Thursday: end of September and rain

It rained here all day. I was sadly inside without windows for most of it though. I love the rain. There's apparently a flood warning starting tonight through tomorrow. We're on the side of a mountain so if we get flooded we will have other significant worries, but I feel bad for the people in the valleys. There were some bad floods a few years ago, so hopefully changes have been put in place to nothing too bad happens.

I'm also really glad that tomorrow is October. I've been having a problem with the month number of September this year (9). At the beginning of September I kept putting 10. Today I kept putting 7.

Wednesday: relative smartness

Yesterday I finished the program I keep talking about. It is still in beta testing, but I really don't foresee any major issues. I love the program and I think the operators will too...I know my beta tester does! So apparently there was a meeting today and someone told me that people in the meeting said I'm really smart and they're glad to have me around. Aww.

But that got me to thinking. Do I feel smart? Sometimes, about some things. However, I know there are a lot of people smarter than me too. Case in point: I started this one class in grad school. I didn't understand a thing that was going on. I tried to understand the homework (although I wasn't sure it had anything to do with what we had learned in class). I went to a study group and still didn't understand the homework. I threw up the next morning because I was so stressed out and proceeded to drop the class. (And I enrolled in a class that was much more practical.) (And easier.) (And I got to try to make pop cans explode in a freezer for one of the projects.) (It doesn't happen as often as you think.)

On the other end of the spectum, I also received this message today:

However, I'm not really sure that a program called SAP has any right to call me a dummy.

Tuesday

Hi.

Bye.

Monday: Movies

Tonight there was a gathering of guys to watch football at a friends house, so a few girls came over to my house to watch movies. I watched Valentine's Day and Date Night.

Date Night was my favorite...it was pretty funny. Valentines Day was ok. A fellow engineer and I were watching it together though, so we kept picking apart the plot...it was pretty fun.

Sunday

Hello Sunday. It was a pretty nice one...went to church, took a nap, you know, the normal stuff.

We'll grab some questions from Five Question Friday so that this isn't a completely dull post.

1. Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself?

Hmm, the more I think about this the more complex I realize the question is. Overall, I guess the answer is no. Mainly because I don't spend money on myself that often (because I usually don't need anything special). Sometimes I'll think about what Good Works the money could do, but I also realize that the money can do both.

2. How well do you know your neighbors?

Not all that well. We know the people across from us a little bit and they will often cat sit if we are gone. The people below us we knew a little bit, but then they had to leave because he got laid off. I don't really know the others much at all.

3. What age are you looking forward to being?

This is a weird question. I like my age, but am ok with growing older too.

4. Do you get excited when the mail comes? Why?

Not anymore. There usually isn't anything good in it. I was excited as the kid to get the mail, but that was before email was as prevalent. I'm usually rather excited to check my email though.

5. Where did you and your significant other go on your first date?

Our first official date was Applebee's. The first unofficial date was a Shakespearian play.

Saturday: flurry

Ben and Flurry were playing this morning and we got some cute photos.

Friday: big city

Tonight we went out for dinner with some friends in the big city of Binghamton. It's food week there so we got a three course dinner for $20...and lots of leftovers.

Then we walked to Luke's new apartment. It is very nice. Hugh especially liked the knobs on the music player.

I also stained the deck this afternoon. I would like to my future self that staining something in the beginning of fall is probably not the best idea, even if the weather is really warm.

Thursday: salads

I don't really like salad.

There, I said it. I feel kind of ashamed of it because I feel as though I should like salad. We had a salad for dinner tonight and it wasn't bad. I will buy it periodically so that we have something different for dinner, but it usually takes us a few days to get ready to eat it. And I put a lot of good things on it, so it ends up ok.

I usually think about telling people at restaurants that I don't want a salad but often feel peer-pressured into getting it. I'm not sure who's peer-pressuring me though.

(This is a salad from Texas Roadhouse, image from here. Texas Roadhouse does have one of the better salads around. It might be the egg.)

Wednesday: hmm

Hmm. I guess the biggest news of today is that part 2a of my program revamp is working. I'm really excited about it because I think it will save a lot of time and that the operators will like it a lot better than the current program. I won't bore you with the details though, because they are kind of boring.

