Why up so early?
Some people ask, "Why do you get up so early on the weekend?!" Well... hey, I've got all this blogging to do :). Updated FusionWorship (and still have a few posts to add!), and some stuff here... I'd keep going, but I'm playing percussion today and I've got to get READY! later...

Pippin's Girl
On the way home last night I was talking to Jaime about my homepage and said that I had links to Tif's book club sites, as well as Jaime's sites (Pippin's Girl).

M: Even though you never update your site.
J: When is the last time you were there, I've put a number of entries out there lately!

Ah... I stand corrected! There are some new entries. Also, I should update FusionWorship, as I haven't done that in a while either!

Iraqi InfoMinister
This is a bit dated perhaps - I got it a few weeks ago, but I figured it was worth posting anyway!
Some guys put together a site called We Love the Iraqi Information Minister. Some pretty funny stuff. It was mentioned in this news article.

Home page
I can't remember if I posted this here before or not... and I didn't feel like looking for it! I created a home page on AngelFire. Tif has one there, sounded easy, so I put one out there. Did this a while ago... but spent some time this morning reorganizing it (breaking it into sub-pages) and adding way more information. Still incomplete - many "links" aren't actually links yet, but I'll fill them in, in time.
AngelFire actually has a pretty nice interface. I can mirror all my pages on my laptop, and just upload the files from the same directories. That way I can see exactly what it will look like local, do all the creation local, and just upload when I update. Much nicer than services where you HAVE to create everything on-line.

Ouch
You know... after blowing up rocks for a living, and putting the pieces into a bucket attached to a helicopter... Its nice to have a job where you have to think. Even if it makes you head hurt. Of course, not as bad as it hurts when you get hit with a piece of flying rock...

Brick&Morter purchases vs Mail purchases
So... if you email your registration into the DMV, you can send a check. But if you actually go in person, along with your check you have to provide a picture id and then put your fingerprint on the check.
As I was wiping the ink off my finger, I decided I'd just mail it next time.

Lesson Learned
If you run a program, change the code, rerun the program and your changes don't show up... First make sure that you are actually running the code you just built and not the old program. Otherwise you might waste all morning looking in the wrong places. :-S

News update
School district north of here is closed, our school district is on a 2-hour delay, so it must be a bit slick out there.

While watching the weather banner, and listing to the news...

• $200 million recovered at a Batha party leaders home
  
• Picture of a gold-plated AK-47
  
• A couple of soliders tried to take $900K for themselves

How bizzare... A gold plated AK-47 and boxes and boxes of $$ just laying around.

Yeah, its winter
Wow... It was really feeling like Spring, actually pretty warm out. Wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts to church last week. Now it is snowing, there is a couple inches of snow in all the yards, and the roads look icy. Lukily we haven't planted any spring flowers yet, although some bulbs are up which probably won't handle this too well.
Used to be, I would buy flowers for Tina every Mother's Day. We spend an hour or so planting them. Then within a week or so it would snow and they'd all die! Now I just wait until June...
Mom said her fruit trees are blooming. I heard last night they were getting up to 12 inches where she lives. Hopefully her plants make it.

Yeah, its snowing
Its late April, so of course there is a blizzard outside. They are calling for up to 12 inches tonight! Cool... we could use the moisture!

May not be eating at Google... but it's still good.
I posted a link to GoogleMenus last week. A far cry from our cafe. But today I brought in leftovers from dinner last night. New York Steak sauteed in olive oil and garlic and then simmered with mushrooms, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, roma tomatoes, artichokes, black olives and zucchini.
Umm umm, good stuff!

Lessons of a low-carb diet
My lessons for the day...

1) Yes, they can make a sausage-egg McMuffin @ McDonald's, w/o the muffin... even if they say they can't.

T: We can't do that.
M: Ah... yes, you can. I get them all the time.
T: oh!

But... remember to tell them to put the cheese between the egg and the sausage... otherwise they throw it in first and throw the sausage on top, which melts the cheese to the wraper. :-S

2) Starbucks can make a Triple-Venti-CarmalMachiato(sp?) w/ sugar-free vanillia!
I didn't even know it had vanilla in it, I thought it was all carmal. But turns out they were out of regular vanillia this morning, and asked:

T: Would you like sugar-free vanillia with that, we are out of regular?
M: I didn't even know it was made with vanillia.
T: Yeah, no one did till we asked them this today.

