97 HAM and Lobster

Lets start with the lobster.

We got to Abbott's at about 11:45, and there were already people in the parking lot and at the window waiting to order. As I come here only once a year, it's ok with me, and it was a beautiful, albeit a bit on the warm side kind of day. In the picture at right, we sat out on the dock overlooking the water.

All four of us (me, my son, my brother and my friend Mike) had 2.5 to 3 pound lobsters. They were a bit more than last year, but I'll refer you to the "once a year" part, and I save my money for this day.

The picture at left, is the four lobsters. All waiting for us to devour them (it didn't take long). My son is at left putting on his plastic lobster bib. (yes, it's the only time it's ok for a man to wear a bit.. when having an enormous lobster)

The meal comes with drawn butter, a small side of cole slaw and a bag of potato chips.

 

 

The picture at right is my friend Mike, and my brother just finishing their lobsters.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, watching the boats go by and the lobsters were perfect.

 

On to the HAM part:

Now, to answer Mark's question from Friday "Is there a certain range you can reliably communicate within pretty much all day long?"

Actually, the answer to that question isn't quite as simple as it sounds. It all has to do with something called "propagation". In HAM Radio we use terms like ""Sporadic E", "Aurora", "field-aligned irregularities", and Ducting". What it all boils down to, is conditions in the atmosphere decide which way your radio transmission will bounce off of the atmosphere and make it's way back to earth. It mainly has to do with the levels in the atmosphere that are charged and bouncing back your radio waves. A lot of it has to do with sunspot cycles too.

Here's a good explanation of how propagation works.

For me, the basic rule of thumb was, get on the air, send out a CQ, and listen to who answers! My first antenna, made by me and my late friend Kevin (N1EPU), was an 18 foot long piece of wire. That's IT! Just a piece of wire, dangling in my yard. With that I made contacts all over the world.

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

96 More Useless HAM Facts...

This weekend is a big weekend for US HAM Radio Operators. It's called Field Day, and it's a 24 hour test of emergency communications. Here's a press release from the ARRL (American Radio Relay League), the top organization for HAM Radio in the US.

Ham Radio Operators Demonstrate Modern Capabilities

Public Demo of Emergency Communications June 28-29

Newington, CT – Thousands of Ham Radio operators will be showing off their emergency capabilities this weekend. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications in emergencies world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio – often called “Ham radio” - was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer “hams” traveled south to save lives and property. When trouble is brewing, ham radio people are often the first to provide critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 28-29, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with these ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

This annual event, called "Field Day" is the climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards around the country. Their slogan, "When all else fails…”is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 34,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

"We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather's radio anymore," said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. "The communications networks that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives in the past months when other systems failed or were overloaded.”

I've participated in many field days, which lasts 24 hours (up to 27 if you meet certain conditions) and that time includes set up but not tear down. It's basically a contest to see how many other HAM's you can contact in the US in that time period. I've pulled a few all-nighters and we've always had a great time.

Wednesday night, when I was looking through my QSL cards, I found the one from my very first contact with my friend Dave. It was January 25, 1989. I'm glad that everything fell together so that we met.

On Saturday, my son, brother, me and a friend I used to work with are going to Abbott's Lobster in the Rough! I've gone before, and I can't wait as I haven't had lobster since.

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

95 A HAM I AM

Yep, an unusual Thursday Post! Don't forget to read Wednesday's post first if  you haven't read it yet!

Going back through the list of QSL cards I have, brings back a lot of memories. Talking to people all over the world, from morning till the wife screamed to come to bed.

The day I got my call sign in the mail from the FCC, I ran down and fired up my old tube type radio, being careful to let the tubes warm up before trying to transmit. I scanned the band (10 Meters) and when I didn't hear anyone, my heart dropped a bit, but then I sent out my own message "CQ, CQ, CQ this is KA1TBE calling CQ and listening" (CQ = SEEK YOU).

