General Conference

So it's general conference weekend, and I was thinking about how my listening and/or viewing of it has changed over the years while being in New York:

• Single, living in the city from 1994 to 1998: We would have to go to the stake center (which is now a temple) to view all the sessions. Sometimes, on Saturday, we'd go to Dallas BBQ between sessions 1 and 2.

• Newly married and living in Tuckahoe: We actually got a session or two on cable, but as I recall, they had a habit of cutting off after one hour.

• Married and living in Tuckahoe: the cable option stopped after LDS member David Checketts stopped being the CEO of the cable company. We'd take turns attending sessions at the Scarsdale chapel with the other parent staying home with the kids

• More married and living in Tuckahoe: Internet broadcast seemed to work well, but just audio for us. We "only" had one computer and it wasn't on wireless, so we had to squish into the upstairs "office" room and listen to it up there.

• More married and living in Tuckahoe: Kathryn's greatest upgrade suggestion: still broadcast the audio on the computer on the 3rd floor BUT broadcast it downstairs via the baby monitor

• Even more married and living in Tuckahoe: Wireless router and a laptop at work (that came home on the weekends) allowed for us to have conference "live" (no baby monitor) in any place in our house. Video wasn't reliable enough for us yet

• Eastchester house: video better and we can watch it as a family on my laptop or our bigger desktop computer. The system "skips" a bit and a 2 hour session ends up taking 2 hours and 10 minutes. I bring home a speaker from work to amp the sound.

ª Oct 2009: Eastchester, four kids, one on the way: we can now plug the laptop into the flat screen and watch it on TV (just like Utah!) We will plug the laptop into the internet router with ethernet cable to hopefully enjoy a 2 hour session in 2 hours.

GOOOOO Conference!!!

Mark

Good thing I market "Boys Toys"

Well, we'll continue to need Star Wars toys and be playing with Transformers for many years to come .....

Our 5th baby, due Jan. 31, will be a boy. Fun times!

Mark

Summer Travel Recap

Hi:

I'm welcoming a co-author tonight as Josh helps me recall the best and worst moments from our summer trip out west. These are in no particular order:

GOOD
• Cherry Hill water park
• Josh and Kathryn going to Yankees game at Angels Stadium (and taking Amtrak there from San Diego)
• Dad's birthday breakfast at the diner in Coronado with just Josh and Caroline
• Kids' reaction to finding out that we're having a 5th baby in January
• Our "first night in San Diego" hotel including nice pool
• Collecting sand dollars on the beach
• Seeing Dad when he arrived in Utah after being away from the family for a couple of weeks
• Dad taking Sam and Matthew to Legoland....LOVED the water park portion
• Seaport Village on our arrival day in San Diego
• Day 2 of the Rytting Family Reunion in Utah
• Being with the Sackewitz kids for most of our time in Coronado
• Lagoon, for those who went -- Fun Day with Parker for Josh, who didn't go
• Going with Grandpa to Shivers -- just Josh and Caroline
• Mommy and Daddy getting their i Phones -- and the little ones getting to play with them
• Mommy's high school reunion and trip to San Fran (including seeing Uncle Don and family)
• Marching in Children's Pioneer Parade
• Annual Sackewitz BBQ and fireworks
• Hiking Desolation trail with older kids -- though it was longer and harder than anticipated

BAD
• Waiting in the hot sun for autographs that didn't happen at Angels game
• Matthew getting lost at the "first night" hotel for a very short spell...just long enough to panic his parents
• Mom falling off the wagon....literally...at This is the Place State Park
• Enterprise claiming we had damaged the rental car and then having to deal with the paperwork

Returning to Blogging

Hi all:

If I haven't alienated my one follower -- and the one fan in California who, during a 'author mix and mingle' at an LDS chapel said she loves the blog -- then I'm going to get this blog active again.

As rain is forecast for this weekend, washing out the trip to our boss' pool, I'll have time to actually post something witty and insightful....or at the very least, my travel highlights.

Cheers.

Mark

I've lost my medallion status :(

Well, I now have to be part of the huddled unwashed masses when flying Delta. I've been defrocked. Delta took away my medallion status . Turns out they expect you to fly often to keep that status.

Last week, I had my first Delta flight since last August. I checked in and found out I had to pay $15 for baggage. I asked when they started charging for medallion passenger. They said "We don't.....you aren't." ARGH.

I now don't board in group 2....I boarded in group 8. Bye bye potential upgrades. No more access to the super secret toll free line that goes to U.S.-based operators. I'm just like everyone else.

Then again, the price for Medallion is flying often, and after this last flight, I realize that's a high prize. I think if they want to torture terrorists, they should have them fly coach in a window seat on Delta. Tack on a red eye on the return, and it's one of the inner circles of Dante's hell. And I didn't even have kids with me!

But the trip was a success. I was in Pasadena for the Transformers Convention, and we got a great big story in the New York Times. So who's complaining?

Mark

I've lost my medallion status :(

Shipping a Car

Well, we begin our ODYSSEY of buying a car in Utah and shipping it to New York to save the cost of a rental car in Utah this summer.

As the only real cost incurred by buying the car in Utah that is unique to the equation is shipping the car, that's really the deal breaker to pursue. So I did some online checking today.

Quite simply, it seems that I can get a rate between about $800 and $1,000. That seems pretty standard. But reading all the bids scares you a little bit because they all seem to warn you how the other guy will rip you off, not ship your car for weeks, etc.

But nothing that has scared me off. I'm confident we can find a good shipper that won't eat up our savings. We may have to pick-up the car in New Jersey vs. have it delivered to our door, but that's do-able.

So I'm going to proceed with the assumption that the fixed cost of buying a car in Utah is $1,000. Next, I'm going to officially reserve a van for our entire trip in Utah to know exactly how much that would cost. I know it's more than $2,000, so it appears we'll at least be $1,000 ahead in doing this.

Keep your hands at 10 and 2, and stay tuned.

Mark