Flurry has stopped being as cuddly. :( She's still friendly though.

Tuesday: a Tuesday

Today is a Tuesday. Ha. I'm rather tired. I think it's because it is getting dark earlier. I feel like I go through this transition every year. This year it seems odd because it's already the end of September. Ben and I both feel like it should still be the beginning of September, but I guess that is what vacation will do.

Bible Study tonight was good. There was a video and it was a little weird because our pastor preached almost the same thing on Sunday...even some of the examples were the same. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. But it was nice to have discussion times throughout the video. The last question actually sparked a lot of discussion. One of the themes of the video was that there is a movement now-a-days that whatever someone believes is true for them and that is OK. I realized this means we can tell people that they're wrong but they have to tolerate our opinion without making us mad. The movement could backfire on them. (Hopefully that makes sense...it might be better if you had seen the video.)

Monday: back to work

Well, it was our first day back at work. Bummer. But I guess if we didn't work we wouldn't be able to enjoy our vacations as much. Maybe. At least, that's what I'll tell myself.

I think I get to be in a corporate "woo-hoo! engineering is great" video. We'll see how it turns out. Maybe I won't have to see it...that would probably be best.

Sunday: pop

While in St. Lucia I started drinking Coke. Usually I'm not really a fan of it, but after a few glasses we realized it was made with real sugar and not high-fructose corn syrup. The can I had on the airplane on the trip home was disgusting after the delicious stuff I had come to enjoy.

Needless to say, we went to Wegmans today to see what they had in the way of real sugar in pop. We found some throwback Pepsi and got some of that, along with some Jones soda. For some reason I thought that Coke was doing a throwback thing too, but I guess I was wrong. :( Well, I can hope that they do it in the future.

Saturday: shopping

Today I had to return some library books and get groceries. (After being gone for so long there isn't much in the house to eat.) First I stopped at the library. They were having a book sale!! I love the book sales that the library has because there are always a lot of books. This one was by donation only too, so they were inexpensive. I think I came away with as many books as I returned. Most of them are just fluffy easy reads, but I did manage to snag "A Prayer for Owen Meany".

Then I went to the grocery store. Usually when I go, especially when I go by myself and am not in a rush, the bill tends to be higher than normal. I think it is because I remember all the weird and expensive things that we need. Like medicine and cleaning supplies. Anyway, I had filled up the cart (how did those donuts get in there?!?) and it came out at a reasonable price. I was excited.

Vacation day 15: a few last things

So during the month of fun, we had several guides on the different things that we did. I was wondering which would really be the best guide to be. So I rated them in order of 1 to 5 (with 1 being the worst and 5 the best).

For the fun category, it is how much fun the guide would have doing the activity everyday. The best two were the ones where you might see different things each day. Sky diving was next because of the adrenaline rush. The last two seem like they would just be the same thing over and over.

The ease of dealing with people category is how bad things can get if you have a bad customer...scuba was the worst because if something goes wrong while you're down at the sea floor it seems like there could be some serious problems. (Sky-diving doesn't have that because the guide is completely in control. The passenger can do whatever and it won't really affect anything.)

....................Fun.Ease of dealing with people.Pay.Total

Helicopter pilot:....1...5...........................5...11

Tandem sky-diver:....3...3...........................4...10

Scuba diver:.........5...1...........................3...9

Horseback rider:.....2...2...........................1...5

Zip-liner (jungle):..4...4...........................2...10

And the results show...helicopter pilot is the best! However, I also rated it as least fun, so personally I might end up doing sky-diving or zip-lining.

Here are the things we ended up taking home with us. (Betsy, we saw a bottle of banana ketchup in the airport and grabbed it. We didn't have a chance to try any.) The hardened coral was washed up on the beach from our kayaking trip.

Flurry was still rather cuddly today. Tonight however she really wanted water from the sink. She was mewing up the wall...here she is wondering why I'm going back upstairs instead of to the bathroom.

Review: Calabash Cove, St. Lucia

Well, I'm on the plane returning from St. Lucia and thought I'd write a quick review...just in case anyone else out there was curious. The resort we stayed at was Calabash Cove. We were in one of the villas. (Follow this link for blog posts starting at the beginning of the trip.)

