30
May
Last week we took our second family vacation, the first was last year to San Antonio, Austin and SeaWorld for a week. Melissa has been talking about going on a cruise for awhile now so we figured no use in waiting, lets go. Back in January we booked a 4-Day Carnival Cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. This vacation had several firsts for all of us. First time on a ship, on an island, out of the country, in Mexico, at a beach, and open water (only man-made lakes before). Needless to say this excited all of us.
We left Wichita Falls about noon on Wednesday to make the 8 hour drive to Galveston, Texas. We had booked a room at the Harbor House Hotel for the night since we boarded the ship the next day. This hotel was amazing. It sits directly on the pier which of course gives a great view to the harbor and the ships. In fact you take one step outside and your standing in front of the gulf with a big NOAA ship (the Thomas Jefferson) in front of you. We walked around the pier, snapped a few pictures and walked to the Port Terminal to get an idea of where we would be going the next morning. Thursday morning we woke up a lot earlier then we planned, but looking out the window we got to see the Carnival Ecstasy pull into the harbor and dock, the same ship we would be getting on very soon. Since we were up and excited we got our bags and walked down to the terminal, knowing they wouldn’t let us on for an hour or two. We got lucky and they were already letting people go through customs, get their Sail & Sign cards and start boarding the ship. Which means we didn’t have much of a line to wait in and got to board the ship and go straight for the food.
The ship is beyond huge. At least for us, who have never been on anything that large before (none of us have ever flown before either). I was prepared that I might get sick from the ship’s motion, but got lucky again and did not. I could feel the ship rocking which caused me to wobble some while walking around and sitting at the tables. Melissa and the kids seemed fine through out the trip. The ship has so many lights, bars/clubs, places to eat and lots of music and shows. I fell in love with the view all around the ship. Nothing but water as far as you can see, the wind from the gulf, ships and rigs in the distance, I did not want to leave. We did get a room with a window on the port side, which was really nice. First thing that you notice is how much food there is on board. They said if you planned your day around just the food, you could have 14 completely different meals every day while on board. The menus changed for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert every day. Needless to say, that was awesome.
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02
Jan
As most of you know by now, 2009 is over and 2010 has finally arrived and I plan to make it awesome. I know what your going to ask, “How awesome?”. Don’t worry I’ll get to that. Before I do, lets do a quick recap of what 2009 brought me. First off, I attended SXSW Interactive (flickr) for the first time down in Austin. Yes, it really is all people claim it to be. It can be a good chunk of money but beyond worth it with what you leave with. I had a chance to do a few things I’ve always wanted to while at SXSW. This included attending a live taping of Diggnation and the Totally Rad Show. Both of which were just awesome, despite the long wait in line for both. The day after SXSW I took my family on our first vacation. Our destination was San Antonio, TX (flickr). Our first stop was a place I have wanted to go to since I was a kid, Sea World (flickr). I was happy that I was able to take my kids to enjoy it. While in San Antonio we took the Historic Mission Bus Tour, walked around the river walk, waited in line way too long for The Alamo, and went to the top of the Tower of the Americas. However, my favorite place, besides Sea World, was getting to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. We had been told by several people to check it out and the long wait in line was worth it. The atmosphere and food were great. (more…)
07
Jan
Today was technically my first day back to work from a 2 week holiday vacation. It was a nice and much needed vacation but was not ready to come back today. School of course started back up as well so had to get Chase to school and back in that routine as well. I ended up going to Lawton for an hour or so and had planned for some work this afternoon/evening but started to feel sick and ended up passing out for about 2 hours. I also ended up restoring my computer tonight as well. It was starting to get pretty slow and I need to get a lot of work done over the next few weeks and then I’ll be moving to an iMac so I felt it was time to restore and start organizing and cleaning up my external disks as well. So, no work today. Tomorrow will be another day and plan to be really productive in the morning and hope to make some progress on the team system I’m developing for a client. Its just about done and I only have about 5-6 weeks left before it needs to be done.
Spent most of the weekend with the family and got some much needed stuff done around the house. I was expecting my business cards to come in today as this was the last day however they didn’t show. Should find out tomorrow whats going on. Did get my package from Amazon, the Clive Cussler book. One of my resolutions is to read more (and not just web languages/web design books) so I ordered the Dirk Pitt novel ‘Atlantis Found’. Planning to start it before bed tonight. Thats about it for now.
