It appears that both companies in town were out.  Susan caught them for the first appearance and I was there for the second one.

This is Aidan’s first snow storm as well.  He was very curious this morning when he woke up and it was completely white outside.

Check out the rest of the pictures on flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622915090729/

Remember that you need to be a member and my contact to view all of the photos.  For the steps to do this check out my other blog post at:
http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2009/04/01/how-to-use-flickr-to-view-our-photos/

-Allen

Check out all the photos and a video on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622808652420/

-Allen

We then dropped Daddy off (he went to a moe. show) and we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  We visited some neighbors and then took another nap while mommy ate some dinner.  It was a great day although the rain left us with LOTS of candy.

Check out all of the pictures on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622678972135/

-Susan

Check out the rest of the photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622684041383/

-Allen

Several MS employees gathered in Times Square outside of the Nasdaq building for the launch.

Check out the rest of the set on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622685527369/

-Allen

Monday night I met my friend Jim and we went to see a hockey game.  As luck would have it, the Devils were actually in town playing the Capitals.  This was Jim’s first professional hockey game.  The game was sold out (probably because it was Columbus Day), so I bought tickets from a guy in the street.  It was a nice shady transaction that we completed in Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  Unfortunately for Jim, the Devils won, However the game was pretty exciting as it ended with a shoot out.

There was an interesting banner in the rafters at the arena as well.  The Washington Mystics (WNBA Team) had the highest attendance in the league for a few years.  They even have the “Attendance Champions” banner to prove.  Is this really necessary?  It is like kids getting trophies just for playing.  I remember when I was a kid you actually had to win something to get a trophy, award, or banner.  (Click the photos to see the full version and to be brought to my flickr page)

On Tuesday night I was able to hook up with my friends Laura and Dan for dinner.  They are expecting a little one in a few weeks and she looks great!

I capped off the trip with a stop at Matsutake Sushi at Reagan National Airport (Terminal B).  Karl (who works the sushi bar) knows me as I used to be a regular.  He used to live in the town next to me, although we did not know each other from up here.

It’s great to catch up with friends while having to travel for business.  It’s not as lonely on the road. 

-Allen

Susan made these really cool cupcakes too!

Check out the rest of the pictures on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622811067830/

-Allen

Check out the complete set of photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622817628726/

-Allen

Heartland is one of our staple restaurants in NYC.  I highly recommend the buffalo burger and the harvest wheat beer (if it is in season)

It was good to see Tim and finally meet Mary.

Check out the rest of the photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622811583496/

-Allen

Dear Allen,

Store pickup is a popular option with BestBuy.com shoppers – and we’re continually striving to make this service faster and more convenient. Please click the button below to fill out a brief survey about your recent purchase on 09/14/2009 , including Dynex®-DVI-to-VGA Adapter-DX-D1114 . It should only take a few minutes.

Thanks for helping BestBuy.com serve you better!

I filled it out honestly and provided my feedback.  I also pointed them to part I of the blog post.  I wonder if somebody will actually contact me.

Oh yeah, still no reissue of that reward certificate.

-Allen

Height/Length – 27.25 inches (70th percentile)
Weight – 16lbs. 13 oz. (30th percentile)

He was very active, rolling around, sitting up on his own, showing how he can get up on all fours.  The doc says he is pretty advanced for his age. 

-Allen

I used the buy online and pickup in the store method.  The Paramus, NJ store at the Fashion Center Mall showed that they the adapter in stock.  With the $10 rewards coupon it was only going to cost me around $2.  Things were going well and I received both e-mails from Best Buy, one confirming the order had been placed and the other confirming that it had been filled and ready for pickup. 

I left my house to go pickup Aidan from day care and was going to stop at Best Buy on the way.  I arrived Best Buy and the drama began.  I walked up to the pickup line and several employees behind the counter looked at me and carried on with the duties.  There was nobody else in line, actually there was nobody else remotely close to me.  Not one person asked if I needed assistance for about 5 minutes.  When I was finally acknowledged, the person took my information, and brought me my order.  The only issue was, it was not the correct item.  They gave me a DVI to VGA cable when I had just ordered the adapter.  The girl that was helping me went to locate the correct part in the store.  Turns out they have 2 listed in the computer but they can’t find them in the store.  “They were probably stolen”, she said.  My order was then cancelled and refunded.  At this point I had already spent 30 minutes in the store.  When I asked about what I am supposed to do next I was told, “Well we can call the Garden State Store if you want.” 

I said, “When I placed the order online it showed that they were out of stock.”  They proceeded to call and guess what?!?!?  They didn’t have any.  While they were calling around, I walked around the store to verify that it was not on the shelf somewhere.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate one either.

The girl then said, “The West Paterson store has it if you want to go there.”

I  said, “No thanks, I would like you to ship it to me.”

She said, “You can go over there and use one of those Macs to go to bestbuy.com and place the order.”

WOW!!!  I said, “Actually I am not going to be paying for the shipping, it should be shipped for free.”

“I am not authorized to do that so you would have to speak to a manager”, she said.

“I would love to.”

Emily, the store manager promptly arrived to assist me with this matter.  She was able to place the order and have it shipped to me.  However, since the other employee had cancelled the previous transaction, the reward card was going to have to be reissued and I COULD NOT use it on this transaction.  I was told that the rewards certificate would be reissued electronically since Best Buy was going green.  To this I responded with, “I just received this one on the mail less than a week ago.  Also, another way to ‘go green’ would be to NOT print 7 (yes 7) receipts for an in-store pickup and then another 6 for the return.”

So now, I await the delivery of my adapter and the reissue of my $10 rewards certificate.  The free shipping is hardly worth the time and energy I spent dealing with this.

-Allen

He is up on all fours and rocking back and forth.  I give him about another week before he starts crawling. 

-Allen

-Allen

You can check out all the photos from this event on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622081146424/

-Allen

After the party we went to Smith & Wollensky with my parents and my Aunt Gene.  They have the best cold seafood appetizer platter!

Pictures from the event can be found on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157622006251513/

To see the pictures from the retirement party with Aidan, you MUST be my contact on flickr.  For information on how to do that, check out this old blog post:
http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2009/04/01/how-to-use-flickr-to-view-our-photos/

-Allen

MSN Video will remain, but all user generated content is being removed.  I have moved all of my videos to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/allenmock

Here’s an oldie but goodie…

I might consider switching to vimeo sometime in the future, but for now, I stick with youtube.

-Allen

I am going to be taking my 4 weeks paid, 1 week unpaid, and 1 week of vacation.  I am looking forward to the time off, spending time with Susan and Aidan, and tackling the long list of projects I never had time to deal with.  Maybe we’ll even be able to sneak in the occasional road trip. 

-Allen

P.S.  One of the things on my list is getting through old photos and blog posts.  Keep checking the blog and flickr for new (old) posts.

While he was at the doctor he reached another milestone….he rolled from his back to his belly.  The last month has been very exciting.  Aidan rolled from his belly to his back, started laughing out loud, found his feet, and started sleeping 6-8 hours in a row (mom and dad really like this one)!!!  We have been having so much fun watching Aidan explore his new world.

Here is a quick video Allen took with his phone of Aidan picking up paper with his toes.

(Embedded video is having some issues.  Here is the link:
Video of picking up paper with toes)

-Susan

Today Susan, Uncle Michael, and I took aidan. to see his first moe. show (my 42nd).  They played an outdoor afternoon show in Mt. Olive, NJ at Vasa Park.  It’s a rare occasion to see the boys play an afternoon show without a festival (especially in NJ), so we had to take advantage.  Aidan was sporting his brand new moe. shirt that I picked up at the Stone Pony show on Friday night.

We started off with a few Italian subs from Dante’s in the parking lot and then hit the show.  This venue is definitely family friendly.  We got settled in our spot about 5 minutes before moe. took the stage to tear things up.  This was one of the best shows that I have seen.  Aidan was lucky to get such a good show. 

Since moe. still has a relatively small following, they make announcements when people attend X number of shows (usually 1, 25, 50, 100, etc), birthdays, etc. 

al. announced aidan’s first show!  Check out the video below!

moe.family

Uncle Michael and Aidan

You can download the whole show here:
http://www.archive.org/details/moe2009-07-05.VasaPark
or you can listen to the clip below which is available for download from archive.org:

-Allen

Afterwards we went over to the park for the fair to see a few people and then up to Susan’s mom’s house for the afternoon.

It was a fun day, but I am tired!!!

-Allen

I am going to do my best to never be away for another father’s day, unless it is with my dad.  Today was a great day!  My dad and I did a few errands and hung out with Aidan.

Afterwards, we went for dinner with Tommy.

Happy Father’s Day!

-Allen

P.S.  Happy Birthday to my cousin Pete too!

My friend Brian told me before Aidan was born that I would finally understand why Mother’s and Father’s Day is so important.  I have to say Bri, you were absolutely right!  Of course, I am sure I will find out even more in about a month. 

We went to Susan’s mom’s for brunch and my mom’s for dinner.  It was a fun, but busy day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out their!

-Allen

You can see the picture here:
http://www.schmap.com/sydney/introduction_history/#p=73426&i=73426_64.jpg

I don’t get any compensation for this (which is fine by me), but they put my name on their site.

Full details are below.

———————————-

From: Emma J. Williams Emma Williams

Subject:  Schmap Sydney Seventh Edition: Photo Inclusion

Hi Allen,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released seventh edition of our Schmap Sydney Guide:

Bondi Beach
www.schmap.com/sydney/introduction_history/p=73426/i=73426_64.jpg

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of our guide at:

Bondi Beach
www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=sydney&sid=introduction_history&p=73426&i=73426_64

Finally, if you have a blog, you might also like to check out the customizable widgetized version of our Schmap Sydney Guide, complete with your published photo:
www.schmap.com/guidewidgets/p=10356358N02/c=SK50012035

Thanks so much for letting us include your photo – please enjoy the guide!

Best regards,
Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides
www.schmap.me/emma.williams

———————————-

-Allen

<option>1</option>
<option>2</option>
<option>3</option>
etc…

I was faced with 2 choices, do this manually 150 times or find a way to automate it.  Thinking about this, I wrote the following one-liner and then copied and pasted the output to my HTML document.  Voila!  Issue solved in less than 2 minutes.

PS C:\Temp> 1..150 | ForEach-Object { "     <option>$_</option>"}  >  htmloptions.txt

I am the furthest thing from a PowerShell expert, but I try to think of ways to automate functions that I have to do more than 1 time. 

The 1..150 defines a numeric range where number 1-150 would have normally been displayed on the screen. 

Since I followed this up with the pipe symbol (not the letter I or L) | the output goes to the next cmdlet.  This cmdlet ForEach-Object takes an action on each one of these numbers.   This action was to write the options for the dropdown list.  the $_ took the number that was piped in and inserted it in that location.

If you found this useful, please let me know in the comments section.

-Allen

New Stats
Height/Length – 22.5 inches
Weight – 10lbs. 5oz.

-Allen

If you haven’t had the chance to visit the botanical gardens, I would highly recommend it.  Weekend visits are free before Memorial Day.  Weekdays are free year round.

All of the photos can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157617281062215/

If you wonder why you can’t get to the pictures, check out:
http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2009/04/01/how-to-use-flickr-to-view-our-photos/

-Allen

Butch (my roommate during Ranger training)

Tuan and I
 

Tuan, Hank, and I

Jaclynn dropped me off at the airport

On the way back to NJ, I met Ja Rule in the Airport

Also Patrick Ewing was there, but he was with his daughter and for obvious reasons didn’t want to be disturbed.  I swear this pic is him.  We were both moving and my old point and shoot is too sloooow!

-Allen

• Database Availability Group (DAG) – allows database replication without a lot of the complexity that existed in Exchange 2007.  The nice thing about this is you can have a server with multiple roles and have a DAG.
• Self-healing databases – if there are multiple copies of a database (in a DAG array) Exchange now has the capability to recover from page errors in the database (-1018, –1019, and –1022).  A copy of the bad page can be copied from another database copy.
• Exchange Federation Gateway – This allows organizations to use a broker service provided by Microsoft in the cloud to authenticate cross-organization.  From this people can view Free/Busy information and even details.
• Decreased IO footprint – Exchange 2010 has the potential to reduce IO by 70% over Exchange 2007 and a total of 91% over Exchange 2003.  This is great news which can lead to larger mailboxes.
• Online mailbox moves – that’s right!  Now user’s do not have to be kicked out of their mailbox while it is being moved.

There are plenty of other features, but this is just a quick taste.  Overall, I feel that there are several features which warrant this upgrade from Exchange 2003 and even Exchange 2007.

Check out more details at: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/

-Allen

Afterwards we went to my cousin Peter’s house.

All photos from the day can be viewed at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157617343641389/

If you wonder why you can’t get to the pictures, check out:
http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2009/04/01/how-to-use-flickr-to-view-our-photos/

-Allen

All of the photos can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157617359132957/

If you wonder why you can’t get to the pictures, check out:
http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2009/04/01/how-to-use-flickr-to-view-our-photos/

-Allen

New Stats
Height/Length – 22 inches
Weight – 8lbs. 5oz.

-Allen

1. Open up a web browser and go to http://www.flickr.com

2. Click on the “Create Your Account” button in the top right corner

3. This will require you to have a Yahoo account. If you do not have one already click the “Sign Up” link in the lower right hand corner

4. Fill out the information on this form and click the “Create My Account” button at the bottom. All information is passed to Yahoo! though a SSL/HTTPS session so it is encrypted.

5. You will then be redirected to a confirmation page. On the right hand side, click the “Continue” button

6. On this next page, you should see that your account name has been listed and you have to enter your password to go to Flickr. Enter your password and click the “Sign In” button.

7. You will be redirected to the “Make a new Flickr account” page. Enter a Flickr screen name that you would like to use and click the “CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT” button.

8. After you have created your account you will see that you are directed back to Flickr and are logged in with your new screen name/account.

