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Turkey Day

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving yesterday. I know I did; ate way too much, that’s for sure. Erin and I made the trek up to Detroit to enjoy the holiday weekend with my parents. All in all quite good, well, except for the snow, but that’s to be expected since we are up in MI.

Last night we went to the sold out Pistons vs Wizards game at the Palace of Auburn Hills. My Dad got free tickets from work, so the four of us (Brother, Dad, Erin, and myself) headed out. My Dad thought that the tickets were for the same section as the fight that happened last season, but the row was AA (section 115), so we figured we’d be 27 rows up from the floor. Turns out that the first seven rows are AA -GG because they aren’t permanent seats. We ended up being right behind the Piston’s bench. It was crazy. And the game went to two overtimes, granted the Pistons ended up losing. We definitely got our money’s worth though, oh wait…

Xbox 360 Part 2

As I’m sure everyone knows, the Xbox 360 was released on Tuesday. And you can read all about Erin and my adventure on Aaron’s site. Unfortunately, we came up empty handed. However, even if we would’ve gotten one, I think we would’ve resold it. Especially since they were going for more than double their cost.

The good about all this though, is that we will still be getting one, just probably not anytime soon. I’ve gone back to the company I had the preorder with, since it’s about the only place I fell I’ll be able to get it from anytime soon. In fact, the distributor that supplies Avindigo apparently says they should have some on Monday. Who knows if those have already been allocated though. I guess we’ll just have to wait like everybody else. I can’t wait to get it and play on the new plasma though.

Seattle

All last week I was in Seattle, WA for a new hire orientation. A little late, but there were others that had started before I had. It was actually a good time. The weather was beautiful, and the people were a lot of fun. In fact, of the 35 or so of us, there were only eight of us from the US. The vast majority of the people were from the Paris office, but there were also people there from Singapore, Melbourne, Norway, and the Netherlands. Overall the classes were ok. They were management oriented, so much of what we covered seemed like common sense, but just put into words. Alas, it was good to do something different for a week, and the Grand Hyatt we stayed at was very nice.

Updates Soon

I’ve been really busy lately, and just haven’t found the time to update. However, just as a teaser, I’ve got two entries in the books. One about Seattle, the other about the Xbox360 adventure last night. Anyways, hopefully they’ll be something up later tonight, and if not, over the long weekend.

Motorola Programming

All I can say for Motorola’s programming ability is, “Crap.” I’m attempting to update my phone, MPx220, with the latest version, 1.43, and I don’t think I’ve ever had so many problems. The page prior to the download page is horrible to begin with. In order to actually get to the System Update tool, you have to click the white arrow INSIDE the yellow circle. Way to go on that image link there guys. Then after I installed the software, which piggybacks on activesync, it takes literally 3 minutes for it to load. You double click on the shortcut, or straight on the executable, and you sit there for 3 minutes. No splash screen, nothing. If you open up taskmanager, you see that the program is running, but it’s not really doing anything. Then all the sudden you see something appear to continue.

Once you’re in the setup program, you have to install a different driver for the phone, but to do this, you have to remove the battery and then plug the phone back into the USB cable. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that. Only one of the devices got installed when I did that. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize you needed the audio device for the modem that it installs also, so I kept progressing until it started to detect the phone. Well, of course it couldn’t, and can you go back? Of course not. So, I got the audio device installed, restarted my machine, and then waited another 3 minutes for the program to load.

At least the program gives you the ability to backup and restore your data before and after the upgrade. Granted, I don’t have much stuff on my phone. Heck, I don’t even know what this update fixes; good job on the release notes, err, wait there are none. However, it’s gotta fix some of the problems that I’ve been having, so it’s worth a shot. Plus I’ve heard there may actually be speed improvements.

**Update**

Turns out you need that extra driver because that’s how you get the update to the phone. You actually take the battery out and plug it in to do the update. Maybe it’s this convaluted to prevent the novice’s from doing this and wiping there phones accidentally.

**Update 2**

Well, even after the previous update to this post, it still didn’t work. The program just hung at “start deep sleep” or something along those lines. A little googling turns out that this is a common error. However, the good news is, I’ve found a solution. Turns out there’s an offline updater that can be found places. In fact you can grab all sorts of different ROMs from there too. And just in case you’re not sure what you’re doing, I’ve found a decent blog that tells you all about it. About 3 hours after I started, I finally got my phone updated. Honestly, I’m not noticing that much difference. Maybe I’ll try out the Asian 3.51 one?

