Scott C. Savett

AT&T Wireless FAIL - but not the way you might think

2010-09-16T21:52:00.003-04:00

So everybody has been picking on AT&T about their spotty coverage in large metro areas where people are gobbling down bandwidth using their smart phones. That's not my issue. Though I'd like a smart phone, I'm not high enough up the ladder to score one at work, and I can't justify carrying two cell phones. So I suffer with my company-issued phone.

For years I could send short e-mail messages to my cell phone at [phone number]@mmode.com. I used it to receive voicemail notifications from Vonage. Airlines used it to send me flight status notifications. And in July it just stopped working without any warning.

When I spoke with our AT&T account representative today, I was told that she didn't know about mmode.com (it's pre-Cingular merger technology) and wasn't sure why the @txt.att.net address that newer phones use wouldn't work (Kate has an iPhone with a functioning @txt.att.net address). She also wasn't aware that they had pulled the plug on mmode.com e-mail. She was apologetic, but not helpful in solving the problem. Her proposed solution was to migrate me to a new device and a new SIM card.

I know that my phone is old. Actually, ancient in wireless technology terms. But it does support GSM, which seems to be the lowest common denominator these days. I'm finding that support of pre-merger "blue" plans and phones is non-existent. Basically. AT&T is providing an inferior experience in the hope that everybody moves to a more expensive "non-blue" plan that is properly supported.

What I find most appalling is that AT&T clearly states in their FAQ that "all [AT&T] wireless phones are set up to send and receive email messages by using the following address: yournumber@txt.att.net. You can exchange short emails with any email address worldwide." There's no caveats about phones on old blue plans. As I read this, all means all -- it doesn't mean some or most.

See for yourself at:
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/messaging-internet/messaging/faq.jsp#email

The thread on the AT&T forum about this can be found at:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/mMode/URGENT-mmode-down-again-Their-mta01-cdpd-airdata-com-mail-server/td-p/1939480

There are currently 12 pages worth of feedback on the AT&T community Web site about this, so clearly there are more than just a "handful" of people with older "blue" plans. Is anybody else out there reading my blog having the same problem?

First Tomato of the Season

2010-08-04T20:57:00.003-04:00

After letting our garden plot lay fallow for two years, we decided to plant something in it this year. We were mainly encouraged by Kate's parents buying us a "grow your own vegetables" pack that included onions, potatoes, and garlic. We opted to not try the lettuce, carrots, and tomato seeds that came in the pack.

At the beginning of the season our neighbor, Dennis, was nice enough to till the land for us, which made it so much easier to plant. He also provided some corn seed, which has done amazingly well. We bought an assortment of tomato plants from Lowe's, which seem to have done very well.

Our first tomatoes were ready for picking this week. Here is a picture of one of the first tomatoes to come off the vine. We have not yet sliced one to taste the summery goodness.

Wailin Jennys come to Jim Thorpe

2010-08-04T20:02:00.004-04:00

Kate and I headed to Jim Thorpe on Friday, July 30, 2010 to see the Wailin' Jennys at the Mauch Chunk Opera House. I had first heard the Jennys on a Prairie Home Companion broadcast a few years ago. I was attracted by their hauntingly beautiful three-part vocal harmonies. When we heard they were coming to Jim Thorpe and tickets were reasonably priced, it was a no-brainer.

The opening act was Mike and Ruthy, a folk-rock group from Woodstock, NY. They were talented musicians and a fitting act to share the stage with the Jennys.

After about four songs by Mike and Ruthy, the Jennys took the stage. The venue was small enough that the performance felt intimate. The Jennys were familiar with the Opera House from a concert they had recorded there in August 2008.

Towards the end of the concert, I was able to snap this picture of the Jennys. From left to right are Heather Masse, Nicky Mehta, Ruth Moody, and Jeremy Penner.

My Review of GE ADER65LN White Dehumidifier

2010-06-16T12:01:00.001-04:00

Originally submitted at Abt Electronics

GE ADER65LN White Dehumidifier - ADER65/ 65 Dehumidification Pints Per Day/ R-410A Refrigerant/ Electronic Controls/ Low Temperature Operation/ Front Condensate Bucket With Water Level Indicator/ Automatic Shut-Off System When Bucket Fills/ Washable Air Filter/ Automatic Defrost Control/ White Fini...

Strong performance, great price

By DoctorScott from Allentown, PA on 6/16/2010

Pros: Effective, Energy Efficient

Best Uses: Dank Basement

Describe Yourself: Homeowner

Primary use: Personal

One year ago my wife and I purchased a GE AHR65LM dehumidifier to tame the dampness in our finished basement. Due to the size of the basement (~1200 square feet), we knew just one dehumidifier probably wouldn't do the trick.

As of January 1, 2010, GE stopped making the AHR65LM and replaced it with the ADER65LN. From the outside, the two look identical. A call to GE's tech support desk revealed that the change between the models was the refrigerant used. The change was mandated by the US government and affects all air conditioners and dehumidifiers. The new one uses R-410A refrigerant. They apparently also lowered the MSRP during the model change.

So far the ADER65LN has been just as effective as the AHR65LM. The two units working in tandem have kept our basement humidity at a reasonable 45% even during a damp spring.

(legalese)

Airfare craziness...

2010-02-04T00:45:00.004-05:00

I'd love to meet the people who come up with airfares. Of course, there may not actually be people who do this. A psychotic computer may have the job all to itself.

While recently traveling through Allentown's airport (ABE), I noticed a new banner by the escalators announcing the arrival of American Airlines at our airport. ABE is a surprisingly well-served airport that has almost all of the "major" legacy carriers (Delta/Northwest, United, USAirways, Continental) plus some smaller and newer discount airlines (Allegiant, Direct Air, AirTran) and one international carrier (Air Canada). The obvious legacy airline missing is American.

A quick search on the AA.com web site reveled three flights a day between Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and Allentown starting on June 10, 2010. Until now, United has had a lock on that route and it has been pricey. Thinking that competition may bring down the price of this route and allow Kate and me to visit her brother and sister-in-law in Chicago over the summer, I went in search of cheap airfares. No dice -- they are still high at around $400 even though nearly all of the seats are still available. Its seems that they want to fly empty planes for the first couple weeks.

But what if I want to fly through Chicago onto another airport relatively close to Chicago? On a whim I selected Milwaukee (MKE) to check fares. Actually, it was more than a whim since Kate and I would like to see the Kohler factory in Milwaukee some day, so maybe this would be a good opportunity. The fare for the same flights on American Airlines through Chicago and then connecting to Milwaukee is $239.

I'm trying to understand this... I can occupy an airplane seat for an additional 90 minutes during which time the airline will have to spend money on fuel and labor, and will contribute to CO2 emissions and ultimately global warming as they shuttle me from Chicago to Milwaukee, but I will save $160? Is there a secret organization subsidizing the flights to Milwaukee?

Living in a winter wonderland

2009-12-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

We got a few inches of snow over the weekend -- the first appreciable snowfall this season. It looked nice and wasn't much of a bother. I didn't even have to bring out the snow blower since the driveway and sidewalk essentially melted themselves. Just a little bit of shoveling in the shadows was all I needed to do.

Lulu celebrates Halloween in stride

2009-10-31T23:29:00.000-04:00

Lulu's alter ego made her annual appearance on Halloween. This year she posed as a "Lulu bug."

As in past years, she didn't tolerate anything on her head for very long. She seemed pleased once she was freed from the costume, but showed her angst on one of her stuffed toys later in the evening. "Ugly Monster," as this green beast had become known, met a horrible fate and was found in pieces behind the couch. Lulu doesn't know it, but we have a back-up Ugly Monster waiting in her toy box. Hopefully Ugly Monster II won't meet the same fate as its predecessor.

Resizing a Windows Virtual PC 2007 disk

2009-08-13T10:16:00.003-04:00

I love challenges at work. Recently I had to import a large volume of laboratory data into a virtual testing environment. It went OK until I ran out of virtual disk space in my Virtual PC.

Unfortunately, there is no native way to expand the size of a virtual hard drive (vhd) file in Virtual PC 2007. After a few minutes of searching the Web, I stumbled across a Web site that showed the process.

The resizing tool download was free (after Web site registration) and worked flawlessly. I had difficulty getting gparted working under Virtual PC (no surprise there since it's a linux-based product forced to work under Windows). A few magical command line options during the gparted boot (vga=791 noreplace-paravirt) did the trick. The virtual PC now thinks it has a 25 GB disk and the data load can continue.

Fiction: End of the Line

2009-08-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

I was recently on a flight on United Airlines through Chicago to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I thoroughly enjoyed this short piece of fiction in the Hemispheres magazine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Read the article on the Hemispheres Magazine Web site by clicking here: End of the Line

Beginning of the end of volunteer EMS in NJ

2009-07-30T22:30:00.003-04:00

Sad as it is, another volunteer squad in NJ has closed its doors.

See the article here.

I could have predicted this when I was living in northern New Jersey earlier this decade. With the reduction of volunteerism comes the end of volunteer ambulance squads. Many squads in Bergen County and throughout New Jersey will face tough questions about consolidation in upcoming years. The idea of home rule that is rampant in NJ will be trumped by the reality that each little town, village, or borough doesn't need its own BLS ambulance squad running less than 1,000 calls per year. I predict that larger regional squads running a few thousand calls would be much more efficient. The counter-argument would say that a regional system might lack the down-home neighborly feel the current system provides, but I'd rather have a reliable and cost-effective ambulance service than an unreliable "home town" squad that might not get out the door when the pager tones sound.

My Review of GE JX2030 Deluxe 30 Inch Trim Kit For 2.0 or 1.8 Cu. Ft. Microwave Ovens

2009-06-26T23:42:00.002-04:00

Rainbow Appliance

This deluxe trim kit allows for a GE countertop microwave oven to be Installed in a wall or cabinet alone or over a GE 30" single electric wall oven. It can also be Installed over a GE convection wall oven for a complete convection cooking center. This trim kit will enhance any ...

Not much to this trm kit

Doctor Scott Allentown, PA 6/26/2009

Pros: Attractive Design

Cons: Poor packaging, Expensive for what it is

Describe Yourself: Casual Cook

If you have a GE microwave and need a wall-mount trim kit, the choices are limited. This trim kit looks nice, and matches the design of the microwave perfectly. It's expensive for a piece of powder coated steel, but I can't blame Rainbow Appliance for GE sticking it to the consumer for such a niche item.

This trim kit was delivered damaged. We bought our new appliances ahead of time and stored them in their original packaging in another room while the kitchen was being remodeled. The damage was not obvious until the package was opened 6 weeks later when the kitchen contractor went to install it. Customer service was not helpful, saying we should have contacted them sooner to report the issue. I suppose we could have fought with the credit card company and disputed the charge, but it wasn't worth the trouble. The bottom line is that we won't be buying from Rainbow Appliance again and I'm displaying my frustration at their lack of customer care in this review.

Annoying eFax Spam

2009-05-19T14:33:00.003-04:00

I thought the days of getting spammed on a fax machine were over. I was wrong.

Twice over the last two days I have received eerily similar faxes on my free eFax number. I don't mind the fax spam so much since it doesn't really cost me anything. But if this keeps up, I will exceed my "free" incoming fax pages allotment and eFax will revoke my account.

Anybody looking for discounted health care plans?

For anybody else facing a similar issue, there is a way to report junk faxes to eFax:
http://www.efax.com/about-us?tab=reportSpam, but keep in mind that reporting a fax as spam doesn't reduce the number of pages counted against your free monthly allotment.

Kitchen Update - April 11

2009-04-11T15:29:00.009-04:00

The kitchen is 99% complete. We're currently waiting for the pendant lamps that will be installed above the peninsula (two blue holes in the ceiling). The transformation has been amazing. We have been thrilled with our contractors including Kitchens By Design, Bender Electric, Joe Pietkiwicz Plumbing, and Eisenhard's Decorating Center.

You can see the pictures:

Before: very 80's salmon walls, light blue Formica counter tops, beige cabinets with oak trim, Pergo laminate flooring, and fluorescent lighting.

After: deep orange walls, cinnamon spice Zodiaq quartz counter tops, extra-deep maple cabinets to the ceiling, Armstrong laminate flooring, and recessed (dimmable) lighting with low-voltage under-cabinet accent lighting.

The pantry area has also been transformed.

Before: panel bi-fold doors (not seen here) with full-depth shelves and a divider down the front of the pantry.

After: dual custom pantry cabinets with five roll-out drawers each. The center area allows for staging of groceries and a handy place for the drop-down LCD TV.

Finally, the powder room that previously had the same beige cabinetry with the light blue counter top has been transformed to match the kitchen's decor.

After: glass vessel sink, oil rubbed bronze faucet, same cabinet and counter top materials as the kitchen. Not shown here are the new lamp, toilet, and floor, which will be featured on a future blog entry once the grout has been finished and the baseboard tile installed.

I wish I were...

2009-04-01T22:12:00.000-04:00

A highlight of my recent business trip to Atlanta was a chance encounter with the Weinermobile. This isn't the first time I've seen this entertaining vehicle. The first rendezvous that I can remember was in 1995 when I was in Midlothian, Virginia on my way down to Clemson to find an apartment.

This time was near the Georgia Aquarium at the corner of Luckie Street and Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard.

Remind me to avoid Columbus, Ohio

2009-03-27T19:21:00.003-04:00

When money gets tight, people put their heads up their rear ends...

I just read an article from March 22, 2009 that Columbus, Ohio is considering taking paramedics off their ambulances and reverting to an all-basic (EMT) system.

"A committee charged with finding ways for Columbus to save money has recommended that the city return to a basic emergency medical system. The last time the Columbus Division of Fire provided only basic-level care was in 1968."

These days, there is a clear trend of upgrading ambulances from basic (BLS) to advanced life support (ALS). I'm not sure there are any BLS squads left in the county where I volunteer. All of them upgraded to ALS or disappeared within the last decade.

While they are at it, I think Columbus should replace their fleet of ambulances with hearses. Being built on a car chassis, a hearse probably gets better fuel economy than an ambulance, so the savings would be two-fold!

Kitchen Destruction: Accomplished

2009-02-24T21:27:00.004-05:00

With the help of my parents and Kate's colleague, Rob, the kitchen was basically disassembled on Sunday afternoon. While the removal of the upper cabinets a couple weekends ago was relatively clean, the removal of the base cabinets and countertops was messy and noisy.

As you can see from the picture, the only cabinet in place is the sink base. The other cabinet in the center of the floor is acting as a temporary island since there's no place to put anything down. The dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator are still in place.

The next task will be pulling up the rest of the floor. While Kate and I had really wanted to keep the Pergo floor since it was in decent shape, its age (approximately 13 years) combined with the changing footprint of the cabinets necessitated its removal. As a result, we selected our flooring today. Though it was a tough debate between a lighter and darker finish, the darker one won out. We picked Armstrong's Origins Merbau, which has a rich color and interesting grain.

