189 - It figures.....

On Wednesday night, I came down with a horrible cold. I was out of work Thursday and probably will be Friday too. I hate being sick. *frown*

But... to lighten up the mood, I'll post more vacation pictures here.

 

To the left, is the buffet area, called appropriately Jimmy's Buffet! The food was "ok", but the 2 restaurants they had there were much better. They had a Japanese and an Italian restaurant on site that you had to make reservations for (I made some for 3 nights, for 14 people each when we first got there).

 

 

To the right, is the huge chess set, and to the right you can see the edge of the shuffleboard courts. To my left, out of view were 2 ping pong tables and 2 pool tables. If you were bored here, it was your own darned fault!

 

 

 

 

To the left, you see the "edgeless" pool, which was immense. It also had a little "in-water" walkway to the pool bar, seen to the right in the next picture.

 

 

 

 

You can see the stools and tables in the water for the pool bar. I have to admit, I actually had a drink or so there (more so than "a").

 

 

Now that we're home.. I'm just watching how my job is going to be because of the problems with money in our state.

Other than that, I'm going to work in getting rid of this cold.

Have a great weekend all..!

188 - Cold Weather Sucks!

Good grief I want to be back on vacation in the Caribbean! *chuckling*

We got on a bus at 3:00am headed from the school where my daughter teaches, to Newark International Airport, about a 2.5 hour drive. Before we left the school parking lot, people were handing out glasses of Bloody Mary's! *LOL* It was quite a ride to Newark.

We arrived in Curacao (non-stop flight) by around 2pm, and after clearing customs, we were are the resort by 3:15pm. It was nice enough that we just shed our jeans, put on our shorts and walked the beach. Here's a video, not from the first day but one of the days later, and you can see how beautiful the beach area is.

 

That's it for now, I hope you enjoy it!

187 - I'm Back, and Totally Relaxed!

The vacation in Curacao was absolutely wonderful. It was very restful, relaxing and peaceful. The trip there beginning at 3am was relatively uneventful, the plane ride was about 4.5 hours and we landed in 90 degree bright sunshine! We checked into our room, and it only took a moment for me to see an ash-tray and say to my wife "oh crap, we're going to have to switch rooms, this is a smoking room". While I honestly couldn't smell it, I was heading to the phone when my wife said to me "Before you do, you better come see this..." and I looked behind a large full-wall curtain onto our private porch to see what you see in the stitched together picture below. Needless to say, we kept the room!

(click on any picture to 'embiggen')

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The resort was beautiful, and on the first night, I took the picture below of the sunset:

 

The sunset just blew me away. The night time temps were around 72-75, with a light breeze. We only had one day of rain, Tuesday which is when we decided to go into town anyways.

When we first got there, I knew the 2 nice restaurants on site booked early, so I immediately booked 3 nights, for 12 people to get as many of us as possible in for some fun and good food. The buffet food was ok, but nothing to really rave about, but it was diverse and there was plenty of it.

More about it as the week goes on, (including a video on Wednesday) but needless to say, we had a great time and wish we were still there!

I hope everyone had a nice week last week, and I'll catch up up all your blogs soon!

186 - Vacation Time At Last!

As of 11am Friday, I'm on vacation! I had quite a scare on Wednesday night, when I started feeling awful, with a severe upset stomach and diarrhea. I felt awful all day in work Thursday, but as of Thursday night, I'm feeling a lot better. It scared me that I might be sick for the trip!

I'm wondering why comments are down. I mean, only one comment on Wednesday? (are my jokes not funny any longer?)

I wanted to show you some incredible pictures of this Earth from space!

Not too much time tonight to write more, I'm still trying to pack, so I'll say to you all (all one of you) that I'll see you when I get back from Curacao!

And now, a short joke:

A new teacher tries to make use of her psychology courses. The first day of class, she starts by saying, "Everyone who thinks they're stupid, stand up!"
After a few seconds, Little Johnny stands up. The teacher asks, "Do you think you're stupid, Johnny?"
"No, ma'am, but I hate to see you standing there all by yourself."

Have a wonderful week all!

185 - Ready to Go!

I'm ready. 'nuff said.

