Lily’s Dance Recital 2013

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Joel

Lily had her dance recital late Sunday afternoon. This time, I swore that I would get there early, and sit in the correct seats, and get some decent video of her performance. The good news is that I did get there early, and I sat in the correct seats. Unfortunately, by the time Lily’s dance came up, I found her on the far side of the stage. Grrr. I did my best to record it, but Flip video cameras don’t have the most detailed digital zoom features.

Regardless, Lily looked fine out there, and I hope she enjoyed herself. After the recital, per her request, we all drove to the local Applebee’s for dinner, much like last year. This year, my sister and her family, and both sets of grandparents in attendance, so that was nice.

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Bought a new wall and car charger for my phone

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Joel

I think the title just about says it all, don’t you think? One of the benefits of my wife and I both using Samsung phones is that we can now share chargers. Of course, I’ve been “sharing” her stuff for about two weeks, and that hasn’t been optimal. I considered buying from the AT&T store, but the price markups were atrocious. So I purchased them on Amazon for 1/3 of the price, and got them in three days. Can’t beat that.

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Memorial Day weekend 2013

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Joel

I love a good 3-day weekend, even if it requires running from one place to another. I prefer excitement over sitting around….. sometimes.

Saturday – Full day planned. Lily had her dance class, then Namita met me there so I could get some much-needee time at the gym. I even brought Josh with me for a different experience.

He and I had a quick lunch, then we went home to meet up with the girls, did a little fun “window browsing” house hunting at a new development in our area, then made our way to Six Flags Great Adventure to pick up our season passes. The weather cooperated, albeit cool and windy, so we hit a few rides before leaving. Yes, after all these years of living near a Six Flags park, we’re making an attempt to actuslly go there. After leaving the park, we went to a local diner for dinner.

Sunday – We skipped church (“Nooooooo!”), relaxed briefly, then I was off to the supermarket to get food for a pre-planned picnic with friends at Rosedale Park in Pennington, NJ. After we whipped up a mess of gyros, we loaded up anything we could think of, then drove to the picnic.

The park was nice, and we had a nice spot next to a lake. We brough Josh’s bike, and I accompanied him around the park. Unfortunately, it got hot, and I was not prepared to run or jog along side him for such a long duration.

After the picnic, the big group of us drove to the nearby Terhune Orchards for a little wine tasting. Long (and fun) day.

Monday – Josh and I woke up early to dress up and head out to walk in the town Memorial Day parade as part of his Pack. I hadn’t participated in a parade since 5th grade when I myself walked in a town Memorial Day parade holding a flag for our school. We had time to grab a quick breakfast, but I was temporarily flummoxed to find most town streets already closed to traffic. We eventually found a spot to park, and speed-walked to the parade spot.

After the parade, we went home, changed our clothes, then all four of us went to “Rebounderz” in Edison. My wife found a really good deal in Groupon for admission for the four of us for 90 minutes. After checking in, watching the safety video, getting shoes and helmets, putting them on, we made it to the trampoline area. Completely crowded with small kids and rambunctious teenagers. The area was policed staffed by similarly young people equipped with whistles and were not afraid to blow the whistle at you for any transgression, including being too close to someone else.

Rebounderz is nice in principle, but with so many kids, and a strict rule for only one person per trampoline, it wasn’t that fun for us adults. I was out there briefly, but got annoyed by the lack of freedom. Lily hyper extended her knee after falling 3 mins into being out there, so Namita spent her time applying an ice pack to her knee, and didn’t get to jump around. Josh had some fun at least. Lily felt better towards the end of our 90 min window, so we let go jumping with Josh in the foam pits.

After all that, we hit up New Brunswick for dinner at Old Man Rafferty’s and frozen yogurt at Red Mango. Mental note – never, ever ask for a steak grilled medium well. It was promising, but way overcooked.

And that was the end of our 3 day weekend. I hooe your’s was just as good.

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The 2013 Bike MS Coast the Coast ride

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Joel

I woke up 5:30am on Saturday morning after getting a good night’s rest (as per my wife’s orders.) 50 milers check-in began by 8am, for a ride start time by 9am. I still had a number of things to complete before I could leave no later than 7:30am. Glad that I had at least figured out the bike rack installation, I started on getting ready, filing out the release waivers and pledge packet paperwork. I eventually got out the door by 7:50am — later than I wanted, but not the worst thing in the world.