In other news... our vessel sink arrived today. It is beautiful and will look great against the Zodiaq countertop in the powder room.

Cool Geeky Software Tool

2009-02-23T21:27:00.004-05:00

We're kicking it into high gear in preparation for the 2009 NCEMSF conference this coming weekend. As VP and Chief Technology Officer of the Foundation, I am responsible for the computing needs of the conference. Over the last year I've amassed a cache of hardware that should make this year's conference easier than ever to manage (we hope).

Two years ago we introduced the use of proximity RFID readers to keep track of attendance at the lectures. Each conference attendee was issued an RFID tag that uniquely identified them. Upon entering a lecture, the attendee "badged" in.

Last year we added LCD screens to the RFID readers to display the name of the current session. It also displayed the name of the person swiping in, but the updating of the LCD screens with the name was the slow step of the process. The process also relied upon a reliable connection back to the "mother ship" for verification of the name. As it turned out, the connection from some of the far workstations was not reliable. Additionally, the virtual serial port for the LCD screen in conjunction with the Visual Basic 6 code I wrote was just too slow.

This year we are using essentially the same RFID hardware, but each workstation will be standalone. No need to talk to the mother ship this year. Plus, instead of renting laptops and rushing to install the software the day of the conference, we have invested in a set of seven small form factor (SFF) PCs. These PCs will be solely dedicated to running the RFID stations, and will be operated without monitors.

So the challenge was setting up the seven SFF PCs identically. That's where the cool geeky software tool that I mentioned in the title of this article comes into place. I had initially evaluated Snap Deploy 3 from Acronis. It turned out to be a bit overkill for our situation even though the price was very reasonable at $19.99.

After scratching my head at the complexity of feature-rich Snap Deploy 3, I stumbled upon Clonezilla, which is free. It's produced by National Center for High-Performance Computing, which is located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. I opted for the "one at a time" copying method, but Clonezilla also offers a multicast mode that they claim can replicate a 5.6 GB disk image to 40 PCs simultaneously in about 10 minutes. My experience with the unicast version is similar: 4 GB disk image in about 7 minutes over a gigabit Ethernet switch.

Kitchen Update - February 15

2009-02-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

The kitchen demolition continues. It was amazingly easy to remove the wall cabinets on the stove side of the kitchen. On Sunday night we tackled them, and are very pleased with the results. The most difficult part was hauling the cabinets to the basement for temporary storage.

Before upper cabinet removal:

After upper cabinet removal:

The Kitchen Demolition Has Begun

2009-02-14T23:27:00.003-05:00

In preparation for our new kitchen early next month, Kate and I started demolishing the old kitchen tonight. We started small with the removal of some of the wall cabinets. You'll be happy to know that these cabinets will find a new home in our garage or my basement work room.

Before:

After:

We've picked out and purchased new cabinets and appliances. Our big debate now is what to do with the floor. We had hoped to save it since it's in good shape. Unfortunately, we're told that with the slight change in the footprint, we'll have to replace the entire floor since replacement boards for 13-year-old Pergo aren't easy to come by. Note to self: buy a few extra boxes of whatever new floor we go with.

Toronto from the Air

2009-02-09T13:41:00.000-05:00

As you may have seen from my photo archive, I enjoy taking photos from the air. Here is a shot of the CN Tower taken while on final approach to Toronto's Pearson (YYZ) airport. While the plane window was dirty, I managed to get a decent picture.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T20:56:00.000-05:00

Kate and I had dinner on New Year's Eve with our neighbors at Curious Goods at the Bake Oven Inn in Germansville, PA. It's about 20 minutes from our house, and it is Kate's favorite restaurant in the Lehigh Valley. It was originally recommended by our neighbors, so it seemed appropriate that we ended up there with them for New Year's Eve.

Kate enjoyed some lovely crab cakes and parmesan truffle french fries while I had a hearty and tasty lamb shank. All four of us at the table shared a yummy apple crisp for dessert. On our way out the door, the restaurant co-owner, Catherine, gave all of us party hats. Here is Kate showing off hers by the restaurant bar.

After coming home from dinner, the real party started when we decided to bathe the dog. She had been itchy recently, and we figured we some down time before Dick Clark came on the TV. Lulu doesn't like baths, but is timid enough to take them without much complaint. I'm pleased to report that Lulu is clean and soft for the start of the new year.

Kate has a new car!

2009-01-01T20:19:00.001-05:00

Kate has a brand new car. Barney, her purple 1997 Toyota Rav4, was retired with 155,818 miles on it. While there was nothing mechanically wrong with Barney, we didn't want to push our luck. Driving a 12-year-old car with more than 150k miles on it is asking for trouble.

So, we thought we'd take advantage of a deal Toyota was offering for leftover 2008 Rav4s. Barney's replacement, a red 2008 Rav4, is appropriately named Clifford. Here you see Kate in the car the night we picked it up from the dealership.

About the dealer... I know people say that if you can't say something good about someone, you shouldn't say anything at all. But we feel the need to tell the world about our experience. It wasn't completely bad, but it wasn't what I would call "good." In this slowed economy, I would expect a new car dealer to be proactive and responsive when they have somebody walk into their showroom.

Our salesman was nice enough, but he lacked the follow-through that would have made us raving fans of Bennett Toyota in Allentown. We initially met with him on December 19 to look at used Rav4s. We test drove a gold 2007 with 12,000 miles. We were quoted a price, which was reasonable but not great considering the financing promotion that was being offered on the leftover new 2008s. We decided to sleep on it and come back the next day. We also decided to do some more research about prices for used 2007s. While looking online, we found the exact Rav4 (yes, the VINs matched) we drove advertised on Bennett's Web site for $2000 less than we were quoted earlier that evening. Kate was livid, as was I.

On December 20 we headed back to Bennett Toyota and asked about new 2008 Rav4s since our research indicated they would be a better overall value since Toyotas hold their resale so well. In other words, the high asking price due to the small depreciation for a 18-month-old 2007-model-year Rav4 wasn't enough to make us jump at it compared to a new 2008 Rav4. Plus, Kate didn't have her heart set on a gold car. She had been eying many of the other colors including red and blue. The dealer found us a red one with the equipment we wanted in upstate New York. We haggled over the price and eventually came to a mutually acceptable figure after the general manager intervened. The price was about $2000 under "MSRP," plus they offered a substantial amount for Barney in trade. We signed the paperwork and were told to expect the car early the following week or, at the latest, December 26.

After we signed the paperwork for the new car, Kate pulled out the print-out from the Bennett Toyota web site with the pricing for the used car we almost bought. "Oh yeah," said the sales guy. "The used car manager had left for the night when you were here yesterday, and he didn't tell anybody that he lowered the price on that car. We would have given it to you at the lower price. We're on the up-and-up here." Right... Why didn't he lead off the conversation when we walked in on December 20 with something like "I have great news for you guys... the price on the 2007 was lower than we thought last night?" It was more of a parting shot than anything else, so we left it alone.

December 23 and 24 came and went without any news about the whereabouts of Clifford. Many phone calls to the dealership later (and no proactive calls from them), we learned that the car would be ready for pickup on Monday, December 29. We went over after dinner that night to sign the paperwork and pick it up. While at the dealership, I approached the general manager (who we had met 9 days earlier when he approved the transaction) and expressed my concern about the poor service and lack of follow-through we had experienced. He (hollowly) promised me that customer service is his dealership's number one priority and that he ranks 4th in customer satisfaction in the region and first in the Lehigh Valley. He can tell me anything that he wants, but the proof it in his actions.

When we signed the paperwork on December 20, I specifically asked that the Bennett Toyota logo be omitted from the rear of the car. I don't mind a license plate frame, but anything on the paint is unacceptable. Guess what was on the back door when we picked it up? It was just one of many breakdowns in communication at the dealership. They were able to remove the logo the next day with a heat gun, but why did we have to go though the hassle?

The end of the story is happy one. Kate got a new car at a reasonable price. But the hassle of dealing with Bennett Toyota wasn't worth it. We are not raving fans.

The Cruise is Over - Back to Reality

2008-12-07T22:51:00.002-05:00

Kate and I had a terrific time on our cruise. After 7 days at sea, we got back on December 6 and are already planning our next cruise.

This trip took us on Pricess Cruises' newest ship, Ruby Princess, from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico; and Princess Cays, Bahamas. We were supposed to also stop at Grand Cayman, but the winds (45 knots) made it impossible.

As a first time cruiser, I wasn't sure what to expect. I am happy to report that I was thrilled with the overall cruising experience. It will be hard to top this cruise -- the food, the entertainment, the ship's amenities, and the service were all outstanding. We met some great folks including our dinner mates (one couple from Syracuse, another from Germany) and a nice couple from Winnipeg.

I'll be posting more photos and memories as time permits in the upcoming weeks. We're still plowing through 300+ photos from the trip. Speaking of plowing, we had our first measurable snow accumulation in Allentown last night. What a way to be welcomed back to reality.

Hanging the Huppah

2008-11-02T15:41:00.001-05:00

We finally had all the hardware necessary to properly display our huppah in our new house. It now hangs in our main stair / hallway for us to enjoy every day. The special thing about this huppah is that it was made by Kat Fisher, our dear friend and the previous owner of our house.

Lulu the Halloween hot dog

2008-10-31T22:30:00.001-04:00

The tradition continues. Lulu has topped herself -- with mustard, relish, and a bun. Here she is as an adorable hot dog for Halloween. She tolerated this costume better than previous year's get-ups, probably because it didn't involve a hat of any sort.

Mission Complete - MS-150

2008-09-28T15:47:00.008-04:00

It was a smaller team than we had in 2007, but Thermo Fisher Scientific's representation at the Bike to the Bay in Delaware was successful in accomplishing our task. Paul Neralich and I headed down to Dover on Friday night and stayed at the Hampton Inn near the starting line, but not before purchasing rain gear at Bike Line in Wilmington. The weather was questionable and we didn't want to be caught unprepared. We had ridden in two previous MS-150 events in the rain and knew it could be miserable without the proper equipment.

It was a humid, overcast morning when we woke up on Saturday. The threat of rain had apparently decreased the turnout at the event. Unlike previous years when there was bumper-to-bumper traffic waiting to enter the campus, we drove right into the Del Tech entrance without delay. When we arrived at the registration area at a little after 8am, there was lots of activity, but not what we had seen in previous years. We picked up our registration packets, pinned our rider numbers on our jerseys, stowed our newly-acquired tour t-shirts in the car, and made our way to the starting line.

It was about 8:20 by the time we got under way. We made good progress to the first rest area. We were fresh and our legs didn't mind the first 12 miles. We enjoyed some apple cider poured by Delaware's Auditor, R. Thomas Wagner Jr. We also indulged on bananas and cookies, and topped off our water bottles before proceeding on.

It wasn't long after the first rest stop that we felt the first drops of rain for the day. We pulled off to the shoulder and put on our rain gear. The Trek rain coats did a great job of keeping out the rain, but it was sort of like wearing a thick clear plastic trash bag. I could see my matted arm hair clinging to the inside of the sleeves. A recurring drop of water on the front rim of my helmet rocked back and forth as a pedaled, mimicking the visual action of KITT from Knight Rider.

We arrived at the lunch rest stop, which was around the 40-mile mark, at around 12:40. Lunch was about the same as previous years with the exception of live musical entertainment. Previously it was a low-key affair with people resting and quietly eating in small groups. I know the singer meant well, but hearing "Zip-a-dee-do-dah" in a high vibrato did not do wonders for my appetite. We didn't spend much time at lunch -- just about 20 minutes to eat and rest up and we were back on the road.

In past years the rest stop at Ellenville was as plain as it got. It previously consisted of a flat-bed trailer with jugs of water, orange slices, and bananas. This year, one of the MS-150's named sponsors, NRG Indian River, took over the rest stop. They offered a luau theme with most of the volunteers wearing grass skirts. The chicken skewers with pineapple and peppers were much tastier than lunch. We all regretted we weren't very hungry since lunch was only 10 miles behind us.

Uncle Ted's rest stop offers some of the most unique bike tour food out there. Sausage and scrapple sandwiches are available for the asking. Still feeling a tiny bit full from lunch, I just couldn't bring myself to eat a sausage sandwich, though if memory serves me, it was tasty in the past when I tried it. And there was no way scrapple was going to touch my lips. Instead I had a few orange slices and some assorted baked goods and moved on.

Right after Uncle Ted's at around 60 miles into the tour, the skies opened up. We donned our rain gear (again) and kept pedaling. The previous rains of the day had been minimal compared to this one. Pedaling was hard and we slowed to about 10 mph. When the rain stopped our socks were soaked and we could feel water sloshing around in our shoes. We had fresh socks with us, but it wasn't worth putting them on since they would have just gotten wet from the soaked shoes.

The last rest stop was only 10 miles later. Our bodies were beginning to really hurt (especially my gluts and Paul's quads). We didn't hang around long since it was already 4:30 and we just wanted to get to the finish line, which was only 6 miles away.

We crossed the finish line at around 5:15pm, which was about 35 minutes earlier than the previous year. According to the numbers I had burned about 2000 calories and put 76 miles on my odometer. This year Paul and I actually had time to sit down and enjoy dinner as opposed to last year when I had to throw food on a plate and bring it on the bus since we were running so late.

You can see the entire route on MapMyRide. My favorite thing about the day was the feeling of accomplishment as Paul and I crossed the finish line. My least favorite aspect was the heavy rain that really slowed us down and made part of the ride miserable. But when you put things in perspective, riding 7 miles in pouring rain still isn't as challenging as facing the symptoms of MS on a daily basis.

The bus ride back to the starting line was about 90 minutes, and included a stop in Milford where we had lunch earlier in the day. We got back at around 8pm and were happy to see our bikes had already arrived and were unloaded from the truck and waiting for us.

Paul and I loaded up the car and headed towards Center City Philadelphia. I dropped him off at his place and continued on to Allentown. Traffic was light and despite some light rain I made decent time getting home. I climbed into the hot tub and sat for about 40 minutes, letting the 96-degree water soothe my aching muscles.

I'd like to give a hearty "thank you" to my friends, family, and colleagues who supported and encouraged me. I know that not everybody who wanted to donate found the time before the event. My fund raising goal this year is a lofty $1700. Every dollar helps to fund research and support services for MS. Donations (tax-deductible) are being accepted through the end of October by visiting: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/ssavett .

MS 150 fund raising under way

2008-09-06T17:27:00.002-04:00

I got a later start than expected on my MS 150 fund raising this year. The event is Saturday, September 27, and I'll be riding with Team Thermo Fisher Scientific. At this point there are two of us on the team, which is somewhat disappointing since five people initially expressed interest. Paul Neralich and I hoping to get our colleague, Laura, to ride with us. Laura tells us she has recently acquired a bicycle to replace the one that was stolen. It's certainly a movement in the right direction.