9. Go to the following URL: http://www.flickr.com/people/susanandallen/relationship/

10. You can mark me as Friend and or Family. This will send a request to me. Once I approve it, you will receive a notification and have access to all of the photos at http://www.flickr.com/people/susanandallen/

11. If you would like to receive notifications via e-mail when new pictures have been uploaded click on the downward facing arrow to the right of “You” at the top of the screen and select “Your Account” (or you can select the following link then skip to step 14 http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/notifications/?from=email)

12. At Your Account page, click E-mail

13. In the Receiving activity notification emails section, click edit on the right.

14. In the section “Would you like to receive an email when your contacts upload new photos?”, select the type of updates you would like to receive and then click the SAVE CHANGES button.

You are now ready to explore our photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/

Photos are broken down in to Collections (located on the right side of the screen) which contain sets. For example, when 2009 is selected, this brings up several sets to view. You can click on the set to see the photos.

When you are viewing photos, navigation will be on the right side where the blue arrow is pointing in the image below.

If you want to view all photos from the set in a slide show look for this icon:

Please leave comments to let me know if this blog post helped you.

Enjoy!

-Allen

Some fun (G-Rated, of course) pictures of Aidan’s bath time are posted on flickr.  Check them out @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157615826205406/

-Allen

Updated Stats

Height – 21”
Weight – 6lbs 14oz

-Allen

I decided to have a little fun with Aidan and take some pictures in the basement.  I bought some cheap white sheets and some inexpensive flood lights to make a quick “studio”.  It is far from perfect, but it produced some decent photos.  I certainly learned a few things while shooting too.  Aidan was very cooperative for almost an hour while daddy played around. 

To see all of the photos check out the set on flickr @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157615708164332/

-Allen

He was looking a little jaundiced so we had to take him to the hospital to get some blood work drawn.  Everything is OK, but we really tested his lungs with that blood draw!

-Allen

Heather

Aunt Lisa

The Battles (Sarah, Jeremy, and Marcia)

Steve

-Allen

Today we were discharged from the hospital and brought Aidan home.  Susan and I agree that the discharge process was the worst part of the experience.  It took several hours and when they wheeled Susan down to the lobby, they were like “Have a nice day!”.  They didn’t provide any assistance with the car seat and basically took off.

Susan and I looked at each other and said, “Now what?” 

Now the real adventure begins!

-Allen

On March 3, 2009 at 4:04PM, Susan gave birth to our son Aidan Thomas.  He weighed in at 6lbs 8.8 ounces and is 18.75 inches long.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

12:15AM – Susan’s thinks her water broke.  Allen had just fallen asleep and says to Susan, “Are you sure?”

12:15AM – 5:00AM – Susan showers multiple times in preparation

5:30AM – Susan pages doctor.  She calls back and tells us to go to the hospital.

6:15AM – We arrived at Hackensack Hospital and began the check-in process

7:00AM – Susan find out she is only 1cm dilated.  Her response is, “Are your friggin’ kidding me?”

10:45AM – Susan starts Pitocin and they begin an epidural.  Her lower half of her body goes numb.  Her blood pressure also dropped to 70/40 and they had to give her a shot of epinephrine.  They think they hit her intrathecal space.  They let it wear off and give it another shot.  Medical practice.

1:00PM – Dr. Cho’s shift is over and Dr. Clachko takes over

3:00PM – The contractions are getting closer and Susan is in pain

3:15PM – Nurses show me and Susan some pushing techniques and I learn to count to 10. 

3:20PM – Nurse asks me the last time I had some sugar and grabs some OJ for me to drink.  I guess lots of dads have passed out before…

3:35PM – Susan starts pushing

3:45PM – Susan tells Dr. Clachko and the two nurses, “I want a refund on this epidural”

3:50PM – Susan says, “Oww, it hurts!”  Dr. Clachko says, “No talking and more pushing!”  I stay quiet for fear of losing my life. 

4:04PM – A perfect baby covered in goo is born!  Two of the happiest people alive are grinning from ear to ear.

My take on the delivery process…

This was nothing like I expected.  You always see the emergency deliveries on shows like ER.  People come rushing into the emergency room saying, “Help, we have a woman in labor!”  We drive to the hospital, walked in, and were taken care of.  There was no rush or fuss.  Everybody throughout the delivery process was great.

I have a new found respect for Susan and women in general.  What an amazing process!

Overall it was everything that people told me it was going to be, but nothing like I had expected.

-Allen

We arrived in downtown Syracuse around 6PM and walked over to The Landmark Theatre.  Having no idea what to expect, we turned the corner and saw a huge crowd as well as a the Orange Carpet (instead of your standard Red Carpet).  Susan and I got to walk down the carpet along with Jim Brown, Floyd Little, Bob Costas, Dennis Quaid, and the rest of the cast.  It was pretty exciting.

Upon entering the theatre, we were given free popcorn, drinks, and a program.  We took our seats and met up with Jeff, Jennifer, Adam (Jeff’s Brother), his wife Jonna, and some other folks from ICS.  Since Jeff and his company developed the web site for the university for this event as well as the ticketing system, he hooked us up with some great seats.

Prior to the movie starting there were several speeches by Universal executives, the cast, university board members, and honoring of other players to wear #44.

The movie depicts the life story of Ernie Davis, The Elmira Express, who played for the Syracuse University football team.  Ben Schwartzwalder recruited Davis to play at SU along with the help of the previous number 44, Jim Brown.  Ernie Davis was given the honor of wearing #44 as well, and thus the great tradition of this number at SU was born.  Davis was the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy and was then drafted by the Cleveland Browns to play with Jim Brown.  Unfortunately, he never played a game in the NFL as he contracted Leukemia and died at the age of 23.  The Brown have since retired his number.  #44 was retired from the SU football program in 2003.

After the movie, we all headed over to the Onondaga War Memorial (the same place where my friend Steve played hockey in college for SU) for the gala.  There was a ton of food, The Coasters played, and the celebs mingled with the lay people.  Dennis Quaid, jumped on stage at one point and took over on the keyboard.  It was an extremely fun event, but Susan was not feeling well, so we ducked out early.  She was a trooper to hang in there for so long. 

On Saturday, Jeff got us 2 ticket to the SU vs. Penn State football game.  It was a complete spanking and an embarrassing display of football by SU.  This program has gone way down hill since the days that I was there.  The final score was 55-13, Penn State.  I guess you have to expect something like this when a top 10 team plays a bottom 10 team.

Sunday morning, Susan and I went over to Jeff and Jennifer’s house to hang out with them, Nathan, Benjamin, Adam, and Jonna.

Overall it was a great weekend!  Thanks Jeff for hooking us up!

Pictures from the SU Game
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157617565343034/

Pictures from The Express Premier
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandallen/sets/72157617564836506/

-Allen

It was July 3rd at about 9:00PM when I walked through the door returning from an ExRAP in Washington, DC.  On the table, there sat a test with a positive indication.  We were ecstatic!  Our first appointment was going to be on August 1st, so I had to rearrange some travel for a trip out to Colorado.  We had both agreed not to tell anybody until we had the first appointment with the doctor.

The next day, Independence Day, brought all of the usual parties.  At Susan’s parents place, I pounded a beer and snuck inside to wash out the can (several times).  I filled it with water and brought it back out to Susan so she wouldn’t have to field the normal questions about why she didn’t have a drink in her hand. 

Throughout July several people asked if Susan was pregnant yet.  All received the SAME answer, including our parents, “NO!”  Sorry we lied. 

Fast forward to July 31st…I took the red-eye home from Denver to be back for the morning appointment.  Immediately after, we met Susan’s mom and Tommy at the Tom Sawyer Diner.  We sat down and they asked me how my trip was.  I said, “Great! Would you like to see some pictures I took?”

After that, I took out the ultrasound picture and they were elated.  We told my parents that night in a similar fashion.

We anxiously awaited the next appointments which were scheduled for the last week in August.  I was there for the appointment to hear the heartbeat, but I missed the one the following day where they did the good ultrasound.  Susan sent me a picture of the picture from her camera phone.  The doctor typed a message on the screen, “HI DAD I MISS U”

After this appointment, we began to tell a few more people before going completely public this past weekend.

There you have it!  We are pretty excited!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q:  When is the baby due?
A:  March 10, 2009

Q:  Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?
A:  We are not sure yet.  This can be determined during the ultrasound at week 20.  This is something we have been debating as it is one of the few great surprises that life presents you.

Q:  How far along is Susan?
A:  Entering the 14th week

Q:  Are you hoping for a girl or a boy?
A:  Either.  Our number one concern is that the baby is healthy. 

Q:  How is Susan feeling?
A:  Awful.    She has been getting sick every afternoon for the past 2 months.  She’s going to sleep around 7:00PM.  Please don’t call at night.

Q:  Have you thought about any names for the baby?  If so, what names?
A:  Yes and we are not telling. 

Q:  Sounds like you’ve got some good swimmers?
A:  Yeah, just like Michael Phelps.

-Allen

It turns out the workaround for this is to add a default gateway to the NIC.  That will give you the option to change the label/name for the network connection.  I found the solution for this in the following forum:

http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=671112

-Allen

The first stop of the day was at Nijo Castle which was once the residence of Shoguns (Shogun was a military rank).  The architectural design and interior decorations were beautiful.  Unfortunately photography inside is not allowed.  The Shogun was the target of many assassination attempts.  As a security measure Nijo Castle was built with nightingale floors.  The floors squeak intentionally to ensure that no intruders will go undetected in the halls.  This floor squeak because the nails securing the floor boards rub against a casing to produce this alarming sound.  Upon departing, we saw a group of people going through tour guide training (Pictured below).  We are easily amused. 

From Njio Castle we went to the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion)which has one of the nicest Japanese gardens we have seen.  As the name states, there is an amazing Golden Pavilion located here.  The current one was rebuilt in 1955 after being burned to the ground by a monk in 1950.  I have seen pictures of the temple grounds in the winter and it looks stunning.  I’d love to come visit time place with snow on the ground.

Our next stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace, the former residence of the Japanese Emperor (residence was moved 1869 to Tokyo).  Before entering, our entire tour group had to line up 4 to a row and stand still until they would let us in.  It was like the military.  The palace had some great architecture and of course traditional Japanese Gardens.

This concluded the morning portion of the Kyoto tour and we were dropped at a crafts center for a buffet lunch.  It appears that all of the Sunrise tours dropped people off here at the SAME time.  There were a few buses that arrived to eat in tiny place.  It was quite chaotic.  My advice if you ever take this tour is to go look through the shops before getting your lunch to let the line die down.

The Heian Shrine was our first stop on the afternoon journey.  This shrine was dedicated to the first and last emperor to reside in Kyoto (Emperor Kammu and Emperor Komei).  It was Emperor Meiji that moved the capital to Tokyo.  (We visited his shrine, Meiji Shinto Shrine, on our first day in Tokyo.)  Heian Shrine has a very large Torri Gate on the street leading up the temple. 

Many shrines have a place where you can get your fortune.  If you don’t like it you tie the fortune to a tree and the priests will clean them off later (pictured below).  Then you select another one until you get one you like 

Inside, guess what, gardens and grand buildings!    Before walking across the stepping stones, we saw this sign.  It appears something was lost in translation.

Ignoring the warning, we crossed anyway (others did as well).

From the Heian Shrine, we went to the Sanjusangendo.  Orginally built in 1164, this temple holds 1001 Thousand Armed Kannon statues.  All of the figures were carved from cypress.  We were not allowed to take pictures in here, but there are a few pictures on the wikipedia link above.  This was truly a site to see.

Our final stop of the day was at Kiyomizo Temple.  The temple gets its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills.  Kiyomizo means pure water.  Below is a picture of people lined up to have some of the water.

From this temple we also had a great view of Kyoto, even though it was a very hazy day.

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

• Kyoto was the host to the G8 summit in 1997 where the Kyoto Protocol was ratified as a pact to reduce Greenhouse gases.
• Kyoto has about 1.5 million people and is currently the 7th largest city in Japan
• Gion is a section of Kyoto where Geisha girls are.  According to our guide Memoirs of a Geisha was written about this section of Kyoto.  Never read the book nor did I see the movie.  Unfortunately there was not enough time on the trip to see this section.
• We learned to count in Japanese today.  Below are the phonetic spellings:

• 1	Itchy (ichi)	6	Rock
  2	Knee	7	Hitch
  3	Sun	8	Hatch
  4	She	9	Queue
  5	Go	10	Ju (Jew)

  Learning these you can count to 99.  Anything in the teens would be JU followed by another number.  For example 17 would be JU-HITCH. 
  If you want to count from twenty and beyond you state the multiple of 10 that you are counting to get the first number.  Then you would state the second number.  For example 63 would be ROCK-JU-SUN.

-Allen

Today we left Hakone for Kyoto on the Shinkansen (bullet train).  Since we left the early for the train station, we had time for a short stop at the Odawara Castle.  There were dozens of cherry blossoms in full bloom here.  Hakone is quaint a resort town so the drive to the station was relaxing.  This is definitely a location we would love to visit again.  There were several trails in the area for great hiking.  Perhaps the next time we come out we will climb Mount Fuji and stay in Hakone.

The Shinkansen is amazingly fast, quiet, comfortable, and doesn’t shake like the Amtrak Acela.  On the trip to Kyoto, we got another great view of Mount Fuji.

Upon our arrival in Kyoto we were met and brought to the New Miyako Hotel, our home base for the next 3 nights. 

Our afternoon tour was to the ancient capital of Nara.  Nara was modeled after Xi’an in China (which we visited earlier on our trip).  The first stop in Nara was the Todaiji Temple which houses the Great Buddha.  It was crowded, once again due to the Cherry Blossoms being in bloom.

Todaiji Temple passes through Deer Park were we encountered bowing deer.  This is a park where deer roam free and will eat food from people’s hands.  The deer will bow before eating the food.  Amazing, even the deer are polite in Japan!  Our tour guide shows us the bowing deer in the video below.

