I know the official start of winter is 6 days away but when we woke up yesterday it was 60 degrees, when we went to bed there was half an inch of sleet and snow and the temp was single digit. It is now lunch time the following day and is a balmy 4 degrees today.
This is February weather, not December! It is officially winter here..GRRRRRR
Now the Caribbean jonesing really starts. Rob and Mary don’t have an official trip booked and planned yet but trust me about two more days of this cold crap and I will be trying to figure the cost of a 200+ pound package to ST Maarten via UPS….will of course have to be an overnighter…probably as much as a freaking plane ticket…..
Speaking of plane tickets, a few short months ago a ticket to our beloved SXM was in the range of 1400 a person. No I am not calculating this in Yen but in good ole devalued US Dollars. Last week I was looking on line and the same tickets were 540 each….much better. We are used to 550 to 700 rt per person. This is however the holiday and tax season for us and we are like many in America, at this point we are refusing to use credit cards so I will have to wait to buy our tickets for a while.
I think we are going to ask a couple of other couples if they would like to go the same time we do. It is fun to travel with others. While on island, it is go and do what you want as we will be doing the same but traveling to the island is so much fun when planning together. We will see how it goes, if they say they would like to go or not.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Bitching, Moaning and Complaints
Hi all, Been falling down on my blog a bit.
Guess when there isn’t much nice to say we shouldn’t say much at all.
Complaints…
Is the holiday season again, so many folks get geared up and all excited…Rob gets the blues. I think it is more seasonal affective stuff as in….less sun, no warm weather and a huge outlay of money from November thru January. We have same things others do…car tags, house taxes and they holidays, then comes the thing I am most steamed about this year. The dreaded (yes, we did it to ourselves) Timeshare maintenance fees.
When we purchased our timeshare 10 years ago it was pretty reasonable…as in under $500 for dues, fees and what ever else. During that time we have twice “upgraded” Ha!!
Now we still are paying off the timeshare and our fees have seriously almost tripled in the last 3 years. Doesn’t help that the TS company is now owned by a different company that wants to compete with the likes of Hilton but can only do that by hammering those who own currently.
My two cents worth…….what ever you do….DO NOT BUY TIMESHARE!!!!!!!!
Lesson learned, Don’t get me wrong we love the place we stay and enjoy going there and yes do use it each year but OUCH….am not a rocket scientist….the price of staying and yes we fly from KC to the Caribbean, is as much as two round trip tickets to the island of ST Maarten. What we pay to pay off our loan will more than pay for a nice hotel or maybe even a small villa on island….leaving me with the same out of pocket…BEFORE I have purchased the tickets now. Rob has learned an expensive lesson.
Ok now for the good…
We will be hanging out with some friends tonight that frequent the island as well. We will be talking about going back in most likely May of 09. This couple is fun and like us self sufficient while on island so we can all cut loose and have our own great time and hook up for a day or so and probably a couple of dinners. We are also working on seeing if another couple may be interested as well. More to come on this but it does look like we will be heading towards the tropics late this spring….
Guess when there isn’t much nice to say we shouldn’t say much at all.
Complaints…
Is the holiday season again, so many folks get geared up and all excited…Rob gets the blues. I think it is more seasonal affective stuff as in….less sun, no warm weather and a huge outlay of money from November thru January. We have same things others do…car tags, house taxes and they holidays, then comes the thing I am most steamed about this year. The dreaded (yes, we did it to ourselves) Timeshare maintenance fees.
When we purchased our timeshare 10 years ago it was pretty reasonable…as in under $500 for dues, fees and what ever else. During that time we have twice “upgraded” Ha!!
Now we still are paying off the timeshare and our fees have seriously almost tripled in the last 3 years. Doesn’t help that the TS company is now owned by a different company that wants to compete with the likes of Hilton but can only do that by hammering those who own currently.
My two cents worth…….what ever you do….DO NOT BUY TIMESHARE!!!!!!!!
Lesson learned, Don’t get me wrong we love the place we stay and enjoy going there and yes do use it each year but OUCH….am not a rocket scientist….the price of staying and yes we fly from KC to the Caribbean, is as much as two round trip tickets to the island of ST Maarten. What we pay to pay off our loan will more than pay for a nice hotel or maybe even a small villa on island….leaving me with the same out of pocket…BEFORE I have purchased the tickets now. Rob has learned an expensive lesson.
Ok now for the good…
We will be hanging out with some friends tonight that frequent the island as well. We will be talking about going back in most likely May of 09. This couple is fun and like us self sufficient while on island so we can all cut loose and have our own great time and hook up for a day or so and probably a couple of dinners. We are also working on seeing if another couple may be interested as well. More to come on this but it does look like we will be heading towards the tropics late this spring….
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Is the HMS Antilles Treasures the new Flying Dutchman?
Doubt it!!
We had our third annual Pirates and Wenches party last Saturday evening.
It was fun but ye ole cap’n felt like at the end of the party that the ship had been scuttled and sunk, now lying on some un mapped reef.
If it is to reemerge from the depths of Davey Jones’s locker for a fourth year, at this point the cap’n would be totally shocked.
No the party wasn’t bad but like the trilogy of Pirates of the Caribbean movies…this one may have played out ….run aground. We had a good time with only a few minor incidents but what party that is based on costumes and booze doesn’t have a hiccup or two? Some of our regular crew attended and some of them were shanghaied. We had some new visitors too and I think for the most part they had a pretty good time. I will soon be posting a real story and pix of the party on line at my website.
Now on to the next adventure….time to start thinking about our return to the islands. This time it will be a bit more business. I have been fortunate enough to place some of my pictures in one of the shoppes in Grand Case on French ST Martin, so when we return it will be to shoot even more pix and find new places that I can work with to host my prints.
Looking to return in late May of 2009 so if there are any out there that still read my blog….I will start posting about my Caribbean obsession soon. Already looking at prices of flights and they are running in the 6-700 range from my home town with an overnight layover in either New York or Chicago….am hoping to wait it out and find one thru Dallas and or Miami…but we shall see.
We had our third annual Pirates and Wenches party last Saturday evening.
It was fun but ye ole cap’n felt like at the end of the party that the ship had been scuttled and sunk, now lying on some un mapped reef.
If it is to reemerge from the depths of Davey Jones’s locker for a fourth year, at this point the cap’n would be totally shocked.
No the party wasn’t bad but like the trilogy of Pirates of the Caribbean movies…this one may have played out ….run aground. We had a good time with only a few minor incidents but what party that is based on costumes and booze doesn’t have a hiccup or two? Some of our regular crew attended and some of them were shanghaied. We had some new visitors too and I think for the most part they had a pretty good time. I will soon be posting a real story and pix of the party on line at my website.
Now on to the next adventure….time to start thinking about our return to the islands. This time it will be a bit more business. I have been fortunate enough to place some of my pictures in one of the shoppes in Grand Case on French ST Martin, so when we return it will be to shoot even more pix and find new places that I can work with to host my prints.
Looking to return in late May of 2009 so if there are any out there that still read my blog….I will start posting about my Caribbean obsession soon. Already looking at prices of flights and they are running in the 6-700 range from my home town with an overnight layover in either New York or Chicago….am hoping to wait it out and find one thru Dallas and or Miami…but we shall see.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Been a while
Its been a couple of crazy weeks for Rob. The new baby in the house is lots of fun but he has pretty much captured our focus day in and day out. This has led me to let a few things slide. 1. posting weekly on my blog, 2. updating my website and 3. working on my personal business. The third of the three is the most concerning to me as I was hoping to be further along with it than I am today.
We do have an upcoming event that has in many ways become a beast to us. Our annual Pirate Party. This will be our third year to host. The ship’s crew grows yearly and this year is certainly no exception. Looks like we may have to open a second deck for this one. We will have guests from all over our home port of Kansas City as well as some other ports a bit further away. We have found out that a couple of our long distance pirates wont be making this year’s sailing. One had a much better offer and is off to sail Lake Tahoe that week and the other just couldn’t get out of some plans in Dallas to make it up for this event. While in discussion about the upcoming party one of my friends pointed out that we will be 9 days from the Presidential election. That being said we will have crew members from both sides of politics so we created some party rules to keep from having a battle royal. Politics and liquor make for a bit too much party…
The rules are pretty much common sense but I will have no mutiny on my ship…LOL
Here be the rules;
Pirates Code III
1. No INK No Entry….this is a non negotiable. If ye arrive for this cruise without ink, ye will be provided with opportunity to partake or receive the dreaded black spot.
2. Grog provided and dispensed by the Cap’n, ye don’t like rum? Ye may wish to bring yer own spirits.
3. Grub is the price of entry, bring enough to share with yer maties and be creative (but no Salmagundi……)
4. The HMS Antilles Treasures is a no smoking ship…Don’t want the grog to ignite nor any of the stores in the hold to be damaged so if ye need to exchange the air in ye lungs for that be a bit more cloudy….all smoking must be done on land and away from all points of entry
5. Leave yer politics on the dock, Ye talk politics…..yer choices be to get marooned or ye walk the plank…..there be no brawling over donkeys and elephants on this ship.
6. No, and the Cap’n means, NO porcelain party crashers or any similar ballast shall be brought aboard nor dockside!! There be no need for a ship’s buffoon or jester. Don, ye filthy bilge rat ye reading this?
7. Please bring a designated oarsman the grog be stout and plentiful and we want no DUI’s once ye go ashore.
8. Ye be flogged for excessive or overt displays of affection. Though we be pirates we be discreet ones, if ye get an itch that ye need scratched….shove off and set sail for another port. All booty will be surrendered on shore only.
9. Landlubbers (no pirate costume) be welcome but be required to lead a toast of the Cap’n & crew
10. Ye break it ye buy it!!! See Cap’n for inflated pricing information….remember Rob's a Pirate!!
We do have an upcoming event that has in many ways become a beast to us. Our annual Pirate Party. This will be our third year to host. The ship’s crew grows yearly and this year is certainly no exception. Looks like we may have to open a second deck for this one. We will have guests from all over our home port of Kansas City as well as some other ports a bit further away. We have found out that a couple of our long distance pirates wont be making this year’s sailing. One had a much better offer and is off to sail Lake Tahoe that week and the other just couldn’t get out of some plans in Dallas to make it up for this event. While in discussion about the upcoming party one of my friends pointed out that we will be 9 days from the Presidential election. That being said we will have crew members from both sides of politics so we created some party rules to keep from having a battle royal. Politics and liquor make for a bit too much party…
The rules are pretty much common sense but I will have no mutiny on my ship…LOL
Here be the rules;
Pirates Code III
1. No INK No Entry….this is a non negotiable. If ye arrive for this cruise without ink, ye will be provided with opportunity to partake or receive the dreaded black spot.
2. Grog provided and dispensed by the Cap’n, ye don’t like rum? Ye may wish to bring yer own spirits.
3. Grub is the price of entry, bring enough to share with yer maties and be creative (but no Salmagundi……)
4. The HMS Antilles Treasures is a no smoking ship…Don’t want the grog to ignite nor any of the stores in the hold to be damaged so if ye need to exchange the air in ye lungs for that be a bit more cloudy….all smoking must be done on land and away from all points of entry
5. Leave yer politics on the dock, Ye talk politics…..yer choices be to get marooned or ye walk the plank…..there be no brawling over donkeys and elephants on this ship.
6. No, and the Cap’n means, NO porcelain party crashers or any similar ballast shall be brought aboard nor dockside!! There be no need for a ship’s buffoon or jester. Don, ye filthy bilge rat ye reading this?
7. Please bring a designated oarsman the grog be stout and plentiful and we want no DUI’s once ye go ashore.
8. Ye be flogged for excessive or overt displays of affection. Though we be pirates we be discreet ones, if ye get an itch that ye need scratched….shove off and set sail for another port. All booty will be surrendered on shore only.
9. Landlubbers (no pirate costume) be welcome but be required to lead a toast of the Cap’n & crew
10. Ye break it ye buy it!!! See Cap’n for inflated pricing information….remember Rob's a Pirate!!
Monday, September 22, 2008
More Drake
Here are some more pictures of baby Drake. He is such a joy and a very good baby. His only bad habit is he likes to be awake from 3 to 6 AM each morning. There are more pictures here... http://picasaweb.google.com/AXARob05/Drake#
Friday, September 12, 2008
Hello Grandma and Grandpa
It finally happened. The stork has landed. Our bundle of joy came into the world last night. Yes, our first grandchild blessed us with his arrival last night. Everyone is healthy and very happy.
For those interested
Born 9:15 PM September 11, 2008
Boy
Name; Drake
Weight; 7.6 lbs
Length; 19.5 inches
I tell you all this because I truly want to yell from the mountain tops that we are new, first time grandparents. We are proud of little Drake and I am sure will spoil him rotten. Drake’s mommy and daddy are doing quite well and both giddy as well, however, I do understand that the D-man likes to play at night and kept his parents up quite a bit last night.
I got to hold him last night…not much more than an hour old….Grandpa had his first baby teachings. I shared with Drake that he should save his first poo for when mommy was out of the room for a min or two and fill his diaper as full as he can then smile big at his daddy so dear ole pops could have to change that nasty little toxic waste dump in his diaper. So now that lesson one is taught, it will be time for more teachings…..like no dinner until you eat all your candy. Ok, I’ll save that one till he is at least two LOL.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Lots of Planning
Hi all, I took a little break from blogging and even updating my website.
Have lots going on and just didn’t have the umph to take the time to do updating.
We will be first time grandparents any day now. We love the kids but they are currently living with us….and it is a bit more difficult than any thought it would be. Have had other personal stuff going on as well and most is starting to wind down so I have a bit more spirit today than have had for a while.
We are looking to make a return to the islands in late May 2009. Hope I can survive that long…LOL. It is looking as if we will go to the island with a different set of friends this year. This couple is very experienced at travel to ST Maarten so would be more of someone to eat dinner with or have cocktails with in the evening. Perfect for us, allowing us lots of time to ourselves as well as some company. Both couples have started small businesses so we will spend part of our time working on our businesses as well as some time soaking up the sun.
