Latus Rectum

LASIK Post-Surgical Update...

2008-05-09T14:30:00.001-04:00

I have been meaning to update the blog with regard to my post LASIK surgery recovery, but kept forgetting. I can think of one word to sum up the experience: wonderful! When I returned to Tylock’s office 2 weeks after the surgery, everything was good. I was noting some dryness in my right eye and was still seeing halos and starbursts at night, but my vision was great! It has been a little over two months since my surgery and things are looking great. I returned for another post-operative visit recently and my vision is now 20/15. The halo and starbursts are just about gone…either that or I don’t notice them as much. The only time I have dryness in my right eye now is when I have been driving for a while with the convertible top down or if I haven’t gotten enough sleep the night before. A few saline drops and I am good to go.

The doctor said my flaps look great and that the eyes are doing so well that I don’t need to be seen again for another six months…unless of course things change between now and then.

Everyone who has LASIK comments about being able to see the bedroom clock at night, and they are right. It is awesome to be able to see the clock sitting across the room in the middle of the night. But there are so many other times that make you relish your new & improved vision. Like being able to see the numbers on the scale (or maybe not, depending how it reads), or seeing pin-points for stars at night instead of fuzzy blurs. I am enjoying being able to read the fine print from quite a ways away, whether on signs, posters or just seeing the TV clearly from out in the yard.

A few words of advice, though. As all of the surgeons are offering 20/20 or it’s free guarantees, if you feel your vision is borderline 20/20 or worse, you may want to get a second opinion. Studies have shown that the greater the initial correction, the greater the likelihood of needed one or both eyes “tweaked”, or corrected again. Sara, my lovely wife, needed her right eye tweaked some months after the original surgery. She still doesn’t feel like they are quite 20/20, but we are outside the warranty period. So, if you get LASIK and aren’t happy with the level of correction, A) tell your doctor and B) maybe have another, unaffiliated doctor give you an eye exam to determine where you are.

I heard recently that the FDA is investigating the safety of LASIK and I hope they do a very thorough job, because there have been problems. Most of these appear to surround patients who were not suitable candidates for LASIK in the first place. Fortunately, I heard that 95% of LASIK patience are satisfied with their experience. Count me among them…

Economic Stimulus Calculator...

2008-05-09T13:48:00.004-04:00

The IRS has their Economic Stimulus Calculator here: http://www.irs.gov/app/espc/, but it is fairly in depth. Here is an excel spreadsheet I threw together to get an idea of how large (or small depending on your income) the stimulus payment would be. Note that this calculator is overly simple, but assuming you paid taxes in 2007 it should be pretty accurate.

Here is the Excel Spreadsheet. 2008_Economic_Stimulus_Worksheet.xls

The Excel formulas are somewhat complex because of the nested IF statements, but the bottom line is this:

$300 per child
+
$600 per adult (e.g. $600 single filer, $1200 for married, filing jointly)
–
5% of your income over $75000 for single filers, or 5% of your income over $150,000 if you are married, filing jointly.
=
your Stimulus Payment

Now the question is: if you are getting an Economic Stimulus Payment, are you going to spend it on goods and services, thusly stimulating the economy or are you going to pay off debt? I think I will do mostly the latter, but given that the money will be put back into the banking industry’s hands, that should ultimately stimulate the economy as well, right? And I may buy some landscaping bricks too…

Taking the LASIK plunge...so far the water is fine!

2008-02-24T17:39:00.004-05:00

I come from a long line of myopes. I have vivid memories from when I was young of my father wearing Coke bottles for glasses. My mother, father and both sisters all wore glasses. However, somehow in the toss of the genetic dice, my eyes were not nearly as bad as the rest of my family's.

I tried a brief stint with glasses in 9th grade and boy was that a fashion mistake. So when I changed schools in 10th grade, I left my glasses behind. I thought for sure when it came time to get my driver's license at 16, I would fail the vision test and be doomed to wearing glasses again, but through the magic of strenuously squinting, I passed. So I remained without four eyes through the remainder of high school and all through college. My eyesight gradually became more myopic, but not to the point of causing problems. It wasn't until I started my full-time career with MCI in 1993 that I took advantage of the Vision plan and got glasses. I have been wearing glasses ever since, going on 15 years now.

As laser eye correction became more mainstream, I began to consider the alphabet soup of procedures to "free me" of my glasses or contact lenses. However, since my eyes weren't "that bad", I chose not to. However, my wife's eyes were about as bad as the rest of my family's eyes, so a few years go we set aside money in our Healthcare Reimbursement Account and she had her eyes done. I had read a lot of good things about Dr. Gary Tylock and the research he had done in this area, so Sara had her CustomView IntraLASIK done there. The results were nothing short of incredible. As part of Dr. Tylock's "20/20 or it's free" guarantee, she did have to have one eye "tweaked" a couple months later, but the end result is that she is glasses-free for the first time since she was a very young girl.

Even with her success, I still couldn't bring myself to have the procedure done. Not out of fear of the procedure, but out of the lack of desire to spend several thousand dollars on my not-so-bad eyes. So, I stuck with glasses. However, the last pair of glasses I got was an aesthetic mistake. While I liked the overall look, they were too small for my wide head and the temple pieces were too short. The last straw was screws coming out of my glasses. I tried to replace them with the correct screws, but the threads were too messed up. The only thing that worked was a larger screw that was too long and didn't thread in all the way. Well, at this point in my career, I didn't want people focusing on my crappy repair job instead of what I was saying, so I decided to investigate having LASIK. And I am sure glad that I did.