Our final stop was at Kasuga Shrine.  This shrine has over 3,000 stone and bronze lanterns.  This was a very cool sight.  Unfortunately we were there during the day, so they were not lit up.

After a 1.5 hour bus ride back to the hotel, Susan and I went to Kyoto Station to catch the sushi train.    This place was the best deal on the trip!  Every plate was 137 yen and it was FRESH!  Needless to say we had quite a bit to eat.  All sushi stays on the conveyor for about 30 minutes before it goes into the garbage disposal, although I don’t think anything lasts that long before somebody grabs it.

Tomorrow we have an all day tour of Kyoto.

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

• We saw several people wearing face masks.  In Japan, most people wear these when they are sick to prevent spreading germs.  However, in the Hakone region there are a lot of cedar trees which produce massive amounts of pollen.  These were planted by the government since they grow very fast.  Many people wear masks in this area to combat the pollen.
• Japan has 120 million people (about half of the US population).
• The land mass of Japan is equal to that of California. i>
• The new Shinkansen will travel about 500km/hour, about 300MPH!
• A round of golf is around $300 on the weekend.
• There are a few things that are opposite of the US (noted thus far):

1. Baseball they count strikes than balls (opposite of the US with Balls and Strikes).  Therefore a full count is 2-3.
2. The emergency number is 119 (opposite of the US 911 line)
3. Horse racing runs clockwise (opposite of the US which runs counter-clockwise)

-Allen

There are 5 stations that buses can go to on Mount Fuji, 1-5 (5 being the highest in elevation) depending on the weather and time of year.  Currently the road is only open up to station 2 for buses.  When we arrived at the 2nd station, it was snowing and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see any of the mountain.  This was a major disappointment, but we have no control over the weather.

After lunch we took a short boat cruise on a pirate ship replica across the Lake Ashi.  This lake is from spring water and does not freeze over.  In this lake there were a few torii gates to Shinto shrines.

There was also a cool pedal boat that was the shape of a swan.  I’ve never seen this in the US.  Perhaps I lead a sheltered life. 

When we reached the other side of the lake, we took a cable car to the top of the mountain for a better view of the lake.  The weather was getting a lot better than earlier in the day.  Little did we know that once we reached the peak that we were continuing on to another mountain after that.  As we went over the peak, the clouds thinned out and there was a magnificent view of Mount Fuji.  The 12 people in our gondola were ecstatic and moved to one side of the car to take pictures.  It felt like we were going to top over. 

There was a great spot for viewing once we got off of the cable car.  Seeing Mount Fuji rounded out the day on a high note and lifted our spirits from the disappointing morning.

A taxi dropped us off at the Palace Hotel where the day ended.

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

• Tokyo businesses promote flex hours as the traffic is quite heavy. 
• There are professional pushers at the train stops that stuff people into the train cars during rush hour.  There was an issue with people groping women, so during rush hour there is a car at the front and back of the train that is designated WOMEN only.
• Tokyo has a lot of raised/elevated roads.  These were built for the 1964 Olympic Games to handle congestion.
• There are still a lot of smokers here.  All restaurants and all public sections of the hotels we stayed at were smoking.
• I wanted to attend a sumo match but it appears that it is not the right season, so we will have to come back.  Sumo wrestlers only eat 2 meals a day to bulk up which consists of meat and rice.
• After WWII, Japan ratified their constitution to renounce war.  Their military is for self defense only.  There are still several active US military bases in Japan.
• 10% of the world’s volcanoes are located in Japan.
• Our tour guide lived in Cliffside Park, NJ for 5 years. 

-Allen

Finally reaching Nikko, we were lucky enough to be there at noon to catch the bell ringing.  Check out the video below.

The next stop was at Lake Chuzenji at the foot of Mount Nantai, both part of Nikko National Park.  This lake is 163 meters at its deepest point.

Our final stop of the day was Kegon Falls at Nikko National Park.  This was a beautiful waterfall that had multiple streams coming down the mountain.  This waterfall comes from our previous stop, Lake Chuzenji.  We only had enough time to take pictures from the top as the tour bus allotted 30 minutes for this location.  The elevator to the bottom takes about 20 minutes roundtrip and there was a line.  I was still able to get a few decent shots.

The tour bus dropped us off near Shinjuku Station so we could take the train back to Meguro.  Right next to the station there was a sushi train restaurant, so we grabbed a quick bite.  For those who have never been to a sushi train restaurant, you sit down at a table or counter (depending on the layout of the restaurant) and there is a conveyor belt that passes by you with varying types of sushi.  You just grab the plate that interests you and eat.  The price is determined based on the type of plate you grab (usually distinguished by color or pattern).  This place also had self service hot water at the counter so you could serve yourself green tea.  Check out the video below.

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

Gas prices are outrageous!  149 yen/liter which works out to $5.72 per gallon USD…and I thought we had it bad in the US.

Public restrooms have toilets with built in bidets and often times seat warmers.  We have one of these at our hotel too and it has a remote control!

-Allen

We arrived at a transfer station and were shuffled to another bus for the Panoramic Tokyo tour from Sunrise Tours.  Our first stop on the tour was the Meiji Shinto Shine.  Shinto and Buddhism are the primary religions in Japan.  According to our tour guide, breaking down the word Shinto helps us to get a better meaning:  Shin means “God” and to means “the way”, God’s way or the way of God.  However in Shintoism, there are many gods.  The Shinto religion has shrines where Buddhism has temples.  A way to distinguish a temple from the shrine, is to look for the presence of gates (pictured below).  Shinto shines have gates and Buddhist temples do not.  The second picture is a of spring water which is used to cleanse yourself at the shrine.

While we were at the temple we saw a few weddings take place and the different clothing they wear for the Shinto wedding ceremony.

Upon leaving the Meiji Shinto Shrine, we drove by the Tokyo Tower but unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of this. The tower, designed after the Eiffel Tower, stands 333 meters tall and is primarily used for TV transmission.

Our next stop was the Imperial Palace East Garden.  The gardens are open to the public but the palace is not.   It is only open twice a year on January 2nd to celebrate the New Year and December 23rd for the Emperor’s birthday.

The cherry blossoms (sakura in Japanese) are in full bloom here and it is a HUGE deal!  People packed the streets of Tokyo to hang out, party, and drink under the cherry blossoms.  This also caused the Imperial Palace East Garden to be quite crowded.  We only took a few pictures of the cherry blossoms because there were so many people crowding around all of them.

On the drive through town we noticed several people with blue tarps.  The government gives the homeless blue tarps to keep warm and attempt to create a shelter.  We didn’t get much more information on this, but I would be interested to see what other programs were offered and how they compare to programs in the US.

The Asakusa Kannon Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, was our next stop.  This is quite a popular place as well and had dozens of cherry blossom trees.  See the picture below for the market surrounding the temple.  It was pretty busy and the cherry blossoms are visible on the right.

Unlike the Chinese Buddha images, the Japanese images lacked the swastika on the Buddha’s chest.  There where however several on other items on the temple grounds which displayed the symbol.  In Japanese culture this symbol represents harmony and was in use long before the Nazi party adopted it.

The afternoon featured a short boat cruise through Tokyo Bay passing under Rainbow Bridge and a visit to Odaiba where there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty.  France had loaned the statue to Japan to display and the Japanese loved it so much that France made a replica for them.  From Odaiba you can view the Statue of Liberty with Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower, and other buildings in the Tokyo skyline in the background.  I think I have seen the Statue of Liberty more times on this trip than I have when I am back in NJ. 

This concluded our trip and the tour made our way back to the bus terminal.  From here we had to take a train back to Meguro Station.  Our original itinerary stated that we were supposed to be dropped back at our hotel, but since it is far out of the way we do not get that service.  We thought that it was going to be difficult to find our way, but ther
e is a rail system that runs around central Tokyo and it quite simple and nice.  There are video monitors in the trains that have maps depicting each stop in both English and Japanese.  The train was immaculate, no dirt, trash, or graffiti.  Nothing like the US.  At Meguro Station, there is a shuttle bus that runs back to the Sheraton.  From there, we called it a night.  

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

We have become spoiled by our private tour guides (Pat and Kay from Thailand and Ricky and Corona in China).  There is really nothing like being on a tour with your OWN tour guide where you can stop and take as much time to absorb the scenery.  In Thailand and China, these were more economical, but in Japan we would have paid upwards of $1,500 per day!

Tokyo fashion is quite interesting as there appears to be a wide array of styles.  There were a lot of people that were wearing clothes that did not appear to match.  Susan commented that it looked like they took clothes from all different time periods and put them on in layers.  I never really paid attention to anything like this in the US, so it may be exactly the same. 

We wanted to see a performance at the Kabuki theatre, but theatre is off the last week in March for rehearsal.

Saturday is a popular day for weddings here too.  We saw a total of 6 throughout the day and 4 on the boat cruise alone!

Drivers in Japan drive on the left side of the road and the right side of the car.  (Like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.)

There are over 4,000 islands that make up Japan.

People of Tokyo are called Tokyoites.

-Allen

After landing at Narita International Airport, it took only about 45 minutes to clear customs and claim our bags.  Like the US, Japan is fingerprinting and taking pictures of all foreign visitors.  The only thing the counter was missing was a live rating system of the custom’s agent’s customer service skills.  We first saw this in China.  I think the US should implement this system. 

We boarded a shuttle bus for an 1.5 hour ride to our hotel, the Sheraton Miyako.  This bus was very clean.  I mean super clean!  It was just as our new friend John had described.  Not a speck of dust on the floor, seats were neat with doilies on the headrests, and the windows were crystal clear and streak free. 

When we arrived at our hotel the restaurants were closed so we walked to the nearest convenience store, which happened to be a 7-11.  The streets were immaculate!  Not a piece of trash, a cigarette butt..nothing!  One the walk there were several vending machines selling a wide range of beverages.  Certainly different than my walk around NYC.

The Sheraton Miyako Hotel Tokyo will be our place of residence for the next few nights.  Once again, this hotel was booked with points.  Thank you MSFT!    The gym in the hotel is NOT free for guests, but is only $7 for access to all of the equipment, a pool, and a sauna.  Internet access on the other hand is free in all rooms.  I guess you have to pick and choose your battles.  Breakfast on the other hand is quite expensive.  Normally hotels are more costly but this is over the top.  We were looking thought the menu at it was ~$18 for a bagel and cream cheese!

Tomorrow morning the tour starts at 7:50AM.  More to come.

-Allen

Everything in the Marriott closes early.  They take away the beach chairs at 5pm, the pool closes at 6pm and it is roped off.  The pool could use some work too as all of the pavement around it is coming loose.  The rocks hurt to walk on.  If you want to play ping pong, you have to rent the paddles and a ball for $10/hour!!!  All of this while the hotel next door, Pacific Island Club is rockin’ and having fun until all hours of the night.  They have 7 pools!  The Marriott could use some updating, but who am I to complain as the building protected us in the earthquakes. 

Here are a few random shots to close out the Guam experience.

Make sure you don’t take an octopus!

I thought this was hilarious.  A block over from our hotel there are a series of adult entertainment businesses.  Underneath one of the gentlemen’s clubs (Club G Spot) was a bar and pool hall by the name of Backscratchers!  What a great name for the location. 

-Allen

Check out the story from a local news station

We are leaving the island today and I will be posting the details of our trip when we get to Japan.

-Allen

Allegedly, there was an earthquake on Monday that was around a 3.2, but I didn’t feel that one.

Here is the story from a local news station:
http://www.kuam.com/news/27086.aspx

From the USGS site:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event/world_guam.html
This shows the LAST earthquake to hit Guam so if you visit this later, you will not see the same quake.

-Allen

-Allen

The map that were given to us by Avis was not very good and was missing a lot of roads.  It was very cartoon like.  Hence our journey in search of beaches on the northern half of the island was not very successful.

We got a little frustrated and stopped at Jeff’s Pirate Cove for lunch.  The maps that were for sale were not much better than what we were given.  It seems like Guam could use a good map maker.  Anyway, I was pleased with the meal and they even played some Phish while we were there!    We ended up running into John (a private pilot from the US that we met last night in the Marriott Executive Lounge).  He had been to this place several times.  It’s a small world and an even smaller island.    At the end of our meal, our waiter told us about Tarzan Falls on Route 17.  His directions were spot on.  "Make a left on to 17 and then drive until you see a lot of shoes hanging from the wire."  We’ve never gotten directions like this before. 

Upon reaching falls trail head we decided to skip the hike as the sign said it was about 1.5 hour hike to the falls and there was not enough time.  Plus there was nobody else in site and we didn’t want to encounter any brown snakes on our own.

We drove south towards a tiny beach that we had past the day before.  While Susan relaxed and took in the scene, I had some fun taking pictures of the different crabs on shore.

Going even further south, we found ourselves back at the Saluglula Pool.  We were hoping that the bacteria levels were lower today, but it was not the case.  That didn’t stop several people from taking the plunge.  Susan and I were not as daring.  We ventured on some different paths that we didn’t cover the previous day.  This yielded a great view from the top of a few tough rocks.  Check out the video below.

Just up the road from the Saluglula Pool was an elementary school that had several latte stones on the grass.  These used to be pillars in the old Chamorro houses.

This was our final stop of the day and went back to the lounge to chill.  We met up with John again and another guy Wade (also a private pilot from the US).  The four of us walked to Ban Thai, a Thai restaurant.  The food was fantastic and very authentic (the same as what we had in Thailand).  Of course I got my chilies and fish sauce (my favorite Thai condiment) to add to the hot factor.  I am sure I will be paying for that later. 

-Allen

Our day started out by jumping in the car and heading south.  Our hotel sits on the coast of the Philippine Sea (the west coast of Guam) in a section of the island known as Tumon.  I think it means Tourist Hub in Chamorro (the native’s on the island and their language),  Since the island is not that large, Susan and I decided to drive around Guam.  This island is full of history and should be a destination for any WWI or WWII history fanatic.

