The life and times of Jeffrey Forman.

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  Jeff Forman 2:08 pm on August 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Travel (2), wine (2)   

  There’s wine in Southern California! 

  I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but as you can imagine, work and life got in the way. Anyways..Back in May, I went out with M to a friend’s wedding in Woodland Hills, CA. just north of Los Angeles. Given that we had all of Saturday to kill before the Sunday wedding, we jumped in the car and headed up The 101 towards Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez valley, where there are a ton of wineries. Thanks to the help of a coworker who did his undergrad degree at UCSB, I had a full list of wineries to visit.

  The drive up there is nothing short of spectacular:

  

  Pacific Ocean off of the 101

  After a good sandwich lunch in Santa Barbara, we jumped back in the car and continued up the more rural roads towards Santa Ynez and Los Olivos, where the wineries are concentrated. It just so happened that a few weeks ago, wild fires had charred some of the woodland around Santa Barbara. It really hit home having seen in person all the videos you see on TV. But on to the wine.

  The damage:

  • Curtis winery – 2005 Syrah
  • Fess Parker – 2007 Viognier
  • Roblar Winery – No wine
  • Beckman – 2007 Estate Grenache
  • Bridlewood – 2005 Syrah English Pleasure, 2005 Syrah Blue Roan
  • and others that I forgot to write down.

  For me, the list was a big surprise. Normally I am not a big fan of white wine, but after tasting several wineries Viogniers, they were excellent. A lot of character, not the normal flat taste I find I get with Chardonnay. A very buttery finish which I also found in the Syrah and Grenache’s that we picked up. Winies were busy with people of all ages, from college students on up to retirees in wine tour busses. I didn’t find a lot of the wineries on top of each other, which I felt was the case in Napa. You had to get back in your car, and drive to the next winerie, which was a ways down the road.

  Being that we live in Massachusetts, the wine came back with us on the plane instead of being shipped (Thanks MA tax law).

  

  If lost, follow the signs

  Having been winery hopping in Upstate New York, Washington, Napa, and Long Island, Southern California had a very different feel to it. A lot more relaxed, but still enough people to not feel odd that you were the only patron at a winery. And while I love my seasons in Boston with snow on the ground, the weather in Southern California can’t be beat. If I or friends of mine ever find themselves in the Central/Southern California area, I highly recommend taking a ride up here and tasting the wine. If not just for the wine, but the view too.

   

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  Jeff Forman 8:30 am on May 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  I biked the five boroughs of NYC.. 

  A while ago I was in some bike store and saw a flyer for the Five Boro Bike Tour, 42 miles through the five boroughs of New York City. Interesting idea, the cost wasn’t too bad (about $50), and sounded pretty unique to be able to bike through NYC’s biggest streets without the threat of being mowed over by a car or bus.

  Then it started raining. At first it was a light drizzle biking through the streets of Manhattan, up past Radio City Music Hall, through Central park, and up through Harlem. At this point I still pretty comfortable and warm, Under Armour compression shirt, bike shirt, and bike shorts. There were little pit stops where water, bananas and port-a-potties were stationed. Over the river, and through the woods, mostly through the rain, we made it through. The whole time, my Garmin Edge 305 Bike GPS was having trouble keeping track of where it is, I suspect because of the overcast skies. According to the GPS, at the 25th mile, my socks went from a little damp to soaked. At this point I went from ‘Hey, this is cool biking over the Brooklyn Bridge’ to ‘My feet weigh a ton, and at this point, I hope I am not sick when I finish this thing.’ Making our way finally to Staten Island and to the Staten Island Ferry, several hours later I was cold, soaked, and ready to get out of those bike clothes. Hat tip to the Ritz Carlton Battery Park for your lobby bathroom, I was able to change into dry clothes there. There prime location to where the Staten Island Ferry left off made for a quick change and getaway back to Boston.

  

  Waiting by Radio City Music Hall

  Overall the ride wasn’t very difficult. The 42 miles might sound daunting to most people, but there were a significant number of young kids, and parents pulling kids in carriages. It made me think that this ride could be done by most people in decent physical shape.

  Yeah, I complained a lot during the ride, but it was a good time. I think given the weather and a few below suggestions, the ride could have been a lot more enjoyable.