My wife setup the consultation for me with Dr. Tylock. I went and they did all kinds of tests on my eyes. With regard to LASIK, Dr. Tylock only does CustomView IntraLASIK now. This means using a Excimer laser to create the flap in the cornea instead of the mechanical microkeratome. Further, the CustomView part involves not only determining the extent of one's myopia, it also detects and corrects higher-order aberrations in your eye. Being a Network Engineer and not a eye surgeon, I can't provide examples of those high-order aberrations, but it is good to have them corrected as well.

After all of the tests and consultations, I was bracing for the financial bad news. However, since my eyes were within the "not-so-bad" range, my surgery would be the cheapest they offered, at $2222 per eye, or $4444 for both, before various discounts for seminars, paying cash (or rather not financing the surgery with them) and surprisingly a Verizon corporate discount. So, my total was $3440, or $150 for the exams and $3290 for the surgery. I scheduled my surgery for a week later.

On the day of my surgery, I was admittedly a bit nervous. After all, these are my eyes! But I have known many people who have had wonderful results from laser eye surgery and none that had major problems. When I arrived I had to wait about 35 minutes before I was called back with a group of others. We were given our procedure bags containing our medications and post-surgical goggles and then given an explanation of the procedures.

Next they gave us each 10mg of Valium, "if we wanted some." I figured, I'm paying for it, I'm taking it! Only one or two of us (including me) were there for LASIK only. The others were having PRK, which while a shorter procedure, had a longer post-op recovery period. After the description of PRK, I was glad I was having LASIK.

Next they called us individually and took us to the surgery queue. We lounged on recliners and the techs put covers on our shoes and hairnets on our heads. Nowthat I shave my head daily, I probably had more hair on my clothes than I did on my head, but the rules are the rules. Peridically a whirring sound came from another room followed by a barrage of popping sounds which reminded me of electrical arcs. I assumed this was probably the laser doing the corrections, and later found I was correct. I could hear a good selection of music coming from the surgical theater and, with the valium kicking in, I had a hard time not singing along...

Next they called me in. I was taken to a chair that reminded me of a dentists chair. But it was hard to tell because of all of the medication and anesthetics they had put on my eyes. They laid me back, put more stuff in my eyes, made marks on my cornea and had me wait my turn. By now there was a series of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) and John Fogerty songs playing and I was having a good time. Then it was my turn to move again. This time it was to a recliner near the Excimer laser station to wait my turn.

Shortly I was told to get in the chair where the femptosecond laser was. I did and they lay me way back. I asked who picked out the music and was told that Dr. Tylock did. I told him that it was great! He said that John Fogerty had just come through town and it was a great concert. They placed more anethetics on my eyes and began with my right eye. They placed a device on my eye to hold my lids open and then lowered the device down to put pressure on my eye. They warned me that I would lose sight temporarily in that eye while the pressure was applied, but I knew it was coming. When I was a kid, bored in class, I used to put pressure on my eyes to make myself temporarily blind. Lots of fun! The laser then began to cut, but I couldn't see anything because of the pressure on my right eye and a patch over my left eye. I could, however, feel the pressure of the cutting as it moved in a circular path around my eye. They repeated the procedure on my left eye next.

Once complete, one of the techs told me that she would take me to the next chair. However, as I could see (even with flaps cut) I was able to get in the chair. I have to say though that I couldn't tell which was the heads or tails end of the chair... :-) This was the chair where they corrected the myopia. As they prepared me for the correction, they moved the flap out of the way. Previously I could see a white ring of light and a pulsing orange light. Once the flap was moved, it was just a blurry pulsating light that I could see. They said to hold still as the machine whirred to life and the arcing sound started. I could see what seemed to be light blue arcs of light all round the center of my vision. Then as they moved to the center of my vision, things got dark, except for that orange pulsating light. As before, they did the right eye first, then the left. As each eye was completed, they would put the flap back down and I could see the light ring and pulsing light clearly again. I thought this was pretty cool.

When I was finished, I stood up and could see. It looked as though I was seeing through a fairly thick fog, but otherwise things were clear. They took me to a station within the surgical theater where they checked to ensure the flaps had seated appropriately. Once satisfied, they took me to a dark room where I was to recline with my eyes closed for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, they put my post-op goggles on and walked me to the lobby where Sara was waiting for me. Sara drove home and I went ahead and took one of the sleeping pills, since it was already 7PM and the best post-op care for my eyes was sleep. The neatest thing was briefly lifting up my goggles and being able to read signs. The correction is effective that quickly.

The next day I awakened and could see everything. It is incredible. There was no pain. The only postop pain is when I put the sterioid drops in my eyes. Otherwise, everything is great! I figured now that I was glasses-free, I needed to go get some cool shades since I could no longer rely on my transitions lenses in my old glasses. So, I got what I thought were the coolest looking sunglasses that WalMart had. Now, my oldest tells me they look like my old glasses... Oh well, it was worth a try. I guess I'll have to keep looking for "cool" glasses. My kids recommend aviator glasses, but I don't think so... :-)

So, downsides to the surgery. The first is the cost, but that is coming down. My only complaint thus far is that I am likely a bit overcorrected. I'll find out for sure when I return in two weeks, but I find it difficult to read things up close. It is almost like when you cross your eyes, your eye muscles straining. But that could change over the next couple of weeks.