Within 12 hours of kicking off my fund raising campaign on Thursday, September 4, I had received over $400 in donations. Just 12 hours later the total had jumped to over $650. Thank you to everybody who donated so quickly. You gave me a great boost of confidence about the event.

Currently I'm about a third of the way to my fund raising goal of $1700. If you'd like contribute a tax-deductible donation, please visit my participant page at: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/ssavett

New stairwell light fixture

2008-08-23T15:47:00.003-04:00

Kate and I finally replaced the light fixture in our upstairs stairwell. We actually purchased this lamp from Kay Lighting in Conshohocken prior to settling on the house. While we had the fixture and the bulbs, we didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach the ceiling of the stairwell, so the lamp sat in its box for a couple months.

To solve the problem, a couple weeks ago we purchased a Werner 22' telescoping multi-ladder at Lowes. The rest is history.

Marriott Corporation and I have made peace

2008-08-23T15:26:00.005-04:00

After a year of back-and-forth communication with Marriott regarding an incident at one of their hotels in the Boston area last summer, they have finally relented. It took a letter to J.W. Marriott, Jr. to get action. In my most recent correspondence I stated the facts plainly and re-stated my demands, which were very simple. My principal demand was a refund for the lodging costs during the stay that went awry. They sent me a check this week, and I now consider the matter closed. My boycott of Marriott facilities has ended.

You can see Marriott's on-target, well-worded response in the letter below.

My advice for anybody who has experienced a less-than-optimal experience with a large corporation is to attempt to speak with somebody high enough up the food chain as quickly as possible. In my case, somebody in Marriott Claims Services called me the same day I reported the problem, which was the week after the incident. He immediately took a defensive tact and refused to do anything to compensate me. My next letter was to the President of North American Lodging at Marriott. He simply deferred to Marriott Claims Services and I ended up back with the individual who originally said "no." I stewed for about a year before finally writing to that individual again and copying the CEO of the company. Ah... the machinery started working and I got what I wanted. Be persistent, but be reasonable.

Settling into the new homestead

2008-08-10T15:23:00.005-04:00

This week marks two months that Kate and I have officially been in Allentown. We're settling into the house nicely.

In recent weeks we have purchased and installed a new dining room lamp that we found at Friedman Electric in Bethlehem. Next up on the electrical "hit list" is installing the stairwell fixture that we had purchased months ago at Kay Lighting in Plymouth Meeting. But before I can do that, I need to buy a ladder since it's the top of a two-story stairwell.

The hot tub is up and running. Kate and I have begun to actually use the hot tub instead of just looking at it and cursing our "Porsche filled with water" (the term used by the hot tub repair guy). We do enjoy using it, but it is showing its age (14 years) and will likely need more "under the hood" repairs over time.

To my ISP: prepare to be trounced

2008-07-27T13:53:00.003-04:00

You may have read earlier in this blog that Kate and I are somewhat dissatisfied with the broadband offerings in the Lehigh Valley. There is apparently no near-term solution to the problem since PenTeleData has a monopoly on our township. PenTeleData is using old technology (in computer terms) and, in my opinion, is hanging on by a technological thread. While our connection doesn't completely drop, we do frequently have data packet loss that renders VoIP usage painful.

I recently read that Verizon's FiOS technology is getting another speed boost. That means that FiOS will offer approximately 20 times faster bandwidth than PenTeleData -- at approximately twice the price. But we're still stuck at 3.5 Mbps downstream and 350 kbps upstream with no ability to easily purchase more without spending an arm and a leg ($125+ per month). And even if we switched to an expensive commercial account, our upload bandwidth would still top out at a measly 1 Mbps.

Despite the fact that I dislike Comcast on principle, I did love their zippy and reliable broadband Internet offerings at our previous house in Whitemarsh. And at least we had a choice of Comcast or Verizon for broadband. I'm wondering (hoping?) if Comcast or Cablevision is eyeing our cable provider, Service Electric, for a takeover. Moreover, I'm wondering if Verizon isn't ready to come into this area with FiOS and basically put the cable company out of business by offering a superior product. (Verizon -- are you listening???)

I'm watching Sprint Nextel's WiMax implementation called XOHM. While it's nowhere close to being deployed in the Lehigh Valley, it's an interesting concept. They aren't marketing it as a fixed point Internet solution, but I don't see why it couldn't be used as such.

Yearning for bandwidth in the Lehigh Valley

2008-07-11T10:57:00.002-04:00

Kate and I have discovered one down-side to living in the semi-rural Lehigh Valley. Reasonably priced (true) high speed Internet access is impossible to come by. Our cable company, Service Electric Cable TV (SECTV), offers what I would term a "passable" package of 6Mbps downstream and 400kbps upstream. Bundled with their digital cable service and a one-year contract the price is a very reasonable $80 per month with taxes. The download speed is quite sufficient, but the upload speed is significantly lacking.

What about a user that needs more than 400kbps of upload speed? Forget it. It will cost at least $80 per month (plus $125 installation) to double the upload speed (but it will actually decrease the download bandwidth). To get anything above 400kbps, one needs to invest in commercial service instead of residential service. Never mind that the service is still provided by SECTV's partner, PenTeleData. According to the sales rep at PenTeleData, he has not heard of plans to upgrade the network to DOCSIS 2.0, so I doubt that the speeds will improve any time soon.

Consider, for a moment, that Comcast's lowest service broadband tier provides about the same downstream bandwidth but 1Mbps upstream. Service Electric's best offering today is what Comcast offered about 3 years ago.

What about FiOS? Nope. DSL? Nope. With the lots in our development at 1 acre apiece, the houses are spread quite far apart. To run fiber to every house would be expensive in such a low density neighborhood. And we are apparently too far from the telephone CO to have DSL.

What are our other options? A full T1 line (1.5 Mbps) would be $300 per month. That's a little too rich for our pocketbook. I've looked into a wireless provider, CAWInet, but they seem to not want our money. Filling out a contact form earlier this week on their Web site promising a response "within one business day" went unanswered. A call to their sales phone number today went to voicemail.

Lulu's First Pug Meet-Up

2008-07-05T20:52:00.004-04:00

On Saturday despite the threat of rain, we hopped in the car with Lulu to head to her first pug meet-up in Allentown. There were a total of about a dozen pugs of various ages.

In this photo Lulu looks like the odd-pug-out as she is surrounded by three (less common) black pugs.

Here is the pug version of "social networking":

We managed to avoid the rain until we were on the way back home when it started drizzling.

Broadway for the Day

2008-06-28T22:51:00.001-04:00

Kate and I finally saw the musical Curtains starring David Hyde Pierce.

I honestly didn't know what to expect from the show. Since Kate is such a huge Rupert Holmes fan (Rupert wrote the book the show is based on and also contributed as a lyricist), I figured I would see the show. The show turned out to be great. The acting was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I would recommend that everybody see Curtains, but the show closes on Broadway on June 29. The Web site indicates that there will be a touring company, so you may still get a chance to see this great show.

Our New Pet

2008-06-04T00:18:00.005-04:00

We have a new family mascot. His name is Domo, which is actually short for Domo-kun. We fell in love with him over the weekend when we were at a mall in Reading, PA.

After doing some research online to ensure we were paying a reasonable price, Kate ended up buying Domo in Allentown.

Domo and Lulu have not yet met. I'm curious to see how the two interact. I'm hoping that Lulu doesn't consider Domo to be her "pet" like she does with all of her other toys including her chipmunk, duck, elephant, gorilla, cupcake, and doggie, among others.

Stock photography

2008-05-13T22:45:00.003-04:00

I admit that I'm on the Web quite a bit and my surfing habits are somewhat eclectic. I found it somewhat humorous that two Web sites I visited within a day of each other have chosen to use the same stock photo of a woman. See the Web clips below:

Congratulations to Dave and Joan Bacall

2008-04-13T11:25:00.004-04:00

We send greetings to the newest addition to the Bacall family: Jocelyn Calista, born Friday, April 11, 2008.

All the best to Joan, Dave, and baby Jocelyn.

Back in gear

2008-04-13T11:25:00.003-04:00

The weather on Saturday afternoon was wonderful. Though it looked like it might rain the morning, by the late afternoon it was 70 and mostly sunny. It would have been difficult to not hop on my bike and ride for a bit.

So, even though I'm in the middle of a bathroom remodel and (slowly) packing for the big move to Allentown, I loaded the bike onto the car and made my way to the Spring Mill access to the Schuylkill River Trail.

This was my first long ride of the year. It felt great to pedal 20 miles out to Valley Forge and back. The wind seemed to be fighting me for part of the way, but I still managed an average of over 13 mph. The other logistic difficulty was swarms of black gnats, which seemed to appear from nowhere and disappear just as quickly.

There were a couple changes on the trail since I rode on it last. Since the garage at the Norristown Transportation Center went up, they reconfigured the trail to make it a straighter shot, which is appreciated. I also saw that near the end of Conshohocken Road a new railbed has been laid. It looks like a grade crossing will be build across the road. I'm curious what industry in the area is paying for the spur and crossing to be built.

Spring is really trying to arrive

2008-04-06T15:43:00.002-04:00

Mother Nature is trying her hardest to make a spring appearance. The daffodils in our flower bed are strutting their stuff. The bleeding hearts are also starting to appear, while the hostas are a bit slower to come out of their hibernation.

A true sign that spring has arrived was an unmistakable noise heard during my first long (8-mile) bike ride of the season. It was the Mister Softee jingle. I couldn't actually see the ice cream truck from my vantage point on the Schuylkill River Trail. At first I thought it was a figment of my imagination as I ended my ride -- some sort of subconscious message telling me that I deserved a cool treat for my pedaling. The tune started softly and crescendoed as I approached Lee Street in Conshohocken. My guess is that the truck was driving down Hector Street. I just smiled and kept pedaling, knowing that spring had sprung.

Trauma Center in Chester County?

2008-04-01T16:26:00.003-04:00

I recently got an e-mail from my US Representative, Jim Gerlach, discussing the need for a trauma center in Chester County. As an emergency medical services worker, I would applaud the creation and ongoing support of such a facility. Driving a patient 75 minutes by ground ambulance to a trauma center is a miserable experience. Spending the patient's "golden hour" in the back of an ambulance is not appropriate. However, having lived in far western Montgomery County and served with an ambulance squad that bordered Chester County, I know that even in the early 1990s we frequently used helicopter services to "MedEvac" patients to trauma centers. Our ground transport times to a major trauma center in Center City Philadelphia would have been about 40 minutes, hence the frequent use of helicopters.

Looking at a recent news article, the proposed cost of running a trauma center in Chester County is to be between $5 million and $8 million per year. From a purely economic standpoint, it's a no-brainer that this would be a money-losing proposition. The last trauma center in Chester County, Brandywine Hospital, closed its doors in 2002, citing financial reasons for its demise. So what has changed since 2002 that would cause a new trauma center to succeed where others have failed?

It's expected that 500 trauma patients per year would come to the proposed Chester County trauma center. At a cost of $8 million, that translates to $16,000 per trauma patient. That's a lot more than it costs to fly somebody to Center City trauma center. I acknowledge that helicopters aren't always available due to other commitments and weather. Furthermore, nationwide helicopter EMS have a spotty safety record. On a nearly-monthly basis somewhere around the country there is a report of a chopper going down.

Consider what Chestnut Hill Hospital, a small community hospital in Philadelphia near the border of Montgomery County is doing for heart patients with a specific cardiac condition: they are FLYING them to Presbyterian Medical Center in Center City. The same goes for any major trauma patient that ends up at Chestnut Hill, who possibly gets flown to a Center City trauma center. In the case of cardiac patients, the ground transport to Presbyterian Medical Center would normally be about 30 minutes. I'm actually having a hard time figuring out the finances behind this arrangement, but that discussion is for another time.

Winnipeg is COLD!

2008-02-22T15:05:00.003-05:00

I just spent a week on a business trip in the coldest places I've ever - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. When I arrived on Monday it was -20 F. Throughout the week it never made it above 12 F. It was windy and downright frigid. The locals don't seem to be fazed by the temperature. Wind chills of -40 F (which is also -40 C) are typical. This is the only place I've ever been sent where it's necessary to plug in the rental car overnight (they supply a 10-foot extension cord) to keep the oil from turning into sludge overnight. Hotels and other places where you leave your car for more than a couple hours have plugs for this purpose.

One nice thing about this trip and the related project is some press that we've received. Check it out on Thermo Fisher's Web site.

Spring Lake Farm

2008-02-17T00:23:00.004-05:00

I was going through childhood photos and came upon some from Spring Lake Farm Day Camp. The camp no longer exists, as it's been replaced by a synagogue. But fond memories of the place still live within my mind.

Here is the way the main barn of the camp looked in 1986:

Here is Ian Spiegel (left) and somebody (Mike?) whose name I can't remember.

And this is Jennifer Angelo, who if I remember correctly, didn't like to have her picture taken.

Any other Spring Lake Farm campers out there? Please contact me!

My Way News - Couple Protests FAA With Rooftop Sign

2008-01-30T21:32:00.000-05:00

This is one way to get some attention for altered flight patterns.

My Way News - Couple Protests FAA With Rooftop Sign

Rain - The Beatles Experience

2008-01-24T22:17:00.001-05:00

As if the time in Maryland with Danny and Yael's wedding didn't make for an exciting weekend, Kate treated me to see Rain - The Beatles Experience at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

What impressed me the most about Rain was their ability to truly sound like the Beatles -- but in a live environment. From the early Ed Sullivan era songs like "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout" to the Sgt. Pepper's songs like "When I'm Sixty-Four" the five (four on-stage performers and one off-stage performer) were excellent. The Rain Web site aptly points out that some of the songs performed live on state by Rain were never performed live by the Beatles. With the magic of synthesizers, it's possible to bring those songs to life outside of the studio.

Since the Beatles officially broke up two years before I was born (and had stopped touring four years previous), this was the next best thing to seeing the real group live. Of course as an undergrad at Ursinus the other Beatles tribute band, 1964, came to campus. I can't remember much about their performance, but they are still around. They'll be at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA. We may have to go if we can get discount tickets. It would be worth it to compare and contrast the stage presence of Rain to 1964.

Danny and Yael's Wedding

2008-01-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend Kate and I attended the wedding of her brother, Danny Newman, to Yael Kolett. The two were married in a ceremony at the Antrim 1844 Country House Hotel in Teneytown, Maryland. It was a beautiful and historic venue. No snow fell that weekend, but it was unseasonably cold in northern Maryland. Here is a picture of the happy newlyweds enjoying their first dance at the reception.

