Since Friday I have been using my new Verizon Blackberry Storm (Verizon 9530). A little background first. For the past 28 months I've been using a Verizon Blackberry 7130e. Not the most modern blackberry, but a suretype device that is a good prep for the portrait version of the keyboard on the storm.

Tonight Gail and I set out to have an early dinner to start our weekend. We quickly settled on Claiborne's when they were able get us a table at 6pm. When we arrived, we were surprised that they are having a great special until the end of September. For $59 for two, each gets to pick any entree (excludes 'market price' items), match it up with soup or house/caesar salad, and get their creme brulee for desert.

Gail had the petite filet, with the garlic mashed potatoes. I had the mixed seafood over wild rice. We both chose the caesar. Finishing it all off with the creme brulee was perfect.

After dinner, we took a short detour to Blue & Gray and picked up a growler of Oktoberfest for tomorrow's dinner with friends (grilled rack o' ribs). Mmmm, what a way to start the weekend.

With a baby on the way and the blog popularity rising, the other month I started looking for a digital SLR. I thought I had made my decision, when Nikon releases the press release on their new D90. This dslr has the sensor of a pro camera, but with a price closer to the consumer models. Normally I wouldn't be looking to spend this much on a camera, the blog doesn't make that much $. But this one will serve me two purposes. I can shoot great pictures, and also snag the occasional youtube clip for the blog or of the baby for our parents. All without having to lug around our camcorder and do the tape to pc conversion.

My friend who shoots almost exclusively with Nikon, brought up a good question, which lens do I want? The camera has an option of being bought with an 18-105mm lens, which gets descent wide angle, and zoom to about 6x for those of us used to point and shoot terms. However, the photo community is in love with Nikon's 18-200mm lens. It is a step up in quality construction. Read that to mean also more than double the price. I could look on ebay, but then you don't know exactly the quality of any used equipment.

I just need to make friends with a Nikon rep and offer up blog posts for a long term equipment demo!

I don't know if it's because of the economy, or the steady flow of political ads stating how each candidate is going to help me be better off, but this weekend I noticed a particularly disturbing trend in dinner menus - no drink prices.

We visited two chain restaurants this weekend. Maybe that was my mistake, in tough times you should eat local so that more revenue goes into the local economy right? I'll even call them out by name, one was Applebees®, the other was Bailey's. On both menus, there wasn't a single price listed for drinks. I'm not just talking alcoholic drinks, I mean ALL drinks. Not soda, tea, beer, wine or hard liquor. And ask my friends, I'm not trying to be cheap, I love a $10-15 martini if it's made right, or a specialty beer in the tallest (non-frosted) glass.

The manager at Applebees® explained that in an effort to reduce costs, they are printing menus to cover a larger region, and with separate liquor taxes in each state, not printing prices allows them to save costs. So I followed up with why not at least print non-alcoholic prices. He went on that even their soda prices had been fluctuating in the latest economy, and this way each store could set their prices. Fine - I understand the cost savings, and corporate reasoning. I definitely do not have to like it.

Due to other issues, I didn't even bother to ask at Bailey's. The manager there couldn't make a good argument for switching off the 'Skins game to go with Karaoke, I didn't even want to ask about the drink prices. They also seem to fall more into the bar category, what I was really surprised at was the family establishments that have deleted these prices.

In an economy where some experts are suggesting the population needs to learn how to save once again, doesn't it seem counter productive to remove vital ordering information from menus? There must be some law stating that food prices are on there, I can only imaging the next bean counter figuring out that they could just print a menu with titles and pictures - take your best guess on the price...

BTW - the food at Applebees® was as expected, and the staff and management was great. Thanks to the manager that took the time to talk about this with us. The Dominion Oak Barrel Stout and bacon cheese fries (total health food kick) at Bailey's was also wonderful, its a shame their management wasn't.

Wow! In a day and age when I thought customer service and standing behind your product had gone out the window - one company comes through and has restored my faith in society.

PetSafe - maker of radio fences for pet containment (along with many other products) has a lifetime hardware replacement plan. Granted they charge $35 service fee, but that is peanuts compared to what a new system would cost me.

Let me explain. I've had a petsafe radio fence for 'Gus' for 9 years. The transmitter and collars have moved between 3 houses. Granted each time I had to bury a new wire around whatever yard, but basically the expensive parts I've always kept. In one of the electrical storms two weeks ago, lightning struck a tree in our neighbors yard. Wow - that's another story - I was looking out the upstairs window from the middle of the room, all the hair stood up on my neck, the light show was quick but amazing. The only thing damaged was the PetSafe transmitter, probably because the radio fence loop runs only a few feet from the base of the tree.

1 phone call
2 automated menu items
0 wait time
1 friendly operator from Knoxville, TN
3 minutes to give them my shipping information for them to send me a new box ($35), and they take my broken one back AFTER I get the new one.

WOW! Who knew! If you are considering a system, please go buy their product to show you too like good customer service.

If every airline had service like ExpressJet, I'd be ecstatic. I had to go from Tucson to Sacramento, and flew on this exceptional small carrier. Their ERJ isn't the biggest jet, with just one flight attendant, but with the food service (hear that Airlines? Food on a 2 hour flight), snack offers, happy attendants, and on time service, the flight was exceptional. Oh, did I mention they gave out free ear buds for XM radio?

Their magazine in the back pocket wasn't a magazine at all, but a display of several places the airline flies, with activities and events that might be interesting to travelers. There were almost no ads. It's the only airline product I've seen recently that didn't have at least one Bose noise-cancelling headset ad.

All this for $120 for a one-way non-stop ticket.

Once again we’re faced with an evening commute featuring potentially rough storms. The Storm Prediction Center has placed us under a Moderate Risk for severe storms. They break down severity types and tag them with our chances:

Tornado: 2%
Severe hail (.75in or larger): 30%
Severe wind (58mph or more) 45%

Additionally, there is a 10% chance of winds gusting to more than 74mph, which is hurricane levels.

The National Weather Service is also launching a 2:00 weather balloon for more data. Normally they’re launched at 8:00 every morning and evening, but whenever the mid-afternoon balloon goes up, you know they’re preparing for a busy shift.

Be careful tonight.

After being outside this weekend I was bitten by a tick (and maybe something else), and today at lunch my foot was swollen enough to make me consider going to a doctor. Note to other people - when things start swelling, it's time to go to the doctor. I took the normal train home, and went straight to Medic 1 on Rt1 across from the Ford Dealer.

I walked in at 5:50pm, even though I'd used them before, it took about 10 minutes to update paperwork, and by 6:25 I was back in the exam room. After the nurse left, it was only about 5 minutes before the Physician's Assistant Margo Bragg came in, explained I had a mild bacterial infection and got my prescription. One tetanus update later, and I was outa there (6:40pm).

That's service! Thanks so much to the staff and medical personnel for the fast, efficient, friendly care. This is what healthcare should be like.