My Life Blog

I’ve been wanting to improve my in-car iPod experience, so I’ve been doing some research into the in-dash head unit offerings.  I had budgeted enough for the unit to be among the top of the line for any brand that I would choose.  As such, my decision would be based mostly on the iPod integration as most head units would probably be pretty comparable for the core features.

A secondary, but much less important, feature I was interested in was bluetooth integration with my phone.  This would allow hands-free phone usage and would make life much safer.  I don’t make many cell phone calls period, so this is a very minor interest in the scheme of things.  Its mostly the cool factor that has my interest.

So I began my research online and eventually used a combination of several websites to identify a few models that I was interested in.  User reviews are very useful, but in many cases, I found that the iPod integration varied depending upon the model that was in use.  To be more specific, many systems have their own integration component and so I was reading reviews on them.  But what I really wanted to know was what was the experience with the combination of my chosen head unit and the integration unit.  The experience apparently varies wildly.

But still, I had a couple of models in mind and set out to test drive them at the retail stores.  In no particular order, I went to Best Buy, Tweeter, Fry’s and Car Toys.  In every case, I found that the store was unable or unwilling to demo either the iPod or the Bluetooth integration.  In most cases, I found that I knew more than the salesperson. 

The sad fact is that the retail stores have higher prices because they are having to offset the price of inventory, shelving, and sales support.  But in the end, they provided less information than the online stores.  My ability to test drive was the same in either case - not possible.  I was very disappointed. 

As a last gasp, I tried keying in my model numbers and the word "iPod" and perhaps a few other terms in hopes of finding someone’s blog who had the combination that I was interested in.  I found a few interesting points, but nothing positive enough to allow me to make my purchase.  In fact, if anything, I read on one person’s blog that it is important to be able to plug your own iPod into the demo to ensure that the performance is as fast as you expect it to be.  Apparently, its quite common for stores to demo on an iPod that has only a few songs.  In doing so, they mask performance issues and user experience issues.

So the bottom line is that I will do nothing for now.  The technology and sales support are not to the point where I can comfortably make this purchase.  If you’ve stumbled across this blog entry in the midst of a similar search, I hope that I’ve saved you some money or at least made you aware of your likely experience in doing your due diligence.  Feel free to comment if you have useful insight into this kind of purchase.

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Originally uploaded by bill_eisenhauer.

My gift to Suzanne for our first anniversary was a weekend’s stay at a bed and breakfast in Gruene (pronounced green), Texas. Gruene is a little German town located near New Braunfels — which is 30 miles northeast of San Antonio.

For your first anniversary, the suggested gift is a clock. I extrapolated from that the concept of time and thought a weekend away would be perfect.

We both took Friday off to enable a casual drive down to Gruene. Its about a four hour drive from Dallas. The drive was pretty smooth, but was slowed predictably by traffic in Austin. We lost another 45 minutes trying to satisfy a Starbuck’s craving within Gruene — basically, we got embroiled in some unexpected traffic there and never found one. Go figure, they aren’t on every corner in New Braunfels.

Once we got to the bed and breakfast, we discovered it was as beautiful as I had hoped. I had found the place on the Internet by using keywords like “Gruene”, “Guadalupe” and “Bed and Breakfast”. Anyway, the point is, I wanted a place on the river. And when we arrived, we were very rewarded with beautiful gardens and a river-front deck. If you explore the Flickr set, you’ll see what I mean.

The bed and breakfast has many places to stay, but I had booked the cottage which added a bit more privacy and its own overlook to the river. It was quite nice inside.

Once we got our stuff moved in, it was time to gather up a bottle of Pinot Gritio and explore the deck and riverside. It was beautiful and relaxing. We stayed for quite a while and took quite a few pictures.

Later that night, we went to the Gruene River Inn for dinner and that too was wonderful. We closed the night with a half hour in the hot tub.

On Saturday morning, we reported for breakfast at 9am sharp where a raspberry cobbler was waiting for us. I’m told it was nice, but a cold dessert wasn’t my thing for breakfast. The main course was a kind of creamy scrambled eggs with sausage and sweet potato medalions. Pretty fancy! And the presentation was beautiful. I didn’t know what to expect, so it was a surprise to have a gourmet meal.

