OBX 2008

We arrived at our vacation house on Saturday September 6th here in North Carolina just having missed Tropical Storm Hanna. We departed Ohio Friday evening and stopped halfway in Winchester Virgina(which according to MapQuest was our half-way point). On our previous trips we drove the full 12 hours in one shot, but with Katie getting older and my mother-in-law accompanying us, it seemed prudent to split the drive in two.
This was our first time coming down so late in the season, and we knew it would be a crap shoot with the Atlantic hurricane season, but good fortune was on our side and with the exception of some heavy rain on the second leg of our trip we arrived without incident.
Once we stocked up on the weeks supplies at the local Food Lion, it was time to get busy planning what was to be in store for the coming week. So far on the agenda we have a dolphin watching excursion, a trip into the 4-wheel drive area of the Outer Banks to do some wild horse viewing, assorted shopping trips, and a spending some time at the local "make your own pottery" shop. I am attempting to balance out THAT activity by enjoying some "adult beverages" in the hot tub under the stars at night!
Yesterday Jill and I rented a couple jet-skis for an hour and went out in the Currituck Sound for some fast and wet fun. Once the initial wariness of going so fast over water wore off, it was really a blast. The night was capped off by having dinner a a local BBQ joint specializing in "real North Carolina BBQ".
Watch for a complete recap in the form of a photo gallery when the trip is over!!

Murderer's Row

Be careful where you sit!

Last night as Jill, Katie, and I were leaving the Chapel Hill Olive Garden, I was putting our leftovers in the back of the CR-V when I heard Jill say "Oh my gosh, would you look at that" and then break into a fit of laughter. Not one to want to miss out on a good joke I asked what was so funny, and she pointed to the side of the building.

Now even though I don't like to miss out on a laugh, I am also not the quickest on the uptake sometimes. So after looking for what was so funny, my loving wife points out the above view to me. Once I composed myself, I knew I had to capture that image! I'm not sure if I violated anyones privacy by taking the picture, but I thought if you are dining at Olive Garden with your polka-dot panties and plumber's crack in full view of the general public...well, its fair game!

All-American Girl

Came across this on Saturday Night Live...perhaps its best to just let the music do the talking.

An Ode To Best Buy

I LOVE ELECTRONICS!

There, I have admitted it. I believe that is one of the tenets in any recovery program, to admit the problem. So now the healing can begin. Seriously though, I have always liked to try and get the most out of any form of entertainment I have, as long as I didn't go broke in the process or try and get over my head technical-wise. While my love for all things electronic is deep, I have never committed the time to become an "Expert" in the field. I usually followed two guidelines when I wanted something: (1) Does it sound good, and (2) Does it look good doing it?

That line of reasoning worked well when I was younger swapping stereos in my cars, or those of my friends. As time progressed and things got more expensive and technology more complex, I found I couldn't afford to just buy things that looked good, they needed to last and perform well. It was time to stop judging the books by the covers...after all, I'm not in a bar and its not 2am!

So I started to rely heavily on "User Reviews" that can be found on a lot of websites. CNET has a good amount of them, along with Editors Ratings for products they have investigated. EPINIONS is a good source for product reviews by consumers, and the mother of all review sites for unbiased looks is of course CONSUMER REPORTS. Recently BEST BUY started to include product reviews on their website along with a 1-5 scale for rating products.

So when I found myself with some as-of-yet unused gift cards, and a 12% off coupon for certain purchases courtesy of the Best Buy Reward Zone program, I started to look at the Sunday circular with a bit more curious eye. But what to get was the question...my iPOD was less than a year old, but boy that new iPOD touch looked nice. Our digital camera is still serving us well, and thanks to Jeffy, I am getting better pictures from it. My car stereo works just fine and has all the bells and whistles I need. Our living room would seem a bit more empty if I up and replaced our Toshiba rear-projection TV. We are Vista-enabled, so a new pc was out. And my Wii console will not go out of style for a long time.