The person that came back to me was CO7KR. I was so excited, I had no clue at that moment where CO (first letters denote what country the HAM is from). I called back to him, and he said his name was John, and he lived in Cuba. Cuba. It then struck me, I wasn't talking to someone across town, I was talking to Cuba! I introduced myself and told John that I was from Bristol, CT USA, and that he was my very first contact. He was very excited to hear that, and we talked for quite some time.

 

At right is his QSL card. The information (if you click on it to 'embiggen it") is as follows:

Confirming QSO (Contact) with KA1TBE on 1/20/89 at 21:15 UTC time on the frequency of 28MHz (10 meters), my signal was 5/9 which is like the person is in the same room, and SSB means single side band. Of course, he also asks "PSE QSL" meaning please send him back a QSL.

The back of the card, shown at left says "Dear Dave, Very happy to be your 1st QSO! Congratulations, John, CO7KR.

The stamp at right is the Cuba DX Group, a club he belongs to. DX means talking outside your own country. He also sent me a card from his club, and 3 post cards from Cuba. I too, sent him  a card, and quite a few cards from my hometown, and a very big thank you!

At that time, we used to have to look up where the call was from by looking it up on a large chart that we got from the ARRL (American Radio Relay League), the head place for HAM radio in the US which just happens to be located here in Connecticut, about 5 miles from me.

Now, in the first 5 years of being a HAM, here's a list of the countries I contacted. If you don't recognize a place, google it and find where it is. (back then, there was no google)

Cuba, Estonia, Ukraine, Italy, Japan, Moscow USSR, Elba Island, Hungary, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Peru, Malta, The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Costa Rica, France, Aland Islands, Liechtenstein, Columbia, Morocco, Antigua, Kure Island, England,Canada, Ivory Coast, Geneva Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, and the Canary Islands.

Mixed in there are some very special event stations, some school Ham Radio Clubs and other special contacts.

Well, I've bored you enough with HAM Radio.. so on to something else after this!

94 More HAM Facts

Well, Mark had asked in a comment on Monday if I was looking to get back into HAM radio. Well, while I'd like to, I'm pretty busy with other things, and even if not, it's one hobby that my wife's not terribly happy about. It's a long story, but suffice it to say, a friend of mine in a computer club quite some time ago, who is a HAM, told my wife "oh, we'll get Dave into it"... and it set her off. Not only that, she still holds a grudge about him saying that. *shrug*

Yes Mark, I loved talking to people, hearing their voices and listening to what they do for fun, and what life's like in their country. The only rule is, stay away from Religion and Politics. Kinda common sense.

I remember making a contact with a guy in South Africa, and him telling me he was a sheep farmer with over 10,000 sheep. Explaining what his typical day was like before the sun changed the refractive properties of the atmosphere and we lost each other. Yes, the sun plays a big part in talking to others. In the mornings, I could talk easily to anyone in Europe and Africa, and as mid-day came, South America was as easy as talking to someone in the same room. Later on in the day, California, Japan, China and Australia and it's surrounding areas opened up.

I'll try to find some of my old QSL cards from other places and scan some in for you.

And now a funny for you:

Death Row in Women's Prison

Three women are about to be executed. One's a brunette, one's a redhead, and one's a blonde. The guard brings the brunette forward and the executioner asks if she has any last requests. She says no, and the executioner shouts, "Ready! Aim"

Suddenly the brunette yells, "EARTHQUAKE!!!"

Everyone is startled and throws themselves on the ground while she escapes.

The guard brings the redhead forward and the executioner asks if she has any last requests. She say no, and the executioner shouts, "Ready! Aim"

Suddenly the redhead yells, "TORNADO!!!"

Everyone is startled and looks around for cover while she escapes.

By now the blonde has it all figured out. The guard brings her forward and the executioner asks if she has any last requests. She says no, and the executioner shouts, "Ready! Aim"

And the blonde yells, "FIRE!!!"

Have a great Hump-Day all!

94 Yes, I'm a HAM

Well, after a while, I wanted more privileges on the radio (ability to use different frequencies, different modes of communication.. etc), so I studied for my "Technician" test (at this point, my licence class was called Novice).