Our business is getting off the ground, had a meeting with a business owner who has an on island shop but lives in Dallas TX. Flew down and spent a couple of hours with him. He likes my product and is coming to KC in October to view and make a decision on his interest level. All looks positive at this point.
We also have our yearly Pirate (don’t read this part Mary) and Wenches party. It will be October 25th. This is a hoot but takes some planning and costuming on our part. This year I have decided that part of the theme is everyone will be tattooed, this could be either a temporary or permanent or there is a third option…..a sharpie tattoo…
This will be a fun one and will be lots more coming on the party front.
Have lots going on and just didn’t have the umph to take the time to do updating.
We will be first time grandparents any day now. We love the kids but they are currently living with us….and it is a bit more difficult than any thought it would be. Have had other personal stuff going on as well and most is starting to wind down so I have a bit more spirit today than have had for a while.
We are looking to make a return to the islands in late May 2009. Hope I can survive that long…LOL. It is looking as if we will go to the island with a different set of friends this year. This couple is very experienced at travel to ST Maarten so would be more of someone to eat dinner with or have cocktails with in the evening. Perfect for us, allowing us lots of time to ourselves as well as some company. Both couples have started small businesses so we will spend part of our time working on our businesses as well as some time soaking up the sun.
Our business is getting off the ground, had a meeting with a business owner who has an on island shop but lives in Dallas TX. Flew down and spent a couple of hours with him. He likes my product and is coming to KC in October to view and make a decision on his interest level. All looks positive at this point.
We also have our yearly Pirate (don’t read this part Mary) and Wenches party. It will be October 25th. This is a hoot but takes some planning and costuming on our part. This year I have decided that part of the theme is everyone will be tattooed, this could be either a temporary or permanent or there is a third option…..a sharpie tattoo…
This will be a fun one and will be lots more coming on the party front.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Be careful what you write, you never know who is reading
Hi Mom!!!! LOL, that give you all enough of a hint??
I recently documented my adventures in adding a bit of ink and getting a new tattoo.
I didn’t give it a second thought…heck I’ll be 45 in a couple of weeks. I called my mom the other day and she caught me a bit off guard and asked “How come you didn’t tell me about the tattoo?” Wha???? Oh yeah I posted it on my blog…duhhhh
I laughed and she said that my sister was poking around on my site and gave my mom one of those…..”do you know what your son did” statements. Ahhhh sibling rivalry even at our advanced ages…LOL Just kidding ya, Princess Pontiac!!!!
Long and short is my Mom, sister and her friend have been added to the list of guests….now how about it Bob? You gonna dress as a pirate and come to the party too???
All is good, honestly I never thought that they would be interested. A great time will be had by all……and if not then; be it mate or wench they be walkin the plank….those scurvey dogs that they be.
We will be hosting in KC and will have pirates from Missouri, Kansas and possibly Texas as well.
I recently documented my adventures in adding a bit of ink and getting a new tattoo.
I didn’t give it a second thought…heck I’ll be 45 in a couple of weeks. I called my mom the other day and she caught me a bit off guard and asked “How come you didn’t tell me about the tattoo?” Wha???? Oh yeah I posted it on my blog…duhhhh
I laughed and she said that my sister was poking around on my site and gave my mom one of those…..”do you know what your son did” statements. Ahhhh sibling rivalry even at our advanced ages…LOL Just kidding ya, Princess Pontiac!!!!
Long and short is my Mom, sister and her friend have been added to the list of guests….now how about it Bob? You gonna dress as a pirate and come to the party too???
All is good, honestly I never thought that they would be interested. A great time will be had by all……and if not then; be it mate or wench they be walkin the plank….those scurvey dogs that they be.
We will be hosting in KC and will have pirates from Missouri, Kansas and possibly Texas as well.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Happy Anniversary to AXARob.com
Today is AXARob.com’s second anniversary. Yes two short years ago I first published the site with a few pix. It has grown up a bit since then and now has several stories, a few maps and lots of pix of ST Maarten, Anguilla and San Salvador Island in the Bahamas and my bit of local flare…Pirate parties. Have had just a bit over 18,000 hits in the two years the site has been up so must have something of interest here….
I do it for no other reason than I enjoy it. It is fun to create and hopefully my sharing will make others smile and get a few minutes of escape. I’m no Jimmy Buffett but I do enjoy that escape syndrome that keep so many of us coming back to the islands over and over and over again.
If I can share something that helps another smile or gives them an idea that may save them time or money then I have in turn done at least a bit of good with my little site for fun. Besides when I am messing with my site I am not finding any trouble out there..ha.
As I have posted several times we are on the verge of posting another site that will be on the business end in hopes that maybe just maybe I can sell some pix to help me find my way back to the islands and to share with others the beauties of the islands thru my eye.
Again happy anniversary to www.axarob.com
I do it for no other reason than I enjoy it. It is fun to create and hopefully my sharing will make others smile and get a few minutes of escape. I’m no Jimmy Buffett but I do enjoy that escape syndrome that keep so many of us coming back to the islands over and over and over again.
If I can share something that helps another smile or gives them an idea that may save them time or money then I have in turn done at least a bit of good with my little site for fun. Besides when I am messing with my site I am not finding any trouble out there..ha.
As I have posted several times we are on the verge of posting another site that will be on the business end in hopes that maybe just maybe I can sell some pix to help me find my way back to the islands and to share with others the beauties of the islands thru my eye.
Again happy anniversary to www.axarob.com
Monday, July 14, 2008
No Ink No Entry
Pirate party is set and an invitation has been posted to my website.
http://axarob.com/18.html
The party theme this year is No Ink No Entry and I do mean no ink no entry....but we will provide an "artist/ink slinger" armed with several sharpies. Refusal of ink means you dont get in! You can either have perma-ink like many of us or a temp you choose if neither of those works out...hang on for the sharpie..
Here is a sample of what one could display;
Several of us went out and had this permanently applied. Mine with a captains hat eldest son with a red bandana and his girlfriend with just the skull and crossbones. There is a fourth, one of son's friends with crossed rum bottle.
We are already discussing set up of the part. This year we are expecting a bit more diversity and a larger attendance too.
There will be plenty more to come on this subject....
Drink up me 'earties yo ho!!!!
http://axarob.com/18.html
The party theme this year is No Ink No Entry and I do mean no ink no entry....but we will provide an "artist/ink slinger" armed with several sharpies. Refusal of ink means you dont get in! You can either have perma-ink like many of us or a temp you choose if neither of those works out...hang on for the sharpie..
Here is a sample of what one could display;
Several of us went out and had this permanently applied. Mine with a captains hat eldest son with a red bandana and his girlfriend with just the skull and crossbones. There is a fourth, one of son's friends with crossed rum bottle.
We are already discussing set up of the part. This year we are expecting a bit more diversity and a larger attendance too.
There will be plenty more to come on this subject....
Drink up me 'earties yo ho!!!!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Time to plan our annual party
It is time to plan the third annual Pirates & Wenches.
We have a title for the party and have two weekends in mid to late October chosen.
Still have to narrow to one weekend.
Title….. No ink, no entry.
I will provide temporary tattoos for all who have not dared to see a tattoo artist.
We will of course provide the grog again this year but the wench of the ship has convinced the ole cap’n to tone town the punch a bit. It is both very expensive to make as well as it catches some of the crew a bit by surprise…have warned all that a designated driver is essential but some didn’t listen so we will have to ease up on the quantities of liquor in the punch bowl.
Looks like this years party will be a biggun too. All the regulars from the past and sounds as if several more of our friends would like to attend…who knows maybe we will make the requirement for real ink. That would limit the crowd significantly. I know we have friends from Dallas and St Louis that are talking of making it out to the party.
I truly don’t understand how it has grown so much. The party has become a legend of its own. We enjoy hosting but I am honestly thinking this year we may have to open different parts of the house to accommodate all.
More coming I am sure
We have a title for the party and have two weekends in mid to late October chosen.
Still have to narrow to one weekend.
Title….. No ink, no entry.
I will provide temporary tattoos for all who have not dared to see a tattoo artist.
We will of course provide the grog again this year but the wench of the ship has convinced the ole cap’n to tone town the punch a bit. It is both very expensive to make as well as it catches some of the crew a bit by surprise…have warned all that a designated driver is essential but some didn’t listen so we will have to ease up on the quantities of liquor in the punch bowl.
Looks like this years party will be a biggun too. All the regulars from the past and sounds as if several more of our friends would like to attend…who knows maybe we will make the requirement for real ink. That would limit the crowd significantly. I know we have friends from Dallas and St Louis that are talking of making it out to the party.
I truly don’t understand how it has grown so much. The party has become a legend of its own. We enjoy hosting but I am honestly thinking this year we may have to open different parts of the house to accommodate all.
More coming I am sure
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Piratude!!!
What is piratude? For me it is a combination of a few things…one that desire to be somewhere in the Caribbean sipping on some kind of rum drink with my toes firmly entrenched in the sand. Two is that devil may care attitude….life is short and I wanna live it to the fullest…sometimes that fullness spills over the edge just a bit. Three, fun, challenging and different are the keys…if it is fun then it is worth investigating…if it is something personally challenging I may be interested and if it is different than I can do or be here in flyover country it may catch my attention As long as what ever activity it is hurts no one else, is not offensive to others and isn’t illegal or immoral then I will consider it.
This can include a list like;
Scuba diving then going over 100’ deep, swimming with sharks
Repelling
Swimming in a cenote and underground river in Mexico
Ziplining
Tattoos
Piercing ..ok only ear but still
Basically I have faced some fears big or small and working thru them and for the most part found that I had a great time working thru them.
I did the piratical thing last night full tilt….I went out and got a new tattoo….one of a skull and crossbones…wearing a captains hat. I got inked with our eldest son who got a very similar tattoo as well as some of his friends. This wasn’t one of my most mature actions but I did it none the less. Have been talking of getting a new tattoo for years.
I don’t regret the tattoo nor its location….on my ribcage just below my arm pit. I will however say it was not the easiest place to get inked. It hurt a bit more than I expected it to but was not by any means unbearable. Pix to be posted later.
This can include a list like;
Scuba diving then going over 100’ deep, swimming with sharks
Repelling
Swimming in a cenote and underground river in Mexico
Ziplining
Tattoos
Piercing ..ok only ear but still
Basically I have faced some fears big or small and working thru them and for the most part found that I had a great time working thru them.
I did the piratical thing last night full tilt….I went out and got a new tattoo….one of a skull and crossbones…wearing a captains hat. I got inked with our eldest son who got a very similar tattoo as well as some of his friends. This wasn’t one of my most mature actions but I did it none the less. Have been talking of getting a new tattoo for years.
I don’t regret the tattoo nor its location….on my ribcage just below my arm pit. I will however say it was not the easiest place to get inked. It hurt a bit more than I expected it to but was not by any means unbearable. Pix to be posted later.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Good News!!
I want to keep all my friends that read this blog updated.....
All none of you…LOL!
I have finally filed paperwork with my home state and now am the proud owner of my very own LLC. Antilles Treasures LLC. My business will consist of photo sales…done thru a professional printing studio, calendars and a coffee table book or two about ….yup you guessed it. The Antilles, (specifically Anguilla and St Maarten at this point) I will also have some logo wear for sale. The offering will be hats and shirts with the logo stitched on them to start. Along with the logo the shirts will have a small lizard stitched somewhere on each shirt the stitching will be the same color as the shirt resulting in a camouflaged entity in a different spot on each shirt.
I am now moving forward to work on the website and delivery of the products. I have picked a vendor to put together the photo products and one to provide seamstress work too. Now it is up to Rob to get things up on the web and get things running. Yes I have already purchased the website name. The site will be antillestreasures.com There is nothing there yet but that is one of the next two or three things I have to do.
This will be a fun business opportunity. It may not grow much at all or it may take off.
I think the key for me will be to get product into some stores on the islands.
As I look thru the masses of my pictures I have recognized one thing for sure, I don’t have enough pix…LOL. This means our next trip will be much more of a working trip than even the last one was. Oh well, Mary has bought in on the business so back to SXM and AXA we will go. Woo Hoo and so the obsession with traveling to the island continues..
All none of you…LOL!
I have finally filed paperwork with my home state and now am the proud owner of my very own LLC. Antilles Treasures LLC. My business will consist of photo sales…done thru a professional printing studio, calendars and a coffee table book or two about ….yup you guessed it. The Antilles, (specifically Anguilla and St Maarten at this point) I will also have some logo wear for sale. The offering will be hats and shirts with the logo stitched on them to start. Along with the logo the shirts will have a small lizard stitched somewhere on each shirt the stitching will be the same color as the shirt resulting in a camouflaged entity in a different spot on each shirt.
I am now moving forward to work on the website and delivery of the products. I have picked a vendor to put together the photo products and one to provide seamstress work too. Now it is up to Rob to get things up on the web and get things running. Yes I have already purchased the website name. The site will be antillestreasures.com There is nothing there yet but that is one of the next two or three things I have to do.
This will be a fun business opportunity. It may not grow much at all or it may take off.
I think the key for me will be to get product into some stores on the islands.
As I look thru the masses of my pictures I have recognized one thing for sure, I don’t have enough pix…LOL. This means our next trip will be much more of a working trip than even the last one was. Oh well, Mary has bought in on the business so back to SXM and AXA we will go. Woo Hoo and so the obsession with traveling to the island continues..
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
the Vacation Race has begun
Hey, I didnt know this was a high hurdles race!!!
Hi all, Its been a while since I have blogged. There is lots going on but only part of it is aimed at our next trip to the islands. We are still thinking of next April or May for our return but there have already been some hurdles tossed out onto the vacation track. Guess Rob will learn the hurdles quickly. The Airlines seem to be the ones that have snuck out and placed these gargantuan hurdles on the track. They are cutting routes, decommissioning planes and now charging for everything but use of the bathroom. Hey don’t get any ideas there!!!! Unfortunately this is the price of doing business today. I will be watching pricing on airfare from now till I choose to pull the trigger on tickets.
