Phew! I had no energy left yesterday when we finally arrived in Austin early in the evening (around 5 PM, just in time for Rush Hour! Thanks American Airlines.) Even my 40th anniversary entry about the moon landing is “backdated,” gotta’ love the ability to fudge a little through computers. After we concluded our vacation with a meal at the new Trudy’s on the south side, we were both too tired to unpack or write. We did manage to get re-acquainted with our four cats though. They were quite confident of who we were this morning when they wanted to be fed. OK, I did squeak in some Wii time to stay on top of our voting through Everybody Votes; I’m running over 70 percent!
Then we ran a few errands today: grocery shopping, paperwork (not bad, this vacation only set us back $712 based upon my calculations so we have plenty left for 2009 #2, 2010 #1 or a car down payment), new tags for my car, status on the last digital camera ($100 to fix, not bad) and refueling the car.
After I showed Somara how to save her own Lego Batman game, I headed over to do some writing. I realized I probably should recap this trip and I came up with a goofy headline for another section.
Overall I’d say this vacation was a success. The Silders feared we were bored. Nah! Vacations are about coming back relaxed, recharged and maybe a tad reflective. I got a good amount of sleep and downtime from playing Wii with their sons to feel better about the mountain of work I’m probably due to face at Apple. I take the same tactic when Somara and I go to Las Vegas. We choose to do only four things during the week we’re there. I hate having every day booked with some event or location because I know from experience what happens: you run out of money, time, energy or some combination, thus the trip ends in frustration. A long morning at the pool or soaking up the environs of the Strip don’t feel “unproductive” when the goals are more modest. This worked well with seeing Helen, Jack, Paul and TJ Silder.
Day One Arrival: We got to Dulles by early evening. Just in time for the North VA Rush Hour! Paul greeted us at the luggage pick up. He wore plenty of Cubs regalia to make sure I’d see him. I’d recognize the big lug if he were wearing urban camos. Once at the Casa de Silder, we unpacked, met the dog Wrigley and the cat Lemieux (named after Claude not Mario) and had dinner at Hard Times Cafe. Should they come to Austin, we need to take them to the Texas Chili Parlor. Personally, I preferred Hard Times due to its similarity to Steak n’ Shake’s chili mac. What Texans call chili is called spaghetti sauce in the Midwest. Full of food, beer and worn out from flying, we retired early.
Day Two Hangin’: The day started a little rough because I discovered how quick Lemieux was at showing her dislike over other cats…in the carpet of our room which my sock soaked up. It was my fault though. We have four of our own and I should’ve known better, my Molly is the fastest carpet stainer this side of the Pecos! Paul was at work and the boys were at camp so the ladies went to the grocery store for supplies: they’re called Giant, not HEB in MD. I was jonsin’ for caffeine. Helen dropped me off a nearby Fourbucks where I met Endive‘s real-life counterpart as she tried to bully customers into forming a line behind her. Ha! I was before her and I told her so as I placed my order. As Bill Maher once said about Texas, an armed society is a polite society. Somara and Helen proceeded to lecture me not to imply I was packing anything in my backpack. Who am I to dispel others’ perceptions of Texas residents when they decide to get into my face? At least I was able to finish checking my work e-mail quickly.
Lunch rocked and before I knew it, Helen needed to pick up the kids. I got to tag along because we were also getting slurpees at 7-11 and TJ could show his friends, the Friedman boys that I was a real person, not an imaginary uncle. Let’s say they didn’t show any signs of being impressed by my existence. On a less facetious note I wasn’t looking for praise. I expected as much from kids, they’re not little adults and they’re less inhibited in their responses.
Paul cooked dinner on the grill. Good ol’ brats to take us all back to Milwaukee. The Shiner Bock was an Austin touch since I don’t really recall any beer at Marquette being mandatory with any celebration. I think affordability trumped quality 20 years ago.
Day Three Upgradin’: Finding the Silders Wi-Fi situation rather puzzling (Paul never plugged the base station into anything) and the workaround I jury-rigged through their iMac G5 wasn’t much better, we (the ladies and I) went to the Montgomery County Mall. At the Apple Store we bought Helen her reward for naming the Muppet (an iPod Touch 2G cover and shield). I also decided to upgrade the Silder household with a 10.5 and a Time Capsule 500 GB; this will probably count as their birthday-anniversary-Christmas presents for the remainder of the year. As expected, I got drawn into talking to the store’s staff about being from Austin, etc. They were certainly full of questions for Somara regarding the iTunes Store, namely which sites should customers go to for billing matters.
I already blathered about my experience of setting up their Time Capsule. What I have taken away from the experience is this:
- They’re amazingly easy it is to set up.
- I really want at least a new AirPort base station to get the dual-channel action (g/n standards).
- The guest network element would rock for our house.
- I will remain bewildered by anyone else who can’t set one up after following the manual.
Helen was very pleased with the results. She had one of the most experienced techs around to oversee this upgrade. I also had the foresight to back up the 80 gigs of data before moving forward, thankfully, I didn’t need to deploy it. I couldn’t do anything about the Time Capsule taking 18 hours to establish its initial back up. However, like all back ups via Time Machine, everything after the first is gravy. Now when Helen’s nieces visit with their portables, they can hop on to the guest network with no fuss.
Days Four, Five and Six later.