Has anyone out there had to call Apple for support on anything? I had to move my iPod Touch from my old PC to my new PC,and when I did, my applications didn't come over correctly. I got on the Apple website, and there was a choice to "talk to a real rep". The choices is to type to someone, have someone call you, or set a time for someone to call you. I chose "have someone call me", and I put in my info including my phone number, and within 60 seconds, TRULY one minute, the phone was ringing! The person on the other end of the phone was a nice lady named Cody, and she walked me through how to fix my problem, and was so nice.. I told her at the end that everyone could take lessons from Apple. Let me know if you've had a similar experience.

Mark, Push wasn't a rip off of Star Wars (far from it), but it was... how can I put it.. a jumble of movies all in one. Some of the people could push thoughts into your mind and you'd believe them to be true (pushers), some were movers (telekinesis), some could find you using their scent (sniffers), and some could block the sniffers (blockers), and there were readers, who could read the future (readers), to some extent. The more I think about it, the more this movie stunk. And I had such high hopes.

And now, for something funny:

A man staggers into an emergency room with two black eyes and a five iron wrapped tightly around his throat.
"I was having a quiet round of golf with my wife," he tells the doctor, "when she sliced her ball into a pasture of cows. We went to look for it, and I noticed one of the cows had something white in its rear end. I walked over and lifted up the tail, and sure enough, there was my wife's golf ball stuck right in the cow's butt. That's when I made my mistake."
"What did you do?" asks the doctor.
"Well, as I was standing there holding up the tail, I yelled to my wife, 'Hey, honey, this looks like yours!'"

Have a great Hump-Day!

184 - Four and a Half Days to Go!

I'm so pumped for vacation.. (and I know you're sick of hearing about it too!)

This was a busy weekend for me. I got a certification I had been wanting for a long time, and finally got it on Saturday (more on that at another time).

Sunday, was the normal go to see Mom with my daughter, then I did some work on my new PC, installing software. I moved my iTunes over, and my iPod Touch over to it, copied 90+GB of movies and music from my old PC to the new one and there's still so much more to do.

I was sorry to read in the news about the wildfires in Australia! I hope Peter or Merle aren't anywhere close.

I went to the movies Friday night with a friend to see the movie, "Push". It gets a 2.5 out of 5 stars. It reminds me of a "Wachowski brothers" movie (think, The Matrix), but it's very poorly done, not to mention Dakota Fanning is becoming a worse actor as she gets older. What the theater website said about the movie, and what it really is about, is also a bit different.

It got up to almost 50 degrees Sunday.. so a LOT of snow and ice melted. Now, if it'd only STAY that warm! Wishful thinking though... it's going to get cold soon. Oh well, I'll be warm next week. *S*

Other than that, lots to do this week to get ready for vacation.

And now, something funny from my friend Mike:

'YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF...'
1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.
2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.
3. You have more wives than teeth..
4. You wipe your butt with your bare left hand, but consider bacon 'unclean.'
5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.
6. You can't think of anyone you HAVEN'T declared Jihad against.
7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.
8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.
9. You've often uttered the phrase, 'I love what you've done with your cave.'
10. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least one.
11. You bathe at least monthly whether necessary or not.
12. You have a crush on your neighbor's goat.

Have a great Monday!

183 - 7 Days to Go!

I looked up the weather in Curacao today, and it's 84 degrees and bright sunshine. Nights are average 76 and cloud free! I just can't wait. I'm taking a half day off next Friday so I can do a wash and pack early. The bus leaves for Newark Airport at 3am.

The week has gone by like a bullet because I've been so busy. There's hardly been time to load all the software I need to on my new PC, and there's a lot to load.

Mark, I saw this news story, and I immediately thought of you!

Now here's a fantastic picture from APOD!

How on Earth do some people find me on Twitter? I have the strangest people come out of the woodwork finding me on Twitter. On the other hand, I've found some interesting people. Mark may know one of them, John C Dvorak.
Another person I follow, is Natali Del Conte, a reporter for CNET (and not just because she's incredibly beautiful, and smart).

It's going to be a busy weekend.. but I'm just looking forward to next Friday...! *S*

And now, for something funny:

Well Sulio's boss thinks for a minute and then comes up with a name. "Tom Selleck! I bet you don't know Tom Selleck!" Sulio says "Tom Selleck! Tom and I were in boy scouts together when we were kids!" but Sulio's boss says "No you weren't!" then Sulio says "Yes we were!" so they fly to Hollywood and drive up to Tom Selleck's house. Sulio knocks on the door and Tom Selleck answers and Sulio goes "Tom!!!" and Tom goes "Sulio!" and they hug and catch up for 30 minutes and Sulio's boss can't believe it. But then he thinks "Well that could happen, it's just one person," so he tells Sulio and Sulio says "OK, pick somebody else!"