Part of the issue is it looks like they are changing our favorite route..the KC to Dallas leg looks as if it will now go thru….ready for this? Chicago!!! So in order to fly 500 miles south I now have to fly 500 miles north…I know this somehow makes business sense to AA but not so much to Rob as I will now have to make one more connection and add several hours to my flight time. We in the past have tried to avoid O’Hare if at all possible because of the chance of heavy storms when we usually travel and we have had to land in heavy wind as well as sit on the tarmac for hours waiting for a storm to pass. We like going south first. Limits those weather issues. Guess my choices are fly a different airline or get over the hurdle. Ok I am stretching and warming up now…LOL
We will have an addition to our family in September and am not too sure how the lady of the house will feel about leaving a grandchild for a couple of weeks but we will see here too….Ok stretched out and now jogging in place…but just about ready for the race.
Will be touching base with some friends this weekend…we shall see if they are interested in going the same time we go to the islands.
We are now fighting a bit with our timeshare folks as some things happened that were unacceptable while we were on island. I sent them a letter pointing out the issues as well as what I would like to see and they have not yet been kind enough to acknowledge that they even got the letter…..but Rob sent it return receipt requested so I do know that they got the letter. I am a patient man but will take action if they wont work with me.
So at this point I am stretched out warmed up and ready to run the vacation race even with some substantial hurdles in the way. I will explain some more of the hurdles in later posts.
Hi all, Its been a while since I have blogged. There is lots going on but only part of it is aimed at our next trip to the islands. We are still thinking of next April or May for our return but there have already been some hurdles tossed out onto the vacation track. Guess Rob will learn the hurdles quickly. The Airlines seem to be the ones that have snuck out and placed these gargantuan hurdles on the track. They are cutting routes, decommissioning planes and now charging for everything but use of the bathroom. Hey don’t get any ideas there!!!! Unfortunately this is the price of doing business today. I will be watching pricing on airfare from now till I choose to pull the trigger on tickets.
Part of the issue is it looks like they are changing our favorite route..the KC to Dallas leg looks as if it will now go thru….ready for this? Chicago!!! So in order to fly 500 miles south I now have to fly 500 miles north…I know this somehow makes business sense to AA but not so much to Rob as I will now have to make one more connection and add several hours to my flight time. We in the past have tried to avoid O’Hare if at all possible because of the chance of heavy storms when we usually travel and we have had to land in heavy wind as well as sit on the tarmac for hours waiting for a storm to pass. We like going south first. Limits those weather issues. Guess my choices are fly a different airline or get over the hurdle. Ok I am stretching and warming up now…LOL
We will have an addition to our family in September and am not too sure how the lady of the house will feel about leaving a grandchild for a couple of weeks but we will see here too….Ok stretched out and now jogging in place…but just about ready for the race.
Will be touching base with some friends this weekend…we shall see if they are interested in going the same time we go to the islands.
We are now fighting a bit with our timeshare folks as some things happened that were unacceptable while we were on island. I sent them a letter pointing out the issues as well as what I would like to see and they have not yet been kind enough to acknowledge that they even got the letter…..but Rob sent it return receipt requested so I do know that they got the letter. I am a patient man but will take action if they wont work with me.
So at this point I am stretched out warmed up and ready to run the vacation race even with some substantial hurdles in the way. I will explain some more of the hurdles in later posts.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tick, tick tick…..
Is the sound of my mind gearing up for another season of planning our next vacation. There have already been a few obstacles thrown in the way but it is very early so those wont be too hard to sidestep or hurdle.
We have learned about taking friends and will still be inviting others to go with us. Each trip we discuss this very issue and every time we agree that it is more fun with friends there.
My buddy BBDJohn has accompanied us twice and will most likely continue to travel to our vacation getaway with us.
We are in negotiations…LOL ok, discussion with another of our friends about going together. If we do it will be into May that we will return to the island instead of or normal April journey. I don’t like waiting a few more weeks but would love to travel with this set of friends. Jeff and Bonnie are another couple from the Kansas City area that we hang out with. We get together once every two or three months and converse about family and our obsession with (ok the guys have the obsession) the island. When we are going back and what we are going to do. We are both developing business that is based on the island/s and are having fun with that too.
Soooooo we will either be going back to the island around April 15th or May 15th only issue I have with going later is we are starting to build a group of friends that are on island in mid-April and want to see them again next year. If Rob is forced to choose…..it will be….drum roll please…….. Our KC friends. To all my on island friends, sorry guys.
I am thinking this year of getting a group of studio rooms at our resort as we had some difficulties with last year’s reservations. If we get a studio I know what I will be getting and wont be disappointed. Besides I can wait till later in the year to get the studio rooms, as in once our airfare is booked.
Now for some good news….. Mary started back to work this week. This after a 6 week forced hiatus. I think she liked being away from work for a while but was ready to go back. Not so sure that this contract is for her but is only 5 months so we will be fine with it. Even better news. We are to become first time grandparents this fall. Will be early September. Mary and I couldn’t be happier as we are still young but ready for the Grandparent mode. I have already determined that I will be Grandpa Candy once they are old enough…..
Well enough for now…
We have learned about taking friends and will still be inviting others to go with us. Each trip we discuss this very issue and every time we agree that it is more fun with friends there.
My buddy BBDJohn has accompanied us twice and will most likely continue to travel to our vacation getaway with us.
We are in negotiations…LOL ok, discussion with another of our friends about going together. If we do it will be into May that we will return to the island instead of or normal April journey. I don’t like waiting a few more weeks but would love to travel with this set of friends. Jeff and Bonnie are another couple from the Kansas City area that we hang out with. We get together once every two or three months and converse about family and our obsession with (ok the guys have the obsession) the island. When we are going back and what we are going to do. We are both developing business that is based on the island/s and are having fun with that too.
Soooooo we will either be going back to the island around April 15th or May 15th only issue I have with going later is we are starting to build a group of friends that are on island in mid-April and want to see them again next year. If Rob is forced to choose…..it will be….drum roll please…….. Our KC friends. To all my on island friends, sorry guys.
I am thinking this year of getting a group of studio rooms at our resort as we had some difficulties with last year’s reservations. If we get a studio I know what I will be getting and wont be disappointed. Besides I can wait till later in the year to get the studio rooms, as in once our airfare is booked.
Now for some good news….. Mary started back to work this week. This after a 6 week forced hiatus. I think she liked being away from work for a while but was ready to go back. Not so sure that this contract is for her but is only 5 months so we will be fine with it. Even better news. We are to become first time grandparents this fall. Will be early September. Mary and I couldn’t be happier as we are still young but ready for the Grandparent mode. I have already determined that I will be Grandpa Candy once they are old enough…..
Well enough for now…
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Edit, Edit, Edit....Proof, Proof, Proof
Life has gotten to a place where I can now spend some "qulity time" looking at all the pix I took while on vacation. I shot somewhere between 1500 and 2000 on this trip. Yes, I am a photo-bug. I find shooting pix a great way to relax and to see my vacation thru a different eye.
I had a great time and even got a few chuckles from my wife as I looked like a monkey going berserk changing filters and lenses to catch the same shot in different ways. No I won’t be shooting with two cameras in the future but I can see why folks do. Process was set camera take pic, change lens, take another then change filter....repeat, repeat, repeat!
Because I shot in burst mode, there are many duplicates, I have trimmed out the ones I am not fond of and am now going thru and pulling out the ones slightly out of focus or not framed correctly.
Last night I did a quick keeper review and copied about 200 pix into a new folder and will work with them to make those pix the best I can. I will be burning a disk or two to share with some friends to help me narrow down this list further. My goal here is to select about 100 pix or so of the two islands to merge with some pix from years past.
My thought process is to then make a coffee table book of our “Antilles Treasures” memories.
I know I am not a professional photographer but do very much enjoy shooting and will be taking my hobby to a new level in upcoming weeks, months and years.
With our previous trips I had a lot of editing to do to my pix to sharpen images and bring out some colors. I am amazed that with the new camera there is very little I have done or will do to the pix other than possibly to crop and Photoshop out some people. I like to see the beauty of beaches minus the heads bobbing in the surf if possible. Photoshop lets me do this with just a little effort.
I had a great time and even got a few chuckles from my wife as I looked like a monkey going berserk changing filters and lenses to catch the same shot in different ways. No I won’t be shooting with two cameras in the future but I can see why folks do. Process was set camera take pic, change lens, take another then change filter....repeat, repeat, repeat!
Because I shot in burst mode, there are many duplicates, I have trimmed out the ones I am not fond of and am now going thru and pulling out the ones slightly out of focus or not framed correctly.
Last night I did a quick keeper review and copied about 200 pix into a new folder and will work with them to make those pix the best I can. I will be burning a disk or two to share with some friends to help me narrow down this list further. My goal here is to select about 100 pix or so of the two islands to merge with some pix from years past.
My thought process is to then make a coffee table book of our “Antilles Treasures” memories.
I know I am not a professional photographer but do very much enjoy shooting and will be taking my hobby to a new level in upcoming weeks, months and years.
With our previous trips I had a lot of editing to do to my pix to sharpen images and bring out some colors. I am amazed that with the new camera there is very little I have done or will do to the pix other than possibly to crop and Photoshop out some people. I like to see the beauty of beaches minus the heads bobbing in the surf if possible. Photoshop lets me do this with just a little effort.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Oh, what a difference a good camera makes
For those of you that have followed my little odyssey thru this blog, you know I got my hands on a D-SLR camera for our trip to Anguilla and ST Maarten. I went from a little point and shoot Sony 3.2MP to a 10.1MP Canon with the standard lens as well as a 55-300mm zoom. On previous trips I have shot somewhere around 300 pix. This time, with the assistance of the burst mode I shot over 2,000 pix. Yes I do have a goal and purpose for shooting 30 pix of the same sunset but that is the fun of digital.
The good,
Quality of pix with 10.1 mp wow!
Bust mode, very nice make sure I can capture a shot
Obvious ability of being able to change lenses
Used a small portable tripod for night shots
The bad,
As good as the shots could be with the 55mm lens they were difficult with the 300mm lens. Too big and hard to steady. Burst shooting helped a lot. Was able to get several good shots but lots were out of focus because of movement.
Lack of large tripod, when using large lens the small tripod could not handle the weight and would move.
The ugly,
Rob hadn’t used more than a point and shoot in years so was a bit rusty working with aperture and exposure times.
The constant cleaning of lenses and filters….we were around sea air.
I have posted some pix from Anguilla and ST Maarten on my website. www.axarob.com
Comparison of shots from previous years….wow much better quality.
The good,
Quality of pix with 10.1 mp wow!
Bust mode, very nice make sure I can capture a shot
Obvious ability of being able to change lenses
Used a small portable tripod for night shots
The bad,
As good as the shots could be with the 55mm lens they were difficult with the 300mm lens. Too big and hard to steady. Burst shooting helped a lot. Was able to get several good shots but lots were out of focus because of movement.
Lack of large tripod, when using large lens the small tripod could not handle the weight and would move.
The ugly,
Rob hadn’t used more than a point and shoot in years so was a bit rusty working with aperture and exposure times.
The constant cleaning of lenses and filters….we were around sea air.
I have posted some pix from Anguilla and ST Maarten on my website. www.axarob.com
Comparison of shots from previous years….wow much better quality.
Monday, May 5, 2008
What time zone am I in now???
Today I checked back in to the office after three weeks of travel for business and fun. Wow what a journey.
First the fun;
We started with a flight to Dallas from KC ( still on Central Time Zone) over-nighted in Dallas and had dinner and way too much wine with a good friend. Early morning flight from Dallas (DFW) to Miami…no freaking decent coffee in DFW at that hour even Starbucks wasn’t open. From there we were off to ST Maarten (SXM) and then on to a ferry to Anguilla (AXA) for a few days (Eastern Time zone). We then went back to ST Maarten for a week of “relaxation” (still Eastern Time zone) we ran and did more than we would have liked to.
When it was time to leave SXM the fun started. American didn’t have a plane ready at 7AM so we decided that rather than swim to San Juan….not that good of a swimmer…that we would try the lovely Philadelphia airport in route to KC. What a nightmare that was….including losing luggage that we had in hand in Philly for our flight home to KC (Central Time zone once again). I got up the next morning and left for business in Lost Wages..otherwise known as Las Vegas (Pacific Time zone). While in Vegas we entertained customers so the nights were pretty late…one case 2:30AM PST which will either convert to my home time of 4:30AM CST or vacation time of 5:30 AM EST….hey that is when I get up…..now I’m so confused.
I am back home in KC but my morning internal clock says I am on east coast time and my internal go to bed clock says party on dude it’s still early. I figure by the end of the work week I will either be sleeping at my computer or getting things back to normal….
Stay tuned…have lots to share about my trips…both fun and business…
First the fun;
We started with a flight to Dallas from KC ( still on Central Time Zone) over-nighted in Dallas and had dinner and way too much wine with a good friend. Early morning flight from Dallas (DFW) to Miami…no freaking decent coffee in DFW at that hour even Starbucks wasn’t open. From there we were off to ST Maarten (SXM) and then on to a ferry to Anguilla (AXA) for a few days (Eastern Time zone). We then went back to ST Maarten for a week of “relaxation” (still Eastern Time zone) we ran and did more than we would have liked to.
When it was time to leave SXM the fun started. American didn’t have a plane ready at 7AM so we decided that rather than swim to San Juan….not that good of a swimmer…that we would try the lovely Philadelphia airport in route to KC. What a nightmare that was….including losing luggage that we had in hand in Philly for our flight home to KC (Central Time zone once again). I got up the next morning and left for business in Lost Wages..otherwise known as Las Vegas (Pacific Time zone). While in Vegas we entertained customers so the nights were pretty late…one case 2:30AM PST which will either convert to my home time of 4:30AM CST or vacation time of 5:30 AM EST….hey that is when I get up…..now I’m so confused.