VistaPrint pricing model

2008-01-09T11:07:00.000-05:00

As a VistaPrint customer, I'm very pleased with the quality of their work and turnaround time. Over the last year I've ordered postcards, greeting cards, and calendars. This is one company where the pricing is subject to change on a daily or even minute-to-minute basis.

Enclosed with my recent order was a brochure with VistaPrint's winter sales. Here is one page from that document:

What confuses me is their pricing model. For most other companies, the price per item gets cheaper as you buy more. Not with VistaPrint.

5 pens for $10 = $2.00 per pen
10 pens for $25 = $2.50 per pen
50 pens for $132.50 = $2.65 per pen

Can anybody explain this?

Another bone I have to pick with VistaPrint is their inability to handle "strange" quantities. For example, I needed to order 20 calendars. Their ordering system would let me select 10 or 25 from a drop-down list. There was no way to order 20. When I called customer service, the nice Indian gentleman helped me make a copy of my calendar project and place an order for 10 of the original project and 10 of the copied project. That was a nice workaround, but it also meant that I was charged twice for any "project upgrades." For example, even though my files were uploaded just once to their system, I was charged $2.49 twice (once for each project) for the privilege of designing and uploading my own pictures. I see VistaPrint making lots of money from these system shortcomings.

Philadelphia Woman Dies During Botched EMS Call — (EMSResponder.com)

2008-01-04T16:27:00.000-05:00

This is scary stuff, and I'm certainly happy to not be affiliated with Philadelphia's EMS system.
Philadelphia Woman Dies During Botched EMS Call — (EMSResponder.com)

To understand how far away the BLS unit (not even a medic unit) that responded to the call had to come, consider that Google Maps shows the travel distance from their station as 14.3 miles. At normal driving speed that would be a 24-minute response. Even if they were speeding recklessly all the way to the scene, it would have been perhaps 17 minutes. Not to mention that the crew probably wasn't familiar with the Northeast section of Philadelphia if they are normally based in South Philly.

In my mind as an EMS provider, this is a case of the City of Philadelphia not cooperating with neighboring jurisdictions to provide the most appropriate medical care for its residents. My first-due response area in Montgomery County includes property up to the Philadelphia line, but not on the other side of it. My squad has never been called for mutual aid over the Philadelphia border. In my experience, it appears that Philadelphia would prefer to have someone die in the street than to pick up the phone and call a neighboring county to request mutual aid.

What squads outside of Philadelphia were theoretically closer than BLS unit "Medic 43-B?" From my calculations, Bensalem, Cheltenham, Bryn Athyn, and Second Alarmers' in Abington were closer than the responding Philadelphia unit's home station.

In defense of the Medic 43-B crew, I don't know where they were located when they were dispatched. It's possible that they were roving, or at a hospital dropping off another patient. I also give credit to the two fire crews who were first responders on the scene. Is the solution to the problem to have transport-capable medic engines?

Shortest Commercial Flight Ever

2007-12-10T16:29:00.000-05:00

My recent business trip to Nanaimo, British Columbia meant that I took one of the shortest commercial flights in North America. The 12-minute flight between Vancouver (YVR) and Nanaimo's (YCD) tiny airport is undertaken about a half-dozen times daily by an Air Canada Jazz DH-8 shown below.

In terms of distance, it's just 30 miles between the two airports, which are separated by the Strait of Georgia. I could have taken a 2-hour ferry across the strait, but the quick flight was my preferred method of getting from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.

Rollover accident on I-95

2007-12-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

Kate and I had a good but abbreviated visit with our brothers in the DC area. While a flight cancellation and travel delays meant that I arrived at BWI about 9 hours (!) behind schedule, we made the most of the weekend.

We visited the International Spy Museum in downtown DC. I had been in DC the day that it opened in 2002, but the line was around the block. It only took 5 years for me to get back there to enjoy the experience. In addition to the normal museum tour, we bought tickets for the "Operation Spy" experience. Kate and I both enjoyed the entire museum, but were very hungry by the time we got towards the end of the tour. We gave only a cursory look at the last three portions of the exhibit in order to get through it and get to lunch.

We had dinner with my brother and sister-in-law at Lia's in Bethesda. The food was enjoyable and the service was great. We started with "Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Smoked Duck," which was delicious. For the main dish, I got the "Day Boat Scallops," which were served with an autumn "ratatouille", pumpkin seed pesto, and crispy prosciutto. Kate had the "Saffron Fettuccine with Shellfish Stew," which she said was yummy, though she was disappointed that in the description: "mussels, clams, jumbo shrimp, roasted tomato broth" the word shrimp was singular.

We finally hit the road to head back to Philly after 10pm. About 20 minutes into the trip we decided to pull off I-95 to get some fuel. We hopped off at Rt-198 in South Laurel, MD. After a quick refill we were back on the road. Unfortunately, there was a severe accident on the on-ramp to I-95 north that had just happened a few moments before. It looked like a car had lost control and rolled over onto the median between the on-ramp and the interstate. We were the third car to come down the on-ramp after the accident and were immediately stopped in our tracks by a state trooper putting down flares across the road.

View Larger Map

While I wanted to help with patient care as an EMT, we were was in Maryland and I didn't feel comfortable offering my services. There were already three ambulances on scene, and it seemed like they had everything under control. So instead I used my fancy new digital camera with image stabilization to capture some shots of the accident scene. I was impressed with the level of detail that the Canon SD850 was able to record in the low light.

In the end, they brought in two State Police medical helicopters that landed on the highway. I couldn't tell how many patients they transported. Ambulances from Montgomery, Prince George, and Howard County were on scene.

After waiting for about 45 minutes, the state police finally started having people turn around the on-ramp and drive the wrong way up the on-ramp to return to Rt-198. It felt strange to be driving with the yellow line on the right side of the single-lane ramp when it's supposed to be on the left. In the end, the accident delayed us about an hour.

A shameless plug for Ebates

2007-11-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

This is a shameless plug for a service that Kate and I love: Ebates. We've easily saved a couple hundred dollars over the years by using this service.

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Text directly from the Ebates Web site:

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Trying a different Cambridge Restaurant - success

2007-11-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight's restaurant was actually going to be Monday's pick, except that when I arrived there on Monday night at around 8pm, it was closed. Alas, even the independent restaurateur is allowed one day of rest per week.

Though Indian food isn't generally my first pick, the Royal Bengal caught my eye.

Royal Bengal
313 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

The place was nearly empty when I arrived at 6:15pm on a Tuesday night. I was greeted and seated immediately. Only about 20 tables, it was a cozy place with bland but tasteful decor. Indian (perhaps Bengalese?) vocal music was softly playing in the background.

Even before I headed towards the restaurant I had previewed their menu online. Being a big fan of Tandoori chicken, the "Tandoori Mixed Grill" sounded really appealing. The menu described it as a "Combination of sizzling Tandoori specialties like Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Tikka, Boti Kebab, Seekh Kebab, and Tandoori Shrimp."

True to its menu description, the twelve-inch oval platter had assorted meats, a couple shrimp, cucumbers, green peppers, and onions. It was still sizzling when it arrived at my table. The service was prompt and the waitress was attentive. Unlike my experience at Sidney's around the corner the night before, my waitress didn't let my glass get less than half before coming around with the water pitcher.

My initial attack of the platter was quick, but slowed after two shrimp, a Tandoori chicken leg, a piece of chicken Tikka, and pieces of Boti and Seekh kebab. I managed to eat about two-thirds of the food on my plate before asking that the rest be boxed to take back to the hotel.

As I mentioned before, I am not an Indian food aficionado, but this meal seemed pretty tasty to me. It was a great value for the money (less than $15 for a huge platter), and I should be getting some Delta Skymiles for my visit courtesy of Delta's Rewards Network. I appreciated the excellent service, and would cheerfully go back when I have the desire for Bengalese food. They apparently have a decent lunch buffet, though it's a bit too far to walk from Biogen Idec during our lunch hour.

Trying a different Cambridge Restaurant - a mixed bag

2007-11-06T20:11:00.001-05:00

I'm in Cambridge again this week. I've taken the opportunity to visit some different restaurants for dinner than my usual haunts. Here's the verdict from my first attempt:

Sidney's Grill - Located at the Hotel @ MIT.
20 Sidney Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

A couple years ago when my colleague, Kimberly, and I would come to Cambridge to visit another Nautilus customer, we stayed at the Hotel @ MIT and frequently dined at Sidney's. The food was always tasty and creatively paired with unique side dishes. Having moved on to other projects, it had been a few years since I'd been to Sidney's. I'm happy to report that the food is still quite good, but I was dismayed that the service was horrible.

Horrible may actually be too nice... I stood at the desk in the front of the restaurant for minutes before even being acknowledged. I contemplated walking out before being seated, but I was really hungry and just wanted to eat. Once seated, I quickly made my choice of main dishes and pushed the single-page menu to the far side of the table. It was clear that I was ready to order.

Being alone at the table I entertained myself by reading a magazine for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes until the waiter finally came over to take my order. During that long wait I had interrupted my reading several times and attempted to make eye contact with multiple waiters in the dining room, none of whom could be bothered to come over to my table. This included a waiter who was more intent on carefully resetting the table next to mine than to taking my order. (There was no shortage of empty tables since this was 8:00pm on a Monday night.) For a second time, I considered walking out of this restaurant, but my choices for food were limited.

Once I did order, the food came out relatively quickly, and was delivered to my table still steaming hot. I got the "Charred Lamb Top", which was described in the menu as server "over Peruvian Potato & Baby Spring Vegetable Stew with Burgundy Demi-Glace." It reminded me of a dish I had enjoyed at 75 Chestnut, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Boston.

During the course of my meal, my waiter did not stop by the table even once to check to see if I needed anything. By comparison, not that Friendly's is fine dining by any stretch of the imagination, but even at that lowly establishment (where I was a waiter for 3 years in the early 90s), we were required to stop back within 2 minutes of delivering a meal to ensure that everything was OK. My water glass ran dry pretty quickly into my meal, but there was nobody around to refill it.

To top it off, when I was through eating my meal, the waiter finally resurfaced. "Would you care to see a dessert menu?" he asked. "No, just a refill of my water and the check, please," I replied. So what did he do? He returned a minute later with the dessert menu and no water. He realized his mistake as he put the menu on my table, and quickly disappeared again, this time returning with a water pitcher and my check.

After paying the check, I sought out the on-duty restaurant manager. I explained the situation, and he asked that I fill out a customer comment card. On the card I included my name and telephone number, which the on-duty manager said he would pass along to the general manager for follow-up. It's been 24 hours and I have not heard anything. I'm actually not expecting to hear anything.

Overall, the food at Sidney's was excellent. My dining experience was soured by pathetically poor service. Unless I'm staying at the Hotel @ MIT, I wouldn't be inclined to return to Sidney's Grill anytime soon. Instead, if I had a hankering for that kind of food, I would hop on the Red Line and go to 75 Chestnut in Beacon Hill (not a bad walk from the Charles/MGH "T" stop), which has exceptional food and service.

Honeymoon - Day 4

2007-10-25T23:02:00.000-04:00

We managed to get out of bed and have ourselves dressed in time for the 5:45am shuttle to see the sunrise. The walk to the bus stop was nice since there were very few people out, and the stars were still twinkling beautifully in the dark early morning sky. The bus was on time, and as soon as we boarded the driver reminded us that there would be another bus in 30 minutes that would still get us to Hopi Point in time to see the sunrise. He didn't have to tell us twice. In the sub-freezing temperatures, it was an easy decision to head to our hotel room and rest for a while (and also add a couple layers of clothing) and then head back to the bus stop for the 6:15 shuttle.

The sky was already beginning to lighten by the time we headed back to catch the 6:15. There were about a dozen people on the shuttle out to Hopi Point. All of us had the same idea to see a hopefully-beautiful sunrise. We had plenty of time to scout locations before the sun officially rose at 6:45am. I caught shots of not only the east sky, but also the sun hitting the rock formations of the canyon to the west. The dramatic early morning light interacted beautifully with the reds, browns, and yellows of the cliffs and plateaus.

At around 7:15 we caught a shuttle back to the lodge to eat some breakfast. Kate had a nice rounded meal of eggs, sausage, potatoes, and an English muffin. I had oatmeal (with brown sugar and raisins, of course) and some of Kate's meal.

The van for the helicopter tour picked us up from the lodge right on time. It was about a 20-minute ride back to the airport, and we picked up another couple along the way. When we got to the airport and checked in, we sat for a safety video that reviewed many of "the important safety features of the aircraft and the emergency procedures in the unlikely event of an emergency." It sounded a lot like the standard commercial airline pre-flight safety demo. As we were entering the video viewing area, we bumped into the British couple we had spent a good hour speaking with the previous night at dinner. We formally re-introduced ourselves, since we had forgotten to get their names the night before. As it turned out, Andy and Sue had booked their helicopter tour months earlier, and we were to be on the same 30-minute tour over the canyon today.

Kate and I were handed our helicopter boarding cards – mine was #1 and hers was #2. By the luck of the draw (and for weights and balances reasons), I got to sit in the front of the helicopter next to the pilot. It was the best seat in the house, and I think the other passengers were jealous. Our pilot was Liz, who grew up in Grand Canyon. She shared with us that her parents were teachers at the school located on the Park grounds. The flight took us over the Kaibab Forest and then over the North Rim of the Canyon. It was awe-inspiring. The aerial view from the helicopter allowed us to see parts of the park you just can't see from the scenic lookouts on the South Rim. It was a smooth half-hour ride, and we really enjoyed it. While it was one of the more expensive activities during the trip, we viewed it as a honeymoon indulgence.

Once we were safely on the ground at the airport, we took the obligatory swing through the gift shop. We did not buy the cheesy pre-flight picture (for a whopping $20). In fact, it may have been the only gift shop we visited during the trip that we didn't walk away with some tchochke. The memories of the flight and the gorgeous pictures I took were enough.

Sue and Andy (the nice British couple) were headed back to the park and offered us a lift. We enjoyed nice conversation with them on the 20-minute ride. They dropped us off at Bright Angel Lodge, which we had managed to miss on our previous time at the rim.

We dined at the Arizona Room, which offers a wonderful view of the canyon. The food was decent, though just slightly overpriced as everything is in the park. I'm still trying to figure out what was in my "fruit salad," but it was sweet and edible nonetheless.

After lunch Kate and I caught the free shuttle bus to Shrine of the Ages. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we agreed to split for a while so we could each pursue individual activities. Kate found a beautiful picnic area to relax and read a book (True Evil by Greg Iles – she loved it). I wanted to get another view of the canyon, so I walked the 0.4 mile access trail to the Rim Trail. Along the walk the path was somewhat desolate. I stopped to enjoy tall pine trees contrasted against the beautiful blue sky. It was eerily silent with only an occasional bird chirp to disturb the silence. Once on the Rim Trail, I hiked another half-mile east, taking many pictures along the way.