I arrived around 8:40, and I hurriedly parked, and jogged inside the Monmouth University gymnasium to drop off my paperwork, get my t-shirt and breakfast. I had hoped this time around that I would avoid any mistakes or forgotten paperwork like in the past few times, but no such luck. I had been assigned two different rider numbers, so back to the “Solutions Desk” to resolve it before I could get breakfast. Instead of riding with Team CentraState again, I was invited to ride with a friend’s “Squirrel Commando Squad” team. However, it turned out that entire team was riding the 25 mile course, and would start at 10am. That meant I actually never got to meet anyone, and I rode the 50 miles by myself. Although I like to hang out with people, I’m basically a solo rider, so I don’t mind the lack of company.

A little after 9:15, I started riding out from under the big MS banner. In my haste, I realized that I hadn’t actually stretched before I got underway, so I kept it easy the first 10 miles to allow my legs to warm up. The ride itself went fine, although I had expected great sunny weather. Instead, we had overcast skies and threatening clouds, with some drizzle. What the heck was up with the original weekend weather forecast? This year, I decided to not pig out on all the snacks, eat nuts or fruit only, and keep moving. I finished the ride in 5 hours, though I feel that I would have finished in less time if I hadn’t stopped to take so many pictures. Also, around 15-20 miles, I noticed that the cleat on my left cycling shoe had worn off or broken. It was hard to keep a solid lock with my left pedal. Around mile 24, we reached rest stop #2 at Brielle  Cyclery. I went inside to ask if they had SPD-SL cleats, and they did. So I bought some cleats, and walked around barefoot while they installed it. I also noticed that the ratcheting mechanism on the left shoe was also not working, so I asked them to take a look / fix it. In the meantime, I checked out the nice (and expensive) bikes hanging on display.

I was interested in seeing the shore towns for the first time after Sandy hit last October. The entire ride up and along the shore, all I experienced was hearing the hammering and saws cutting wood, the smell of sawdust, and seeing so many damaged/collapsed homes. These towns certainly took a beating from Sandy. They’re in a rush to rebuild now, especially with start of summer in another week. I wish them a lot of luck. Maybe this summer, we’ll make more of an effort to explore these towns.

I got back to the university a little after 2pm. I had lunch, then packed up the bike, and drove home in the rain. I’m glad I didn’t get caught out in the rain attempting to drag my sore achy body from mile 50 to mile 85 or 100. 50 miles was perfect for today.

 

I thought it was supposed to be a nice day for a ride? Overcast, but whatever.
Monmouth University: Waiting at the 9AM start for the 50 mile riders
Bradley Beach under construction
Me at Bradley Beach
The first rest stop
The bike is holding up pretty well. It’s not a fancy-shmancy $2,000 bike, but it’s a good bike.
Brielle Cyclery carries some wonderful, beautiful bicycles
Broken cleat, but I made it to the 2nd rest stop at Brielle Cyclery. I walked around the store barefoot while they installed the new cleats.
Always good advice
So much devastation and construction along the shore. A lot of work is still in progress.
The famous Stone Pony
Some delays as we all wait for the drawbridge to close
All done 5 hours later
Seriously, nice bike
Lunch at Monmouth University after the end of the ride
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Unboxing and installing the Saris Bones RS bike rack

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Joel

The day before the Bike MS event, I still hadn’t taken the new bike rack out of the box. I was running out of time. I couldn’t leave it for Saturday morning to figure it out. What if I work up late in the morning? What if I opened it up, and it was abysmally confusing? What if it was broken? The weather was good Friday night when I got home with the kids, so while they rode around with the neighbor kids, I could unbox the new bike rack.

Unboxing it? Easy. Figuring it out? Not as easy. I was able to extend it, but I couldn’t figure out how to unlock and adjust it for my particular car. So yes, I had to break out the manual. Sadly, I’m starting to find that many manuals these days are written using only pictures, and no words. If the pictures are not self-explanatory, then you’re in trouble, no? I eventually figured it all out after 30 mins, and tried it out with my bike. It seems sturdy and secure enough, but I don’t have a decent method to secure it, so it seems I will indeed have to buy a specific bike lock. Also, I noticed that the rack finish scratches easily — when I was removing the plastic wrap and barely touched the rack surface with the tips of the scissors, the grey finish came off. Not too impressed with the finish, but it’s nice bike rack otherwise.