I am back home in KC but my morning internal clock says I am on east coast time and my internal go to bed clock says party on dude it’s still early. I figure by the end of the work week I will either be sleeping at my computer or getting things back to normal….
Stay tuned…have lots to share about my trips…both fun and business…
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Snatched from the jaws of de-foot!
Visited the doctor yesterday, yet again…..New surgeon, new and much more satisfactory outcome.
This time I actually got to see the surgeon instead of one of his male interns that was hot to impress the young female intern he was working with....ok intern II was kinda cute but intern I was supposed ot be working on my foot not his moves with the cutie.
The real surgeon poked around a bit, the only issue I had with him poking around is that he used nothing to deaden the area, hey you are digging around under my skin, as in, YOU ARE IN MY TOE, with no sign of any medicine to ease the pain, buddy this freaking hurts and if I wasnt so desperate to go on vacation I may have had some not so kind words to share with him and maybe even display for and on him the different levels of pain that accompanied his treasure hunt in my toe,but I played nice and just bit the bullet.
Then I hear DR Painful say a few words that truly made the pain not only more bearable but ease and almost totaly go away he said.... hmmmm I think I've found the issue. He dug around a bit more, hey doc, if you find any gold dabloons in there you have to split the tresure with the host, being Rob of course....his digging proceeded for what of course seemed like 5 minutes when in all actuality was I am sure less than a minute. Luck was on Rob's side, well kind of, he didn't find any dabloons but did remove a cyst from the crater that he had been working in. Once he removed the cyst the pressure and for the most part the pain had been nullified and I was able to hop down from the table and stroll out of his office with but a hint of annoying ache in my foot. Way to go doc! I'll toast you with a cold one when I am on the beach next week.
Wooo Hoo Vacation is a go again!!!!
Saturday morning comes the foot is much better. I peel back the band aide to view the dammage and immediately recognize that we will now have to pack in our luggage a small pressure washer to get beach sand and maybe small crustations...out of the crater that once was the top of one of my toes. I will be on the look out for small to medium sized hermit crabs that may be looking for a new home. But lets not sweat the small stuff....I am going on my trip!!
I decided it is time for Rob to do some last minute errands.
It is 37 degrees outside…yes I said 37! and yes this is the 12th day of April and yes we are in Kansas. No it isnt supposed to be this cold and to add insult to injury it is snowing outside, You have to be kidding me... No it isnt sticking but yes it is snowing. I may have been one of a hand full of people in Kansas City to laugh at the weather this morning....folks I have 3 days till Calgone takes me away from what has been a cruel winter in our fair city and safely deposits me on a beautiful beach. OK, it isnt Calgon, more like American Airlines, that is as long as they get the MD-80 issue solved before Tuesday otherwise it will be my big black gas guzzling Tahoe taking me to Dallas so I can make my first flight on Wednesday morning. Heck a round trip to Dallas in the Tahoe...there goes my "$600 refund check from Uncle Sam". Now that is one way to stimulate local economy. You should try filling one of those things up at the pump. Almost bad enough to make me want to trade it in for a mini-cooper. I have nce again digressed...sorry, now back to my regularly scheduled tale for today.
I threw on a sweatshirt with my shorts and off I went to the bank and then to tan… We then ran some last minute errands and I am still in my shorts, I truly don’t care how cold it is. We leave on Tuesday and I refuse to wear big boy pants….except of course to work on Monday which is my last day before vacation. I even have a special T-shirt I will be wearing on Monday under what ever I wear to work. The shirt has two pictures on it, the one on top is of a donkey that says This is my ass. The picture below it is of the same donkey lying on a hammock between two palms nursing a boat drink with the caption This is my ass on the beach….any questions!!
Well, you have any questions????? LOL
This time I actually got to see the surgeon instead of one of his male interns that was hot to impress the young female intern he was working with....ok intern II was kinda cute but intern I was supposed ot be working on my foot not his moves with the cutie.
The real surgeon poked around a bit, the only issue I had with him poking around is that he used nothing to deaden the area, hey you are digging around under my skin, as in, YOU ARE IN MY TOE, with no sign of any medicine to ease the pain, buddy this freaking hurts and if I wasnt so desperate to go on vacation I may have had some not so kind words to share with him and maybe even display for and on him the different levels of pain that accompanied his treasure hunt in my toe,but I played nice and just bit the bullet.
Then I hear DR Painful say a few words that truly made the pain not only more bearable but ease and almost totaly go away he said.... hmmmm I think I've found the issue. He dug around a bit more, hey doc, if you find any gold dabloons in there you have to split the tresure with the host, being Rob of course....his digging proceeded for what of course seemed like 5 minutes when in all actuality was I am sure less than a minute. Luck was on Rob's side, well kind of, he didn't find any dabloons but did remove a cyst from the crater that he had been working in. Once he removed the cyst the pressure and for the most part the pain had been nullified and I was able to hop down from the table and stroll out of his office with but a hint of annoying ache in my foot. Way to go doc! I'll toast you with a cold one when I am on the beach next week.
Wooo Hoo Vacation is a go again!!!!
Saturday morning comes the foot is much better. I peel back the band aide to view the dammage and immediately recognize that we will now have to pack in our luggage a small pressure washer to get beach sand and maybe small crustations...out of the crater that once was the top of one of my toes. I will be on the look out for small to medium sized hermit crabs that may be looking for a new home. But lets not sweat the small stuff....I am going on my trip!!
I decided it is time for Rob to do some last minute errands.
It is 37 degrees outside…yes I said 37! and yes this is the 12th day of April and yes we are in Kansas. No it isnt supposed to be this cold and to add insult to injury it is snowing outside, You have to be kidding me... No it isnt sticking but yes it is snowing. I may have been one of a hand full of people in Kansas City to laugh at the weather this morning....folks I have 3 days till Calgone takes me away from what has been a cruel winter in our fair city and safely deposits me on a beautiful beach. OK, it isnt Calgon, more like American Airlines, that is as long as they get the MD-80 issue solved before Tuesday otherwise it will be my big black gas guzzling Tahoe taking me to Dallas so I can make my first flight on Wednesday morning. Heck a round trip to Dallas in the Tahoe...there goes my "$600 refund check from Uncle Sam". Now that is one way to stimulate local economy. You should try filling one of those things up at the pump. Almost bad enough to make me want to trade it in for a mini-cooper. I have nce again digressed...sorry, now back to my regularly scheduled tale for today.
I threw on a sweatshirt with my shorts and off I went to the bank and then to tan… We then ran some last minute errands and I am still in my shorts, I truly don’t care how cold it is. We leave on Tuesday and I refuse to wear big boy pants….except of course to work on Monday which is my last day before vacation. I even have a special T-shirt I will be wearing on Monday under what ever I wear to work. The shirt has two pictures on it, the one on top is of a donkey that says This is my ass. The picture below it is of the same donkey lying on a hammock between two palms nursing a boat drink with the caption This is my ass on the beach….any questions!!
Well, you have any questions????? LOL
Thursday, April 10, 2008
A day closer but may be much further from leaving.
Rob is less than a happy camper today!! Went to the doctor yesterday about a staph infection on one of my toes….I have had a couple of pretty good bouts with this already that have landed me in the hospital more than once. Doctor sent me to a surgeon…uh oh!! Surgeon said was going to lance and drain and should be all better and healed by the time I get on the plane next Tuesday!!! Wooo hooo, do your best there Mr Saw Bones sir!!! Filled my toe full of numbing agent…ouch…nothing numbing about that it freaking hurt…but as I said before I am experienced at this so I knew it was coming.
Rob got luck of the draw today and got a resident that was showing off for another pretty young first year resident. Mr I have a crush didn’t wait for the pain killer/numbing agent to work and proceeded to open up the boil and drain it……hey buddy wait for the meds to work…this hurt like hell! I had a much more intricate surgery for a similar issue in Sept and that doc let the meds work…I didn’t feel a thing then. Next the bleeding wasn’t ready to stop so they put some silver oxide stuff in it to stop the bleeding….worked like a charm. Commented to the docs hey, not so sure this is a good thing….I am limping more now than when I came in… Shut up Rob, the big man upstairs heard me and today my toe is worse than it was before the procedure.
Now for the funny part, We are tanning for our vacation so I went off to the tanning booth to catch some rays and relax a bit. The band aid came off my toe on one side. No biggie I made sure that part of my foot stayed off the tanning bed. When tanning was done I got out of the bed and looked down and then I saw it…the dreaded black spot. Seems that the silver oxide and a tanning lamp mixed to oxidize and turn into a large black spot. So I promptly yelled black spot, black spot and wiped my hands on my chest three times spun in a circle twice and made a spitting noise…no real spittle. Flash back to Pirates of the Caribbean II. I then laughed , got dressed and proceeded to tell my wife about it.
On a serious note, I have yet another doctors appointment tomorrow with a surgeon to see what they are going to do with me. This is a bit concerning as my airfare is not refundable nor is one of my hotel rooms. Oh well guess it would be better to keep the toe than to risk serious infection in the Caribbean. More on this to follow..
Rob got luck of the draw today and got a resident that was showing off for another pretty young first year resident. Mr I have a crush didn’t wait for the pain killer/numbing agent to work and proceeded to open up the boil and drain it……hey buddy wait for the meds to work…this hurt like hell! I had a much more intricate surgery for a similar issue in Sept and that doc let the meds work…I didn’t feel a thing then. Next the bleeding wasn’t ready to stop so they put some silver oxide stuff in it to stop the bleeding….worked like a charm. Commented to the docs hey, not so sure this is a good thing….I am limping more now than when I came in… Shut up Rob, the big man upstairs heard me and today my toe is worse than it was before the procedure.
Now for the funny part, We are tanning for our vacation so I went off to the tanning booth to catch some rays and relax a bit. The band aid came off my toe on one side. No biggie I made sure that part of my foot stayed off the tanning bed. When tanning was done I got out of the bed and looked down and then I saw it…the dreaded black spot. Seems that the silver oxide and a tanning lamp mixed to oxidize and turn into a large black spot. So I promptly yelled black spot, black spot and wiped my hands on my chest three times spun in a circle twice and made a spitting noise…no real spittle. Flash back to Pirates of the Caribbean II. I then laughed , got dressed and proceeded to tell my wife about it.
On a serious note, I have yet another doctors appointment tomorrow with a surgeon to see what they are going to do with me. This is a bit concerning as my airfare is not refundable nor is one of my hotel rooms. Oh well guess it would be better to keep the toe than to risk serious infection in the Caribbean. More on this to follow..
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
A week out and now there are hurdles!
We will be in the islands a week from today and now I am seeing some roadblocks and hurdles. The first is the McDonald Douglas 80 airplane. We fly on a Tuesday evening from KCI to DFW on one of those planes. Should not be an issue as they rounded them today expecting the planes to be in the air in the next couple of days Don’t get me wrong….if there is an issue..ground the darned plane. I have a 6AM flight from DFW that I will be on come hell or high water. We will either purchace a same day flight down on Southwest or I will get in my car and drive the 8 hours to Dallas. Could leave my car with a friend …. This can be overcome with some planning, frankly there is nothing I would rather do than plan travel…..LOL.
Second issue is that in the last year I have been hospitalized on more than one occasion with a staph infection. Going to the doctor today because it has yet again reared its ugly head and I am sporting a nice boil on one of my toes. The biggest infection I had was two toes over and caused me to spend a full week in the hospital followed up by a month of IV drug therapy. This could be a big problem if the infection I now have becomes larger. On my way to the doctor today to get this taken care of. At this point; dude could just lop off the toe and bandage the area and I would be fine with that …..ok kidding but for those that Jones for travel like I do…you get my point here.
One week from today is our big travel day that will culminate with my gorgeous wife and I lying on the beach watching the sun set while the sounds of the breaking waves lull all the stress from our way too stressed out bodies. I cant tell you all how forward I look to sitting my butt in a seat on a plane in Dallas next Wednesday morning for a 6AM flight….then my vacation truly starts to rock! We have put a lot of energy into this trip and I hope that it is all we are expecting. Our journey will be busy for sure and that is not like us, we usually relax a lot. I think we will have the relax time it will just be a t different beaches each day.
6 days and counting……woo hoo!
Second issue is that in the last year I have been hospitalized on more than one occasion with a staph infection. Going to the doctor today because it has yet again reared its ugly head and I am sporting a nice boil on one of my toes. The biggest infection I had was two toes over and caused me to spend a full week in the hospital followed up by a month of IV drug therapy. This could be a big problem if the infection I now have becomes larger. On my way to the doctor today to get this taken care of. At this point; dude could just lop off the toe and bandage the area and I would be fine with that …..ok kidding but for those that Jones for travel like I do…you get my point here.
One week from today is our big travel day that will culminate with my gorgeous wife and I lying on the beach watching the sun set while the sounds of the breaking waves lull all the stress from our way too stressed out bodies. I cant tell you all how forward I look to sitting my butt in a seat on a plane in Dallas next Wednesday morning for a 6AM flight….then my vacation truly starts to rock! We have put a lot of energy into this trip and I hope that it is all we are expecting. Our journey will be busy for sure and that is not like us, we usually relax a lot. I think we will have the relax time it will just be a t different beaches each day.
6 days and counting……woo hoo!
Monday, April 7, 2008
My Trip Schedule....
Day one; Head to Front street to purchase my wife some big shiny rocks.
Have her wear the rings and necklace everywhere we go. We must park along the street in front of a no parking sign I hear those are the best spots
Day two; A visit to Pic Paradise with our brand new high end digital camera and lenses.
I know I’ll get some great shots. We will leave our rental car in the lot with all of our beach stuff in the back seat.
Day three; Spend the day at Orient beach, where we will leave our beach bag full of cameras, IPod and billfold with lots of cash and credit cards on the beach as we both swim out to a floating dock and sun ourselves….maybe catch a bit of a nap while there too. Finish the day off with a long stroll down Orient while our beach bag sits safely between the rented chairs that we have spent next to no time at all day .
