December 2011 Australia Journal – Part 1 – The decision

The story begins in April 2011.

Brenda and I decided that, since we weren’t going to be able to take a family trip in the Summer of 2011,  we wanted to create a terrific, experiential Winter break trip for our family. I initially suggested to Brenda that we do a trip to Europe including London, Paris and a third destination. Brenda told me that she thought it was a great idea and that I should start the research.

After I did a couple of weeks of research, Brenda said “wait a sec, isn’t it cold in Europe in December?” So, we decided to put Europe on hold an consider other options. We talked about Hawaii but it seemed pretty expensive and everybody from Seattle goes to Hawaii. We still haven’t made that trip but… one day we will. Then we thought about a cruise. But, the cruise we really want to go on with the kids is an Alaskan cruise. That’s really a summer option not December. As I got to thinking about “the” choice, it occurred to me that Brenda has always been curious / interested in Australia. I suggested it to her and her answer was a resounding YES! 4/28/11, we were locked on Australia and started the reasearch and planning process.

My next steps were to start looking into flights, accommodations, places to visit, activities, things to eat etc. I reached out to countless folks for advice including Michael Miller, Mark Parrish and Dean Calvert.

Watch over the coming days for a big post Part 2 – Planning.

Geocaching 2011

While I am nowhere near the top of the Geocachers list, as there are almost 550 folks who have found > 10,000 caches around the world, I had my best caching year in 2011. My GeoCaching summary is below.

Total lifetime caches: 389
Best Day: 20 caches in one day on 09/18/2011
Best Month: 43 caches in September of 2011
Best Year 85: caches in 2011

These records could not have been set without the awesome Cache-O-Rama trip that Tom Rockhold (T-Rock) and I took in September. We did about 40 caches in 3 days across 6 states including 17 in Colorado. We have to figure out how to do Cache-O-Rama v2 in 2012! A few of the best caches (first, most interesting, best names etc.) from that trip are:

• Girl Scouts Magical Box
• Belle Fourche Travel Bug Bunkhouse
• Devils Tower
• PTRM
• Logans run

Now I have found caches in 9 countries and 41 states in the US (including DC.) Hope to get 2 – 4 more states in 2012.

My new states in Sept – Nov 2011 – New Hampshire,  Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, DC, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana.

I also did four caches in two states in Australia in December.

Check out my profile.

Going to MicroSD my Samsung Focus

I think I’m going to take the risk/plunge and rebuild my WP7 phone and insert a microsd card to see if I can get mire storage without hosing stability.

Watch this space in the coming days to hear about my success or (painful) failure.

Hello world!

I seem to have migrated my steveluper spaces blog (or lack thereof) to WordPress.

It’s 1/1/11. I wonder if I might actually blog this year? Here’s my first post. That’s pretty cool!

I bought an iPhone

I bought an iPhone. Say what?!?!?!?! I LOVE the reaction my status update got on Facebook J

Here’s the deal… Anybody who knows me knows that I bleed Microsoft. I am a die hard user and evangelist of our products and technologies. I use Office, Live Mesh, bing, bing maps, MSN Messenger, HealthVault etc. religiously. I’ve spent every day of my life for almost 7 years as a Microsoft employee evangelizing and selling our products as well as chastising others who use Google, iPhones and X.

Between my wife and I, we have owned over 10 Windows based phones (Pocket PC Phones, Windows Mobile Phones, Windows Phones) since the very day they came out in 2002. I consider myself an expert on what Microsoft has to offer in this arena include what devices are out from which manufacturers and carriers. Many, many friends, co-workers and vendors have been on the receiving end of my wrath when they bought iPhones, showed up with them in my office or meetings or told me “it’s just better”

I’m tremendously excited about the Windows Phone 7 announcement Microsoft made recently. I FULLY EXPECT to dogfood and / or buy one before the end of the year. The hype surrounding it is terrific. I figured NOW WAS THE TIME to get my feet wet with an iPhone for a few weeks to be prepared to make an informed decision and recommendations in the coming months.

Countless folks (some of whom have already commented on my Facebook post) will think that Hell froze over because Steve Luper bought an iPhone. Guess what? Me too! I REALLY hope that I find between now and early April that it just doesn’t meet my needs. I have a couple iPhone toting friends who have already said that if Windows Phone 7 does X or Y as they hope, they are switching back.

Below are some areas where I have heard that iPhone either excels or is deficient. I will be comparing my experience in these areas to my previous experience with my wide selection of Windows based phones, most recently, including a Fuze running various builds of Windows Mobile 6.x.

• Phone usability
• Business email
• Contacts / syncing
• Camera
• Apps
• Calendar syncing / management
• GPS
• Wifi
• Web browser / browsing

I WANT Microsoft to be a player in this game. I am in regular contact with a number of people who work on Product Management and Enineering teams for Windows Phone. I WILL be including them in this discussion. If you can / can’t keep me / win me with a Windows Phone, I don’t have a lot of hope for many business users.

Lastly, you will NOT notice above mentions of music or podcasts. Neither of these are my primary uses for my device. I KNOW that many people have gone to the iPhone as a replacement for their iPod. I’ll play with those capabilities but they aren’t why I’m test driving one.

