Did you miss me?

I missed all of you. Really, I did.

As for where I was and what I was up to, we went to Atlantis (on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas) for Thanksgiving. It was a trip that was paid for by Jane's folks, who also went, along with Jane's sister and her family. We had a Bizarro itinerary, thanks to what we could get for free tickets (cashing in most of my miles). We had to leave from Hartford last Thursday afternoon, and fly to Atlanta. However, we couldn't get a connecting flight until Saturday. That worked out, though, because we got to spend a little less than two days visiting our friends, Rich and Lynn, down in Alpharetta. Jane hadn't been to their new house yet - I was last there the week of 9/11/01 when I went down for an abortive Interop. She was going to go down that weekend, but cancelled for obvious reasons.

Anyhow, that was a nice couple of days spent catching up with old friends. We really didn't do too much there. David was scared of their dog (a big sheepdog named Emma - she kept trying to herd David), but started to warm up by the time we left Saturday morning. We arrived at Atlantis around 2:30.

The last time I set foot in the Bahamas was ten years ago, when we stopped there on a cruise. I wasn't impressed then. This time, I was. Boy, oh boy, I was. Immense and spectacular are only two of the adjectives I can use to describe it there. I did have a few gripes (of course), which I'll follow up on later, but mainly I was dazzled.

Atlantis consists of three "towers", along with a group of bungalows and a connected timeshare complex. The super-luxury tower is also the tallest and the newest. It's called Royal Towers, and the two towers are connected by a massive suite about 15 floors up that costs $25k per night to use. We did not use it. Then there are two other hotel buildings, Coral Towers and Beach Tower. They are not new - both are (highly renovated) older hotels that were linked into the complex. Royal Towers are connected to Coral via a concourse of shops and a big (by Carribean standards) casino. Coral is, in turn, connected to Beach via another concourse with a movie theatre, restaurants, and a big convention hall. Beach Tower is closest to said beach, and it's where we stayed.

In between these three hotel areas, which are spread out in a semicircle, is a mammoth piece of engineering consisting of literally dozens of pools, beach land, a huge lagoon, and all sorts of aquarium exhibits along with more restaurants, bars, and water activities. The place is cashless, so all you need to get by there is your room card. Very convenient. Many of the restaurants are buffet, and most are a shade better than decent - way better than one generally expects buffets to be and not bad in general. We didn't really get to sample the standalone restaurants with the exception of a deli (that was OK) we went to Wednesday night.

And now, for the adventures.

First off, we had a room in Beach Tower (as I mentioned). While the oldest and cheapest building, the rooms in Beach Tower were perfectly serviceable, about what you'd find in a mid-range American hotel. We had two full-size beds, a crib for David, and a small balcony that looked out on Nassau. The beds were reasonably firm, and the insulation was good enough so we didn't constantly have to hear our neighbors (or vice-versa). I had a total of four complaints about the accomodations, though, so here they are:

Number one, the elevators were in a state of disrepair, with one or another being broken down and out of service frequently. Number two, we called to request a minifridge for our room - it never got delivered, and as a result of how they'd left us a message about it, we couldn't clear the message light off our phone the whole trip. We had to cover it up at night so it wouldn't annoy us. Third, was that on two separate occasions someone set off fire alarms. One of those was at about 10:30 the first night, and the other was about 4AM last night. That was really annoying, though not their fault - and they gave us a small credit for the inconvenience which was nice.

The fourth complaint, though, was huge. Atlantis is billed as a luxury resort. So why, oh why, do they not only fail to use a fitted sheet when making the bed, but they use a sheet that's too small, resulting in a short-sheeted bed? I made them find a sheet that at least fit better, then I didn't let them change it all week. But all hotels that charge more than $20/night should use real fitted sheets, dammit.

As for the rest of the trip, we had a blast for the most part. David was kind of difficult, and all the Turiel nerves were kinda frayed by all sleeping in a room together. But Jane's sister had it tougher - they have three kids (8, 6, and 2) and were in the same arrangements as us on a different floor. But they've got a lot more experience travelling with their kids than we do with David. Most nights he wound up in bed with us after around 5 or so until dawn. He was difficult at most of the restaurants - thankfully the din was so loud around us that we weren't embarassed too badly (Atlantis has lots of kids there) and we usually ate pretty early.

