Complaint

I know I haven’t posted anything for a long time, and I want to break the silence with a complaint. This is a complaint about AT&T realtionship with their existing and future customers:

First, they try to trick the average user (like me) to believe that he/she is going to pay less for the I-phone relative to it’s predecessor. They tells us that AT&T subsidize the cost and it is $200 cheaper then the previous generation. What they don’t tell us is that you pay $10 more per month relative to the previous generation. Since you are signing for a 2 year contract, that is $240 more!

Second, there is a discrimination of AT&T existing customers. The deal is that you can get the I-phone only for the discounted price. This price works only for new customers from other networks (or eligible customers within AT&T). An existing customer (like me) that wants to get the I-phone for its full retail price –
CAN NOT DO IT!
That basically mean that we are “held hostage” by AT&T until the end of the contract. My guess is that this short term strategy will come back to hunt AT&T. People don’t like to feel “second level customers” only because they signed a two years agreement.

Frog Pond

Last week we got to finally do an activity that for long time was very high on our to do list – Ice Skating in the famous Frog Pond. It seems like you can not call yourself a proud Bostonian if you can not talk about the last time you iced skated over their (along with mentioning where you where when the Red Socks won the world series).

So, last weak it was our first time. We went their with Jim and Melissa that proved to be experienced skiers (and patient till we got our technique right).

My summary – definitely a preferred activity for those non-that-cold winter days.

After that we went to P.F. CHANG'S, a Chinese restaurant nearby. This was actually our second time there. After considering it Thoroughly, my recommendation is: go their in groups of at least four people and share your dishes. The variety is very big in type and taste and together it makes a wonderful combination. Additionally we really liked the banana rolls for desert.

Christmas decorations

People like to decorate their house for Christmas.

But have a look at the pictures below. The rumor says, the owner invested half a million dollar in those decorations. And that is for only few weeks.

We met the owner and he seems very nice. I guess you must be, if you are willing to invest so much to lift the holiday spirit…

Two year’s anniversary

Well, we made it. We are officially living for two years in Boston. It was not easy part of the time (You can ask Shuki about his time lost in the woods in Virginia to understand my meaning), it was not cheap (MIT, living in Cambridge etc, adds some extra Zeroes to your bills) and sometimes it was really cold (Ice hotel). But, as we look back, we are having great time over here.
It is funny, but the things that I just mentioned earlier as cause of hardship are those we remember the most. Sleeping in a hotel completely made of ice, looking for Shuki (and finding him), living in this multi-cultural multi-age city and having the opportunity to go to MIT was some of the best experiences I had in my life.
To give the event the honor it deserves, we celebrated at lala rokh, which is a Persian restaurant Orit was telling me about for long time. Well, as often time happens, she was right. This is a very good restaurant. I guess their biggest secret is the spices combination (the story tells that the owner goes twice a year to Iran to get some original spices). I got a stew dish of meat in a sweet sauce which was very good due to the balance between sweet and sour.

Columbus Day weekend

We decided to spend the long Columbus Day weekend visiting to leaders of our to-do list – Thousand Islands and Niagara Falls.

We took a flight to Buffalo NY and from there drove to a lovely town called Gananoque on the river bank, overlooking some of the thousand islands (there are actually over 1800 Islands including one artificial).

BTW: this is the place where the famous thousand island souse was invented…

We got a RED FORD MUSTANG which made it mostly a cool drive. The only uncool part was a flat tire we had to deal with in the middle of nowhere…

In the town of Gananoque we stayed in Trinity Inn. This is a beautiful place to stay in and to eat dinner. It is highly recommended if you are looking for a romantic place full of 19^th century atmosphere. The land lord was a bit grumpy, but we did not see much of him.

