This past weekend was pretty awesome. Too bad I only slept like 7 hours the whole weekend but it was well worth it.

I went to a friend’s wedding on Friday that my girlfriend was in. The wedding was at a small church in Affton and then the reception at Andre’s. I was impressed with the whole night knowing how much they spent and how well it was put together. It gives a little hope…lol. Becki and I had a blast at the reception and we danced a ton.

I woke up 3 hours later after going to sleep to drive down to Columbia to see ESPN’s College Gameday. After a car pickup and a car switch we finally were on the road. We got to COMO and headed for our favorite new tailgating spot. We were extremely excited to see that we could tailgate in the lot next to Reactor. I am not sure what happened to the rule that you could only tailgate 3 hours before the game but I am glad to see it’s gone.  We walked to the Quad and it was packed. I didn’t know what to expect and it exceeded my expectations. Supposedly we set a record for Gameday attendance. We walked back to the tailgate to begin the party. We cooked some good brats and hamburgers courtesy of Ted. The weather was great and I even wore flip flops. Not bad knowing it is late October and it was supposed to rain all day.

The game itself was awesome. In case you didnt hear. MU defeated #1 OK. The opening kickoff got the party started and it did not stop. We played pretty awesome but we did make some major mistakes. Field the first punt was a big one. We had huge momentum and great field position. The wind was swirling so the return man should have made no attempt on the short kick. The other was clock management. I have no clue why we chose to pass on 3rd down with the time winding down. I also like my friend Matt’s conspiracy theory that Bob Stoops punted at the end of the game because they knew they were going to lose and didnt want to risk MU scoring again so their BCS number wouldnt hurt since that would have made the game a blow out.

I don’t know what happened on Sunday. All I know is the Rams lost a game that they should have won. The dropped so many easy interceptions and seemed to dominate the first half only to totally fall apart in the 2nd half (didnt we see that last week) and lose the game. Also, where was Denario Alexander?

Picture of the week are here.

This was what I would call a pretty lazy weekend. It was the first weekend that my girlfriend and I were both in town for a while so we did a lot of lounging. We ran errands on Friday and did a little housework. I tried to be a plumber which I thought would be easy. I guess I needed to consider the facts that (1) my girlfriends plumber friend has repeatedly worked on the tub (2) the house is older and has older fixtures. Needless to say, I took out the stem and recognized that there were several seals broken and missing. The whole issue with the tub was that it was leaking at the stem but I could also tell that it probably wasn’t sealing between the lower bath head and the shower head because the seal was totally gone. We went to Home Depot to find seals which we couldn’t so we just bought a complete replacement kit. Unfortunately, the kit had the wrong size stem. I am guess there is a standard now but not back when this bathroom was designed. We went to Ace and it really is the place because it had all kind of stem kits and seals but the person working there wasn’t very helpful and we couldn’t find anything that looked close. I ended up reusing a seal (that probably was not a good idea) and buying an oring where I needed a washer gasket. I did get it to seal and it works pretty good except the fact that the water pressure is only 75% of what it was before. I’m assuming because of the seal I reused in a different place. That a weekday goal to fix.

We watched the MU game on Saturday which really pumped me up. So much that I bought tickets for the game this weekend. How can you pass up tickets for Homecoming weekend, the first visit by ESPN’s College Gameday crew, and the #1 team in the nation? I sure couldn’t. We went to a friends wedding rehearsal that night and went to the MAC for the dinner portion. It was a good time and the place was packed.

Not much happened on Sunday either. I watched the amazing upset by the Rams. I am super excited about Denario Alexander’s excellent first game. Becki and I watched some shows on the DVR that night and were very successful on our first attempt of making lasagna. It was amazing. Here are some more pictures of the process.

Update: I fixed the water pressure issue with the shower head in like 2 minutes. The o-ring I bought ( that wasn’t the right fit and needed to be a washer gasket) was compressing into the chamber under pressure and causing restrictions. I just cut it out and going without it. It is only used to seal between the shower head and the bottom outlet which must make a good metal to metal seal since it does not leak.

This was a jammed pack weekend.  There was oodles to do in St Louis this weekend which worked out well since the weather was amazing.  Unfortunately, there was so much going on that I missed out on the Soulard Oktoberfest but I hear it was a lot of fun.

