Weekend Thoughts for 10/24/09

I am still adjusting to the concept of "weather". On Friday we had a blistering rain storm, with 20-30 mph winds. At least in the morning. Until it got sunny around 11 or so. At which point it stayed sunny for about 1-2 hours, before the rain returned (without the wind). Then around 3 or 4 the wind kicked back up too. Until about 5:30 when we went out and it had gone back to a sprinkle at most. I've lived in areas with storms before, but obviously nothing quite like these.

• It is amazing how much you take it for granted that you have access to services when you live in a city. Something as simple as getting a passport photo. When you're in a small town, it becomes much more clear that there are not necessarily a lot of places to get things done like this.
• Watching TV earlier, there was a commercial for a "breakthrough deodorant replacement". Never need to buy deodorant again, it claimed. And while it may or may not work, I find it a little unusual that the doctor who was speaking on behalf of it was Dr. Dave E. David. Can't make this stuff up.
• We went out exploring this morning, and decided to stop for breakfast in a restaurant in Douglas (about 20 minutes north). Our main reason for this choice at the time was that the parking lot seemed full. Well worth the stop. They had a breakfast buffet on weekends for $10 a person, with some of the best bacon we've ever had.
• From the placement advertising (a surprisingly good idea it seems), we found that there was an indoor flea market in Saugatuck, not far away. It was actually very interesting to go through. They had a large building (I think in this case it was a barn), in which they rented out small areas on a permanent basis to local people with stuff to sell. While it was interesting to see what some people valued things at (a lot of them a little too much), there wasn't a whole lot we thought would be worth buying.
• Also back in Douglas was the Saugatuck Brewing Company. They had some excellent beers and one of the best environments inside their bar that I've ever seen. Very cool place it seemed.
• Next door was an antique mall, and a rather large one at that. It is a bit unnerving to see things from your own childhood for sale in an antique mall. But some of the other cool things we saw included a Rand McNally map book with maps (or the book itself) from 1890, quite a few copies of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, and a surprisingly large amount of stained glass. It was interesting, but it seems that some people had literally called old crap from their house as "antique". But if someone buys the stuff, then it doesn't really matter.
• The Bears play the Bengals tomorrow, and hopefully they're going to not suck like they did last week. I can handle them losing to teams that are better than them. What I can't handle is when they do stupid stuff that costs them during the game (like penalties and red-zone interceptions)

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Weekend Thoughts for 10/18/09
Weekend Thoughts for 10/5/09
Weekend Thoughts for 9/28/09

Weekend Thoughts for 10/18/09

I came to the conclusion that on some assignments, there's simply not going to be enough things to write about on a daily basis. It hasn't been a very busy week, but I did notice quite a few things this week....

• Clementine's, one of the more popular restaurants here in South Haven, has some of the best onion rings around (or so I am told by people that know more about these things). They come stacked on a paper towel holder (with the stick in the middle), and come in either 6" or 1 foot size orders. Apparently they sold 6 miles worth last year. That's quite a lot of onion rings in 1 foot increments
• I went to the South Haven library's book sale on Thursday morning. Now, the library is interesting to begin with. When we drove into town, their marquee sign out front said "Get your banned books here." So I was not really surprised when I got to the library when it opened, and there were about 15 people waiting as well. The book sale had quite a few books I picked up, and I have plenty to read from now until we leave (and potentially more)
• We decided to venture out again in search of Chinese food, entirely due to a recommendation (and offer to go with) one of Brynn's co-workers. She was right! Excellent Chinese food in Mattawan (about 25 minutes east of Watervliet) at Chinn Chinn. Definitely a keeper, and we'll have to try to get back there again before we leave Michigan.
• We are definitely not in California anymore: On our way home on Friday night, we passed through the town of Paw-Paw, which is the county seat. In their downtown area (which seemed very nice as we passed through it) was an apartment for rent: 2 bedroom with electric and gas paid = $495 per month. Definitely not in California.
• The speed limits in the state of Illinois, for the most part, are 55 mph on the freeway. What the sign should probably say is SUGGESTED speed limit, 55 mph. At no point was there anyone I saw doing less than 65 mph, even with cops on the road. At one point, some genius in a van caught up with the cop, and was riding him in the hopes that he would get out of the way. After about a quarter of a mile, he finally gave up. I'm not sure what was going on, but even that seems ridiculous to me.
• I had been to Portillo's/Barnelli's before, but apparently had forgotten how good it was. They (in most locations) are a combination restaurant with two counters, one Italian food, and the other hot dogs. Brynn's favorite is the Peasant Pasta.
• We also stopped in at the outlets in Michigan City, Indiana today. Most notably missing from the photo on their front page would be the cooling tower that sits in the background of the shopping center. It is apparently not a nuclear reactor, so I guess that should make me feel a little better.
  

Wine Tasting in Southwest Michigan

This weekend is the first full weekend we have really had to just explore the area. All of the previous three, we have either been out of town, or had to do things to get situated here in South Haven. Brynn had mentioned that she really wanted to go wine tasting, so we decided that we would go ahead and explore the area.

