J. Alex Lang

the ole credit report

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:09:26 GMT

I've started a project to review my credit report, as part of a greater "let's face it I'm in my thirties and need to be more responsible" financial overhaul.

I figured this would be a good place to put my findings & notes.

I started by getting a copy of my report from all three of the major credit bureaus at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ and reviewed all of them.

They are quite different, surprisingly. Experian keeps a complete address history whereas the others only keep 7 years' worth.

All three had very reasonable online dispute processes - I had to file disputes relating to addresses and accounts relating to my divorce.

I also closed old credit accounts that were no longer needed. Surprisingly many of them were already closed, so I will go back and review my credit reports in a few months to see if they clear. I'll file new disputes for those that don't, indicating that the accounts should be treated as closed - open accounts are held against you to a degree.

Also, Leah and I are thinking about taking a 2 week international vacation in September... and it would be my first trip out of the U.S.

Any thoughts or advice on where to go? Personally, I'm thinking Western Europe so far. I have friends in Belgium and Denmark, for starters.

My mom's book

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:09:03 GMT

Hey all,

As some of you may know, my mom was in the process of self-publishing her first book through Xlibris.com when she died unexpectedly at the age of 56.

Fortunately, I was working with her on the project and was able to finalize it for publication. She had submitted the final corrections just a couple days before she passed away.

So, finally, my mom published a book - a collection of her poetry.

You may take a look here:
www.xlibris.com/SearchingfortheSpecial.html

If you know anyone interested in poetry, spirituality, and "life stuff" in between, they might like this book.

You did it, Mom!

new crackberry

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:50:44 GMT

So I got a Blackberry 8130 with Sprint, yesterday. At work, we're eliminating company-owned cell phones, and I'm tired of carrying two phones anyway. So I got the Pearl.

What an interesting endeavour that is turning out to be.
First of all, it's very unclear what services and functions related directly to the carrier (Sprint) versus services provided -by- Blackberry (RIM) itself.

My phone was incorrectly activated, at first. Then after googling around found that I had to do two steps to activate the data portion:

1) Options-Mobile Network-[Menu key]-Start Provisioning

2) Options-Advanced-Host Routing table-[Menu key]-Register now

After a fairly arduous time getting my Samsung A900 contacts into a data file, and then grepping out the non-ASCII crap, and then syncing my Treo to download contacts into Outlook (which I never use) and then merging the two CSV files... at least then I was able to use the RIM Desktop Manager on my work PC to get those into the phone.

http://blackberry8130.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/managing-contacts-in-the-address-book-using-excel/

At the moment, I have a standard Sprint data plan which allows the phone access to EVDO; on June 2 my plan switches to a Sprint Blackberry data plan which means I can then use RIM services - the Blackberry Browser and email isn't enabled unless you have a BB data plan. So in the meantime I am trying to download Opera Mini as a free non-BB browser, and SyncJE which will allow me to sync CMU's Oracle Calendar to my phone.

http://nexthaus.com/products_b_blackBerry.html

But I had trouble getting the BB desktop manager to import the application .alx files, and learned (thanks to Google's cache) that you need to separately install the Blackberry Device software - software that allows Desktop Manager to talk to your phone beyond simply syncing contacts etc.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp

So, I'm now trying that.

Trains and photography

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:46:03 GMT

I've spent a lot of time since the divorce really digging into photography. I'm in the 2nd semester of a black & white darkroom photo class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and I -love- it. I've also gotten back to my roots of railroad photography and have had some fascinating opportunities as of late.

This morning I learned that one of my photos was used in Norfolk Southern's 2007 Annual Report, which for me is quite a big deal as NSC is a Fortune 500 company (at least it was in 2006). Page 21 of the PDF (19 in the print version) features a photo I took at Conway PA while on assignment for NS:

http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Investors/Annual%20Report/2007/AR2007.pdf

photography & music

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:15:43 GMT

howdy people!

just wanted to tell you that I will be showing some photography (much of it taken with mistergrumpy) at the Capture Pittsburgh event in Bellevue on July 28.

Additionally, my band will be playing. Come check it out!

I never really gave up on breakin' out of this two-star town...

