Ditto's Blog

2012-01-28T06:17:00.002-05:00

Latest Maryland Weather

We had a high of at least 62F yesterday. It's hard to believe it's winter here but, that's typical Maryland weather. It can be light jacket weather one week and the next, you'll be wearing your parka and digging your car out from the snow. I think someone said that if you don't like the weather here wait and, it'll change. For me, I like the warmer temps as it saves me money right now. I don't have to run the heat as much in my apartment. I don't know about other folks but, I like to give Baltimore Gas & Electric as little of my money as possible. Also, the warmer temps make it nicer for riding my motorbike. I'm determined to ride it year round as long as it's safe to ride it on the roads i.e. no ice or snow. As soon as I get enough free time, I plan to make my way over to Heyser Cycle and get the latest heated hand grip kit put on the bike. That should help a bunch with the cold weather. One drawback of my Yamaha TMAX is that the handlebars are very exposed to the wind. That means, your hands can get very cold very quick during the winter. The heated hand grips help alleviate this problem. Cheers all.

2012-01-16T15:57:00.002-05:00

Powerball Change

Today, I visited the BP gas station where I buy my weekly $40 worth of MegaMillions and Powerball tickets. I play $10 random pick on each of the 2 dates for each of the 2 games. $40 a week won't kill the bank account and gives me enough of a shot at my wild and crazy dream of winning the big jackpot. I doubt spending more than that would improve me chances of winning much.

I found out to my surprise that they changed the Powerball game slightly. Now, each chance will cost you $2 vice $1. The change will supposedly enable them to have bigger jackpots (which means they'll make even more money off the game) and supposedly better odds. I looked at the new odds and, they're now on par with the MegaMillions game. Before, the odds on Powerball were the worst of the multi-state games with you having to hit the 1 in 179 MILLION to win the jackpot. Now, it's down to 1 in 175 MILLION. Pardon me but, I'm not impressed. The odds still seem to be totally ridiculous. I do wonder if the Powerball game is trying to give some competition to the MegaMillions game because of the equal odds between the 2 games and, you can win a lot more money in the Powerball game - example: if you hit the 5 balls in the MegaMillions game, you win $250,000. If you hit the 5 balls in the Powerball game, you win 1 MILLION! So, for an extra $1, you can win 4 TIMES the money. You can guess which game I'd recommend you play though I wouldn't encourage you to play it a lot considering you still have beat odds that are out of the universe to win.

That's my little update on the Powerball change. Good luck to all of you that are playing. If I can't win the big one, I hope you do. Cheers all!

2012-01-15T15:43:00.003-05:00

Little Caesar's

I haven't eaten any pizza in a while so today, I decided to try out Little Caesar's already made large pizza deal. I'd seen their advertisements lauding how you can get a hot fresh large pizza with either cheese, sausage or peppperoni for $5. You don't have to order in advance. You can walk right in and, they have them in a warmer already to go. From 4 to 8 p.m., for $3 more you can get a 3 meat pizza (bacon, sausage and pepperoni) or a deluxe supreme (green peppers, onions, sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms). As I like a pizza with lots of stuff on it, I decided to try out the supreme. I arrived before the Little Caesar's at 3431 Ft. Meade Rd in Laurel, Maryland started making its pre-prepared pizzas. However, they said they'd give me the $8 deal and, the pizza would be ready in less than 10 minutes. I said "cool!" I found the pizza decent. It isn't the greatest I've ever had but, the price was really good and, I liked the short wait (which wouldn't have happened if I'd arrived after 4 p.m.). The large pizza is supposedly 14 inches across and is big enough to supply 8 slices of pizza. If you want some decent pizza with no wait, you might want to take Little Caesar's up on the $5 large pizza deal. Bon Appetit.

2012-01-12T16:55:00.003-05:00

Pilot Varsity Fountain Pen

During one of my visits to Pen Boutique's Columbia, Maryland store, a salesperson there mentioned a disposable fountain pen. I couldn't imagine such a thing so it piqued my interest. It turned out the pen the salesperson was talking about is Pilot's Varsity fountain pen. Pilot's pen comes in 7 colors (black, blue, green, pink, red, purple and turquoise). It has a small window on the side of the pen where you can see how much ink the pen has left. The pen in my opinion is very reasonably priced. I paid $3.25 for one at Pen Boutique and, Pilot sells them for $3.45 on their website http://www.pilotpen.us/Default.aspx Nib wise, I believe it has a medium nib and, this is the only type of nib you can get the pen in. The thing that has most impressed me about this pen is how smoothly it writes. I've found that stainless steel nibs seem to scratch the paper when writing. Till I tried Pilot's pen, the only nibs I'd found that glided across the paper well were gold plated ones. The Varsity pen obviously isn't gold plated but, it does write really smoothly. In my opinion, Pilot's Varsity fountain pen is a really good cheap fountain pen that happens to be disposable. If you like writing with fountain pens, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by this pen. Happy writing all.

2012-01-04T19:52:00.004-05:00

Jake & Amos

One of my favorite products at the Laurel, Maryland Pennsylvania Dutch Market on Ft. Meade Road is the Jake & Amos line of products. They make preserves, salsas, pickled vegetables, mustards, sauces, fruits and pickles. I've tried a number of them and, I found them consistently excellent. They specialize in Amish style recipes and presumably their products are made by the Amish. Some of my favorites are their pickled asparagus which has a great taste and is always crunchy or their spiced dilly beans which are pickled french green beans. Other products I've taste tested are their hot pickled cauliflower (very good and not terribly hot), pickled okra (very good), pickled baby beets (very good and, I'm not a beet lover), pickled sweet brussel sprouts (very good though I think unusual, I didn't even know you could pickle these), pickled sweet baby corn (very good) and corn salsa (very good). Also, I've tried their corn and black bean salsa which is very good though annoyingly, it only comes in 16 ounce jars. As I like the Jake & Amos products so much, I try to save money by buying them in the 32 ounce jars vice the 16 ounce jars. By my figuring, you can save 10 cents an ounce by buying a lot of their products in the bigger jars. Lastly, I know they do occasionally have sales on Jake & Amos products at the Laurel Pennsylvania Dutch Market (I'm keeping an eye out for the next one myself).

If you want more information on the Jake & Amos products, their website is: http://www.jakeandamos.com/Default.aspx. I highly doubt you'll be dissatisfied with any of their products. Bon Appetit!

2011-12-31T20:17:00.002-05:00

The Hobbit Update

I haven't posted an update on here about The Hobbit movie in a long while so I thought I'd post a few comments about it. The movie is apparently progressing well. On December 24th, Peter Jackson released the 5th production video that shows them leaving for their first outside shoot outside Mata Mata where the Bag End set is located. Elijah Wood speaks on the video about his feelings about coming back to the set. It's been 11 years since he went to New Zealand to shoot the Lord of the Rings movies. Jackson himself remarks how unreal it was for him to see the set he never expected to see again. One interesting difference this time is that once shooting is finished on the Bag End set, all the buildings will remain so people can visit for many years to come. I for one would love to see this extraordinarily beautiful set and feel like I visited Hobbiton and Bag End.

Another noteworthy event concerning The Hobbit movie was the release of the first movie trailer on December 21st. The trailer was fascinating and enticing. We got to see a number of the actors playing their Dwarven characters including the one playing Thorin Oakenshield (looks awesome). At the end, we see a familiar creature whose meeting with Bilbo Baggins at an underground lake would have consequences that would change Middle Earth forever.

My only disappointment is that I'll have to wait almost an entire year (the first movie comes out December 13th, 2012) before I get to see the movie. This is one movie I will be very excited about. If you wish to see the production video and trailer I mentioned, you can find them at: http://www.wetanz.com/the-hobbit-movies-latest-updates/ Also, Facebook is a good place to follow the latest news on the movies. Peter Jackson has been awesome about posting updates there. Cheers.

2011-12-31T19:59:00.002-05:00

Fisher Space Pen

This past Christmas, Pen Boutique offered a Fisher Space Pen and Maglight gift set for $15. If I remember correctly, they claimed that was 50% off. I thought that sounded like a good deal. Whats more, the pen supposedly could write in all kinds of temperatures and, you could write upside down with it. Supposedly, astronauts had used the pen because of that.

While I don't need to write upside down, I do have customers that could use a pen that would write on a piece of paper they were holding against a wall or door. Many times, the cheap Bic pens I carry with me stop writing. Also, the Bic pens I use don't seem to like the cold either. So, I decided to buy a couple of the Fisher Space Pens and see how well they work.

So far, I've been very pleased with the pens. For shits and grins, I did try writing something upside down and, the pen worked fine. Also, I took it outdoors and had customers try it. None of them had any problems. According to the products package advertising, the pen will write in temperatures from -30F to 250F. While I don't expect to encounter any conditions that bad. The pen does seem to work fine in the cold. One drawback I've seen to the pen is the refills are expensive. You can expect to pay $5 a piece for one though Fisher claims the refills will write 2 to 3 times longer than a normal pen. As I've just started using their pens, I have no idea if that claim is true.

My recommendation is that if you need a reliable pen that can handle the weather (supposedly you can write underwater with it too though to me that means I can write in the rain with it) and write any time you need it to, the Fisher Space Pen may be what you're looking for. I think it would definitely be worth a try. Cheers all.

2011-12-25T19:33:00.003-05:00

2012 Yamaha TMAX

I've been a big fan of Yamaha's TMAX maxi-scooter since I bought my 2009 TMAX. Each year, I search the internet to find out what changes they'll be making to the bike. For 2012, they made some considerable changes. For starters, it will get a slightly more powerful engine. The size will increase to 530cc vice the previous 499cc. To me, this change is a major disappointment. I was hoping for a TMAX that would have a 750cc engine. There were considerable rumors that such a bike was in the works. Sadly, those rumors proved false. The bike supposedly has a more comfortable seat (someone apparently noticed that the previous seat wasn't very comfortable especially after a long ride on the bike), a redesigned instrument panel, different lights and a different drive chain. Also, the bike has a more rugged look. From what I've seen on the internet, it looks like a nice motorbike but, all the improvements in my opinion aren't enough to get me to trade in my current TMAX. Still, I hope that Yamaha will come out with a more powerful TMAX. That would get me to want to trade in my current TMAX. We'll see what Yamaha ends up doing.

2011-12-25T17:39:00.003-05:00

Baltimore Cruise Ship Terminal

I've been seriously looking at Royal Caribbean's cruises out of Baltimore. Royal Caribbean has a really nice cruise on their Enchantment of the Seas that sails to Bermuda and Boston. You get to stay in port overnight in both ports and, you have just 3 days at sea - 1 day to get to Bermuda, 1 day to get to Boston and 1 day getting back to Baltimore. Another plus for me travel wise is that I wouldn't have to fly any where to get to this cruise ship terminal. I live outside Baltimore but, it's a very easy drive to get to. So, I decided I'd ride my Yamaha TMAX down to the cruise ship terminal and find out how easy or hard it is to get to the terminal.

I hopped on the Baltimore Washington Parkway (I-295) heading to Baltimore. Then, when I reached Interstate 95 (I-95), I switched over to I-95 North heading to New York City. At this point, it was a very short drive before I had to take exit 55 (last exit before you have to pay the toll and go through the harbor tunnel). The exit sign said Fort McHenry and something else. The exit will put you on what I believe is East McComas Road. I drove along this not sure how far I'd have to drive though I knew the road would eventually end at Fort McHenry. After Fort McHenry, you hit water.

Before I got to the terminal, I could tell I was going the right way as I saw a Carnival cruise ship (Carnival Pride) in port. Baltimore has only 1 cruise ship terminal so I knew I was going the right way. I drove along and sure enough, I soon spotted the entrance to the terminal. The terminal isn't super big. I read on the internet that it's a converted warehouse. However, as far as I can tell, it should be able to do the job. I don't believe any of the cruise lines send any of their really big ships to Baltimore. The Enchantment of the Seas is a Vision class ship which is Royal Caribbean's 2nd smallest class of ship (only their Sovereign class is smaller).

The terminal has secure parking however, there is a $15 a day charge for it (source: http://www.cruise.maryland.gov). There are hotels that offer stay 1 night and, you can park and leave your car in their lot during your cruise. However, these might not be cheaper than the parking.

Overall, I found the cruise ship terminal very easy to get to. I hope to take cruise out of the terminal in April 2013. If I get to go then, I'll do a blog entry on how good or bad the terminal itself is. Happy travels all!

2011-12-22T18:47:00.004-05:00

Delta Airmiles

I have over 54,000 airmiles with Delta Airlines. I found out that Delta has a non-stop from New York JFK Airport to Venice, Italy. I figured that there wouldn't be a huge demand for flights to Venice the beginning of November. I figured wrong apparently. I spoke with a Delta rep to see if I could get a guaranteed upgrade to Venice. To my disappointment, I couldn't. All she could do was put a trailer on it stating I wanted one. No dice. If I can't get the upgrade, I'm going to fly with whoever is CHEAPEST and stay overnight in Venice before the cruise. After the lady said she couldn't guarantee me an upgrade, she tried to sell me Delta's charge card. I could earn 30,000 bonus airmiles with it the first year. If I can't get the upgrades I want, the airmiles are worthless to me. Why spend $95 a year for the charge card for worthless airmiles? This is why I cancelled my British Airways and American Airlines charge cards. The airlines are trying to push a product that they turn around and make impossible to use. If their frequent flier programs aren't worth using, the programs are a joke and definitely won't create any kind of customer loyalty. In my case, price will now be the key factor. I won't care what airline I fly on as long as it's the cheapest to get me where I need to go.

2011-12-10T20:19:00.004-05:00

Broken Crown

While on my 2nd of back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean this past November, I bit into something that didn't agree with the crown I had put in a year ago. I don't know how I did it but, I managed to crack the thing. It didn't hurt thankfully. It would have been a royal mess trying to find a dentist in one of the Caribbean islands I was visiting as well as get all the work done in the time I had in each port.

So, I made an appointment with Dr. Mitchell Weiner. Dr. Weiner is a general dentist who specializes in various dental procedures like crowns. He was the one who carved the tooth to where it could accept having a crown put over it and then, he placed and sealed it on the tooth. This past September, I saw him again when I started suffering some pain with the tooth. Initially, it looked like I would need a very expensive root canal done. That's where they drill through the crown, remove all the infected root pulp, fill the empty space with some kind of sealant and seal the tooth. I was very hesistant about having this done and, I wanted to see if antibiotics could clear up the infection. Antibiotics would've been a lot cheaper. Also, I wanted to have one of the dentists take the crown off to make sure the tooth root was infected. I wasn't able to get the crown removed but, the antibiotics apparently worked though I did wonder about the tooth in way i.e. was the infection really gone or was I possibly going to have worse trouble down the line with the tooth.

Wednesday of last week, I got to see Dr. Weiner who looked in astonishment at what I'd done. He asked how did I crack the thing. I told him, I honestly don't know. I don't remember what I bit into that cracked the crown. He said I had 2 choices. They could attempt to remove the broken crown and have it repaired or I could get a totally new crown. Repairing the crown was the cheaper option as that would cost approximately $800. A new crown would be twice that i.e. $1,600. Serious ouch!!!!! I said I'd like to get it repaired. The next step was getting the thing off the tooth. That ended up being a serious job. I found out why Dr. Weiner didn't remove the crown before when I was looking at possibly having a root canal done. When they put a crown on your tooth, they don't intend for it to EVER come off.

First, Dr. Weiner attempted to pry the crown off with a pair of dental pliers that they normally use for removing teeth (shivers). That didn't work. Then, we tried using some SUPER sticky gook that I had to bit into so the suction from the gook would cause the crown to come off. That didn't work either. Dr. Weiner isn't a quitter and, he had one last trick up his dental sleeve. He has a device that a dental hammer of sorts. You attach it to the tooth then, he hits a rod real hard with his hand and, it whacks the tooth. Pieces of porcelain from the crown began to break off. After 3 or 4 whacks, Dr. Weiner removed the device and tried to take the broken crown off. It came off.

The broken crown was taken to where ever they had the crowns made and, it was subsequently repaired to where it looked as good as new. Then, I went back a 2nd time where the repaired crown was placed on the tooth root stump and sealed again. As far as I can tell, the repaired crown is working. I'm not experiencing any pain though I do think the teeth on the left side of my mouth had to move some of accomodate the repaired crown.

Next Wednesday, I'll see Dr. Weiner again for a quick check up on the crown. As far as I can tell, it's working fine and, he shouldn't have to do any thing with it. While I wasn't thrilled with cracking the thing and the subsequent cost ($879). However, I was pleased in one regard. As I mentioned previously, I'd wondered if I was making a mistake by not getting the root canal done. To my relief, when the damaged crown came off, Dr. Weiner was able to examine the root stump and, he said it was completely fine. To make sure it stayed that way, he put some medication on the stump before he put the repaired crown on. In that way, this whole fiasco has been worth it.

2011-12-10T19:42:00.002-05:00

British Airways and Avios Points

Next November, I'll be taking back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean for the 2nd time. I decided to see just which airport I was likely to fly out of: Baltimore Washington International or Washington Dulles. I found out for flights ultimately ending in Venice, Italy which where the 2 cruises will start from, Dulles would be at least $300 cheaper. Another attraction of flying out of Dulles was that I could use the 200,000 plus airmiles now called Avios points. British Airways made a big thing about the change over to the new points. I would find out they didn't change anything when it came to trying to use them.

I figured I should have a good shot at either getting a free Business Class ticket or paying cash and getting a guaranteed upgrade to Business Class since I was going to book the flights 10 months out. Why is Business Class so important to me? Because I know I can get some sleep in those seats. I can't sleep for crap in Economy seats. To my surprise, I couldn't get a free seat on the dates I needed to fly out and, I couldn't get a guaranteed upgrade with cash. This reminded me of the fiasco I had when I tried to get a free seat to Copenhagen and back from Oslo in connection with a Globus tour I was planning to take of Scandanavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). I couldn't get a free seat then and, that wasn't the last time I had this problem. I was so pissed off by the experience I cancelled my British Airways Visa charge card. I told the lady at the charge card center there wasn't any point in having the card and paying the yearly charge if I couldn't use the airmiles when I wanted. Keep in mind too that even if you managed to get free seats, British Airways made you pay a stiff fee of supposed taxes. When I did to fly Business Class to Paris in advance of the Globus La France tour I took, I had to pay British Airways over $700 for my supposedly free ticket. British Airways claimed this was a deal. In my opinion, no it wasn't considering what I had to do just to earn the airmiles. By the way, concerning the Paris tickets, I got lucky to get those as it turned out after I booked the ticket British Airways changed their flights making it impossible for me to get back. Luckily for me, I didn't find out till I finished the tour and arrived at Charles de Gaulle ready to leave only to find out I wasn't. Thanks to a great and understanding British Airways ticket rep, I did make it home. However, if I had found out about the change, I might not have been able to use my airmiles AGAIN. grrrrrrr

This latest fiasco over trying to use the new Avios points has guaranteed I won't be flying British Airways when I travel to Venice. Also, to add further fury, I found out that in the new great Avios system British Airways came out, they devalued their airmiles AGAIN. According to Tim Winship at Frequentflier Blog (http://blog.frequentflier.com) on November 17, 2011, the new Avios points will be yet another devaluation i.e. it'll cost even more points/airmiles for many U.S. travellers who want to use them on British Airways. I haven't forgotten when British Airways devalued my airmiles back in 2006. Their reason then was they wanted to get all their U.S. members on par with other members in other countries. Apparently, British Airways wanted to value us as little as they did their other members worldwide. Now, they've put the screws to its U.S. Executive Club members again.

Because of this latest devaluation, I know what I'll be doing. Once I can travel again (sometime in April 2013), I'll book whatever flights I can where I can get a free ticket with British Airways just so I can use up my Avios points. Once I do that, I won't be flying British Airways again. They've stuck it to me too many times. I would advise other U.S. travellers to do the same. Happy travels all.

2011-11-16T19:26:00.003-05:00

Travel Update

I promised to post updates on my back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean but, I didn't. I want to use my expensive Royal Caribbean WiFi minutes trying to post something. I am back from the cruises. The 2 cruises were a lot of fun. I got to see St. John (USVI), St. Kitts, Aruba, Curacao, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten and the French side St. Martin and St. Croix. Travel highlights include a really fun tour called Taste of Barbados where I got to visit a Bajan rum distillery then, the group travelled to a nearby plantation mansion where we were shown how to make 2 drinks: corn & oil and a Bajan rum punch. Our teacher let us enjoy a LOT of free samples. I know I was half sloshed by the time I returned to the Serenade of the Seas.