Hmmm…. The Saris Bones RS bike rack
30 mins later, I figured out the Bones RS
The Bones RS rack looks sturdy enough

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It isn’t easy to find a good bike rack

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Joel

Way back when, maybe 10 years ago, I bought a cheap but easy Allen bike rack that mounted to the trunk of my old Honda Accord. I didn’t have to research it — it fit in trunk of basically any car. What I didn’t like is that it wasn’t all that great with multiple bikes. They’re all piled up on each other, etc. Not a big fan.

The kids are getting older, and now we potentially want to transport up to three bikes for short and long distances. I began looking at replacement bike racks last year. I’d like something that could hold three bikes, keep them from swaying or hitting each other, and some sort of locking mechanism would be a huge plus to prevent bike theft. I considered a fancy hitch-mounted rack for the Toyota Highlander last year before our Delaware trip last summer, but buying a new hitch and also getting a 2″ receiver was getting expensive. My grand plans were on hold.

Trunk-mounted, it is.

Thule 9002 Raceway 3

My first choice was the Thule 9002 Raceway 3. I like their products, and I settled on the Raceway 3. 3 bike slots, anti-sway cages, even a locking mechanism. I ordered it from Amazon, and it was here in two days. It arrived on Tuesday. I opened it up, and began reading the manual, including the Fit Guide. Reading the fitting for 2012 Nissan Maxima, there are no settings. Uh oh. I call up Thule customer service, and the very nice rep informs me that my new rack doesn’t fit my relatively new car. They couldn’t stop me from using it, but they weren’t responsible if it were to deform or damage my rear bumper. You had to be kidding me. How did I miss that?

Thule 9002 Raceway 3

Thule 9002 Raceway 3

Less than an hour later, I resealed the box, printed out return labels, and was on my way to the nearest UPS store to return it. Amazon would also deduct $25 for the return fee. That really sucked. Back to square one, and I had just wasted $25.

Saris Bones RS

Since that didn’t work out so well, I had to be more careful. I needed a good rack that wouldn’t deform or damage my car, or cost me an arm and a leg in returns. I looked at a few alternatives at Thule that would supposedly “fit” my car, but they all came with warnings that each could potentially damage my bumper! What the heck? Forget it. I also looked at Yakima and Saris. I narrowed the search down to either the Saris Bones 3-Bike or the Saris Bones RS. The Bones 3-Bike was more economical in the $150 price range and in various colors, while the Bones RS was about $260 with tightening ratchets and a  locking mechanism. Still, $260 was a little more than my budget.

Both were supposedly a fit for my car. However, after getting burned by the Thule, I decided to call Saris customer service to verify. According to customer service, both would fit, but oh wait! There was an engineering note that while the Bones 3-Bike would fit my car, due to a “weak bumper”, the engineer recommended that customers only use two bikes on the Bones 3-Bike. Say what? That wasn’t even detailed on the website. The Bones RS, however, didn’t rest on the bumper, so that wouldn’t damage my bumper.

Sold. Two days later, here it is.

Saris Bones RS

Saris Bones RS

 

 

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My first two weeks with Android

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Joel

The end of this week marks a whole two weeks forgoing Apple’s iOS ecosystem, and jumping feet first into the world of Android.  I had considered both the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. I liked the build and finish on the HTC One, but the camera wasn’t anywhere near the quality that I wanted in a primary source of photos for me, and that’s ultimately what drove me to the S4.22Samsung_Galaxy_S4_35627724_610x436

My thoughts and impressions so far of the move to Android and the S3,  in no particular order:

The Good

  • I like the large 5″ HD AMOLED screen. That’s a nice plus.
  • It’s obviously not a feature of Android, but through my upgrade of phone, I’ve also migrated over to AT&T’s 4G LTE network. The speed and coverage is much better than their taxed 3G GSM network.
  • I like the opportunity to explore a new mobile operating system. iOS was certainly boring me after two years.
  • I like using the Chrome mobile browser. I didn’t realize that the Safari browser is lacking until now.
  • I like the camera, but the auto focus isn’t all that smart. If I don’t remember to specifically pick out the key object in the frame, I get blurry pictures.

