Ups and Downs of the week.

 Home again – After being on the road nearly non-stop for three weeks, it’s good to be home. I have no school work and no place to be this weekend. I intend to enjoy my lack of things to do.

  Greed and self-importance – ‘Nuff said.

 Dad – Stronger every day. Hopefully he’ll go home again this week.

   Red Sox - Big Papi seems to have recovered somewhat from his epic slump, but Dice-K is just awful this year. They’ve got some issues to work out.

 Ragtops – Top-down driving is awesome. My Thursday commute was perfect. Sunny, warm (ok, hot) day, top down, a/c blasting cold air at me, Bob Marley cranking on the stereo, and near empty roads going to and from work. I thoroughly enjoyed the 110 mile round trip. 

I love my toys. This one is among the coolest. It’s a Verizon Mifi 2200 portable EV-DO router. Just fire it up and 5 devices can connect wirelessly to Verizon’s EV-DO broadband network. I used it at home tonight with my EEE-PC to watch the Red Sox game on MLB.com. The game streamed fine. Once you set up the intial connection via USB, all subsequent connections are via wifi. As this device is usually right near the laptop, the laptop connects to it automatically. I just open up the EEE-PC and it’s already connected to the Mifi and out to the internet. This thing is about the size of a credit card and about 4 or 5 credit cards thick. It has a 4-hour battery life and can be plugged in and charged either to a wall socket or via USB to a laptop. Wireless access to it is controlled via WPA, with the WPA code stamped on the bottom of the router. Monthly fee for unlimited (really 5GB) data is $60. You can also buy lesser data accounts or a 24-hour for $15 option. It’s made for traveling and it eliminates the danger of snapping off a wifi PCMCIA card or USB dongle from your laptop. This is perfect for the family on vacation. Everyone gets to surf.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 My Wife, The Organizer – We’re at the third Historical Novel Society conference in Schaumburg, IL. Sarah is the key organizer and driving force behind these conferences and this one is going off quite well.

 Dad – Stronger every day. Should be home soon..

 Red Sox - Swept the Yankmees and won a marathon game tonight.

 School is done for the summer – I took an online course which is now over. Now I get to enjoy my nights and weekends for a while.

 All in all, a good week.

I put some birdseed out this afternoon and got an unexpected visit.

We’ve been in London, Ontario over the weekend for a wedding. We drove back today and crossed into the US through Port Huron, MI. As we drove up to the checkpoint, I rolled down the window and handed the customs guy our passports. He asked where we lived and where we’ve been, and then scanned the passports. As soon as he scanned my passport, alarms went off and a half-dozen customs officers surrounded my car. They made me shut off the car and get out, then raise my hands and walk backwards until I was behind the car. Then I had to put my hands behind my back and lean forward. They cuffed me and hauled me off to a detention cell. Then they did the same thing to Sarah.

Once inside they asked me a few questions about where I lived and what my SSN was. After a few minutes they uncuffed me and let me out of the cell. Sarah was already uncuffed by then. Apparently they had an APB on a guy using my exact name with the exact same date of birth. He’s considered armed and dangerous, so they weren’t taking any chances. I think his description must be very different than mine, because the customs guy in the booth seemed to know right away I wasn’t their man, but because two items matched (name and DOB) they had to take me in until they were sure.

Quite the experience, though. I wonder what all the people in line behind us thought when they saw us both being hauled off in cuffs.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Ann Arbor, MI – Great little town. Easy to walk around, lots of restaurants, and, as I found out, an outstanding and friendly BMW dealership. (Thanks, Shane.)

  Air France flight 447 – What a shame. Hope they find out what went wrong.

 Dad – Still in rehab, but doing fine.

   Red Sox - They desperately need a shortstop. And, sad to say, a DH.

 Verizon 3G data network – Sarah was able to surf and do email almost all the way from home to Ann Arbor. The Asus EEE-PC is perfect for this sort of thing.

  Dumb speed limits – This is the highway from Detroit to London, Ontario. Wide open, brand new, three lane highway with a 100 KPH (63 MPH) speed limit. Talk about a boring ride.

At the risk of becoming dull, I have one more set of pics from our walk today in Central Park. The weather was mid-70s, dry, and sunny. In other words, perfect. The park was very busy today.

We can’t come to NYC without stopping at The Strand bookstore at Broadway and 12th St. This is a huge bookstore with used books and remainders and rare books and such. While Sarah was browsing, I took the opportunity to shoot some different sort of pics with the little Lumix P&S I bought a few months ago.

Here’s The Strand from the street.

What I see when I’m there.

Not what most people see.

Here are the pictures I promised. First set is Central Park. It was a nice day for walking, albeit a bit muggy. The temps were fine, though, so it was easy to walk for hours. The second set is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What a huge place. We didn’t come close to seeing it all. If we lived here, I think we’d be members just so we could come back again and again to see everything. 

Ups and Downs of the week.

 New York City – This place has its down side to be sure, but it’s a great place to visit. I especially like Central Park. We walked about 4 miles today through the park and around the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’ll get some pics posted later. The food here is awesome as well. Today I stood dumbfounded in a deli just marveling at all the food choices. Then Sarah called and said she was coming back from the conference, so I was saved from the decision and went to meet her for lunch. 

   Dad – Back to the rehab facility to regain his strength after the hospitalization last week. Looks like a couple more weeks before he’s home again. 

  Red Sox - Well, they had first place for a bit. Tonight’s loss to the Jays could land them in second behind the Yankmees if the Evil Empire wins, which is likely.

 Verizon 3G data network – Got a Verizon USB760 adapter, so now I have broadband access virtually anywhere. I’ll be trading it in next week, though for Verizon’s new Mifi 2200. More on that gadget later.