This test was pretty easy, and once you pass this test, you have the option of going from a 2X3 call (KA1TBE is a 2X3, two letters, a number and 3 letters) to a 1X3 call. I chose to change for reasons I explained on Friday.

Oh, did I mention, the "1", stands for the geographic area you live in. 1 is the Northeast US. Here's how that works. Each number represents thee following states/areas:

1 ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, VT
2 NY, NJ
3 PA, DE, MD
4 KY, VA, TN, NC, AL, GA, SC, FL
5 NM, TX, OK, AR, LA, MS
6 CA
7 WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, NV, UT, AZ
8 MI, OH, WV
9 WI, IL, IN
0 ND, SD, NE, KS, CO, MN, IA, MO
L0 - L9 AK
P1 - P5 Caribbean: Navassa Island (P1), U.S. Virgin Islands (P2), Puerto Rico (P3, P4), Desecheo Island (P5)
13 H0 - H9 Hawaii and Pacific: Baker or Howland Island (H1), Guam (H2), Johnston Island (H3), Midway Island (H4), Palmyra Island or Jarvis Island (H5), Kingman Reef (H5K), Hawaii (H6, H7), Kure Island (H7K), American Samoa (H8), Wake, Wilkes or Peale Island (H9), Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (H0)

Of course, all US HAM Radio Callsigns begin with A, K or N.

Back to my new call. Another 5 weeks went by and I got my new call. N1GUF. Much better than before! I've probably made contact with over 50 countries, and had a great time with it. Unfortunately, the Internet made HAM radio much less interesting when you could Instant Message someone in any country very easily. That... and I sold most of my HAM radios to make money to buy my Corvette.

And now, for a funny:

Hilarious Signs

Over a gynecologist's office: "Dr. Jones, at your cervix."

On a plumber's truck: "We repair what your husband fixed."

On the trucks of a local plumbing company in NE Pennsylvania: "Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."

Pizza shop slogan: "7 days without pizza makes one weak."

Outside a muffler shop: "No appointment necessary. We hear you coming."

In a veterinarian's waiting room: "Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"

Door of a plastic surgeon's office: "We can help you pick your nose!"

On an electrician's truck: "Let us remove your shorts."

In a non-smoking area: "If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action."

On a maternity room door: "Push. Push. Push."

At an optometrist's office: "If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place."

In the front yard of a funeral home: "Drive carefully. We'll wait."

That's it for today... have a wonderful Monday!

93 Happy Birthday Dave

No no no, not me.. my friend Dave is 47 today. We went to his birthday party last night and had a great time with him, his wife and daughter (my Goddaughter) and some of his family. We spent a bit of time talking about how far we've come, even in the short time we've known each other.

Short... well, I met Dave in 1999, not long after I got my HAM Radio license. What's that you say, you didn't know I was a HAM? Yep. Taking the written test wasn't too bad, but I was scared to death of the Morse code test. I had learned barely half of the letters, and wasn't good at it yet when my (late) friend Kevin talked me into taking the code test anyway. Well, I took it, and here's the letters I knew as I was writing them down (you're allowed to guess the missing ones before handing in paper).

"Na-e -ere is -orraine QTH is -os an-e-es"

Where - were blanks. I figured out it was "Name here is Lorraine, QTH is Los Angeles"

You had to get 25 characters in a row correct, and I did and passed! Five weeks later I got my callsign in. "KA1TBE"
I hated it. the TBE all had that "E" sound. When spelled phonetically, "Tango Bravo Echo", they all ended in the "O: sound! Luckily, before the year was up I upgraded my license and got a new callsign. More about that soon, this is about Dave and I.

After about 3-4 months, I got on the air and met KA1RPQ. We talked for a bit before realizing we were both in the same town!

I invited him over to talk about radio, and he brought with him a bunch of his QSL cards and we had a great time looking through them at ones from all over the world. We've been incredibly good friends ever since. Today, he's a year older (and he found a new wrinkle to worry about yesterday! *LOL*

And now, a joke before I go:

Skin Transplant Surgery

A married couple was in a terrible accident where the woman's face was severely burned.  The doctor told the husband that they couldn't graft any skin from her body because she was too skinny.  So the husband offered to donate some of his own skin. However, the only skin on his body that the doctor felt was suitable would have to come from his buttocks.

