Why DO I use Windows?

My friends are asking me this all the time.

The latest foray that makes me question my sanity was trying to upgrade my main machine at home from Vista to Windows 7. Windows 7 is great they say (I guess compared to Vista; which was two days spent just for that Aero thingie).

After 12 hours, I have abandoned the upgrade path and am doing a fresh install, which means reinstalling all my programs. This was after 2 separate hangs, and applying a Microsoft fixit for the infamous 62 percent hang.



I've played with a MAC, guess the ONLY thing thats keeping me back, even after almost free MS stuff from the MS store, is the investment in software and that many of my favorite pieces of software don't run on a MAC.....

Happy Kwanzakuhmas!

However you celebrate this joyous season it's another opportunity to be thankful for family and friends, past and present, here and above.

As we've aged, its no longer about giving of gifts, but of love and ourselves.

I wish everyone the happiest of holiday seasons.

The Aftermath

Looking back on the party it seemed be a big success. Lots of work and fun. The
video was a big hit!

Below is the ustream recording. thanks to all that braved the storm to arrive on
time!

Party

Spent the last couple of days since my wrist surgery planning Lisa's 60th birthday. Lots of milestones this year make you reminisce. 25 years of marital bliss on top of her birthday (October 27th).

In planning the party and making the guest list, I found lots of photos (memories) and remembered lots of friends from around the world.




We have invited friends from 5 continents and are broadcasting live to them on Ustream on December 5th! Sitting here racking my brain to see who I might surprise her with and just got a few brainstorms. Bye for now.

Sunrise

Sunrise has so many meanings. Its the start to each day and the first seconds to make the most of it. I have begun to make it a ritual to begin to find amazing spots to enjoy and photograph this most beautiful of events.

The beginning of day, like the beginning of a life is both magical and mystical.

My favorite easy spot is at nearby Peace Valley Park in New Britain, PA.

The first and second of these were taken five minutes apart.

The light and sunrise grows as the day gets older. A couple of different metering tricks can produce different color but waiting will as well.

The last one was taken when a cold front came through and the air temperature was about 20F cooler than the water.

I am blessed to have Lake Galena so close to me.

If you have another great Bucks County location, drop me a line

The Greenville Saga Continues

Just returned from a weekend in Greenville, confirming our love for the area. We stayed in the golf cottages at Cherokee Valley Golf Club. We spent most of the weekend trying to confirm our decision to build there. We visited the lot to see the 6,700 square foot McMansion going up next door.

Now I have nothing against large homes, but on a 0.3 acre lot!!

On top of this we find out that this (Cherokee Valley) semi-private course with intentions to go private sounds like it will be public ad infinitum. We found a house style that we thought we would like to build, a traditional Southern look like the second photo here. But could we make it work.


We set out the second day after taking a ton of photos of our lot to look for a golf club more like the one we have here. We fell in love with Greenville Country Club and then started to think that although the mountains are beautiful, its a bit too remote. I dont know if I can live without proper broadband and 3G wireless. I am spoiled?

Also the commute seemed better if we settled closer to the I-85 corridor since I would be commuting to Shelby, NC area a few days a week to work.

We'd certainly be sacrificing an amazing view to move closer to town, but would we be happier?

We had a great dinner at Saskatoon on Saturday night in town, recommended by new online friend, Trey Pennington. Very unique and good!

We met with a builder, Jason Bergeron of Bergeron Builders, on Sunday via a realtor. We realized that, although building has slowed dramatically, new home costs per square foot have not. So now, we're thinking possibly buying a used home.

Of course to do this, we would need to sell our lot next to the McMansion. Many folks might argue that a home of this value would increase the inherent value in our lot.. We'll see.

All in all, another great weekend Upstate, but one that gives us new information that answered some questions and raised others...stay tuned.

Freezing Sweet Corn

Our annual assembly line in progress!

Posted via email from BP's Posterous

thanks to @joehewitt for an amazing piece of work on Facebook for #iphone 3.0!! bravo!

making final plans for LHH network gathering tomorrow at www.redstonegrill.com in Plymouth meeting! Ping me for info.

Reading "Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us" (Seth Godin) http://bit.ly/WQDOG great read on social media!!

Organizing Lee Hecht Harrison alumni gathering in Plymouth Meeting, PA on 18-Aug. http://bit.ly/8qeDt ping me if interested!

packing lightly for trip to Martha's Vineyard! http://bit.ly/rVHFM

Covered Bridges of Bucks County - Pine Valley

The Pine Valley Covered Bridge is located just in New Britain just west of Doylestown. It is on Iron Hill Road and crosses Pine Run Creek. If you want to see and photograph the bridge there is a small community park, the New Britain Civic Association Covered Bridge Park with ample parking just off the south end of the bridge. The bridge is heavily traveled which makes walking through it hazardous at best.


