Archives 2011

Last night I did some proactive work to slim down the weekend chores by mowing the grass.  My mower deck repairs seem to have paid dividends thus far, the cut is level and true.  Certain areas of our yard have really rebounded nicely.

Over the winter there were many sections of the yard that were totally overrun with dollar weed, my arch nemesis.  I treated those areas repeatedly with weed and feed to try to keep it under control.  Well it seems the thick St Augustine grass that I have planted in various spots in the yard is starting to spread nicely to choke other yard weeds out.

Right now my favorite spot in the yard is the mound on the orchard side of the house.  It is a beautiful thick carpet of green.  I need to throw some St Augustine up front.  The bahia that we have up there doesn’t cover nearly as well.

Today I drop Ali off at the airport.  She is heading north for a few days to visit her family, leaving me again to be a weekend bachelor.  Actually I won’t be home alone very long, my mistress Randall will be hanging out this weekend to keep me company.

They finally posted the pictures from the triathlon yesterday.  Unfortunately they were just posted in bulk with no search ability.  Ali spent considerable time last night going through 2000+ thumbnails.  The only picture she found of me was this one. I look annoyed and exhausted.

Tonight I am going to buy groceries at the Ave Maria Publix for fun.  It is the closest I will get to a religious experience.  I have to make sure I get there early as they close at 7PM, they have special Catholic Town hours.  Although I don’t know where anything is in this store I always like having 4 employees for every one customer since the place is so empty.  It makes me feel important.

Now full blown pornographic pics of Weiner’s wiener are supposedly out there AND they announced his wife is 3 months pregnant. Ouch.  I imagine things on the home front are pretty awful.  You play, you pay.

Last night I watched some more content on Hulu Plus with the 360.  You may recall that when I cut the cord to cable TV I set up my PC with Playon.  Playon gives me access to all sorts of online content including Hulu, Netflix and most of the other available streaming stuff.  However I have found that I don’t use it much.

The gotcha with Playon is you have to it up and running on a pc on your local network to watch content.  That is kind of annoying.  There also seems to be a significant picture quality difference.  When I was watching native Hulu content on the Xbox last night the picture looked like a normal high def broadcast.  Most of what I get from Playon looks like SD or VHS quality at best.  Maybe I am more of a A/V snob than I realize.  Once you get accustomed to crystal clear HD images anything less seems like a major compromise.

So yesterday Jeremy was asking me my opinion on replacement smart phones.  He is getting ready to replace his which is long in the tooth.  He is doing his normal Jeremy thing, paralysis by analysis.  He has considered a large number of phones and asked my opinion on a few of them.  Of course my ultimate opinion is “just get an IPhone, they’re great”.  Well of course he has no interest in following my advice.

So anyway yesterday the phone of the day was the HTC Evo 3D on the Sprint network.  The Evo has all sorts of gee whiz features, many of which you will use one or two times, say they are “cool” and never use them again, like taking “3D” pictures that can only be viewed in 3D on the Evo.  He also mentioned how the Evo can act as a personal wi-fi hotspot.

Now lots of phones today can act as wi-fi hotspots.  The catch is the carriers want to charge you for this as an extra service, even if you pay for example, ATT’s “unlimited” data plan.  That is bullshit to me.

Well for whatever reason, this phone discussion with Jeremy got me thinking about jailbreaking my Iphone.  WTF is that you ask?

An Iphone in it’s standard configuration is rigidly controlled by both ATT and Apple.  Although you have access to hundreds of thousands of apps on the Apple store, you only have access to apps that THEY approve.

When you jailbreak an Iphone you are loading code that removes these restrictions, allowing you to load whatever you want on a device that you paid for.  I mean wtf, how would you like buying a computer and only be able to load things Microsoft says you can?  Or buy a car and have the wheels welded in place so you can never change them if you so desire? Sounds stupid doesn’t it?  Yet this is the business model that consumers have come to accept with their smart phones, especially from Apple.

When jailbreaking the Iphone was first introduced it came with an air of mystery, a seemingly daunting task best left to hardcore hackers that weren’t afraid of bricking(breaking) their phone.  However over the years this process has gotten more and more simple.  I had always steered clear of jailbreaking my phone because I just had a lingering image of it being a pain in the ass.  Well I finally got around to it yesterday.

After doing some investigating online I found out what I needed to do to accomplish the break.  I also found out that it is practically without risk as reverting a jailbroken phone back to normal state is as simple as doing a restore in Itunes.

Once I had the stuff I needed the total process took less than 10 minutes to accomplish.  The most difficult part of the procedure is making sure you do the combo button hold and releases on the phone properly to put it into the right mode to accept the jailbreak.

Once it was done the phone rebooted and came up normally.  All my apps were still there, everything looked the same except for the addition of a new app that is the jailbroken version of the App store, allowing you to easily peruse applications on the “open” market.

Another concern I had previously with jailbreaking was I thought it somehow would limit my “normal” use of my phone, stopping me from using things like Itunes and the regular App Store.  That concern was unfounded, I can still use these things just like I always could.

After seeing how easy the process was I regret not doing it much sooner.  Don’t get me wrong, the Iphone 4 is a fantastic device even in it’s prisoner form.  Now that I have released it from bondage I expect my appreciation of the device will only escalate.

Yesterday I finished watching Boondock Saints on my 360, I’d give the film a B by the way.  Anyway when I was done I was messing around in my Xbox dashboard and saw the free month of Hulu + promotion.  I figured I would sign up, why not.

Much like my trial with Netflix, I was immediately impressed.  Hulu and Netflix step on each others toes in some regards as some movies/programming are available on both services.  Hulu however really excels in current network programming, something Netflix just does not have.

I can use Hulu to watch network programming from Fox, ABC and NBC on demand as well as some other cable networks like Comedy Central, Sci Fi and many more.  If I look at this logically, it becomes more and more difficult to justify a Tivo.

With a Tivo I have a local copy of the show on my drive that I can watch IN MY HOUSE and if I feel like jumping through some hoops I could export the video files to other devices or watch it remotely using something like a Slingbox.  If it was 2005 you would say that was AMAZING. Tivos also break, pretty regularly.  The hard drives in the units take a beating.

Well now compare that to just having all of that programming available ON DEMAND without you having to so much as lift a thumb.  I can watch Hulu/Netflix on tons of devices, none of which are confined to the walls of my home and I don’t need to jump through a single hoop to get there.