:-)

Running Red Lights
There is an highly conjested hi-way intersection that has been undergoing construction for over a year, Woodman & I-25. For about the last week I have noticed 4 motor-cycle cops there in the morning. This morning there were two, but when I pulled onto the on-ramp, there were two that had people pulled over. I assume people wouldn't be breaking the speed limit going up the ramp, or even coming down the road to the ramp (too much traffic). So my guess is that they must be ticketing people who run the red light. Good! I hate when the light turns green and you have to just sit there waiting for 3 or more 4 cars to go through their red-light!
Seeing as how the motorcycle cops are "self-funded", they must write quite a few tickets to be able to allocate 4 officers there!

Mourning
I'm in mourning over the fact that the RedWings got swept - to the joy of most of my co-workers who are Avs fans. Its not that I'm all that much into Hockey... but Brian is a HUGH fan, and he did propose to Tif at Joe Louis... so if I'm ever asked, I'd pick the RedWings over any other team!
Sorry kids... better luck next year!

Why I do what I do
So it is 8:14, and basically I've been working since I logged on at 5:45. Why is it that on a Saturday morning I'm doing work? And work that there isn't any real time crunch for? I'm on the wiki, writting up pattern templates, adding discussions on our DynamicFactory pattern, etc. Why? Well for one, everyone else is sleeping. But also because I really enjoy it. To me, it is almost playing... to a certain extent. I'm creating something. Something that is useful and other people on the team will use to get their jobs done.

I guess that kind of makes me a geek... but I also think it makes me very blessed. It is a blessing to enjoy what you do. To enjoy your "job".

That is probably why I do the other things I do as well. Why I'm on a worship team and why I work with the youth. Yeah, I feel called to it and I feel it is something I'm supposed to do... but one of the reasons I feel those things is, again, because I enjoy it!

Well... enough "playing". Time to get around so I can stop and get a Starbucks before getting to church at 10:00!

Snow?
Hmm... its light out now and I looked out the window and there is either some heavy frost, or snow! on the grass, roof-tops, etc.
There has been a nice feel of spring in the air, and warm days. But this is Colorado. I think it is supposed to snow this weekend! Well... it will be good for the lawns!

Easter preperation
I'm playing percussion for the Easter service. The service is going to be very cool with a number of testimony "skits". Amy is giving one, and Steve & Lana are giving one. Powerful stuff. We are opening the program with Smooth and then doing a few other songs along the way. Some cool percussion stuff. Everyone has been putting in a lot of work on this, especially the people behind the scenes. Thursday was the first large practice for this, and we ended up practicing till 10:00 PM. (Thanks Erika and Jaime for watching the kids an extra hour!)
Today we will be practicing from 10:00 AM till... well at least sometime before 7:00 AM tomorrow when we have to be back at church. ;-)
I think this is going to be GREAT. Just the annointing, etc. that comes over you when you do something like this is so awesome. It kind of feels like when we used to do The Thief up at NCF. Its gonna ROCK!

Blogger problems?
Blogger has been kind of slow the last few days, making it kind of hard to blog. One of the ways I blog is from work, when something is compiling, etc. and I have a few minutes. But if Blogger is slow and it takes a while to attach, post, etc., then I pretty much stop blogging.

MoinMoin
Been a pretty busy last few days at work. Dan installed the MoinMoin Wiki and I've been playing around with it quite a bit in my "spare time." A pretty nice Wiki with some cool features. I've been putting some user documentation and design pages out there, just to see how feasible a tool. So far it seems pretty good!

Jim Richards
Jim Richards is one of the founding members of Sheriff. He left MCI a long time ago, and now works for Capstone. Got an email from their company lately with a link to their web site.

Anti-War?
On a local talk radio show this morning I heard a discussion about a situation here in the Springs. A local man was recently deployed leaving his wife and infant here. This morning the young woman woke up to find anti-war posters all over her yard and her house egged.
I don't quite get the hostility in this anti-war "protest", or the point behind harassing a young woman whose husband is overseas defending this country while she is left home alone to raise their child...

