If you’re going to take a cruise, make sure you book a room with at least one full window and a balcony for two – otherwise, it’s simply not worth the cost. I’m not one for the great outdoors, but you simply can’t beat the views from any private cabin – no matter which direction you happen to be facing.
From the port in Progreso, Mexico, we’re taking a short flight into the Yucatan penninsula to visit the ancient ruins of Chichen Itza today. It’s going to be an eight-hour excursion – a lot of walking, a lot of flying. You’ve probably seen the site a thousand times through photographs or in produced video segments – but what about in person?
I can’t believe it – Ponzi posted something to her blog a few minutes ago! She’s been having a good time on our moneymoon cruise, too – and she’s even considering taking the Excel class on board (since I’ll be accompanying her to a Mexican cooking class later this week). We’re both looking forward to seeing the Mayan ruins:
We have our own butler! I’m not sure what this means, though. I think we can ask him to bring us odd things at seemingly random times? “It’s three in the morning – where’s my freshly-pressed cranberry juice?” He asked us a zillion questions up front, but that’s only to make for a seamless experience on the open seas. Regent is spoiling us. I’m gonna call our butler again and ask him if he’ll come back and change the channel for us.
Well, so much for free WiFi. Our travel agent from Vacations to Go told us that there would be free access available from the ship’s library, but it’s apparently closer to 35 cents a minute (ouch). I’ll just give Pluggd another plug for having kept us plugged in on our Alaskan adventure a few months back. The climate is certainly warmer in southern Florida!
We made it! The honeymoon has begun! Break out the champagne! Where’s the Tylenol!?
We flew from Seattle to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale – leaving home at 9 AM (PST) and hitting the hotel pillow somewhere around Midnight (EST). It was a long day, but in retrospect – it “flew” (so to speak). The first, and substantially longer, flight was on one of Delta’s newer 757s – with LCD monitors sewn into the back of each seat’s head rest. I watched “Little Miss Sunshine” on demand, a few minutes before Ponzi started to watch the same movie. I laughed, I cried.
Ponzi couldn’t take another week of cold, wintery weather – so we’re blasting off to the Carribean for the next couple of weeks for our honeymoon. If you email me between now and then, I likely will not respond. Internet access will be quite limited (as you can very well imagine), but we’re cruising on a six-star Regent ship:
Apparently, we’re going to be charged for Internet services we have not used for the better part of a month – all because we did not send you a statement in written form (according to your CSR, by phone, a few minutes ago).
We moved into our new house a few weeks ago, and I think we’ve emptied just about every single box! As you can see from the photo thumbnails, Ponzi still has to empty the boxes for her new home office. Seems like she’s been doing laundry non-stop, and we finally got all the clothes picked up off the bedroom floor and sorted semi-appropriately (seeing as we don’t have any drawers in our new master closet). It’s been slow going, and I’m very anxious to feel that “settled in” feeling before too long.
Oh, what a wonderful Christmas Eve we had – with Ponzi’s aunt and uncle, and our good friend Brandon Paddock. It was a quiet evening, for the most part. We had dinner, exchanged a few gifts, decked the ficus with a single string of lights (as we didn’t get a Christmas tree this year), and reminisced about Christmases past. When it was just the two of us together, Ponzi and I made a halfhearted attempt at exchanging gifts and whatnot – although most of her gifts are to be acquired after our honeymoon. I can only assume that everybody out there had a good night, too – merry and bright and all that jazz.
Christmas, this year, will be a non-event. I’m disappointed, but realistically prepared. We don’t have a Christmas tree, we haven’t set out many decorations, and our shopping schedule has been extremely cramped as of late (fiscally and physically). Santa Claus didn’t forget us, though; Ponzi’s been picking up items from my wish list, and I’ve been planning a stocking to end all stockings for her. It’s almost three in the morning here, and I’m wondering if I’ll even have time to pick up a screw for my glasses tomorrow (it fell out at some point this evening). That would be a wonderful gift: time.
My life is completely consumed with everything outside of the technology memeosphere. The inbox is certainly sitting happily below 50 messages, but I feel irreversibly out of the loop. I never thought I’d ever say this: it’s time for a vacation.
Once a year, I can count on my mom sending a practical gift or two. This year, one of the mini-presents was a plastic package opener that would allegedly never go dull. Sounded awesome, as I’ve grown weary of opening up water- and adult-proof plastic containers. Ready for the kicker? The plastic package opener comes in a plastic package that’s equally impossible to open.
Remember, I’ve been almost completely incommunicado for the past couple of weeks (inadvertently and intentionally). I mixed metaphors in a recent entry, but I hope to redeem myself in this one. Minutes after whipping up my communications communication report, Vik Dendi blasted me a URL with a screen capture of the potential iPhone device. It’s the first semi-legit presentation I’d seen of Apple’s alleged entry into the telecommunications arena. “Many functions. No buttons.” Sounds interesting, but I gotta say that I’ve always disliked (to an extreme degree) any phone that lacked tactile feedback. When I want to mash “5″, I don’t want “4″ or “44″ or “45″ or any other digit series! Then again, I argue that an input device is diseased if it doesn’t have at least two buttons and a scroll wheel.
It started with the almost move, then it was the almost-almost move, then it was finding a house, preparing to do the new move, setting up the honeymoon, closing on the house, moving across town, getting married later that week (and entertaining family), setting up new / old services, beginning the unpacking process, getting hit with a power outtage, and Christmas is in less than a week and I haven’t received (or even had a chance to dent) Ponzi’s list yet.
Latest Videos
Amazon Wish List
Blog Mentions
Blogger
Blogs
Coupons
del.icio.us
Disqus
eBay
FaceBook
Flickr
FriendFeed
Geeks
IntenseDebate
iTunes Audio Podcast
Jaiku
LiveJournal
MSN Spaces
MyBlogLog
MySpace
Netflix
Photobucket
Picasa
Spock
StumbleUpon
Tech Lit
Tech Support
Technorati
Twitter
Upcoming
Ustream.tv
Viddler
Vimeo
Wakoopa
Wikipedia
WordPress
YouTube
New Coupons
Recent Comments