Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Weekend Getaway - Pizza Edition











We had a great time on our weekend getaway to Anna Maria Island.  The water views were amazing, we traveled around the area quite a bit.  On our way in at around 10pm on Friday we stopped by an original Buffalo Pizza place called Casa De Pizza.  It was a favorite of my wifey, being from Buffalo and it did not disappoint.  It was a small little place in a strip mall with some outdoor seating as well and it was packed full of people watching the final game of the NHL hockey playoffs with the hometown Tampa Bay Lightning playing the Boston Bruins.  It was good to see so much interest for hockey, but of course it was the most important game of the year and unfortunately they lost, but we were at the hotel by the time the game was over.  It was cool to see Buffalo memorabilia in the restaurant.  Pictures of Flutie Flakes, Buffalo Bills and Sabres stickers on the windows, pictures of Bills players, etc.  If you didn't know any better, you'd think you were up north and the wifey said the pizza was just like home.  Check out the two pics I found on Trip Advisor of that place.  Next time we'll have to try the wings. 
 
A main goal of our trip was to bring back some yummy pizza from one of our favorite Rochester NY pizza places, Pontillo's.  We made the 40 minute drive into Sarasota to try things out to see if things stacked up to the reviews we had read prior and unfortunately it was an EPIC FAIL.  Apparently they've changed owners, but kept the name and the pizza is absolutely nothing like the original.  It was actually TERRIBLE, almost inedible.  I will be posting a review on Urban Spoon or whatever site it was that we read beforehand, which said the pizza is exactly the same as it is in Rochester, NY because that has certainly changed. 

Fortunately for us, we had a backup plan in Mark's pizza, which was also a hometown favorite and they had just opened up about a month ago about 50 minutes from where we were staying.  Fortunately that pizza was EXACTLY the same as the Mark's pizza up north and was/is soooo good.  The owner was super nice and was originally from Canandaigua NY and he gave us a great deal.  He only charged 7.99 per large, which was $5 off each pie.  And man was it worth every penny!  We shared 3 slices that day, 1 just after eating lunch and 2 more just before dinner.  Needless to say, I didn't eat a whole lot of dinner that day.  I couldn't help myself today, we haven't grocery shopped for the week yet and I couldn't find anything for lunch today and I broke down and ate the 3 pieces in the freezer inside the house.  :-o  They were right there calling my name and I couldn't resist.  Luckily the rest are in the freezer in the garage and they're just far enough away that I should be able to resist the temptation for a while.  You'd think I'd be pizza'd out by now, but really its so good that I'm salivating right now just thinking about it! 

So for now we'll have to make the remaining 4 1/3rd pizzas last to satisfy that hometown pizza craving.  We had mentioned to the hotel staff that a big reason for the trip was the pizza and everyone had to ask what it was about the pizza that was such a huge draw...It was really hard to put into words, but it is really the whole package.  It's not at all about the toppings for me, as I usually just eat cheese or if I'm real hungry, I'll eat Peperoni also.  I'm a huge sauce and dough person and for me, it's just the right thickness, perfect combination of texture/taste and look/feel...mmm, perfection! 

Mark's is now our favorite since they came through where Pontillo's failed us.  Whenever we're in Rochester it will still have to be handled on a case by case basis with the standard Pizza Wars in effect to determine if Pontillo's or Mark's takes the crown on any given day.  Stay tuned for further details on the trip in tomorrow's blog post!

Casa De Pizza in Bradenton Florida
Picture from Trip Advisor of some Bills Fans enjoying Casa De Pizza

This should be called NON-Tillo's
A disgraceful, almost inedible attempt at pizza
Knight in shining armor to the rescue!
Just HAD to try one piece before we left, so freakin good!
Perfection!
5 yummy boxes full just prior to being wrapped up in foil/ziplocs

Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day

Thanks to all of our servicemen/women who have given their lives in support of our great country and all the sacrifices made by their friends and family!!


Friday, May 27, 2011

Summer TV Shows



The way it used to be in the past, shows would go through their season finales and then summer was here and it was re-run time.  As kids, you'd be out of school, would head out to play and didn't care much.  Now with our sedentary lifestyles and different stations wanting to keep/gain viewers during the 'down' season, lots of stations are taking advantage by launching new seasons of shows during that time.  Below are the ones we're most excited about:

1.  True Blood, HBO season premiere Sunday, June 26th, 9pm.  Last summer we watched all 3 seasons during a few week period and we're all caught up and sucked in.  I didn't think a show about Vampires (and lots of other odd creatures as time went on) would interest me, but it's good stuff.