Another tour I enjoyed was a walking tour of Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The guide was Heavenly Petersen. The lady did a fantastic job. I learned some interesting things about the island and about one of the founding fathers of the United States i.e. Alexander Hamilton. He lived in St. Croix for 8 years but, he never talked about it apparently when telling of his early life. From what Heavenly told us, our group could understand why (his mother was a convicted adulteress for starters).

The ship Serenade of the Seas was great. It has a first rate crew and lots to do on-board. I got to try the automatically adjusting pool tables. They really worked. The ship moved a lot at times but, the balls on the pool tables didn't. The food was very good and overflowing in abundance. My 2 cabin stewards kept the 2 cabins I stayed in immaculate. I would definitely recommend this ship. I was sad when it was time to leave. I could have happily done another 2 cruises on her.

Overall, I had a really nice time. I can't wait to do back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean. That'll be next November when I sail with them out of Venice en-route to the Greek Islands. We'll see if they look as good in real life as they do in the pictures. Happy travels all.

2011-09-26T17:45:00.003-05:00

Tooth Infection

Last week, I noticed a slight pain in the upper left part of my jaw. I wondered if one of my upper wisdom teeth were moving. I still have both of my upper wisdom teeth. When I was in the Air Force, I saw a dentist about my wisdom teeth. She decided to remove all 4. However, she had such a hard time with my 2 lower teeth that she left the 2 upper ones in. After 3 days of slight pain, I decided it was time to call Batz & Weiner to see someone and find out what the problem was. Yesterday, I ended up seeing Dr. Weiner who did my crown last year. He told me it wasn't my wisdom teeth. I have pulpitis which is an infection of the pulp inside the tooth. Ironically, it was the same tooth he gave me a crown for. He subsequently prescribed me antibiotics to treat the infection and referred me to the practice's root canal specialist. I'll get to see that person tomorrow. I know the tooth's nerve is still very much alive because when I drink anything cold, I can feel it in the tooth. So, the specialist should be able to save the tooth and, I hope re-use the crown they made last year. We'll see. Stay tuned.

2011-09-18T08:30:00.002-05:00

Luggage Tags

Today, I requested my luggage tags from Royal Caribbean for my 2 upcoming cruises. The tags enable the ship's personnel to efficiently deliver my bag to the right cabin. They show my ship's name, the date I'm sailing, what area of the ship my cabin is in and the cabin number. Also, they have some kind of color code though I don't know what each color means. For me, they're another step closer to my next cruise adventure. I don't order the tags till I'm starting to get close to my sailing date. However, I don't wait till the last minute on this as it takes Royal Caribbean up to 7 business days to deliver the tags. I am curious to see the tags for my 2nd cruise as I want to see if they're any different since my bag won't leave the ship after the 1st cruise. This will be the first time I'll have ever taken back-to-back cruises. Stay tuned for more travel updates. In approximately 40 days, I'll leave for a 2 week adventure where I'll visit 9 islands in 14 days. It should be something.

2011-09-05T15:01:00.002-05:00

Uros Indians

One of the most interesting groups I got to learn about while touring Peru with Globus this January was the Uros Indians. The indians history goes back centuries. They were living at Lake Titicaca when the legendary Incas rose to power. The Incas conquered the area and, they demanded the Uros pay either tribute or in labor. The only tribute the Uros could give the Incas was salt which they refused. The Uros refused to work for the Incas so the Incas kicked them off the land. For centuries, the Uros would live on the lake on house boats. Then, at a time where the water was low on the lake, apparently some reeds grew through some lake soil. When the waters rose again, the soil with the reeds floated. These pieces of floating land would form the basis for the Uros man made floating islands which over 1,000 of them live on today as you can see in these pictures. The first pictures shows how the Uros build their islands. They constantly replenish the reeds on the islands so their islands don't fall apart. The second picture shows the colorful dress of Uros women. Men typically wear colorful hats as seen in the first picture. The last picture shows a uniquely Uros way of raising guinea pigs which are raised for food. In this case, the Uros built a small island within their main island for their guinea pigs to live. Presumably, the guinea pigs can't swim so the water makes a very effective gate to keep their guinea pigs in one place.

2011-09-05T07:42:00.002-05:00

Tuscan Bean Salad

Occasionally, I'll get an itch to try a product I haven't tried before. Such was the case with Summer Fresh's Tuscan Bean Salad. The Arundel Mills Costco had a 2 pound plastic tub of Summer Fresh's Tuscan Bean Salad for sale for $6 or $7 (not sure on the exact price). I decided to try it. The salad turned out to pretty good. It has barley, navy beans, chickpeas (also known as garbanzos), pieces of green pepper, red pepper, green onions and canola oil. A 1/2 cup serving contains 140 calories and will provide 5 grams of dietary fiber (20% of the recommended daily intake of dietary fiber). The salad is also high in Vitamin C.

I found the salad tasty. All the ingredients meshed well. Also, the canola oil wasn't overbearing. You didn't get an oily taste with the salad. Based on the dietary information, the salad seems to be a good healthy one. Less than half the calories in a 1/2 cup serving are fat. Also, in my opinion, the salad isn't overly expensive. In regards to where to get it, the only place I know of that sells it is Costco though I'd be willing to bet there are others. If you like bean type salads, this one might be one you might want to try.

2011-08-23T05:01:00.002-05:00

Lake Titicaca

Another stunning natural scene I saw during my Globus tour of Peru was Lake Titicaca. The lake is unique in that it is the highest navigable body of water in the world. It's located at 12,500 feet! The lake is over 50 miles long and, I believe over 30 miles wide at its widest point. It's over 900 feet deep at its deepest point. The lake is shared by Peru and Bolivia. While visiting the lake, my tour group got to visit 2 different indians groups that live on it. I'll tell more about them in later blog entries.

2011-08-21T10:27:00.002-05:00

Nazca Plain Drawings

One of the most fascinating mysteries of Peru are the famous Nazca plain drawings. The drawings can only be fully seen from up in the air. Some of the drawings stretch for miles. While there are a number of trapezoids (shown above) and lines, there are also drawings of a hummingbird (shown above), spider, monkey, dog, whale and an owl/space man as well as others. The drawings were hacked out of the parched soil and because the area gets very little rain, they've endured for centuries. The last accepted theory that I heard as why the drawings were made was that they were appeals or offerings to the mountain gods. The ancient Nazcans believed it was the mountain gods that provided the needed water that they used to grow their crops. All the water in the region came from the mountains.

These pictures were taken in an airplane I flew on out of Pisac, Peru. The plane flew to the Nazca Plain and descended to 1,800 feet. The aircrew would bank left then right so passengers on both sides of the airplane could get pictures of the various drawings. Due to the tight banking, the airplane ride could be one exciting ride. Still, it was well worth it as it was really something to see these famous mysterious drawings. This was part of my Legacy of the Incas Globus tour which I did in January 2011.

2011-08-21T09:55:00.002-05:00

Lima Cathedral

This is a picture of the national cathedral in Lima, Peru. The cathedral was built during colonial times. One particularly noteworthy item about the cathedral is this is where Francisco Pizarro is buried. Pizarro is the man who conquered the Incas and brought down the Incan empire. He did it even though he was horribly outnumbered. He would become richer than he could ever imagine and was made a marquis by the Spanish king. He founded the city of Lima, the city of kings on January 18, 1535. He was assassinated on June 26, 1541.

2011-08-21T07:48:00.003-05:00

Sacsayhuaman

One of the first examples of Incan engineering I got to see in Peru was the remains of the Inca fortress Sacsayhuaman. The fortress was located above the city of Cuzco which was the capital of the Incan empire. The fortress is famous for some of the MASSIVE stones that were built within its walls. Some of the stones weigh over 100 tons. As you can see, the stones were expertly carved and placed to where they interlock perfectly. Keep in mind, the Inca did this with stone chisels. The precision they achieved is incredible. The site of the fortress sadly is but a shade of what it would've looked like in Inca times. After the Spaniards conquered the fortress, they used it as a quarry for stone used in buildings in Cuzco so a LOT of the fortress was torn down over the years. Still, what remains of the great fortress can still impress visitors and give an idea of some of the incredible things the Inca did during their all too brief period of empire.

2011-08-21T07:29:00.003-05:00

Machu Picchu

Above is a picture I took of the famous lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. I took the picture as I was coming down from a hike to the Sun Gate. The Sun Gate was one of the primary ways the Incas entered the city of Machu Picchu. The gate is located 990 feet about the city and has stunning views of the city and the valley below. Our local guide Rudy asked how many intrepid souls wanted to try the hike up to the gate. I was 1 of 8 crazies who decided to do it. It was one heck of a hike. It took us at least 2 hours and, I was never so glad to see the top as when I FINALLY reached it. The thinner air really kicked my butt. Still, it was neat doing the hike and, it gave me another memorable adventure on this incredible tour I took of Peru in January.

2011-08-10T07:48:00.003-05:00

Bosley

Yesterday, I got to visit the Washington D.C. Bosley office for the first time. For those who don't know, Bosley deals with hair restoration. What is that you ask. Hair restoration deals with restoring hair on men who are going bald for various reasons. There are different ways you can deal with balding. There are hair transplants which is the most expensive method. As far as I know, this can cost between $3,000 and $4,000. The reason for that is because you have to transplant a lot of hair to make a noticeable difference in the balding area. 5 or 6 strands of hair isn't going to make much of an impact. Another method is using Rogaine cream. Rogaine can cause new hair growth however, it isn't 100% effective in all men and, it requires to apply it to the area where you want the new hair twice a day. Yet another method is laser comb. Like Rogaine, it isn't 100% effective and, you have to use the comb every other day for at least 10 but no more than 20 minutes. I have 1 of these myself but because of the hassle of using it, I use it off and on. One advantage of the comb is it is a 1 time cost. You pay the $500 plus for it and, that's all you pay. If you take Rogaine, you have to keep getting new cans of it and correspondingly keep shelling out the bucks.

Back to Bosley. Before using Bosley, I used Medical Hair Restoration who I really liked. Sadly, Bosley bought them out. In order to get my Propecia prescription (it requires one) renewed, I needed to see one of their doctors. The doctor I met at Bosley was Dr. Peter Morse. He turned out to be a very nice, informed and helpful doctor. I found out from him how things work with name brand medications and generic with the Food and Drug Administration. By this, I mean he told me what kind of variance you can have with name brand vice generic. In the case of Propecia, if must not go over a 5% variance. If it's a generic of Propecia, it can vary as much as 15%! Obviously, that means you may not be getting the required dose. Worse still, with foreign generics, there isn't any way you can find out just how much of the actual drug you're getting if any at all. I confess I was wondering about that with the Fincom-1 (Indian Propecia generic) I've been taking. You don't want to find out the hard way i.e. your hair starts falling out. Because of our chat, I will be taking more of the name brand Propecia though I wish Merck sold the stuff for less. It isn't a cheap drug.

I was advised I was eligible for hair transplants but, I don't care to spend that much money right now. I did decide to get their hair treatment package. The package includes vitamins which are supposed to be particulary good for your hair, shampoo and conditioner that helps remove DHT (the male hormone that causes baldness) and Rogaine cream. I'm curious to see what if any difference taking these will make. We'll see. I'll post future observations on here after I've given them some time to work.

Overall, the Washington D.C. Bosley practice seemed very knowledgeable and professional. They have very nice offices in Chevy Chase, Maryland with a parking lot right next to their office. I stayed at the Bosley practice for over an hour and, it cost me $3 to park there. I think that charge covered 1 to 3 hours though I'm not 100% certain on that. Getting to their offices can be a bit of a pain as driving through Washington D.C. is never fun. Cheers all!

2011-07-30T05:56:00.002-05:00

Local Bus System

This Wednesday, I got to try out the local bus system for the first time. As I mentioned in a previous post, I made the huge mistake of running the battery down on my Yamaha TMAX motorbike. I had no idea how complicated it is to jump start the battery on the bike. It turned out they would have to take the bike's mirrors off, the windshield and the front face plate in order to get to the small battery. This is obviously not something they can easily do on the street. So, my bike was loaded on a truck and taken to the motorcycle dealership where they ended up replacing the dead battery.

Heyser Cycle was as prompt as they could be in fixing the problem with my bike. I say that because right now, they are swamped with work. It's hot; it's sunny; gas is still nearly $4 a gallon so everyone wants to ride their motorbike. Which means, Heyser is loaded with work right now as of course a number of the pesky bikes don't want to run right while the weather is great for riding a motorbike.

2 days after I dropped my bike off at the dealership, they called me and told me it was ready for pick up. Cool. 1 problem, how do I get over there to pick it up? My good friends the Baldons have moved to Bowie. I wasn't about to call them and ask them to drive out to Laurel to get me and then drive me to the dealership. The people I know at work are what I would call semi-friends. We have great times chatting at work and, I am willing to help them out some at work but, I don't have anything to do with them outside work. So, I wasn't about to ask one of them for a ride. I could walk it but, it is over 9 miles to the dealership. I could call a cab but, I haven't forgotten the last fiasco I had with that. So, I looked into the local bus system. It turned out there is a Central Maryland bus system that runs through Laurel and connects with Anne Arundel and Howard County buses. This makes it pretty handy if you don't have access to a car.

The fares on the bus were very reasonable. It cost $1.50 to get to Laurel Mall. From there, I was able to walk the remaining 3 or 4 blocks to Heyser. My only complaint with the system is they didn't have a schedule posted at the bus stop saying when the bus would show up and, you couldn't find out the pick up times on-line either. So, I went out to bus stop and had no idea when the bus would show up. Because of this, I ended up waiting over 25 minutes at the stop in the heat. I wasn't thrilled but, it beat taking a taxi or worse still walking.

That's all on my first experience with the local Laurel, Maryland bus system. It's a decent enough system. It is affordable and, you can get to a lot of places on it with the connecting bus services such as Greenbelt Metro Station, Columbia Mall and Baltimore Washington International Airport. I'm tempted to try to take it to the airport sometime. I figure it would cost me $5 or so to get there vice $35 to use an airport shuttle. We'll see on that. Cheers all!

2011-07-28T05:41:00.002-05:00

Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's

Yesterday, I decided to treat myself to a visit at the Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's. It had been over 2 months since my last visit. I enjoy going to the place but finances kept me away. Yesterday, I decided to see if I could add to my ticket horde. I read on Facebook where some person had amassed 1,000,000 tickets. I'd like to do that too though I don't like to think what that would cost me. Dave & Buster's would get big rich of me doing that.

Anyway, I rode my motorbike out there which was fun. Thankfully, Arundel Mills has a special parking spot for motorbikes on that side of the mall. It isn't super big but, it can accomodate at least 10 bikes. I recharged me card with a $100 worth of coins and headed to my favorite game Spin & Win. I'm partial to that game because you have a lot of control over how much you win on it. You don't with a lot of their other arcade games. One catch with the Spin & Win game is that your timing must be spot on. You have a split of second to stop the light on 1 of the 3 1,000 ticket lights. A split of second early or late and you end up with 20 tickets. That's what happened with me a LOT. To my frustration, I would just barely miss it. Still, I managed to hit the thing 5 times and won approximately 10,000 tickets. That takes my ticket horde up to 365,224 tickets. I'm still a long way from accumulating 1,000,000 tickets but, if I keep slogging away, I'll hit eventually. It doesn't hurt that Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's only had one prize I wanted - a steak grilling machine. I'm tempted to buy the thing vice trying to win 1 with tickets. I'm certain it would be cheaper money wise.

Overall, it was a nice visit though I need to do a better job with my timing. Also, there were times when I embarrassingly jumped the gun. I hit the 40 ticket lights a number of times because of that. I look forward to going to the Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's again when they have half price games (I won't go any other time). Cheers all!

2011-07-19T15:47:00.002-05:00

Bike Problem

Yesterday, I encountered an unexpected problem with my Yamaha TMAX. I decided to chat with an acquaintance who lives in my neighborhood. I was riding my TMAX at the time. I pulled up to where my acquaintance was working on one of their cars. I turned off the engine on my TMAX BUT, I left the bike's electronics ON. After chatting for about 10 minutes, I tried starting my TMAX only to find out to my dismay that I'd run the battery down so much it couldn't start the bike. The TMAX only has electronic ignition vice having also a kick starter like my previous Vino Classic had. This hadn't been a problem till now.

I let the bike sit overnight hoping the battery would get enough of a charge back that I'd be able to start it in the morning. No such luck. I figured I could get someone from Heyser Cycles to come jumpstart the bike. I found out you don't jumpstart a TMAX and, it isn't easy to charge the battery. For starters, it's a major job to get to the bike's battery. You have to remove the 2 mirrors, the windshield and the front faceplate just so you can get to the battery. Crap!

The solution ended up being getting the bike picked up and taken to Heyser so their mechanics can work on it. To prevent such a major hassle in the future, I found out you can get an electrical connection connected to the battery which leads to a plug that you can connect an extension cord to. What you would do is plug one end of the extension cord into an electrical socket and the other end into electrical lead which goes to the bike's battery. You would let the dead battery charge overnight and presumably the battery would have enough power to start the bike the next morning. Another plus to this electrical plug is that it's not super expensive (at least for the TMAX anyway). So, while Heyser is getting my battery recharged or replaced, I'll had one of these electrical leads installed to so I won't have to go through this again. Lastly, I won't leave the bike's electronics on when I'm not riding it. That way, I won't end up with a dead battery again (hopefully).

2011-07-13T20:17:00.004-05:00

Back-to-Back Cruises

I first heard of doing back-to-back cruises during my recent Alaska cruise with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. With the Alaska cruise, I thought it was kind of redundant. You'd do the same cruise only in reverse order ending back in Vancouver. However, with other cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises alternates itineraries between cruises which can make it worthwhiled doing back-to-back cruises. In my case, both of my cruises leave out of San Juan, Puerto Rico (a fantastic place to sail out of, really pretty at night.). I'll be cruising to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Basseterre, St. Kitts; Oranjestad, Aruba and Willemstad, Curacao. Normally, I wouldn't care to go back to places I've already visited once cruising BUT, in this case, I won't mind going back to Aruba and Curacao as I didn't see much of either of them during my first visit. I did scuba diving trips on those 2 islands and, the trips took up virtually all the time I had on those islands. I couldn't tell you anything about what those islands have to offer barring some very good scuba diving. So, I'm looking forward to seeing them again. Also, 8 months after I visited Aruba, they opened a Hard Rock Cafe there. Any readers out there know I collect the t-shirts and, I'll be delighted to add the Aruba t-shirt to my collection.

The second cruise stops in Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia; St. John's, Antigua; Philipsburg, St. Maarten and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. This cruise will be neat in that there is just 1 day at sea then, the cruise island hops its way back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Also, I've never been to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua or St. Croix. On St. Maarten, like Aruba and Curacao, I haven't seen much of it though in this case it was because of a stinker of a deep sea fishing trip I went on which I still haven't forgotten. The captain of the boat was supposed to drop us off at the cruise ship pier and, he didn't. My friend Harvey and I ended up walking nearly 2 miles to get back to the cruise ship pier. We were not happy campers when we made it back.

Another aspect that'll be interesting about doing back-to-back cruises is that there are special procedures for such travellers and, Royal Caribbean has a special department that handles such things as I found out. Apparently, Royal Caribbean's website doesn't like back-to-back cruises. It wouldn't show both of the cruises on My Cruises webpage. I called Royal Caribbean's tech support who referred me to the Back-to-Back cruises department. They got the problem solved eventually. I learned from the man I spoke with that at the end of the first cruise, I'll go to a special waiting area that is just for people doing back-to-back cruises. All people must clear customs when the ship returns to San Juan since they're leaving the ship. However, I won't have to since I won't be leaving. Once everyone has disembarked from the ship, I'll be allowed back on. In regards to my luggage, my suitcase won't ever leave the ship. Instead, it'll be transferred from my first cabin to my second cabin. Due to price differences, I couldn't afford to have a balcony cabin for both cruises. Interestingly, I'll have the same SeaPass for both cruises. Some how, Royal Caribbean will program it to open my first cabin during the first cruise and open the second cabin on the second cruise.

Overall, it should be a really fun adventure barring paying for it. Right now, I owe over $2,700 for the 2 cruises. I'll get them paid off in time though I wish Royal Caribbean didn't demand full payment by 70 days out from your cruise. I suspect that's so they can still sell the cabin if the person backs out. I bet it's still pretty hard to sell cabins for a cruise at the last minute. I know I couldn't take advantage of that. I have to plan my trips at least 6 months in advance. The only reason I was able to break that rule in this case was because I was only adding another week and, it wasn't going to break the bank to add the second cruise. Royal Caribbean was offering a decent price for an Ocean View cabin. We'll see how much I like being enclosed like that. I do like having a balcony cabin. It's awesome to walk out in the morning and watch as your ship sails into port. It was particularly spectacular during the Alaska cruise with the stunning scenery. Stay tuned for more travel adventures all!