  Suggestions:

  • Make it clear to people who have not riden this ride before, that you will rarely be able to pick up any head of steam. As one woman around us at the start said, “This is an event, it is not a ride.” She was right. At times, I found myself walking my bike through extremely congested parts of the ride. The egress locations at some of the rest stops, Astoria Park in particular, were ill planned. People funneled through small fence openings big enough for 3-4 wide with several hundred people queued behind you on their bikes.
  • I heard that the ride’s participation is capped at a certain number of people. Reports were that it is capped at 30,000 people. I dare to say there were a lot more than that. This has to do with the previous point about it being an event. I found myself dodging younger and less experienced cyclists who were weaving back and forth across the road. Simple etiquette for riding in groups should have been explained.
  • The weather. Not really a suggestion, but a hope. The weather could make a difference in this ride. Our ride was in the rain the entire time, my guess in the mid 50′s to low 60′s Fahrenheit. Had it been sunny and in those same temperatures, the character of the ride would have been much different.

  None the less, I’ll still consider doing the ride again next year. The low cost makes me less apprehensive to calling it off that morning if the weather does not look welcoming. And who else could say that they were able to ride over some of NYC’s most famous bridges without the fear of death.

   
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  Jeff Forman 11:14 am on February 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: corporate america, idiocy   

  Airline miles and credit card points, what a racket. 

  I don’t often use this medium as a bully pulpit to rant and rave about the idiocy I see around me, but this situation warrants it.

  I am in the midst of planning a vacation for my girlfriend and I. We had been batting around ideas of where to go, and have settled on going from our home in Boston to see Vancouver and Seattle for a week in April. Being that this is quite a long journey and an expensive one at that, my father has graciously offered up most, if not all, of his American Express points, and mileage points on various airlines to use for airfare, hotels, car rental, etc.

  One would think, “easy, log on to my father’s account, book travel in my name, done.” Not so easy. Below are my experiences with the various companies I’ve tried to use reward points with.

  Bank of America Mastercard World Points:

  Out of all my below rants, this one was the most sane. Login, see how many points I have, apply those points to a United flight from Boston to Vancouver. I noticed that on this card we didn’t have enough to cover the entire flight, so I would have to chip in some money. But I knew that on another BoA Mastercard that contributes to World Points we had more points. Knowing that BoA has a customer service representative on Twiter, I dashed off a quick question to him knowing whether I could transfer points from one card to another. Answer was no, but hey, at least I got a response from him.

  So I drained one account’s points, paid for the balance with a credit card, and off I go. I’ve at least got one flight figured out.

  Jetblue:

  Earning the points is quite easy. Some flights are worth four points, others worth six, depending on the length of the flight. Earn 100, book flight via website, select payment as TrueBlue awards points, and board your flight. Funny thing is, when logged into my father’s JB account and booking a flight with my name and my girlfriend’s name, it would not allow me to select TrueBlue point as my method of payment. When I entered in the names of the passengers and clicked continue, the radio button for ‘Use TrueBlue Points’ was unavailable. Seriously? You guys have never heard of someone giving their points to another person as a present? I love flying with you guys, but give me a break. My father earned his points, he wants to give them to me. This is not rocket science.

  American Airlines:

  While along the same lines as Jetblue, you guys are my current winner of the “Are you really kidding me?” award. I went to book the flights as usual, but when I went to enter in my father’s frequent flier number and my name, I got an error saying “Unable to process points. Please call our customer service for assistance.” The same customer service that adds a fee for calling, rather than using the Internet?

  Giving up on this train of thought, I saw a link for “Gift AA miles.” My holy savior, he can just give me the miles, it’ll be in my account, I can use them, easy! I entered in his account information, my account information and selected how many miles I wanted to transfer, 40,000, since thats how many miles it would be to cover our hotel in Vancouver for three nights. Clicked continue, and was presented with what I thought was a joke.

  Number of Miles:	40,000
  Cost:	$1000.00 USD
  Federal Excise Tax:	$75.00  USD
  Processing Fee:	$30.00  USD
  Total Cost:	$1105.00  USD

  So let me get this straight. For him to GIVE ME miles, it costs him $1,105, including fees. Maybe I can understand some processing fees, maybe some tax included because in some twisted math formula these miles have actual dollar values, but eleven-hundred dollars!? That’s actually several hundred dollars more than what the hotel in Vancouver would have cost me if I just paid for it in cash.

  At this point, I give up. I think I might end up having to pay for the entire vacation instead of trying to use the miles my father is trying to give me as a gift. I know my rant is a drop in the ocean of other rants against these type of programs, but it’s the first time I’ve ever tried to use them myself and I’ve lost all faith in them completely.