Blue Man!

Last night Becky and I went to see Blue Man Group over at Universal Orlando. BMG is one of those acts that’s very hard to describe to folks who haven’t heard of them before. “Well, it’s three guys. And they’re all blue. And they do stuff with drums… and paint…” You see? That makes no sense at all, does it?

Blue Man Group

So last night we had tickets that put us in row 3, the “poncho” area. That’s right, there are plastic ponchos on each seat and yeah, you ought to wear them. It truly is the “spray zone”. The show was a mix of loud music, sweet drumming, and humor. The Blue Men never say anything, but the show is narrated by an unseen voice. They did a few hilarious “skits”, and they often pulled audience members up to participate. The one girl did so well that I have a hard time believing she wasn’t a plant - no way a random person does so well in an improvisational scene. But still, it was quite enjoyable. We laughed a lot, went “wow” several times, and left the show bleary-eyed but pleased. Oh, and Dad, if you read this: you’d get a real kick out of the trombonish instrument they made out of PVC pipe. Pretty cool. Here’s the picture as they’re trying to assemble it:

BMG PVC Trombone

For those really curious about BMG, there’s a pretty decent review written up here.

Nine Years

Hard to believe it’s been that long already. Nine years ago tonight, on a hot, sticky night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I exchanged our vows and became Mr. and Mrs. Chris Hubbs. (Our first stop after the wedding was in a Home Depot parking lot that had an available dumpster, but that’s a different story.) God has blessed us greatly, and it’s been a wonderful nine years.

So today we are celebrating in Orlando. Becky woke up at 2:45 CDT this morning to finish getting ready so she could catch her 5 AM flight from Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis, and from there she headed down here to Orlando. I picked her up at the airport about 1 PM. We grabbed a little lunch and then came back to the hotel. I think she spent some time at the pool while I grudgingly attended the afternoon’s technical sessions at the conference.

Tonight we ate dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It was my first time at a Ruth’s Chris, and given the price I wouldn’t be able to eat there very often even if there was one close to Cedar Rapids. That being said, tonight I had what was hands-down the best steak I have ever had in my life. It was a filet, cooked medium, and just the smell of it on that sizzling plate as it came to the table was almost worth the purchase price. I will say this: Ruth’s Chris knows how to do service right. When we made the reservation online, the form asked if it was a special occasion, and I noted that it was our anniversary. From the time we arrived at the restaurant and gave our name, each staff member who spoke with us first wished us a happy anniversary. Then they gave us dessert “on the house”. It was tasty, too. Bravo, Ruth’s Chris of Orlando.

Two more days of conference and then we have two days on the beach before heading home. Nice.

Orlando

Made it with no serious travel glitches to Orlando about 7:30 pm local time. Gotta say this - that iPod with video capability is pretty great. I loaded Season One of Battlestar Galactica on it and made it through the first two episodes before my ears got sore from the headphones. You can bet I’ll watch some more this week. Good stuff.

Got my rental car (a 2007 Mustang, pretty spiffy, though a little lacking in the headroom department) and found a restaurant to stop for some dinner before heading to the hotel. I guess hotel is really the wrong word - this thing is a full-blown resort/convention center. Got a good room without a hitch, finished my week’s worth of ironing, now I’m gonna finish a book and try to convince my body that it’s really almost 11 pm instead of the 10 pm that it is back at home.

Tomorrow morning should be fairly slow, no meetings until 11 AM and then just afternoon sessions. Good times.

Ready for a break

Today is my last day in the office for a week or so, and I am definitely ready for the break. A synopsis of next week’s events:

  • Sunday - flying out to Orlando.
  • Monday - Freescale Technology Forum begins.
  • Tuesday - Becky flies out to meet me. The girls are staying with my folks. (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!) Oh, and it’s our ninth wedding anniversary.
  • Wednesday - more FTF during the day, and we’re seeing Blue Man Group in the evening.
  • Thursday - FTF in the morning, then it’s off to be beach bums.
  • Friday - whole lotta nothing. We have a hotel on the beach in Cocoa Beach. Should be nice.
  • Saturday - fly home in the afternoon. We have an overly-long layover in MSP, but such is life.

I shall come home a more rested person. It will be glorious. :-)

Notes on a Tuesday Morning

I’m getting ready to go sit in an all-day meeting with some customers that are in town. Not real exciting, but should be some good discussion. Mostly it’s just looooong. At least food is provided. :-)

Ordered a case for my new iPod yesterday; it’s the one that Tony recommended to me the other day. I expected that if I ordered early on Monday morning that I had a good shot at 3-5 day UPS shipping getting it here to me before I leave for Florida on Sunday. But as of this morning it still hasn’t shipped. If I don’t see some movement by noon today, I’m gonna talk to Tony and get one back-channel.

Went to Texas Roadhouse last night with the family and my mom and sister who are in town visiting. Didn’t think I’d eaten too much last night, but this morning I can feel it. :-(

My Florida trip is coming up in less than a week. Orlando. We have tickets to see Blue Man Group, Becky’s going to Sea World one day while I’m at my conference, and then we have a hotel on the beach for a couple nights before we come home. And the girls are staying with my folks. 5 more days…

Sheesh, It's Monday already?!?