Afterwards, Kate and I met up and returned to the Bright Angel Lodge to visit their Fountain, where we each got a yummy ice cream cone. My scoop of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough immediately jumped off the cone when we exited the shop, but Kate was sweet enough to go back in and get me a replacement cone. We then sat in the shade and enjoyed the Rim view of the canyon.

Soon enough it was time to head back to the train depot for the return trip to Williams. The train ride back was wonderful. Our train attendant, Robert, graciously took our picture before we departed from the Canyon. On the trip back, we were victims of a train robbery! This staged "robbery" is the train's way of collecting tips for the cowboy performers, while making the passengers smile as they open their wallets. I was able to get a shot of one of the bandits on horseback, as well as when they stormed our car. One of the funnier, unscheduled moments on the train trip back was the brakeman leaning on one of the wall-mounted club tables, which proceeded to snap off its mount. As one of the passengers excitedly cried out, "Well, it is his job to break stuff."

Once back at Williams, we quickly grabbed our bag, hit the restrooms, and headed back out on the road. Our itinerary called for us to spend the night in Gallup, New Mexico, a 3+ hour drive from the Railway. Although we had originally agreed to split the driving, Kate was tired so I was the one behind the wheel for this leg of the trip. We decided to stop for dinner along the way, which turned out to severely limit our options. We eventually hit the swingin' town of Holbrook, AZ, which boasted a long strip of several tasty fast food choices. The decision was difficult, but we decided to enjoy a "thirdmeal" at Taco Bell. Mmmm – the best I can say is that neither of us suffered gastrointestinal distress. We arrived at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Gallup, NM around 11 pm MDT and collapsed into bed, exhausted.

Honeymoon - Day 3

2007-10-24T22:35:00.000-04:00

The train depot was filled with activity in the morning as people prepared to board. We were lucky enough to run into the Marshall and one of the "Cataract Creek Gang" on the train platform. They graciously posed for a picture before they headed off to their Wild West shootout performance.

We boarded the Max Biegert luxury train car, which was the last car of the train. The car has a long and storied history, and was renovated a few years ago and renamed after Max (of Max and Thelma, the namesake of the restaurant in Williams), the former owner of the Grand Canyon Railway. The observation platform was a bonus on this car, and allowed us to take some great landscape shots as the train rolled along. Our train was pulled by a diesel locomotive, which was expected, but still somewhat of a disappointment given all of the great pictures of this train being pulled by a steam locomotive.

We weren't the only newlyweds on the Max Biegert car. Julie and Dennis got married the same day as us in Dallas. They were taking the term "road trip" to the maximum -- they had already driven 1100 miles on their honeymoon when we caught up with them.

Our Grand Canyon Railway car attendant, Carol, made us comfortable with excellent service and entertaining stories. Entertainment was also provided by Barry the fiddle player. After playing a few songs, Barry asked for a volunteer to assist. Kate wasn't bashful to offer my services.

The train ride to the canyon seemed to fly by. Before we knew it, we were pulling into the Grand Canyon Rail Depot. We bid Carol a fond farewell and dropped my backpack at the depot so we wouldn't have to lug it around the canyon. We boarded a Harveycar (bus) for the "Freedom" rim tour, which was also included in our package. Our guide, Eric, was entertaining and informative. We stopped at three viewing points, all of which offered spectacular views of the canyon.

After the tour we stopped back at the train depot to pick up our boxed lunches, which were also included in the Freedom tour package. It was a plain but passable turkey sandwich on a hamburger roll. We sat ourselves on seats on the porch of the swanky El Tovar hotel and enjoyed the view while chowing down.

We made our way to the Maswik lodge where we got the key for our room. The Maswik complex is large, and our room was in an out-building at the far end in the Mesquite building. We really didn't know what to expect when we opened the door, and were greeted with a pleasant surprise when the room was really very nice considering the surroundings. It was a plain room with a layout almost identical to the room we had at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. Most importantly, it was clean. The bathroom and vanity area looked brand new. An added bonus was that the one small suitcase we had checked at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel was waiting for us at our Maswik Lodge room. Talk about service!

After getting settled in our guest room, our next priority was figuring out the logistics of seeing the sunset at the Canyon rim. The free shuttles made it easy to reach a beautiful vista in time for the sunset. With a full moon rising and a beautiful sunset, it made for some gorgeous pictures.

Following the sunset, we made our way back to Maswik Lodge for dinner. We had originally booked a reservation at El Tovar, but we decided that our 8:45pm reservation would be too late. After all, our bodies would think it was nearly midnight, which is a bit too late for a late meal. So, instead of El Tovar we enjoyed comfort food at the cafeteria at Maswik Lodge. The wide array of food choices made it tough to decide. Kate ended up with a nice looking plate of pasta and meatballs. I had a hot turkey platter and mashed potatoes. Towards the end of our meal, a nice British couple joined our table. We all shared great conversation for about an hour covering a wide array of topics including the oppression of the Native American population, which is apparently not discussed much outside of the US.

We headed to bed at a reasonable hour in anticipation of getting up the next morning to see the sunrise.

Honeymoon - Day 2

2007-10-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

When we checked into The Buttes, Kate mentioned that we were on our honeymoon and the desk manager was nice enough to throw in a complimentary pass to the breakfast buffet.

We started our day with omelets and fresh fruit. Kate was so fond of the raspberries that the staff had to refill the bowl after our first pass through the buffet line. We dined outside overlooking the resort property and pool area.

Our hotel package included our accommodations and two 50-minute spa treatments.Kate and I each elected to have massages. It was nice to have all of the stresses from the wedding weekend kneaded away by the capable hands of the spa staff.

We hit the road shortly after our spa treatments, headed towards Williams, Arizona and the Grand Canyon Railway depot. On our way out of town, we did our obligatory stop at a Target store to pick up some necessary supplies such as cereal for snacking.

Our other stop (which was also somewhat obligatory based on Kate's new-found hobby) was at the Mad Scrappers. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and the store had lots of great products. Kate could have spent a lot more time and money there without Scott's helpful intervention.We were disappointed, though, that the sushi place that is planning to open in the same shopping center was nothing more than an empty storefront.We settled for lunch at Subway (eat fresh!) and hit the road.

After 160 miles in three hours (yeah 75 mph speed limit), we arrived safely at the Grand Canyon Railway depot in Williams, Arizona. We checked into the hotel and went to the ticket window to pick up our packet of tickets. It had been months since we booked the train package, so it was a surprise as to what was included.As it turned out, we not only got a hotel room in Williams, and one in the Grand Canyon, but we also got food vouchers for the on-property restaurant, Max and Thelma's. Recalling the many other traveler reviews (and Scott's previous experience at Max and Thelma's from 2001), we opted to cash in the food vouchers for a credit at the gift shop. We quickly spent our new-found souvenir money on a t-shirt, a charm for Kate's bracelet, and other assorted goodies.

To end our evening, we headed into Williams' downtown district along historic Route 66. Rod's Steakhouse is an institution, and we stopped there for dinner. The service at Rod's was excellent, and the décor was appropriately kitschy. While the steaks (New York strip and Sirloin) weren't the best cuts we had ever had, Kate got a great souvenir menu for her scrapbook, and we snapped some cute pictures with their cow mascot statue outside.

We tried to get online from the Grand Canyon Hotel, but were foiled by their not-so-hot spot.Apparently there are a couple of hotels in Williams that offer free WiFi, but we weren't so desperate to get online that we had to resort to stealing another hotel's bandwidth.

Honeymoon - Day 1

2007-10-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

Our honeymoon began with a direct USAirways flight from PHL to PHX. As expected, we did not take off on time. I can't remember the last time I actually departed as scheduled. This delay wasn't so bad, and we were off the ground about 40 minutes late.

Once in the air, the flight to Phoenix was relatively uneventful. Kate was fascinated by the gentleman next to her on the aisle who consumed six (yes, six!) mini-bottles of Chardonnay and then proceeded to work a bit on his laptop and then nap. He snored, as was to be expected with that much alcohol in his system.

We had originally booked a mid-size car with Alamo. At the desk agent's suggestion, we upgraded from the scrawny four-cylinder power of something like a Nissan Sentra to a powerful Dodge Charger with a gutsy V6 under the hood. It was about $9 per day additional, but it made all the difference in the world climbing the hills of I-40 and I-25. In the end, it still got 24 mpg, which isn't bad for such a powerful engine.

Once we had our wheels in Phoenix, we proceeded to Kate's favorite gourmet restaurant, In-N-Out Burger. Kate and I had become acquainted with In-N-Out on our trip to Los Angeles in January. While most couples on their honeymoon dine in five star restaurants, all Kate wanted was a "double double animal style" for our first official vacation meal.

Our night in Phoenix was spent at The Buttes, a Marriott resort. Built into the side of a butte, the resort features beautiful scenery, two pools, three whirlpools, and an on-site spa. While it was a bit cool outside (high 70s) to take advantage of the pools at night, we did partake in one of the whirlpools. Overlooking the lights of the city of Phoenix from a warm, bubbly whirlpool was a great ending to our first day on the road.

We are married!

2007-10-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

It's official, Kate and I are married. We tied the knot aboard the Strasburg Railroad on Saturday, October 20, at around 7:30pm. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with close friends and family immediately after the ceremony at the Iron Horse Inn in Strasburg.

More pictures to come, but this is one of a very tired Scott and Kate when we got back to our hotel room at around 2am. It was an exciting but very long day.

Procrastinating from doing wedding stuff...

2007-10-15T21:43:00.000-04:00

This is an oldie but goodie that I found in the Savett archives today. As a 3rd-year graduate student at Clemson, I attended the Gordon Research Conference on Ion-Containing Polymers at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire in June 1997. I have fond memories of the trip and the conference.

The only person I've kept track of pictured here is my graduate research advisor, Steve Creager, standing in the middle of the back row. Later that year the man standing to Steve's right in the picture, Tom Zawodzinski, would become my mentor during my stint at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1997-1998.

Wedding Shower for Kate

2007-10-12T19:50:00.000-04:00

Today I had the honor of attending the bridal shower that Kate's colleagues at Prudential held for her. It was a fun time, and there was LOTS of yummy food.

I got to use my new camera for the first time. The camera is Kate's "groom's gift" to me. Since we are headed out on a scenery-intense honeymoon, she wanted to ensure that I knew how to use the Canon SD850IS before we hit the road.

Boston Marriott Cambridge has an insect problem

2007-10-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

I have kept quiet about this problem for long enough. I tried to settle it in a discrete manner, but the Marriott Corporation apparently doesn't care enough about their customers to make the situation right.

I checked in to the Boston Marriott Cambridge on Monday, June 11 and checked out on Thursday, June 14. Beginning on the morning of Tuesday, June 12, I noticed small welts on both legs, but especially on my left leg. By the time I checked out on June 14 I had more than 40 welts up and down my left leg and about 20 on my right leg. These bites were caused by insects in one of the beds in room 1604 of the Boston Marriott Cambridge.

On June 20 I was back in Cambridge and contacted the Boston Marriott Cambridge, who put me in touch with the head of housekeeping. She, in turn, contacted the security department so I could file a report. I offered to meet with both departments in person since I was in town, but neither of them felt it necessary to do so. Both of them were apologetic and professional. They said they would look into the issue and would block off the room so no other guest would potentially suffer the same fate as me.

The following day, June 21, I was contacted by Keith Shevlin of Marriott Claims Services. He told me that Ecolab was going to inspect the room for any evidence of infestation. That inspection apparently happened that same day. I subsequently asked Mr. Shevlin for a copy of the Ecolab report, which he tells me he cannot release as part of “Marriott corporate policy.” That was the end of my communication with Mr. Shevlin, as he concluded that the matter was closed.

The most I have gotten from Mr. Shevlin is a form letter written by his assistant. In his response he didn't even get my last name or town correct. Good attention to detail, eh?

Hoping that somebody at Marriott's corporate offices has a brain, I wrote to their President of North American Lodging, Robert McMarthy. You can see his liason's response below:

Considering that I'm visiting Boston two weeks every month, Marriott is doing everything they can to lose a good chunk of business. I had spent over $7600 in lodging at Marriott hotels in Boston in April, May, and June. I am now boycotting all Marriott hotels in the Boston area, shifting my business to Hilton, which seems to appreciate my business. While they are certainly not as convenient as the Marriott or Residence Inn in Cambridge, the DoubleTree hotels in the area Boston are quite nice. I don't mind the "T" commute each morning and evening. It certainly beats having to slather on hydrocortisone cream for 60 insect bites.

New Orleans in 2007

2007-10-09T18:06:00.000-04:00

I've had the weekend and a few days to recover from my trip to New Orleans. I had last been to New Orleans in March 2000 at Pittcon when I was about to graduate from Clemson and was actively seeking a job.

The French Quarter hasn't seemed to change much from what I remember from 2000. Of course, I wasn't there as a sightseer seven years ago. My goal in March 2000 was to spend as little time as possible in New Orleans and get back to Clemson to finish my research and dissertation writing.

About the only place that I saw direct evidence of the Katrina destruction was along the Interstate (I-10) where some of the sound barriers had a clear demarcation of how high the water went. Indirect evidence was seen in parts of the town outside of the French Quarter where many shops and stores were shuttered. What were once active neighborhoods seemed to have their lifeblood sucked out of them.

I did not see the Lower 9th Ward, which is where the majority of the devastation happened in 2005. There were guides offering tours of the afflicted areas, but we did not partake.

One fun thing that we did do was ride the Steamer Natchez on the Mississippi. The entire Thermo Fisher Scientific group enjoyed dinner and a relaxing cruise after a long day of meetings.

Speaking of meeting with people, I also got a chance to sit down with Tulane EMS. It had been seven years since I stopped by. Considering that the group's recruitment cycle was set back by a full semester as a result of Katrina, TEMS continues to be a strong campus EMS organization with lots of promise. They tell me they are looking to replace one of their ambulances, which was practically new when I visited in 2000. That makes me feel sorta old. Thanks to Shaun, Chris, Danny, Austin, and Diana for a fun dinner and great conversation.

No Savett trip would be complete without a major travel hassle. It doesn't matter which airline, I recently seem to have a problem in at least one direction (if not both). Thanks to USAirways for the latest misadventure. My direct flight from New Orleans to Philadelphia on Friday afternoon was canceled due to mechanical issues with the plane. The next direct flight, which was scheduled to depart just 90 minutes after mine, was consequently swamped with people from my flight. It seems that it didn't really matter where people were heading, the airline felt compelled to put them on that plane. For example, I was told by a highly reliable source (my colleague, Ian) that at least one of the passengers on that flight was trying to get to Charlotte (not Philly). Since he arrived in Philadelphia after the last flight to Charlotte had already left, the airline had to put him up in a hotel for the night. On the other hand, I was trying to get to Philadelphia, but was re-booked on a flight to Charlotte, where I had to connect to a flight to Philadelphia. Now I'm not a logistical planner, but I would think that the airline should have swapped our tickets. Everybody would have been happier, and I would have been forced to sit in Terminal A of the New Orleans Airport for 5 hours. By the way, there is no wireless broadband Internet in Terminal A at the New Orleans Airport. Perhaps Web access would have made the time pass more quickly.