Pine Valley Covered Bridge carries Old Iron Hill road across Pine Run Creek in New Britain Township. It was built in 1842 and is 81 feet long. It is just outside Doylestown.




Below is Cabin Run just North of the bridge with a cool little waterfall.

Video from the Vineyard - 2008

Covered Bridges of Bucks County

A map of the dozen plus bridges is located here. Much of the material here was found on the Scenic Bucks County Website

Given how cool they are and there is a lot of published info on them, I wanted to add them to my blog. I have ridden through all but 1 (Perkasie) on 2 wheels.



The Central Bucks Bicycle Club (CBBC) does an awesome ride through most of them every fall, thus I am familiar with their beauty and serenity.

The first in the series is Loux Covered Bridge.

The Loux Covered Bridge is one of the smaller covered bridges in Bucks County; you come upon it suddenly following Wismer Road as it bends and drops down to cross Cabin Run on the Bedminster/ Plumstead border. At short distance down stream this creek is crossed by Cabin Run Covered Bridge.

---

Location: Wismer Rd., Plumstead Twp.
Height Limit: 11 ft. Width: 15 ft.
Length: 60 ft. Weight Limit: 15 tons

History: BUILT of hemlock in 1874, you'll find this bridge is one of two bridges to span the Cabin Run Creek. Nestled in a scenic valley, it was built at the insistence of local residents who complained about the dangers of crossing the creek

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Salmon Fillets Stuffed With Crabmeat

3 large, preferably thick, salmon fillets
1 pound backfin or other high quality crabmeat
1 egg
2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
3 Tbsp. mayonnaise
3 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon


Cut a pocket in the center of each salmon fillet. Either slice through the fillet or make a slit in the middle and then cut from this slit into either side of the fillet. Don't worry too much about this process. You are just trying to get some sort of pocket to hold the crabmeat. Gently combine the remaining ingredients trying not to break up the lumps of crabmeat. Evenly divide the crabmeat mixture and stuff into each fillet pocket. Cut the lemon into three sections and squeeze one section over each fillet. As an alternative, you can cut the lemon into slices and lay the slices evenly over each fillet. Bake stuffed salmon for 30 - 45 minutes in a 375-degree oven, checking every few minutes after 25 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on how thick the salmon fillets are and how you made the pockets. The salmon is done when the fish is flaky and the stuffing is cooked through.

The Skinny: Use light mayo and your favorite egg substitute.

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85 Iconic Images ruined by Technlogy http://digg.com/d1sH4p #photography

Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?: http://ping.fm/o1huB

Memorial Day 2009

Another great holiday with our friends in Mystic for Memorial Day. Trip started off a little sketchy as the train before ours from Trenton hit a deer and dumped all the passenger on our train. We were sure we'd be standing, but we got seats and were only 40 minutes late.

As usual, lots of eating, cycling, drinking, walking sightseeing, laughing, joke telling (as you can see from this video...in the center Lisa tells her famous "Pretzel" joke for the 152nd and best time!!)



Had some great wine (1997 Grgich reserve and Peju cab) as well as some killer meals. Went out once to Skipper's Dock in Stonington for lobster rolls, yumm!

Rest of the time, my bud David manned the Weber.

Just back now from an uneventful trip home to Trenton. Weather considerably warmer here and headed down to make a nice BBQ meal!!

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up early for a great Memorial Day weekend trip to visit friends in Mystic, CT http://virl.com/7bcf4 #fb

Flocking 101

Just came across a very cool tool to tie blogging and other social media tools together, called Flock by Mozilla.




Very easy to use and keeps track of FB, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, MySpace, etc.

Drag and drop blog editor (that I am using now) makes life easy as well.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Will Apple Buy Twitter?

http://bit.ly/WaAEA

Looking Back on Our Vacation

As always, returning to reality is tough after a fantastic holiday! The sights and location was beautiful, but the people you meet really are what makes a trip great. Going through the 3000 photos I took, I stumbled upon these as they were taken from a secondary camera. It was 12 March.

We had decided that we wanted some space to ourselves to shoot macro on Mabul and maybe see a whale shark. So we went back to a site called Stingray City, 10,000+ miles from the one on Grand Cayman.

We saw so many mating nudibranchs and unbelievable critters, but the most memorable were our guides. Trying to stay in touch with them so when the few things I hoped to see and didn't surface, I can see them online (the elusive flamboyant cuttlefish for example.

Heres to Abbie, Froi and Niger (and Richard)!

reliving my Sipadan trip http://ping.fm/gWV2Y?v=58961393723

insightful future of social media by. Charlene Yi http://ping.fm/boMrq #SXSW

home after a 63 hr return trip. worth every second

Days 5 to 13 - Sipadan Water Village

Days 5 to 13 - Sipadan Water Village







Just finished a great stay there. Thanks to manager Alex Ho and the amazing staff. The diving was spectacular...from the small creatures of Mabul and Kapalai to the pelagics of Sipadan. And the reefs some of the healthiest on Earth.