So as of this writing, I am VERY pleased with my decision to have LASIK and the wonderful job Dr. Tylock and his professional staff did. I would highly recommend this procedure to anyone who wears contacts or glasses. I never did well with contacts so I stuck with glasses. The difference is incredible! I no longer have to look through two small windows to see. Now, everything is in focus, even my peripheral vision. Can't beat it!

Lastly, if you are considering LASIK (or any medical procedures), make sure and use a Healthcare Reimbursement Account if your employer offers it. You can use pre-tax money to pay for your procedures instead of using money from which Uncle Sam has already taken a chunk. Depending on your tax bracket, it can be an additional savings anywhere from 15% to 35%.

HOA Hell

2008-02-17T13:05:00.003-05:00

I am sure I am not alone in this line of thinking, but what was I thinking moving into a neighborhood with a Home Owner's Association? On the surface, HOAs seem valuable. Their number one job is to maintain the homogeneity of our neighborhoods. This means no pink houses for you and me, which is a good thing...sorry Mr. Mellencamp. But often the benefits of HOAs are undermined by mismanagement, gestapo tactics and misuse of enforcement by petty neighbors.

We purchased our house in the fall of 1998. We were the fourth house in a new neighborhood in Rowlett, known as Mariner Park since we sit on the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard. About a year after we moved in, we had a patio cover installed in our backyard to shelter our den and postage-stamp-sized patio from the harsh South and West sun. A couple years later in 2001 we wanted to build an outdoor storage shed to house our lawn and garden implements. We checked with the HOA to determine the appropriate dimensions according to the HOA rules. That was when we discovered that we should have received approval for our patio cover. So, we applied for belated approval for the patio cover and the storage shed. Shortly thereafter we received approval and constructed an 8x12 shed which backs up to the alley.

Recently we were contacted by our HOA, who is evidently doing a compliance sweep, requesting us to repair our recently damaged wood fence and to paint the shed to match our house. According to the management company, SBB Management, we had been contacted back in August (i.e. 6 months ago) about said infractions and had ignored their requests. However, we never received the purported first attempt. On February 2nd or 3rd we received the Second Notice, dated 2/1/08, which stated we had 10 days to rectify the situation or face dire consequences. Interestingly, the fence had already been repaired. The shed still needed to be painted and I did so the following weekend, within their 10 day period. Then on 2/15/08 I received a much stronger letter, via regular mail and certified mail, saying I had another 10 days to comply or face legal action. Considering the shed had been painted on 2/9, I was a bit put out. They give a 10 day period and then assume I blew them off.

Interestingly, at the same time, one of our neighbors received a similar letter regarding their lack of approval for the small deck they had in their small backyard. The funny (haha, strange, you name it) thing is that the BUILDER put that on the house, not my neigbors, and did so before they purchased the house almost seven years ago. Further, the deck cannot be seen from outside the backyard. Makes you wonder how they knew about the deck at all, doesn't it. Either the HOA is peeping over fences or petty neighbors are causing trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter.

You would think that moving into a nice neighborhood would yield nice neighbors, right? Wrong! I know, I'm naive. It astounds me how many petty neighbors use the HOA as their own personal enforcement arm. We have received violation notices before, usually about the lawn. However, last year I received a violation about fixing my fence. My fence was fine, except for a single pole which had rotten out in the section separating my neighbor's yard from mine. There is no way a casual enforcement officer could have seen this leaning post from the street or alley. What is further interesting is that the post is actually on my neighbor's side of the fence, yet I received the violation. I wonder if they got one...

The HOAs are overrun with petty reports from neighbors who don't like other neighbors. The HOA rules forbid parking in front of the house for extended periods of time, but this has NEVER been enforced to my knowledge. However, if in late February or early March I have a milkweed growing in my front yard, I get a violation notice.

The good news is that I have learned from these experiences.

The HOA has WAY too much power. But since I signed the document at closing, I gave them that power. Keep ALL correspondence with the HOA, forever! I have to prove that I received approval for my shed 7 years ago or they could force me to tear it down. I don't know that the IRS makes you keep documents longer than 7 years...

Get involved in the HOA as either block captain or on the board. That way you can use the HOA for your benefit and screw anyone in the neighborhood who looks at you the wrong way.

Live in an older neighborhood where there are no HOAs.

Buy land and live far from your neighbors...

I think I need to start sending Architectural Improvement Applications on a weekly basis for things that will clearly be rejected like: A) a helipad, B) a large billboard (since the President George Bush Turnpike will come right by my neighborhoood), C) cattle ranching in my backyard, D) Drive In movie screen... You get the picture.

Actually, what I should do is pull my huge Antenna (which I no longer use since I have Verizon FIOS) out of my attic and mount it atop my chimney. Or better yet, I need to put a large HAM radio antenna array in my backyard. I believe the FCC protects these and the HOA would be powerless... Gonna have to check into that one.

Anyway, for the unitiatied, be careful when you buy a house in a neighborhood with a HOA. Given the housing crunch now, you should have plenty other choices. Or, if you do embark upon the HOA nightmare, keep good records of your correspondence. Words to the wise...from the not as wise. Of course most folks who stumble upon this little diatribe are probably already feeling the HOA pain. My condolences. Just remember, misery loves company.

Zanata Restaurant - Rockwall

2007-10-13T21:10:00.000-04:00

When Sara and I were looking for a new home in 1999, we wanted a place that was part suburban/rural and party city. We found this in Rowlett, TX. We have been very happy here. However, the quality of dining in the area has left something to be desired. For family quick outings there was always Chili's, local average (or below) eateries and the traditional fast-food fare. However, whenever we wanted to go higher-end in our dining, we always had to go to Greenville avenue, Richardson, Addison, Plano or Frisco. However, we found a place in nearby Rockwall that could just become a regular haunt for us when we want to eat a bit more upscale but don't want to travel great distances to do so.