There are only a couple remaining advantages I can put in Tivo’s corner.  Having the content on the local hard drive, delivered via cable or in my case, an HD antenna means you aren’t depending on an internet connection for your programming.

A Tivo also excels in quickly advancing through shows to exactly what you want, as in no commercials.  Skipping ahead or back in a video stream is clunky at best.  Hulu tv streams typically include commercials that you really can’t bypass although they are much shorter than what you would see in regular tv broadcasts. (minute tops)

Tivo is walking on thin ice with me.  I have two Tivos that I pay more than $20 per month for a service that is losing more and more value with me every day.

I read some of the transcript of Weiner’s Facebook communication with one of his many virtual girlfriends.  Yep admittedly, it was pretty damn creepy.  But again, I would offer up politicians and sexual escapades are pretty much the norm.  I mean WTF, JFK, regarded as one of the best presidents ever was a known hound.  Teddy, the respected senator, had the same MO.  Bill Clinton enjoyed an occasional intern BJ but the country flourished under his leadership.

I really am surprised at the fake surprise and outrage that comes up when such a situation is revealed again and again and again. All these people in glass houses need to put away their bags of rocks.

It was pretty strange feeling yesterday.  I had a strenuous sprint triathlon the day before but felt fine the next day.  I felt good enough in fact that I had a better than average session at the gym and followed it up with a post work run with Ali.

When I look back at just how problematic my knees have been in the past it really makes me appreciate the resiliency I have been enjoying now.  I think it has been a combination of things including my diverse exercise routine, stretching, supplementation and basically listening to my body when something hurts.

I saw last night Anthony Weiner finally decided to come clean and admit he was a closet sexter.  I have to love how big of a deal this sort of story is blown up to be.  I mean hell by this time, politicians getting caught with their pants down is pretty much routine.  It happens every few months.

I guess there are a few things that make Weiner’s case stand out beside the obvious irony of his last name.  He evidently was viewed as a political up and comer with a bright political future.  That future has suddenly become quite dim.

His initial attempt to cover up the pictures as a hack and not his doing have compounded the embarrassment.  Now he has to admit to being pervy AND a liar. (and a Twitter noob)

In the big picture, does it really affect the guy’s ability to do his job if he enjoys sending pictures of his junk and talking dirty to random women on the internet?  No, not really.  Does he have a chance in hell of keeping his job? Nope, the hypocritical moral police will crucify him.

Of course this doesn’t mean he won’t simply resurface later in another role.  Hell even Eliot Spitzer has started showing up again on tv.

I have been watching Boondock Saints on dvd over the last two nights.  I have been too tired to finish it yet.  It is a pretty bizarre movie.

With the triathlon looming for Sunday there was absolutely no way I wanted to have to do chores after the race.  That meant it all needed to get knocked out Saturday. Even though the grass was borderline shaggy I decided it could wait until after work some night this week.  Ali helped me outside and then inside.  We had things pretty much under control by lunch time, and then we watched a Hoarders episode…

This particular episode was very disturbing.  It went far beyond hoarding and deep into the depths of insanity.  This old woman’s house was just filled with trash, so much trash that it had several dead cats buried inside of it unbeknownst to her.  I can’t tell you how many times Ali and I were gasping in disbelief.

Well a funny thing happened after we watched that episode.  We started organizing. After Ali got done doing a much more thorough than normal vacuuming job she said she was actually going to clean out the bottom drawer of the lateral filing cabinet.  I have asked her to do this several times over the years as it was filled to the brim with pamphlets, magazines and paperwork that Ali thought she needed at one time or another but has not touched in at least a half decade.  By the time she was done she had filled the paper recycle box twice.

I began my own personal de-hoarding tasks, first cleaning up the hobby/fitness room AGAIN.  I keep cleaning it up and someone keeps managing to clutter it up.  After that I moved into the garage which was getting out of control.

With the hopeful purchase of a Camaro in at least the not so distant future I wanted to start getting things in order.  I shifted items around on the shelves in the garage so items that will be used less regularly are on the left set of shelves where the Camaro will be parked and the stuff I need access to weekly is on the right.

I also dug into my messy workbench area.  I got stuff cleaned up but there is more sorting/throwing out and organizing I can do.  I just ran out of patience.  I threw out a bunch of old stuff I just had no need for.  It seemed like whenever I installed something that had spare hardware I kept the extra stuff for a rainy day.  Well at this point I have enough spare stuff for a couple years of rainy days so I was ok throwing stuff out.

Saturday night we tried to get to bed nice and early so we had at least a decent amount of rest.  At first I thought I was going to have to get there even earlier than normal to help set up the finish line but luckily some other people that live closer were able to help so we got to “sleep in” until 4:15 am.

I had the repaired timing clock in the car as it was going to be used at the finish line.  I was not very happy when we got on site a little after 5:30 am to find we had to park close to 3/4 of a mile away from the finish line on the beach.  I had to lug the clock by foot that entire distance and no, it is not light.

I helped with various finish line set up duties until maybe quarter of 7.  That left me 45 minutes to get ready for the race.  I set up all my gear I needed for the transitions and then hung out.  I had a rather uncomfortable rumbling in my gut before the race even though I took care of business before we left home. Short of a 3 alarm emergency, there was no way I was going to do anything about it while there were swarms of triathletes descending upon the restroom facilities.  I talked myself down from the edge, rationalizing it is just a nervous stomach that will subside once the race starts.

Race time was approaching so Ali and I walked up to the start line.  This tri is different than most because it does things in reverse order, you run, bike and then swim.  This year they made another change, breaking the start into waves based on age.  It was by gender 40 and above, 39 and below and teams, a total of 5 waves.  I was in wave 1.

Ali I did a little jog up a side street to get a bit loose.  She was still very nervous about the event. She had been pretty negative about the whole thing leading up to the race which is unfortunate.  If you keep telling yourself you are going to do terrible in something, how often do you find yourself doing well in contrast?

Anyway we both wished each other luck.  The race organizers borrowed one of our megaphones to start the race.  Too bad the old guy that was using it didn’t do it very well.  It was hard to hear him for two reasons.  He had his mouth too far away from the mic and he had the horn pointed at a 45 degree upward so the birds in the tree heard what was going on quite clearly but nobody else did.

The race started and I was off.  I immediately tried to weed my way through the 25% and higher body fat competitors so I could get some clear running room.  My pace felt decent but I didn’t bother to look at my watch at all.

As usual I had certain visual targets during the run that I wanted to pass but there was one that stood out, red underpants man.  This older guy was sporting his 1979 style red Speedo style bottoms.  They barely covered his ass cheeks and were sheer enough that you had absolutely no question where his ass crack started and stopped.