This was reunion weekend at Washington University. There was a reunion reception at school, a gala, and there were supposed to be individual class parties. Our class party (albeit for only a 1 year reunion) sort of fell apart in the last week when we lost our venue so we decided to go see Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps. My fellow MBAers always talked about this movie and Gordon Gekko. Thus I watch the original 1987 movie on Thursday and loved it. It used a ton of financial buzzwords that we used pretty regularly in our studies plus it was suspense and action packed. We had a group of about 10 or 12 people hit the Esquire Theater on Clayton. First off, that theater sucks. The seats were uncomfortably small, there was actually a tear on the screen, and we could hear sounds from other theaters. There were probably only 10 other people in the theater on a Friday night so not sure how they stay in business. The movie was okay. The movie was basically based on the financial meltdown two years ago with aspects of the 1^st Wall Street movie. It would probably be cool for the average moviegoer but we discussed this crisis in great detail in school so it wasn’t any insight that I already didn’t know. The movie was also a little too sappy for me and didn’t have the action as the first one. Thus, I only give it a C. Everyone else were a little disappointed too. We went to Brandt’s for a couple free adult beverages courtesy of AB. I had not been there in a long time and I guess they changed management and structure. It was fun catching up with some of my classmates. Some of us went to Blueberry Hill to meet others and grab some snacks. I finished the night at “T Town” as my friend Mike puts it. Talayna’s is right next to his house so I went for an hour or so. It will probably be the last time I go back…lol.

I ran some errands on Saturday waiting for Becki to return from Sweden. I have a funny story. I have been searching high and low for a shower organizer that I actually like. It seems like no one makes a wide but short organizer. They either come in small or large where the small one is short and narrow and the large one is tall and wide. I might make one myself. Needless to say, I’ve bought some really expensive ones only to take them back. Why make a top shelf that is only 12”s from the shower head? Just doesn’t make sense to me.  After my second run to Bed Bath and Beyond in a week (and not last), I watched all the great college football games on before meeting up with Becki. Becki and I had dinner at Onestos in SOHA (as Matt puts it) for a friends bday dinner. The place was pretty good and we ordered way too much. We went back to the bday couples house to sit by a fire, talk about transgenic rats (we really know how to have a good time), and play with some dogs.

Becki and I went to the country on Sunday for Becki’s grandma’s 85^th bday. We were a little past Gerald, MO. It is sort of funny because it is very much like the area I grew up in but seems like a lifetime ago that I lived in that surroundings. We went on a hay ride and saw cows (both a first for my girlfriend), rode ATV’s, and had some good food. The ATV trails were pretty awesome. There were like 6 or 7 ATV’s with trails though fields and the woods over 50 acres. I had a ton of fun. The only bad part is that my throat is killing me today. I am hoping it is just irritated from all the dust and grass getting in my face from off-roading.

And that is it. I am glad to see Mizzou won its football game. I watched the first quarter and was a little scared. The same goes for the Blues winning their first game. Hopefully the Blues come out to a strong start. I can not say the same about the Rams. It looks like they got a little of a reality check. I did not watch the game but I heard the Rams started with an onside kick that was not recovered. I do not agree with that strategy and it probably put a bad tone on the game. At least we held them to a field goal that drive. I think we can squash any hope of winning the division despite how weak it is. I also looked to put up a strong week in fantasy football….possibly the best of the week.

I had been using a 1st Generation BlackBerry Bold aka the 9000 which was my first ever Blackberry or smart phone for about 18 months. I bought it within a month of coming out so it was pretty old.  I loved the phone but hated the battery life and memory issues. I have to use a BB for work so was stuck with it as I saw all kinds of new phones come out in the last two years. My contract was expiring and my trackball pretty much quit working so I had to make a decision. Either buy the new Torch or replace my phone under warranty and wait for the next generation of the Bold (i.e. the 9780) to come out.  I was really hesitant to buy the Torch. I read Engadget’s review and many others. All seemed to bash the phone when compared to Google and Apple phones but thought it was the best Blackberry yet. Most of the reasons for bashing were that it was not on the 1Ghz processor bandwagon and it did not have a 480 x 800 display. I also was unsure if I really needed touch. I love the speed I have with my current Bold and its form factor. I just wasn’t happy with its performance. I decided to get the Torch with the understanding that I had 30 days to return it if I did not like it.

Initial Thoughts

1. The unit seems much bigger and bulkier than my Bold even though the size difference is negligible. Maybe it is because of the protective case. I feel like I am going to drop it all the time.
2. Switching to the mini USB charger was a pain. I know the previous Bold had this too and this is basically the standard but sort of sucks when I have a charger for travel, work, home and car thus I had to buy them again. The unit also does not have a dock which sucks. Maybe one is in the works.
3. Not sure if I like touch screens. I use the trackpad a lot to maneuver.