2.  Breaking Bad, AMC season premiere Sunday, July 17th, 10pm.  This is one of my favorites.  It's been a long off season, over a year I believe due to some delays.  This is about a chemistry teacher than ends up diagnosed with cancer and decides to start manufacturing Meth to come up with $$ to support his family after he's gone.  Lots more crazy stuff happened after that, but have to watch it to find out.  This is another one where we watched all of the episodes during a month or so last summer and I was hooked more so than the wifey, but she got into it also.

3.  Big Brother, CBS premiere Thursday, July 7, 2011 9pm.  This is a big family favorite.  The wifey and I, my sisters and mom all watch it religiously and talk about it in between episodes.  Some years are better than others and it all depends on the cast as to how the show will go.  It can get frustrating when the annoying peeps overextend their welcome .  It isn't rocket science TV, but it's usually entertaining and it's on 3 times a week when most shows aren't new, so it passes the time. 

4.  Royal Pains Season 3 premieres on USA Network on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 9pm.  This is a show about a concierge doctor service in the Hamptons.  He's kinda like a mini-Macgyver/House doctor guy.  Lots of good HD scenery and some mini-sub plots.

5.  Hollywood Treasure, Wednesday, June 1st, 10pm on SyFy.  Show that auctions off Hollywood memorabilia.  Sometimes there are really cool items that go for really high prices.  This one is kinda a filler show.  Good when you're just looking for a quick entertaining brainless show.  Similar to American Pickers, Pawn Stars, etc.

Speaking of which, I couldn't find if/when there will be a new season of Pawn Stars.  Hoping there is one.  Other than those shows, I have a bunch of episodes of recent shows to catch up on such as Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Hardcore Pawn, American Pickers and Tosh.O

I'm sure there are some new ones I'm forgetting.  My sister Michelle will be sure to let me know, since she's a self proclaimed TV addict.  Our show tastes don't necessarily overlap for the most part though, but will see if there are any obvious ones I missed.  There were a ton of changes to the new Fall TV lineup, but it's too early to research that. 

Are there any shows that you're into which have new seasons starting sometime between now and this summer that you are looking forward to?  Would love to hear about em...Have a great long weekend!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Droid X Gingerbread Update - June 1st


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

** Update **  The Gingerbread update is now available as of 6/1 

 

It looks like Verizon will be pushing out the new update to Android, called Gingerbread on Friday. Looking at some of the new stuff it will provide, the main things are faster speed, better battery life due to controlling apps that suck major battery life and new 'improved' user interface.  Here's a link with most of the major changes. 


I'm personally most concerned with how that will affect my rooted Droid X.  It appears that performing the update will remove root and I'm assuming it will be a few days before someone releases a new procedure for re-rooting the phone.  I have root for several reasons...One is AdFree, which removes Ads from most applications, another reason is for Wi-Fi tethering for emergencies and I also have several other applications that use root access to make things easier such as transferring files off the phone to your PC over WiFi, system backups, etc.  So I will hold off on any updates for a bit and watch the forums to see what others are saying about the updates and root access.  But all in all, it's good news Verizon is bringing the update to the Droid X first.  

 

 

 By Terrence O'Brien posted May 25th 2011 11:54AM

Droid X Gingerbread
After several leaks Verizon and Motorola have finally gotten their act together -- Droid X owners, get ready for a little love in the form of Blurified Gingerbread. Verizon just reached out to let us know that Android 2.3 will start hitting the big-screened phones on Friday. You can find a full list of new features that it and the latest version of Blur bring to the party, along with instructions for downloading and installing. A Motorola employee also let slip in the company's support forums that other devices may soon follow suit: "other [Gingerbread] updates are currently scheduled to be released before the end of the third quarter." While he wouldn't name specific handsets, it seems safe to assume that the Droid 2 (including the Global version) and possibly the Droid Pro will be included.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Anniversary ROAD TRIP



At long last, we are making the road trip to PONTILLO'S PIZZA IN SARASOTA FL!!!!!!!!!!!  We can't wait to take our first bite and we are REALLY hoping that it looks exactly like it does in the picture and that it tastes the same as it does at our hometown Rochester, NY Pontillo's locations.  Based on some reviews it sounds like it should meet our expectations!!  We plan to go there on Saturday for lunch to try it before we buy, this location is different in that it looks like you can order some food/pizza slices and eat it there.  Assuming it's all good, we plan to get 5 large to bring back with us in our new cooler, purchased just for this occasion.  Check it out, it even has wheels!  I posted a message on their FB page asking if they can give us a deal too! 