Xbox 360

Well, I have some bad news about the Xbox 360. Turns out my supplier (who will go unnamed), has just informed me that he won’t be getting any units from his distributor until December. This is unfortunate, especially since I was hoping to take a trip on the 21st in order to get one. Alas, I guess I’ll just have to try to get one at a brick and mortar store on the 22nd, along with everyone else. Maybe it will be like when Halo 2 came out, and I won’t have a problem at all. However, for some reason, I don’t think this will be the case. :down:

More Football and Food

Man, I feel like I’m always so far behind adding content to this thing. Anyways…

Last weekend Erin and I went to visit my parents. It was sort of an impromptu thing, which got us out of having to go to Halloween parties we really didn’t want to go to. Anyways, it was the same weekend that the Bears and the Lions played in Detroit. I tried to find tickets on ticketmaster back on Thursday, and was only able to find 2 together. Thinking it would be nice if my parents could come to, I asked my Dad to see if he could get some through work. He said he’d look into it, and then I didn’t hear from him.

Well, I finally hear back from him on Friday and he was only able to get two. Crap. So, I go back on to ticketmaster, and wasn’t able to find two tickets together. Great. Well, we head to Detroit anyways. I looked on eBay and there were some on there that didn’t look like they were going for that much.

Saturday comes around, Erin and I visit the Moosejaw up there, since the one in Chicago by me is incredibly small and didn’t have a jacket that I wanted to try on. They don’t have the jacket there either, so we head to the mall because we’re board. Amazingly we both snag some good deals at Banana Republic, of all places. Something like 50%. Can’t go wrong with that.

Run my car through the car wash (man has it been a LONG time), and head home. We then had an excellent dinner (!), and finish of the evening with hot chocolate, half-n-half, Bailey’s, and a fire outside.

The next day we enjoy breakfast and head to the game. Now, in case we weren’t able to get two additional tickets my parents were just going to go to the DIA, and then we’d meet back up and go out to dinner. We’ll my Dad was able to scalp some tickets for only an additional $20 over list, so we all got in. However, as soon as we started looking for seats, he realized that the two tickets he got weren’t even close to each other. In fact, they were on complete opposite sides of the Ford Field. Erin and I took the two seats that were together behind the end zone, and my parents went off to try and sit together. It turns out that the seats right behind us remained empty for the first half, so when we met back up at half time, I told them to just come sit by us.

I won’t go in to the game, it was good, until the last play in overtime. However, I will talk about Dinner.

The place we went to was called Cuisine (I think, I wish I could find a website about it). Anyways, it’s this incredible French restaurant down by some Theatre in Detroit. Wow, I can tell you guys are just hanging on all the details, right? My parents apparently found this place because they were going to see a play at the Theatre, and asked where a good place to eat was. Turns out this place is right across the street.

Erin was somewhat skeptical of it because she wasn’t sure what she was in for, but my Dad insisted that it’s the best food he’s ever eaten, and that he needs an excuse to get to this place. Hey, I’m fine with being an excuse to eat exquisite food.

The place isn’t very big, but it’s very cozy and the staff is very friendly. They offer both Progressions or regular courses. My Dad and I both went for one of the Progressions, while Erin and my Mom went for the Beef Tenderloin.

My first course consisted of a French Onion soup with goat cheese. All I can say is excellent. The creamy goat cheese added an extra layer, especially since the soup was more runnier than I’m used to. However, the flavors melded together perfectly in what seemed a nice white wine-ish broth.

Second course was caramelized scallops, with caramelized cauliflower, and a raisin, walnut (in addition to other things I can’t remember now) puree. The scallops were done very well, not chewy at all. In fact, you could easily cut them with the fork, no knife needed. The sauce/puree gave it a sweeter taste that I wasn’t all about. To me, scallops on their own are great, no need to hide there flavor in an overpowering sauce. The cauliflower also had a sweetness to it, but not as powerful as the sauce. It went well with the scallops.

Third course was the beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and beans. This is actually the same meal that Erin and my Mom had, however, they had three cuts of beef, while I only had two (it was also the only course they had). I honestly don’t think I can describe the beef. This is no tenderloin you’ll ever be able to find in the store. Again, no knife required, and it was cooked just how I wanted it, medium rare. The beans seemed a little over cooked, not as crisp as I like, but when combined with a cut of beef and potatoes, was a hard combination to beat. Because of the lighting at our seat, I was slightly worried when the plate first arrived, because the sauce used was blood red, and it looked as though the beef was a little more rare than I would’ve liked. However, the sauce turned out to be an excellent accompaniment, adding (again) a slight sweetness that rounded out the other flavors.

