And here I am with a "Stargazer Pale Ale."
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For the brave only with high speed access. This special streaming video from Canada is available for a limited time only viewing. Follow the directions and link below for a special on the last Trek cruise. Maybe you'll even spot me! Hello all>> As promised, we were able to arrange a streaming location of the Cruise Trek Special (from the Nov. Caribbean cruise) aired on SPACE:The Imagination Station (Canada's 24 hr national sci-fi network).>You can find it at .... http://www.spacecast.com/internal/cruisetrek/ A window will come up asking for>> User Name which is : SpaceGuest (include the uppercases)>> Pswd: XwL*e7h# (sorry it's not user friendly but you can just cut> and paste)>> if you get a Third line that reads something like Domain: (leave> blank)>> then enter or return>> You will then come to a page that says>> cut 1 cut 2 cut 3 (or, depending when you do this, it may read> segment 1, 2, 3).>> The show...
I've been home for about 3 hours and there was no sign of rain south of Pasadena. While Santa Barbara and the Inland Empire continue to get pounded with rain, I had high hopes for Carlsbad. After all, Tiger Woods was able to golf today. But what did I hear just now? Was that thunder again? I just convinced myself it was my over-active imagination when I heard it again. Since I'm not one to trust my own senses, I turned to the weather channel and found this: THE THUNDERSTORM NEAR VISTA CONTINUES TO MOVE SOUTHWEST TOWARD THE OCEANSIDE AND CARLSBAD AREA. THE THUNDERSTORM MAY STILL PRODUCE LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN...SMALL HAIL...AND GUSTY WINDS...BUT NO SEVERE WEATHER IS EXPECTED. Okay, locally heavy rain, gusty winds, and small hail are no longer considered servere weather?!! That just shows how much we've gotten used to having a daily flood for the last few months! Summer sun, where are you?
This week finds me on the island of Oahu for a few days. It's a business trip and the timing was perfect to give me a break from the stress of the last couple of weeks. It's not paradise though. Being President's weekend, all the hotels were either sold out or the prices jacked up beyond the budget so I am at an old Best Western right off the freeway and next to the airport. It's noisy! The A/C is on autopilot so I'm also freezing in my room. Beach? Well I can see Waikiki about 10 miles away but the traffic will keep me away tonight. There is a saving grace though. - Maui Tacos is only 35 minutes away! Yes, I really had nothing better to do this evening than to take a drive to Kailua and eat at Maui Tacos. At least it's not raining. There's some sun and dark clouds but no rain. I thought I would never make it to the airport this morning without a boat! Well maybe tomorrow I'll remember my camera and send a picture too!
Beer and food were plentiful today at Karl Strauss as we went in for the annual FeBREWary drink. Even the Diet Coke, Coke, and Ice Tea crowd came out today! We missed the man himself, I think he was at the Sorrento Gardens Brewery instead. Homer will probably post additional photos at some point today or Monday so check out his site too.
The last 6 days have been tough but I have met some wonderful people in the process. The service was on Monday and it seems to have gone over quite well. I did the eulogy and both my brothers and one of my aunts spoke as well. I invited people up to the podium to speak if they wished and a few took me up and said some nice things about my dad. I think he would have been surprised to see the crowd and hear the comments. We had a mix of laughter and tears and then headed over to the house to get to know each other better and share more stories. Yesterday we had the rest of the details fall into place and we can now begin closure which really means beginning to ease back into the real world. In an effort to begin that process, let me say that I am still annoyed that "Enterprise" has been cancelled and that TAR 8 is casting families. Some things never change, they just get placed on hold. People have been asking how I am, and all I can say is that I'm still me, just a ...
Over the last few days, I have had to make a lot of phone calls to family, friends, and strangers. When the topic is to give someone bad news, the call is not an easy one to make. I'd like to share what I've learned about phone books so that you may consider how to organize an emergency contact phone list. First - those of use that live in So Cal, there are 2 to 4 area codes in each regional area. Please add the area code to your phone list, even if you have it memorized. There were several people I could not call because there was no area code and no city listed. Second - an emergency list needs the relationship information. It can be as simple as family, or friend, or hobby group. It's very hard to call an unknown. Third - (an I'm guilty of this too) Keep you filing system simple. I personally do my addresses under both first and last names. It's easy for me but difficult for someone looking up a last name and finding that person later under the first na...
Today I have sad news to report. On Feb. 10th, my father died of a heart attack. He had heart trouble for the past few years but kept it in check with medication, exercise and diet. In the last couple of months, he had been feeling pain in his heart but didn't tell anyone until last week when he almost passed out square dancing. It was only at the urging of a friend that he went to urgent care and discovered he might have angina. A follow up visit show hardening of the arteries. The afternoon before he died, he had chest pain again but it went away so he decided not to go to urgent care. He died of a heart attack a few hours later. I share this so that if you know anyone who is minimizing their chest pain or showing symptoms of a heart problem, please get them to a doctor asap. The service will be held Monday, at 11:00 am, at the Poway-Bernardo Morturay.
Oh the pain! the pain! TAR 8 is finally open for applications and after months of training and practice Mondo and I are getting shut out by families! It's almost too much to bear! TAR 8 is looking for family units of 4 to be ready to film in March/April 2005 and it's not us!
I just read the application for TAR 8 and it's a lot shorter than the practice one we did for TAR 6. At least the minimum age is 12 but I am on the bandwagon of "This Sucks!" They film in March and it airs in the fall and that's it for 2005? If TAR 9 gets picked up it won't even film until what, 2006?
Freddy/Kendra - bummer. I couldn't even sleep last night.
Maui Trip Report 2
The snorkeling day arrived at last without any rain delays. We had to be at the harbor at 6:15 sharp, so that meant a 5:00 am wake-up call. To get ready, we prepared the night before with beach towels, water cameras, sunscreen, and umbrella into a nice big Hilo Hatties bag. We set out our water shoes and change of clothing and decided that we were as prepared as possible.
The next morning the alarm went off at 5:00 am and at 5:10, we were both in bathing suits and heavy coat jackets, ready to go. It was still cold and windy so we needed the jackets. Jean and I looked at each other and decided it was time to go. At 6:00 am, we arrived at the harbor and realized that neither of us had grabbed the Hilo Hatties bag! There we were with bathing suits and hiking jackets but no beach towels or sunscreen! We had a few minutes to spare so we did a detour to Circle K and bought sunscreen and a new camera and returned to the dock still minus towels. It was now 6:18 and we were late and...
Maui Trip Report 1
I'm home and the whole week has become a blur! Jean and I departed for Maui on Jan. 31st and we arrived to find it overcast but warm. After getting our sporty Mustang convertible (which we never got to take advantage of due to the rain) we found our hotel way out in the most remote beach of Napili Shores. Luckily the hotel was decent but they lacked normal resort facilities so we drove around a lot. The first day was a visit into Lahaina, checking out the beaches, and doing first stop shopping.
It rained all night.
On Tuesday we had more shopping to do, Maui Tacos to try out, (#1 Mexican Food on the island) our own beach to explore in the rain and walking over tidepools to get to it, and general driving around. It was a lazy cloudy day with off and on rain.
Wednesday it rained all day and the luau was rained out. We drove around to the rich people's side of the island and checked out their hotels and beaches. It was nice and not for us. We retreated to our side...