2011-06-26T07:06:00.003-05:00

Train Ride

Three weeks before I was supposed to on my Alaska cruise, I was checking with my travel agent Joel Mills to make sure everything was in order. I mentioned to him that I didn't see anything marked on my Royal Caribbean cruise page about transfers to the Anchorage International Airport. He said he'd double check on it. It turned out there was some kind of misunderstanding and, I didn't have any arrangements made for getting me from the cruise ship terminal at Seward, Alaska to Anchorage International Airport. Joel found out there were 2 options a) take a bus which took approximately 3 hours and cost approximately $75 or b) take a train which reportedly was very scenic, took an hour longer and cost $25 more. Joel knows me and signed me up for the train. It was a very good choice.

I did a little research on the Internet and found out the cruise ship terminal train station was supposed to be very close by. They weren't kidding. I think I walked no more than 50 feet from the terminal and was able to board my train. The train has wide windows which made it very easy for travellers to see all the stunning Alaskan scenery. During the 4 hour train ride, we'd get to see glaciers, waterfalls, snow covered mountains, tranquil lakes, bald eagles and swift running streams. Also, the train was very convenient in regards to the airport. It pulled up to a landing that connected directly to the airport as well as being close to connections which can take you into Anchorage. My friend Harvey and I would take advantage of this and catch a bus into Anchorage to take in some sightseeing and have a much needed lunch. The train did offer food and drinks at airport prices. No thanks! Another downside to the train was the seats weren't super comfortable. Good luck trying to get some spare z's in those.

Overall, the train from Seward to Anchorage International Airport was a great way to get from the cruise ship terminal to the airport. It enables you to get one last look at the stunning Alaskan countryside. It made a nice finale to my 7 day Alaskan cruise with Royal Caribbean. I would definitely recommend travellers doing an Alaskan cruise out of Seward take this train vice taking the faster and cheaper bus.

2011-06-19T12:07:00.003-05:00

Salmon Fishing

One of the things that is typically Alaskan is salmon fishing. The state is known for its salmon and all 5 major species of the fish (Chum, Sockeye, King, Silver and Pink) can be found there. One of the excursions Royal Caribbean Cruises offers on its Alaska cruise is salmon fishing. My last fishing excursion with Royal Caribbean was a fiasco. I went deep sea fishing out of St. Maarten during my first cruise with Royal Caribbean. It cost $200 to go. Out of 6 people on the boat, only 1 of us caught a fish. You can say fishing is always iffy and, I would agree with you. However, the thing that made the trip a fiasco was when the captain of the boat refused to return us to our cruise ship. I ended up walking 2 miles to get back to the ship. As you can see, I didn't forget it. Between not catching a fish and the fiasco of getting back to the boat, I was leery of doing another fishing excursion and yet, it would be neat to go salmon fishing. I checked with folks who actually live in Alaska to find out if the salmon were running during June. They said the king salmon would be. Ok. That sounded like I had a decent shot at catching a fish. According to the description of the excursion (Knudson Cove Salmon Fishing), it sounded like the fishing boat wasn't that far from the cruise ship pier so, I figured it wouldn't be that hard to get back to the ship if I was stranded again plus, I had the local currency i.e. U.S. dollars since the excursion was in Ketchikan, Alaska. So, I signed up.

My travel friend Harvey also signed up for the excursion and, the 2 of us walked off the boat and did a combination lumberjack show and Ketchikan town tour (I'll blog about that later) before returning to the cruise ship pier. Once there, we looked for the sign for our fishing excursion. We found it and to our surprise, there were 46 people that had signed up! On our drive in, I found out how it worked. Apparently, they find out how many people want to go fishing and then, they find the required number of spots of various fishing boats. Then, they notify the captains of the boats they will have so many customers. The people going fishing get assigned randomly to the boats. I would be assigned to the M/V Silver Lady captained by Ivan Leighton.

The M/V Silver Lady was a nice fishing boat as far as I could tell. One interesting aspect of our fishing was we would troll for the salmon. That means, we would regular rods and reels with weights attached to the fishing line that enabled the captain to take the line down to a certain depth (presumably where his fish locator saw where the fish were). Also, it enabled him to space the lines so there was a minimum chance of them getting tangled. There were 5 of us on the boat and, each of us picked our rod that we would watch during the excursion. One tricky thing about trolling was the pull of the boat on the lines caused the rod tips to jerk a lot which to me was a sign of a bite. It seemed a bit tricky trying to figure out when your rod was moving because of the boat vice getting a hit from a fish.

Harvey was the first to get a hit. The way Harvey had to fight to bring his fish in, it looked like it would be a big one. Sadly, it turned out not to be long enough to keep (it has to be 27 inches I believe). Still, it was the biggest fish Harvey had ever caught. After Harvey took a picture of his biggest catch, Captain Leighton removed the fish hook from its mouth and let it go. The second person on the boat to catch a fish was unknown to me. He caught a 14 pound chum salmon which looked enormous. Captain Leighton landed the fish and put it in a cooler filled with ice which was used just for the purpose. The third and last fish our group caught was brought in by me. When the fish struck, I was uncertain I had a bite because of the pull of the boat on the line. I picked up the rod and, the fish struck again. This time, I was pretty certain I had a fish. Captain Leighton told me to set the hook which I subsequently did. Then, the fight ensued to bring the fish in. The fish gave a surprisingly good fight. At times, the line wouldn't come in because of the resistance the fish was giving. Like deep sea fishing, I'd have to raise the rod up to get some slack line to reel in. After possibly 10 minutes of our tug of war, I finally got to see the fish I'd hooked. It looked huge. Captain Leighton identified it as a king salmon, said it was a keeper and broke out the landing net. The fish continued to fight and, the captain had a time landing the fish. Finally, he succeeded and, he put in the cooler with the chum salmon the other fisherman caught. Because I'd caught a king salmon, my fishing was done. The captain had a rule where if you caught one you could keep, you were done. This was to ensure that hopefully everyone caught a fish. Captain Leighton then worked on spotting more fish so that Harvey and the 2 others who hadn't caught one yet could catch their prize fish. Sadly, it wasn't to be. While trolling around, the captain was nice enough to provide some drinks and some delicious salmon dip his wife made.

Our cruise ship was scheduled to set sail from Ketchikan at 4:30 p.m. Captain Leighton tried to give us as much fishing time as he could get away with. Finally, we had to head back Knudson Cove. There, the 2 fish our group had a caught were weighed and, we could get pictures taken with our catch. The chum salmon the unknown fisherman caught came in at over 14 pounds. My king salmon tipped the scales at just over 20 pounds. My salmon had been tagged by some government department who wanted the tag back so they could log the date the fish was caught, where and how much it ended up weighing. Supposedly, I'd be emailed the history of the fish which I thought was interesting.

At this point, you get to decide if you want to keep the fish and if so, how do you want it processed. There are 2 methods. You can get it cut up fresh into weighed packages, frozen and shipped via Federal Express OR, you can get it smoked, cut up into weighed packages and shipped via Federal Express. It costs $3 more a pound to have it smoked. Also, apparently some salmon are better smoked then sent fresh. The person who took processing orders recommended the guy who caught the chum salmon have it smoked while in my case, she recommended I have it prepared fresh. As I don't know diddly about salmon, I took her recommendation.

After we finished the paperwork for the fish processing, we dashed for the bus that would take us back to the cruise ship pier. To the annoyance of the ship, we arrived back 20 minutes late. The ship does have a rule where they can leave you if you are excessively late but, I figured since I was on an excursion sanctioned by the ship, they couldn't blame me for being late and, I didn't think they'd leave me or my friend Harvey. Still, I don't think I've seen the security folks process me back on board the boat as fast they did when we got back from the fishing excursion.

Overall, it was a fun fishing trip. Harvey and I both caught a fish. Also, tt was very scenic as we got to see bald eagles flying around and snow covered mountains in the background. I was surprised by how many fishing boats were out trying to catch fish. I think Captain Ivan Leighton did a bang up job. I'd gladly go fishing again with him. If anyone is interested in contacting the captain about going fishing, leave me a comment and, I'll pass on the information I have from his business card. This is one Alaska experience you should try. Stay tuned for more post on my Alaska adventure.

2011-06-14T20:19:00.003-05:00

Hoonah

Yesterday, I visited Hoonah, Alaska. Hoonah is the home to 1,000 Tlingit indians. Hoonah is the primary town on the island though there is a location known as Icy Strait Point. Ice Strait Point features gifts shops, restaurants and desks where visitors can book excursions on the island. The excursions vary from tram tours of the temperate rain forest to whale watching to riding the world's longest and highest zipline. The zipline starts at 1,300 feet (higher than the Empire State Building and runs 5,330 feet.

Not being a daredevil, I did a tour of rainforest, watched a performance of Tlingit songs and dance and did a tour of Hoonah. I found all 3 excursions interesting. My guide for the rainforest was Kerry who was very knowledgeable about the plants, wildlife and life of the Tlingit. She is a Tlingit herself. The island has an abundance of plants that can be eaten for food and used for medicinal purposes. Kerry mentioned a plant called the Devil's Club which can be used in an ointment that helps with joint pain. For a long time, the Tlingit ran the risk of scurvy due to a lack of vitamin c. To fight scurvy, the Tlingit would harvet a fern in the spring time that is rich in vitamin c, cook it and eat it. Other sources of food included salmon, halibut and deer. It is also rife with brown bears which outnumber the native population 3 to 1.

The song and dance show told of the Tlingit and their history. For centuries, the way Tlingit history was passed was by stories, song, dance and totem poles. The show also explained how the Tlingit were organized starting with 2 basic clans and further subdividing into various houses. During the show, the performers show the back of the cloaks which have an animal symbol on them that identifies their clan. They also stated their Tlingit names which tell their ancestry and where they came from. I found the show very interesting.

My final excursion was a tour of Hoonah. The majority of the 1,000 Tlingit living on Chichagof Island live in Hoonah (population:697 as of 2009 per www.city-data.com). The town has one commercial chain store (an Ace Hardware) with 1 gas pump which they use to fuel their various vehicles. Also, they have a small post office, marina and airfield. There are 2 ways the Tlingit use to travel to the mainland - ferry to Juneau which costs $33 each way and airplane which costs $80 each way. The Tlingit have 1 school which teaches grades kindergarten to 12th grade. According to my tour guide, the last graduating class had 4 students. The school teaches the Tlingit language as well as English. This is critical in helping preserve the Tlingit culture. Incredibly, Tlingit didn't have a written form until the 1970's. Before then, all knowledge was passed down orally. According to my guide who's name I sadly can't remember, there are just 10,000 Tlingit in the entire world. This seemed a small number to me.

Overall, I found my visit to Hoonah and the island really interesting. It was something to learn of the Tlingit culture and way of life. For the overwhelming majority of travellers, the primary way to visit Hoonah is via cruise ship. I visited via the Radiance of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean Cruises cruise ship. Royal Caribbean, Princess, Holland America, Seven Seas, Oceania and Celebrity ships all stop in Icy Strait Point/Hoonah. If you're interested in learning about the Tlingit or want to see some pristine Alaskan wilderness, a port call to Icy Strait Point/Hoonah may be for you. Cheers all!

2011-06-10T08:23:00.003-05:00

Travel Update

I made it to Vancouver, Canada. It was a long day getting here. I managed to get just 4 hours sleep after driving back from Michigan. The Big Blue Van airport shuttle folks picked me up at 3:15 in the morning and got me to Reagan National Airport in good time. From there, I had a nearly 3 hour flight to Houston, a 1 hour layover and a 5 hour flight to Vancouver. My travel agent arranged for a driver to pick me up at the airport and, he was waiting once I finished customs and immigration. The drive into Vancouver was just 30 minutes.

The Listel Hotel has lived up to its reputation for being artsy. It is filled with art. The hotel staff are nice and helpful. The location ISN'T the best if you're going to do a cruise out of Vancouver. My friend Harvey and I walked to to the cruise ship terminal and, we realized real quick we weren't going to do that lugging our suitcases. The taxi fare supposedly won't be more than $15 Canadian. We'll find out for sure when we take the taxi this morning.

The Vancouver cruise ship terminal is impressive. It can reportedly handle 4 cruise ships at 1 time. I think the most I've seen here was 3. I spoke with a person named Brett who told Harvey and I what we had to do upon arrival at the terminal. I'll post that procedure after I've gone through it myself so other travellers will know what to do and what to expect.

Yesterday, I used the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off service to sightsee Vancouver. It worked out well. I rode the bus through its entire route so I could hear all the narrative then, I decided what particular sights I wanted to see. I decided on Stanley Park and the Sun Yat Sen Chinese gardens. Stanley Park was really neat. It has a collection of 7 totem poles representing the various Indian nations. It also has dense forest and stunning trees. Lastly, it gives some great views of the Vancouver skyline at certain points. I was really glad I checked out this park. The Chinese garden was a nice quiet oasis in the city. There are 2 Chinese gardens you can visit. The larger classical garden has an admission charge but includes a guided tour of the garden while the smaller garden is free.

During my stay in Vancouver, I've eaten at 3 places - The Irish Heather, The Top of Vancouver and O'Doul's. The Irish Heather is a fantastic Irish pub with an astounding choice of single malt whiskies (over 100 I believe). I particularly enjoyed the steak and Guinness pot pie I had there. The Top of Vancouver restaurant is located at the top of a tower that rotates and looks over Vancouver. It offers great views of the city. The restaurant rotates completely around once every 60 minutes. Service was outstanding at this restaurant. The restaurant isn't cheap but, the food is very good. I had some excellent calimari and escargot for starters. My seafood melody main entree was very good. I was very pleased to dine at this restaurant as it made a nice finish to my day of sightseeing in Vancouver. O'Doul's is the restaurant attached to the Listel Hotel. This makes it very easy to get to for those staying there. I had breakfast at this restaurant as well as a couple nightcaps. The breakfast was very good though pricey. Service was excellent. The bartender at the bar where I had my nightcaps was really nice. They do have some affordable brews. Surprisingly, the don't offer Molson Canadian lager on draft there. Molson has a large brewery in the city which I passed by during my tour of the city.

Overall, I've enjoyed my stay at Vancouver though it isn't a place I would've visited for just itself. It isn't that interesting to me. If you are going to do an Alaskan cruise out of here, it is worth spending an extra day checking the place out. The city has a number of the big cruise lines stop here including Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Princess Lines and Silversea (I saw their Silver Shadow ship at the cruise ship terminal yesterday). A tour guide on the hop on hop off bus I rode told me the city receives over 1 million visitors a year during the cruise season. I can understand why. The cruise ship terminal itself is located in the center of the city making it an ideal base to see the city from and, it looks like it's easy to board the ships there (I'll know for certain on that later today).

That's all for this installment. Stay tuned for blogs on the renovated Radiance of the Seas and how my Alaska cruise goes. Happy travels all.

2011-06-10T07:43:00.002-05:00

Greenfield Village

The Henry Ford is a number of different attractions. It includes the museum, Greenfield Village, and IMAX theater and a tour of one of Ford's auto plants. This Monday, I decided to drive to Dearborn, Michigan so I could see Greenfield Village for the first time. The village is an outdoor museum of sorts. It contains historic buildings from the 1700's, 1800's and early 1900's. The buildings include Thomas Alva Edison's laboratory complex from Menlo Park, New Jersey, the Wright Brothers home and bicycle shop and the courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law. The inside of the buildings look just as they would've when their occupants lived in them. In the Wright Brothers bicycle shop, you see bicycles and accessories for sale in the front of the shop. Further back, you bicycle parts and tool or machines for making those parts. In the farthest back shop, you see an airplane wing being built presumably for a glider or one of their airplanes. A guide in the shop explains how things were in the shop and answers any questions.

The village also offers different rides though not of the kind we normally associate with tourist attraction rides. How many tourist attractions do you know that give you the chance to ride in a vintage Model T car or in a horse pulled Omnibus? There is also a steam locomotive with cars to ride in that goes around the perimeter of the village and supposedly a vintage bus that runs through the village. I didn't see or ride on the bus. The last ride is a vintage carousel with painted animals including a giant frog and giant rooster. Personally, I enjoyed all the rides. I thought it was something to get to ride in a Model T car for the first time. The one I rode in was built in 1925. A village guide told me they use one that was built in 1913, just 6 years after Henry Ford came out with the car.

Lastly, the village has craft shops covering glass blowing, printing, pottery making, weaving and milling. The glass blowing shop was particularly interesting as you got to see the master glass blower got through all the stages of making an item while a narrator explains the various steps. Later, at the gift shop, you can buy items that actually made in the various craft shops. The glass blowers at the village make some very beautiful glass ware but, I will warn would be shoppers that the items aren't cheap. A very nice light blue glass pitcher sold for $56. Do keep in mind these items are hand made by master craftsmen.

Price wise for Greenfield Village was $22 for an adult and $21 for a Senior. I don't remember what the admission price for a child was. On the rides, you can buy individual tickets for the rides (average cost $4) or you can buy an unlimited ride pass for $10. If you want to ride either the open or inclosed horse drawn omnibuses, you must buy an unlimited ride pass. They don't sell tickets for those rides as the carriage drivers can't check or collect tickets. They do sell multi-attraction tickets example buying a ticket for the village and the museum. You will save money buying these but, I don't believe you can do justice to either attraction if you don't spend less than a day seeing each. From date of purchase, your ticket is good for 1 year though it can only be used 1 time. There are memberships you can buy starting at $54 a year that will allow free multiple visits throughout the year to the museum and village. Active duty military members may visit the museum and village for free any time. There is a $5 charge for parking which is automatically included in your ticket purchase. You don't have to put anything in your vehicle to show you've paid the parking fee. The complex website http://www.thehenryford.org/index.aspx offers directions to the complex.

Overall, I really enjoyed my visit to the village. It was neat to ride a 1925 Model T and the train. The people who work at the village were very knowledgeable and helpful. The village was very clean and safe. I was at the village for over 5 hours and, I could've easily spent more time there. There is LOTS to see and do there. If you are in the Dearborn area, this is one attraction worth seeing. Good travels all.

2011-06-05T06:09:00.002-05:00

Son of Neptune

Rick Riordan released some more information on his upcoming Son of Neptune novel. On May 15, 2011 Riordan tweeted on Twitter that the novel was finished and all that remain was publishing and formatting. http://twitter.com/#!/camphalfblood On May 26, 2011, Riordan revealed the Heroes of Olympus webpage http://disney.go.com/disneybooks/heroes-of-olympus/ the cover for the book as well as a link where readers can read the 1st chapter of the book. The book's release date is still set for October 4 according to Riordan's website http://www.rickriordan.com/home.aspx.

The 1st chapter was good and, I can't wait to read the book. I am curious as to what happened to Percy. Also, it'll be interesting to learn about Roman demigod camp. I'll post anymore information if I find out anymore. Cheers all!

2011-06-04T08:54:00.003-05:00

Michigan

My various travels began Friday. I packed a small bag and loaded up my laptop backpack. At 5 a.m., I hit the road. It ended taking me over 9 hours to get to Michigan. I was surprised all the road work that was going on. At times, it brought traffic to a standstill. I wasn't thrilled with the tolls on the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes. Pennsylvania hit me for $11.35 and Ohio hit me for $10.50. Michigan caught me by surprise with its summer fuel mix. That mix caused fuel prices to jump. By the time I nearly reached my destination, I was nearly out of gas. I looked desperately for a gas station but about gagged when I saw they wanted $4.23 a gallon for regular. I bit my lip and paid it.

It was something to see the state again. I recognized some of the town and city names. I don't see a lot of the state because of my other travels. I was determined to make it to Michigan this time to see my Dad. It was really nice to get to see him again. Yesterday, my favorite Aunt Aunt Marge came up from Indiana. She is such a super nice woman and, she has been through so much. We caught up on news and talked about travels and motorbikes. Her husband Dave and her have done a lot of travelling through the Western United States on a touring Yamaha motorcycle they own. It was neat to hear of their travels.

Lastly, I got to enjoy some White Castle hamburgers. To my annoyance, they're not any White Castle restaurants in Maryland. I've enjoyed their hamburgers since I was a kid. They may not be the tastiest hamburgers but, they're neat with their small size and, you can buy a case of the things. Also, they bring back memories of when my parents would load up the family car and, we'd drive to Indiana to see my Grandparents. To keep my sister and I under control, my folks would promise to stop at the Cleveland White Castles for some of their hamburgers if we were good. That usually worked and, we always looked forward to enjoying some of their hamburgers.