Tonight we wanted to go out to dinner so we decided to forgo the Rowlett fare and head to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place in Rockwall. Unfortunately they were closed, so we began to seek out new places to eat. As we waited at a red light on the square in Rockwall, we stumbled across Zanata Restaurant. It had a different look about it, but it was hard to tell what kind of fare it specialized in. So we decided to turn the block and drive by again. Specifically, we wanted to check out what folks were wearing inside as we didn't want to be under dressed. Zanata had large windows that opened out onto the sidewalk, reminiscent of Margaritaville in Key West. The dress looked casual enough, so we pulled into an alley next to the restaurant and parked.

When we entered, it wasn't clear what the seating etiquette was. But shortly thereafter a hostess greeted us and quickly cleared a table for our party of five. Outside a banner had mentioned "wood fired pies," and seeing pizza at several of the tables, I quickly understood the "pie" reference. The decor is in nice earth tones and very warm and friendly. The table is set with hand-blown stemware for the water.

The waitstaff at Zanata was wonderfull. Our waiter, Louie, was great. We started off with two different orders of their Bruschetta which were very good. We ordered a carraffe of the house red wine since Sara is not a big wine drinker. The younger kids didn't enjoy the Bruschetta as much as Sara, Josh and I did. One of the orders, the Sonomoa, had goat cheese, balsamic vinegar and sliced portobella. The other, the Fresh Mozzerella, had mozzerella (naturally), Tomato Confit, basil, sea-salt and olive oil. This was my favorite. The tomatoes where wonderful.

Andrew and Trin ordered a Cheese pizza and Josh got the House pizza. Sara shared the House pizza with Josh as well as a Caesar salad. I had the Lasagna special and boy was I glad that I did. The Lasagna was easily four inches thick, if not more, with tons of Ricotta cheese. The meat sauce, containing fresh tomatos, herbs and italian sausage, was on top and the lasagna layers consisted of pasta and Ricotta. This was easily some of the best Lasagna I have had in some time.

Louie explained that Zanata had been open since January. I don't know how many times I have driven by Zanata this year and never knew it was there. They could benefit from some advertising, but considering the number of couples and families waiting as we left, maybe they don't need to advertise.

If you are in the Rockwall/Rowlett area and are looking for an uncommonly good Italian/Mediterranean restaurant, I would highly recommend Zanata. We will certainly be back there soon!

Nana's Baked Macaroni and Cheese Recipe...

2007-09-15T20:59:00.000-04:00

Although I have a page on this site for recipes, a recent hard drive crash and corporate sourcing of a new computer means that I no longer have Dreamweaver on my laptop. I suppose I could go upstairs, but this is easier... :-)

My german grandmother, Irene Ida Meyer, affectionately called Nana, was a wonderful cook. You wouldn't find her recipes in high-end restaurants, as she was born dirt poor in Quero, Tx. She made good, economical meals that reflected her central Texas upbringing. My grandfather, a.k.a Papa, grew up in a Catholic orphanage and could make dinner out of anything. I got my epicurean experimentation from my Papa. Anyway, here is my version of Nana's baked macaroni and cheese. My sister Michelle has the original recipe, which I will post later, but here his my successful attempt to replicate...

Nana's Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Ingredients:

1 lb dry macaroni noodles
2 cups of milk
4 eggs
4 pounds shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Garlic salt
pepper
Grated Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook macaroni noodles in boiling, salted and oiled, water. Mix the milk, eggs, garlic salt, pepper and shredded cheese together. Pour the cooked noodles into a baking pan. Pour the milk, egg and cheese mixture over the noodles. With a large spoon, mix the liquid and cheese thoroughly through the noodles.

Cover with foil and bake in the 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Uncover the baking pan and continue to bake until the noodles and cheese are a golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with fresh, grated Parmesan Cheese.

This dish is a mainstay at our birthday dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter dinners. Every time we make it I think of Nana. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Mattress Giant - Update...

2007-09-06T11:41:00.000-04:00

Quick update on our expensive lesson. We went back to Mattress Giant and worked out a solution. Although, I would have much preferred to received my money back (minus the pickup charge), we were given store credit that we were able to use toward beds for the kids. So we will have two new Full-size beds plus pillows instead of a King-Size bed we can't sleep on. All in all, probably as good a solution as could be managed. As expected, Tom at Mattress Giant was very helpful in figuring out how we could use the store credit without additional cost to us. The kids laid on the mattresses and chose the ones they liked. Hopefully they are not tons harder than the floor model like ours was.

Slept on the Sleep Number bed last night and slept well. Again, lesson learned.

Logitech Harmony 659 Remote Update...Still Happy!

2007-09-05T16:10:00.000-04:00

While I am blogging, I wanted to provide an update to my initial posting on the Logitech Harmony 659 Remote. I recently purchased a DViCO TViX Box to play our backed up DVDs, which are stored on our home computer, on our living room HDTV. This meant that I needed to update the remote's activities. We moved the previous PS3 solution upstairs, so this means that we no longer needed the Play Video Games activity and needed to edit the Watch a Movie action.

The laptop on which I had previously installed the Harmony software had crashed and been replaced by a new on. However, it was very easy to re-setup the remote control. It had the TViX box information and I was able to set it up easily once I figured out what category the device was listed in. Nice and easy. I didn't have to learn any codes from the original remote.