Google Menus
Another example of Blogger being acquired by Google... GoggleMenus. I was sitting at my desk, eating my Tuna Salad Spinach Wrap and saw a link to GoogleMenus... I must say, looked better than my cafe's menu! But then again, no surprise, given the following info from the blog:

These menus are the creations of Charlie Ayers, former chef for the Grateful Dead and current head chef for Google, Inc. I felt that all my friends who don't work at Google, but should, ought to see what they're missing.

That's MY problem!
American Idol quote: "I've got a weight problem... I can't wait to eat!"

Quote of the day
From the PairProgramming topic on the WikiWikiWeb,

When people say that PairProgramming reduces productivity, I answer "that would be true if the most time consuming part of programming was typing" -- MartinFowler

Escape of the dryer sheets, part dos
In a previous post I discussed how dryer sheets were trying to escape. Thur morning as we were packing the final few things, I noticed a dryer sheet laying on the floor! It had made it all the way to Cancun and had gone unnoticed till the final day! I left it there in Cancun. Hopefully it is having a fun time on the beach!

Thur
Back on the plane, writting this up. Up at 6:30. Pretty uneventful. Got ready, ate breakfast and headed out. Overall it was one of the best, if not the very best, trips down here. The resort was great. Great food, great wait staff overall (a few exceptions), great snorkeling. Lately one of my biggest complaints has been that the snorkeling isn't that great... or almost non-existent. Which is madding, when you know there is a great reef 10 minutes out from the hotel! But this was great. Snorkeling included with just a $2 entrance fee to the reef.

One final word on the wait staff. They were so awesome, especially at the pool, the lobby bar, and the buffet. I guess leaving a one or two dollar tip is excellent. This morning we walked into the buffet area and one of the older guys who had been waiting on us yelled, "Good morning Sir!" and came running. Tina said when she walked out with food to sit down, three of them were fighting over which chair to pull out for her. The guy was great. It is so inexpensive to bless these guys and have them just so happy to wait on you. I heard they make $4 a day... so having both of us (the two couples) each leave one or two bucks almost doubles their wages! We left the guy $5 this morning, since it was our last day.

Well... guess that's it. Blogging on the way home on the plane. Starting to think about the Costa Rica trip, youth stuff, designing APIs in my head for Sheriff, etc. The real world starts creeping back in. I think I could really get used to living on the beach, having someone bring me cappacino every morning while I work on my laptop. :-) But it will be great to get back and see Jaimer again. I miss her.

Every year that we go I always say, "I want to bring Jaime down here next time.", but this time we are really going to try it. Even if we can just get down for four days. She would love it so much... and we don't have all that much time left with her. She could be out of the house in a couple of years! The time goes so fast.

Wed afternoon
Started out to be another very lazy day. Sitting by the pool it was very hot, but then I decided to get into the pool. That cooled me off and energized me some. So I went down to the snorkel hut and they were going out @ 11:30. I'm so glad I went, it was AWESOME!

The dive guide was great. He found all kinds of stuff for us to look at and touch:

• Ray - I'm not sure what kind it was, it was small, maybe about 10 inches across or so. It was on the bottom, he spotted it and went down and picked it up. He said don't touch the top, just the underside and it won't sting you. He dropped it in my hands and I could feel it!
• Eel - He pointed to some rocks/choral. There are cracks, holes, contours everywhere. So I looked in the crack and it was black and white spotted. I thought... "What is he pointing at? The black and white rock?" Then he touched it with his snorkel and it moved! It was about 3 inches in diameter! He then touched the back of it enough that it stuck its head out. Sharp teeth, little eyes. Then he touched it some more and it came swiming out and down to the bottom.
• Puffer fish
• Crab
• Small lobster
• Baracuda - I almost always seem them. But this time they were in a pack of 4! I'm pretty sure it was baracuda. No one else saw them, but they were near the surface (which is where they are usually swimming) and it looked like them.
• I also saw a fish that was about 4 feet long, but I'm not sure what it was.

And then there was all the tropical fish. Some that I've never seen before. It was very cool. One of the best snorkel days I've had!

It started drizzeling on the way back in, then raining as I got to the cabana. Everyone was gone, so I headed over to the buffet. I joined them for lunch. After that we just hung out for a bit and then went back to the room to sleep until time for dinner.