Day four; visit one of the ATMs on island and do some serious damage to my account at home. Later in the evening we will visit a couple of casinos and celebrate our winnings by counting the money while on the casino floor and once again just outside the doorway. We will of course count it together out loud so we make sure we have the same totals.
Day five; After spending the day in the sun, we will head to Grand Case where we will proceed to drink a couple of nice bottles of Bordeaux along with dinner and after dinner rum drinks then drive back to the Dutch side.
Day six: Hang out in Terreses basses at Baie Longue (naked of course) until late in the evening then we will go into Marigot for dinner and take the lowland route back to our hotel of course we will stop along the golf course for a midnight walk on Mullet beach, afterwards we may even assist that car full of young men that are having issues with their ride.
Day seven; Re visit with both the French and Dutch side police to once again go over our numerous crime reports before we board our plane to return home and then bash the island on TTOL as well as other helpful websites.
Have her wear the rings and necklace everywhere we go. We must park along the street in front of a no parking sign I hear those are the best spots
Day two; A visit to Pic Paradise with our brand new high end digital camera and lenses.
I know I’ll get some great shots. We will leave our rental car in the lot with all of our beach stuff in the back seat.
Day three; Spend the day at Orient beach, where we will leave our beach bag full of cameras, IPod and billfold with lots of cash and credit cards on the beach as we both swim out to a floating dock and sun ourselves….maybe catch a bit of a nap while there too. Finish the day off with a long stroll down Orient while our beach bag sits safely between the rented chairs that we have spent next to no time at all day .
Day four; visit one of the ATMs on island and do some serious damage to my account at home. Later in the evening we will visit a couple of casinos and celebrate our winnings by counting the money while on the casino floor and once again just outside the doorway. We will of course count it together out loud so we make sure we have the same totals.
Day five; After spending the day in the sun, we will head to Grand Case where we will proceed to drink a couple of nice bottles of Bordeaux along with dinner and after dinner rum drinks then drive back to the Dutch side.
Day six: Hang out in Terreses basses at Baie Longue (naked of course) until late in the evening then we will go into Marigot for dinner and take the lowland route back to our hotel of course we will stop along the golf course for a midnight walk on Mullet beach, afterwards we may even assist that car full of young men that are having issues with their ride.
Day seven; Re visit with both the French and Dutch side police to once again go over our numerous crime reports before we board our plane to return home and then bash the island on TTOL as well as other helpful websites.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The most daunting task!!
For me, the most daunting task as a big vacation comes up is…..wanna guess?
Nope not getting everything organized!
Nope not packing!
Not even waiting for the faithful day to come.
Ok, ok…the task I am referring to is, drum roll please….staying focused at work!!
It has been two long years since we were on island!! Many things have changed there that we have missed. The airport we remember is gone and now replaced with a 21st century airport. There is good and bad to that for us. I loved getting off of the plane and being greeted by a blast of tropical air and the smell of the tarmac followed by the nice stroll to immigration station before getting out into the crazy crowd in front of the terminal to find our rental car friends. I am sure some of that will still be there but SXM has joined the modern world with an acceptable airport. The Cupecoy area I am sure is incredibly over built by now. Last time we were there we enjoyed the beach at Cupecoy with just the ugly wall of Shore Pointe behind us, now I have seen pix of the area and am completely saddened by the building that has occurred at this once pristine beach. Ok, I have digressed just a bit here.
Yes, it has been 2 years almost to the day since we have been on island. I booked our trip 14 months ago and got airline tickets when there was a fantastic sale in October. I have had a countdown on my whiteboard at work since I booked. Now I am down to just a few days and my mind wanders to comfortable beach chairs with my beautiful wife of 25 years by my side as we soak up the sun and recover from a long and very cold Kansas City winter. In fact as I write this the temp today will be a high of 45 with rain.
Every day I have a couple of friends that come by my cube and ask me how long I have left before I log off my computer, walk out the office doors and don’t look back for two weeks. Today I shot them the number 12!!!! I am so close to single digit that I am beginning to believe that if I sit still for just a few seconds, I can taste that first ice cold Carib as sweat from the bottle rolls down and kisses my hand while the smell of the sea air fills my nose with pure pleasure, causing an auditory exhale that drains bits of stress out of my body with each and every breath cycle.
Thankfully, I have a big presentation that I am preparing for that occurs the first working day back…well not back. I will be traveling to KC only to get on a plane the next day for Las Vegas and will be hosting a large group of customers….gee there is a trifle bit of reality at reentry!! The presentation is all that keeps me in any way focused on work and away from visualizing the fish we will see while scuba diving in my imagination as I sit at my computer waiting for days, hours and minutes to slowly fall from the calendar until that faithful day that we head for the airport.
Nope not getting everything organized!
Nope not packing!
Not even waiting for the faithful day to come.
Ok, ok…the task I am referring to is, drum roll please….staying focused at work!!
It has been two long years since we were on island!! Many things have changed there that we have missed. The airport we remember is gone and now replaced with a 21st century airport. There is good and bad to that for us. I loved getting off of the plane and being greeted by a blast of tropical air and the smell of the tarmac followed by the nice stroll to immigration station before getting out into the crazy crowd in front of the terminal to find our rental car friends. I am sure some of that will still be there but SXM has joined the modern world with an acceptable airport. The Cupecoy area I am sure is incredibly over built by now. Last time we were there we enjoyed the beach at Cupecoy with just the ugly wall of Shore Pointe behind us, now I have seen pix of the area and am completely saddened by the building that has occurred at this once pristine beach. Ok, I have digressed just a bit here.
Yes, it has been 2 years almost to the day since we have been on island. I booked our trip 14 months ago and got airline tickets when there was a fantastic sale in October. I have had a countdown on my whiteboard at work since I booked. Now I am down to just a few days and my mind wanders to comfortable beach chairs with my beautiful wife of 25 years by my side as we soak up the sun and recover from a long and very cold Kansas City winter. In fact as I write this the temp today will be a high of 45 with rain.
Every day I have a couple of friends that come by my cube and ask me how long I have left before I log off my computer, walk out the office doors and don’t look back for two weeks. Today I shot them the number 12!!!! I am so close to single digit that I am beginning to believe that if I sit still for just a few seconds, I can taste that first ice cold Carib as sweat from the bottle rolls down and kisses my hand while the smell of the sea air fills my nose with pure pleasure, causing an auditory exhale that drains bits of stress out of my body with each and every breath cycle.
Thankfully, I have a big presentation that I am preparing for that occurs the first working day back…well not back. I will be traveling to KC only to get on a plane the next day for Las Vegas and will be hosting a large group of customers….gee there is a trifle bit of reality at reentry!! The presentation is all that keeps me in any way focused on work and away from visualizing the fish we will see while scuba diving in my imagination as I sit at my computer waiting for days, hours and minutes to slowly fall from the calendar until that faithful day that we head for the airport.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Getting stuff together to pack
Woo hoo! We see the light at the end of this tunnel….oops sorry that was the tanning bed lights I saw. Seriously, we are getting excited. My dear wife is showing signs that she is planning for our trip. She is making mental check lists of what needs to be done before we go….things at home that Rob wouldn’t think about. I as you know have been in trip planning mode for about a year, so between the two of us I think we will have everything covered….at least I hope so.
We did our Wal-mart run to pick up necessities for the trip. Things like snacks for the plane, travel size toiletries and sun tan lotions and sprays.
Tip for the day; We have found this to be a good way to avoid sunburn…other than not lying out in the sun…In the morning apply your first application with nothing on…. (Obviously this works better if not traveling with family) this gives you total coverage with lotion and a bit of help from your partner to get the spots you cant reach, let dry and then get dressed. Take a bottle of the continuous spray sunscreen with you for the day and re apply with that. There is no scratching from sand or dried sea salt, the spray on covers very nicely.
Our bedroom has become the gathering place for all the crap…er stuff we will be bringing. There are multitudes of books. If you want a spare book, hang out near us and I am sure the boss lady will have one for you at the end of each day. I on the other hand will be bringing along only 2 books. When not sunning I will be out walking and shooting pictures. Fear not folks, I am not a picture taker of people…I like to capture the natural beauty of the island. I usually photo-shop people out of my pictures unless of course the picture is of my bride.
Packing is a lot of fun, he says facetiously, Rob grabs 4 pairs of shorts, 4 shirts, 4 pair of underwear, 2 pair socks, 2 pair of swim trunks. My flip flops, sandals and tennis shoes. I am also contemplating a pair of linen pants with an aloha shirt for a nice dinner out.
For the bride….we had a swim suit fashion show, a shorts fashion show, then a tops fashion show to go with the shorts. Then a discussion about dresses and activities in which she would wear a dress followed by then the dress fashion show. Rob isn’t complaining…after all he got to watch the show as well as the model changing between runs on the catwalk. Then there is the discussion of correct undergarments to wear with each dress…. We haven’t even gotten to the shoes yet…which turn out to be the easiest part…she gathers up some flip flops for the beach, some nice sandals to go with her dresses and tennis shoes. All piled into a quickly expanding pile of stuff that is going with us. In years past we have done this trip carry on…I now see that I am glad we are taking a bigger suitcase for dive equipment as it too will be a bit full! I told her go ahead and bring what she wants as we have extra room and I wont be bringing much in the way of clothes.
I have been posting once a week but for any of you out there that may be reading…I bet the posts will be a bit closer together over the next two weeks.
We did our Wal-mart run to pick up necessities for the trip. Things like snacks for the plane, travel size toiletries and sun tan lotions and sprays.
Tip for the day; We have found this to be a good way to avoid sunburn…other than not lying out in the sun…In the morning apply your first application with nothing on…. (Obviously this works better if not traveling with family) this gives you total coverage with lotion and a bit of help from your partner to get the spots you cant reach, let dry and then get dressed. Take a bottle of the continuous spray sunscreen with you for the day and re apply with that. There is no scratching from sand or dried sea salt, the spray on covers very nicely.
Our bedroom has become the gathering place for all the crap…er stuff we will be bringing. There are multitudes of books. If you want a spare book, hang out near us and I am sure the boss lady will have one for you at the end of each day. I on the other hand will be bringing along only 2 books. When not sunning I will be out walking and shooting pictures. Fear not folks, I am not a picture taker of people…I like to capture the natural beauty of the island. I usually photo-shop people out of my pictures unless of course the picture is of my bride.
Packing is a lot of fun, he says facetiously, Rob grabs 4 pairs of shorts, 4 shirts, 4 pair of underwear, 2 pair socks, 2 pair of swim trunks. My flip flops, sandals and tennis shoes. I am also contemplating a pair of linen pants with an aloha shirt for a nice dinner out.
For the bride….we had a swim suit fashion show, a shorts fashion show, then a tops fashion show to go with the shorts. Then a discussion about dresses and activities in which she would wear a dress followed by then the dress fashion show. Rob isn’t complaining…after all he got to watch the show as well as the model changing between runs on the catwalk. Then there is the discussion of correct undergarments to wear with each dress…. We haven’t even gotten to the shoes yet…which turn out to be the easiest part…she gathers up some flip flops for the beach, some nice sandals to go with her dresses and tennis shoes. All piled into a quickly expanding pile of stuff that is going with us. In years past we have done this trip carry on…I now see that I am glad we are taking a bigger suitcase for dive equipment as it too will be a bit full! I told her go ahead and bring what she wants as we have extra room and I wont be bringing much in the way of clothes.
I have been posting once a week but for any of you out there that may be reading…I bet the posts will be a bit closer together over the next two weeks.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Three weeks till lift off
The final component of our pre trip planning fell in place this weekend. The trip to the tanning salon to get some light on this pair of Midwestern WHITE bodies…..LOL.
I am already a bigger than average guy and would hate to have my big white body bobbing up and down in the surf and be mistaken for Melville’s great white whale.
At least this way the throngs of beach goers may only run into the surf yelling “Free Willy” as they amass to try and push me back into the ocean. LOL Ok I’m truly not that big but am larger than I would like to be. Lying in a tanning bed for 10-20 minutes almost daily till I become golden brown…is very relaxing and getting some color before we head out always cheers me. We have had like most of the rest of North America a cold long winter so I am ready for spring for sure.
The lady of the house ordered and received a set of new dive fins and is excited and ready to dive. This is a surprise to me as I have always seen her in the mode of going along to dive but not really wanting to explore too much. She even hinted at the idea of a dive vacation in the near future. That excited me since I went on a dive vacation last January and loved it.
My concern for this trip is last week’s big surf on AXA and SXM, I intended to take lots of pictures and still do but the beauty will obviously be different than what I remember……oh well, maybe a few ti-punches or a bit of good rum will make it all better. Honestly, just being on island(s) will be much better.
I am already a bigger than average guy and would hate to have my big white body bobbing up and down in the surf and be mistaken for Melville’s great white whale.
At least this way the throngs of beach goers may only run into the surf yelling “Free Willy” as they amass to try and push me back into the ocean. LOL Ok I’m truly not that big but am larger than I would like to be. Lying in a tanning bed for 10-20 minutes almost daily till I become golden brown…is very relaxing and getting some color before we head out always cheers me. We have had like most of the rest of North America a cold long winter so I am ready for spring for sure.
The lady of the house ordered and received a set of new dive fins and is excited and ready to dive. This is a surprise to me as I have always seen her in the mode of going along to dive but not really wanting to explore too much. She even hinted at the idea of a dive vacation in the near future. That excited me since I went on a dive vacation last January and loved it.
My concern for this trip is last week’s big surf on AXA and SXM, I intended to take lots of pictures and still do but the beauty will obviously be different than what I remember……oh well, maybe a few ti-punches or a bit of good rum will make it all better. Honestly, just being on island(s) will be much better.
Monday, March 17, 2008
29 days and counting!!!
I didn’t blog last week because there really wasn’t anything to blog about.
This week we broke thru the 30 day countdown and have actually re-visited our checklist of things to do and purchase before our trip. Without going thru the entire list…and with our weekend purchase of some dive equipment for the lady of the house we have completed our list of things to do before vacation. Only things left, get a base tan via tanning salon, hit the bank for a big withdrawal and of course pack.