Philadelphia-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Informatics bike team fights multiple sclerosis (MS)

2007-09-30T16:49:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, September 29, 2007 the Informatics bike team participated in the "Bike to the Bay" MS-150 charity ride to benefit the Delaware Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The one-day, 77-mile tour took riders on a winding route from Dover to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

This year's Informatics bike team consisted of two veteran riders and two rookies, all of whom successfully crossed the finish line. As a result of this year's ride, the team raised more than $2300 towards MS research.

After successfully finishing the event, first-time participant Keith Hughes (ITD) said, "For me the challenges we faced on the way might have given us a little insight to what it is like for the people that have suffered with MS."

Team captain Dr. Scott Savett (ITD) related the bike tour to his daily responsibilities as an implementation analyst. "Our job in Informatics is to help pharmaceutical companies manage laboratory data to fight diseases like MS. The MS-150 is an opportunity for us to help fight a disease from a completely different angle."

The team wishes to thank Dave Champagne, Vice President / General Manager – Informatics for his encouragement and support.

Gavin Blake's Bris

2007-09-25T22:21:00.000-04:00

Kate and I headed to Bethesda, Maryland for Gavin's bris on Sunday. The little guy was so cute. He took the "procedure" like a champ.

Emily and Adam have named me Gavin's God father. Emily's sister, Shari, is the God mother.

Welcome Gavin Blake Savett

2007-09-18T10:05:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, September 15, 2007, we welcomed Gavin Blake Savett into the world. He is the newest addition to the Savett family, and has made me an uncle.

Weighing in at 7 pounds, and measuring 19.5 inches, he's a beautiful baby! Mother, father, and baby are doing well.

Hydrogen-powered cars?

2007-09-16T19:03:00.000-04:00

I found an interview of Dr. Lars Peter Thiesen, Manager Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Development for GM Europe, about fuel cell-powered vehicles. Apparently GM has been working on a fuel cell vehicle since 1997, which is the time I was working on fuel cells for the Department of Energy at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The key facts about this "Hydrogen 4" car (it's GM's 4th generation fuel cell car):
180 miles per fill-up
3-5 minutes to refill 4.2 kg of hydrogen at 10,000 psi
Reportedly meets all US regulations for crash worthiness

I got goosebumps watching this video

2007-08-04T15:35:00.000-04:00

Some of you know that I've been flying a lot recently, especially between Trenton and Boston. When I came across this YouTube video, it sent shivers up my spine. It shows what happens when a jet engine consumes a bird upon takeoff.

Hats off to the cockpit crew for keeping so calm. I realize their aircraft, a Boeing 757, is fully capable of flying on one engine for extended time (180 minutes) if the other engine fails. But it still must be an unsettling experience to have half your power (and a good deal of your stopping capability without reverse thrusters on one engine) knocked out.

If you are an aviation enthusiast or somebody who flies a lot, enjoy the video here or here. The videographer, Simon Lowe, does an excellent job documenting the entire event.

Support my fundraising efforts for the MS 150!

2007-08-03T17:16:00.000-04:00

Please take a moment to consider supporting my involvement in the upcoming MS 150 bike tour. See the MS Web site for additional information.

It's that time of year again... time for me to start training really hard for the MS 150. As team captain for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Informatics team, I made the executive decision that we'd head back to Delaware for the "Bike to the Bay" instead of the tour we've done the last two years "City to Shore" in New Jersey. This year both tours are on the same weekend, so it's impossible to participate in both.

It was a tough decision between NJ and DE, but the smaller nature of the Delaware tour eventually won me over. There are about 1500 riders on the Delaware tour compared to 7000 on the NJ tour. From my memory, the rest areas on the Delaware route were better stocked and the event volunteers seemed genuinely friendlier. But then again, perhaps it was my perception as a rookie rider.

Our team is larger than it's been in the last couple years. With four of us signed up, it's 25% larger than 2006's showing. We'll be sporting newly designed jerseys with the Thermo Fisher logo.

I've set my fund raising target at $1000 for this event. Every little bit helps, so please donate what you can. Your donation is tax-deductible, and goes towards multiple sclerosis research and programs to help the patients who have the devastating disease.

The Comcast story continues...

2007-08-03T16:55:00.000-04:00

It took three phone calls to Comcast for me to actually get the upgraded cable modem connection they promised. I was actually thrilled on my most recent call to get somebody in technical support who:

Understood the problem.
Could fix the problem.
Followed-up when she said she would to ensure the problem was actually fixed.

Hats off to Comcast's Heather at extension v58 for such an outstanding job.

Now the ugly details of the problem for those of you who are curious:

My D-Link DCM-202 cable modem is now stuck on the Comcast firmware. Apparently Comcast struck a deal with D-Link to make a firmware version that (among other things) disables the telnet server on the modem. That means that once you flash the firmware to the Comcast version, there's no going back since you can no longer get to the interface to flash it again. I found the following post on DSL Reports too late, but hopefully it will help somebody else avoid the same fate.
I'm told that the profile on my cable modem hadn't been updated from the Comcast servers, which is why I couldn't see the higher speeds. Heather referred to it having the "silver file." She pushed an updated profile, which took about 15 minutes.
My old SMC7004ABR "Barricade" router apparently doesn't like uplink speeds on the WAN port greater than 4.2 Mbps. My download connection speed consistently topped out at that pathetic level. It makes no sense unless the upload port is only 10 Mbps. The switched ports on the router are 10/100 Mbps, so it would follow that the WAN port would be the same. But when the router was manufactured in 2001, it's possible that nobody envisioned that a broadband connection from a cable modem or DSL modem could actually exceed 10 Mbps (including overhead). The Barricade has been replaced with a Linksys BEFSR81, which supports QoS. The QoS should make Vonage VoIP calls slightly more reliable, but we really have not seen many problems with bandwidth and VoIP within the past few months.
I now get over 8Mbps download speed, which isn't quite the 16 Mbps they mentioned in the ad, but it's certainly more than the 3-4 Mbps I was seeing before.

Canon Comes Through!

2007-08-03T16:50:00.000-04:00

For those of you who regularly read my not-so-regularly published blog, you may recall that my Canon PowerShot S400 was sent back for a factory repair after it had repeated problems accessing the CompactFlash card. I apologizing for not updating you sooner.

The little camera made its way back to me in record time. In about a week I had the camera back and fixed -- for free! All shipping was paid for by Canon. I've taken a dozen pictures and have not yet seen a memory card error message. I'm calling it "fixed" and putting Canon in the "good guys" file.

SEPTA fare hikes

2007-07-11T17:05:00.000-04:00

They are pitching the recent fare hike on SEPTA as "only 11%." I'm still trying to figure out that math behind that statement.

Under the old fare scheme, I could hop aboard an R6 train at Miquon (zone 2) during peak hours and ride into the Center City Philadelphia for $3.75, or a $7.50 round trip fare. There was never a surcharge for purchasing a ticket on the train since there are no ticket machines at Miquon. An off-peak fare was only $3 with no buy-onboard surcharge, yielding a $6 round trip fare.

According to the fare page on SEPTA's Web site, a rail ticket from a zone 2 station without a ticket machine or ticket window will cost the consumer $5 each way, or $10 round trip. I'm not mathematician, but that represents an increase of $2.50 (compared to the old $7.50 fare), or 33%. The increase is even worse if you ride at a non-peak hour. Instead of a $6 round trip, it will now cost $10 to purchase a buy-onboard off-peak round trip. According to my calculation, that is a 66% increase in fare.

For a rail fare from the Philadelphia airport to Center City Philadelphia that formerly cost $5.50 each way, the fare is now $7. While that still doesn't come close to the $25 taxi fare, it is a whole lot more than Boston's "T" system, which is only $2 from Logan airport to anywhere the subway runs.

Here are my issues with the fare increase:

1) Since there are no ticket offices in the vicinity of the Miquon station to pre-purchase a zone 2 rail ticket. When I step on the train and pay the new "buy-onboard" surcharge, I am effectively being taxed for SEPTA's lack of customer service. Other mass transit systems around the country have well-functioning automatic ticket machines. Just across the river, NJ Transit has them in "hostile" places such as Camden.

2) This fare increase will encourage more people to drive into Center City instead of take mass transit. Isn't this the opposite effect of what our government is supposed to be doing? If Kate and I were contemplating coming into the city after work or on a weekend, we would formerly really consider taking the train. Now it's nearly a no-brainer to drive. Round trip rail fare of $10 each equals $20. We could pay for gas (15 miles each way, or about $3 in gas) and parking in Center City for less than $20.

I don't have any complaints about a price increase if I actually get something for the additional money. In this case I cannot see the value provided by this "11%" fare increase. If someone could explain it to me, I would be grateful.

Another Comcastic story

2007-07-09T20:31:00.001-04:00

The other day Comcast made us an offer that was too good to pass up. They offered their upgraded high-speed internet service (up to 16 Mbps) for no additional cost for 6 months. Pretty good, eh? It was enough to make me call customer service and ask for it.

At first, the customer service rep didn't even know what I was talking about even though I was reading the words directly from the mailer. He eventually figured out what I was asking for and told me that he had made the change to my account. A modem reboot was all I needed to get the speed boost.

No such luck. Prior to the reboot I was getting 4 Mbps download and 750 Kpbs upload (not bad on the upload!). After the reboot, the speed actually slowed slightly to 3 Mbps, while the upload was untouched.

Was it my cable modem? Did I not leave the modem off long enough when I rebooted? I did find that my D-Link DCM-202 cable modem isn't totally compatible with Comcast. However, after downloading and applying a firmware upgrade from the D-Link Web site, I managed to get 6 Mbps from the modem. That's still a far cry from the 16 Mbps promised, and I'll be trying to determine why the speed is hobbled.

If you are wondering about my testing methods, I have checked the speed using www.dslreports.com, www.speedtest.net, and speedtest.vonage.com. I performed my tests with my laptop connected directly to the cable modem without an intermediate router or switch.
I also tweaked my network settings according to DSLReports' recommendations.

To be continued.... once I learn more from Comcast.

Canon S400 in the balance...

2007-07-09T20:17:00.000-04:00

The fate of my Canon PowerShot S400 should be known shortly. After battling with sporadic memory card errors, I learned that there is a consumer notice available on Canon's Web site discussing the problem. Based on the information on the notice, I phoned Canon at 800-828-4040, which sent me a free UPS return-mail label to send the camera back to them for evaluation. They should be receiving the camera on Tuesday, July 10. I'm told that it's normally a 7-10 business day turnaround.

If it turns out that my beloved S400 is dead, I have had my eye on a Canon PowerShot SD900. With 10 megapixels (compared to the S400's lowly 4 megapixels), and the ability to shoot up to ISO 1600, I think the SD900 would be a nice upgrade to my nearly-four-year-old S400. Part of me has really had my eye on digital SLRs, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to dive in. My film SLR camera (also a Canon, if memory serves me) has been sitting idle since the S400 became my traveling companion.

What is this?

2007-05-31T22:11:00.000-04:00

I came across something very cool looking during my Web surfing today. Take a look:

What is it? A slice of brain tissue? A sea sponge?

Click here to see the full context of this amazing picture.

Global Investor Magazine article

2007-05-31T14:07:00.000-04:00

My brother was again quoted in a financial magazine article. Adam boasts that the reporter didn't even misquote him once!

A message for Comcast's marketing department

2007-05-29T16:30:00.000-04:00

I have a great idea for Comcast's marketing department: stop sending me glossy leaflets on a daily basis. The way I figure it, they must spend at least $10 per month getting the word out to me, an existing customer. Instead of trying to milk more money out of me year after year, just keep my cable rates steady. The latest glossy brochure offers digital cable for just $10 more per month than what I'm paying. Yeah, how about giving it to me for no additional money like a similar brochure a few weeks offered?

I've written before in this blog about the slowly increasing price for video cable service from Comcast. While it's true that an increase a few dollars a month won't kill my entertainment budget, it will leave a very bitter taste in my mouth. That same mouth is now chomping at the bit waiting for Verizon to finally lay FIOS they have been promising over the last couple months. Even when FIOS gets here, I'm not sure I'll drop Comcast immediately since I rely so heavily on their cable modem service for my tether to the outside world. But once Verizon has proven itself as a reliable ISP, Comcast can say goodbye to this subscriber.

Cross County Trail

2007-05-25T21:03:00.000-04:00

I had my first ride on the Montgomery County "Cross County Trail" tonight. I had initially intended to ride on the Schuylkill River trail towards Norristown from the Spring Mill train station, but ended up switching to the newly opened portion of the Cross County at Elm Street in Conshohocken. The path was generally flat and went through some former industrial land near the Alan Wood Steel plant. After passing by Ikea and Circuit City, the trail dips down underneath Ridge Pike. After passing Cracker Barrel and the Metroplex shopping center, the trail abruptly ends underneath the Blue Route (I-476) underpass along Chemical Road.

It was fun to ride, though it was a little spooky to be the only person on the trail. According to the County Web site, the trail will eventually be 17.5 miles connecting Conshohocken to Bucks County via Willow Grove. The Web site mentions pedestrian bridges to be built over Germantown Pike and Flourtown Road, which will make the route much safer than attempting to cross these busy roads. I can still remember when both of these crossings were railroad grade crossings, all remnants of which are long gone.

While the Rails-to-Trails locator doesn't mention it (yet), this new portion of the trail certainly follows an old railroad right-of-way that is still shown on Google Maps.

All told, it was a little over 9 miles from Spring Mill to Metroplex and back. That was a great ride length for a late spring after work ride.

Geeky Web Link

2007-05-23T21:59:00.000-04:00

Being the science geek that I am, I enjoy reading about science from a historical aspect. I stumbled upon a Web site today that combines the archives of Modern Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and Scientific American.

Some of the articles are quite intriguing, such as the one from 1938 describing the home experiments you can do with hydrofluoric acid. Yes, that's the same acid that eats through glass.
So much for the modern disclaimer: "kids, don't try this at home..."

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

A happy 35th birthday party

2007-05-20T12:10:00.000-04:00

Kate threw a great 35th birthday party for me on May 12. With friends and family around the house, we enjoyed great food from T'Dori and an awesome cake from Gianni Brothers. We had eaten yummy cake from Gianni Brothers at the baby shower for (then-unnamed) Aidan Overpeck. Kate loved the cake so much that she knew it was the appropriate way to celebrate my 35th. MaryAnn, the pastry chef at Gianni, asked for creative freedom for the cake design. Kate gave her complete freedom to design the outside of the cake, with the caveat that the inside had to be the yummy chocolate we had experienced with the Overpecks.

