Apartment Reconfiguration

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I knew this day was coming but was delusional that i could put it off indefinitely   Teagan’s play area has grown and displaced my office area.  Today MC and I moved her desk into our bedroom out of our Foyer.  We then moved my computer desk into the Foyer so there is more room in the dining room / office / Teagan’s play area.  It is great that Teagan has more play area, and with MC’s desk in the bedroom I even have somewhere i can work from home when i need to and not have Teagan distracting me.  On the down side I don’t know how cool it will be in the Foyer durring the summer.  I hope its not too hot but we may need to get a fan to circulate air better.

The hardest part of the moving stuff was cleaning the dust we saw when moving one carpet.  Everything fit pretty well in their new locations.  I now just have to remember to walk to they Foyer when I want to goto my computer.  I keep walking to the play area and are disappointed when I realize my computer isn’t there.

The next reconfigurations we need to make is move the step cabinet we have out of the play area before Teagan can craw.  The last thing we need is a piece of furniture that screams climb me to a kid that just learned to move around.

Saturday in Forest Park

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Today we decided to take a trip to Forest Park.  We wanted to goto the carousel and check out the park.  After debating the best way to get there (walking or public transit) we ended up taking the bus since the trip was just too far to walk with a 7 month old.

The bus trip was uneventful but we had trouble finding an entrance to the park.  We found a horse trail entrance but we couldn’t take the stroller down it.  There was a nice playground next to the trail that we went to and sat on the grass and played with Teagan.  She also got to go on the swings.  We then asked and got directions to were the carousel was but as we were walking there we realized it was way too far away to walk and it was taking us ever further from home and the bus.  At that point we called it quits and headed back towards Austin St.  We were going to find a lunch spot to hit up but when we got back we realized we were just in time to take Teagan to Gymboree so we went to a class.  Teagan had a blast even though I only got fuzzy photos of it.

After all that excitement Teagan had a 2+ hour nap not at her regular time.  She was wiped out.  It was a great day!

Bose Cinnemate Speakers

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For a while now I have know I need to get rid of my stereo. It is a great stereo. I probably wrote about it before but aren’t 100% sure. Either way I love it and it has served me well for years. The problem is with Teagan getting ready to crawl we know we want to get rid of it. At first I was looking to get a sound bar speaker “system” since it is one speaker and a subwoofer. The idea has been to get rid of all the wires and speaker stands that are all over our living room right now.

Several months ago I picked out a decent sound bar but wasn’t 100% convinced to buy it. Flash forward to today and that system is now not available and comparable ones are more money than I thought was appropriate for the quality I would get. I know what I have (an Onkyo 5.1 receiver and speakers) is overkill for our apartment but i also knew how much a downgrade the sound bar was. When i found a well reviewed sound bar in the $250 price range i thought that was good. Then when that wasn’t available a decent one was more money and the reviews weren’t as good. At that point my friend Jayson convinced me to go and get a Bose Cinnemate II system. It was much more than i wanted but the reviews were much better than any of the cheaper sound bars. I know many people have polarizing opinions of Bose but i have had good luck with them in the past, so I went to buy them. As luck would have it they were marked down in price. The higher end version was around the price of the lower end ones, and the lower end ones were marked down even more. I opted for the higher end model and just got them.

I have been happy so far, but the real test will be when I get my new TV that i have been planning on getting for a while and put on a good movie!

Amazon, Why oh Why are You Using Smartpost?

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I am very concerned about Amazon’s recent switch to Smartpost for some orders.  I have been a huge fan and customer for years and a Prime customer for many of those.  Recently I have noticed Amazon’s switch to Smartpost for some orders.  I was concerned because i have heard horror stories about Smartpost but didnt have any issues.  Now that has changed and my first delivery was missed purely because of Smartpost.  I wrote an email to Amazon.  In the event that they don’t read or reply to customer mail and before I forgot I wanted to paste the text of my mail into this post in the hopes that someone from Amazon may find it.  I get trying to cut costs, but Smartpost is just bad.  My example below is only the first example i have had with Amazon, but not the first i know of personally or professionally.

My wife pointed out that this order was formula and other supplies for the baby.  The whole reason we buy from Amazon is their price and the fact that we can rely delivery dates.  Yes we can goto the store nearby in a pinch if a delivery doesn’t happen but at that point why should I be ordering from Amazon at all for that stuff?

Email message read:

I have used Amazon Prime for years.  Very recently my family has started receiving packages via USPS Smartpost instead of directly from UPS for free prime shipping.  Today i was supposed to receive the order listed however USPS was unable to deliver it since no one was home.  Lets ignore the fact that someone was home and tried to buzz them for now.  I got an email telling me in order to reschedule delivery i need to goto a website and fill out a form to ask for re-delivery.  UPS or Fedex don’t require this.  They just try 3 times.  Also a more minor note that my building’s super accepts packages and i have never had a problem with other carriers until your switch to smart post.  Your switch to Smartpost is a step in the wrong direction compared to Amazon’s typical stellar service.

Not to make threads since i am one customer but continued experiences like this will lead me to look at alternative vendors.  I use Amazon for many things because of its ease of ordering and because I know I will get my stuff without question.  Starting to have delivery problems will get myself and probably others to rethink your services no matter how cheap the shipping costs are.