Fri, 25 May 2007 12:30:37 GMT

Today I drive to Bloomington, Indiana for a week to stay with my friend Lou Capwell... Tonight we're going to sprint races in Indianapolis, Sunday we'll be at the Indy 500. We're also going to photograph trains (of course), drink a lot, eat a lot, &c. Should be fun. I'll be back next Thursday.

Sufficient randomness

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:27:31 GMT

I've been taking a lot of photos recently. A lot. And I've been writing some music, and some of that doesn't even suck.

Anyway here's a cool photo I submitted to a random blog. It's the 2nd photo under March 6th's entry:
http://pawnshophearts.blogspot.com/2007/03/heart-carved-into-bar-top.html

Not a whole lot is new; the usual suspect dramas are in my life but their relative importance and effect is changing over time, for the better, I think.

I'm quite cranky though that the railroad closed the nearby yard office at Etna, and now the local power isn't kept outside my window anymore.

Published, quasi

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:18:33 GMT

A few things, real quick...

I had a photo essay accepted to a railroad photography submission. I'm pretty happy with it:
http://www.lightsourcephoto.com/rr_page.html

Also, I've [finally?!] started using Flickr, and you can see some recent stuff here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jalexlang

I got a new apartment, I move in two weeks. It's in Sharpsburg and it's perfect for me in nearly every way. I've told a few friends recently, "The bigger something is, the less you need to worry about it", and I tell you what - it's been true.

Security deposit - check.
Apartment - check.
Apartment in the right school district, with a view of the railroad, enough space, new appliances, and a whole garage for me to max out my hobbies... check.
Furniture - check, so it seems (thanks for the responses, folks!)

Logistically things are panning out -extremely- well.

This week I am attending Microsoft SQL Server 2000 training. The instructor is pretty lively which is a good thing because most of the material so far is boring. He does a really good job of throwing in interesting relevant bits (e.g. performance tuning) during the commentary so it's still best to pay attention...

it's now 11:30pm...

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:32:02 GMT

...and as every other night, in fairfax, I hear the westbound Capitol Limited wailing it's way through Panther Hollow as it bursts into Schenley Tunnel, which results in a nearly-imperceptible subaudible rumble throughout the entire building, if you're one of the few people who even notices...

...and then, thirty seconds later, we're back to the same stillness that existed before it...

Gettin' old, looking forward

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:41:30 GMT

Howdy people! Merry Christmas.

This past weekend consisted of some shopping, an attempt at climbing #3 at REI, and watching movies with the kids. Christmas Eve I played sax at Zenith in the South Side, and then again at the Smith family Christmas party which was a blast. I had the girls Christmas morning ("Girls, do you know what day it is today?" Sarah: "Monday") and they did pretty well. I spent the evening at Melanie's side of the family which was a bit awkward to say the least, but it sure beats sitting home alone on Christmas. I ate well, too. :)

Tomorrow I am going to spend a few days at my Dad's in Bethlehem, hopefully going to meet a few folks I haven't seen in awhile. I'll check out my brother's band, sit in with my dad's band, &c.

It begins...

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:30:49 GMT

I jammed with a band tonight, and they invited me to join in the fun...

Saturday November 11 at Howler's Coyote Cafe in Bloomfield with Captain Paradox and Plan "C"

Bad Buddha

Excellent!
-Alex

you know you need a sax player

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 02:08:46 GMT

I'm looking for a band/steady gig. Read it here!
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/muc/224300216.html

Let it shine on me

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:03:16 GMT

We had an interesting little appliance drama lately. I hope you like the funny ending.

September 3 we bought a nice washer and dryer from Lowe's on the 12-months no interest promotion, and got rebate forms for free delivery and some gift cards and stuff. We got a nice high-capacity fast drying setup, since we do a ton of laundry and don't have a lot of time.

September 6, Lowe's arrived nice and early to deliver them, only to find that each unit was 2" wider than the basement stairwell. Our landlord was there to help us remove handrails etc, and even that wasn't going to work. Oh well. The delivery guys said they'd refund it back at the store, that this happens all the time. Okay, cool.

The next day I went back, tape measure in hand. The only matched pair that was 25 1/2" or smaller was a crappy GE set that looked like something you'd see in a college dorm coin-op laundry. Oh well, they were cheap, anyway. I got the warranty for good measure, just as I'd done before. I go to pay for them, and oh wait - it's not Labor Day weekend any more. No more 12-months promo. Well, I got 6 months and assurance that the manager would adjust it the next day (she did not).