Anyhow, enough rambling for a Sunday morning. I’ll report back over the course of the next 30 days and we’ll see where this effort takes me.

Hello world.

Oh look. January 2009 and I’m blogging.

 

There’s so much cool technology out there. I don’t know whether to  blog, work, facebook, twitter or what. Such is life.

August… already?

How sad is it that all I ever seem to blog about is not blogging. Ok… wonder if I could keep a blog diary.

 

We’re in Columbus, OH visiting family. I told folks at work that I was going on vacation but most normal people don’t go to Columbus, OH for a vacation so I’ve taken to calling it a visit instead.

 

Here’s the day 1 (travel day) diary.

 

7/31

515am

Woke up, showered, got dressed and burned / lableled 30 more CDs for the family reunion. I brought about 50 total.

Got the bags in the car. We checked 7 bags and carried on 4.

 

6am

Made sure that the kids were up and moving.

 

630am

Brenda, kids all the bags and Larry (Brenda’s dad) got in my car to head to the airport. More about Larry at some point.

Drove to the airport. Larry dropped us off.

 

715am

Checked the bags with no problem. Short security line then off to grab a quick bite.

The Tap Room at the airport has pretty lousy breafast. Gonna get breakfast sandwiches at Dish D’Lish next time I’m at the airport for breakfast.

 

815am

At the gate. Flying Southwest. I had A23 so we all stood together pretty far forward in the line. Kewl.

 

830am

On the plane. Nate had a window, probably row 6. I was in an aisle seat.

Brenda was in the aisle seat across from me, Jessi in the middle and some guy in their window.

There were a TON of kids on our flight including 1) 3 young boys going from Seattle to Columbus unaccompanied. They are spending a couple of days with their grandparents then a year with their "real mom." 2) a family who sat in front of us with 2 year old twins. They had been in Seattle for 5 years and are moving back to Chicago. They missed the midwest.

 

330pm (Central time)

Flight went quite well. Kids were both terrific. Got to the Chicago area on time but the weather was horrible. Rain and thunderstorms. We started an approach into MDW and aborted it due to nasty weather, bumps, wind etc. We flew around Chicago for about 1/2 hour then finally were able / allowed to try the approach again. Scary, windy, bumpy descent. Pilots did an AMAZING job dealing with the wind close to the ground then landed very smoothly. Our itinerary rocked. SEA to MDW, stay on the plane then MDW to CMH. If we had been on time, it would have almost been like a direct flight. 5 1/2 hours SEA to CMH with a brief stop.

 

415pm (Central time)

Got out of MDW and had a quick, easy flight to Columbus. Nate and I sat together with a boy traveling from one parent to another (Chicago to Vandalia, OH.) He said that he travels "a lot."

 

6pm (Eastern time)

Got into Columbus a touch late but not too bad. Were able to get our bags (11 total) and head to the car rental place. I had gotten a pretty good deal from Expedia on a full size car from Enterprise. Went to pick up the car. I asked if they had a van or something bigger then the car. They said that worked out well since they were out of full size cars and would I want a full size SUV for the same price. Woohoo. $21.99 per day for a Durango. I’m in.

 

645pm

All the bags and Lupers in the car. Heading to the King Arts Complex to hear Arnett Howard and band play. Stopped at Wendy’s briefly for a snack on the way.

 

710pm

After some effort, found a place to park in the Mt. Vernon area. Walked to the outdoor concert. Beautiful weather. Fun music. Listened to the band for about an hour. The got to say hey to Arnett and grab a couple of pictures. He gave us a copy of his latest "schools" CD, Kidding Around II. He also gave us his phone number if we have time to get together while we’re in town.

 

815pm

Walked back to the car and drove by my parents for a quick hello. Was very nice to see them. Only stayed for about 20 minutes.  We will get to spend a bunch of time together between now and Monday for sure.

 

840pm

Headed to get some dinner. Ate at Skyline. Woohoo. My life is complete.

Finally, drove over to Mark and Betsy’s. No better place to stay in Columbus than the Schuster Inn. Lots of room. Price is right.

 

[To be continued...]

 

 

 

Pretty sad blogger

You know. I think that this blogging thing is cool but I’m a pretty sad (lousy) blogger.

 

Had a nice weekend. Helped Ben put together his new playground on Saturday.

 

Ran tons of errands and finished buying Bar Mitzvah clothes today. Less than 20 days to the Bar Mitzvah.

 

Quick trip to NYC tomorrow.

Lack of blogging

Whew… it’s Friday. Where did the week go? Kids didn’t have school this week. We were all in town for the WHOLE week. Want to know why I’ve been to Phoenix a couple of times this year already? Very sad story http://momthegreat.spaces.live.com.

 

Been very active on Facebook this week. Connected with buches of friends.

 

Finished watching Music & Lyrics last night on HD-DVD. So much for that idea .

 

Bar Mitzvah is in 91 days. Really got to get  some stuff done on it this weekend!!!

 

Well, time to get the trash out, finish the kitchen and head out to my 8a racquetball game.

 

 

 

 

Movies this past weekend

This past weekend we watched Stranger than Fiction and Rush Hour 3. Stranger than fiction was cute. Different! Rush Hour 3 was funny. One of the funniest movie moments I can recall but overall, not as good as 1 or 2.