My Speedmaster Returns

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In early January I was distressed when one night I went to wind my watch one night and felt something give when I started to wind it.  After that there was no resistance when winding it and i knew something was wrong.  I was very concerned because my Speedmaster Professional is over 40 years old and I just had work done on it almost two years ago.  Servicing that watch is not cheap so I was not pleased that it could be expensive to fix.  I took it to the Omega store the next day and thankfully the watch was still under warranty.  That was a huge relief.  On the down side they said it would take up to six weeks to get fixed.  At that point I didn’t care because it was a free fix.

Today I went to pick up my newly fixed watch.  It seems to be working perfectly so I am happy.  it always has a tenancy to run fast so I am wondering if this work has addressed that, but I am not holding my breath on it.

A New MacBook Pro

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My mother in law is fond of saying you don’t know if you don’t ask, or something to that effect.  i don’t always agree with that but most of the times I do.  Earlier this month I asked for a new laptop from work.  I have been without a work laptop since early summer (long story I wont go into).  I have used a desktop I had an my own Macbook Air.  My company allows personal Mac’s on a bring your own support type model.  I was wanting something more powerful than what my Air could provide and I really didn’t want to keep using my personal gear for work.  I researched my options and the Dell developer build laptop they offered was powerful but very big.  I liked the power but I didn’t’ really want to go back to a windows machine.  I looked and noticed i could get a Macbook Air bundle that wasn’t much more than the Dell and it was basically just as powerful.  Since I can do my entire job on a Mac i asked if i could just get one of the new Retina Display Pro’s instead of a Dell.  My boss got approval and said yes i could get it.  I was extremely pleased.

Today the computer arrived unexpectedly early at the office.  I was on vacation but got the tracking information.  I talked with MC and she agreed to let me go in to the office to pick up the computer and come home.  That would allow me to start migrating my stuff off the Air onto the new Pro before I got back to work after the new year.

The Pro is bigger than anything I have had since a 15″ Powerbook, but it was just as heavy as my 13″ Macbook Pro I used to have.  It is much heavier than the Air I had and that will take getting used, however that extra weight comes along with the more ram and much more powerful processor.  Not to mention the bigger screen.  I wont need the bigger screen most of the time but when i am not plugged into a monitor it will come in handy.

My 2nd (or 3rd, depending on how you look at it) Jawbone UP

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Last week I got a new Jawbone UP.  So far I have been very pleased with it.  MC saw it and I was suprised that she was interested in one too.  She wants to work out more and it seemed like a good tool to motivate her.  After trying to see what colors I could get her I ended up back at the Apple store picking up another black band for her.  Only difference between hers and mine is hers is a smaller size.

We now are “compeeting” with each other and seeing our results.  I hope for both of us this gets us to be more active.  If anything it makes me smile every time I see the cute picture MC took for her profile picture.

My New Jawbone UP

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Last year when Jawbone announced the UP I thought it was a super cool idea and I got one.  I wore it every day for a month or so until it broke.  My UP was one of the many defective units that ended up being recalled by Jawbone.  Jawbone was very cool and I got all my money back so there was no hard feelings.

I still thought the idea was great but the alternatives (Nike Fuelband or the Fitbit) didn’t apeal to me.  The fitbit clips onto your clothes so i wasn’t a fan of the idea.  The fuelband doesn’t track sleep and it needed charging often compaired to 10 days with the UP.  The Fuelband is also big.  I was pleasantly suprised when Jawbone reintroduced the UP (even thought they said they would I am always skeptical until it happens).  I was in the Grand Central Station Apple Store getting a gift card for my Niece for the holidays and I saw the UP, so I got myself one.

I am excited to see how much it works.  I like the ability to track sleep and activity still but they added better food tracking.  I hope to write more about it once I use it a bit.

Meeting up with old friends

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My friends Joe & Karen and their little one Logan were in town.  We don’t get to see them very often so I wanted to be sure I could see them.  Unfortunately the night they were free MC couldn’t get out.  It is still difficult to schedule stuff with a 2 month old.  I ended up meeting up with them on my own right from work.

We went to Sparks Steakhouse for dinner.  We meet other friends of theirs in one big group since they weren’t in for that long to have separate meetups with everyone.  I was suprised how good Logan was at dinner and I hope Teagan will be the same way!

The food was good but it wasn’t as good as I remembered from when MC & I went here for my birthday two years ago.  Either way it was great to be able to see everyone even if it was just for dinner.

My new iPad Mini

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Even though I am the owner of a Nexus 7 and an iPad 3 I was excited to pre-order the new iPad Mini.  I bought the Nexus 7 only because there wasn’t’ any smaller offering that Apple had.  I love my iPad but holding it on the train and using it when holding at all for any long period of time is uncomfortable.  At work I carry it around everywhere.  The Nexus 7 was great for the price but has always been slow and even though I want to give Android a chance it still doesn’t beat out iOS in my opinion.  With all those factors in mind I was pleased to order the iPad Mini.  I hope to be able to replace most if not all of what I use the full size iPad and the Nexus with the mini.

I opted for the 64gig version since i do use a lot of space.  I also wanted the LTE (Verizon) edition since I thought the Nexus 7 and the original iPad that i had with Wifi only was too limiting.  Being able to browse or check information away from wifi is worth the cost.

Now the jury is out on if I like it or not.