This time Sulio's boss has someone in mind! "The president, Bill Clinton! You don't know Bill Clinton!" but Sulio says "Oh yes I do! Bill and I were on debate team together in college!" Sulio's boss says "No you weren't!" and Sulio says "Yes we were!" so they fly to Washington and they catch up with the President at a press conference. They work their way through the crowd until Sulio get's close enough to catch Clinton's eye and waves "Bill!" and the President waves "Sulio!" and after the press conference they hug and catch up for 30 minutes and Sulio's boss is stunned-- he can't believe it. But then he thinks "Well that's just two people in one country-- that doesn't mean he knows everyone in the whole world!" so he tells Sulio and Sulio says "OK, pick someone out of the world spectrum and I know them!"

And Sulio's boss knows just who to pick so he says "The Pope! You do not know the Pope!" and Sulio says "The Pope! The Pope BAPTIZED me!" and Sulio's boss says "No he didn't!" and Sulio says "Yes he did!" so they fly to Rome where the Pope is giving Mass in front of hundreds of thousands of people. They work their way through the crowd-- without much luck-- so Sulio says "Boss, we're never gonna get there together through all these people so I tell you what--I'll work my way up there and when I do, I'll give you a sign that shows you I know the Pope!" and he leaves. Well Sulio's boss waits and waits and waits and just when he's about to give up, he sees the Pope come out onto the balcony and right there beside him is Sulio!

Shortly afterwards, Sulio's boss passes out. Sulio comes back and finds his boss passed out and he fans him and says "Boss! Boss! Wake up!" and when his boss comes to, he asks "Boss what happened?" Sulio's boss looks at Sulio and says "OK, I can see Tom Selleck. I can see Bill Clinton...hell, I can even take the Pope! But when somebody standing next to me asks 'Who's that up there with Sulio?' that's a little more than I can take!

Have a great weekend!

182 - 10 More Days..!

We got our tickets last night. We leave town on a motor-coach at 3am on Saturday the 14th (Valentines Day), heading to Newark Intl. Airport (almost a 3 hour drive), for an 8:30am flight, non-stop to Curacao! One flight, five and a half hours to sunshine and blue skies! I'll be taking a half day off next Friday, so I can get all packed up and ready to go.
Here's where we're staying!

I'm slowly adding programs to my new PC, it's fast as heck! I finally found out how to change the display to show temps in Fahrenheit and not Celsius.

I found one of those cool "Birthday Calculator's" online, and here's what it says for my birthday:

You were born on a Saturday
under the astrological sign Leo.
Your Native American Zodiac sign is Salmon; your plant is Raspberry.
You were born in the Egyptian month of Paopy, the second month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).
Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 11 Elul 5716.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 12 Elul 5716.
The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.2.14.19 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 2 tun 14 uinal 19 kin
The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Saturday, 11 Muharram 1376 (1376-1-11).
Celebrities who share your birthday:

Malcolm-Jamal Warner (1970)
Edward Norton (1969)
Erik 'Everlast' Schrody (1969)
Christian Slater (1969)
Patrick Swayze (1952)
Martin Mull (1943)
Robert Redford (1937)
Roman Polanski (1933)
Rosalynn Carter (1927)
Shelley Winters (1922)
Meriwether Lewis (1774)

And something funny to make you smile:

Believe it or not, these ads actually found their way into newspapers all over the world:

Braille dictionary for sale. Must see to appreciate.

FOR SALE BY OWNER: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. 45 volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000.00 or best offer. No longer needed. Got married last weekend. Wife knows everything.

Help wanted, singer for rock band. Must be female or male.

For sale, Hope Chest, brand new, half off, long story.

Help wanted, adult or mature teenager to baby-sit. One dollar an hour.

Lost: small brown poodle. Reward. Neutered. Like one of the family.

For sale: a quilted high chair that can be made into a table, potty chair, rocking horse, refrigerator, spring coat, size 8 and fur collar.

Four-posted bed, 101 years old. Perfect for antique lover.