So for it being a weekend, it was a busy one. A synopsis:

Saturday:

  1. Ran a 5k in the morning. Finished in 31:33. It was stinkin’ hot outside.
  2. Sat and watched the parade go by. With two cute little girls, you get a lot of candy.
  3. Watched the girls while Becky went to a baby shower.
  4. Went to church for an all-evening elder meeting. Boy will I be glad when this is over.

Sunday:

  1. To church, but didn’t have to lead music - only taught Sunday School. Good times.
  2. Got a couple very sweet Father’s Day cards and a couple of t-shirts. My favorite: the one that says “Those who think they know everything annoy those of us that actually do.” Hehe.
  3. Crashed some in the afternoon, then cleaned house to prepare for my mom and sister coming to visit.
  4. Watched Cinderella Man for the first time. Russell Crowe, for all his personal problems, is a heckuva actor.

Now it’s Monday and back to work. But one week from today I will be in Orlando, FL, on Day 1 of my week-long conference/vacation. Ahhhhhh. I think I can make it one more week.

Satisfaction

Well if I’m gonna gripe when I think things have gone wrongly, it is only right that I applaud when I feel that justice has been done.  :-)

I made my trip to Best Buy this afternoon with my second defective refurbished iPod.  I had been steeling myself for this visit, preparing to ask to speak to a manager if necessary.  (I’m really bad at confrontation, but this has been getting ridiculous.)  I went back to the Geek Squad counter and talked to one of their employees (one I hadn’t spoken to before).

I didn’t say much at all: “long story.  This is the second refurb I’ve gotten, and it doesn’t work, either.”  I explained the issue - the thing wouldn’t sync with the PC - it locked up after only 1 GB of transfer.  He said “let me check something real quick…” and headed off to a computer backstage.  He came back a couple of minutes later with some good news.  “Let’s just get  you a new iPod.  That should make sure it doesn’t happen again.”  FINALLY!  So I went off to the iPod counter, requested a 30 GB black iPod, and headed over to Customer Service for the cashier to ring up the transaction.

Here’s where it gets better.  They weren’t just gonna give me a straight exchange for a new 30 GB iPod (which in itself would’ve been an upgrade from the 20 GB iPod that I took in originally) - they were essentially just gonna refund back the $299 I paid for that old iPod and then credit it to me.  When I realized that was the case, I suggested that I would instead like to take that $299 credit and apply it to a $349 80 GB iPod.  The cashier was amenable to the idea, so I headed back to the iPod counter, got the 80 GB unit, and paid $50 from my pocket to get the new iPod.  As a little bonus, Best Buy’s promotion this week gives you a $30 Best Buy gift card with the purchase of said iPod, so I got that as well.

As I sit here tonight typing this up, iTunes has copied over 622 of 5773 songs onto the new iPod. I don’t think I’ll sit up to wait for the sync to complete…  but I will sure enjoy having an iPod back.  Thank you, Best Buy, for finally getting this right.

Not again!

UPS dutifully delivered my second refurbished iPod this afternoon. The battery was pretty well dead, so I hooked it up to the wall charger for a few hours until it said it was all charged up. Then I hooked it up to the laptop, setup iTunes to sync 18 GB of music, and crossed my fingers. Would this one work?

No. iTunes claims that it’s synced about 350 songs, and then it gives a file write error and dies. I tried removing the song that it died on from the sync list and syncing again, still no joy. The iPod totally locks up, has to be reset, and doesn’t end up with more than the first 11 tracks of the first album on it. Now, I like Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, but I’m gonna need the iPod to hold more than that.

So I guess it’s back to Best Buy tomorrow for yet another return. I’m not good at being confrontational in the store - usually I figure that the person behind the counter doesn’t have much control over it, so why be hard on them? But this time I won’t wait long before asking to see a manager. I waited two weeks for this second refurb, and it turned out to be trash, too. I want a gift card. I know their policy says I need to get another lemon before I get a gift card, but I really don’t want to have to wait another two weeks just to find out whether the next one is any good.

Grrrrrrr.

iPod today?

Got an automated UPS phone call a few minutes ago saying that my iPod would be delivered today, and giving me the tracking number.  Good thing it went to voice mail - no way I would’ve been able to catch the tracking number with only one live listen.    UPS’s tracking system agrees that the iPod is on the truck and out for delivery.  Now I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that this one works.

Bullet Points for Friday

  • Still no iPod. I’m hoping for today, but I’m just about tired of hoping.
  • Did an insurance review with our agent yesterday. It’s always a bleak affair; her job is to suggest all the things that might go wrong that we should be covered for. Ugh.
  • On the upside, Laura went to sleep at 7:30 last night. Earliest in a week.
  • On the downside, she came into our room at 11 wanting to sleep in our bed, and pitched an hour-long fit when we made her sleep in her room.
  • Ordered a hard drive enclosure from Newegg yesterday to give me someplace to put a 160 GB hard drive I now have free. While my total storage space will still be paltry in comparison to, say, Geof’s or Mark’s, it’ll still be nice to have more space.
  • I’m not leading music at church this week, but I still am teaching Sunday School. Still gotta prepare.