Since we are bringing fins with us this year…..I am sad to say no carry on only. This will ad some significant time going down as we have to check in on two separate days as well as on the way back in San Juan when we will have to gather our bags for customs.
We have discussed a general vacation itinerary.
This is purposely vague, as in beach….we won’t know till the mood strikes us which beach we will hang out at. There are lots of folks that will only go to Orient Beach, we are not those folks. We will visit Orient but there are so many other beautiful beaches on island and we are not naturalists we feel that parking at Orient the entire trip would not do our souls justice so we go to a different beach daily.
We are not big foodies so we won’t plan but a couple of meals, one being our anniversary and the other is to meet some folks for dinner. Otherwise, what ever the mood strikes is where we will go.
Here is a fly over plan for our trip.
Day one; Leave KC for Dallas in afternoon, overnight in Dallas and meet a friend for dinner.
Day two; 6AM flight from Dallas to Miami and on to SXM will be on island before 2PM, cab to Marigot and then a ferry ride to AXA check in at Alamanda that evening.
Day three; Relax walk Shoal Bay East, shoot some photos and maybe snorkel a bit.
Day four; Our intent is to rent a car and tour the island, find some photo ops, hang out at a few beaches and catch a nice meal for dinner.
Day 5; Friends join us via a day trip, will dive and check out ….then check in at Flamingo on SXM.
Day 6; First full day on SXM will hit grocery store and then a beach, most likely Baie Rouge.
Day 7; Most likely head to Orient today and a snorkel to caye verte. Then again we may end up at another beach….who knows.
Day 8; Beach day but may get in a visit to Fort ST Louis in Marigot and a beach close by like…Friars or Rouge
Day 9; Take friends to airport then beach day, this is our Anniversary….wife wants to go to Peg Leg Pub for dinner…ok by me.
Day 10; Beach day will meet with two other couples for dinner. We have not met before but I though it would be fun as all three couples will celebrate anniversaries that week
Day 11; Beach day, we will pick our favorite beach of the week and spend the day there getting all the sun we can.
Day 12; End of a great vacation, early flight to San Juan on to Dallas and then KC. If all goes well will be home by 5PM.
This week we broke thru the 30 day countdown and have actually re-visited our checklist of things to do and purchase before our trip. Without going thru the entire list…and with our weekend purchase of some dive equipment for the lady of the house we have completed our list of things to do before vacation. Only things left, get a base tan via tanning salon, hit the bank for a big withdrawal and of course pack.
Since we are bringing fins with us this year…..I am sad to say no carry on only. This will ad some significant time going down as we have to check in on two separate days as well as on the way back in San Juan when we will have to gather our bags for customs.
We have discussed a general vacation itinerary.
This is purposely vague, as in beach….we won’t know till the mood strikes us which beach we will hang out at. There are lots of folks that will only go to Orient Beach, we are not those folks. We will visit Orient but there are so many other beautiful beaches on island and we are not naturalists we feel that parking at Orient the entire trip would not do our souls justice so we go to a different beach daily.
We are not big foodies so we won’t plan but a couple of meals, one being our anniversary and the other is to meet some folks for dinner. Otherwise, what ever the mood strikes is where we will go.
Here is a fly over plan for our trip.
Day one; Leave KC for Dallas in afternoon, overnight in Dallas and meet a friend for dinner.
Day two; 6AM flight from Dallas to Miami and on to SXM will be on island before 2PM, cab to Marigot and then a ferry ride to AXA check in at Alamanda that evening.
Day three; Relax walk Shoal Bay East, shoot some photos and maybe snorkel a bit.
Day four; Our intent is to rent a car and tour the island, find some photo ops, hang out at a few beaches and catch a nice meal for dinner.
Day 5; Friends join us via a day trip, will dive and check out ….then check in at Flamingo on SXM.
Day 6; First full day on SXM will hit grocery store and then a beach, most likely Baie Rouge.
Day 7; Most likely head to Orient today and a snorkel to caye verte. Then again we may end up at another beach….who knows.
Day 8; Beach day but may get in a visit to Fort ST Louis in Marigot and a beach close by like…Friars or Rouge
Day 9; Take friends to airport then beach day, this is our Anniversary….wife wants to go to Peg Leg Pub for dinner…ok by me.
Day 10; Beach day will meet with two other couples for dinner. We have not met before but I though it would be fun as all three couples will celebrate anniversaries that week
Day 11; Beach day, we will pick our favorite beach of the week and spend the day there getting all the sun we can.
Day 12; End of a great vacation, early flight to San Juan on to Dallas and then KC. If all goes well will be home by 5PM.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
On Island Photo session may be happening....
I had in an earlier blog commented on having a photo session done while on island.
We even kicked around the idea of a trash the dress scenario. My wife did try on her wedding dress and I kind of thought that was the end of that idea. She has since brought the idea back up and seems interested so I contacted photographer on island. Jerrol James at Jerrolsphoto@hotmail.com. He comes highly recommended by some of our friends that had an outdoor sitting with him a year or so ago.
I sent Jerrol a quick run down of our interest, as in the type of pictures….all outdoor and some may include the wedding dress my wife wore 25 years ago. I also expressed the desire for photo op location. Jerrol said he was interested and would check out the site I asked about and get back with me about if it is something that can be done or not.
My lovely wife is looking for ways to modify her dress. We were married in the early 80’s and though the dress is very nice some alteration may make it a bit less dated and lead to some fun shots. She said if we do go thru with the trash the dress component that she is truly willing to do some trashing as in getting it wet in the ocean….covered in sand and the likes. What a good sport she has been with this. Rob regularly comes up with hair brained schemes that usually lead to a …NO! for a response. She heard me out on this one and actually has given it some serious thought and is very much considering going thru with this.
I know Jerrol will do a nice job, have seen his works before. The site I have in mind may be the hurdle that we have to overcome here….as in can he get the necessary equipment to the location we are looking for without any “issues”. The usual way to reach this place is via jet ski but we may have to find someone with a zodiac to ferry us to our destination.
I truly believe that if this works out like my mind thinks it will we could have a lot of fun and have some incredible pix to cherish for the rest of our lives.
Stay tuned…there will be more, lots more to come on this issue for sure.
We even kicked around the idea of a trash the dress scenario. My wife did try on her wedding dress and I kind of thought that was the end of that idea. She has since brought the idea back up and seems interested so I contacted photographer on island. Jerrol James at Jerrolsphoto@hotmail.com. He comes highly recommended by some of our friends that had an outdoor sitting with him a year or so ago.
I sent Jerrol a quick run down of our interest, as in the type of pictures….all outdoor and some may include the wedding dress my wife wore 25 years ago. I also expressed the desire for photo op location. Jerrol said he was interested and would check out the site I asked about and get back with me about if it is something that can be done or not.
My lovely wife is looking for ways to modify her dress. We were married in the early 80’s and though the dress is very nice some alteration may make it a bit less dated and lead to some fun shots. She said if we do go thru with the trash the dress component that she is truly willing to do some trashing as in getting it wet in the ocean….covered in sand and the likes. What a good sport she has been with this. Rob regularly comes up with hair brained schemes that usually lead to a …NO! for a response. She heard me out on this one and actually has given it some serious thought and is very much considering going thru with this.
I know Jerrol will do a nice job, have seen his works before. The site I have in mind may be the hurdle that we have to overcome here….as in can he get the necessary equipment to the location we are looking for without any “issues”. The usual way to reach this place is via jet ski but we may have to find someone with a zodiac to ferry us to our destination.
I truly believe that if this works out like my mind thinks it will we could have a lot of fun and have some incredible pix to cherish for the rest of our lives.
Stay tuned…there will be more, lots more to come on this issue for sure.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Ahhh finally, a taste of Spring
This weekend Kansas City came out of it’s deep freeze for an, all be it too short, peek at what is around the corner. The weekend was the best we have seen weather wise since way before Thanksgiving. Friday thru Sunday were all in the 60’s or 70’s a bit windy but I don’t think anyone but the golfers minded. I did however see a few youngsters getting drug down the street by run away kites.
What a weekend. I haven’t in the past used my blog to document my weekends but this one is worth it. Thursday afternoon I was gifted with some logo wear direct from the seamstress that I have contracted with. I was very happy with what I got. So those of you that see us in SXM will get to see some of this merchandise. Friday being casual day at work and fairly warm allowed me to wear one of my new polo shirts to work. The logo got a warm reception from those who noticed. There are a couple of things I will do differently going forward but I like what was provided….Remember, be careful what you ask for you just might get it. I did and it proves that doing due diligence is worth while when being creative.
Friday evening the lady of the house (found out she isn’t fond of CB (child-bride), go figure) and I went to visit some friends that had returned from the island a week previous. We always have a great time with them so we listened to their adventures and shared some wine for the girls and rum for the guys. They broke out a bottle of MaDouDou Banana Vanilla rum. Mmmmmmm Several shots later the lady of the house…(mine) reminded me that I was the one that would be driving home. Oops. That meant a quick switch to water and a bit more conversation. I will not drive after drinking unless I know that time has passed and I am completely sober. Friday was wonderful.
Saturday I spent the afternoon with our youngest son at an Arena Football League game. We had a great time and had a very interesting concoction…No wonder KC is one of the fattest cities in the country. It was a KC dog. ½ lb hotdog with shredded BBQ beef brisket and fried onion rings on top and then had to wash it down with a giant beer. Now that will give anyone a bit of indigestion. But the game was fun and spending time with my son…priceless.
Sunday started great….warm and windy but ended with a huge deluge of rain and temps in the low 30’s The lady of the house and I ran some errands while it was nice then later in the day spent some time with eldest son participating in an Old Chicago St Patty’s day beer tour. Where we pondered the meaning of life and the future over a few pints of Guinness.
While out with the lady of the house we picked up some vacation supplies to add to the ever growing pile that we have in our room and then got the liver in tune with a bit of libations this weekend too. Nothing too much but a pretty good start. We have also scoped out tanning specials and will be snapping up some tans soon. We are down to 6 weeks so the focus of our free time is vacation based. Look out AXA and SXM here we come.
What a weekend. I haven’t in the past used my blog to document my weekends but this one is worth it. Thursday afternoon I was gifted with some logo wear direct from the seamstress that I have contracted with. I was very happy with what I got. So those of you that see us in SXM will get to see some of this merchandise. Friday being casual day at work and fairly warm allowed me to wear one of my new polo shirts to work. The logo got a warm reception from those who noticed. There are a couple of things I will do differently going forward but I like what was provided….Remember, be careful what you ask for you just might get it. I did and it proves that doing due diligence is worth while when being creative.
Friday evening the lady of the house (found out she isn’t fond of CB (child-bride), go figure) and I went to visit some friends that had returned from the island a week previous. We always have a great time with them so we listened to their adventures and shared some wine for the girls and rum for the guys. They broke out a bottle of MaDouDou Banana Vanilla rum. Mmmmmmm Several shots later the lady of the house…(mine) reminded me that I was the one that would be driving home. Oops. That meant a quick switch to water and a bit more conversation. I will not drive after drinking unless I know that time has passed and I am completely sober. Friday was wonderful.
Saturday I spent the afternoon with our youngest son at an Arena Football League game. We had a great time and had a very interesting concoction…No wonder KC is one of the fattest cities in the country. It was a KC dog. ½ lb hotdog with shredded BBQ beef brisket and fried onion rings on top and then had to wash it down with a giant beer. Now that will give anyone a bit of indigestion. But the game was fun and spending time with my son…priceless.
Sunday started great….warm and windy but ended with a huge deluge of rain and temps in the low 30’s The lady of the house and I ran some errands while it was nice then later in the day spent some time with eldest son participating in an Old Chicago St Patty’s day beer tour. Where we pondered the meaning of life and the future over a few pints of Guinness.
While out with the lady of the house we picked up some vacation supplies to add to the ever growing pile that we have in our room and then got the liver in tune with a bit of libations this weekend too. Nothing too much but a pretty good start. We have also scoped out tanning specials and will be snapping up some tans soon. We are down to 6 weeks so the focus of our free time is vacation based. Look out AXA and SXM here we come.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Rob's Ramblings
I don’t remember the last time we went an entire week with daily highs above the freezing mark. This week it just might happen. Monday was nice, snowed last night just a bit and today will be close to 32 degrees…we are hoping that this is a change in the jet stream….if those lovely Canadians (no offense) would just keep their arctic air those of us in the plains states would be much much happier. Don’t get me wrong…in comparison to those in other winters we plains states folks have pretty mild winters but when not used to it. It SUCKS!!!!
Second thing is business. I am slowly doing well, have talked with an attorney and now need to speak with my accountant …. Fill out the proper forms and submit. Then off for some business cards. I have the logo as I said before and will have in hand some shirts and hats this week. Rob is getting excited.
This trip will be about introducing the name in the market. Will not be max exposure since we are headed to the island about 6 months too early but we shall see. This will be a sample tour for logo wear but will be a gathering tour for photos that will make up the beginning of the second part of my business. Intent here is to make some reasonable photo work in calendars and the likes as well as the opportunity for customers to purchase photos in more of an art form. Imagine yourself shooting a picture you love and then having it mounted on canvas like a painting.. My goal is to have a product that will touch those who love the islands with something everyone can afford.
Second thing is business. I am slowly doing well, have talked with an attorney and now need to speak with my accountant …. Fill out the proper forms and submit. Then off for some business cards. I have the logo as I said before and will have in hand some shirts and hats this week. Rob is getting excited.
This trip will be about introducing the name in the market. Will not be max exposure since we are headed to the island about 6 months too early but we shall see. This will be a sample tour for logo wear but will be a gathering tour for photos that will make up the beginning of the second part of my business. Intent here is to make some reasonable photo work in calendars and the likes as well as the opportunity for customers to purchase photos in more of an art form. Imagine yourself shooting a picture you love and then having it mounted on canvas like a painting.. My goal is to have a product that will touch those who love the islands with something everyone can afford.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Awesome but COLD
Last night we watched the total lunar eclipse. It was incredible, we took our DSLR outside with a 300mm lens and a starlight filter and got some nice pix. I did finally thaw enough to pull out a couple of pix and to put them here for you to view.....wooo hooo!!!