While I'm sure Katie will soon share my joy in these things, her fun at Best Buy amounts to going there and "playing" the pianos on display, and while that will be a worthwhile purchase in the near future, I had gift cards and a coupon that expired soon burning a hole in my pocket. The one thing I could "justify" getting was a new TV in our bedroom, as that Zenith 27" tube model chewed up a good amount of real estate on the floor. Also when I come home at night from work and watch SportsCenter to unwind, the height of the stand made it impossible to watch without lying towards the foot of the bed to see the whole screen.

So with that in mind I had been on the lookout for a new TV that would be good as a second set, but still have some of the features I wanted. Price had to be foremost in the equation, followed by functionality and reliability. I had looked at a couple models over the past weeks, but neither had gotten good reviews from the sources I checked. The current ad had a nice selection, and I found one that was right in the price range I wanted, along with the features I needed.

Ah, but what about the reviews? At the time I decided on this particular model there were 80 reviews in and only 8 rated it less than a "4". Having read all 80, I decided that for what I wanted and how I would use it, this was a good deal. I also referred to Cnet which gave it a good reference. Epinions had nothing and I didn't check Consumer Reports. The one I finally settled on was this one. New TV

The Dynex brand is the house brand for Best Buy, along with Insignia. From what I was able to glean online, they are either a hybrid of Sony and Samsung parts, or made by LG. All of which make exceptional flat-panels. One of the better things about this model is that it is "Digital Ready" so when the switch to all digital broadcasting is made next year, I will not need a set-top box to convert the signals. For now I am content to use the cable direct from the wall, and still get the HD feeds from Time-Warner for my local channels. Maybe if they add more HD to their lineup I will get a box for this one, or if I catch a deal for a second box free change my current cable plan. But otherwise it is great for its current use. The HD is crystal-clear, and DVDs look super on it.

HA HA

Each morning I enjoy reading the local paper with a nice hot cup of coffee. If I'm lucky I get to do this in a relatively quiet dining room, if I get up before Katie, who for some reason just can't seem to relate to my little indulgence.

The design of the Akron Beacon Journal is great...Section A is World and National news, B is Local, C is Sports and Business, and D is Entertainment. Which works great for me because I love reading the comics last. Sort of like saving the cherry from your ice cream sundae until the end. The Sunday paper of course is an exception, given all the ads and such. On that day its either the comics I read last, or the Best Buy circular depending on how I feel...but either way its still a treat!

I've had several "favorite" comics over the years, Bloom County(which morphed into Outland then Opus), Calvin and Hobbes, and Foxtrot. Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean(by local artist Tom Batiuk(rhymes with attic)) have been must-reads for me also. Funky having drawn national attention recently for having one of its main characters die in the strip has been one of the few comics that show age progression of its characters instead of being "frozen" in time...I mean come on shouldn't PJ be out of that sleeper by now??

My current favorite strip is Get Fuzzy, which just works on so many levels for me. Its not for everyone, because admittedly the first few times I read it I didn't get it, but in keeping at it I found it to be well worth my time. A recent addition to the Beacon is Pearls Before Swine which is sort of a thought-out "Far Side" in my eyes and can be quite acerbic at times.

And in closing I offer up today's strip.

Growing Up

This weekend my son Alex came home for a visit from school. He is enrolled in the Transportation Technology program at Owens Community College in Toledo Ohio. This is his first time away from home, and the trips home every other weekend help keep the homesickness to a minimum.

Not having one iota of knowledge on how to be a Father when he was born, I just sort of went about it the best way I knew how and on more than one occasion fell way short of the goal as he was growing up. But the one thing that remained constant was my hope that when he grew up, he would not make the mistakes I did, and have more good times than bad.

In playing sports Alex has always been exceptional, with soccer being his best. But it doesn't matter if we are shooting hoops in my driveway or ending up at the local bowling alley to have some fun, this kid can just pick up whatever it is and do it great.