There had been quite a few signs on the side of the road for different wineries, so I set out to find some information about the local wineries. Since wineries tend to rely on some form of marketing, we figured there would be a fair amount of information online. I was not disappointed.

After looking at the map, we decided to head for Baroda. Baroda is a small town about 30-40 minutes southeast of South Haven. We didn't have any specific wineries in mind to go to, but noticed that the map had about 4 or 5 of them in the area. So we plugged the downtown area of Baroda into the GPS, and figured we would find wineries in the GPS after we got there. We drove across some of the most scenic areas we have seen yet. Rolling hills, farm houses, it was all very pretty. Until we got to downtown Baroda.

Baroda, has been hit REALLY hard by the downturn in the economy. The downtown was only about 2 or 3 blocks long to start with, and in that space, was probably about 3 businesses that appeared to still be open. We quickly plugged in the wineries, and headed for the first one.

• Domaine Berrien: We were extremely surprised to find that the parking lot was almost completely full. The tasting room was no different. Not having seen very many people since we had gotten into town, this was more than a small shock.
• Lemon Creek Winery: As we drove up to this tasting room, the crowds were just as large. Apparently wine tasting is one of the most popular things to do in southwest Michigan.
  
• Our favorite, by far, was Round Barn Winery/Brewery/Distillery. We had tasted back at Free Run Cellars, which is owned by the same group, so we could try them for free. Great choice. Not only do they make a few solid wines, but they also make a very smooth vodka, and some very good beers as well.
  

We knew coming into our day that we would need to check our pre-conceived notions about wine if we were to enjoy this at all. We'd lived and worked in the Sonoma Valley, and drank more than our fair share of wine. That said, the wines we tried were fair, but not great overall. The scenery we saw while driving definitely made the trip that much better. We're looking forward to doing some more exploring soon.

Weekend Thoughts for 10/10/09

We're still adjusting to the weather here, as the weatherman was nice enough to inform us that it was going to be unseasonably cold this weekend. He wasn't kidding. Sunday's high will be 45 degrees. 45! Geez!

• We went wine tasting here on Saturday, and I'll have a post up about that in the next few days.
• As we were driving on Friday night, we listened to the local radio station. They were broadcasting the local high school football game. It is Homecoming here, and since South Haven only has one high school, there are areas of the town that are very decorated. Unfortunately, they lost.
  
• Scanning their website, I found this little bit of interesting. I know I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention at the time, but even still that they can do this seems a bit shocking to me.
  
• I've come to the conclusion that I'll pay to have just this package of TV channels: The local channels, MLB, NFL, ESPN, HGTV, DIY, and the Fine Living Network (FLN). I can pretty much find something to watch on these channels at all times.
  
• That said, I'm wondering how long it will be until we can get more programming online than we can through the TV cables themselves. With Hulu, Fancast, and many of the TV channels' own websites, I can almost always find a program I want to see when I want to see it.
• We picked up pumpkins today! I'm told I am going to carve at least one of them, which is something I cannot remember ever doing. Should be interesting. Photos to follow hopefully (unless it really looks bad, at which point I'll deny it forever).
• The Bears are on a bye this week, and having looked at the rest of the schedule, I am glad there is playoff baseball on tomorrow. I can't find more than one or maybe two games that I remotely want to watch for the actual games, and not their impact on my fantasy football teams.

Local Cuisine of South Haven

We've been here for 3 full weeks, and have had time to get a feel for our dining options here in Michigan.

• Italian, not surprisingly, is HUGE here. There are only about 40 or so places to get food here in South Haven (which includes places like McDonald's and Taco Bell), and around 10 of them are Italian restaurants. We ate at one of the Italian restaurants near our house, and it was excellent. We would definitely go back there again, and they also offer gelato as well!
• Feeling a bit more ambitious, we tried the only Mexican restaurant in town. We've lived in a few different areas where Mexican is one of the dominant cuisines, so we feel pretty good that we can tell good Mexican food from bad. This was really, really good Mexican food.
• After having such a good experience with the Mexican food, I figured it was time to try what passed for Chinese food. MISTAKE. It's a good thing we didn't try this before the Mexican food. It was, quite honestly, the worst Chinese food we have ever had. The only food that was tasty at all, unfortunately, was the fried foods. Ugh.
• We also had pizza this week, and could definitely tell we were near Chicago. On one side of the pizza, sausage and mushrooms. On the other, pepperoni and green olives, my wife's favorite. Throw in that the pizza was cut into squares rather than slices, and it definitely reminded me of my favorite pizzeria in Chicago.

I think what we've learned is that we need to remember where we are. Certain foods are just not very likely to be good in certain areas. We still will have to be ambitious from time to time, but also wary as well.

Wednesday Thoughts

I'm really happy that the weekend is closer than the start of the week is at this point, as it seems like the week just drags on and on these days...