Using it after two months

1. I still rarely use the touchscreen. Basically only for scrolling. Why would I type using the touch screen when I have a keyboard that rocks. Also, apps like Facebook have tiny buttons which my fat fingers do not like so I use the trackpad to select.
2. I am not sure why all the installed apps do not show under the all menu. I am forced to use WeatherBug because WeatherEye doesn’t show up in the main screen. Weatherbug doesn’t seem to be developed for the Torch in my opinion. It seems very cheap.

What I like better over the Bold 9000

1. Much better battery life. I can go over a day and a half without charging and heavy usage. I went about a half day on my Bold.
2. I love the track pad. I read some reviews that asked why this was even on a touch screen. I know why….because it is easier to use. I pretty much use the 9 times out of 10 over the touch in selecting things.

What I miss with the Bold

1. The keys are not as spread out. I do not mind this but the slider actually gets in the way of pressing some of the top keys. Especially when having to use the shift key to press the numbers.
2. Typing a name in the keyboard does not automatically bring up the address book. I looked through all the settings and I can not find a way to set this. I did find a way to make the middle phone entry screen come up every time when I hit the phone button. So I basically have one more step. I hit the phone button then can either select recent numbers or start typing a name to bring up my address book.

update: I wrote a good majority of this post the first week I got the phone and never posted it. Blackberry has now made two updates to the software. I jumped the gun and downloaded the update from Rogers since ATT didn’t post the first update so wasn’t sure if they were going to post the 2nd. Needless to say ATT posted it the next day.

The update which is OS 6.0.0.246 is said to improve phone quality, fix wifi issues, improve touch functionality, and some other things. It is going good now and the phone does seem a little more responsive. I was having issues with my icon layouts at first. It did not save my desktop layout and kept changing it once I left the all screen. It seems to fix itself now.

I have also dropped my phone several time and have even accidentally slammed it into a table so I am glad I went with the hard shell case. A couple of the guys at work have the new sleeve for it which I might consider if a dock does come out for the unit. I am getting use to the largeness of the phone but it does look more sexy without the protective case.

I also took a ton of screenshots the ScreenShot app but I don’t have the time to add them to this post. Maybe I will add them to an updated post later on.

Are you ready for one of the longest posts ever? My past two week vacation post have been very long and this one is not an exception.

The trip started off with a big worry. We did not know that a visa was needed for going to Australia. I felt stupid being an avid traveler but I am pretty sure I looked through my corporate travel page before and did not see this requirement. Needless to say, it was an electronic one so we were able to get one at the checkin counter with a little hassle. I am not sure what to think of the flight from Los Angeles to Syndey. It sucked sitting in coach and I definitely did not sleep more than 2 hours of the 14 hour flight but I was actually expecting worse. Each seat had their own DVR (which went down on the whole plane with about 4 hours left). It had all kinds of new movies that were not even on DVD yet. I watched Shrek Forever and Last Air Bender. I passed on A-Team, Robin Hood, and Iron Man 2 since I wanted to see them in a HD. The other thing that sucked was that we were two rows behind the baby row which never stopped crying. What even bothered me more was that two of the mothers were talking to each other as loud as can be when everyone was supposed to be sleeping. Have some common curetesy please!

Sydney

We arrived early Friday morning to Sydney after leaving St Louis on a Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say we really wanted a shower but we could not checkin since it was only 9AM and checkin was 2PM at the hotel. Thus we wandered around Darling Harbour along all the other waterways until we got to Circular Quay. Circular Quay is where the famous Harbour bridge and Syndey Opeara house is. We eventually found our way back to the hotel after cutting back through the city and checking out the various shops and markets. One of the big things we noticed while walking around was that this was going to be an expensive trip. All the food was expensive. Like $25 for a hamburger (that is not good anywhere in Australia) and $4 for a bottle of water at a local 7-11.