Railroad Cake for Scott's 35th

Railroad Cake with lit candles

Train pinata

Aunt Maxine and Mom enjoy some T'Dori food

A beautiful day to fly!

2007-05-07T22:54:00.000-04:00

For the first time in a very long time I was on a flight today that wasn't packed and actually took off on time. For the 10 of us (yes, just 10) on the Comair (Delta Connection) Canadair Regional Jet that normally holds 50 passengers, the trip from Trenton to Boston was delightful. I wasn't bashful in taking out my camera and snapping some very nice aerial shots.

This is the Delaware river and Trenton, NJ, looking to the south. Pennsylvania is on the right side of the photo, while New Jersey is on the left. The northern-most (lowest) bridge is the Calhoun Street bridge. The next bridge to the south is the famous "Trenton Makes The World Takes" bridge. Next up is the Trenton-Morrisville Route 1 Toll Bridge. And the last bridge (farthest south) is a railroad bridge. In fact, if you look to the right of that bridge, you can see an Amtrak Acela train headed for Philadelphia that recently crossed the bridge.

I also got a unique shot of runway 22 at LaGuardia (LGA) airport.

Here is the Hudson River, Central Park, and most of Manhattan.

The other quite spectacular shot I got was of the George Washington Bridge (center of photo) and Yankee Stadium (lower right-hand corner).

I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! Overall, the flight was teriffic. We even arrived 20 minutes early (gasp)! Of course the ground crew was nowhere to be found since we were so early. Oh well...

There are still good companies out there...

2007-05-01T15:59:00.000-04:00

I sometimes use this blog as a place to vent frustrations about poor customer service. Overall, I think many companies have lost touch with their customers. As a result of really not caring, they provide dismal service. I will rattle off a few with which I've had poor dealings recently: iBahn (a.k.a. STSN - hotel internet company) and Presentation Services (a.k.a. Conference Solutions - AV projector rental) come to mind.

I'm going to try to highlight companies that have fulfilled their duty as corporate citizens. First up is ASUS motherboards. A little over a year ago I purchased an ASUS A8N SLI board for my new home-built computer. A few weeks ago there was a horrible noise coming from the inside of the case. Fearing that my CPU fan or case fan was dying (which can lead to sudden and irreversible death to a computer), I shut everything down. It was only after I popped open the case and took a listen during a reboot that I realized it was my chipset fan. This tiny fan, which sits on top of the "Northbridge" chipset, was in its death throes.

Cleaning the fan with compressed aid yielded a temporary fix, but when I rebooted the fan would refuse to spin up on its own.

A quick Google search yielded a smattering of folks with the same problem. ASUS was providing a free replacement fan for the asking. I phoned ASUS at 510-739-3777 extension 3 (not a toll-free call, but that's OK since I have Vonage and there is no such thing as a long distance call any more) and provided my mother board's serial number. Less than a week later a replacement fan showed up on my doorstep. Installation was a snap, and I'm now back to normal with no worries of an overheated chipset. Kudos to ASUS for standing by their product even though it wasn't under warranty.

My Little Brother in the news (again)

2007-04-01T14:48:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned before in my blog that my brother, Adam Savett, has been featured in national media. Specifically, he was interviewed by NPR for a piece talking about pension funds.

His presence in US and international publications continues to grow, as evidenced by the following mentions:

Economist (March 2, 2007)
Wall Street Journal Online (March 8, 2007)
Sacramento Bee (March 21, 2007)
Financial Times (March 26, 2007)
New York Law Journal (March 30, 2007)

Good going, Adam!

The Pain of Windows Vista

2007-03-25T10:38:00.000-04:00

As I type this entry, I am in the very painful process of trying to set up a new Dell computer for Kate's parents. I would think that the Dell Dimension C521 would work right out of the box. No such luck.

Vista is half-baked. Micosoft should have let it cook a little while longer. My biggest complaint is poor driver compatibility. It seems that some of the embedded devices that shipped with this computer (namely the audio) do not work with Vista.

I ding Dell for poor support. After downloading two dozen driver patches from their Web site, about a half-dozen of the supposed patches don't even install. What kind of support is that? Come on, Dell -- at least give me a fighting chance.

A $9.99 Mahjongg game from CompUSA wouldn't install. The installer insisted that DirectX9 be installed. According to Microsoft, Windows Vista ships with DirectX10, which they claim to have emulation for DirectX9. That's fine and dandy, but the Mahjongg game won't run -- even with Vista emulation of Windows XP SP2.

I'm at the point now where I'm VERY tempted to wipe the hard drive and install the OS that I really wanted in the first place: Windows XP SP2. At least then I would have support for the hardware and basic software I need to install. When we ordered this computer, XP Pro was not available on this line of Dimensions. I was tempted to buy an HP with comparable hardware specification, but Kate's parents said they preferred a Dell.

The other temptation would be to box the Dell C521 up and send it back to Dell. That would be a frustrating admission of defeat.

The newest little Overpeck

2007-01-28T23:44:00.000-05:00

Craig and Heidi are the proud new parents of a handsome baby boy weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Kate and I visited Heidi, Craig, and baby Aidan Jackson Overpeck at Lankenau Hospital on Saturday afternoon. Aidan was born at 2:30pm on Friday, January 26, so when we visited about 24 hours later, Heidi was still able to count the number of times tiny Aidan had "pooped" and "peed" on one hand.

My Little Brother on NPR

2007-01-25T22:09:00.000-05:00

So I was listening to Marketplace, the nightly NPR show about the economy. OK, truthfully it was more like background noise as I worked on something for the upcoming NCEMSF conference. The radio story was about how pension funds are increasingly serving as plaintiffs in class action lawsuits against companies in which they own stock. I heard Alisa Roth of Marketplace interviewing on expert on the subject, and the person's intonation sounded amazingly like Adam. Later that night I got a call from Adam, who hadn't realized that the phone interview he had done earlier that day was for NPR, nor that it would be broadcast that evening.

You can hear the story on the Marketplace site.

Adam tells me he has other interviews scheduled with The Financial Times and The Economist.
Good job, little brother!

It's a zoo out here!

2007-01-17T01:03:00.000-05:00

Kate and I had both previously been to the San Diego Zoo, but we had never been here together. My last time here was in August 1998 with my brother, Adam. Kate was last here in July 2005 by herself, on what she described as "the hottest day that entire summer." Today was a completely different experience since the weather was beautiful (albeit a bit on the brisk side) for a day in the zoo. There were no lines, and the $8 discount coupon made it cheaper to get the "Best Value Ticket" package compared to a plain admission.

Much of the zoo was as I remembered it. We especially enjoyed the polar bears, the giant pandas, and the koalas. There wasn't much activity in the koala paddock, but they were cute to look at nonetheless.

We took advantage of a photo opportunity afforded by this shiny metallic polar bear sculpture. A nice Australian woman from Sydney took our picture.

Panda trivia: did you know that pandas in the wild poop (Kate's word choice) up to thirty times a day due to their highly fibrous bamboo diet? This was news to us...

To finish the day at the zoo, we saw the sea lion show, which was quite good. The highlight was a sea lion dancing to Jennifer Lopez's "Let's Get Loud." The conga line with the trainer and the sea lion was a show stopper.

We finished out our evening at Pick Up Stix, a great Chinese restaurant chain that doesn't exist on the east coast. I wouldn't call it "fast food," since each order is cooked on demand, but it was reasonable, and tasty, and the staff at the Poway store was especially friendly.

Support on Hampton Bay ceiling fans blows!

2006-12-29T09:54:00.000-05:00

Our Hampton Bay model 52AHR ceiling fan recently stopped responding to requests to turn the light on and off via the RF remote. The fan controls still work just fine using the remote. We can control the light using the pull chain.

After some research in the Internet, I've found that this is a common problem for this fan. So I asked Hampton Bay (actually, King of Fans - 800-749-3267) whether a replacement part is available for the proprietary UC7051R remote receiver module in the fan, which I believe has gone bad.

Their response was that they can't help me unless I have the UPC for the fan. Fair enough, so I climbed up to look for the UPC. There is no UPC. I have a model number, serial number, and other miscellaneous information -- but no UPC. What company can't cross-reference a model number or serial number with a UPC? And what good is a limited lifetime guarantee if they make you jump through hoops to get help? I smell a class action law suit here.

"Maybe the installer removed the UPC sticker from the fan?" asked the King of Fans representative. That makes no sense. Why would they do such a thing and leave the serial number / model number sticker on the fan? My question: what would happen if there were a safety recall on these fans? Would they do it by UPC or by model / serial number?

Needless to say, we won't be buying another Hampton Bay fan. Perhaps we'll get a Hunter this time.

Two Reasons Why Comcast Sucks

2006-12-19T16:53:00.000-05:00

Right now Comcast high speed internet is my only reaonsable choice for broadband connectivity. DSL is not available in my neighborhood, and FIOS is a distant dream. As a result, I have subscribed to Comcast's since the day I moved in back in 2003. I will say that the 6 Mbps service is relatively zippy and stable. They have been slowly boosting the speed of their high speed service while keeping the price about the same. That's where my satisfaction ends...

Complaint #1: Cable (video) prices keep increasing. I still have the same standard (non-digital) cable plan as I had when I moved in three years ago. The cable rate has crept up four times in few-dollar increments from $42.30 to $52.20. How can a company justify a 23% increase over 3 years when the service they are delivering isn't patently different? Oh... right... they can justify it because they are Comcast and they don't really care about customers because they are a monopoly. Comcast is toast once Verizon's FIOS comes into this area. Comcast's new rate of $52.20 is a tough pill to swallow for what they are offering, especially in light of how little TV Kate and I actually watch.

Complaint #2: Comcast's anti-spam policy includes blocking e-mail from an entire domain if some of the e-mail coming from that domain looks spammy. They have blocked NCEMSF's incoming mail three times since late November. Each time I was able to get them to unblock it by filling out a Web-based request form. Who is Comcast to decide e-mail from what domains should be delivered? And why don't they notify the domains that they have decided to block? E-mail administrators who actually care will take the time to submit an un-block request. Fraudulent domains won't care and won't submit the request.

A day-long round trip to nowhere

2006-12-18T23:15:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true -- I'm currently on vacation. I should be on the ski slopes in Vermont. Instead I am back in the Philadelphia suburbs after a day spent in airports.

It all started on Monday, December 18 when Kate dropped me off at the Fort Washington train station. I connected to the R1 train to the airport with plenty of time before my flight. I breezed through airport security, and was sitting at my gate with more than 90 minutes before my scheduled departure. Who would have thought that there would be so few people traveling on a Monday morning?

My cell phone rang. The caller ID had familiar toll-free number, though I couldn't place it immediately. It was Delta Airlines' automated system telling me that my connecting flight had been pushed back about 2 hours. No big deal since I'd have more time at JFK airport to relax and read or watch a movie on my laptop.

My outbound flight from Philadelphia to JFK was delayed by about an hour. The obvious reason for the delay was the lack of a plane. Once the plane did arrive at the gate and most of the passengers deplaned, we were told that there was one additional passenger that needed special assistance coming off the plane. Neither the Philadelphia gate agents nor the wheelchair folks had a good plan for how to get a passenger down the steps of a tiny De Havilland Dash 8 to the terminal building. I can't imagine that this was the first limited passenger with mobility to fly this route. Of course, the operator of this flight, Freedom Airlines, doesn't have a stellar record recently. This was the same airline that kicked a woman off a flight in November for breastfeeding on board. Nonetheless, after 20 minutes of contemplation on the tarmac, a white station wagon appeared and the passenger, who had managed to hobble down the aircraft steps, was driven to the terminal. All the while I was thinking to myself that a stair-chair and some baggage handlers could have easily taken care of the situation in a much more expedient manner.

With the plane now empty, we were able to board en masse. The flight to from Philadelphia to JFK was uneventful. The flight attendant, Sarah, was relieved to see that all of her passengers could actually walk onto the plane. While I normally enjoy gazing out the window on flights, I couldn't see much out of the window that appeared to have oil smeared on it, so instead I slept. We arrived at gate 25 at JFK and I went in search of a video monitor to see the latest update on my Burlington flight. While we were in the air from Philadelphia, the departure time had slipped from 2:01pm to 3:46pm. Still not horrible since I would get into Burlington at around dinner, with plenty of time to meet up with my friend, Josh, who was had driven to Burlington from Philadelphia the day before for an interview for a surgical residency program at UVM.

The flight from JFK to Burlington was dependent upon an aircraft coming from Baltimore. As the afternoon wore on, the flight's departure time was pushed back several times. This was certainly not a good sign. Even worse, the flight to Burlington after mine had been cancelled.

Finding an electrical outlet in the airport terminal to plug in my laptop was tough, but I finally found one near the kiddie playground in the terminal. Seeing the kids play was amusing, but the shrieking and screaming eventually drove me from the area.

At around 3:45 I came to the realization that the vacation gods were not smiling upon me and it might be a good idea to bag the entire thing and return to Philadelphia. After pleading my case to Delta, they arranged for me to get on a 4:55 flight back to Philadelphia.

The flight back to Philadelphia was uneventful. After spending the afternoon near JFK's gate 25 I was happy to be on a plane going anywhere. As it turned out, I was lucky to have made the plans to return to Philadelphia. My flight to Burlington was eventually cancelled. I'm not sure how the airline accommodated the folks from two Burlington flights, but I'm sure there were some unhappy people.

On the drive home from the Philadelphia airport, I came to two realizations:
1) In the time I wasted in flights and airports on Monday, I could have driven to Burlington
2) It took me 8 hours to travel a total of less than 200 miles -- something that could have been done in less than half the time in a car.

This is December?

2006-12-10T23:04:00.000-05:00

The weather today was too nice to stay inside. Despite what the calendar said, it felt more like October or November as we visited the garden railway at the Morris Arboretum. There was lots of activity on the railroad, as the dozen trains traversed the various tracks. I enjoyed the Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive 838, which (after some Web research) appeared to be a K2 class 4-6-2, but I couldn't tell for sure. As we were watching, an arboretum worker refilled the steam generator and off it puffed across the trestle. Even though the garden railway is modeled in G-gauge and much larger than anything I could imagine, seeing such a cool layout has certainly rekindled my desire to set up my HO model trains. But it's currently quite low on the priority list. Perhaps in our next house...

Lulu and Halloween

2006-10-31T22:56:00.000-05:00

What would Halloween be without Lulu dressing up? She was a pumpkin this year, and an adorable one at that. What do you think?

OK, perhaps she isn't the happiest pug in the world when she's dressed in orange, but she's certainly cute...