Wanted: Part-time married girls for soda fountain in sandwich shop.

Man wanted to work in dynamite factory. Must be willing to travel.

Christmas sale. Handmade gifts for the hard-to- find person.

Wanted, man to take care of cows that does not smoke or drink.

Three-year old teacher needed for pre-school. Experience preferred.

Wanted. Widower with school-age children requires person to assume general housekeeping duties. Must be capable of contributing to growth of family.

Tired of working for only $9.75 per hour? We offer profit sharing and flexible hours. Starting pay: $7 -- $9 per hour.

Our sofa seats the whole mob and it’s made of 100% Italian leather.

Full sized mattress. 20 year warranty. Like New. Slight urine smell.

Nordic Track $300 hardly used, call Chubby.

Joining nudist colony! Must sell washer and dryer $300.

Open house body shapers toning salon free coffee and donuts

Found: dirty white dog. Looks like a rat... been out while. Better be reward.

Exercise equipment: Queen Size Mattress & Box Springs - $175.

ALZHEIMER'S CENTER PREPARES FOR AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER.

Free Yorkshire Terrier: 8 years old. Hateful little dog.

Free puppies: ½ cocker spaniel, ½ sneaky neighbor’s dog.

Free puppies: part German Shepherd, part stupid dog.

German Shepherd, 85 lbs. Neutered. Speaks German. Free.

Snow Blower for sale…only used on snowy days.

Bill’s Septic Cleaning: “We Haul American-Made Products."

Cows, calves never bred…also 1 gay bull for sale.

Nice Parachute – Never opened. Used once.

Hummels – Largest selection ever. "If it’s in stock, then we have it!"

1 man, 7 women hot tub. $850/offer.

Shakespeare’s Pizza. Free chopsticks.

Harrisburg Postal Employee Gun Club.

Tickle-Me-Elmo, still in box, comes with its own 1988 Ford Mustang, 5L, Auto, Excellent condition $6800.

Have a wonderful Hump-Day!

181 - Don't Use American Express!!!

I had an experience today (as I write this on Sunday Evening), that really set me off.

My wife, had gotten some "Mall" gift cards at work as bonuses (good idea, as it makes you buy things and stimulate the economy), and last week, we went to the mall and to JC Penny and bought me a new wallet. Well, after getting home, I decided I really didn't like the wallet, so yesterday (Saturday) my daughter took it back as she was going there. She even had the gift card (from American Express of course). So, the people swiped the card to put the money BACK on the card and we have the receipt.

Today, we had to go to the mall again, and I found a wallet that I really liked. We had the same gift card, and when the lady swiped it (wallets were exactly the same price) she said there was insufficient funds on the card. We had the receipt, so she called AmEx, and they said, "oh, well the funds won't be available for 3-7 days. I said WHAT? When I charge something, they don't wait 3-7 days to take MY money, why do I have to wait to get it back? I was livid at this point. This is where I draw the line with a credit card company. If I return something on my Capital One Visa card, it's back that very instant (the money).

I can't imagine people doing business like that.....

Other than that, I'm getting ready to watch the Super Bowl, not caring really who wins, but waiting intently for the commercials! I'm sure tomorrow they'll be all over the internet.

Now, for something to make you chuckle:

Two  Woodpeckers..........
A  Mexican woodpecker and a Canadian woodpecker were in Mexico arguing about which place had the toughest trees. The Me xican woodpecker claimed Mexico had a tree that no woodpecker could peck.

The Canadian woodpecker accepted his challenge and promptly pecked a hole in the tree with no problem. The Mexican  woodpecker was amazed.

The Canadian woodpecker then challenged the Mexican  woodpecker to peck a
tree in Canada that was absolutely 'impeckable' (a term frequently used  by  woodpeckers ).
The Mexican woodpecker expressed confidence that he could do it and accepted
the  challenge.

The two flew to  Canada  where the Mexican woodpecker successfully    pecked the so-called 'impeckable' tree almost without breaking a sweat.

Both woodpeckers were now terribly confused. How is it that the Canadian  woodpecker was able to peck the Mexican tree, and the Mexican woodpecker was
able to peck the Canadian tree, yet neither was able to peck the tree in their own country?

After much woodpecker pondering, they both came to the same conclusion:
Apparently, your pecker gets harder when you're away from home.

Have a wonderful Monday, 13 days till vacation for me!