In the event our taste test fails, we have a potential backup plan of Mark's pizza, which is also from our hometown and just opened a location near Tampa. Problem is Pontillo's is 36 minutes south of where we're staying and Mark's is a full hour North, closer to Tampa so if Pontillo's doesn't work out hopefully Mark's is open on Memorial Day and we could possibly stop there on the way home.  Not real concerned though, cause Pontillo's is going to be just purrrfect! 

It's a bonus that Pontillo's is located in Sarasota, since we really like it over in the Tampa/Sarasota area.  We like that the water is usually clear over on the gulf side and in many areas, such as Sarasota bay, the water is bright blue, just like it is in the Caribbean.  In addition, there are a ton more restaurants/bars located on the water there, which is what we really enjoy as well. 

Last time we were in Sarasota we stayed at a great location within walking distance of St Armands Circle.  That area has a bunch of restaurants with outdoor patios and a lot of unique little shops.  Since we've already done that area, we decided to try someplace new.

We're staying on Anna Maria Island at the BridgeWalk. We like that there are a bunch of good restaurants on the water within walking distance and great spots to watch the sunset.  We plan to hit up The Beachhouse Restaurant and The Sandbar Restaurant.  We'll probably also check out Bean Point, an off the beaten path, quiet, pristine beach spot.  Should be a great long weekend.

Any plans for the holiday weekend?

Monday, May 23, 2011

Never Quit 5K Recap

We survived our first 5k!  The whole experience was fun.  It was quite the large scale event!  However, we could certainly have done without the 90 degree weather.  It was fine in the shade with the ocean breeze, but running in the direct sun in that heat was quite a hurdle.  It has been a great spring and all of our training jogs have been in much cooler weather closer to sunset, so I wasn't quite prepared for the heat factor.

One other slight problem that threw me off was my music situation.  I had lined up a great list of pump me up tunes and had it mapped out so that I would kinda know what my pace was based on what tune was playing.  Well, literally as the 10 second countdown began to start the race, I pressed play on a particular music app I've been using this last week on my phone and it says 'No License Found' and closed.  Less than a minute before and every time I had tried it earlier in the day, it worked just fine.  So of course, I had no time to fix that issue.

I had to start out with no music and then just put Pandora on once I got a minute or two past the starting point.  That really bummed me out, because I spent the whole week hand picking tunes and I was SO looking forward to the music helping to carry me through and give me some additional energy.  The app issue was my fault, it was a trial and apparently it was limited by the number of times you can run it and I must have hit that magic number, but 10 seconds before run time?

So things didn't quite start how I had planned, but after a few minutes, I put that aside and concentrated on the matter at hand, finishing the race.  The first pace clock was at the 1 mile mark and my pace was almost exactly 12 minutes and my overall goal was to finish at 12 minutes or under.  I was kinda surprised it was that slow actually.  I felt as if I was jogging faster than I normally do and it was much more difficult due to the heat.
I did make it jogging fully until the 1.5 mile turnaround.

I slowed it down to a fast walk for a minute shortly after the turn and my legs felt like jelly.  I hadn't experienced that during training and that was when I knew not to overdo it and slow things down a bit.  Overall I think I took 3-4 breaks to walk for a minute or so and picked up the pace as I was approaching the finish line.

I was about to write that I didn't quite make my goal, but I stand corrected!!  The times are now posted here and my time was 36:54 at a pace of 11:54!!  I finished 720th out of 4189 people total.  Woot!  Not bad for my first race ever.  I'm super psyched I made my goal...looking back, that first pace clock was based on the gun start of the race, it took me around 45 seconds to get to the starting line, so my pace was actually around 11 minutes at that point.  I'm real happy with those results. 

Upon hitting the finish line they were there to hand out the chocolate covered strawberry and I grabbed 2 smoothies because I was quite overheated and I slurped them right down.  I really needed the fluids and the sugar.  After chilling out for 10 minutes or so, I went back and watched the wifey and my friend's wife and daughter finish the race.  Unfortunately when they came in, they had run out of strawberries and smoothies (oppsy).  They picked up their real nice turtle necklaces and we headed off to grab our free beers and a quick snack and then headed out.

I enjoyed the training portion a lot more than I ever thought, helped by the nice cool temps.  With temps hot now and humidity on the way, I think jogging season is over until the fall/winter/spring.  We'll still do walks around the community and I'll probably jog on the treadmill occasionally.  I do think that I will try another fun one like that at a cooler time of year.  I'd like to do one more locally when it's cool out and if all goes well, maybe we'll try something like one of the Disney 5k's.