That's it for this travel installment. Stay tuned. More travels are coming. Tomorrow, I'll visit Greenfield Village for the first time. Cheers all!

2011-05-29T12:12:00.002-05:00

Serenade of the Seas

In November, I'll get to sail on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas for the first time. The cruise will visit 4 islands I've never been to - Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Croix. The cruise will also stop at Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Philipsburg is where I went on my notorious deep sea fishing trip during my first cruise. The fishing trip was a fiasco as between the 6 of us on the boat, we caught just 1 fish and, the captain of the boat left us stranded at the pier. We had to make our own way back to our ship the Adventure of the Seas. I told my travel friend Harvey we won't try that again when we make port in Philipsburg though I would like to go deep sea fishing again on the cruise. We'll see what the other ports offer in that way.

Internet wise, I found out from surfing the web that the Serenade offers the same kind of WiFi that Navigator of the Seas offered i.e. various hotspots throughout the ship as pay as you go or pre-pay. Depending on much you think you'll use the Internet, the pre-pay plans could save you some money. I know I'll use it a lot so I'll be buying their maximum plan which is 500 minutes for $150. Hopefully, my Crown and Anchor coupon booklet will have a discount coupon for the Internet so I'll be able to save some money like I did on the Navigator of the Seas.

The Serenade of the Seas is a Radiance class ship. I'll get to find out what those are like in less than 2 weeks when I do my previously mentioned Alaska cruise on the Radiance of the Seas. The class is smaller than the Voyager class that I've cruised on before. I'm curious to see what their like. The cruise on the Radiance will give me an idea of what it'll be like on the Serenade. One unique item the Radiance class has that no other ship has is automatically self leveling pool tables! They must have built in gyroscopes which is kind of wild for a pool table to have. I can't wait to try them out and see how well they work.

That's all for this post. Stay tuned for upcoming travel posts. The time is almost here where I'll get to play the world traveller again. I can't wait. It seems like ages since I took Globus's Legacy of the Incas tour. Cheers all!

2011-05-17T18:14:00.003-05:00

Cruise Ship Article

Recently, I bought the 15th Anniversary issue of Porthole, a magazine the covers cruising. The magazine has an interesting article on why cruise ships are getting so big. The article is written by Robert McGarvey. It makes some valid points like one reason being "economy of scale." The more passengers you have, the cheaper it is per passenger for docking fees and for staff on board the ship. Another valid reason they give is that passengers are wanting more features on the ships. They want there to be more to do on the ship vice just eating, seeing a show and exercising. Lastly, Jenny Reed, a cruise specialist mentions in the article that the ship is itself becoming the main draw and not the ports.

This is where I differ with the article. While I suspect Miss Reed is right on some cruises, on a number of others, I think the ports very much matter. For example, I don't believe anyone is going on an Alaska cruise to spend time on the cruise ship. People go on the Alaska cruise to see the stunning scenery and visit some of the ports in Alaska where they can experience some of the things that are unique to that state. For example, seeing a logging show where you see lumberjacks practice skills they use in their trade. Another example would be attending a native dance performance where you can learn about some of the indian groups in the area. Lastly, you can learn and even try your luck at finding gold in the areas where it was found in Alaska at one time.

Another item the article doesn't mention but which I think influences the size of the ships is increased profit potential. A bigger ship can hold more shops and restaurants where people on the cruise can spend their money. An example would be the refit that is being done right now on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas. When the refit is done, the ship will have a new Brazilian steakhouse, a Mexican restaurant and a new Italian restaurant. All these restaurants should increase the ship's profit from its cruises. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines are allegedly the most profitable and, I suspect part of the reason is because they have such large ships and thereby, their ships have greater profit potential as they can offer more shops, restaurants and other services such as massages and body wraps.

For me personally, the ports will be the deciding factor on what cruise I do. I want the ship to be clean, modern and comfortable but, I don't go on a cruise to spend time on the boat. I go on a cruise because it is the best way to see certain areas like the Caribbean islands or the Greek islands. It would be a major hassle to island hop between those islands using ferries or airplanes. A cruise makes it considerably easier to visit those islands. You only have to unpack once and, your food, lodging and transportation are pretty much taken care of. Stay tuned for future posts on my upcoming Alaska cruise. Good travels to you all.

2011-05-11T07:11:00.002-05:00

Alaska Cruise

As any readers I have can see, I'm playing catch up on my blogging today. I've been meaning to post some stuff but, I just didn't give off my procrastinating butt and post. This post concerns my upcoming 7 day Alaska cruise with Royal Caribbean.

I think it was last winter that I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do travel wise for this summer. I wanted to return to Iceland and finish all the sightseeing I'd like to do there but, it turned out I didn't see any reasonably affordable package deals I liked. My friend Harvey was interested in doing an Alaska cruise. My travel agent Joel raved about it saying the sights were stunning. I decided to look into it and to my surprise, I found a nice deal with Royal Caribbean for a cruise in late May. I subsequently booked it then, Royal Caribbean decided to put the ship in drydock for some renovations during the month of May. They offered me a deal where they would give me a $400 ship board credit, a more expensive date in June 2011 and pay the fee to change my airplane tickets. I readily agreed to the offer. So, next month, I'll fly out to Vancouver and board the Radiance of the Seas for a 7 day Alaska cruise.

The cruise will stop in Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Skagway. I should get to do a number of Alaska type things like salmon fishing, see a glacier and hopefully seeing some whales. The ship itself will be a new one to me as I've never cruised on a Radiance class ship before. The ship is smaller than the Adventure or Navigator of the Seas. It holds a max of 2,500 passengers. Still, it should be a nice ship and, I look forward to exploring it when I board for my cruise. This will be my third cruise with Royal Caribbean. This time, I should definitely know all the ropes with them. I've already got my boarding paperwork done and my cruise luggage tags are en-route to my home. They should arrive in plenty of time so I'll be able to attach them to my 1 bag. Also, I've pre-booked all my shore excursions and pre-paid for their unlimited soda refills. I know I have to drink a lot of soda to make that worthwhiled but, I prefer that to Royal Caribbean charging $2 to my ship account for every soda I drink. Another nice thing about pre-paying on the sodas is that the icon they put on your ship pass is made into the pass vice them attaching a sticker to it. Stickers can come off and, I prefer the icon being part of my ship pass.

I plan to use Royal Caribbean's WiFi again. I was impressed with it last time. One nice difference Internet wise on this cruise is I should be able to post stuff while at the various ports in Alaska. My Sprint USB modem should work in those towns. We'll see on that.

That's all for now. Stay tune for some interesting travel posts coming in the future. Soon, I'll get to play the world traveller again. I can't wait. It seems like ages since Peru. Good travels to you all.

2011-05-11T06:41:00.002-05:00

Coke Rewards

In my opinion, one of the smartest promotions Coca Cola has come out with is Coke rewards. The promotion rewards people who drink the various Coca Cola products such as Coke, Sprite, Fanta and Barq's root beer. The rewards range from impressive drawings such as a trip to Hawaii to t-shirts, gift cards and small appliances. The reward points you get depends on what package of the sodas you buy. For example, you get more points if you buy a 12 pack vice buying a 10 ounce bottle of their soda. One thing that is strange is that you get the same amount of points for buying a 12 ounce bottle of their soda as you do for buying a 2 LITER bottle. Figure that one out. Overall, it's a pretty smart program and, Coke makes it very easy to participate in the promotion. I think it definitely succeeds in encouraging people to drink their products. I know it's had that effect with me. I specifically look for their products at the store whereas before, I looked for whatever was cheapest. If you drink Coke products, you should check out their MyCoke rewards website at http://www.mycokerewards.com/home.do. Cheers all!

2011-05-11T06:37:00.002-05:00

Latest Riordan Book Out

Rick Riordan's latest book came out May 3rd in hardbound. It's the second book in the Kane Chronicles. It's called Throne of Fire and tells of the adventures of the Kane kids as they try to find the Egyptian sun god Ra. I haven't read the book yet so I can't tell if you if I think it's any good. Still, I can't imagine it being a poor read. I confess that the book is more a tide me over till Son of Neptune comes out in October. That's the one I'm really interested in. I'm very curious to find out what has happened to Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. I'll post another entry on what I think of the latest Kane book once I've read it. Good reading all.

2011-03-30T14:47:00.002-05:00

New Riordan Book

To get some bonus MyPoints, I had to do 104 searches before the end of the month. One of the things I thought to search for was the Son of Neptune book by Rick Riordan. As I previously blogged about, the book is the second in the Heroes of Olympus series. The Heroes of Olympus series incorporates characters from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians 5 book series while introducing new Roman demigods who are the children of the Greek gods except in their Roman persona. The first book in the series "The Lost Hero" was very good. My only complaint would be it leaves you hungering for the 2nd book "The Son of Neptune." Sadly, that book isn't due out till October of this year. Thanks to the search I did, I found out Riordan has a website called The On-line World of Rick Riordan. The website has lots of information on the various books Riordan has written such as the Percy Jackson series as well as news of books he will be writing.

It was through this site that I found out that Riordan will be coming out in May 2011 with a second book in the Kane Chronicles. The book is called "The Throne of Fire." It continues in the 2 person narrative and tells of the further adventures of Carter and Sadie Kane, the brother and sister magicians who must work together to defeat the chaos serpent Apophos. The book should be another good read. Plus, it'll tide over those of us who are waiting for the 2nd book of the Heroes of Olympus series.

Another nice feature of the website is it has a link to Riordan's blog where he posts various comments and observations. Also, he gives updates on various books such as his March 12th entry where he reveals that revisions for the Son of Neptune book (he had a complete manuscript according to his February 13th entry) are coming along and, he should make the October release date.

Riordan is going to be a very BUSY writer as he'll be putting out 2 books next year. The 2 books will be a 3rd book in The Kane Chronicles and the 3rd in the Heroes of Olympus series. Riordan's website hasn't revealed yet if the Kane Chronicles will go to 5 books like his Percy series did and his Heroes of Olympus will. However, I suspect it's likely. That should please his readers as Riordan does produce consistently good stories. His books have won him a number of awards and made him a best selling author on the New York Times booklist. Cheers all!

2011-03-27T09:08:00.002-05:00

Five Winners

As I reported in my last blog entry, I was keeping my fingers crossed for the super jackpot in the MegaMillions game. I knew the odds were extremely long but, I was having some luck with it. My luck was better than the odds. I ended up with five winners. I had 4 $2 winners and 1 $3 winner which breaks out to 1 in 20 winners. Your chances of winning something in the game are 1 in 40 according to the Megamillions website. Plus, $11 is better than nothing. I'm sure there are plenty who won zilch. Now, the jackpot goes back to $12 million which still isn't that bad. That would break out to just under half a million bucks per year. I could live on that. So, I'm going to be a schmuck and keep on trying. If nothing else, it allows me to dream. Also, you can't win if you don't play. Good luck to the other players out there. Cheers all!

2011-03-25T08:43:00.002-05:00

Mega-Millions Game

I'm not much of a gambler. I don't have the nerves for it or a poker face as they call it. I remember watching as a kid the adults play cards when my family clan would gather at my Grandma Wilkes's home. It looked pretty fascinating watching but, I wasn't allowed to play as I wasn't old enough. When I finally turned 18 years old, Grandma Wilkes gave me a $10 roll of quarters for a present. She won that back and $10 more before she left. It did wonders for curing me of any desire to gamble.

On occasion, I would play the state's lottery. I think my biggest win was $120 which didn't come close to what I've spent on lottery tickets. Big jackpots can tempt me to play and the last 2 jackpots in the MegaMillions game have been up there. Last Friday's jackpot was $204 million, this past Tuesday it was $244 million and today's jackpot will hit $312 million. The thought of winning that much money and what it would mean (Johnny Paycheck's famous song comes to mind) has caused me to play. So far, I've had 3 winners last Friday for a total of $13 in winnings and 1 Tuesday for $3.

I know the odds of winning in MegaMillions are very remote to say the least. According to their website (http://www.megamillions.com/), the odds of winning are 1 in 175,711,536. Also, incredibly, you are playing against other lottery players in 41 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands (source: MegaMillions game website). I had no idea the game was THAT big. The game is renowned for colossal jackpots. According to the MegaMillions trivia on the website, they've had 5 that went over $300 million including the largest jackpot ever offered in North America. In March 2007, the jackpot hit a mindboggling $390 million. I think I remember that one. I don't remember if I played or not though I probably did. The temptation would've been too great not to play.

So, we'll see if I become terribly rich tonight or joins millions of Americans who will throw their losing tickets away and continue to dream of hitting it rich some day. Odds are I'll be among those Americans though it has been nice dreaming of what I could do if lady luck royally favored me. Cheers all!

2011-03-18T17:13:00.003-05:00

Haircut

I needed to get a haircut before an important meeting next week. As I had a short day at work today, I decided to go to the 198 Barbershop on MD-198 and get myself all neat and trim again. I'd let my hair grow long and, I looked like a hippie. I thought that was kind of fun but, that look doesn't make the best impression and, I'll need to make a good impression next week.

The 198 Barbershop is a nice place. The barbers are friendly, competitively priced and do a good job. The shop has adequate parking and is very close to the MD-295 exit making it easy to get to. As an extra treat, they have a popcorn popping machine where you can get yourself a free bag of popcorn while you wait to get your hair cut. As far as waits go, I've never had to wait that long there. They usually have 3 barbers there and, they don't lollygag. I don't know if you can make appointments with them. You can find more information about the shop at http://www.198barbershop.com. I would definitely recommend them. Cheers all!

2011-03-06T09:20:00.002-05:00

Oasis Class Ships

Royal Caribbean International seems to repeatedly outdo its competition when it comes to cruise ships. How many ships do you know where you can go ice skating, rock climbing, roller blading, miniature golfing and play basketball (all the ships I know of have a full length court)? The latest and greatest by Royal Caribbean is the Oasis class ships. They are the largest cruise ships in the world coming in at over 220,000 tons. They have 18 decks and incredibly draw only 30 feet of water. The 30 feet thing boggles when you see how much ship is above water. As I mentioned previously on this blog, I got to see the Oasis from a distance and, I was in Ft. Lauderdale when the Allure (the second of this class) arrived from its maiden voyage from Finland. Reviews of the 2 ships have been unanimously positive. Because of that, you would think I'd really like to cruise on one of these marvels but, I confess I don't care to right now. My only complaint with the class is their itineraries. I don't go cruising to spend time on the boat. I go cruising because it is the most convenient way to see the particular destinations I'm visiting i.e. the Caribbean islands or in June - Alaska. Looking at the itineraries of the Oasis class, I see you spend half your time at sea. I don't care for that at all. I've heard the reason for that is because a number of the ports can't handle the massive ships. Royal Caribbean according to cruisecritic.com (I couldn't find the article I saw on this) is working on that. When Royal Caribbean improves the class's itineraries, I'll be lining up to go cruising on one of these extraordinary ships.

2011-02-03T08:04:00.002-05:00

Peru Tour

I promised to post blog entries on here about my Globus tour of Peru but, I nevere got around to it. Part of it was time, I didn't have time to post long blog entries on here. Any readers I have who want to read about my Peru tour should check Globus's Facebook page. I posted daily short entries there. After I got back, I posted 5 pictures I took from the tour.

In regards to the tour itself, it was fantastic. Machu Picchu was incredible. The Incas didn't have metal pipes. They used carved stone instead and, the stones were placed so tightly together the water didn't leak out. Four centuries after Machu Picchu was built, the stone plumbing the Incas built is still working. The Nazca plain drawings were fascinating as well. Lines and trapezoids that stretched for miles. There incredibly drawn creatures you could only see from the sky. Lake Titicaca was stunning. It is the world's highest navigable lake and, the largest in South America. It sits at an altitude of 12,500 feet! While there, our group got to learn of the Uros indians who live on man made islands. The islands were fascinating. They are composed of reeds. Three feet of the reeds are compost while another 4 feet of reeds are in the process of composting. The indians continually add to the reeds. I visited one such island. All totalled, it had over 7 feet of compost and reeds and was floating over 45 feet of water. Every step you took, your foot sank a little. Incredibly, over 1,200 Uros indians live on 50 of these man-made islands. The indians have lived on these islands since the 1950's. Before that, they lived on house boats for over 4 centuries.

Lima was interesting city. It had stunning hotels and appalling shanty towns. It had modern shopping malls and pre-Incan adobe pyramids. It had a yacht club not far from where local fishermen sold their catch on the beach. It had an indian market where you could buy stunning hand made crafts and, McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut. It seem quixotic in my opinion.

One thing I will warn travellers who are going to go to Peru is the thin air at the higher altitudes. It isn't a joke. It will affect you. Any kind of serious exertion will leave you sucking for air until you get adjusted to it which may take a month. A number of hotels we stayed at offered free oxygen because of this problem. Also, travellers could buy bottles of oxygen for themselves. I know at least 1 member of tour did that. Also, you could expect some serious climbs to see some of the sights in the mountains. There were 249 steps alone to get to the top of the Incan site at Ollaytaytambo. Ollaytaytambo was a warm up in regards to Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was fascinating in another way in that you took at local bus to get to it. The bus zigzagged its way up a mountain climbin 1,950 feet in about 20 minutes. It got interesting when a descending bus met an ascending bus and, they had to try to pass each other on the narrow road.

Another highlight was the train ride from Ollaytaytambo to Machu Picchu. We were in observatory type cars with wide windows. Soaring mountains were every where and, the railroad tracks followed the Urabamba River. As you descended from Ollaytaytambo to Machu Picchu, you could see the vegetation change. Where initially the mountains were covered with grass and weeds and had few frees, when you reached Machu Picchu, they were covered with trees. I would heartily recommend this train ride to anyone. As far as I know, it's the only way into Machu Picchu. Last year, when heavy rains washed out parts of the track, Machu Picchu was cut off and, people had to be helicoptered out. Our tour director was one of them. He showed us pictures.

As I said, the tour was awesome. The Incas did some incredible things. The scenery was breathtaking. The Peruvian people were very nice. The hotels we stayed at were top notch. The food was very good too. I tried alpaca (it tasted like beef) and roasted guinea pig (hard to describe that one). I would definitely encourage other travellers to go there. It will really amaze you.

2011-01-12T20:37:00.002-05:00

Immunizations for Peru

Today, I visited the travel clinic on the military base I use for routine medical care. It's one of the big rewards I get for staying in the Air Force 26 years. The base travel clinic are the folks responsible for determining what immunizations a person needs for whatever country they are going to travel to be it for official or unofficial travel. One advantage I have is that the Air Force has innoculated me for just about every disease I could reasonably catch. So, it turned out I only needed 2 immunizations - one for yellow fever and one for the flu. The Peruvian government recommends travellers be innoculated against yellow fever. I guess there is a danger from the local water and, the travel clinic told me to drink only bottled water in Peru and to avoid foods such as salad that may have been washed with it. One nice thing about the yellow fever immunization is that it is good for 10 years. Another shot that is recommended is typhoid. As luck would have it, my typhoid shot is good till the day I fly back from Peru. Prior to going on my November Southern Caribbean cruise, I'll have to see about getting a typhoid booster. Annoyingly, this immunization is only good for 2 years. Also, I've found the arm I get it in gets sore for a day afterwards. Lastly, the clinic prescribed me some antibiotics and immodium for diarrhea just in case I do catch something like I did on the Egypt tour I did. I plan to be more careful than I was in Egypt. Now, I need to see about getting some liquid hand disinfectant and some good bug repellant. Those were 2 more recommendations from the clinic. I plan on getting those when I arrive in Peru. Stay tuned for more travel updates on my upcoming trip to Peru.

2011-01-06T06:11:00.002-05:00

Richmond Trip

This past weekend, I drove down to Richmond and saw a couple friends of mine. The main purpose of the trip was to see my friend Mark Morton. Mark is a friend I knew in the Air Force. Last month, he retired from the Air Force and was visiting Richmond to see his daughter Janae who lives there. Since Richmond is only about 2 hours driving from where I live, I asked if he'd like to meet while there and, he said yes.

The other friend I arranged to meet is my travel friend Harvey. Harvey and I have done a number of Globus tours together as well as 2 cruises. That's why I call him my travel friend. We get along well and have some similar interests. I always enjoy getting together with him during the tours and cruises we've done. This trip would be no different from those.

After I checked into the hotel I was staying at, I rang Harvey to let him know I was on my way over to his apartment. We met there and caught up on the news. Also, he gave me back my cruise port book I loaned him. I wanted to get this back as it tells what optional excursions may be available at various cruise ports. I don't have any idea what I'm going to do at some of the Alaskan ports I'm going to visit in June and, I'm hoping the book will give me some ideas.