Had dinner at the Reef Grill. I had 2 lobsters (4 halves) and a small filet. Yum! :-)

Cancun - Wed
We leave tomorrow. It has been a very good time. Maybe one of the best in many ways. Terri was right, the food is maybe the best I've ever had down here... and for me, that is a big deal. All inclusive food... what would be the point if it wasn't really good? It is so relaxing here.

I was up a little earlier today that lately... most likely because I slept so much yetserday. It was one of those very lazy days. I had breakfast 3 times yesterday! Once by myself, once with Tina and once with Tina and Terri. So, pretty much laying around or eating all morning. Then I went and checked email. I've decided to post the blogs when I get home. I was able to compose off-line, but it still took 15 minutes last time just to get the file uploaded and then formatted. It is pretty hard to find my way around on a computer where everything is in Spanish. Because my blog is templated to insert breaks for every line break, I have to format it like I want it. I won't do that again! Much easier to just insert the break or paragraph tag where needed. Anyway, I digress... So, I did that, then ate lunch, then laid around most the day, going in the pool a few times. Free snorkeling here, twice a day, but except for the first time I went, I haven't made it. Too busy being lazy. :-) Maybe today!

Today was very quite. Sitting here, writting this, by the ocean. Maybe one or two tables. But it is 8:00 now and people are starting to wander down, so the volume is picking up. The ocean isn't quite glass like today, but it is very calm. What a difference a day makes.

Ok... now to catch everyone up!

Grapes
The grapes here are the size of the big type of marbles. Largest I've ever seen. Always reminds me of Joshua and Caleb coming pack from scouting out the land.

Perhaps I do look a little tough
Walking down the street of Playa de Carmen. I'm about 10 feet behind Terri and Tina, so perhaps not obviously with them. Vendor comes out of a shop, says to them as they pass something about buying some of his wares. Turns, sees me coming, and says, "Hey, Mr. Long-hair guy. Do you waant to seee my sissster?" I speed up and put my arm around Tina and just keep walking.

There are reasons why people go to all adult resorts
We are all in the pool, just cooling off. I look up to see a little girl, perhaps 3 or so, walking around in front of her pool chair without any bottoms on. I mention to Tina something about the kid not carrying that people are around (or whatever). At that point she bends over the chair, her butt out towards the pool, and yells "Mommmy". It is obvious how why she is naked. She wants mom to come wipe the mess off her butt. Tina says something like, "Well I could have gone all day without seeing THAT!"

But most the time it isn't too bad
Most the time it is just little kids quitely playing with their folks. Getting kisses, learning to swim for the first time, etc. Very cute. Puts me right into grand-parent mode. :-)

Cancun Barbie
Barbie lying on a pool chair, no top on. Must be topless barbie. :-)

Extreme Sports Barbie
Two little girls and their mom, standing next to the fountain that shoots up about 15 feet in the middle of the pool. Girl throws barbie into it and she shoots into the air. They all laugh, grab barbie and send her on another ride.

And number two from the "I could have gone all day w/o seeing THAT"
Tina, Terri and I are at the pool bar. I look over to the edge of the pool to see a rather femminine, middle aged guy in speedos standing on the edge of the pool, rubbing sun-screen into his hairy chest - and slightly mimicing an Herbal Essences commerical. He looks down at me, grins and keeps on rubbing. I put my arm around Tina and pull her a little closer.

Breakfast blogging in Cancun
Sitting a few feet from the beach,
the ocean lapping at the shore,
the early morning clouds drifting by,
and the plam fronds lightly rustling in the breeze.

A bite of crossiant,
a piece of fruit,
and a swallow of cappacino as I gaze at the sea.

The early morning snatches of conversation in French, German, Spanish, English and American.

The world sits and relaxes by the sea.

Yes, I am truely blessed to be here!

Americans
Yesterday morning I was Breakfast Blogging in Cancun. Very peaceful. People of all nations, sitting around quitely, conversing with loved ones. I head back to the hotel, round a corner, and here comes a guy, only wearing speedos, walkikng fast, talking loud, his wife a few paces behind him. Americans, we have our good points and our bad...