All in all it was a success and we're definitely glad we did it!  Thanks Jen S for blazing the trail and getting us motivated to try it for ourselves.   Are you motivated to try one yourself?  Have you done a real fun 5k that you'd recommend?  Here are some pictures of the fun.

Navy Seal Challenge
Coast Guard copter doing a demo
Surfboards for the 5k Run/Swim/Paddle Trident race
No words necessary
My view just before the start of the race
Navy Paratroopers
Navy Paratroopers
Tandem Paratroopers that had just separated

He was coming down just as they were singing the national anthem
Wifey and friend coming finishing the race

Reward for successful completion, 2 free beers!   :)

Here is a link to a bunch of pictures from our local newspaper site as well. 

Friday, May 20, 2011

Happy Anniversary!!!


It was 7 years ago on May 22nd, 2004 that my super wonderful wifey and I got married on the beach at the Reef Restaurant in South Ponte Vedra Beach!  It was a picture perfect day and everything went off without a hitch. Good times!  It's been a wonderful ride and looking forward to many more happy years together!!  We're going to celebrate on the long memorial day weekend by heading to Anna Maria Island over by Sarasota.  I'll talk about that later next week...but for now, Happy Anniversary Sweetie Pea!  You're the bestest!!

Great place to have a small beachy wedding/event!

On the beach at the Reef Restaurant

Just married!   Wifey said to wear shorts so I did.

Immediate family and our friends Tim/Tori, Cheryl/Kelly. 


Our shell/beach themed cake

My mom and her sister Shirley...





Cheryl and Kelly

Tim and Tori




Thursday, May 19, 2011

Never Quit 5K!













Our very first 5k is the Never Quit Beach Fest this Saturday at 5pm on Jacksonville Beach!  We picked that one since it's at our favorite place, the beach of course, so we figured it would be fun and not super competitive.  I'm looking forward to it and think I will be able to finish the race by jogging the whole time.  We got through 5 weeks of the 9 week 'Couch to 5k' program consistently and then vacation hit and we got busy with a few things afterwards and now it's just about race time.

This past Sunday I decided to skip ahead to the final day of the program, which was a 5 minute warm-up walk followed by 30 minutes of jogging.  That was a bit of a step up from the last day I had done, which was 8 minutes of jogging twice with walking in between.  But I made it through the whole way without stopping and the total was 3.01 miles, pretty close to the 3.1 miles that a 5k equals.  My average pace per mile was 11:31 and I think that included the 5 minutes of walking, so that was pretty good I thought. 

It was my original goal to be able to finish the 5k and I was hoping to be able to jog most of it.  Now my goal is to be able to do that, but to get the best pace possible, for sure wanting to be under a 12 minute pace.  The only potential thing getting in the way may be the heat.  When I jogged it on Sunday night, the weather was around 74 degrees with a nice cool breeze around sunset.  This Saturday it's going to be a high of 90 and the race is at 5pm, but at least it's at the beach and I'm hoping for a nice cool breeze. 

Here's some cool info about the race...

Everyone receives a Never Quit T shirt.  Males receive a $75 value Soleus Running Watch with their race packet.  Women will receive a $250 appraised value Sea Turtle Necklace at the race finish.  Certificate of Authenticity is provided in the race packet.

The Never Quit Beach Fest has ballooned.
500 participants in 2009
2000 in 2010
6000 in 2011

At the finish line:
Kona Brewing Company Longboard girls will place a lei around your neck, Peterbrooke will give you your chocolate dipped strawberry and Tropical Smoothie will hand you your cold smoothie.
Ladies, please head to the Red Carpet to have the Naval Officer present you with your Sea Turtle Pendant.  

After the run...
1.  Aloha Festival, get ready to attend one of the most amazing beach parties. The sound system is massive, Sight & Sound went all out, the bands are perfect, amazing food, beer, drinks, giant LED screen showing pictures of you running from that same days event will make for an amazing and very moving evening.  This will be a great post race finale!  Each participant will receive 2 Longboard Lager beers for free.  Mmmm...beer....
2.  Firemen will be at the finish to rinse you off in the Quality Suites Parking lot.
3.  The generous people at the Quality Suites have ordered 6,000 towels so that you can dry off and they have changing rooms available.
4.  Across the street there are hair stylists ready to do up the ladies hair (1st come 1st serve)

Check out the website for lots more details about the cause and fun pictures!  They take everyone's picture at some point and make it available for free on their website, so that should be fun to see also.  Good times ahead!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Net Worth Revisited











For some reason Blogger wasn't working Thursday and just realized this never posted, so here goes...