The temp last night was in the single digits and a bit windy too….We (eldest son and I) froze! The experience however was worth it. Want to also thank my youngest son for if it were not for his lens donation the pix above would not have been possible. we shot a couple of shots at 75mm and you could hardly even tell it was the moon. So thanks for the loan of the lens Andrew.
This morning we woke to sleet falling and a whopping 14 degree temperature. I think I wrote in a previous post. I hate winter. That opinion certainly hasn't changed.
It hasn’t been bone chilling cold this winter but we have been stuck between 5 and 35 degrees for months. Typically KC winters have a couple of weeks of break where we see the 50s and 60s. I think we have had maybe 2 or 3 days in 2008 that have gotten that warm. KC is getting pretty grouchy. There are lots of places with much worse winters than what we have but we simply are not used to this.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A New Venture
I have decided to start my own company. I will be selling logo wear and some photography works. Have the logo picked out and going to the seamstress today.
This will allow me to bring some hats and shirts to the islands to display.
I am working on things like my LLC license, copyright of logo and hooking up with the photo reproduction folks. I already have purchased the website name and will now be running two sites, one for fun and one hopefully for profit.
Currently I have the logo developed and am working on other ideas for t-shirts but at this point no screen printer so that is temporarily on hold .
I will announce the site name and some merchandise soon, have to get everything set up first.
Getting much closer in our trip planning, we have a general agenda set and will meet with some friends that just got back from a week in SXM yesterday. We are excited to see what they were up to while there. Found a nice dress for CB to wear on the evening of our anniversary, summer stuff is starting to show up on racks at some of the stores and happened to luck into this little dress. Was something that is nice but can be machine washed and easily tossed on after a day at the beach.
Honestly I think we are about as prepared as can possibly be now. Need suntan lotion and to tan a bit then load ourselves on to our ever changing flight schedule and head to the islands. I use ever changing because we have been scheduled for three different flights from KC to DFW and I just noticed that they moved our seats around on our leg home from the island. We had all seats at the front of the plane now on the way home we have been moved to the back….grrrrrr and our original seats have already been filled.
Oh well we still have the flight so I can certainly deal with being in the back rather than the front.
This will allow me to bring some hats and shirts to the islands to display.
I am working on things like my LLC license, copyright of logo and hooking up with the photo reproduction folks. I already have purchased the website name and will now be running two sites, one for fun and one hopefully for profit.
Currently I have the logo developed and am working on other ideas for t-shirts but at this point no screen printer so that is temporarily on hold .
I will announce the site name and some merchandise soon, have to get everything set up first.
Getting much closer in our trip planning, we have a general agenda set and will meet with some friends that just got back from a week in SXM yesterday. We are excited to see what they were up to while there. Found a nice dress for CB to wear on the evening of our anniversary, summer stuff is starting to show up on racks at some of the stores and happened to luck into this little dress. Was something that is nice but can be machine washed and easily tossed on after a day at the beach.
Honestly I think we are about as prepared as can possibly be now. Need suntan lotion and to tan a bit then load ourselves on to our ever changing flight schedule and head to the islands. I use ever changing because we have been scheduled for three different flights from KC to DFW and I just noticed that they moved our seats around on our leg home from the island. We had all seats at the front of the plane now on the way home we have been moved to the back….grrrrrr and our original seats have already been filled.
Oh well we still have the flight so I can certainly deal with being in the back rather than the front.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Let the purchasing begin!
First thing was PhotoShop Pro for my laptop. Rob has yet another toy to play with. Last night I learned how to place a logo on pictures. Was fun and there will be much more to learn.
Have swung into a new mindset, every time we go shopping my mantra is….buy what we need and anything else we spend will be for the trip ie a trip to Sam’s club….wife picked up a paperback book that she plans to read and leave on island. She will easily read 5 books while on island and probably more. Me on the other hand, I will bring 2 one is a hard back that one of my sons gave me that I have been saving and another paperback that can be left with no heart burn. The hardback is a Pirate story….for those that know me …. Go figure!!! When not relaxing I will have camera in hand and be shooting the natural beauty of the islands.
Starting to gather travel sized toiletries. We like having those in our carry on just in case our luggage doesn’t make it with us the first night.
Suntan lotion is the only thing we will hassle with. We have found that once we get out of the shower and dry off we will lather up with lotion and then bring the continuous spray canisters with us to the beach to re apply. We did this last visit and the continuous spray was very nice. Didn’t have to worry about dragging those little bits of sand all over you while re applying the lotion. I have found out that they now carry continuous sprays on SXM. We just have to have enough to get thru our days on Anguilla first.
We have made the decision that since we will dive a bit that we will not do our regular carry on only and will ship a bag underneath. I think it will be one big bag, mostly for our fins and a carry on suitcase along with our backpacks.
There is a pile started in the corner of our bedroom for stuff that we know we are going to bring. So far it is just books and toiletries but if we don’t start seeing warmer weather around here soon, we may start including clothing that we wont get to wear till we get there.
We have some friends that are on island now and they are checking on a photographer for us. I have some ideas that I will need to run by the photog as well as setting a price and time but really am still looking forward to an opportunity to have some portraits shot of us.
Have swung into a new mindset, every time we go shopping my mantra is….buy what we need and anything else we spend will be for the trip ie a trip to Sam’s club….wife picked up a paperback book that she plans to read and leave on island. She will easily read 5 books while on island and probably more. Me on the other hand, I will bring 2 one is a hard back that one of my sons gave me that I have been saving and another paperback that can be left with no heart burn. The hardback is a Pirate story….for those that know me …. Go figure!!! When not relaxing I will have camera in hand and be shooting the natural beauty of the islands.
Starting to gather travel sized toiletries. We like having those in our carry on just in case our luggage doesn’t make it with us the first night.
Suntan lotion is the only thing we will hassle with. We have found that once we get out of the shower and dry off we will lather up with lotion and then bring the continuous spray canisters with us to the beach to re apply. We did this last visit and the continuous spray was very nice. Didn’t have to worry about dragging those little bits of sand all over you while re applying the lotion. I have found out that they now carry continuous sprays on SXM. We just have to have enough to get thru our days on Anguilla first.
We have made the decision that since we will dive a bit that we will not do our regular carry on only and will ship a bag underneath. I think it will be one big bag, mostly for our fins and a carry on suitcase along with our backpacks.
There is a pile started in the corner of our bedroom for stuff that we know we are going to bring. So far it is just books and toiletries but if we don’t start seeing warmer weather around here soon, we may start including clothing that we wont get to wear till we get there.
We have some friends that are on island now and they are checking on a photographer for us. I have some ideas that I will need to run by the photog as well as setting a price and time but really am still looking forward to an opportunity to have some portraits shot of us.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Nailing down vacation plans with the CB
I’ve been working with CB over the last several weekends to start real plans of what we are interested in doing while on islands.
We start with a must list.
Must Do #1 CB and I are certified divers but it has been a couple of years since CB has “gotten wet”. This trip we will dive! Ok cool, now which day(s)? Our buddy’s girlfriend is certified too and he has graciously gone along with the idea of doing a resort dive to see if he likes it. I told him that we are going to dive Anguilla as I was not overly impressed with diving off of SXM the last time I went. No problem they planned to day trip to AXA so that being said…they were in. Some e-mail fired back and forth between frozen KC and Anguilla and we are all set for a Saturday of diving. CB and I will do a couple of morning dives and our friends will join us for a later dive that day. Must do #1 is now out of the way.
Must Do #2 This is a must for Rob only I think so may move down to the would like to do list soon. We have not had pix shot of the two of us professionally in 25 years. It is time to have some more done. Rob has talked CB into trying on her wedding dress and after viewing a photo shoot of another couple that did a trash the dress shoot I think CD has bought into the idea. First things first….try on the dress. Oops, bodies change thru the years. Before anyone jumps to conclusions here. CB several years ago dabbled in body building for a few years while we lived in Hawaii in the 80s and has kept the general physique ever since. So needless to say the top part of the dress where she is certainly more muscled today than a quarter century ago wont zip all the way up. We are still however thinking of possibly having some alterations done to the dress….maybe incorporate some lacing in the back and some sleeve altering too. So idea isn’t lost yet but put temporarily on hold. Still thinking of pictures and have a friend that is leaving for the island this weekend that said he would check out a photographer for us.
Like to do’s
Explore Anguilla more than we have in the past. This year we will rent a car and putter.
Visit Baie Rouge with friends. We like to walk the entire beach. The west end is incredible but want someone there with us to watch our stuff. Have 4 days with friends and are hoping to get this in one day.
Go up to Fort ST Louis again in Marigot …again with friends.
Visit Orient and Cay Verte.. this is with and or without friends so no problem there.
Visit our friend Sean at Peg Leg on a few occasions…this will again be no
Problem.
We will visit several other beaches, I know we will hit Cupecoy and Friars as well as Happy, will try to squeeze in Pinel too.
Will have dinner with two other couples on Thursday April 24th. We are all celebrating our anniversary that week so it should be fun for all.
Plan looks like this…..
Leave KC to Dallas on evening of 15th. Have dinner with a friend there
Early flight 16th to Miami and on to SXM. Catch cab, ferry and cab to hotel in Anguilla
17th….lime the day away
18th Island tour of Anguilla
19th check out, dive Anguilla and check in in SXM
20th grocery store and beach with friends
21st Day at Orient
22nd visit Marigot and fort catch afternoon at Friars and Happy
23rd take friends to airport and relax at beach….anniversary dinner!!!
24th beach day and dinner with other friends
25th catch up on anything we may have missed
26th fly home…early flights that day
So it looks as if our plate will be pretty full from start of the trip until our friends leave on Wednesday the 23rd then only thing we will have left is a dinner out and hopefully a photo shoot.
By the way, we are in the islands MON so this plan can and will change for sure!!
We start with a must list.
Must Do #1 CB and I are certified divers but it has been a couple of years since CB has “gotten wet”. This trip we will dive! Ok cool, now which day(s)? Our buddy’s girlfriend is certified too and he has graciously gone along with the idea of doing a resort dive to see if he likes it. I told him that we are going to dive Anguilla as I was not overly impressed with diving off of SXM the last time I went. No problem they planned to day trip to AXA so that being said…they were in. Some e-mail fired back and forth between frozen KC and Anguilla and we are all set for a Saturday of diving. CB and I will do a couple of morning dives and our friends will join us for a later dive that day. Must do #1 is now out of the way.
Must Do #2 This is a must for Rob only I think so may move down to the would like to do list soon. We have not had pix shot of the two of us professionally in 25 years. It is time to have some more done. Rob has talked CB into trying on her wedding dress and after viewing a photo shoot of another couple that did a trash the dress shoot I think CD has bought into the idea. First things first….try on the dress. Oops, bodies change thru the years. Before anyone jumps to conclusions here. CB several years ago dabbled in body building for a few years while we lived in Hawaii in the 80s and has kept the general physique ever since. So needless to say the top part of the dress where she is certainly more muscled today than a quarter century ago wont zip all the way up. We are still however thinking of possibly having some alterations done to the dress….maybe incorporate some lacing in the back and some sleeve altering too. So idea isn’t lost yet but put temporarily on hold. Still thinking of pictures and have a friend that is leaving for the island this weekend that said he would check out a photographer for us.
Like to do’s
Explore Anguilla more than we have in the past. This year we will rent a car and putter.
Visit Baie Rouge with friends. We like to walk the entire beach. The west end is incredible but want someone there with us to watch our stuff. Have 4 days with friends and are hoping to get this in one day.
Go up to Fort ST Louis again in Marigot …again with friends.
Visit Orient and Cay Verte.. this is with and or without friends so no problem there.
Visit our friend Sean at Peg Leg on a few occasions…this will again be no
Problem.
We will visit several other beaches, I know we will hit Cupecoy and Friars as well as Happy, will try to squeeze in Pinel too.
Will have dinner with two other couples on Thursday April 24th. We are all celebrating our anniversary that week so it should be fun for all.
Plan looks like this…..
Leave KC to Dallas on evening of 15th. Have dinner with a friend there
Early flight 16th to Miami and on to SXM. Catch cab, ferry and cab to hotel in Anguilla
17th….lime the day away
18th Island tour of Anguilla
19th check out, dive Anguilla and check in in SXM
20th grocery store and beach with friends
21st Day at Orient
22nd visit Marigot and fort catch afternoon at Friars and Happy
23rd take friends to airport and relax at beach….anniversary dinner!!!
24th beach day and dinner with other friends
25th catch up on anything we may have missed
26th fly home…early flights that day
So it looks as if our plate will be pretty full from start of the trip until our friends leave on Wednesday the 23rd then only thing we will have left is a dinner out and hopefully a photo shoot.
By the way, we are in the islands MON so this plan can and will change for sure!!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Some New Happenings
Hi all! Ok both of you that read this blog..LOL Seriously, I was happy to get a couple of notes saying that there are some folks out there that read this drivel.
Hijacking today’s post –kind of- away from my travel fever to business ok monkey business, but something fun for me.
I have been bantering about an idea for some logo wear for fun.
After a few weeks of dinking around a new logo has been created and am in process of getting it digitized. For those who know me, this logo matches me perfectly, it incorporates many of the things I find fun and adventuresome in the Caribbean!!!
I figured that I will get it on a couple of caps as well as some shirts to wear for our vacation in April. No sense wearing someone else’s logo when I can wear my own. I could actually see possibly marketing this one so I grabbed a new domain to host a site with the plan to some day market the likes of logo merchandise and some photography work with even more ideas yet to come. I’m not greedy just having fun and decided that if I like the Caribbean so much I might as well find myself a way to connect visiting the islands and business. I am not investing much in this, and truly don’t expect it to go any where but who knows. It is fun and keeps me out of trouble. Fun and out of trouble was the premise for my website http://www.AXARob.com as well as this blog, so this isn’t too much of a reach for me to venture out to something new past that.