Finally, there was souffle for dessert. After the second course, we were asked what indulgence we desired: Chocolate, Grand Marnier (spelled right on the first try!), or Butterscotch. My Dad opted for Grand Marnier, while I went for the Chocolate, since my Mom raved about how good it was last time they went. The moment arrived, and we were brought our deserts. Proudly they stood double the height of the souffle dish. And then the waitress struck them with a spoon, and drizzled them with the decadent liquid. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had a dessert so good and satisfying. The chocolate was sweet, but not overpowering, the souffle was light and delicate. The combination of the two was almost too much to take.

Overall, it was a most delightful treat, and most definitely the best dining experiences I’ve ever had. Hopefully my parents will leave additional info about Cuisine in the comments, that I can then add to this post, because with all the bad things going for downtown Detroit, it’s good to see there are still exceptional places, you just have to look for them.

Football with Coworkers

Last weekend a group of us went from work went to see the Notre Dame vs BYU game. It was unfortunate that the guy heading it up wasn’t able to go because of a family emergency, but we still made the most of it. I drove a group of 3 other guys, and we were on the road at 6:30AM. We stopped a few times (McDonald’s and then a grocery store to get a pre-ordered sandwich and chicken), and then cracked open our first beers sometime around 8:30AM.

We then proceeded to drink, eat, and be merry till kickoff at 1:30. During this time some other guys from worked showed up who brought even more alcohol (read: vodka and Jaegermeister). One of the highlights was one of the guys being body slammed twice in the back of the neighboring tailgater’s pickup.

The game wasn’t that excited, and there was absolutely no room in our seats, so we decided to head to the bar sometime around halftime. Stayed there for a bit, went back to the tailgate, then headed home.

Driving by US Cellular field we saw the fireworks from Dye’s homerun in game one of the World Series. We sort of chanced it, by going that way instead of taking Lake Shore (US 41) all the way up, but since the game had already started, it wasn’t that bad. Someone I managed to watch the Sox win without falling asleep. I think it had something to do with the hangover I was starting to get at 9 at night.

Powerball

With the $340 Million Jackpot looming overhead, Erin and I drove to Indiana Tuesday night to buy a few tickets. Actually, at work we had a small pool of 7 guys go in $5 each too, so we had to pick those up too. Anyways, I’d like to report that the work pool won a wicked $3, while Erin and I won a crazy $7.

While fantasizing about $340 Million, I did some quick numbers. If you were to get the Annuity, instead of cash out, you get something crazy like $450000 a month. A MONTH! That’s just too much money to believe.

Three Day Vacation

Even with as busy as it’s been at work, and it being a production cut over weekend for the project I’m on, I took off the whole weekend and drove down to Florida. I know, it sounds crazy me saying I took off a weekend, but that’s the reality of it, that I’m on call pretty much every weekend, so it makes actually being able to do something a pain.

Now, driving down to Florida (from Chicago), may not sound like a “vacation”, but I had fun. My grandpa hasn’t been feeling that well, so instead of my grandparents driving from the home in Northern MI to FL, they flew. However, both of their cars were in MI, so someone needed to drive one down to them. Here in steps my cousin and I.

The two of us embarked on our journey in the Lincoln Continental on Friday morning. We drove all day, with only 2 or 3 phone calls from work, and stopped for the night about twenty miles north of Macon, GA. We actually stopped quite a few times, and had a good dinner at Flammini’s in Dalton, GA. The next morning, Saturday, we headed out and made it to their house in Melbourne, FL around 3:30PM EST. And it was a beautiful sunny day.

Apparently they had had nothing but rainy weather for the past for weeks, but the two days we were there were gorgeous. On Sunday we went to the beach. Nothing like 83 degree water with 4 foot chop for some serious fun. There were a ton of surfers enjoying it also. The ocean was actually warmer than my grandparent’s pool! That night we had a good dinner at the club, and then I watched the White Sox win the ALCS pennant.

Unfortunately, our flight back Monday morning was at 6:30AM EST, which means we were up at 3AM CST in order to get there on time. This way our flight would get in around 8:15AM CST, so we’d get to work around 9-9:30. Needless to say, we had a crying baby sit right in front of us, so sleeping was made difficult. Well, that and the overweight man who was sitting next to me and kept encroaching on my space (I’m not a fan of the middle seat).

The flight got in a little bit late, but I was at work by 9:30. Talk about a whirlwind weekend. It’s just unfortunate that when we drove through Knoxville, TN, my friend wasn’t in town to have a beer or two with. Maybe next time.