Unfortunately, David has recently picked up a new habit - he likes to stick his index finger into his mouth. He's been doing it for a while, but on this trip he did it so far that one night he puked in his crib. To the staff credit, even though all we did when it happened was strip the sheet, the next day a whole new crib had been brought in. The service was typically quite good, surprisingly so for what I'm used to in the Carribbean.

There was also one other truly tough moment with David. On Tuesday afternoon, we did our one "off-island" activity. It was a "Dolphin Encounter" on a nearby island that was pretty cool. The whole family went, with Jane's sister's whole family going in and Jane taking David to meet the dolphins. David enjoyed the initial meeting, when the dolphin hopped up in the middle of where they all went into the water, whistled, and clapped.

But then he (the dolphin) did a comedy bit where he motored around everyone splashing furiously with his tail and soaking everyone. David went ballistic and was screaming his head off. I dropped the video camera and scooped him up when one of the other people brought him back up. I spent most of the afternoon trying to settle him down. It was a neat idea, though, and Jane had fun.

I did my activity the following day, when I took a scuba lesson. I'd never tried it before (heck, until a few years ago when I got my eyes zapped, I couldn't see well enough to justify it), but I loved it. Unfortunately, that was my last great moment of fun (personally), because I came down with a cold that I brought home with me. Yecch. Other than that, though, I spent all kinds of time in the pools, rode all the waterslides, played with David some in the water, explored, ate, and had a great time. If you ever consider going, though, beware. The prices are amazingly high for everything, and cashless does not mean cheap. No way. Put yourself on a meal plan, and at least you don't have to worry about the sticker shock on food. Booze, though, is real expensive unless you're playing in the casino - then they liquor you up for free. We only stopped there once, blowing a quick $20 in the slots. I wasn't inclined to the gambling I actually enjoy, which is blackjack. The stakes at the lowest-stakes table were $15 per hand. I prefer the $5 tables, and there were none. Another financial surprise you'll find is a mandatory 15% gratuity charge added on top of virtually everything. I was a little disappointed by that. I usually tip more than that, and because of the charge not being a choice I wasn't inclined to tip any more than what they forced me to.

Basically, we enjoyed it a lot, and if David were aobut six months older I think we would have enjoyed it even more. It's tough for a kid his age to really participate in anything. But he tried. We flew home Friday afternoon, with a not-quite-one-hour layover in Atlanta. David was pretty tough to handle on the last leg to Hartford, but he slept the whole drive home and was incredibly excited to see his kittycat tonight. We got home around 10:30PM after a quick supermarket stop.

There are some hokey, goofy things about Atlantis, especially the way they wrap a lot of the exhibts in pseudo-scientific-mystical BS as if Atlantis were real, but it's gorgeous, well-maintained (the elevator in our building nonwithstanding), and the staff is attentive and very friendly. It's great for kids 2 and up, I'd say. Between Jane and myself, we took a ton of pictures which will be culled through and posted in the next couple of days, I hope. I need the camera space!

And I got a call for a job interview while I was gone - that should happen next week (I was in contact from Atlantis after getting the message). We'll see, but it looks like a neat position.

Yawn, redux

David slept rather poorly last night - by extension, so did we.

He conked out at the regular time, but woke up around 1:30. We wound up bringing him into bed, but that resulted in an hour of him sleeping poorly and us sleeping not at all. We put him back down at 2:30, and has to listen to about ten minutes of screaming before we all settled back down.

Watched Jackass: The Movie last night. Absolutely hilarious. Disgusting and sick, too. Watch the DVD version - the outtakes make it worth the trouble.

On gay marriage

Adrian Walker had a great column in Thursday's Boston Globe on the topic of gay marriage. He, like myself, is a supporter of the concept. My opinion is basically this: when society grants special privileges to people with legally binding pair bonds, then any two persons should be able to enter into such a bond.

It should be a basic right, and I'm grateful that we're finally starting to get there.

Anyhow, the best line he has is a quote:

(quoting a political consultant on the right-wingers' protests) "If marriage is so sacred, then why don't they outlaw divorce?"

Why, indeed. Marriage indicates a stable relationship. Stable relationships are a Good Thing. Gay marriage doesn't necessarily lead to anything else, contrary to what many members of the religious right may think. It just leads to more (hopefully) happily married couples.