The Kitchen is Finished (almost)

2006-10-31T22:43:00.000-05:00

The kitchen is done. Well... almost done. Despite the fact that we had our kitchen warming party on October 21, 2006 and introduced friends and family to the "finished kitchen," there is still a tiny bit of work to do. I'd like to replace the lighting fixture over the kitchen table with something a bit more in line with the character of the room. The wobbly white ceiling fan just doesn't cut it any more. And there is a tiny bit of tilework still to be done above the stove. Nobody can see the half-row of tile that is missing, but it will make me feel better when it's done.

MS 150: Mission Accomplished

2006-09-19T10:11:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning started out ominously. When my alarm woke me at 5:40am I could hear the sound of rain pounding on the roof. I was dreading another MS 150 in the rain, which would have been a carbon copy of 2 years ago in Delaware. Fortunately, it was a passing shower and the skies were only lightly misting by the time I hit the road to head towards the start line in Cherry Hill.

The drive through Center City was rather uneventful except for a car that had spun out on the entrance ramp from 76 to 676. I didn't actually stop since police were already on scene. There were apparently no injuries and just a slight gaper delay. The Ben Franklin Bridge was practically desolate at 7am, and my transit to 295 was easy.

I made it to the corner of Burnt Mill Road and Woodcrest Road at around 7:20. There were plenty of other people in the lot, which was apparently not the EDS lot mentioned in the MS 150 flyer, but worked nonetheless. The rain was light and steady and the temperature was in the high 60's as I got my bike out of the car and loaded up with everything I might need on the ride including an extra pair of dry socks (in a ziplock baggie), lots of tissues (I had been sniffling the entire night before), and some snacks. Satisfied that I had everything I might need, I set off towards the tour course, which was on the far side of the parking lot.

I didn't realize that I was already past the start line and already on the course. After riding about 1.5 miles through residential neighborhoods, I realized that I wouldn't be meeting Paul and Steve at the start line for pictures. Instead, I pulled off the course and called Paul to let him know what was going on.

About 10 minutes later Paul and Steve caught up to me and we continued as a team for the next 77 miles. The weather got nicer as the ride continued. The 19 miles until the first rest stop were misty and dreary. The roads were wet and we saw two riders wipe out due to the conditions.

By the end of the ride the conditions were much more ideal. The temperature had risen to the low 80's and there was more sun than clouds. The sun helped dry the roads, and we didn't see any more wipe outs for the rest of the ride.

The total ride was nearly 80 miles. It took the team and I 6 hours and 15 minutes of riding at an average speed of 12.9 mph. I managed a top speed of 34.5 mph coming down the back side of the second bridge in Ocean City.

By the time we got to the finish line in Ocean City at around 5pm the crowds had thinned out compared to what we experienced last year. But that also meant that most of the food was gone and the shirts smaller than XL were also gone. We left our name and address with the t-shirt table and they should be mailing them to us.

Unlike my first ride in Delaware in 2004, I am having no problems walking after this ride. I felt a little sore on Sunday, but it wasn't anything major. Thankfully my training paid off and my knees cooperated. I am toying with the idea of doing the century ride next year, but I probably won't push my luck. 80 miles in one day is enough.

I'd like to especially thank all of my friends, family, and colleagues who donated more than $1200 towards MS research for this ride.

One Little Question

2006-09-07T12:12:00.000-04:00

I like to keep my blog posts in order, but this one is breaking news that I must share.

On Wednesday, September 6, 2006 I proposed to Kate while we were in Clemson. It was a beautiful moonlit night on the boardwalk overlooking Lake Hartwell. I did the traditional "down on one knee" and asked for Kate's hand in marriage. Thankfully, she retained her wits about her long enough to say "yes" and then proceeded to cry.

Riding the Rails in NC

2006-09-07T12:00:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday morning our alarm woke us up at 8am so we could get ready for the Great Smoky Mountain Railway. The depot was just 10 miles from the hotel in Bryson City, NC.

We spent about an hour listening to the depot band (I feel bad for these performers who have to do the same shtick day after day, a couple times each day), who had a repertoire that included "Route 66" and "City of New Orleans," both of which we got to hear twice that day.

We boarded the train at about 10:15 and were greeted by Diane, our spunky guide. Our rail car was about half-full, which gave us the opportunity to stretch out a bit and occupy a four seats (2 forward, 2 backward). Kate and I took turns on the window seat, enjoying the beautiful views from the left-hand side of the train. The route took us to past the Nantahala Outdoor Cener (NOC) to Nantahala Gorge before we headed back to the NOC for a lunch layover. Kate and I had pre-purchased box lunches, which we enjoyed while viewing the raging Nantahala River. The vistas on the return ride from the other side of the train were more breathtaking.

After the train returned us to Bryson City (a total of 4 1/2 hours), we dropped into the train store next to the depot. Kate will tell you that I was drooling most of the time we were in the store. I couldn't believe the quality and diversity of HO-scale products that have come out since I stopped modeling about 15 years ago. While there were lots of attractive buildings, rolling stock, and locomotives, I behaved myself. Kate and I bought each other small gifts in the store to commemorate the rail journey; she earned herself a pink striped engineer's cap, while I am now the owner of a cute set of miniature people. After 30 minutes in the store, we decided that we should leave before I bought something that wouldn't fit on the plane for our return flight. We hit the road headed towards Clemson.

The trip from Bryson City to Clemson, SC was like reliving the trip from Knoxville to Cherokee the previous day. Steep and curvy mountain roads, this time lit by daylight and not covered by much rain, made it a very slow go. I remarked a few times that the GPS seemed to indicate that we weren't making any forward progress. At 25 mph it certainly seemed that way. We finally crossed the state line into Oconee County and I was happy to point out all of the famiilar sights to Kate as we travelled down US Route 123. The one that excited Kate the most (or should I say I have taken the most ribbing about) was the Square-D factory in Seneca.

We rolled into Clemson at around 7pm and went directly to the restaurant suggested by Matt Gevaert. In the space that was formerly Parcheesi's is now a wonderful new tapas restaurant named Sole. We're still not sure how to pronounce the name (sole as in the bottom of a shoe -- or so-lay as the French might say it).

Livin' Large South of the Mason-Dixon Line

2006-09-06T10:19:00.000-04:00

Our trip started (too) early Monday morning at the Philadelphia airport. Leaving on a holiday is THE way to travel. There was no traffic to speak of on the Schuylkill Expressway, which meant we made it to the airport in record time. There were no security lines (unlike my last trip to Boise), and our flights actually took off and landed on time.

The Atlanta airport was much more hospitable this time compared to when Kate and I flew to Craig and Heidi's wedding in April. Being on the right airline (Delta) at the right terminal (A) made all the difference.

Our final destination on Monday was Knoxville, TN. For some reason they have assigned the code of TYS to the Knoxville airport. We're still trying to figure that one out, but have some insight that it's named after some (dead?) dude named Tyson McGee. The airport itself was lovely (Kate's word choice, not mine) for such a small facility. We had our choice of rocking chairs overlooking the tarmac or leather couches and a giant TV. There was a full-size Ruby Tuesdays in the airport, but we decided to fend for ourselves outside the airport compound.

Our first stop after baggage claim (yeah, liquids and toothpaste) was Subway. We then hit the road to the Knoxville visitor's center downtown. Getting there was a battle with the GPS system since they have apparently moved roads and not bothered to tell anybody. Once there, we picked up some brochures. I also highly recommend the bathrooms. Realizing there was nothing to do in downtown Knoxville, we did some shopping on the north end of town and did our part to contribute to the 9.25% sales tax in this state. Apparently TN is a state with no individual income tax, so instead they tax the heck out of everything else. I picked up a gift to Katie's new office -- a mini photo frame. We then headed a bit further out to do some more shopping at the Tanger Outlet at Sevierville, TN. Katie acquired another pair of cute Nike sneakers.

We then had a very nice dinner at Calhoun's in Pigeon Forge, TN. We contemplated mini-golf after dinner, but were foiled by a light rain. So, instead we hit the road and drove down the "strip" in Pigeon Forge, which Kate has affectionately termed "Hillbilly Las Vegas." After some back-of-the-envelope calculations, we have determined Pigeon Forge to have the highest per-capita of Shoney's, Taco Bells, mini-golf, and neon bulbs on this side of the Mississippi.

The drive from Pigeon Forge to Cherokee, NC was fraught with danger as we drove through the "Petrified Forest," as Katie referred to it. It was dark, raining, and not well marked as we proceeded through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park on route 441. We finally made it to the Hampton Inn on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina and settled in for the evening.

MS 150 Preparations Continue

2006-08-31T22:52:00.000-04:00

Kate was kind enough to pick up my bike from the repair shop today. We took it to Keswick Cycle for a tune up. It was well worth the $60 for the annual tune-up. I did my typical 4-mile loop around Whitemarsh after work and it felt really good.

The donations towards the MS 150 ride continue to come in. The most recent one was from Craig and Heidi Overpeck, and was quite substantial. For those of you who are interested in my fund raising progress, please see this Web page. With a little over 2 weeks to go before the tour, I'm getting excited. My rider number (#880) arrived in the mail a few days ago.

Kitchen News

2006-08-31T22:43:00.000-04:00

The kitchen is coming along nicely. Chester County Kitchen & Bath was out for the 4th and final visit today. They finally have all of the appropriately beveled doors and drawer heads installed with the beautiful pull hardware we ordered online. It's been a long process -- something that should not have taken 4 trips, but they have decent about the entire experience. I'm on the fence about recommending them. In the end we have a reasonably-priced kitchen that we're proud to show off, but it's been a nearly 3-month ordeal to get everything installed to our satisfaction.

Still on the to-do list for the kitchen:

purchase and install floor, door, and window moulding
paint the walls (Pat, a professional painter will be doing that)
purchase and install the tile backsplash
purchase and install a new lighting fixture (pendant lamps?) for over the island

Traveling to Idaho - a royal pain

2006-08-23T21:54:00.000-04:00

I'm currently in western Idaho on my third and final trip to visit a seed company as part of a Nautilus implementation. I love this area, which has managed to retain much of the rugged west atmosphere while embracing modern conveniences like a 24-hour Wal*Mart.

Getting here was an all-day affair on Monday. Kate and I were up at 5am Eastern time so we could be on the road to the airport by 5:30. Traffic congesstion was non-existent and we made great time getting to the airport. Getting THROUGH the airport was a different story. The line for the security checkpoint at terminal "C" extended half-way across the pedestrian bridge leading to baggage claim. Thankfully the line moved quickly, and I found myself at the gate with about 30 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart.

The line would have moved quicker if I had still been considered Gold with USAirways. While I was grateful they extended my Star Alliance Gold membership a few months in the beginning of this year while they sorted out the merger with America West, I was dismayed that they banished me to the back of the plane without as much as an e-mail notification saying I had lost my status.

Sitting in "cattle class" (seat 20F -- at least it was a window seat) from Philadelphia to Phoenix was no joy. The woman sitting next to me in the middle seat didn't utter a word, but managed to totally piss off the woman sitting in front of her by using the seat pocket as a foot rest (she shed her shoes shortly after we were airborne) and kneeing the woman's seat back incessantly. I finally took pity on the woman in front of us and mentioned to woman next to me that every time she repositioned herself she was moving the entire seat. "Huh?" she said, as if I was speaking a foreign language. I think she finally "got it" and put her feet down on the floor like 99% of the other people on the plane were sitting.

Arriving in Phoenix was no joy. I'm making a personal note to myself to never fly through Phoenix again if I can help it. This was my second time flying through Phoenix, and just as miserable as the first. Allow me to rant a bit to explain my misgivings with PHX:

Our PHL to PHX arrived at PHX on time, yet we sat on the tarmac for 25 minutes waiting for a gate assignment. The upside: the delay was timed perfectly so I could participate in a complete Thermo Electron "Town Hall Meeting" conference call.
Terminal "B" where we landed is so stupidly laid out that people are falling on top of each other once they deplane. The line for Starbucks winds into the middle of the concourse. The other side of the concourse is set up with people trying to find their connecting flights on the TV monitors that are poorly situated. This leads to a whole bunch of people colliding for no good reason.
The USAirways staff at PHX can't seem to get gate assignments correct. According to the monitors my connecting flight from Phoenix to Boise was due to depart from gate B17. Arriving at B17 we were told that it was actually around the corner at B15. True enough, B15 had a sign for Boise, but nobody manning the podium. After 10 minutes in the gate area without an announcement for Boise (and the departure time rapidly approaching), a group of us finally approached another gate agent. "Yes," she said, "we'll be boarding Boise shortly." An announcement prior to that would have been nice.
My boarding pass for the Phoenix to Boise flight had me in seat "20F," which was interesting the same seat as I had been for Philadelphia to Phoenix. That would have been fine except the small regional jet only had 14 rows. Seat 20F did not exist on this aircraft. After some joking with the crew, I was told to take seat 1A and they'd figure it out after everybody else boarded. I was able to stay put in 1A for the flight, so it wasn't too bad. No, 1A is not first class. Remember, this was a tiny regional jet.
It was quite warm in Phoenix on Monday morning. I would estimate upwards of 95 degrees. It was downright hot in the plane waiting to push back and taxiing to the runway. Unfortunately, the APU (auxillary power unit) on the regional jet doesn't have enough juice to power the on-board air conditioning. We were told that we'd have to wait until we took off and both jets were started for some cool air to start flowing. Sure enough, it did get comfortable on the plane eventually once we were at cruising altitude.

The good news is that the greater Boise area is beautiful, and my trip has been productive so far.

Lucky Strike Bowling

2006-08-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

Today we had an official Thermo office outing. About 60 of us descended on the Lucky Strike bowling lanes at 13th and Chestnut Street. It wasn't much to look at from the street, but once we got upstairs to the 2nd floor it was quite an establishment.

The lanes were very nice, the bowling shoes weren't gross, and the service was excellent. Despite all of the stars aligning properly for a good time, I still couldn't muster a bowling score above 75. Truth be told, I have not bowled in several years, so I wasn't surprised at my inability to reproducibly hit pins.

After two rounds of bowling I switched to billiards, which I am a little better at. But don't look for me playing the role of a pool hustler any time soon.

In other news... I am pleased to report that I have raised $506 so far towards my goal of $1000 for the MS 150 bike tour. Don't forget that you, too, can sponsor me by clicking here. Every little bit helps!

Support my efforts towards MS research

2006-08-13T23:47:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Every hour someone is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease of the central nervous system affecting the brain and spinal cord. Please join me in supporting the National MS Society's mission to end the devastating effects of MS.

On September 16 I am planning to ride my bicycle 75 miles in the MS 150 "City to Shore" tour. You can support me by clicking here and making a secure online epledge.

Thank you - together we can make a difference!