Alright, no big deal. Delivery happened on the next day, and fit like a glove. I had to run an extension cord from the other side of the basement just to test the washer, and damn! the washer's timer was weird. Sometimes it would work fine, other times the timer would stay where I left it. It seemed to have run overnight the one night. Didnt' make any sense.
The dryer needed a gas line. Back to Lowe's, bought one last Saturday. Damn! Not long enough. Sunday, bought another at Home Depot. Same length, I should have checked first, dumbass. Okay fine. Sunday afternoon I went back to Lowe's to return the first gas pipe kit, only to find that that is the longest legal length in PA (48"). The helpful (this time) Lowe's guy directs me to gas pipe extensions. Okay, I can handle this.

Went back home, and busted out the pipe wrench, and like a pro I extended the gas line, put the hose on, did the leak check, and got everything working. Oh wait, I forgot, I need to vent this dryer. (I set off the smoke detectors testing it...) Today the landlord installed an outside vent for us. (He rocks, by the way). Okay, time to get some laundry done despite the weird washer. It seemed like it would work right anytime I was watching it but it would run forever stuck in the same cycle any other time.

Earlier today I called Lowe's at the store, then the credit card, then the rebate center, all only to find that the manager still is the only one that can get me the 12-month credit promo, but that the rebates should be okay. Whew. I discovered in playing with the recepits (they'd mailed the refund receipt to me by then) that they refunded the big washer/dryer and delivery but not the warranty. So I need to get them to refund me one warranty.

So finally, tonight, I threw in some wash, and got a load into the dryer. Damn! The dryer was doing the same thing! I wondered if maybe we had a ground fault somewhere or something. (Who knows, I'm no electrician). I walked up the steps and flicked off the light.

And flicked the light back on.

Sure enough, the landlord had re-routed the extension cord to run on the same circuit that the basement lights were on. I checked where I'd plugged them in earlier - same circuit.

Dumbass.

Apparently I lack common sense occasionally. At least I didn't call Lowes demanding a service call. ;)

On Saturday a friend and I replaced the alternator in the big blue van, so far that is going well. I hope it goes better than the washer and dryer did...

Train Quest

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 15:08:21 GMT

So first...
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60032307&trkid=135437

Oh My God. Just so you know, this isn't representative of my hobby. Although it definitely was in 1988, hence:

Yeah. That's me. Times change.

Indiana state?

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 15:49:22 GMT

So I oughta catch yinz up a bit...

Things have been a bit hectic lately what with the job situation. I had flown out to Mountain View to interview with a "large popular search engine company" in June. After weeks of waiting I received an offer that was just above California poverty-level. It was great to be able to have two very interesting job offers appear at the same time, but I was disappointed that I couldn't even take the California offer seriously. I must be too old for the typical Silicon Valley demographic. There's simply no way that I'm willing to move my family to a much-lower standard of living. We're pretty happy here in the Sahside, and now that I'll be working here also, I feel that we're finally going to live the neo-urban quasi-environmentalist lifestyle we've been after for so long.

Last week, I flew out to Bloomington, Indiana to spend some time with an old friend of mine. Every time I mentioned to anyone that I was going to Indiana they asked "Oh, who do you know at IUP?" It's sorta strange that you have to say "Indiana state" every time, so that folks don't assume Indiana *PA*. At any rate, we had such a good time that I extended my stay another couple days. We got some good train photos, and ate and drank well. Also saw Clerks II in the thee-ay-turr. I haven't laughed that hard in a theatre in years.

"Kelly can be a guy's name, too".

Oh, and I bought a Canon 30D. I already love that camera. I did an impromptu shoot at the local watering hole (Quagmire's) and it did pretty well in the low light there. But, now I realize that I might have been better off buying a personal laptop, as all of my crap is on this Dell that goes back to CMU in three weeks - and I am going to inherit a G4 at work. I was really hoping for a MacBook Pro so I can run both OSes. Not so much.

MAYA hee! MAYA hoo! MAYA ha! MAYA ha ha!

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 15:39:46 GMT

That is hopefully the last time you'll ever see that pun.