Unfortunately for me this guy was a decent runner so I didn’t manage to pass him until 2 miles or so into the race.  When I finally did I made sure to speed up even more to eliminate the possibility of that visual being further burned into my mind.

They let the younger (faster) group go after us.  During the run the elites blasted past us like we were standing still, it’s just nuts how fast some of these guys are.

Like I said, I didn’t look at my watch at all during the run portion of the race but I felt like I was running hard the entire time.  I was quite pleased when approached the first finish line and saw a time of 24:39, my best ever 5K time by 5 or 6 seconds.  I didn’t expect that, a nice way to start the race.  Unfortunately things declined from there.

I jogged over to my bike and started my transition where I immediately was greeted with frustration.  The first thing I did was grab my helmet.  The chin strap on my cheap Bell helmet can be a troublesome to get snapped in.  I fumbled around with it for a good 10-15 seconds till I got it connected.  After putting on my bike shoes I grabbed a Goo, deciding it would be faster to try to suck it down on the bike.

I jogged with the bike to the mount line and clumsily got on.  It took me awhile until I could get both feet clipped in.  I would say at least the first half mile of my ride was very slow as I was trying to do the Goo and get a drink afterwards.  It was only after that I got down on my tri bars and started concentrating on going faster.

I had dismissed the ride as being relatively easy ahead of time since it was mostly flat and only 15k long instead of the more normal 20k.  Well I paid for that assumption.

Doing a PR on the run had left my legs feeling pretty spent.  A persistent headwind for the majority of the out part of the up and back added to that effort.   I stayed down on my tri bars pretty much exclusively.

I was passed A LOT on the bike portion of the ride.  Some glances at my watch indicated I was normally in the 18 mph plus range but even so I was getting my doors blown in by better riders.  Some of the bikers going by almost sounded like cars as they approached, especially those with the high tech solid rear wheels, they were noisy as hell.

With less wind on the way back my pace accelerated some but even so my overall pace was only in the 17’s which was a disappointment.  If you want to see me making a turn during the bike go to around the 1:20 mark of the video found here.

So all that was left was the swim.  Going into the event I was happy about the swim being last for a couple reasons.  The transition from bike to swim should be quick, all I had to do was strip off what I was wearing, grab my goggles and go.  I was also happy that having the swim last would avoid the huge cluster f that happens when the swim comes first.  I hate all the bumping, kicking and running into that occurs in that format.  Doing it last should mean the participants are streaming into the water instead off starting in one big glob of humanity.

Well I still managed to f up what should have been an easy transition.  After ripping off my clothes I started to run out of the area.  I realized I still had my sunglasses on my face and had to turn around and throw them on my stuff before I started running out again.  Then I forgot I didn’t have my swim goggles and had to run back AGAIN.  I was pissed off.

The transition to the swim is long.  You are running across a parking lot and street barefoot (some elected to keep their sneakers on)  I tried to run gingerly while making sure to avoid anything on the road that looked marginally treacherous like glass and rocks.  Finally I reached the beach area and started the swim.

After running into the water till I was about waist deep I started to swim.  About a minute into the swim as I am coming up to breath I see people next to me walking.  Evidently there was a sandbar off shore.  I thought it was kind of lame to be walking during what was supposed to be a swimming event so I kept swimming through the area.

As we approached the first of two right hand turns I started to hit a TON of bodies.  The water was quite murky so I couldn’t really see what was around me when I was underwater.  I sure did feel other people.  I had various appendages of mine hitting other competitors and various hands and feet hitting me as well.  I HATE this aspect of a triathlon swim.

For large portions of the swim I was doing it entirely dead legged, abandoning my side kick altogether to avoid striking other swimmers.  During the portion of the swim that was parallel to shore I was desperately just trying to find areas of water where I wouldn’t be colliding with people.  I quickly wound up swimming off course, having to correct several times when I realized I was swimming at least 25 degrees off the angle I should have been.

As we approached the second buoy I had to merge back into the log jam of bodies.  During that merge I somehow wound up next to a girl that was doing breast stroke.  I was dazed for a second as during one of her leg kicks her foot snagged inside the waist of my suit and momentarily pulled it down.  After a quick reach back to pull up I continued muddling along.

Getting around that second buoy was miserable, there were so many people converged there you had no option other then to basically wade around it.

Finally I was in the home stretch.  The sun was right in the swimmers eyes as we approached the shore.  My goggles were already somewhat foggy, with the sun I literally couldn’t see shit so I just tried to stay around the other swimmers.

Again we hit the sand bar coming in, this time it felt higher as I was hitting my hands on the sandy bottom.  I saw others on their feet so I decided to do the same, only to once again hit deep water that required more swimming.   When I was on my feet I made the mistake of pulling my goggles down in an attempt to see.  I didn’t want to waste time fumbling with them again so I just left them around my neck and swam the rest of the way without them.  Every stroke was greeted with total blindness in the water.

Finally I emerged from the water and did my best to run up the incline to the finish line with an official time of 1:11:34.  To be honest I was a bit disappointed in the time based on my good run.  I figured I would be able to get under 1:10.

After drinking some much needed water I returned to the water to cheer on Ali and Christie.  Christie had a great race, coming in about 1:21 and change.  Ali finished about 10 minutes after that.  Ali wasn’t thrilled with her time but was happy she finished the event.

After the race we enjoyed the very nice complimentary breakfast accompanied by live music.  I checked out the results.  Unfortunately they were only the cumulative times.  I was more interested in how my splits broke out.  I did see I was 37th in my age group which is nothing to write home about.

Late in the day the full results were posted.  It seemed like my lack luster time on the bike and longer than they should be transitions really hurt me.  There was a huge block of finishers around my time, just saving a minute would have made a huge jump in my standings.  I was surprised that my official swim time was 9:36.  It felt much slower than that with all the congestion.

Since running/triathlons is just another part of my fitness regimen, I don’t get all that bent out of shape if I don’t do great.  It just helps motivate me to do better next time.  I have done exactly that so far.  Each of my 4 triathlons have had better numbers than the one prior.

When we got home we were both glad our chore list was basically clear.  After taking showers and eating lunch we laid down and took a must needed nap.  I slept for a pretty solid two hours, Ali was back there another hour or so.

Ali made another great meal for supper, another quiche like meal with chopped up onions, broccoli and tomatoes from our garden.  It was quite tasty.