After several months of use, one of the best features of the remote is the Help function. Invariably, the kids turn things off without using the remote, causing the remote to be out of sync with the power and input states of our home theater equipment. However, a press of the Help button and a few steps solves the problem and puts the remote back in sync.

I had previously used a HomeTheaterMaster remote which was nice, but pales in comparison to the Logitech Harmony remote. This specific model doesn't appear to be available at Tiger Direct any longer, but is available via Amazon.com or one of their suppliers.

Three months later and I am still a very happy owner. I just wish they were cheaper so I could buy one for every TV in the house!

Mattress Giant Pain in the Butt!

2007-09-05T14:10:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the length of this posting, but I need to vent and want to tell the whole story. The summary: Select Comfort ROCKS!!! Mattress Giant sucks!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Few outside my immediate family know of the trials and tribulations I have been going through with our bed. When we bought our house in 1999, we purchased a queen-size Sealy (or Serta) pillow-top mattress from Mattress Giant for our new Vaughan Simply Shaker bedroom set. Sara and I have different definitions of a comfortable mattress and this one seemed to be a decent compromise. I have slept wonderfully on the mattress for many years. I have been happy with my purchase and the service we received at Mattress Giant.

As the bed aged, we would turn and/or rotate the mattress to try to get even wear. Finally, once much of the loft was gone from the pillow-top, Sara purchased a Tempurpedic (or similar) pad for the top. The pad, being at least 4" thick, restored my comfort in the bed. While we have wanted a King-size mattress for quite some time, we were happy with the bed so made no changes. However, Sara's quality of sleep was continuing to decline while I slept without problem.

Recently, Sara and her mom visited a Select Comfort store and they fell in love with the Sleep Number bed. Sara said I "just had to try this bed" so I did. Naturally, the sales staff at the Select Comfort store start you out on the low-end bed with the inflatable camping mattress feel and the vacuum cleaner (or maybe leaf blower) loud air pump. After laying on that bed (the 3000 model if I recall correctly), I thought I was going to have to break Sara's heart and refuse to purchase the bed. However, as we climbed the quality (and price) ladder, the beds became more and more comfortable. Once we got to the 7000 bed, I had no complaints and therefore no way to say no. So we purchased the bed. It was delivered a week or so later.

At setup, my chamber (naturally) would not stay inflated. Our 30-day in-home trial was not starting well. Sara called Select Comfort who shipped out a new pump and new chamber. In the interim, the wonderful store personnel provided (free of charge) a temporary pump and a twin-bed chamber so that I could actually sleep on the bed. Once I settled in on my sleep number (30-35), I was once again in slumber heaven. A few days later the replacement parts arrived and I replaced the defective parts and continued to enjoy the bed. (It turned out that the pump's pressure sensor, from which the sleep number is derived, was defective on the original unit.)

As the end of our 30 day trial approached, I was sleeping exceptionally well. So much so, I didn't want to leave the luxury of my bed each morning. However, Sara was not sleeping well in this bed either. She tried many different sleep numbers to no avail. So, she called Select Comfort customer support to request that they pick up the bed since we didn't want to have a $3500 bed in which Sara was still not sleeping well. Because of the difficulties we experienced in the first week or so of our trial, Select Comfort extended our in-home trial an additional 30 days. So we kept the bed longer. Once again, as the end of the extended term approached, we began to grapple with the decision to return or keep the bed. The difficulties we had with the pump, etc and various Internet-based reviews I read, pushed me to return the bed. So we called and requested a pickup.

In order to not be left without a bed, we began looking for a new bed, again. We considered a Tempurpedic bed, but had heard many stories of sleeping hot on Tempur material. In fact, when we had the Tempurpedic (or similar) pad on our old bed, I did sleep warmer. Being warm natured, this often meant sleeping on top of the sheets and/or covers. So, a tempurpedic bed was out. This left us with a traditional inner-spring mattress solution. Having had a good experience at Mattress Giant previously, we headed to the new store at the nearby mall.

Mattress Giant was running a sale that represented a savings of about 33% off their normal (non-sale) prices. The salesman who worked with us (Tom) was nothing short of extremely helpful and a pleasure to work with. He showed us many beds. We had gone in thinking about a Simmons Extravagance Super Pillow-top, but as expected that is not where we ended up. We didn't go a lot higher, but we did go higher. After laying on many beds, we decided on a Simmons BeautyRest Spirit Plush. Simmons offers (for an additional fee) the option of having one side firm and the other plush, but after laying on the beds we both opted for the plush feel. The mattress and box springs (two twins) combination was $1599. If we wanted the option to exchange the bed, once, should we not like it, we had to purchase a form of protection for the bed, whether the spray-on or the protective mattress pad. We opted for the latter at $99. Because of the expense of the bed, Mattress Giant would throw in either a free pillow or a King-size foundation (frame minus head and foot boards). We opted for the pillow since we already had a cheap frame we purchased for the Sleep Number bed and we have a Vaughan King frame (with head and foot boards) on order. With tax and delivery, we parted with $1905.17 and received a delivery date of the following day. Happy with our purchase, we went home, slept one last time on our Sleep Number bed and awaited the delivery of our new bed.

Sara took apart the Sleep Number bed and the new Simmons set was delivered ahead of schedule. We were excited to sleep in our new bed and wondered why Select Comfort hadn't scheduled a pick-up date yet. When I got home from work, Sara told me to try the bed; she said it felt harder than the one in the store. Sure enough when I lay on the bed, it wasn't as comfortable as the one in the store. So, I checked the SKU on our receipt and the SKU on the mattress and they matched. Not liking the firmness of our new bed, we had no choice but to sleep on it until we could talk to Mattress Giant. Big mistake.

