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I’ve recently become very fond of a local coffee shop on Woodward Ave.: The Coffee Beanery Cafe. Granted, it’s not as “hip” or “fashionable” as Starbucks or Caribou Coffee in downtown Royal Oak, but I can’t help it. The Coffee Beanery Cafe has the one thing downtown coffee shops do not: a reliable, fast, and free wireless connection. On top of that, they make some tasty sandwich wraps, and the coffee is very good. I’m no coffee connoisseur, so maybe there is a difference, but I can’t taste it.

Basically, this cafe is making a very smart business decision by offering free wireless. The location is not as “prime” as downtown Royal Oak, and really only draws people that are interested in studying or hanging out during the day. However, it is on the west side of Woodward Ave., resulting in some major traffic from the “going to work” crowd in the morning. The kicker is free wireless, keeping the cafe relatively busy all day.

Yes, I understand that Oakland County has “free wireless,” but the signal is horrible in most places and the speeds are ridiculously slow unless you pay. But, who wants to pay for higher speeds when: 1) the connection is not reliable, and 2) there is a fast, reliable connection for free at the local coffee shop?

Even though I’m moving in less than a month, I hope this place stays open. The world needs more coffee shops like The Coffee Beanery Cafe. Trust me, I’ll be looking high and low for something similar in Bermuda.

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As promised, here is an update/write-up regarding my visit to Bermuda a few weeks ago….

The first thing you notice (or at least I did) when driving from the airport are the brightly colored houses. Green, yellow, pink, red….they have them all. Most houses are kept up very nicely, and the contrast between them and the blue sky and water is amazing. The second thing you notice is how green the island itself is. There is plant life everywhere.

The cab ride from the airport to downtown Hamilton is about 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic. One interesting part of the drive is the roads; very narrow and half the time you are fenced in by a 10-20 foot high rock wall. Oh, and they drive on the left side of the road (that will take some getting used to). As a result, nearly every cab I was in, and most cars I saw, had the left hand side mirror either damaged or completely broken off. Humorous indeed.

The place I stayed at was “different”….it was basically a studio apartment attached to this lady’s house. The room was very small, with a twin bed, a mini-kitchen, and a bathroom. Overall comfortable and clean….she even had a free wi-fi connection. Some of the people at the office thought it was an absolutely horrible place to stay at, but it was just fine for three days.

Hamilton is an unique city; everyone is very nice and the city has a certain “coziness” to it. All the buildings are no taller than the church (local law), and very tightly packed together. Oh, and everything is expensive, as I’ve been told and read about numerous times. The one bar I went to on Wednesday night after dinner hadn’t even heard of a “drink special.”

Most expats get around on scooters, so I’ll probably buy one of those when I arrive on the island. It’s kinda funny to watch people ride around on a scooter in business clothes, but you get used to it.

Another interesting thing is the island has all these tiny frogs that chirp and make lots of noise throughout the night. Didn’t take me any time getting used to it, since I kinda grew up with that at my parents house. Some people at the office said they go away in the “winter” because the frogs are hibernating, but either way it won’t affect me much.

Hmmm….what else. Bars and restaurants seem normal, other than being expensive. I don’t think I saw a main course/meal less than $15 for lunch or dinner, and I know I didn’t pay less than $5.00 for any drink that I had.

Based on the brief visit, I think I’ll like living there. Oh, and there are pictures. Who’s coming to visit first?

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I know I’ve been very bad at updating the gallery with pictures, but I’ve put up three more albums:

• A Night Out: Amish e-mailed me at like 3 o’clock on a Wednesday, informing me there was an all you can drink for $25 at Fifth Ave in Royal Oak. Joe can drink a lot.
• Going Away and Out: A couple of people from our team at work were leaving the project, so we went out for dinner and drinks.
• Visit to Bermuda: Since I’m moving to Bermuda in August for work, they wanted me to come down for a visit to meet the local team and some of the clients.

So…that’s it for the picture update today. Now that I have this Macbook, have better software for processing images, and don’t have to use multiple computers for getting the pictures uploaded, I should be updating more frequently.

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I keep wondering what goes through the mind of people when they read headlines, or create them. Today, we have this gem from the NY Times:

Granted, my mind might be in the gutter a little bit, but I can’t help thinking of this conversation happening in our nation’s capitol:

Hillary Clinton (HC): I think we should pullout.
Republican Senator (RS): We aren’t talking about your husband right now.
HC: Either way, we should still pullout.
Democratic Senator (DS): Is he wearing a condom?
HC: This is a serious issue, we are talking about people’s lives!
RS: Yeah, having you as a stepmom would really cause severe emotional issues.
DS: Agreed, he should definitely pullout.
HC: ARGH!!!!!

Searching news headlines for ones that can be made fun of is a good time….

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I just got fired up on my new Macbook Pro! First things first….the screen is absolutely amazing. And the backlit keyboard is unreal; I can’t believe how gorgeous this machine is.

I’m sure I’ll have some hiccups and learning curve issues as I start to use it. One major thing I think will be getting used to the way OS X organizes the interface and menus.

On a side note, a funny story about the opening of the box and turning it on. I had my work laptop (an IBM T43 running Windows XP), and both were sitting on the coffee table in my living room. I finished the OS X initial setup and was browsing around the web and setting everything up on the Mac before I could really do anything with the IBM. This is because the IBM crashed twice during this time.

Yes, I think i made the right choice :-)

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