1. Thursday, we went diving for the first time in 3 years. Cancun has access to cenotes, which are huge freshwater caverns. It's a little scary at first because it's not like regular diving where, if you get in trouble, you can always just swim UP. But here in the caverns, there is no UP - you're in a cave. So you have to swim OUT. One of the cool things about the cenotes is that we were able to experience halocline, which is where freshwater mixes with saltwater. Imagine swimming through the layer where both meet - it's blurry and fuzzy like how oil and water are when mixed. But as soon as you swim through it, it's clear again. The saltwater was also noticeable warmer than the freshwater, which means it's alot easier to pee in.
It's been several vacations since I've kept a travel diary, so why not bring it back? We've got enough downtime here in Cancun for me to do it, AND we've got an internet connection, so what the heck. Here goes:
1. We're at a very nice all-inclusive resort here in Cancun called Sun Palace. We're here with Jocelin's sister (Jessica), her husband (Mike), his sister (Dawn), and her husband (Mike). Some notables about the resort: (1) Our room is sweet. Each room has a jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room, and we have a fully stocked minibar, which is, of course, all-included. Yeah, it sounds great, but in reality, if either me and Joce took more than 2 shots, we'd be in bad shape. Plus, if you get free drinks all day long anyway, why would you want to come back to your room and drink MORE? (2) We get free calls to the US from our room. This is a big deal for me because I had a few business things I needed to take care of and wasn't sure how I was going to do it. (3) There is free WiFi everywhere throughout the hotel. This is always a big deal to me.
I finally reached blog entry #100! Man, I thought I'd be here WAY before this! I've been looking forward to this milestone for a very long time. It took me 1050 days, which is equal to 2 years, 10 months, and 15 days, which is an average of 1 blog every 10.5 days. I THINK about blogging pretty much every day, but that doesn't count, does it? It's hard to get motivated enough to sit down and write something. There is usually something more important to do. Right now, for instance, I'm waiting in the lobby at the City of Austin to pay a permit fee. It's probably going to be a 45 minute wait - at least. These are the best times to blog, because there is nothing else very productive that I could be doing.
ANYWAY, entry #100 shouldn't be all about DOGGING blogging, it should be about CELEBRATING blogging. So, what have I learned from blogging? Hmmm...
I've had a really rough time lately with anything having to do with ground transportation. The previous few years have been fairly incident-free, but these last few months have been full of issues. It all started in March when I got 2 tickets in the span of 2 weeks. Yeah, that's right. 2 tickets in 2 weeks. Even sadder than that is that were both in the EXACT SAME SPOT - one particular stop sign in my neighborhood. Yes, I'm THAT stupid.
I'm 98% sure that we are now the only married couple on the planet that DOES NOT have kids but who DOES own a minivan. We were in Cleveland for Memorial Day weekend, and Jocelin's parents were very generous and gave us their 1998 Toyota Sienna, so we drove it back to Austin all the way from Ohio. That's a 1400 mile, 20 hour drive. We've never taken a roadtrip together of this magnitude before, and to be completely honest, I wasn't looking forward to such a long and boring drive. But I ended up really enjoying it, and I will share with you our secret to super long road trips:
Last night, my good buddy John Yeng, his wife Emay, Jocelin, and I went to the Hornets vs. Spurs playoff game in New Orleans. It was a quick 1.5 day trip, and I'm sitting in the airport right now waiting for my flight back to Austin. It was a really fun time with good food, great company, and an exciting sporting event. It sucks that I lost $348 playing poker at Harrah's casino, but oh well, some days that's the way it goes. Jocelin said she really liked the trip because it was so spontaneous. We decided to go on Monday afternoon, and left first thing Tuesday morning.
Those of you who live in Austin probably know about the Latinos that hang out at the Home Depot on St. John's every day looking for construction related work. Basically, they show up each morning hoping that someone will pick them for a day's labor in exchange for a day's wage. It's kind of like a little prostitution ring - but for builders only.
Wow. It's been a really, really, really, long time since I've posted anything. I wonder if anyone is even going to see this? I wouldn't be surprised if we've been removed from everyone's RSS readers. Oh well. Whatever. Since there won't be any readers, at least until we get more consistent again, I won't feel the pressure of blogging anything meaningful. So, with that said, the first blog out of my hibernation will be... about...
Matt and Faith took me, Rebecca, and Jeff out on the lake today. Jocelin couldn't go because she wasn't feeling well. It was fun! Since I didn't get a chance to go out last season, I was a little nervous about wakeboarding. It had been a while, and I didn't know if I was going to embarrass myself. Especially since Matt and Faith are really experienced. One thing about me is that I hate being the one that slows other people down. I'd rather be the waiter than the waitee.