I turned in my resignation to CMU on Thursday, and accepted a position as IT Manager at MAYA Group, LP (which provides various business support services for MAYA Design). Looks like I will start in late August. My commute will be a wonderfully delightful three-block walk. I'm pretty excited, and a bit nervous. But it's exciting to be able to be a part of an organization where I can really make a difference. And, it will be great to re-enter the profit-making world. :)

more camera stuff

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 14:39:22 GMT

I've been playing with Picasa 2 with Google web albums. For the time being that is so easy to use I am going to post shots there instead...
http://picasaweb.google.com/jalang

mistergrumpy and I had a great weekend last weekend traipsing around this half of the state. We started out catching a couple trains in Greensburg, tempted by the Red Star brewery there. But we pressed on to Johnstown to have a swell dinner at the Johnstown Brewing Company. 9 beers came in the sampler, including a stout, an IPA (meh), a pale ale, something more lagery, homemade root beer (yum!), and a few other things. All of the beer was good. We got a growler to go... Mike Saverino and his kid met us for a couple, then we tried to do some night shooting in East Conemaugh where we realized that I didn't have all of the needed cable for the lights. (Which reminds me to locate them now, dammit)

We went to the Station Inn in Cresson for a couple more, then mistergrumpy and I turned in for the night. The next morning we had a tasty Station Inn breakfast and then did interior and porch shots for the proprietor's web site (which I created several years ago, not coincidentally). That afternoon we had planned to meet Mike for dinner, so we had time to kill. We decided to hike down into Benny curve east of Gallitzin, PA, site of the infamous Red Arrow wreck of 1946. After some good hiking and climbing we then met Mike, his son, and Tom Davis and went to Altoona for sushi (yes, believe it or not). The food was quite tasty. We then checked out the mega-Sheetz for coffee and did more nights shots in Altoona.

Sunday mistergrumpy and I ate breakfast and managed to get out relatively early, so we went up to Shelocta, PA to find coal trains. Unfortunately, it was miner's holiday and we didn't find a moving train until Johnsonburg, PA - quite a drive. We saw a couple trains there, and chased one south to DuBois, then took PA 28 towards the city. We paused for a couple trains on the NS Conemaugh Line at Natrona Heights, then we met up with my family etc at The Quiet Storm in Garfield.

In the meantime I realized one of the studio lights isn't working quite right, but I got word that repairs will be covered by the warranty. Yay!

Lastly, I expect that this week will be an interesting one for a variety of reasons. As the situation(s) unfold I'll of course update you here.

Camera stuff

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 17:03:36 GMT

boy_wonderwolf wondered what medium I'm shooting. Seems like a perfectly cromulent reason to post to the ole' LJ.

I currently use a Canon 10D digital SLR with a bunch of beat up, used lenses. I have a couple of slow, beat-up L telephotos as well as the 17-40 f4 L which is a pretty nice hunk of glass. My opinion of equipment is that it doesn't matter what you're shooting as long as you know what you have well enough to "shoot in your sleep" and that you know the equipment's strengths and limitations.

I have been interested in night photography for some time, mixing up long exposures with a variety of artificial light sources. I started with a Vivitar 285 flash, spent a fair amount of time experimenting with flashbulbs, and I have started using electronic studio flashes. For much of the night photography I prefer to shoot in pairs, partly from the safety perspective, partly from the "I'm half-awake" perspective. mistergrumpy and I have done a good deal of night photography over the last 2 years, though neither of us have had time for much in the last couple of months.

This is near downtown Pittsburgh...

Another weekend

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 02:29:13 GMT

Lots of various crap going on. Friday and Saturday were consumed with the funeral, etc. Sunday I did what Jeff would have liked, and took a 10-mile bike ride along the river with the girls in the bike trailer. That evening I enjoyed the simplest of simple pleasures in brewing a batch of iced tea just the way my dad did when I was a kid.

I am optimistically planning to start taking some photos around the southside at night. I'm going to start with some variety in exposures and focal lengths until I can find the right set of constraints I want to put on things. In other words, take a bunch of test shots, and hone in on a theme for a project. In the meantime I'm trying to figure out where and how to best get back into playing music again. I don't know that I really want to get back into the jazz scene. Any blues bands out there? Classic rock? Celtic, even?