New camera setup (Nikon D300 with SubAl) worked great. Bulletproof Austrian engineering as usual. Writing this from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. Comfortable Shangri-La resort here (same as on the way to diving). The weather here has been hot and incredibly humid. The only downside to the resort was the lack of air conditioning. Difficulty sleeping due to the heat and unending jet lag.

Some HD video footage I took of the resort follows.

Posting a full spectrum of UW photos soon on picasa.

finishing a great book on social networks by CLay Shirky http://ping.fm/YcLc6

thanks to Sipadan Water Village and staff. great trip http://ping.fm/CB5vo

still struggling with jet lag after 8 days... http://ping.fm/FlIx2?pid=1374192&id=778868723&ref=mf

Southeast Asia - Day 4

Day 4 Kota Kinabalu - Tawau - Semporna - Mabul

Long day but worth it. Poured rain during the last leg (50 minute boat ride) but sun came out when we arrived.

Resort rushed us a little bit to get checkout dive done (30 minutes after arrival). We pushed back and had lunch first. We had a great buffet lunch with local faire including a hamburger with egg instead of beef.

Checkout dive with Marcos from Brazil living in Sarawak 3 years working for Shell. Just off dock but saw huge sea turtle, crocodile fish, yellow moray, etc.

Nice dinner and early to sleep for first full day tomorrow

Southeast Asia - Day 3

Day 3 - Singapore to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah)

Yesterday marred by Lisa's fairly severe bout with dehydration complete with nausea, etc. Missed dinner at Raffles Grill. Had local Thai instead...good but missed a classic meal. Something to return for.

Today we left for Changi early. Raffles lounge in Changi for breakfast. Pretty good for airport fare. Flight to Kota Kinabalu on Silkair (regional airline owned by Singapore Air) uneventful save Lisa's confiscated cuticle scissors. They promised to deliver them to her at baggage claim on arrival. When we got there, we were informed they were still in Singapore and would be delivered after we had already departed on our next leg (to Tawau). No one here seems to understand or care. They promise they'll be delivered to us in Sipadan. We'll see.

Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort is beautiful here in Kota Kinabalu. Lisa able to replace the contraband toiletry items in gift shop. Going to have a nice Italian dinner as everything we've had so far is a little too spicy for her. Tomorrow.. to Tawau, then bus to Semporna and boat to final destination.

Southeast Asia - Day 2

Day 2 - Singapore

Today like night and day from yesterday due to a good 8 hours sleep. Back to Botanical Garden to see the National Orchid Garden of Singapore before 9. Tons of joggers in the park. Some nice orchide photos then over to Mount Faber Park to take the cable car to the island of Sentosa. Some scary moments for this acrophobe. Then lunch at Delifrance under the Merlion. Up to the top for photos.


After lunch, a warm walk from the Amara to Nei Xue Tang, the National Buddhist Museum. Very beautiful. Hanging out in afternoon after getting pretty dehydrated. Singapore humidity is amazing. Lisa headed over to Capital Tower to meet with GIC to sell some novel investment products.

Speaking of investments, this place seems recession proof. The new construction here is incredible. They are building 2 casinos as "integrated resorts."

More complete photostream available here.

Southeast Asia - Day 1

Day 1 - PHL-Frankfurt-Singapore

Great, long trip on Singapore Air. Business Class worth every penny. Arrived around 6 AM after 23 hours in transit. Got in Early to hotel. Then went on city tour that was disppointing. Arranged by the concierge and hosted by Luxury tours. Reminded me of Cairo. Half the stops (Tiger beer and jewelry factory) were to let us shop. Botanical gardens nice.. headed back today. Had lunch in VivoCity mall. Very western..had Western fast food for lunch. Walked Chinatown in afternoon and couldnt find decent restaurant that had local food and a liquor license.

Ended up at Hue after Lisa devleoped blister on her bad foot, a nice Vietnamese restarant in the Hotel. Stayed awake till 8 before hitting a chemically induced sack.

Today, Buddhist Museum, more time at Botanical Garden and dinner at Raffles before leaving for Sabah tomorrow.

More complete photos available here.

goodbye snow. hello Singapore http://ping.fm/Y2gUt

see you guys in a few days http://ping.fm/5p2TL

sitting on my last suitcase trying to get it closed.

is packing video stuff for Sipadan vacation!http://ping.fm/FHQTX

learning how to optimize Tweetdeck #tweetdeck

The Winter from Hell

Not a lot of snow this winter but grey, damp and cold in Philly. Where is Al Gore when I need him?? Headed to the equator next week (Sipadan) and I sure hope spring is here when I return in a few weeks...