' Blogs A-Comin'

I have about 3 blog posts written up in my head right now. I just need to take the time and write them. I've been sick, like everyone else in the country for the past week, but look for lots of posting over the next few weeks.

Kate & I are heading to Italy for Christmas & New Year's to spend time with my family. For those that missed a post about this a while back, my dad & I bought a vacation place in Tuscany. I haven't seen it - I just got the mortgage for my dad (he was too old to qualify as a foreigner by Italy's lending standards) and he is over there most of the time now managing the renovations. It should be almost done now, so I'm anxious to see it in person finally.

I'm sure this trip will inspire lots of posts. I also heard that Santa might have brought me a new digital SLR camera. I'll find out tomorrow night when we do our early Christmas. If all signs are confirmed, then look for lots of picture posts from the trip, too.

30 Rock(s)

Phenomenal show. Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey are great. My favorite quote from this week's episode:

"This company has a very strict 'Bros before Hos' policy." - Jack Donaghy

ARGH! I hate misused apostrophe's

Yes, that title is an attempt at irony. I just have to wonder if the apostrophe rule for the English language is really that hard to remember. I got an email advertisement from The Home Depot today and they clearly do not have a copy writer on staff. Or one that knows the difference between a plural and a possessive spelling of "trees."



Here's a hint for all of you that wonder how it all works: Apostrophes are NEVER used to indicate a plural version of any noun. See? It's an easy rule.

They are only used to indicate the possessive or a contraction. End of story. The only little catch to this is when using "it" as the indefinite article. "It's" is a contraction for "It is" and "Its" is the possessive.

I'm sure this post will get everything all straightened out now..

Good Downloadable Music - Finally

I think the fact that I'm a big Mac fan has come up in the blog before. Well, I am. I'm about to get rid of my last vestiges of PC ownership (as soon as my lovely 24" iMac is delivered in working order). The remaining issue for me with Apple in general is the iTunes music store.

I love the convenience of downloading music, but I refuse to buy music with DRM attached to it. So, up to now, I've had to buy CDs and rip them to a high quality format and load the songs into iTunes manually. It's workable, but inconvenient. Now before you get all over me, I know that it's not Apple's fault. I also know that they DO offer DRM-free songs, but that's just one label for now (EMI) and not only do you have to pay more, you have to go looking for the stuff. It's just not obvious.

All that changed for me today. Well, it changed a little while ago, but I just started using Amazon's MP3 download store. It's phenomenal. It's still not a complete catalog of music, but I started looking for a few artists that I've been meaning to buy, and found all of them. Apparently both EMI and Universal have joined in, providing a great library of available music. So, one album download quickly led to another. With the Amazon download assistant, it automatically added the high quality (256kbps) DRM-free songs into my iTunes library.

There have been other reviews of the store, even some iTunes comparisons, so I'll let you read those directly if you want more insight.

Snowy December

Snowy December, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Well, Sunday morning Kate & I woke to about 2 inches of snow on the ground. It was unexpected and we were both excited as little kids on Christmas morning. We got up early and went down to Target to do some gift shopping. Let me tell you, 8am on a snowy Sunday is THE time to go shopping at Target. We virtually had the place to ourselves. It was heaven.

Well, now we are on day 5 of sub zero temperatures, and I am starting to realize that it's going to be this way for another 4 months.

Yeah, I'm starting to miss San Diego.

My Favorite Thing About Living Near NYC

My local newspaper is phenomenal.

First Winter Snow

Lucca Fall 2007, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Lucca was pretty excited to run around in the snow this morning. Here he is waiting patiently to go for his morning walk.

Apple Disappointed Me - For the First Time

Since I bought my MacBook earlier this year, I have become more and more enamored with Apple products. The work and work great, all with style. They are works of art just sitting on your desk. I could go on, but you get the idea.

So, on Black Friday, I ordered a lovely new iMac with the big 24" screen and an extra large hard drive. You know, so I can back-up my extensive DVD collection. And no, that is not a link to Netflix. I would NEVER, EVER copy movies that Netflix sends me so I can watch them on my iPod Touch while on the plane. You hear that, FBI? Never!

Anyway, I ordered the iMac on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the only day that Apple ever gives a (modest) discount on selected products. Still, I figure the money saved paid for the larger hard drive. Well, it showed up on Wednesday - but I was in Raleigh, so I didn't get to take delivery until Friday.

Actually, the delivery itself was a bit of a disaster as well. I was on our weekly staff meeting call when the FedEx driver finally arrived. He didn't bring the iMac up to the door - likely because he was tired of hauling that thing up, just to have me not answer the door on the first two attempts. As I told him that I was indeed expecting a delivery, my CEO asks me about the status of one of my customers. I start to answer him as Lucca the Dog makes a run for it between my legs and out the front door. This is not usually a problem, but the FedEx driver had left the front gate open, and Lucca made a beeline for freedom and all the discarded fried chicken bones he could find on the sidewalk. So, in the middle of my status update, I had to inform them that my dog had just decided to head for Manhattan and that I'd have to call them back for my update. Luckily for me, after just about 30 seconds of freedom, Lucca fell for the oldest trick in the book: "Lucca, COME!"

Sure enough, he came over. For the first time ever. We go back in the house and all seems as it was meant to be: my new iMac in the box and my dog contentedly sitting on the couch with me. I reluctantly get back on my conference call, leaving the iMac to languish by the door.

As soon as I was done, I rip open the box and get the Mac set up on the desk. The 24" screen looks huge next to my 19" LCD from my old PC. I fire it up - only to find that the LCD screen is only backlit on the top half, so it is totally dark on the lower half of the screen. Shit.

First thing, I call Apple phone support. 40 minutes later, they tell me I have to take it to the Apple store, about a half hour drive from me. I am guessing that they are just going to swap it out for me there. So, they make an appointment for me at 3:45pm on Saturday. I show up 15 minutes early, anxious to get home and start working on photos for Christmas presents, etc. Well, they are backed up at the Apple store, and I wait 45 minutes there to finally see someone. They fire it up, and basically say "yep, it's broke." My options are to have another one shipped out - just because I chose a "custom" hard drive size. Ugh.

So, it's not even being shipped to me, mind you, but to the Apple store, where at least they will test it out before I bring it home. So, now I have about 3 hours invested between support calls and trips to the Apple store.

I just have one thing to say to Apple: if you send out broken equipment, get it replaced IMMEDIATELY.