Normally I can sleep just about anywhere. Unlike a lot of men, I sleep on my stomach. As such, I just need enough loft in the padding to keep the weight off of my ribs. When I first started camping with the Boy Scouts, this was a problem. But once I ponied up the money for a high-end Therm-a-rest ground pad from REI, I was in heaven. It had enough loft to keep my ribs off of the ground, allowing me to sleep extremely well. Even when I went to Philmont Scout Ranch and used a lighter-weight, backpacker-friendly ground pad from Therm-a-rest, it had enough loft to enable me to sleep well. (That and 54 miles of backpacking in 10 days...) The Therm-a-rest pads were $150 for the XL LuxuryCamp pad and about $100 for the Prolite pad. For $1905.17 one would expect to sleep far better than when using a $100 ground pad, but one would be wrong.

When I climbed into bed around 11PM, the top felt cushy enough. I like cushy beds. I could feel a little pressure on the bottom of my rib cage (far more than I felt in the store), but I thought it would be okay. It wasn't. I was able to sleep until about 2 AM when I awoke in pain. So I moved around a bit, ending up sleeping on my side. However, I don't sleep on my side. Since I was a kid, I could take both shoulders out of joint...still can. The problem is that when I sleep on my side, they pop out of socket and did so during the night. I would be starting to fall asleep when I would be roused by excruciating pain in my shoulders. I tried my back, but couldn't fall asleep on my back. I spent the next 3 hours tossing, turning and thinking that I may have just been taught a very expensive lesson. However, my faith in humanity told me that Mattress Giant would allow us to return them for a refund since we had only slept on them one night and with the $99 protective cover on. That was obviously sleep deprivation talking... I finally got out of bed at 5:30, not to return. My back aches in places it has never ached before.

In the past, I was the one that enjoyed sleeping on our various beds and Sara was the one that had issues. I was worried that she would LOVE the bed and I would have to suffer through. However, Sara evidently slept even worse than I did; I was surprised that this was even possible. Interestingly enough, sleeping on the Mattress Giant bed made Sara realize how good she was sleeping in the Sleep Number bed. Compared to the night we had just had, anything was better, but in Sara's words, the Sleep Number bed was "heaven compared to the Simmons Spirit Plush."

She and I wracked our brains, trying to decide what to do. We had already called Select Comfort to pick up our Sleep Number bed and now we have a bed we cannot possibly sleep on. So Sara called Mattress Giant corporate customer support. Cheryl was very nice and helpful, saying that she was sorry that we had such a bad experience with the bed. She promised to contact the Mattress Giant district person (rep, manager, I don't know...) and that person would call us back. Hearing a hopeful tone in Sara's voice, I became hopeful that the customer service I expected from Mattress Giant wasn't a sleep-deprived delusion after all. A little while later, Cheryl calls back with a completely different tone. There will be NO refunds. We will be given store credit "this one time" and we "need to be more careful to choose the 'right' bed this time." Mattress Giant customer service was a dream after all. Interestingly, it is Mattress Giant written policy to allow a trade-out within 45 days of purchase, so I am still puzzled over Cheryl's "this one time" comment.

After talking to Cheryl, Sara quickly called Select Comfort customer service to see if we could rescind the pickup request. The lady at Select Comfort was very pleasant (Rita I think was her name) and said of course she would be happy to cancel the pickup. Sara and Rita recognized that they had talked on Monday and Rita took the time to propose ways to help Sara sleep better in the Sleep Number bed. As quickly as we could, we moved the Simmons out of the way and put the Sleep Number bed back together. Just for the heck of it, I climbed into bed and Sara was right. It was heaven.

I showered and dressed and Sara and I went to the Mattress Giant store where we purchased the bed. Tom was there and we told him what happened. As before, Tom was a joy to work with. He suggested we lay on the plush side of the floor-model and Sara and I both could tell a difference between that and the one we had agonizingly tried to sleep on the previous night. He opined several reasons why we could have had an issue, only one of which was aimed at us, the customer. In fact his first reaction was to assume he had inadvertently ordered the wrong mattress. After checking, he hadn't. Tom talked to our Cheryl in corporate customer service who informed him that we were not to be given a refund. We could use the non-sale price toward another bed or beds. Tom pointed out that the latter made little sense. I could purchase a bed on sale for $1599, return it for $2399 credit toward a bed that wasn't on sale? Seems like a hole in their thinking. So, Tom suggested that he could apply the $1599 sale price toward other mattresses which he could discount 33%. This was an acceptable alternative. However, we don't want to go through this again. So, suffer the children. It looks like we can purchase a Full and a Twin mattress set for around $1397 and make up the difference with protective covers, pillows, frames or something.

So while it is not a total loss by any means, it is a very expensive lesson learned. Had we purchased the mattresses at more normal retailers such as Sam's Club, Costo or Sears, we probably could have returned them for a refund. However, as Mattress Giant operates more like a car dealership of old, this is not possible. Contrast Mattress Giant with Select Comfort. Who has more faith in their product, the company that takes a buyer-beware attitude or the company that will give you 30 days (60 in our case or 90 days for Tempurpedic) to determine whether you truly are satisfied with the product and provide a 100% refund (minus shipping)? If we have problems with our Sleep Number bed as others have reported (although nothing indicates we will at this point), I will gladly replace the pieces necessary to continue my relationship with my very comfortable bed and the wonderful company that produces it. And someday when the cats have shredded the bed or the dust mites have consumed it or whatever, I will purchase another Select Comfort bed happily.

