Martin on Life

Tennis anyone?

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:21:18 +0200

Atlanta is a not-so-good place to play chess. Atlanta is a good place to play tennis, though. So I started tennis (basically from scratch) and stopped playing over-the-board chess after the Euro 2007 in Dresden. My former Bundesliga team is back to first league and fighting relegation. I really enjoy watching the Bundesliga (it is transmitted live, so I get to see the exciting Zeitnot phase Sunday morning as part of the breakfast.).

Tennis is a nice option to keep moving (I am not riding my bike a lot here), so I prefer this to playing Golf which is the other school of thought around here. Both options are not elite sports really here. Costs for both are reasonable, but Tennis works better for me since you get to sweat, at least... So - I am getting fast feed training in the Peachtree City Tennis Center by Frank who indeed feeds balls faster than anyone on the planet and was once ranked No 277 in the world. Impressive. To apply all this, I joined one of the many options to get competition. I choose Ultimate Tennis which makes me play once a week. I am playing 3.0- level (Beginner - mid). This is fun. My first match went 6:2, 6:0 and the second 7:6, 6:2 so this looks like real tennis already. Obviously, way to go.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton - Part III

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:48:13 +0200

There are a couple of things which are very true (and have been said before):

1. Yellowstone is beautiful. Grand Teton is even more picturesque. Yellowstone is very diverse: It has wildlife, beautiful woods and fresh water, but also vulcanism which appear like gates to hell, canyons (yes, multiple) and waterfalls.
2. You should not plan to spend only a day there (which is possible in many other parks, but not here).
3. The area appears sometimes crowded, but when leave the parking lot areas, you will find yourself quickly alone.

This is what we did and liked
* Some horseback and pony riding (Hannah and Elli)
* Watch in awe into the deep, colored pools of hot water
* Do some hiking (usually around 5 miles a piece since Hannah and Benni had to be carried) in the morning
* Seeing wildlife: Bisons were everywhere, especially between Canyon and Lake. Moose and Elk were visible along the road (although I cannot tell them apart at longer distances). Yeah, we ran into bears during hikes. This was somewhat scary. It is different to see a bear from the car along the road or bumping into a bear family in the woods... Also, deer are not necessarily put off by Benjamin crying, instead there were seemingly curious at that.

This is what I regret to not having done
There are some things which are hard to do with the kids, like:
* Go for longer hikes. Such as a 20 mile loop through death canyon and granite canyon. Map I read that an iceaxe may be required even in July to cross the pass.
* The Yellowstone NP has a very remote area called Thorofare in its southeastern corner. The trail is sometimes more 30 Miles away from the nearest street.
* Go for more swims in the fantastic mountain lakes
* Get up very early and watch wildlife
* Being able to make a selection from 500 fotos. All of them are here All pictures online (These are the size-reduced versions).

Yellowstone and Grand Teton - Part II

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:03:46 +0200

Something about the trip in general: We had direct flights at regular hours from ATL to Jackson Hole.

The route looked as follows:

View Larger Map

or as a link:

Our route

In general, it was quite difficult to find hotels etc. It is also pricey ( I think I said that) but summer in that area is short; some roads will close again in October or even September. So we had to move around a bit, during the whole duration we stayed at five different locations. The trip as planned was good, couple of remarks and potential improvements:
1) Staying in the parks (Yellowstone) is much preferred over staying in Jackson, Gardiner and the like (we have not been to West Yellowstone)
2) We all liked Cody. "The Cody" was a very nice hotel, Buffalo Bill History Center, and Rodeo provided enough things to do.
3) Flagg Ranch ("ideally situated between Grand Teton and Yellowstone") was good (both Cabins and the friendly work-and-travel staff). But for families some of the places in Grand Teton (Jackson Lake Lodge or Colter Bay) looked even better due to its locations and amenities.

Some more highlights and pictures to follow, I think.

Grand Teton and Yellowstone

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:29:55 +0200

We are escaping from the Heat in Georgia (35 degress centigrade plus high humidity) and are within the Yellowstone area. Yellowstone and Grand Teton are somewhat hard to reach; and so this is one of the parks I have not had the chance to go previously. In addition, there is a direct flight from Atlanta to Jackson Hole which seemed to make this adventure bearable even when taking the little kids with you.

We decided against using a RV, first simply because I had a hard time finding one for 10 days in advance. Plus, somehow I could not see how this works very well: With an RV in the park you are more or less bound to stay at the Fishing Bridge RV park, I thought. Some streets would not be available to the motorhome plus it is certainly more fun to drive around with an SUV there. So, the plan became a regular car + hotel bookings. Contrary to the standard roadtrip in the US you are bound to make reservations in advance. Despite sky-high prices (e.g. a room selling for $70 in off-season goes for $200 now) everything is pretty much sold out.

We had a good flight to Jackson Hole and came to the Best Western Jackson Lodge late in the night. Jackson is as touristy as expected. We basically bought what we forgot to bring, walked around downtown and to the visitor center and enjoyed the amenities in the hotel. Thats about it, overall we did not regret that we do not stay longer than 2 nights.