This morning I officially signed up for the Tough Mudder in Tampa which occurs in early December.  Tough Mudder is a GRUELING 12 mile event that is dotted with 21 physical challenges along the way.  Randall has committed to doing it with me.  My sister Meg recently completed a tough mudder in PA.  Take some time and read about what it involves.  It should ridiculously exhausting but exciting at the same time.

This is Sadie in a nutshell.

Cute

So yesterday I finalized the travel arrangements to NYC for the Ireland trip.  My first goal was to secure the discounted airline tickets via RCI.  You may recall I tried early yesterday and again ran into typical RCI website problems.  I went through the entire process 3 times only to run into a cryptic error at the last step.

I did what the customer service masters at RCI recommended, waited and tried later, yesterday afternoon to be exact.  Once again I went through the entire selection process and had the site blow up at the end.  I had enough.  I had no resort but to once again call my buddies at RCI.

I explained to the woman that answered the phone that I have tried several times online to secure the tickets and keep experiencing errors, despite RCI’s previous claim that nothing was wrong with the site.  I told the woman I would like for RCI to do what I mentioned in the blog, book the reservations on the phone but don’t charge the higher processing fees.

To my surprise she agreed to do that, probably sensing the pent up anger and frustration in my voice that was sitting on a hair trigger to dump all over her.  She transferred me to another guy to take the actual reservation.

The way we had to do it was sort of dumb, once again thanks to RCI’s apparently inflexible order system.  We had to process the tickets with the full boat phone fee and then I was transferred again to have someone credit back the difference.  Dumb but the final result was what I wanted.

Ok one done, now I needed to book the hotel.  I targeted the Hotel Manhattan that I found through my RCI search.  Even though it was not available to be booked with my RCI points they were quite happy to take a regular reservation.  The place looked nice and is in a great location to see a number of sights via foot.

So I hop on their web site, enter the dates of our travel and amount of people.  They have rooms available, no problem, imagine that.  The total of $430 with taxes for two nights was stiff but from what I could see in my research, a pretty normal price for that area of the city.  I enter my CC info and purchase the room, done.  It felt good to have the accommodations finished, until I got the confirmation email from the hotel which included the info below.

Rate plan: Getaway Partner Promo
*ELIGIBILITY -In order to be eligible for this offer, you must have a verifiable, minimum annual household income of $100,000. During your stay, you will enjoy a private 90-minute preview of The Manhattan Club, NYC’s premier vacation ownership property. The Manhattan Club is registered in NY, NJ, CT, PA, MA, MD, NC, VA, and DC. This offer is not available to residents of any state in which registration is not complete. Residents of other states please select an alternative rate package. For full details, please click here. (http://www.nypreview.com/restWin06/leg.htm). You must attend the presentation. If married, cohabiting or engaged both parties must attend the full presentation together to qualify for the reduced rate. Net non-commissionable and non-refundable. If this rate plan is modified you will be charged the new rate plan difference.

I was not pleased.  Evidently the default rate that they display on their site is the one that requires you sit through the 90 minute time share pitch.  That is annoying but ok I guess.  The part that concerned me in reading this was it almost seemed like if you lived in a state other than the ones listed you were not eligible.

I called up the place and talked to a woman.  I told her I had not realized that the rate posted was dependent on the timeshare pitch.  It certainly wasn’t emphasized enough on the site in my opinion.  I told her we already had a timeshare and there was zero chance we were buying another.  She said that I could rebook the room at the NORMAL rate if I didn’t want to bother with the presentation.

So I quickly loaded the site and looked at NORMAL rates.  I almost shit my pants when I saw they were practically double the price.  I told the woman I would just do the presentation, thank you very much.  I also asked about the state restriction.  She said it was a bit confusing, you can live in any state and be eligible for the promotion. Ok, great.  So it looks like our stay in NYC will include 90 minutes of yawning and watch looking while we endure a mandatory sales pitch.

Jeremy sent me some good info on NYC, including a sweet option for getting from JFK to the city.  I had dreaded the idea of getting bilked by a cabbie.  It turns out you can get a round trip bus from and to the airport for $22 a head, not bad at all.  Once we are at the hotel I think we will be relying pretty much exclusively on leg power.

Last night I was quite busy.  First I tackled repairing the running club time clock.  This was one of the clocks I replaced the battery on a few months ago.  I was told the LED charging light was working erratically.  The thought was maybe I knocked something loose when I had it apart the first time.

Once I had the clock apart I confirmed that all of the connections involving the LED were tight and undisturbed.  I plugged the clock in and pulled out my volt meter.  I took a few readings and was not getting anything coming in, even at the main transformer, weird.

I noticed as I was plugging and unplugging the clock I got the LED to flash on and off briefly.  After some more trial and error I determined an unlikely source, the main AC plug.  If I tapped or moved the plug area I would be able to kick the LED on and off.

Now the ideal way to repair something like this would be to replace the cord assembly with a replacement cord that has bare wires on one end.  I didn’t have that.  I decided to instead cut off the plug end of a spare PC power cord and solder it onto the cut off wire from the timing clock.

It was a pretty tedious process.  I insulated the repair with a combination of duct tape and shrink tubing.  If we are careful with the cord the repair should hold up, if we aren’t a total cord replacement will be necessary.  I let the box charge up overnight, the LED worked perfectly.

Ipico BNC repair

Next up was repairing one of the timing mats.  The BNC connector for one of the mats had broken on Monday.  I had received some direction from an Ipico rep regarding how to fix it myself instead of dropping a chunk of change to ship it to them for repair.  He recommended a solderless right angle BNC connector available from Radio Shack.

This connector is nice not only because it doesn’t require me to utilize my poor soldering skills, it’s right angle design provides strain relief and should be more durable than the original connector.

Replacing the connector wasn’t very difficult at all.  After applying the shrink tube it looked good as new.  I attached the mat to the timing box to verify all was functioning properly which it was.

Since I had the equipment out already I decided to do some additional experimentation that was on my mind.  Our timing software has the ability to display a real time scoreboard as runners finish the race.  I had briefly messed with this function before and determined in order for this to work I would need a complete second set of timing hardware which is a considerable $5-6k expense so it wasn’t real feasible.

I had gotten a suggestion from the software author about a possible way to do this with only one set of timing hardware but it didn’t work.  I decided to try something else.

Instead of plugging the timing box directly into the laptop’s ethernet port I plugged it into a port on my 4 port switch.  I then fired up two of my laptops and plugged each of them into the same switch.