So severs a 9 year relationship with Mattress Giant and so solidifies a new relationship with Select Comfort. Readers of this are encouraged to do as you like. This is just one man's opinion. However, I would strongly discourage you from giving your business to Mattress Giant, unless you desire to learn a lesson yourself. However, if you see Tom at Mattress Giant at Firewheel Mall in Garland, TX, tell him hello from Nick and buy him a cup of coffee for me. He'll appreciate it!

Life with a SqueezeBox is good!

2007-06-11T14:03:00.000-04:00

Ten years ago, few people had any idea what a MPEG-1 Layer 3 encoded audio file was, fewer actually possesed any. With the help of the free automated tools, the Internet and peer-to-peer file sharing, MP3s have grown dramatically in popularity. Today, MP3 audio files have become arguably the most pervasive format of audio. However, one of the biggest problems with having MP3s has been the inability to play them outside of the PC on which they reside.

Companies such as Creative, Apple and others addressed this with personal MP3 players, with much success. Nowadays, you can't go very long without seeing someone with little ear buds and dangling wires, walking (or jogging) by. However, for audiophiles (and couch potatoes alike), having to connect your iPod to the home stereo system has been awkward at best. This is where companies such as Roku and Slim Devices come in. They specialize in high-quality MP3 players for home and office use with their SoundBridge and Squeezebox products, respectively.

After looking around the industry for a means to stream my vast MP3 collection within my home and to my office, I settled on the Slim Devices Squeezebox. I had heard good things about the Squeeze Box so I decided to give it a try and took advantage of their discount on the purchase of two. I purchased one for home and one for my office. This is truly one of those devices that makes me wonder how I got along without one, especially at work.

The Squeeze Box is a very nice design. It supports both wired Internet connections (via Ethernet) or wireless (802.11 -WiFi). It also supports several audio ouput options including a 1/8" headphone jack, left and right analog RCA jacks and optical and coaxial digital audio outputs (S/PDIF). The SqueezeBox also has a very nice, large, vacuum-fluorescent display which can be seen from across the room. The included remote control is nice, especially from the couch. The Squeeze Box requires a server application to run on the PC containing the MP3 files, but also supports several Internet radio solutions. One of the things I really like about the server software is that it is free, has a nice web interface for controlling the SqueezeBox and is very open for development of third-party plug-ins. It is refreshing to see companies open to third-party development.

As I mentioned, I own two SqueezeBoxes. I have one at home, connected to my Home Theater system via the coaxial S/PDIF cable. All of the family's MP3s are on our home computer, where the Slim Server is running as well. While they can use the web interface to select the Album, Artist, Genres, Playlists and Years, the included remote control works very nicely as the sole interface to our over 50 GB audio library. The kids often dial up their favorite music on the audio system in the family room, just by switching inputs on the A/V receiver and selecting the Artist, Album, etc using the Slim Devices remote control. Now, with our new Logitech remote control (see below), it is even easier for them to listen to their favorite music.

At work, I have one sitting on my desk, connected to my PC speakers via the headphone jack. Clearly, this type of setup would make audiophiles cringe, but it gets the job done. I can either access my home library (via port forwarding in my home router) or I can access my library which I host on a server connected to the Internet. I am amazed how much more productive I am with the music playing in the background instead of the steady, white noise of the air conditioning system at work. The beauty of the SqueezeBox is that, similar to a personal iPod, I can select the music I want to listen to throughout my work day based on my current mood, musical taste, etc. Further, if I want to listen to the radio, I can do that as well thanks to the Internet Radio support offered by Slim Devices, RadioTime, and other Internet-based radio stations. Sometimes I want to listen to the radio, but couldn't with a traditional FM receiver due to the shielding, electromagnetic interference, etc in my office. However, with the SqueezeBox, I can listen to my local radio stations anytime, not to mention listening to radio stations all over the country and the world.

Interestingly, I found that owning such a high-quality audio device meant I needed to upgrade my MP3 library. I started converting to MP3 about 10 years ago when the first MP3 encoders became available. Over the years, I have amassed quite a library of MP3s through converting my CDs and purchasing via iTunes. However, the songs are not necessarily of the highest quality, especially those ripped early on. As such, it was a waste of the digital audio connection and my high-end sound system to stream 80K or 128K MP3s to it. So, I have been slowly reconverting my library to MP3 at much higher bitrates, so that the files are of high enough quality that my electric-guitar damaged ears can't tell the difference. Fortunately, with the low price of hard-disk storage, MP3s are becoming more of a de facto standard audio format and less of a means to squeeze as much music as possible into a small space. There are other formats out there which can offer high-quality audio, but none are as universally supported as MP3.

Finally, one additional feature of the Slim Devices solution that I find extremely useful is their support for a third-party developed software implementation of the SqueezeBox, known as the SoftSqueeze. While I take my iPod with me everywhere I go, it is not always charged. With the SlimServer and the SoftSqueeze java applet, I can listen to my music ANYWHERE I have internet access and a PC. I used to keep my MP3s on my work laptop, but the corporate police don't allow this anymore. However, with the SoftSqueeze and the pervasive availability of WiFi, I have access to my MP3 library almost everywhere. I am eagerly awaiting third-party players for my Motorola Q phone and my Sony PSP. Since the SlimServer is a free download from the Slim Devices website, you can setup and use the Slime Server without buying a SqueezeBox. But I would recommend buying one and enjoying music...