Our first stop was at a beach that hosted a replica of the Statue of Liberty.  I think this one has a much better view than the one in NJ.

Along our drive we stumbled upon Namo Falls Park.  This appeared to be a small privately owned piece of land that happen to have a gorgeous waterfall on it.  I didn’t feel bad paying $5 each to support the local folks at the park.  Walking a few hundred yard you come face to face with an impressive 3 tiered waterfall.  This is one of my favorite waterfalls to date.  The jungle / rainforest like setting made the ambience even better.  I would put this up there with the Milla Milla Falls that we saw in the Tablelands region of Australia.

After a few moments absorbing this park we drove further south stopping at Ga’an Point to visit the National Historic Park.  On the coast here, there are old guns that the Japanese used in WWII as well as several bunkers that are still intact.  Even though it was a war, I think this would have been a location where I would like to have been stationed.  What a view!

Continuing on the drive we stopped at a convenience store which was next to Taleyfak Bridge. 

It wasn’t until after I climbed down to grab a few shots that I saw this sign…

From here we drove around the southern tip of Guam past Cocos Island and Magellan’s Landing.  Many dispute the point of his landing, but I am willing to accept this as the location. 

Just down the road from this is San Dionisio Church which made for a nice shot as it was in direct sunlight.

Also on the southern point, in the village of Umatac sits Fort Soledad on the coastal hill.  This was used to protect the Spanish trade from pirates in the 1800s.

On the eastern side of the island (the Pacific Ocean side), there is one of the most magnificent sites on the islands (as far as I am concerned), the Saluglula Pool.  This is a must see for any visitor to Guam.  Unfortunately, during the time of our visit a sign was posted recommending not to swim in the pools.  This was due to high bacteria levels.  The pools are checked weekly.

Our final stop of the day was at Talofofo Falls.  It was too late in the day to go into the park and to warrant the $20/person fee.  Instead, I just took a few pictures of the pigs that were running around in the parking lot.  Not something you see everyday on the mainland.  At least in Northern NJ. 

We went back to the Marriott to enjoy the happy hour in the Executive Lounge and called it a day.

Other comments…

I think the gas prices here are regulated or all gas stations are owned by the same company.  Of the dozen or so stations that we have seen the prices are all the same, $4.01/gal for regular and $4.18/gal for premium.

There are a lot of abandoned cars here.  It seems like if you don’t want your car anymore, you just drive it into the brush on the side of the road and leave it there.

It appears that a lot of beaches here are on private property.  The ones that are public seem to have a lot of broken glass.  I am not talking about sea glass that you can add to your collection.  This was cut your foot and get a ton of stitches glass!  Susan and I picked up several pieces walking along the beach and threw them out.

Guam is like the Virgin Islands to the Japanese.  This is a very popular tourist location.  Most of the businesses around the hotel were karaoke clubs, gun clubs, spas, and gentlemen’s clubs.  According to one of the tourist books that lists all the businesses on the island, there are more gentlemen’s clubs than there are Thai restaurants.

-Allen

Our day started out on a low note at the airport when both Susan and I got the dreaded SSSS marking on our Northwest Ticket.  Because of this we had to go through 4 additional security procedures.  It slowed us down a little bit, but nothing major.  Upon our arrival at Narita (Tokyo International Airport), we went to the airline lounge (thanks to the American Express Platinum card).  This was one of the coolest lounges that I have visited.  They had Sushi, 15 computer stations for checking e-mail and general Internet access (even though they were Mac machines, it’s still cool that they offer it), and an automatic beer tap.  You place a glass in the machine, press the button, it tilts the glass back, and dispenses draught beer.  Check out the video below.

We arrived in Guam after a full day of travel and are relaxing at the Marriott.  More to come!

-Allen

At this studio, the also make Chinese lacquer furniture.  We learned about the various phases that take place in creating some of the lacquer tables:  cutting the wood, placing putty on the wood, placing mother of pearl in the putty (pictured below), painting, and adding

around 15 coats of lacquer.

After the studio we moved on to the real thing.  The Terracotta Army was built for the first emperor of China, Emperor Qin (pronounced Chin.  Q in Chinese is pronounced Ch.)  Many believe that the origin of the the word CHINA comes from Qin (Chin).  This mausoleum, built to protect the emperor’s afterlife, contains over 6,000 soldiers and also included horses, weapons, carriages, chariots, and other relics.  Each of these soldiers has a different face.  The detail is simply amazing.  There were no soldiers found in one piece and most have been restored by archeologists.  Each one of these soldiers weighs over 400lbs.

Following the visit with the Terracotta Army, we went to the Great Mosque of Xi’an.  Unlike any mosque that we have visited, this mosque’s architecture is completely Chinese.

This was our final stop and we boarded Air China back to Beijing.  When we got back, Ricky, Susan, and I went out for some duck!  You can’t go to China and not eat duck.  This was the first time that I have had it carved table side.  The head of the duck was still on the serving cart.  (see the video below.  A little long, but you can see the head.)

Here is our new friend Ricky after some delicious duck!

In the morning we head to Guam.

Other comments…

Xi’an is one of the cleanest cities that I have visited.  The people take a lot of pride in their city.  Also the street cleaners use feather dusters. 

Below is a picture crossing the tracks out of Xi’an.  It was definitely a different neighborhood.

This is a taxi in Xi’an.  It only has 3 wheels and I bet it gets great gas mileage.  This is similar to a tuk-tuk that we took in Thailand.

-Allen

Also, we had this in our hotel room in Beijing.  Is this an ironing board?  If so, what do you iron on it?  Socks?  Tie?  I put the 32oz Nalgene bottle next to it so you can get some perspective.  Please post a comment if you know what this is actually supposed to be used for.

-Allen

Xi’an is one of the oldest cities in the world and where you can catch a glimpse of the ancient Chinese culture.  We were met by our tour guide Korona and brought to the Yangling mausoleum.  When this tomb was discovered there were thousands of stone soldiers that stood about 1.5-2 feet tall.  The soldiers no longer have arms as they were made of wood and rotted away over 2000 years.  (pictured below.  Blurry because I didn’t have a tripod)  They were dressed in clothes which rotted away as well. 

The soldiers were meant to protect the emperor’s after life.  Along with the soldiers were miniature pigs, horses, cows, sheep, and other animals.  This visit was during a very large field trip for elementary and middle school students.  Recently the Chinese government declared all museums free of charge for Chinese citizens (you must make a reservation in advance though).  I would estimate that there were at least 1,000 students there.  Susan and I, being the ONLY non-Asian people around, intrigued the students and we achieved mere-celebrity status.  They all seemed to want to practice their English speaking skills.  We heard a lot of "Hello", "How are you?", and "My name is …".  It was nice to see the kids learning other languages at such a young age.  The US should adopt a similar system to keep up with the rest of the world.

Next we went into Xi’an city to see the city wall.  The wall divides the city into two sections, inner and outer.  The entire wall is about 12km.  If I ever visit in the future I would like to rent a bike and go around the wall.  We were told it only takes about 1.5 hours.

Following the tomb visit, we went to Giant Wild Goose Pagoda which is a Buddhist temple.  This temple houses the first Buddhist sutras brought from India to China.  Once again, I left completely calm. 

Our final stop for the day was at the Stele Forest.  This is the home to dozens of books that are actually written in stone.  To preserve the teachings of Confucius and other important works, these were etched into stone.  

Korona dropped us off at our hotel Shangri La.  This is a new hotel and all I can say is wow!  This hotel is amazing.  Very modern and elegant.  Even the remote control for the TV has leather case.  The pool was half of an olypic size pool and you have to walk through an indoor waterfall to get to it.  This is also the first hotel that I have ever stayed in that provided a mask in case of fire.

This evening we attended a show which re-enacted some of the ancient Chinese dances performed for the emperor and empress.  Following this they served a 17 course dumpling banquet.  I don’t think I have tried so many different types of dumplings.  The show and food were both excellent.

Other comments…

The colonel is big here.  People seem to really love KFC!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, people use their bikes for everything.

-Allen

Following our early climb, we went to do yoga in a private session with one of the Tibetan ladies that works at the lodge.  This was my first time doing yoga and I learned quickly that I am NOT flexible…at all!  Susan certainly got a good laugh, but I kept my composure throughout the hour.  At the end of the session, my head was 100% clear.  What an amazing exercise of the mind and body.

After leaving the ranch around 12:30pm we went back to Beijing for a rickshaw tour of the hutongs (means alleyway).  In this section a large number of families live in a "courtyard" style arrangement.  There is an entrance from the alleyway into the courtyard and from each of the four sides of the courtyard is a residence.  Talk about tight quarters!  In this situation, you REALLY get to know your neighbor.  Our guide for this section brought us to a local family’s house so we could see the inside of the courtyard.  It is definitely a different way of life. 

We also passed by the Bird’s Nest stadium which will be the main stadium for the Summer Olympics in 2008.

Tonight we are staying at the Courtyard (using points again).  This is the first Courtyard that I have stayed in that had an executive lounge.

-Allen

This morning was our excursion to The Great Wall of China.  There are several sections that you can visit and we went to the Mutianyu Great Wall.  This is certainly one of the more touristy sections and has undergone some major renovations.  As we ascended the mountain, the wall became visible.  This is an absolutely incredible site.  It was astonishing to think about how many people and years this took to build.  This has been one of my top things to see and I would love to walk most of it, but time just doesn’t allow for that right now.

Following The Great Wall we visited the Ming Tombs (specifically the Ding Ling tomb).  This is where the emperor, empress,  and his favorite concubines were buried here with several belongings for the afterlife.  This concluded our trips for the day and we went to the hotel for the evening.

Susan and I stayed and the Red Capital Ranch, which is on The Great Wall.  East Quest (the travel agent we used for this trip) often chooses boutique hotels.  This place is in a rustic setting but still has a sense of luxury.  The hotel is owned by an American but it is run entirely by a Tibetan Family.  Their service was uncanny and our dinner was great.  Another great choice by East Quest.

-Allen

After the show we were going to look for a bar for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, but I don’t think there are too may Chinese/Irish people around these parts.  We went back to the hotel instead and called it a night.

This morning started out with a trip to the Temple of Heaven, which was built in the 15th century.  This was a place in which only the emperor would pray for things like a good harvest at the rightfully named Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. (Pictured on the right)  Currently you can see several people practicing Tai Chi and ballroom dancing in the morning here.  Our visit to the Temple of Heaven was relatively short as there was a lot of dust this morning.  Throughout most of Beijing, there is a lot of pollution, most of which comes from dust and sand.  The desert between China and Mongolia kicks up a lot dust to the south and Beijing gets covered.  There used to be a forest blocking the dust, but most of this has been cut down to use the wood.  Before coming here, I always thought that the Chinese people were wearing the face masks to block the spread of the disease.  Now I know they are just protecting themselves from the dust.  Our clothes were covered and I only used the point and shoot camera today as I didn’t want to risk damage to the DSLR.  The dust did allow me to have some fun though, as I was able to slide down the side of some concrete steps.  Check out the video. 

Our next stop was at the Lama Temple (Yonghegong), a Lamasery for Tibetan Buddhism.  This was the first Tibetan Buddhist Temple that we have visited, all prior were Thai Buddhist.  This temple houses an 18m tall sandalwood Buddha image.  I think this might have been the second largest Buddha image that we have seen (behind the 46m reclinging Buddha image at Wat Po in Bangkok).  Being raised with no particular religion (but taught Catholicism and Judaism), I have a particular interest in Buddhism and the lifestyle.  This was spawned by our trip last year to Thailand.  I must say that every time I leave a Buddhist temple, I feel much calmer and my head feels clearer.

Other comments…

Most of the public toilets (stalls, not urinals) are nothing more than a hole in the floor.  This is something we have never seen in the US, but saw when we were in Malaysia and Thailand last year.  Also, there in no toilet paper in these stalls.  If you need some, you have to either buy it first, or grab some from a "community" roll outside.  There is also a toilet rating system here.  I am not sure how the ranking system works or if there is a list that you can select the "Best Bathroom in Beijing".

Driving here is much different.  People just seem to pull out into traffic and expect people to stop for you and let you in.  Most of the time it appears that they do.  They love to use their horns here though.

There are a lot of people that ride bikes.  I don’t understand why we just don’t get this concept in the US.  It is so much better for our health and the environment.  It is certainly more difficult in the suburbs to bike to work, but most cities have no excuse.

Censorship…not sure if this is coincidence, but I have been watching CNN and they continually repeat the same stories.  Every time the story about the protests in Tibet come on, it appears to cut out during one specific section.  This is right when a reporter is interviewing the Dalai Lama.  I wish I knew what it was about, but I suppose that it is a response to the accusation that the Dalai Lama is somehow behind all of this.  Also, on several connections, I can’t seem to access the wikipedia site.

-Allen

After arriving, (at 1PM Sunday March 16th – exactly 12 hours difference from the east coast in the US) it took us less than an hour to get through immigration/customs, exchange money, and to get our luggage.  We were met by Ricky Le, our tour guide for the week.  He is our age and is very knowledgeable.  We were dropped at the Renaissance Beijing Hotel and upgraded to a suite that is bigger than the first floor of our house!  It’s good to be Platinum Elite!  We grabbed some afternoon snacks and drinks from the executive lounge and then decided to take a quick nap around 5pm.  14 hours later we woke up and grabbed breakfast!    Can you say jet lag?  This time it wasn’t even melatonin induced.    During breakfast in the lounge, I met some Microsoft people from Redmond and found out that the MS office here is RIGHT next door to our hotel.  I grabbed Internet access from the office to post this blog. 

We met Ricky to start our adventure around Beijing.  It began with a walk through Tiananmen Square and into the Forbidden City, which was the imperial palace for part of the Ming and Qing (pronounced Ching) Dynasties.  The details of the buildings was incredible.  The Forbidden City is now the home to the Palace Museum which houses many of the artifacts from the 2 dynasties.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant for some Chinese Food, I guess they just call it food here. 

