Muddy Moose Review - North Conway, NH

*** The following is a review of the Muddy Moose Restaurant that is currently being posted on tripadvisor.com ****

Interior was very clean, "folksy", and "country" especially for Northern NH. VERY Well done!! We really enjoyed the atmosphere even though it was busy and a tad bit loud.

Service:

Service was EXCEPTIONAL! We were really impressed with how fast the waitstaff could clean a table and get the next party seated. I never saw anything like this! Food was brought out in a timely manner too (fortunately not too fast)! Our local waitress was friendly and very accomodating.

Food:

I had the 20oz Sam's Draft for bevarage (no complaints) and my wife had a mixed speciality drink. She thought it was somewhat syrupy and a bit too sweet and didn't finish it all.

The bread was VERY VERY good (served with REAL butter)! I do have to admit that I really missed not having a dinner house salad with the entree. It is NOT offered for any of the entrees . :-< (or not even offered for a $2 to $3 add on).

My wife ordered the Rib Steak for $20. Not good! It was very chewy and not very tasty. She should of brought most of it home for the dogs to nibble on. She states the baked potato and carrots were really good though. My dish has a better story. I ordered the Chicken and Broccolli Alfredo. Not much broccolli but there was plenty of chicken and pasta. It was pretty good and I ate every bite! No cheese was offered as a topping though.

My 15 year-old-son had the Ruby's Lake House Pasta. This was very good as I got to sample a portion of it the next day! I loved both pasta dishes. Daughter had the chicken caesar salad as her meal. VERY BIG salad!!! Plenty for her to enjoy and bring home to have for lunch the next day. My youngest son enjoyed his kids hot-dog and fries. The waitress even brought extra Oreo cookies for all the young-at-heart to share.

This place is loud but fun! We would definitely go there again... (beats Applebees and 99). We would probably try different menu options.

North Conway's Marriott's Residence Inn

*** Here is a review that I wrote about North Conway's Residence Inn on tripadvisor.com ***

We stayed during this past weekend 1/22 through 1/24 in a 1 Bedroom King suite with a fireplace.

The Marriott Residence Inn in North Conway, NH is a very modern hotel with very beautiful contemporary decor in your guest room and through out the hotel. I especially loved the separate desk area and modern kitchen with granite counters throughout the suite. Friday night after check-in I was able to make a quick delicious nutrious meal while the family relaxed watching the large flat screen TV and enjoyed the free wireless internet service (which was very good as well). Some Marriott hotels are now providing the option for upgrading the wireless to allow better access for VPN (this was not offered here as far as I could tell). The bedroom was exceptionally beautiful with the recessed lighting, soothing atomosphere and modern furniture. The built-in gas fireplace added ambience to the living room as well as some extra heat! I noticed that the bedroom seemed a tad bit cooler though when the fireplace was off. Not a problem with heating during the evening though! In fact I was a tad bit warm (if needed ask for an extra blanket... they will accommodate). I did NOT notice a noisy heating system like others reported.

Other than the granite counters the bathroom was pretty basic. The shower was not as hot as I would have liked it.

The pool area was immaculate! The hot tub was very warm, clean, and relaxing. Plenty of towels and the pool boy checks on the area constantly! Nice lounge chairs to relax in too. If you want to bring a beverage to the pool bring your own plastic cups (as there is not any in the room).

The 24 hour gym is AWESOME! There are 2 treadmills, 2 ellipiticals, a stair climber, weights and 2 different types of bicycles. All in a modern large space with plenty of room to SPREAD OUT!

There is a small business center which is near the elevators. The only complaint about this is that it isn't very private... so beware if you are typing in personal information. The lobby has a wonderful fireplace and plenty of seating. There are some semi-private areas with TVs. I would suggest they move the business center to this area.

The "Free" Breakfast was GREAT! I loved the blueberry "make your own" waffles with fruit topping. They also had scrambled eggs, sausage links, hash browns, and several other continental items (e.g., bagels). Plenty of coffee and juice too!

During the mid afternoon -- delicious chocolate / white chocolate chip cookies were served during our stay! They offer other night time features during the week.

The only complaint for this stay is that our room was never "made up" on Saturday!!! I never saw a cleaning attendant on our floor the whole day on Saturday. This made it a problem and had to constantly run to the front desk to get supplies. The trash was overflowing by the time we left. No laundry bags either. They could use a cookie sheet as well.

Pets are allowed! We brought ours and they really enjoyed the new "For Your Paws Only" store which is located in the next lot.

This hotel is also about location, location, location! This hotel is minutes away from Mt. Cranmore and Outlet shopping!

Lowell Devil's Hockey Review

This weekend we went to the Lowell Devil's hockey game at the Tsgonas Arena located in Lowell, MA. We went with my son's school and got discounted group ticket for $11 each.

Parking:

There are lots of parking locations in the local area. Not sure of off-street parking. The city of Lowell charges $10 to park in a city lot right next to the arena. Just a few feet away there is a private lot which cost us $5. Spaces in this lot are probably limited but we were in an hour early with plenty of room.

Refreshments:

If you plan on getting refreshments prepare to bring CASH and plenty of it! None of the vendors take credit/debit card. There is a JDCU ATM (near section J and K) but the line was rather long when we attended. Prices are rather steep as well. Some sample prices are the following: $5 - fried dough, $3.50 hot dog, $3.50 pretzel, $4.50 nachos and cheese, and $3.50 / $3.00 Pepsi brand drinks. For beer prepare to pay $5.75 for a Bud Light and $6.50 for Sam Adams. They don't allow you to bring any food or drinks into the arena.