David Bloom
CNN banner - "Embedded journalist David Bloom dies from natural causes." Wow... first person in the war I "knew". Didn't actually know him, but followed his reports and enjoyed them. Thanks David, my prayers go out to your family and friends.

Couzemel
Went to Couzemel on Monday. Playa and Couzemel were both crazy. Especailly after being here for almost a week. People and vendors everywhere, all trying to sell you something. Someone sold us a snorkeling package before we got on the ferry. Told us how good a deal it was. After getting on the ferry and having a Canadian try and sell a similar sounding package for the same price, I started to worry a bit. Especailly since we wanted to go right away, and the woman who sold it to us, AFTER we gave her the money, said it wouldn't leave until 2:00. (We wanted to go around noon). She then told us she would have a smaller, but "just as good" boat take us out when we got there. Hmm... we get there, and the boat is pretty small, with a small glass bottom... but it turns out GREAT. There are just the four of us, and so snorkeling and looking around is very personal. It was a great time. The reefs we went to were close to shore and still not as good as the reef that I've seen on my own in Puerto Aventorous... but the snorkeling was great. Had the inflatable kind of life vest, so I could go way down. Water and visbility was great, and there were tons of fish. So it was very fun. We got caught up with a group of about 20 once, which is just crazy. People all bumping into each other. We quickly got past them and were on our own again.

Enough for now
Well... I've been sitting here, sipping cappacino, nibbiling on fruit, and typing. It is 8:30.. probably too early for Tina to be up yet, but I've probably blogged enough for now. Ah, Tif did mention in e-mail yesterday that she really likes to follow my blog. "A great way to keep up with what is going on in your life." :-) Yeah, that is kind of the point. An open letter to family and those who may care. Plus I kind of always liked story-telling, in a first person, informal kind of way. Nick O'Doherty (who I played Diplomacy with YEARS ago at DEC - and worked in England) once told me I should write stories. I used to tell him what Montana was like, in between diplomatic e- mails. I lost track of him after he lost DEC. A really nice guy.

Well... as I said, enough blogging for now. I think I'll go work on some other stuff, until time to go check on my sleepy wife.

Grady Booch polishes his crystal ball
Grady Booch looks at software development's past, present, and future (Hint: It'll still be difficult)
I haven't read it yet, but I will. I always enjoy hearing what he has to say.

Thanks
Include your name on this site to send your thanks to the U.S. Military. Not sure exactly what this is used for... but it only took a few seconds to fill out.

War collage
A collection of pictures from the war.

AP newswire: Arabs Shocked, Relieved at Baghdad's Fall
Realization that the Iraqi reports were all lies. Comments from Arabs around the region.

Friday morning
Back home, "going" to work - which at this point consists of me just logging in from home and starting to catch up.

• 457 emails to start
  
• 210 emails after bouncing spam
  
• 103 after deleting mails I don't need to read

So... 103 jokes, articles, and work-related stuff that I need to go through. Quite a bit, but not as bad as the 457 I started with!

Reading a week of irc logs.

Checking the BBS - 10 posts while I've been gone.

I'll post the last log from Cancun later. I wrote it up on the plane on the way back, but need to format it, etc.

Cancun - Sunday

As this says later, I'm writting this on my lap-top and uploading it, to avoid massive connect fees. So... I won't actually be checking the formatting and stuff much. If it looks hosed, I'll fix it when I get home!

OK... so I'm kind of losing track of what day it is... I guess this would be Day 4. Yesterday one of the activity directors stopped by to see if we wanted to play volleyball. We said No, but I asked him about snorkeling and he said it was free and they took you out to the reef. So we checked it out, and sure enough, $2 for a "park entrance fee" and they take you out for 30 - 40 minutes. Still not as good as just going by ourselves in Puerto Aventerous, but WAY better than here at the bench. Saw some cool fish and a star-fish.

Note to self: Get a vest like Pastor Joe's! It has a C02 canister that you use to inflate it if you get into trouble, otherwise it is very slim and not boyant. Man... trying to swim under the water with a life vest on is a pain! I have to get one like his, which would make it WAY easier.

Tina was feeling not so well last night, and stayed in the room. I went to dinner with Pastor Joe and Terri...