Well, it's been a month since I first started using my Net Worth Spreadsheet and am excited that it went up 2%.  It really is useful to see what accounts are going up/down, what expenses are going up/down and how you are doing now compared with the prior month.  It is definitely good info and it only took 15 minutes and that was because I forgot one account login and had to ask the wifey for another one.  Next month it should take 10 minutes or less. 

I also decided that I'm only going to modify the estimated value of our home and vehicles once a year on 12/31 of each year.  I decided checking the value monthly really isn't necessary and not all that accurate anyway.  At the end of the year I might take a bigger hit if the housing market goes up or down a bunch and also since vehicle values decrease year to year, but if I do it each year in December at least I know that month will be different for comparison sake. 

I'd highly recommend keeping track of your Net Worth as well.  It's not as granular as a monthly budget, but it's also not as cumbersome and time consuming.  It's just a very quick snapshot of the big picture and as long as your graph is upward sloping, life is good!

Obviously, the higher the slope the better, but every little bit helps.  Also, if things are heading in the wrong direction in a particular month you can quickly see that maybe one of your credit card bills went up and perhaps it was due to a particular large purchase, such as a vacation or a new semester of classes.  If a particular 401k or other investment account went down a bunch and your Net Worth was negative from month to month, assuming the overall stock market was down during that same period, that's to be expected.  But if that's not the case, it could prompt you to take a closer look at a particular account and investigate further.

I think it's definitely a useful exercise and the Spreadsheet that I linked to is worthwhile to utilize.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, if you're starting out mid-year, it will put a couple of errors on the main summary sheet, but really all you care about is the month to month difference $ wise and % wise and those values will be correct as you input more data.  In addition, the graph tab will begin to take shape as you add data as well.  Did you start to keep track of your Net Worth?  Things looking good?  Any tips/tricks that worked well for you?  Let me know if you have any questions

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Trend Trading For a Living




Now that vacation has come and gone and the wifey's college classes started up again, it's time for me to get my study on also. I'm going to attempt to immerse myself in all things stock trading related once again to accelerate my learning.  As a result, I may not be blogging every week day, although that might be a nice diversion, but I don't want to feel like the blog posts are taking time away from my learning, so will see how it goes...

I'm going to begin reading Trend Trading For a Living.  It sounds like a book similar to Come Into My Trading Room that I'm most of the way through.  In the first few pages he's mentioned the author of Come Into My Trading Room, Alexander Elder, as one of his primary mentors, so my thinking is that I'll read Trend Trading in hopes that it will emphasize some of the concepts I've begun to learn and present it in a slightly different way and see if I think that is more or less helpful in learning the concepts.

My overall goal is that by the time I complete the Trend Trading book, that I'll have a solid enough background on how to properly use technical analysis and key indicators to be able to identify, on my own, particular stocks which are likely to go in a particular direction based on my findings.  Hopefully it will be a fruitful read and a book that will be useful towards my ultimate goal of being able to trade stocks for a living from where ever I choose!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Wisdom That Sticks With You











I got to thinking, as I was putting my clothes into the dryer, how certain phrases/advice has stuck with me over the years.  And it's very odd what has stuck.  I don't have a very good memory when it comes to remembering specific events and the times they happened, etc. however 3 phrases have stuck with me and I think of them or remember them pretty often. 

Phrase #1:  Make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.  

This was a phrase repeated over and over by my health teacher in I think 10th grade around age 15/16.  Mr Sheare I think was his name, I know the spelling is probably wrong.  There was all sorts of reasons why, being more alert, able to concentrate, health reasons like it will extend your life, etc., but it's that single phrase I still picture him saying to this day.  And yes it is always good to get at least 8 hours of sleep, but of course that doesn't always happen.  Not much more to that one, it is what it is...Just something to keep in mind. 

Phrase #2:  Always clean out the lint filter on the dryer, because it will help your clothes dry faster.

This might seem like common sense, but quite honestly it was an epiphany when I heard that phrase from my college RA the THIRD or possibly FOURTH year I was in college!  Hah, no joke!   And it's funny, compared to prior RAs, we couldn't stand the guy, his name was Mike something er other.  Who knew he would come up in a blog post 18 years later as someone who provided 1 of 3 memorable phrases in my life.  Hah...It's kinda embarrassing to admit, but it's the truth.  College kids aren't usually known for the laundry skills and that goes doubly for college males I think.  The RAs would always tell people to clean out the lint filters cause they'd get clogged and could cause a fire, but no one ever took the time to explain that cleaning the filter makes your clothes dry faster!