Like a ton of bricks

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 00:40:43 GMT

It's been two days and I'm still stunned at the news of the loss of one of my good friends and coworkers.
We will all miss you dearly, Jeff. May you rest in peace.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/obituaries/?mode=view&obit_id=113218

It seems like a good evening to drive around, or something.

Sunny Saturday

Sun, 28 May 2006 01:34:22 GMT

Today was a swell day in the city. We all slept in, which was nice. Then, I proceeded to fry the potatoes I'd cut up last night. After cooking for way too long, I finally tasted one... and it was awful. Apparently the potatoes were past their prime to begin with, and cutting them the night before probably made it worse. Ok, we're going out to breakfast!

So we went over to the EEFC for brunch, did the grocery shopping, and went home to unload the groceries. After that we spend a couple hours over at the playground by Phipps Convervatory. It was hot and humid, so after we went home the kids and I ended up crashing for a nice afternoon nap while Mel did homework. Around 5:30 we finally got moving again, and went to the Quiet Storm for a pretty tasty dinner. That was followed by a leisurely ride on the Monongahela Bike Trail with the whole family.

As we crossed the portal of J&L Tunnel (this is the railroad tunnel that passes under the South Side Works) I noticed that the sun was setting along the axis of the railroad tracks. This gave me an idea for a photograph which I'll hopefully try tomorrow.

Now that I've graduated, I've been filling my free time up with consulting -- there's been a very stimulating and interesting variety of work along those lines. I've also taken some time to play with Python and Ruby, two popular programming languages that I'd been curious to explore. On the hobby side of things, I've been toying with some ideas for photography projects. Some involve uses of light, others involve focusing on specific subjects, or I may end up using a combination of these. This is all thinking towards some sort of gallery showing (which I know nothing about) and/or selling a select set of prints commercially. Now that mistergrumpy and I have gone in on a set of studio lights I'm also interested in doing some portraiture. If you would like cheap portraits while I practice, let me know!

The other thing is that I think I've finally figured out how I'm going to organize that spare bedroom and my office, which will hopefully mean that I'll have a rudimentary music studio set up in a few weeks. Nothing complex, just a synth, workstation, and a couple of basic mics.

So yeah, I'm hoping to have a good summer. And of course, with all of the great activities to do around here I'm pretty sure we're going to have a good summer too...

Whoa.

Thu, 25 May 2006 01:34:57 GMT

Yeah, apparently I let 4 months fly without an update. Howabout that. Well, let's see...

We moved to the South Side (of Pgh) and sold our house in Irwin. I graduated from the Heinz School at CMU with an MS in Information Technology. And work has been pretty busy. Melanie started classes at Pitt half time, so I'm Mr. Mom most mornings and evenings during the week. That's been fun. And the girls are doing really well. We've been spending our evenings at various city playgrounds, the climbing wall at REI, railfanning, or just driving around.

Life is good.

Henry and Sam

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 03:50:38 GMT

First I will start off this evening with this: http://www.cafepress.com/phco1.33581016
If you'd like an explanation, then read this: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_402b.html

We had a relaxing weekend. One interesting thing is that we have a minor mouse problem. Since our family is vegan and all that, we got humane mouse traps. The idea is to catch the mouse and release it to someone else's house. Have any annoying neighbors? I have some mice for them. Actually, that wouldn't be a good option because that's a good way for the mice to die anyway.

So we set the traps Friday night. Saturday I realized they were set in error, apparently there was a little misunderstanding resulting in the conclusion that no, the mice "can't push open the little door" - it is spring latched and is the basis of the trap. So last night after running the dishwasher I heard a little "click" in the cupboards. After some discussion we decided to keep the mouse in a plastic bin overnight with some newspapers etc. No problem. Everyone went to bed, and I went to help mistergrumpy fix a little plumbing mishap. (This was about midnight). We got the plumbing fixed, got some food, drank some beer, and then saw some trains. Not bad. Bed at 2:30.

I woke up this morning with "we got another mouse". By the time I was conscious the kids had named them "Henry and Sam". The neighbors across the street gave us an aquarium to transfer the mice. That process resulted in one mouse's freedom - no, I don't know if it was Henry or Sam - and boy am I glad I did that outside. All the while I thought my wife was crazy, but as it turns out the remaining mouse is actually pretty cute, and it's been fun to see the kids get a kick out of it. We've decided to set the traps repeatedly to gather as many mice as possible, and we will then take them all to the nearest farm for depositing. I'll post some photos later on.

