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.

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!

Today's Pet Store Moved To Gateway Overlook Mall

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.

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!

Laurel Maryland Panera Bread Cafe

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 Panera Bread Cafe at 3301 Corridor Marketplace, Laurel, Maryland. 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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

Journey's Edge Digital Weather Station 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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!