Ipico Lite Box

I copied all of the data from my test race from one laptop to the other laptop and then brought up the other laptop as it’s own race instead of being networked to the other laptop.  Once I did this I fired up the chip finish utility on one laptop and the real time scoreboard on the other laptop, pointing them both to the timing box as their source of data.   I was able to stream the data to both laptops without a problem, sweet.

The real time scoreboard also has the ability to send text messages of the finisher results as they cross the mats which would be a pretty neat feature as well.  That however would require the club getting a portable wi-fi hot spot that I could use at races.

This Sunday I am participating in the Naples Fitness Challenge, my first time participating in this local triathlon. Ali did the event last year as a team, doing the running and bike portion of the event.  This event is an oddball because they do the events in reverse order.  You run a 5K, then bike 15k, then swim a 400.

I mentioned to Ali that transition-wise this should be great for me since I will be basically just stripping down instead of putting stuff on which should be MUCH faster. The short bike distance should also considerably shorten my finish time compared to the FGCU tri.  Should be fun.

So yesterday afternoon I priced out airline tickets on the RCI partner site and was surprised to see they were within a couple bucks of what I found elsewhere.  After confirming with Ali she was ok with the accommodations I figured I would book the flight.  At least I would be getting SOME use for my points.  Sure the $240 discount would be immediately cut by 20% by MORE RCI fees, a ridiculous $50 fee to book two tickets ONLINE.   But at least it would save me a couple hundred bucks in the end.

So I went through the entire process of entering our names, personal info, seat preferences, payment info, etc, TWICE.  Each time after I hit the last , BOOK IT, button I would be returned to the flight selection screen with an error.

I had to laugh out loud in disbelief that I was AGAIN dealing with yet another RCI fail.

I unwillingly dialed their phone number to report the problem.  After describing the issue the woman put me on hold and came back a couple minutes later saying they weren’t aware of any problems so I should just try again later.  Gee thanks.

This was a perfect example of a missed opportunity for customer service.  A company that actually gave a shit about it’s customers would have said “Wow, I am sorry for that problem Mr Duffey.  I’ll make the reservation for you on the phone and only charge you the online fee for booking the flight instead of the bullshit $100 it would normally cost over the phone.”  Just imagine what a difference that would have made.  Too bad RCI doesn’t think outside the box.

I had to chuckle yesterday when a few hours after my blog post hit the airwaves I was contacted via email by a RCI “Customer Communications Specialist”  There is nothing that screams “OUR COMPANY REALLY SUCKS” more than having dedicated staff whose primary job function is to surf the internet looking for people that their company has pissed off.

Below is the message.

Hi Shawn,

We came across your recent blog (https://blog.duf.net/?p=5030) and feel the
need to reach out to you. First and foremost, we recognize that the
experience you had online at RCI.com and over the phone was not a great
one, and I apologize for this.  From what you describe, RCI has room for
improvement and this is where we need your help.

If you could provide us additional details on what exactly happened
online when you attempted to logon and search for space that would be
extremely helpful.  You mentioned getting logged off and getting stuck
in a loop.  If you could let us know in more detail the problems you
experienced, we will most definitely check internally to see what is
being done about each specific issue.

As far as your phone interaction with us, it is true that a Vacation
Guide cannot search for available space if money is due on the account.
I am glad a supervisor was able to advise you there is currently no
availability at the Manhattan Club.  As you can probably imagine, the
demand for the Manhattan Club is high all year round and the supply is
limited.

I realize this is probably a small consolation, but I have removed the
$26 owed on your account.  Again, any additional information on the
problems you had online would be very helpful to us.  We?ll keep you in
the loop as far as what is being done to improve the web experience.
And again, we value your feedback and are here to listen to your
concerns in hopes that it will help improve the customer experience for
all members.

It was a nice enough email and I don’t doubt the rep was trying to do her job, put out fires.  It was nice to remove the $26 charge I had no intentions of ever paying I guess. I responded back to her this morning with this.

Hi RCI firefighter person, thanks for the follow up.   As far as the website loop, I was logged into the site using Firefox.  I would select the Standard Reservation option and be prompted to log in again.  I would log in again, click the link and again be returned to the log in screen.

Ironically I tried using the Points Partner website this morning to use my points towards airline tickets and again was unable to do so.  Twice I went through the entire process, entered my credit card info and submitted the order, only to be returned to the screen you see in the attached image.  To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. I called in the problem and the woman said “we don’t know of any problems with the website, try again later.” Nice.

As far as your company in general, my experience with them has been extremely negative as you read in my blog post.  A quick Google search will reveal that I am far from alone in my dislike for your company and it’s practices.

It seems like RCI just doesn’t get it.  If someone is paying their annual fee even though they haven’t used your service for a damn thing, to be told that it will cost them an extra $26 to roll points because they didn’t get to take a RCI vacation is ridiculous.  To act like it costs RCI a single penny to simply roll over points is insulting to my intelligence.  Even more ridiculous is a workflow that disallows clerks from assisting customers unless they pay this ransom.

My phone interaction yesterday unfortunately was similar to most other phone interactions I have with RCI, you wait on hold a long time to get rewarded with frustration.

In my opinion, RCI is one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever dealt with in my life.  This coming from a company whose entire existence should be based upon that same customer service.  Your fee structure needs to be reexamined.  Where exactly is the value?

In addition to costs associated with my actual timeshare I get charged a large annual fee to simply belong to RCI.  This membership fee doesn’t actually get me anything except an opportunity to pay more fees if I actually decide to use RCI for anything.  For RCI to not understand why they anger people by the thousands with this policy is laughable to me.

Thanks for removing the $26 charge although it looks like you also removed my 2011 points. ( no roll over)  Oh well, par for the course.

I am pretty sure this entry will find it’s way into their fishnet of complaints so I might be getting another love letter from them today.

Last night I only got one of the three possible projects completed.  I got the dog bark inhibitor mounted.  It took some more time than anticipated.  I wound up relocating one of the mounting posts that used to house the now defunct outdoor weather station and broken/unused flood lights.  I stuck it on the border of the orchard that faces the neighbors house.

This post was ideal because it actually is a crude shelter with a roof and side wall that will provide additional protection for the unit from the elements.  In addition to relocating the post I also had to run power from the pond area.  Part of that was burying the power cord in the grass between the pond and the orchard.  I have some concerns about the long term durability of the power supply since it is clearly designed for indoor use.

