Been a while

I think this may very well be the longest I've gone without blogging. It's not that I don't want to do some sharing of life events, it's more that most of my readership (if not all) already knows everything I've been up to.

Kerry and I were lucky enough to be able to take a vacation this year, and we drove out to Colorado. It was amazing -- we ditched the kids with my parents and really had a great time together in the mountains. I'm a big fan of taking relaxing beach type vacations, but I also love road trips to cool places.

We took off from Benson one Friday morning and drove straight to Estes Park, CO in one shot. It was about 14 hours of driving, give or take, and it seriously seemed like about 2 hours without the kids in the car. We just took in the scenery and arrived at our destination with little fuss.

We spent a few days in Estes park, mainly hanging out in Rocky Mountain National Park or checking out shops in town. Then we headed back by a northerly route, making fun stops at Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, and finally camping in Badlands National Park. It was a fun time with great company.

We get to take another road trip this weekend to go and see Phish again. It's going to be a blast, and I'm ecstatic. I can't wait to hang out with friends and see awesome live music.

The job's been going well. I'm keeping busy and learning a ton still. I can't believe that in a couple of months I'll have been here a year. It's freaking insane. I love the job, love the town, but wish we had more friends here. These things take time.

Last weekend, I went to a birthday party for Corey's uncle and had an impromptu reunion of my college band Alterego. It was awesome. The four of us hadn't played together in over 10 years and Chad hasn't even touched his drums for the last 2, but we were pretty much spot on with our performance of the three songs we chose to perform. So fun.

That's all I know. I'll try to blog more. Heh. Bye!

Home again, home again

Well, we made it back. The week in Grand Cayman was fantastic, but all good things must end, and therefore the vacation did as well. I've already touched on some highlights, but I'll go through it again, just to be concise. ;^)

We flew out way too early in the morning, but the flight went well and was fairly uneventful. Eventually we reached our destination, the one-runway airport in George Town, Grand Cayman. The process of going through customs was long, because there were three airplaines that had landed in close proximity. Still, the weather was amazing and our tired spirits were high.

After customs, we hopped in a taxi to our hotel. The driving is on the left side of the road, which threw us all for a loop. Guaranteed, if we were to have tried driving, we'd all be dead by now. As it stands, we're all just almost dead, due to automatically looking the wrong direction for oncoming traffic when crossing the street.

Our hotel was awesome. The rooms were beautiful, the service was excellent, and the beach was spectacular. I've been in a lot of very nice hotels in my life, and this ranks right up there. Not the best I've been in, but very very nice. (Lah de dah, right? Don't get me wrong there, this hotel was fantastic).

We spent most of our days at the beach drinking, but there were a couple of days that were too windy for beach-sitting, which made perfect days for exploring George Town and the aforementioned trek down the Mastic Trail.

On day two, we went to a bar down the beach for supper. (There aren't all-inclusive places in G.C., which makes for a lot of expense, but also lets you really get to know the town and check out a bunch of cool and different things). This is the bar mentione a bit ago in my post during the vacation. A funny exchange here involved Kristian, who was fairly soused on Bushmill's.

Kristian: Do you like Irish Whiskey?
Irish Guy: Faugh! No way!
Kristian: What?? Seriously?
Irish Guy: Well, do you like Budweiser?
Kristian: Well...no.
Irish Guy: There you go. *lifts high his bottle of Budweiser*

We took a cruise on a pirate ship, and it was amazing. I had too much to drink. This is not surprising, since it was open bar all night and georgeous. I channelled my inner pirate, and although it made the morning less than ideal, due to ample amounts of vitamin B-12 I was able to avoid too terrible a hangover.

The sun takes a lot out of you, and we ended up going to bed (falling asleep usually, not passing out) around 10:30 (9:30 Central). Too funny. Of course we'd wake up around 7:00 am every day (6:00 Central) so it all evens out.

The flight back also went smoothly, although we cut it a little close in Atlanta. We made the final boarding call, however. I was a little self-conscious about reading a Forgotten Realms genre novel on the plane, until I noticed that the row ahead of me went, in order, Guy reading a Star Wars book, Girl reading Twilight, Girl reading Fellowship of the Ring. I felt right at home, and hoisted Waterdeep with pride.

So now we're home. We missed our girl, and she missed us. It was super fun to see her squeal with delight when we walked through the door.

Now my agendas (other than school, of course) are a) finding somewhere to buy Caybrew and Tortuga Rum in the U.S., and b) gearing up for the Flock of Kobolds party on Saturday.

Here there be Pictures

We're here!

We've just begun our second day in Grand Cayman.  So far our stay has been awesome.  The hotel is beautiful, and the ocean and weather are even more beautiful.

Being away from Gwennerpants has been a struggle.  I've woken up in the middle of the night both nights so far, thinking about my little girl and wondering if she's ok.  We've been able to keep in contact with her thanks to the magic of Skype, though, so that's excellent.

Yesterday we hit it pretty hard, starting with some Belinis (Champagne and Peach Schnapps) and Caybrew (the local lager) on the beach at 11.  (10 am central time...LOL)  We did some tanning and walked down the beach, and went back to Megan and Kristian's room in the afternoon to play some cards and relax.