It keeps me thinking about new ideas and adventures. I soon will be getting my hands on the high end Adobe photoshop software to edit pix. Have the domain; logo, means of logo reproduction and a name for the site now will have to develop a new webpage. That will be fun as the one I have now was pretty easy. I will also have to find a way to accept credit cards and need a virtual host for business transactions. All fun activities to me!!!
Hijacking today’s post –kind of- away from my travel fever to business ok monkey business, but something fun for me.
I have been bantering about an idea for some logo wear for fun.
After a few weeks of dinking around a new logo has been created and am in process of getting it digitized. For those who know me, this logo matches me perfectly, it incorporates many of the things I find fun and adventuresome in the Caribbean!!!
I figured that I will get it on a couple of caps as well as some shirts to wear for our vacation in April. No sense wearing someone else’s logo when I can wear my own. I could actually see possibly marketing this one so I grabbed a new domain to host a site with the plan to some day market the likes of logo merchandise and some photography work with even more ideas yet to come. I’m not greedy just having fun and decided that if I like the Caribbean so much I might as well find myself a way to connect visiting the islands and business. I am not investing much in this, and truly don’t expect it to go any where but who knows. It is fun and keeps me out of trouble. Fun and out of trouble was the premise for my website http://www.AXARob.com as well as this blog, so this isn’t too much of a reach for me to venture out to something new past that.
It keeps me thinking about new ideas and adventures. I soon will be getting my hands on the high end Adobe photoshop software to edit pix. Have the domain; logo, means of logo reproduction and a name for the site now will have to develop a new webpage. That will be fun as the one I have now was pretty easy. I will also have to find a way to accept credit cards and need a virtual host for business transactions. All fun activities to me!!!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
It’s Winter here but …… Things are warming up!!
This week KC is in a deep freeze. Not as bad as some other places but for KC it is freaking cold.
Things are coming along very well for our April trip! Friend has booked his flights. We wont be flying together but all is ok there. He has decided to try scuba since the rest of us are certified divers. This works well as I have contacted Shoal Bay Scuba.. http://www.shoalbayscuba.com/ they will provide training and we can do a mid day dive.
Works with travel schedule, I can pick them up at the ferry and drive them to training and then we can head out for a bit of underwater time! Relax on the beach for a while and then CB and I could check into our room on SXM later that day.
This weekend we did a bit of local travel to visit CB’s parents 3 hours away. She for the first time started talking of plans for our trip. Rob was really excited. We decided that there were two have to do events. Dive in Anguilla and we want to go to Cay Verte just off of orient beach.
We have a third thing that we will do but not yet sure at what level. I would like some pictures taken of us to celebrate our 25th anny. I have discussed the trash the dress thing with my wife and she has started to warm to the idea. First things first, she will need to try on the dress….if it fits then we will discuss further. If not we will just have pix done.
So if you see a lady in a wedding dress on a jet ski at Orient Beach in April…wave hi to us! Have a friend going to the island next month that will be checking on a photographer for us.
We are down to 12 weeks now with friends booked so the fun is just beginning.
Things are coming along very well for our April trip! Friend has booked his flights. We wont be flying together but all is ok there. He has decided to try scuba since the rest of us are certified divers. This works well as I have contacted Shoal Bay Scuba.. http://www.shoalbayscuba.com/ they will provide training and we can do a mid day dive.
Works with travel schedule, I can pick them up at the ferry and drive them to training and then we can head out for a bit of underwater time! Relax on the beach for a while and then CB and I could check into our room on SXM later that day.
This weekend we did a bit of local travel to visit CB’s parents 3 hours away. She for the first time started talking of plans for our trip. Rob was really excited. We decided that there were two have to do events. Dive in Anguilla and we want to go to Cay Verte just off of orient beach.
We have a third thing that we will do but not yet sure at what level. I would like some pictures taken of us to celebrate our 25th anny. I have discussed the trash the dress thing with my wife and she has started to warm to the idea. First things first, she will need to try on the dress….if it fits then we will discuss further. If not we will just have pix done.
So if you see a lady in a wedding dress on a jet ski at Orient Beach in April…wave hi to us! Have a friend going to the island next month that will be checking on a photographer for us.
We are down to 12 weeks now with friends booked so the fun is just beginning.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Fighting the pre-trip battle of the bulge
This is a war I have to fight before every vacation! We have just over 90 days left until we are in ST Maarten and Anguilla. I need to shed probably around 20 lbs, really much more than that but....I think I can lose 20 in 90 days. I have many reasons to lose weight health being first and foremost and I am one of those 40 somethings that would prefer to look better in or out of swim trunks while on island.
This as you know if you have been reading along will be our 25th anniversary. Would love to look better for my wife too.
I am a baby boom couch potato. Started exercise and caught a very bad cold so stopped exercise while sick. Now need to get back to it. Have some other health issues that have surfaced with parents in the past several months that have also gotten my attention and makes me wanna lose some non essential pounds.
Key for Rob is exercise and cutting down on what I eat. Duh....pretty simple right? Nooooo it isnt! Issue….I like to eat! The foods I eat aren’t always the best for me either so I am working to wean myself from sugars and processed carbs like bread and pasta. No atkins diet here but I don’t need all the processed junk. Is easily said but real tuff to follow.
Wish me luck or man the harpoons.
Tonight is a big night for us and our trip. CB and I are meeting the 4th person in our party. The person our friend has decided to take along on our journey. Should be fun as she sounds like a great person. From what he has described we have lots in common. Tonight is a wine and cheese get together with a bit of conversation about the island, activities available and the start of activities planning. I however know that no matter what we have planned….we wont do too much as lying on the beach “sand gravity” seems to win out almost every day. I know she is a diver and we have talked of a day of diving, not sure yet if it will be off of Anguilla ( my choice) or SXM. Our friend is not certified but is willing to take the resort course and give it a try…at least at this time he has agreed to do that.
This as you know if you have been reading along will be our 25th anniversary. Would love to look better for my wife too.
I am a baby boom couch potato. Started exercise and caught a very bad cold so stopped exercise while sick. Now need to get back to it. Have some other health issues that have surfaced with parents in the past several months that have also gotten my attention and makes me wanna lose some non essential pounds.
Key for Rob is exercise and cutting down on what I eat. Duh....pretty simple right? Nooooo it isnt! Issue….I like to eat! The foods I eat aren’t always the best for me either so I am working to wean myself from sugars and processed carbs like bread and pasta. No atkins diet here but I don’t need all the processed junk. Is easily said but real tuff to follow.
Wish me luck or man the harpoons.
Tonight is a big night for us and our trip. CB and I are meeting the 4th person in our party. The person our friend has decided to take along on our journey. Should be fun as she sounds like a great person. From what he has described we have lots in common. Tonight is a wine and cheese get together with a bit of conversation about the island, activities available and the start of activities planning. I however know that no matter what we have planned….we wont do too much as lying on the beach “sand gravity” seems to win out almost every day. I know she is a diver and we have talked of a day of diving, not sure yet if it will be off of Anguilla ( my choice) or SXM. Our friend is not certified but is willing to take the resort course and give it a try…at least at this time he has agreed to do that.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Double Digit Midget
I’ve been waiting a long time to say that. Today my visit to the island clock went to 99 days and counting! Woo Hoo!! I booked our trip 13 months out so this feels like a looong time coming. The bride and I are all set for rooms, air and car rental. We have discussed a few activities. Have friends that are going that we will hang out with for part of our stay. They are a bit behind us as for planning. Have their room but no flights. The flights will happen soon enough.
This will be a fun outing. We plan to dive one day while there. Am thinking that I would like to dive off of Anguilla instead of ST Maarten. One of our friends is a diver but the other isn’t. He laughs and realizes that it is pretty likely that he will be taking a resort class while there so he can go with us.
Weather here at home is crazy…spent 3 days in the 60’s and today is 35. Makes me really want to get to the island beaches as soon as we can.
I am toying with a new logo for my site and then with having the logo stitched onto a few hats/visors and shirts. Might as well wear stuff with my label on it instead of someone elses. Once I have the logo done I will post it here. We did run a first shot at a logo…on an earlier post but would be too hard to shrink down to hat sized and would lose its detail so am giving it another try….
All for now!
This will be a fun outing. We plan to dive one day while there. Am thinking that I would like to dive off of Anguilla instead of ST Maarten. One of our friends is a diver but the other isn’t. He laughs and realizes that it is pretty likely that he will be taking a resort class while there so he can go with us.
Weather here at home is crazy…spent 3 days in the 60’s and today is 35. Makes me really want to get to the island beaches as soon as we can.
I am toying with a new logo for my site and then with having the logo stitched onto a few hats/visors and shirts. Might as well wear stuff with my label on it instead of someone elses. Once I have the logo done I will post it here. We did run a first shot at a logo…on an earlier post but would be too hard to shrink down to hat sized and would lose its detail so am giving it another try….
All for now!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Trash that Dress!!
I learned of an interesting concept recently. Ladies, what do you do with that wedding dress after your big day? Clean it, box it up and hope some day you may have a daughter that would love to wear it…. I learned on Travel Talk of a couple that took the wedding dress to ST Maarten with them and “trashed” it while with a photographer on the island.
No not as in torn up but more like some fantastic pictures that have to be just about as memorable as the wedding pix themselves…. Click on this link to view http://www.photoshow.com/watch/az3vE3CQ
I am trying to talk my beautiful bride of soon to be 25 years into doing the same sort of thing for our anniversary. Think it would be a lot of fun but not so sure that she will consider it. We do have kids but both are boys so the idea of passing on to your kids is out. Yes she could still fit into the dress but am sure she is thinking of the burden of getting the dress to the island. We are as you well know if you have read previous posts….carry on only people.
Guess I will have to work on her a bit but anyway enjoy the link as the pix are great and the couple looks like they were having the time of their lives..
No not as in torn up but more like some fantastic pictures that have to be just about as memorable as the wedding pix themselves…. Click on this link to view http://www.photoshow.com/watch/az3vE3CQ
I am trying to talk my beautiful bride of soon to be 25 years into doing the same sort of thing for our anniversary. Think it would be a lot of fun but not so sure that she will consider it. We do have kids but both are boys so the idea of passing on to your kids is out. Yes she could still fit into the dress but am sure she is thinking of the burden of getting the dress to the island. We are as you well know if you have read previous posts….carry on only people.
Guess I will have to work on her a bit but anyway enjoy the link as the pix are great and the couple looks like they were having the time of their lives..
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Merry New Year!!
Yes I know it is Happy New Year but that is one of the lines that sticks in my head from the movie Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy.
It has been a while since I have posted. We survived the holidays and it’s travels and come out the other side to a new year. Rob is excited about this year, we will travel in April to the islands and now that we have passed the holiday my child bride (cb) is starting to think of things that she would like to do while in the islands. She wants to eat in Grand Case, go to Pinel island and dive while in Anguilla. I saw a posting about women wearing their wedding dresses and having a photo shoot with them on at the beach, riding horses and the likes. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. We have been married for almost 25 years and I would bet that my cb could still fit into her wedding dress. It has been in a box for that entire time except for when it was cleaned after our wedding. We have no girls to hand the dress down to so I thought it might be a cool idea to take the dress with us and do a photo shoot with her in it…. Her response…we are traveling light, I don’t want to lug that thing all the way there. I told her we should mail it to a friend on the island and do the shoot. Don’t think she will go for it but who knows.
Am thinking for last scene, a snorkel or dive outing. Envision scene of Elizabeth’s dress from Pirates of the Caribbean II. Oh well we can discuss further.
I found a couple of cool spots on www.googleearth.com one is in Anguilla where there is a large boat that was washed ashore I am sure during a storm and there is another place just off of Orient Beach on ST Martin with a sailboat that was wrecked. We will visit both to shoot some nice pix. Now have to get cb to agree to pose.
Like probably half of America, we have started our diets for the year. Is going to be a hard one for me but I want to lose probably 20lbs before we go to the islands. Don’t want folks rolling me back into the water because I look like a beached whale. Ok, it isn’t that bad but I am more than a bit over weight and could lose a bunch of weight for health reasons as well as to look better for cb while on island
Again Happy New Year!
It has been a while since I have posted. We survived the holidays and it’s travels and come out the other side to a new year. Rob is excited about this year, we will travel in April to the islands and now that we have passed the holiday my child bride (cb) is starting to think of things that she would like to do while in the islands. She wants to eat in Grand Case, go to Pinel island and dive while in Anguilla. I saw a posting about women wearing their wedding dresses and having a photo shoot with them on at the beach, riding horses and the likes. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. We have been married for almost 25 years and I would bet that my cb could still fit into her wedding dress. It has been in a box for that entire time except for when it was cleaned after our wedding. We have no girls to hand the dress down to so I thought it might be a cool idea to take the dress with us and do a photo shoot with her in it…. Her response…we are traveling light, I don’t want to lug that thing all the way there. I told her we should mail it to a friend on the island and do the shoot. Don’t think she will go for it but who knows.
Am thinking for last scene, a snorkel or dive outing. Envision scene of Elizabeth’s dress from Pirates of the Caribbean II. Oh well we can discuss further.
I found a couple of cool spots on www.googleearth.com one is in Anguilla where there is a large boat that was washed ashore I am sure during a storm and there is another place just off of Orient Beach on ST Martin with a sailboat that was wrecked. We will visit both to shoot some nice pix. Now have to get cb to agree to pose.
Like probably half of America, we have started our diets for the year. Is going to be a hard one for me but I want to lose probably 20lbs before we go to the islands. Don’t want folks rolling me back into the water because I look like a beached whale. Ok, it isn’t that bad but I am more than a bit over weight and could lose a bunch of weight for health reasons as well as to look better for cb while on island
Again Happy New Year!
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