We are meeting Ricky later tonight to go to an acrobatic show for some more Chinese culture.  Stay tuned!

-Allen

Yesterday morning, I invited Susan’s family over for brunch.  I baked Susan’s favorite, yellow cake with chocolate icing.  All of us called Lisa (Susan’s sister) to sing Happy Birthday as March 8th is her birthday.

Last night the McKinley’s were gracious enough to host a birthday bash for 4 people.  Dave, Mike, Susan, and James all have their birthday within a week and a half of each other.  Since everybody turned 30, we decided to do a combined party.  I forgot my camera, but check out Jon and Kelly’s blog.

It was great to celebrate with friends and family.

Happy Birthday everybody!

-Allen

Happy Birthday!!

-Allen

There are many locations that will allow you to drop off old batteries of any size.  Many business have started programs that allow employees to bring old batteries.  Just the other day I was in IKEA and they have a bin for you to drop off your old batteries.  Your local Department of Public Works probably has a location to drop these off as well.  Your cell phone carrier might even have a drop location.

Next time the juice runs out, make sure you don’t throw it out!

-Allen

Even though it is the world’s most plentiful resource, it still takes a lot of other resources for it to reach your home in a useable state (gas, electricity, etc.).

Make the goal of your next shower to not only be clean, but to be GREEN! 

-Allen

-Allen

-Allen

-Allen

Other items may include cell phone chargers that have those HUGE transformers on them.  Even though your cell phone isn’t plugged into it, the transformer is still actually drawing power.  If you don’t believe me, try sticking your tongue on one of the contacts.    Just kidding!  But it really is drawing power.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, there are several other items, such as home theater components.  When these components are in standby mode they still consume the same amount of power as a 75 or 100 watt light bulb running continuously.  Consider using a power strip for the devices and cut power to the strip when the items are not in use.

Next time you are walking around your house, think about the items that you could unplug to save energy.  If you think of other items to unplug, please leave comments with your suggestions.  In the end you will be doing the right thing for the environment and the right thing for your wallet. 

-Allen

For dinner, I ordered braised short ribs which were cooked for 7 hours in duck fat and drizzled with a maple sauce.  This was served over garlic mashed potatoes, roasted beets, and deep fried thinly sliced carrot strips.  This meal was nothing short of spectacular.

If you are in the Wilmington, Delaware region this place is a must try!

-Allen

Yesterday Susan and I went had the best Thai and Chinese food that I think we have ever tasted!  We went to Shirley’s parents house to see Smart (friend and co-worker) and Shirley and to meet Narawut for the first time!  Smart’s Mom and Aunt cooked the Thai food and Shirley’s Mom made the Chinese dishes.  I have to say it was absolutely amazing and the best meal that I have had in a VERY long time!  Narawut’s a very cute baby!

-Allen

Even though it was "easier" to use paper towels in this instance, this creates more solid waste that must be disposed of and uses more trees to create the paper towels.  A rag can be anything from an old t-shirt that you didn’t throw out, to old curtains.  Just chop them up and you have an absorbing machine!  These are washable and reusable.  The idea here is to reduce overall waste.  So the next time you have a mess that you need to clean up, consider using a rag or cloth towel instead of running for that paper towel roll.

-Allen

Check out the video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22820508#22820508

-Allen

Check out the complete story as I read it:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-01-21-whole-foods-bags_N.htm

This article highlights a pretty astonishing fact.  Plastic bags can take 1,000 years to break down!  Please either bring your own bags or switch to paper.

-Allen

There is a great FREE service that is available online that will let you unsubscribe from most of the major mail order catalogs. Catalog Choice (http://www.catalogchoice.org) allows you to "simplify your life and save natural resources."  They have some very interesting stats about the resources that are used to produce the 19 billion catalogs that are sent out in the US each year.  What they leave out is the amount of fuel that is used to actually transport the catalogs around the country,  how much fuel is used to transport the waste to landfills (or to be recycled), and how much space it will take up in the landfills.

From http://www.catalogchoice.org/environmental-facts
What’s the impact?

• Number of trees used – 53 million trees
• Pounds of paper used – 3.6 million tons of paper
• Energy used to produce this volume of paper – 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year
• Contribution to global warming – 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars
• Waste water discharges from this volume of paper – 53 billion gallons of water, enough to fill 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Please take the time to sign up with Catalog Choice and start to reduce the number of catalogs you get today!  For those not listed on their site you can usually call the company directly to be removed from their list.

-Allen

When traveling, try doing the same thing.  Instead of taking one of the laundry bags at the hotel to carry your dirty laundry home, bring a few bags with you when you initially pack your suitcase.

-Allen

Since this is the first posting in this category, I just wanted to state why I am doing this.  For years now, I have been concerned for the environment.  Perhaps this comes from my hippie roots or that my father is in the precious metals recycling business.  I have often preached to friends, family, and even strangers to recycle and attempt to change some of their habits.  About a month ago, one of my friends said that I have all of these ideas and I should write them down.  Thus it became a resolution for this year.  1 post per week.  Please provide your feedback by leaving comments.  And now for this week’s tip…

Bottled water has become a huge business around the world.  It also produces a tremendous amount of waste.  Even though this is recyclable, many places have extremely inefficient programs.  When I was working at our support site, I remember a lot of folks drinking 6-10 bottles of water per day!  Instead of using bottled water, consider reusable plastic bottle.  These come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors.  Just like people.    So I am sure you can find one to suit your needs.  Susan and I prefer Nalgene brand bottles which will range anywhere from $5-12 depending on the size you want.  You can find these at almost any outdoor or sporting good store.  These bottles can take a beating as well.  I have dropped them several times on pavement, while rock climbing, hiking, etc. and they are still working.  One of friends even claims that he ran over his with his car (accidentally of course ).  Combine the water bottle with a water filter product such as PUR, Brita, or even your work water cooler and you will be on your way to reducing waste.  At the same time you will be saving yourself money. 

-Allen

We would like to wish you a very happy and healthy New Year.

RESOLUTIONS

• Susan
  - Use less and recycle more
  - Spend less and save more
  - Remember how short life is
• Allen
  - Volunteer at least 20 hours to a NGO (have to start small )
  - Write a weekly blog post about what individuals can do to reduce their impact on the environment
  - Visit a new continent (only 3 left).  If I don’t make this one, I will settle for at least getting to another one besides North America.

- Susan and Allen

The year started off a little slow with a fun trip to NYC to see the amazing Les Paul play guitar at 91 years old!  This was followed by a trip to Redmond for a few weeks to participate in testing out some new products.

February brought an opportunity to go to St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) for work.  Susan and I took a few days off and made it a mini-vacation.  What a great time of year to head down there as it is cold in the north east.  This was followed by a NASTY cold that kept both Susan and I bedridden.  The end of the month and into March was a stressful time at work as we struggle to patch computers for the Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes in the US.  There were many a sleepless not and countless man hours dedicated to the effort.  After the DST fun, I had an offsite in Las Vegas.  It was nice to relax for a few days.

April buried me in a tremendous amount of work as I was finishing up graduate school.  By the end of the month I had completed the program through Boston University and achieved a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Information Security.  By the time May rolled around I was ready to blow off some steam and I went to 4 moe. shows in 5 days in NYC.

June brought a unique opportunity to deliver a workshop in Asia for other Microsoft employees.  I tacked on two weeks of vacation and Susan came with me for 3 amazing weeks in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. (check out the blog posts from June and July for more details)

In July we went down to North Carolina for a week at the beach with Susan’s siblings and her dad and Julia.  This was followed by a trip to Seattle for Tech Ready 5 and time in Colorado seeing friends and a moe. show.  I also got to see my first rodeo and first time in Wyoming.  The remainder of July and August brought countless hours of relaxation at Susan’s mom and Tommy’s pool.

The end of September and early October Susan had a conference in Huntington Beach, California.  I tagged along and was able to meet up with my cousins that I haven’t seen in 18 years!  We celebrated our 1 year anniversary out there as well.

Later in October Susan had another trip in Denver.  The Colorado Rockies were playing in the World Series and it was a crazy time.  We spent time with friends and visited Rocky Mountain National Park again.

November was a life changing month.    It started off with my father and I going to our first Devils game at the new arena in Newark.  Also, I turned 30 and we went to Paris and Amsterdam to celebrate. (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!)  I saw my 30th moe. show on my 30th birthday.  As if Amsterdam wasn’t enough, Susan had planned a surprise birthday party for me when we got home.

Rounding out the year, December was busy with the holidays.  We had our annual Toys for Tots party which was our most successful ever!  I spent time in Burlington, Vermont for work under 2 feet of snow and enjoyed every minute of it.  The end of the month was spent with friends and family and brought everything back into perspective.

2007 was a great year and I look forward to 2008 being even better!  Let’s take a look at the numbers (in no order):

• 1 – the Anniversary we celebrated this year
• 6 – countries we visited
• 4 – National Parks visited
• 30 – the birthday that I celebrated this year
• 13 – moe. shows I saw this year
• over 7000 – pictures taken this year that we are still sorting out
• 42 – hours to return from Asia (Chiang Rai to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur to Dubai to New York)
• 9 – babies born to friends and family
• 6 – Blue Whales spotted on our trip in California
• 88 – nights spent in Marriott hotels this year
• $520 – worth of toys collected from our annual Toys for Tots party which was then matched by Microsoft!

-Allen

Last night Michael and I went to NYC to see moe. at The Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza.  The show was amazing as always and the boys brought on Dicky Betts (formerly of the Allman Brothers) for most of the second set.

Check out the complete setlist.  During the announcement portion, Al mentioned that it was Michael’s 25th show.  Check out the video below.

Another show down in moe. history!

-Allen

• Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox
• Malacca, Malaysia
• Singapore
• Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
• Cranbury Hot Air Balloon Fesitval
• moe.down 8 Day 1
• moe.down 8 Day 2
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Christmas Eve

I have several thousand more photos to get through for 2007 to be complete.  Hopefully by the end of 2008 I will be completely caught up 2006-2008 photos.    Enjoy!

-Allen

time with friends and family.  Christmas Eve began with the traditional gathering at Susan’s mom’s house with family.  As always things are elegantly decorated and the food is nothing short of spectacular.  After the food it was time to open presents.  Each of the grand kids gets a "tower of presents".  Seeing their faces light up when they opened their presents was really fun to see.  The innocence reminds me that sometimes all the stress just isn’t worth it. 

From there, we went to my parents house for desert and to see my side of the family.  After a long day we went home to catch a few minutes of sleep. 

All pictures can be found at:
http://www.susanandallen.com/photos/2007/2007-12-24-ChristmasEve/

Christmas morning, Susan and I have my parents, her mom and Tommy over for breakfast.  We have been doing this for the past few years and has become a nice tradition.  This is when we do our gift exchanges.

In the evening we went to Grandpa Wust’s for dinner and Grandpa Seifert’s.

A busy few days, but it was great to spend time with famliy.

-Allen

One of the things that you could do was make a video from a list of songs. Dan, Eva (Susan’s co-worker), Susan, and I chose I Love Rock n’ Roll by Joan Jett.  Basically what happens is you are covered in a green blanket and placed in front of a green chroma key screen.  Then your head is placed on top of a dancing body and you bob your head.  Check out the video below.

Overall it was a great day.  Mazal Tov Russell!

-Allen

A few folks from work met up and we hit Ted’s Montana Grill on 51st for some good Bison burgers.  Mmmm!  Afterwards we went to the Playwright Tavern on 49th Street where Tim showed us his drinking skills.

Although it was a short visit as I had to head to Long Island, it is always good to see Tim.

-Allen

"What ever you do, take care of your shoes…." 

-Allen

-Allen

GROSS!!!

-Allen

Thanks to everybody who was able to make it for your donations and thanks to those that were unable to make it and still sent donations!  It only takes a little to make a big difference.

-Allen

There were fantastic examples of people who had so little but gave so much.  For instance, somebody who barely made a living by washing and ironing clothes for people saved $150,000 after 75 years.  That money was given to start a scholarship fund.

There was an example of a homeless organization in my own backyard.  Paramus, the town right next to mine, has an organization that helps the Bergen County homeless.  In such an affluent area, people often don’t think that others are going hungry.

There are even examples of non-profit organizations that help individuals and corporations be better eco-citizens by "going green".  With my hippie roots, that is right up my alley.

It has opened my eyes to the many organizations, corporations, and individuals out there that are doing good to make the world a better place.  The next tough decision is figuring out which one I will help out. 

I find myself in an extremely fortunate situation where Microsoft will match what I contribute to any 501(c)3 organization, up to $12,000 per year.  It is nice to double the impact of the donations.  They even match time if you choose to volunteer with an organization.  I encourage all of you to look into what your companies offer for matching.

This quote has stuck in my mind.  "…how much money we could give also applies to gifts of time, skills, things, reconciliation, and new beginnings.  If we all just gave according to our ability, the positive impact would be staggering."

If you can’t find inspiration from this book, I have to question if you are human. 

Give.

-Allen

River Dell won the game 12-7 over the Pascack Valley Indians.  This is the teams first title since 1987, and they completed an undefeated season finishing at 12-0.  They only trailed for a minute and twenty-eight seconds ALL season!  Also they only let up 28 points with 8 or 9 shutouts! (can’t remember the exact number)  Insane!  Congrats to all the players, coaches, and families on a great season!

-Allen

UPDATED:  Press coverage – The Record

Back to recovering from our week in Amsterdam. 

-Allen

We headed down to the Concierge to pick up a 24-hour transit pass for 6.50 Euro per person.  This has to be one of the best deals around.  This allows you to ride the tram and bus for 24 hours.  If you ever venture to Amsterdam, I highly recommend picking one up.  You can buy them on the tram, but they are NOT advertised, you have to ask for them.  Some hotels (like ours) will have a few of them at the front desk for sale.

We went looking for a good pancake place but most of them were too crowded.  There were a few places that were catering the American crowd by serving turkey, stuffing, etc.  We skipped over those places and went to Burger King instead for a quick meal.  Good ol’ American food!

