If the stroller box could talk

It would tell a story that started a few weeks ago when our My4 stroller frame's adjustable handle mechanism broke, after 4 solid years of use.  I called Mothercare in the UK to get another one, but they had been discontinued, and they had run a sale, so there were none available online to order.  I was told by customer service that their stores may have some, but there was no way they could check the store stock.  This meant, if I wanted one, I needed to call individual stores, and so I did. I had a day trip to London coming up, so maybe I could get one while over. Unfortunately, many of the stores were also out of stock. After about a dozen calls, I found one London store that had one My4 chassis, and I asked them to hold it on Saturday and would be in on Monday to pick it up.  The store was just a few miles from our office, so a little detour and I'd have it.
A little detour it was not.  I flew in to London this morning, and took taxi direct to store.  As we got close to the store the traffic was at a crawl.  After about 3 hours for a 30 minute trip, we arrived near the store; near because the store was completely taped off and surrounded by police officers. There was no way to get to the store.  I asked several times, but no foot or car traffic was being allowed through the street in front of the store. I called the store, they suggesting going around back.  More police, but after several requests, I was finally allowed through to the store. Yea!  I rushed in, and bought the stroller, and just as I'm leaving the store, the police take down the barricades. Of course.  Back in the taxi, and we're off, back to the office, then over to external meeting, and to the airport, box in tow at each step, and "Is that really a stroller in the box?", asks any person I came in contact with.  I reply, "Yes it is; long story," and move to a different topic quickly, because it was a long story, which finally ended with the box arriving in the Netherlands on the baggage claim belt just fine.

Random thoughts from 2011, and 2012 resolutions.

This is my first post in 2011. Wow, I guess I don't come here often anymore. I made a resolution to get into social networking for 2011, and that's what it seems like has happened. I joined Facebook, set up a Twitter account, set up LinkedIn account, have the necessary Skype account for video calls with family, due to being oversees, and got involved in FourSquare.

How did my 2011 social networking go? I got a BlackBerry Bold 9700 in Fall of 2010 and used a lot of the apps during 2011, mostly reading updates. I post to Facebook the most and check in on FourSquare often, mostly when I'm travelling. I don't tweet much, and only Skype occassionally.

It's a time thing. Most of my free time is spent with Dena and Andrew, and a toddler keeps one busy. When I do have some free time, I surf Google news, and few websites on my personal mobile phone, which as of early November, is a Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone. Mobile phones are now about ecosystems, and Microsoft is just starting to deliver on their 3 screens and a cloud vision of the future, so I finally invested some money in some stocks during 2011.

Stock ownership is a bit like gambling, as one never knows what can happen, but stock is ownership in a company, so research should be done to buy a part of a company just like buying a car, house, or new electronic equipment. I currently own stock of Halliburton, McDonalds, Microsoft and Nokia. I'm long on Nokia as I feel they will come around, and bought Microsoft due to their vision for the future. Having a uniform look and feel across all the platforms has been needed for a long time.

With a baby on the way, due mid-February, I expect 2012 to be much the similar to 2010 and 2011, with me still seeking to achieve a work/life balance. It's been tilted a bit tto much to the prior and causing a little too much stress in the later.

I bought a bicycle during 2011, so I've been bicycling to work a few days a week. (If I'd work to learn the language, I would complete my Dutch immersion.) I'm still struggling to stay in touch with my friends more often, and family also. Mass emails are a nice way to send an update, but just aren't personal enough. It's standing in a crowd listening to a lecture, which isn't the same as sharing a coffee or beer with an individual at a table.

What's 2012 going to bring? I need a personal hobby. Currently this may come from 3 areas: a updated/new Radio Controlled car, electric scooter, or 36 inch wheeled bicycle. Andrew is completely into cars, and this would be fun to get my Traxxas Sledgehammer back functional, or something new. Electric vehicles are going to come into the mainstream, and an electric scooter would be a fun and cheap way to get into an electric vehicle. 29ers, or 29 inch tired mountain bikes are all the rage for 2012, and there have been a few custom 36ers built. I'm so tall that a 36er would be a nice fit to my 2 meter frame.

Finally, I'm resolving to take advantage of as many opportunites as possible, such as going to MotoGP or F1 race or something similar. It's been too easy to just sit comfortably at home, while missing some exciting opportunity the was near by and an easy drive being on Continental Europe.