Another thing worth sharing... I started off last week very well, taking lots of advice from that book my boss got for me. Somehow by the end of the week I was completely insane. I'm not even sure why. I guess I'm going through what I'll call an "emotional growth spurt" which I'll describe as a cyclical period of re-evaluation of different things. Mostly this phase is focused on self-reflection, self-awareness, and self-improvement. Yes, you can see I'm a self-ish bastard. ;)

Well anyway, I got word that there was a relatively rare railroad movement south of Butler on a line that is very interesting that I've not paid much attention to. Circumstances allowed for me to take my youngest daughter for a ride "to find a train", and I was able to catch up with this Buffalo & Pittsburgh move near Bakerstown (along Route 8). Here are some shots: http://www.jalexlang.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=86

And with that, I'm going to hit the sack now. This is my last week of freedom before my final semester of MSIT classes. In five months' time I'll finally have a Masters' which is something I've wanted for a long time...

Where's my gum, dad?

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 16:06:03 GMT

And so it was last night as we all sat around relaxing in our living room. Sarah has taken to chewing gum lately, but as any 3.5 yr old will attest it rarely stays in one's mouth very long. So we scrambled to find the gum, hoping that it wasn't going to find itself lodged between sofa cushions. Not finding it we assumed Sarah had swallowed it or something.

So I resumed my browsing and email-reading, only to find... a big smear of chewing gum on the LCD display of the laptop. Shit! Now what?! I tried to scrape it off, and that succeeded only in spreading gumloveliness all over the place. Hm. My wife suggests that peanut butter can be used to get gum out of kids' hair. Seeing no other option, out comes the peanut butter. I proceeded to get my index finger oily, trying to avoid grabbing any clumps (it was chunky peanut butter, after all). I started rubbing the peanutty substance all over the LCD screen, with a bit of trepidation. Magically, I wiped the area off with some TP and found that it removed all of the gum residue! Amazing. And now my laptop smells like an ice cream shoppe, too.

Happy New Year, and so on

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 04:19:55 GMT

Wow, too busy for an update lately methinks.
First things first, here are some shots from Christmas and our subsequent trip "back home" to the scenic Lehigh Valley.
http://www.jalexlang.com/gallery - click on "Christmas 2005" and "January 2006" under "Family".

So, thinking back to the last update...
My 29th birthday was uneventful. We went out to Kassab's on the south side, which was nice. They have good hummus. I got a lot of crap wrapped up at work. On the last work day of 2005 my boss bought us web-type-people this book; I read half of it over the ensuing vacation and have already had an easier time keeping my brain's short term memory committed to paper or electronica. (Sort of like swapping virtual memory out to disk, I suppose). The idea is that you worry less about your work when you:
a) give yourself the time to write down and sort all of your open items
and
b) think about what needs to be done, when, and in what order, noting the "next actionable item" in applicable cases

Despite having lots of work to do today I got even more done, including some nagging HR paperwork.

Yeah. No one cares about work. I digress.

So we had a very nice Christmas, the kids had a blast. Christmas morning we visited my wife's Aunt Lori (on her mom's side), then back to our house, then my wife's aunt Sarah (on her dad's side) in Latrobe. Turned out to be a late night.
On the 26th we cleaned and packed. 27th we drove to Bethlehem. Thankfully the kids fell asleep and I was able to drive our 1989 Chevy G20 van straight-shot to the Lehigh Valley in just under four hours. ;)

We spent time with my parents and their families, as well as a nice visit to some older friends in northern NJ. I even managed to get an interesting train shot in Bethlehem of the old steel mill.

NYE was completely uneventful. We hung out with my mom and her husband, and a relaxing time was had by all.
We drove back west on New Years Day to Ligonier to have dinner at another big traditional family function on my mother-in-law's side of the family. That was fun. We then spent yesterday cleaning, and today I went back to work.

Last night I did get out for a bit of shooting and BSing with mistergrumpy. Bed at 3:30 and awoke at 7:45 due to a wake up call from the other sysadmin at work. Little mixup, back to bed. Tomorrow I have to be at work at 7am which is pretty early for me. So I guess I should go to bed now.