And once there is an actual statute on the books here, I have one message to any gay couples who may wish to marry: a couple of years ago, I actually went through the (brief) process of becoming ordained by the ULC as a minister. And I'd be happy to marry you gratis, if nobody else wants to.

Let me know.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper...

That's how my golf season appears to have ended. I last played a week and a half ago, and since the weather didn't cooperate last week I think that's it. I'm not going to be able to play next week, and the following week marks the beginning of December. Even I pack it in at that point.

Season highlights? Several sub-50 rounds at Salem Muni (a difficult course for me), finally starting to get some consistency out of my driving after changing grips late last year (unsolicited plug - I am using a variation on the Natural Golf method, and it's really starting to work out), and being on the winning team for both my league and for the (former) company outing. I was on the winning regular season team my first year, too, but I'd never been on the winning team in the outing before. That was cool.

And the $25 mall gift card I got for winning helped knock another notch out of the price of my newest Mac.

I'll take the clubs down cellar later today, I guess. Wah.

Why am I writing this relatively early in the day? Well, I have to go get a flu shot at my doctor's office at 9. I've gotten them the previous four years, after a particularly debilitating case of it in 1998. Previously, I'd gotten them at work, but that's not going to be the case this year, now, is it? Anyhow, I'm getting mine today, Jane is trying to make arrangements herself (her doctor isnt offering them on a day she's available), and David will get his when he has his 18-month checkup in two weeks.

If you haven't already gotten one, do so. Now. Shots suck, and you may get the sniffles from this one, but it beats the heck out of getting the flu. Trust me.

Share the joy

Today brings us two new Apple systems. The first is a new iMac, with a 20" LCD. It costs $2199 in a config that is otherwise identical to the 17" iMac it replaces at the high end. The 17" remains, at the original price. The $400 extra just gets you the big screen.

This was an inevitable upgrade, simply because I'd just recently bought a 17" iMac. Josh's First Law of Computing dictates that the model I own will always be upgraded within a month of buying it. However, had it been available I would not have bought it - Jane has one of the older 17" iMac models, and I knew that was definitel enough screen. In fact, I'm not sure how well this one will do in the market. $2199 is kinda steep for a G4 system nowadays.

The other upgrade was much more practical for most. The mid-range G5 tower (1.8 GHz) now brings a little dually love to the table for the same price ($2499) - and the bottom-end G5 (single 1.6 GHz) has had a small price cut. For $500 more than the dually G5 1.8, you can get the 2 GHz model, but all you get extra for the money is the two slightly faster processors and a notch up on the video card. Changing the video card as a BTO option only adds $50 to the price, so you're paying $450 for a pair of processors that are only one click faster.

They'll sell a lot of the 1.8 systems this season.

In other news, the Massachusetts SJC has just declared that same-sex couples have a legal right to marry under the state constitution. However, they left it to the Legislature to come up with a solution, giving them six months to come up with a solution.

Personally, I have no problem at all with the idea that gay couples can marry. I don't think it threatens marriage as an institution, and it doesn't threaten my marriage either. But I doubt that our legislature has the same attitude that I do. What I expect to see is an initial effort by them to rewrite the constitution to explicitly define marriage as male-female. After that fizzles (it did last year when they tried it), they'll wind up passing some kind of civil-union bill that Romney will reluctantly sign right at the deadline. It'll wind up being something like Vermont.

Ultimately, this nation will come to the conclusion that stable pair-bondings are a Good Thing, regardless of gender. But it's going to take a long time to get there, and the socially conservative wing of the GOP is going to have to start getting hit at the polls before we get there.

More English

Where did the term "Black Friday" come from, anyways, as it relates to the Friday after Thanksgiving? We all are familiar with the term nowadays, but the common usage of it is a relatively recent development.

Jane's worked in retail all her life (in one form or another), so she's the first person I ever heard use it - I don't remember exactly when, but I think it was some time in the mid '90s. And the first time she said it, she looked at me like I had two heads when I told her I'd never heard it before.

Since those days, now I hear people use it routinely, and I've seen it in print many a time. Does anyone have any idea where or when the phrase originated?

We finally heard back from the carpenter this morning, and he's coming over soon. This is good, because it's fairly simple but I have no idea how to install a storm door.