All caught up on the latest goings on, we drove over to an Outback Steakhouse that was close by. The restaurant is apparently very popular in Richmond as there was a bit of a line when we arrived. We were told we would have to wait 30 minutes or more for a table. We said no problem and started looking at the menu. Apparently, we got lucky because I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes before we were told a table was available. After giving the menu a good look, we settled on the bloomin onion for an appetizer and, we both had the largest steaks they offered - the 20 ounce Porterhouse. The bloomin onion appetizer was fantastic. It was fun breaking off the onion leaves from flower shaped onion (why they call it bloomin I guess) and dipping them in some awesome sauce. My steak came with 2 sides and, I chose a salad and a sweet potato. The salad was good though I thought they were a little skimpy with the salad dressing. The sweet potato was great with butter and brown sugar in it. I had the steak prepared in their classic style and, it was outstanding. I savored every bite. Service by our waitress was pretty good. Overall, we had an outstanding meal there and, I would recommend the place heartily to anyone. After the meal, we drive back to Harvey's apartment complex where we said our good byes. We'll meet again in less than 2 weeks for the Peru tour.

I drove back to my hotel and crashed. The next morning, I got up, checked my emails (I'd taken my laptop with me with its USB modem that enables me to connect to the Internet any where in the U.S.) and got ready to meet my friend Mark. The hotel I was staying at has a very nice breakfast buffet. It's reasonably priced and, I offered to treat Mark and his daughter to breakfast there. The two of them showed up on time and, we made our way to the restaurant. Mark's daughter Janae turned out to be a very nice young lady. Mark himself looked to be doing well barring fighting a case of walking pneumonia! We had a nice time talking before they had to head on to do other things. After they left, I quickly packed the few things I'd taken on the trip and checked out. The drive back was uneventful. Overall, it ended up being a really nice trip to Richmond. I very much enjoyed meeting my friends Harvey and Mark and, I hope to see them again in the future (I'll see Harvey again on the Peru trip and, Mark plans to stay in West Virginia for at least a little while.).

2010-12-25T08:04:00.002-05:00

An Update

I haven't posted in a couple weeks so I thought I'd post an update on what has been happening at my end of the woods. However, first let me wish any readers I have a very Merry Christmas. Hopefully, you were good this year and, Santa gave you lots of wonderful presents.

Concerning myself, my last 3 weeks has been work, work and still more work. The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for the U.S. Postal Service and, this one was equally busy. We were swamped with 3 or 4 times the normal number of packages we get. I think mail volume was down somewhat due to the poor economy but, there was still plenty to do. Work wise, things will gradually start to lighten all the way till the fall when things will start to pick back up again.

Travel wise, my trip to Peru is slowly but surely getting here. I have approximately 3 weeks till my trip. I can't wait to go. I found out the tour date I signed up for is sold out. That means there'll be a large group (40 plus) on this tour. I suspect the tour director will have their hands full. Also, I discovered that Peru has a special passport stamp you can get at Machu Picchu. It looks seriously cool and, I'm going to get it put in my passport when I visit there. I found out all the hotels I'll be staying at in Peru have free WiFi so, I'll be taking my laptop. Any readers I have can expect to see updates on here during the tour.

Riding wise, I continue to ride my TMAX weather permitting. It is cold riding the bike but, I don't care to have it sit in the garage. It does seem like it's windier during the winter vice the summer. I don't know why that is.

Lord of the Rings stuff, I bought some items from Weta Workshop including an signed copy of Alan Lee's Lord of the Rings sketchbook. I believe I previously reviewed that book. It continues to impress me with its fantastic artwork. Weta has reported that it's working on a Rivendell miniature. Supposedly, it'll be one of the largest its made. Because of its size, it promises to be very expensive. However, I plan to buy it if I can. I think it'll be very beautiful.

Concerning the Hobbit, Peter Jackson continues to fill various roles in the 2 future movies. One actor let slip that he'll be flying to New Zealand in January to being swordfighting and horseback riding training. I wouldn't think it'll be too long after that when they'll begin shooting the movies. I can't wait to see them and experience the magic of Middle-earth again. The 2 movies should be outstanding.

That's all to report for now. Again, to all my readers, may you have a joyous Christmas and an even happier and prosperous New Year.

2010-12-12T15:12:00.002-05:00

New BMW Scooter

Along with making outstanding cars, BMW is known for making great quality motorcycles. In the town where I live, there is a BMW Motorcycle dealership. As any readers I have out there know, I'm pretty keen on scooters. I find them easier to ride than a motorcycle and, they have more storage space. When I found out there was a BMW Motorcycle dealership where I live, I checked into whether BMW built any scooters. In my opinion, the scooter market is growing because they are a very affordable form of transportation and, they get great gas milage. A scooter isn't a far stretch from a motorcycle. The primary difference is in the transmission. A motorcycle has a standard i.e. clutch transmission while a scooter has an automatic transmission. Since it isn't that much of a stretch, I thought BWM might make a high quality scooter. I was wrong at that time. However, BMW just recently announced its Concept C (the C stands for commuter) scooter.

BMW's new scooter promises to bring even more competition in the high end scooter market. While BMW hasn't released the engine size for the new bike, they have stated that it "will be in the top range of the large scooter segment." In my book, that translates to between 500 and 650cc's. That big an engine should enable it to hold its own on any roads on there. With its BMW handling, it should give the motorcycle like Yamaha TMAX a run for its money.

The new bike promises some other features that will put it in a class of its own. The biggest being the doing away of rear view mirrors. Instead, the bike uses small television cameras that transmit their images to screens built into the instrument panel. The bike also has very stylish BLUE tires and LCD headlights.

All of these high tech features as well as the solid German engineering mean that this will be a very expensive scooter. As far as I know, BMW hasn't released any price information yet. I'm curious to see what one of these sleek high tech bikes will cost. Also, will BMW offer them in the U.S.? The biggest market for scooters is in scooter mad Europe. The new Concept C scooter will be built in Berlin, Germany. However, in my opinion, scooters are appearing more and more in the U.S. Yamaha felt there was enough of a market to bring their TMAX over from Europe. So, maybe if the Concept C proves a success in Europe, we may see it in the U.S. in time.

2010-11-28T18:17:00.003-05:00

New Game at Dave & Buster's

I stopped by the Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's today. They'd sent a coupon that gave me $10 worth of free play with the purchase of $10 worth of play. It seemed like a good enough deal so I went in and used the coupon though I didn't play any games. While there, I wanted to check Dave & Buster's new game Wheel of Fortune. I'd seen them advertise it in their emails they sent me.

The game is very much like the game you see on tv barring that it is a single player game vice having 3 contestants on tv. At the beginning, the player has 2 options as far as how many tickets they want to win. If they pay twice as i.e. 9.9 coins vice 4.9, the ticket totals on the wheel are doubled. In theory, a person could win over 2,000 tickets if they doubled AND hit the 300 ticket slot on the wheel AND got 2 or more letters to light up on the words they're trying to figure out. Personally, I don't think the odds are good a person will win that many tickets in this game.

The player gets 3 spins at the wheel during which time after each spin, they are shown various letters that in the word or words they are trying to solve. If they pick a letter that is in the word or words, they get the number of tickets they spun for that letter. After they pick their third letter, the player has to figure out what the word or words are. If they get it right, they get a bonus for solving the puzzle. I don't know the bonus is determined.

Overall, I wasn't wiped out with this game. I think it's pricey and the chance of winning lots of tickets aren't that good. It is some what challenging but, my purpose for playing the games at the arcade in Dave & Buster's is to win tickets to claim a prize. With that objective in mind, I'd rather stick with Spin & Win. You may not get as much as action i.e. it doesn't take as long to play the game as it does to play Wheel of Fortune BUT, the chances of winning lots of tickets are greater in my opinion with Spin & Win. You just have to have good eye and hand coordination as well as timing to win at Spin & Win whereas with Wheel of Fortune you have to show some brains (figuring out the puzzle) and have some luck too i.e. hitting the 200 or 300 ticket slots.

2010-11-14T07:40:00.003-05:00

Royal Caribbean Wifi

I thought I'd post a blog entry on how the Wifi works on Royal Caribbean ships. I used the service during my recent cruise on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas ship. I really enjoyed it and, I was impressed with how fast the connection was. Also, I found it fascinating because I'm certain the connection had to go via satellite at times when the ship was in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Anyway, here is how it works.

All Royal Caribbean ships including the new Oasis class ships have hot spots where you can connect to the ship's Wifi network. The only exception to this is Royal Caribbean's Freedom class ships which offer connectivity thoroughout the entire ship including all cabins. For the Navigator of the Seas, the hot spots were located at the following places:

Conference Center - Deck 2

Schooner Bar - Deck 4

Two Poets Pub and Cafe Promenade - Deck 5

Solarium - Deck 11

19th Hole Sports & Golf Bar/Cosmopolitan Club - Deck 14

In order to connect to the Internet at one of these hot spots, you must create a login and password. This is done at a Royal Caribbean Online workstation. These were located on the 8th deck to the rear of the ship on the Navigator of the Seas. The workstation asks you to create a login and password. Also, you'll need your SeaPass card so it can charge you for the service once you start using it. Royal Caribbean doesn't charge you for the service at this point. Once you've created a login and password, you take your laptop to one of the hotspots. You should see the RC wireless signal on your Wifi list. You press connect. Then, you call up an Internet browser. A page should come up on the browser that asks you how you want to pay for using the Internet. You have 2 options: you can pay the standard rate which is 65 cents a minute or you can buy a prepaid plan. Royal Caribbean offers 5 prepaid plans. They are:

60 minutes for $35 which breaks out to 58 cents a minute

90 minutes for $55 which breaks out to 55 cents a minute

150 minutes for $75 which breaks out to 50 cents a minute

250 minutes for $100 which breaks out to 40 cents a minute

500 minutes for $150 which breaks out to 30 cents a minute

Once you choose which option you want and press enter, you will be billed for the service and, you will be connected to the Internet. The webpage that offered you the prepaid plans will show you how many minutes you've used and at what cost. That page is helpful as it enables you to have some idea how many minutes you have left or how much you will be billed if you used the standard rate. It also enables you to disconnect from the Internet though you still have to break the Wifi connection on your laptop i.e. disconnect a second time. Also, at the end of the cruise, you will lose any minutes you don't use on your prepaid plan i.e. you can't carry them over to your next cruise. If you go over your prepaid minutes, you will be billed the standard rate per minute for the overage.

If you belong to Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society, you may find a coupon in the coupon booklet that will be left in your cabin. This was the case during my cruise. The coupon will save you either $5 or 10% of your Internet bill. In my case, I opted for the prepaid 500 minute plan so it save me $15. That isn't tons but, it is something.

Also, from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., the Wifi network will go down. I was told by another cruiser that they took the system down during that time for maintenance. I don't know if that's true but, they system definitely goes down during those times. I can personally vouch for that.

Lastly, if you want to change your password on the system, you have to go to one of the Royal Caribbean Online workstations. You enter your login and whatever you want your new password to be. You'll have to swipe your SeaPass during this process. You won't lose any prepaid minutes you have left on your account. I can personally vouch for that. I changed my password during my recent cruise after I thought I'd lost the piece of paper I'd written my login and password on. I later found it in my wallet. Oops!

I hope this entry answers most questions about Royal Caribbean's Wifi service on its ships. I really liked the service and, I'll be using it again when I go my Alaska cruise next year. I would definitely recommend it.

2010-11-13T21:34:00.004-05:00

Peru Trip

With the conclusion of my recent cruise on the Navigator of the Seas, I've started preparing for my future Globus tour of Peru. The tour is called Legacy of the Incas and last 10 days in Peru. We cover a lot of territory. We start in Lima, drive to Ica where we board a flight to see the Nazca Plain drawings from the air, take a boat ride to the Ballestas Islands, drive back to Lima, fly to Cuzco, drive to the Sacred Valley, take a train to and from Machu Picchu, drive back to Cuzco where we fly to Juliaca and drive to Lake Titicaca, visit Taquile Island and the Uros Islands, drive back to Juliaca, fly back to Lima and finish with a farewell dinner. That is a brief summary of travel and some of the things I'll get to do during the tour.

One item I was very interested in was the Internet access at the various hotels I'll be staying at. I'd like to be able to post current updates on the trip like I did on my recent cruise. To my delight, I found out every hotel I'll be staying offers free Wifi access. Because of that, I plan to take my laptop on the trip so I can post updates. For any readers I have, you'll get to read of my adventures in Peru shortly after they happen and possibly see some pictures I'll take during the tour. So, stay tuned for future adventures. In approximately 60 days or so, I'll be departing again for my first trip to South America.

2010-11-10T21:03:00.003-05:00

Grand Cayman/Cozumel Hard Rock Cafes

To my delight, I got to visit and buy t-shirts from both of these Hard Rock Cafes. The easiest to get to was the Grand Cayman cafe as it was 2 blocks from the downtown Georgetown pier. Another thing I liked about the Grand Cayman cafe was they had a deal going where if you bought 3 t-shirts, you got a free cap or sun visor ($20 value). Lastly, I thought the Grand Cayman had some nice designs on their t-shirts.

On the other hand, Cozumel wouldn't be easy to get to for someone arriving at the international cruise ship pier. After I bought my t-shirt from the cafe, I took a taxi back to the pier for $7 and, I thought it was money well spent. In my opinion, it would've been a serious i.e. long walk to get back to the cruise ship pier from the cafe. Another thing that didn't wipe me out with the cafe was the designs of their t-shirts. I would've thought they could've come with up with something better. The one I bought had the colors of the Mexican flag. One interesting note about the Cozumel cafe is that it's supposedly the smallest Hard Rock Cafe in the world. That's possible. I didn't bother to look in to see how big their restaurant was. Still, I pleased to get one of their shirts. I suspect the cafe does a good bit of business with all the cruise ships that call at Cozumel. When I visited, there was the one I was on and 2 Celebrity ships.

2010-11-09T21:23:00.003-05:00

Tulum

The excursion I looked forward to most on this cruise was the one to the Mayan city of Tulum. I'd never seen anything like that before. Plus, it would be a nice preparation for my tour to Peru in January. Tulum turned out to be awesome. Most of the main temple complex was intact and, there were other fascinating buildings. Our tour guide Mario did a great job explaining in limited time some of the history of the city including how it was discovered in the 1840's and later excavated. Another plus is that the city is walled. It was something to make my way through one of the narrow entrances. Lastly, there were awesome views of the Caribbean. Overall, I was thoroughly delighted with this excursion and would recommend it to anyone. When I get home, I plan to post some pictures of the city so any viewers I have can see just how stunning it is.

2010-11-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

Cruise Update

Due to poor diving conditions, I didn't get to go scuba diving in Grand Cayman. Because the person running the dive shop the cruise ship uses waited till this morning to see what the conditions were before cancelling a number of dives, I was notified kind of late and had to scramble to book another excursion.

The excursion I went on was a combination tour. First, I got to ride in a semi-submersible that enabled me to see a number of Grand Cayman's best reefs as well as 2 wrecks they have. I enjoyed this plus, it was my first time in such a craft. After that, the tour driver and guide took the group I was with to a turtle farm. According to our guide, it is the only one of its kind in the world. They keep over 300 breeder turtles at the farm. When the turtles lay their eggs in a section of sand they have for them, the farm digs up the eggs and puts them in incubators so there is a greater chance the eggs will hatch. Once the eggs hatch, the baby turtles are transferred to other tanks where they are fed and grow. Some are released into the wild while others are slaughtered for their meat. Visitors can hold and touch the young turtles. The farm is also trying to raise Kemp Ridley turtles which are an endangered species.

After visiting the turtle farm, we drive to Hell, Grand Cayman. Supposedly a British governor of the island gave the area its name. The area features limestone formations that are very jagged and sharp. Others have put statues of devils around the formations. The town has a post office where you can mail letters and cards with the postmark of Hell, Grand Cayman. Visitors to the area can jokingly say they've been to Hell and back. I thought the place a bit touristy but, it was neat to say I'd been there.

The last stop was at the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory. Visitors at the factory could try free samples of the various cakes as well as some Tortuga rum. I found the cakes really good. I plan to buy at a couple before the cruise ends. Also, I enjoyed trying some of the rums.

Our tour guide and driver returned us to the pier where we could catch a shuttle boat back to the Navigator of the Seas or do more sightseeing. I made my mandatory trip to the Cayman Island Hard Rock Cafe where I ended up buying 3 t-shirts. They have some pretty cool ones which I'll comment more on in another post.

Overall, I ended up having a nice visit to Grand Cayman. I thought it interesting and, the weather was pretty nice with the sun out and the temps in the high 70's. According to the tour guide, Grand Cayman never gets below the 60's temperature wise and has many days when it's in the 80's. It sounds like it is a typical Caribbean island where you can enjoy lots of sun and sand. Stay tuned for my cruise updates. Tomorrow, I get to visit Cozumel, Mexico.

2010-11-08T07:54:00.003-05:00

Cruise Update

The Navigator of the Seas arrived just off of Georgetown, Grand Cayman this morning. The town apparently doesn't have a pier that is big enough and deep enough to accomodate the ship. Because of that, I'll have to take a tender/shuttle boat to the town's pier to do my scheduled scuba diving trip. Plan to go early so I can visit the Hard Rock Cafe and get my prized new t-shirt.

Last night, the ship had a formal evening where everyone got to dress up if they felt like. There were lots of guys in tuxedos and suits and lots of ladies in gowns. The ship served free champagne which was decent. I doubt it was the really good stuff.

Afterwards, I dined in the formal dining room. The ship's chefs did themselves proud as I got to enjoy some excellent Escargot Bourguignon, lobster bisque and shrimp ravioli. The escargot reminded me of the Globus tour I took of France. I really enjoyed the dinner.

That's all for this update. Still tuned for more posts on my cruise. Cheers all!

2010-11-07T17:38:00.003-05:00

Travel Post

I'm on my 2nd cruise. I flew down to Ft. Lauderdale for the first time yesterday. There, I boarded the Navigator of the Seas. It can hold over 3,800 passengers and is the same class of ship as the Adventure of the Seas. The ship has lots to do including a full length basketball court, miniature golf course, inline skating track, 3 or 4 pools, bi-level theater, ice skating rink, rock climbing wall, casino and a number of shops for those who love to shop.

I've found the food good and plentyful. My cabin with balcony very nice. And, the staff very helpful and efficient. You won't see any dirty plates for long in the restaurants. I've tried the miniature golf, trivia games and bingo. They've been fun. Tomorrow, I'll get to go scuba diving in Grand Cayman which should be a lot of fun. I haven't scuba dived in over 2 and 1/2 years.

That's all for this blog entry. I'm able to use the ship's Wifi network for a fee so there will be updates during the cruise. Stay tuned for more blogs about my on-going cruise. Cheers all!

2010-11-05T15:38:00.004-05:00

The Red Pyramid

In a departure from Rick Riordan's Olympian books, Riordan created a storyline incorporating the ancient Egyptian gods. The new series is called The Kane Chronicles. Like Riordan's Olympian books, the series is aimed at teenagers though readers of other ages may enjoy the books. The book's hero and heroine are Carter and Sadie Kane. Though they don't know it, they are descendents of the Egyptian pharoahs. This gives this a special connection to the Egyptian gods and when the gods are freed by their father in the British Museum in London, England, they become hosts for the god Horus and goddess Isis respectively. This will lead to a number of dangers and ultimately a battle with the evil god Set who intends to kill their father and which they try to prevent.

During their perils and battles, they will meet various Egyptian gods and goddesses including Anubis, Bast and Thoth. They will learn they are two of the most powerful children descended form the pharoahs in centuries. Later, they will also discover that the chaos serpent Apophos is rising again and the fate of the world will be decided by them in their battle with Set.

Like the Olympian books, Riordan causes our hero and heroine to have a mere 5 days to defeat the evil doer and save the world. Also, like the Olympian books, Riordan throws in a number of surprises and some romance. Because of the limited time they have, the two Kane children have to move quickly and the action comes fast and furious. At then end, all things end well and yet, there can be little doubt there are future trials and battles ahead. As Riordan has a release date of fall 2011 for his Son of Neptune book in the Heroes of Olympus series, any fans of the Kane series will have to wait a while for the next Kane Chronicles book.

Overall, I thought the story was nice though I thought the Egyptian gods were a bit lame at times in the story. At one point in the book, our heroes are being chased by a killer monster and, it's Horus's birthday. The god apparently wants Carter to stop fighting the killer monster and wish him happy birthday. Then, the god asks Carter if he bought him a present. Surely, a god could show more sense.