The Bad

  • The battery life is atrocious.  It charges fast enough with the wall charger, but I can use it sparingly, and the battery will still run down significantly.
  • My hands sometime struggle to hit all the keys on the larger screen. Do I have small hands?
  • I have yet to successfully synchronize my Outlook Contacts information to my phone. I’m only working off what I had transferred from the iPhone and what else has showed up from my Gmail address book by default. As a result, I have duplicate address book entries, and merging or joining duplicate contacts doesn’t work.
  • Similarly, my music library is sitting on my home PC, as I can’t transfer about 300+ songs, as I had purchased these back in the days of Fairplay DRM. I haven’t found a working solution to strip out the DRM yet, short of paying Apple money for iTunes Match or burning and re-ripping these songs all over again. Until then, I am not transferring anything over.
  • On a related note, the Samsung Galaxy S4 uses MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) instead of USB Mass Storage when I connect the phone to my PC. Instead if simply dragging and dropping music and video between phone and PC, I am required to use the slow as shit Samsung Kies desktop software. It’s not good. Hey Samsung, sometimes the older methods are still the simplest and easiest.

It seems that I wrote out more items in the bad category vs the good category. I still like the phone, and I’m glad I switched. There are just some growing pains to work through.

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Josh’s first charity ride: The Brake the Hunger Cycle Tour

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Joel

As a parent, you hope every day that you’re doing the best you can to help them develop into healthy individuals, to be smart enough to handle life’s curves, and to teach your kids your values. My wife and I try to make charitable contributions either through work, church, or other external / community organizations. I hope it’s all successfully rubbing off on the kids. Last year, in lieu of birthday gifts, Josh asked for donations to the ASPCA. This year, in lieu of birthday gifts, Lily helped us to collect pajamas and children’s books for donation. I was proud of them.

This year, my wife informed me about an event listed on the Episcopal Relief and Development website for a charity bike ride to raise funds for community food banks and watershed cleanup. It is an annual event hosted by St. David’s Episcopal Church in Kinnelon, NJ. One can elect to ride between different course lengths from 4 mile all the way to 62 miles.

I had initially planned to ride the 62 mile ride, but my wife suggested we ask Josh if he would also like to come along and ride the 4 mile loop. He was interested, but it turned out that us riding separately wouldn’t work out logistically, based on different start times, etc. I decided it was more important for him to ride 4 miles than it was for me to ride 62. I’ve ridden places, but this would be his first charity ride on roads away from our neighborhood.

The Sunday before the ride (April 28th), my wife helped Josh write a short speech to announce at church to raise some additional funds. He was a hit, and he raised about $270 at church alone. I may have to ask him to help me with the Bike MS ride in another two weeks.

Before we could go on the ride, we bought him a new Jamis bike, as he had outgrown his original blue Schwinn Gremlin starter bike. To help defray the cost, our local bike shop accepted a $60 trade-in on the old bike, which I was pretty happy about.

The day of the ride, we ate breakfast, loaded up the bikes, and left 45 mins late! Not the original plan, to be sure. It was an 75 min drive to Kinnelon, and we arrived sometime after 10am. Our online registration never went through, so I had to fill out the paperwork again, attach our rider numbers to our shirts/jackets, and unload the bikes. We missed the official 10:30am start time for the 4 mile loop, but it wasn’t a big deal. We got our pictures taken, then hit the road.

It was a fairly easily two 2 mile loops around the church neighborhood, which made it a 4 mile ride. However, this was Josh’s first time doing some steep hills and sharp downhills, but I think it was a good experience. All this time, I never considered how flat our neighborhood is. Josh ended up losing control and crashing in another church’s parking lot, but he eventually shook it off, got up, and we finished the 2nd half of the ride.

After the ride, there was a BBQ lunch and live band at the church itself, so we rode there directly, ate lunch, then eventually rode back to the school parking lot next door to my car. Loaded up the bikes again, and got home sometime in the late afternoon. Josh rode his first 5.5 miles, and I think he was happy. Sometimes it’s hard to read him. After we got home, he conked out for a few hours.