Home improvement (again)

As many of you will remember, we had some hellacious winds kick up through New England for a few days. The worst of it was Friday and Saturday. Well, Friday we went out together to do some things, and when we returned early in the afternoon we had a little accident of sorts.

We made it home without any problems (and the trip itself was uneventful), but after parking the minivan back at home, we went up to the back door with David and his supplies in our arms. We opened the screen door, and it was propped open while I unlocked the door.

At which point the wind kicked up again with a big blast, flinging the door open, and ripping it out of the doorjamb. Bummer.

We wanted to replace it anyways - in fact, we'd made a call to the carpenter we've been using for serious home projects for the last few years about it a few days before. I want to put a more traditional storm door up that'll actually give us some insulating value in wintertime. However, he's been rather poor about returning calls lately and we still haven't heard back from him. Jane also called again Friday. No call.

So I dismantled the old door myself today (I had to poke it apart at the hinges), and I'll try and figure out how to replace it in the next day or two.

On Language (with apologies to the gray lady)

An interesting observation about language development - as David gathers more and more words, he becomes more and more frustrated when he doesn't know the word to express something. That and not getting his way are the leading causes of tantrums right now.

When he does learn a word, he delights in using it as much as is reasonable. For instance, "kittycat" not only applies to Gracie, it applies to any pictures or video of a cat he sees, however large, small, or abstract they might be.

Except for Danny, who he still refers to as "grrr".

Diverging into politics

I had an interesting, if brief, discussion with one of my friends after last night's BNUG meeting. He's very much against the H1-B visa program and feels that it's a significant cause of the workforce contraction that's happened in the IT profession over the past few years.

I disagree.

Why, you may ask? Here's why. Under the H1-B program, workers from foreign countries come here to work. They have to be paid a competitive wage for practical reasons (they need to live here and deal with the US cost of living while they're here), and some of them wind up becoming permanent residents or even citizens eventually. America was built on immigration, and just because some abuses have certainly occurred is no reason to end a program that has been a channel for people to come to the greatest nation on Earth.

There is, however, a problem with the workforce. It's the offshoring movement. Companies are losing sight of the long-term problems that can emerge when you take your intellectual capital and ship it overseas in order to meet better quarterly numbers today.

This has already decimated American manufacturing, and now it's spread to the IT sector as well. Tomorrow it'll be the accountants and clerical workers who get farmed out. What jobs will be left here? There's only so many jobs open at Starbucks, McDonald's, or your local Gap to be had. People have to earn enough money to patronize those businesses, and to boost short-term shareholder value companies are putting their customers out of work. It only goes so far, folks.

American business have three constituencies they need to satisfy: customers, employees, and shareholders. To focus on one of them to the exclusion of the other two is a recipe for long-term disaster - Wall Street may be happy when you show numbers worthy of a "growth company", but how do you sustain that bump in the long term? What do you cut when there's nothing left to cut?

The focus of business should be on maximizing their potential sales, keeping the cost of sales at a reasonable level, building quality products, and having a happy, motivated workforce to help you do it as well as possible. If you make a good product and sell it at a fair price, people buy it. If your employees are happy and well-compensated, they will be motivated to build the best possible products. And if the customers are buying and you're making a profit, then to hell with Wall Street if they're not happy. You and I are the shareholders - and I don't know about you but I just want to be vested in solid, well-run businesses that make things people buy. I wasn't spoiled when mutual funds were returning 50% per year in the dot-com boom, and I wasn't devastated when the crash came. I expect solid, long-term growth and I could give a fig about this quarter. Show me the long view.

So if you want to keep this country what it is, don't cut off the foreign workers to spite yourself. Keep the jobs here, regardless of who does them, and build your companies the old-fashioned way.

I always wanted to be a boxer

It's not because I like hitting people. That doesn't really appeal to me that much. Being hit by people appeals to me even less.

No, it's because the two coolest nicknames in sports can only be given to Jewish boxers. If I was a boxer, I could be either "The Kosher Butcher" or "The Yom Kippur Clipper".

I always thought Dana Rosenblatt was leaving a great nickname on the shelf by simply going as "Dangerous Dana".

Of course, with my skills, I'd probably simply be known as "Week-old Pastrami" or something like that.