As far as I know, The Red Pyramid is only available in hardbound and the list price $17.99. Various discount bookstores may sell it for less. Those who like the Percy Jackson series will probably like the Kane Chronicles series. As for me, I look forward to Riordan's Son of Neptune book.

2010-10-27T08:59:00.002-05:00

The Lost Hero

To my delight, Rick Riordan recently came out with the first book in a new series called The Heroes of Olympus. The book is called The Lost Hero. It picks up from the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. As readers of the last series will know, the Jackson series ended with a new great prophecy that foretold of 7 demigods who would fight at death's door. In the new series, we will discover who those 7 demigods are and what part they will play in a battle that could decide the fate of the entire world.

From the Jackson series, I assumed that Riordan would introduce us to some new demigods from the lesser gods that were introduced in the series. I was wrong. Riordan introduces a new twist with a second group of demigods who are the children of the Roman version of the Greek gods i.e. Jupiter instead of Zeus, Neptune instead of Posidon and so on. In the series, we find out that a great battle broke out between the 2 groups of demigods that caused so much loss of life among them that the Gods separated the 2 groups and hid them from each other. Now, with the threat from the earth goddess Gaea and her giant minions, these 2 groups will some how have to reconcile their differences and join together so they can help the gods defeat the giants and save the world. The gods apparently can't do it on their own for unknown reasons.

The story has plenty of twists and turns as well as humor. It does showcase 2 gods that didn't take as big a part in the Jackson series i.e. Haephaestus - the god of smiths and all kinds of devices and Aphrodite - the goddess of love. Two of their demigods along with a previously unknown son of Jupiter i.e. Zeus must race against the clock to save the Queen Goddess Hera, a goddess they don't trust who is scheming behind her husband Zeus's back in a plan she hopes will save the world and the Olympian/Roman gods.

In regards to the previous hero Percy, all we learn in the first book is he went missing at the same time Jupiter's son Jason suddenly appeared. We learn that Hera did a swap and wiped Percy's memories like she did Jason's. At the end of the book, Jason suspects Percy is in huge trouble as he suspects the Roman demigods will be a lot less kind to him than the Greek demigods were to Jason. We are left hanging wondering what has happened to Percy. Frustratingly, we won't be abel to find out till fall of next year when the second book in the series - The Son of Neptune will be released.

As "The Lost Hero" has just been released, I believe it's only available in hardbound. The list price for the hardbound edition is $18.99 in the U.S. and, it states the price will be higher in Canada.

Overall, the book is another fun and fast moving book that is easy to read and enjoy. Teenagers in particular should enjoy the book as all the heroes and heroines are teenagers who show typical teenage problems as well as having to deal with some very un-teenage problems i.e. god/goddess parents, unknown powers and lots of nasty monsters that want to kill them. Older readers should enjoy the new book as well as it has plenty of action and humor. I very much enjoyed this book as I did the Percy Jackson series and, I look forward to Riordan's next book in the series. If you liked his Percy Jackson and the Olympian series, you'll enjoy this book too.

2010-10-24T16:48:00.003-05:00

Research

In preparation for my upcoming cruises, I've been buying various books on ports of call and what there is to do at them. For example, The island of Cozumel apparently offers some very good scuba diving and an excursion to the Mayan city of Tulum which is on the mainland. The island of Grand Cayman doesn't apparently have a lot of history but, it does have excursions where you can feed stingrays and learn about sea turtles. A friend of mine wants to visit Jamaica during a cruise and, I found out Royal Caribbean has been working with the Jamaican government to create another cruise ship port at Falmouth. This port will be able to accomodate Royal Caribbean's largest cruise ships the Oasis of the Seas and the soon to be launched Allure of the Seas. Jamaica is on my list of Caribbean islands I'd like to visit and, it would be great if I could do a cruise on either the Oasis or Allure of the Seas ships. As far as I know, they are the largest cruise ships in the world. They are literally floating cities as they can accomodate 5,400 passengers and 2,000 crew. I haven't seen the Oasis yet but, it must be HUGE. Concerning Alaska, I've heard those cruises are incredibly scenic. However, I have no idea what you do sightseeing wise at the ports of call during the cruise. I've been reading up on Vancouver. I found out they a nice museum that tells of some of the history of the Pacific Northwest indian tribes. They even have some totem poles carved by them. Vancouver also has a space needle like tower that soars over 440 feet up and gives good views of the city. I confess after doing the CN Tower (1,800 feet) in Toronto, the tower in Vancouver isn't going to be as impressive. Lastly, I've been checking into Internet access. I'd like to be able to post updates on here during my trips but, I don't care to break the bank doing it. I found out Royal Caribbean has somewhat cheaper pre-paid WiFi rates. The cheapest gets down to 30 cents a minute which is better than their flat rate of a whopping 65 cents a minute. However, I would like to know what happens with any unused minutes with the pre-paid charge. Can I carry them over to my next cruise? I'll have to wait on an answer for that one till I do my November cruise. Overall, the next year promises to be pretty exciting travel wise with 2 trips to the Caribbean, 1 to Alaska and 1 to Peru. Stay tuned for some interesting future travel blog entries. Cheers all!

2010-10-17T17:46:00.003-05:00

Serious Beer Trip

For a long time, I've wanted to buy some at least a 6-pack of James Boag Australian lager so I could give it a proper tasting. The lager is one of the beers the Outback Steakhouse chain offers. I got to try my first bottle during my first bike road trip to Richmond, Virginia. Unfortunately, James Boag lager isn't widely available in Maryland. I did find one liquor store that sold it and then, I forgot to bookmark the store. This morning, I finally located the store. It's called State Line Liquors in Elkton, Maryland. The name of the store is appropriate as the store is very close to the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line. The store isn't overly large but, it offers a surprising number of international beers. I saw beers from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland and Spain. It was pretty impressive. Price wise, considering where some of these brews were coming from, I thought they were pretty reasonable. Service was excellent. Parking was adequate. The location was located just off of Interstate-95 so easy to get to. The only downside to my trip was I forgot how the state of Maryland likes to gouge people that travel on Interstate-95 going to Pennsylvania. They hit me up for $5. Thankfully, they didn't do that on the trip home. This is one liquor store I plan to visit again in the future once I've finished my now ample supply of brew. If you like to try various international beers and you're in the Maryland-Pennyslvania border area, you might want to give them a look. Their website is: http://statelineliquors.com/index.htm. Cheers all!

2010-10-12T21:42:00.002-05:00

Final Bushnell Update

Sometime between this morning and this evening, Bushnell apparently successfully fixed their server problem. When I arrived home from work this evening, I logged on to the Internet and, the software for my Bushnell 7 day FXi weather forecaster promptly activated. I checked it and found out it was working fine. It was giving me the forecasts for the 5 different places I track weather wise. I'm glad they got the glitch fixed. That wraps up my series of blog entries on this. Cheers all!

2010-10-11T17:49:00.002-05:00

Bushnell Update

I promised any readers out there that if I found out more on the server problem with Bushnell weather forecasters that I would pass on the additional information. Here is my first update on this.

I emailed Accuweather.com asking them if they knew when they would get their server problem fixed. They replied stating that is wasn't their problem. That it was Bushnell's problem and, they were aware of it. Then, I forwarded that email to Bushnell customer service letting them know what Accuweather said. To my surprise, Bushnell had a different story this time. They stated that they had "a technical issue" with their server that affected the information for my "local weather." Also, they stated that they are "doing everything possible to get the server back up and running" as soon as possible. That makes sense as people aren't going to want to buy their weather forecasting units if they don't work because of the server glitch.

That's all for this update. I'll post more updates if I get any more information on this problem.

2010-10-11T10:31:00.002-05:00

News on Bushnell Weather Forecaster

I found out about 5 minutes ago that Accuweather.com is having problems sending weather updates over the Internet to those who have Bushnell weather forecaster units. My source for this is Bushnell's own technical support who I spoke with after being unable to get full weather forecasts for the past 3 or 4 days. According to the tech support person, Accuweather is aware of the problem but, they haven't given a specific date and time when the problem will be fixed. The problem is at their end and not with the Bushnell equipment. Hopefully, Accuweather will get the problem fixed as I've very much enjoyed getting regular forecasts over my Bushnell 7 day weather forecaster FXi. If I find out anything more on this, I'll post an update.

2010-10-03T16:25:00.003-05:00

Alaskan Cruises

I've been debating what to do travel wise next summer. I don't want to go some place where it's hot. If I want heat, I can stay home. Also, I didn't want to run into the air conditioning problem (there wasn't any in some of the hotels) I ran into during my tour of Ireland. My friend Harvey had suggested doing an Alaskan cruise. My initial impression was negative as I felt that would be largely scenic. To me, after a while, lots of pretty scenery gets boring. However, my travel agent Joel Mills assured me there was more including history and culture. Then, I checked into prices. Initially, that shot that down. The Alaskan cruising season can be pricey. I suspect that's because it is a limited season due to the ice and cold. However, Royal Caribbean finally settled the matter for me when they had a cruise sale last week. To my surprise, I was able to get an Alaskan cruise for $1,115 for a balcony cabin (double that since I'm adamant about having my own cabin). I can handle that plus, the airfare wasn't disastrous - $750 round trip. So, I'll get to do my first Alaskan cruise after all next summer.

REMINDER: Later this year, I'll get to visit Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico for the first time. Also, my Globus tour of Peru is still on for early next year. So, there will be lots of new travel posts and pictures on here in the upcoming months. Stay tuned.

2010-10-03T15:48:00.004-05:00

Extended Warranty & Service Contract

The week before last, I decided to take Yamaha up on their offer of extending the warranty on my Yamaha TMAX. The original warranty is only good for 1 year. With the extended warranty, you have the option of extending the warranty 1, 2 or 3 years. I opted for the 3 year extension which cost me $600. Under the extended warranty, everything is covered except for items that would have to be replaced because of normal wear and tear such as tires. Interestingly, because the TMAX has an enclosed clutch, even parts of the clutch are covered under the warranty. Another nice feature of Yamaha's extended warranty is it's transferable. If you sell the bike to someone else, they can pick up what's left of the extended warranty contract.

Another way I found out I could protect myself from expensive motorbike bills was to buy a 3 year service contract with Heyser Cycle. The contract covers all classes of servicing (there are 3 classes - A, B, and C). Just a normal Class A service can set you back over $100. A Class C servicing can cost you $389 plus taxes, parts and waste disposal. Depending on how much you ride your bike, you could get all your money back on this during the life of the service contract. As I plan to ride my TMAX year round, I felt this would be worth doing.

My TMAX continues to impress me with its performance and handling. Last week, after checking for any cops, I took the bike up to 100 mph. The bike handled fine. I've heard the bike supposedly tops out at 110 mph though the speedometer shows 120 mph. Between its speed and handling, it can hold its own with most motorcycles out there. Thanks to the extended warranty and the 3 year service contract I bought, I won't have to worry about any problems with my TMAX for the next 3 years. I'll be able concentrate on riding my fun ride. Cheers all!

2010-09-05T07:08:00.002-05:00

TMAX Update

I thought it was time to post an update on my 2009 Yamaha TMAX as I've given their touring windshield and wind side deflecters a decent try out on the bike.

One of the things I noticed with my TMAX at higher speeds is considerable wind noise. It really roars when you ride 80 miles an hour plus. Yamaha claims that their touring windshield for the TMAX significantly reduces wind noise. After giving the windshield a good tryout, I can affirm that Yamaha wasn't lying. The windshield does make a big difference in that area and, it also cuts down on some of the buffeting you'll take at higher speeds. In my opinion, the touring windshield is worth the $224.95.

I can't say the same for the side wind deflectors. I haven't noticed that much improvement from them to make it worth the $199.95 Yamaha charges for them. Another thing those considering buying these 2 accessories should consider is the cost of installing them. I got a bit of a surprise when I got the labor bill from Heyser Cycle. It cost me $255 to get them both installed. Still, I think the touring windshield is worth it.

There are 2 things I wish Yamaha would do something about on the TMAX. First, I wish they would come out with a better seat for long rides. After about an hour of straight riding, I've found myself trying to find a softer spot on the seat and, there ISN'T one. Second, I wish they would come out with something to deflect the wind around the handlebars of the bike. This would help considerably when riding during the winter. I've looked with envy on the various Harley glide bikes as they offer good hand protection from the wind during the winter. The only solution I've come up with so far is wearing electrically powered heated gloves. These help some but, the batteries don't stay charged forever. I know there are gloves that will hook up to the bike's battery but, I'm very leery of doing that.

Another issue I thought I'd blog about is the 2011 TMAX. Yamaha finally released details on it sometime recently. I can't say exactly when as I wasn't checking their website every day for the info. Yesterday, I did find out they'd posted details on the 2011 bike. To my disappointment, I didn't notice any great improvements over the 2009 and 2010 models. The only differences I could see was a different color - the 2011 will come in what they call Raven which is another word for black and, the 2011 will cost an extra $100. Because of this, I was glad I pushed to buy my 2009 TMAX as that means I saved even more money buying one of those vice a 2010 or 2011 model.

Lastly, I noticed that Yamaha will be getting rid of its Majesty scooter in 2011. The Majesty is a scooter that is one step down from the TMAX. It has a 399cc engine vice the TMAX's 499cc. It advertised that it could hold its own on the highway just like the TMAX but, it doesn't have anything like the TMAX's sporty looks or presumably its handling. I suspect Yamaha decided that the Majesty was some what redundant and, I think they're right. With the TMAX, there really isn't any need for the Majesty bike.

2010-08-22T19:07:00.002-05:00

TMAX Update

Today, I rode my TMAX again. I've put nearly 3,000 miles on it now. The bike continues to perform great. I'm pleased that I'm definitely getting better riding it. Remember, I've only been riding any kind of motorbike for 14 months now. I'm not so frightened by the loud noise of the wind and the buffeting you take when you go 70 mph plus. I ordered the touring windshield and side wind deflectors for my TMAX. They're in and, I hope to get them installed this Thursday. I'll post an update on what if any difference they make in regards to noise and handling. Also, I'm keeping an eye out for what the 2011 TMAX is going to be like. Will there be any difference between it and the 2010? I keep my fingers crossed that Yamaha will come out with a 750cc TMAX. I think that would be seriously cool. Plus, a 750cc TMAX would seriously fly. So far, there have only been rumors of that. I haven't seen anything definite from Yamaha. But, I keep hoping Yamaha will make one. We'll see.

2010-08-08T14:38:00.002-05:00

Baltimore Update

I got to visit Baltimore's Inner Harbor today. I rode my TMAX in and to my surprise, I found a parking space about a block from the Hard Rock Cafe. Parking was $2 an hour with a maximum stay of 2 hours. However, I doubt anyone would check if you ended up staying longer. As I came into the harbor area, I noticed there was a large warship tied up at one of the piers. It turned out to be the Brazilian training ship NE Brasil. The ship is supposedly 427 feet long so it is a good size ship. During its visit, they'll be offering free tours at set times and dates. I don't happen to know those. After looking over the ship, I walked back to the Hard Rock Cafe where I had a nice lunch and looked over their rock memorabilia collection. They have a bust of rubber hips Mick Jagger, a number of guitars including one by the rock group Slaughter, they had the shoes worn by Olivia Newton John in Grease, a movie poster from Elvis Presley's movie Girls! Girls! Girls! as well as other stuff. I bought one of the cafe's signature t-shirts. This one is from the rock group The Who and helps support the City of Hope which does research concerning cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. 15% of the purchase price goes to that foundation. After lunch, I walked by the ESPN Zone on the way back to my bike and to my surprise, I found out it had closed on June 16th. It seems it and a number of other ESPN Zones had closed for reasons unknown to me. As it was in a prime location in the Inner Harbor, I wouldn't think it'll be long before some other big name restaurant moves in. We'll see on that. That's all for this update. Cheers all!

2010-08-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

New Today's Pet Store Open

Today, I stopped by Gateway Overlook Mall. I knew there was an Office Depot there and, I needed to buy some more rubber bands for work. Mail carriers at various post offices use a lot of rubber bands to bundle mail so they can keep it in order until they deliver it. 2 stores down from the Office Depot is the new Today's Pet store. I found out they new store opened just yesterday. The store didn't seem terribly wider than their previous Mall at Columbia store. It did look like they had a good selection of tropical fish as well as rats, gerbils, hamsters, parrots, kittens and my favorite puppies. As luck would have it, they had a cute Pug puppy. He/she looked particularly cute. I still hope to get a Pug puppy some day. First though, my job at the post office has to get more predictable before that happens.

Overall, I thought Today's Pet's new store nice though I think previous location at The Mall at Columbia was cooler. From what I understand, the new location will offer more services than the previous one. If you want to visit just Today's Pet, the new store location will be easier as you won't have to walk through a mall to get to it. I plan to visit the new location from time to time to check out the puppies. Some day, I hope to get one. Cheers all!

2010-07-22T19:40:00.003-05:00

New Bicycle

Today, I picked up my new 24-speed Schwinn bicycle from A&M Cycle. The bike looks nice. I had a bit of a misadventure getting it home. I'd planned on taking the front tire off the bike, stowing the rest of the bike in my car's trunk and the front tire in the front seat. To my surprise, the bike sans front tire was too big to fit in the trunk or the back of my car. I ended up buying a bicycle carrier so I could get my new bike home. I haven't ridden the bike yet as by the time I finished dinner, it was getting late. I hope to ride for the first time tomorrow and see how it does. It promises to be interesting as there have been some changes since I had my last 10-speed. The gear shifters are on the handle bars and the brakes are next to the neck of the bike. There are 2 levers for each set of gears. 1 lever shifts up while the other shifts down. The man at A&M Cycle said the gear shifters are an improvement. We'll see. Stay tuned for more updates.

2010-07-18T06:45:00.004-05:00

A&M Cycle

Friday, I visited A&M Cycle in Bowie, Maryland. I wanted to get a new Schwinn touring bicycle. The Schwinn website (http://www.schwinn.com/) stated that the only Schwinn dealership close to where I live was A&M Cycle in Bowie. You can buy Schwinn bikes at Target, Wal-Mart and other such stores but, the support you can get from such stores is questionable in my opinion. I doubt they're really going to know the bikes that well. A Schwinn dealership will know the bikes as the specialize in them. Why go with a Schwinn bike? In my case, because of the favorable impression I have of them already. As a kid, I had 2 Schwinn bikes. One was a regular Men's bike that my family called the Green Monster. It was green and big and damn near indestructible. It was a great bike. The other was my first ever 10-speed. It was fast and fun. Sadly, that bike taught me how important it was to have a lock and chain. I foolishly parked it but, I didn't lock it. I kept checking on it while I watch some friends play a video game. Apparently others were watching the bike too and decided to steal it. I quickly noticed my bike was gone, ran out to where it had been and saw the thieves ride away on it. I never saw the bike again. I never forgot the hard lesson.

A&M Cycle's shop wasn't anything to impress. It wasn't super big and, it didn't have much of a selection. They did have a fair number of used bikes which didn't look that great but presumably were mechanically sound and possibly cheap. Another annoyance is they don't have a website so it was hard to find out the days and hours they're open. As far as I can tell, the shop is a 1 man operation. All those negatives said, the shop does have plusses. First, the man who runs the shop knows bikes. He knows how they should fit and, he knows how to fix them. This was important to me as I wanted to get a bike that would fit me and if I have any problems with it, they'll fix it. One of my major problems with buying a bike at Wal-Mart is I don't think they could fix the bikes they sell. Another plus about this shop is the guy running could tell me the advantages and disadvantages of the different bikes Schwinn sells. I was looking at 2 specific bikes - the World Tour DLX and the Le Tour. The Tour DLX is a touring bike. That means it is made for long rides or commuting and comes with the equipment for that such as fenders and a rack to carry stuff on. The Le Tour is a speed bike. It is made for fast cycling. The shop owner was able to explain the differences between the 2 bikes and aid me in which one to go with. Eventually, I put a non-refundable deposit down on a World Tour DLX. While the shop didn't have one in stock, bikes it special orders usually arrive in 2 to 3 days barring weekends. Mine should arrive by Wednesday of this week. Once it arrives, they'll check the bike and fine tune it. By next weekend, I should have my first ever 24-speed bicycle. It boggles to think of a bike having that many gears. Incredibly, the Le Tour Super has 30 gear settings! I don't know how much so many gears help. I'll find out when I start riding my new bike. It should be fun and, it should have one other major benefit - it'll be good exercise. I need to do more of that and cycling is a fun form of exercise to me. I look forward to riding my new bike. Stay tuned for more posts on this. Cheers all!