Happy 2012!!!

Getting settled into Holland

We're in our house, and almost all the boxes are unpacked. Living room is set up so that the projector projects onto the front window blind, which is white, so at night it actually shows through to the outside. I'm not really sure what the neighbors think, but no one's complained yet.

Just bought a white 2005 Volvo V50 Summum, 2.4i 5 cylinder with manual. That 5 cylinder sounds really sweet in the upper revs. My first Volvo. We'll see how it ages over the next couple of years.

Andrew is just over 14 months. He crawled up the stairs yesterday and today. I'm so proud, and he's growing up fast.

My job has been keeping me really busy. I've been to Douala, Cameroon, Luanda, Angola, and Lagos and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. I'm glad I live in the Netherlands.

I've finally opened Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. I'll have to get everything linked together. Thought I'd finally jump on the bandwagons.

I've been trying to decide whether to get my HTC Touch Pro fixed, which has a busted screen, get a Blackberry, get an iPhone, or get a Windows Phone 7, of which I like the Dell Venue Pro best. I typically ride the bus to and from work, and each way is a 10-15 minute ride, which would be just long enough to browse my Social feeds and post updates.

Once again, time will tell...

Walking to work such a treat

Right now, at the Grand Winston Hotel where we are staying, I'm close enought to walk to work. Yep, walk. Only takes me about 15-20 minutes. Walking to work; it's such a foreign concept to me, as an American. I'm used to driving everywhere. My first job location out of college had me driving 75 miles one way to work. I lost over 2 hours each day during that commute. Now I walk to work. It's so sweet, especially with the nice sunny weather here in the Netherlands.

Nine months and now crawling

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

Andrew is nine months old today, and has been successfully rolling around for some time now, and being able to get into a sitting position without assistance. He's been able to push/crawl backwards. With some stacking cups to motivate him, Andrew crawled for the first time today; repeatedly! Dena was reading through one of the baby development books, and for his age the book said he'd like stacking cups or blocks. We had some in the tub, but never put them out on the floor, so we did, and Andrew's face got real focused, and he crawled toward the stack, and then knocked it down. Dena grabbed the video camera, and I restacked, and Andrew crawled some more, and Dena recorded. We repeated this several times. It was very momentus. We're proud parents.

Paris Gaud de Nord train station

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

I had a train set growing up that was on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood in our basement in Widconsin. It wasn't anything special, but I would look through model railroading magazines and dream of having a huge complex track layout with a big roundhouse for all the trains. Well, my first train trip in continental Europe landed me in Paris at the Gaud de Nord train station, and it was a childhood dream come true! Lots of tracks and trains all gathered under one roof. The pictures were taken on my HTC Touch Pro and came out pretty good.

I rode on a Thalys HiSpeed train from Rotterdam to Paris, and it was high speed indeed. I had the GPS going at one point and briefly saw 168 mph!!! That faster than I've ever been on any of my motorcycles. I'm know I'm going to really like travelling by train. It's so much less of a hassle than flying on a plane. You just show up to a train station, and get on the train. The seats are comfortable and have a decent amount of room. Plus there are electrical outlets and Wi-Fi available.

What will 2010 bring?

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

So it's a couple of days into the new year and new decade, and Andrew is just over 4 months old. It's just incredible how quickly he's growing, and how his motor skills are improving. It'll be a couple years until his motorcycle skills start improving. :)

So what will 2010 bring? For my son, it will be a lot of firsts; sitting up, crawling, solid food, maybe a couple words or walking.

For Dena and me, it'll be a different global location where we live, different house, different cars, different motorcycles, different job.

I got an XBox 360 for Christmas, so I'm really looking forward to playing that, although I had to bring back my UK region system, so that I can get a US region version. I can guess that video games just like DVDs have different regions because of release dates, different languages, different government rating systems, but it is unfortunate for globally active consumers. I'm looking forward to playing some of the racing games on our projector. Should be really sweet!

And speaking of cars, the Red Bull New Year's No Limits stunt was just crazy. Jumping a car 269 ft is just mind blowing. I love Red Bull, Travis Pastrana is awesome, and I really like the new Subaru WRX STi hatchback body style, and may just have to get one in the US to replace our UK BMW 120d.