Programs are $2.

Seating

I don't believe there is a bad seat in the house. Everything was clean upon arrival. During the game they offered tickets for some select games for $9. There was a piece of colored paper on each and every seat which detailed this. What a waste of time, paper, and ink. Everything appears to be modern, however the hockey scoreboard could probably use some updating.

Events

* Both teams come out to practice about 45 minutes before the game.
* For those that don't hockey there is 3 periods of 20 minutes each with a 20 minute intermission between the 1st and 2nd period and again during the 2nd and 3rd period.
* There was some events for the kids like T-shirt toss, chuck-a-puck, etc.

Overall it was great time the kids got bobble-heads (promotion going on at the time) even though our team lossed in the shoot out.

Pat's Peak Resort Review

Last weekend (on probably one of the coldest weekends of the year) my oldest son and I went skiing at Pat's Peak. Youngest daughter and her classmates went tubing at the cool tube park.

Rentals:

My son has long since outgrown his skis, boats, poles, etc. that we bought him about 5 years ago and with him still growing and ticket prices they way they are we decided not to purchase a new equipment for hims this year. For rental and lift tickets I used Pat's Peak secure online order form (the night before). Rentals plus lift ticket was $66. I was pleasantly surprised to find the equipment and tickets waiting for us upon arrival. Of course I got the boot size wrong but Pat's Peak competent staff adjusted this appropriately and we were soon making our 1st run. (My son now takes a size 12 in men shoes!)

Slopes

As usual we started at the easier valley slopes to warm up. The morning crowds seemed light and we found that the Downdraft triple only had a slight delay in the afternoon. They were not forcing us two to triple up which was nice. The chair ride up to the summit did get a bit cold especially with the wind blowing. During the ride up there is a new view of the snow-tubing field and the Nastar Racing. The "Puff" trail is a really easy trail. GREAT to learn on. The Turbulence Park Double lift provides a great view of the young snowboarders and ski-boarders contemplating and exercising jumps and other cool tricks. Some of the matching snow suits and gear these "kids" have are unreal. Who knew that you would be making a fashion statement when snowboarding!

At the other side of the resort is the Hurricane triple lift and double lift. Both of these seems to be a long but relaxing ride to the top. I sort of wished they would replace this with a high speed triple or quad in the future. However there is a nice view of the moguls (on the double black diamond Hurrican trail) and a chance to relax. The top provides a nice view of Central and Northern NH. On a clear day you can see Mt. Washington and surrounding mountains. Skiing Breeze, Zephyr, and Blast provide for nice family skiing (slightly more difficult than Puff). It is a very nice size trail (and the long lift ride does give older people like me time to recover ;->) East Wind and Lower East Wind is also a great trail and has become one of my favorites. Duster was literally very "dusty" when we visited with full SNOW making. This "out-of-shape" body (who hasn't skiied in 2 years) also went down two Black Diamond trails "Cyclone" and "Twister" and lived to tell about it! All trails had GREAT powder with very little ice. At the start of the Blast trail there is a nice small area to ski through trees glades. Lots of fun! Pat's Peak also offers a great beginners area!

Overall we hardly had to wait at all on the lifts.

Each lift has a temp reading. I've seem temps from 9 to 27 why we visited. I doubt it was 27 and I'm sure with the wind chill it was colder than that.

Resort

A cafeteria is available. We ordered some hot chocolate ($2.50) and some french fries ($3.50) after a few runs. Pat's Peak does allow you to bring in your own food and drinks as well. There is a bar and a resturant in a portion of the second floor. No outside food allowed.

Location

It's only about 1 hour from the NH/MA border which makes it a GREAT day trip!

Special

Pat's Peak has a great $39 Pay One Price for rentals and 3PM to 10PM tickets on Saturday night. Come early for this special. It was packed!!!

I've been hacked --- thanks Comcast.net!!!

Well I was reading and commenting on my Facebook family and friends status when I got a cryptic message stating something like "You need to be logged in to complete this action". "

Ok fb is being flaky as usual", I said... and attempted to re-login again without any success. A bit of shuffling around I quickly found out that password was changed for facebook. I then went to login into my comcast.net account (that I use to login into fb with) and was in shock when I found that password was changed as well! I reset everything with new passwords using my primary account.

Later that day I found out from some "friends" that Facebook had some hacking done so I dismissed this but didn't like how my comcast.net account was changed as well.

Two days later. I wake up with my early cup of coffee to check on my "facebook friends" before heading to work when I noticed that I could not login again to either account. After resetting some passwords and getting into faceboo I noticed that one of the applications that I use was sending status at midnight (2 hours past my bedtime). A scan on the computer found no viruses, spyware, or malware and I believed I'm heavily patch.

After some serious investigation and look. The vulnerability I believe was caused by three factors:

1. My Comcast email address to login into Facebook was EXPOSED on my profile page. It was also known by several other people as well.

2. To reset your Comcast password all you need to do is to answer a very simplified questions such as "Name of your favorite pet, favorite sports team, etc." These answers could be easily obtained by reviewing my fb. profile or even knowing and seriously what New Englander does not love the Red Sox. With ONE (and only ONE) simple guess, the hacker now has ACCESS to your email account on comcast.net!!!

3. The hacker can then easily RESET your Facebook password by typing in your email address and selecting "Oops... I forgot my password". Facebook sends an email to the main email account (which was just hacked into) and doesn't try to challenge you with any security questions.

Suggestions:

1. Never expose your email - facebook login account on your profile.

2. If you use comcast.net then make your secret question really difficult OR don't use comcast.net for email

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