I securely mounted the device inside it’s new home, slid on it’s weather condom and hit the remote control button.  The LED indicating it was sending out sonic deterrent flashed on as it should, cool.  Ironically, the neighbors dogs just happened to not be outside when I was ready to go.

Hopefully tonight sometime I will have the opportunity to begin the “training” process.

Last night after work I felt so tired despite getting 8 plus hours of sleep the night before.  Despite my lethargy I HAD to get in one more Bender attempt in since it was the last day of the month.  My goal was to hit double digits.  I was surprised that despite my lack of energy I was able to pull it off and in retrospect might have been able to get an 11th rep if I hung on the bar a bit longer.

My new $100 sonic bark inhibitor arrived yesterday. I didn’t feel like mounting it up last night despite being greeted by the customary shrill sounds of the chihuahuas barking when I got home.  This new device boasts it can detect barking from up to 75 feet away and send out a silent deterrent over a range of 300 feet!

I won’t be relying much on the device picking up the high pitched chihuahua screech though, that is what the remote control is for.  The remote can fire off the device from as far as 500 feet away.  I may have the remote surgically attached to my body.

I ordered the optional outdoor AC hookup so I never have to worry about low battery power delivering a less then full blast correction.  There is only one negative that I see.  For outdoor use they include a clear vinyl “rain jacket” for the device that has some small holes over the speaker and microphone areas.  I am worried in the extreme Florida conditions that the jacket may not hold up very well. I hope to have the device hooked up tonight after work.

I have a couple other small projects that need to get done.  I once again have one of the running club time clocks in my garage.  This is one of them that I replaced the batteries on.  Evidently the charging light has been flaky since the replacement, possibly I knocked something loose.

I have a second running club related repair as well.  One of the BNC connectors on a timing mat fell apart in my hand when I took the system apart after the race Monday.  After contacting Ipico they indicated they could repair it but there would be some considerable expense with freight both ways and time and materials  for what is a relatively simple repair for someone with basic skills.  I told them I had basic skills so they directed to me what I would need to fix the connector.  I hope to grab the parts today at Radio Shack.

Last night I went out with Ali on her tri bike so she could practice some more.  She made some good progress, successfully navigating relatively small radius 180 degree turns after initially being unable to do so.  She said she felt more comfortable on the bike which is great.  She will be using it for the triathlon we are doing this Sunday in Naples.

If you search my blog you will find some pretty extensive rants about RCI, the company that we are forced to use if we want to broker our timeshare points.  They have pissed me off many times with their ridiculous nickel & dime charges, horrible customer service and terrible web site.

Well you haven’t heard me rant about them in a few years because we haven’t used their service at all.  Since we discovered we really enjoy long road trip vacations with the dogs the past few years our RCI account has been collecting cob webs.  That timeshare purchase we made years ago has turned out to be a big waste of money in the big picture.

Well I figured I may try to get some use out of this pig for our upcoming trip to Ireland.  We need to fly up to New York to meet up with the rest of the family for the flight over the pond to the “homeland”.  I had suggested to Ali that maybe we could go up to New York a couple days early just to sight see a bit.  I was last in New York close to 25 years ago and Ali hasn’t been there since her school field trip days.

My thought was RCI could be used in one of two ways, to get a discount on our flight to New York or for accommodations in the city for a couple days.

So I log onto their website yesterday and am immediately greeted by frustration.  I keep getting stuck in authentication loops while trying to investigate my options.  I would try to look at available options, get prompted to log in, which I would and then be returned to the exact same page that would prompt me to log in again.

Eventually I got sick of trying and decided to just call them instead.  So I call the 800 number, follow the system prompts and get greeted a busy signal.  I tried three different times and had the same result.  I was amazed that after 3 years that RCI still sucked just as much as I recalled. I couldn’t believe both their web site AND phone system would be f’d up.  At least they consistently are a mess.

So I decided to call again today.  I found our old resort guide and found a RCI affiliated place in New York called the Manhattan Club.  It’s location would be just about perfect.  I didn’t bother trying to F with the web site again and instead hoped their phone system was actually functional.

After close to a 15 minute wait on hold, I was greeted by Janet.  Janet utilized an overly polite voice that crossed the line from friendly to phony.  I told Janet I was looking for information regarding availability of locations in New York in August.

Janet said she would be happy to help me, all we had to do was settle an outstanding $26 charge on the account before we could proceed.  She said it was the point rollover charge.  I have ranted about this charge before.

The way it works is RCI allots you a certain amount of points per year.  If you don’t get the opportunity to use your points during a certain year they will roll the points over to the next year.  How nice huh?  Well they will do this but it will cost you $26.  This $26 is in addition to the yearly fee that we pay to be a member of RCI.  This idea of paying for something that costs RCI NOTHING is like pouring battery acid on a brush burn for me.

When Janet told me about the charge I kept my cool and politely asked for a further explanation.  She told me that my 2011 usage year expired yesterday (ironically) so if I didn’t pay the $26 I would only be able to use my points for 2012.

I repeated this back to her, hoping she understood why this was so stupid.  I said “So Janet, you are telling me that even though it is June 1st, 2011, I can no longer use my 2011 points unless I pay RCI an additional $26 even though I my account is paid in full through May of 2012?”  “Yes, that is correct” Janet robotically replied, her voice obviously losing patience with my refusal to simply comply with the small fee.

I maintained my cool and tried to reason with Janet further.  I explained that there is no point in my paying the additional $26 if there are no available accommodations in New York City for the dates I need.  Janet insisted that unless I paid the additional $26 she was unable to do the search.  She then tried to blow me off, saying that I could call back if I changed my mind about the fee.

Well that removed any veils of politeness on my part.  I confirmed Janet’s name and asked to speak to her supervisor.  She chuckled under her breath as she said she would transfer me, just to be a bitch. F U Janet.

So after another 5 or 6 minute hold a gentleman picks up whom says he is a supervisor. I asked him if Janet explained my problem and he said she did.  I repeated my issue anyway, explaining that I was trying to see if I could even use my points at all and to be asked to pay $26 on top of what we already pay yearly to simply do a search was outrageous.

The supervisor understood my gripe.  He said that the way the RCI reservation system works for the call center it literally will not allow the reps to continue in the system unless that fee is addressed which sounded like pure and utter bullshit to me.  Magically, the supervisor did not have this restriction and he was able to perform the search for me.  He said the Manhattan Club had no open slots for the rest of 2011.  He said that typically high demand locations like this require booking 9-12 months in advance which was not news to me.