Mozy Online Backup Service

2007-06-09T12:21:00.001-04:00

Keeping in the spirit of technological products and services that keep my digital world turning… For anyone who has ever lost data due to a computer crash, lost CD, hard drive crash, or just wandering fingers of a toddler, Mozy has the solution.

Mozy is an internet-based, online backup service, which after using for 6 months, I highly recommend! Having experienced a hard-drive crash recently at work, the importance of a data protection plan was pounded home. While work data is clearly important, what with the Powerpoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, hundreds (if not thousands) of Word documents and eons of email, one may wonder what personal data at home warrants the kind of protection that is often afforded to more business critical data. While there are many things that one should probably backup at home, there is one category of data that trumps them all: Pictures. Sure, if you lose your Quicken data, you are in a world of hurt, but there are ways to get back on your feet after such a loss. But if you lose the picture of your 5 year old daughter placing sunglasses on the cat, you are lost forever. This is where Mozy comes in.

At our house, we have four desktop PCs, two laptops and a couple of printers. The primary computer for our pictures, banking, etc is our primary home computer in our game room. In the past, we used Rewritable CDROMs, and then DVDs, to back up our critical banking data, pictures, etc. However, this only works if nobody has removed the CD/DVD from the drive (remember those wandering fingers?). Further, I recently found that CD-ROMs don’t necessarily make good long-term storage media. I used CD-ROMs at work to annually backup Outlook PST files (a.k.a mail folders). At the request of the legal guys, in response to pending litigation, I attempted to search those disks for specific mails, presentations, etc, to no avail. Some of the discs have unreadable sectors, rendering files comprising those sectors, useless. Lesson learned. Note to self: don’t backup important data on CDs/DVDs.

On our home PC, I have added a RAID-5 array which serves as my primary backup mechanism. For the non geeks out there, RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks and level 5 is one of the better, fault tolerant versions of RAIDs. Anyway, this has served us well. Should one of the disks in the array die, I can remove it without losing ANY data. If you are interested in doing the same, Tiger Direct has many solutions for RAID arrays. There is one chink in the armor though… If we experience a fire, tornado, etc, (flashback to New Orleans…) we stand to lose the data we are protecting on the RAID 5. In order to truly protect the data, an off-site mechanism is required.

Historically, internet-based backup services, such as those offered by Verizon and others, were fairly pricy and were priced on a per-Gigabyte basis. Mozy is different. Mozy is much cheaper! Mozy offers two flavors of backup. First is a free, online backup service for up to 2GB of data. Second, is an unlimited service which costs $4.95 per month. In looking through the data I wanted to protect, I discovered I needed more than 2GB so I signed up for the Unlimited Service. I am currently backing up over 50GB of pictures, Quicken data, emails and MP3s.

Mozy provides a small application that resides on your computer and performs daily, incremental backups. This means that it backs up only the information that has changed, greatly expediting the process. However, the first backup is killer! Mine took over a week and I have Verizon FIOS with a 2 Mbps uplink. If you have a cable modem or DSL it will take longer and don’t even think about it via dial-up. However, as I mentioned, once the initial backup is done, the daily backups are quick and painless.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to restore from the Mozy backup yet, so I can’t comment on how well that works. However, I have played with the web-based access to the files and restored a single file quite nicely.

One of the obvious questions is security. To maintain the security of your data, the files are encrypted using either a Mozy-provided key or a customer-provided key. For most users, this level of security should easily suffice considering that it is more secure than my home, where someone could break in and steal the computer (which contains un-encrypted data)… Hmm… Maybe that should be my next project.

Overall, I highly recommend Mozy Unlimited Backup. Check it out!

Next time, life with a SqueezeBox is good!

Logitech Harmony 659 Remote Review

2007-06-08T16:23:00.001-04:00

Just thought I would share my experience with my new Logitech Harmony 659 which I purchased at TigerDirect with my new Vizio 47" 1080P LCD TV. So far, I HIGHLY recommend this universal remote.

You set it up via USB and an internet-enabled configuration application. They had ALL of my devices: Samsung TV, Harmon Kardon A/V Receiver, Verizon FIOS Motorola Settop and SlimDevices SqueezeBox. It can’t control my PS3 since the PS3 uses Bluetooth controllers, however it can set everything else up to enable using the PS3.

It knows the discrete codes for not only On and Off, but discrete inputs on the Samsung. It is setup with several “activity” buttons such as “Watch TV”, “Listen to Music”, etc. Via the software, I told it which devices were involved in each activity and which inputs were used. It did the rest. When you switch from one activity to another, it turns off the unused components. So for example, if I go from Watching TV to Watching a Movie (on the PS3), it switches to the appropriate inputs and turns off my FIOS settop box. It remembers the current state of the devices to prevent unnecessary turning on & off.

The best part is the Help feature. If you hit an activity button and for some reason the settop box doesn’t come on, you press Help and it resends the codes. If this doesn’t work, it walks you through a short list of questions such as “Is the TV on?, Yes or No” until everything is the way you want it.

Of all the remotes I have owned, so far, this is easily the best.

Nick

Picture Blogging via Email Test

2007-04-09T10:29:00.001-04:00

New Blog

2007-04-04T22:25:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my new blog. This will serve as my personal soapbox on many issues as well as a means to review cool new electronic gadgets I own or have tried.

Hopefully new entries will be fairly regular, but, then again, who knows... :-)

Nick