From there we went to the Anne Frank House.  I remembered reading The Diary of Anne Frank when I was younger about her family and another family going into hiding from the Nazi’s during World War II.  Visiting the house was a chilling reminder of how hate can impact so many.  During the tour you are able to walk throughout the entire building where the jam factory was and the hiding locations behind the bookshelf.  It was quite a surreal and eerie feeling walking through the secret passage way to the hiding place.  All of the furniture that was in the building was confiscated and destroyed by the Nazi’s, so all of the rooms are quite bare.  There is one room with some reproductions of pictures of actors that were hung on the wall by Anne.  This is definitely a must see if you are in Amsterdam.  Even though we were in Amsterdam for Thanksgiving, this was a reminder that we are very fortunate and have plenty of reasons to be thankful.

After leaving the Anne Frank house Susan and I cruised the various side streets stopping in a few galleries.  We passed by a restaurant called foodism, which had a funny sign in the window that read "Sorry, We’re OPEN"  (picture to the right)   We eventually stumbled upon the Red Light District.  This place is certainly like no other!   I had heard stories from other people that have been to Amsterdam about this area, but it was completely different to walk around there.  Usually when I walk around New York City to and from the MS office, I see hired help and have been approached once or twice.  It is not uncommon to see a street walker.  In Amsterdam it is nothing like this.  You walk down the various streets and alleys and it is like window shopping.  There are women behind each window (with a red light either on the top or side of the window) with their own room (bed, nightstand, shower or bathtub, toilet, and sink).  Susan and I were offered to come in and join some of them, but we declined. 

We were supposed to meet up with Michael again for another adventure filled night in Amsterdam.  Unfortunately we were unable to sync up and missed each other by about a few minutes.  Guess we will just have to wait until we get back to the states!

-Allen

Before the show, Susan and I walked to the Van Gogh museum.  There were certainly some incredible pieces of work and some bizarre ones.  After going through the museum Susan and I decided that we prefer photography as an art form over paintings.  I think the recommendation of visiting a coffee shop first might have helped us enjoy this a little more. 

Today Freek (pronounced Frick), a friend of the family, drove us around Holland to see a few sites.  Our first stop was Madurodam, which contains scale models of several important sites throughout Holland.  The detail of the models is amazing.  From the flying buttresses of the churches to the ladies in the windows in the Red Light District, not a single detail was overlooked.  This is actually the only place you would be able to take a picture in the Red Light District  and get away with it.    The airport has planes that move, the canals have channel locks that open and close to let boats pass through, and even a fire fighting boat that extinguishes a burning barge.  This is definitely a must see if you are in the Amsterdam area.

After Madurodam, we went to Museum De Cruquius which is an old steam driven pumping station.  It was here that we learned that the windmills used in the Netherlands were to pump water into various channels to prevent flooding.  The museum was closed for the winter, but Freek had a friend at the museum that arranged a private tour for us.  From the pumping station we made a stop at one of the channel locks to watch boats pass through.  The Panama Canal is on my list of things to see so this was quite interesting.

Thanks Freek for a great day!

I received an e-mail from a friend from work, Michael Piar, that he was going to be in Amsterdam visiting his sister.  We will be meeting up with him later tonight to check out the nightlife in Amsterdam!

-Allen

Getting to Amsterdam was a bit of a challenge.  We checked out of the Hilton in Paris this morning at around 7:30am and attempted to get a taxi to Gare du Nord train station.  Since the transit workers are on strike, taxis are very limited.  There was a very long line and we waited almost 45 minutes.  Being rush hour, there was a good amount of traffic, but we managed to get to the train station in time to catch our train.

We pulled into Centraal Station in Amsterdam around 2pm and took the tram which dropped us about 2 blocks from the Marriott.  We dropped off our luggage and headed over to The Melkweg to pick up our tickets for the show.  They told us that will call didn’t open until 8pm, so we just walked around the shops in the area.

Since we are staying at a full service Marriott, we had access to the concierge lounge and went up for hors d’oeuvres.  International Marriott’s tend to offer a little bit more at their concierge lounge than US based ones (at least that has been my experience).  This one had beer and several liquor choices which were free.  In the Marriott locations that I have stayed in the US, this was completely honor bar where they would charge it to your room.  The concierge lounge was full of US travelers, some of which were here for the Cannabis Cup this week.  We met a few people that were going to the moe. show as well.

We headed over to the Melkweg a little after 8pm and picked up the tickets without any issues (thankfully ).  Since the show didn’t start until around 10pm we went to an Irish pub around the block called Hole in the Wall for a few drinks.

Upon entering the Melkweg we met 2 guys from Massachusetts who went by the names of Stosh and Penguin.  Something tells me that these were not their real names.    Stosh bought me a shot of Jameson for my birthday.  Thanks man!!

The show was one of the best moe. shows that I have seen.  It was incredible!  This was the first time in 23 shows that I didn’t go to a moe. show with Michael.  Susan and I had an absolute blast which ended with a great rendition of The Ramone’s I Wanna Be Sedated.  Check out the set list.  After the show, Al Schnier announced my 30th birthday and 30th moe show!!  Check out the video below.

Thanks Susan and moe. for making my 30th birthday absolutely amazing!!

-Allen

We went to an Italian restaurant for lunch which closed about five minutes after we walked in.  We were rushed to order and with the language barrier it made things all the more interesting.  We ended up with a pizza with some ham and parmesan cheese slapped on top.  It was actually pretty good.  If you are ever in the area check out La Passacaille and let us know what you think.

We got on the next train to Champs de Mars and went back to our hotel.  Unfortunately, we did not make it back in time to get to Le Louvre.  Things to see next time in France include le Louvre, Reims Cathedral, the beaches at Normandy, and Champagne.

Off to Amsterdam in the morning!

-Susan

UPDATE (8/16/2008)
Photos posted at: http://www.susanandallen.com/photos/2007/2007-11-18-CathedralOfChartres/

The Transit workers are on strike in Paris so the trains were running on a slower schedule but they were not collecting any fares.  So our ride to and from Versailles was free.

Versailles Palace is an amazing structure where French Monarchs lived.  Much of it’s beauty was destroyed and stolen during the French Revolution in the late 1700s.  I think my favorite room in the palace was the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending World War I.  The architecture was amazing, but being "traveled", over all it pales in comparison to the Grand Palace in Bangkok.  The manicured gardens reminded me of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, except in more of a city like setting.  Much of Versailles was undergoing renovation, outdoor fountains were drained, and a lot of the outdoor statues were covered to protect them from the harsh winter.  I guess we came at the wrong time of year.  I don’t mean to sound like I am taking anything away from this beautiful palace.  It is certainly a must see when you visit Paris

After about 4 hours of walking around the palace, we walked around the city and then headed back to Paris.  For dinner we walked along La Siene (river) and headed to Maison de l’Aubrac, a steakhouse just off the Champs-Eleysees.  If you go here you must try the Aigot Sausage, which comes with unbelievable mashed potatoes (has cheese and garlic blended in).

It was a cold night for a walk, but for some reason walking along the river and looking at the Eiffel Tower seemed to warm it up a little.    Every hour on the hour the Eiffel Tower illuminates with flashing lights.  Check out the video that we took below.  The walk under the tower was slightly more peaceful as it was closed.  That meant that the "street merchants" and gypsies were no longer around.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Chartres Cathedral and part of the Louvre.  So much to see and so little time. 

-Allen

So we left Newark Airport about an hour late on Thursday night as there were the usual delays.  The flight started off with some of the worst turbulence that I have ever experience.  It felt like the plane was thrown sideways and dropped about 50 feet while we were over New York City.  Once we got out over the ocean things were a lot better.  After sleeping only about 1.5 hours on our red-eye, we finally arrived in Paris.  Susan was a little bit luckier and managed to sleep all but an hour of the 7 hour flight.

Going through customs was a definitely different than any other place that I have been.  There was a single card to fill out which did not mention if you were there for business or vacation, when you were going to be staying, and how long you were staying for.  It seems like the only information that they were interested in was the flight you came in on and what your address is at home.

We hopped in a cab and in about 30 minutes arrived at our hotel.  When we checked in we were told that our room was upgraded as a 30th birthday present. Our room has a balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower!  Not bad!

Since we were both exhausted and it was 1pm, we decided to go out and walk around Paris.   This is my second trip to Paris as I was here in high school, but this was Susan’s first trip to Europe.

From our hotel we walked to the Eiffel Tower for a few pictures.  The line was too long to go the top so we decided to walk over to the Arc de Triomphe and then down the Champs-Elysees through the Jardin des Tuileries.  Of course since we are here in November everything was dead.    At the end of the Gardens we came upon the Louvre.  It was too late to go in so we just walked around and headed over to Notre Dame.

Susan said Notre Dame looks just as beautiful as the pictures both inside and out.  The stained glass windows were amazing and the architecture stunning.  The one thing I didn’t see was the hunchback in the tower.    I hope that we will be able to make it to Chartres on this trip as well.  From Notre Dame we walked back to our hotel as it was around 5pm.

We were both so tired that we ended up falling asleep around 6pm and waking up at 10:45 for dinner.

As for photos, I left my Compact Flash card readers and mini-USB cable at home.  In an effort to lighten the load of my backpack, I took everything out and I guess I forgot to repack some essentials.    Hopefully somebody in Amsterdam will have a card reader that I can borrow.

-Allen

-Susan

Vanessa, Nicole, Kristin, Heather, and me

Congratulations Scott and thanks for the many years of hard work and dedication!

-Allen

When I arrived at Terminal A to check in my bag, it DID not receive an Elite or MVP (as Alaska calls it) tag on my luggage.  This caused my bags to get off a little late in Seattle.  Not a huge deal, but it is nice to receive priority for traveling so much.

Going through the security line, there is NO MVP line at Newark Airport.  For the gates to get to the Alaska flight they only honor Star Alliance members with status.  I even showed my Gold Elite Status card from Continental and they still would not let me on the line.  This caused more delays.

When I got on the plane, I was amazed to find out that there were NO TVs or in-flight entertainment included.  You can rent a "Dig-E-Player" for $10 which comes loaded with several movies, TV shows, and music.  I can understand that this is a alternative to spending millions of dollars on a new plane, but how old is this 737 that is has NONE of these features?  IIRC when I flew Alaska from Seattle to Denver there were TV screens.

Also, I was astonished to find out that on a 6 hour flight there was NO food included.  You have the option to buy several different meal packages for $5.  Choices were Tuna Picnic Pack, Deli Picnic Pack, and a Cheeseburger with Chips.  I opted for the Tuna Pack and I must say it was not overpriced.  It came with a small can of Bumble Bee Tuna, a cup of apple sauce, a bag of granola mix, a bag of crunchy pita chips, a bag of 6 organic crackers, an Almond Roca Bar, and a packet of Emergen-C.  I was surprised with the value, but I would think it would be wise for Alaska Airlines to factor in $5 or $10 more per flight so that they can limit the cash transactions taking place on the plane as well as increasing customer satisfaction.  In the end it costs the same, but the perception to the passenger is that they are getting something for free besides a soda and a tiny snack mix bag.

The only saving grace for this flight was the friendly flight attendants and the fact that nobody was sitting in the seat next to me so I had room to work on my laptop (but no power at the seats ).

I have to say that I was slightly disappointed and not looking forward to my flight back home.  For my flights to Seattle, I think I will be sticking with Continental.

-Allen

I said, “No one called to inform me of the difficulties contacting the doctor, maybe I could have helped from my end”

Gary then stated “Ya know Susan, we have a lot of mouths to feed and can’t take care of everyone.”

Well I said, “I will be switching to another pharmacy that has a little more personal care.”

Whatever happened to the neighborhood pharmacy that knew and cared about their patients. It wasn’t a big deal because the prescription was for my allergies and not urgent, but what about the sick and elderly who rely on medications to keep them well. Are they told by Gary at CVS pharmacy in River Edge, New Jersey “there are too many mouths to feed”?

-Susan

- Allen

-Susan

Thursday morning we headed into the park for a few hikes and catch some scenes. This was the first time that I have seen a Joshua Tree. They just seem to grow in any direction they want. We drove around looking for Big Horn Sheep as I never seen one either (Susan has seen these in other parks), but we were not successful. It was a very unique park and I would highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in the area.

Check out all of the pictures from Joshua Tree National Park

After our long day we at dinner at the Crossroads Cafe. This small cafe served up a big meal. It is a rustic place, but he atmosphere was great, the people were nice, and the food was fantastic. A great way to end a long day in the park.

Very early Friday morning Susan and I headed back into the park to see if we could spot any Big Horn Sheep. Again we were unsuccessful. Afterwards we headed back to Huntington Beach to stay with Michael and Lisa. Susan and I played Wii with Cody and Susan became instantly hooked. We Bernie, Lee, and Victoria came by for dinner and we caught up on some more of the lost time.

Overall this has been a fantastic trip and was great to catch up with my cousins. Hopefully it will not be another 18 years before I see them again. Thanks all for the hospitality.

-Allen

Monday night we met up with Anthony, Renee, Chris and Brianna at Dave and Busters. We had a great dinner, played race car games, ate some candy, played basketball and pool. Thanks for keeping the kids out late on a school night we had a great time.

Tuesday we met Mike on dog beach, took diego for a walk on the beach (he is quite the acrobat jumping off the rocks ), and got some lunch in town. While Susan was at her conference bringing home the bacon Mike and I ran some errands and searched for a Wii. Tuesday night we met everyone at the Old Spagetti Factory for dinner….By everyone we mean Bernie, Mike, Anthony and families. It was so great seeing everyone.

Click the picture to see the larger image

Wednesday we met Bernie for Lunch and then after the conference was over we headed to the Desert.

-Allen

At 10AM we boarded the boat to head out for the day. Everyone said the blue whales were gone, but we saw 6 (3 sets of 2).