I thanked him for searching and inadvertently proving my point that I would have just wasted $26 to find out they couldn’t help me anyway.  I asked the supervisor if he had any info on how I could use my points towards discounted airfares.  He only knew some outlines of the plan so he transferred me to the department that handles that type of transaction.

After another 5 minute hold I am picked up on by another woman.  Even though I already provided full confirmation of my personal information to the previous clerk I was asked for it again.  I asked how the points for airfare deal worked.

The woman told me that I could use up to 25,000 of my points for a discount on the airfare.  The points translate into a cash discount on the price of the ticket, 25,000 points equals a $235 discount.  But of course as always with RCI, there is a catch.

If you book the flight online they charge you $25 to do so, there goes more than 10% of your “savings”.  If you have the audacity to expect a human being to help you book the flight they charge you $50, lol. What a joke.

I am sure the rates that you get booking a flight through RCI are padded already beyond what you would see if you went directly to the airlines, evaporating more of your make believe “discount”. I thanked the woman for the information, confirming that RCI is a waste of time all the way around.  She was sure to mention to me before I hung up that I had a $26 charge on my account if I wanted to roll over my points. She would be happy to process that for me. I told her thanks but no thanks.

I hung up with a renewed disgust for RCI.  I am annoyed that if I want to get any use out of my timeshare dollars at all I have to deal with these incompetent scam artists.  RCI sucks plain and simple, avoid them like the plague.

I guess if we want to extend our NYC stay we will be paying full boat to do so.

I decided to skip the group run on Saturday morning.  I had decided that instead I was going to attempt a monster brick on Sunday.  Not running at 6am allowed me to actually relax a bit on a Saturday morning, something I don’t seem to do much anymore.

Saturday in general was used to knock out chores.  I weed whacked the property and Ali followed with mowing with our freshly repaired mower deck.  She reported the tractor performed quite well.  I also knocked out pretty much all of the regular weekend chores on Saturday.

Sunday was brick day.  My plan was to ride my bike to the water park, a roughly 16 mile ride, then run the 7 mile monster square and wrap it up with 1600 meters in the pool.  It was a pretty ambitious plan.

I left our house a little after 8am for the ride.  I had favorable wind conditions for a good portion of the ride.  I averaged 20-21 mph on the long Immokalee Road segment of the trip.  I pushed hard for the entire ride and as a result put in probably my best 16 miles on two wheels, averaging 19.6 mph.  Yes, it was on my $300 Dawes road bike.

I pulled into the parking lot and met Ali who drove there.  Her plan was to to do some practice bike drills while I run.

So I changed into my running gear, sucked down a chocolate Goo and a bunch of water and took off.  By the time I started running it was a little after 9.  It felt  quite warm and getting warmer all the time.

I didn’t try to go out super fast since I knew I had a long hot run ahead AFTER doing a strenuous bike ride.  The battery on my GPS was almost dead so I used Ali’s newer Garmin.  I found her watch annoying.  Not only  does it beep at every 1/4 mile (which my older model does) it also vibrates.  I found this vibration to be like a little pinching reminder of how far I had to run yet.  The beeps I tend to ignore.

Physically I didn’t feel too bad for maybe the first 2.5 miles of the run.  I was keeping a decent low 9’s pace.  However after that things started to go downhill.  Even though my breathing was calm and regulated, my legs just didn’t feel good.  Then mentally I started to lose it.

Because of the dumb vibrating watch I knew at all times how far I had to go yet.  I started having those evil internal conversations that want you to just stop.  I argued back, reminding them that I never, ever stop if I have a set distance in mind, especially if it is a distance I have run previously.

I was approaching the end of the Oakes Blvd section of the run, one of the last bastions of shade on the route.  All of a sudden I stopped.  It was like the evil quitters in my head seized control of my body and made me stop without a vote.  I was pissed.  I never stop.

I gave myself a mulligan, figuring that during the club run we always stop halfway for water.  I’ll just count this as my water break, sans water.  I looked at my watch and saw I was almost exactly halfway, 3.55 miles.

After stretching for a few seconds I started running again.  I felt awful.  It felt uncomfortable to try to start moving.  I felt like stopping again after only a couple hundred yards at the Vanderbilt Road intersection.  I didn’t stop there but I did relent farther down the road.

Now I was really pissed.  I knew exactly why I didn’t want to stop in the first place, it makes each subsequent stop even easier to allow yourself.  Once I stopped a second time, all legitimacy was gone from the run.  In total I stopped 4 times during the run and I didn’t even bother to go the full 7 miles I originally intended, stopping after 6.19 miles.

Ali tried to encourage me back at the park but I told her I didn’t need any “rah rah” sessions.  I was both angry for stopping and exhausted at the same time.  In retrospect I think I just basically gassed.  It was very warm and humid, by the time I got back my eyes were burning from the salts I was sweating out.  My legs just ran out of go juice.  I still shouldn’t have stopped.

I hopped in the pool and trudged through my 4×400 meter swims.  The one encouraging part of that session was my first 400 was my slowest.  I emerged from the pool as a very tired individual.

After eating lunch we headed out in the parking lot to pack up.  I ran into one of my least favorite people in the world, the parking spot monger.  We had a lot of stuff to do before we were ready to leave including loading up both bikes.  This lazy ass just sat there with their turn signal on for at least 5 or 6 minutes while we loaded everything up.  She could have easily parked farther away, walked some of the cottage cheese off her ass and been inside the water park with as long as she waited.  I despise mongers.

We headed over to mom’s place to pick her up for her Memorial Day visit.  She agreed to stay over so she could watch the dogs while we timed a race Monday morning.

When Mom got to her house she didn’t notice the box I had on the dresser in her bedroom.  It was a Kindle.  I bought mom the Kindle a few days prior via a good deal on Woot.

I had already anticipated mom being very negative about the gift.  I had suggested it to her at Christmas and she dissed it.  Despite knowing what I would be facing I got her one anyway for a couple reasons.

Mom reads constantly, it is her main hobby in life if you don’t count cigarettes as a hobby.  She has literally read thousands of books in her lifetime.  The Kindle brings an infinite amount of reading material to your lap.

I have always thought the Kindle was kind of cool but what really tipped me over the edge was when I found just how many books you can get for it for free.  Just Google Free Kindle Books to see a sampling.  Zero cost books is a good thing for someone on a limited, fixed budget such as mom.

The other cool thing is the Kindle includes 3G wireless service for FREE.  Yes, no monthly data plan costs, that is extremely awesome.  Mom can be almost anywhere and be able to grab a new book if she wants to over the airwaves.