The husband and wife agreed that they would tell no one about where the skin came from, and requested that the doctor also honor their secret. After all, this was a very delicate matter.

After the surgery was completed, everyone was astounded at the woman's new beauty.  She looked more beautiful than she ever had before! All her friends and relatives just went on and on about her youthful beauty!

One day, she was alone with her husband, and she was overcome with emotion at his sacrifice.

She said, "Dear, I just want to thank you for everything you did for me.   There is no way I could ever repay you."

"My darling," he replied, "think nothing of it.  I get all the thanks I need every time I see your mother kiss you on the cheek."

That's it for this week, have a wonderful weekend all!

92 Reminders of Times Past

I've placed a new link to a blog I read at the left. It's Caroldee's blog, called "And so it goes on..." and I read her blog often.

Her post today, brought back memories for me, as she was talking about painting with oil based paint, and the smell of turpentine.

As my brother will agree, we both remember the smell of turpentine in our youths as both of our Grandfathers were painters. There were always cans of paint around in our basement and garage, and nearly always a paint can in the garage with 3 or 4 brushes in it, soaking in turpentine.

Something funny happened last week, when my brother happened to be going up the street we lived in as a kid, and a guy was outside of our childhood home selling parking spots for an Italian Festival across the street. He decided to go talk to the guy, and told him how we were brought up in that house. He asked questions that only someone that has intimate knowledge of that house would know, and the guy was amazed. THEN, the guy asked.. "Want to come inside and see?". Well, off they went, bringing back lots of memories for him (and for me when he told me of it). The "stairway to nowhere" that was closed up when the house went from a one family to two family, the kitchen that my grandmother cooked so much fantastic food , not to mention her incredible coffee cake in, and the top 2 floors where we lived.

Maybe someday, I'll get to walk through again... I hope it happens. So much of my life was there.

And now, a funny for you all:

Penguins Go to the Zoo

A man drives to a gas station and has his tank filled up. The gas pumper spots two penguins sitting in the back seat of the car.

He asks the driver, "What's up with the penguins in the back seat?"

The man in the car says "I found them. I asked myself what to do with them, but I haven't had a clue."

The clerk ponders a bit then says, "You should take them to the zoo."

"Hey, that's a good idea," says the man in the car and drives away.

The next day the man with the car is back at the same gas station. The clerk sees the penguins are still in the back seat of the car.

"Hey, they're still here! I thought you were going to take them to the zoo."

"Oh, I did," says the driver, "And we had a swell time. Today I am taking them to the beach."

That's it for now.. have a wonderful Hump-Day!

91 Happy Belated Fathers Day

Yes, I forgot to wish all you dads out there a Happy Fathers Day! I hope you all had a nice day, and you got to see and be near your kids.

My fathers day was quiet.. and relaxing. *S* I picked up my daughter this morning to go see my mom, making a stop at the cemetery to see my dad, and wish him a happy fathers day.

Other than that, it was a nice weekend. I had the Vette out on Friday night to go to a cruise night where we had a great time and saw a guy pull in with a brand new 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 (It was the first one sold in CT). The guy told me he ordered it 2 years ago, when he found out it was coming out. Gorgeous car...

Saturday, we went to a small car show kind of as a favor to the Car Club's Treasurer. It was a lot of fun and we had hot dogs and hamburgers and all kinds of great side dishes. Afterwards, there was a guy there doing a demonstration with a six foot piece of tree where he takes chain saws and makes a beautiful carving out of it. He made 2 eagles side by side and it was fantastic.

Here's a good funny for you:

The Scottie Dog Who Knew Karate

There once was a young couple who lived in a town filled with crime. After three neighbors' houses had been robbed, the couple decided to get a guard dog.

So one day the wife went to the pet store and said, "I need a good guard dog."

And the clerk replied, "Sorry, we're all sold out. All we have left is this little Scottie dog. But he knows karate."

The wife didn't believe him so he said to the dog, "Karate that chair."