The blue whale is the largest mammal on earth. The largest one we saw was 75 feet long. It was hard to capture a photo displaying their true size since their entire body never made it out of the water, but you could see them traveling just under the surface. We also so 4 large pods of the common dolphin and 1 pod of the risso dophin. The dolphins were fun to watch because the like to play in the wake of the boat.

-Susan

-Susan

-Allen

-Allen

Ben did an amazing solo where he stepped away from the mic, the entire crowd became silent and he used the power of his voice to fill RCMH! It was truely incredible! The show ended with a fantasic rendition of Masters of War (Bob Dylan) and Like a King / I’ll Rise.

For more information on the show check out http://www.benharper.net/?section=tour-dates&page=tour-archive&id=2480#setlist

-Allen

-Allen

Ken, Ania, and I headed into Denver to “My Brother’s Bar”. We met up with Jaime, Trevor, and Mark from Syracuse. It was good to catch up. Ken and Ania took me to the airport where I found out that I was upgraded to 1st class!!

Overall it was a great trip! Thanks Ken and Ania for being such great hosts AGAIN!

-Allen

There were some events that I would certainly call questionable and look like animal cruelty, but the organization insists that they work with animal rights groups to ensure the safety of the animals. It certainly was quite the experience.

-Allen

The first time that I was at this venue was in September 2005 when Ken, Ania, Susan, and I saw Robert Randolph and the Family Band along with Santana. Red Rocks is truly an amazing venue that is well worth the trip, even to see a band that you remotely like. Sandwiched between huge rocks, the outdoor music mecca is surreal. Last night, the weather was amazing and the light from the full moon added to the ambiance.

Overall the show was OK, but I was not a huge fan of the set list. I guess that can happen after you have been to 26 shows by the same band. The show started off with one of the best “Plane Crash” versions that I have heard. But once they hit Macintyre Range it seemed like they lost the rest of the crowd. Those that still remained in the audience appeared to be sucked back in when moe. busted out “Wind it up” to end the set. Perhaps one of the reasons the crowd appeared lost is the location of the show??? Although moe., appears to have gained popularity around the nation, they are still primarily known on the East Coast. I often heard people saying, “what tune is this?” I even had a guy ask me what song “Havah Negilah” was. You certainly would not find this in NY or NJ. Check out the set list

Anyway, I will still continue to see moe. for many years to come.

-Allen

This morning Susan and I went to the Elephant sanctuary near our hotel. This place takes in sick and injured elephants. For example, one of the elephants was hit by a car and they brought it in for rehab. We learned various commands and got to ride on the elephant by ourselves. Susan was a bit skeptical and nervous throughout the process. Especially when she tried to slide down the trunk, and the elephant decided that she wasn’t ready to let Susan get off.

The elephants are very beautiful and graceful animals. This was one of the coolest experiences in my life.

Afterwards we swam in the endless pool here at the Anantara for some relaxation before our 40 hour and 4 flights home. We are certainly NOT looking forward to that! (Except to see friends and family of course )

-Allen

We then stopped at a local village where some of the women traditionally have rings placed around their necks beginning around age 5 and adding additional rings every few years. Due to the weight of the rings the shoulders of the women are pushed down making their necks look longer. There are a few reasons why the tradition of placing the rings began. One legend is the rings acted as protection against tiger bites.

Lastly we stopped at the Golden Triangle. This is the point where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Laos, and Thailand meet separated only by a small river. This is called the Golden Triangle because this is where a large portion of opium trading was done. The people used to pay with gold instead of money. In Thailand it is illegal to grow poppy plants, but in surrounding areas they are still grown. Maybe next time we will have more time explore these countries.

One thing we forgot to talk about for Chiang Mai was their driving. I am not sure, but I think there is not an “on the road driving exam” to get a license like we have in the US. Essentially, one can take a test and buy a license. The only time I was ever afraid for my life was when I was crossing the street. We would have the walk sign and people wouldn’t stop at the RED light to let us cross. It was scary.

-Susan

After this we stopped at the Jolie Femme silk factory. We got a quick tour and explaination as to how silk is spun by the silk worm. It was also amazing to see the workers weave fabric. An average worker making a basic weave (no pattern) can produce about 10 meters per day. I got measured for my first custom made shirt from 100% silk. Pretty nice!

We headed back to the hotel and then for a walk around the city. We ended the evening with one last trip to the night market, but were unable to find a local ping pong show

-Allen

We then went to a temple that is currently being built and is being funded by a well know Thai actor. We then visited rock paintings dating back 4000 years. At this location there was an interesting anti-abortion statement (fetus in a jar).

To end the day we traveled back to Bangkok with some of the people from our tour and learned about their different cultures. Most importantly we also learned about what ping-pong show is. If you are not familiar with this just search for more information.

We flew to Chiang Mai and went to our hotel the Puripunn. This hotel is actually located amongst Thai houses so it feels like we are part of the community. We went to the famous Night Market and tested our bargaining skills.

-Susan

We started out with a trek through the jungle where we saw the Great Hornbill, Gibbons, and claw marks on trees from bears. We stopped at a lookout tower with a beautiful view of the landscape, but no sign of wild elephants (just giant elephant dung). We continued through the park and ran into a tribe of Macaques. They were fun to observe as many carried their young. They didn’t seem to mind that we were there. We also saw a scorpion and water monitor keeping themselves warm on the pavement. There were two waterfalls that we visited, but one of them had a limited view as they were filming a movie in that location. This sight was also used in the movie “The Beach”.

We went out on a night safari with a park ranger in search of wild elephants. Unfortunately, all we saw were many deer. Overall it was a great day in the park.

-Susan

At 3:30 we made our way to a cave with temples where monks retreat to meditate. We headed down into the cave and the pressure and humidity got to be so intense that we had to abort. It was extremely difficult to breathe and you could feel the pressure change in your ears. After our ascent we walked down another corridor and saw hundreds of bats flying around and several large spiders. I thought I would be more scared than I was, but I quickly conquered my fears.

After the cave, we traveled to an open field in front of a mountain where there was another cave. At dusk, more than 1 million bats fly out and leave their day time home in search of food at the National Park. Before we walked out into the field we noticed a millipede which we picked up and it wrapped itself around my wrist and made a Thai bracelet for me.

Back at the lodge, I became a local hero as I was able to fix Internet access on one of the computers which was not functioning for several months. It took me less than 3 minutes of troubleshooting. I received a standing ovation from the locals that live at the lodge. The Internet access at this lodge was free, compared to the Hilton which charged about $16 USD per day and the room was about $200 USD more per day at the Hilton. Guess Paris needs some extra money for the attorney/doctor fees.

-Allen

We then headed back into Bangkok, to Jim Thompson’s House. He was an American man who fell in love with Thai silk while he was in Thailand during World War II. He returned to Thailand after the war and is responsible for the revival of the Thai silk industry. During a trip to Malaysia he disappeared into the jungles without a trace.

After this we headed to the Grand Palace, which included Wat Phra Kaew (sometimes spelled Wat Phra Kaeo) The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The figure is actually made of Jade and has 3 different outfits. These are only to be changed by the King. Currently the Emerald Buddha is wearing his Summer outfit and in the beginning of July he will change to his Rainy Season outfit. These outfits are made of gold and precious gemstones.

After walking around the Grand Palace we went to Wat Pho where there is a 46 meter long Buddha image (about 150 feet). So which came first, the temple or the Buddha image?

This marked the end of our tour with Pat from Destinations Plus. We would highly recommend having Pat as your guide if you travel to Bangkok.

For dinner we decided to go to the Gallery Cafe. This time we walked instead of getting in a Tuk-Tuk.

-Susan

After going back to the hotel and getting cleaned up, we headed out for dinner. We were met by a Tuk-Tuk driver who was going to take us to the Gallery Cafe, a restaurant recommended by Pat. What was supposed to be a 5 minute drive ended up being a detour to some other restaurant that we did not request. Apparently this happens often to unsuspecting tourists. A lot of these drivers get gas vouchers or other forms of commission from these businesses for dropping off tourists.

Today we noticed a lot of Thai’s wearing yellow shirts with an emblem. Everyday has a color assigned and yellow is for Monday. Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand was born on a Monday, so the shirt is worn in his honor. Thai’s love and respect their king, as he has treated them well during his 60 year reign.

-Susan

Tonight we went to the Singapore Zoo to see the famous night safari. Before we boarded the Tram, we watched a fire show just inside the entrance. While I was taking pictures one of the people in the show asked me to come up with them. I didn’t know what to do so I just handed the camera to Susan and up I went. I had two tasks, put a flaming stick into one guys mouth and then to put one out in mine! The first task was pretty easy and I was not looking forward to attempting the second one. They ended up putting it very close to my face and taking it away. I was dripping with sweat right after from the heat and nervousness.

We boarded the tram and rode around the zoo. We were not sure what to expect on this “Night Safari”. Essentially it is a tram that rides around the zoo with a tour guide. After the 45 minute tram ride you can walk around the zoo. It was cool to see all of the animals at night. This has excited us to consider booking a trip to Africa soon!

Pictures coming soon. I am taking too many to keep up with the post-processing.

-Allen

Upon arrival in Singapore we checked into the Marriott which was newly renovated. This hotel was unbelievable. The rooftop pool and basketball court were some of the amenities that we enjoyed as well as access to the Executive Lounge which had plenty of free food and drinks 18 hours a day. Good thing Allen is Platinum Elite!

-Susan

The driver took us to the Batu Caves on the way back. This is a Hindu Shrine in a group of caves just north of Kuala Lumpur. The site is also loaded with macaque monkeys, which got seemed to scare quite a few people on the way up to the caves. Susan and I observed some prayer ceremonies after the walk up.

For dinner we headed back into KL, and went to Feast Village which is in the JW Marriott. This place has a wide variety of restaurants from around the world. We stopped over at the Fisherman’s Cove and I must say it was well worth it. The roast duck was by far the best meal I have had in quite some time! The next time I come to this area, I will be staying at the JW!

Check out the pictures from today’s adventures.

-Allen

-Allen

After Allen was done with work we met up with the people his working with for dinner at a Thai restaurant. I ordered a mild dish and boy was it spicy. Rumor has it that it will be 2-3x more spicy in Thailand. I will have to start training my taste buds now.

-Susan

Check out the pictures

-Susan

On Sunday to fight the jetlag, Susan and I went into Kuala Lumpur and took the KL Hop-On Hop-Off Tour Bus around town. We did the same thing in Sydney on our honeymoon. Highlights of the day were the Petronas Twin Towers, KL Butterfly Park, Sri Mahamariamam Temple, a brief stop at the National Palace, National Monument, and the National Mosque.

Pictures will be up soon. I took way too many at the butterfly park and now I have a lot of editing to do.

-Allen

A few thoughts on Dubai: Entering the city, it felt like Las Vegas with the lights. It is extremely clean and new. There is virtually no crime. There is a lot of money. There were a lot of US chain restaurants (Chili’s, Applebees, TGI Fridays, Tony Romas, etc.). They like to do things BIG! For example, a 300 story building is currently under construction and the height recently past the Empire State Building. The people were very friendly. The heat and humidity at 11:00PM was VERY HIGH! My camera lens and Susan’s glasses fogged up within seconds of exiting the car. It was interesting that anything goes from mini-skirts to middle-eastern dress. Dubai City is essentially being built from the desert floor up and is currently a work in progress. We would love to visit in the cooler months, during the day, and perhaps in a few years to see what the development looks like.

Check out some additional pictures

Thanks Zahid for meeting up with us, driving us around and telling us about the city, and the meal!

-Allen

Check out the pictures!

-Susan

Check out the pictures!

-Susan

Besides the 7+ hour drive down, everything about the weekend was perfect. The ceremony took place at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, a beautiful church in Georgetown. From there we went to the Fairmont Hotel for the reception where we enjoyed an amazing cocktail hour. Sangria, Mojitos, and Margaritas topped the list of drinks. And for the food, I have two words to say “Crab cakes”! These were unbelievable. I practically tackled the waitstaff everytime they came near me with them. From the cocktail hour we went into the reception which was in a great room with a raised dance floor, where an amazing band entertained us all night. This was “a place where the beer flows like wine”.

The following morning there was a huge breakfast served at the Marriott which filled us up and made the hangover a little better. We got to see Mr. and Mrs. Knighton one more time before we departed for NJ. Dan and Laura didn’t miss a detail with the wedding. It truely was perfect.

Check out the pictures from the wedding.

On the way back up to NJ, Susan and I stopped at the United States National Arboretum. This was a beautiful place, but we only stayed for about an hour as the heat index had the temperature in the mid-90s. Check out the pictures.

-Allen

-Allen

I brought my camera with me as moe. has recently changed their photography policy back to allow for still shots. I will hopefully be posting the pictures that I took during this run within the next week or two. I have about 500 shots to pour through.

Sunday night marked my 25th moe. show. Hopefully I have many more to come.

-Allen

Master of Science in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Information Security

Since I travel frequently for work, I did this program completely online, with the exception of the final exams. These were taken online, but I had to go to a certified testing center to make it official. I am thankful that this was an option and that Microsoft has great benefits with the Tuition Assistance Program. Thanks to all for your support and for putting up with me for the past 2 years as I have worked hard to achieve this.

-Allen

-Allen

-Susan

-Allen

Here are five things you might not have known about me

1. I have had 4 concussions. 3 of these were from playing ice hockey in high school. The other one, I ran into a tree…full speed. OK, so I am not as dumb as I sound. I was running away from somebody. The summer before I was going into 6th grade, I was at camp where they held a carnival. There was a game called “kill the counselor” where a camp counselor (who were only in high school) would stand behind a plastic sheet with a hole cut out for their face and we got to throw sponges at them. Well I was a wise ass kid and decided to grab a few sponges and throw them at the counselor from behind the sheet. The guy I threw them at started chasing me. When I turned around to see if he was still after me, this tree jumped right out in front of me! I was in the hospital for 4 days!

2. I went to computer camp. Yes you read that correctly, I went to computer camp. You got a problem with that? When I was going into 3rd grade, I went up to Babson College in Massachusetts. I learned BASIC during my time there, which I barely remember anything about.