2010-07-12T06:39:00.002-05:00

Today's Pet

One of my favorite shops at The Mall in Columbia is Today's Pet. They're a pet store that sells a number of different kinds of pets. My favorite are the adorable puppies. I always check to see if they have any Pug puppies. I haven't given up on my dream of owning a Pug puppy some day. During my last visit to their shop, I was surprised to find out they're moving to a larger place at Gateway Overlook Mall. Gateway Overlook is a strip mall located in Columbia, Maryland off of Maryland 175 and 108 and just off the exit from Maryland 95. It has a fair number of stores including Costco, Best Buy, Office Depot and Trader Joe's. It has ample parking. The new store will offer a greater selection of pets and services however, I think they will lose a lot of walk in business. One plus to them being in The Mall in Columbia was they were easily seen and thereby attracted potential customers who were walking by. They won't get that kind of business at Gateway Overlook. People who shop there are going there purposefully to get whatever. Still, I look forward to checking out their new shop which will be located right next to Costco. Someday I'll buy a Pug puppy who I'll name Muggsy. It'll be pretty cool except when he craps in the apartment or home I'll have then. Then, I suspect I'll call him something less kind. Cheers all.

2010-07-11T21:09:00.003-05:00

Back on the Internet

To my surprise, I'm back on the Internet. The middle of the week before last, I started experiencing unfathomable problems trying to connect. I'd had problems before with my Sprint U-300 USB modem but, I'd been able to overcome them - not this time. Apparently, my modem bought the big one for good for some unknown reason. Sprint's tech support did their dangdest to get the modem to work on my super duper Dell XPS laptop but, it wasn't having any of it. The tech wizards at the local Sprint store said the modem was fine but, I was never able to get to work on my laptop again. Sprint kindly sent me a new modem which showed signs of working except I couldn't get it to activate. Strangely, Sprint told me I needed a 3G/4G Internet plan for the new modem but, I didn't for my U-300 which is also 3G/4G. Explain that one to me. Anyway, Sprint did get the new modem to work and, knock on wood, I won't have to make anymore daily trips to Panera to get on the Internet. We'll see. Also, I'm counting my blessings on another score. I found out Sprint doesn't offer my unlimited Internet plan anymore. Now, the best you can do is for $70, you get 5 gigabytes of download. Every megabyte over that costs you 25 cents. I don't have any idea how much I download. That's why I went with the unlimited Internet plan years ago. I'm counting my blessings that Sprint has allowed me to keep the plan. I pity the folks who have to worry about how much they download. I know downloads for my Garmin GPS would be a killer. Anyway, now that I'm back on-line, look for more posts. I've got some catching up to do. Stay tuned. Cheers!

2010-07-03T19:10:00.002-05:00

Panera Bread

Earlier this week, my modem apparently bit the dust. The tech support folks at Sprint did their best to get it to work on my new Dell XPS laptop but, it wasn't having any of that. To my surprise, Sprint is going to send my a new modem with the latest software. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new modem will work. I had considerable problems with their U-300 modem. While waiting for my new modem to arrive, I've been using the free WiFi at the local Panera Bread Cafe. The cafe is nice and, the free WiFi is really handy. Apparently, it is also very popular as I've seen a number of people in here with their laptops. I suspect the WiFi helps draw business in for Panera. I know it does from me. I don't buy a lot of their stuff but, I do make sure I buy something. I wouldn't feel right using their WiFi and not buying something from their cafe. I've been drinking a lot of their frozen lemonades. They're pretty good. That's all for this post. Cheers all!

2010-06-17T03:39:00.002-05:00

Back from Ireland

I'm back from Ireland. I flew back Tuesday. The tour was very nice barring some disappointing hotels. Apparently, some hotels feel they don't need air conditioning. I beg to differ. Also, the Great Northern Hotel in Bundoran desperately needs a renovation. My room there was the worst of the hotels I stayed at during the trip. I'll have to post pictures I took of the peeling paint, stained wallpaper, cracked wall and shoebox size room.

Barring the hotel rooms, I enjoyed the tour. I saw lots of beautiful countryside, learned about Ireland and its people, feasted at an Irish medieval banquet, rode a jaunting car (it's like a wagon), clambered inside a mesolithic corridor burial mound, walked medieval walls in Derry, sang Irish songs in an Irish pub while drinking Irish ale, spent far too much money, met lots of wonderful people, took a fair amount of video and over 200 photos, and visited over 19 Irish towns and cities in 12 days. The tour covered a lot of territory. We drove over 1,100 miles.

The tour director Peter Dundon was outstanding. He really knew his stuff. He answered any question you could come up with on Ireland. Our driver Tony Dooley was a marvel. Some of the roads got pretty narrow but, he handled them with ease. Sometimes, there were some roads you didn't want to look down because they were a long way DOWN.

Overall, it was a good tour and, it reminded me how much I love to travel. While en-route home, I called my travel agent Joel Mills to start work on the next tour I'm going to take. That'll be Peru in mid-January 2011. It should be another awesome adventure. I can't wait. Stay tuned for some nice pictures of Ireland. Cheers all!

2010-05-30T08:41:00.002-05:00

Vacation

Yesterday was my last day at work before going on vacation. It's hard to believe I won't have to work for 3 entire weeks. Work has been really crazy because of the manning. We don't have nearly enough people. My boss has hired 2 new subs that he hopes will complete training by the time I get back. 2 new people would be a big help. Working 6 days a week, week after week really wears you out.

In regards to my vacation, it's hard to believe I'll be in Ireland in a few days. I've looked forward to going for months. It should be an awesome trip that will create memories that will last a long time. My Ireland trip won't be the end of my adventures as I plan to see my Dad in Michigan once I get back from Ireland. I haven't seen him in a year and a half so I owe him a visit. I'm planning some special things while I'm there like visiting Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. I remember seeing the museum as a kid. It was impressive. Also, I look forward to enjoying some White Castle hamburgers. My Dad calls them gut busters. I think their fun because you can stack them.

So my readers, stay tuned for some hopefully interesting posts over the next 3 weeks. I plan to see and do a lot of new and cool things. Cheers all!

2010-05-23T04:06:00.002-05:00

Surprise

May of last year, I decided to buy myself a new Dell laptop. I couldn't extend the warranty anymore on the Dell laptop I owned and, I was concerned that it would eventually kick the bucket and possibly cost me a number of files I wanted to keep. When I received my laptop, I found out the Dell salesperson was mistaken about me being able to use my old Sprint cellular modem. It wouldn't fit into the card slot the laptop has as its made for cards with 28 pins and my card has 54. I looked into the various cellular modems Sprint offered and the U300 stood out. It was their latest and greatest. It was the wave of the future and offered the technology that Sprint would be going to eventually. I liked that as that meant I wouldn't have to buy another modem in the future. The biggest plus for the U300 was it offered WiFi like connection speeds in markets where the Sprint cellular system had been upgraded. The sounded really cool and, the modem uses a USB port. I decided to buy it.

Once I received the modem, I promptly installed the software as the manual said. It was then that I ran into problems. There was clearly some kind of problem. I contacted Sprint and, they tried to help me solve the connection problem with the new modem. I ended up going to the Sprint store in Laurel where they tried to help me to no avail. It turned out the WiFi like technology in the modem had a major conflict with the WiFi technology in my laptop. The conflict was preventing the modem from connecting to the Internet.

My old laptop didn't come with WiFi. When WiFi became more widely available, I decided to try it and bought a card that would enable me to connect to it. The necessary software came with the card and, both worked really well. I was seriously impressed with the connection speeds I was able to get. It turned out the fact my old laptop didn't have WiFi built in was a blessing as I was able to uninstall the software enabling my new U300 modem to work. Unfortunately, the WiFi was built-in on my laptop. I decided to keep on using the old laptop and figured I'd take the modem and new laptop to Best Buy's computer wizards sometime and get them to fix the problem. I suspected they would have to disable the built-in WiFi.

Around Christmas 2009, Sprint came out with a major upgrade for the U300 software. I downloaded the software to disc which turned out to be a very good move. I hadn't taken my laptop to Best Buy yet and, I planned to install the upgrade on my laptop though I didn't think the upgrade would make any difference so I didn't install it immediately. Forward to this month, my trip to Ireland is coming up and, the trip would be an excellent time to take the new laptop and modem to Best Buy to get them to fix the problem. Why? Because I won't be able to access the Internet on my laptop there so I'll be leaving it behind. I figured 2 weeks would be plenty of time for them to fix the problem. In anticipation of taking the laptop to Best Buy, I installed the upgrade. To my total surprise, my new (now 1 year old) laptop promptly connected to the Internet! Apparently, Sprint did find a way to make the WiFi technology in their new modem compatible with existing WiFi. The upgrade gives the U300 user the choice of connecting to a WiFi network or connecting to Sprint's network. It even locates the closest WiFi signals and shows how strong their coming in so the user can presumably pick the best WiFi signal. I hope to test the WiFi part of the software some time. I remember Serotonin saying Panera offers free WiFi access. I've been meaning to try out one of their restaurants and, that would give me a chance to see how well the WiFi works. We'll see on that. For now, I'm finally getting to use my super duper speed machine laptop and access the Internet. It may be just in time too as my old laptop is showing signs that it may be going just as I feared it would. Cheers all!

2010-05-16T08:45:00.001-05:00

Medical Hair Restoration Clinic Closes

When I visited the Medical Hair Restoration clinic in Chevy Chase, Maryland this month, Dr. Varona said the clinic would be moving to new offices not far from their present location. It turns out that wasn't the actual situation. The company Medical Hair Restoration was bought by the company Aderans in 2007. Aderans also owns the company Bosley which also specializes in hair restoration. This year, Aderans decided to combine the 2 companies in order to get various efficiencies and streamline their operations. Example: instead of having a Medical Hair Restoration clinic and a Bosley clinic the Washington D.C. area, they would have just one clinic. Also, Aderan decided to go with the Bosley brand though I confess I never heard of that brand. I guess they thought it had better recognition. Anyway, all Medical Hair Restoration clinics will be closing the end of this month and, their patients will be moved to the closest Bosley clinics. I'm saddened that the Medical Hair Restoration clinics will be closing as I've been very pleased with them. I know nothing of the Bosley clinics though I'll find out next year at the latest when I have to get my Propecia prescription renewed. That's when I will meet my new doctor Dr. Peter Morse. I may take a trip to the Bosley clinic later this year to get some of their shampoo which supposedly helps remove DHT. DHT is the hormone that causes hair loss. The shampoo might be helpful plus, I'd like to see their offices so I know where to get my prescription renewed. We'll see. That's all for this update.

2010-05-09T08:15:00.003-05:00

Marine War Memorial

This is a photo I took of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial next to Arlington National Cemetary. The memorial is a statue version of the famous Joseph Rosenthal photo of marines and a navy medic raising the flag at Iwo Jima during World War II. I got to see this great memorial for the first time during the Historic U.S. East tour I took with Globus last July. Due to the low light of my first visit, I didn't take any pictures of the memorial then. On November 1, 2009, I returned to Arlington so I could take some pictures of this memorial and visit the famous Tomb of the Unknowns which we didn't have time to see during the tour. This photo was taken then. Due to the cloudy conditions of the time, I did use Corel Photo Album 7 to lighten the picture to the one you see. I think it improved the picture. Concerning the memorial itself, I found it very impressive and moving. It is definitely worth seeing. Also, it is a fitting tribute to all Marines. Semper Fi to any Marine readers I might have. Cheers all!

2010-05-07T05:00:00.002-05:00

Prescription Renewal

This past Monday, I made me yearly trip to the Medical Hair Restoration Clinic in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I needed to see Dr. Jonathon Ballon to get my Propecia prescription renewed. Propecia is a hormonal drug which blocks a certain male hormone that affects the hair follicles on men's heads. By blocking the release of a certain hormone (I don't remember its name), the hair follicles stay active and, men taking the drug are able to stop going bald as in my case. According to the folks at the clinic, the drug is 90% effective of those who take it. The drug does have one potential bad side effect in that in 1 of 250 cases, the man taking the drug will lose the ability to perform sexually. However, if that happens, I think you can take another drug (Viagra?) for that.

Anyway, I called the clinic for an appointment and found out Dr. Ballon is no longer with Medical Hair Restoration. I don't know why he left though I was saddened to hear he did. He was a very nice doctor and easy to work with. Dr. Christopher Varona has taken over for him at the clinic. Dr. Varona was kind enough to fit me into his schedule. My appointment was at 2 p.m. though I showed up early. I left early to make sure I made my appointment. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to reach the clinic. You can never be too sure about traffic in Washington D.C. and its outskirts. I played it safe and arrived early.

Dr. Varona reviewed my medical file and could see the Propecia was working. As I still have too much hair to need transplants (thankfully considering what that costs), all I needed was to take Propecia. He wrote me a new prescription and gave me 2 weeks worth of free samples which was really nice of him (it saved me $42). As he wasn't going to make any money off my visit, I bought some of the hair vitamins the clinic sells so I could repay him for seeing me. According to Dr. Varona, the REVVup supplement WON'T cause new hair growth but, it WILL make the hair you have healthier. We'll see. The clinic was offering a special where the vitamins were a 1/3 off which was nice.

Dr. Varona informed me that the clinic would be moving from its current location 5454 Wisconsin Avenue to a new location close by. He didn't tell me why they were moving. As long as my Garmin GPS can find the new location, I wasn't concerned. My GPS was real handy in finding the clinic.

So, I'm set for another year as far as Propecia is concerned. I found Dr. Varona very nice and look forward to meeting him again next year. That's all for this post. Cheers all!

2010-05-03T04:49:00.003-05:00

New Digital Camcorder

I found out from Sony's website that they had a store in Annapolis Mall. I was considering buying a Sony digital camcorder but, I wanted to be able to talk with someone who was knowledgeable about the things before I bought one. I had questions like how long would the battery last? How much recording time would I get with each model? How good was the sound quality? It can be difficult to find such answers on a website. Also, I simply like dealing with a real face for something like this. Buying a camcorder was a serious purchase and, I didn't want to get it wrong.

When I walked into the Sony store, I asked where the camcorders. I was directed to a specific counter and a salesperson named Adam came over to help me. It turned out he knew his stuff. He was able to answer my questions about the different models. Also, he was able to tell me about a special financing deal Sony was offering if you bought something that cost over $299. You wouldn't pay any interest as long as you paid the item off in 12 months. Adam figured out what my payments would be for the camera, long life battery and accidental damage plan. They came out to $168 a month. I could afford that and, I shouldn't have any problem paying the camera off.

After considering all cameras and options, I went with a Sony 240 gigabyte hard drive high definition handycam. The camera offers a number of advantages. The huge hard drive means I can record up to 29 hours of high resolution video. The camera has very good low light capability. The microphone features surround sound (I believe) but if that isn't sufficient, the camera has jacks where you can connect an external microphone. The camera offers both a viewfinder and LCD for recording and, the LCD enables to play back immediately whatever you record. You can take still photos with the camera so you wouldn't need to carry 2 cameras with you on a trip. The camera is light weight wise. One really pleasant surprise that Sony offers is 1 hour of free instruction in how to use the camera. What I would do in that case is call for a training appointment and show up for it. One of their trained staff would actually teach me how to use my new camcorder. I was really pleased with this. This would ensure I know how to use my camcorder before I go on my Ireland trip where I don't want to mess up recording the various things I'll get to see.

So far, I'm pretty pleased with my purchase. Once I got home, I started charging the battery that came with the camera and the long life battery. Some time this week, I plan to take it outside and start trying to record some stuff. I might record something on my TMAX. I would be nice to able to show my Dad my bike. We'll see. Stay tuned for updates on this. Cheers all!

2010-05-02T06:36:00.001-05:00

Product Review

It's said you get what you pay for. I was reminded of this axiom after I got what I thought was a deal on a Journey's Edge Digital Desktop Weather Station. A seller on Ebay was offering the item for $8 including shipping. The item is supposed to give a 1 day weather forecast as well as serve as a clock and alarm clock. As I carry mail for the U. S. Postal Service, it is important to me to know what the weather is going to do so I can be prepared for it. A weather station for $8 sounded like a great deal. It turned out to be a great dud. It seems the unit is stuck on partly cloudy. It has shown partly cloudy for the last 3 weeks even when there wasn't a cloud in the sky or when it was pouring down rain. After I noticed this problem, I did a little research on the Internet and found out this was a common problem with this gadget. I could return the unit for another one BUT, considering what it cost me, I don't think it's worth the hassle. I did learn my lesson from this gadget and subsequently bought a Bushnell 5 day weather forecast unit which I'll blog about another time. For now, I'd definitely wouldn't recommend buying the Journey's Edge Digital Desktop Weather Station. In my opinion, this thing is a big time piece of cheap junk. Cheers all!

2010-04-25T06:13:00.001-05:00

Future Travel

While I've been slogging away at work and counting the days till I go on my long awaited trip to Ireland, I've also been working on other future travel plans. Some have been set in motion while others are still in the consideration phase. The one that has been set in motion is where I'll be doing a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean. As I mentioned before on this blog, I don't care to go for a long spell again between trips. The trips help me deal with the stress at work plus, they make it worth putting in the long hours there. My next major trip will be to Peru which in January 2011 which is over 8 months away. That's a long time and, I decided to look for a short trip to tide me over till I went on that adventure. To my surprise, I found a nice deal with Royal Caribbean. They were offering a 5 day cruise balcony cabin for $588 per person. As I like having my own room/cabin, that meant $1,176 not including tax, gratuities and airfare. I thought that was very reasonable. Plus, the cruise visited places I've never been to before. I'll get to visit Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. Royal Caribbean has seriously awesome excursion out of Cozumel where you get to visit the Mayan city of Tulum. I was so pleased with this cruise that I booked it and paid for it fully. So, this is one travel plan that is a definite go.

The travel plan that is in the consideration phase is a Globus tour of Japan. Why Japan? Because of the fascinating history and culture. You have the legendary samurai and the battles that led to the creation of the Japanese Shogunate. I read James Clavell's novel Shogun and was enthralled by it even though it was a SERIOUS read (over 1,200 pages). Culture wise, you have the beautiful gardens which are places of reflection and calm unlike western gardens. Also, there is really cool bullet trains (I like trains) and the airs of the orient. There are the fascinating temples and Torii gates. I think it would be something to do a tour of Japan. The downsides I can see are the long flight to get there and the cost. A tour of Japan will likely be one of the most expensive tours I'll ever do. Still, it would be something to see the land of the rising sun. Hopefully, I can make it happen next year. We'll see. Stay tuned for more travel updates. Cheers all!

2010-04-17T05:18:00.001-05:00

Book Review

The second book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is called "The Sea of Monsters." Percy's satyr friend Grover is trapped by the evil cyclops Polyphemus and will become a meal for the cyclops unless Percy and his friend Annabeth rescue him. To complicate things, the magical defenses around Camp Half-Blood are failing and, it's thought finding the Golden Fleece might restore them. That requires a quest which Percy is willing to go on but, he doesn't get chosen to go. Percy has to decide whether to disobey the camp director Dionysis (the god of wine and madness) and try to find the fleece anyway and possibly get barred from ever returning to camp. If that wasn't enough for our stalwart hero, the traitorous half-blood Tim continues to aid the Titan King Kronos is his big to return and overthrow the olympian gods. All these different story lines mean lots of action while Percy continues to discover new powers he didn't know he had. It's a fun romp with some humor thrown in. Percy runs into Blackbeard the pirate who it turns out was a son of Ares. Percy and Blackbeard escape the sorceress Circe and Blackbeard with some of his crew ends up trashing Circe's spa like home.

Overall, the book was another fun read. The story moved along easily and threw in plenty of surprises to keep me from getting bored with it. Like the first book, it wasn't overly long. The second book comes in at 279 pages. The book's author Rick Riordan does a clever job of ending the book with another cliffhanger which made me want to get the 3rd book "The Titan's Curse" to find out what happens next. I'll review that book in another book review. Like the first book, barring the very young who wouldn't know anything about the Greek gods, most ages should enjoy the second book. It does a fine job of continuing the various storylines and helping us learn more about our heroes in the story. I would definitely recommend this book for those who liked the first one or are into Greek mythology. It is a very good read. Cheers all!

2010-04-11T08:13:00.001-05:00

Dave & Buster's

Dave & Buster's extended their half price games promotion till the end of the month. I decided to take advantage of it and drove out to the Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's this past Wednesday. I ended up having a really nice time. My timing on Spin & Win was more on than usual and, I ended up winning over 19,000 tickets. This took my total to just over 300,000. People asked me what I intended to get with all those tickets. I still don't have anything absolutely in mind. I am considering the Sony digital camcorder they have. It would be nice to take some video of Ireland on the Ireland trip. I wish I'd done that on the Egypt trip but, it would mean taking 2 cameras which is a bit of a hassle. Plus, how quickly would I fill up the video card on the camcorder? I'd have to take extra batteries and cards for the thing. It's those issues which have caused me to hold off for now on buying one or using my tickets at Dave & Buster's. I hope to visit Dave & Buster's one more time before the half price games promotion expires again. I suspect they won't bring it back again until the summer. It is a nice deal which can make it somewhat affordable going there. That's all on my latest visit there. Cheers all!