The dog went up to the chair and broke it into pieces, then he said to the dog, "Karate that table." The dog went up to the table and broke it in half.

So the wife bought the dog and took it home to her husband who was expecting a big guard dog. But then she told her husband that it knew karate, and he said "Karate my ass!"

Well, that's it for now.. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and has a great Monday!

90 A Break.. Weather and Weekend

Yep, Wednesday and Thursday, it's been BEAUTIFUL! Both days it's been 80-85 degrees, bright sunshine, low humidity and a light breeze. Perfect weather. Friday it's supposed to be the same. Hopefully, when I get home from work tomorrow night, I'll take the Vette to a cruise night in Torrington (about 17 miles from my home).

The photos from the Street Festival are online here.

Oh, before I forget, the video Wednesday about the cell phones and popcorn, was a fake. My bad for not looking it up before putting it out there. Sure had me going! *chuckle*

Saturday, I'm supposed to be going to a car show not too far away that's a picnic. For your paid admission, you get hotdog's and hamburg's for free! I can live with that!

By the way, has anyone noticed the Corvette clock at left?? *S*

I didn't mention this, but last Thursday, my daughter called me from work almost in tears, she had an ankle that was killing her. She needed someone to take her to the doctors. "Dad to the rescue"
I took a half day personal time as she was having a hard time even driving, and brought her to her foot doctor (and a good friend of mine where I work). He told her she mildly tore a ligament, but luckily it was a tear with the grain (vertical) and a hard cast/boot should heal it just fine. So, she got fitted with the big black boot that really she was laughing about. Her students the next day were calling her "Ms. Champenstein" because as she walked in the hallway, the kids knew it was her from the "Click-Clump, Click-Clump.."

Then, she figured out, she's in a wedding party in Colorado in 2 weeks. That's going to be fun! *LOL*

Well, enough for now... have a wonderful Friday and weekend!

89 H-H-H-HOT!

If you look to the right, you'll see the temperature in my city today at about 2pm. Oh, did I mention, humidity was very high also?

That's two days in a row with temps over 95 (yesterday we hit 96).

Thank goodness a cold front is coming through tonight. Cold as in 85-90 tomorrow. *chuckling*

Ok, can someone explain this video to me?
That actually scares me!!! Oh, and I have two more videos that show the same thing.

Hopefully the temps will be better this weekend and maybe I can take the Vette out for a nice ride.

At the show on Saturday, they had my wife's absolute favorite car.
Here's a picture at right. It's a 1961 Corvette, in Roman Red with the white coves on the side (and in her favorite color). It's for sale, and very reasonable (for a reason).

The picture here shows it has the optional ($236.75) hard top. It also has a convertible top (the hard top is removable).

It's got an upgraded engine (283ci, 270hp Engine (2x4 carbs.)) that cost $182.95 new. Base price on this car was $3934.00 with production at 10,939. With options, the price came out to about $4726.00.
The asking price was $40,000. Believe it or not, that's incredibly cheap, but the reason for it is that it does not have the original engine (that's VERY important for Corvettes). It is however, a real 1961 Corvette engine, just not the one that came in this car. The condition of it was.. about a 7.5 out of 10. While it's a gorgeous car, and I'd love to have it and drive around in it, these older Corvettes had solid rear axles and rode very harshly.
If it had the original engine in it, the price would be closer to $100,000. Yeah, it makes that much of a difference.
Oh, one more thing. This Corvette happened to have an option missing.
It had no heater! (back then called "heater delete") In 1961, a heater was a $102.25 option, and the original owner of this car lived in Hawaii. This is proof the owner ordered the car, rather than bought it off of a lot. When he moved back to the mainland, he had his baby shipped back with him.

Well, enough of the Corvette lesson for today.. have a wonderful Hump-Day!

88 High Heat and Iced Coffee

Thank goodness Saturday is over.

The heat and humidity was completely unbearable, with the mercury (or red liquid as we can't use mercury thermometers any longer) made it up to 98F, with the humidity making it feel like 104. The good news was, the show was a complete success, with over 300 cars, and quite a few spectators, even in the heat.

