MC stayed home today to receive the baby furniture we ordered from Bellini. I came home and it was pretty nicely setup. Very exciting. all we need now is a baby. of course we need to finish putting together the room.
Next Gen MacBook Air
After much pondering I broke down and put an order in for a new MacBook air 13 inch. I bought a 2011 model last August and I’ve been very happy with it, except for a few drawbacks. The new model seems to correct all the drawbacks I’ve experienced. The only thing I had to do to get it was spent a lot more money for it. I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. I have been generally upgrading laptops every year so, and in the near future I don’t think that’s going to happen with a baby on the way so I want to get the upgrade out-of-the-way and be happy with additional capacity now.
This new MacBook air is sporting eight gigs of RAM and a 512 gig SSD drive. The old model didn’t have enough memory for what I was using it for, especially running a virtual machine. I also maxed out the 256 gigs on the old one SSD, so going for the 512 gig SSD was a must. But that upgrade broke the bank. I contemplated going for a MacBook Pro 13 inch with the regular hard drive but the cost difference and the performance difference really didn’t make it worthwhile for me. I’ve been spoiled with the SSDs in the Air’s for the past two years so going back to a 5400 RPM hard drive wasn’t really something I wanted to do. Other notable improvements is the USB three, but I really don’t have any use for it at this moment. Also the Core i7 dual core processor is slightly faster than what I’ve been used to all my old air.
It doesn’t come with Mountain Lion, but I get a free upgrade when it comes out in a few weeks. I will probably buy the upgrade anyway since I have other computers I want to upgrade anyway, and the free upgrade is only for this laptop.
So far I’ve been extremely pleased with the upgrade. Now all I have to do is eBay my old laptop.
Beach Day
Went to moms beach club with MC, mom, Carrie, Zach an Lexi. Morgan was at camp. The entire stein clan was also there. MC and I got to lounge around in the pool a bit. After that we relaxed in the sun, well out in the son under some shade. Then we went to the ocean and hung with my mom and Lexi then back to the chairs to relax. Generally restful day.
After the beach we went to dinner at mother Kelly’s afterward. Zach wasn’t feeling well but good dinner otherwise. Mom picked us up and took us home!
Oddly I starts coughing afterward. I am not sure if it was an allergy or not.
Brunch with Ed-O
Went to brunch near the meatpacking district. Walked around a bit then had coffee at the same place we went for coffee with Aileen.
MC and I each got zipcar credit from a booth at the gay pride day parade. I will take a free $45 for being a customer already any day.
Dinner with Jayson and Gretchen
We meet up with them at Sardies. They were in the city to see potted potter. It was a good meal and nice to see them.
Potted Potter
While I was in London MC picked up pictures to the show Potted Potter. They were relatively inexpensive and we had fantastic seats. All week leading up to the show MC wanted to watch the movies so she could know what they would be talking about. Since i didn’t want to see the movies again, she didn’t see them since she didn’t want to watch them alone. Turns out you really don’t need to see the movies or read the books to enjoy the show. It was really funny. We had a blast.
We had dinner at shake shack before hand, and then walked over to the show.
The High Line
MC and I went to the high line for the first time today. We walked around before meeting up with Aileen for dinner to celebrate her graduating. After dinner we took her to the high line for desert.
On my first two attempts back from London I was able to get Pims. One at a bar near the high line and on e at dinner. Too funny especially after Colin said it was tough to do in NY.
My Alone Day in London
Since I headed to London early to get a weekend in seeing the city I had a full day to kill Sunday. I was originally going to possibly see Tony and hang out a bit but he had to cancel. I thought about my options and then opted to see the Tower of London. I slept in a little since i was tired from the flight over Friday night. I then got advise from the hotel on a place for lunch and found a row of pubs not too far from the hotel. I picked one and had some fish and chips. While eating i planned my day and route to the tower.
I headed over to the light rail station and took the DLR to goto the tower. I paid for the audio tour. After doing that with MC at Moma i am totally getting those when i can. so much easier to see historic sights and museums with the audio tour. The Tower was fun and interesting. I got some good photos. i wasn’t however that impressed with the crown jewels. Sorry England. I had heard i wouldn’t be by a few people and their expectations were spot on. Overall it was a good choice for my one day free.
First Day in London
I spent the morning getting from the airport to the hotel. And I unwound a little. I walked over to Canary wharf mall near where the office is. I need to get a SIM card for my Galaxy Nexus phone and iPad. I was impressed at how easy it was to get, and the price was not that bad either. I wasn’t happy I couldn’t use my AT&T iPhone 4S because it was locked to AT&T, but I was glad I had an unlocked Galaxy Nexus that i could use.
I tried to have some breakfast at Starbucks but ended up just having a Danish because he did not have the sandwich I wanted. After that i headed out to meet Colin by the London bridge station. Well first it was at another station and i didn’t see my text until i was already at the location i was originally going to. I then turned around and headed to the London bridge station. It was only a 15 minute detour. Once there Colin was running late. I walked around a bit, then just goofed off on the internet and read a bit in the sun until he arrived.
We checked out an open air market. had some food. I got some fudge. We then walked and had a drink at a pub. After that we walked all the way down towards were we were going to eat dinner. it was right near the London Eye. We walked along the river. it was fun. We were early meeting his wife so we had a drink outside by the river. i tried Pims for the first time. Colin insisted. it was good. We then meet his wife and had dinner, and then they had to rush off to get a delivery. We parted ways at the tube station. I made my way back to the hotel.
It was a good finally meeting Colin. I considered him a friend for a quite some time since I start working at Reuters, however other than Skype video chat’s we have never met in person.