Since my mom always did my laundry until I left for college, that wasn't something that I was taught along the way.  I was told to clean the filter any time I switched loads, but that was all and I didn't do it very often.  A light bulb went off in my head and it made perfect sense when the RA mentioned that.  No wonder it always took at least two rounds of quarters to dry my clothes.  A lot of it was probably the amount of clothes crammed in there, but for sure cleaning the lint filter would help as well.  It didn't click until I was told something that would benefit me personally.  If I cleaned the lint filter, it would take less time to dry my clothes and take less money to do so.  That was really a slightly bigger life lesson, if you're trying to convey something important to someone, be sure to relate it to how it will affect them personally, with a positive outcome being more effective.  I just thought about that when putting my stuff in the dryer, thus this post!

3rd Phrase:  When driving, only drive as fast as the ticket you're willing to pay for.  

This was by a NY state trooper when I was taking a Drivers Ed class so that I could drive at night, so I was probably 16 or 17 at the time.  He also went on to say most of the time a cop won't give you a ticket if you're 9 MPH or less over the speed limit.  Not something you should really tell an auditorium full of teenagers, but that made him cool and maybe it's part of the reason I remembered it.  It really made sense, but I don't think it sunk in until a few years later but it really did stick with me and it was also a bigger life lesson...Think about the consequences of your actions and potential outcome before you do something.  I do think about this when driving and although I do drive faster than my wife would like at times and she would say (with good reason) that I'm extremely impatient when it comes to slow drivers in front of me, I do think about that phrase all the time.  I generally will try to think ahead to the worst possible scenario of what my actions or inactions to do something would cause and try and react accordingly ahead of time.

In the example of speeding, if you decide to drive 90 in a 70MPH zone, think about having to pay $200 or whatever the fee is, having to deal with taking a defensive driving class, have insurance go up potentially and think about how it would feel to have to spend that $200 to pay the court fees when you could have used it on something else.  I haven't gotten a speeding ticket since I was 18, which in and of itself is a miracle, but the point is I still remember how it felt to have to use my whole paycheck at the time to pay the court fees when I could have used the money on something else and I for the most part, TRY and keep it to 9MPH over the limit. 

Really the point there is thinking of the consequences of what you do or don't do and prepare ahead of time to try and prevent a negative outcome.  Another small example of this that I thought about yesterday was that I had cleaned the sink in our bathroom with liquid cleaner and wiped it with paper towel, but hadn't rinsed it out fully with water.  Normally, not a big deal, I had moved onto the next bathroom to clean that, but I got to thinking ahead.  2 of our cats are known for drinking out of the faucet and lately I've seen one of them just licking the sink/drain portion itself without any water running or in the sink.  I thought about what would happen if he went in right after I cleaned it and started to lick any leftover cleaning solution.  Probably nothing negative would happen, but why take a risk of something bad, worst case having to take him to a vet, pay huge fees, all for nothing when I could have just taken 2 minutes to rinse the sink out with water fully after.  So back I went to do that.  Not only does thinking that way usually prevent a negative outcome, it also provides peace of mind knowing you did the right thing. 

These are 3 random phrases that have stuck with me over the years for whatever reason.  I wanted to share those, but really more wanted to hear if there are any phrases or life lessons that have stuck with you over the years!  Please share any you might have and don't feel like you have to post it to Facebook if you want to keep it on the downlow.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Vacation Recap - Majestic Elegance in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

We had a wonderful time in Punta Cana, but as is usually the case, we're glad to be back as well!  Here are some of the highlights....

Upper and lower lobby and bar
View from the lower level lobby bar looking toward the beach

The beautiful view of the beach every day!

Security guy in deep thought
Movie night under the stars on the beach
Contrast picture of the catamarans and kayaks
Main pool that goes pretty much the full length of the resort
Club (Adult only) pool with all the Bali beds
Good times!
I'd highly recommend checking out the current deals for the Majestic from Apple.  They have great prices and they are very good at what they do.  We've always had great experiences with Apple.  Here is my Trip Advisor review of our trip.  If you're heading to the Majestic or Punta Cana and have any questions at all, leave a comment below.  I love to chat about travel and would be glad to help out!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic

Your regularly scheduled blog updates will return in a week...ole!

 



 
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