• I took a walk this morning, and down the street from our house is a parochial elementary school. It was interesting to see a fire engine company showing the kids how the ladder works, and giving them rides in the basket.
• We definitely have started seeing real weather here. Last night we were experiencing what I would call "a massive wind storm". Weather.com said it was 30-40 mph sustained, with 50-60 mph gusts. Can't wait for the snow to come with this stuff....
• Also standard with this "weather" is the rapid shifts from one type to another. Brynn and I went on a fairly long walk today, because it was sunny and very nice this afternoon. Not to be confused with the overcast, windy, terrible weather we had 12 hours earlier.
• It's hard to believe, but we are already having to start thinking about our next assignment. There are still about 9 weeks left on the current one, but due to the time it takes to get a license in new states, we've got to start doing paperwork already. We requested the paperwork for 3 states that we would not mind working in at some point, and hope to start these processes very soon.
• As some of you may have been told, the police cars here do not have the standard light package on top of their car (which would be a slim beam set of lights), but instead have the old style round siren. Pictures to follow for those that can't believe that.
  

Weekend Thoughts

We spent the weekend in California for Dave and Audrey's wedding. It was a whirlwind weekend, and congrats to both of them on their marriage.

• Having lived in the Bay Area my whole life, it is a bit annoying having to drive 2+ hours to go to the airport. Yes, there are closer ones than Chicago-Midway, but if I have to fly from that airport to Chicago-Midway, why bother?
• We received our wedding photos over the weekend. It's going to take a while to get through all of them, since there is over 1500 of them. But Brynn posted some to Facebook, and I'm hoping to post a few in a future post here as well.
• I can't decide whether the toll roads in Illinois and Indiana are nice or annoying. They are very empty, very little traffic because of the tolls. But the majority of them have speed limits of either 45 or 55 mph, as opposed to freeways which may have up to 70 mph. Then the fact that the tolls are $.50, $1, and $.60 in some places, just seems really strange.
• I have only been gone from California driving for 2 weeks, and I can tell you I don't miss it. The drivers in general are unbelievably bad. I don't know how I put up with it for that long.
• While waiting in the airport in Oakland, this guy was hanging out waiting for his flight. Talk about a flashback. If you're not sure, this is why he's famous.
• It was a bit strange being in the office at work, especially since I'm fairly certain that will most likely be the last trip into the office as an employee. It was definitely good to see everyone though.
  

Adjusting to Working at Home

I have been working remotely from outside my office for the past couple of weeks. I have never had a job where I could do this, so I figured that there would be some adjustments I would need to make mentally to work from home every day. Definitely hit that one on the nose.

• I have created a computer set up which is similar to the layout in my cubicle back at home. I'm using a 26" LCD TV, connected to my laptop computer. My laptop is a Mac, so it is setup with a trackpad for a mouse and a smaller keyboard. Since I work in accounting, I am used to using a full size keyboard with keypad, and a 2-button mouse to do a lot of my work.I was able to get a keyboard (with keypad) from my father-in-law, and a 2 button mouse to connect to it. I had tried using the laptop keyboard and mouse the first couple of days, and realized just how much I needed those features. My printer is connected as well in case I need to print something here.
• While this helps that I don't have to take time to "get" to my office, it has blurred the dividing line between my work and my home quite a bit. It has helped that I have to login to the network for my company to have any access to my work, but it is still different.
  
• Working from a home office causes another issue I had not expected. By not being in the office with my co-workers, there is very little inter-personal interaction during my day. While a lot of the conversations I was having with my co-workers were not always particularly intense or necessarily even work-related, there's something to be said about the day-to-day pleasantries that happen when you see someone 5 days a week. This I expected. The part I didn't was how fast it would become noticeable to me.
• The thing I have found most interesting is the fact that, in spite of all the distractions that exist at home that are not available at an office, I find that my productivity doesn't seem to suffer particularly. I am still getting the same amount of work done, and in the same timeframe as before. If anything, I actually feel like I am more aware of lapses in productivity, and work through them sooner. It's been rather strange.

We will have to see how these adjustments go as more time progresses.

TV and Other Thoughts

We are headed back to California for a friend's wedding this morning, so just some quick thoughts today....

• The house phone in our rented home keeps ringing every few hours. When I answer it, there's no one on the line. Or it's a telemarketer. I'm not sure why I keep answering the phone, since I don't even know what the phone number is. Probably better stop.
• Saw this on Monday, and the best description I came up with was that Vanilla Ice is now the mayor of Munchkinland. Once the music hit, I was convinced that I must be hallucinating.
• I was watching some TV today, and they were advertising the upcoming Chicago Bulls basketball season. Which made me realize that I will probably be seeing a lot of this guy if I watch any basketball this year. Which seems to me like a good reason to not watch basketball this year.
• I also saw a commercial for a promotion that US Cellular is doing out here. It's called BatterySwap, and it is actually a very interesting promotion. The basics are that if your cell phone battery is dead, just go into one of their stores, and swap it for a new one. No cost. I wonder if anyone else is going to do this soon.

There's a post scheduled for Friday morning, but probably nothing until Tuesday after that one.