When he was turning 16 and the time came to want to drive, he went out and got 2 summer jobs to buy his first car. His full-time job was working in the maintenance department in the Township he lived in, and the second job, which was part-time he bussed tables at a local restaurant. At the end of the summer he was the owner of a 1995 Nissan Sentra SE-R and took great pride that he bought and paid for it on his own. That vehicle served him well, but making the drive from Brimfield to Toledo every other week was starting to take its toll, and it was recently passed on to his brother Kevin, who just turned 16 this summer and will be embarking on his own quest for employment soon to be able to support whatever teenagers these days call important.

So the question at hand was what does a 20 year old college student do when they need a new form of transportation but don't have all the cash to secure said wheels? In addition to going to school, Alex also works for the school in their maintenance department and has enough of an income to pay his rent and have spending money. So during his time home last month, he went to his bank, talked to the loan department and was told that given his income to expense ratio he could get a loan for a vehicle at payments that wouldn't break his bank.

With that knowledge in hand, he quickly went to work to find a vehicle in that price range that he liked. At the end of the search he took a liking to a 1998 Chevy S-10 4X4 ZR-2 pickup. I was a little skeptical given the asking price compared to what I was finding online for similarly equipped vehicles, but to give him credit Alex did a thorough job looking the vehicle over and then negotiating price. Most importantly, he is happy with the purchase and when I had the chance to look the truck over this weekend, I think he did an outstanding job.

As I watched him drive away from my place Sunday night, I thought to myself "20 years old, away in college, working at the same time and just took on his first installment loan". I know I wasn't at that point 22 years ago, so I guess in wanting your child to do better than you did in life, so far that boy is above the bar.

As you can see from the picture, I took it while it was raining and I'm sure those were raindrops on my face as I walked back to my house.

Birthday Pictures

Well, it was that time again. Off we went to our local photography studio to have Katie's birthday pictures taken. Our studio of choice is called Picture People and they are conveniently located in the mall right up the road from where we live.

Since we were there last, they have made major improvements in the way they take the pictures and then display the proofs. Before, the cameras were mounted on mobile poles which limited how you could pose and the photographers range of shots were pretty standard. They now use digital cameras and get right down level with the subject.

They used to take the pictures and tell you to come back in an hour when they would have about 5 sets of pictures ready for viewing. Usually an 8x10, (2) 5x7s, and a sheet of wallet sized pictures per set. You could mix and match to make up a set, but it always seemed that the really good ones that you wanted an extra 8x10 of had to be reprinted which made the waiting times longer. All in all a fairly wasteful thing in my eyes because while I'm sure there were people with kids who thought "Oh no, if I don't buy all these they will throw away pictures of my dear sweet baby" the majority of customers weren't that flush with cash. I mean come on, this isn't Olan Mills we are talking about here.

Now however, since the process is all digital, you return after about 15 minutes and sit down in front of a huge Dell flat panel monitor and you can pick and choose the pictures you want, the suitable sizes, and an assortment of effects can be applied. Of course the standard set is still one 8x10, two 5x7, and the sheet of wallets. But for the inevitable "Oh, so-and-so HAS to have this one in a (insert size), the wait time is decreased.

Shrewd marketers they are, they still trot out one or two pictures in frames they hope to sell at what I'm sure is a HUGE mark-up.

Which brings us to the picture at the top of this post. They brought it out in a really nice frame, complete with a mat, and its called the Gallery piece, and the picture is actually 10x20 instead of the 10x13 we opted for. When we saw it, we knew that one was a keeper but figured we could do the matting and framing ourselves. That project has yet to take shape, but the picture is currently hanging nicely on our dining room wall.

If I do have one negative thing to say about the studio, it would be that apparently the only taste they have is in their mouths. Last year we entered Katie in the 2 year old category for the chains "Cutest Kid" contest and each store picked a finalist from the previous weeks sitting to be submitted to the headquarters for further judging. I'm convinced the stores decision was solely based on who bought the biggest set of pictures, because I saw the finalist's picture for that week and there was no way she was cuter than Katie. Not that I'm biased or anything....