Is there any information on the web that Google can't find? I THINK NOT! Here at home, we almost always print on recycled paper - no, not the expensive "green" paper that you buy at the stores, but paper that has already been printed on one side. (We've found that there are very, very, few instances when we need to print on perfect paper.) Anyway, I made the mistake of loading into the printer a stack of papers THAT WERE STILL STAPLED TOGETHER. Apparently, printers don't like that too much, and it really jacked it up. From that point on, the printer would not feed paper. Uh-oh...
1. Thursday, we went diving for the first time in 3 years. Cancun has access to cenotes, which are huge freshwater caverns. It's a little scary at first because it's not like regular diving where, if you get in trouble, you can always just swim UP. But here in the caverns, there is no UP - you're in a cave. So you have to swim OUT. One of the cool things about the cenotes is that we were able to experience halocline, which is where freshwater mixes with saltwater. Imagine swimming through the layer where both meet - it's blurry and fuzzy like how oil and water are when mixed. But as soon as you swim through it, it's clear again. The saltwater was also noticeable warmer than the freshwater, which means it's alot easier to pee in.
It's been several vacations since I've kept a travel diary, so why not bring it back? We've got enough downtime here in Cancun for me to do it, AND we've got an internet connection, so what the heck. Here goes:
I finally reached blog entry #100! Man, I thought I'd be here WAY before this! I've been looking forward to this milestone for a very long time. It took me 1050 days, which is equal to 2 years, 10 months, and 15 days, which is an average of 1 blog every 10.5 days. I THINK about blogging pretty much every day, but that doesn't count, does it? It's hard to get motivated enough to sit down and write something. There is usually something more important to do. Right now, for instance, I'm waiting in the lobby at the City of Austin to pay a permit fee. It's probably going to be a 45 minute wait - at least. These are the best times to blog, because there is nothing else very productive that I could be doing.
I've had a really rough time lately with anything having to do with ground transportation. The previous few years have been fairly incident-free, but these last few months have been full of issues. It all started in March when I got 2 tickets in the span of 2 weeks. Yeah, that's right. 2 tickets in 2 weeks. Even sadder than that is that were both in the EXACT SAME SPOT - one particular stop sign in my neighborhood. Yes, I'm THAT stupid.
I'm 98% sure that we are now the only married couple on the planet that DOES NOT have kids but who DOES own a minivan. We were in Cleveland for Memorial Day weekend, and Jocelin's parents were very generous and gave us their 1998 Toyota Sienna, so we drove it back to Austin all the way from Ohio. That's a 1400 mile, 20 hour drive. We've never taken a roadtrip together of this magnitude before, and to be completely honest, I wasn't looking forward to such a long and boring drive. But I ended up really enjoying it, and I will share with you our secret to super long road trips:
Last night, my good buddy John Yeng, his wife Emay, Jocelin, and I went to the Hornets vs. Spurs playoff game in New Orleans. It was a quick 1.5 day trip, and I'm sitting in the airport right now waiting for my flight back to Austin. It was a really fun time with good food, great company, and an exciting sporting event. It sucks that I lost $348 playing poker at Harrah's casino, but oh well, some days that's the way it goes. Jocelin said she really liked the trip because it was so spontaneous. We decided to go on Monday afternoon, and left first thing Tuesday morning.
Those of you who live in Austin probably know about the Latinos that hang out at the Home Depot on St. John's every day looking for construction related work. Basically, they show up each morning hoping that someone will pick them for a day's labor in exchange for a day's wage. It's kind of like a little prostitution ring - but for builders only.
Wow. It's been a really, really, really, long time since I've posted anything. I wonder if anyone is even going to see this? I wouldn't be surprised if we've been removed from everyone's RSS readers. Oh well. Whatever. Since there won't be any readers, at least until we get more consistent again, I won't feel the pressure of blogging anything meaningful. So, with that said, the first blog out of my hibernation will be... about...
Matt and Faith took me, Rebecca, and Jeff out on the lake today. Jocelin couldn't go because she wasn't feeling well. It was fun! Since I didn't get a chance to go out last season, I was a little nervous about wakeboarding. It had been a while, and I didn't know if I was going to embarrass myself. Especially since Matt and Faith are really experienced. One thing about me is that I hate being the one that slows other people down. I'd rather be the waiter than the waitee. 
Is there any information on the web that Google can't find? I THINK NOT! Here at home, we almost always print on recycled paper - no, not the expensive "green" paper that you buy at the stores, but paper that has already been printed on one side. (We've found that there are very, very, few instances when we need to print on perfect paper.) Anyway, I made the mistake of loading into the printer a stack of papers THAT WERE STILL STAPLED TOGETHER. Apparently, printers don't like that too much, and it really jacked it up. From that point on, the printer would not feed paper. Uh-oh...