Cultural Differences

This trip is the first time I have run into some cultural differences. Well other than "mexican time" - which is very approxmiate. So, last night we missed our 6:00 dinner reservation at the French reasturant. The hotel is not very busy. They have a convention with about 150 people, and besides that, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other folks. So, they have 2 of their 5 reastaurants closed at any time - or so it appears. Anyway, we missed the French, so were going to go the buffet, but figured we would try the Steak and Lobster grill. (It was so good the first night!). We get there, and there are 12 tables, one cook, 3 weight staff, and a manager, and no one in the place. They escort us to a table, seat us, and then ask for our reservation slip. We say we don't have one, we missed the french, can we eat here instead. They say, "impossible, all 12 tables are reserved." I'm like, "There is no one here???". We talk to them for a bit, "Is there any way", etc. they bring the manager over, and basically get a bit miffed and tell us no, we need to leave. So we do. We then eat in the buffet area (which is right next door), and when we leave, about 90 minutes later, there are now 4 tables occupied in the grill area. I don't get it. In the US, they would have seated us, got us in and out, got the tip, and turned the table over. Here, it seems very rules orientated... no initiative, etc.

So, another example of this. Tina switched out the towels the other day, because we were back and the maid hadn't cleaned the room yet. Tina took her a bunch of stuff and only got towels back. So, we had 7 bath towels, one hand towel, and no wash clothes. Yesterday the maid comes while we are gone, and switches everything out... exactly as it was. So we get back and we have, 7 bath towels, one hand towel and no wash clothes!

And finally, last night I ask the waiter for a "Melon Colada". He says they don't have such a thing, do I mean a Melon Ball? No. A Melon Colada. I've had them here before. Nope, there is no such thing. Maybe I mean a melon ball? No... a Melon Colada. I had one at the pool. How about a Melon Ball? So I settle for a Melon Ball. I expect he had never heard of it, and was convienced I had no idea what I was talking about. Well I have never heard of one either... but I saw people drinking them here, asked that they were, and have been having them ever since.

Some of the people seem to go out of their way with customer service, others seem to follow the rules exactly. "Here is the 10 drinks we make, if it isn't one of them, we must not have them." 

On the other hand, the omelet guy is great. Some guy told him this morning exactly how to cook his eggs, how to add the ingredients, when, etc. and he did just what he asked. Very willing to do whatever to please.

Which brings to mind two funny stories, then I'll go.

First, the omelet guy doesn't use a spatula to cook. He has a putty knife and a dry wall trowel. The putty knife is for scraping the grill and mixing things. The dry wall trowel is for flipping things. Very bizzare!

Second, the first night we were having a few drinks in the lobby area and had one waiter. Terri was tipping him very well. After a bit we wandered over to one of the clubs to listen to some music, and HE FOLLOWED US OVER THERE. He came in, shoo-ed the other waiters away, and started waiting on us. I guess we tipped him pretty good!

OK... Well I'm writting this all up in the room, because it is way easier than trying to do it on the beach. Easier to read and easier than holding it on my lap! I'm doing it on the laptop, because the internet connection here charges $5 for 15 minutes. Just checking some email and looking at b-may this morning took 10 minutes! I figure I'll just blog on the laptop, and then upload it. They "think" it will work. I looked, and they have a floppy, so it should be fine, and fairly fast. Open blogger, copy this entry, paste it, and post. We'll see.

Probably checking my blog is the best way to see what is going on... as I'll write longer there. I figure, now that I have been on-line, I'll probably get on a few more times. BTW: b-may's article the last few days (I forget the date) on his hair was pretty good. You should check it out. It is one of the first links on the left-hand side of my page.

Well... that's it for now from Cancun. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cancun - day 3

7:50 AM

Went to bed @ 11:30, up @ 7:15. Hmm... must be starting to relax because I'm sleeping in longer! One of my duties is to grab prime real-estate by the pool before it is all staked out There have these "hut" things here that I haven't seen at other  resorts. Usually they have all the beach chairs surrounding the pool, and every 4 or so there is a palm frawn "umbrella". This keeps some of the sun off of most of you, but you have to usually arrange your chair, etc. Well in addition to those, they have about 5 of these "hut" things. 4 polls with a palm roof, 3 sides, and a deck that is about 18inces off the ground, with two pads laying on it. Because it is four-sides, and because the roof extends down so that there is just about a 4 ft opening, it is shady all but the very early morning. For Joe and I this is great. So, yesterday I grabbed one and it worked out perfect! Took a couple of naps in there w/o getting sunburned, but plenty of breeze etc. Grab a few beach chairs right next to it, for the girls, and we are set!