Overall, it was a great vacation. I'm going to post a few "negative" things, but they really are greatly out weighed by the positive things.

Downside:
1. There were a lot of steps. We only went up and down them once or twice a day, but if you're not in a villa and like the beach it could be more.
2. The one time we took a taxi somewhere "on our own" it seemed rather expensive. (Also check with your hotel about prices getting to/from the airport...if not included they might need to be included in your budget.)
3. A few of the light bulbs were burned out. (I know, now I'm stretching to find things.)
4. The door to the shower was hard to open because the wood had warped.
5. There were a few food inconsistencies...we would order these delicious chocolate pastries for breakfast and never knew how many we were going to get.
6. It was a little hard to find shade in the late afternoon. There were a few places, but sometimes we just ended up going inside for a bit.
7. There was no clock/alarm clock...we woke up an hour too early for one excursion because we had the wrong time zone.

Upsides:
1.The food was delicious.
2. Room service didn't cost extra.
3. House keeping came twice a day with fresh towels.
4. The view was gorgeous.
5. There is snorkel gear at the front desk (and fish to see by the pier).
6. The excursions are very well organized...you get a ticket with where to meet and when. The taxis were always on time. The same taxi picked you up at the end.
7. The excursions we went on were very fun.
8. The villas have their own little pool...we used ours a lot. The pools were kept clean.
9. There weren't many pesky bugs (at least compared to my backyard in upstate NY).
10. The tap water is safe to drink (which saves a lot on bottled water costs).
11. There were kayaks that we could use at the resort.
12. The private dinner was very romantic.
13. There was free wi-fi. I know it sounds dorky to want to be connected to the Internet, but it helped keep us occupied.
14. I could swim and read at the same time...what can be better?
15. The villa had an outside bed, outside table, outside hammock, inside sitting room, and air conditioned bedroom. There were plenty of places to sit depending on my mood.
16. The outside shower was a lot of fun. During the day I could look out on the ocean. During the night I could watch lizards.
17. There were lizards all over the place! They were fun to watch.
I'm sure there are more things, but I can't think of them right now. :)

Vacation day 14: home

Today we made it home. It was cold.

But Flurry was happy to see us! Laura also happened to be in town and so stopped by for a while, which was nice.

I was going to take a picture of Flurry but I'm rather tired now and the camera is downstairs. Maybe I'll get one tomorrow.

vacation day 13: washington dc

Since we were so close to Washington DC, we thought we would spend a day at the museums.

We started at the natural history museum.

We also watched a 3D movie. The movie itself was really good...especially these birds that bombed the water. The 3D part we have mixed feelings on...some was really good and looked cool, but some of it just was blurry and made us a tad sick. I especially had problems with birds flying through the air.

We had a few more hours before everything closed so we also stopped at the air and space museum. With a heavy emphasis on the space part. Below Ben is holding his phone, which now has more computing power than the big thing behind him. Ah, how times have changed.

oh, one more picture.

I haven't had any Flurry pictures lately and am missing her. This is the closest I found.

Vacation day 12: leaving

Today we left. :(. It was sad, but we were also ready to come home. We had a few hours before we had to leave for the airport, so we were still able to get in a few last swims.




The trip really went quite smoothly. Customs is a pain, but there isn't much I could do about that. None of the bottles in the suitcase broke. Actually, the most annoying part of the trip was listening to some guy complain to a credit card about a charge refusal for our entire dinner. I could give you all the details,but I'll spare you the pain. It did give us a bonding time with the neighboring table though.

vacation day 11: this and that

On our last day, we didn't really do anything too special. We relaxed around the pool in the morning and then tried out some different chairs on the grass in the shade for the early afternoon because they put up some new, big umbrellas.

This is the view from those chairs.




We actually had a sunset without too many clouds on the horizon!



For dinner we went to a restaurant outside the resort called the Coal Pot. We had a table right next to the water and so we could see all of these little fish swimming around. And then big fish came! There was also a swooping bird that we think was trying to catch the little fish. The food was very good, but the menus were written on chalkboards and then set near the tables. I've never been in a place that has done that.

Vacation day10: the pier

Today we ended up doing a lot around the little pier that is here.