Later that morning, we went to Landa Park and hiked the Panther Canyon Nature Trail. If you’ve read about our previous hiking experience, you’ll no doubt be surprised to see the word “hike” make its return to the blog. All I can say is that this is what we think of when we say or hear hike: level ground, short, scenic, and fun. The hike was fun, but the river bed was completely dry. We did stalk some deer up the canyon, so that was fun.

By the end of our hike, full-blown rain had set in, so we retreated to a restaurant to have lunch. We were a bit disappointed with the Mexican food restaurant in Gruene — can’t remember the name, but there’s only one, so you’ll know it when you see it. It wasn’t bad, I was just expecting better since we were closer to San Antonio…and thus closer to the Border also.
We walked the town later that afternoon; I took pictures while Suzanne did some shopping. By then, the rain had lifted some, so the walk was pleasant.

We retreated back to our Inn for another early evening edition of wine on the deck. We got halfway through our wine when we decided to go walk the road to look at all the deer that frequent the area. We must have seen 15 of them over the course of the 30 minutes we were out there. Seeing deer up close like that was really cool!

Later that night, we went to the Grist Mill Restaurant which is THE place to go for dinner in Gruene. We actually got there pretty later, 8:45pm, but still had to wait 45 minutes to be seated. If there had been another option, we probably would have bailed. Dinner was nice, but not remarkable.

Breakfast the next morning was again pretty remarkable, although it wasn’t compatible with my picky eating style — french toast with pumpkin spread in the middle. But everyone else seemed to love it.

After breakfast, we checked out and began our trip back. We stopped at an Outlet Mall near San Marcos and shopped for two hours before getting on the road for good.

All in all, it was a nice trip. If anyone is interested, the bed and breakfast is called the Lamb’s Rest Inn. Highly recommended.

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Originally uploaded by bill_eisenhauer.

I know this rare post will shock you. What can I say, once I go dark, its hard to get the words flowing again. Let’s see how this goes.

We spent Labor Day weekend in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico. This area is about 30 miles outside of Cancun. The occasion for the trip was the celebration of our 1st Wedding Anniversary.

Our accommodations for the four nights were at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach which we booked through Funjet. We highly recommend it if you have the means.

Our trip began bright and early on a Saturday morning — well, more early and less bright. I think we had a 4am wake-up time in order to catch our flight. We had no complications in the travel process and were actually at the resort by mid-morning.

One way to tell you are in Mexico is to observe the many ways the natives try to get your cash. We saw this immediately in the airport as we were asked if we were in the Funjet group and then channel to an information desk. Unfortunately, they weren’t looking to get us to our bus, there were just trying to book additional events and they were not affiliated with Funject.

In the confusion, our bags were commandeered by a uniformed Funjet person and taken about 50 yards involving one left turn — $2. Then at the hotel, we noticed that we were not put in a king-sized bedroom. An ocean-view room with a king-sized bed was made available to us for a mere $100 — but the transaction had to be in cash…wink, wink.

But alas, that transaction was actually key to our enjoyment of the rest of the trip and worth every dollar that went home with the concierge. We were in close proximity to both the beach and the pool and could see the beach from our window. Awesome!

We found the resort to be uncrowded due to it being off-season. Note to self and to my dear readers: off-season is the only way to go to Mexico. We had ample room at the pools and the beach and we received an extra dinner night at the specialty restaurants. And it was just plain nice not to have to avoid people.

We mostly enjoyed the pools during the day. Oh yes, the swim up bars were nice too. Then at night, it became a familiar pattern to go out to the beach and pull the chairs out just short of the water’s edge. Once there, we drank a beer, listened to the waves crash in, and celebrated past, present, and future moments of our marriage.

The restaurants were adequate, but not superb. I think after 5 days we just got tired of the same offerings at every meal. The specialty restautrants definitely met expectations — the Japanese restaurant was probably enjoyed the most.

As you can see from the picture, we made friends while there. We met a few folks from the Grapevine area and also met a honeymooning couple from Vancouver. The Toucan and I were fast friends — just fast enough to take the picture and have him be scooped off my shoulder before anything bad happened!

It wasn’t Kauai, but it wasn’t too bad either. The price was great and the travel logistics were even better. We plan to do this again sometime when we’re jonesing for the beach, but have only a few days to play.