The highlight (at least for us) was a cruise in the river between the islands. Some of the islands are very very small (just a few SQ feet) the other are huge with many houses, stores and even fire department and churches. We also got to visit Heart Island. It is a small island that has a heart shape that one billionaire bought at the beginning of the 20^th century and bought a huge mansion on it for his beloved wife. A few moths before it was ready his wife died and he decided to stop the construction. Thus you get to tour this almost ready house with beautiful gardens.

Two pieces of advice for the American readers –

1. You do not have to pass the border to Canada for that Cruise and visit to Heart Island – you can do it from the American side of Thousand Islands as well.
2. There are other recommended activities we did not do. For example, taking a boat and selling between and onto the Islands by your self. Is this time of the year the water are low so it is not that safe, but a few months earlier it could definitely be fun.

Niagara Falls:

The second highlight of the trip. We decided to focus on the Canadian side which anyone you ask say it’s nicer. Well it basically looks like a downscale Vegas, with a strip of restaurants, stores, shows and whatever you might be thinking of. Too commercial to my taste.

Since I guess most of you been there I will just add a few pictures. If you want to see the rest, please follow the following link (will be added later).

An actress dressed up like Elvis made of Gold. This picture was taken before I started tickling him from behind with a branch – but this is a different story (very funny one).

On the way back we spend a few hours on the American side. I must admit that I liked it better. It was much less crowded, full of peaceful atmosphere. Besides, the views are impressive from both sides.

Weekend update

Three interesting things we did this weekend:

1. Orit's parent’s flight back home was scheduled for early morning on Saturday, so we decided to take the opportunity and watch the sun rise over the Charles. Unfortunately it was raining that morning so the sight and picture were not that great. We are still looking for the next opportunity to do it in a clearer day.

2. Kayaking on the Charles. We went with Tsahala, Tim and... Shuki. You can kayak toward both ways. We Took the Kayak from Charles River Canoe and Kayak toward Newton. We prefer it that way due to less traffic.

3. Orit and I went to see a movie at the old movie theatre at Harvard square. I always wanted to go there since it looks like the old movie theatre you get to see in pictures from the 60ties. Although the archaic outside look, in the inside is very nice. One impressive thing was the angle in the audience area. Unless the person in from of you 1 feet taller you get to see a full screen. The movie we saw was "The Bourne Ultimatum". I would give it 3.5 stars. It is a good action movie, which uses the same formula that worked in the previous two movies. The movie is still faster then it's predecessors it pays heavily with credibility. Funny issues are all over the place. For example it appears to be evening in the same time in Europe and the US! Still, it is good action, so if this is what you are looking for you will not be disappointed.

A trip to Nova Scotia

Pictures will follow
Last weekend we went with Orit's parents to Nova Scotia for a long weekend. Actually they went their ahead of us and stayed few more days after we left which is more recommended. The place is huge. A long traveling time should be taken into account (although the things you will probably see is worth the traveling).

To start from the end the trip was wonderful. The place has a unique atmosphere with its tiny villages and somewhat slow rhythm that makes you feel like you've reached the end of the world (in the good sense).
Just to name few of the things I particularly liked:

1. Village named Sherbrooke Village: a live and working village that preserve the way of living from the end of the 19th century. There are the blacksmith, the wood-worker, the local printer. You can enter their homes, examine their tools, watch them as they work and ask questions (which we were very good at).

2. Cape Breton National park. The word to describe it is dramatic. High cliff with strong contrasts of green forests, pink sand and blue ocean. We mainly drove (it takes 3-4 hours just to drive through it) but I recommend stopping for a few days and do some hikes.

3. Hotel called margaree lodge in a tiny town called Margaree Forks (30 minutes drive after the west exit of Cape Breton National park on route 19).The rooms will probably will not take you off your feet but the food.... There is an english Shef (I guess that is not a good start... english shef) that makes wonders. It is a good stop after the Cape Breton National park.

4. Scenic roads. Don't be tempted to drive the highway. Take the longer scenic alternative.

5. B&B on the shore of one of the endless lakes. And don't forget to take a good book with you.