Next day was busy: At the end of the day we had to be in Cody,WY. This a 177 miles drive, but some detours, hikes and stops had been planned. So, we went through the Alpendorf of Teton Village, entered the Grand Teton NP and stopped for a hike at the Death Canyon trailhead. 1.8 miles roundtrip to the Phelps Lake overlook was just right to have Hannah and Benni solidly asleep later on.

We passed through Grand Teton, stopped to imitate Ansel Adams famous Snake river fotograph, passed Jackson Lake into Yellowstone. Next stop (other than Canyon Vistas near the south entrance) were Lake Village where we could not miss a big herd of buffalos near Lake Lodge. Another short hike near Fishing Bridge and a stop at Steamboat point followed. Finally we left the park went more or less straight to The Cody 2 miles west of "downtown" cody. The very nice hotel (and considerably less pricey than the BW at Jackson) even offered complimentary cheesecakes ;) Hannah and Elli realiy wanted to go to see a rodeo event;so off we went. Hannah was fascinated by the horses and wanted to ride herself.

This is something we did then today in the morning. Since girls who just turned 3 years cannot ride on their own, Hannah and Elli were sharing a horse and this worked well. Martin and Benni stayed behind and exchanged wisdom with real cowboys.

More to follow, I hope. Everyone else is napping while I am sitting on the balcony, enjoying the view and writing this. (It does not seem an integral part of vacation to bring your laptop with you, but it really helps planning while you are underway. Europeans need to bring an adapter pliug, of course to avoid frustation)

Intercontinental Move 101 continued

Wed, 21 May 2008 04:34:29 +0200

We have finally received our furniture. Some things which we have been warned about turned out to be false in our case:
1. You are not always in a holding loop when calling Comcast.
2. The contractor delivering the furniture were exactly on time, the company doing the move was very responsive and reliable.
3. The people unloading our container (Imagine a big truck carrying a single standard shipping container saying "Hamburg Sued" parking in front of a very standard suburban american house) were careful and knew their stuff. They knew equally well why the Dallas Mavericks will not succeed and that the Spurs are going to win game 7 on the road (they did).

Some things were true:
1. Comcast needed two tries to come to the house, so far I have been unable to get a definitive answer as to what the connection fee and the monthly rate really is. I called at least three times, and got never the same answer.
2. The actual transfer of the furniture did not take 3 or 4 weeks, but rather 6-7 weeks. We have been warned about that. But, everything has been packed really well, nothing broke (as far as I can tell up to now).
3. There is no magician in the movers team reassembling the furniture easily. We were skeptical, but let them try on a very simple bed. I admit this was not easy (screws and wood not always being perfectly paired) but the team failed here. So I thanked them and re-assembled the stuff myself. At least I have some idea how it should like then.

Finally an advice when re-assembling your IKEA stuff: Get your internet connection first! I looked up the instructions on the IKEA site and had a much better time from that moment onwards.

Say yes to riding a golf cart

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:33:47 +0200

... is about the first things we did in our new house. Peachtree City is famous for its golf cart paths, which can be used for walking, biking, strollering, and rollerblading as well. You can easily get lost on the network, it is an almost independent overlay to the street map. So, a GPS does not help much. We have been told that people, when going by golf cart all the time, tend to get lost with a car -- or worse, using the cart paths for driving a full-size car by accident.

Some experimental / analytic research about the cart path system.

So, here is our beauty:

Comcast and Telekom

Sun, 11 May 2008 03:44:53 +0200

One of my preconceptions is that you don't want to mess with your phone or internet service provider. A corollary could be that this holds true in the US and Germany equally. So, if you are a simple customer like me, I have some recommendations.

First: if you terminate your Telekom contract (I had just basic phone service, there was no DSL), do by Fax and keep the transmission confirmation. I did, and this was good: Telekom received this in time (about mid-march) ordering them to terminate service at end of the month. Perfectly OK for POTS customers. I noticed in April that the line was still working, so called. I was told, don't worry, termination received. Now -- I keep getting service charges. Wife called them (which cannot do using 800 numbers from abroad, so this was about the most expensive Skype rate (about 0,20 euro per minute for some 0180 number). Was told (in May now) that no termination had been received. Funny, huh. Was asked to send letter. At least, some guy answered mail, so I could send a electronic copy of the fax I sent including its delivery confirmation. Lets see.

One the other side of the ocean, I wanted to use comcast. Cable company providing TV, internet (via cable) and phone (via cable, is that IP-based as well? Anyway.) -- so there are good package deals out there. I made the mistake of signing up through BuyComcast (aka homes.org) which looks good but is a re-seller. What I disliked here was:

Trying to sell equipment (like the cable modem) by communicating wrong lease terms by Comcast (monthly fee for a rented modem is $3, not $6)

Using a return mail address (orders@buycomcast.org) where mail cannot be delivered to (not that they would read or respond, anyway)

Sending out surveys afterward which looked like would have to get the free* equipment they offer in exchange (*charges for shipping and handling apply.)