We walked down the beach during sunset last night, and ate dinner at a little bar right there on Seven Mile Beach.  By that time, Kerry and Kristian were both getting quite surly.  Megan and Kerry went over to talk to a table full of "locals" (one couple was from Austrailia, one from Ireland, one from New Zealand) and Kristian ended up at a completely different table, talking to the owners of the bar and their daughter.  I was alone at my table, so I went and joined Kerry and Megan in whatever mad urge drove them to joining a table of strangers.  We chatted with the people about how annoying Americans are, and pretty much scared the entire table away.

We walked back to our hotel and stopped at the beach bar, where I ordered rum punch for everyone.  Then we watched the beautiful moon as it made a trail of silvery light across the ocean, and hung out by the surf for a while before retiring for the evening.

The ocean here is incredibly calm -- the waves are almost like a lake at some points, and there's a snorkeling area right out from our hotel.  Kerry and I are going to do some snorklin' this afternoon.  Should be fun.

WOOOOO!

So I'm trudging through the last couple of hours before departing to Grand Cayman. OK, well, the flight isn't technically until tomorrow morning, but still...after the whistle blows here at work (so to speak) we're out like the gout.

There are items that need to be taken care of, of course. First off we have to make a journey to Benson this evening. We're dropping Gwen off with my parents, and putting her to bed. Hopefully that goes smoothly. After that, we're driving back. The flight leaves tomorrow morning at 6:30 (UGH), so I don't expect an overwhelming amount of sleep tonight. Still, all should be well. Yeah, we may be tired, but it will be well worth it.

I think (hope) that we'll have wireless intarwebbs down in G.C. If so, I'll try my darndest to get some pics up, as well as some words of wisdom about the trip.

Later!!!

Sweet Anticipation

The countdown has begun. Not the countdown to the end of class (9 weeks, 1 day). The countdown to Spring Break. Oh yes. I can taste the salt-sea air. I'm about to hyperventilate.

As I've mentioned before, Kerry and I are going to Grand Cayman for a week. This vacation will commence in one week and two days. There will be sand. There will be surf. There will be freaking pirate ships. It doesn't get better that that. Woot.

So, in sweet anticipation of the forthcoming event, I've been doing all sorts of things like looking at pictures, things to do, etc. Kerry's been doing things like taking me to target for last minute items like sunscreen and insulated mugs (more on that later). We're going with two friends, Megan and Kristian. I know that Megan thinks very much like me in terms of vacationing (and she's probably looking at pictures and thinking of fun things to do). Kristian, however, is likely still fretting about the hotel, trying to scheme ways to ship himself a 24 pack of coke or booze or something, and generally getting neurotic. Oh well.

Let's talk about Grand Cayman a bit. Shizzle is expensive. Therefore, there are some money-saving ideas that we are incorporating, based on the advice of the world wide web. One of these, of couse, is to buy booze and use insulated mugs to drink said booze. For this feat, Kerry and I purchased a couple of monuments to the gluttanous american way: The Bubba Keg. We each got a 32 oz mug with a freakin' bottle opener in the handle. It makes me giddy.

The downside to this trip is that both Kerry and I will be away from our daughter for an entire week. This is really a long time -- the longest either of us has been away from the lil' tyke. It's interesting, because although I've been gone almost nightly ever since she was born, I've still never been away from her longer than overnight. Kerry's got that record beat, but only by a day or two. It's going to be tough, but a) we need the vacation, b) she'll be in very good hands with my 'rents, and having a blast, and c) who am I kidding, we'll talk to her over skype every day.

Nervous? Yes I am. Excited? Oh hellz yeah.

Wacky Wednesday

I have a bad case of senioritis. Well, I'm not a senior, per se -- I'm a fourth year law student. It pretty much amounts to the same thing, though. I've been doing this for far too long, and I have very little motivation left.

It's not like I'm going to completely neglect class or anything, it's that I have a very large aversion to studying. Getting myself motivated is becoming increasingly difficult. I can only imagine that next semester is going to be even worse, but next semester I plan on taking ridiculously easy classes. Heh.

Last night, Kerry and I booked a vacation to Grand Cayman Island for the first week of March (my spring break). I'm freaking stoked. A nice week in the sun will be just what my aching mind needs. (Oh, and all of the pirate stuff around there, too. Woot. I love pirates.) We planned this vacation with Megan and Kristian, a couple of friends of ours, because Kristian is also a 4L and will be celebrating his final spring break as well. There will be reckless drunken abandon. This is sure.

Gwennerpants will be staying with her Grandparents that week. They'll have a good time.

Speaking of my lil' girl, she turns TWO YEARS OLD on Friday! I can't believe that she's such a big girl. She acts like it, too. She's been talking up a storm lately, and it's fun to sit down and have actual, real conversations with her. She's excited for her birthday party, which will take place on Saturday.

I used a gift card that I got for my birthday at Target the other day, and purchased some Wii points. With the Wii points, I downloaded the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, which is absolutely hilarious and much more fun than I honestly expected. It plays like Space Quest, Maniac Mansion, and other games of that type, and it's a lot of fun. So far there's been quite a bit of play time, considering that it's only part one of an episodic game series. Good times.

I also downloaded the Secret of Mana, a classic SNES RPG that I hadn't played back in the heyday. It's a lot of fun -- thus far it's fairly typical of Squaresoft games, but is a Zelda-style hack and slash game as opposed to a true RPG. Either way, it's loads of fun thus far. I love video games.