The crowd was well behaved, and the people seemed to enjoy themselves. Our club members though, were really worn out at the end of the day. One good thing was, my barber is almost across the street from our club truck, and my barber waved me into his place, handed me an ice cold wet towel to put on my face for a few, and then gave me a place to put it should I need it later (I did, about 10 times!).  All in all, it was a successful, if not physically taxing day.

I have to ask a question here. Why is it, we are charged more for iced coffee, than normal coffee? With all the ice in the cup, you barely get half the "liquid coffee" in the cup? I was looking at prices at Dunkin Donuts, and couldn't believe how much more they get for iced coffee. What do you think?

Sunday, I just relaxed. I even took a nap in the afternoon to recuperate from Saturday. We finally got a bit of relief from the heat with a long thunderstorm in the afternoon.

I was sad to hear of the passing of Jim McKay, the ABC Sportscaster whose voice was synonymous with the Olympics. Anyone who is old enough to remember ABC's Wide World of Sports, remembers him.

Well, on to the workweek..  have a wonderful Monday..!

87 Busy Weekend Ahead

Well, this weekend is the rescheduled Car Show that our car club puts on. That's the good news.

The bad news is, it's supposed to be 93 degrees with 95% humidity! Looks like a scorcher of a day, but.. the nice weather should bring out a lot of people.

Did I mention yet, that my daughter bought a Wii? She also bought the Wii Fit, which is seriously cool! It lets her exercise, do aerobics, hula-hoop, downhill skiing, Yoga and a bunch of other things. I went to try it one night, and we made a Mii for me, and I tried some of the games that came with it. I tried Baseball (I hit a home run), Tennis (love it), Bowling and Golf (fantastic).
I have to say, the people that designed the Wii controller should get a billion dollars, it's the most incredibly innovative thing I've ever seen. It's technologically brilliant.
Well, a few days ago, a friend in work lent me his "Guitar Hero" CD and Guitar to try. I laughed so hard I almost cried. Then, the same guy sent me (video link)  this link, of a 9 year old playing the hardest song, at the highest level of the game. My mouth hit the floor!

Earlier this week, my Godmother's daughter sent me some pictures of my paternal grandfather (I'll call him Grandpa Champ). I'm posting one here for you:

That's my Grandpa Champ, at my Godmothers house (that's her in the background). He passed away when I was about 13, so obviously my wife never met him. He was a truly fantastic guy to me and my brother, and my dad and him were very close. (my dad was an only child)

Other than that, I've been real busy this week both in and out of work, and it's not likely to let up until probably Monday at the earliest.

Note, There's something new on the left side here. I got the idea from Marks blog, and it'll allow me to post a tiny snippet (twitter) to the blog even on days I don't post a full blog post. Look for it under the weather icon called "Twitter Bytes".

 

Well, wish us luck on the car show, and have a great weekend all!

86 Wordless Wednesday - Tequilaria, Cozumel Mexico

 

(Click picture to 'embiggen')

85 Rescheduled

Well, our big Street Festival & Car Show was canceled and rescheduled for next Saturday. I can only hope that the weather's nice.

Funny though.. the weather people forecast huge thunderstorms all day Saturday, and we barely got a drop until about 7pm. Our show was to end at 8 so it's probably good we canceled anyway.

Other than that, it was an uneventful weekend, so I'll grace you with a few more pictures of vacation.

 

The picture at right is the pool deck, on deck 9 where there's 3 pools total, two out here, and two in the back, in a "solarium" that's a quiet area with no kids. It (the solarium) also has 2 hot tubs, and a bar.

 

 

The next picture, is of the inside of the atrium. What you're looking at, is deck 4, 5 and 6 where the pursers desk is, customer relations, and much more.

As I've said before, we've been on this ship before, and we've always liked it.

Have I mentioned, we have a cruise scheduled for late November? Then we have a vacation scheduled for February, with the big group of school teachers in town that we went to Costa Rica with a few years ago. We'll be going to Cozumel to an all-inclusive then. So, I have a few things to look forward to.

Well, I have to run.. have a wonderful Monday all!