So, second tip of the day: Don't use buycomcast.

You would need to talk to real comcast anyway and schedule installations. I never got the same quotes for the package (got cheaper, though) and installation (went down from $100 to $20, in a minute I tell you why).
Having scheduled the installation time frame (2-5 pm today) and planned the day around it, I waited for the guy to come. Called COMCAST halfway through (had expected some call to pre-alert me) and was told "Don't worry, specialist on his way." At 5.30 I called again. After 5 minutes in loop (they researched it meanwhile) I was told that there was some problem in their planning. Was offered to wait another 45 mnutes, so specialist would come then. This I rejected, since we had rented a UHaul (another interesting story) and needed to return it in time. So, installation has been postponed by a week. No, I cannot sit for 3 hours in an empty house hoping that they decide to show up. I keep you posted (if not, it did not work).

Going north

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:29:40 +0200

This is how it looks like if you go up I85 from the ATL Airport to through Atlanta downtown towards Buckhead.

So, don't let the planes distract you: Up to three might land in parallel:

I85 merges with I75 for the downtown connector. Looking at the ATL skyline from the south can be impressive:

After going through the Grady curve and passing the Varsity I85 and I75 split again:

Although not the greatest drive, it is nice to see Dresden Drive (and Dresden Elementary, Dresden Park, Dresden Creek etc.) in northern Atlanta:

Intercontinental Move 101

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:27:22 +0200

Many things have been happening again. We (as a family) are out for an adventure, so we decided to move the whole family to Atlanta, GA. Everything went smooth, these were the steps taken:

Make a big fare-well party. This worked out very well, thanks to the staff of the Treibhaus in Dresden-Striesen. Nice buffet, everything taken of for us (including doggie-bags for the considerable remainder of the food). Oh, they do not seem to have a web site. BTW, Ronald the DJ and tireless dancing instructor, if you are reading this: I forgot half the steps already :-(

Have a company take care of packing and sending off your things.

Move to a interim apartment (much preferred over a hotel) until your flight leaves and the remaining beaucratic obstacles have been taken (they were only few, if you have web access |and are used to do many things online).

Have someone deal with the kids. We had Hannah in Kindergarten all the time plus aunt Christiane babysitting when required (which was almost always)

Pick a Sunday for your actual flight. This went very well: Left the house at 6:30 in Germany, landed in Atlanta around 4 pm local time (which would be 22:00 german time), expected the worst on immigration, customs and security (if you ever entered the US through ATL you know what I mean), so this was just slightly better than expected. But Hannah did great and Benni slept solidly.

During the next days Elli, Benni and Hannah adjusted to life here and the apartment in particular. Every day provides something to discover, and until everyone is doing fine.

Living in an apartment, even in Buckhead, is not very family-friendly, though. So we are checking houses in the suburbs, like this:.

Hannah is looking forward to going to local day care, speaks some english already ("Hi", "Bye bye", "Doggie") and adapts very quickly. Check this:

Last weekend, while my chess team Schachfreunde Berlin accomplished the promotion to First Bundesliga (last year we bit the dust after 10 years in what used to be the strongest chess league in the world) I was practicing my Tennis game in one of the many free and well-maintained public courts
View Larger Map.

Later on we enjoyed life in Centennial Park.

Elli and Hannah also went to see the Georgia Aquarium.

So, life is good. Last week even a colleague paid me a visit in ATL which we visited for semi-private reasons. Now the rest of the family just got back from seeing another family + kid in PTC, so I have to stop now...

A world fell apart

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:23:29 +0100

Now what is that supposed to mean? Answer below.
It has been a busy time. I have seen houses in PTC, landed near the White House at Washington Ronald Reagan airport:

View Larger Map and went to lunch at one of Atlanta's well known burger place and bar, the Vortex.

I also went to pick up a new desktop PC at Fry's, an electronic superstore here. (Similar to Mediamarkt and friends in Germany, and even more similar then I thought) I did not have time to build something with Dell (as I would have liked). So - what is the deal? I am quick to point out different attitudes in customer orientation between Germany and the US, but this time things were different or rather they were not. I unpacked the thingy, ready for the Vista install party. This HP (HP a6332f Desktop (AMD64x2 6000+, 3GB, 640GB, Vista Premium)) comes with wireless keyboard and mouse of which the keyboard did not want to work. So, cursing a bit, off to a second trip to the Fry's at Duluth (google map). I brought the transmitter and the keyboard, thinking of a quick replacement (maybe upgrade of some sort) accompanied by an excuse of how embarrassing all this is to the store etc. Nothing can be further from the truth. I will spare you the details, but it took me almost an hour and only the store manager finally approved the exchange and was as reasonable as I expected from the beginning (part of the problem being that I did not bring the mouse). I almost lost faith in the country as such. Please note that a set of keyboard + mouse + receiver is around $22...