One of my distributors was super gracious to take us out site seeing on Saturday.  We grabbed some cofee and breakfast in Hunters Bay then made our way along the coast to Manly. We stopped at the Grotto Point Reserve to get a view of the Harbour opening then went to see the opening in an up close view at North Head – Sydney Harbour National Park. The views were breath taking. We made another stop at Manly to walk on the beach then went to the Freshwater Reserve to see Queenscliff Bay and more of the Pacific Ocean. We headed an hour north to Ku-Ring-Gai National Park. It reminded me very much of Lake of the Ozarks but with sharks in the water and sailboats instead of cigarette boats. If you can not tell, there is a ton of water ways in Sydney. I never realized this. There were harbours among harbours that were all super blue. We got an amazing view from West Head Lookout.  We had a late lunch on the water and went back to the hotel. We took a ferry ride through the harbour right at sunset back to Manly to meet up with my distributor for dinner. The ferry ride was pretty cool and a shade under 35 mins. Manly was a very hip town at night with vibrant nightlife. A must for any person wanting to have a good night on the town. I had a delicious native fish called a Barramundi for dinner. We stopped at a German pub for after dinner drinks then rode the ferry back to Darling Harbour to pass out.

We went whale watching on Sunday morning. The swells were pretty out of control that left many people sick. I am super glad I took Dramamine with swells 10 to 15 ft high. We did see a bunch of whales but none of them were close enough to get a great picture. We did see one breach too but didn’t get a picture. We also saw a seal up close and a bunch of dolphins jumping in the distance.

The rest of the week we both worked. We fit in some medioce and expensive meals. Our only quality meal was at I’m Angus on Darling Harbour. It was an expensive steak but worth it. In the next 4 days we wandered around town whenever we got a chance. We went to Paddy’s Market in China Town. It was a cross between a flea market and New York’s China Town. We also went up in the Sydney Tower. The views were nice but the place was under construction and so unorganized. We had not planned to but we did buy a pack at Sydney Tower that gave us passes for the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World which were both a stone throw away from our place. We were not planning to go to these since we were going to the Zoo in the Sunshine Coast but it wasn’t that much more and we had time. The aquarium was pretty cool. They had some huge large fish and shark exhibits built right into the harbor. Wildlife World would be cool if you were not going to the Australian Zoo but almost everything you saw was behind glass so not the experience that we had in Australian Zoo. You could also get your picture next to a Koala where we got to take a picture holding one at the zoo.

Sunshine Coast

We had enough of Sydney so traveled to Sunshine Coast on Friday. The Sunshine Coast is north of Brisbane. We were originally planning to go to the Gold Coast which is south of Brisbane. Supposedly the GC is the Miami of Australia but we wanted to get as north as possible from Brisbane in the hopes for warmer weather. This was the leg we were worried about because it was on a low cost airplane company which had strict wight limits for luggage. The max was 40 lbs and an additional $10 for each 2.5 pounds over. Needless to say we managed to meet the requirement with an additional carry-on. We would have bought more at Paddy’s Market if we knew we would be okay.

Unfortunately the Sunshine Coast wasn’t very sunny. We were told by locals that they can go months without rain normally over this season but of course rained for the two prior weeks to our arrival. Fortunately we only had rain for a brief time during the day but there was an overcast most of the trip. The one exception was Monday but it was still hit and miss. Due to this and the fact that it was still spring, the Ocean was pretty unswimable but I did bear the cold one day (briefly).

Our resort was pretty cool. It was another Novotel and was in the tiny town of Twin Waters. The place was very desolate but it was a true resort with a bunch of activities on the grounds like a private lagoon, boardwalk to the “river”, heated pool, free kayaks, and a supervised beach on the ocean. The place was pretty packed. We were hoping for the opposite since it was still spring. Unfortunately it was a school holiday that week so the place was packed full of unsupervised kids. We basically didn’t go in the pool at all because there were 100 screaming kids in it at all time with only about 10 parents. We did go out on kayak on the lagoon the first day which was nice. We never got one of the catamarans as they were in high demand and we did not want to wait in line. We walked about 2 miles down the beach into a small town of Mujimba then walked back to our place. We ended up eating dinner in Mujimba at the Loaded Lizard. It was one of the only two restaurants close and was basically where we ate dinner most nights.

We rented bikes on Saturday from our hotel. I did a rough Google Map driving path and it looks like we biked around 30 miles. Not bad for some old rusty beach bikes. Becki took the brunt having a pretty bad bike and a really sore back side in the end. We basically biked in three directions checking all the small towns which were basically just small resort/surf towns. It is what I would have expected Daytona to be like back in the early days. I felt like I was in South California too with a bunch of long haired “beach bums” walking around with no shoes and surf boards.