Got another one this morning, although the location was a little less prime. But yesterday I was down here by 6:30 or so, and this morning it was already staked out by the time I got down here at 7:30! But there were still left, so I grabbed one of them. This one has plants growing all around it, so it is a little more secluded, and closer to the food! :-)

Yesterday was pretty "busy", at least for Cancun! Up at 6:15, even though I went to sleep at 1:00! Went for a walk on the beach after staking out the hut. Not many people up! Went back to the room for goggles. Came back down, went swimming in the ocean (very nice at 7:00 AM! Water wasn't too cold) then swimming in the pool. Hung out for a bit. Then had breakfast. Went back to the room around 9:30, Tina was up - brought her some breakfast. Then Joe and Terri called, so went back down for second-breakfast. My Hobbit eating habit is kicking in! :-)

Thursday night (first night here) ate at the reef grill. Had steak and lobster. The lobster was great! (so was the steak). Had a fillet and 1/2 a lobster. Terri wanted more lobster, so the waiter asked if anyone else did, and Joe and I said sure. So they brought another whole one for everyone! Yum. We were eating outside, about 15 feet from the ocean, beach just below us, waves crashing against the shore. It was awesome!

After dinner we went walking through this little vendor area. Lots of pictures, candles, blankets, local stuff. There was a tattoo shop, and Terri and Tina always get tattoos every year. They are henna and last about 2 weeks, so mostly just while we are here. Tina started bargaining with the guy about give us a great day, and I said I might get one. So she got us a really good deal for 4, and we all got one. Then Tina started talking to other people walking by. "Hey, you'd look great with one of these." "Oh, I love your butterfly", "They have lots, you'd look great with this
one", etc. The guy running the booth was like, "Wow... I should hire her, she is great for business." It was a fun time. :-)

Went to the "activity" for the night, which was Karaoke. Terri wanted to go and sing, because the winner got a free 4 night, 3 day stay here, for two! How cool. There weren't many people, so I figured, what the heck, might stand a chance. Looked through the songs and they had "Smooth", which I thought would be very cool. So I signed up. By then Terri decided not to, so I was the only one from our group! They did have smooth, but it was in Spanish. Hmm... maybe I could pull that off, but better to go with English. I looked through the list, and it was starting with 60s stuff.
Not great. Finally found some 90s... and settled on Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns 'n Roses. Didn't do that great... but I figured it was better than me trying to pull off U2! It was fun.

So when Tina tells everyone at church they say, "So, was he drunk?" NO, it was just fun. I think it is way different signing in front of a bunch of people in Cancun, who you don't know and will never see again, than in front of people you do know!

So back to yesterday. Up early, did some swimming. Then hung out. Did some snorkeling in the afternoon. Not very good. Fun just to swim, but not many fish. No reef and visibility is about 2 feet and very sandy and lots of sea-weed. But we are going to Couzemal on Monday, so that should be good. Also they do some snorkeling here, but it is at 10:00, and usually we aren't up and around much by then. But I might check it out. If they go out in a boat it would be good. If they just give people the gear and show them how to do it right here... it wouldn't be worth it.
This newer battery that Terry gave me from work is pretty good, (mine wouldn't hold a charge at all), but it doesn't report very well. I was using it on the plane and it just died! So... as always, remember to SAVE OFTEN.

Well...

I think that is it from Cancun... other than I think I will go to the "business center" today and see how much they charge for access. Hopefully I can copy this to disk, upload it, and get it on the blog fairly fast (cheap). And then check some e-mail.