30 END
“Woohoo look at my name all over the screen!!”

3. I owned my own business when I was 12. My parents incorporated me in the state of NJ, with A.L.M. Enterprises, Inc. It started out selling sports cards and memorabilia. I did a few shows but sold stuff online for the most part. I then used this business when I went to college to do web development and hosting. I closed the business in 2003 and got out of the hosting reseller business.

4. I was a SPAMMER. Back in the mid-1990s, I was online and I started receiving these e-mail messages with ads. I thought to myself, how could I use this to make some money? So I put a bunch of ads online in newsgroups that I would tell people that I would send out their ad to millions of people. I had a list of about 10 million e-mail addresses that I would send out ads to every week. Eventually the ISP that I was working with decided that they no longer wanted to support me in this effort and it stopped there. I have to say, I feel kind of bad about this now since I work with e-mail systems, but there were no regulations against spamming at the time that I was doing this.

5. I got suspended from junior high when I was in 8th grade. We were on a class trip in Washington, DC. The first night we were down there at the hotel, the boys were on the 2nd floor (4 to a room) and the girls were on the 3rd. The teachers that were chaperoning the trip, put tape on our doors so they would know when we went out. They also hired security guards to patrol each floor. Our room was right over the overhang for the front entrance to the hotel. You could actually open the window and go outside. It was like a large patio.

Around midnight, there was a knock on our window. A couple of girls had tied bedsheets together and had climbed down to our floor. 1 kid I was staying with and I thought it would be a cool idea to go up to their floor and hang out for a while. So we climbed up the sheets to their room. Well apparently we were all a bit too loud when we got up there. A security guard came to the door and brought us back downstairs. Well when we got back downstairs our other 2 roommates had chained the door and gone to bed. We had to knock on the door. This woke up a teacher that was staying across the hall. When he asked what we were doing out at 2am the security guard told him we were getting ice. We had no ice bucket with us though. We finally got inside and thought everything was cool. A few minutes later the teacher that we woke up came knocking on the door and yelled at us, “What the HELL possed you to get ice at 2 in the morning???”. We had no response and went off to bed.

That morning when we were all getting ready to go sightseeing they pulled nine of us off the buses. We were interrogated about the events and eventually sent home via Amtrak with the Assistant Principal. When we got back to the school the Principal yelled at us saying, “You SH!T on this school!” Our parents were there to pick us up. Our class became known as “The Class of Challenge” and the nine of us were suspended for 2 days. We also had to sit go to counseling twice a month for the rest of the school year which was quite amusing. We got to skip a class during this time and get pizza as we talked about general issues.

OK, that took longer than I thought. Who do I tag next? How about John, Tim, Jaclynn, and Kip.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/24/crap-im-it/feed/ 2 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/17/mommas-got-a-slingbox-daddy-never-sleeps-at-night/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/17/mommas-got-a-slingbox-daddy-never-sleeps-at-night/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:21:39 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/17/mommas-got-a-slingbox-daddy-never-sleeps-at-night/ Had to throw The Who line in there. So I have had a SlingBox for about a year and I have to say it is probably one of the coolest things that I have bought…ever. I have the original one which does not do HDTV, but has a built in tuner, RCA inputs, and an S-Video input. I have this hooked up directly to a cable line as I didn’t think it was worth it to get another cable box. Since I travel frequently, the SlingBox allows me to stream TV channels that I would get back home directly to my laptop in my hotel room. Depending on the location / bandwidth, the picture looks better, but still not the same as being in front of the TV. I even have the player on my Windows Mobile Phone. So I get to watch Devils and Mets games from the road. I just need to get somebody to put one up in Syracuse for me and I’ll be all set.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/17/mommas-got-a-slingbox-daddy-never-sleeps-at-night/feed/ 4 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/15/elevator-door-close-buttons/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/15/elevator-door-close-buttons/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:26:56 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/15/elevator-door-close-buttons/ Why is it that the door close button doesn’t do anything in most elevators? Probably the only place that I have found this to work was our the MS office in NYC. These buttons are almost as useful as the crosswalk button.

Of course if “Express Mode” is enabled you could try out this fun hack from theDamnBlog

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/15/elevator-door-close-buttons/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/thoughts-and-advice-for-commuting-to-new-york-city/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/thoughts-and-advice-for-commuting-to-new-york-city/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2007 03:36:29 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/thoughts-and-advice-for-commuting-to-new-york-city/ I often have to commute to Manhattan to work with customers or to our New York office. I often take the bus in and have come up with a few items and suggestions for folks to make their commute a little bit easier. Some of these things are obvious, but I find that many people still need reminders.

ON THE BUS

• Have exact change or very close to it - If you don’t travel on the bus often and don’t have a pass or ticket, don’t pay for your $4.55 fare with a $20 bill. Nothing makes the bus driver angrier than this.
• Sit on the inside seat - I got on the bus and there were no empty rows left, so I had to sit next to somebody else. I find it annoying and rude that people give me attitude if I ask them to get up so that I can sit on the inside seat as they are sitting in the aisle seat. It’s not like I am asking you to give up your first born. I am always polite and say “Excuse me, would you mind if I sat in that seat?”, and I always follow it up with a “Thank you!”.
• Turn your iPOD or music device down - I shouldn’t be able to hear the lyrics from the song you are playing from 5 rows away! See my previous rant.
• Put your cell phone on VIBRATE - People like to sleep and relax on the bus. Nothing adds more stress than the constant ringing of phones. See my previous rant.
• Talk quietly (on your phone) – If you know somebody on the bus or you are going to use your cell phone, talk quietly. There are other people on the bus that might be trying to sleep and aren’t interested in your conversation.

ON THE SUBWAY

• Move to the center of the car - If the subway is crowded, try to move in so that others can board. Nobody likes to feel like a sardine, but unfortunately it happens.

GENERAL – Walking around, etc.

• Stand RIGHT, Walk LEFT – When you are on an escalator or moving sidewalk, it is common practice to stand to the right and let the people that are walking pass you on the left. Similar to the passing lane on highways.
• Don’t stop short – When you are walking, especially out on the sidewalk, do not stop short. People in NYC are typically always in a rush. This is very apparent during Rush Hour (typically Monday – Friday 7:30AM – 9:00AM and 4:30PM – 6:30PM) when they have to get to work or want to go home (myself included ). Do not stop short while you are walking and just stand there.
• Do NOT stand on the corner – I see this all the time during rush hour. People not familiar with the area are constantly stopping on the corner trying to figure out where they are going. They end up getting pushed and shoved by the commuters.
• Jaywalking is a common practice – If you do not feel comfortable crossing the street while that Red/Orange hand is up move out of the way. There are plenty of people who would like to move around you.

The above points are not meant to be rude, but to give some advice to make your commute easier and more enjoyable for everybody. The bottom line is be polite and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/thoughts-and-advice-for-commuting-to-new-york-city/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/dedelayedthats-never-happened/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/dedelayedthats-never-happened/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2007 02:41:45 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/dedelayedthats-never-happened/ On my way back from a business trip in Charlotte, this was listed on the flight information board. Does this mean that the flight was no longer delayed???

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/04/13/dedelayedthats-never-happened/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/16/2-years-ago-today/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/16/2-years-ago-today/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:13:40 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/16/2-years-ago-today/ I asked Susan to marry me at Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park. All the details are in the Wedding Section of our site. You can also watch the video of the proposal.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/16/2-years-ago-today/feed/ 3 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/14/apple-not-invincible/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/14/apple-not-invincible/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:38:48 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/14/apple-not-invincible/ I find those Apple ads that bash Microsoft all the time somewhat amusing. All computers are vulernable to virus, worms, remote exploits, etc., but from Apples ads they make it seem like they are invincible and don’t have these issues. Really the only safe one is that the one that is completely unplugged, but that is subject to physical theft.

When I saw this article that said Apple has released 45 fixes today it made me laugh. Article on NEWS.com and Apple’s info on the fixes.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/14/apple-not-invincible/feed/ 2 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/13/jersey-does-smell-good-maple-syrup-smell-in-nynj/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/13/jersey-does-smell-good-maple-syrup-smell-in-nynj/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:25:36 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=44 So New Jersey always gets a bad rap about smelling bad. I have to admit that if you just came in to Newark Airport and drove south on I-95/New Jersey Turnpike, that you would certainly feel this way as you got a big whiff of sulfer from the refineries.

Last night I went out to dinner with Susan and my parents. When we left the house there was a very strong smell in the air which smelled like maple syrup. This is not the first time this has happened in this area. Last time there were no leads as to what caused this. In the news: NY1 Story for yesterday’s smell and Gothamist Story from 2005

All I know is it smelled good and I wanted pancakes!!! Hopefuly it wasn’t something toxic.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/13/jersey-does-smell-good-maple-syrup-smell-in-nynj/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/10/chris-simon-should-be-suspended-for-a-season/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/10/chris-simon-should-be-suspended-for-a-season/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:36:19 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=42 If you follow hockey or sports at all you have probably heard about this by now. In the Rangers vs. Islanders game on March 8th, Ryan Hollweg of the Rangers hit Chris Simon from behind. Depending on who analyzed the hit some say it was clean some say not. I think a penalty could have been called on the initial hit, but what Simon did to retaliate is inexcusable. I personally feel that he should be suspended for the rest of the season including playoffs as well as all of next season. Whacking somebody with your stick should not be tollerated especially across the face. If you haven’t seen the clip check it out below and you can decide.

The NHL is set to rule on this today. Hopefully they won’t base the suspension on the fact that Hollweg wasn’t seriously injured. Simon used his stick as a weapon and from the video clip, it appears that there was a clear intent to injure.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/10/chris-simon-should-be-suspended-for-a-season/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/07/happy-birthday-susan/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/07/happy-birthday-susan/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:15:58 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=40 Today is Susan’s birthday! My she has grown! I just wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday and many more!

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/03/07/happy-birthday-susan/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/18/les-paul91-and-still-rockin/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/18/les-paul91-and-still-rockin/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 07:56:26 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=39 On Monday, Michael, Susan, and I went to the Iridium Jazz Club in NYC to see Les Paul and His Trio.  I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got there.  The Iridium is a tiny jazz club in the basement of a building between 50th and 51st on Broadway.  When Les took the stage he brought a certain energy that lit up the room.  The man is 91 years old and he rocked the place.  Although the show was just under 1.5 hours, it was one of the best shows that I have seen in a while and a great experience.  More photos are posted in the photos section at http://www.susanandallen.com/photos/2007/2007-01-15-LesPaulTrio/

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/18/les-paul91-and-still-rockin/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/10/secrets/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/10/secrets/#comments Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:29:47 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=37 During an IM conversation with a good friend and colleague of mine Butch Waller, he revealed something that was pretty deep and I felt worthy of sharing.

“Two people can keep a secret as long as one of them is dead.”

Deep!

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/10/secrets/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/03/3-years/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/03/3-years/#comments Wed, 03 Jan 2007 05:58:50 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=36 It was 3 years ago today that Susan and I got together and I knew that she was the right person for me.  A little over a year later we were engaged and about a year and a half after that we got married!  Pretty amazing!

- Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/03/3-years/feed/ 2 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year/#comments Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:53:26 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=35 Happy New Year to all!  May your 2007 be better than 2006!

- Susan and Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/12/08/the-nj-mvcnot-your-average-dmv/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/12/08/the-nj-mvcnot-your-average-dmv/#comments Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:20:14 +0000 Allen http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/?p=34 Back in 2003 the NJ DMV underwent a major overhaul and have been focusing on providing better service.  They also changed their name from the Division of Motor Vehicles to the Motor Vehicle Commission.  They were serious about change!! 

When I moved back to NJ in 2003 I had to switch my license and registration over from North Carolina.  (I actually didn’t switch everything over until 2004)  I also had to get my car inspected.  When I went to the MVC in Lodi, I planned on spending at least 4 hours getting these tasks done.  Well in less than 1.5 hours I got it ALL done…new license, new registration, and even got my Explorer inspected!  I was quite impressed, but thought it was a fluke!

The inspection of your car lasts for 2 years in NJ, so this year I had to bring it back.  It took me under 30 minutes at the Paramus inspection station.  When I arrived there I had to take a ticket at the gate and there was a sign that said, “Wait Time: 30 Minutes”.  I would assume they are using this to track how long it takes each person to get processed.  I can tell that they are certainly not sacrificing quality with their speedy service as they FAILED me for not having a NON-SLIP surface on my Emergency/Parking Brake pedal.  So I had to go buy one and get re-inspected.  In the past you could go through a partial inspection, but that is no longer the case.  I had to go through the whole process all over again!

I finally took care of this on Tuesday and the process was so quick i barely had time to flip through the magazine that I brought with me.  The complete inspection including wait time was 17 minutes!!  Crazy!

I am glad that things changed with the MVC that has enabled it to no longer be a place that I dread!

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/12/08/the-nj-mvcnot-your-average-dmv/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/11/19/birthday-and-jets-game/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/11/19/birthday-and-jets-game/#comments Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:23:04 +0000 Allen http://www.almock.com/blog/?p=33 I wanted to thank everybody who wished me a happy birthday.    29 years old today…getting closer to 30.  Man that is scary!

Doug (Susan’s Brother) took me to the Jets game against the Chicago Bears.  It was a pretty good day for football in NJ.  Although the Jets lost (http://sports-att.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=261119020), they put forth a pretty good defensive effort against the team that had the second best record coming into today’s game.

-Allen

]]> http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/11/19/birthday-and-jets-game/feed/ 0 http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/11/17/blog-posts-late-postings/ http://blog.susanandallen.com/blog/2006/11/17/blog-posts-late-postings/#comments Fri, 17 Nov 2006 06:22:01 +0000 Allen http://www.almock.com/blog/?p=31 So we had several blog posts that we had saved as drafts while we were in Australia and New Zealand.  Well the ISP hosting the blog portion of our site had an outage and have yet to restore all of my dat