First we went snorkeling. We looked all around the cove, only to find grass-fish. Then we went by the pier and found many real fish...brown ones, blue ones, small ones, bigs ones, stripped ones. It was a cool find.





For dinner we had a private dinner on the pier. It was delicious and romantic.

vacation day 9: frisbee

Today was another very relaxing day. We hung out at the beach a bit and played some frisbee.






We also read, ate, got slightly pink (but not so much as to hurt).



Oh, and we kept an eye on a giant moth that was in our "living room". Then suddenly after dinner it was gone. It didn't move at all during the day though.



I've also been enjoying a lot of banana foods while here. For dessert ewe had a delicious fried banana and I've been eating a lot of fried plantains. I wish fried plantains were a side option more often In the US

vacation day 8: scuba diving

Today we went scuba diving. It was a nice day for it because it was cloudy and periodically rainy, but that doesn't matter much when you're u deer water. Since we couldn't take pictures of the cool things that we saw, we made the hand motions afterwards.

We dove twice. The first dive I kind of was having a hard time...I couldn't sink and needed help staying down. but we got to play with a sea spider, saw some eels waiting for food with their big teeth, and lots of iridescent fish and coral. I also got to scare some sea anemones. The second dive went much better. I still didn't sink very well, but I also didn't float right to the top either. I figured out how to sink somewhat, so could control my position a lot more.

We saw a huge sea turtle. I have no idea what it was doing, but it looked it like was just trying to climb the coral.



We also saw another eel. this one was much larger than the others and was moving around.



We also saw a lobster.

vacation day 7: kayaking

Today we went to explore the island that you can see from our room. (It's the one between the two trees below.)




We made it!



It turns out there is an abandoned building on the island. we explored for a little bit and then returned home. Going back was much harder because if we stopped paddling for too long we started going the wrong way. I'll admit, my arms are a bit sore now.

Just as we got back to our room and stepped into the pool it started to rain.



It was rainy on and off for the rest of the day, but it didn't really interfere with our plans and reminded us how beautiful this place is...even in the rain.

Vacation day 6: zipping

Today we went for a gondola and tip line tour through the rain forest. I'll admit, we were expecting longer zip lines than what they had, but it was still a lot of fun. Our guide also knew a ton about the rain forest and animals in it, so it was interesting to learn some of that information.

I'm not posting many pictures of the rain forest itself because the camera just didn't do it justice.












And of course, we spent time reading and relaxing.

Vacation day 5: rain

Today the weather forecast on Ben's phone called for rain all day.

The above picture is the closest we got to any rain. :)

Today I also had some delicious chocolate croissant things:

It was another relaxing day...a lot of swimming, eating, napping, and reading.

We also decided to play Catan the card game again. We played it all the time during our honeymoon, but had to shelve it about four years ago because we got too competitive about it. Well, today we took out one of the cards that seemed to determine who was going to win. I thought it worked well, but then I was also the winner. We'll have to try a few more games with the rules and see how it goes.

After dinner we went star gazing. It was actually a little sad because we only found one constellation that was familiar. I also found a lot of triangles. We did try and use a star chart app to help us find constellations, but it just wasn't quite working.

(It's the night sky. No, I don't think you can see anything in the picture.)

Vacation day 4: horses

Today we went on a horse back ride. It was nice because there was a place by the ocean that served as a stopping/eating point, and allowed us to get off the horses often.











Here's the beach. This is my artist shot of the day.



We also got to swim with the horses. I think this is a once in a life experience for both of us...riding bareback is so uncomfortable! It also seemed like something the horses should enjoy because they got
to cool down, but Ben's horse sounded like it was growling the whole time (which might have been a good thing, but it sounded really weird).






Although most of the time wasn't this bad, we both felt like we were going to fall off a time or two!

Vacation day 3: relaxing

Today was a relaxing day. It pretty much went like this: eat, swim, read, swim, read, swim, read, eat, red, nap, swim, read, swim, read, swim, read, eat, read.

I know, a rough life.

Housekeeping came twice today (which was rather unexpected).



This is the view from our deck.



Here is Ben reading. Behind him you can see the outdoor shower.



Our pool



The sunset



A crab! They're hard to spot, but they have holes in the sand all over the beach.



Our villa from the beach side.