We went to the Australia Zoo on Sunday. We were told that this is the #1 tourist destination even though it is not near any big city. This is because this is the zoo that Steve Irwin (the late Crocodile Hunter) was associated with. The zoo was pretty cool. They even picked us up at our hotel in a zoo bus for the 45 min drive. The experience was a little over whelming at first because we realized you could go in all different directions and it seemed like we really needed to go to all the shows because that is the best time to see the animals. We finally got our bearings and plan to see what shows and at what times. We fit in hugging a Koala for a fee then went on our journey. My favorite part was the roo area. They basically had two 15 to 20 acres parks where a couple different kinds of kangaroos were roaming freely. You could buy food to feed them and pet them. All totally unsupervised; I did not see one too person in the area. Since it was a holiday, Bindi (Steve Irwin’s daughter) made an appearance with her younger brother so we got a special treat. Saturday night was Mexican night at the Loaded Lizard. We made reservation the night before there after we were told that it would fill up. It was okay Mexican food. What would you expect out of a country with no Mexican people?

Monday was a relaxation day. Nothing was planned except lounging around. We walked to the other end of the beach where the beach meets the river. This is where I decided to go swimming since the rip tides were not bad. I was actually pretty scared to swim in Australia. The combination of bad rip tides and sharks were very crazy. All of the beaches in Sydney had shark fences where none of the beaches in the Sunshine coast did because of the desolation. The water was cold but I got use to it. I just love the feeling of Ocean salt water on me. That night we ate at one of the restaurants in the hotel while listening to a pretty good acoustic one man band. Great day overall!

Tuesday was the big day we were looking forward to all trip. It was a visit to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and also has the largest perched lake in the world. It was a 4 hour drive to the island so it was definitely an adventure. We basically had two tour companies to choose from and we chose Fraser Island Adventure Tours because they had the most details in their brochure. The day was pretty sweet. It was basically an off road adventure traveling up to 90km/hr along the beach. The beaches are used as highways north of Noosa so I say we probably drive over 100 miles on the beach getting to the island. The beaches are part of the Great Sandy National Park which is a huge spot for backpackers and campers. We rode in a big 16 passenger off road vehicle. We were lucky enough to sit in the front so we had awesome views. The tide had not come in for the day so the ride was extremely bumpy.

The ride back was super smooth as the tide compacted the “road” for us. We stopped for tea and cookies on Rainbow Beach which was actually one of my favorite parts. The water was blue and the cliffs were amazing. We got to see some really awesome beaches. We then continued North till we finally hit our ferry point to go take us to the island. You wouldn’t believe how many pictures we saw of people getting their SUV stuck. The sand got pretty deep at times and the tide could easily get your vehicle stuck then gobbled up against the rocks at high tide. Fraser Island was pretty cool. We drove through the island to see Lake McKenzie which is the largest perched lake in the world. The pictures made it look awesome but its hard for a crystal clear lake to look blue when its cloudy and drizzling. It was still a good experience. The lake had no life in it since it was a little acidic thus why it could stay so clear. We also went to a a pretty cool rainforest. The water was so clear in the creek running through it that you can hardly tell that there is at least a foot of water running through it. We also saw some dingos and whales driving back along the beach. We rounded out the night by going to the Loaded Lizard for Chicken Schnitzel night. I had a delicious loaded chicken which made it taste like a pepperoni pizza.

Wednesday was the super long day of traveling. First we had to take a two hour bus ride to Brisbane to catch the plane (we flew into the regional airport 2 miles from our resort when arriving). I was disappointed once we got on the plane because I thought we had premium coach flying back but apparently the plane type was different then the one we flew to Sydney and American’s website did not know this. I slept about a whole hour of the 13 hour flight but did watch some good movies. The best was A-Team and Date Night. Both were very good. Date Night was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. I laughed out loud a lot. We also were able to get a flight 3 hours earlier from LA so our layover was only 4 hours instead of 7 which put us in around 7.

Overall the trip was very good but super expensive. A lot more than I had planned but I have no regrets. It was a trip that I always wanted to go on and I did more tourist things than any other trips I have ever been on. The only think I can say is that I probably wouldn’t recommend going to Australia right now as an American unless the exchange rate gets better or your super serious into scuba. Even with going scuba diving, we have the second best reef in the world in the Caribbean and it’s probably a third of the cost. The trip will forever be one of my favorites despite the negatives that I have claimed. It probably would have been one of the best had it been sunnier and warmer.

Here is the link to all my pictures.