Oh... and had French for dinner last night (which was very good, pretty realistically French. A very good white wine, nice subtle creams and spices on the food). Had lobster bisques (french style, very good). A salmon and grouper salad. I think it was raw (or lightly steamed) with a white cream/citrus sauce. Very good - but pretty rich - could have been a smaller portion or shared. But it had a great flavor. Then Roast duck with Honey and 6 spice glaze. Came with a little rice and grilled fruit - peach, apples, grapes. Very good. We were hoping for cream brulle for desert... but they weren't serving it. So I had flan, which was good, but it isn't cream brulle!

The food here is very good so far. Which is important to me. After getting sick at the Adventurous one year, I really am leery of the food. But so far it has been very good, and to me tastes authentic. So, staying prayed up, relaxing, and just going with it. :-)

Tonight it is Japanese. 3rd day (Saturday) in Cancun. Plans - hang out, eat, relax.

Relaxation has been great by the way. Great to see Terri and Tina just cracking up. And it is always so good for the Tina and I to be down here together and just relax and be with each other. It is always a "couple renewal" time for us. To just be with each other and hang out.

OK... signing off for now.

Cancun - day 1

6:37 AM - Working on my web page and listening to WinAmp. Not using head-phones. Is the music bothering anyone? Well with all the noise from the plane and the guys snoring a few rows back, I doubt anyone can hear it!

6:15 AM - flying south out of Denver, past Colorado Springs. Tina is asleep next to me. Looked over and saw Garden of the Gods and WorldCom. Kris should be getting to work soon!

Terri is chatting with the guy sitting next to her and I'm typing on the computer... Different strokes for different folks!

5:00 AM - Well actually I'm not there yet. 5:00 AM, sitting at DIA, waiting for the plane to board. Plane doesn't take off till 6:00, but we had to be here 2 hours early for security. Actually we made it through pretty fast.

DIA has WiFi access... but I don't have the software on my computer to access it, as far as I know. I'll have to download it so next time I'm here I can check it out.
Since I'm just sitting here, I figured I'd write this up, and then just dump it to the blog later. Also listening to Smooth, since we are doing it for our Easter service. That should be cool. Some fun percussion stuff.

I'm outta here
Well there is still one little bug that is bothering me, but I guess it will still be here when I get back. Time to go... I'll blog more from Cancun, if I can get on, and if it isn't too much of a pain. Otherwise, see ya when I get back!

Technology, its a cool thing
So I'm at work... reading the BBS, looking for some stuff on the WikiWikiWeb, and running CxxTest to test out the code I'm working on. Because there is some compile time when I'm just sitting here, I'm also following some stuff that is going on, on irc. A co-worker posts a quote about American Airlines. I think, "Hmm... that's interesting, I should blog it."
I've got Mozilla up, and BlogWeaver. I go to GoogleNews, type in American Airlines, follow a few links. At the same time I'm updating my tests, compiling, seeing how things are going. I turn around, quickly read the article, grab the url and pop it into my blog.
I'm coding, testing, following some conversations at work and updating my blog, all at the "same" time. Pretty cool stuff.

American Airlines
It is reported that the union is approving a deal where pilots will take a 23% pay cut this year, and then 17% a year after that, for 6 years. I believe that means that 6 years from now they'll be making 25% - 30% of what they are now!
But I also read that the chairman is taking a 33% cut, no bonuses and other similar cuts.

Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974
OK... I'm really busy 'cause I'm leaving for vacation today, and I wasn't going to blog much, etc. But I got this mail from Kellee saying to check out this site, and it just cracked me up. A few off-color references perhaps, but the little bit I looked at was hysterical. At least to me. And this person blogs... I'll have to check more on that and see if it is worth following!

Heather update
And one final thing for now... got email from Heather. Sounds like she is doing great! Maybe if I get time I'll post it out on my homepage. Love ya kid!

Cancun
And in other news... we leave for cancun today! Got a few hours of work done this morning, then will be going in soon. Probably leave around 2:30, get home, finish last minute packing and head out.
How bizzare... I'm blogging about the war, a war is going on, and at the same time I'm heading off to a 5 star resort for a week vacation. Just seems kind of weird...

cnn.com: POW rescued as Marines stage diversion
They went in and rescued Jessica Lynch. Very cool.

War Blogging
Last night I was "watching the war" on CNN when they did a report on "war blogging". Really just a report on blogging in general. Sounded more interesting than it really was. I don't think they really covered blogging all that well... but still, interesting just to see it come up!