NOTE: Since I posted this entry, Dave & Busters have extended the half price games promotion through the summer. I think this is seriously awesome and hope to make it down again once I get back from my Ireland tour.

2010-04-11T07:57:00.001-05:00

Haircut

Friday, I went to my favorite barbershop the 198 Barbershop on MD-198 just outside Laurel, Maryland. It's a nice place. The barbers there are friendly and do good work. Also, I think they're reasonably priced. The location is handy in that it isn't hard to get to. It isn't far from the MD-295/MD-198 intersection. In my case, I needed a haircut bad. I'd let my hair grow long which was fun in a way but, I couldn't get it to look nice and neat. Part of the problem I suspect is that my hair is very thin and so easy for the wind to pick up. The only way to keep it down is to wet it or use some kind of hairspray which I refuse to use. Another reason to get it cut is the warmer temperatures. Long hair is great for keeping your head warm during the winter but, that is a drawback during the summer when you want to stay cool. Short hair helps keep you cooler during the summer.

Anyway, I ended up getting a nice haircut which got me some nice complements at work. I look less of a bum now and, I'm more prepared for my upcoming trip to Ireland. Under 60 days for that. I still can't wait to go. Cheers all!

2010-04-04T12:54:00.002-05:00

Personal News Update

When I spoke with my friend Harvey recently, he pointed out to me that I haven't been blogging very much. The reason for that is very simple, there hasn't been much to tell. I've been working my ass off at the post office where I work. I haven't had time for much else barring an occasional ride on my TMAX super scooter. Work continues to be big time messed up due to our lack of manning. My boss is still trying to get by using subs from other post offices. Sometimes it works out and, sometimes it most definitely doesn't. When it doesn't, the crap really hits the fan. My boss is trying to fix the situation but, it takes a long time for the post office to hire new people. In my case, it took over 4 months from the time I took rural carrier associate test till I showed up at my assigned post office. All the work has helped me earn some awesome paychecks but, it has also left me very tired and stressed. Because of work, I can't wait to go on my future trip to Ireland (less than 60 days away now). I bought a Rick Steve's DVD that covers Ireland and Scotland. I've watched the 4 episodes he did on Ireland and, it looks really beautiful over there. I tried some Guinness and Smithwick's ale to get in the spirit for the trip. I didn't care for the Guinness and, I thought the Smithwick's was all right. Concerning the trip, I have to try very hard to be patient. It isn't easy with all the crap at work. I continue to enjoy my TMAX super scooter. It gets very good gas milage, has excellent acceleration and is very easy to ride. There isn't anyway I'd switch to a motorcycle. I very much like not having to change gears. It's one less major thing to worry about when I'm out riding. I do wish the seat were more comfortable. After about 90 minutes of constant riding, the seat starts to become a bit uncomfortable. Crosswinds on the bike still scare me a bit. Once I get back from the Ireland trip, I plan to get the touring windshield and wind deflectors for the bike. I hope they'll help with the wind and noise. Dave & Buster's brought back half priced games until the end of April. So far, I've been able to take advantage of that once. I won another 12,000 plus tickets playing Spin & Win. I have over 280,000 tickets now which is pretty cool. That's all to report for now. Cheers all!

2010-04-04T12:24:00.001-05:00

Book Review

I'd seen advertisements for the movie Percy Jackson and The Olympians. While looking around at various books at the Laurel, Maryland Books-a-Million bookstore, I found the paperback edition of the movie. I read the brief synopsis books provide on the inside cover and, the book sounded good. I decided to buy it. I was glad I did. I found the book interesting in that it takes a different tack with the Greek gods (Zeus, Posidon, Hades, Ares, etc.). As Western Civilization moved west and the premier Western country became the United States, the story has it where the Greek gods moved west with civilization. Mount Olympus is located directly above New York City and Hades is located directly below Los Angeles (maybe the author doesn't like L.A.). The book's author Rick Riordan has other twists. The Greek gods are shown in very different and amusing forms vice the traditional way we would think of them. Ares is shown as a super muscular biker badass riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Zeus is shown in a very well tailored business suit and Posidon as a tan tie die t-shirt and sandals fisherman. The main character of the book Percy (short for Perseus) Jackson is a kid who is dyslexic, never knew his father (Posidon) and has constant bad luck which takes a major turn for the worse when the all sorts of Greek myths start to come life to his total surprise. This ultimately leads to him being chased by the Minotaur before successfully reaching Camp Half-Blood where Percy discovers he is a demi-god. Further along in the story, he finds out his father is Posidon. This brings up all kinds of issues for him as he struggles to deal with the knowledge and the wondering why Posidon never had anything to do with him. Also, Percy finds out this neglect is extremely common among other demi-god children.

I found some of the scenes in the book touching, others amusing (Riordan does thrown in humor at various points of the story) and the story has good action. The book moves along at a good pace so the reader shouldn't become bored with it. The paperback edition came in at 375 pages which isn't overly long. The first book is called "The Lightning Thief." It is part of a 5 book series, all of which have been published though the fifth book (The Last Olympian) is currently only available in hard bound. Standard price for the paperback editions is $7.99.

Overall, I found the first book a very nice read. So much so, I bought the second book "The Sea of Monsters" which I'll review another time. The books are aimed towards teenagers but, I think most ages would enjoy them (the very young wouldn't know enough about Greek mythology to understand all the references and characters in the book). If you want a light-hearted good fantasy read, "The Lightning Thief" may be for you. Cheers all!

2010-03-10T05:59:00.001-05:00

Periodontist

This past Monday, I got to see my periodontist Dr. Ronnie Jones. It was for a routine check-up and cleaning. I have to see a periodontist because 2 years or so ago, I let the tartar build up get so bad, they had to de-scale my teeth. De-scaling is where a periodontist who is a specialist on gums goes down to each tooth's root and cleans out all the tartar and plaque build up which is infecting the gums and causing them to recede. If the gums recede enough, a person can start losing their teeth. This visit was a routine visit and lasted about 30 minutes. My check up results were mixed. I was doing all right on the front teeth but, I wasn't doing that great on the back teeth. There was a lot of build up too. Dr. Jones told me to see him again in 4 months. That way, the build up can be kept under control. It would help if I flossed more often. I'm still not crazy about doing that though I thought I did a better job of it this past 4 months. We'll see how I do this next 4 months. Cheers!

2010-03-03T20:21:00.003-05:00

Ireland Tour Update

To my surprise, it seems Globus was on the ball and realized there was a conflict with my airplane reservations. Apparently, they realized there was no way I was going to make my connecting flight to Baltimore from JFK. To my relief, they didn't move me to a later flight that left JFK which would've caused a 4 hour layover on my way back. Delta decided to have me fly to Dublin from Atlanta instead. I'l gladly take Atlanta over JFK. I know I won't have any problems with my flights arriving or departing from there. The only down side to flying out of Atlanta is I'll have an 8 hour flight vice 7 to Dublin. Also, I wasn't able to get the extra night in Dublin before the tour started that I wanted. Apparently, I waited too long and, Globus released any extra hotel rooms they had with the Dublin hotel. I suspect I'll be one tired puppy for the group's first dinner. Lastly, I found out that the tour I'm on is for all effective purposes sold out. According to my travel agent, there is 1 seat left on the tour for the dates I'm going. I'm delighted the tour will be going. I've never forgotten when Globus cancelled the first tour I signed up for with them. However, we are going to have one packed bus. A full tour means 40 plus people on it. I'll be curious to what kind of mix we get. On the Canada tour I did, we had some Aussies, some Kiwis, some Brits, a few Canadians to my surprise and 2 couples from the Dominican Republic as well as a bunch of Yanks. People from other countries can make the tour kinda cool. It's interesting to hear of their experiences. If we do have some Aussies, I won't envy how long they'll have to fly to get to Ireland. I suspect they would have to fly something like 20 hours at least. It's over 10 hours flying from Sydney to Los Angeles alone. They will be really tired. We'll see. I'm hoping that I'll be able to enjoy some Victoria Bitter in Ireland. I first tried it in Australia and, it is a great brew. Sadly, we can't get it in the U.S. It would be great to knock back a few pints of VB. That's all for this update. Cheers all!

2010-02-27T19:43:00.002-05:00

Oh Crap!

As my future trip to Ireland gets closer, I've been checking on things concerning it. Today, I checked on the flights I'll be taking. To my shock, I found out Delta moved the flight I'll be taking to Dublin 3 hours. That means, I'll have a 4 hour plus layover in New York JFK Airport. That sucks! It gets worse coming back. Because they moved the departing flight to Dublin 3 hours, they had to move the returning flight 3 hours. So, I find I now have 1 hour to get through customs at JFK and catch my connecting flight home when I return to the states. I don't think that's going to work. I'm pretty sure Globus will have to change my flight reservations. If all that news wasn't annoying enough, I found out my flight from JFK to Dublin will be 6 hours 55 minutes airtime. 7 hours is a long flight. Hm. Maybe, I should see about flying over a day early so I don't fall asleep at my tour's first group dinner. I checked into that and, it would cost $195 not including tax. I can handle that. It would be nice to have an extra day in Dublin. The tour doesn't spend boat loads of time there any way so, it wouldn't hurt to see more of that city. Now, I have to wait to find out from my travel agent what is going to have flights wise as well as will Globus penalize me if I add a day at the beginning of the tour. We'll see. Hopefully, I can and, I'll get to spend more time in Ireland. We'll see. Stay tuned.

2010-02-07T14:23:00.000-05:00

Snow Update

This is an update to my last post on the heavy snowfall received in Maryland on Friday/Saturday February 5/6,2010. The snow stopped falling in Laurel, Maryland at approximately 4:15 p.m. I know this because I was shoveling out my car around 3:30 p.m. and, I could see the snowfall taper off to where it finally stopped when I went back in my apartment. People started digging their cars out after that.

Where I live, I got mixed luck plowing wise in my apartment complex. To my surprise, the maintenance folks were able to get through and did plow a path through the parking lot. However, they didn't come particularly close to the cars and, everyone had a 3 to 4 foot by 4 foot wide by 2 foot high plus pile of snow to dig out. This didn't include having to dig out pathways on the side of their cars. I got a royal workout digging out my car and helping some others who live in my complex.

I think a lot of people should be able to make it to work tomorrow. However, we aren't over the hump yet. The latest National Weather Service weather forecast (http://weather.gov) is predicting an 80 percent chance of snow/sleet Tuesday night and a 70 percent chance of snow Wednesday. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

2010-02-06T07:18:00.002-05:00

Snow Update

Here is my first update on the snowstore that socked Maryland. The snow started falling sometime around Noon. Initially, it was very light and a lot of it melted on the roads. Around 4 p.m., the snow started falling more heavily and by 5 p.m., there was 2 to 3 inches of accumulation. The snow continued to fall heavily during the night.

I tried gauging how the snow was from my apartment but, my apartment windows were partly covered with it so, I bundled up and walked out into it. At 6 a.m., I found my apartment complex parking lot had at least 17 inches of snow. Some areas around my apartment building have 23 inches plus. I walked up to the Maryland 198 road to see if it had been plowed. It had though there was only 1 stretch that was passable. There wasn't any traffic on it at that time. A good wind was blowing that blustery at times. According to the National Weather Service (NWS) (http://weather.gov), there will be gusts as high as 35 mph today.

The NWS is predicting the snow will continue to fall heavily until this evening with the possibility of another 4 to 8 inches of snow. In my opinion, people should stay home and off the roads if they can. The conditions are really bad right now. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers!

2010-02-05T05:19:00.000-05:00

Snow Forecast

I'm not looking forward to work today. The reason for that is the weather forecast. Beginning around 10 a.m., snow is supposed to start falling and continue till possibly Noon tomorrow. It's forecasted that the area where I live could get between 17 and 27 inches of snow. This could easily become the worst snowfall I've seen here since I moved here in 2001. That much snow for this area (Maryland) would make a royal mess of things. Road crews typically don't start plowing the main roads till it stops snowing. Also, the apartment complex where I live have their maintenance people plow the parking lots. This is dependent on them being able to get in. If we get as much snow as forecasted, they won't be able to get in till late Saturday at the earliest. Also, where are they going to put all that snow? It promises to be a massive mess.

AND, things could get worse. I've heard they're forecasting we'll get hit with even more of the white stuff around Wednesday of next week. This is shaping up to be one of the worst winters in some in Maryland. Stay tuned for more updates as the weather progresses. Cheers all!

2010-02-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

Map Updates

Yesterday, I found out there was a map update for my Garmin Nuvi 750 GPS. So, I started downloading the massive thing. It was 2.06 gigabytes and incredibly, the file was compressed. I don't have any idea how large it would be uncompressed. I didn't have to pay for the update as I'd bought lifetime map update downloads. It's cheaper that way but, you have to download them vice getting an easy CD or DVD (not sure which they use). My Internet connection isn't super slow but, it still takes a good while to download a 2 gigabyte plus file. After you download it, you have decompress it and install it on the unit. Installing the map update can take up to 2 hours. Overall, it is a bit of pain installing updates but, the unit has been really handy at times. It'll tell me how long it'll take for me to arrive at a set destination, when I need to make various turns and automatically recalibrate a new route if I miss a turn for whatever reasons. Also, it's handy when I get the itch to go exploring. I'll just drive down a road to see where it goes. More often than not, I get lost but, the GPS ensures I can find my way home. I've been very glad I bought the thing. Cheers all!

2010-01-27T06:58:00.000-05:00

Leave

Yesterday, I submitted my leave form at the post office where I work. Leave at the post office is kind of an oxymoron in that I don't actually EARN leave there. I can't as I don't work an assigned route all the time or, I'm not a FULL time regular carrier. In actuality, I inform the post office that I won't be available to work for a certain period of time. During that time, since I won't work, I won't earn ANY money or other benefits. It's the biggest drawback for me taking time off. Still, I love going on my trips and the lost income is worth getting to see the awesome things I get to see. Also, the trips help me deal with the stress at the post office. During the trips, I get TOTALLY away from the crap at work. It rejuvenates me to where when I return, I'm ready to deal with the postal bs again. If it weren't for me buying my TMAX, I'd be going on some kind of tour either this month or next. As long as I can afford it, I plan to do 2 major trips next year. I can't wait to go on those trips. It's a lot of fun planning them and reading up on where I'll be going. Now that my leave form is submitted, that's one more thing done on my travel checklist. The time can't fly fast enough till I get to take LEAVE and go on my future trip to Ireland.

2010-01-24T18:52:00.000-05:00

Peru

As any reader of my blog knows, I love to travel. I'm impatiently counting the days till I do a 2 week tour of Ireland with Globus. Also, I'm beginning to plan the tour that will follow that. That tour will be to Peru to see the wonders of the Incas. The tour includes a visit to the lost city of Machu Picchu. To me, it would be something to see a lost city. Plus, I've never been to South America. The closest I've been is Aruba and Curacao during my only cruise to the Caribbean. The only down side I can see to the trip is the long travel time. I checked and even with the fastest connections, it's going to take over 14 hours to get to Lima, Peru from Baltimore Washington International Airport. Because of that, I'm going to plan on spending an extra day in Peru to recover from travel fatique. I don't like starting any tour tired. I learned the hard way when I did Globus's Scandanavian tour that it can be worth having an extra day to rest when I arrive. I didn't do that during the Scandanavian tour and, I was repeatedly falling asleep during the first group meeting. I was seriously wiped. So, I'll give myself an extra day in Lima to rest and see some of the city on my own. Then, when the tour kicks off, I'll be bright eyed and ready to see new wonders and share them with the awesome people in our group. It should be a blast. Cheers all!

2010-01-22T20:27:00.001-05:00

My First Bike Road Trip

This past Wednesday and Thursday, I did my first bike road trip. I've been wanting to show my friend Harvey my TMAX. Finally, after checking my work schedule at the post office where I work, I decided to ride down to Richmond to show him the bike. The ride would be the longest one I've done so far. I would ride for 135 miles. Also, it would be more challenging than I expected. Riding down to Richmond, I encountered rain 40 miles outside the city. The rain wouldn't let up till later that night. The second problem I encountered was it getting dark. That can create problems if I accidentally fog up the face shield on my helmet. At times, I've had it where I couldn't see outside my helmet.

Once I arrived in Richmond, I checked in with my friend Harvey. I briefly showed him the bike and then, I followed him to the hotel where I was staying. It was a Holiday Inn close to some Kroger Convention Center I think. The hotel was very nice and, I would enjoy my stay there.

Once I changed out of my riding gear, Harvey and I drove to an Outback Steakhouse restaurant he's eaten at a number of times. This would be my first time to eat at one of those. I'd heard good things about the restaurant chain and, it would live up to what I'd heard. Their bloomin onion was outstanding and, the porterhouse steak I ordered was excellent. Also, I got to try out a James Boag lager which is an Australian brand. It turned out to be a good lager and, I particularly enjoyed getting to have some real Aussie beer.

The next morning, Harvey and I had breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet. The buffet reminded me of previous buffets on Globus tours I've done. I can't wait to go on the Ireland tour I've signed up for. The buffet was good and, I was able to get very filled up.

After finishing breakfast, I gathered my stuff, checked out of my hotel room and loaded it into my bike. Then, I thanked Harvey for a nice time and told him I'd try to make it back to Richmond in a couple months. It's always a pleasure seeing him. After that, I got on my bike and started it up. I waved good bye and drove off to the nearest gas station where I tanked up the gas tank. After that, I hit the road and began my trip back.

The trip back ended up being pretty scary thanks to wind turbulence. At one point, my bike was shaking slightly sideways while I was going 70 mph plus. I found out that if I decreased my speed, it would reduce the turbulence. However, it made the ride back longer time wise. I wanted stop and hope the winds might die down but, the weather forecast was predicting things would get worse. It was supposed to start raining again around 3 p.m. I wanted to be home before that started. I ended up gritting my teeth and calming my nerves so I could continue the ride. After 2 hours 20 minutes, I made it home. I've rarely been so glad to see my apartment.

I thought about what I might be able to do differently on my next road trip. There were 2 things that came to mind. First, I could get a touring windshield for my bike. The windshield will supposedly reduce wind turbulence and noise. Second, I could buy some wind deflectors which should reduce wind turbulence around my legs and the middle section of the bike. Because of the Ireland tour and taxes, these 2 ideas will have to wait for 3 or 4 months. Once I get those 2 items, I hope to do another road trip to Richmond. It would probably be sometime in the summer. Hopefully, the nicer weather will make for a more enjoyable ride as well. We'll see. Cheers all!

2010-01-17T06:53:00.000-05:00

Review on Bill Cosby CD

Last week, I listened to Bill Cosby's "When I Was Growing Up" CD. This is a review on it.

Bill Cosby remains one of my favorite comedians. His material doesn't seem to age. Plus, it's nice in that it doesn't contain any profanity or other nasty stuff. It's simply very funny and enjoyable to listen to. His CD "When I Was Growing Up" has a number of excellent pieces in it. In one of them, he tells of his attempts to hypnotize his brother Harold. During one such attempt, he sends his hypnotized brother in to smack his Dad. However, the scheme falls apart when Harold informs his father that Cos hypnotized him. Another hilarious one is where Cos tells of when he found a frog at camp. He puts the frog in his pocket. The frog makes normal frog sounds from his pocket. Cos gets the idea there is money to made here. He bets a friend 50 cents that he can make his left leg (the one with the pocket holding the frog) burp. He claims to made over $500 off kids at camp doing this. Cos later uses the frog in a prank on his Dad. While his Dad isn't looking, he slips the frog into his Dad's glass of milk. When his Dad reaches for the glass, the frog comes out of the glass surprising his Dad. His Dad ends up on the floor with the frog sitting on his forehead.

The CD has a total of 8 skits. It was recorded live at the Westbury Music Fair theater in October 1970. All the skits feature stories about Cosby's childhood vice other CDs which tells of his various misadventures as an adult and parent. The CD was Cosby's biggest hit during the 70's and, it's obvious why as it is extremely funny and poignant. Any listener will be taken back to their own childhood when things were a lot more fun and innocent. My only complaint with this CD is its length. It runs approximately 35 minutes. I big time wanted more stuff on this CD. 35 minutes isn't nearly enough of this great comedian and man. If you want to listen to something that will make you laugh and never grow old, you should buy Cosby's "When I Was A Kid." It is an excellent CD.