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Iron Man 3 (2013)

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Joel
Old Iron Man comic book with the Mandarin

Old Iron Man comic book with the Mandarin

The final film in the Robert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark, Iron Man trilogy is finally here. The first film was an amazingly entertaining origin story, followed by a mediocre 2nd installment that was less than entertaining, Shane Black directs this 3rd film to wrap up the storyline. Interestingly enough, after waiting months for this film to come out, I got so caught up at work that I completely forgot that May 3rd was the Iron Man 3 release date in the U.S. Seriously though, I was swamped at work. We quickly readjusted, and I bought four tickets for an Ipe family outing on Saturday afternoon at our local AMC theater.

The film stars Robert Downey, Jr, with Don Cheadle returning as Terry Rhodes, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. Jon Faveau even returns as Happy Hogan. Who are the big bads in the story? It’s important, because if that Disney short on villains taught me anything, villains are important.

Ben Kingsley plays the Mandarin, the original archenemy from the Iron Man comics way back when. I was curious if Marvel would ever use the Mandarin in one of their films, because there’s a whole racial Fu Manchu stereotype with the Mandarin. I mean, come on, the Mandarin first appeared in publication back in 1964. I did think there was a possibility, because he was somewhat implied in the 2008 film Iron Man, because the name of the terrorist group in that film was known as “The Ten Rings”. And the Mandarin has 10 magical rings that he uses. Of course, would Marvel and Disney want to go down the fantastical route in one of their big summer blockbusters? I suppose not.

The other key villain is Aldrich Killian, a scientist who  played by Guy Pierce. The Aldrich Killian character is from a more recent (2005) comic book storyline called “Extremis”, about a scientist who creates this virus with a nanotechnology spin on it. They actually adapted it into a motion comic that I later watched on Netflix streaming, so that was pretty cool. In Iron Man 3, they adopted portions of the original Extremis  story.

How was the film? I thought it was pretty good. The story is decent, it didn’t get bogged down in any nonsense like the 2nd film when Tony was drunk and acting ridiculous. The film was less about Tony as Iron Man, and more about Tony being smart and creative without the suit. There was much more time spent with him outside of the suit, and I think the film was better for it. Sir Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin was an inventive and different take on the Mandarin character, and I was pleasantly surprised to have Aldrich Killian as the founder of Advanced Idea Mechanics (or A.I.M.), a shadowy technological terrorist organization out to grab power. Just to keep it more grounded in today’s reality, there was no giant flying M.O.D.O.K.

 

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

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A busy May the Fourth this year

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Joel

A busy “May the Fourth Be With You!” indeed. It was a tight schedule, with many a place to be and many a thing to do. My wife was working in the morning at her office, so it was just me and kiddos. We had Lily’s dance class, errands, lunch, and a 2pm Iron Man 3 showing to get to. And if possible, today was also Free Comic Book Day, so I wanted to take the kids shopping. Let the enumeration of errands begin!

1. In the morning, I got the kids dressed, fed, and ready, and I took them to Lily’s usual Saturday morning dance class.

2. After dance class, I had to rush home to change Lily into street clothes, then drop off something to someone in town for my wife.

3. Drop off and pick up shirts at the dry cleaners.

4. Visit Home Depot to look for hex tools and a wire stripper so I can try again to replace the front door light.

Hex tools and a wire stripper

Hex tools and a wire stripper

5. Lunch for the three of us. I considered Taco Bell because it’s fast and easy, but I thought it would be better to focus on quality. Instead, we hit our local diner for a nice quality lunch.

Lunch with Josh & Lily

Lunch with Josh & Lily

6. 1:20pm, my wife gets back from work, jumps into the car with us, and we’re off to the movies to see Iron Man 3 at 2pm. Somehow, we make it in 30 mins and still get good seats with 10 mins to showtime. Of course, we had to sit through 15 mins of trailers first.

At the movies -- Iron Man 3

At the movies — Iron Man 3

7. After the movie, we stopped in Lawrenceville to visit a crafts store so my wife could make a custom t-shirt for Josh’s upcoming charity ride on Sunday.

8. Visited our local comic book store to support them, pick up some free comic books for Free Comic Book Day (aka FCBD), and purchase anything really good. Besides the free books, I bought a Last Airbender book for Josh, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book for Lily, and a special Transformers book for myself.

9. Finally home to relax!

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