I had played around with the Kindle a bunch before giving it to mom so I could get the hang of how it works.  Doing so made me even more confident that Mom would like the device after her initial grexxing, it’s extremely simple to use.

I took the time to familiarize mom with the Kindle.  She realized it wasn’t complicated or scary to use.  She said she would give it a try, we downloaded 5 or 6 free books onto it from the Amazon web site.  I told my mom that my boss’s 85 year old mother has and loves her Kindle.  If she can handle it, mom can handle it.

After my dinner plans to go on the Naples Princess were foiled, we decided to go to the Snook Inn at Marco Island, a place we hadn’t been to for quite awhile.  We weren’t sure what to expect crowd wise but were pleasantly surprised by the ample parking spaces at 5:45.  Eating early seemed to pay off, we were able to sit right down.

We had a small high top table under one of the TV sets.  At first we were worried it was too small to accommodate the three of us  but it worked out ok.  We were also right in front of the live musical entertainment, some middle aged guy singing covers.

He was actually quite a good singer, at least to me.  I was annoyed that nobody else was clapping for him after each song besides Ali and I.

We loaded up at the salad bar as part of our meals.  The salad bar was as I remembered it, some parts of the experience were not.

One of the things missing was many of the myriad of funny signs and license plates that used to be hung around the bar, including my favorite , “Only Morons Stand Here” sign.

The menu changed as well, it seemed much larger than I recall.  Ironically the food portions have become smaller.  Mom ordered a grouper sandwich that I had gotten before.  I warned her how large it was in the past.  My warning turned out to be false as her sandwich was totally normal size.

I ordered grouper fingers.  I again was underwhelmed with what I got, three or four fingers and a tiny container of tartar sauce. The food tasted fine, it just seemed like they were skimping on you a bit.

We enjoyed looking out over the water while enjoying our open air meal.  It felt nice to get out to the Snook again, it had been too long.

By the time we got home it wasn’t very long until we hit bed, everyone was tired and we had to get up at 4:15 the next morning.

We took two vehicles to the race since my truck was loaded down with the four new shelters.  The registration area looked great with the new tents up, it helps make the event look more professional.

The race went very smoothly all the way around.  We were cleaned up and back on the road at 9:00 am.

When we got home I went right into my post race duties.  Ali took a little nap that lasted until I started the food prep for lunch.

I made burgers on the grill.  It was sort of a big deal.  The last two times I had burgers off our grill I suffered through some pretty brutal side effects that seemed like food poisoning.  As a result I haven’t made burgers on the grill since, at least 2-3 months.  Just to be safe I bought a pack of new burgers to make sure it wasn’t tainted meat.  I’m happy to report I survived the meal with no complications this time.

After lunch we packed mom up and piled her and the dogs in the van to take her home.  On the way back I grabbed my second Dunkin Donuts coffee of the day to help combat some severe drowsiness.  You see we were supposed to still go to the running club cookout.

Ali had to rush to get a pineapple upside down cake baked.  We wound up not even leaving the house until 4:15 for a party that was starting at 4.  I had Ali drive because I was so damn tired.  I really didn’t feel like going but I knew it was the right thing to do. We wound up parking about a block away form the the beautiful party location, a small beach park for the affluent residents of Port Royale.

A few minutes after we arrived it started to pour down rain which lasted for a good 15 minutes.  Everyone huddled under the tiki hut.  There were a lot of familiar faces at the picnic and a lot of food to chow down on which I washed down with four Miller Lites.

I latched on to  a few different conversations, I generally function pretty poorly in these type of situations.  The beers went through me pretty quickly and I had to take a leak.  Evidently the port o potty that was supposed to be there for the event was not for some reason.  This left people on their own to find creative ways to relieve themselves.  I wound up walking across the street and hiding behind a large banyan tree.  It felt sort of bizarre to be doing so in the middle of Port Royale where people flip out if your grass is a 1/4 inch too high.

Late in the picnic I was given a bag of left over onions as a “prize”.  I made the best of it by putting on a brief onion juggling exhibition which the crowd seemed to enjoy.  I never regret teaching myself to juggle, it comes in handy.

We left the picnic a little before 7. I actually felt more awake for the drive back.  I was glad Ali drug my sleepy ass along, I had a decent time.

Once we got home the two days totally caught up to me, I was out cold by 9pm, no lie.

Today is the last day of May so it means it is the last day I can do an official Bender attempt.  My goal is to get 10 reps on normal mode.  I will hang on that bar as long as it takes to get there.

Just got around to watching Biggest Loser finale on Tivo.  Grats on all the people that did well.

Hannah and Olivia looked great. Olivia’s husband was just as inspiring as Olivia with his weight loss since he did it 100% on his own.  So many times you see people come on the show lose an assload of weight and then you see their spouse that is still big as a house.  I just don’t get it. How is that dynamic ever supposed to work out long term?  “Honey you go lose 150 pounds and I will cheer you from the couch holding my bag of Doritos while chugging my 2 liters of soda!”

The twin brothers surprised the hell out of me.  When they left I was sure they would fall off the wagon.  Instead they both dropped a ton of weight, good for them.

The woman that won the at home prize was hardly recognizeable.  To do that at 58 or 59 years old is pretty amazing.

The two blondes had Dancing With the Stars type make up on but it sure made them look better.

But as always, there were some epic fails.

Q and his wife?  They still will be asking for seatbelt extensions on the way home.

Kalee and Moses GAINED weight since they left the show, epic fail. Way to represent Tonga.

Big Arthur and his dad, a little less celebration and a little more time on the treadmill.

Cara’s dress looked horrible.  She looked pregnant.

They are replacing Jillian with Anna Kornikova????   WTF?  I assumed having Brett and Cara this season meant one if not both of them would be back next season.  Nope, instead they are axing them totally and inserting a tennis player in there.  I think it is a big step down.

Yea for the first show or two it will be fun to look at Anna since she is young and fit but I think her age and lack of any training credentials will make the show jump the shark.  They would have been better off bringing back the blonde that substituted for Jillian for a couple seasons.

And finally, no mention of why Rulon wasn’t there.  Yea he quit the show on his own but I thought we would see him at the finale. Read later NBC invited him but he didn’t call them back, whatever.

For the most part, the majority of the cast did very well, let’s hope they actually get it.  It always disturbs me when they pan the audience for the prior seasons cast members.  The majority of them have bounced backwards to a noticeable degree.